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Improving health and safety at work is an important concern for the EU which is a key component of the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan. EU OSH1 legislation is essential to protect the health and safety of the almost 170 million workers in the EU. Maintaining and improving protection standards for workers is therefore an ongoing challenge and necessity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ergonomics is essential to improving workplace safety and efficiency by reducing the risks associated with physical tasks. This study presents a decision support system (DSS) aimed at enhancing production ergonomics in the construction sector through an analysis of high-risk postures. Using the Ovako Work Posture Analysis System (OWAS), the Revised NIOSH Lifting Equation (NIOSH equation) and Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA), the DSS identifies ergonomic risks by assessing body postures across common construction tasks. Three specific postures—X, Y and Z—were selected to represent typical construction activities, including lifting, squatting and repetitive tool use. Posture X, involving a forward-leaning stance with arms above the shoulders and a 25 kg load, was identified as critical, yielding the highest OWAS and NIOSH values, thus indicating an immediate need for corrective action to mitigate risks of musculoskeletal injuries. The DSS provides recommendations for workplace adjustments and posture improvements, demonstrating a robust framework that can be adapted to other postures and industries. Future developments may include application to other postures and sectors, as well as the use of artificial intelligence to support ongoing ergonomic assessments, offering a promising solution to enhance Occupational Safety and Health policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Multidiszciplináris Tudományok is the property of University of Miskolc and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Multidiszciplináris Tudományok is the property of University of Miskolc and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Multidiszciplináris Tudományok is the property of University of Miskolc and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Construction projects are a field of work with a high risk of work accidents. CV XYZ, a construction service company, often experiences work accidents on highway projects. These work accidents are caused by human negligence, substandard materials, and inadequate occupational safety and health (OSH) implementation methods. Based on these problems, this study aims to design work accident risk control at CV XYZ to reduce and prevent work accidents on road construction projects. The design of occupational safety and health (OSH) control is carried out by conducting risk analysis on road construction project activities through the HIRADC (Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment, and Determining Control) approach and designing improvements to the occupational safety and health (OSH) control business process. The design of OSH risk control created in this study aims to implement risk control and reduce the risk of work accidents in the company. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring occupational safety and health (OSH) is paramount in infrastructure projects due to their inherently high-risk nature and the increased likelihood of accidents. Despite its importance, numerous obstacles impede the successful adoption of OSH measures in these settings. Addressing these challenges is key to not only implementing OSH protocols effectively but also to improving working conditions and managing other operational facets like quality and environmental concerns, ultimately resulting in better infrastructure developments. Adopting proactive OSH strategies is crucial for preventing significant accidents and fostering a safety culture within infrastructure projects. This review focuses on identifying the primary obstacles and barriers to effective OSH in infrastructure projects, laying the groundwork for improving safety performance in the sector. It highlights organizational and legislative issues as the foremost challenges due to their direct impact on safety culture, resource distribution, compliance, and accountability. Although factors related to environmental and safety practices are deemed less critical, they are nonetheless vital for comprehensive risk management and the promotion of a safe working environment. Tackling these issues is imperative for cultivating a strong safety culture and safeguarding the health of workers on infrastructure projects. It is also essential to acknowledge the distinct OSH challenges presented by different construction scenarios to devise customized safety measures and effectively reduce risks. This review emphasizes the necessity of recognizing the unique aspects of each construction project, addressing specific dangers, and meeting regulatory demands to achieve thorough safety management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction industry is deemed a hazardous industry in terms of occupational safety and health (OSH) which is the obligation of all project parties during the project life cycle. This research aims to investigate the role of the client in fostering construction safety, in the planning and design stages in the Gaza Strip, a territory of Palestine. A quantitative survey was designed and used where the response rate of the distribution came to 72.48% (79 responses). The results were obtained from questionnaire responses and findings based on the ranking indicate a lack of awareness of the construction project clients about their responsibilities on OSH practices. Establishing a special unit in the syndicate of engineers to review the design and plans and consider their compatibility with new design theories that deal with safety and establishing an independent institutional body. The body concerned with OSH issues in all aspects and clauses is necessary to make a real revision for consultant firms’ classification criteria with a high priority for OSH issues. With considering these issues a major criterion in the classification will be made while reducing the classification in the event of injuries and deaths at the company.

