Minimum Level Of Safety Research Articles

SAFETY REQUIREMENTS FOR TUNNELS REGARDING THE TRANSPORT OF DANGEROUS GOODS (ADR)

<p class="ABSTRACT"><span class="rynqvb"><span lang="EN" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">EU Tunnel Directive 2004/54/EC aims to ensure a minimum level of safety for users in road tunnels in the Trans-European Road Network. EU member states are required to develop, at national level, their own detailed methodology for tunnel risk assessment. Along with that, ADR as the UN regulation in the field of dangerous good transportation by road, contains provisions concerning restrictions on the passage of vehicles carrying dangerous goods in road tunnels. Tunnel category A-E is assigned to each tunnel on the transport route, which regulate the types of dangerous goods to be allowed to go through the tunnel in order to avoid any hazards with major consequences. In this paper, basic principles of risk assessment and categorization of tunnels in accordance.</span></span></p>

Risk-informed design and safety assessment of structures in a changing climate: a review of U.S. practice and a path forward

Standards for the design of bridges, buildings and other infrastructure specify design loads for climatic hazards such as temperature, snow, wind, and floods based on return periods presented in maps or tables that account for regional differences. These design loads were developed from statistical analyses of historical hazard data under the assumption that the past is representative of the future. Climate change may affect the frequencies and intensities of environmental hazards which, depending on regional variations, raises questions as to whether structures designed to current specifications will meet minimum safety standards over their future service lives. This paper critically appraises issues related to using historical hazard data for future designs. It reviews basic principles of uniform reliability, that modern design codes use as the basis for ensuring minimum levels of safety, describing the relationship between hazard return periods, structural reliability, risk and the maximum loads expected within a structure’s service life. Simple examples involving wind effects on structures demonstrate how to calibrate structural design hazard maps for climate-related extreme events to meet the minimum standards of safety implied in current specifications. The paper also introduces a possible practical approach to account for climate change when designing new structures and assessing the safety of existing facilities.

Loss of support assessment for precast portal frames with friction connections and masonry infills

AbstractThe loss of support of beam elements in Italian precast buildings is one of the main vulnerabilities recorded in past earthquakes. The reason for beam falling is due to the absence of adequate structural details in the beam-column joints, which were typically relying on friction for buildings located in regions previously classified as non-seismic prone. To guarantee the structural safety of the whole existing building stock, this collapse mechanism must be further investigated; in this regard, it could be interesting to evaluate the level of safety achieved by simple beam-column friction connections to allow, for instance, the prioritization of the retrofit interventions to guarantee a minimum level of safety in a wide range of structures. The paper investigates the influence of the parameters governing the beam-column relative displacements in the case of friction connections to establish criteria for evaluating the seismic loss of support probability in existing precast buildings. A simplified analytical model is introduced to describe single and double portal frames with and without the presence of stiff masonry infills. The influence of the epicentral distance on the results obtained is also preliminary addressed. Nonlinear time history analyses are carried out on a 2D finite element model to validate the effectiveness of the simplified model taking as reference a building that experienced the loss of support of a main beam during a past earthquake.

Resistance factors for reliability based-design of fiber reinforced concrete suspended slabs in flexure

Due to the inherent uncertainties in the properties of construction materials, fabrication processes, applied loads, and the approximate nature of analysis methods, modern design codes have adopted the Load and Resistance Factor Design format (LRFD) to design civil engineering structures. In this format, loads and resistance are factored to consider the random nature of design variables. For instance, the reinforced concrete suspended slabs design is covered by ACI 318 [(Committee 318, 2019) 11 code, which is currently based on the LRFD format. On the other hand, the design of fiber reinforced concrete suspended (FRC) slabs fall under ACI 544.4 [(Committee 544, 2018) 22, which is not based on LRFD; therefore, it warrants an appropriate resistance factor to be used in conjunction with the current ASCE 7 [(American Society of Civil Engineers, 2017) 33 load factors and load combinations. In this paper, a reliability-based design procedure is developed to calibrate the resistance factor for the flexural design of FRC slabs with and without conventional steel reinforcement. Statistical and probabilistic analyses of experimental data showed that the resistance model for the flexural design of hybrid FRC slabs obeys the lognormal distribution with a bias of 1.33 and a coefficient of variation of 0.24. But for FRC slabs without additional reinforcement, the bias factor and the coefficient of variation of the resistance model increase to 1.56 and 0.37, respectively. In the case of conventional reinforced concrete slabs, the current resistance factor is . In the case of FRC slabs, an additional resistance factor of shall be applied to account for the contribution of fibers. This factor consistently provides the minimum safety level (i.e., the reliability index is close to or larger than the target reliability). However, in the case of FRC slabs without conventional steel reinforcement, a resistance factor of 0.75 is recommended to consistently meet the target safety level. The effectiveness of fibers in hybrid reinforced concrete slabs is more pronounced (smaller reduction of compared to 25% for slabs with fibers alone), thus, supporting the synergetic effect between the two reinforcing materials.

