Search results for: safety margin

Authors: Abdullah Alsayeqh

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The burden of foodborne diseases in Saudi Arabia is currently unknown. The objective of this study was to identify risk factors associated with these diseases among women in Riyadh. A cross-sectional study was carried out from March to July, 2013 where participants’ responses indicated that they were at risk of these diseases through improper food-holding temperature (45.28%), inadequate cooking (35.47%), cross-contamination (32.23%), and food from unsafe sources (22.39%). The claimed food safety knowledge by 22.04% of participants was not evidenced by their reported behaviors (p > 0.05). This is the first study to identify the gap in food safety knowledge among women in Riyadh which needs to be addressed by the concerned authorities in the country by engaging women more effectively in food safety educational campaigns.

Keywords: foodborne diseases, risk factors, knowledge, women, Saudi Arabia

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Authors: Rula D. Alshareef, Safa S. Alqathmi, Ghadah K. Alkhouldi, Reem O. Bagabas, Farheen B. Hasan

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Safety engineering is among the most crucial considerations in any work environment. Providing mentally, physically, and environmentally safe work conditions must be the top priority of any successful organization. Company X is a local paint production company in Saudi Arabia; in a month, the factory experienced two significant accidents, which indicates that workers’ safety is overlooked. The aim of the research is to examine the risks, assess the root causes and recommend control measures that will eventually contribute to providing a safe workplace. The methodology used is sectioned into three phases, risk identification, assessment, and finally, mitigation. In the identification phase, the team used Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Lifting Index (NIOSH LI) tools to holistically establish knowledge about the current risk posed to the factory. The physical hazards in the factory were assessed in two different operations, which are mixing and filling/packaging. For the risk assessment phase, the hazards were deeply analyzed through their severity and impact. Additionally, through risk mitigation, the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) score decreased from 11 to 7, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Lifting Index (NIOSH LI) has been reduced from 5.27 to 1.85.

Keywords: ergonomics, safety, workplace risks, hazards, awkward posture, fatigue, work environment

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Authors: Jose Cristiano Pereira, Gilson Brito Alves Lima

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Ergonomics is a key factor affecting the operational safety and quality in the aircraft engine manufacturing industry and evidence shows that the lack of attention to it can increase the risk of accidents. In order to emphasize the importance of ergonomics, this paper systematically reviews the critical processes used in the aircraft engine production industry with focus on the ergonomic factors. about the subject to identify key ergonomic factors. Experts validated the factors and used AHP to rank the factors in order of significance. From the six key risk factors identified, the ones with the highest weight are psychological demand followed by understanding of operational side. These factors suggest that measures must be taken to improve ergonomic factors, quality and safety in the manufacturing of aircraft engines.

Keywords: ergonomics, safety, aviation, aircraft engine production

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Authors: Amer Alsari, Hassan Alhalal, Tahar Ayadat, Andi Asiz, Omar KM Ouda

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Al Khaldiyah is a regional road situated in west-south of Al Khobar, precisely in the area of Half Moon Bay. It is characterized by four lines, which become six lines in some places, in both directions extending over about 10 km length. The road extends between the bridge near the Air Force Base and Half Moon Bay Road. Many accidents have been observed in this road notably over the last two years. Many injuries and deaths were recorded, some of the victims were PMU students. Consequently, management of the road to eliminate or reduce accidents to a large extend becomes imperative. The main goal of this project are to propose sustainable solutions for the purpose optimizing safety and improving its sight view by designing some appropriate junctions including bridge and tunnel in the critical locations.

Keywords: management, road, accident, traffic, safety, sustainable, solutions

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Authors: Amos King'ori Githu

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Water safety is crucial for all ages, but particularly for children. In the past decade, preschool institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa have seen the inclusion of swimming as one of the co-curricular activities. However, these countries face challenges in adopting frameworks, staffing, and resources to heighten water safety, quality, and drowning prevention, hence the focus of this research. It is worth noting that drowning is a leading cause of injury-related deaths among children. Universally, the highest drowning rates occur among children aged 1-4 years and 5-9 years. Preschool children even stand a higher risk of drowning as they are active, eager, and curious to explore their environment. If not supervised closely around or in water, these children can drown quickly in just a few inches of water. Thus, this empirical review focuses on the identification, assessment, and analysis of water safety efforts to curb drowning among children and assess the quality of water to mitigate contamination that may eventually pose infection risks to the children. In addition, it outlines the use of behavioral theories and evaluation frameworks to guide the above. Notably, a search on ten databases was adopted for crucial peer-reviewed articles, and five were selected in the eventual review. This research relied extensively on secondary data to curb water infections and drowning-inflicted deaths among children. It suffices to say that interventions must be supported that adopt an array of strategies, are guided by planning and theory as well as evaluation frameworks, and are vast in intervention design, evaluation, and delivery methodology. Finally, this approach will offer solid evidence that can be shared to guide future practices and policies in preschools on child safety and drowning prevention.

