Evolutionary Game Research on Symmetry of Workers’ Behavior in Coal Mine Enterprises

Game analysis of enterprise safety investment and employee safety behavior strategy evolution in high-risk industries

This paper aims to explore the influential relationship between the decision-making of investment of enterprise safety and employee safety behavior strategy selection, thus improve the effectiveness of decision-making. Based on traditional game theory, this paper establishes an evolutionary game model of enterprise safety investment and employee safety behavior strategy selection, and conducts numerical simulation analysis. The result shows:when the security investment cost is greater than the security investment benefit, the employee's security behavior strategy choice is significant for the enterprise security investment strategy decision; when the security investment benefit is greater than the security investment cost, the enterprise security investment decision is not affected by the employee safety behavior strategy; the choice of employee safety behavior strategy is not affected by the choice of enterprise safety investment strategy. The conclusion can provide a reference basis for enterprise safety production decision-making, which has certain theoretical and practical significance.

Evaluation and improvement of the resilience of a transportation system against epidemic diseases: A system dynamics approach

The influential role of health protocols in preventing the spread of the COVID-19 disease has led governments to seek effective methods for implementing these protocols in the society. Considering the importance of public transportation system in spread of viruses, this paper introduces and analyzes some methods of inspecting urban public transportation companies using system dynamics approach. First, the base model, which represents the status of a public transportation terminal, was created and validated using a system dynamics simulation approach. Then the impact of two penalty policies, including fixed penalty policy (FPP) and variable penalty policy (VPP) on the violations within the terminal was investigated. The simulation results show that the variable penalty policy significantly reduces the violations of passenger terminal drivers. Next, the extended model was developed which considered several terminals. Finally, by presenting two policies of fixed inspector assignment (FIA) and variable inspector assignment (VIA), the effect of four scenarios of combining inspection and penalties policies was investigated. The simulation results showed that combining the variable penalty and variable inspector assignment policies could significantly reduce terminal violations. Also, the implementation of this policy does not require an additional inspector. The results can help city managers to adopt appropriate inspection policies.

The impact of inspection policies on reducing disease prevalence in public buildings: A systems dynamics approach

The occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic revealed new dimensions of urban resilience to communities. Failure to implement health protocols in public buildings has had a significant impact on the spread of the disease, and inspection has become necessary to enforce the rules. This study presents different inspection policies of public buildings to reduce disease prevalence. It evaluates and compares the implementation of these policies in the long run based on the systems dynamics approach. First, baseline modeling was performed without inspection to analyze the proposed policies, and disease prevalence was investigated. Then various proposed inspection and fines policies, including fixed inspection and fines rate (FIFF), fixed inspection rate with the variable fine rate (FIVF), and variable inspection and fines rate (VIVF), are introduced, and their system dynamics models are presented. The impact of each inspection policy on the violations rate and disease prevalence in public buildings has been investigated using long-term simulation. Based on the results, regulatory agencies can significantly reduce the rate of violations in public buildings and improve urban resilience to the epidemic by adopting proper inspection policies. The results can help city managers to adopt appropriate inspection policies.

Comprehensive Evaluation of Deep Coal Miners' Unsafe Behavior Based on HFACS-CM-SEM-SD

The unsafe behavior of miners seriously affects the safety of deep mining. A comprehensive evaluation of miners' unsafe behavior in deep coal mines can prevent coal mine accidents. This study combines HFACS-CM, SEM, and SD models to evaluate miners' unsafe behaviors in deep coal mining. First, the HFACS-CM model identifies the risk factors affecting miners' unsafe behavior in deep coal mines. Second, SEM was used to analyze the interaction between risk factors and miners' unsafe behavior. Finally, the SD model was used to simulate the sensitivity of each risk factor to miners' unsafe behavior to explore the best prevention and control strategies for unsafe behavior. The results showed that (1) environmental factors, organizational influence, unsafe supervision, and unsafe state of miners are the four main risk factors affecting the unsafe behavior of miners in deep coal mines. Among them, the unsafe state of miners is the most critical risk factor. (2) Environmental factors, organizational influence, unsafe supervision, and the unsafe state of miners have both direct and indirect impacts on unsafe behaviors, and their immediate effects are far more significant than their indirect influence. (3) Environmental factors, organizational influence, and unsafe supervision positively impact miners' unsafe behavior through the mediating effect of miners' unsafe states. (4) Mental state, physiological state, business abilities, resource management, and organizational climate were the top five risk factors affecting miners' unsafe behaviors. Taking measures to improve the adverse environmental factors, strengthening the organization's supervision and management, and improving the unsafe state of miners can effectively reduce the risk of miners' unsafe behavior in deep coal mines. This study provides a new idea and method for preventing and controlling the unsafe behavior of miners in deep coal mines.

