ARTICLES

7/23/2014· Transportation

The Creep of Common Carrier Status

By: Ned Einstein

As it affects liability, an operating agency's status as a "common carrier" has an enormous impact not only on determining liability itself, but depending on legal constructs in various states, can also affect considerations like immunity and/or the assessment of punitive damages - often barriers to the assessment of damages afforded to public agencies. So except for motorcoaches deployed in commuter/express service under contract to public transit agencies, these latter considerations rarely affect motorcoach operations in the courtroom.

7/22/2014· Engineering

Outbreaks Where Food Workers Have Been Implicated in the Spread of Foodborne Disease. Part 9. Washing and Drying of Hands To Reduce Microbial Contamination

By: Dr. Ewen Todd

During various daily activities at home and work, hands quickly become contaminated. Some activities increase the risk of finger contamination by pathogens more than others, such as the use of toilet paper to clean up following a diarrheal episode, changing the diaper of a sick infant, blowing a nose, or touching raw food materials. Many foodborne outbreak investigation reports have identified the hands of food workers as the source of pathogens in the implicated food. The most convenient and efficient way of removing pathogens from hands is through hand washing. Important components of hand washing are potable water for rinsing and soaps to loosen microbes from the skin. Hand washing should occur after any activity that soils hands and certainly before preparing, serving, or eating food.

7/18/2014· Elevators - Escalator - Automatic Doors

Concealed Door Closers

By: Michael Panish

The overhead or floor mounted concealed door closer is a very common type of door closer mechanism which is normally unseen and unnoticed. In the majority of installations, these concealed closers are used on aluminum glazed storefront doors, hollow metal stand alone, or structural framed window systems. The concealed door closer design concept was initially engineered as a self-contained product that featured a center pivot allowing a variety of door functions with no exterior arm or visible operating hardware.

7/17/2014· Accident Investigation & Reconstruction

Forensic Clues: Machine Guarding Accidents - Who is Responsible?

By: John Ryan, BSME, PE

Machine guarding accidents cause many accidents and fatalities every year, despite the availability of modern safety technology. In the years from 1992-1996, one study from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported annual injuries due to workers being caught in machinery of 34,350. In 2012 contact with an object or equipment had the second highest workplace fatality rate at 712 deaths.

7/15/2014· Metallurgy

Damage to Pumps from Poor Upstream Pipe Welding: A Metallurgical Failure Analysis

By: Gerald Davis

Four, tri-lobe pumps were damaged and required extensive repair during the latter stages of construction for a modification in a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant. The economic loss was significant and the general contractor for the work paid the plant's owner for the loss. The renovated units were installed and are in use. However, the general contractor then sued one of its subcontractors - a welding contractor that fabricated and completed weld joints between piping sections on the inlet side of the pumps. The general contractor claimed poor quality welds in the piping permitted loosened weld fragments to enter the pumps during the required water flow verification of the system and this caused the damage.

7/8/2014· Education & Schools

Using STEM & Green School Strategies With Urban Youth

By: Dr. Virginia Rhodes

Establishing a STEM High School (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics), and the Aiken Environmental, Ohio's first public environmental high school proved to be successful strategies to increase student engagement and raise standardized scores in science. High-poverty urban students from declining academic and disciplinary environments produced significant gains on science test results and credit attainment towards graduation. Using multiple overlapping rigor and SEL strategies, students experienced "science immersion," project-based learning, and a social-emotional curriculum that emphasized personal development and team/community-building skills.

7/3/2014· Crisis Management

17 Mistakes Made in Emergency Plans: How to Avoid & Correct Them

By: Bo Mitchell

Most organization leaders believe their emergency plans are state-of-the-art. When, in fact, their plans are dangerously flawed.

6/30/2014· Plants & Trees

Back to the Future - The Future of Landscape Appraisals

By: Joe Samnik

The new 10th Edition, Guide for Plant Appraisals, is currently in the review and comment phase. This long awaited publication (if not Holy Grail) could be available in 2013. Having reviewed the publication I can, at this time, state with some certainty that future depositions will become much shorter and the ranks of the new unqualified landscape appraisers will be filled in large part from the current ranks of the qualified. As a book review goes, I shall go no further until such time that the 10th Edition is playing in a theater near you.

6/25/2014· Police Practices & Procedures

Reverse Sting Operations-The American Hustle: The Unethical Use of Reverse Sting Operations and the Creation of Crime

By: Michael Levine

Relying on data taken from 45 years of professional experience as a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) supervisory agent, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) expert on undercover and informant handling procedures, trial consultant, expert witness, and police instructor, the author details the evolution of the Reverse Sting operation and its related informant-handling practices, from a once valuable and effective investigative tool to a headline grabbing scam that has severely damaged our system of justice by obliterating the entrapment defense and turning the Reverse Sting into a way to make money for criminal informants.

6/25/2014· Product Liability

FDA Warns Against DMAA: Supplement Makers Agree to Remove DMAA

By: Dr. Gerald M. Goldhaber

In the November, 2012 issue of this newsletter, I wrote that the FDA was investigating reports of deaths due to the intake of energy drinks and was determining if energy drinks were safe. Earlier this month, the FDA issued a harsh warning against energy drinks and supplements containing the stimulant dimethylamylamine (DMAA), telling consumers to stay away from it while adding that the agency was "using all available tools at its disposal" to ensure that it is no longer sold. This is a formidable task because we as a nation spend more than $12.5 billion a year on energy drinks, shots and drink mixes. Although seven other countries, including Canada, had previously banned supplements containing DMAA, these products had remained widely available at supplement stores in the United States, including GNC.