Preliminary Hazards Analysis Plasma Hearth Process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aycock, M.; Coordes, D.; Russell, J.; TenBrook, W.; Yimbo, P.

1993-11-01

This Preliminary Hazards Analysis (PHA) for the Plasma Hearth Process (PHP) follows the requirements of United States Department of Energy (DOE) Order 5480.23 (DOE, 1992a), DOE Order 5480.21 (DOE, 1991d), DOE Order 5480.22 (DOE, 1992c), DOE Order 5481.1B (DOE, 1986), and the guidance provided in DOE Standards DOE-STD-1027-92 (DOE, 1992b). Consideration is given to ft proposed regulations published as 10 CFR 830 (DOE, 1993) and DOE Safety Guide SG 830.110 (DOE, 1992b). The purpose of performing a PRA is to establish an initial hazard categorization for a DOE nuclear facility and to identify those processes and structures which may have an impact on or be important to safety. The PHA is typically performed during and provides input to project conceptual design. The PRA then is followed by a Preliminary Safety Analysis Report (PSAR) performed during Title I and II design. This PSAR then leads to performance of the Final Safety Analysis Report performed during construction, testing, and acceptance and completed before routine operation. Radiological assessments indicate that a PHP facility, depending on the radioactive material inventory, may be an exempt, Category 3, or Category 2 facility. The calculated impacts would result in no significant impact to offsite personnel or the environment. Hazardous material assessments indicate that a PHP facility will be a Low Hazard facility having no significant impacts either onsite or offsite to personnel and the environment

A complete electrical hazard classification system and its application

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gordon, Lloyd B [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Cartelli, Laura [Los Alamos National Laboratory

2009-01-01

The Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace, NFPA 70E, and relevant OSHA electrical safety standards evolved to address the hazards of 60-Hz power that are faced primarily by electricians, linemen, and others performing facility and utility work. This leaves a substantial gap in the management of electrical hazards in Research and Development (R&D) and specialized high voltage and high power equipment. Examples include lasers, accelerators, capacitor banks, electroplating systems, induction and dielectric heating systems, etc. Although all such systems are fed by 50/60 Hz alternating current (ac) power, we find substantial use of direct current (dc) electrical energy, and the use of capacitors, inductors, batteries, and radiofrequency (RF) power. The electrical hazards of these forms of electricity and their systems are different than for 50160 Hz power. Over the past 10 years there has been an effort to develop a method of classifying all of the electrical hazards found in all types of R&D and utilization equipment. Examples of the variation of these hazards from NFPA 70E include (a) high voltage can be harmless, if the available current is sufficiently low, (b) low voltage can be harmful if the available current/power is high, (c) high voltage capacitor hazards are unique and include severe reflex action, affects on the heart, and tissue damage, and (d) arc flash hazard analysis for dc and capacitor systems are not provided in existing standards. This work has led to a comprehensive electrical hazard classification system that is based on various research conducted over the past 100 years, on analysis of such systems in R&D, and on decades of experience. Initially, national electrical safety codes required the qualified worker only to know the source voltage to determine the shock hazard. Later, as arc flash hazards were understood, the fault current and clearing time were needed. These items are still insufficient to fully characterize all types of

Development of a revised radiotoxicity hazard classification [for radionuclides

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carter, M.W.; Burns, P.; Munslow-Davies, L.

1993-01-01

Publication of ICRP 60 and 61 has rendered previous radiotoxicity classification lists obsolete. Past classifications have been examined and possible bases for such classifications have been considered. A revised radiotoxicity hazard classification list, based on data in ICRP Publication 61 has been produced for use by Australian regulatory authorities and is described in this paper. The authors propose that the appropriate basis for this new list is a combination of the most restrictive inhalation ALI and the specific activity. (author)

Repository Subsurface Preliminary Fire Hazard Analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Logan, Richard C.

2001-01-01

This fire hazard analysis identifies preliminary design and operations features, fire, and explosion hazards, and provides a reasonable basis to establish the design requirements of fire protection systems during development and emplacement phases of the subsurface repository. This document follows the Technical Work Plan (TWP) (CRWMS M and O 2001c) which was prepared in accordance with AP-2.21Q, ''Quality Determinations and Planning for Scientific, Engineering, and Regulatory Compliance Activities''; Attachment 4 of AP-ESH-008, ''Hazards Analysis System''; and AP-3.11Q, ''Technical Reports''. The objective of this report is to establish the requirements that provide for facility nuclear safety and a proper level of personnel safety and property protection from the effects of fire and the adverse effects of fire-extinguishing agents

Preliminary Hazards Analysis of K-Basin Fuel Encapsulation and Storage

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Strickland, G.C.

1994-01-01

This Preliminary Hazards Analysis (PHA) systematically examines the K-Basin facilities and their supporting systems for hazards created by abnormal operating conditions and external events (e.g., earthquakes) which have the potential for causing undesirable consequences to the facility worker, the onsite individual, or the public. The operational activities examined are fuel encapsulation, fuel storage and cooling. Encapsulation of sludges in the basins is not examined. A team of individuals from Westinghouse produced a set of Hazards and Operability (HAZOP) tables documenting their examination of abnormal process conditions in the systems and activities examined in K-Basins. The purpose of this report is to reevaluate and update the HAZOP in the original Preliminary Hazard Analysis of K-Basin Fuel Encapsulation and Storage originally developed in 1991

Screening tests for hazard classification of complex waste materials – Selection of methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Weltens, R.; Vanermen, G.; Tirez, K.; Robbens, J.; Deprez, K.; Michiels, L.

2012-01-01

In this study we describe the development of an alternative methodology for hazard characterization of waste materials. Such an alternative methodology for hazard assessment of complex waste materials is urgently needed, because the lack of a validated instrument leads to arbitrary hazard classification of such complex waste materials. False classification can lead to human and environmental health risks and also has important financial consequences for the waste owner. The Hazardous Waste Directive (HWD) describes the methodology for hazard classification of waste materials. For mirror entries the HWD classification is based upon the hazardous properties (H1–15) of the waste which can be assessed from the hazardous properties of individual identified waste compounds or – if not all compounds are identified – from test results of hazard assessment tests performed on the waste material itself. For the latter the HWD recommends toxicity tests that were initially designed for risk assessment of chemicals in consumer products (pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, biocides, food, etc.). These tests (often using mammals) are not designed nor suitable for the hazard characterization of waste materials. With the present study we want to contribute to the development of an alternative and transparent test strategy for hazard assessment of complex wastes that is in line with the HWD principles for waste classification. It is necessary to cope with this important shortcoming in hazardous waste classification and to demonstrate that alternative methods are available that can be used for hazard assessment of waste materials. Next, by describing the pros and cons of the available methods, and by identifying the needs for additional or further development of test methods, we hope to stimulate research efforts and development in this direction. In this paper we describe promising techniques and argument on the test selection for the pilot study that we have performed on different

Final hazard classification for the 183-C D ampersand D project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zimmer, J.J.