Copyright of Dicle University Journal of Engineering / Dicle Üniversitesi Mühendislik Dergisi is the property of Dicle Universitesi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Ensuring occupational safety and health (OSH) is paramount in infrastructure projects due to their inherently high-risk nature and the increased likelihood of accidents. Despite its importance, numerous obstacles impede the successful adoption of OSH measures in these settings. Addressing these challenges is key to not only implementing OSH protocols effectively but also to improving working conditions and managing other operational facets like quality and environmental concerns, ultimately resulting in better infrastructure developments. Adopting proactive OSH strategies is crucial for preventing significant accidents and fostering a safety culture within infrastructure projects. This review focuses on identifying the primary obstacles and barriers to effective OSH in infrastructure projects, laying the groundwork for improving safety performance in the sector. It highlights organizational and legislative issues as the foremost challenges due to their direct impact on safety culture, resource distribution, compliance, and accountability. Although factors related to environmental and safety practices are deemed less critical, they are nonetheless vital for comprehensive risk management and the promotion of a safe working environment. Tackling these issues is imperative for cultivating a strong safety culture and safeguarding the health of workers on infrastructure projects. It is also essential to acknowledge the distinct OSH challenges presented by different construction scenarios to devise customized safety measures and effectively reduce risks. This review emphasizes the necessity of recognizing the unique aspects of each construction project, addressing specific dangers, and meeting regulatory demands to achieve thorough safety management.

Training in the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) sector is crucial for minimizing workplace hazards and ensuring employee well-being. Virtual Reality (VR) emerges as a training tool that can enhance learning outcomes and simulate hazardous scenarios safely. However, several aspects must be taken into consideration when implementing VR-based training solutions. The paper investigates how to effectively design, develop, integrate, and validate a VR OSH training tool. To this aim, a comprehensive guideline of 9 key elements articulated in 29 items is proposed. Every element and item is retrieved from analyzing the existing literature on the topic using a systematic approach. The result is a comprehensive guide to consider all these aspects from the outset of design, in a cohesive, complete, and tailored manner. This formalization is intended to facilitate the advancement of research and implementation of these solutions, which to date have been largely confined to prototypes or lack real practical application.

The work represents a study on how to implement the digitization of the OSH activity in some organizations in Romania with an example of the degree of satisfaction of the management and their workers. The main concerns and projects applicable in the community of the authorities and organizations in the study are presented. By extracting the impediments and advantages from the implementation of the digitization of the OH&S activity, the essential aspects for the organizations for information and analysis are highlighted. At the end, conclusions and opportunities for the use of platforms, applications and programs with AI are drawn that can represent a starting point for an applied analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essence of the contribution is to present the results of the analysis of current trends in the Occupational Health and Safety (OSH) managers' competencies and to propose a competence framework for OSH managers for the study program Crisis Management at the Faculty of Security Engineering (FSE UNIZA). The proposed framework respects the legislative, normative, and managerial requirements imposed on this position, resulting from current practice in Slovakia and global trends. The authors created a framework with the requirements for basic professional knowledge and skills in the field of OSH. Managerial knowledge, skills, tasks, responsibilities for performing activities, and the entire OSH management process are described. The position of OSH manager should be moved toward strategic management. OSH manager should bear responsibility for the entire OSH management process, i.e., design, manage, and control processes associated with the OSH management process. Increasing the competence of health and safety managers will help companies minimize adverse impacts and increase prevention, safety, and company prosperity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the span of decades, sustained research efforts have been dedicated to the realm of occupational safety and health practices within high-hazard work environments. This focus stems from the alarming frequency of accidents and injuries occurring within these settings. Recent research findings have consistently underscored the pivotal role of human factors - encompassing individual