Los riesgos tecnológico-sanitários em Cantabria (España)

Trabalho de projecto apresentada como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ciência e Sistemas de Informação Geográfica

Product Platform Development from the Product Lines' Perspective: Case of Switching Platform

In the era of fast product development and customized product requirements, the concept of product platform has proven its power in practice. The product platform approach has enabledcompanies to increase the speed of product introductions while simultaneously benefit from efficiency and effectiveness in the development and production activities. The product platforms are technological bases, which can be used to develop several derivative products, and hence, the differentiation can be pushed closer to the product introduction. The product platform development has some specific features, which differ somewhat from the product development of single products. The time horizon is longer, since the product platform¿slife cycle is longer than individual product's. The long time-horizon also proposes higher market risks and the use of new technologies increases the technological risks involved. The end-customer interface might be far away, but there is not a lack of needs aimed at the product platforms ¿ in fact, the product platform development is very much balancing between the varying needs set to it by thederivative products. This dissertation concentrated on product platform development from the internal product lines' perspective of a singlecase. Altogether six product platform development factors were identified: 'Strategic and business fit of product platform', 'Project communication and deliverables', 'Cooperation with product platform development', 'Innovativeness of product platform architecture and features', 'Reliability and quality of product platform', and 'Promised schedules and final product platform meeting the needs'. From the six factors, three were found to influence quite strongly the overall satisfaction, namely 'Strategic and business fit of product platform', 'Reliability and quality of product platform', and 'Promised schedules and final product platform meeting the needs'. Hence, these three factors might be the ones a new product platform development unit should concentrate first in order to satisfy their closest customers, the product lines. The 'Project communication and deliverables' and 'Innovativeness of product platform architecture and features' were weaker contributors to the overall satisfaction. Overall, the factors explained quite well the satisfaction of the product lines with product platform development. Along the research, several interesting aspects about the very basic nature of the product platform development were found. The long time horizon of the product platform development caused challenges in the area of strategic fIT - a conflict between the short-term requirements and long term needs. The fact that a product platform was used as basis of several derivative products resulted into varying needs, and hence the match with the needs and the strategies. The opinions, that the releases of the larger product lines were given higher priorities, give an interesting contribution to the strategy theory of powerand politics. The varying needs of the product lines, the strengths of them as well as large number of concurrent releases set requirements to prioritization. Hence, the research showed the complicated nature of the product platform development in the case unIT - the very basic nature of the product platform development might be its strength (gaining efficiency and effectiveness in product development and product launches) but also the biggest challenge (developing products to meet several needs). As a single case study, the results of this research are not directly generalizable to all the product platform development activities. Instead, the research serves best as a starting point for additional research as well as gives some insights about the factors and challengesof one product development unit.

Development of quantitative methods for sustainability assessment in process industry

The increasing aversion to technological risks of the society requires the development of inherently safer and environmentally friendlier processes, besides assuring the economic competitiveness of the industrial activities. The different forms of impact (e.g. environmental, economic and societal) are frequently characterized by conflicting reduction strategies and must be holistically taken into account in order to identify the optimal solutions in process design. Though the literature reports an extensive discussion of strategies and specific principles, quantitative assessment tools are required to identify the marginal improvements in alternative design options, to allow the trade-off among contradictory aspects and to prevent the “risk shift”. In the present work a set of integrated quantitative tools for design assessment (i.e. design support system) was developed. The tools were specifically dedicated to the implementation of sustainability and inherent safety in process and plant design activities, with respect to chemical and industrial processes in which substances dangerous for humans and environment are used or stored. The tools were mainly devoted to the application in the stages of “conceptual” and “basic design”, when the project is still open to changes (due to the large number of degrees of freedom) which may comprise of strategies to improve sustainability and inherent safety. The set of developed tools includes different phases of the design activities, all through the lifecycle of a project (inventories, process flow diagrams, preliminary plant lay-out plans). The development of such tools gives a substantial contribution to fill the present gap in the availability of sound supports for implementing safety and sustainability in early phases of process design. The proposed decision support system was based on the development of a set of leading key performance indicators (KPIs), which ensure the assessment of economic, societal and environmental impacts of a process (i.e. sustainability profile). The KPIs were based on impact models (also complex), but are easy and swift in the practical application. Their full evaluation is possible also starting from the limited data available during early process design. Innovative reference criteria were developed to compare and aggregate the KPIs on the basis of the actual sitespecific impact burden and the sustainability policy. Particular attention was devoted to the development of reliable criteria and tools for the assessment of inherent safety in different stages of the project lifecycle. The assessment follows an innovative approach in the analysis of inherent safety, based on both the calculation of the expected consequences of potential accidents and the evaluation of the hazards related to equipment. The methodology overrides several problems present in the previous methods proposed for quantitative inherent safety assessment (use of arbitrary indexes, subjective judgement, build-in assumptions, etc.). A specific procedure was defined for the assessment of the hazards related to the formations of undesired substances in chemical systems undergoing “out of control” conditions. In the assessment of layout plans, “ad hoc” tools were developed to account for the hazard of domino escalations and the safety economics. The effectiveness and value of the tools were demonstrated by the application to a large number of case studies concerning different kinds of design activities (choice of materials, design of the process, of the plant, of the layout) and different types of processes/plants (chemical industry, storage facilities, waste disposal). An experimental survey (analysis of the thermal stability of isomers of nitrobenzaldehyde) provided the input data necessary to demonstrate the method for inherent safety assessment of materials.

