Cascading events triggering industrial accidents: quantitative assessment of NaTech and domino scenarios

The so called cascading events, which lead to high-impact low-frequency scenarios are rising concern worldwide. A chain of events result in a major industrial accident with dreadful (and often unpredicted) consequences. Cascading events can be the result of the realization of an external threat, like a terrorist attack a natural disaster or of “domino effect”. During domino events the escalation of a primary accident is driven by the propagation of the primary event to nearby units, causing an overall increment of the accident severity and an increment of the risk associated to an industrial installation. Also natural disasters, like intense flooding, hurricanes, earthquake and lightning are found capable to enhance the risk of an industrial area, triggering loss of containment of hazardous materials and in major accidents. The scientific community usually refers to those accidents as “NaTechs”: natural events triggering industrial accidents. In this document, a state of the art of available approaches to the modelling, assessment, prevention and management of domino and NaTech events is described. On the other hand, the relevant work carried out during past studies still needs to be consolidated and completed, in order to be applicable in a real industrial framework. New methodologies, developed during my research activity, aimed at the quantitative assessment of domino and NaTech accidents are presented. The tools and methods provided within this very study had the aim to assist the progress toward a consolidated and universal methodology for the assessment and prevention of cascading events, contributing to enhance safety and sustainability of the chemical and process industry.

Características de la estructura del sector industrial en la provincia de Mendoza al inicio del siglo XXI.

Luego de un período de desmantelamiento de la estructura productiva nacional desde fines de 2002 la economía argentina comenzó lentamente a recuperarse, con una incipiente revitalización de la industria. En este escenario, el trabajo describe el perfil y las características de la estructura industrial de la provincia de Mendoza con el fin de trazar el punto de partida para el potencial desarrollo económico local, en relación con la distribución geográfica de las unidades productivas, los sectores más dinámicos y su concentración, diferenciando a aquellas según tamaño definido por cantidad de ocupados. Los datos analizados provienen del Censo Industrial Provincial, 2002/2003.

El establecimiento vitivinícola : Un conjunto edilicio al servicio de un modelo industrial por un siglo (1870-1970)

La vitivinicultura en la provincia de Mendoza, Argentina, se desarrolló a escala industrial y moderna a partir de fines del siglo XIX e inició su declinación en la década de 1970, lo que desencadenó la segunda modernización vitivinícola desde la de 1980. Las necesidades funcionales de esta época requirieron de construcciones con fines tanto habitacionales como productivos, lo que dio origen a conjuntos o complejos edilicios denominados establecimientos vitivinícolas. Las bodegas integrantes de estos conjuntos son los edificios destinados a elaborar vino; es decir, los cuerpos productivos donde se desarrolla la actividad vitivinícola. El resto de las edificaciones sirven de soporte para dicha actividad. Las unidades funcionales requeridas en los establecimientos han variado en el tiempo: se fueron adaptando de acuerdo con las diversas exigencias productivas de cada momento. En la actualidad, los establecimientos vitivinícolas que fueron construidos desde 1870 a 1970 se pueden encontrar adaptados a las nuevas exigencias productivas y en funcionamiento, o en un completo abandono. Los conjuntos de construcciones, junto a diversos implementos que los integran, son testimonios, huellas de otras realidades y conocimientos que acontecieron en ellos. Por ello, en el presente trabajo nos proponemos un análisis histórico-arquitectónico sobre la evolución de la materialidad de los establecimientos vitivinícolas desde 1870 hasta 1970; focalizamos nuestro estudio en comprender su crecimiento edilicio y el motivo de la distribución y ubicación de las diversas edificaciones que los integraron, en estrecha relación con la función y el marco contextual al que pertenecen

El establecimiento vitivinícola : Un conjunto edilicio al servicio de un modelo industrial por un siglo (1870-1970)