Keywords: water quality and safety, drowning prevention, preschool children, sub-saharan Africa, supervision

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Authors: Leila Jafari, Viliam Makis

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In this paper, the joint optimization of the economic manufacturing quantity (EMQ), safety stock level, and condition-based maintenance (CBM) is presented for a partially observable, deteriorating system subject to random failure. The demand is stochastic and it is described by a Poisson process. The stochastic model is developed and the optimization problem is formulated in the semi-Markov decision process framework. A modification of the policy iteration algorithm is developed to find the optimal policy. A numerical example is presented to compare the optimal policy with the policy considering zero safety stock.

Keywords: condition-based maintenance, economic manufacturing quantity, safety stock, stochastic demand

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Authors: Kelly Jaunzems

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Social media is a powerful instrument of communication, enabling the presentation of information in multiple forms and modes, amplifying the interactions between people, organisations, and stakeholders, and increasing the range of communication channels available. Younger generations are highly engaged with social media and more likely to use this channel than any other to seek information. Given this, it may appear extraordinary that occupational safety and health professionals have yet to seriously engage with social media for communicating safety messages to younger audiences who, in many industries, might be statistically more likely to encounter more workplace harm or injury. Millennials, defined as those born between 1981-2000, have distinctive characteristics that also impact their interaction patterns rendering many traditional occupational safety and health communication channels sub-optimal or near obsolete. Used to immediate responses, 280-character communication, shares, likes, and visual imagery, millennials struggle to take seriously the low-tech, top-down communication channels such as safety noticeboards, toolbox meetings, and passive tick-box online inductions favoured by traditional OSH professionals. This paper draws upon well-established communication findings, which argue that it is important to know a target audience and reach them using their preferred communication pathways, particularly if the aim is to impact attitudes and behaviours. Health practitioners have adopted social media as a communication channel with great success, yet safety practitioners have failed to follow this lead. Using a digital ethnography approach, this paper examines seven organisations’ Facebook posts from two one-month periods one year apart, one in 2018 and one in 2019. Each of the years informs organisation-based case studies. Comparing, contrasting, and drawing upon these case studies, the paper discusses and evaluates the (non) use of social media communication of safety information in terms of user engagement, shareability, and overall appeal. The success of health practitioners’ use of social media provides a compelling template for the implementation of social media into organisations’ safety communication strategies. Highly visible content such as that found on social media allows an organization to become more responsive and engage in two-way conversations with their audience, creating more engaged and participatory conversations around safety. Further, using social media to address younger audiences with a range of tonal qualities (for example, the use of humour) can achieve cut through in a way that grim statistics fail to do. On the basis of 18 months of interviews, filed work, and data analysis, the paper concludes with recommendations for communicating safety information via social media. It proposes exploration of the social media communication formula that, when utilised by safety practitioners, may create an effective social media presence. It is anticipated that such social media use will increase engagement, expand the number of followers and reduce the likelihood and severity of safety-related incidents. The tools offered may provide a path for safety practitioners to reach a disengaged generation of workers to build a cohesive and inclusive conversation around ways to keep people safe at work.

Keywords: social media, workplace safety, communication strategies, young workers

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Authors: Young-Hun Lee, Tae-Gwan Kim, Jong-Kyu Kim, Young-Chul Park

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In this study, Spring safety valve Heat - structure coupled analysis was carried out. Full analysis procedure and performing thermal analysis at a maximum temperature, them to the results obtained through to give an additional load and the pressure on the valve interior, and Disc holder Heat-Coupled structure Analysis was carried out. Modeled using a 3D design program Solidworks, For the modeling of the safety valve was used 3D finite element analysis program ANSYS. The final result to be obtained through the Analysis examined the stability of the maximum displacement and the maximum stress to the valve internal components occurring in the high-pressure conditions.

Keywords: finite element method, spring safety valve, gap, stress, strain, deformation

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Authors: Rodrigo Aguiar, Adelino Ferreira

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Road traffic accidents are the leading cause of unnatural death and injuries worldwide, representing a significant problem of road safety. In this context, the use of artificial intelligence with advanced machine learning techniques has gained prominence as a promising approach to predict traffic accidents. This article investigates the application of machine learning algorithms to develop traffic accident frequency prediction models. Models are evaluated based on performance metrics, making it possible to do a comparative analysis with traditional prediction approaches. The results suggest that machine learning can provide a powerful tool for accident prediction, which will contribute to making more informed decisions regarding road safety.

