Potential Source Of Hazard Research Articles

Research on the Extraction of Hazard Sources along High-Speed Railways from High-Resolution Remote Sensing Images Based on TE-ResUNet.

There are many potential hazard sources along high-speed railways that threaten the safety of railway operation. Traditional ground search methods are failing to meet the needs of safe and efficient investigation. In order to accurately and efficiently locate hazard sources along the high-speed railway, this paper proposes a texture-enhanced ResUNet (TE-ResUNet) model for railway hazard sources extraction from high-resolution remote sensing images. According to the characteristics of hazard sources in remote sensing images, TE-ResUNet adopts texture enhancement modules to enhance the texture details of low-level features, and thus improve the extraction accuracy of boundaries and small targets. In addition, a multi-scale Lovász loss function is proposed to deal with the class imbalance problem and force the texture enhancement modules to learn better parameters. The proposed method is compared with the existing methods, namely, FCN8s, PSPNet, DeepLabv3, and AEUNet. The experimental results on the GF-2 railway hazard source dataset show that the TE-ResUNet is superior in terms of overall accuracy, F1-score, and recall. This indicates that the proposed TE-ResUNet can achieve accurate and effective hazard sources extraction, while ensuring high recall for small-area targets.

Process Hazard Analysis Based on Modeling and Simulation Tools

Chemical and oil processes are intrinsically sources of potential hazards. Although traditional qualitative hazard identification methods are simple, systematic, and flexible, such methodologies present limitations related to the inherent subjectivity, dependence on the team’s level of experience, and widespread time consumption of the members involved. In this context, the present work aims to develop a systematic way to use computational modeling and simulation tools for hazard identification. After extensive literature review, the present work proposes a methodology based on the association of the main points of previous works, with new contributions regarding the preparation for the simulations and the characterization of the minimum set of process variables that can enable appropriate interpretation of the results. The propene polymerization process (LIPP-SHAC process) was used as a case study to illustrate the proposed procedure. The paper explores how the model can be adapted for safety analyses and simulations for different hazard scenarios. The results obtained with different models are discussed and compared to those obtained with a traditional hazard identification approach to discuss how computational process modeling and simulation tools can sum to heuristic analysis. In conclusion, the use of simulations complementing the human-based approach can indeed enhance the understanding of mechanisms of hazardous scenarios, lessen conservative decision-making, and avoid overlooking device failures that can pose a severe hazard to the process.

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Healthcare Workers Towards Medical Waste Management: A Comparative Study of Two Geographical Areas

A comparative study was carried out among healthcare workers in Sweden and Hungaray with a view of assessing their knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) towards healthcare waste management. Being a potential source of hazard and infections, healthcare waste continues to be a public health concern worldwide. Pretested questionnaire was instrument used for data collection. In both areas more female participated in the study than male. However, age groups of <20 years, 20-30years, 31-40years, 41-50years,51-60years and 61-70years yielded frequencies of 5.7%, 56.2%, 22.9%, 3.8%, 6.7% and 4.8% respectively for Swedish respondents.

The FOOT experiment: current status and future perspective for nuclear fragmentation studies in particle therapy and space radiation protection

Nuclear fragmentation processes occurring in the beam-target interaction represent a potential source of hazard for humans’ health both in particle therapy and space exploration. The FragmentatiOn Of Target (FOOT) experiment aims to characterize both beam and target fragments, and to measure with great accuracy nuclear fragmentation cross sections interesting in cancer therapy and in long-lasting interplanetary missions. In this paper, the fragments reconstruction capabilities of the FOOT experimental setup is reported. FOOT future perspective of providing useful data to improve the modelling of neutron interactions is also discussed.