1995-01-01

The intent of this document is to provide a final Hazard Classification for the Decontamination and Decommissioning (D ampersand D) activities associated with the 183-C Filter Plant/Pump Room facility. The Hazard Classification was determined based upon DOE-EM-STD-5502-94, ''DOE Limited Standard, Hazard Baseline Documentation,'' issued by the US Department of Energy. The 183-C Filter Plant/Pump Room facility was constructed to support operations of the 105-B and 105-C Reactors at the Hanford Site. Since shutdown of the 105-C Reactor in April 1969, the 183-C facility has been kept in a safe storage condition

[Investigation on standard application of industrial dust hazard classification].

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Y; Zhang, M; Chen, W H

2017-04-20

Objective: To investigate the application and effectiveness evaluation of the standard of GBZ/T 229.1-2010 in practice, and to explore the applicability, aiming to provide technical evidence for the revision of GBZ/T 229.1-2010. Methods: There were 2 questionnaire surveys carried out in the study, including general survey and specific survey. Databases were established and data were input with Excel 2010 and Epidata version 3.1 software. SPSS version 19.0 software was used for data cleaning and statistical analysis. Results: The general survey received 100 questionnaires, with 43 from facilities and 57 from professional expertise. There were 59 questionnaires from occupational health technical service organizations held by government, and 11 from colleges and universities. The leading three jobs using GBZ/T 229.1-2010 were the occupational hazards evaluation for constructive project (69.0%) , lecturing/training (55.0%) , occupational hazards monitoring (50.0%) , respectively. The high frequency used contents of GBZ/T 229.1-2010 were the fourth part "classification" (67.0%) , the fifth part "the principles of classification management" (59.0%) , annex A "the correct use instructions" (52.0%) , respectively. In the results of feasibility, scores of the fourth part "classification" , the fifth part "the principles of classification management" , annex A "the correct use instructions" were 3.07, 3.03, 3.23, respectively. The parts needed to be modified as priories were the fourth part "classification" (22.0%) , the fifth part "the principles of classification management" (13.0%) , annex A "the correct use instructions" (12.0%) . The specific survey received 15 questionnaires, with 12 from the employers and 3 from occupational health technical service organizations. The awareness rate of GBZ/T 229.1-2010 among occupational health professionals was 83.3%. Classification results in the employers were used for guidance on improvement measures (66.7%) , health surveillance

Radiotoxicity hazard classification - the basis and development of a new list

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carter, M.W.; Burns, P.; Munslow-Davies, L.

1993-01-01

The new ICRP recommendations contained in ICRP Publications 60 (ICRP 1991a) and 61 (ICRP 1991b) mean that all radiological regulations, standards and codes of practice based on the earlier recommendations need to be reviewed and revised. In Australia national recommendations on radiation protection are promulgated by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and these are used by the Standards Association of Australia, (SAA) National Occupation Health and Safety Commission (Worksafe Australia), state governments and other bodies, in their standards, codes and regulations. As part of the review and revision process, NHMRC and SAA recognised the need to produce a new radiotoxicity hazard classification, and formed a small working party to carry out this task. This paper is the report of the working party and summarises the work carried out and presents the recommendations for the revised radiotoxicity hazard classification. Previous classifications have been examined and the basis for such classifications has been considered. The working party propose that the most appropriate basis is the most restrictive inhalation annual limit intake (ALI), and that there is a need to consider this ALI in terms of both mass and activity. Using an index based on mass and activity, the radionuclides listed in ICRP 61 have been divided into four classes of radiotoxicity hazard. This list of revised radiotoxicity hazard class is presented in the paper and a floppy disk of the data is available. 17 refs., 4 figs

Hazard Classification for Fuel Supply Shutdown Facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

BENECKE, M.W.

2000-01-01

Final hazard classification for the 300 Area N Reactor fuel storage facility resulted in the assignment of Nuclear Facility Hazard Category 3 for the uranium metal fuel and feed material storage buildings (303-A, 303-B, 303-G, 3712, and 3716). Radiological for the residual uranium and thorium oxide storage building and an empty former fuel storage building that may be used for limited radioactive material storage in the future (303-K/3707-G, and 303-E), and Industrial for the remainder of the Fuel Supply Shutdown buildings (303-F/311 Tank Farm, 303-M, 313-S, 333, 334 and Tank Farm, 334-A, and MO-052)

The development of the globally harmonized system (GHS) of classification and labelling of hazardous chemicals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Winder, Chris; Azzi, Rola; Wagner, Drew

2005-01-01

The hazards of chemicals can be classified using classification criteria that are based on physical, chemical and ecotoxicological endpoints. These criteria may be developed be iteratively, based on scientific or regulatory processes. A number of national and international schemes have been developed over the past 50 years, and some, such as the UN Dangerous Goods system or the EC system for hazardous substances, are in widespread use. However, the unnecessarily complicated multiplicity of existing hazard classifications created much unnecessary confusion at the user level, and a recommendation was made at the 1992 Rio Earth summit to develop a globally harmonized chemical hazard classification and compatible labelling system, including material safety data sheets and easily understandable symbols, that could be used for manufacture, transport, use and disposal of chemical substances. This became the globally harmonized system for the Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS). The developmental phase of the GHS is largely complete. Consistent criteria for categorising chemicals according to their toxic, physical, chemical and ecological hazards are now available. Consistent hazard communication tools such as labelling and material safety data sheets are also close to finalisation. The next phase is implementation of the GHS. The Intergovernmental Forum for Chemical Safety recommends that all countries implement the GHS as soon as possible with a view to have the system fully operational by 2008. When the GHS is in place, the world will finally have one system for classification of chemical hazards

Preliminary Hazard Analysis applied to Uranium Hexafluoride - UF6 production plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tomzhinsky, David; Bichmacher, Ricardo; Braganca Junior, Alvaro; Peixoto, Orpet Jose

1996-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of the Preliminary hazard Analysis applied to the UF 6 Production Process, which is part of the UF 6 Conversion Plant. The Conversion Plant has designed to produce a high purified UF 6 in accordance with the nuclear grade standards. This Preliminary Hazard Analysis is the first step in the Risk Management Studies, which are under current development. The analysis evaluated the impact originated from the production process in the plant operators, members of public, equipment, systems and installations as well as the environment. (author)

A hazard and risk classification system for catastrophic rock slope failures in Norway

Science.gov (United States)

Hermanns, R.; Oppikofer, T.; Anda, E.; Blikra, L. H.; Böhme, M.; Bunkholt, H.; Dahle, H.; Devoli, G.; Eikenæs, O.; Fischer, L.; Harbitz, C. B.; Jaboyedoff, M.; Loew, S.; Yugsi Molina, F. X.