Keywords: machine learning, artificial intelligence, frequency of accidents, road safety

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Authors: Ghadeer A.Al-Jabaree, Husam Aldeen Al-Khadash, M. Nassar

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This study aimed at investigating the effect of well-designed corporate governance system on the financial stability of insurance companies listed in ASE. Further, this study provides a comprehensive model for evaluating and analyzing insurance companies' financial position and prospective for comparing the degree of corporate governance application provisions among Jordanian insurance companies. In order to achieve the goals of the study, a whole population that consist of (27) listed insurance companies was introduced through the variables of (board of director, audit committee, internal and external auditor, board and management ownership and block holder's identities). Statistical methods were used with alternative techniques by (SPSS); where descriptive statistical techniques such as means, standard deviations were used to describe the variables, while (F) test and ANOVA analysis of variance were used to test the hypotheses of the study. The study revealed the existence of significant effect of corporate governance variables except local companies that are not listed in ASE on financial stability within control variables especially debt ratio (leverage),where it's also showed that concentration in motor third party doesn't have significant effect on insurance companies' financial stability during study period. Moreover, the study concludes that Global financial crisis affect the investment side of insurance companies with insignificant effect on the technical side. Finally, some recommendations were presented such as enhancing the laws and regulation that help the appropriate application of corporate governance, and work on activating the transparency in the disclosures of the financial statements and focusing on supporting the technical provisions for the companies, rather than focusing only on profit side.

Keywords: corporate governance, financial stability and solvency margin, insurance companies, Jordan

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Authors: Brajesh Tiwari, Yuvraj Dangi, Abhishek Jain, Ashok Jain

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The purpose of the investigation was to evaluate the potential of sphingosomes as nanoscale drug delivery units for site-specific delivery of anti-cancer agents. Doxorubicin Hydrochloride (DOX) was selected as a model anti-cancer agent. Sphingosomes were prepared and loaded with DOX and optimized for size and drug loading. The formulations were characterized by Malvern zeta-seizer and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) studies. Sphingosomal formulations were further evaluated for in-vitro drug release study under various pH profiles. The in-vitro drug release study showed an initial rapid release of the drug followed by a slow controlled release. In vivo studies of optimized formulations and free drug were performed on albino rats for comparison of drug plasma concentration. The in- vivo study revealed that the prepared system enabled DOX to have had enhanced circulation time, longer half-life and lower elimination rate kinetics as compared to free drug. Further, it can be interpreted that the formulation would selectively enter highly porous mass of tumor cells and at the same time spare normal tissues. To summarize, the use of sphingosomes as carriers of anti-cancer drugs may prove to be a fascinating approach that would selectively localize in the tumor mass, increasing the therapeutic margin of safety while reducing the side effects associated with anti-cancer agents.

Keywords: sphingosomes, anti-cancer, doxorubicin, formulation

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Authors: Mensah-Akoto Julius, Kenichi Matsui

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This paper examines the impact of COVID-19 on waste management workers in Ghana. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 60 waste management workers in Accra metropolis, the capital region of Ghana, to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on waste generation, workers’ safety in collecting solid waste, and service delivery. To find out correlations between the pandemic and safety of waste management workers, a regression analysis was used. Regarding waste generation, the results show the pandemic led to the highest annual per capita solid waste generation, or 3,390 tons, in 2020. Regarding the safety of workers, the regression analysis shows a significant and inverse association between COVID-19 and waste management services. This means that contaminated wastes may infect field workers with COVID-19 due to their direct exposure. A rise in new infection cases would have a negative impact on the safety and service delivery of the workers. The result also shows that an increase in economic activities negatively impacts waste management workers. The analysis, however, finds no statistical relationship between workers’ service deliveries and employees’ salaries. The study then discusses how municipal waste management authorities can ensure safe and effective waste collection during the pandemic.

Keywords: Covid-19, waste management worker, waste collection, Ghana

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Authors: Esubalew Yehualaw Melaku, Tigistu Haile Eritro

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In this study, two basic geophysical methods are applied for mapping the groundwater aquifer system in the Lisana area along the Guder River, northeast of Hosanna town, near the western margin of the Central Main Ethiopian Rift. The main target of the study is to map the potential aquifer zone and investigate the groundwater potential for current and future development of the resource in the Gode area. The geophysical methods employed in this study include, Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES) and magnetic survey techniques. Electrical sounding was used to examine and map the depth to the potential aquifer zone of the groundwater and its distribution over the area. On the other hand, a magnetic survey was used to delineate contact between lithologic units and geological structures. The 2D magnetic modeling and the geoelectric sections are used for the identification of weak zones, which control the groundwater flow and storage system. The geophysical survey comprises of twelve VES readings collected by using a Schlumberger array along six profile lines and more than four hundred (400) magnetic readings at about 10m station intervals along four profiles and 20m along three random profiles. The study result revealed that the potential aquifer in the area is obtained at a depth range from 45m to 92m. This is the response of the highly weathered/ fractured ignimbrite and pumice layer with sandy soil, which is the main water-bearing horizon. Overall, in the neighborhood of four VES points, VES- 2, VES- 3, VES-10, and VES-11, shows good water-bearing zones in the study area.

