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Much more than a technical book. Erik’s work is a well documented journey into the multiple interactions between safety, work and human nature. A timely contribution to vindicate human beings and their variability from the one sided focus on the evils of human error. A groundbreaking look at ‘the other story’ that will certainly contribute to safer and more productive workplaces. Dr Alejandro Morales, Mutual Seguridad, Chile Safety needs a new maturity. We can no longer improve by simply doing what we have been doing, even by doing it better. DR Hollnagel brings forth new distinctions, interpretations, and narratives that will allow safety to progress to new unforeseen levels. Safety-II is more than just incident and accident prevention. A must read for every safety professional. Tom McDaniel, Global Manager Zero Harm and Human Performance, Siemens Energy, Inc., USA Safety has traditionally been defined as a condition where the number of adverse outcomes was as low as possible (Safety-I). From a Safety-I perspective, the purpose of safety management is to make sure that the number of accidents and incidents is kept as low as possible, or as low as is reasonably practicable. This means that safety management must start from the manifestations of the absence of safety and that - paradoxically - safety is measured by counting the number of cases where it fails rather than by the number of cases where it succeeds. This unavoidably leads to a reactive approach based on responding to what goes wrong or what is identified as a risk - as something that could go wrong. Focusing on what goes right, rather than on what goes wrong, changes the definition of safety from ’avoiding that something goes wrong’ to ’ensuring that everything goes right’. More precisely, Safety-II is the ability to succeed under varying conditions, so that the number of intended and acceptable outcomes is as high as possible. From a Safety-II perspective, the purpose of safety management is to ensure that as much as possible goes right, in the sense that everyday work achieves its objectives. This means that safety is managed by what it achieves (successes, things that go right), and that likewise it is measured by counting the number of cases where things go right. In order to do this, safety management cannot only be reactive, it must also be proactive. But it must be proactive with regard to how actions succeed, to everyday acceptable performance, rather than with regard to how they can fail, as traditional risk analysis does. This book analyses and explains the principles behind both approaches and uses this to consider the past and future of safety management practices. The analysis makes use of common examples and cases from domains such as aviation, nuclear power production, process management and health care. The final chapters explain the theoret

The coordinated interactions between individuals are fundamental for the success of the activities in some professional categories. We reported on brain-to-brain cooperative interactions between civil pilots during a simulated flight. We demonstrated for the first time how the combination of neuroelectrical hyperscanning and intersubject connectivity could provide indicators sensitive to the humans' degree of synchronization under a highly demanding task performed in an ecological environment. Our results showed how intersubject connectivity was able to i) characterize the degree of cooperation between pilots in different phases of the flight, and ii) to highlight the role of specific brain macro areas in cooperative behavior. During the most cooperative flight phases pilots showed, in fact, dense patterns of interbrain connectivity, mainly linking frontal and parietal brain areas. On the contrary, the amount of interbrain connections went close to zero in the non-cooperative phase. The reliability of the interbrain connectivity patterns was verified by means of a baseline condition represented by formal couples, i.e. pilots paired offline for the connectivity analysis but not simultaneously recorded during the flight. Interbrain density was, in fact, significantly higher in real couples with respect to formal couples in the cooperative flight phases. All the achieved results demonstrated how the description of brain networks at the basis of cooperation could effectively benefit from a hyperscanning approach. Interbrain connectivity was, in fact, more informative in the investigation of cooperative behavior with respect to established EEG signal processing methodologies applied at a single subject level.