IDENTIFICATION AND RISK CONTROL OF THE HACCP SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION IN THE PASTEURIZED CRAB PRODUCTION PROCESS

Background: In the production process, small accidents often occur between fellow workers in the production area, such as workers colliding with each other during the transfer process from one process to the next which causes the product to spill and workers fall, causing injury. PT. XYZ is a company engaged in the seafood industry, especially canning crabs. The company's production process applies a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) system with 12 work areas and 80% of the process is still done manually. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify risks and control the implementation of the HACCP system in the crab canning industry using the HAZOP method. Method: This type of research is a descriptive study, using the HAZOP (Hazard and Operability) method. The research was carried out at 12 nodes, namely receiving, checking aroma, sorting, mixing and filling, metal detecting, weighing, seaming, pasteurization, chilling, packing, and sanitation. Result: The results showed 4 risk ratings, namely low, medium, high, and extreme risk based on 8 sources of potential hazards. The biggest risk that is extreme is in node seaming. Conclusion: Based on processing data, 8 sources of potential hazards that can occur in the pasteurized crab meat production room. The recommendations given are to implement elimination, reduction, engineering control, administrative control, Personal Protective Equipment, work attitude improvement, and OHS training.

HAZARD IDENTIFICATION USING THE HAZARD IDENTIFICATION AND RISK ASSESSMENT AND DETERMINING CONTROL (HIRADC) TECHNIQUE (CASE STUDY AT LABORATORIES AT UNIVERSITAS ISLAM NEGERI SUMATERA UTARA)

Every workplace has a risk of accidents and health problems. The university is a workplace that has a variety of laboratories with a variety of risks, so prevention and control efforts are needed to prevent accidents and health problems for lecturers, staff, and students. Prevention and control efforts are attempts to build a culture of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) in Higher Education. This study was conducted to determine the type of hazard, risk assessment based on the source of danger and risk assessment based on the type of hazard in all laboratories at UINSU. Hazard identification and risk assessment were analyzed with Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment and Determining Control (HIRADC) Technique. The identification results obtained by sources of hazards in the form of chemical hazard. Public Health Science Faculty has 2 sources of potential hazard in high risk level and 2 sources of potential hazards in high risk level were in Science and Technology Faculty. It is expected that the identification results can be evaluated and used as reference material to determine efforts to repair and control the risk of hazards in the laboratory at UINSU. The laboratories need to have guidelines and procedures for Occupational Safety Health.

Utilization of Zeolite-Feldspar as an Potential Adsorbent for the Adsorption of COD and Ammonical Nitrogen in Stabilized Landfill Leachate

The robust combination of landfill waste recognized as a potential source of hazards. Landfills is one relatively distinctive issue associated with leachate. Generally, zeolite is considered a known adsorbent however relatively very high in cost. Meanwhile, Feldspar is the world’s most common mineral groups which making up as much as about 60 percent of the crust of the earth. Its quality and availability makes the feldspar become relatively low price material. The mixture of feldspar-zeolite are believe to produces effective and inexpensive composite for the treatment of leachate wastewater. The batch experiment was conducted in an Erlenmeyer flask, 250 mL volume with varying the volume of composite mixture ratio and then shaking for 5 hrs with 200 rpm at pH7. The optimum mixing ratio of feldspar-zeolite is chosen 1:1. The optimum removal of COD and ammonical nitrogen is 55% and 50% respectively. The availability of low-cost materials such as feldspar in the composite has helped to minimize the cost of treatment and has helped to increase the potential capacity for adsorption.

Impacts of geological conditions on instability causes and mechanical behavior of large-scale tunnels: a case study from the Sichuan–Tibet highway, China

Tunneling in complicated geological conditions frequently encounters problems with squeezing ground, large ground deformation, rockbursts, asymmetric deformation, non-linear rheology of surrounding rock, water inrush, and failure of supporting structures. In this paper, the Sichuan–Tibet highway, which is located at the north-west edge of the Sichuan basin and the eastern margin of the Qinghai–Tibet plateau, serves as a case study to investigate potential hazard sources for tunnels constructed in complex and difficult mountainous areas. Consideration first is given to the following 5 sets of conditions: crossing a fault zone, shallow tunnels in soft rock, crossing a landslide deposit, and deep tunnels in hard and soft rock formations. A program of field tests was performed to study the changes in rock pressure and the performance of support structures in different geological conditions. The results confirmed that the squeezing of rock depended upon a combination of the surrounding rock strength and the in situ stress field; fracture zones and water conditions reduced the integrity and mechanical properties of the surrounding rocks; topography and bedding structure can induce asymmetric mechanical behavior of the supporting structures during construction. Meanwhile, time-dependent rock deformation may have greater adverse impacts on the structural safety performance of tunnel during their operation.