perspectives, communication, attitudes, and behaviors - as the chief catalysts behind such unfortunate incidents in high-risk workplaces. Nevertheless, the trajectory of these accidents and injuries can be altered, and the toll mitigated, by scrutinizing the safety commitment of employees. This commitment, crucial for ensuring safer work environments, can be cultivated through consistent interaction and communication with leaders. This interaction serves to enhance employees' knowledge and awareness concerning safety practices. In this context, the current article delves into the profound impact of leadership communication on employees' safety commitment within the oil and gas industry. Employing a quantitative approach, the study relied on survey-type questionnaires to fulfill its objectives. From maintenance and operation departments, a random selection of 260 technical employees participated as respondents. The findings convincingly establish that leadership communication exerts a substantial and significant influence on employees' safety commitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Adequate knowledge and practice of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) is essential to reduce workplace injuries. This cross-sectional study aims to examine the relationship between sociodemographic factors and the level of knowledge, practice, and injury patterns related to OSH among workers in a solvent manufacturing factory. Methods: Purposive sampling was used to select 286 respondents who were given validated self-administered questionnaires through WhatsApp and paper. Secondary data on workplace injuries were also collected between December 2021 and October 2022. The collected data was then analyzed using SPSS Version 27. Results: The majority of the workers exhibited good knowledge levels of OSH at their workplace, with all workers showing moderate to good levels of OSH practices. There was no significant association between gender, age, education level, and work experience with the level of OSH knowledge. However, significant associations were observed between gender and age with the level of OSH practices with p = <0.001 for both factors, while no significant association was found between working experience and education level with the level of OSH practices. Moreover, the study found no significant association between knowledge and practice, knowledge and injury, as well as practice and injury. Over 11 months, three incidents were reported, with acute injuries caused by chemical hazards and physical risks. Workers also reported issues related to the enforcement of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), ergonomic problems, environmental factors, and the condition of their workstations. Conclusion: The study highlights the need for safety and health training to improve the workers' OSH practices and reduce the incidence of workplace injuries in the manufacturing factory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The reoccurrence of occupational accidents in Sudan is evidence of a lack of effective Occupational Health and Safety (OSH) governance in Sudan. Methods: This scope review research articles on OSH governance in Sudan from different sources, including international websites, official government websites, original research articles in journals, and various reports. The five stages of the scoping review followed in this study are: identifying the research question; identifying relevant studies; study selection; charting the data; collating, summarizing, and reporting the results. Results: There is numerous legislation in place; however, there is no evidence of their enforcement, and no formal bodies at the national level are identified as being responsible for their enforcement. Conclusion: Having multiple authorities with overlapping responsibilities hinders OSH governance. An integrated governance model is proposed to eliminate overlapping duties and to facilitate the participation of all stakeholders in the governance process.

This study aims to conduct an in-depth analysis of the risks and costs associated with Occupational Health and Safety (K3) aspects in the context of the construction of a Passenger Terminal in the Mentawai New Airport Development Project. The project has important significance in connecting Mentawai with a better air transport network but requires special attention to K3 factors to ensure a safe and healthy working environment for construction workers. This research method involves the identification, evaluation, and mitigation stages of K3 risks that can arise during various stages of development. Data was collected through field surveys, direct observations, interviews with related parties, and documentation studies related to K3 regulations and work accident costs. Risk analysis is carried out by applying a probabilistic approach to measure the potential for unsafe events and their impact. Next, the impact of workplace accidents on project costs is evaluated, including medical costs, damages, and potential project delays. This research method involves the identification, evaluation, and mitigation stages of K3 risks that can arise during various stages of development. Data was collected through field surveys, direct observations, interviews with related