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BACKGROUND: The recent COVID-19 pandemic has brought Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) to the forefront of governmental and organizational preoccupations Empirical research has pointed that OHS responsibility is diffused within organizations, and there is no apparent reference on whom it falls upon;even the OHSAS 18001:2007 (OHSAS 18001, 2007) standard framework generates the same confusion among organizational stakeholders OBJECTIVE: When constituting an internal chain of responsibility, which organizational stakeholder should be responsible for each item of the OHSAS 18001:2007? The article considers how OHS tasks can be addressed from the perspective of stakeholder management The objective is to consider the internal division of OHS responsibility between the hierarchical strata and to introduce an OHS Responsibility Multilevel Model for an organization's internal responsibility system for the implementation of the OHSAS 18001:2007 standard METHODS: The paper presents a qualitative assessment of the literature on the concepts of responsibility and accountability regarding OHS First method applied was the literature review on the concepts of responsibility and accountability regarding OHS, while briefly discussing their impacts on the voluntary implementation of OHSAS 18001:2007 standard Second, the OHS and the conditions of the COVID-19 period were synthesised to underline the research motivation and importance Further the conceptual framework for the internal division of OHS responsibility based on a Multilevel Model for OHS stakeholders was developed based on a creative designed approach considering recent conclusions on safety leadership (OHS being situated at the confluence of top-down and bottom-up approaches in organization) RESULTS: The research results underline the relative complexity of the items in the OHSAS 18001:2007 framework;from the 68 items that are comprised under the six themes, the authors have identified 304 distinct actions The application of the proposed OHS Responsibility Multilevel Model to the OHSAS 18001:2007 supports the interest that research literature has had for the role of top management in OHS CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the research results propose a novel approach for improving stakeholders' involvement (commitment) and responsibility regarding OHS practices in organization The research findings highlight that the OHSAS 18001:2007 standard proposes the organization as primary repository of OHS responsibility © 2020 - IOS Press and the authors All rights reserved

Consider the typical example of corporate malpractice: insider trading. Say a particular trader has been caught red-handed trading on inside information. Who is to blame for this? If management didn’t know, it’s the trader. But maybe the trader’s peers were in on it, in which case the group manager might be the one responsible. Or perhaps the practice is institutional, in which case it’s the CEO who would take the blame. This is a good example of a Chain of Reponsibility.

Management of queuing and waiting for loading/unloading can influence the risk of fatigue for heavy truck drivers if it extends work hours or hampers drivers’ access to rest. Previous studies identified non-driving activities as a major contributor to driver fatigue in this industry despite Chain of Responsibility (CoR) legislation in Australia that establishes a duty on road transport customers to ensure their loading/unloading practices do not result in fatigued driving or breaches of work hours. This study examined how customer companies manage queuing and waiting and the barriers to good management. In phase one, 41 long distance truck drivers identified customer company depots where they had experienced good and poorer management of queuing and waiting. A subgroup (n = 27) provided more information about recent experiences in a survey. In phase two, representatives of 13 depots identified in phase one completed a qualitative interview about their queuing and waiting management. Drivers in phase one identified problems contributing to long queuing and waiting times and limited rest opportunities, with implications for fatigue risk, including communication issues, procedural efficiency, constraints on drivers, equity and fairness, depot capacity and resource management. Company results in phase two corroborated driver concerns. Infrastructure limitations, truck scheduling and the way work is managed were the main types of contributors. Financial and operational considerations were common cited barriers to good management. Companies did not perceive their primary CoR duty included managing hours or work and rest opportunities. Strategies to promote genuine fatigue risk management in loading/unloading processes must be pursued.

Blockchain technologies and distributed ledgers enable the design and implementation of trustable data logging systems that can be used by multiple parties to produce a non-repudiable database. The case of Internet of Vehicles may greatly benefit of such a possibility to track the chain of responsibility in case of accidents or damages due to bad or omitted maintenance, improving the safety of circulation and helping granting a correct handling of related legal issues. However, there are privacy issues that have to be considered, as tracked information potentially include data about private persons (position, personal habits), commercially relevant information (state of the fleet of a company, freight movement and related planning, logistic strategies), or even more critical knowledge (e.g., considering vehicles belonging to police, public authorities, governments or officers in sensible positions). In the European Union, all this information is covered by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In this paper we propose a reference model for a system that manages relevant information to show how blockchain can support GDPR compliant solutions for Internet of Vehicles, taking as a reference an integrated scenario based on Italy, and analyze a subset of its use cases to show its viability with reference to privacy issues.

