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An important frontier in the administration of therapeutic drugs to veterinary species is the use of different polymers as drug delivery platforms. The usefulness of polymers as platforms for the administration of pharmaceutical and agricultural agents has been clearly recognized in the recent decades. The chemical versatility of polymers and the wide range of developed controlled-release strategies enhance the possibilities for the formulation of active molecules. In particular, the veterinary area offers opportunities for the development of novel controlled-release drug delivery technologies adapted to livestock or companion animal health needs. In some cases, it also allows to improve profitability in meat production or to meet the safety criteria related to drug residues. A number of factors affect the selection of polymers and subsequent properties of the controlled-release drug delivery system. However, their selection also dictates the release kinetics of the drug from the delivery system. Such choices are therefore crucial as they affect the success and potential of the delivery system for achieving the therapeutic goals of the veterinarian. It is the intention of this review to give an overview of the most relevant polymers, which are used or have been tested as drug delivery release rate modifiers in the veterinary field. The article highlights some recent developments focusing on their advantages and applications and analyzes the future direction of the scientific and technological advancements in this area. Fil: Bermudez, Jose Maria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Salta. Instituto de Investigación para la Industria Química (i); Argentina Fil: Cid, Alicia Graciela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Salta. Instituto de Investigación para la Industria Química (i); Argentina Fil: Ramírez Rigo, María Veronica. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Bahía Blanca. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química (i); Argentina Fil: Quinteros, Daniela Alejandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Centro Cientifico Tecnologico Cordoba. Unidad de Investigacion y Desarrollo en Tecnologia Farmaceutica; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; Argentina Fil: Simonazzi, Analía. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Salta. Instituto de Investigación para la Industria Química (i); Argentina Fil: Sanchez Bruni, Sergio Fabian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tandil. Centro de Investigacion Veterinaria de Tandil; Argentina Fil: Palma, Santiago Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Centro Cientifico Tecnologico Cordoba. Unidad de Investigacion y Desarrollo en Tecnologia Farmaceutica; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; Argentina

This paper presents the significant factor and give some suggestion that should know before design. The main objective of this paper is guide the first step for someone who attends to design of grounding system before study in details later. The overview of grounding system can protect damage from fault such as can save a human life and power system equipment. The unsafe conditions have three cases. Case 1) maximum touch voltage exceeds the safety criteria. In this case, the conductor compression ratio of the ground gird should be first adjusted to have optimal spacing of ground grid conductors. If it still over limit, earth resistivity should be consider afterward. Case 2) maximum step voltage exceeds the safety criteria. In this case, increasing the number of ground grid conductors around the boundary can solve this problem. Case 3) both of maximum touch and step voltage exceed the safety criteria. In this case, follow the solutions explained in case 1 and case 2. Another suggestion, vary depth of ground grid until maximum step and touch voltage do not exceed the safety criteria., {"references":["T. Thasananutariya, K. Spuntupong, and S. Chatratana, \"Design of\nGrounding System for GIS Indoor Substation\", in Proc. TENCON IEEE Region 10 Conf. pp. 413 - 416, 2004.","IEEE Std 80-2000, \"IEEE Guide for Safety in AC Substation Grounding\", 2000.","ANSI/IEEE Std 81-1983, \"IEEE Guide for Measuring Earth Resistivity,\nGround Impedance, and Earth Surface Potentials of a Ground System\",1983.","A. Phayomhom, S. Sirisumranikul, T. Kasirawat and A. Puttarach,\n\"Safety Design Planning of Ground Grid for Outdoor Substation in MEA-s Power Distribution System\", in Proc. Electrical Engineering/ Electronics Computer Telecom. and Information\nTechnology International Conf. pp. 298-302, 2010.","P. A. Zotos, \"Ground Grid Design in Large Industrial Plants\", IEEE\nTran. Industry Applications, vol. 24, no. 3, pp.521-525, May/June,\n1988.","IEEE Std 367-1996, \"IEEE Recommended Practice for Determining the\nElectric Power Station Ground Potential Rise and Induced Voltage From\na Power Fault\", 1996.","M. Mitolo, P. E. Sutherland and R. Natarajan, \"Effects of High Fault Currents on Ground Grid Design\", IEEE Trans. Industry Applications,\nvol. 46, no. 3,May/June, 2010","A. Puttarach, N. Chakpitak, T.Kasirawat, and C. Pongsriwat,\n\"Substation Grounding Grid Analysis with theVariation of Soil layer\ndepth Method\",in Proc. IEEE Lausanne, Power Tech. pp. 1881-1886,\n2007.","H. M. Khodr, G. A. Salloum, J. T. Saraiva, and M.A. Matos, \"Design of\ngrounding systems in substations using a mixed-integerlinear\nprogramming formulation\", Electric Power Systems Research, Vol. 79,\npp. 126-133, 2007.\n[10] A. Phayomhom, S. Sirisumrannukul, T.Kasirawat, A. Puttarach, C.\nKlinsopon, and P. Pearnont, \"Safety Analysis for Grounding System of\nTwo Neighbouring Substations: Case Study of Metropolitan\nElectricityAuthority-s System\", GMSARN International Journal 5 pp.\n169 - 178, 2011.\n[11] Marcus O. Durham, and Robert A. Durham, \"Grounding System\nDesignfor IsolatedLocationsand Plant Systems\",in Proc. Petroleum and\nchemical Industry Conf. pp. 145-153, 1995.\n[12] Yanqing GAO, Rong Zeng, Xidong Liang, Jinliang HE, Weimin Sun\nand Qi SU, \"Safety Analysis of Grounding Grid for Substation with\nDifferent Structure\",In Proc. Power System Tech. International Conf.\npp. 1487-1492, 2000.\n[13] F.Dawalibi, and D.Mukhedkar, \"Optimum Designof Substation\nGrounding in a Two Layer Earth StructurePart III Study of Grounding\nGrids Performanceandnew Electrodes Configuration\",IEEE Tran. Power\nApparatus and Systems, vol. 94, no. 2, pp. 267-282, March/April, 1975.\n[14] Jinliang He, RongZeng, YanqingGao, YoupingTu, Weimin Sun, Jun\nZou,and Zhicheng Guan, \"Seasonal Influences on Safety of Substation Grounding System\", IEEE Tran. Power Delivery, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 788-795, July, 2003."]}