2012-04-01

The Geological Survey of Norway carries out systematic geologic mapping of potentially unstable rock slopes in Norway that can cause a catastrophic failure. As catastrophic failure we describe failures that involve substantial fragmentation of the rock mass during run-out and that impact an area larger than that of a rock fall (shadow angle of ca. 28-32° for rock falls). This includes therefore rock slope failures that lead to secondary effects, such as a displacement wave when impacting a water body or damming of a narrow valley. Our systematic mapping revealed more than 280 rock slopes with significant postglacial deformation, which might represent localities of large future rock slope failures. This large number necessitates prioritization of follow-up activities, such as more detailed investigations, periodic monitoring and permanent monitoring and early-warning. In the past hazard and risk were assessed qualitatively for some sites, however, in order to compare sites so that political and financial decisions can be taken, it was necessary to develop a quantitative hazard and risk classification system. A preliminary classification system was presented and discussed with an expert group of Norwegian and international experts and afterwards adapted following their recommendations. This contribution presents the concept of this final hazard and risk classification that should be used in Norway in the upcoming years. Historical experience and possible future rockslide scenarios in Norway indicate that hazard assessment of large rock slope failures must be scenario-based, because intensity of deformation and present displacement rates, as well as the geological structures activated by the sliding rock mass can vary significantly on a given slope. In addition, for each scenario the run-out of the rock mass has to be evaluated. This includes the secondary effects such as generation of displacement waves or landslide damming of valleys with the potential of later

A Preliminary Classification of Human Functional Sexual Disorders

Science.gov (United States)

Sharpe, Lawrence; And Others

1976-01-01

A preliminary classification is presented for functional human sexual disorders. This system is based on objective behavior and reports of distress. Five categories of sexual disorders are proposed, including the behavioral, psychological and informational components of sexual functioning in the individual and the couple. (Author)

Semi-automated landform classification for hazard mapping of soil liquefaction by earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

Nakano, Takayuki

2018-05-01

Soil liquefaction damages were caused by huge earthquake in Japan, and the similar damages are concerned in near future huge earthquake. On the other hand, a preparation of soil liquefaction risk map (soil liquefaction hazard map) is impeded by the difficulty of evaluation of soil liquefaction risk. Generally, relative soil liquefaction risk should be able to be evaluated from landform classification data by using experimental rule based on the relationship between extent of soil liquefaction damage and landform classification items associated with past earthquake. Therefore, I rearranged the relationship between landform classification items and soil liquefaction risk intelligibly in order to enable the evaluation of soil liquefaction risk based on landform classification data appropriately and efficiently. And I developed a new method of generating landform classification data of 50-m grid size from existing landform classification data of 250-m grid size by using digital elevation model (DEM) data and multi-band satellite image data in order to evaluate soil liquefaction risk in detail spatially. It is expected that the products of this study contribute to efficient producing of soil liquefaction hazard map by local government.

Integrative Chemical-Biological Read-Across Approach for Chemical Hazard Classification

Science.gov (United States)

Low, Yen; Sedykh, Alexander; Fourches, Denis; Golbraikh, Alexander; Whelan, Maurice; Rusyn, Ivan; Tropsha, Alexander

2013-01-01

Traditional read-across approaches typically rely on the chemical similarity principle to predict chemical toxicity; however, the accuracy of such predictions is often inadequate due to the underlying complex mechanisms of toxicity. Here we report on the development of a hazard classification and visualization method that draws upon both chemical structural similarity and comparisons of biological responses to chemicals measured in multiple short-term assays (”biological” similarity). The Chemical-Biological Read-Across (CBRA) approach infers each compound's toxicity from those of both chemical and biological analogs whose similarities are determined by the Tanimoto coefficient. Classification accuracy of CBRA was compared to that of classical RA and other methods using chemical descriptors alone, or in combination with biological data. Different types of adverse effects (hepatotoxicity, hepatocarcinogenicity, mutagenicity, and acute lethality) were classified using several biological data types (gene expression profiling and cytotoxicity screening). CBRA-based hazard classification exhibited consistently high external classification accuracy and applicability to diverse chemicals. Transparency of the CBRA approach is aided by the use of radial plots that show the relative contribution of analogous chemical and biological neighbors. Identification of both chemical and biological features that give rise to the high accuracy of CBRA-based toxicity prediction facilitates mechanistic interpretation of the models. PMID:23848138

In the shadow of the Cosmetic Directive--inconsistencies in EU environmental hazard classification requirements for UV-filters.

Science.gov (United States)

Sobek, A; Bejgarn, S; Rudén, C; Molander, L; Breitholtz, M

2013-09-01

UV-filters are chemicals with potentially environmental hazardous properties. In the European Union (EU), UV-filters contained in sunscreen products are currently regulated by the Cosmetic Directive (from July 2013 by the Cosmetic Products Regulation). Environmental hazard classifications according to the regulation on classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures (CLP) must be determined for UV-filters contained in industrial chemical products, whereas UV-filters contained in sunscreens are exempted from CLP. In this study we determined the potential environmental hazard classifications of UV-filters and sunscreen products if the CLP regulation was to be required for cosmetic products. Two sunscreen products were evaluated in accordance with the aquatic environmental hazard criteria for mixtures. The results highlight that the inconsistencies in the current EU regulation of UV filters hamper the risk management of environmental hazards of UV filters used in cosmetic products. Almost 50% of the investigated UV-filters approved for use in cosmetic products on the European market according to the current Cosmetic Directive were identified to meet the CLP classification as being hazardous to the aquatic environment. Assuming a worst-case scenario, the two examined sunscreens could both be classified as hazardous to the aquatic environment with long-lasting effects according to CLP classification criteria. Hence, if the CLP regulation was applicable to sunscreen products, both brands could potentially be labelled with the environmental hazard pictogram and associated hazard and precautionary statements. Including cosmetic products, and thereby sunscreens, in the CLP regulation would contribute to a more harmonized and transparent regulation of potentially hazardous substances on the EU market. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In the shadow of the Cosmetic Directive — Inconsistencies in EU environmental hazard classification requirements for UV-filters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sobek, A.; Bejgarn, S.; Rudén, C.; Molander, L.; Breitholtz, M.