Analysis of safety cost structure in infrastructure project of cable stayed bridge based on Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

The development of infrastructure in Indonesia is currently quite massive, in accordance with the Government of Indonesia’s policy in accelerating infrastructure developments. However, along with the increase in the construction sector, work accidents in the construction sector also increased. Cable Stayed Bridge is one of the excellent technologies in connecting islands but has a high potensial hazards and risks and it can cause fatal accidents. Accidents can be prevented through a good occupational safety and health management system (OHSMS). The application of OHSMS financing in Indonesian construction sector, especially in the cable stayed bridge has not been clearly and measurably regulated. In its implementation, the existing regulations have not yet been fully followed by the construction actors. This study aims is to develop the safety cost based on Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). The research method are survey research and descriptive analysis. The study results are the cable stayed bridge standardized WBS, potential hazard sources, the preventive action to each potential hazards in each activity, finding the safety cost components based on WBS and the calculation of safety cost percentage in order to improve the OHSMS quality and reducing work accidents in the cable stayed bridge projects.

Development of Safety Plan Based on Work Breakdown Structure to Determine Safety Costs for Building Construction Projects. Case Study: Lower Structure Building

The construction industry has an important role in the economic development of the country, especially developing countries. However, along with the increase in the construction sector, work accidents in the construction sector also increased. This accident has a negative impact on the project, such as loss of life, material, time, and others. The risk of workplace accidents can be prevented through a well-designed safety management system. The prevention of the workplace accidents can be done by identifying potential hazards that occur in each activity contained in the work breakdown structure (WBS). Identification of potential hazards is needed to be planned well so that the construction companies can take the best preventive action against any potential hazards that exist in each activity of the construction projects, so the safety performance can be improved. After the potential hazards have been identified, then the preventive actions are taken to control the hazards to minimize the safety risk rate. The implementation of safety programs requires costs. But there is no separate budget in this sector that make the implementation of the safety management is still not optimal. Thus, the financing of the safety management system was taken from the project budget, which led to a reduction in the profits of construction companies. This study aims to develop the cost of safety management system based on work breakdown structure on the building lower structure work. The results of this study are the standardized WBS of the lower structure of buildings, potential hazard sources in the lower structure of the building construction projects, the preventive action to each potential hazards in each activity, and finding the safety cost components based on work breakdown structure with the aim of improving the quality of the occupational health and safety management system and reducing work accidents in the building construction projects.

Large-scale mass wasting on small volcanic islands revealed by the study of Flores Island (Azores)

Small intra-plate volcanic islands (total height above seafloor <2500 m) have been considered gravitationally stable. Topographic, stratigraphic, structural and new K/Ar data show that the small island of Flores (Azores) is strongly asymmetric and made up of nested volcanic successions. Along the northwestern coastline, ca. 1.2 Ma lava flows are in lateral contact with a younger volcanic unit (ca. 0.7 Ma), reflecting the existence of a steep lateral discontinuity. From the general dip of the lava flows, their age and the arcuate geometry of the contact, we infer a major landslide that removed the western flank of the older volcano. Further inland, E-dipping lava flows at the summit of the island are ca. 1.3 Ma, suggesting another landslide structure that displaced the whole western half of the former volcanic edifice. Available offshore data show a large hummocky field west of Flores, here interpreted as voluminous debris-avalanche deposits. Unlike the eastern and central Azores islands, Flores sits on a relatively stable tectonic setting. Therefore, we propose that small-size volcanic islands can be sufficiently gravitationally unstable to experience recurrent episodes of large-scale mass wasting triggered by mechanisms other than tectonic earthquakes and thus represent an under-evaluated potential source of hazard and, therefore, risk.