Keywords: vertical electrical sounding, magnetic survey, aquifer, groundwater potential

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Authors: Prasanna Kumar Khaund, Sukanya Talukdar

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A concrete gravity dam is a major hydraulic structure and it is very essential to consider the earthquake forces, to get a proper design base width, so that the entire weight of the dam resists the overturning moment due to earthquake and other forces. The main objective of this study is to obtain the design base width of a dam for different seismic conditions by varying the earthquake coefficients in both vertical and horizontal directions. This shall be done by equating the factor of safety against overturning, factor of safety against sliding and factor of safety against shear friction factor for a dam with their limiting values, under both tail water and no tail water condition. The shape of the Mettur dam in India is considered for the study. The study has been done taking a constant head of water at the reservoir, which is the maximum reservoir water level and a constant height of tail water. Using linear approximation method of Newton Raphson, the obtained equations against different factors of safety under different earthquake conditions are solved using a programme in C++ to get different values of base width of dam for varying earthquake conditions.

Keywords: design base width, horizontal earthquake coefficient, tail water, vertical earthquake coefficient

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Authors: Seyed Abbas Tabatabaei, Marjan Naderan Tahan, Arman Kadkhodai

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An efficient optimization approach, called feasible gate (FG), is developed to enhance the computation efficiency and solution quality of the previously developed highway alignment optimization (HAO) model. This approach seeks to realistically represent various user preferences and environmentally sensitive areas and consider them along with geometric design constraints in the optimization process. This is done by avoiding the generation of infeasible solutions that violate various constraints and thus focusing the search on the feasible solutions. The proposed method is simple, but improves significantly the model’s computation time and solution quality. On the other, highway alignment optimization through Feasible Gates, eventuates only economic model by considering minimum design constrains includes minimum reduce of circular curves, minimum length of vertical curves and road maximum gradient. This modelling can reduce passenger comfort and road safety. In most of highway optimization models, by adding penalty function for each constraint, final result handles to satisfy minimum constraint. In this paper, we want to propose a safety-function solution by introducing gift function.

Keywords: safety, highway geometry, optimization, alignment

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Authors: Özlem Turan, Şule Turhan

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About 1 billion people in the world are suffering from hunger. Approximately 1.3 billion tons of produced food is wasted each year as well. While the waste of industrialized countries is 670 million tons per year, the waste per year in developing countries is estimated as 630 million tons. When evaluated in this respect, the importance of sustainability and food security can be seen clearly. Food safety is defined as taking the necessary measures and eliminating all risk arising from food. The goal of sustainable food security is, protection of consumer health, development of safe food and beverages trade nationally and internationally and to ensure reliable fair trade schemes. In this study, this study will focus on sustainable food systems and food security, by examining the food wastage and losses from environmental and economic point of views and the precautions that need to be taken will be discussed.

Keywords: food, food safety, food systems, sustainability

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Authors: Issam Alnader, Aboubaker Lasebae, Rand Raheem

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Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are distributed network systems used in a wide range of applications, including safety-critical systems. The latter provide critical services, often concerned with human life or assets. Therefore, ensuring the dependability requirements of Safety critical systems is of paramount importance. The purpose of this paper is to utilize the Hidden Markov Model (HMM) to elongate the service availability of WSNs by increasing the time it takes a node to become obsolete via optimal load balancing. We propose an HMM algorithm that, given a WSN, analyses and predicts undesirable situations, notably, nodes dying unexpectedly or prematurely. We apply this technique to improve on C. Lius’ algorithm, a scheduling-based algorithm which has served to improve the lifetime of WSNs. Our experiments show that our HMM technique improves the lifetime of the network, achieved by detecting nodes that die early and rebalancing their load. Our technique can also be used for diagnosis and provide maintenance warnings to WSN system administrators. Finally, our technique can be used to improve algorithms other than C. Liu’s.

