Boustras, Georgios

The workplace's burden remains a significant concern to workers in the oil and gas industry, where workers are continually exposed to various kinds of occupational risks. The study aimed to identify the different health hazards and their sources across the oil and gas industry to determine the risks associated with health hazards. Methods: A qualitative approach was employed to identify the different hazards connected with the operational environment. A total of 1000 questionnaires were distributed randomly across the various departments in the Nigerian oil and gas industry, and 327 returned to the research team. Analysis of data was carried out using the SPSS. Results: The result shows that ergonomic hazards were found to be most predominant among the hazards assessed in the industry. Ergonomic hazards are 30%, physical hazards 26%, chemical hazards 23%, psychosocial hazards 18%, and biological 3%. Conclusion: Considering the aims of this study, the hazards that exposed workers to ill-health were identified with their sources in the oil and gas operational environment. Some of the health hazards were identified to have short-term health effects on workers, such as headaches, skin burn, eye and skin irritation, and rashes. In contrast, musculoskeletal disorders, respiratory disease, leukaemia, asphyxiates, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease are long-term health effects caused by other hazards. Recommendations: Adequate supervision should be imposed on the workers in their workplace, proper hazards assessment should be conducted in the industry, and compulsory medical testing should be carried out on workers always to know their health status.

Working environment is constantly changing with working population increasing in terms of ageing, feminization and immigration. Due to the changes in the working pattern, new emerging risks have been introduced at the workplace along with many challenges that employers are called to manage. While ageing has been identified by Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) community as an emerging risk, organisations stand in need of guidelines on how to manage this additional challenge. Occupational Health and Safety Performance (OHSP) is acknowledged as one of the factors affecting the future of an organisation and should be considered when dealing with OSH management with the aim to accomplish Industrial System Productivity (ISP). Nowadays, OSH management should be able to adapt to changes and consider emerging risks within the risk assessment, the procedures and policies. The aim of this paper is to introduce guidelines and practical solutions on OSH management helping the employers and employees adapt to the changing working environment, while explicitly considering individual's characteristics. Using the focus group method, factors affecting the ability to work have been identified and valued. In particular, the Work Individual Performance (WIP) tool is introduced as a tool which is specifically designed to identify factors, potentially affecting the performance of the workers and assist the employers in the identification and implementation of protective and preventive measures, focusing on worker's well-being, OHSP and ISP. The tool has been tested in 2019, during a research which took place in Cyprus involving the police workforce (559 police officers).

Micro and small enterprises (MSEs) constitute the cornerstone of the economy in each country, especially in the European Union, where they are perceived as main components for economic development, innovation, employment and social integration. Effective management of occupational safety and health (OSH) in MSEs’ working environment contributes in sustaining corporate longevity and protects workers’ well-being and productivity. This may become essential, especially for economies that are struggling to recover from economic recession. One essential aspect of OSH involves the identification and management of psychosocial risks. EU-OSHA (2010) has launched two significant surveys related to psychosocial risks; named ESENER 1 and ESENER 2. Since micro-enterprises (employing 1–5 employees) were not included in ESENER 2 (EU-OSHA, 2015), an important part of the picture has been left unattended on a European level. This paper aims to address this gap by focussing on the case of Cyprus, since insufficient amount of micro enterprises from Cyprus participated in ESENER 2. A survey utilising ESENER-2 questions was adapted for exploring micro-enterprises’ employees’ perceptions and awareness about psychosocial risks and their management in the work setting. The main differences and some similarities that were spotted between the results of this study and ESENER-2 results regarding Cyprus are highlighted. The differences indicate that the size of the business and the peculiarities of the Cypriot context impact on the perception and management of psychosocial risks. Further research is required in the field of microenterprises that employ from 1 to 5 people, on an EU and international level with a special focus on psychosocial risk issues in micro-enterprises at the service sector and family businesses.

The oil and gas industry's capability to operate effectively in acceptable risks and hazardous situations is mainly dependent on safety. Infractions of safety standards and procedures are frequently highlighted as a causal factor that leads to accidents and other expected outcomes. As a result, having a broad understanding of effective management strategies for improving compliance with safety rules and procedures is more than necessary. The present study focuses on safety climate factors and their impact on safety compliance, enhancing safety rules and procedures to reduce the accident risks in Nigerian's oil and gas industry. The obtained associations were analyzed using a questionnaire-based methodology. The workers were given a total of 1000 questionnaires, of which 327 were returned to the team of researchers. As a consequence of the data analysis, the causal relationship was stable, which improved the factor structure's predictability and reliability. Workplace pressure was the safety climate characteristic that had the most significant consequence on safety compliance. The research findings have added to our understanding of improving and ensuring workplace safety compliance, including practical safety supervision approaches, accessibility of safety systems, and employee safety competency. Also, adequate supervision and monitoring should be the primary priority of the management and always keep the workers on the effective track in their job compliance. Integrating workers into organizational activities will aid in improving safety compliance and adhering to any project or task's safety standards and procedures. Finally, management should avoid putting workers under any strain to prevent violating safety rules while executing their duties.

