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Plastic Constructions are the UK's leading stockists and fabricators of corrosion resistant plastics providing industry with a wide range of pollution control equipment, process plant, general fabrications and special projects. Despite today's recessionary economic climate the company has over the past twelve months seen the introduction of many new products and applications, which illustrate a variety of developments in the use of engineering plastics to resist corrosion in the following fields (a) fluids handling, (b) effluent and water treatment, (c) ventilation and air conditioning, (d) air pollution control and (e) process plant and special projects. Of particular interest is the continuing expansion of glass fibre reinforced plastics (GRP) into markets where previously only conventional materials of construction have been considered. Major innovations in these areas and the increased use of GRP are discussed below.

To examine some of the complex relationships that exist between sports work and mental health and illness.

This chapter draws upon prevalence data, athlete testimonies, and theoretical works to examine: (1) the prevalence of depression and suicide in professional sport and the wider society; (2) athlete experiences of depression and suicidal ideation, particularly among men; and (3) some of the key sociological ideas which might help to explain experiences of mental health and illness in professional sports work.

Although there are plentiful data on the societal prevalence of depression and suicide, increasing interest in the mental health of professional athletes (and other types of sports workers) has occurred largely in response to individual or clusters of often publicly known, sometimes high profile, cases rather than in response to systematic empirical grounded data. Athlete experiences of mental illness are shown to be related in complex ways to various constraints associated with their public and private lives, to the constraints of their interdependency networks, and to experiences of shame which can have a series of deleterious acute and chronic health costs.

Since much of what is currently known about the links between sports work and mental health and illness is derived from largely psychological studies and media-led or autobiographical accounts, more sociological research is needed to better understand the costs of mental health of working in often very public and highly pressurized, medicalized, scientized, and performance-focused performance sport settings.

Studies have proved that wood sawmill workers are exposed to high occupational risks if not well managed. In developing countries, many wood sawmills are found in urban and semi-urban areas. Studies exploring how residents near these wood sawmills perceive and react to these risks is scarce in Nigeria. The application of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) technology is possibly one of the ways to manage the likely hazards. This study aims to investigate the possible hazards associated with timber sawmills in residential areas and the role of 4IR technologies in proffering feasible solutions to mitigate them in Nigeria’s cities.

Data were sourced from three cities and nine sawmills across Nigeria. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with authoritative participants (residents, environmentalists, government agencies, sawmill owners, 4IR technology experts and medical experts) who have been championing the regulation and safety of timber sawmill locations within the cities (Lagos, Benin City and Owerri) via a phenomenology type of qualitative research and supplemented by secondary sources.

Findings show that timber sawmills are located across the three cities in Nigeria and may have contributed to the health and environmental challenges of the people living in the neighbourhood. The identified hazards were grouped into three sub-themes (physical, health and environmental hazards). Findings identify robots, modularisation, cyber-physical systems, the internet of things and services and human-computer interaction as the digitalised technology that can be used in sawmills to mitigate hazards for the benefit of mankind.

The paper is limited to hazards that residents in timber sawmills locations may face in Nigeria’s cities and data collected via face-to-face 23 interviews. The paper’s referral to past publications in the findings and discussion section compensated for the small sample size.

As part of this paper’s implications, the emerged recommendations will strengthen collaboration with relevant stakeholders regarding control measures via the use of 4IR technologies in timber sawmills. This will stir up policymakers to develop possible policies that will promote and create the platform for the implementation of 4IR technologies in city sawmills.

Apart from probably being the first paper to explore the hazards of residents in timber sawmill locations and proffer solutions via the usage of the 4IR technology, this paper’s contribution emphasis the need for in-depth future studies regarding the risk perceptions of Nigeria’s residents living in timber sawmill area.

Most research on trauma, resilience and well-being among police officers focusses on those still on active duty. Comparatively speaking, and despite an aging workforce and established negative health outcomes, similar inquiries involving police retirees are not as common. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of on- and off-the-job trauma and resilience on satisfaction with life among a sample of retired police officers.

Data were collected via a cross-sectional nonprobability electronic survey of police retirees in Ontario, Canada. While controlling for employment-related variables and demographic characteristics, a series of hierarchical multiple regression models were used to examine the effects of on- and off-the-job trauma and resilience on satisfaction with life among a sample of 932 participants.

The analysis indicates that off-the-job trauma and both personal and social dimensions of resilience contribute uniquely to satisfaction with life among police retirees. Moreover, this full model explains nearly 37% of the variance in satisfaction with life.

This study's findings offer further direction to those working to support the health and well-being of officers currently on the job and those well into their retirement years.

An understanding of the motivation of individual employees to adopt lean practices is fundamental to successful lean implementation. This study aims to investigate the adoption of lean practices and provides an analysis of the individual-level factors necessary for lean implementation. This study presents a method for assessing the impact of individual-level factors in a company deploying lean within a biopharmaceutical manufacturing subsidiary.

The case study explores the attitudes of individuals within a functionally structured organisation undergoing a lean implementation initiative. A quantitative data collection approach was used to capture data from employees in a medical device manufacturing organisation.

The study found that personality and affective organisational commitment positively affects an individual’s intention to adopt lean practices. Employees with greater levels of affective commitment are more likely to partake in lean-related practices. Individuals in functions that directly support the production process, as opposed to those in functions that indirectly support production, are more likely to participate in lean practices. Finally, individuals in supervisory roles are more likely to adopt lean practices than those in non-supervisory roles, and management should involve top performers in lean.

There is a paucity of case study research in the area of individual-level factors for lean practice adoption. The findings of this study offer practical guidance on individual-level factors for lean practice adoption and illuminate new avenues for future research. This analysis also makes a practical contribution to the literature. From a managerial perspective, understanding why certain employees are more willing to adopt lean practices contributes to an overall lean organisational readiness and implementation framework. This insight enables the development of carefully tailored communication and training programs for managing employee motivation for and receptivity to lean.

The aims of this study were to evaluate fitness levels in a cohort of police trainees and compare these results to other police trainees and the general population.

Retrospective data for 274 male and 152 female police trainees were supplied. Measures included height, body mass and physical appraisal test (PAT; 2.4 km run, vertical jump, push-ups and grip strength) results, assessed twice, prior to commencement of training, separated by several months. Wilcoxon signed rank tests were used to analyze non-parametric initial and final PAT scores and Mann–Whiney U tests were used to determine variance between groups.

Male trainees were significantly quicker in the run (−12%, p < 0.001), completed more push-ups (+74%, p < 0.001) with greater grip strength (+52% left and +50% right, p < 0.001) when compared to female trainees. Following the second PAT assessment, the significant differences between male and female trainees remained (p < 0.001). Only female trainee 2.4 km run times improved significantly between initial and final PAT (−4%, p = 0.002).

When compared to the general population from which they were drawn and to other law enforcement trainees, the police trainees in this study were quicker, more powerful and stronger. While there was no loss of fitness between initial and final PAT performance, a conditioning program, spanning the periods between initial and final PAT may be of benefit to increase fitness prior to training commencement especially for female trainees who were generally less fit than, yet must complete the same training as, male trainees.