La vitivinicultura en la provincia de Mendoza, Argentina, se desarrolló a escala industrial y moderna a partir de fines del siglo XIX e inició su declinación en la década de 1970, lo que desencadenó la segunda modernización vitivinícola desde la de 1980. Las necesidades funcionales de esta época requirieron de construcciones con fines tanto habitacionales como productivos, lo que dio origen a conjuntos o complejos edilicios denominados establecimientos vitivinícolas. Las bodegas integrantes de estos conjuntos son los edificios destinados a elaborar vino; es decir, los cuerpos productivos donde se desarrolla la actividad vitivinícola. El resto de las edificaciones sirven de soporte para dicha actividad. Las unidades funcionales requeridas en los establecimientos han variado en el tiempo: se fueron adaptando de acuerdo con las diversas exigencias productivas de cada momento. En la actualidad, los establecimientos vitivinícolas que fueron construidos desde 1870 a 1970 se pueden encontrar adaptados a las nuevas exigencias productivas y en funcionamiento, o en un completo abandono. Los conjuntos de construcciones, junto a diversos implementos que los integran, son testimonios, huellas de otras realidades y conocimientos que acontecieron en ellos. Por ello, en el presente trabajo nos proponemos un análisis histórico-arquitectónico sobre la evolución de la materialidad de los establecimientos vitivinícolas desde 1870 hasta 1970; focalizamos nuestro estudio en comprender su crecimiento edilicio y el motivo de la distribución y ubicación de las diversas edificaciones que los integraron, en estrecha relación con la función y el marco contextual al que pertenecen

El establecimiento vitivinícola : Un conjunto edilicio al servicio de un modelo industrial por un siglo (1870-1970)

La vitivinicultura en la provincia de Mendoza, Argentina, se desarrolló a escala industrial y moderna a partir de fines del siglo XIX e inició su declinación en la década de 1970, lo que desencadenó la segunda modernización vitivinícola desde la de 1980. Las necesidades funcionales de esta época requirieron de construcciones con fines tanto habitacionales como productivos, lo que dio origen a conjuntos o complejos edilicios denominados establecimientos vitivinícolas. Las bodegas integrantes de estos conjuntos son los edificios destinados a elaborar vino; es decir, los cuerpos productivos donde se desarrolla la actividad vitivinícola. El resto de las edificaciones sirven de soporte para dicha actividad. Las unidades funcionales requeridas en los establecimientos han variado en el tiempo: se fueron adaptando de acuerdo con las diversas exigencias productivas de cada momento. En la actualidad, los establecimientos vitivinícolas que fueron construidos desde 1870 a 1970 se pueden encontrar adaptados a las nuevas exigencias productivas y en funcionamiento, o en un completo abandono. Los conjuntos de construcciones, junto a diversos implementos que los integran, son testimonios, huellas de otras realidades y conocimientos que acontecieron en ellos. Por ello, en el presente trabajo nos proponemos un análisis histórico-arquitectónico sobre la evolución de la materialidad de los establecimientos vitivinícolas desde 1870 hasta 1970; focalizamos nuestro estudio en comprender su crecimiento edilicio y el motivo de la distribución y ubicación de las diversas edificaciones que los integraron, en estrecha relación con la función y el marco contextual al que pertenecen

Supplemental Data - Bioremediation of polluted air from an industrial plant using rotating biofilter reactor-based technology

Two microbial isolates (HDB, Hydrogen-Degrading Bacteria) obtained from industrial wastewater were inoculated into the rotating biofilter reactor 'Biowheel 2.0' and tested for the ability to purify gaseous flows containing benzene and non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) released at an industrial plant. Different classes of gaseous flow were tested, namely 'cold box', 'in shell', and 'mix', all of them associated with the industrial process of 'mold-casting'. A significant increase in Removal Efficiency (RE) was recorded for benzene and NMVOCs in the inoculated 'Biowheel 2.0' biofilter, compared to uninoculated control. For each type of gaseous flow, odor impact was evaluated in the inlet and outlet flows at the industrial plant, using the test panel method and electronic nose technology. A significant drop in the amount of Olfactometric Units (O.U.) m-3 occurred in the gaseous flows treated with the bacterial consortium. The reported data demonstrate the ability of the consortium to degrade hydrocarbons, revealing its potential for bioremediation of polluted air emissions occurring at industrial plants.