Análise quantitativa de dispersão de vazamentos de substâncias inflamáveis e/ou tóxicas em ambientes com barreiras ou semi confinados.

Com o atual desenvolvimento industrial e tecnológico da sociedade, a presença de substâncias inflamáveis e/ou tóxicas aumentou significativamente em um grande número de atividades. A possível dispersão de gases perigosos em instalações de armazenamento ou em operações de transporte representam uma grande ameaça à saúde e ao meio ambiente. Portanto, a caracterização de uma nuvem inflamável e/ou tóxica é um ponto crítico na análise quantitativa de riscos. O objetivo principal desta tese foi fornecer novas perspectivas que pudessem auxiliar analistas de risco envolvidos na análise de dispersões em cenários complexos, por exemplo, cenários com barreiras ou semi-confinados. A revisão bibliográfica mostrou que, tradicionalmente, modelos empíricos e integrais são usados na análise de dispersão de substâncias tóxicas / inflamáveis, fornecendo estimativas rápidas e geralmente confiáveis ao descrever cenários simples (por exemplo, dispersão em ambientes sem obstruções sobre terreno plano). No entanto, recentemente, o uso de ferramentas de CFD para simular dispersões aumentou de forma significativa. Estas ferramentas permitem modelar cenários mais complexos, como os que ocorrem em espaços semi-confinados ou com a presença de barreiras físicas. Entre todas as ferramentas CFD disponíveis, consta na bibliografia que o software FLACS® tem bom desempenho na simulação destes cenários. Porém, como outras ferramentas similares, ainda precisa ser totalmente validado. Após a revisão bibliográfica sobre testes de campo já executados ao longo dos anos, alguns testes foram selecionados para realização de um exame preliminar de desempenho da ferramenta CFD utilizado neste estudo. Foram investigadas as possíveis fontes de incertezas em termos de capacidade de reprodutibilidade, de dependência de malha e análise de sensibilidade das variáveis de entrada e parâmetros de simulação. Os principais resultados desta fase foram moldados como princípios práticos a serem utilizados por analistas de risco ao realizar análise de dispersão com a presença de barreiras utilizando ferramentas CFD. Embora a revisão bibliográfica tenha mostrado alguns dados experimentais disponíveis na literatura, nenhuma das fontes encontradas incluem estudos detalhados sobre como realizar simulações de CFD precisas nem fornecem indicadores precisos de desempenho. Portanto, novos testes de campo foram realizados a fim de oferecer novos dados para estudos de validação mais abrangentes. Testes de campo de dispersão de nuvem de propano (com e sem a presença de barreiras obstruindo o fluxo) foram realizados no campo de treinamento da empresa Can Padró Segurança e Proteção (em Barcelona). Quatro testes foram realizados, consistindo em liberações de propano com vazões de até 0,5 kg/s, com duração de 40 segundos em uma área de descarga de 700 m2. Os testes de campo contribuíram para a reavaliação dos pontos críticos mapeados durante as primeiras fases deste estudo e forneceram dados experimentais para serem utilizados pela comunidade internacional no estudo de dispersão e validação de modelos. Simulações feitas utilizando-se a ferramenta CFD foram comparadas com os dados experimentais obtidos nos testes de campo. Em termos gerais, o simulador mostrou bom desempenho em relação às taxas de concentração da nuvem. O simulador reproduziu com sucesso a geometria complexa e seus efeitos sobre a dispersão da nuvem, mostrando claramente o efeito da barreira na distribuição das concentrações. No entanto, as simulações não foram capazes de representar toda a dinâmica da dispersão no que concerne aos efeitos da variação do vento, uma vez que as nuvens simuladas diluíram mais rapidamente do que nuvens experimentais.