This paper addresses the problem of misdeclaring container weights, which causes accidents on land and sea, with serious consequences. It reviews the current international law, and the verification of container weight mandated in the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) convention, and relates them to New Zealand law and practice as an example. It concludes that the SOLAS plan, simply written into local law, is unlikely to be enough by itself to fix the problem. It considers the points in the supply chain where responsibility could be placed for weighing and proposes a “chain of responsibility” approach with initial weighing by the shipper and check weighing later, especially at ports, with misdeclared containers being reportable as incidents. Such a system should deal comprehensively with the problem.

In multiple objects tracking it become difficult to track the objects when they get cluttered due to proximity of the object. Such a cluttered environment leads to misleading target tracking in video analysis. This becomes important when video system is employed for security purpose or behavior analysis of the object. The object get merged and split due to occlusion or obstacles in viewing angle of the camera. In this paper we present the novel algorithm to handle issue of split and merge of the objects. To increase the robustness, association rules for object tracking are proposed. The algorithm tracks number of objects by keeping record of the split and merge of these objects with each other. Association rules are developed to track the multiple objects from frame to frame. Due to association rule application processing time increases when objects are merged or split, otherwise time required is same as normal object detection condition. In order to save the memory requirement for association of objects from frame to frame, linked list structure is implemented, which will expand and collapse as number of objects changes in given video frame. Object descriptors are stored as one node of the linked list along with object ID and flags indicating split and merge of objects. This list is updated as the video frames progresses for tracking of the objects. Such a system shows good result while tracking the multiple objects in cluttered environment due to shadow or occlusion or overlapping with in a frame

Web apps are complex beasts. They need to interpret incoming requests and decide what should be done with them. When you think about creating a framework to help you build web apps more quickly, you stand a very real chance of drowning in the complexity and options involved with such a project. Python is home to many a web framework since the language is popular among developers of cloud applications.

The quality assurance procedures associated with the financing of large PV plants are becoming increasingly more relevant to the PV scene in general. In this context, PV performance modelling is required in order to predict the energy yield and to rate the operating plant performance. Despite the availability of PV performance models since the early days of photovoltaics, the emergence of new proposals and the current debate on the development of an energy rating standard means that this can still be considered an open question. In the specific context of Quality Assurance Procedures, PV performance models must not only be accurate but must also be based on features specifically supported by manufacturers (datasheet information), in order to maintain the chain of responsibility in the event of failure. This paper reviews the currently available PV performance models with regard to accuracy and also compliance with datasheet specifications and guarantees. Accuracy is assessed through a meticulous measurement campaign conducted on PV arrays of four different technologies at a PV plant located in Navarra (northern Spain). The models reviewed are classified into physical models, based on the full I-V curve, and empirical models, which are solely based on the maximum power point (MPP). Despite the fact that physical models and MPP models with more than three parameters are currently widely used, this paper shows that empirical models with just three independent parameters suffice to accurately describe the relationship between PV array performance and operating conditions and are more easily derived from standard datasheet information. This result suggests that 3-parameter empirical models are the best option for PV performance modelling in the context of technical quality assurance procedures.

This article analyses the consequences of institutional and organisational arrangements for the legitimacy of the governance of Finnish public forests. It focuses on normative legitimacy, which comprises input legitimacy (accountability), throughput legitimacy (power relationships, transparency and inclusiveness) and output legitimacy (problem-solving capacity). These components, and the challenges involved in them, are analysed in relation to the governance of the Finnish Forest and Park Service. It is a hybrid agency which combines business economic tasks with broader societal duties related to public forests. The article draws on the relevant laws, parliamentary reports and comments, policy and planning documents, as well as interviews with MPs, government officials and agency staff. The discrepancy between written regulations and policies on the one hand, and the actual governance practices and rationalities that guide informants’ interpretations and implementation of the regulations on the other, constitutes (in addition to the regulatory vagueness) the key challenge to the system's legitimacy. The Finnish case shows that assigning to Parliament a central formal role in the governance of public forests may serve more as window-dressing than providing genuine legitimacy to the decisions being made, as its actual role is dependent on how – and by whom – such decisions are prepared. The results highlight the importance of inclusiveness and transparency in the governance process; and of concrete, measurable criteria and indicators for each policy goal, against which performance may be assessed on a regular basis.

