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The maintenance system is a key system that provides continuity and safety of the operation of production systems and that affects the safety of people working in these systems. At the same time, the maintenance system is a set of work processes carried out by people under specific environmental conditions, using specific equipment and within a specific organizational and management structure. The purpose of this article is to identify the main management factors that affect occupational safety and to rank these factors in terms of their effectiveness in ensuring safe maintenance, using the grey systems theory. Based on the literature analysis, 12 key management factors were identified and then subjected to expert assessment. In order to rank the factors, a decision model based on the grey systems theory (GST), i.e. systems with incomplete and uncertain information about structure and behavior, was developed and verified. The use of GST in the area of ensuring safety in maintenance is original. The findings of the article will be very useful for managers in implementing safe maintenance systems in various sectors of the economy.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to propose and practically verify the use of the fuzzy TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) method for comparing and evaluating occupational risk management in manufacturing companies. Design/methodology/approach: The adopted approach was verified through a questionnaire survey conducted at four furniture industry companies with similar employment size, product mix and volume. The evaluation criteria were eight detailed occupational risk assessment processes that make up the risk management process. The assessments were carried out by independent experts. Verbal and scoring assessments were used. Conclusions: With the help of the ordered fuzzy TOPSIS method, the surveyed companies were ranked and the best and worst implemented occupational risk assessment process was identified. The research confirmed the usefulness of the fuzzy TOPSIS method in the area of occupational risk management. Limitations of the study: The main limitations relate to subjectivity in the selection of experts and subjective expert judgment. This work may inspire the verification of other multi-criteria decision-making methods for their suitability in the field of occupational safety, including their fuzzy counterparts. Practical implications: The presented approach can be an important tool for improving occupational risk management and, in general, occupational health and safety management in manufacturing companies. Social implications: In the area of occupational risk management, there is a lack of practically validated tools that decision-makers can use in their decision-making process for shaping safe and healthy working conditions. Originality/Value: The use of the fuzzy approach in OHS management is particularly beneficial, as it allows experts to evaluate various criteria using the most commonly used linguistic variables. The fuzzy TOPSIS method has already been used for many years to evaluate alternatives in many different areas, while the application, with ordered fuzzy numbers in the field of occupational risk management, is original. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the impact of tumor and socioeconomic factors on the survival outcomes of minority patients with meningiomas. The study found that Black patients had worse overall survival compared to White patients, while Latinx/White, Latinx/Other, and Asian patients had improved survival. Subtotal resection (STR) was associated with worse survival, and Black and Latinx patients were more likely to undergo STR. Higher grade tumors and larger tumor size were more common in Black, Latinx/Black, and Asian populations. Additionally, Black and Latinx patients were more likely to live in areas with lower education and income levels, and were less likely to have health insurance coverage. The study suggests that genetic factors may play a role in the aggressiveness of tumors in different populations. [Extracted from the article]

The objective of this paper is to analyse the possibility to use the Grey-TOPSIS method to assess the occupational risk management (ORM), in the situation whereby linguistic variables were used in the assessment process. The TOPSIS method has already been in use for a number of years to assess alternative solutions in many areas other than the work safety area. This paper remedies some shortcomings in using the Grey Systems Theory (GST) in ORM, and constitutes an original application of Grey-TOPSIS in the work safety area. Considering that assessment of the ORM process involves estimation of performance particular components of this process, the eight sub-processes were adopted for assessment purposes. The degree of fulfilment of a given sub-processes was assigned a respective verbal grade from Completely Wrong to Perfect. In performing this assessment, systems being in place in four furniture-manufacturing companies were selected to minimise impacts of external factors upon the ORM in these companies. By using the Grey-TOPSIS method, it was possible to rank these companies from the point of view of functioning of the ORM process, and to identify the best and the weakest company in this respect. Further research work should be conducted with the aim to develop some new hybrid, multi-criterion assessment methods, which will develop within the frameworks of the GST.

