Pedersen, Katherine M.; Busch Isaksen, Tania M.; Baker, Marissa G.; Seixas, Noah; Errett, Nicole A. (2021). Climate Change Impacts and Workforce Development Needs in Federal Region X: A Qualitative Study of Occupational Health and Safety Professionals’ Perceptions. International Journal Of Environmental Research And Public Health, 18(4).
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Abstract
Climate change is considered one of the top health threats in the United States. This research sought to (1) to understand the perceptions of occupational health and safety (OHS) professionals regarding the impacts of climate-related hazards on OHS in Region X, and (2) to explore the ideas of these OHS professionals regarding the content of future training programs that would better prepare OHS professionals to identify and mitigate climate-related hazards in Region X. Key informant (KI) interviews with 17 OHS professionals familiar with the climate-related hazards and impacts to OHS in Region X were coded and thematically analyzed. Climate hazards, social and economic impacts from climate-related hazards, and sector-specific worker and workplace impacts from climate-related hazards were described as having interacting relationships that influenced worker health and safety impacts. KIs further described how workplace controls could be used to mitigate OHS impacts of climate-related hazards, and how training of the OHS workforce could influence the ability to successfully implement such controls. Our findings suggest that OHS impacts are sector-specific, influenced by social and economic factors, and can be mitigated through workplace controls designed and implemented by a trained OHS workforce. The findings from this work should inform future educational and training programming and additional research and translation activities in the region, while our approach can inform other regions as they develop regionally specific OHS climate change training and programming.
Keywords
Heat-related Illness; Workers; Stress; Occupational Health And Safety; Climate Change; Climate-related Hazards; Pacific Northwest; Education; Training; Key Informant Interviews
Choi, Suji; Kim, Soyeon; Kwak, Mingi; Park, Jaewan; Park, Subin; Kwak, Dongjoon; Lee, Hyun Woo; Lee, Sangwon. (2022). Would You Trust Driverless Service? Formation Of Pedestrian’s Trust And Attitude Using Non-verbal Social Cues. Sensors (14248220), 22(7).
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Abstract
Despite the widespread application of Autonomous Vehicles (AV) to various services, there has been relatively little research carried out on pedestrian-AV interaction and trust within the context of service provided by AV. This study explores the communication design strategy promoting a pedestrian's trust and positive attitude to driverless services within the context of pedestrian-AV interaction using non-verbal social cues. An empirical study was conducted with an experimental VR environment to measure participants' intimacy, trust, and brand attitude toward AV. Further understanding of their social interaction experiences was explored through semi-structured interviews. As a result of the study, the interaction effect of social cues was found, and it was revealed that brand attitude was formed by the direct effects of intimacy and trust as well as the indirect effects of intimacy through trust's mediation. Furthermore, 'Conceptual Definition of Space' was identified to generate differences in the interplay among intimacy, trust, and brand attitude according to social cues. Quantitative and qualitative results were synthesized to discuss implications considering the service context. Practical implications were also addressed suggesting specific design strategies for utilizing the sociality of AV.
Keywords
Pedestrians; Nonverbal Cues; Consumer Attitudes; Social Attitudes; Social Interaction; Attitude (psychology); Autonomous Vehicles; Brand Attitude; Driverless Service; Intimacy; Pedestrian–av Interaction; Social Cues; Trust; Pedestrian-av Interaction; Conversational Agent; Brand Experience; Impact; Automation; Perception; Disclosure; Style; Gaze
Van Den Wymelenberg, Kevin; Inanici, Mehlika; Johnson, Peter. (2010). The Effect of Luminance Distribution Patterns on Occupant Preference in a Daylit Office Environment. Leukos, 7(2), 103 – 122.
