Design Strategy of Emergency Pools at Source Water Protection Areas

The pollution problem arising from the flushing of initial rainwater and wastewater from accidents while transporting dangerous goods to source water protection areas needs to be solved as soon as possible. Therefore, the design of corresponding environmental protection measures should be considered in the engineering design stage. It is necessary to analyze the specific work in combination with engineering examples. Under this background, this paper first briefly expounds the precautions in accident risk analysis and the design of tank capacity and tank body. Finally, by analyzing actual cases, this paper systematically studies the design strategy of emergency pool in source water protection area, hoping to provide new development ideas for the upgrading of relevant work.

Historical Asbestos Measurements in Denmark—A National Database

Objectives: Due to the long lag-time for health outcomes, historical asbestos exposure measurements are valuable to support assessments of associated occupational health effects, and also to assess time trends and effects of preventive measures. Methods: Different sources of stored data were collated, assessed and refined to create a harmonized database on historical asbestos fibre concentrations measured in specific work tasks and different industries. The final database contains 9236 asbestos measurements from Danish workplaces collected from 1971 to 1997. Results: The geometric mean of asbestos concentrations in different occupations and tasks ranged from 0.003 to 35 fibres cm−3. Highest concentrations were registered during handling of asbestos products in the construction services during the period 1981–1997. Although all the measured asbestos exposures without the use of respiratory equipment by the worker in the period of 1971–1997 exceeded the current 8-h time-weighted average exposure limit of 0.1 fibres cm−3, the majority of samples collected in the earlier period of 1971 to 1980 did not exceed the exposure limit of 2 fibres cm−3, which was in place at the time. All exposure data obtained from 1980 and onwards were found to be one seventh of the mean fibre concentrations in the previous measurement period. The impact of time shows a clear exponentially decreasing trend-line. Conclusions: Despite limitations in coverage of different occupations and tasks associated with the inventoried historical asbestos measurements, the data are helpful to identify specific work scenarios within an industry, where relatively high asbestos exposure levels may still occur or have occurred from 1971 to 1997.

Teachers’ Time Use and Affect Before and After COVID-19 School Closures

Several large-scale survey efforts have attempted to understand teachers’ experiences in the early months of the pandemic. Our study complements this literature by providing direct evidence of teachers’ work prior to and after the onset of COVID-19. We leverage unique longitudinal time use and affect data on 131 teachers from one district across the 2019–2020 school year. Specifically, we provide a full accounting of teachers’ instructional activities, their reports of their positive affect and negative affect while engaged in these activities, and the extent to which teachers’ work experiences changed post-COVID. Our results suggest a large reduction in teachers’ daily instructional minutes, which were replaced with increased planning, paperwork, and interactions with colleagues and parents. Teachers’ overall positive and negative affect did not change post-COVID. But teachers’ affective responses to specific work activities did. Post-COVID, we saw increases in teachers’ positive affect when with students.

Prevalence and individual and work-related factors associated with suicidal thoughts and behaviours among veterinarians in Norway: a cross-sectional, nationwide survey-based study (the NORVET study)

ObjectivesSeveral studies have shown increased suicide rates among veterinarians. We investigated the self-reported prevalence of suicidal thoughts and behaviours and contributing and independent factors associated with suicidal thoughts and behaviours among veterinarians in Norway.DesignCross-sectional, nationwide survey.Participants2596 veterinarians in Norway (response rate: 75%).Main outcome measurePaykel’s five-item questionnaire.ResultsIn total, 27% (n=682/2567) of veterinarians in Norway felt that life was not worth living during the last year, 5% (n=139/2562) had serious suicidal thoughts, and 0.2% (n=6/2537) had attempted suicide. Female veterinarians reported significantly higher prevalence of suicidal feelings and thoughts than males. For serious suicidal thoughts, women had nearly twice the prevalence as their male colleagues (6.2% (n=108/1754) vs 3.6% (n=28/766), χ2: 6.5, p=0.011). Independent factors associated with serious suicidal thoughts were being single (OR 1.76, 95% CI 1.13 to 2.72, p<0.05), negative life events (OR=1.43, 95% CI 1.22 to 1.68, p<0.001) and the presence of mental distress (OR 2.75, 95% CI 2.14 to 3.52, p<0.001). The veterinarians related their serious suicidal thoughts to work and personal problems, and a lesser degree to family, social and other problems. Nearly twice as many women (53%, n=57/108) as men (28%, n=7/25) reported work problems as the most important contributing factor to their serious suicidal thoughts (χ2: 4.99, p=0.03). 4% (n=6/139) reported work problems as the only factor of importance.ConclusionsVeterinarians in Norway have relatively high prevalence of suicidal feelings and thoughts, including serious suicidal thoughts. In multivariable analyses, the individual factors were more important than work-related ones, while work problems were the most reported contributing factor to serious suicidal thoughts by the veterinarians themselves. The role of gender and specific work-related factors should be further investigated to better understand the complexity of suicidal behaviour among veterinarians.

THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF PHYSICAL CULTURE AND SPORTS SPECIALISTS TO BE PROJECT COMPETENCE FORMATION

The pedagogical nature and subject matter of project competence of physical culture and sports specialists to be are defined in the article. The education process at modern higher educational institutions where the bases of project competence of physical culture and sports specialists to be are established is defined by active search of effective ways of optimization and modernization of the system of quality improving of students’ professional training. It is proved that the project activity is a set of actions of making and development of a project, planning of specific work and its consistent performance, so the project activity is a constructive and productive personal activity, targeted towards the solution of vital problem, achieving of ultimate results in process of goal determination, planning, development and implementation of a project.The integration of a set of scientific notions allowed to come to a conclusion that the formation of project competence of physical culture and sports specialists to be considered as a dynamic and integrated process aimed at consciousness of grounds, need for sound use of project activity in professional field which provides for getting of theoretical knowledge and understanding of project development and management; getting of ways and means of project activity; readiness and capacity to use new professional experience in practical task solution in the field of sports and health; physical culture and sports specialist’s to be consciousness of relevance of the level of own professional capabilities and skills, and the demands of project activity in the field of physical culture, sports and health protection.On the basis of the integration of literary sources complex it is established that the project competence of physical culture and sports specialists to be may be presented in the dynamic unity of the following components: motivational and axiological, cognitive, activity, reflective and evaluating. The content of functional components is modified under the conditions of formation of project competence of physical culture and sports specialists to be which is shown up in the following set of project competence functions: worldview, research, heuristic, integral, prognostic, reflective and evaluating, constructive and administrative. The formation of project competence in process of professional training of physical culture and sports specialists to be requires the development of specific project skills: problematization, project development skills, skills of theoretical and practical conscious activities on project implementation, skills of meaningful choice and use of computer-aided and other technologies in project technology, reflexion skills.

Agile and generic work values of British vs Indian IT workers: a culture-clash case

PurposeAfter deciding to become agile, many information technology (IT) units struggle; they underestimate the needed managerial expertise to alter their current culture toward an agile one, particularly when cross-cultural (f)actors are involved. Given that work values are the key to an organizational culture, the study derived a set of agile work values of culturally diverse IT professionals together with a set of well-known generic work values. Consequently, the authors illustrate that managers in charge of the transition to an effective agile culture must pay serious attention to the specific value constellations of its often highly diverse workforce.Design/methodology/approachA literature review resulted in an initial list of agile work values. Then, mainly through a Delphi round, 12 agile-specific work values were established. These were survey rated, along with the validated set of 18 generic work values, by 102 British and Indian IT professionals in a digital service and consulting firm that was requested by its client to become agile. The observations made in 14 feedback group-interview-type dialogs enriched the surveyed data further.FindingsIn the current exploratory study, four generic value dimensions were complemented by two agile-specific ones: team communication and shared responsibility. Among the British and Indian (on-site and offshore) workers, only 2 of the 30 current work values were shared while 7 significant value differences were found, explaining the noted employee bitterness, productivity losses and client disengagement. This situation was reflected in the many discrepancies between the professionals' ideal agile way of working and how their unit was currently functioning.Originality/valueThe multi-method study shows an over-optimistic approach to becoming agile in a common cross-cultural context; insights are gained on how to optimize agile ways of organizing IT work when British IT workers collaborate with Indian IT workers. It may benefit many agile practitioners and managers working with(in) cross-culturally mixed and partly remote teams.