2013-01-01

UV-filters are chemicals with potentially environmental hazardous properties. In the European Union (EU), UV-filters contained in sunscreen products are currently regulated by the Cosmetic Directive (from July 2013 by the Cosmetic Products Regulation). Environmental hazard classifications according to the regulation on classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures (CLP) must be determined for UV-filters contained in industrial chemical products, whereas UV-filters contained in sunscreens are exempted from CLP. In this study we determined the potential environmental hazard classifications of UV-filters and sunscreen products if the CLP regulation was to be required for cosmetic products. Two sunscreen products were evaluated in accordance with the aquatic environmental hazard criteria for mixtures. The results highlight that the inconsistencies in the current EU regulation of UV filters hamper the risk management of environmental hazards of UV filters used in cosmetic products. Almost 50% of the investigated UV-filters approved for use in cosmetic products on the European market according to the current Cosmetic Directive were identified to meet the CLP classification as being hazardous to the aquatic environment. Assuming a worst-case scenario, the two examined sunscreens could both be classified as hazardous to the aquatic environment with long-lasting effects according to CLP classification criteria. Hence, if the CLP regulation was applicable to sunscreen products, both brands could potentially be labelled with the environmental hazard pictogram and associated hazard and precautionary statements. Including cosmetic products, and thereby sunscreens, in the CLP regulation would contribute to a more harmonized and transparent regulation of potentially hazardous substances on the EU market. - Highlights: • UV-filters are used in both cosmetic and industrial products/applications • UV-filters in cosmetic products are excluded from CLP • We

Induction and pruning of classification rules for prediction of microseismic hazards in coal mines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sikora, M. [Silesian Technical University, Gliwice (Poland)

2011-06-15

The paper presents results of application of a rule induction and pruning algorithm for classification of a microseismic hazard state in coal mines. Due to imbalanced distribution of examples describing states 'hazardous' and 'safe', the special algorithm was used for induction and rule pruning. The algorithm selects optimal parameters' values influencing rule induction and pruning based on training and tuning sets. A rule quality measure which decides about a form and classification abilities of rules that are induced is the basic parameter of the algorithm. The specificity and sensitivity of a classifier were used to evaluate its quality. Conducted tests show that the admitted method of rules induction and classifier's quality evaluation enables to get better results of classification of microseismic hazards than by methods currently used in mining practice. Results obtained by the rules-based classifier were also compared with results got by a decision tree induction algorithm and by a neuro-fuzzy system.

Hazard Classification and Auditable Safety Analysis for the 1300-N Emergency Dump Basin

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kloster, G.L.

1998-01-01

This document combines three analytical functions consisting of (1) the hazards baseline of the Emergency Dump Basin (EDB) for surveillance and maintenance, (2) the final hazard classification for the facility, and (3) and auditable safety analysis. This document also describes the potential hazards contained within the EDB at the N Reactor complex and the vulnerabilities of those hazards. The EDB segment is defined and confirmed its independence from other segments at the site by demonstrating that no potential adverse interactions exist between the segments. No EDB hazards vulnerabilities were identified that require reliance on either active, mitigative, or protective measures; adequate facility structural integrity exists to safely control the hazards

Preliminary hazard analysis for the Brayton Isotope Ground Demonstration System (including vacuum test chamber)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miller, L.G.

1975-01-01

The Preliminary Hazard Analysis (PHA) of the BIPS-GDS is a tabular summary of hazards and undesired events which may lead to system damage or failure and/or hazard to personnel. The PHA reviews the GDS as it is envisioned to operate in the Vacuum Test Chamber (VTC) of the GDS Test Facility. The VTC and other equipment which will comprise the test facility are presently in an early stage of preliminary design and will undoubtedly undergo numerous changes before the design is frozen. The PHA and the FMECA to follow are intended to aid the design effort by identifying areas of concern which are critical to the safety and reliability of the BIPS-GDS and test facility

Final hazard classification for N basin water filtration and sediment relocation operations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pisarcik, D.J.; Kretzschmar, S.P.

1996-02-01

This document provides an auditable safety analysis and hazard classification for the filtration of basin water and the relocation of 105-N basin solids to the North Cask Pit within the basin complex. This report assesses the operation of the Water Filtration System and the Remotely Operated Sediment Extraction Equipment (ROSEE). These activities have an activity hazard classification of radiological. Inventories of potentially releasable nonradioactive hazardous materials are far below the reportable quantities of 40 CFR 302. No controls are required to maintain the releasable inventories of these materials below the reportable quantities. Descriptive material is included to provide a general understanding of the water filtration and sediment relocation processes. All equipment will be operated as described in work instructions and/or applicable procedures. Special controls associated with these activities are as follows: (1) A leak inspection of the ROSEE system shall be performed at least once every 5-hour period of sediment relocation operation. (2) A berm must be in place around the North Cask Pit to redirect a potential abovewater ROSEE system leak back to the basin

Classification,Hazards and Countermeasures of Agricultural Environmental Pollution Emergencies

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Xiaoming; CHUAI; Haixia; ZHOU; Jianping; ZHAO; Shubo; CHENG; Jiang; YU

2013-01-01

Agricultural environmental pollution emergencies have become a hot research topic because of the high incidence and influence depth.This paper introduces classification and features of agricultural environmental pollution emergencies:by pollutant type,it falls into organic pollution emergencies and inorganic pollution emergencies;by the approach of entering agricultural environment,it falls into water resource agricultural environmental pollution emergencies and non-water resource agricultural environmental pollution emergencies.Hazards of agricultural environmental pollution emergencies are analyzed from 4 perspectives:personal security,indirect loss,ecological environment and social stability.In view of the hazards,countermeasures are given to deal with the pollution emergencies as(i)establishing a risk evaluation mechanism for agricultural environment;(ii)enhancing the capacity of handling agricultural environmental pollution emergencies;(iii)introducing new management concepts for environmental emergencies,and cultivating keen emergency management consciousness.

Sludge Treatment Project Engineered Container Retrieval And Transfer System Preliminary Design Hazard Analysis Supplement 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Franz, G.R.; Meichle, R.H.

2011-01-01

This 'What/If' Hazards Analysis addresses hazards affecting the Sludge Treatment Project Engineered Container Retrieval and Transfer System (ECRTS) NPH and external events at the preliminary design stage. In addition, the hazards of the operation sequence steps for the mechanical handling operations in preparation of Sludge Transport and Storage Container (STSC), disconnect STSC and prepare STSC and Sludge Transport System (STS) for shipping are addressed.

Seismic Hazard Maps for the Maltese Archipelago: Preliminary Results

Science.gov (United States)

D'Amico, S.; Panzera, F.; Galea, P. M.

2013-12-01

The Maltese islands form an archipelago of three major islands lying in the Sicily channel at about 140 km south of Sicily and 300 km north of Libya. So far very few investigations have been carried out on seismicity around the Maltese islands and no maps of seismic hazard for the archipelago are available. Assessing the seismic hazard for the region is currently of prime interest for the near-future development of industrial and touristic facilities as well as for urban expansion. A culture of seismic risk awareness has never really been developed in the country, and the public perception is that the islands are relatively safe, and that any earthquake phenomena are mild and infrequent. However, the Archipelago has been struck by several moderate/large events. Although recent constructions of a certain structural and strategic importance have been built according to high engineering standards, the same probably cannot be said for all residential buildings, many higher than 3 storeys, which have mushroomed rapidly in recent years. Such buildings are mostly of unreinforced masonry, with heavy concrete floor slabs, which are known to be highly vulnerable to even moderate ground shaking. We can surely state that in this context planning and design should be based on available national hazard maps. Unfortunately, these kinds of maps are not available for the Maltese islands. In this paper we attempt to compute a first and preliminary probabilistic seismic hazard assessment of the Maltese islands in terms of Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) and Spectral Acceleration (SA) at different periods. Seismic hazard has been computed using the Esteva-Cornell (1968) approach which is the most widely utilized probabilistic method. It is a zone-dependent approach: seismotectonic and geological data are used coupled with earthquake catalogues to identify seismogenic zones within which earthquakes occur at certain rates. Therefore the earthquake catalogues can be reduced to the

Final hazard classification for the 100-HR-3 and 100-KR-4 pump-and-treat systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oestreich, D.K.