This article explains how and why the statutory requirements for mining rehabilitation have failed to serve Queensland in the past and how the Environmental Protection (Chain of Responsibility) Amendment Act 2016, Qld, attempts to address the problems. By placing responsibility for mine rehabilitation on mining companies as well as ‘related persons’, the 2016 Qld Act opens up new enforcement opportunities. The approach Queensland has taken contrasts with measures recently adopted in Western Australia. The strengths and weaknesses of the two different approaches are compared.

Software design patterns provide a proven and comprehensive solution for a series of problems that designers confront with them. Web security becomes a critical issue in the online environments. Many techniques strive to achieve web applications to acceptable level of confidence. One of the useful behavioral design patterns is the chain-of- responsibilities pattern that includes several command objects in a series of processing objects. There is a set of logic in each processing object that can handle a command and transfer it to the next processing object. This series of processing objects is stable, and also, the position of each ring in the chain is unchangeable. In this paper, a dynamic chain of responsibilities design pattern that provides a new mechanism for enhance flexibility in security of web application would be presented.

In this paper, it proposes a data mining system based on data mining algorithms of B/S framework, including the key parts such as visualization of data mining, processing of data mining processes and data storage etc…and initially achieves an agriculture data mining platform based on B/S framework based on the chain of responsibility pattern. Finally, it combines the specific application cases of agriculture data to validate the expansibility, flexibility and effectiveness of the agricultural data mining platform based on Web.

A robot system was developed for the assembly of flexible belt-shaped objects, and the assembly procedures employed by workers in using it were analysed. A multi-fingered hand was developed to hold the objects at several points, and to move them into the proper position for attachment to a part. In addition, an image processing method that can recognize the gripping positions on source objects and conditions after the source objects are attached is proposed.

In the classical pattern recognition problem, consideration is given to individual objects, each of which actually belongs to one of the finite number of classes and is presented for the recognition irrespective of other objects. Recognition objects often form a single interconnected array determined by the nature of the event involved, namely, its natural extent in time or in space along one or a few coordinates. As a consequence, the need arises to take consistent decisions about the classes for all elements of the array. The prior assumption consisting in the fact that neighboring objects more often belong to one class than to different classes will permit one to improve the recognition quality in comparison with the classical case of the independence of classes of separate objects.

Collaboration design optimizes the system at the level of collaborating primitive elements while detailed design optimizes those primitive elements themselves. This chapter discusses how high-fidelity models can be optimized through the application of collaboration and detailed design patterns to improve various system qualities of service. A simple, but disciplined workflow is given that allows any system to be tuned to meet its most important quality of service criteria. A number of design patterns are discussed and their application explained. Exercises are provided for optimizing collaborations and primitive software elements for the Roadrunner Traffic Light Control System and the Coyote Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.

This paper is concerned with evolving objects method for software design that can adapt to the changing environments and requirements automatically. We present system architecture with objects library, where there are objects based on domain ontologies. We define some genetic operators for objects, and discuss how to apply these genetic operators on objects to get new objects, which can satisfy new requirements.

Quality ultimately is not solely the province of the physician. The chain of responsibility to prevent and treat disease is complex. It involves not only physicians and patients but also the payors of health care who are demanding more involvement in health care decision making. Payors want understandable information upon which to base their decisions. They are acquiring the means and the resolve to direct their patients to those who will effectively report such information and away from those who will not. Accordingly, physicians should be able to explain their quality assurance methods and be willing to demonstrate and document quality of care in their offices.

A successful representation of objects in literature is as a collection of patches, or parts, with a certain appearance and position. The relative locations of the different parts of an object are constrained by the geometry of the object. Going beyond a single object, consider a collection of images of a particular scene category containing multiple (recurring) objects. The parts belonging to different objects are not constrained by such a geometry. However, the objects themselves, arguably due to their semantic relationships, demonstrate a pattern in their relative locations. Hence, analyzing the interactions among the parts across the collection of images can allow for extraction of the foreground objects, and analyzing the interactions among these objects can allow for a semantically meaningful grouping of these objects, which characterizes the entire scene. These groupings are typically hierarchical. We introduce hierarchical semantics of objects (hSO) that captures this hierarchical grouping. We propose an approach for the unsupervised learning of the hSO from a collection of images of a particular scene. We also demonstrate the use of the hSO in providing context for enhanced object localization in the presence of significant occlusions, and show its superior performance over a fully connected graphical model for the same task.