parties, and documentation studies related to K3 regulations and work accident costs. Risk analysis is carried out by applying a probabilistic approach to measure the potential for unsafe events and their impact. Next, the impact of workplace accidents on project costs is evaluated, including medical costs, damages, and potential project delays. These findings will provide valuable insights for project decision makers, K3 managers, and other relevant parties in planning and implementing development projects by considering K3 aspects holistically. By understanding the risks involved and their financial impact, effective steps can be taken to improve worker safety and health, while optimizing the use of financial resources in the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Signos is the property of Universidad Santo Tomas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

MotivationAugmented reality head-up display (AR-HUD) interface design takes on critical significance in enhancing driving safety and user experience among professional drivers. However, optimizing the above-mentioned interfaces poses challenges, innovative methods are urgently required to enhance performance and reduce cognitive load.DescriptionA novel method was proposed, combining the IVPM method with a GA to optimize AR-HUD interfaces. Leveraging machine learning, the IVPM-GA method was adopted to predict cognitive load and iteratively optimize the interface design.ResultsExperimental results confirmed the superiority of IVPM-GA over the conventional BP-GA method. Optimized AR-HUD interfaces using IVPM-GA significantly enhanced the driving performance, and user experience was enhanced since 80% of participants rated the IVPM-GA interface as visually comfortable and less distracting.ConclusionIn this study, an innovative method was presented to optimize AR-HUD interfaces by integrating IVPM with a GA. IVPM-GA effectively reduced cognitive load, enhanced driving performance, and improved user experience for professional drivers. The above-described findings stress the significance of using machine learning and optimization techniques in AR-HUD interface design, with the aim of enhancing driver safety and occupational health. The study confirmed the practical implications of machine learning optimization algorithms for designing AR-HUD interfaces with reduced cognitive load and improved occupational safety and health (OSH) for professional drivers.

ABSTRACT Background: The accidents at the workplace can affect productivity and public welfare. The occupational safety and health (OSH) program minimizes the case of accidents and illness at the workplace. The study site is a freight railway company with some risks as other transportation businesses. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the company's best practices in OSH programs. Methods: This research is a qualitative design with an online in-depth interview approach to collect the data. The head of the company, Central Java branch, was interviewed as the primary informant while the head of the operational section was the triangulation informant. The researchers also reviewed some documents to validate the interview results. Data were analyzed using content analysis. Results: inspection, briefing, and training are the main OSH related programs in the company to increase the safety climate in the workplace. However, the company has not implemented the inspection as scheduled, lack of safety materials for the morning briefing, and lack of training for the workers. Conclusion: The freight railway in the study site has implemented some OSH Programs, but the safety briefing, inspection, and OSH training need to be conducted. ABSTRAK Latar Belakang: Masih tingginya angka kecelakaan kerja di Indonesia dapat mempengaruhi produktivitas serta kesejahteraan masyarakat. Untuk mencegah hal tersebut terjadi, diperlukan adanya program keselamatan dan kesehatan kerja (K3) di tempat kerja yang merupakan upaya dari perusahaan untuk meminimalisir terjadinya kasus kecelakaan kerja dan kasus penyakit akibat kerja. PT.X yang merupakan perusahaan logistik berbasis kereta api ini mempunyai potensi bahaya yang dapat memicu terjadinya kecelakaan di tempat kerja. Tujuan: Tujuan penelitian ini yaitu untuk mengetahui upaya dari perusahaan untuk mencegah terjadinya kecelakaan kerja melalui program K3 yang ada di perusahaan. Metode: Penelitian ini menggunakan desain kualitatif. Instrumen yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini yaitu form wawancara mendalam, serta pengumpulan data dilakukan secara daring. Informan utama dan triangulasi dalam penelitian ini yaitu kepala cabang dan kepala operasional. Data dianalisis berdasarkan triangulasi metode dan triangulasi sumber. Hasil: Inspeksi, briefing, dan pelatihan merupakan program utama perusahaan yang berkaitan dengan K3, dengan tujuan untuk meningkatkan iklim K3 di tempat kerja. Tetapi, perusahaan tidak menjalankan inspeksi rutin, kurangnya materi K3 pada saat briefing, dan kurangnya pelatihan pada pekerja. Kesimpulan: Program K3 yang ada di PT. X masing-masing mempunyai kelebihan serta kekurangan, dan menyarankan untuk meningkatkan atau memperbaiki program K3, seperti penerapan inspeksi rutin, adanya pelatihan, dan pemberian materi K3 pada saat briefing.