Recent studies suggest that carbon dioxide has an impact on cognitive function performance of office workers at concentrations previously thought to be benign (1000-2500 ppm). The only available data for CO on the flight deck indicate that the average CO concentrations are typically <1000 ppm, but the 95th percentile concentration can be as high as 1400 ppm, depending on airplane type. We recruited 30 active commercial airline pilots to fly three 3-h flight segments in an FAA-approved flight simulator with each segment at a different CO concentration on the flight deck (700, 1500, 2500 ppm). CO concentrations were modified by introducing ultra-pure CO into the simulator; ventilation rates remained the same for each segment. The pilots performed a range of predefined maneuvers of varying difficulty without the aid of autopilot, and were assessed by a FAA Designated Pilot Examiner according to FAA Practical Test Standards. Pilots and the Examiner were blinded to test conditions and the order of exposures was randomized. Compared to segments at a CO concentration of 2500 ppm, the odds of passing a maneuver as rated by the Examiner in the simulator were 1.52 (95% CI: 1.02-2.25) times higher when pilots were exposed to 1500 ppm and 1.69 (95% CI: 1.11-2.55) times higher when exposed to 700 ppm, controlling for maneuver difficulty, Examiner and order of maneuvers. Examiner rating captured a wider range of performance indicators than output from the flight simulator, which can characterize only a few quantitative aspects of the flight performance. More broadly, these findings suggest that there is a direct effect of carbon dioxide on performance, independent of ventilation, with implications for many other indoor environments that routinely experience CO concentrations above 1000 ppm.

Civil aviation is a distinctive career. Pilots need to monitor the entire system in real time. However, the psychophysiological mechanism of flying is largely unknown. The human brain is a large-scale interconnected organization, and many stable intrinsic large-scale brain networks have been identified. Among them are three core neurocognitive networks: default mode network (DMN), central executive network (CEN), and salience network (SN). These three networks play a critical role in human cognition. This study aims to examine the dynamic properties of the three large-scale brain networks in civil aviation pilots. We collected resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data from pilots. Independent component analysis, which is a data-driven approach, was combined with sliding window dynamic functional connectivity analysis to detect the dynamic properties of large-scale brain networks. Our results revealed that pilots exhibit an increased interaction of the CEN with the DMN and the SN along with a decreased interaction within the CEN. In addition, the temporal properties of functional dynamics (number of transitions) increased in pilots compared to healthy controls. In general, pilots exhibited increased between-network functional connectivity, decreased within-network functional connectivity, and a higher number of transitions. These findings suggest that pilots might have better functional dynamics and cognitive flexibility.

The impact of occupations on brain structures has attracted considerable research interests in the last decade. The aim of this research is to find the effect of flight training on brain gray matter volume of pilots. The whole-brain structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) data collected from 26 pilots and 24 controls was analyzed using Voxel-based morphological analysis method (VBM) combined with T1 data to quantitatively detect the local gray matter of brain tissue and calculate the gray matter volume. The result shows that the pilot group has larger gray matter volume in the lingual gyrus and fusiform gyrus compared to the control group (P<0.05). Furthermore, there is a positive correlation between the gray matter volume and the number of flight hours (r = 0.426, P = 0.048) after studying the average gray matter volume value of the agglomerate of participants whose flight hours are between 0 and 1000 hours. The lingual gyrus and fusiform gyrus are involved in high-level visual processing, memory, multisensory integration and perception. The study has indicated the flight training could enlarge gray matter volume in the lingual gyrus and fusiform gyrus. During flying, pilots need to observe the instrumentation in the cockpit and fully interpret the readings, which may lead to the results.

Abstract Background Pilots' physical and mental health might be significant contributing factors to flight safety. Exploring pilots’ health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is crucial for aviation security, health management, and psychological security. This study aimed to explore HRQoL and mental health of pilots and analyze the health characteristics and influencing factors, such as demographic data, personality traits, social support, and resilience. It may provide data for a theoretical basis for aviation security work and health management strategy. Methods This is a cross-sectional study using quantitative approaches. Two hundred twenty male pilots with an average age of 33.31 years participated. They answered a social demographic questionnaire, Symptom Checklist-90 , Short Form 36 Health Survey Questionnaire, Perceived social support scale, Connor-Davidson resilience scale, and Big Five Personality Inventories, whose data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results The mediating effect of personality factors between resilience and the HRQoL of pilots was observed. Personality factors also mediated the relationship between social support and the mental health of pilots. Conclusion Pilots’ mental health and quality of life need to be taken seriously. Social support, resilience, and personality factors affect pilots’ mental health and quality of life.