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Abstract
New research in daylighting metrics and developments in validated digital High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography techniques suggest that luminance based lighting controls have the potential to provide occupant satisfaction and energy saving improvements over traditional illuminance based lighting controls. This paper studies occupant preference and acceptance of patterns of luminance using HDR imaging and a repeated measures design methodology in a daylit office environment. Three existing luminance threshold analysis methods [method1: predetermined absolute luminance threshold (for example, 2000 cd/m(2)), method2: scene based mean luminance threshold, and method3: task based mean luminance threshold] were studied along with additional candidate metrics for their ability to explain luminance variability of 18 participant assessments of 'preferred' and 'just disturbing' scenes under daylighting conditions. Per-pixel luminance data from each scene were used to calculate Daylighting Glare Probability (DGP), Daylight Glare Index (DGI), and other candidate metrics using these three luminance threshold analysis methods. Of the established methods, the most consistent and effective metrics to explain variability in subjective responses were found to be; mean luminance of the task (using method3; (adj)r(2) = 0.59), mean luminance of the entire scene (using method2; (adj)r(2) = 0.44), and DGP using 2000 cd/m(2) as a glare source identifier (using method1; (adj)r(2) = 0.41). Of the 150 candidate metrics tested, the most effective was the 'mean luminance of the glare sources', where the glare sources were identified as 7* the mean luminance of the task position ((adj)r(2) = 0.64). Furthermore, DGP consistently performed better than DGI, confirming previous findings. 'Preferred' scenes never had more than similar to 10 percent of the field of view (FOV) that exceeded 2000 cd/m(2). Standard deviation of the entire scene luminance also proved to be a good predictor of satisfaction with general visual appearance.
Keywords
Glare; Daylight Metrics; Luminance Based Lighting Controls; Discomfort Glare; Occupant Preference; High Dynamic Range
Dannenberg, Andrew L.; Ricklin, Anna; Ross, Catherine L.; Schwartz, Michael; West, Julie; White, Steve; Wier, Megan L. (2014). Use of Health Impact Assessment for Transportation Planning Importance of Transportation Agency Involvement in the Process. Transportation Research Record, 2452, 71 – 80.
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Abstract
A health impact assessment (HIA) is a tool that can be used to inform transportation planners of the potential health consequences of their decisions. Although dozens of transportation-related HIAs have been completed in the United States, the characteristics of these HIAs and the interactions between public health professionals and transportation decision makers in these HIM have not been documented. A master list of completed HIAs was used to identify transportation-related HIAs. Seventy-three transportation-related HIAs conducted in 22 states between 2004 and 2013 were identified. The HIAs were conducted for projects such as road redevelopments, bridge replacements, and development of trails and public transit. Policies such as road pricing, transit service levels, speed limits, complete streets, and safe routes to schools were also assessed. Five HIAs in which substantial interactions between public health and transportation professionals took place during and after the HIA were examined in detail and included HIAs of the road pricing policy in San Francisco, California; a bridge replacement in Seattle, Washington; new transit lines in Baltimore, Maryland, and Portland, Oregon; and the BeltLine transit, trails, and parks project in Atlanta, Georgia. Recommendations from the HIAs led to changes in decisions in some cases and helped to raise awareness of health issues by transportation decision makers in all cases. HIAs are now used for many topics in transportation. The range of involvement of transportation decision makers in the conduct of HIAs varies. These case studies may serve as models for the conduct of future transportation-related HIAs, because the involvement of transportation agencies may increase the likelihood that an HIA will influence subsequent decisions.
Keywords
Policy; Inequalities; Benefits; Justice; Oregon
Cohen-Cline, Hannah; Lau, Richard; Moudon, Anne V.; Turkheimer, Eric; Duncan, Glen E. (2015). Associations between Fast-Food Consumption and Body Mass Index: A Cross-sectional Study in Adult Twins. Twin Research & Human Genetics, 18(4), 375 – 382.