Keywords: wireless sensor networks, IoT, dependability of safety WSNs, energy conservation, sleep awake schedule

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Authors: Anna Bjällmark, Victoria Persson, Bodil Karlsson, May Bazzi

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Introduction: Interventional radiology (IR) is a continuously growing discipline that allows minimally invasive treatments of various medical conditions. The IR environment is, in several ways, comparable to the complex and accident-prone operation room (OR) environment. This implies that the IR environment may also be associated with various types of risks related to the work process and communication in the team. Patient safety is a central aspect of healthcare and involves the prevention and reduction of adverse events related to patient care. To maintain patient safety, it is crucial to build a safety culture where the staff are encouraged to report events and incidents that may have affected patient safety. It is also important to continuously evaluate the staff´s attitudes to patient safety. Despite the increasing number of IR procedures, research on the staff´s view regarding patients is lacking. Therefore, the main aim of the study was to describe and compare the IR team members' attitudes to patient safety. The secondary aim was to evaluate whether the WHO safety checklist was routinely used for IR procedures. Methods: An electronic survey was distributed to 25 interventional units in Sweden. The target population was the staff working in the IR team, i.e., physicians, radiographers, nurses, and assistant nurses. A modified version of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) was used. Responses from 19 of 25 IR units (44 radiographers, 18 physicians, 5 assistant nurses, and 1 nurse) were received. The respondents rated their level of agreement for 27 items related to safety culture on a five-point Likert scale ranging from “Disagree strongly” to “Agree strongly.” Data were analyzed statistically using SPSS. The percentage of positive responses (PPR) was calculated by taking the percentage of respondents who got a scale score of 75 or higher. The respondents rated which corresponded to response options “Agree slightly” or “Agree strongly”. Thus, average scores ≥ 75% were classified as “positive” and average scores < 75% were classified as “non-positive”. Findings: The results indicated that the IR team had the highest factor scores and the highest percentages of positive responses in relation to job satisfaction (90/94%), followed by teamwork climate (85/92%). In contrast, stress recognition received the lowest ratings (54/25%). Attitudes related to these factors were relatively consistent between different professions, with only a few significant differences noted (Factor score: p=0.039 for job satisfaction, p=0.050 for working conditions. Percentage of positive responses: p=0.027 for perception of management). Radiographers tended to report slightly lower values compared to other professions for these factors (p<0.05). The respondents reported that the WHO safety checklist was not routinely used at their IR unit but acknowledged its importance for patient safety. Conclusion: This study reported high scores concerning job satisfaction and teamwork climate but lower scores concerning perception of management and stress recognition indicating that the latter are areas of improvement. Attitudes remained relatively consistent among the professions, but the radiographers reported slightly lower values in terms of job satisfaction and perception of the management. The WHO safety checklist was considered important for patient safety.

Keywords: interventional radiology, patient safety, safety attitudes questionnaire, WHO safety checklist

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Authors: Ismail Muratoglu, Ahmet Meyveci, Abdurrahman Tuncer, Erkan Demirci

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This study is dedicated to the analysis of the problems of occupational safety in Turkey, Italy and Poland. The need analysis was applied to three different countries which are Turkey; 4, Poland; 1, Italy; 1 state. The number of the subjects is 891 in Turkey. The number of the subjects is 26 in Italy and the number of the subjects is 19 in Poland. The total number of samples of study is 936. Four different forms (Job Security Experts Form, Student Form, Teacher Form and Company Form) were applied. Results of experts of job security forms are rate of 7.1%. Then, the students’ forms are rate of 34.3%, teacher or instructor forms are rate of 9.9%. The last corporation forms are rate of 48.7%.

Keywords: Europe, need analysis, occupational safety, Turkey, vocational education

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Authors: Manthan Patel, Vinit Ahlawat, Anshh Singh Claire, Pijush Samui

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This paper focuses on the analysis of quicksand condition for a dam foundation. The quicksand condition occurs in cohesion less soil when effective stress of soil becomes zero. In a dam, the saturated sediment may appear quite solid until a sudden change in pressure or shock initiates liquefaction. This causes the sand to form a suspension and lose strength hence resulting in failure of dam. A soil profile shows different properties at different points and the values obtained are uncertain thus reliability analysis is performed. The reliability is defined as probability of safety of a system in a given environment and loading condition and it is assessed as Reliability Index. The reliability analysis of dams under quicksand condition is carried by Gaussian Process Regression (GPR). Reliability index and factor of safety relating to liquefaction of soil is analysed using GPR. The results of reliability analysis by GPR is compared to that of conventional method and it is demonstrated that on applying GPR the probabilistic analysis reduces the computational time and efforts.

