Managing fire risk onboard offshore platforms: Lessons from Piper Alpha and probabilistic assessment of risk reduction measures

The offshore oil platform Piper Alpha was destroyed in July 1988 by a catastrophic fire. The causes of the accident included a combination of technical and organizational factors. In this paper, I describe the accident, its chronology, and the dependencies involved. I then examine some of the human errors that led to the disaster and their organizational roots, such as economic pressures, the permit-to-work system, and the inadequacy of regulatory oversight in the United Kingdom at the time of the accident. Risk-reduction measures can be costly, however, and priorities must be set based on costs and benefits. To this end, I describe a probabilistic risk analysis model that can be used to assess the benefits of different fire safety measures, focusing on reinforcing the emergency water pumps.     

The Conditions for Se-Enzymes,NO, cGMP and LDL to be Formed and How They are Connected with Each Other

Transportation of energy and substances is fundamental for the conditions of life. The energy from metabolised food is yielded at the reduction of oxygen by the assistance of Se-enzymes. Activated Se-enzymes contain an electron conducting Se-link with elemental Se bounded to Se-cys （Se-cystein） that prevents electron transferring （autoxidable） agents, as arginine, from oxidations. NO is formed from e.g. arginine during the passive state of a Se-enzyme. With NO, instead of O2, bounded to a hem group, destroying oxidations are avoided. This is the role of NO. A nerve signal is activated by the GTP （guanosine triphosphate）-induced triggered transformation of cGMP （cyclic guanosine monophosphate） into GMP, closing the sodium channels. When GTP is consumed, the opposite reaction takes place. The direct influence of the GMP/cGMP quote on a nerve signal makes GMP/cGMP equal to EDHF （endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor）. Part of the energy from food is stored and transported in the form of acetyl groups, building up many important molecules of which LDL （low density lipoprotein） is one, containing cholesteryl esters. These are brought in to the cell, decomposed to acetyl groups generating hydrogen, H, making LDL to an essential substance. High levels are connected to impaired energy yielding reactions, perhaps related to low levels of some substances, especially to one or both forms of Se. The necessity of a Se-link and NO induced protection against oxidations by reducible oxygen can no longer be neglected.     

Einflu? der verwendeten Methoden bei der Bestimmung von Ballaststoffen und verwertbaren Kohlenhydraten auf die Berechnung des Energiegehalts von Broten

Zusammenfassung Der Ballaststoffgehalt verschiedener Brote wird nach zwei Methoden bestimmt. Mit der modifizierten Neutraldetergentien-Methode werden durchschnittlich 60% der enzymatisch-chemisch bestimmbaren Ballaststoffe erfaßt. Für die Bestimmung des Brennwertes werden die Hauptinhaltsstoffe analytisch bestimmt, die verwertbaren Kohlenhydrate werden zusätzlich nach verschiedenen Verfahren durch Differenz berechnet. Der Energiegehalt wird mit den allgemeinen Atwater-Faktoren (4/9/4), spezifischen Faktoren und mit den physikalischen Brennwerten der resorbierbaren Nährstoffe berechnet.

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The effect of methods used for the determination of dietary fiber and available carbohydrates on the calculation of the physiological fuel value of breads

Summary The dietary fiber content of German breads was determined by two different methods. With a modified NDF-method 60% of total dietary fiber (determined by an enzymatic-chemical procedure) are detected. For estimation of the physiological fuel value the main components of breads were determined by analysis. In addition, the carbohydrates were determined by difference, using various methods of calculation. For the estimation of the caloric value, different calorie conversion factors are used.

     

Play therapy for children with fetal alcohol syndrome.

Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is the leading birth defect in the United States, yet few treatment options exist for children afflicted with this disorder. Although play therapy has demonstrated its efficacy with numerous special populations, as of today, no research has been conducted on its use with FAS. This article presents an overview of current data on FAS, an argument for the use of child-centered play therapy for children diagnosed FAS, and suggests areas of research needs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of the corpus callosum in dichotic listening: A combined morphological and diffusion tensor imaging study.