Analysis of the possibility of reducing spare parts in the maintenance context 4.0

Equipment inspection arose from the need to maintain industrial facilities in satisfactory physical condition, providing the minimum level of safety and reliability in operation and maintenance. Machines and equipment cannot stop operating without planning and managing the supply chain, maintaining large quantities of spare parts stocks. The objective of this work is to analyze the possibility of predictive and / or prescriptive monitoring to contribute to the preventive maintenance of the real condition of the equipment, that is, only in real need, avoiding preventive maintenance for pre-established intervals, consequently reducing the stock of spare parts. To this end, a Systematic Literature Review (RSL) was carried out using the keywords Maintenance 4.0 and Supply Chain Management and Industrial Logistics, identifying the main authors and most relevant journals.

ANALISIS STABILITAS BANGUNAN PENGENDALI SEDIMEN PADA KONDISI BANJIR RANCANGAN DAN TAMPUNGAN SEDIMEN PENUH : SUATU KASUS DI ARBORETUM SUMBER BRANTAS, KOTA BATU

The level of land-use change in the Brantas watershed includes encroachment in the upstream area of the spring which has been increasingly massive since the 1960s, and reached the highest level in the late 1990s which driving the watershed damage. The damage in the upstream area encourages the need to increase resilience by building The Sumber Brantas Arboretum Area. This area is equipped with sedimentary control structures to ensure the long-term sustainability of the arboretum. A recent study of the rainfall plan and the security level of the sedimentary control building to the arboretum became an interesting thing to be reviewed. The analytical approach used in this study is quantitative. The method used for flood design analysis uses three methods including Log Pearson Type III Method, Gumbel Method, and Iwai Method. The selected hydrograph is the Nakayasu Hydrograph. Hydraulics analysis of sediment control buildings using HEC-RAS tools with several other hydrological calculations. The results of the analysis in the Sumber Brantas Arboretum Area showed that the design flood discharge (Q) was 59.35 m3 / sec. In flood design conditions with its own weight, the åf of the sediment control building is 42.2 (higher than the minimum safety level) and it is relatively safe, either in normal or in an earthquake condition. In the design flood conditions with full sediment storage, the Sf of sediment control buildings is 1.6 (higher than the minimum safety level) so that it is relatively safe, either in normal or in an earthquake condition.

Acute oral toxicity study of “Polyherbal formulation (Rosmarinus officinals, Ashwaghandha and Amla) in Wistar rats”

Today in this present globe many part of the continents the use of herbal medicinal products and supplements has increased tremendously over the past three decades with not less than 80% of people worldwide trusting on them for some part of primary healthcare. The study was focused to evaluate the acute oral toxicity of polyherbal formulations (PHFs) and the developed polyherbal formulation includes three herbs viz. the roots of Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha), leaves of R. officinalis (Rosemary) and fruit of Emblica officinalis (Amla) detect the effect of this polyherbal formulation on higher mammals. The raw materials were standardized according to the WHO guidelines and the three holistic extracts were mixed in 1:1:1 ratio for further study by bio-guided method and also in combination to control and curing or managing of different diseases. However, to confirm the drug’s safety and efficacy in the appropriate dosages we used healthy nulliparous and non-pregnant female Wister Albino rats (Rattus norvegicus) with average body weight of 160 g - 180 g and age between 8–12 weeks were used throught the experiments in the present study administered a single dose of 2000mg/kg of body weight by oral gavage in female Wistar rats the observation period of 14 days. The rats were maintained under standard laboratory conditions (room temperature of 22.1 to 24.6°C with optimal air cycle changes 12-15 per hour and relative humidity of 48-61 % with 12 hours light & dark cycle). The animals were fed with laboratory animal feed and UV sterilized drinking water was provided ad-libitum throughout the experimental period. Hence the present study is designed to test the acute (limit dose) toxicity of two herbal extracts of rosemary leaf and ashwagandha and amla root in Wister rats following the OECD guidelines 423, which would help in suggesting the minimum safety level of herbal extracts.