Keywords: factor of safety, GPR, reliability index, quicksand

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Authors: Rauno Pääkkönen, Fabriziomaria Gobba, Leena Korpinen

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The objective of the study is to assess the implementation of LED lighting into forest machine work in the dark. In addition, the paper includes a wide variety of important and relevant safety and health parameters. In modern, computerized work in the cab of forest machines, artificial illumination is a demanding task when performing duties, such as the visual inspections of wood and computer calculations. We interviewed entrepreneurs and gathered the following as the most pertinent themes: (1) safety, (2) practical problems, and (3) work with LED lighting. The most important comments were in regards to the practical problems of LED lighting. We found indications of technical problems in implementing LED lighting, like snow and dirt on the surfaces of lamps that dim the emission of light. Moreover, service work in the dark forest is dangerous and increases the risks of on-site accidents. We also concluded that the amount of blue light to the eyes should be assessed, especially, when the drivers are working in a semi-dark cab.

Keywords: forest machines, health, LED, safety

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Authors: Matjaž Šraml, Marko Renčelj, Tomaž Tollazzi, Chiara Gruden

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Road safety is a worldwide issue with numerous and heterogeneous factors influencing it. On the side, driver state – comprising distraction/inattention, fatigue, drowsiness, extreme emotions, and socio-cultural factors highly affect road safety. On the other side, the vehicle state has an important role in mitigating (or not) the road risk. Finally, the road environment is still one of the main determinants of road safety, defining driving task complexity. At the same time, thanks to technological development, a lot of detailed data is easily available, creating opportunities for the detection of driver state, vehicle characteristics and road conditions and, consequently, for the design of ad hoc interventions aimed at improving driver performance, increase awareness and mitigate road risks. This is the challenge faced by the i-DREAMS project. i-DREAMS, which stands for a smart Driver and Road Environment Assessment and Monitoring System, is a 3-year project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. It aims to set up a platform to define, develop, test and validate a ‘Safety Tolerance Zone’ to prevent drivers from getting too close to the boundaries of unsafe operation by mitigating risks in real-time and after the trip. After the definition and development of the Safety Tolerance Zone concept and the concretization of the same in an Advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) platform, the system was tested firstly for 2 months in a driving simulator environment in 5 different countries. After that, naturalistic driving studies started for a 10-month period (comprising a 1-month pilot study, 3-month baseline study and 6 months study implementing interventions). Currently, the project team has approved a common evaluation approach, and it is developing the assessment of the usage and outcomes of the i-DREAMS system, which is turning positive insights. The i-DREAMS consortium consists of 13 partners, 7 engineering universities and research groups, 4 industry partners and 2 partners (European Transport Safety Council - ETSC - and POLIS cities and regions for transport innovation) closely linked to transport safety stakeholders, covering 8 different countries altogether.

Keywords: advanced driver assistant systems, driving simulator, safety tolerance zone, traffic safety

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Authors: Joanna Smoluk-Sikorska, Władysława Łuczka

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Organic farming is an important element of sustainable agriculture. It has been developing very dynamically in Poland, especially since Poland’s accession to the EU. Nevertheless, properly functioning organic market is a necessary condition justifying development of organic agriculture. Despite significant improvement, this market in Poland is still in the initial stage of growth. An important element of the market is distribution, especially retail, which offers specified product range to consumers. Therefore, there is a need to investigate retail outlets offering organic food in order to improve functioning of this part of the market. The inquiry research conducted in three types of outlets offering organic food, between 2011 and 2012 in the 8 largest Polish cities, shows that the majority of outlets offer cereals, processed fruit and vegetables as well as spices and the least shops – meat and sausages. The distributors mostly indicate unsatisfactory product range of suppliers as the reason for this situation. The main providers of the outlets are wholesalers, particularly in case of processed products, and in fresh products – organic farms. A very important distribution obstacle is dispersion of producers, which generates high transportation costs and what follows that, high price of organics. In the investigated shops, the most often used price calculation method is a cost method. The majority of the groceries and specialist shops apply margins between 21 and 40%. The margin in specialist outlets is the highest, in regard to the qualified service and advice. In turn, most retail networks declare the margin between 0 and 20%, which is consistent with low-price strategy applied in these shops. Some lacks in the product range of organics and in particular high prices cause that the demand volume is rather low. Therefore there is a need to support certain market actions, e.g. on-farm processing or promotion.

Keywords: organic food, retail, product range, supply sources

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Authors: Surendra B. Chand, P. P. Chaurasia, M. P. Adhikari, R. N. Yadav

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Objective: The objective of this work was to evaluate all the safety procedures toward the radiation protection for workers in the radiation oncology department. Materials and Methods: The annual thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs) reports for five years of the staffs were evaluated, radiation surveys were done in the control consoles, radiotherapy machines room and waiting areas of all machines using Aloka survey meter. Results: The five years TLD reports shows that the whole body dose of the individual staffs is found within the annual dose limit except the accidental exposures. Radiation exposures in the working areas are also safe limits. Conclusion: The radiation safety practices for radiation protection are satisfactory and the radiation workers of the departments are found working within the safe limit.

