Mental health concerns are surging worldwide and workers in the construction industry have been found to be particularly vulnerable to these challenges. Stress, depression, addictions, suicides, and ...other key indicators of poor mental health have been found to be highly prevalent among construction workers. Critically, researchers have also found a link between how stress in the workplace impacts the overall safety performance of an individual. However, the burgeoning nature of the research has stifled the determination of feasible and actionable interventions on jobsites. This paper aims to analyze the relationship between work-related stressors found on construction jobsites and self-reported injury rates of workers. To accomplish this goal, a meta-analysis methodology was used, wherein a comprehensive literature search was conducted to identify key work-related stressors and questionnaires used in the construction industry’s safety domain to assess stress. Using a formal meta-analysis approach that leverages the findings from past studies, a more holistic determination of the relationship between work-related stressors and injury rates among workers was performed. Ninety-eight studies were reviewed, and seven were selected that fulfilled pre-determined validated inclusion criteria for eligibility in the meta-analysis. The results revealed 10 salient work-related stressors among construction workers. Of these ten, seven work-related stressors were identified as significant predictors of injury rates among workers: job control, job demand, skill demand, job certainty, social support, harassment and discrimination, and interpersonal conflicts at work. This study represents a significant first step toward formally identifying work-related stressors to improve working conditions, reduce or eliminate injuries on construction sites, and support future research.
Let <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\mathcal {X}= \{x_{1},x_{2},\ldots, x_{q}\} </tex-math></inline-formula> and let <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">n(m,q,\ell) ...</tex-math></inline-formula> be the smallest <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">n </tex-math></inline-formula> for which there is a code <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">C \subseteq \mathcal {X} ^{n} </tex-math></inline-formula> of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">m </tex-math></inline-formula> elements such that for every list <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">w_{1}, w_{2}, \ldots, w_{\ell +1} </tex-math></inline-formula> of distinct codewords from <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">C </tex-math></inline-formula>, there is a coordinate <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">j \in n </tex-math></inline-formula> such that <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\{w_{1}j, w_{2}j, \ldots, w_{\ell +1}j\} = \mathcal {X} </tex-math></inline-formula>. We show that there is a constant <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">A>0 </tex-math></inline-formula> such that for <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\epsilon < 1/5 </tex-math></inline-formula>, for all large <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">q </tex-math></inline-formula> and large enough <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">m </tex-math></inline-formula> (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">m>q^{5} </tex-math></inline-formula>), we have <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">n(m,q, \lceil \epsilon q\ln {q}\rceil) \geq \exp {(Aq^{1-5\epsilon })}\log _{2}{m} </tex-math></inline-formula>. This bound has consequences for the zero-error list-decoding capacity of the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">q/(q-1) </tex-math></inline-formula> channel studied by Elias (1988). Our result implies that for <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">A </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\epsilon </tex-math></inline-formula> as above, the zero-error list-decoding capacity of the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">q/(q-1) </tex-math></inline-formula> channel with list-size <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\epsilon q\ln {q} </tex-math></inline-formula> is at most <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\exp (-Aq^{1-5\epsilon }) </tex-math></inline-formula>, that is, it falls exponentially as <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">q </tex-math></inline-formula> increases. This confirms a conjecture of Chakraborty et al. (2006).
•A new multimedia simulation-based safety training framework (NIS) is proposed.•NIS increased situational interest (SI) among construction workers.•Increase in positive emotional can increase ...feeling-based maintained SI.•Emotional arousal may not influence triggered SI and value-based maintained SI.•Demographic factors moderate the association between change in emotions and SI.
Safety training within the construction industry is often quite mundane and generic which is a problem for an industry combatting with high fatality rates on job sites for decades. Recent studies have found construction safety training programs severely lacking in developing hazard recognition and risk assessment skills among its workforce. Moreover, techniques used in these training programs are not geared to help adult learners engage or retain information provided. To address these shortcomings, this paper tests the efficacy of a multimedia simulation-based training program: Naturalistic Injury Simulations (NIS) in inducing interest among construction workers. NIS has been empirically shown to elicit targeted negative emotional experience among construction workers and the work presented here tests if NIS can also generate situational interest in construction workers regarding safety. This paper collected data from 489 construction workers on a construction job-site in an interventional experimental design. Analysis revealed that NIS were able to increase situational interest among workers and that these findings were consistent across all demographic dimensions captured in our study. Multiple linear regression analysis did not show clear evidence of a relationship between change in emotions and increase in situational interest among workers. This work shows that NIS will promote learning among workers by keeping them interested in the safety training process while also generating risk-averse behavioral patterns through emotional manipulation.
