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(2007)ThesisThis study set out to examine the levels of galactic cosmic radiation exposure to Australian aircrew during routine flight operations, with particular attention to the high southern latitude flights between Australia and South Africa. Latitudes as high as 65° South were flown to gain the data and are typical of the normal flight routes flown between Sydney and Johannesburg on a daily basis. In achieving this objective it became evident that suitable commercially available radiation monitoring equipment was not readily available and scientific radiation monitors were sourced from overseas research facilities to compliment my own FH4lB and Liulin monitors provided by UNSW. At the same time it became apparent that several predictive codes had been developed to attempt to model the radiation doses received by aircrew based on flight route, latitudes and altitudes. Further, it became apparent that these codes had not been subjected to verification at high southern latitudes and that they had not been validated for the effects of solar particle events. Initially measurements were required at the high latitudes followed by mid-latitude data to further balance the PCAIRE code to ensure reasonableness of results for both equatorial and high latitudes. Whilst undertaking this study new scientific monitors became available which provided an opportunity to observe comparative data and results. The Liulin, QDOS and a number of smaller personal dosimeters were subsequently obtained and evaluated. This appears to be the first time that such an extensive cross comparison of these monitors has been conducted over such a wide range of latitudes and altitudes. During the course of this study a fortuitous encounter with GLE 66 enabled several aspects of code validation to be examined, namely the inability of predictive codes to estimate the increased dose associated with a GLE or the effects of a Forbush decrease on the code results. Finally I review the known biological effects as discussed by numerous authors based on current epidemiological studies, with a view to high-lighting were the advent of future technology in aviation may project aircrew dose levels.
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(2017)ThesisAirline passenger segmentation is traditionally classified into the categories of Business, Leisure and VFR (visiting friends and relatives). Most academic studies to date have only focused on the differences between business and leisure passengers without further exploring potential segments among business passengers. Hence, this research aims to enhance our understanding of the flight choice behaviour of business passengers, and in particular, exploring the potential differences between those who work in small and medium enterprises (SMEs, with 200 or less staff) and those in non-SMEs (more than 200 staff). Descriptive analysis from revealed preference (RP) data and discrete choice models from stated preference (SP) choice surveys are used to ascertain attributes that are significant to choice behaviour. Descriptive analyses show that more business passengers work in the SME category. However, SME passengers tend to fly less, are more price-sensitive, and derive less satisfaction in flying with full-service carriers if they have previously flown with low-cost carriers. Discrete choice model results show that fewer flight service attributes are significant on flights between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane due to shorter flight duration. However, more attributes related to ticket flexibility are found significant for one-day trips. On flights between Perth and the east coast, willingness to pay calculates a range of $25 to $62 for one piece of checked baggage, and $30 to $46 for an extra legroom seat. Attributes related to flight comfort have a larger significance on inbound flights (i.e., return flights from Perth to the east coast). Self-funded passengers are more price-sensitive when purchasing flights. Furthermore, we observed in choice experiment that attribute non-attendance (ANA) is above 55% for all tested attributes, with the exception of fare; not all attributes are perceived equally by business passengers. Flight product attributes are considered separately from ticket flexibility attributes by business passengers. Therefore, airlines may consider unbundling its products for them. New SP surveys can be deployed to test future flight products. The traditional segmentation method of passengers based on Business, Leisure and VFR trip purposes should be thoroughly reviewed, with the categorisation of business passengers expanded based on the findings of this research.
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(2017)ThesisUnlike flight operations, which is now regarded as an ‘Ultra-safe system’ (Amalberti 2001, p. 109) aviation ground safety has languished behind the rest of the industry (Verschoor and Young 2011), with activities on the ramp now accounting for more than a quarter of all incidents (Balk and Bossenbroek 2010). In recent years, both ‘damage to aircraft and harm to ground personnel have escalated’ (Passenier 2015 p. 38) costing air carriers more than USD10 billion annually (GAO 2007) Models and measures influential to aviation safety are reviewed for their possible contribution to the ground safety problem. The Threat and Error Management Model (TEM) and Line Operation Safety Audit (LOSA) method (Klinect, Murray, Merritt and Helmreich 2003) were identified as potential candidates and critically examined for their suitability. The aim of the current research was to develop an approach that builds on the existing benefits of LOSA, whilst incorporating contemporary theories of safety science, and improving data reliability and validity where possible. A new method is proposed named ‘Normal Operations Monitoring’ (NOM). NOM is an observation methodology which codes and measures human and safety performance in routine operations. NOM attempts to measure the gap between the system as designed and the system as actually operated (Hollnagel 2007). Identifying this variance provides novel insights into factors which influence safety performance and suggest new opportunities for interventions and improvement. NOM was customised for application in the ground handling industry. Data was collected and analysed from over 1300 observations of aircraft turnarounds. Implications for ground safety are explored as well as the potential applications and benefits of NOM to other domains. The final discussion explores how the current research and NOM tools could be taken forward as a method for informing and improving safety management in other high-hazard industries.