The objective of the present study was to examine the role of the corpus callosum (CC) in dichotic listening. For this purpose, 40 right-handed healthy male participants were assessed with morphological and diffusion tensor imaging, which yielded macrostructural (midsagittal area) and microstructural (mean diffusion, fractional anisotropy) measures of the total CC and predefined subregions. Applying the standard consonant-vowel Bergen Dichotic Listening Test (including 3 different attentional instructions), the authors found dichotic listening performance to be substantially related to the integrity of the CC at both macro- and microstructural levels. Results indicate a dual role of the CC; it is relevant not only for the stimulus-driven (bottom-up) transfer of left-ear input to the left hemisphere but also for its attentional (top-down) modulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Enhancing information systems management with natural language processing techniques

Natural language and databases are core components of information systems. They are related to each other because they share the same purpose: the conceptualization aspects of the real world in order to deal with them in some way. Natural language processing (NLP) techniques may substantially enhance most phases of the information system lifecycle, starting with requirements analysis, specification and validation, and going up to conflict resolution, result processing and presentation. Furthermore, natural language based query languages and user interfaces facilitate the access to information for anyone and allow for new paradigms in the usage of computerized services. This paper investigates the use of NLP techniques in the design phase of information systems. Then, it reports on data base querying and information retrieval enhanced with NLP.     

Strong Vortex Pinning in the Low–Temperature Superconducting Phase of (U1−xThx)Be13

We have found a sharp transition at T _c2 = 350 mK in the vortex creep rate of a single crystal of (U _1–x Th _x )Be ₁₃ with T _c = 523 mK (x = 0.0275). For T T _c2 , no creep of vortices is observed in a time scale of 10⁵ s, while for T _c2 < T < T _c , vortices creep at very high rates (30% of decay from a metastable configuration in the first 10⁵ s at T = 400 mK). The sharp transition occurs at the same temperature at which the second jump in the specific heat appears in these samples. Similar low levels of creep rates have been reported by us in the low–T superconducting phase of UPt ₃.¹     

Influence of water activity on microbial development in minced,cured pork,in relation to gas headspace composition

The water activity (a_w) of a cured minced meat mixture was reduced with NaCl or glycerol + NaCl and the products stored in air, N₂ or CO₂ at 4°C. The lower the a_w, the lower was the growth rate of the total microflora except when a_w was reduced below 0·98 with glycerol and products were stored in CO₂, when the growth rate was independent of a_w. At a_w 0·94 NaCl was more effective than glycerol + NaCl in reducing the growth rate. In air the final microflora of products stored at a_w ≤0·96 consisted primarily of yeasts while at 0.98 a_w, both Lactobacillus (62%) and yeasts (38%) were found. In CO₂ and N₂Lactobacillus predominated at 0·94–0·98 a_w when 2% NaCl or NaCl + glycerol were used. At 0·94 a_w, produced using 6% NaCl, a heterogenous final microflora was found, including Micrococcus and Staphylococcus. An increase in the microbial shelf-life of meat products may be obtained by reducing the a_w, particularly for use with storage in N₂- and CO₂-atmospheres. The type of solute chosen to regulate a_w may affect the solubility of CO₂, which in turn affects the shelf-life.     

A microfluidic platform using molecular beacon-based temperature calibration for thermal dehybridization of surface-bound DNA

This work presents a simple microfluidic device with an integrated thin-film heater for studies of DNA hybridization kinetics and double-stranded DNA melting temperature measurements. The heating characteristics of the device were evaluated with a novel, noninvasive indirect technique using molecular beacons as temperature probes inside reaction chambers. This is the first microfluidic device in which thermal dehybridization of surface-bound oligonucleotides was performed for measurement of double-stranded DNA melting temperatures with +/- 1 degrees C precision. Surface modification and oligonucleotide immobilization were performed by continuously flowing reagents through the microchannels. The resulting reproducibility of oligonucleotide surface densities, at 9% RSD, was better than for the same modification chemistries on glass slides in unstirred reagent solutions (RSD=20%). Moreover, the surface density of immobilized DNA probe molecules could be varied controllably by changing the concentration of the reagent solution used for immobilization. Thus, excellent control of surface characteristics was made possible, something which is often difficult to achieve with larger devices. Solid-phase hybridization reactions, a fundamental aspect of microarray technologies often taking several hours in conventional systems, were reduced to minutes in this device. It was also possible to determine forward rate constants for hybridization, k. These varied from 820,000 to 72,000 M(-1) s(-1), decreasing as surface densities increased. Surface densities could therefore be optimized to obtain rapid hybridization using such an approach. Taken together, this combined microfluidic/small-volume heating approach represents a powerful tool for surface-based DNA analysis.