The Dynamic Evolution Law of Coal Mine Workers’ Behavior Risk Based on Game Theory

In the safety production system of coal mining enterprises, the income of workers affects the evolution of group behavior and then affects risky behaviors. Due to the nonlinearity and chaos of group behavior, its evolution is long and complex. This study investigated the dynamic evolution process of coal miners’ group behavior to explore the law of group safety behavior and effectively promoted the safety of group behavior. First, a questionnaire survey was conducted on the influencing factors of coal mine workers’ group safety behavior. Then, based on the results of the questionnaire, the coefficients of the influencing factors were obtained, and the game model was established. Finally, the game income was simulated and analyzed. The results showed that the income of workers was positively correlated with the safety of group behavior. Safety performance could effectively improve the level of group safety behavior. The safety management system of coal mining enterprises was further improved and expanded and was applied. The statistical analysis of the violations showed that the results of this study could be used to influence the risky group behavior of coal mine workers and improve the level of coal mine safety production.

Influencing Factors, Formation Mechanism, and Pre-control Methods of Coal Miners′ Unsafe Behavior: A Systematic Literature Review

Coal mine accidents are mainly caused by the unsafe behavior of workers. Studying workers' unsafe behaviors can help in regulating such behaviors and reducing the incidence of accidents. However, there is a dearth of systematic literature review in this area, which has hindered mine managers from fully understanding the unsafe behavior of workers. This study aims to address this research gap based on the literature retrieved from the Web of Science. First, a descriptive statistical analysis is conducted on the year, quantity, publications, and keywords of the literature. Second, the influencing factors, formation mechanism, and pre-control methods of coal miners' unsafe behavior are determined and discussed, and the research framework and future research directions of this study are proposed. The study results will help mine safety managers fully understand the influencing factors, formation mechanism, and pre-control methods of workers' unsafe behavior, and lay a theoretical foundation for the future research direction in this field.

Research on the Mixed Education Mode for the Safety Engineering Major during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Epidemic

During the COVID-19 epidemic, many countries faced a critical situation in terms of the global economy and human social activities, including education. In China, the coronavirus is better controlled. Chinese university students have returned to school to study. Despite previous research on online education and learning, the readiness of students for the online and offline learning models implemented at this particular time is not well understood. This paper discusses a hybrid education model for undergraduate students in the safety engineering major. Questionnaires are administered to faculty and students from different colleges and universities in the same major to statistically summarize the influencing factors of mixed or hybrid education. The system dynamics (SD) model is constructed and simulated to determine that using online in the tenth to fifteenth, twenty-fifth to thirtieth, and fortieth to forty-fifth min of classroom teaching (50 min in total) can effectively increase students’ interest and engagement in learning. More hands-on activities should also be considered to enhance students’ motivation to acquire knowledge, and consideration could be given to encourage interaction among students. This study will be continuously improved by a follow-up study of undergraduate student performance. This study has important implications for educators implementing online and offline blended instruction.

Developing a Construction Safety Standard System to Enhance Safety Supervision Efficiency in China: A Theoretical Simulation of the Evolutionary Game Process

Labor safety is one of the most fundamental indicators to improve contractors’ sustainability. Safety supervision plays a crucial role in affecting the safety performance of infrastructure projects. However, studies of standards development to enhance safety supervision efficiency are far from complete. Safety standards define safe behaviors for construction workers and hazard control processes in the workplace, and they are usually considered as an important part of safety control. In addition, the systematic reform of construction safety standards in China provides an innovative perspective to enhance safety supervision efficiency by linking standards to supervision. For this purpose, this paper proposes the concept and framework of the “Construction Safety Standard System (CSSS)” through expert interviews. CSSS hierarchically classifies safety standards and integrates similar standards. Its implementation will significantly influence the behavioral decisions of safety supervision stakeholders. Evolutionary game (EG) theory is applied to demonstrate the decision-making procedure in CSSS establishment and application. Furthermore, system dynamics (SD) is utilized to model and analyze equilibrium states under different supervision strategies. Meanwhile, case studies are implemented to assess the CSSS’s effectiveness in reality. The numerical results indicate that through CSSS implementation, the strategy choice fluctuation of supervisors and contractors is suppressed and a more desirable stable equilibrium is reached. The government tends to supervise and contractors tend to obey safety standards consciously. The findings reveal that CSSS can enhance safety supervision efficiency and have meaningful implications for theoretical study on safety supervision and construction safety management practice.