1996-09-01

The purpose of this hazard classification report is to document the final hazard classification for two treatment facilities that will be located in the 100-HR-3 and 100-KR-4 Operable Units. These facilities will be sited at the 100-H and 100-K Areas for removal of chromium VI from the groundwater. The FHC is based on the hazardous material inventory (both chromium and radionuclides) that accumulates on the anion-exchange resin up to the point of resin saturation. Segmentation of the total inventory can be readily justified because the inventory resides in a number of separate resin vessels, and it is unreasonable to consider that a release could take place from more than one vessel at a time as a result of common-cause failure

Preliminary fire hazard analysis for the PUTDR and TRU trenches in the Solid Waste Burial Ground

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gaschott, L.J.

1995-01-01

This document represents the Preliminary Fire Hazards Analysis for the Pilot Unvented TRU Drum Retrieval effort and for the Transuranic drum trenches in the low level burial grounds. The FHA was developed in accordance with DOE Order 5480.7A to address major hazards inherent in the facility

[Application of risk grading and classification for occupational hazards in risk management for a shipbuilding project].

Science.gov (United States)

Zeng, Wenfeng; Tan, Qiang; Wu, Shihua; Deng, Yingcong; Liu, Lifen; Wang, Zhi; Liu, Yimin

2015-12-01

To investigate the application of risk grading and classification for occupational hazards in risk management for a shipbuilding project. The risk management for this shipbuilding project was performed by a comprehensive application of MES evaluation, quality assessment of occupational health management, and risk grading and classification for occupational hazards, through the methods of occupational health survey, occupational health testing, and occupational health examinations. The results of MES evaluation showed that the risk of occupational hazards in this project was grade 3, which was considered as significant risk; Q value calculated by quality assessment of occupational health management was 0.52, which was considered to be unqualified; the comprehensive evaluation with these two methods showed that the integrated risk rating for this shipbuilding project was class D, and follow- up and rectification were needed with a focus on the improvement in health management. The application of MES evaluation and quality assessment of occupational health management in risk management for occupational hazards can achieve objective and reasonable conclusions and has good applicability.

Final Hazard Classification and Auditable Safety Analysis for the N Basin Segment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kloster, G.L.

1998-08-01

The purposes of this report are to serve as the auditable safety analysis (ASA) for the N Basin Segment, during surveillance and maintenance preceding decontamination and decommissioning; to determine and document the final hazard classification (FHC) for the N Basin Segment. The result of the ASA evaluation are: based on hazard analyses and the evaluation of accidents, no activity could credibly result in an unacceptable exposure to an individual; controls are identified that serve to protect worker health and safety. The results of the FHC evaluation are: potential exposure is much below 10 rem (0.46 rem), and the FHC for the N Basin Segment is Radiological

Final hazard classification and auditable safety analysis for the 105-C Reactor Interim Safe Storage Project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rodovsky, T.J.; Larson, A.R.; Dexheimer, D.

1996-12-01

This document summarizes the inventories of radioactive and hazardous materials present in the 105-C Reactor Facility and the operations associated with the Interim Safe Storage Project which includes decontamination and demolition and interim safe storage of the remaining facility. This document also establishes a final hazard classification and verifies that appropriate and adequate safety functions and controls are in place to reduce or mitigate the risk associated with those operations

Final hazard classification and auditable safety analysis for the N basin segment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kloster, G.; Smith, R.I.; Larson, A.R.; Duncan, G.M.

1996-12-01

The purpose of this report is to provide the following: To serve as the auditable safety analysis (ASA) for the N Basin Segment, including both the quiescent state and planned intrusive activities. The ASA is developed through the realistic evaluation of potential hazards that envelope the threat to personnel. The ASA also includes the specification of the programmatic, baseline, and activity- specific controls that are necessary for the protection of workers. To determine and document the final hazard classification (FHC) for the N Basin Segment. The FHC is developed through the use of bounding accident analyses that envelope the potential exposures to personnel. The FHC also includes the specification of the special controls that are necessary to remain within the envelope of those accident analyses

Development of a Hazard Classification Scheme for Substances Used in the Fraudulent Adulteration of Foods.

Science.gov (United States)

Everstine, Karen; Abt, Eileen; McColl, Diane; Popping, Bert; Morrison-Rowe, Sara; Lane, Richard W; Scimeca, Joseph; Winter, Carl; Ebert, Andrew; Moore, Jeffrey C; Chin, Henry B

2018-01-01

Food fraud, the intentional misrepresentation of the true identity of a food product or ingredient for economic gain, is a threat to consumer confidence and public health and has received increased attention from both regulators and the food industry. Following updates to food safety certification standards and publication of new U.S. regulatory requirements, we undertook a project to (i) develop a scheme to classify food fraud-related adulterants based on their potential health hazard and (ii) apply this scheme to the adulterants in a database of 2,970 food fraud records. The classification scheme was developed by a panel of experts in food safety and toxicology from the food industry, academia, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Categories and subcategories were created through an iterative process of proposal, review, and validation using a subset of substances known to be associated with the fraudulent adulteration of foods. Once developed, the scheme was applied to the adulterants in the database. The resulting scheme included three broad categories: 1, potentially hazardous adulterants; 2, adulterants that are unlikely to be hazardous; and 3, unclassifiable adulterants. Categories 1 and 2 consisted of seven subcategories intended to further define the range of hazard potential for adulterants. Application of the scheme to the 1,294 adulterants in the database resulted in 45% of adulterants classified in category 1 (potentially hazardous). Twenty-seven percent of the 1,294 adulterants had a history of causing consumer illness or death, were associated with safety-related regulatory action, or were classified as allergens. These results reinforce the importance of including a consideration of food fraud-related adulterants in food safety systems. This classification scheme supports food fraud mitigation efforts and hazard identification as required in the U.S. Food Safety Modernization Act Preventive Controls Rules.

Preliminary evaluation of the seismic hazard at Cernavoda NPP site

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mingiuc, C.; Serban, V.; Androne, M.