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(2018)ThesisLong-distance leisure travel often involves purchasing an airline ticket and choosing travel destinations. Although destination choices have been studied in the tourism context, travellers' behaviour when choosing an airline ticket is less studied and the effect of these two choices (air ticket and destinations) on each other or on the final destination choice is not well investigated. This thesis contributes to the literature by examining the interplay between airline ticket features, tourism attributes and travellers' personal preferences on holiday destination choices. In particular, using the leader-driven primacy phenomenon, the study tests whether destination choices are influenced by first exposure to airline and then tourism attributes or vice versa. A qualitative method (the Repertory Grid Technique) was used to investigate the decision-making process of choosing a tourism destination, and to determine a list of salient factors that may affect destination choices. The results of the RGT study were utilised in a subsequent quantitative method, the Discrete Choice Model, to assess the role of various attributes on destination choices and the way airline and tourism factors may interact with each other. Findings of this research provide evidence that suggests flexibility and not having to worry about paying extra charges for airline tickets play a significant role in holiday destination choices. The results have also shown that the influence of change and cancellation features of a ticket on the selection of destinations is moderated by season of travel. Travellers' personal preferences, such as attraction to the historical background of the destination, have found to significantly influence destination choice. This emotional reaction is of paramount importance as travellers have been shown to evaluate destinations by preconceptions they have formed before being presented with choice. The sequencing of information on destination choices shows that early exposure to airline attributes increases the importance of the non-airfare factors in decision-making. The findings challenge the linear funnel-like choice-set approach to destination choice decisions and provide evidence that these decisions are dynamic, individual, and evolving in line with the way that travellers search for and find transport and travel information.
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(2012)ThesisMany airports around the world have co-located or are in the process of reallocating alliance aligned carriers to their designated terminals or terminal areas, to promote flight connectivity, common user facilities and airport-airlines relationships. While operational and financial benefits on the part of the airlines have been made clear by existing literatures on airline alliances and alliance-hubbing, but the tangible benefits to be derived by airport operators are less obvious. In order to better understand why airport operators have come onboard with the concept in the first place, this paper considered existing cases of London Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Tokyo Narita Airport. These airports were selected for the qualitative case analysis primarily because of the relevance of their operating environment (i.e. alliance network hubs) and their early implementation of alliance terminal co-location. A quantitative case study on Sydney Airport – representing airports without the implementation of the concept, was conducted to determine if alliance terminal co-location could yield operational and financial merits for the airport operator similar to those observed at the sample airports.
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(2013)ThesisThis study is important because it addresses the significant issue of fire prevention in residential properties, where fires currently lead to major social and economic hardship in every country in the world. It provides a new direction in considering fire prevention strategies by including human behaviour, engineering and administrative aspects together over the lifecycle of residential buildings. It adopts an ecological approach to behavioural change that allows participation from a wide cross section of the community who can enter at different stages of fire safety awareness, and is intended to facilitate increased awareness. This will provide better ownership of the principles and bring wider community acceptance of sound fire preventative measures. The study is also based on fire incident data from two very different social and geographic regions of the world and, while validated primarily within the Australian context, has potential for adoption within wider fire safety management systems globally. This means that its adoption will bring widespread and meaningful reductions in residential fires and improved fire safety. This study presents a new Fire Safety Improvement Framework (the Framework). Development of the Framework is based upon statistical analysis of 11,611 fire incidents recorded by central fire authorities from suburban Sydney, Australia, encompassing 4.4 million residents in 2011 (www.censusdata.abs.gov.au), and 2,490 incidents from equivalent city areas, Jakarta and Surabaya, of Indonesia, representing 11 million residents in 2010 (Jakarta in figures 2010 and Surabaya in figures 2010), over the period 2004 2009. The development of the Framework was also informed by a review of modern human behaviour theories, including the Socio-Ecological Model and the Precaution Adoption Process Model that were eventually adopted, and modified following one-on-one interviews. Validation of the Framework was conducted through field surveys involving one-on-one interviews with 12 respondents from fire authorities, architecture firms, city councils and a psychologist, and a questionnaire survey with 249 respondents consisting of fire experts, building practitioners, and householders in Sydney. A single entity, three faceted Framework comprising structural objectives, participants, and behavioural change is proposed. It is likely that any action in one facet will influence the situation in the other two facets and so weightages from each will depend on overall circumstances and were not defined. The structural objectives are targeted at increased knowledge and awareness of individuals toward residential fire safety, improved quality of the physical environment and hardware, utilisation of incentives, and effective use of controls and enforcement. The participants are those who influence fire safety at various levels in both physical and social