Simulating any nontrivial traffic situation requires describing not only acceleration and braking but also lane changes. When modeling traffic flow on entire road networks, additional discrete-choice situations arise such as deciding if it is safe to enter a priority road, or if cruising or stopping is the appropriate driver’s reaction when approaching a traffic light which is about to change to red. This chapter presents a unified utility-based modeling framework for such decisions at the most basic operative level.

Background A peripheral intravenous device (PIVD) provides venous access for the administration of medications, blood products and fluids. They can be associated with a risk of infection and other complications, which have prompted the development of evidence-based guidelines for their use at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH). A previous audit performed at the RAH found unsatisfactory compliance with these guidelines across a group of wards. The Burns Unit performed poorly compared with other wards, but the reasons for this were not explored. Methods A repeat audit was performed for all PIVDs in the Burns Unit over a 3-week period and compliance with the PIVD safety guidelines was assessed. Factors influencing compliance were investigated and the evidence behind the guidelines was reviewed. Results Overall compliance with the seven safety criteria was 71%. Poorest compliance was for documentation of insertion date, which has implications for scheduling PIVD replacement. Conclusion The guidelines are largely evidence-based; however, not all of them are feasible for all patients within a hospital. The Burns Unit had an overall compliance rate of 71%. Auditing of individual wards is not effective in assessing those wards' compliance with the guidelines as many PIVDs are inserted in other locations in the hospital. For compliance to improve, other areas of the hospital where PIVDs are inserted need to be targeted.

This paper describes the development and application of worst-case analysis methods to the problem of verifying correct functionality of autonomous GNC systems in the terminal rendezvous phase. Hybrid global/local optimization algorithms are employed to analyze the robustness of a GNC system in the presence of a large number of parametric uncertainties in the spacecraft simulation model with respect to the defined safety criteria for the capture specification. A framework for integrating information from analytical tools from robust control theory into the optimization-based analysis is proposed and applied to the rendezvous problem. The results from the proposed approaches are compared with those obtained via traditional Monte-Carlo simulation, and indicate potentially significant advantages in terms of both improved reliability and efficiency.

Norovirus (NoV) is the main cause of human nonbacterial gastroenteritis throughout the world. NoVs are classified into five genogroups: GI, GII, GIII, GIV, and GV. NoVs from GI and GII are the most commonly reported NoVs associated with human infections, and raw or undercooked shellfish have been identified as the main potential infection vehicle. European Commission Regulation 2073/2005 defines only bacteriological parameters for use as safety criteria for shellfish because reference methods for detection of viruses are lacking. From July 2007 to April 2010, 163 shellfish samples were collected in southern Italy from harvesting areas, authorized or nonauthorized retailers, and a restaurant after an outbreak of human gastroenteritis. The shellfish were analyzed for the presence of NoVs from GI and GII using the one-step real-time reverse transcription PCR protocol. A total of 94 shellfish samples (57.7%) were positive for the presence of NoV, and GII was the most frequently identified genogroup.