We design a calculus where objects are created by instantiating classes, as well as mixins. Mixin-instantiated objects are "incomplete objects", that can be completed in object-based fashion. The combination of class-based features with object-based ones offers some flexible programming solutions. The fact that all objects are created from fully-typed constructs is a guarantee of controlled (therefore reasonably safe) behavior.

We specify and implement a GUI application that simulates marine biological systems by making extensive use of object-oriented design patterns.The key design patterns are model-view-control, observer/observable, visitor, command, factory method and decorator. These design patterns help delineate the roles and responsibilities of the objects in the system, establish loose coupling between objects and arrange for the objects to communicate and cooperate with one another at the highest level of abstraction. The result is an application that exhibits minimal control flow, yet is powerful, robust, flexible and easy to maintain.Our work entails a non-trivial redesign of the current AP Computer Science Marine Biology Simulation case study and may serve as a case study for an introductory "object-first" curriculum.

For practical reasons, research on the recognition of objects from different viewpoints has relied almost exclusively on the use of two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional objects. We describe an apparatus that enables the presentation of three-dimensional objects in a discrimination learning paradigm. Three chambers positioned on a movable table allow each of two objects to be presented on either the left or the right side; a viewing window exposes only two of the objects at a time. The objects can be arbitrarily designated as either an S+ or an S-. In addition, they can be placed precisely in any arbitrary start position and rotated in depth in 100 steps of 3.6 degrees each. We have successfully used this apparatus to investigate recognition of depth-rotated objects by both pigeons and humans. By varying the stimuli, number of stimulus chambers, and software programs, the apparatus can be used for other types of tasks and to investigate other types of processes.

Proposes a recognition method by which 3D information of overlapped objects can be constructed, taking into account the fuzzy quantities of linearity and roundedness of image data. The recognition approach was based on grey-level image processing as well as color and binary image processing. Grey-level image data were used for classifying the image patterns into the specific candidate group. Then the other data are obtained by changing the attitude of the objects slightly, so that the 3D image data can be reconstructed for pattern recognition and understanding. An expert system for the pattern recognition and the understanding of objects is constructed based on a production system. The system gives commands to rotate the objects in a certain direction to increase the image information about the objects until they can be identified. >

Object-stacking is a model for structuring object-based systems and a mechanism for integrating multiple servers. The paper describes the object-stacking model and the structure of a distributed operating system based on this model. In object-stacking, objects are classified into stackable objects and bottom objects. These objects have uniform interfaces. Each stackable objects holds the identifiers of other stackable objects or bottom objects as lower objects. Functions of stackable objects are implemented by calling their lower objects. Bottom objects are provided by the system. Complex objects are created by stacking those objects. In object-stacking, each server provides a single high-level service, such as filtering, caching, masking, or grouping. These servers can be used together by stacking their objects. >

An object-oriented model is proposed, designed as a collection of layered components, for process-sensitive software engineering environments (PSEEs). In the model, three types of object (process objects, entity objects and service objects) are identified to abstract and reflect the behaviour in different aspects of a PSEE. An overview of object interaction patterns, which reflects and captures the relationships between these types of object, is presented. To support software development process distribution and concurrency effectively, we introduce the actor (concurrent object) concept into process objects and entity objects, which allows transparent message passing between objects without concern for location and synchronisation. >

This chapter deals with US and international regulatory framework that serves as the legal motivation to support for the safety culture by all members of the chain of responsibility for the oil spill industry. The chapter also discusses the important US and international regulatory framework that serves as the legal motivation for support for the safety culture by all members of the chain of responsibility for the oil spill industry. Oil spills are serious business in the International and US, and equate to real costs for companies sued for oil pollution. Internationally, various courts have entered a series of fines and imprisonments for environmental offenders, including criminal proceedings against senior harbor managers and the port authority. Two types of shipping states control ship owners and their vessels are Flag State and Port State. Training of employees from the mate to the master is the best way to ensure environmental compliance. Outside consultants can help the organization's officers and employees to gain the knowledge and understanding needed to institute a safety management system.