environments. Behavioural change is the process that participants go through in their awareness and consciousness of residential fire safety issues. The major contributions of this study have been to connect aspects of fire safety at the design and operation stages of buildings, address the neglect of human behaviour as a significant influence on matters related to fire safety, and to introduce a new fire safety framework that incorporates design, operational and human behavioural aspects into a holistic improvement scheme that will reduce the unintentional fire occurrences in residential buildings over their lifetime. It is proposed that the resulting Framework be incorporated into existing fire safety management systems. The Framework should have practical application at local, national and international levels and be implementable by individuals and organisations that influence fire safety in residential buildings. For example, governmental and public bodies might use the Framework when introducing legislation, members of City Councils, fire fighters, and school teachers and students in their administration of and implementation of regulations and training, building practitioners and manufacturers, and members of societies and clubs, in their introduction of and installation of new equipment or promotion of new fire safety measures. These all provide ecological settings in which the Framework could be applied. The Framework should also be adaptable as an important basis for fire safety management frameworks in various socioeconomic environments in different global settings in the future. Validation of the benefits brought by the Framework to these applications will require further research, and so it is proposed that longitudinal studies be carried out on specific applications.
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(2013)ThesisMedical error taxonomies are commonly incorporated into incident reporting systems so that a database of incidents can be built to guide clinical risk management. Not all medical error taxonomies are the same, as different medical error taxonomies may include different categories or have a different scope of classification. Our human factors based review of medical error taxonomies indicated that the majority of published medical error taxonomies, particularly those that adopt theoretical error concepts, classified systemic factors of medical errors. In another review, we demonstrated that medical error taxonomies that vary according to degree of granularity of categories may not effectively share or integrate information with one another, despite belonging to the same domain. We conducted two studies that compared the usability and reliability of a generic and a domain-specific medical error taxonomy. In the first study, twenty nurses and twenty-one pharmacists classified two medication error incidents using a generic and a medication-specific error taxonomy. In the second study, twenty medical students used either the generic or the medication-specific error taxonomy to classify five medication error incidents. After that, we carried out a third study in order to investigate whether generic and domain-specific medical error taxonomies might lead to different interventions. Twenty healthcare workers, such as patient safety managers and officers, participated in the third study and proposed interventions based on generic and medication error classifications. The studies' findings indicate that in classifying domain-specific incidents, a domain-specific medical error taxonomy would be easier to use and more reliable, probably because the taxonomy was more terminologically similar to the domain-specific incident reports than a generic medical error taxonomy. Furthermore, interventions based on domain-specific classifications are more likely to target reported domain-specific incidents than those based on generic medical error classifications. Therefore, the terminological similarity between a medical error taxonomy and incident reports is an important consideration in adopting a medical error taxonomy. Based on the findings, we modelled how incident reporting systems can incorporate both generic and domain-specific medical error taxonomies, and modelled the relationship between the scope of a medical error taxonomy and the degree of granularity of the taxonomy's categories.
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(2015)ThesisMost aircraft maintenance optimisation models have been developed within the context of heavy maintenance visits, overhaul centres, aircraft routing and assignment. While a great deal of work has been carried out in flight scheduling, crew scheduling and passenger-mix optimisation, a limited number of optimisation models have been developed within the context of the line maintenance environment. Aircraft line maintenance is any maintenance that is carried out before flight to ensure that the aircraft is fit for the intended flight. Task yield is measured by the actual interval when a maintenance task is scheduled compared to the maximum allowable interval expressed as a percentage. Due to a lack of appropriate optimisation techniques, the traditional manual scheduling process typically generates an aircraft line maintenance schedule with the limited assistance of computer systems. Exact optimisation techniques offer solutions to some problems, but often lead to unacceptable execution time as the size and complexity increase. The heterogeneity of aircraft fleets, cyclic nature of maintenance jobs, multiple maintenance sites, dynamically variable resources and continual variation of schedule operation make aircraft line maintenance scheduling more difficult than production scheduling, flight scheduling and crew scheduling. In this thesis a heuristic technique with a hybrid combination of classical job scheduling methods was chosen and a Line Planning Optimisation (LPO) algorithm was developed to deal effectively with the combinatorial nature of the problem in order to solve the feasibility problem and maximise task yield. The optimised schedule gained 43% task yield compared to the traditional manual schedule with the test case. The LPO algorithm offered excellent feasibility with a much faster execution speed of 45 seconds compared to 35 minutes with the manual process. The algorithm was implemented for a range of 64 cases with different job due time buffers and achieved further optimisation with 64% task yield compared to 43% task yield of the benchmark case. The sensitivity analysis showed that the LPO algorithm was more sensitive to the Early Cycles , Early Days and Late Hours components of the total job spread.