The objective of this project is to examine safety aspects of candidate hydrogen storage materials and systems being developed in the DOE Hydrogen Program. As a result of this effort, the general DOE safety target will be given useful meaning by establishing a link between the characteristics of new storage materials and the satisfaction of safety criteria. This will be accomplished through the development and application of formal risk analysis methods, standardized materials testing, chemical reactivity characterization, novel risk mitigation approaches and subscale system demonstration. The project also will collaborate with other DOE and international activities in materials based hydrogen storage safety to provide a larger, highly coordinated effort.

International audience; In this paper, a decision support system for the locating of future hydrogen refueling stations (HRS) is presented. It explores the use of two approaches. The first one consists of using the geographical information system (GIS) as a tool to evaluate the alternative toward the location of future HRS under safety criterion, while the second one is based on the use of a mathematical optimization model that takes into account the minimization HRS installation costs as well as the transportation costs. The DSS will identify suitable sites providing information on a multi-criteria level evaluation of locating the HRS. The GIS based DSS is applied to a region in the North of Italy, while future development will focus on completing and applying the mathematical optimization model.

This paper deals with the critical speed optimization of a rail vehicle system moving in curved track with relatively high speed. Indeed the roll motion of the car body will be included in the dynamic model in order to study its effects. Based on the structural characteristics of the rail vehicle and its curved motion, a critical speed optimization as a function of the radius of curvature and the rail vehicle design parameters is performed using the genetic algorithms. The safety criterion is evaluated using the derailment angle. The outcomes of this work could help the designer in his choice of the adequate design parameters yielding the best compromise between critical speed and radius of curvature.

The safety criteria for building structures are provided in regulations as minimum requirements. Then people usually do not pay attentions to the level of safety. However the local conditions for the seismic activity, soil conditions and social behaviour are rather different. The appropriate safety level has to be based on the demands of stakeholders including clients and users. The target safety criteria for school gymnasium are discussed as an example. The minimum total expected cost principle is applied as a tool for the discussion.

Fuel assemblies and their components are subjected to the most harsh conditions existing in a nuclear reactor. They are designed and manufactured to satisfy stringent functional and safety requirements for normal operation and transient conditions. With an emphasis on boiling and pressurised light water reactors and going from general principles to details, the chapter describes the main components of a fuel assembly and how design and functionality are related to operating conditions, safety criteria and reactor physics. Phenomena affecting fuel rod endurance are addressed and illustrated.

In this work we apply an innovative participative design approach for the quality evaluation of virtual prototypes of new industrial products (i.e. concept designs), by adopting statistical procedures and carrying out tests in an immersive VR environment. This methodology has been fully exploited through a case study concerning the choice of the optimal design for the interiors of a new regional train. Following this approach, the optimal concept design is defined at the end of a process consisting of five phases: identification of the quality elements of the concept design, classification of the quality elements, generation and quality evaluation of product concepts and, finally, definition of the optimal concept. According to the applied methodology after the identification of the customer’s needs, a structured set of quality elements has been defined and, successively, classified according to Kano’s theory. Following the approach of conjoint analysis, the design factors have been combined according to an experimental plan to form product virtual concepts. During the concepts generation phase we have explored those product architectures that integrate design characteristics correlated to the set of quality elements. The concepts have been created according to comfort, ergonomic and safety criteria. In particular we have considered the ergonomics of places and furniture dimensions, through the use of virtual manikins. The evaluation of the quality of the different concepts has been carried out in the VR laboratory (named “VRTest”) of the Competence Centre for the Qualification of Transportation Systems founded by Regione Campania according to an original statistical procedure and has involved a group of experts in train’s interiors design and a group of common users of regional trains.Copyright © 2012 by ASME

In this paper the results are presented of a national survey on playground safety in The Netherlands. Thirteen trained inspectors each inspected 51 playgrounds in their own region. In total, 663 playgrounds with 7150 pieces of playground equipment were subjected to an inspection. The following safety criteria were inspected: entanglement, surfacing material, installation and maintenance aspects. The results show that one out of every three pieces of playground equipment fail on one or more criteria. The number of pieces of equipment that fail in playgrounds operated by local authorities or recreational companies is higher than that in playgrounds operated by voluntary associations. The smaller the playground the higher the number of failures per piece of equipment The time has come for experts to provide the operators with information which will improve the safety level. More funding should be provided for the local authorities to prevent the occurrence of accidents.

