Status Quo

Changing worker behavior is one of the least effeetive methods for accident prevention. Workers make oeeasional errors beeause they are human. There is a natural error rate for even the most highly trained and drilled workforce. (Hoyle, 2005, p. 10) 

Referring to employee behavior observations that most industries consider to be a complete safety system, Donald Lorenzo (2008) stated  

No amount of behavior observation will create an error-free, injury-free workplace. The Chemical Manufacturers Association explains in a CMA publication that enlightened managers realize that... most mistakes are committed by skilled, careful, productive, well-meaning employees. Human error is a natural and inevitable result of human variability in our interactions with a system. (Lorenzo, pp. 4-5) 

After 1920, pharmacological laboratories sprang up in the pharmaceutical industry outside established university institutes. After 1960, departments of clinical pharmacology were set up at many universities and in industry. 

Despite its obvious importance to complex systan safety and efficiency, the concept of supervision has received surprisingly little attention within the human factors literature. The concept does however emerge within the human error and teamwork literature. Within the teamwork literature it is often referred to as a key teamwork behavior and within the human error literature as a causal factor in organizational accidents and incidents it is also apparent that only limited guidance relates to how to provide, assess, and improve supervision within complex sociotechnical systans. 

At the current time, it is acknowledged that the nature of supervision is changing for example. Ward et al. (2004) noted a shift from traditional hierarchical team structures toward the concept of self-managed teams. This shift toward the use of 

Different Supervision Types and Their Strengths and Weaknesses 

Traditional, Supervisor is responsible for the work of hierarchical others and for planning, allocation of work, instructing, and monitoring actions. 

Supervisor maintains discipline and is accountable for the work undertaken by his subordinates. 

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If the probability of worker injury or death because of participation in a given work-related activity can be shown to be much less than the risk of injury or death associated with presently accepted activities under very similar circumstances (e.g., the same type of hazard), then you may feel more comfortable about accepting the status quo. Table 14 illustrates the types of public mortality data available for such comparisons. In the previous example, where the worker risk was calculated as 2 X 10 fatalities... 

A P2 opportunity needs to be looked at every time when dealing with a pollution problem, but only a detailed analysis and comparison to status quo and financial benefits and drawbacks will enable an optimum solution to a problem. In this regard, one of the objectives of this chapter is to wade through the P2-propaganda, and provide some simple guidelines on how to properly apply the principles to air pollution problems. 

A P2 audit differs from most other types of audits because it makes use of a dual benchmarking approach namely, it uses both technical (environmental performance) and financial performance as its basis for making corrective actions. The status quo most often serves as the benchmark, though other standards certainly can be devised. A P2 audit can also affect non-environmental issues. The types of corrective actions can affect other types of wastes, energy, occupational safety, product quality, and worker productivity. 

It is often taken for granted that reduction of a waste will have environmental benefits. Though this is generally true, there are exceptions to the rule. For example, reducing one waste may give rise to pH imbalances or may produce another waste which is more difficult to treat, resulting in a net environmental disadvantage. Hence, there may be environmental trade-offs between the status quo and the alternatives identified. 

After a chromatogram has been developed the TLC plate is removed from the developing chamber and the status quo is fixed by removing the mobile phase remaining in the layer as quickly as possible. This is properly performed in the fume cupboard so as not to contaminate the laboratory with solvent fumes. If possible the TLC plate should be laid horizontally because then as the mobile phase evaporates the separated substances will migrate evenly to the surface where they can be the more readily detected. A fan or hair dryer (hot or cold air stream)... 

Propose remedies and decide on the action needed to restore the status quo. 

In these restructured electric markets, prices will be determined more by market forces and less by regulatory proceedings. To some, introducing competition will promote more efficient markets, providing the proper financial incentives for firms to enter or leave the industiy. In this way, consumers will benefit from lower production costs and, hcncc, reduced electricity prices. To others, restructuring will increase electricity prices for some customers, sacrifice the current environmental and social benefits, and jeopardize system reliability of the status quo. 

However, these sorts of concerns, we repeat, depend on resolution of other sorts of larger questions involving an adequate understanding of justice and fair distribution of resources. For instance, the answer to the empirical question of how the permeation of computers affects the status quo or whether computers contribute to the centralization or decentralization of power will not resolve the questions of whether the status quo should be maintained and whether centralization or decentralization of power is the better arrangement. 

As is well-known in philosophy, certain feminist critics of science and technology, for example, Keller [27] and Harding [28], have argued that the scientihc community has maintained the status quo in its exclusion of women and women s concerns. To the extent that a person believes that the scientihc community has or has not excluded women, and to the extent that a person believes exclusion is unjust, that person may address the question of computer use favoring the status quo and excluding women. Although there are good reasons to think that the scientihc community has not been the disaster that certain feminists think it is [29], any researcher should be well aware of the possibility of exclusion not only for the effect on scientihc validity but also for the moral questions exclusion raises. 

Under consideration of the status quo of the technological development, the guideline series of VDI 4640 Thermal Use of the Underground presents in four different parts a proper design, a suitable material choice and a correct execution of drillings, installation and system integration of plants for the thermal use of the underground ... 

Chemistry would not be done justice if only the past and the status quo were discussed. Today, new heavy elements are discovered in nuclear accelerators as a result of their decomposition traces and are of interest in nuclear physics. The Periodic Table provides building blocks for new areas of chemistry. The possibilities for combining elements into defined compounds is far from exhausted, even though about 30 million have been described to date. Besides the question as to how molecules react with each other, a new phenomenon is becoming increasingly important ... 

As we mentioned above, the health sector may easily remain stuck in the present status quo, and as such incapable of responding to the new needs of society. This can be attributed, among other reasons, to the very roots of universalism (benefits that tend to be presented as necessary for all), the short-term approach of health pohcies (which works against major changes), the customary corporatism of today s prevalent interests and the frequent use of health care as a political weapon in elections. 

Excellence is challenging the status quo and effecting change by utilizing learning to create innovation and improvement opportunities. 

The status quo provided by the early mechanistic studies described above was incomplete in several respects. Although the affinity of the solvate complex for dihydrogen was known to be low, the addition product remained uncharacterized. Likewise, the putative H2 addition intermediate between the enamide complex and the transient, but observable, alkylhydride had not been characterized. 

Kamm, B., Gruber, P. R. and Kamm, M. (eds.) (2006). Biorefineries - Industrial Processes and Products Status Quo and Future Directions. Two Volumes. WILEY-VCH. 

Maintenance of current commercial status quo. At a few locations, the decision has been made to continue operation of the facility without disruption, so long as NAPL product and dissolved chemicals do not exit the boundary of the facility or provide a risk to workers or the environment at the site. Hydraulic containment of the aquifer is the procedure that is usually selected for these sites. A system including recovery wells and injection wells can often be operated to balance the subsurface flux so that product loss equals product recovery at a minimal cost. 

It will be sometime before reality fully catches up with political slogans. The current crop of Chinese leaders is bent on "seize the day and seize the hour, defy all hardships, and reach the pinnacles of world science at the earliest possible date." In fact, political and social expedients demand it, but political and social considerations also demand that "Springtime for Science" will not simultaneously affect negatively the status quo nor alter the structural integrity of its socialist society. 

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