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(2015)ThesisThe manual handling of people (MHP) is a core activity for care workers in residential aged care, and is known to be associated with high incidence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). Promoting patient mobility within the manual handling (MH) interaction is an endorsed MHP risk control intervention strategy that should reduce risk exposure for staff, and may also benefit the patient through increased independence and autonomy. However, while staff MHP intervention outcomes, have been extensively investigated, evidence of the impact on patient outcomes, including mobility, is limited. This project investigated the nature and extent of environment-related MHP interventions that may influence patient mobility outcomes through review of the literature, trial of an existing patient-handling (PH) assessment tool, and subsequent development of the Pro-Mobility Patient/Person Handling Assessment Tool or Pro-Mob for this specific purpose. This involved application of mixed research methods: • An existing PH assessment tool (Movement and Assistance of Hospital Patients Index or MAPO Index) and an ICF (International Classification of Functioning, Disability & Health)-based questionnaire (Study 1) were pilot tested and found to be inappropriate for this project’s purpose. • The Pro-Mobility Patient/Person Handling Assessment Tool or Pro-Mob was developed, based on existing PH assessment tools, MHP guidance publications and related research. Preliminary testing (Study 2) in 11 Residential Aged Care Facilities (RACFs) provided information regarding environment-related MHP interventions not previously available. • The Pro-Mob tool was assessed for content validity by experts in a modified Delphi study (Study 3) and refined. • Field-testing of the revised Pro-Mob tool in seven (7) RACFs (Study 4A), and a survey of care staff knowledge and understanding of environment-related MHP interventions at these RACFs (Study 4B), supported suitability and usability of the instrument. This investigation provided evidence of inconsistencies regarding the nature and extent of environment-related MHP interventions that may influence patient mobility, within and between RACFs. This unique focus of the Pro-Mob tool, as compared to existing PH assessment tools identified, could inform MHP intervention outcomes for the patient. The tool could potentially be applied in RACFs to: assess environment-related MHP interventions; evaluate MHP interventions pre- and post-implementation; identify staff training needs; compare practices within and between RACFs; and inform Aged Care Accreditation Standards. Further validation testing of the Pro-Mob tool is required.
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(2015)ThesisSerious head injuries are a major concern in light passenger vehicle rollover crashes. There are efforts in the US and Australia to assess the feasibility of developing a dynamic rollover test to evaluate the crashworthiness of a vehicle in a rollover. However, detailed information about the characteristics of serious head injuries in single-vehicle single-event, i.e. pure, rollover crashes, and regarding the capabilities of the dynamic rollover test devices chosen for the separate US and Australian investigations, is lacking. To address this knowledge gap, two crash databases are investigated to describe the characteristics of head injuries and associated crash factors for pure rollover crashes in Australia and the US. Results from 80 dynamic rollover tests are analysed to evaluate the effects various test methods have on replicating and measuring ATD head response associated with serious head injury. The structural and kinematic responses of 48 vehicles in 83 tests conducted using the Jordan Rollover System (JRS) are evaluated. Logistic regression analysis is used to assess the relationship between the structural response of JRS-tested vehicles, and the occurrence of incapacitating or fatal injury in single-vehicle rollover crashes. Finally, a human body finite element model is subjected to impact conditions identified from dynamic rollover tests to demonstrate the effect of rollover-related impact parameters on a pattern of head and spine injury observed in crash data. The original findings of this thesis include details about head injury characteristics not previously reported, a re-evaluation of head response in physical rollover tests using brain and skull injury measures that have never been reported in physical rollover tests, the first comprehensive and systematic assessment of JRS test results, the first statistical model describing the relationship between vehicle performance in a dynamic rollover test and the odds of injury in rollover crashes, and the first demonstration of the significance of rollover-related impact parameters on the production of relevant head and spine injury patterns. This thesis demonstrates that it is feasible to replicate the distinct head injury characteristics observed in pure rollover crashes in a dynamic rollover test given that specific protocols for test setup and injury assessment are provided.