Introduction: Miscommunication can cause accidents in workplaces due to the ineffective occupational safety and health (OSH) communication. There are many factors of ineffective OSH communication, one of which is the language barriers. Thus, this research aims to unveil the types of language barriers and its relation to the effectivity of OSH communication in Indonesia. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional approach using a structured questionnaire was done in this research. The structured questionnaire survey was done among 102 workers in PT ABC, Indonesia. Spearman rho, a dedicated form of Pearson r, was used to determine the correlation between language barriers and effective OSH communication. Results: All of the types of language barriers except vernacular correlate positively, strongly and significantly to the effectivity of OSH communication (0.50 ≤ r ≤ 0.699, p-value < 0.05). Vernacular correlate positively, moderately, and significantly to the effectivity of OSH communication (r 0.497, p-value < 0.05). Conclusions: Based on the findings, OSH communication should be communicated accurately, clearly, and concisely in the language that everyone can understand.

Cooperative robots in the workspace have an effect on safety that is not yet fully understood. This work collates pre-existing knowledge on human, technological and organizational factors for human-robot interaction and develops a system dynamics model that captures the complex interactions. Expert consultation in the form of a Delphi study is used to derive a tractable model from pre-existing puzzle pieces. A final model is presented, which contains 10 nodes and 20 relationships containing the three key outcome factors of human-robot interaction, viz. Safety, Efficiency and Sustainability. By combining these factors into a single tractable framework, this model bridges the gap between individual efforts from previous works in the field of robotics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Documentation is an essential component of Open Source Hardware (OSH) projects both for co-development and replication of designs. However, creating documentation and keeping it up-to-date is often challenging and time-intensive. There are several systems that focus on this documentation challenge but they are limited in their support for keeping documentation up-to-date and relating CAD designs to documentation. This article proposes a semi-automated solution that relates the CAD design semantically to a textual specification from which we generate assembly instructions semi-automatically. Our system contains a CAD plugin and a compiler for the textual specification with which we show that we can replicate a state-of-the-art assembly manual to a high degree, that we can automate significant parts of the documentation process, and that our system can effectively adapt to documentation changes as a result of evolving designs. Our system leads to a methodology that we name "CAD-coupled documentation" integrating CAD design with the documentation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cancelable biometric recognition techniques play a vital role in the privacy and security of remote surveillance systems to keep the genuine users’ confidential data safe and away from intruders. This research work presents an efficient cancelable biometric recognition framework that exploits an irreversible hybrid encryption algorithm. It incorporates Deoxyribonucleic, Ribonucleic Acid sequence (DNA and RNA) encryption technique, and an evolutionary optimization technique, namely Genetic Algorithms (GAs). These techniques are employed to create completely deformed templates from their original ones. Hence, the main contribution is introducing a novel biometric security framework that achieves unique randomness characteristics using RNA and DNA sequences and the evolutionary GA technique. The proposed framework produces entirely deformed biometric templates by ciphering the main discriminative features of the biometric traits of the authorized clients. It is firstly initialized by creating several encrypted biometric images for the original users with the logistic map. After that, the initially encrypted images are transformed into vectors of a binary array. Then, they are converted to their corresponding introns, and exons, and consequently, their relevant codons are stored in the cloud database. These relevant codons are replaced by new ones after generating encrypted RNA lists. The utilized encryption key for each template is extracted from the original biometric image through excessive permutations between pixels. The GA optimization technique is applied to select the most convenient biometric features. Finally, after employing the GA-based cross-over and mutation operations, the chosen features are used to generate the cancelable biometric traits. To assess the proposed framework, six different biometric databases are considered. These databases are Olivetti Research Laboratory (ORL) Faces (gray), CASIA v.5 Faces (color), UPOL Iris (gray), Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) Ear (color and gray), Fingerprint, and CASIA Palmprint (color and gray). The security performance of the proposed encryption algorithm is compared to those of recent studies in this field, such as Optical Scanning Holography (OSH) and Double Random Phase Encoding (DRPE). The simulation results prove the superior performance of the proposed framework in terms of all adopted evaluation metrics. The proposed framework provides high Area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (AROC) curve that reaches 0.9990, low False Acceptance Rate (FAR) of 0.0015, more uniform histograms, high correlation values for genuine users, and completely hidden biometric features. In addition, from the security perspective, the proposed framework achieves good entropy, Unified Average Changing Intensity (UACI), and Number of Pixels Change Rate (NPCR) values that reach 7.9960, 33.55%, and 99.65%, respectively.