Inland waterway transport (IWT) is currently in focus for EU countries due to a shift in policy towards a more sustainable and green economy. The aim of this article is to analyze the possibility of using a grey incidence analysis (GIA) to identify key factors related to the functioning of the IWT system. GIA is classified as a multi-criteria decision-making method and is one of the key applications of grey systems theory (GTS), i.e., systems with incomplete and uncertain information about structure and behavior. GIA identifies the most favorable (or quasi-preferred) system characteristics and the most favorable (or quasi-preferred) system factors. The identification of such characteristics and factors enables a reduction in the inconsistencies in decision making on the functioning of the system. The application of the GIA to the assessment of the IWT system is an original concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduces the fi gure of Vladas Šimkus (1936–2004), who had a great impact on the work of many poets of his time, although he himself remained in the shadows. He belongs to a prominent poetic generation, which also includes Vytautas Bložė, Marcelijus Martinaitis, Tomas Venclova, Judita Vaičiūnaitė, Jonas Juškaitis and Sigitas Geda, but he is mostly known as an outstanding translator and editor. Many great Lithuanian poets admit that Šimkus has infl uenced them, but he is a rather forgotten poet. One of the most important elements of Šimkus’s poetics is silence, the meanings and functions of which can be analyzed on several levels and in different contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The maintenance system is one of the key systems in the industry, because it ensures the continuity of work and the safety of the production systems. The maintenance system includes a set of specific activities carried out by people in various environmental conditions, with the use of appropriate equipment and within a specific organizational and management structure. Activities carried out by maintenance workers are related to the occurrence of various types of physical, chemical, biological or psychosocial risks. These dangers can lead to accidents or occupational diseases. Therefore, the task of managers within maintenance systems is to provide people working in these systems with an appropriate level of safety through the use of properly selected preventive measures. The methods of safety analysis are related to the examination of various systems in order to identify and assess the risks in these systems and to prepare the safety characteristics of these systems, which allows for the correct adjustment of preventive measures to the identified needs. The purpose of this work is to present the basic methods of Safety Analysis in terms of their possible use in the area of industrial maintenance. As part of the work, the hazards at work in maintenance were characterized, the importance of safety analysis for the identification of hazards and accident prevention was discussed, and the key methods of safety analysis were presented in terms of their possible use to improve work safety in an industrial maintenance system. The presented considerations are original. The findings of the article will be very useful for management in implementing safe maintenance systems in industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this work is to review the basic issues and problems related to the analysis of human reliability in terms of the possibility of using the methods functioning in this area to improve occupational safety management. Methods of human reliability analysis (HRA) are related to the prediction and assessment of system failures, which are the result of incorrect actions or omissions by a human, and not the failure of a physical element in the system. The paper presents the significance of the problem of human reliability from the point of view of accidents; describes HRA as a process with three main components; characterizes human errors using various criteria as well as discusses the generations of HR analysis and evaluation methods, including factors influencing the performance. The basic guidelines for the selection of methods for reliability analysis were also presented in terms of their possible use for improving the health and safety management system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The manufacturing industry is becoming one of the industries that are included in the agenda of the President of Republic Indonesia to have readiness to face industry 4.0. This research uses purposively selected samples of managers at 3 largest cement companies in Indonesia. The growing number of foreign cement industry in Indonesia make the domestic cement companies should have a strategic orientation (resource, market, entrepreneurship, and learning) in order to be able to increase the organizational innovation and organizational performance in the middle of a very high environmental uncertainty. Respondents were taken with proportional area random sampling techniques based on managers' perception. The statistical technique is using Partial Least Square to test the hypothesis. The result concludes that environmental uncertainty has a great impact on the increase of strategic orientation (resource, market, entrepreneurship, and learning). Strategic orientation is required for companies to improve organizational innovation in facing the industry 4.0 that require a very high level of difficulty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this work is to analyse the possibility to use ordered fuzzy numbers within the frameworks of the TOPSIS method to assess the contractor using selected work health and safety management system criteria. Selection of a contractor is a decision-making problem for a decision-maker as it involves many criteria. In many situations, these criteria may at the same time be highly different: qualitative, quantitative, stimulants, destimulants. Fuzzy number orientation points to the type of criterion which we have to do with while carrying out our assessment. In order to assess and select the contractor, six different work health and safety management system criteria were used: (1) number of persons employed in hazardous work environment conditions, (2) rate of occupational risk assessments completed, 3) number of persons employed in hazardous conditions with reference to whom hazards have been eliminated or reduced over the year down to the level that complies with the standard, (4) indicator of the organisational preventive system usage, (5) training procedure and workplace instruction conformance level, and (6) number of benefits on account of working in conditions that are detrimental or hazardous to health. The criteria and their weights were established taking into account the nature of installation and maintenance works being planned. As a source of information, we used Z-10 annual working conditions reports submitted by companies to GUS [Polish Central Statistical Office], and work health and safety procedures submitted by five contractors. As a result of our research work, we have established that the use of ordered fuzzy numbers within the frameworks of the TOPSIS method makes it possible to streamline the contractors being reviewed from the point of view of selected criteria, and to select the company which meets the adopted work health and safety criteria to the greatest extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]