Acute oral toxicity study of “Polyherbal formulation (Rosmarinus officinals, Ashwaghandha and Amla) in Wistar rats”

Today in this present globe many part of the continents the use of herbal medicinal products and supplements has increased tremendously over the past three decades with not less than 80% of people worldwide trusting on them for some part of primary healthcare. The study was focused to evaluate the acute oral toxicity of polyherbal formulations (PHFs) and the developed polyherbal formulation includes three herbs viz. the roots of Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha), leaves of R. officinalis (Rosemary) and fruit of Emblica officinalis (Amla) detect the effect of this polyherbal formulation on higher mammals. The raw materials were standardized according to the WHO guidelines and the three holistic extracts were mixed in 1:1:1 ratio for further study by bio-guided method and also in combination to control and curing or managing of different diseases. However, to confirm the drug’s safety and efficacy in the appropriate dosages we used healthy nulliparous and non-pregnant female Wister Albino rats (Rattus norvegicus) with average body weight of 160 g - 180 g and age between 8–12 weeks were used throught the experiments in the present study administered a single dose of 2000mg/kg of body weight by oral gavage in female Wistar rats the observation period of 14 days. The rats were maintained under standard laboratory conditions (room temperature of 22.1 to 24.6°C with optimal air cycle changes 12-15 per hour and relative humidity of 48-61 % with 12 hours light & dark cycle). The animals were fed with laboratory animal feed and UV sterilized drinking water was provided ad-libitum throughout the experimental period. Hence the present study is designed to test the acute (limit dose) toxicity of two herbal extracts of rosemary leaf and ashwagandha and amla root in Wister rats following the OECD guidelines 423, which would help in suggesting the minimum safety level of herbal extracts.

Determining the minimal safety level of automatic road sign recognition system – field study survey

In this paper, the authors investigated human drivers’ road sign recognition capability to determine the minimum safety level demanded from artificial intelligence. Therefore, the authors build up a survey and tested drivers to determine the meaning of roadside signs. A small sample was required as a pilot project with 51 respondents. Most of them were male and young. As preliminary result authors have found that the roadside human recognition has been significantly influenced by the age, the year of obtaining the license, and the driver practice.

Nanomedicine Clinical Use, Regulatory and Toxicology Issues in Europe

Nano medicine is a revolutionizing field that can benefit both diagnosis and treatment and contribute to a better quality of life. Despite the expected huge benefits, the potential risks on human health are significant as well. This thesis aims to defense a perspective that in case of nascent technologies, where the data are still emerging and scientific uncertainty prevails, risk governance should sustain the process of scientific knowledge by developing guidelines, codes of conduct and public information and provide a minimum level of safety acceptable to protect human health. Although Nano medicine is at an early stage of development some cautious measures should be taken that will provide regulatory mechanisms able to respond to the challenges posed by Nano medicine, establish a minimum level of safety but will also allow the further promotion of scientific knowledge. This multidisciplinary approach can contribute in adopting regulatory choices and tools that will help manage the risks, protect human health and promote scientific knowledge. As the technologies are designed based on a clear understanding of a particular disease, disease specific oriented focus is required for the development of novel pharmaceuticals. In addition, it will be important to establish a case-by-case approach to clinical and regulatory evaluation of each Nano pharmaceutical. High priority should be given to enhancing communication and exchange of information among academia, industry and regulatory agencies encompassing all facets of this multidisciplinary approach.
 Keywords: novel pharmaceuticals, Nano pharmaceuticals, toxicological issues, clinical use, Nano medicines

