Types Of Safeguards Research Articles

Safeguards identification in computer aided HAZOP study by means of multilevel flow modelling

Multilevel Flow Modelling (MFM) was proposed as a knowledge representation method for Hazard and Operability Studies (HAZOPs). MFM reasoning software can facilitate the cause-consequence analysis during the HAZOP analysis of whole life cycle of the plant. Recent studies have further confirmed that MFM offers the opportunity to redeploy the insights achieved by the HAZOP team to assist an operator dealing with an abnormal event. However, past studies into MFM-based HAZOP have been lacking in the specification of the principle. This principle makes MFM possible to determine safeguards for studied hypothetical events. This paper proposes such principle, which further increases the application of computer aids in HAZOP studies. The paper provides an analysis and classification of different types of safeguards on the functional level and introduces the safeguards into MFM methodology. It further presents an MFM-specific barrier function and its reasoning rules. The safeguard representation and reasoning transparency explicitly the relationship between suitable safeguards and hypothetical events given knowledge about the complex interdependencies between process design, equipment design, safety barriers and instrumentation. Based on the principles developed, an existing MFM model of a typical oil and gas process module is extended with explicit safety functions and used as an example for utilizing the specified principle for identification of safeguards. Potential safeguards for the process module are produced as the results.

Respecting international humanitarian law and safeguarding humanitarian action in counterterrorism measures: United Nations Security Council resolutions 2462 and 2482 point the way

AbstractUnited Nations, regional and domestic counterterrorism measures have generated a cascade of adverse effects for impartial humanitarian activities in areas where designated groups are present. Certain humanitarian activities, diverted supplies and incidental payments can fall foul of broadly worded counterterrorism regulation proscribing or criminalizing financial and other support to designated groups. Donors to humanitarian organizations set strict conditions and financial institutions decline transactions, hampering impartial humanitarian activities in the very instances in which international humanitarian law (IHL) requires that they be allowed. Recognizing this, United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions 2462 and 2482 adopted in 2019 have spelled out more explicitly than ever before the need for counterterrorism measures to comply with IHL and safeguard impartial humanitarian action in line with IHL. This article sets out those IHL obligations that govern humanitarian and medical activities and the types of safeguards that States have put in place to ensure their counterterrorism measures comply with IHL and allow for these activities. The UNSC's latest steer in resolutions 2462 and 2482 provides a foundation for States’ exclusion of impartial humanitarian and medical activities from the scope of application of their counterterrorism measures. This can be an effective way of averting adverse consequences for these activities where designated entities are present.

Managing differentiated disintegration: Insights from comparative federalism on post-Brexit EU–UK relations

This article applies insights from comparative federalism to analyse different models for managing future EU–UK relations. The argument is that the stability of the EU–UK relationship before as well as after Brexit is best understood by examining the presence of federal safeguards. Drawing on Kelemen, four types of safeguards are identified as the means for balancing centrifugal and centripetal forces. During the United Kingdom’s European Union membership, the strong glue provided by structural and judicial safeguards was undone by the weakness of partisan and socio-cultural ones. However, each post-Brexit scenario is characterised by weaker structural and judicial safeguards. The most stable outcome is an indeterminate Brexit that limits the incentive to politicise sovereignty and identity concerns by ending free movement of people and reducing the saliency of European Union rules. Such stability is nevertheless relative in that, from a comparative perspective, federal-type safeguards were stronger when the United Kingdom was still in the European Union.

Regulating Non Audit Services: Towards a Principles Based Approach to Regulation

Based on the argument that the benefits conferred through the provision of non audit services by audit firms outweigh the attributed costs of safeguarding the auditor's independence, this paper will not only seek to justify this argument, advance proposals which do not favour an outright prohibition of the provision of non audit services, but also consider means through which non audit services could be regulated in order to facilitate competition in the audit market. At the same time it will consider various legislation which have been introduced in recent years and which are aimed at facilitating greater disclosure of information – hence improving transparency within the audit and financial markets. “Specific measures,” it is contended, “would involve not only the introduction of new standards (for example – the disclosure of client concentration) but also the elimination of current restrictions“. Different types of safeguards which exist in order “to mitigate or eliminate threats” to the auditor’s independence, as a result of the provision of non audit services, will be considered against the regulator’s aim to facilitate competition, enhance disclosure and promote other practices which would advance the regulator’s endeavour to be more “market friendly”. The consultation on control structures in audit firms and their consequences on the audit market, a consultation which was launched by the European Commission as part of its efforts to create more market players, could be regarded as a response to such proposals to facilitate a more “market friendly” environment and also to concerns that the financial market is already over regulated. Some of the possible ways advanced by the Commission as channels for facilitating greater entry into the international market include the deregulation of the capitalisation of audit firms as a catalyst for facilitating greater entry into the audit market. Deregulation of the capital structure in this sense is considered to be a “modification of Article 3 (4) of the 2006 Directive on Statutory Audit which should however not be to the detriment of robust independence rules.”

Problems with machine safeguards in automated installations

Even though the automation of production has come a long way, injuries from machine movements remain a problem. The focus of the current study is on problems of machine safeguarding in automated installations. How come automation accidents have occurred despite the presence of safeguards? The paper reports problems related to safety devices from 76 accidents in automated production, and relates them to findings from other studies and the problems described in handbooks and other literature. Safeguards are categorized according to their function, and the study addresses the nature of the safeguarding problem rather than the frequency with which problems arise. There are, above all, four problems of safeguards that have commonly emerged from accident investigations: no or a low level of safeguarding, safeguards not being used, safeguards not stopping all machine movements in the risk zone, and safeguards not being capable of providing protection under the circumstances that prevail. It is shown that all types of safeguards have their problems; and, in particular that they do not always function adequately in conjunction with the handling of production disturbances. A production installation should not automatically be regarded as safe simply because it possesses an impressive range of safeguards. Relevance to industry The practical relevance of the paper lies in it addressing safeguarding problems that go beyond those described in regulations and standards. It highlights accidents that occur despite the presence of safeguards, and shows how safeguards may be deficient in an operational setting.