This chapter emphasizes the solution for oil spills, as it is no longer considered an unavoidable “accident” of environmental conditions or a function of a catastrophic event. With the implementation of the entry into force of the International Safety Management Code, amendments to the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, and amendments to SOLAS and to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships have reduced oil spills. The Prevention Through People (PTP) program developed a systems approach to deal with the entirety of a safe operating system and the influence of all participants and stakeholders. These include governmental agencies, regulatory bodies, industry management, crew, classification societies, and all others in the chain of responsibility. The US Coast Guard developed five goals, as a frame of reference for organizing specific objectives and activities to be implemented by subsequent industry plans. The polluter pays principle translates into four primary concerns—who pays, for what, who responds, and with what system of response. Clean-up measures should use techniques designed to minimize harms to the environment and the value of these resources to humans.

Despite all the attention to Big Data and the claims that it represents a “paradigm shift” in science, we lack understanding about what are the qualities of Big Data that may contribute to this revolutionary impact. In this paper, we look beyond the quantitative aspects of Big Data (i.e. lots of data) and examine it from a sociotechnical perspective. We argue that a key factor that distinguishes “Big Data” from “lots of data” lies in changes to the traditional, well-established “control zones” that facilitated clear provenance of scientific data, thereby ensuring data integrity and providing the foundation for credible science. The breakdown of these control zones is a consequence of the manner in which our network technology and culture enable and encourage open, anonymous sharing of information, participation regardless of expertise, and collaboration across geographic, disciplinary, and institutional barriers. We are left with the conundrum—how to reap the benefits of Big Data while re-creating a trust fabric and an accountable chain of responsibility that make credible science possible.

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the multipartite arrangements related to contracting. The first part of the chapter examines some of the different types of arrangement and relationships that may be made in the course of engineering and other commercial contracts. The structure and nature of relationships are of great importance because it tells us about various things. These are the allocation of obligations, the level at which obligations are carried out, the chain of instructions, communications, who bears what liability, and to whom liabilities and duties are owed. The most common structure of an engineering contract is one in which responsibilities and liabilities flow down in a chain from the employer to the contractor, and from the contractor to sub-contractors, and so on. The chain of responsibility plays an essential role in contracts. The legal point about it is that the main contractor remains fully responsible to the employer, and cannot step aside or refuse to accept liability. However, it should be borne in mind that such chains can be broken. The chapter deals with this topic as well. A major part of the chapter discusses various legal questions related to multipartite arrangements and detailed answers are provided for these.

A computer based method for performing a command via a voice user interface on a subset of objects. The subset is selected from a set of objects, each having an object type. At least one taggable field is associated with the object type and has a corresponding value. The set of objects is stored in the computer memory. An utterance is received from the user and includes a command, an object type selection, a taggable field selection, and a value for the taggable field. Responsive to the utterance, at least one object is retrieved from the set of objects, the object of the type selected by the user and having a value in the taggable field selection that matches the taggable field value received from the user. The command is performed on the object. The object consists of text which is converted to voice output.

The Rete Match Algorithm is an efficient method for companng a large collection of patterns to a large collection of objects. It finds all the objects that match each pattern The algorithm was developed for use in production system interpreters, and it has been used for systems containing from a few hundred to more than a thousand patterns and objects. This article presents the algorithm in detail It explains the basic concepts of the algorithm, it describes pattern and object representations that are appropriate for the algorithm, and it describes the operations performed by the pattern matcher.

A vision machine must locate possible objects before it can identify them. In simple images, where the objects and illumination are known, locating possible objects can be part of, and secondary to, identification. In complex, natural images it is more efficient to use a quick and simple method to locate possible objects first, and then to selectively identify them. This parallels the strategy normally used by the human visual system. We present a theory for how possible objects, called "blobs", will be represented in an image, and explore some measures of importance for these candidate objects. An example algorithm based on this theory can quickly generate a list of possible object locations for the identification computation. We discuss the implementation of this example algorithm on a standard image processing system.

Our objective is to have a logical framework for natural representation and manipulation of complex objects. We start with an analysis of semantic modeling of complex objects, and attempt to understand what are the fundamental aspects which need to be captured. A logic, called C-logic, is then presented which provides direct support for what we believe to be basic features of complex objects, including object identity, multi-valued labels and a dynamic notion of types. C-logic has a simple first-order semantics, but it also allows natural specification of complex objects and gives us a framework for exploring efficient logic deduction over complex objects.