FIRE SAFETY IN THE BUILT-ENVIRONMENT: A CASE STUDY IN A RESIDENTIAL FACILITY

Abstract In light of the spread of residential fires worldwide, this paper aims to identify the current fire safety code requirements for providing the minimum level of safety in residential facilities, hence, mitigating the risk of fire occurrence. The paper also presents the findings of a case study to demonstrate the compliance level of a sample residential facility, with code requirements. The case study building is composed of three floors and a basement. It can accommodate 214 persons. It was built in 2013, and it is located in Khobar, Saudi Arabia. The study revealed that the assessed facility had an adequate distribution of fire detection and notification systems. Moreover, the level of the housekeeping practices and concentration of hazardous material was found to be acceptable. However, the means of egress, fire doors and fire suppression systems were not up to code requirements. The study recommended measures to improve the level of safety in the building. These include increasing the number of fire exits; installing sprinkler heads on each floor; distributing fire extinguishers sufficiently; and installing fire rated doors. This study aims at raising awareness about the incidences of fires accidents in residential facilities and their catastrophic implications. It serves to provide a standardized fire safety management checklist, for the use of design professionals and property managers, towards the effective design and maintenance of residential facilities.

Explosive precursor safety: An application of the Deming Cycle for continuous improvement

General safety regulations need to follow a ‘one size fits all’ model, which may lead them to inadequately address challenges posed by different individual use scenarios. Hence, the regulatory requirements are best regarded as an essential minimum level of safety; further improvement essential. Discussed here is a model for developing an explosive precursor safety system. With the Singapore legal requirements for an explosive precursor as the minimum, the Deming Cycle for continuous improvement was used to develop a fully mature safety program, across two Plan-Do-Check-Act cycles that incorporated feedback and observation of continuous practice.

Child-rearing Support Provided by Public Health Nurses to People with Mental Illness: Qualitative Descriptive Study.

Background:The growing rates of deinstitutionalization in Japan have resulted in an increase in the number of children being raised by parents with mental illness. Given this situation, public health nurses working for local governments play an important role.Objective:The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to describe the child-rearing support provided by public health nurses to parents with mental illness.Methods:Seven nurses identified 28 cases of parents with mental illness. Descriptions of the goals and details of the appropriate nursing support were extracted from transcripts, coded, and categorized.Results:Parents with mental illness diagnosed with addiction and personality disorders were more difficult to support than those diagnosed with mood disorders or schizophrenia. Public health nurses supported parents with mental illness with the aim of achieving goals such as “building continuous consultative relationships,” “ensuring living conditions had a minimum level of safety and comfort,” “parents playing their roles,” “parents and children living together in the community,” and “fostering children’s growth.” While they provided support by “assessing their relationships with parents,” “building consultative relationships with parents,” “assessing parents’ illnesses/disorders and supporting,” “assessing child-rearing abilities and supporting,” and “cooperating with related agencies,” they tended to focus on the growth of the children rather than the recovery of parents.Conclusion:Consultative relationships were the beginning of support, as well as the most important and difficult skill. Public health nurses need to provide support for the recovery of parents with mental illness and learn about personality disorders and addiction.

Social Workers’ Support Skills for Parents with Mental Disorders: A Qualitative Descriptive Study in Child-Welfare Social Workers

Background: In Japan, a half to one third of child abuse cases involved parents with mental disorders. However, support skills for these parents have not been established. Objective: This qualitative descriptive study aimed to describe child-welfare social workers’ support skills for parents with mental disorders. Method: Eight social workers were interviewed, and each was asked to identify four cases (32 total cases); two were successfully supported, and two were not. Descriptions of support goals and content were extracted from transcripts, coded, and categorized. Results: Almost half of the parents with mental disorders identified in this study were diagnosed with addictive or personality disorders. Social workers supported parents in the following goals: “being able to consult when the need arises,” “living conditions with minimum level of safety and comfort for children,” “living arrangements suitable for the family,” “independence of the family,” and “growth of children.” Social workers supported more comfortable and realistic living arrangements for each family and supported them to live independently. The social workers supported the parents with the following support skills: “assessment of the needs of the family,” “assessment of and support to relationships with parents,” “assessment and support of growth of children,” “assessment and support in child-raising by parents,” “assessment and support for the stability of medical condition of parents,” “support through cooperation with other related agencies,” and “continuing support for being an independent family.” Conclusion: Social workers had many ways of assessing/supporting parents with mental disorders. However, social workers must be more sensitive to medical conditions and collaborate more with psychiatrists.

