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Adopting a multi-disciplinary approach, this book opens new ground for research on territorial disputes. Many sovereignty conflicts remain unresolved around the world. Current solutions in law, political science and international relations generally prove problematic to at least one of the agents part of these differences. Arguing that disputes are complex, multi-layered and multi-faceted, this book brings together a global, inter-disciplinary view of territorial disputes. The book reviews the key conceptual elements central to legal and political sciences with regards to territorial disputes: state, sovereignty and self-determination. Looking at some of the current long-standing disputes worldwide, it compares and contrasts the many issues at stake and the potential remedies currently available in order to assess why some territorial disputes remain unresolved. Finally, it offers a set of guidelines for dispute settlement and conflict resolution that current remedies fail to provide. It will appeal to students and scholars working in international relations, legal theory and jurisprudence, public international law and political sciences.

Numerous theoretical models and techniques to assess human error were developed since the 60's. Most of these models were developed for the nuclear, military, and aviation sectors. These methods have the following weaknesses that limit their use in industry: the lack of analysis of underlying causal cognitive mechanisms, need of retrospective data for implementation, strong dependence on expert judgment, focus on a particular type of error, and/or analysis of operator behaviour and decision-making without considering the role of the system in such decisions. The purpose of the present research is to develop a qualitative prospective methodology that does not depend exclusively on retrospective information, that does not require expert judgment for implementation and that allows predicting potential sequences of accidents before they occur. It has been proposed for new (or existent) small and medium- scale facilities, whose processes are simple. To the best of our knowledge, a methodology that meets these requirements has not been reported in literature thus far. The methodology proposed in this study was applied to the methanol storage area of a biodiesel facility. It could predict potential sequences of accidents, through the analysis of information provided by different system devices and the study of the possible deviations of operators in decision-making. It also enabled the identification of the shortcomings in the human-machine interface and proposed an optimization of the current configuration. Fil: Calvo Olivares, Romina Daniela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ingenieria. Instituto de Capacitación Especial y Desarrollo de Ingeniería Asistida por Computadora; Argentina Fil: Rivera, Selva Soledad. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ingenieria. Instituto de Capacitación Especial y Desarrollo de Ingeniería Asistida por Computadora; Argentina Fil: Núñez Mc Leod, Jorge Eduardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ingenieria. Instituto de Capacitación Especial y Desarrollo de Ingeniería Asistida por Computadora; Argentina

The present paper describes the development of an accident and incident database for the Biodiesel Industry for the period 2003-November 2013. The work performed is related to the collection of data from different documental sources and the subsequent setting of a database containing general information about adverse events, its sequence, mitigation, causes, and human, environmental and material consequences occurred in biodiesel facilities during the last ten years. This database came to fill a gap existing in this field. Availability of these data will allow applying risk analysis tools, having a management tool to check organization performance, generating lessons learned to avoid accident recurrence and identifying those accidents more likely to occur. Data statistical analysis shows that the frequency of accidents in biodiesel plants has an increasing tendency, being fires and explosions the main type of accidents that occurred. Inmediate causes and consequences of the accidents have also been analized. Finally, some conclusion are drawn concerning the need of maintaining an update accidental and incidental database and improving biodiesel plants safety based on information obtained. Fil: Calvo Olivares, Romina Daniela. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ingenieria. Instituto de Capacitación Especial y Desarrollo de Ingeniería Asistida por Computadora; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; Argentina Fil: Rivera, Selva Soledad. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ingenieria. Instituto de Capacitación Especial y Desarrollo de Ingeniería Asistida por Computadora; Argentina Fil: Núñez Mc Leod, Jorge Eduardo. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ingenieria. Instituto de Capacitación Especial y Desarrollo de Ingeniería Asistida por Computadora; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; Argentina

Construction of the CAREM-25 full-size prototype, a very low power nuclear power station [25 MW(electric)], is scheduled to begin in Argentina in 2001. The CAREM-25 is designed based on principles of inherent safety, passive safety functions, and ease of operation. This paper analyzes the safety philosophy from the point of view of risk by performing a level-III probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) of this prototype. The specific PSA steps are discussed, including a specially developed method to obtain representative initiating events, system analysis by fault trees, event development in event trees, plant and containment response analysis, containment event tree development, consequence calculations, and risk representation. The PSA results are presented and discussed in terms of their own values as well as in comparison to other PSA results performed for larger nuclear power plants (NPPs). The advantages of the CAREM-25 from the risk point of view are studied in terms of the effective reduction of both the probability of severe accident sequences and the potential consequences of such sequences (radiological and emergency preparedness impact). The risk point of view also provides a perspective to analyze the impact of several design modifications in order to further reduce the residual risk of the NPP.more » These design modifications, several of which have already been included in the prototype, are discussed and evaluated.« less

The most important issues in human reliability analysis (HRA) are the analysis of the information gotten from the task, its uncertainty and its treatment while using accurate techniques. This leads to a quantification of the performance shaping factors (PSFs) and then to human reliability quantification. The purpose of this paper is to compare the information required by the classical and the second generation model, especially the unified reliability model, to highlight the importance of cognitive task analysis. This newest approach proves to be more accurate in quantifying human performance by focusing on analyzing both the task cognition and physical demand and the operator resources. The bases for a task analysis in the unified reliability model, its source or collecting method and its uncertainty treatment will be established. Also, the dimensions of the unified task analysis and its relation with human error will be presented.

To assess the exposure to lead in children living in various types of contaminated sites.The study was conducted from June 2008 to December 2009 at four sites in Mexico: Avalos metallurgical, Chihuahua; Morales metallurgical, San Luis Potosí (SLP); Trinidad pottery area, Tlaxcala and Cedral mine site, SLP. These sites contain different sources of lead. The metal levels were quantified in outdoor dust and in peripheral blood of children.Lead dust concentrations exceed the National Guidelines for residential soils (400 mg/kg) in a range of values for the four sites from 62 to 5 187 mg/kg. Regarding biological monitoring, the studied children showed maximum lead blood levels of 22 µg/dL in Cedral, 31 µg/dL in Morales, 32 µg/dL in Avalos, and 52 µg/dL in Trinidad. It is important to mention that in all the studied sites, a significative positive correlation was found between blood lead levels and the lead concentrations in dust.These sites are an example of the health risks related to lead exposure in Mexico; therefore, there is an urgent need for a national public health program aimed at reducing lead exposure in vulnerable populations.