scholarly journals Expanding Core Capability in Digitisation by Sharing of Resources:  the CSIRO Collections Program for Digitisation of Collection Specimens

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. e27246
Author(s):  
Nicole Fisher ◽  
Emma Toms
Keyword(s):  
Health And Safety ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Fine Motor ◽  
Grand Challenge ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
Educational Materials ◽  
History Museums ◽  
Work Health ◽  
Hand Coordination ◽  
The Impact

Educational Materials Share Fair at SPNHC 2018 Given the high number of specimens present around the world in natural history museums, digitisation, or the transformation of specimens from the physical to digital, has become the collections community’s grand challenge. A team made up of volunteers and casual staff are human resources for the digitisation of Australia’s largest biological collections, over 15 million specimens held at CSIRO. An image-based digitisation program at the Australian National Insect Collection (ANIC), and a similar imaging project at the Australian National Herbarium (ANH) are transforming the way we engage with volunteers & recruit staff in collections digitisation. Providing insights on the CSIRO specimen digitisation program, we will share resources and materials that can easily be adapted to your next collections digitisation program. In 2018, we found that diversity and flexibility in roles assigned to personnel rather than assigning rigid and specific roles to individuals, was more successful for our collections digitisation volunteers and staff. Also, we introduced dexterity games which help develop fine motor skills and hand coordination while breaking up the monotony of the role. We also integrated materials aimed at educating the volunteers and staff about digitisation and curation and the impact of digitising collections. All of these improvements to the digitisation program are building a sense of determination amongst the dedicated volunteers and staff and curation levels are growing, leading to the increase and maintenance of collection integrity. Build scale and value by integrating these new lessons learned, procedures, manuals, training documentation, workflows and work health and safety into your next digitisation project.

The future of travel

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr Simon Hudson
Keyword(s):  
Health And Safety ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Travel And Tourism ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Travel Industry ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Global Travel

Most experts would agree that recovery from the COVID-19 crisis will be slow (see Figure 6.2), in large part due to the impact that the crisis has had on the global travel and tourism industry (Romei, 2020). Until there is vaccine, the virus will influence nearly every sector of travel from transportation, destination and resorts, to the accommodations, attractions, events and restaurants. The first section of this chapter looks at the future for these different sectors, a future heavily influenced by technology and a heightened emphasis on health and safety. The second part of the chapter focuses on a theme that has been prevalent in this book – the need for adaptability or ‘COVID-aptability’. Consumer demands and behavior will be permanently altered by the pandemic, and all stakeholders in the travel industry will need to adapt. One part of adaptability is redesigning servicescapes – a necessity for many after the lockdown, and this is the subject of the penultimate section of the chapter. The conclusion looks at lessons learned from this crisis.

scholarly journals Cross-Cutting Lessons Learned During the COVID-19 Pandemic—the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research Experience

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey M Osgood ◽  
Jeffrey W Froude ◽  
Sherri P Daye ◽  
Oscar A Cabrera ◽  
Matthew R Scherer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Development ◽  
Medical Research ◽  
Reaction Force ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Walter Reed Army Institute ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Research Organizations ◽  
Pandemic Response ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACT Introduction At the start of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) mobilized to rapidly conduct medical research to detect, prevent, and treat the disease in order to minimize the impact of the pandemic on the health and readiness of U.S. Forces. WRAIR’s major efforts included the development of the Department of Defense (DoD) COVID-19 vaccine candidate, researching novel drug therapies and monoclonal antibodies, refining and scaling-up diagnostic capabilities, evaluating the impact of viral diversity, assessing the behavioral health of Soldiers, supporting U.S. DoD operational forces overseas, and providing myriad assistance to allied nations. WRAIR personnel have also filled key roles within the whole of government response to the pandemic. WRAIR had to overcome major pandemic-related operational challenges in order to quickly execute a multimillion-dollar portfolio of COVID-19 research. Consequently, the organization learned lessons that could benefit other leaders of medical research organizations preparing for the next pandemic. Materials and Methods We identified lessons learned using a qualitative thematic analysis of 76 observation/recommendation pairs from across the organization. These lessons learned were organized under the Army’s four pillars of readiness (staffing, training, equipping, and leadership development). To this framework, we added organizing and leading to best capture our experiences within the context of pandemic response. Results The major lessons learned for organizing were: (1) the pandemic created a need to rapidly pivot to new scientific priorities; (2) necessary health and safety precautions disrupted the flow of normal science and put programs at risk of missing milestones; (3) relationships with partners and allies facilitated medical diplomacy and advancement of U.S. national military and economic goals; and (4) a successful response required interoperability within and across multiple organizations. For equipping: (1) existing infrastructure lacked sufficient capacity and technical capability to allow immediate countermeasure development; (2) critical supply chains were strained; and (3) critical information system function and capacity were suddenly insufficient under maximum remote work. For staffing and training: (1) successful telework required rapid shifts in management, engagement, and accountability methods; and (2) organizational policies and processes had to adapt quickly to support remote staffing. For leading and leadership development (1) engaged, hopeful, and empathetic leadership made a difference; and (2) the workforce benefitted from concerted leadership communication that created a shared understanding of shifting priorities as well as new processes and procedures. Conclusions An effective pandemic response requires comprehensive institutional preparedness that facilitates flexibility and surge capacity. The single most important action leaders of medical research organizations can take to prepare for the next pandemic is to develop a quick-reaction force that would activate under prespecified criteria to manage reprioritization of all science and support activities to address pandemic response priorities at the velocity of relevance.