Documentation is an essential component of Open Source Hardware (OSH) projects both for co-development and replication of designs. However, creating documentation and keeping it up-to-date is often challenging and time-intensive. There are several systems that focus on this documentation challenge but they are limited in their support for keeping documentation up-to-date and relating CAD designs to documentation. This article proposes a semi-automated solution that relates the CAD design semantically to a textual specification from which we generate assembly instructions semi-automatically. Our system contains a CAD plugin and a compiler for the textual specification with which we show that we can replicate a state-of-the-art assembly manual to a high degree, that we can automate significant parts of the documentation process, and that our system can effectively adapt to documentation changes as a result of evolving designs. Our system leads to a methodology that we name “CAD-coupled documentation” integrating CAD design with the documentation process.

Biometric authentication is a rapidly growing trend that is gaining increasing attention in the last decades. It achieves safe access to systems using biometrics instead of the traditional passwords. The utilization of a biometric in its original format makes it usable only once. Therefore, a cancelable biometric template should be used, so that it can be replaced when it is attacked. Cancelable biometrics aims to enhance the security and privacy of biometric authentication. Digital encryption is an efficient technique to be used in order to generate cancelable biometric templates. In this paper, a highly-secure encryption algorithm is proposed to ensure secure biometric data in verification systems. The considered biometric in this paper is the speech signal. The speech signal is transformed into its spectrogram. Then, the spectrogram is encrypted using two cascaded optical encryption algorithms. The first algorithm is the Optical Scanning Holography (OSH) for its efficiency as an encryption tool. The OSH encrypted spectrogram is encrypted using Double Random Phase Encoding (DRPE) by implementing two Random Phase Masks (RPMs). After the two cascaded optical encryption algorithms, the cancelable template is obtained. The verification is implemented through correlation estimation between enrolled and test templates in their encrypted format. If the correlation value is larger than a threshold value, the user is authorized. The threshold value can be determined from the genuine and imposter correlation distribution curves as the midpoint between the two curves. The implementation of optical encryption is adopted using its software rather than the optical setup. The efficiency of the proposed cancelable biometric algorithm is illustrated by the simulation results. It can improve the biometric data security without deteriorating the recognition accuracy. Simulation results give close-to-zero values for the Equal Error Rate (EER) and close-to-one values for the Area under Receiver Operator Characteristic (AROC) curve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has displaced millions of people worldwide, forcing them to work from home offices in a situation of "new normal". Many home office workers were pushed to work in less than ideal settings in the pandemic situation. Work from home causes complications for employees related to their home workplaces lacking appropriate support from the employers. OBJECTIVE: This article aims to analyse how pandemic has changed and affected workplace ergonomics. We addressed, amidst the pandemic, how work is being performed, the layout of the workplace, and its effects on an employee at home workplace. METHODS: In this descriptive study, we used chain referral sampling to collect data from 273 home-based faculty members employed in the universities and HEIs of Pakistan. Finally, we used inferential statistics for our data analysis. RESULTS: Results showed that employees faced problems because they had no prior training for setting up an ergonomically proper workspace. According to the results based on home-based ergonomic examinations, difficulties were associated with using laptops, desktop computers, and nonadjustable seats with no functionalities of flexibility and armrests. CONCLUSIONS: It is vital to employ appropriate instruments and mechanisms, like risk assessment, feedback for the actions performed, and the deployment of adaptive measures (similar to the preventive system of management of occupational safety and health - OSH). These tools must be regularly utilised and/or modified as the scenario changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Public Health Research & Community Health Development is the property of Universitas Airlangga and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The purpose of this article is to develop a theoretical disaster risk reduction model, creating a virtuous cycle of knowledge and action across the festival and events industry, based on occupational safety and health (OSH) strategic objectives, as informed by a systematic literature review. The main constructs of this conceptual article are explored through a systematic literature review. Sources include publications of key stakeholders in the festival and event industry, applicable global directives, strategic documents of relevant governmental and non-governmental organisations and academic publications. From the data gathered in the systematic literature