This paper discusses the concept of ageing as this applies to the operation of Evolutionary Algorithms, and examines its relationship to the concept of ageing as this is understood for human beings. Evolutionary Algorithms constitute a family of search algorithms which base their operation on an analogy from the evolution of species in nature. The paper initially provides the necessary knowledge on the operation of Evolutionary Algorithms, focusing on the use of ageing strategies during the implementation of the evolutionary process. Background knowledge on the concept of ageing, as this is defined scientifically for biological systems, is subsequently presented. Based on this information, the paper provides a comparison between the two ageing concepts, and discusses the philosophical inspirations which can be drawn for human ageing based on the operation of Evolutionary Algorithms.

Working environment is constantly changing with working population increasing in terms of ageing, feminization and immigration. Due to the changes in the working pattern, new emerging risks have been introduced at the workplace along with many challenges that employers are called to manage. While ageing has been identified by Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) community as an emerging risk, organisations stand in need of guidelines on how to manage this additional challenge. Occupational Health and Safety Performance (OHSP) is acknowledged as one of the factors affecting the future of an organisation and should be considered when dealing with OSH management with the aim to accomplish Industrial System Productivity (ISP). Nowadays, OSH management should be able to adapt to changes and consider emerging risks within the risk assessment, the procedures and policies. The aim of this paper is to introduce guidelines and practical solutions on OSH management helping the employers and employees adapt to the changing working environment, while explicitly considering individual's characteristics. Using the focus group method, factors affecting the ability to work have been identified and valued. In particular, the Work Individual Performance (WIP) tool is introduced as a tool which is specifically designed to identify factors, potentially affecting the performance of the workers and assist the employers in the identification and implementation of protective and preventive measures, focusing on worker's well-being, OHSP and ISP. The tool has been tested in 2019, during a research which took place in Cyprus involving the police workforce (559 police officers).

From the perspective of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS), the concept of work ability is based on the balance between individual characteristics and work demands. If the personal characteristics of the worker meet the work demands, then work could be part of a healthy life. However, work might affect worker's health due to physical or psychosocial factors that do not meet worker's abilities and expectations. Older workers are probably facing additional challenges in comparison to younger ones. Several studies have shown that Work Ability Index (WAI) decreases with factors such as ageing, unsatisfactory working conditions, poor organisation management and lack of freedom. Improvements in the working environment and ergonomic equipment are factors positively affecting WAI. A nationwide study on the ageing workforce has been conducted during 2018 in Cyprus. Based on information elicited through questionnaires and interviews, the factors affecting positively and negatively the ability to work have been identified on different age groups. Variables such as work demands and the work environment, features of work organisations, characteristics of company/ organisation, as well as employee characteristics, have been evaluated as potential factors affecting the ability/performance of the workers. Our findings indicate that personal characteristics are more crucial than work demands and working environment for the performance of the workers of all age groups and that poor ergonomic conditions particularly affect older workers. Also, health status and sleeping quality might be major factors affecting all age groups, while gender and years of experience affect younger workers.

Critical Infrastructure Protection is a relatively new scientific domain stemming from an American Presidential directive PDD-63 of May 1998. Critical Infrastructure (CI) performance and protection are national priorities for all European Union (EU) countries following the introduction of the EU Directive 2008/114/EC, which takes an all hazards approach. This paper has an international focus. At the global and European level, the interest in identifying the impacts of climate change on CIs and extreme weather events (EWE) has increased in the last decades, following several high-profile so-called natural disasters. Concern is evidenced by the UN Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the EU Commission's Staff Working Document on Risk Assessment and Mapping; Guidelines for Disaster Management, SEC (2010) 1626. This paper presents and discusses scientific work which has been published in this area, with a focus on energy CI. The impacts of climate change and extreme weather events on energy CI are initially identified. Important aspects in CI protection such as risk assessment, interdependencies with other sectors, and adaptation/resilience options are subsequently presented and discussed.

This paper discusses the concept of ageing as this applies to the operation of Evolutionary Algorithms, and examines its relationship to the concept of ageing as this is understood for human beings. Evolutionary Algorithms constitute a family of search algorithms which base their operation on an analogy from the evolution of species in nature. The paper initially provides the necessary knowledge on the operation of Evolutionary Algorithms, focusing on the use of ageing strategies during the implementation of the evolutionary process. Background knowledge on the concept of ageing, as this is defined scientifically for biological systems, is subsequently presented. Based on this information, the paper provides a comparison between the two ageing concepts, and discusses the philosophical inspirations which can be drawn for human ageing based on the operation of Evolutionary Algorithms.

Critical Infrastructure Protection is a relatively new scientific domain stemming from an American Presidential directive PDD-63 of May 1998. Critical Infrastructure (CI) performance and protection are national priorities for all European Union (EU) countries following the introduction of the EU Directive 2008/114/EC, which takes an all hazards approach. This paper has an international focus. At the global and European level, the interest in identifying the impacts of climate change on CIs and extreme weather events (EWE) has increased in the last decades, following several high-profile so-called natural disasters. Concern is evidenced by the UN Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the EU Commission's Staff Working Document on Risk Assessment and Mapping; Guidelines for Disaster Management, SEC (2010) 1626. This paper presents and discusses scientific work which has been published in this area, with a focus on energy CI. The impacts of climate change and extreme weather events on energy CI are initially identified. Important aspects in CI protection such as risk assessment, interdependencies with other sectors, and adaptation/resilience options are subsequently presented and discussed.