Contemporary dimension of security for hazard and pollution in sea ports

The article discusses selected issues regarding contemporary security dimensions in the aspect of combating threats and pollution in seaports. Analyzing the problems of the modern dimension of safety on sea areas, the concept of maritime safety was clarified. Potential sources of hazards and pollution of port waters are sewage outlets discharging sanitary, industrial and rainwater sewage, transhipment processes carried out on quays, construction, renovation or maintenance works,

Materials-related issues in the safety and licensing of nuclear fusion facilities

Fusion power holds the promise of electricity production with a high degree of safety and low environmental impact. Favourable characteristics of fusion as an energy source provide the potential for this very good safety and environmental performance. But to fully realize the potential, attention must be paid in the design of a demonstration fusion power plant (DEMO) or a commercial power plant to minimize the radiological hazards. These hazards arise principally from the inventory of tritium and from materials that become activated by neutrons from the plasma. The confinement of these radioactive substances, and prevention of radiation exposure, are the primary goals of the safety approach for fusion, in order to minimize the potential for harm to personnel, the public, and the environment. The safety functions that are implemented in the design to achieve these goals are dependent on the performance of a range of materials. Degradation of the properties of materials can lead to challenges to key safety functions such as confinement. In this paper the principal types of material that have some role in safety are recalled. These either represent a potential source of hazard or contribute to the amelioration of hazards; in each case the related issues are reviewed. The resolution of these issues lead, in some instances, to requirements on materials specifications or to limits on their performance.

A simple method to help determine landslide susceptibility from spaceborne InSAR data: the Montescaglioso case study

On December 3, 2013, a large complex landslide was triggered SW of the town of Montescaglioso (Southern Italy), causing the destruction of roads, commercial buildings and private dwellings, as well as several direct and indirect economic losses. A set of interferometric ground measurements acquired by the Cosmo-SkyMed satellite constellation and processed by means of the SqueeSAR algorithm was used to study the pre-event slope displacements in the entire Montescaglioso municipal area. Data span from January 30, 2012, to December 2, 2013, and show average line-of-sight velocities of 1–10 mm/year in the slope sector ultimately affected by the collapse. In retrospect, a time series analysis of the radar targets was performed in order to identify and characterize all the slope instabilities in proximity of the town. This was based on the setup of characteristic thresholds of displacement. The procedure permitted to locate several areas which recurrently exceeded these previously established thresholds, in consistency with the amount of precipitation. In particular, the major source of potential hazard in the area was indeed found where the December 3, 2013, landslide eventually occurred. The results of this quick data processing technique were validated through comparison with two independently developed landslide maps. This simple method, which is not supposed to diminish the importance of geomorphologic field surveys, could improve both the accuracy and the update rate of landslide susceptibility maps. Not relying on arbitrary or empirically derived approaches, it has the advantage of computing statistically based thresholds specific for each time series. By indicating the slope sectors in higher need of deeper in situ investigation, more support could be provided to administrative bodies for the processes of risk assessment and management.

Inherent Safety Assessment Technique for Separation Equipment in Preliminary Engineering Stage

This paper highlights the development of new numerical approach for inherent safety assessment for separation process during the preliminary engineering stage of a typical petrochemical process lifecycle. Currently, existing inherent safety assessment technique for preliminary engineering phase did not specify the type of equipment they are applicable to as most of the methods can be used for any types of equipment generally. Aside from that, their assessment parameters are not exclusive to a certain type of unit operations. This new technique offers an inherent safety assessment focusing on chemicals safety during separation process. Parameters related to chemicals involved in separation process such as volatility, toxicity, flammability as well as explosiveness will be discussed. This technique will be constructed using logistic function which offers not only hazard assessment numerically but also graphically visualizes the effect of inherent safety parameters in designing an inherently safer process. The proposed technique can be used to effectively identify the level of hazards involved in process equipment besides highlighting the potential source of hazards in the process through numerical and graphical approach.

Analysis of glint and glare produced by the receiver of small heliostat fields integrated in building façades. Methodology applicable to conventional central receiver systems