review it can be surmised that sustainable development goals (SDGs) related research in tourism, festivals, events and OSH is lacking in quantity and there is room for these aspects to be addressed in future research to ensure that these fields of study make a more substantial contribution to disaster risk reduction in festival and event management. This article is limited to secondary data collected through a systematic literature review, supported by additional literature to inform a theoretical framework incorporating SDGs, disaster risk reduction and OSH strategic objectives for festivals and events. Sustainable development goals are aimed at achieving a sustainable future for all. The detrimental effect of OSH incidents can be counterproductive to achieving such goals and should therefore be closely monitored and managed. Festival and event managers should thus take cognisance of the importance of OSH through a plan of action, benchmarked against best practice, to allow for enhanced disaster risk management. This article investigates the concepts of sustainability, disaster risk reduction, OSH, events and festival management and combines the concepts in a unique manner.

Human resource management in an organisation is often delegated to the organization's general manager, other senior managers (if relevant), and the company's department that specialises in human resource management. From the outset, those in charge of management must have a comprehensive awareness of the range of competencies created by human resources. This will help them to eliminate the chance of developing duplicate talents. According to this understanding, the general manager or other senior managers are accountable for the short- and longterm forecasting, planning, and execution of personnel policy (if applicable). They base their choices on analyses conducted by a specialist department that is solely responsible for handling human resource concerns, and then they execute those conclusions. Moreover, this department's employees are attentive to the structure and administration of current personnel activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Digital platforms have found their way into all our lives: they are discussed in political, economic, scientific and public fields worldwide. Platform-based work is also on the rise in the German labour market, not only in institutionalised work, but also in start-ups and spin-offs. OBJECTIVES: The article describes the results of an analysis aimed at identifying perceptions of new and already known major success factors on market entry and market penetration regarding occupational safety and health (OSH) and work design. METHODS: A total of 31 semi-standardised interviews were conducted with 39 people. First, perceived success factors in general were examined with the comparative analysis. Surprisingly, OSH/work design factors did not emerge as perceived success factors. For this reason, a in-depth analysis was performed in a secondary analysis with the structured content analysis. RESULTS: Identified perceived success factors were user orientation, scalability, network effects, niche occupation. The in-depth secondary analysis with focus on OSH/work design showed that the interviewees are aware of the topic of OSH/work design, but did not consider it to be important to economic success. CONCLUSIONS: The identified success factors may not seem surprising. What is surprising, however, is the role played by OSH/work design. Solutions must be developed that sensitize working persons in the platform sector to the topic of OSH/work design. A two-step process may be useful: First, uniform regulations and laws must be anchored in the platform architecture. Second, various measures and training courses can be designed to inform and raise awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 pandemic has changed the world of work. But global trade is still recognized as an essential area of business, and maritime transport, being an engine of globalization, cannot be paused. Since the onset of the pandemic, few governments have allowed seafarers – who transport more than 90 per cent of global commodities – to leave their ships and return home. The travel restrictions related to COVID‐19 have led to a crisis of occupational safety and health (OSH) at sea. Drawing on 29 interviews, this article explores the OSH challenges faced by international seafarers during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New technologies are influencing today's work and change social attitudes towards the organization and design of work. Against this background, the question arises as to how human-centred work design has to be in the digital age. In order to derive indications for work design, first it is necessary to find out which work conditions actually are present for different tasks and what their level of digitization is. This article focuses on the working conditions and the level of digitization of object-related tasks. These tasks are characterized by the fact that objects are processed or handled. In particular, it includes the task groups manufacturing, transporting and cleaning. For these three groups, current working conditions of N = 6.435 employees with object-related tasks were analyzed based on the BIBB/BAuA Employment Survey. Furthermore, the current state of digitization of N = 411 employees with object-related tasks was analyzed based on the survey Digitization and Change in Employment (DiWaBe). The results show, that a