Reliability and safety criteria have, in one form or another, made a significant contribution to engineering design since the earliest times. They gained added significance in Victorian times as the scale of civil and mechanical engineering projects increased. Codes of practice came into use, based both on practical experience and theoretical knowledge. Redundancy and diversity, though not given those names, were introduced as a means of achieving improved reliability and safety. Reliability and safety technology in the modern sense only developed, however, when predictive techniques, based on statistical information, were introduced. This technology has now taken its place in a wide range of engineering activities and is adopting an increasingly international role. It makes use of numerical reliability and safety goals and pays attention to problems associated with human reliability and ergonomics. This paper reviews the particularly important contribution made by civil aviation to the development of present day reliability and safety technology.

There are currently many problems with the development and assessment of software intensive safety-critical systems. In this paper we describe the problems, and introduce a novel approach to their solution, based around goal-structuring concepts, which we believe will ameliorate some of the difficulties. We discuss the use of modified and new forms of safety assessment notations to provide evidence of safety, and the use of data derived from such notations as a means of providing quantified input into the design assessment process. We then show how the design assessment can be partially automated, and from this develop some ideas on how we might move from analytical to synthetic approaches, using safety criteria and evidence as a fitness function for comparing alternative automatically-generated designs.

To assess the safety and efficacy of unpreserved timolol 0.1% gel in ocular hypertensive (OHT) or glaucomatous patients controlled by preserved latanoprost 0.005% but with signs of ocular intolerance.Patients initially treated with preserved latanoprost were randomized to receive once daily either one drop of unpreserved timolol gel in the morning or one drop of preserved latanoprost in the evening for 84 days. All patients attended three visits (D0, D28 and D84). A patient was considered as responder to primary criteria at Day 84 if the sum of the scores of the eight ocular symptoms and the six objective signs had decreased by at least 20% and if the effect on intra-ocular pressure (IOP) was assessed as either satisfactory or acceptable.At D84, 91.5% of patients were responders to the primary combined efficacy/safety criteria under unpreserved timolol gel treatment versus 48.6% under preserved latanoprost treatment (P0.001). As early as D28, 85.3% of patients were responders in the unpreserved timolol gel group compared to 40.3% of patients in the preserved latanoprost group (P0.001). IOP change from baseline was not significant between treatments (P0.05) at D28 or D84. Both signs and symptoms were significantly improved (P0.001) with unpreserved timolol gel compared to preserved latanoprost.Unpreserved timolol 0.1% gel maintained the efficacy of preserved latanoprost and reduced signs and symptoms of intolerance in almost all glaucomatous/OHT patients on preserved latanoprost.

ASME B31G is the most basic and widespread method which enables to assess the remaining strength of corroded pipelines. ASME B31G-2009 is the third edition of B31G which is the newest revision approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). This paper comprehensively introduced the development process of ASME B31G, and do some comparative studies with other standards of RSTRENG 0.85 dL and DNV RP - F101 which are also widely used in assessment the remaining strength of corroded pipelines. The predicted failure pressure are calculated for each standard mentioned above, based on 35 groups datum of pipe full-size blasting test collected from several literatures, and express the deviation between the forecasted value and the real datum quantificational by charts. Finally, safety criterion, applicable defects types, the strength grade of pipe and so on are analyzed and compared among the assessment methods. The investments showed that ASME B31G-2009 is much more greatly improved than previous editions of B31G; the conservative properties of ASME B31G-2009 and RSTRENG 0.85 dL are both much lower. They have effectively improved the pipe conveying efficiency and optimized the cost efficiency. However, they are both only applicable to evaluate the medium and low strength steel pipes. Inversely, NV RP-F101 is applicable to the medium and high strength steel pipes. Its results are often not safe to the lower strength steel pipes.

Due to increasing concern about environmental radiological protection, specific radioactivity concentrations of (226)Ra, (232)Th and (40)K in different types of commonly used granite stone samples collected from the Tehran city of Iran have been determined by means of a high-resolution HPGe gamma-spectroscopy system. The activity concentrations of (232)Th, (226)Ra and (40)K in the selected granite samples ranged from 18 to 178, 6 to 160 and 556 to 1539 Bq kg(-1), respectively. The radium equivalent activities (Ra(eq)) are lower than the limit of 370 Bq kg(-1) set by NEA-OECD [Nuclear Energy Agency. Exposure to radiation from natural radioactivity in building materials. Report by NEA Group of Experts. OECD (1979)], except in two samples. The internal hazard indexes have been found well below the acceptable limit in most of the samples. Five samples of investigated commercial granite stones do not satisfy the safety criterion illustrated by UNSCEAR (United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation. Exposure from natural sources of radiation. Report to the General Assembly (1993). Applying dose criteria recently recommended by the EC [European Commission Report on Radiological Protection Principles Concerning the Natural Radioactivity of Building Materials. Radiation Protection 112 (1999)] for superficial materials, all investigated samples meet the exemption dose limit of 0.3 mSv y(-1).