scholarly journals Analysis of COVID-19 Concerns Raised by the Construction Workforce and Development of Mitigation Practices

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Makram Bou Hatoum ◽  
Ali Faisal ◽  
Hala Nassereddine ◽  
Hadi Sarvari
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Construction Workers ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Health Trends ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
The Impact

The coronavirus outbreak has created a global health crisis that has disrupted all industries, including the construction industry. Following the onset of the pandemic, construction workers faced and continue to face unprecedented safety and health challenges. Therefore, construction employers established new safety precautions to protect the health and safety of the workforce and minimize the spread of the virus. The new precautions followed the advice and guidelines offered by different health and safety agencies like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). With construction projects resuming operations, it becomes important to analyze the coronavirus-related health and safety concerns of construction workforce and understand how the new safety procedures can assist on jobsites. Existing studies mostly focused on interviews and surveys with construction companies to understand the impact on project performance and supply chains. However, no study has yet to analyze the United States construction workforce. This paper fills the gap by providing a qualitative descriptive analysis of the COVID-19 complaints data gathered by OSHA from construction jobsites. Information gathered by OSHA includes the jobsite location, the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) of the construction company, the type of the complaint (i.e., formal or non-formal), and a thorough description of the complaint. N-grams were employed to analyze the complaints, detect trends, and compile a list of the most frequent concerns reported by the workforce. The analysis of the complaints data identifies safety practices that were most violated, highlights major safety and health concerns for construction workers, and pinpoints geographical areas that have seen a surge in complaints. The study also synthesized the existing research corpus and compiled a list of 100 best practices that construction employers can adopt to mitigate the concerns of the workforce. The findings of this study provide insights into the safety and health trends on construction sites, lay the foundation for future work of academicians and practitioners to address the concerns faced by construction workers, and serve as lessons learned for the industry in the case of any future pandemic.

Green recovery strategies for the mining industry of India: lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramaganesh Marimuthu ◽  
Bathrinath Sankaranarayanan ◽  
Syed Mithun Ali ◽  
Koppiahraj Karuppiah
Keyword(s):  
Research Study ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Recovery Strategies ◽  
Innovation Practices ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Difficult Situations

Purpose This study aims to find and evaluate the impact of COVID-19 in India’s mining activities. From the literature survey and input from experts, 14 important factors and ten green recovery strategies are identified. These 14 factors and 10 strategies are examined in a real industrial environment. Design/methodology/approach In this research study, fuzzy-complex proportional assessment is used to compare the identified strategies with the selected factors. Based on the outcome, this study identifies the optimum strategy that could assist the mining industry in handling both COVID-19 and sustainability issues. Findings The study’s outcome reveals that a large group of workers, collapse of demand and disruption, and suffered contractual workers are the top three factors that need to be considered regarding COVID-19 and sustainability issues. Effective strategies for eco-innovation practices, an emphasis on health and safety, and environmental awareness, education and training are the three primary strategies to be implemented for the greatest impact. Originality/value This research study is the first of its kind to coordinate both issues of COVID-19 and sustainability. In this regard, this study sheds a timely light on the precautions that need to be taken in tackling COVID-19 and sustainability issues. This study’s outcome will enhance the managerial capability in developing robust and effective strategies for handling difficult situations.

scholarly journals Museum specimens of terrestrial vertebrates are sensitive indicators of environmental change in the Anthropocene

2018 ◽  
Vol 374 (1763) ◽  
pp. 20170387 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Jonathan Schmitt ◽  
Joseph A. Cook ◽  
Kelly R. Zamudio ◽  
Scott V. Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Museum Specimens ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
Terrestrial Vertebrates ◽  
History Museums ◽  
Biodiversity Science ◽  
The Impact

Natural history museums and the specimen collections they curate are vital scientific infrastructure, a fact as true today as it was when biologists began collecting and preserving specimens over 200 years ago. The importance of museum specimens in studies of taxonomy, systematics, ecology and evolutionary biology is evidenced by a rich and abundant literature, yet creative and novel uses of specimens are constantly broadening the impact of natural history collections on biodiversity science and global sustainability. Excellent examples of the critical importance of specimens come from their use in documenting the consequences of environmental change, which is particularly relevant considering the alarming rate at which we now modify our planet in the Anthropocene. In this review, we highlight the important role of bird, mammal and amphibian specimens in documenting the Anthropocene and provide examples that underscore the need for continued collection of museum specimens. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Biological collections for understanding biodiversity in the Anthropocene’.