2001-01-01

The probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) is a methodology by which one evaluates the probability of exceeding different parameters of the ground motions (the maximum ground acceleration - PGA and the ground response spectrum - SA) as effect of the seismic action, on a given site at a future time moment. Due to the large uncertainties in the geological, geophysical, seismological input data, as well as, in the models utilised, various interpretation schemes are applied in the PSHA analyses. This interpretation schemes lead to opinion discrepancies among specialists which finally lead to disagreements in estimating the values of the seismic design for a given site. In order to re-evaluate the methodology and to improve the PSHA result stability, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) sponsored a project for defining methodological guides of performing PSHA analyses. The project was implemented by a panel of 7 experts, the Senior Seismic Hazard Analysis Committee - SSHAC. This paper presents a preliminary evaluation of the seismic hazard for the Cernavoda NPP site by application of the methodology mentioned, by taking into account the possible sources which could affect the site (the Vrancea focus, Galati - Tulcea fault, Sabla - Dulovo fault and local earthquakes)

Terrain classification and land hazard mapping in Kalsi-Chakrata area (Garhwal Himalaya), India

Science.gov (United States)

Choubey, Vishnu D.; Litoria, Pradeep K.

Terrain classification and land system mapping of a part of the Garhwal Himalaya (India) have been used to provide a base map for land hazard evaluation, with special reference to landslides and other mass movements. The study was based on MSS images, aerial photographs and 1:50,000 scale maps, followed by detailed field-work. The area is composed of two groups of rocks: well exposed sedimentary Precambrian formations in the Himalayan Main Boundary Thrust Belt and the Tertiary molasse deposits of the Siwaliks. Major tectonic boundaries were taken as the natural boundaries of land systems. A physiographic terrain classification included slope category, forest cover, occurrence of landslides, seismicity and tectonic activity in the area.

Rock slope instabilities in Norway: First systematic hazard and risk classification of 22 unstable rock slopes

Science.gov (United States)

Böhme, Martina; Hermanns, Reginald L.; Oppikofer, Thierry; Penna, Ivanna

2016-04-01

Unstable rock slopes that can cause large failures of the rock-avalanche type have been mapped in Norway for almost two decades. Four sites have earlier been characterized as high-risk objects based on expertise of few researchers. This resulted in installing continuous monitoring systems and set-up of an early-warning system for those four sites. Other unstable rock slopes have not been ranked related to their hazard or risk. There are ca. 300 other sites known of which 70 sites were installed for periodic deformation measurements using multiple techniques (Global Navigation Satellite Systems, extensometers, measurement bolts, and others). In 2012 a systematic hazard and risk classification system for unstable rock slopes was established in Norway and the mapping approach adapted to that in 2013. Now, the first 22 sites were classified for hazard, consequences and risk using this classification system. The selection of the first group of sites to be classified was based on an assumed high hazard or risk and importance given to the sites by Norwegian media and the public. Nine of the classified 22 unstable rock slopes are large sites that deform inhomogeneously or are strongly broken up in individual blocks. This suggests that different failure scenarios are possible that need to be analyzed individually. A total of 35 failure scenarios for those nine unstable rock slopes were considered. The hazard analyses were based on 9 geological parameters defined in the classification system. The classification system will be presented based on the Gamanjunni unstable rock slope. This slope has a well developed back scarp that exposes 150 m preceding displacement. The lateral limits of the unstable slope are clearly visible in the morphology and InSAR displacement data. There have been no single structures observed that allow sliding kinematically. The lower extend of the displacing rock mass is clearly defined in InSAR data and by a zone of higher rock fall activity. Yearly

Final hazard classification and auditable safety analysis for the 308 Building Complex during post-deactivation surveillance and maintenance mode

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dexheimer, D.

1996-11-01

This document summarizes the inventories of radioactive and hazardous materials present within the 308 Building Complex, and presents the hazard evaluation methodology used to prepare the hazard classification for the Complex. The complex includes the 308 Building (process area and office facilities) and the 308 Building Annex, which includes the former Neutron Radiography Facility containing a shutdown (and partially decommissioned) reactor. This document applies to the post-deactivation surveillance and maintenance mode only, and provides an authorization basis limited to surveillance and maintenance activities. This document does not authorize decommissioning and decontamination activities, movement of fissile materials, modification to facility confinement structures, nor the introduction or storage of additional radionuclides in the 308 Building Complex. This document established a final hazard classification and identifies appropriate and adequate safety functions and controls to reduce or mitigate the risk associated with the surveillance and maintenance mode. The most consequential hazard event scenario is a postulated unmitigated release from an earthquake event involving the entire complex. That release is equivalent to 30% of the Nuclear Category 3 threshold adjusted as allowed by DOE-STD-1027-92 (DOE 1992). The dominant isotopes are 239 Pu, 240 Pu, and 241 Am in the gloveboxes

Preliminary hazard analysis using sequence tree method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang Huiwen; Shih Chunkuan; Hung Hungchih; Chen Minghuei; Yih Swu; Lin Jiinming

2007-01-01

A system level PHA using sequence tree method was developed to perform Safety Related digital I and C system SSA. The conventional PHA is a brainstorming session among experts on various portions of the system to identify hazards through discussions. However, this conventional PHA is not a systematic technique, the analysis results strongly depend on the experts' subjective opinions. The analysis quality cannot be appropriately controlled. Thereby, this research developed a system level sequence tree based PHA, which can clarify the relationship among the major digital I and C systems. Two major phases are included in this sequence tree based technique. The first phase uses a table to analyze each event in SAR Chapter 15 for a specific safety related I and C system, such as RPS. The second phase uses sequence tree to recognize what I and C systems are involved in the event, how the safety related systems work, and how the backup systems can be activated to mitigate the consequence if the primary safety systems fail. In the sequence tree, the defense-in-depth echelons, including Control echelon, Reactor trip echelon, ESFAS echelon, and Indication and display echelon, are arranged to construct the sequence tree structure. All the related I and C systems, include digital system and the analog back-up systems are allocated in their specific echelon. By this system centric sequence tree based analysis, not only preliminary hazard can be identified systematically, the vulnerability of the nuclear power plant can also be recognized. Therefore, an effective simplified D3 evaluation can be performed as well. (author)

A summary of recent developments in transportation hazard classification activities for ammonium perchlorate

Science.gov (United States)

Koller, A. M., Jr.; Hannum, J. A. E.

1983-01-01

The transportation hazard classification of Ammonium Perchlorate is discussed. A test program was completed and data were forwarded to retain a Class 5.1 designation (oxidizer) for AP which is shipped internationally. As a follow-on to the initial team effort to conduct AP tests existing data were examined and a matrix which catalogs test parameters and findings was compiled. A collection of test protocols is developed to standardize test methods for energetic materials of all types. The actions to date are summarized; the participating organizations and their roles as presently understood; specific findings on AP (matrix); and issues, lessons learned, and potential actions of particular interest to the propulsion community which may evolve as a result of future U.N. propellant transportation classification activities.