The retaining wall is an important part of the transportation system. Once it gets damaged in an earthquake, it not only creates huge direct economic loss, but also creates difficulties to the rescue work. On 12 May 2008, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake occurred in WenChuan of Sichuan province; destroyed many of the retaining walls existed. Therefore, the research on emergency assessment of the retaining wall damaged in earthquake has practical significance to the structure seismic performance evaluation and the earthquake emergency. In this paper, the key issues associated with post-earthquake emergency inspections of retaining walls are presented, such as the forms of retaining wall damage, the damage features under earthquake and the influence factors. Safety criteria are established and correlations of such criteria with various damage states are given. This paper presents the methods followed in the evaluation process, highlights the items for evaluation and intends to provide technical references for the post-earthquake disease prevention, diagnosis and disease treatment.

Tez (Yüksek Lisans) -- İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, 2011, Thesis (M.Sc.) -- İstanbul Technical University, Institute of Science and Technology, 2011, Ulaşım hizmeti ile topluma büyük yararlar sağlanmakla birlikte taşımada zaman içinde görülen artış, taşıt trafiğinden kaynaklanan bazı olumsuz sonuçları beraberinde getirmektedir. Bunlar trafik kazaları, hava kirliği, gürültü, ekolojik denge kaybı, zaman kaybı ve psikolojik sorunlar olarak sıralanabilir. Söz konusu olumsuz etkilerin başta gelenlerinden olan trafik kazaları, maddi ve manevi kayıpların büyüklüğü ile birçok ülkede olduğu gibi Türkiye’de de önemli sorunlardan biri olarak ortaya çıkmaktadır. Belirtilen sorun büyük ölçüde ulaştırma mühendisliği alanı içerisinde çözüm gerektiren bir nitelik taşımaktadır. Bu çalışmada trafik kazaları, ulaştırma mühendisliğinin karayolu güvenliği konusu içerisinde ele alınarak trafik kazalarına neden olan faktörlerin neler olduğu araştırılmış ve özellikle tasarımın ve tasarımcıya ait etkenlerin üzerinde durularak farklı bir bakış açısı oluşturulmaya çalışılmıştır. Ayrıca yeni gelişmekte olan bir anlayışın, “tasarım tutarlılığı” kavramının ve buna bağlı olarak geliştirilen güvenlik ölçütlerinin değerlendirilmesi yapılmıştır. Uygulama alanı olarak, karakteristik özellikleri nedeniyle iki şeritli kırsal yolların seçildiği söz konusu bu değerlendirmede yol güvenliği ile tasarım arasındaki ilişki ayrıntılı olarak incelenmiştir., Although transportation service provides great benefits for society; increase of vehicle number causes some negative consequences as a result of vehicle traffic. These consequences could be listed as traffic accidents, air pollution, noise pollution, ecological problems, time loss and psychological problems. As the foremost topic; traffic accidents which bring financial and emotional damage, are one of the important problems in Turkey as well as in many countries. And the nature of this problem requires a solution which should be considered in the area of transportation engineering. In this study, the factors which cause the traffic accidents are searched in the aforementioned comprehension and it has been tried to make a different viewpoint by focusing on especially factors of design and designer. Moreover, the evaluation of a new approach, called “design consistency” and related safety criteria had been made. By reason of its characteristic features, two – lane rural roads is chosen as scope of application and a detailed reading about the relationship between road safety and design has been done., Yüksek Lisans, M.Sc.

As a result of vertical and lateral wheel/rail forces, high contact stresses can develop at the interface between the rail base and tie. Under certain conditions, these stresses can exceed the strength of the concrete tie and result in deterioration of the tie and ultimately derailment due to rail rollover. This failure mode has been determined to be the probable cause of at least two derailments where the ties were found to have a triangular wear pattern. Following these derailments, a field investigation revealed this pattern of failure present in an appreciable portion of concrete ties [1]. Closed-form analyses have been conducted to examine combinations of wheel/rail loads and contact conditions that produce concrete tie rail seat deterioration or rail rollover. These results indicate that under certain circumstances truck-side L/V permitted by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Safety Criterion on Wheel/Rail Loads can result in stresses above the AREMA specified minimum design compressive strength of concrete used in concrete ties. Furthermore the analysis indicated that under certain circumstances truck-side L/V permitted by the FRA Safety Criterion can result in rail rollover. The analyses show that rail rollover can be a problem for new concrete ties, but is more of a problem in the presence of rail seat deterioration described above. This work is sponsored by FRA Office of Research and Development under the track research program.