Upgrading the Arlberg tunnel to current safety standards

Austrian road tunnels within the Trans-European Road Network (TERN) must fulfil the requirements of the Directive 2004/54/EC (European Commission, 2004) not later than April 2019. This regulation has to be applied to all tunnels in the TERN with a length of more than 500m, whether they are in operation, under construction or at design stage, and aims at ensuring a minimum level of safety for road users. One of the main features of this directive is the requirement for providing an egress possibility to a safe environment every 500m throughout the whole tunnel.The Arlberg road tunnel has a length of some 15.5km and is in operation for more than 35years. It is a single tube tunnel operated with bi-directional traffic, but carries a quite low traffic volume. Hence, the construction of a second tube is not really cost effective. Currently the tunnel is equipped with a transversal ventilation system with remotely controlled smoke extraction dampers providing smoke extraction every 100m. The maximum distance between egress possibilities to a save environment is some 1500m. Due to the high costs of a construction of a second tube or a parallel running escape gallery, a novel solution was found. The existing fresh air duct will be used as safe escape way between the existing egress possibilities. This solution has big impacts on the ventilation system and on the requirements for thermal structure protection of the new egress ways, i.e. the fresh air duct. In order to overcome this problem, massive changes in the ventilation design have to be performed, accompanied by the installation of a high-pressure water-mist system for structure protection.

The role of GNSS in the navigation strategies of cost-effective agricultural robots

The current state of automation technology has led to a growing interest in the design and development of new use-case agricultural robots that can provide effective solutions to the challenges that agriculture is facing in industrialized countries, especially those derived from labor shortage and ever-increasing production costs. The advent of autonomous moderate-size machines in the field appears as a prospective way of promoting the sustainable production of food in Europe, Japan, and North America. However, there exist important obstacles to the broad expansion of autonomous robots in the field; reliability, safeguarding, system complexity, and cost-efficiency in particular rank high among the impediments to overcome before prototypes move into the production stage. Robot navigation is essential for the successful deployment of autonomous machines in conventional farms, as a minimum level of safety has to be granted at the same time that navigation engines cannot be too sophisticated for solutions to compete with current equipment. In such compromise, global navigation satellite systems play a key role due to its wide range of solutions, and an important number of limitations. In this research, a variety of experiments were conducted to determine the scope of GNSS solutions as a principal component of the navigation system of novel farm robots. Results showed that regardless of the quality of the receiver used, multipath and other uncontrollable errors eventually occur in the field, and therefore signal consistency must be continuously checked by the robot’s navigation engine. Different strategies based on the meticulous analysis of NMEA strings, the optimal combination of GGA and VTG messages, and the trajectory-based redundant estimation of robot planar states are proposed to enhance the integration of GNSS measurements in the navigation engine of agricultural robots.

MR system operator: recommended minimum requirements for performing MRI in human subjects in a research setting.

This article is intended to provide guidelines for the minimum level of safety and operational knowledge that an MR system operator should exhibit in order to safely perform an MR procedure in a human subject in a research setting. This article represents the position of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) regarding this important topic and was developed by members of this society's MR Safety Committee.

The Need to Develop a Building Code for Iraq

Building Code is a legal document that provides a minimum level of safety and health for the constructions to make the public live in safe buildings. People recognize the importance of constructing the buildings in safe conditions, since the dawn of civilization. Many countries around the world were facing different kind of disasters such as fires, earthquakes, etc. These disasters made builders develop methods for safe construction to avoid any disaster. Later, these developments became codes and standards. Since the middle of the last century many countries established its local codes. This research represented a review of the importance of the codes with a short history for them. Furthermore, reviews for some national codes (Egyptian, Syrian and Arabia Saudi) were done as well as comparison between load’s correction factors, geotechnical requirements and materials used in concrete. Most of the national codes were highly based on the ACI, British and Germany codes and standards. In addition, a review and comparison were presented for International codes (American (ACI) and European (EC)) through a case study. EC code is becoming more common for the world. Eurocode gives more flexibility to the user to employ their own standards (national annex). To find the best suitable foundation design to be used in Iraq and the differences when using the American and European codes, a building model was designed and analyzed using STAAD Pro., and SAFE softwares for three locations (Mosul, Baghdad and Basrah). The combination loads used in the two softwares were for ACI and EC codes. Results obtained were very similar. The type of foundation to be chosen for Mosul location is spread or continuous. For Baghdad location the suitable type is raft and for Basrah the choice is raft and piles. In view of the fact that Iraq has no national code, engineers and designers were depending on the ACI and British codes and standards. It is very important to have an Iraqi code because it will improve the quality and safety of the design and construction of buildings as well as its economic value.