Heurystyka strachu. Czy ambiwalencja lęku może być dla nas pouczająca?

The paper assumes that fear presents a certain degree of ambivalence. To say it with Hans Jonas (1903-1993), fear is not only a negative emotion, but may teach us something very important: we recognize what is relevant when we perceive that it is at stake. Under this respect, fear may be assumed as a guide to responsibility, a virtue that is becoming increasingly important, because of the role played by human technology in the current ecological crisis. Secondly, fear and responsibility concern both dimensions of human action: private-individual and publiccollective. What the ‘heuristics of fear’ teaches us, is to become aware of a deeper ambivalence, namely the one which characterizes as such human freedom, which may aim to good or bad, to self-preservation or self-destruction. Any public discussion concerning political or economic issues related with human action (at an individual or collective level) ought not to leave this essential idea out of consideration.

A study on reducing digital piracy: an analytical network process approach with benefits, opportunities, costs and risks analysis

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia e Gestão Industrial

Managing regulatory risks when outsourcing network-related services in the electricity distribution sector

Deregulation of the electricity sector liberated the electricity sale and production for competitive forces while in the network business, electricity transmission and distribution, natural monopoly positions were recognised. Deregulation was accompanied by efficiencyoriented thinking on the whole electricity supply industry. For electricity distribution this meant a transition from a public service towards profit-driven business guided by economic regulation. Regulation is the primary means to enforce societal and other goals in the regulated monopoly sector. The design of economic regulation is concerned with two main attributes; end-customer price and quality of electricity distribution services. Regulation limits the costs of the regulated company but also defines the desired quality of monopoly services. The characteristics of the regulatory framework and the incentives it provides are therefore decisive for the electricity distribution sector. Regulation is not a static factor; changes in the regulatory practices cause discontinuity points, which in turn generate risks. A variety of social and environmental concerns together with technological advancements have emphasised the relevance of quality regulation, which is expected to lead to the large-scale replacement of overhead lines with underground cables. The electricity network construction activity is therefore currently witnessing revolutionary changes in its competitive landscape. In a business characterised by high statutory involvement and a high level of sunk costs, recognising and understanding the regulatory risks becomes a key success factor. As a response, electricity distribution companies have turned into outsourcing to attain efficiency and quality goals. This doctoral thesis addresses the impacts of regulatory risks on electricity network construction, which is a commonly outsourced activity in the electricity distribution network sector. The chosen research approach is characterised as an action analytical research on account of the fact that regulatory risks are greatly dependent on the individual nature of the regulatory regime applied in the electricity distribution sector. The main contribution of this doctoral thesis is to develop a concept for recognising and managing the business risks stemming from economic regulation. The degree of outsourcing in the sector is expected to increase in years to come. The results of the research provide new knowledge to manage the regulatory risks when outsourcing services.

Technological and financial approaches to risk management in agriculture: an integrated approach

In the present paper, risk-management problems where farmers manage risk both through production decisions and through the use of market-based and informal risk-management mechanisms are considered. It is shown that many of these problems share a common structure, and that a unified and informative treatment of a broad spectrum of risk-management tools is possible within a cost-minimisation framework, under minimal conditions on their objective functions. Fundamental results are derived that apply regardless of the producer's preference towards risks, using only the no-arbitrage condition that agricultural producers never forego any opportunity to lower costs without lowering returns.