Production casings are an important element in the process of oil and gas well construction. Production casing must be able to bear various kinds of pressure and loads. Basic requirements for production casing design and integrity management are reviewed, including design and safety criteria. Corrosion has become the main factor in the failure of production casing. Current standards are not always sufficient to protect against casing failure. The mechanisms and risks of casing collapse are reviewed. Standards for casing components are reviewed, including steel grades, wall thickness, thread, and thread sealants. New standards under development for the strength and strength design of casing string are reviewed, with specific calculation examples. Methods of calculating external pressures on casing strings are also reviewed. Quality detection and evaluation requirements for cementing and cement slurry are discussed in detail. Problems and solutions in production casing and cementing for complex wells are also discussed.

In Germany, heat-generating radioactive waste is intended to be disposed of in the Gorleben repository. With regard to planning and construction of this facility as well as its operational and postoperational phase, safety issues must be taken into account. Emphasis is on the preliminary planning for the Gorleben project and on radiation protection and safety criteria regarding the postclosure phase of this planned repository.

A consistent set of general safety criteria has been set up in Italy dealing with fusion machines, considering also the most recent recommendations issued by ICRP. The paper gives a short discussion of the more safety relevant aspects in the design of fusion machines starting from the consideration of the applicable dose limits. The procedure for the licensing of fusion machines is presented in the second part of the paper.

With most of the current probabilistic safety criteria (PSCs), it is difficult to select a unanimously acceptable single-point safety goal and to evaluate the uncertainties in the results of a probabilistic safety assessment (PSA). A new PSC is proposed, in which the distribution of the public's safety goals (DPSG) is used as a benchmark for evaluating the results of a PSA rather than a single-point safety goal. With this approach, the DPSG and the uncertainties in the results of a PSA can be handled properly so as to give a clear answer of 'how much of the public feels a nuclear reactor is safe' to the question of 'How safe is safe enough ' The proposed PSC is compared with the current PSCs and the expected utility model. If the actual DPSG is unavailable or difficult to obtain directly, a lognormal distribution is recommended as an appropriate DPSG for core melt frequencies in terms of maximizing entropy and minimizing total social cost. The proposed DPSG and PSC for core melt frequency are applied to the results of NUREG-1150.

The Lane Change Task was developed to provide an objective safety criterion for the assessment of driver distraction by in-vehicle information systems (IVIS). It consists of two basic driving tasks, namely lane keeping and lane changes. The LCT has been shown to reliably detect distraction from driving. As this test becomes increasingly important for the assessment of safety the validity of the LCT is crucial. In order to examine this further, the effect of an alcohol intoxication of 0.08 g/dl on the performance in the LCT was examined in the present study as the negative effects of alcohol on driving are well known. Twenty-three participants were tested under alcohol and placebo in a cross-over design measuring different performance indicators in the LCT. There were significant effects of alcohol during the lane keeping phase. However, these were much smaller than those typically found with distracting secondary tasks. The lane change phase was only marginally affected by alcohol. This result gives rise to some caution for interpreting effects in the LCT. The LCT is well able to detect distraction, as other studies have shown. However, our study with intoxicated participants shows that a small effect in the LCT does not necessarily mean that this condition does not impair driving.

This paper describes a unique engineering method intended for the preliminary designing of marine echo-location systems. The solved designing problem consists in determining geometrical parameters and selecting structural materials for a vessel of a buoyancy necessary to contain measuring instruments of a given mass, as well as its maximum gabarites and operational submersion depth. The assumed variability range of the system’s parameters determines a space of permissible applicability parameters of the method. Stress level related to permissible and critical stresses was assumed to be safety criterion for the vessel. The method may be applied also to solving converse problems consisting in determining maximum permissible submersion depth for a vessel made of assumed structural materials and having given geometrical parameters. The presented description of the method is illustrated by an example of its application.

In the context of more and more demanding reactor managements, the fuel assembly discharge burn-up increases and raises the question of the current safety criteria relevance. In order to assess new safety criteria for reactivity initiated accidents, the IRSN is developing a consistent and original approach to assess safety. This approach is based on:-A thorough understanding of the physical mechanisms involved in each phase (PCMI and post-boiling phases) of the RIA, supported by the interpretation of the experimental database. This experimental data is constituted of global test outcomes, such as CABRI or Nuclear Safety Research Reactor (NSRR) experiments, and analytical program outcomes, such as PATRICIA tests, intending to understand some particular physical phenomena;-The development of computing codes, modelling the physical phenomena. The physical phenomena observed during the tests mentioned above were modelled in the SCANAIR code. SCANAIR is a thermal-mechanical code calculating fuel and clad temperatures and strains during RIA. The CLARIS module is used as a post-calculation tool to evaluate the clad failure risk based on critical flaw depth. These computing codes were validated by global and analytical tests results;-The development of a methodology. The first step of this methodology is the identification of all the parameters affecting the hydride rim depth. Besides, an envelope curve resulting from burst tests giving the hydride rim depth versus oxidation thickness is defined. After that, the critical flaw depth for a given energy pulse is calculated then compared to the hydride rim depth. This methodology results in an energy or enthalpy limit versus burn-up. This approach is planned to be followed for each phase of the RIA. An example of application is presented to evaluate a PCMI limit for a zircaloy-4 cladding UO2 rod at Hot Zero Power. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The paper contains the safety analysis of the new generation of railway control systems designed with respect to new technologies: microcomputers connected via cable and wireless transmission networks. In the paper the THR and global safety criteria are introduced to designed, tested and exploited railway control systems. For one of the systems the verification of safety parameters was possible in the form of both forecasting estimation and exploitation result. The authors presented in the paper one of the methods of forecasting estimation of control and management railway systems.