Risk Assessment of Healthcare Waste by Preliminary Hazard Analysis Method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pouran Morovati

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Introduction and purpose: Improper management of healthcare waste (HCW can pose considerable risks to human health and the environment and cause serious problems in developing countries such as Iran. In this study, we sought to determine the hazards of HCW in the public hospitals affiliated to Abadan School of Medicine using the preliminary hazard analysis (PHA method. Methods: In this descriptive and analytic study, health risk assessment of HCW in government hospitals affiliated to Abadan School of Medicine (4 public hospitals was carried out by using PHA in the summer of  2016. Results: We noted the high risk of sharps and infectious wastes. Considering the dual risk of injury and disease transmission, sharps were classified in the very high-risk group, and pharmaceutical and chemical and radioactive wastes were classified in the medium-risk group. Sharps posed the highest risk, while pharmaceutical and chemical wastes had the lowest risk. Among the various stages of waste management, the waste treatment stage was the most hazardous in all the studied hospitals. Conclusion: To diminish the risks associated with healthcare waste management in the studied hospitals, adequate training of healthcare workers and care providers, provision of suitable personal protective and transportation equipment, and supervision of the environmental health manager of hospitals should be considered by the authorities.  

Hazard classification for the supercritical water oxidation test bed. Revision 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ramos, A.G.

1994-10-01

A hazard classification of ''routinely accepted by the public'' has been determined for the operation of the supercritical water oxidation test bed at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. This determination is based on the fact that the design and proposed operation meet or exceed appropriate national standards so that the risks are equivalent to those present in similar activities conducted in private industry. Each of the 17 criteria for hazards ''routinely accepted by the public,'' identified in the EG and G Idaho, Inc., Safety Manual, were analyzed. The supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) test bed will treat simulated mixed waste without the radioactive component. It will be designed to operate with eight test wastes. These test wastes have been chosen to represent a broad cross-section of candidate mixed wastes anticipated for storage or generation by DOE. In particular, the test bed will generate data to evaluate the ability of the technology to treat chlorinated waste and other wastes that have in the past caused severe corrosion and deposition in SCWO reactors

A Sensitivity Study for an Evaluation of Input Parameters Effect on a Preliminary Probabilistic Tsunami Hazard Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rhee, Hyun-Me; Kim, Min Kyu; Choi, In-Kil [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Sheen, Dong-Hoon [Chonnam National University, Gwangju (Korea, Republic of)

2014-10-15

The tsunami hazard analysis has been based on the seismic hazard analysis. The seismic hazard analysis has been performed by using the deterministic method and the probabilistic method. To consider the uncertainties in hazard analysis, the probabilistic method has been regarded as attractive approach. The various parameters and their weight are considered by using the logic tree approach in the probabilistic method. The uncertainties of parameters should be suggested by analyzing the sensitivity because the various parameters are used in the hazard analysis. To apply the probabilistic tsunami hazard analysis, the preliminary study for the Ulchin NPP site had been performed. The information on the fault sources which was published by the Atomic Energy Society of Japan (AESJ) had been used in the preliminary study. The tsunami propagation was simulated by using the TSUNAMI{sub 1}.0 which was developed by Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization (JNES). The wave parameters have been estimated from the result of tsunami simulation. In this study, the sensitivity analysis for the fault sources which were selected in the previous studies has been performed. To analyze the effect of the parameters, the sensitivity analysis for the E3 fault source which was published by AESJ was performed. The effect of the recurrence interval, the potential maximum magnitude, and the beta were suggested by the sensitivity analysis results. Level of annual exceedance probability has been affected by the recurrence interval.. Wave heights have been influenced by the potential maximum magnitude and the beta. In the future, the sensitivity analysis for the all fault sources in the western part of Japan which were published AESJ would be performed.

On-site transportation and handling of uranium-233 special nuclear material: Preliminary hazards and accident analysis. Final

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Solack, T.; West, D.; Ullman, D.; Coppock, G.; Cox, C.

1995-01-01

U-233 Special Nuclear Material (SNM) currently stored at the T-Building Storage Areas A and B must be transported to the SW/R Tritium Complex for repackaging. This SNM is in the form of oxide powder contained in glass jars which in turn are contained in heat sealed double polyethylene bags. These doubled-bagged glass jars have been primarily stored in structural steel casks and birdcages for approximately 20 years. The three casks, eight birdcages, and one pail/pressure vessel will be loaded onto a transport truck and moved over an eight day period. The Preliminary Hazards and Accident Analysis for the on-site transportation and handling of Uranium-233 Special Nuclear Material, documented herein, was performed in accordance with the format and content guidance of DOE-STD-3009-94, Preparation Guide for US Department of Energy Nonreactor Nuclear Facility Safety Analysis Reports, dated July 1994, specifically Chapter Three, Hazard and Accident Analysis. The Preliminary Hazards Analysis involved detailed walkdowns of all areas of the U-233 SNM movement route, including the T-Building Storage Area A and B, T-Building truck tunnel, and the roadway route. Extensive discussions were held with operations personnel from the Nuclear Material Control Group, Nuclear Materials Accountability Group, EG and G Mound Security and the Material Handling Systems Transportation Group. Existing documentation related to the on-site transportation of hazardous materials, T-Building and SW/R Tritium Complex SARs, and emergency preparedness/response documentation were also reviewed and analyzed to identify and develop the complete spectrum of energy source hazards

Preliminary deformation model for National Seismic Hazard map of Indonesia

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Meilano, Irwan; Gunawan, Endra; Sarsito, Dina; Prijatna, Kosasih; Abidin, Hasanuddin Z. [Geodesy Research Division, Faculty of Earth Science and Technology, Institute of Technology Bandung (Indonesia); Susilo,; Efendi, Joni [Agency for Geospatial Information (BIG) (Indonesia)

2015-04-24

Preliminary deformation model for the Indonesia’s National Seismic Hazard (NSH) map is constructed as the block rotation and strain accumulation function at the elastic half-space. Deformation due to rigid body motion is estimated by rotating six tectonic blocks in Indonesia. The interseismic deformation due to subduction is estimated by assuming coupling on subduction interface while deformation at active fault is calculated by assuming each of the fault‘s segment slips beneath a locking depth or in combination with creeping in a shallower part. This research shows that rigid body motion dominates the deformation pattern with magnitude more than 15 mm/year, except in the narrow area near subduction zones and active faults where significant deformation reach to 25 mm/year.

Preliminary volcanic hazards evaluation for Los Alamos National Laboratory Facilities and Operations : current state of knowledge and proposed path forward

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Keating, Gordon N.; Schultz-Fellenz, Emily S.; Miller, Elizabeth D.

2010-09-01

The integration of available information on the volcanic history of the region surrounding Los Alamos National Laboratory indicates that the Laboratory is at risk from volcanic hazards. Volcanism in the vicinity of the Laboratory is unlikely within the lifetime of the facility (ca. 50–100 years) but cannot be ruled out. This evaluation provides a preliminary estimate of recurrence rates for volcanic activity. If further assessment of the hazard is deemed beneficial to reduce risk uncertainty, the next step would be to convene a formal probabilistic volcanic hazards assessment.

New guidelines for dam safety classification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dascal, O.