Social media in emergency management:Twitter as a tool for communicating risks to the public

One of the main challenges of emergency management lies in communicating risks to the public. On some occasions, risk communicators might seek to increase awareness over emerging risks, while on others the aim might be to avoid escalation of public reactions. Social media accounts offer an opportunity to rapidly distribute critical information and in doing so to mitigate the impact of emergencies by influencing public reactions. This article draws on theories of risk and emergency communication in order to consider the impact of Twitter as a tool for communicating risks to the public. We analyse 10,020 Twitter messages posted by the official accounts of UK local government authorities (councils) in the context of two major emergencies: the heavy snow of December 2010 and the riots of August 2011. Twitter was used in a variety of ways to communicate and manage associated risks including messages to provide official updates, encourage protective behaviour, increase awareness and guide public attention to mitigating actions. We discuss the importance of social media as means of increasing confidence in emergency management institutions.

Taking risks in the face of uncertainty:an exploratory analysis of green innovation

The relationship between uncertainty and firms’ risk-taking behaviour has been a focus of investigation since early discussion of the nature of enterprise activity. Here, we focus on how firms’ perceptions of environmental uncertainty and their perceptions of the risks involved impact on their willingness to undertake green innovation. Analysis is based on a cross-sectional survey of UK food companies undertaken in 2008. The results reinforce the relationship between perceived environmental uncertainty and perceived innovation risk and emphasise the importance of macro-uncertainty in shaping firms’ willingness to undertake green innovation. The perceived (market-related) riskiness of innovation also positively influences the probability of innovating, suggesting either a proactive approach to stimulating market disruption or an opportunistic approach to innovation leadership.

GEOTECNOLOGIAS: POTENCIALIDADES E RISCOS GEOTECHNOLOGIES: MERITS AND RISKS

Esse artigo pretende discutir como as transformações tecnológicas vêm influenciando a ciência geográfica, especificamente com o advento das geotecnologias. Diante de inúmeras potencialidades e aplicações na análise e gestão territorial, nós devemos refletir sobre seu real significado, que certamente ultrapassa o caráter meramente técnico. É necessário compreender a vasta dimensão social, política e econômica que abrangem. Atualmente as técnicas são cada vez mais utilizadas, aceitas e menos compreendidas, o que pode implicar riscos para a sociedade em função de interpretações equivocadas e muitas vezes desprovidas de princípios éticos. Vinte anos após a “unificação” do mundo com a queda do Muro de Berlim, o cenário sociocultural e político se redefine em um paradigma de contradições. As inovações tecnológicas funcionam como um instrumento emblemático subordinado ao mercado financeiro e a globalização marca a atual fase do capitalismo, que segue seu curso encontrando as limitações inerentes à tecnologia em que se sustenta. This paper intends to discuss how the technological changes have affected the geographical science, specifically with the advent of geotechnologies. Up against with great potential and applications in analysis and land management, we must to reflect on its real meaning, which certainly goes beyond the merely technical. It’s necessary to understand the broad social, political and economic dimension wich inclued. Currently, the techniques are increasingly used, accepted and least understood, which may to implicate a risk to society due to misinterpretation and often devoid of ethical principles. Twenty years after the "unification" of the world with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the cultural and political landscape was altered in a paradigm of contradictions. Technological innovations work as a emblematic instrument subordinate to financial markets and globalization marks the current phase of capitalism, which runs its course finding the limitations inherent in the technology which supports.

[lean Production And Psychosocial Risks: The Case Of A Multinational Merger In A Metallurgical Company In Brazil].

This study focused on the method known as lean production as a work-related psychosocial risk factor in a Brazilian multinational auto parts company after its merger with other multinational companies. The authors conducted a qualitative analysis of two time points: the first using on-site observation and key interviews with managers and workers during implementation of lean production in 1996; the second, 16 years later, comparing data from a document search in labor inspection records from the Ministry of Labor and Employment and legal proceedings initiated by the Office of the Public Prosecutor for Labor Affairs. The merger led to layoffs, replacements, and an increase in the workday. A class action suit was filed on grounds of aggravated working conditions. The new production model led to psychosocial risks that increased the need for workers' health precautions when changes in the production process introduced new and increased risks of physical and mental illnesses.

Segurança no circo : questão de prioridade = Circus safety: a priority issue

Universidade Estadual de Campinas . Faculdade de Educação Física

Avaliação de um programa de treinamento da flexibilidade utilizado para compensação de esforços

Universidade Estadual de Campinas . Faculdade de Educação Física