The study of fuel behaviour under accidental conditions is a major concern in the safety analysis of the Pressurised Water Reactors. The consequences of Design Basis Accidents, such as Loss of Coolant Accident and Reactivity Initiated Accident, have to be quantified in comparison to the safety criteria. Those criteria have been established in the 1970s on the basis of experiments performed with fresh or low irradiated fuel. Starting in the 1990s, the increased industrial competition and constraints led utilities to use fuel in more and more aggressive conditions (higher discharge burnup, higher power, load follow, etc.) and create incentive conditions for the development of advanced fuel designs with improved performance (new fuel types with additives, cladding material with better resistance to corrosion, etc.). These long anticipated developments involved the need for new investigations of irradiated fuel behaviour in order to check the adequacy of the current criteria, evaluate the safety margins, provide new technical bases for modelling and allow an evolution of these criteria. Such an evolution is presently under discussion in France and several other countries, in view of a revision in the next coming years. For this purpose, a R&D strategy has been defined at IRSN. Copyright © 2010 Franois Barré et al.

In order to establish the safety of a disposl system for high-level radioactive waste, the system must be shown to satisfy radiological safety criteria imposed by regulatory agencies. In Canada, for example, the regulatory policy includes a quantitative limit on radiological risk to an individual for a period of 10,000 years following disposal. Mathematical modeling of the performance of the disposal system is essential to demonstrate that the system meets such quantitative criteria. There is considerable uncertainty in modeling the system because of the limited knowledge of both the geological environment of the disposal facility and the behavior of the engineered and natural components of the system far into the future. Procedures to reduce the uncertainty must be carried out during the entire life of the disposal project, and the uncertainty must be quantified to the extent possible. It is important that the limitations of the models be recognized, as well as their effectiveness in providing essential information in the siting, design, and regulatory process. A case study based on the concept proposed for the disposal of nuclear fuel waste in Canada demonstrates the use of mathematical modeling of a disposal system.

ETHEL, a new research facility located at the JRC-Ispra, is envisaged to be licensed for 37 PBq (1 MCi or 100 g) of tritium. A central service of laboratory operations is the overall control of tritium within the facility. The intended management of tritium has been developed on the basis of ETHEL's general safety criteria and the requirements of typical experiments with regard to quantity, quality and frequency of tritium distributions. This paper describes the method of supplying tritium to the laboratory, its accountancy and long-term storage, its distribution to individual experiments and, finally, its retrieval from experiments or the laboratory's tritium recovery system.

The European Tritium Handling Experimental Laboratory is committed to investigate the propagation modes of tritium in materials, components, equipment and process loops. As for other radiochemical facilities, a number of safety criteria and principles have been introduced into the design, construction and intended operation of the facility with the aim of optimizing the protection of both the workers and the population. This paper highlights a variety of safety aspects applied to the laboratory: confinement barriers, radiological protection, waste handling and, finally, precautions against internal and external events.

Using a linear preview control model of a driver in lane-change maneuver, the stability criteria and performance index for the driver-vehicle system are derived analytically. In the stable area on the u-Tp : velocity, Tp : preview time) plane, the vehicle design parameters, rear wheel steering control algorithm and driver's characteristics can be discussed in terms of the measure for the good drive-feeling or possible safety criteria.

Stents have a serial unstable structure that readily leads to non-uniform expansion. Non-uniform expansion in turn creates a stent safety problem. We explain how a stent may be simplified to a serial unstable structure, and present a method to calculate the non-uniform expansion of the stent on the basis of the serial unstable structure. We propose a safety criterion based on the expansion displacement instead of the strain, and explain that the parameter Rd, the ratio of the maximum displacement of the elements to normal displacement, is meaningful to assess the safety level of the stent. We also examine how laser cutting influences non-uniform expansion. The examples illustrate how to calculate the parameter Rd to assess non-uniform expansion of the stent, and demonstrate how the laser cutting offset and strengthening coefficient of the material influence the stent expansion behaviour. The methods are valuable for assessing stent safety due to non-uniform expansion.