high proportion of physical work requirements and physical-chemical environmental conditions have an impact on object-related tasks. Furthermore, the results indicate tendencies towards monotonous work processes. Object-related tasks show a rather low degree of digitization. However, especially in manufacturing and transport, detailed instructions are often given by means of various technologies. Based on the data analysis, a structured literature analysis was conducted about the current state of research on new technologies in object-related tasks. It was found, that research and practice is concerned with technologies that meet the high physical demands of object-related tasks in particular (e.g. HRC, exoskeletons). In addition, there are many approaches to support employees cognitively with digital assistance systems. This article present the results of the data and literature analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various cancelable biometric techniques have been proposed to maintain user data security. In this work, a cancelable biometric framework is introduced to satisfy user data security and keeping the original biometric template safe away from intruders. Thus, our main contribution is presenting a novel authentication framework based on the evolutionary Genetic Algorithm (GA)-based encryption technique. The suggested framework produces an entirely unrecognized biometric template by hiding the whole discriminative features of biometric templates; this is with exploiting the outstanding characteristics of the employed Genetic operations of the utilized encryption technique. Firstly, the GA initiates its search from a population of templates, not a single template. Secondly, some statistical operators are used to exploit the resulting initial population to generate successive populations. Finally, the crossover and mutation operations are performed to produce the ultimate cancelable biometric templates. Different biometric databases of the face and fingerprint templates are tested and analyzed. The proposed cancelable biometric framework achieves appreciated sensitivity and specificity results compared to the conventional OSH (Optical Scanning Holography) algorithm. It accomplishes recommended outcomes in terms of the AROC (Area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic) and the probability correlation distribution between the original biometrics and the encrypted biometrics stored in the database. The experimental results prove that the proposed framework achieves excellent results even if the biometric system suffers from different noise ratios. The proposed framework achieves an average AROC value of 0.9998, an EER (Equal Error Rate) of $2.0243\times 10 ^{-4}$ , FAR (False Acceptance Rate) of $4.8843\times 10 ^{-4}$ , and FRR (False Rejection Rate) of $2.2693\times 10 ^{-4}$ .

There are still employees who do not understand Covid-19 prevention and control protocol in hospitals and are not disciplined in carrying out Covid-19 health protocol. IPC training implementation that has not been appropriately structured is considered the cause of some employees being exposed to Covid-19. This study aims to analyze the effect of compliance Covid-19 health protocol implementation and the implementation of Infection Prevention and Control training on the occupational risks of health workers and Occupational Health and Safety standards implementation as intervening variables in the Covid-19 pandemic era at Tengku Rafi'an Regional Public Hospital simultaneously and partially. This research method is causative descriptive research with a quantitative study approach. The sample of this study was 200 health workers who work in hospitals. The data analysis technique used is index analysis using the three-box method and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) for path analysis. Conclusion of this study showed the implementation of the Covid-19 Health Protocol, IPC Training, and Occupational Safety and Health Standards implementation together significantly affected the Occupational Risks of Health Workers simultaneously and partially at Tengku Rafi'an Regional Public Hospital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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While economic slowdown challenges stock-markets and the wider economic and financial system, significant pressure is posed to labour market challenging also working conditions. Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) is not given the appropriate importance, especially in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This study attempts to describe and analyse the complex interactions between some of the factors that determine occupational safety and health, based on previous models of social risk amplification/attenuation as well as the risk perception factor. The model is applied for the case of Greece during recession. The proposed approach explains the lack of measures taken during a variety of challenging situations and the reasoning behind the regarded significance that is given or not given to specific situations. This case study identified the dominant factors that predispose and trigger or casually affect the amplification/attenuation of risk and can significantly affect the lay public. Those were found to be the media, the National Labour Inspectorate (NLI) and legislation. Social media were also found to have the potential for supporting both proactive regulatory actions and capacity-building for social dialogue.