Impact of CO2 Specifications on Design and Operation Challenges of CO2 Transport and Storage Systems in CCUS

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahmoud Nazeri ◽  
Hooman Haghighi ◽  
Craig Mckay ◽  
Dale Erickson ◽  
Suling Zhai
Keyword(s):  
Storage System ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Elevated Pressure ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Injection System ◽  
Co2 Injection ◽  
Co2 Transport ◽  
The Impact ◽  
And Storage

Abstract The presence of impurities in captured CO2 plays a vital role in the safe and effective CO2 transport and storage in the CCUS chain. Impurities can significantly increase the cost of processing, transport, and storage and moreover add additional challenges to the design, operation, health and safety and integrity aspects. The effects of various impurities on the aforementioned challenges have been addressed in this work. Despite the importance of this area, there are still some knowledge gaps in terms of assessing the impact of CO2 specification on CCUS design and operations. International standards address different elements of the CCS chain, but none cover the full chain or consider the full chain economics. There are also differences between industry and leading CO2 authorities regarding the potential issues and challenges of implementing those standards. This paper reviews available standards and references which provide specifications/limitations for impurities for the purpose of transport and storage. In this work, the modified cubic EoSs and GERG EoS have been used to predict the thermodynamic properties and tuned viscosity models have been used for the prediction of transport properties. The required specifications for the quality of CO2 streams have been investigated using the above methodology for fluid properties, followed by the use of commercial software packages for thermohydraulic analysis of CO2 pipelines. Additionally, the storage capacity and geochemistry of fluids under high-pressure and high-temperature (HPHT) storage conditions were investigated. The impact of impurities has been assessed based on various CO2 sources using commercial capturing technologies. The assessment considered the impact of impurities on thermodynamic, thermohydraulic, integrity and operation of CO2 transport, injection, and storage system. This would include the effects of various types of components and their typical concentrations, e.g., water content, non-condensable gases (N2, O2, CH4, Ar, H2and CO), toxic gases (H2S and SO2), and hydrocarbons, on the thermophysical properties including density, viscosity, phase envelope and hydraulic parameters. A comparison of modelling results against the available experimental data measured at elevated pressure and temperature conditions have also been presented. This paper has mainly focused on the lessons learned from past CO2 transport design and operational experiences in order to identify the areas where it could lead to an optimised system in terms of design, costs, and operation. Additionally, past experience in the design of CO2 pipelines and operation of CO2 injection has been used to identify opportunities where CO2 specifications and guidelines could potentially be modified in order to achieve an optimised and cost-effective CO2 transport and injection system. Keywords: CO2 Specification; CO2 Transport Pipelines; Design and Operation Challenges; CO2 impurities; CCUS;

scholarly journals Containing the Spirits: Lessons learned from the Management of Australasian Herbarium Wet Collections.

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. e26200
Author(s):  
Bronwyn Collins ◽  
Frank Zich ◽  
Jo Palmer ◽  
Gill Brown ◽  
Karina Knight ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Worker Safety ◽  
Hazardous Substance ◽  
Climate Control ◽  
National Herbarium ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Work Health

Several herbaria in Australia and New Zealand have recently been required to implement changes to the way in which spirit (alcohol or wet) specimens are managed in their institutions in order to deal with various curatorial and staff health and safety challenges. We will present an overview of some of the key lessons learned from addressing issues such as mould, FAA (formalin-acetic acid and alcohol solution), inadequate housing and storage of our spirit specimens whilst also ensuring that best-practice curation standards are implemented along with appropriate work health and safety practices to protect staff. For example, the National Herbarium of New South Wales spirit collection was stored until 2017 in metal filing cabinets and open wooden shelving. Due to unstable air-conditioning resulting in high humidity and condensation, mould had formed on all of the bottles and on all wooden surfaces. The external surface of each bottle was cleaned with prior to removal from the dedicated spirit collection room, the wooden shelving was replaced with open metal shelving, and room cleaned and resealed prior to return of the collection. Monitoring of the environment and condition of the collection continues, and future actions include replacing the specimen vials, many of which have failing lids. The Western Australian Herbarium recently renovated its spirit storage area from specimens stored in boxes on fixed open shelving to individual bottles filed in metal drawers. Health and safety concerns for staff handling heavy boxes, often up ladders, combined with the inflexible and inefficient use of space on fixed shelving are now solved. Plenty of space is available for specimen expansion, and the ease of access to each specimen makes the collection simple to maintain. The next step for the collection is to protect it better by implementing climate control. FAA was used as a fixative and preservative for plant fruit, flowers and other parts pre-1992 at the Australian National Herbarium in Canberra and the Australian Tropical Herbarium in Cairns. In response to changes in the Hazardous Substance classification for Formaldehyde a program was developed that focused on worker safety during replacement of the solution in approximately 15,000 bottles by minimising exposure and managing the manual handling risks of the work, whilst also ensuring best-practice curatorial outcomes for the specimens. This is a presentation on behalf of the Managers of Australasian Herbarium Collections (MAHC), a network of herbarium Collection Managers in Australia and New Zealand.