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Abstract
Obesity is a substantial health problem in the United States, and is associated with many chronic diseases. Previous studies have linked poor dietary habits to obesity. This cross-sectional study aimed to identify the association between body mass index (BMI) and fast-food consumption among 669 same-sex adult twin pairs residing in the Puget Sound region around Seattle, Washington. We calculated twin-pair correlations for BMI and fast-food consumption. We next regressed BMI on fast-food consumption using generalized estimating equations (GEE), and finally estimated the within-pair difference in BMI associated with a difference in fast-food consumption, which controls for all potential genetic and environment characteristics shared between twins within a pair. Twin-pair correlations for fast-food consumption were similar for identical (monozygotic; MZ) and fraternal (dizygotic; DZ) twins, but were substantially higher in MZ than DZ twins for BMI. In the unadjusted GEE model, greater fast-food consumption was associated with larger BMI. For twin pairs overall, and for MZ twins, there was no association between within-pair differences in fast-food consumption and BMI in any model. In contrast, there was a significant association between within-pair differences in fast-food consumption and BMI among DZ twins, suggesting that genetic factors play a role in the observed association. Thus, although variance in fast-food consumption itself is largely driven by environmental factors, the overall association between this specific eating behavior and BMI is largely due to genetic factors.
Keywords
Diseases In Twins; Obesity; Adults; Diseases; Food Habits; Food Consumption; Body Mass Index; Cross-sectional Method; United States; Fast-food Consumption; Generalized Estimating Equations; Twin Studies; Fto Gene Variants; Physical-activity; Dietary-intake; Weight Status; Environment Interaction; Human Obesity; Young-adults; Zygosity; Patterns; Exercise
Huang, Shih-kai; Lindell, Michael K.; Prater, Carla S. (2016). Who Leaves and Who Stays? A Review and Statistical Meta-Analysis of Hurricane Evacuation Studies. Environment And Behavior, 48(8), 991 – 1029.
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Abstract
This statistical meta-analysis (SMA) examined 38 studies involving actual responses to hurricane warnings and 11 studies involving expected responses to hypothetical hurricane scenarios conducted since 1991. The results indicate official warnings, mobile home residence, risk area residence, observations of environmental (storm conditions) and social (other people's behavior) cues, and expectations of severe personal impacts, all have consistently significant effects on household evacuation. Other variablesespecially demographic variableshave weaker effects on evacuation, perhaps via indirect effects. Finally, the SMA also indicates that the effect sizes from actual hurricane evacuation studies are similar to those from studies of hypothetical hurricane scenarios for 10 of 17 variables that were examined. These results can be used to guide the design of hurricane evacuation transportation analyses and emergency managers' warning programs. They also suggest that laboratory and Internet experiments could be used to examine people's cognitive processing of different types of hurricane warning messages.
Keywords
Decision-making; Risk; Power; Probability; Information; Perception; Responses; Warnings; Ike; Hurricane Evacuation; Statistical Meta-analysis; Actual Evacuations; Hypothetical Scenarios; Hazard Warnings
Gambatese, John A.; Pestana, Catarina; Lee, Hyun Woo. (2017). Alignment between Lean Principles and Practices and Worker Safety Behavior. Journal Of Construction Engineering And Management, 143(1).
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Abstract
Alignment and synergy between the areas of lean construction and safety management are expected because all near misses and injury incidents represent waste from the lean perspective. This paper describes a research study of lean and safety principles and practices with regards to worker behavior and safety practices. Specifically, the study aimed to investigate the extent of alignment between lean construction principles/practices and worker behaviors associated with construction safety. To conduct the study, the researchers used a multistep process involving a comprehensive literature review, document content analyses by an expert panel, and a survey of industry practitioners knowledgeable about lean construction. The findings support the perspective that many similarities exist between the application and impacts of lean and safety principles and practices. Lean practitioners surveyed believe that implementation of the last planner system as a lean practice is most beneficial to the following safety practices: management commitment, preproject planning, and pretask planning. The present study revealed that lean principles and practices can provide a valuable opportunity to further improve construction worker safety; however, the findings show that there is a difference between lean construction and safety management practices, revealing a gap with respect to worker behavior. Understanding and eliminating this gap is important for the industry to realize the full benefit that lean principles and practices can have on worker safety. To do so, the authors suggest expanding lean practices to further directly engage field workers and address worker behavior issues along with carefully communicating the lean message to construction personnel. (C) 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
Keywords
Construction Industry; Injuries; Lean Production; Occupational Safety; Planning; Lean Principles; Lean Construction; Safety Management Practices; Injury Incidents; Worker Behaviors; Construction Safety; Document Content Analysis; Management Commitment; Preproject Planning; Pretask Planning; Construction Worker Safety Behavior; Construction Accident Causality; Risk; Lean Design; Worker Behavior; Safety; Labor And Personnel Issues
Jon, Ihnji; Huang, Shih-kai; Lindell, Michael K. (2018). Perceptions and Reactions to Tornado Warning Polygons: Would a Gradient Polygon Be Useful? International Journal Of Disaster Risk Reduction, 30, 132 – 144.