Structural Alterations of Lignins in Transgenic Poplars with Depressed Cinnamyl Alcohol Dehydrogenase or Caffeic Acid O-Methyltransferase Activity Have an Opposite Impact on the Efficiency of Industrial Kraft Pulping1

We evaluated lignin profiles and pulping performances of 2-year-old transgenic poplar (Populus tremula × Populus alba) lines severely altered in the expression of caffeic acid/5-hydroxyferulic acid O-methyltransferase (COMT) or cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD). Transgenic poplars with CAD or COMT antisense constructs showed growth similar to control trees. CAD down-regulated poplars displayed a red coloration mainly in the outer xylem. A 90% lower COMT activity did not change lignin content but dramatically increased the frequency of guaiacyl units and resistant biphenyl linkages in lignin. This alteration severely lowered the efficiency of kraft pulping. The Klason lignin level of CAD-transformed poplars was slightly lower than that of the control. Whereas CAD down-regulation did not change the frequency of labile ether bonds or guaiacyl units in lignin, it increased the proportion of syringaldehyde and diarylpropane structures and, more importantly with regard to kraft pulping, of free phenolic groups in lignin. In the most depressed line, ASCAD21, a substantially higher content in free phenolic units facilitated lignin solubilization and fragmentation during kraft pulping. These results point the way to genetic modification of lignin structure to improve wood quality for the pulp industry.

Capitalism without Capitalists? A Bottom-Up View of Industrial Transformation in East Germany. CES Germany & Europe Working Papers, No. 00.1, 1999

Research on the industrial transition in East Germany and its outcomes has long focused on the strategy of the Treuhand­ anstalt (IHA). According to institutionalists, David Stark and Lazlo Brust!: (1998), the powerful position of the German privatization agency was not only a result of German unification but also a function of a pathway rooted in the institutional peculiarities of the East German economy before 1989. This paper shows that neither a simple top-down perspective nor the pathway approach, as Stark and Brust!: suggested, are adequate for explaining the internal dynamic of enterprise transformation as well as the outcomes of this process. First of all, the dissolution of the former organizational structures and hierarchies was less coordinated by the 1HA than is often assumed. Often Kombinates fell apart more quickly from below than they could be dismantled from above since enterprises or their units chose the exit­ option and had good reasons to do so. Secondly, although the privatization by the 1HA resulted in the clear dominance of Western investors, the new ownership structure of East German industry as a whole could be characterized as a "capitalism without (East German) capitalists." In fact, what exists in East Germany is rather a kind of "small business capitalism" (KleinbetriebsknpitalifmllS) in which small-and medium-sized producers dominate the landscape. Finally, there was no single starting point in 1989. Two different industrial orders shaped the industrial history of the East German regions which were not destroyed between 1945-89, but rather transformed into the state socialist production system. It can be shown that these older historical patterns are relevant for transition and their outcomes as well.

Suggested job sheet units for beginners in machine shop practice.

Mode of access: Internet.

Care and operation of pumping engines and units.

Mode of access: Internet.

Ranking efficient decision-making units in data envelopment analysis using fuzzy concept

This paper introduces a new mathematical method for improving the discrimination power of data envelopment analysis and to completely rank the efficient decision-making units (DMUs). Fuzzy concept is utilised. For this purpose, first all DMUs are evaluated with the CCR model. Thereafter, the resulted weights for each output are considered as fuzzy sets and are then converted to fuzzy numbers. The introduced model is a multi-objective linear model, endpoints of which are the highest and lowest of the weighted values. An added advantage of the model is its ability to handle the infeasibility situation sometimes faced by previously introduced models.

Análise de confiabilidade de um moto-ventilador centrífugo: aplicação no sistema de pressurização de subestação industrial para garantia da segurança operacional na indústria petroquímica

The need of the oil industry to ensure the safety of the facilities, employees and the environment, not to mention the search for maximum efficiency of its facilities, makes it seeks to achieve a high level of excellence in all stages of its production processes in order to obtain the required quality of the final product. Know the reliability of equipment and what it stands for a system is of fundamental importance for ensuring the operational safety. The reliability analysis technique has been increasingly applied in the oil industry as fault prediction tool and undesirable events that can affect business continuity. It is an applied scientific methodology that involves knowledge in engineering and statistics to meet and or analyze the performance of components, equipment and systems in order to ensure that they perform their function without fail, for a period of time and under a specific condition. The results of reliability analyzes help in making decisions about the best maintenance strategy of petrochemical plants. Reliability analysis was applied on equipment (bike-centrifugal fan) between the period 2010-2014 at the Polo Petrobras Guamaré Industrial, situated in rural Guamaré municipality in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, where he collected data field, analyzed historical equipment and observing the behavior of faults and their impacts. The data were processed in commercial software reliability ReliaSoft BlockSim 9. The results were compared with a study conducted by the experts in the field in order to get the best maintenance strategy for the studied system. With the results obtained from the reliability analysis tools was possible to determine the availability of the centrifugal motor-fan and what will be its impact on the security of process units if it will fail. A new maintenance strategy was established to improve the reliability, availability, maintainability and decreased likelihood of Moto-Centrifugal Fan failures, it is a series of actions to promote the increased system reliability and consequent increase in cycle life of the asset. Thus, this strategy sets out preventive measures to reduce the probability of failure and mitigating aimed at minimizing the consequences.