scholarly journals Organizational Justice and Workplace Bullying: Lessons Learned from Externally Referred Complaints and Investigations

Societies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 143
Author(s):  
Annabelle M. Neall ◽  
Yiqiong Li ◽  
Michelle R. Tuckey
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Justice ◽  
Workplace Bullying ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Organisational Justice ◽  
Work Health ◽  
Investigation Process ◽  
The Way

Workplace bullying is a serious psychosocial risk which, when poorly managed, results in detrimental outcomes for individuals, organizations, and society. Some of the most common strategies for addressing bullying within the workplace centre on attempts to document and contextualise the bullying situation—that is, the internal complaint and investigation process. Scholarly inquiries of these investigative mechanisms, however, are limited, and most have neglected the influence of organisational justice as an underpinning mechanism in explaining complainant dissatisfaction. Using evidence from 280 real-life cases of workplace bullying lodged with a peak work, health, and safety agency, we identify how organizational justice manifests in externally referred cases of workplace bullying. Specifically, we match complainant evaluations of the internal complaint and investigation handling process to domains of organisational justice, thereby ascertaining potential threats to efforts to effectively manage and prevent bullying in the workplace. Four types of justice—distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational—were identified within the cases. Specifically, in cases of workplace bullying where distributive justice is not upheld (usually by virtue of unsubstantiated claims), the way in which information is gathered and decisions are made (procedural), the way in which the parties are treated (interpersonal), and the timeliness and validity of explanations provided (informational) are all cited by complainants as key factors in their decision to escalate the complaint to an external investigative body. These results signal the need for timely, clear, and compassionate investigative processes that validate complainants’ experiences and serve as a tool for rebuilding trust and repairing damaged relationships in the workplace.

scholarly journals Work Health and Safety, Competitive Advantage, and Organisational Performance in Small Construction Firms: Research Proposal

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Raed Eldejany
Keyword(s):  
Competitive Advantage ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Research Proposal ◽  
Organisational Performance ◽  
Construction Firms ◽  
Work Health ◽  
Multiple Case ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Risk Construction

Research into small firms has expanded over recent years, yet one field where insight is still limited is Work Health and Safety (WHS) especially in the high risk construction industry. The main objective of this research proposal is to provide the foundation for a potential future study that explores the impact of WHS on developing a competitive advantage and improving organisational performance from the perspective of the owner-managers of small Australian construction firms using a qualitative multiple case design. This research proposal investigates a sample of four small construction firms from the same industry therefore the findings can’t be generalised to other work environments, which a limitation to the proposed study.

scholarly journals Lessons learned from the impact of COVID-19 on the global construction industry

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mercy Ogunnusi ◽  
Temitope Omotayo ◽  
Mansur Hamma-Adama ◽  
Bankole Osita Awuzie ◽  
Temitope Egbelakin
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Public Projects ◽  
Survey Interviews ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The construction industry represents most of every country’s finances and vital to continued economic growth and activities, especially in developing countries. The impact of the severe acute respiratory syndrome-2 disease (COVID19) on the government’s income resulted in the expectation of many public projects being cancelled or delayed providing little opportunity for the emergence of new public projects. This study collated a global qualitative perspective (survey interviews) on the lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic and the positive and negative impacts for future-proofing the construction sector. Design/methodology/approach In total, 76 respondents from five continents excluding South America responded to the online open-ended structured questionnaire. Data collected were analysed through artificial inteligence analytics tool – Zoho analytics. Findings The themes indicating the positive impact obtained from the interview were overhead cost reduction, remote working environment, focus on health and safety, improved productivity and sustainability goals while the themes signifying the negative impact were low business turnover, delays in construction payment and output, difficulties working from home and job losses. Supply chain management, construction project management improvement, concentration on health and safety and effective virtual working environment were collated as themes on lessons learned. Social implications The major findings of this study emphasise on the need to improve the occupational health and safety and onsite safety measures for future proofing of the construction industry. Originality/value The findings from the analyses made clear the imperativeness of the built environment research, with a focus on novel framework and strategies for future proofing the construction industry.

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