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Abstract
To better understand people's interpretations of National Weather Service's tornado warning polygons, 145 participants were shown 22 hypothetical scenarios in one of four displays-deterministic polygon, deterministic polygon + radar image, gradient polygon, and gradient polygon + radar image. Participants judged each polygon's numerical strike probability (p(s)) and reported the likelihood of taking seven different response actions. The deterministic polygon display produced p(s) that were highest at the polygon's centroid and declined in all directions from there. The deterministic polygon + radar display, the gradient polygon display, and the gradient polygon + radar display produced p(s) that were high at the polygon's centroid and also at its edge nearest the tornadic storm cell. Overall, p(s) values were negatively related to resuming normal activities, but positively correlated with expectations of resuming normal activities, seeking information from social sources, seeking shelter, and evacuating by car. These results replicate the finding that participants make more appropriate p(s) judgments when polygons are presented in their natural context of radar images than when the polygons are presented in isolation and that gradient displays appear to provide no appreciable benefit. The fact that p(s) judgments had moderately positive correlations with both sheltering (a generally appropriate response) and evacuation (a generally inappropriate response) provides experimental confirmation that people threatened by actual tornadoes are conflicted about which protective action to take.
Keywords
Protective Action; Uncertainty; Risk; Psychology; Casualties; Tornado Warning Polygons; Risk Perceptions; Protective Actions
Di Masso, Andres; Williams, Daniel R.; Raymond, Christopher M.; Buchecker, Matthias; Degenhardt, Barbara; Devine-Wright, Patrick; Hertzog, Alice; Lewicka, Maria; Manzo, Lynne; Shahrad, Azadeh; Stedman, Richard; Verbrugge, Laura; von Wirth, Timo. (2019). Between Fixities and Flows: Navigating Place Attachments in an Increasingly Mobile World. Journal Of Environmental Psychology, 61, 125 – 133.
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Abstract
This paper develops a theoretical argument for how place attachments are forged and become dynamically linked to increasingly common mobility practices. First, we argue that mobilities, rather than negating the importance of place, shift our understanding of place and the habitual ways we relate to and bond with places as distinct from a conception of place attachment premised on fixity and stability. Second, we document how the body of research on place attachment has both reinforced and contested 'sedentaristic' assumptions criticized within the so-called 'mobilities turn' in the social sciences. Third, we present a conceptual framework, built around different modes of interrelation between fixity and flow, as a way to re-theorize, link and balance the various studies of place attachment that have grappled with mobility. Finally, we sketch out the main research implications of this framework for advancing our understanding of place attachment in a mobile world.
Keywords
Sense; Identity; Dimensions; Mobilities; Home; Cosmopolitan; Environment; Migration; Community; Benefits; Flow; Fixity; Place Attachment; Human Settlements; Psychology; Social Environment
Tillyer, Marie Skubak; Walter, Rebecca J. (2019). Low-income Housing And Crime: The Influence Of Housing Development And Neighborhood Characteristics. Crime & Delinquency, 65(7), 969 – 993.
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Abstract
This study examines the distribution of crime across various types of low-income housing developments and estimates the main and interactive effects of housing development and neighborhood characteristics on crime. Negative binomial regression models were estimated to observe the influence of security and design features, neighborhood concentrated disadvantage, residential stability, and nearby nonresidential land use on crime at the housing developments. The findings suggest that low-income housing developments are not uniformly criminogenic, and both development characteristics and neighborhood conditions are relevant for understanding crime in low-income housing developments. Implications for prevention are discussed.
Keywords
Violent Crime; Micro Places; Guardianship; Criminology; Multilevel; Proximity; Patterns; Context; Trends; Impact; Low-income Housing; Criminal Opportunity; Concentrated Disadvantage