ObjectivesLaw and order enforcement tasks may expose special force police officers to significant psychosocial risk factors. The aim of this work is to investigate the relationship between job stress and the presence of mental health symptoms while controlling sociodemographical, occupational and personality variables in special force police officers.MethodAt different time points, 292 of 294 members of the ‘VI Reparto Mobile’, a special police force engaged exclusively in the enforcement of law and order, responded to our invitation to complete questionnaires for the assessment of personality traits, work-related stress (using the Demand–Control–Support (DCS) and the Effort–Reward–Imbalance (ERI) models) and mental health problems such as depression, anxiety and burnout.ResultsRegression analyses showed that lower levels of support and reward and higher levels of effort and overcommitment were associated with higher levels of mental health symptoms. Psychological screening revealed 21 (7.3%) likely cases of mild depression (Beck Depression Inventory, BDI≥10). Officers who had experienced a discrepancy between work effort and rewards showed a marked increase in the risk of depression (OR 7.89, 95% CI 2.32 to 26.82) when compared with their counterparts who did not perceive themselves to be in a condition of distress.ConclusionsThe findings of this study suggest that work-related stress may play a role in the development of mental health problems in police officers. The prevalence of mental health symptoms in the cohort investigated here was low, but not negligible in the case of depression. Since special forces police officers have to perform sensitive tasks for which a healthy psychological functioning is needed, the results of this study suggest that steps should be taken to prevent distress and improve the mental well-being of these workers.

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It is widely recognized that use of Froude similarity for scaling up wave impact pressures recorded during physical model tests may lead to over-estimation of impact maxima. Based on review of historical work dating back to 30's and further developments in the 60's and 80's., a general method is presented that is suitable for scaling up impact pressures and rise times measured during small scale physical model tests. The method accounts for the effect of air leakage and is applicable to wave impact loads on different coastal structures. The model is applied to scale up wave impact pressures on vertical walls and consistent correction factors for Froude scaling law are derived.

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In special police forces, routine work may be significantly more stressful than a single critical event.

When waves break against seawalls, vertical breakwaters , piers or jetties, they abruptly transfer their momentum into the structure. This energy transfer is always spectacular and perpetually unrepeatable but can also be very violent and affect the stability and the integrity of coastal structures. Over the last 15 years, increasing awareness of wave-impact induced structural failures of maritime structures has emphasised the need for a more complete approach to dynamic responses, including effects of impulsive loads. At the same time, movement of design standards toward probabilistic approaches requires new statistical tools able to account for uncertainties in the variability of wave loading processes. This paper presents a new approach to the definition of loads for use in performance design of vertical coastal structures subject to breaking wave impacts. Based on conservation of momentum and joint probability of non-dimensional wave impact maxima and rise times from large-scale test measurements, a new set of equations have been derived to characterise design impact loads at different non-exceedance probability levels and guidance is given for the estimation of the static-equivalent design loads to be used in early-stage feasibility studies. Predictions of static equivalent design loads and corresponding safety factor against sliding using the proposed methodology are found to be in very good agreement with both predictions by most established deterministic methods and field observations reported in literature.

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