Research on the Evolution of the Express Packaging Recycling Strategy, Considering Government Subsidies and Synergy Benefits

With the year-on-year growth of e-commerce transactions and the increasing popularity of the concept of ecological civilization, the waste and recycling of express packages have aroused widespread discussion and attention. On the issue of express package recycling, how consumers, e-commerce enterprises, and e-commerce platforms choose their own strategies, how to better promote the recycling of express packages, and what is the effect mechanism of government subsidies on different players. These are the questions that this article wants to answer. Since this article involves many stakeholders, in order to better identify the strategic choice and evolution of different entities and to better study the influence of government subsidies on the strategic choice of game players, this article uses two triparty evolutionary game models. The results show that without subsidies, changes in the rate of return and the initial probability will affect the evolution of the equilibrium strategy, while the synergistic benefits will have a corrective effect in some cases; when government subsidies are included and the probability of the three parties choosing “green strategies” is relatively low, subsidies should be paid to e-commerce companies mainly; lower subsidies can only provide incentives for e-commerce platforms. This article can provide certain references and value for government policymakers.

Predicting Hidden Danger Quantity in Coal Mines Based on Gray Neural Network

The hidden danger is the direct cause of coal mine accidents, and the number of hidden dangers in a certain area not only reflects the current safety situation, but also determines the development trend of safety production in this area to a large extent. By analyzing the formation and development law of the hidden dangers and hidden danger accident-induced mechanism in coal mines, it is concluded that there are some objective laws in the process of occurrence, development, weakening, and even stabilization of hidden dangers in a certain area. The development of the number of hidden dangers for a coal mine generally presents the law of similar normal distribution curve, with a certain degree of partial symmetry. Many years of hidden danger elimination in coal mines will accumulate large-scale hidden danger data. In this paper, by using the average value of hidden danger quantity in consecutive months to weaken the oscillation of hidden danger quantity sequence, and combining with gray model (1,1) and the neural network of extreme learning machine, and employing big data of hidden dangers available, a hidden danger quantity prediction model based on the gray neural network was established, and the experimental analysis and verification carried out. The results show that the model can achieve good prediction effect on the number of hidden dangers in a coal mine, which not only reflects the complex gray system behavior of hidden dangers of a coal mine, but also can predict dynamically. The safety management efficiency and emergency capacity of the coal mine enterprise will be greatly improved.

Dynamic Evolution of Safety Regulation of the Ridesharing Industry under Social Media Participation

The emergence of ridesharing has spread against the background of the sharing economy. There have been a lot of controversies since the emergence of ridesharing, particularly regarding regulatory issues. The safety regulation of the ridesharing industry involves many parties, including governments, platform companies, and society at large. Currently, because of the influence of information asymmetry, it increases the uncertainty of governments’ regulation effect and the difficulty of making regulation measures. Meanwhile, social media, one of the most important forces of social regulation, has not paid enough attention to playing an appropriate role in the safety regulation of the ridesharing industry. Therefore, this study constructs an evolutionary game model between governments and platform companies that concerns the safety regulations of ridesharing passengers under social media participation. The influence path of social media is explored by model solution and numerical simulation. Our results indicate that social media participation has a positive impact on this safety regulation. Specifically, social media participation could reduce governments’ regulatory costs and encourage it to strictly regulate. The exposure of social media could bring losses to platform companies involved and promote platform companies’ investments in improving passengers’ safety. This study provides a decision basis for governments to introduce social media in the safety regulation of the ridesharing industry.

Research on Safety Regulation of Chemical Enterprise under Third-Party Mechanism: An Evolutionary Approach

In recent years, China’s chemical industry has incurred frequent safety accidents which seriously impact the social environment and public safety. Traditional approaches have reached a bottleneck due to a lack of relevant professionals in the government regulation of chemical enterprise safety production. Thus, a new safety regulation mechanism should be conducted. In this paper, we constructed an evolutionary game model of chemical industry safety regulation based on limited rationality, and the influence of main parameters on the equilibrium evolution process is studied by system dynamics simulation. The results show that government regulation authorities play a leading role in the process of chemical industry safety regulation and increasing punishment will help to achieve an evolutionary stable strategy (ESS). What is more, the feasibility and effectiveness of the third-party regulation service mechanism are verified, and the market access threshold of third-party regulation service needs to be improved to stop the occurrence of rent-seeking activities in the regulatory process. In summary, the introduction of third-party regulation service entities to the chemical industry safety regulation process has far-reaching implications for promoting the healthy development of China’s chemical industry.