Keywords: radiation protection, safety, ICRP, dose limits, TLD, radiation devices

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Authors: Mohd Azman Abdul Latif, Erwan Basiron

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A flaw or drift from expected operational performance in one component (NAND, PMIC, controller, DRAM, etc.) may affect the reliability of the entire Solid State Drive (SSD) system. Therefore, it is important to ensure the required quality of each individual component through qualification testing specified using standards or user requirements. Qualification testing is time-consuming and comes at a substantial cost for product manufacturers. A highly technical team, from all the eminent stakeholders is embarking on reliability prediction from beginning of new product development, identify critical to reliability parameters, perform full-blown characterization to embed margin into product reliability and establish control to ensure the product reliability is sustainable in the mass production. The paper will discuss a comprehensive development framework, comprehending SSD end to end from design to assembly, in-line inspection, in-line testing and will be able to predict and to validate the product reliability at the early stage of new product development. During the design stage, the SSD will go through intense reliability margin investigation with focus on assembly process attributes, process equipment control, in-process metrology and also comprehending forward looking product roadmap. Once these pillars are completed, the next step is to perform process characterization and build up reliability prediction modeling. Next, for the design validation process, the reliability prediction specifically solder joint simulator will be established. The SSD will be stratified into Non-Operating and Operating tests with focus on solder joint reliability and connectivity/component latent failures by prevention through design intervention and containment through Temperature Cycle Test (TCT). Some of the SSDs will be subjected to the physical solder joint analysis called Dye and Pry (DP) and Cross Section analysis. The result will be feedbacked to the simulation team for any corrective actions required to further improve the design. Once the SSD is validated and is proven working, it will be subjected to implementation of the monitor phase whereby Design for Assembly (DFA) rules will be updated. At this stage, the design change, process and equipment parameters are in control. Predictable product reliability at early product development will enable on-time sample qualification delivery to customer and will optimize product development validation, effective development resource and will avoid forced late investment to bandage the end-of-life product failures. Understanding the critical to reliability parameters earlier will allow focus on increasing the product margin that will increase customer confidence to product reliability.

Keywords: e2e reliability prediction, SSD, TCT, solder joint reliability, NUDD, connectivity issues, qualifications, characterization and control

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Authors: Jatin Kumar Choudhary, Naren Rayala, Abbas Eslami Kiasari, Fahimeh Jafari

Abstract:

The Great Britain has one of the safest road networks in the world. However, the consequences of any death or serious injury are devastating for loved ones, as well as for those who help the severely injured. This paper aims to analyse the Great Britain's road safety situation and show the response measures for areas where the total damage caused by accidents can be significantly and quickly reduced. In this paper, we do an exploratory data analysis using STATS19 data. For the past 30 years, the UK has had a good record in reducing fatalities. The UK ranked third based on the number of road deaths per million inhabitants. There were around 165,000 accidents reported in the Great Britain in 2009 and it has been decreasing every year until 2019 which is under 120,000. The government continues to scale back road deaths empowering responsible road users by identifying and prosecuting the parameters that make the roads less safe.

Keywords: road safety, data analysis, openstreetmap, feature expanding.

Procedia PDF Downloads 128

Authors: N. Meddeb, A. M. Makhlouf, M. A. Ben Ayed

Abstract:

Due to the real-time requirement of message in Vehicular Ad hoc NETworks (VANET), it is necessary to authenticate vehicles to achieve security, efficiency, and conditional privacy-preserving. Privacy is of utmost relevance in VANETs. For this reason, we have proposed a new protocol called ‘Multilevel Authentication Protocol’ (MAP) that considers different vehicle categories. The proposed protocol is based on our Multilevel Authentication protocol for Vehicular networks (MAVnet). But the MAP leads to human safety, where the priority is given to the ambulance vehicles. For evaluation, we used the Java language to develop a demo application and deployed it on the Network Security Simulation (Nessi2). Compared with existing authentication protocols, MAP markedly enhance the communication overhead and decreases the delay of exchanging messages while preserving conditional privacy.