The study of rheological and physical dough properties of the winter wheat varieties

There have been represented the study results of flour quality of the winter bread wheat varieties of semi-intensive type of the FSBSI Agricultural Research Center “Donskoy”. The purpose of the current study was to estimate variability of the values of indicators that characterize physical and rheological dough properties, to identify the correlation between them, and to isolate genetic sources. The objects of study were 20 winter bread wheat varieties. Field trials were carried out in 2017–2019 in the fields of the department of winter wheat breeding and seed production, the forecrop was maize for grain. The variety ‘Don 107’ was used as a standard. The quality of grain and flour of the winter bread wheat varieties was assessed in the laboratory for biochemical estimation of breeding material and seed quality. There have been identified the varieties ‘Asket’ (26.9%), ‘Podarok Krymu’ (26.2%), ‘Zolotoy Kolos’ (25.5%) and ‘Izyuminka’ (25.5%) with the maximum gluten content in grain. It was determined that the trait ‘gluten deformation index’ varied from 62 u.v. to 77 u.v., all varieties corresponded to the 1st quality class. There have been identified the genotypes ‘Volny Don’, ‘Don 93’, ‘Premiera’, ‘Podarok Krymu’, ‘Ambar’, ‘Donskoy Surpriz’ and ‘Izyuminka’ with low values of the variation coefficient of the trait. There have been identified the varieties ‘Krasa Dona’ (6.7%), ‘Zhavoronok’ (6.8%) and ‘Asket’ (8.2%) with low values of the variation coefficient of the trait ‘specific work of dough deformation’. There have been identified the varieties ‘Don 93’, ‘Izyuminka’ and ‘Podarok Krymu’, which according to P/L corresponded to the class of strong wheat. It was found that the varieties ‘Zolotoy Kolos’ and ‘Volnitsa’ corresponded to the class of strong wheat according to the valorimetric assessment. Correlation analysis showed that the rheological dough properties were significantly influenced by gluten content in grain. There has been estimated the quantitative manifestation and variability of the traits, which characterize the rheological and physical dough properties. There have been identified the varieties with the smallest varietal variation of traits, which are recommended to use in the breeding process as sources of useful traits and properties. The selection according to the traits ‘delute of dough’ and ‘valorimetric assessment’ allow developing and introducing into production genotypes with good baking properties.

Al-Ḥallāǧ: a View from the Court

This note examines one cluster of accounts on the trial of al-Ḥallāǧ (d. 309/922) in two near-contemporary and one later historian, looking at how each author uses the material and how such material functions within their specific work.

Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems’ Optimisation. A Review and Extended Comparison of the Most-Used Software Tools

To help stakeholders plan, research, and develop Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems (HRES), the elaboration of numerous modelling techniques and software simulation tools has been reported. The thorough analysis of these undoubtedly complex systems is strongly correlated with the efficient utilisation of the potential of renewable energy and the meticulous development of pertinent designs. In this context, various optimisation constraints/targets have also been utilised. This specific work initially carries out a thorough review of the modelling techniques and simulation software developed in an attempt to define a commonly accepted categorisation methodology for the various existing HRES simulation methods. Moreover, the widely utilised optimisation targets are analysed in detail. Finally, it identifies the sensitivity of two commercial software tools (HOMER Pro and iHOGA) by examining nine case studies based on different wind and solar potential combinations. The results obtained by the two commercial tools are compared with the ESA Microgrid Simulator, a software developed by the Soft Energy Applications and Environmental Protection Laboratory of the Mechanical Engineering Department of the University of West Attica. The evaluation of the results, based on the diversification of the renewable energy potential used as input, has led to an in-depth assessment of the deviances detected in the software tools selected.