The multiplicity Schwartz-Zippel lemma bounds the total multiplicity of zeroes of a multivariate polynomial on a product set. This lemma motivates the multiplicity codes of Kopparty, Saraf and ...Yekhanin J. ACM, 2014, who showed how to use this lemma to construct high-rate locally-decodable codes. However, the algorithmic results about these codes crucially rely on the fact that the polynomials are evaluated on a vector space and not an arbitrary product set. In this work, we show how to decode multivariate multiplicity codes of large multiplicities in polynomial time over finite product sets (over fields of large characteristic and zero characteristic). Previously such decoding algorithms were not known even for a positive fraction of errors. In contrast, our work goes all the way to the distance of the code and in particular exceeds both the unique-decoding bound and the Johnson radius. For errors exceeding the Johnson radius, even combinatorial list-decodablity of these codes was not known. Our algorithm is an application of the classical polynomial method directly to the multivariate setting. In particular, we do not rely on a reduction from the multivariate to the univariate case as is typical of many of the existing results on decoding codes based on multivariate polynomials. However, a vanilla application of the polynomial method in the multivariate setting does not yield a polynomial upper bound on the list size. We obtain a polynomial bound on the list size by taking an alternative view of multivariate multiplicity codes. In this view, we glue all the partial derivatives of the same order together using a fresh set z of variables. We then apply the polynomial method by viewing this as a problem over the field F(z) of rational functions in z.
•Driver license examiners are vulnerable to experiencing work-related injuries while testing prospective drivers.•The effort revealed safety challenges that driver license examiners ...experience.•Common event types, contributing factors, injured body parts, and injury outcomes were unveiled.•Future work can build upon the contributions by developing safety interventions that target driver license examiners.
Driver license examiners serve as the “gatekeepers” to the world of driving. These examiners administer driving tests and issue driver licenses to prospective drivers that demonstrate driving competency. Unfortunately, this community of workers is vulnerable to experiencing safety incidents as they test prospective drivers with limited driving proficiency. Understanding the safety challenges these workers experience professionally is fundamental to identifying and adopting relevant safety measures. Towards achieving this goal, interviews were conducted with driver license examiners in North Carolina to compile the safety challenges they professionally experience. Additionally, safety management measures that they adopt regularly and others that they recommend for possible future adoption were gathered. The reported safety challenges include prospective drivers reporting for testing and retesting without sufficient training, the existence of communication and language barriers, prospective drivers adopting driving customs learned in other countries, and experiences of entering unclean vehicles. Safety measures that the driver license examiners adopt regularly include the use of widely adopted terms and hand gestures to overcome communication challenges, being prepared to take control over the vehicle steering, encouraging prospective drivers to hold the learner’s permit and gain additional experience, and others. Suggested safety measures for possible future adoption include empowering examiners to terminate the test when appropriate, enforcing a limited wait time following the issuance of a learner’s permit prior to attempting the driving test, and the regular adoption of contactless testing methods popularized during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study findings can be leveraged to enhance the safety of driver license examiners.
Construction safety prediction is an emerging field where various forms of information and analytical techniques are used to predict the likelihood or severity of a future injury. A review of this ...literature reveals that even though the approaches are used for the same goal of predicting future safety outcomes, they are modeled independently and exclusively from one another. To organize thinking in safety prediction, the literature is organized into four operationally-defined predictive families: (1) safety risk assessment, which considers the characteristics and dangers of the work; (2) precursor analysis, which considers the conditions of the workers; (3) leading indicators, which consider the quantity of safety management activities; and (4) safety climate assessments, which considers worker perceptions of safety. Additionally, a unified model is proposed where the four families are considered together and opportunities for synergy and cross-validation are exploited. Researchers may benefit from this model as they create points of departure, propose and test novel approaches, and attempt to contextualize their findings within the existing body of literature. Furthermore, practitioners may use the model to make more accurate and robust safety predictions that account for the interconnectedness of the work attributes, human resources, and management strategies that affect safety.
•Getting good information is vital for incident learning, as subsequent stages of learning depend on the quality of the information achieved.•We all are biased, and so are incident ...investigators.•Increased awareness of biases optimizes information collection and enhances learning from incidents.•Role-play simulation interviews with industry practitioners revealed what and how biases emerge during interviews in incident investigations.
Introduction: Incident investigation is a foundational tool of safety management. Determining the causal factors of any incident underpins organizational learning and subsequent positive change to processes and practices. Research of incident investigation has largely focused on what information to collect, how to analyze it, and how to optimize resultant conclusions and organizational learning. However, much less attention has been paid to the process of information collection, and specifically that of subjective information obtained through interviews. Yet, as all humans are biased and can’t help being so, the information collection process is inevitably vulnerable to bias. Method: Simulated investigation interviews with 34 experienced investigators were conducted within the construction industry. Results: Common biases were revealed including confirmation bias, anchoring bias, and fundamental attribution error. Analysis was also able to unpack when and how these biases most often emerged in the interview process, and the potential consequences for organizational learning. Conclusions: Being biased to a certain degree will remain inevitable for any individual, and therefore, efforts to mitigate the effects of biases is necessary. Practical Applications: Increased awareness and insights can support the development of processes and training for investigators to mitigate its effects and thus enhance learning from incidents in the field prevent reoccurrence.
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