The effects of agglomeration economies on the productivity of manufacturing local units in Ireland

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of agglomeration economies on the productivity of manufacturing local units in Ireland. Four types of agglomeration economies are considered in this study. These are internal economies of scale, localization economies, related variety and urbanization economies. This study makes a number of contributions to the literature. Firstly, this is the first study to conduct an investigation of the effects of agglomeration economies on the productivity of manufacturing local units operating in Ireland. Secondly, this study distinguishes between indigenous and foreign-owned local units which is important given the dual nature of the Irish economy (Krugman, 1997). Thirdly, in addition to considering the effects of agglomeration economies, this study examines the impact of spurious agglomeration on the productivity of foreign-owned local units. Using data from the Census of Industrial Local Units and a series of IV GMM estimators to control for endogeneity, the results of the analysis conducted in Chapter 6 reveal that there are differences in the effects of agglomeration economies on the productivity of indigenous and foreign-owned local units. In Chapter 7 the Census of Industrial Local Units is supplemented by additional data sources and more in-depth measures are generated to capture the features of each of the external agglomeration economies considered in this analysis. There is some evidence to suggest that the availability of local inputs has a negative and significant impact on productivity. The NACE based measures of related variety reveal that the availability of local inputs and knowledge spillovers for related sectors have a negative and significant impact on productivity. There is clear evidence to suggest that urbanization economies are important for increasing the productivity of indigenous local units. The findings reveal that a 1% increase in population density in the NUTS 3 region leads to an increase in the productivity of indigenous local units of approximately 0.07% to 0.08%. The results also reveal that there is a significant difference in the effects of agglomeration economies on the productivity of low-tech and medium/high-tech indigenous local units. The more in-depth measures of agglomeration economies used in Chapter 7 are also used in Chapter 8. A series of IV GMM regressions are estimated in order to identify the impact of agglomeration economies and spurious agglomeration on the productivity of foreign-owned local units operating in Ireland. There is some evidence found to suggest that the availability of a pool of skilled labour has a positive and significant on productivity of foreign-owned local units. There is also evidence to suggest that localization knowledge spillovers have a negative impact on the productivity of foreign-owned local units. There is strong evidence to suggest that the availability of local inputs has a negative impact on the productivity. The negative impact is not confined to the NACE 4-digit sector but also extends into related sectors as determined by Porter’s (2003) cluster classification. The cluster based skills measure of related variety has a positive and significant impact on the productivity of foreign-owned local units. Similar to Chapter 7, there is clear evidence to suggest that urbanization economies are important for increasing the productivity of foreign-owned local units. Both the summary measure and each of the more in-depth measures of agglomeration economies have a positive and significant impact on productivity. Spurious agglomeration has a positive and significant impact on the productivity of foreign-owned local units. The results indicate that the more foreign-owned local units of the same nationality in the country the greater the levels of productivity for the local unit. From a policy perspective, urbanization economies are clearly important for increasing the productivity of both indigenous and foreign-owned local units. Furthermore, the availability of a pool of skilled labour appears to be important for increasing the productivity of foreign-owned local units. Another policy implication that arises from these results relates to the differences observed between indigenous local units and foreign-owned local units and also between low-tech and medium/high-tech indigenous local units. These findings indicate that ‘one-size-fits-all’ type policies are not appropriate for increasing the productivity of local units operating in Ireland. Policies should be tailored to the needs of either indigenous or foreign-owned local units and also to specific sectors. This positive finding for own country spurious agglomeration is important from a policy perspective and is one that IDA Ireland should take on board.

User-centered, research-based design of futuristic intensive care units