35MPa 수소가스 자동차용 복합소재 압력용기의 응력특성에 관한 강도안전성 연구

본 논문에서는 알루미늄 라이너와 탄소섬유/에폭시 및 유리섬유/에폭시로 구성된 복합소재 압력용기에 대한 응력 안전성 연구결과를 제시하고 있다. 9.2L의 저장용량을 갖는 수소가스 자동차용 복합소재 압력용기에는 35MPa의 충전압력으로 수소가스를 압축한 경우이다. FEM 해석결과는 미국의 수소가스 압력용기에 대한 DOT-CFFC와 한국의 KS B ISO 인증기준에 기반하여 평가하였다. FEM 해석결과에서 알루미늄 라이너에 걸리는 응력 247MPa는 알루미늄 항복강도(272MPa)의 95%에 해당하는 안전기준에 비해 충분히 낮다는 결과이다. 그리고 알루미늄의 표면에 감은 탄소섬유 복합소재는 후프방향과 헤리컬방향에서 발생한 최대탄소섬유응력이 29.43%와 28.87% 수준으로 각각 나타났기 때문에 최소파열압력에서의 최대섬유응력 대비 30% 이하를 유지해야 한다는 안전기준에 부합하므로 안전하다. 또한, 탄소섬유 복합소재에 대한 응력비는 후프방향과 헤리컬방향에 대해 3.4와 3.46으로 각각 예측되었기 때문에 최소안전기준인 2.4보다 높아 안전한 것으로 나타났다. This paper presents a stress safety of a composite pressure cylinder in which is composed of an aluminum liner and composite layers with carbon fiber/epoxy and glass fiber/epoxy resigns. The composite pressure cylinder for a hydrogen gas vehicle contains 9.2 liter hydrogen gas, and hydrogen gases are compressed by a filling pressure of 35MPa. The FEM computed results are analyzed based on the US DOT-CFFC basic requirement for a hydrogen gas cylinder and KS B ISO specification. The FEM results indicate that the stress, 247MPa of an aluminum liner is sufficiently low compared with that of 272MPa, which is 95% level of a yield stress for aluminum. And, the carbon fiber composite layers in which are wound on the surface of an aluminum cylinder are safe because the maximum carbon fiber stresses from 29.43% to 28.87% in hoop and helical directions are below 30% for a given minimum required burst pressure level, respectively. The carbon fiber composite layers are also safe because the stress ratios from 3.40 to 3.46 in hoop and helical directions are above 2.4 for a minimum safety level, respectively.

70MPa 수소가스차량용 복합소재 압력용기의 응력특성에 관한 안전성 연구

This paper presents a stress safety of a composite pressure cylinder for a hydrogen gas vehicle. The composite pressure cylinder in which is composed of an aluminum liner and carbon fiber wound layers contains 104 liter hydrogen gas, and is compressed by a filling pressure of 70 MPa. The FEM computed results are analyzed based on the US DOT-CFFC basic requirement for a hydrogen gas cylinder and KS B ISO specification. The FEM results indicate that the stress, 255.2 MPa of an aluminum liner is sufficiently low compared with that of 272 MPa, which is 95% level of a yield stress for aluminum. Also, the composite layers in which are wound on the surface of an aluminum cylinder are safe because the stress ratios from 3.46 to 3.57 in hoop and helical directions are above 2.4 for a minimum safety level. The proposed composite pressure cylinder wound by carbon fibers is useful for 70 MPa hydrogen gas vehicles.