The “Vertical Heliostat Field” (VHF) concept proposes a solution to integrate solar heliostat fields into urban communities with acceptable optical efficiencies for Concentrating Solar Power systems. It is based on a heliostat field arranged on a vertical surface, conceived to be integrated in a building façade. The glare phenomenon has been identified as a critical aspect for a VHF facility integrated in an urban environment and a potential source of hazard to nearby drivers, pedestrians or neighbors. The main goal of this work is the analysis of potential ocular hazards produced by the VHF. On the bases of the previous formulation, there has been developed a mathematical methodology that has led us to propose a series of general equations and graphs to characterize glare phenomenon produced by the receiver of a VHF, which are also applicable to conventional CSP central receiver facilities. The analysis focuses on temporary and also permanent eye damage hazards. In case of the receiver, the surface delimiting the border for permanent risk and temporary blinding is defined by the distance and the direction (angle) where the observer is placed, relative to the receiver. Thus, this border results in a revolution surface, whose largest section is obtained on the plane perpendicular to the plane of the receiver aperture. General graphs are presented, corresponding to those sections, depending on DNI and optical efficiency of the field and normalized by an areas factor. Integration of a VHF in a urban environment will always imply the establishment of an exclusion zone for vehicles and pedestrians.

A three-dimensional point process model for the spatial distribution of disease occurrence in relation to an exposure source.

We study methods for how to include the spatial distribution of tumours when investigating the relation between brain tumours and the exposure from radio frequency electromagnetic fields caused by mobile phone use. Our suggested point process model is adapted from studies investigating spatial aggregation of a disease around a source of potential hazard in environmental epidemiology, where now the source is the preferred ear of each phone user. In this context, the spatial distribution is a distribution over a sample of patients rather than over multiple disease cases within one geographical area. We show how the distance relation between tumour and phone can be modelled nonparametrically and, with various parametric functions, how covariates can be included in the model and how to test for the effect of distance. To illustrate the models, we apply them to a subset of the data from the Interphone Study, a large multinational case-control study on the association between brain tumours and mobile phone use.

Stainless Steel as a Source of Potential Hazard due to Metal Leaching into Beverages

Stainless Steel as a Source of Potential Hazard due to Metal Leaching into Beverages

Numerical Descriptive Inherent Safety Technique (NuDIST) for inherent safety assessment in petrochemical industry

This paper discusses the development of a new approach of inherent safety assessments called the Numerical Descriptive Inherent Safety Technique (NuDIST). Most current methods for assessing inherent safety use an index-based method. Among the disadvantages of such methods are the use of scaling in which hazards are divided into physical or chemical properties with subjective ranges and discontinuity at the sub-range boundaries. This new technique uses numerical assessment methods, can overcome the limitations inherent in the index-based methods and provides insights into the effect of safety parameters, i.e. temperature, pressure, heat of reaction, process inventory, flammability, explosiveness, toxicity and reactivity for the petrochemical industry. The results of the assessment can be used to easily identify the safest route among several alternatives for chemical synthesis or process retrofitting in addition to, highlighting potential sources of hazards. The proposed technique was tested using the methyl methacrylate manufacturing process. This test highlights the superiority of the Numerical Descriptive Inherent Safety Technique (NuDIST) over index-based methods. The results show that among the six routes of the MMA manufacturing process, the tertiary butyl alcohol (TBA) based route has the lowest total score and is considered the safest route, whereas the ethylene via propionaldehyde (C2/PA) based route has the highest score.

Determination of Glint and Glare of Heliostat Fields Integrated on Building Façades.

The “Vertical Heliostat Field” (VHF) concept proposes a solution to integrate solar heliostat fields into urban communities with acceptable optical efficiencies for Concentrating Solar Power systems. It is based on a heliostat field arranged on a vertical surface, conceived to be integrated in a building façade. Glare phenomenon has been distinguished as a critical aspect for a VHF facility integrated in an urban environment, as a potential source of hazard to nearby drivers, pedestrians or neighbors.The main goal of this work is the analysis of potential ocular hazards produced by the VHF. On the bases of the previous formulation, there has been performed a mathematical development that has led us to propose a series of general equations and graphs to characterize glare phenomenon produced by the receiver of a VHF, which are equally applicable to conventional CSP central receiver facilities. It has been distinguished between temporary or permanent eye damage hazards.In case of the receiver, the surface delimiting the border for permanent risk and temporary blinding is defined by the distance and the direction (angle) where the observer is placed, relative to the receiver. Thus, this border results in a revolution surface, whose largest section is obtained on the plane perpendicular to the plane of the receiver aperture. General graphs are presented, corresponding to those sections, depending on DNI and optical efficiency of the field and normalized by an areas factor.Integration of a VHF in a urban environment will always imply the establishment of an exclusion zone for vehicle and pedestrian.