Based on the basic symmetric two lane cellularautomaton model(STCA),we propose a modifiedSTCA(MSTCA)for mixed traffic flow.In MSTCA,theheadway also could be used for lane changing,andthen the length for safety criterion would be extended alot.Lane changing region and first cell for lanechanging on the other lane could be located.Thesituation while there are successive vehicles satisfiesboth the safety criterion and the motivation for lanechanging;vehicles ahead would own lane changingpriority.Both the two factors will influence thefrequency of lane changing;eventually affect the totaltraffic flow.Simulation results show that the MSTCAcould acquire higher value of flux and reproduce morerealistic features of the mixed traffic flow.

This project has developed quantitative safety goals for Generation IV (Gen IV) nuclear energy systems. These safety goals are risk based and technology independent. The foundations for a new approach to risk analysis has been developed, along with a new operational definition of risk. This project has furthered the current state-of-the-art by developing quantitative safety goals for both Gen IV reactors and for the overall Gen IV nuclear fuel cycle. The risk analysis approach developed will quantify performance measures, characterize uncertainty, and address a more comprehensive view of safety as it relates to the overall system. Appropriate safety criteria are necessary to manage risk in a prudent and cost-effective manner. This study is also important for government agencies responsible for managing, reviewing, and for approving advanced reactor systems because they are charged with assuring the health and safety of the public.

These consensus guidelines have been developed by a group of Latin American experts in pain management, to point out patterns and make practical recommendations to guide the diagnosis, identify warning signs (yellow and red flags), and establish comprehensive medical management (pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic treatment) and monitoring plans for patients enduring neuropathic pain. From the viewpoint of pharmacologic management, drugs are classified into groups according to efficacy, availability/accessibility, and safety criteria. Drugs are recommended for use depending on the disease and particular circumstances of each patient, with an approach that favors multimodal treatment while taking into consideration the idiosyncrasies of medical practice in Latin America.

The boundary safety criterion, which can be applied when the reaction kinetic information is scarce, has been compared to the model-based safety criteria: the divergence criterion and the criterion of derivatives, respectively. The results obtained for a homogeneous liquid reaction carried out in a semibatch stirred tank reactor fully confirm abilities of this boundary safety criterion to predict safe operating conditions.

We present the general model MOBIL (“Minimizing Overall Braking Induced by Lane Changes”) to derive lane-changing rules for a wide class of car-following models. Both the utility of a given lane and the risk associated with lane changes is determined in terms of longitudinal accelerations calculated with microscopic traffic models. This allows for the formulation of compact and general safety and incentive criteria both for symmetric and asymmetric passing rules. Moreover, anticipative elements and the crucial influence of velocity differences of the longitudinal traffic models are automatically transferred to the lane-changing rules. While the safety criterion prevents critical lane changes and collisions, the incentive criterion takes into account not only the own advantage but also the (dis-)advantages of other drivers associated with a lane change via a “politeness factor”. The parameter allows to vary the motivation for lane-changing from purely egoistic to a more cooperative driving behavior. This novel feature allows first to prevent change lanes for a marginal advantage if this obstructs other drivers, and, second, to let a “pushy” driver induce a lane change of a slower driver ahead in order to be no longer obstructed. In a more general context, we show that applying the MOBIL concept without politeness to simple car-following models and cellular automata results in lane changing models already known in the literature.

Microwave oven safety is predicated on careful design, testing, and manufacturing criteria based on well-defined safety standards. Emission and exposure safety criteria are used to quantify the performance of consumer and commercial ovens and industrial applications, respectively. Measurements from operating units are compared with safety standards to determine the operating compliance of microwave heating applications. Typical government performance standards for ovens, such as those of the US CDRH/FDA/DHHS, are presented along with consensus safety standards, such as the IEEE ICES C95.1-2005 safety standard, which quantify maximum permissible exposure levels for industrial applications.

Difficulties have been encountered in applying the requirements in the National Building Code (NBC) and referenced CSA standards to the structural evaluation and upgrading of existing buildings in Canada. The Associate Committee of the NBC has therefore initiated an effort to provide guidelines on the application of Part 4 of the NBC to existing buildings, allowing alternative requirements where needed. As an initial step towards fulfilling this goal, this paper reviews all aspects of limit states criteria for structural evaluation and proposes minimum load factors based on a life safety criterion. The proposed load factors allow more flexibility in practice but require more professional judgment. Key words: existing buildings, structural evaluation, criteria.