Keywords: Vehicular Ad hoc NETworks (VANET), vehicle categories, safety, databases, privacy, authentication, throughput, delay

Procedia PDF Downloads 285

Authors: Corneliu-Ioan Dimitriu, Gheorghe Frățilă

Abstract:

Romania and Bulgaria have high rates of road deaths per million inhabitants. Directive (EU) 2019/1936, known as the RISM Directive, has been transposed into national law by each Member State. The research focuses on the amendments made to Romanian legislation through Government Ordinance no. 3/2022, which aims to improve road safety management on infrastructure. The aim of the research is two-fold: to sensitize the Romanian Government and decision-making entities to develop an integrated and competitive management system and to establish a safe and proactive mobility system that ensures efficient and safe roads. The research includes a critical analysis of European and Romanian legislation, as well as subsequent normative acts related to road infrastructure safety management. Public data from European Union and national authorities, as well as data from the Romanian Road Authority-ARR and Traffic Police database, are utilized. The research methodology involves comparative analysis, criterion analysis, SWOT analysis, and the use of GANTT and WBS diagrams. The Excel tool is employed to process the road accident databases of Romania and Bulgaria. Collaboration with Bulgarian specialists is established to identify common road infrastructure safety issues. The research concludes that the legislative changes have resulted in a relaxation of road safety management in Romania, leading to decreased control over certain management procedures. The amendments to primary and secondary legislation do not meet the current safety requirements for road infrastructure. The research highlights the need for legislative changes and strengthened administrative capacity to enhance road safety. Regional cooperation and the exchange of best practices are emphasized for effective road infrastructure safety management. The research contributes to the theoretical understanding of road infrastructure safety management by analyzing legislative changes and their impact on safety measures. It highlights the importance of an integrated and proactive approach in reducing road accidents and achieving the "zero deaths" objective set by the European Union. Data collection involves accessing public data from relevant authorities and using information from the Romanian Road Authority-ARR and Traffic Police database. Analysis procedures include critical analysis of legislation, comparative analysis of transpositions, criterion analysis, and the use of various diagrams and tools such as SWOT, GANTT, WBS, and Excel. The research addresses the effectiveness of legislative changes in road infrastructure safety management in Romania and the impact on control over management procedures. It also explores the need for strengthened administrative capacity and regional cooperation in addressing road safety issues. The research concludes that the legislative changes made in Romania have not strengthened road safety management and emphasize the need for immediate action, legislative amendments, and enhanced administrative capacity. Collaboration with Bulgarian specialists and the exchange of best practices are recommended for effective road infrastructure safety management. The research contributes to the theoretical understanding of road safety management and provides valuable insights for policymakers and decision-makers in Romania.

Keywords: management, road infrastructure safety, legislation, amendments, collaboration

Procedia PDF Downloads 72

Authors: Mohsin Ali Shaikh, Song Weiguo, Muhammad Kashan Surahio, Usman Shahid, Rehmat Karim

Abstract:

When the area of a structure that is threatened by a disaster affects personal safety, the effectiveness of disaster prevention, evacuation, and rescue operations can be summarized by three assessment indicators: personal safety, property preservation, and attribution of responsibility. These indicators are applicable regardless of the disaster that affects the building. People need to get out of the hazardous area and to a safe place as soon as possible because there's no other way to respond. The results of the tragedy are thus closely related to how quickly people are advised to evacuate and how quickly they are rescued. This study considers present fire prevention systems to address catastrophes and improve building safety. It proposes the methods of Prevention Level for Deployment in Advance and Spatial Transformation by Human-Machine Collaboration. We present and prototype a real-time fire protection system architecture for building disaster prevention, evacuation, and rescue operations. The design encourages the use of simulations to check the efficacy of evacuation, rescue, and disaster prevention procedures throughout the planning and design phase of the structure.

Keywords: prevention level, building information modeling, quality management system, simulated reality

Procedia PDF Downloads 57

Authors: Ashraf Aly

Abstract:

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of 5G communication technology radiation on human health and airport safety. The term 5G refers to the fifth generation of wireless mobile technology. The 5G wireless technology will increase the number of high-frequency-powered base stations and other devices and browsing and download speeds, as well as improve the network connectivity and play a big part in improving the performance of integrated applications, such as self-driving cars, medical devices, and robotics. 4G was the latest embedded version of mobile networking technology called 4G, and 5G is the new version of wireless technology. 5G networks have more features than 4G networks, such as lower latency, higher capacity, and increased bandwidth compared to 4G. 5G network improvements over 4G will have big impacts on how people live, business, and work all over the world. But neither 4G nor 5G have been tested for safety and show harmful effects from this wireless radiation. This paper presents biological factors on the effects of 5G radiation on human health. 5G services use C-band radio frequencies; these frequencies are close to those used by radio altimeters, which represent important equipment for airport and aircraft safety. The aviation industry, telecommunications companies, and their regulators have been discussing and weighing these interference concerns for years.

Keywords: wireless communication, radiofrequency, Electromagnetic field, environmental issues

Procedia PDF Downloads 57