1999-01-01

Elements are outlined of recommended new guidelines for safety classification of dams. Arguments are provided for the view that dam classification systems should require more than one system as follows: (a) classification for selection of design criteria, operation procedures and emergency measures plans, based on potential consequences of a dam failure - the hazard classification of water retaining structures; (b) classification for establishment of surveillance activities and for safety evaluation of dams, based on the probability and consequences of failure - the risk classification of water retaining structures; and (c) classification for establishment of water management plans, for safety evaluation of the entire project, for preparation of emergency measures plans, for definition of the frequency and extent of maintenance operations, and for evaluation of changes and modifications required - the hazard classification of the project. The hazard classification of the dam considers, as consequence, mainly the loss of lives or persons in jeopardy and the property damages to third parties. Difficulties in determining the risk classification of the dam lie in the fact that no tool exists to evaluate the probability of the dam's failure. To overcome this, the probability of failure can be substituted for by a set of dam characteristics that express the failure potential of the dam and its foundation. The hazard classification of the entire project is based on the probable consequences of dam failure influencing: loss of life, persons in jeopardy, property and environmental damage. The classification scheme is illustrated for dam threatening events such as earthquakes and floods. 17 refs., 5 tabs

Final Hazard Classification and Auditable Safety Analysis for the 105-F Building Interim Safe Storage Project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rodovsky, T.J.; Bond, S.L.

1998-07-01

The auditable safety analysis (ASA) documents the authorization basis for the partial decommissioning and facility modifications to place the 105-F Building into interim safe storage (ISS). Placement into the ISS is consistent with the preferred alternative identified in the Record of Decision (58 FR). Modifications will reduce the potential for release and worker exposure to hazardous and radioactive materials, as well as lower surveillance and maintenance (S ampersand M) costs. This analysis includes the following: A description of the activities to be performed in the course of the 105-F Building ISS Project. An assessment of the inventory of radioactive and other hazardous materials within the 105-F Building. Identification of the hazards associated with the activities of the 105-F Building ISS Project. Identification of internally and externally initiated accident scenarios with the potential to produce significant local or offsite consequences during the 105-F Building ISS Project. Bounding evaluation of the consequences of the potentially significant accident scenarios. Hazard classification based on the bounding consequence evaluation. Associated safety function and controls, including commitments. Radiological and other employee safety and health considerations

The evaluation of an analytical protocol for the determination of substances in waste for hazard classification

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hennebert, Pierre, E-mail: pierre.hennebert@ineris.fr [INERIS – Institut National de l’Environnement Industriel et des Risques, Domaine du Petit Arbois BP33, F-13545 Aix-en-Provence (France); Papin, Arnaud [INERIS, Parc Technologique ALATA, BP No. 2, 60550 Verneuil en Halatte (France); Padox, Jean-Marie [INERIS – Institut National de l’Environnement Industriel et des Risques, Domaine du Petit Arbois BP33, F-13545 Aix-en-Provence (France); Hasebrouck, Benoît [INERIS, Parc Technologique ALATA, BP No. 2, 60550 Verneuil en Halatte (France)

2013-07-15

Highlights: • Knowledge of wastes in substances will be necessary to assess HP1–HP15 hazard properties. • A new analytical protocol is proposed for this and tested by two service laboratories on 32 samples. • Sixty-three percentage of the samples have a satisfactory analytical balance between 90% and 110%. • Eighty-four percentage of the samples were classified identically (Seveso Directive) for their hazardousness by the two laboratories. • The method, in progress, is being normalized in France and is be proposed to CEN. - Abstract: The classification of waste as hazardous could soon be assessed in Europe using largely the hazard properties of its constituents, according to the the Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) regulation. Comprehensive knowledge of the component constituents of a given waste will therefore be necessary. An analytical protocol for determining waste composition is proposed, which includes using inductively coupled plasma (ICP) screening methods to identify major elements and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC–MS) screening techniques to measure organic compounds. The method includes a gross or indicator measure of ‘pools’ of higher molecular weight organic substances that are taken to be less bioactive and less hazardous, and of unresolved ‘mass’ during the chromatography of volatile and semi-volatile compounds. The concentration of some elements and specific compounds that are linked to specific hazard properties and are subject to specific regulation (examples include: heavy metals, chromium(VI), cyanides, organo-halogens, and PCBs) are determined by classical quantitative analysis. To check the consistency of the analysis, the sum of the concentrations (including unresolved ‘pools’) should give a mass balance between 90% and 110%. Thirty-two laboratory samples comprising different industrial wastes (liquids and solids) were tested by two routine service laboratories, to give circa 7000 parameter

Hazardous waste status of discarded electronic cigarettes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Krause, Max J.; Townsend, Timothy G., E-mail: ttown@ufl.edu

2015-05-15

Highlights: • Electronic cigarettes were tested using TCLP and WET. • Several electronic cigarette products leached lead at hazardous waste levels. • Lead was the only element that exceeded hazardous waste concentration thresholds. • Nicotine solution may cause hazardous waste classification when discarded unused. - Abstract: The potential for disposable electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) to be classified as hazardous waste was investigated. The Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) was performed on 23 disposable e-cigarettes in a preliminary survey of metal leaching. Based on these results, four e-cigarette products were selected for replicate analysis by TCLP and the California Waste Extraction Test (WET). Lead was measured in leachate as high as 50 mg/L by WET and 40 mg/L by TCLP. Regulatory thresholds were exceeded by two of 15 products tested in total. Therefore, some e-cigarettes would be toxicity characteristic (TC) hazardous waste but a majority would not. When disposed in the unused form, e-cigarettes containing nicotine juice would be commercial chemical products (CCP) and would, in the United States (US), be considered a listed hazardous waste (P075). While household waste is exempt from hazardous waste regulation, there are many instances in which such waste would be subject to regulation. Manufactures and retailers with unused or expired e-cigarettes or nicotine juice solution would be required to manage these as hazardous waste upon disposal. Current regulations and policies regarding the availability of nicotine-containing e-cigarettes worldwide were reviewed. Despite their small size, disposable e-cigarettes are consumed and discarded much more quickly than typical electronics, which may become a growing concern for waste managers.

Hazardous waste status of discarded electronic cigarettes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krause, Max J.; Townsend, Timothy G.

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Electronic cigarettes were tested using TCLP and WET. • Several electronic cigarette products leached lead at hazardous waste levels. • Lead was the only element that exceeded hazardous waste concentration thresholds. • Nicotine solution may cause hazardous waste classification when discarded unused. - Abstract: The potential for disposable electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) to be classified as hazardous waste was investigated. The Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) was performed on 23 disposable e-cigarettes in a preliminary survey of metal leaching. Based on these results, four e-cigarette products were selected for replicate analysis by TCLP and the California Waste Extraction Test (WET). Lead was measured in leachate as high as 50 mg/L by WET and 40 mg/L by TCLP. Regulatory thresholds were exceeded by two of 15 products tested in total. Therefore, some e-cigarettes would be toxicity characteristic (TC) hazardous waste but a majority would not. When disposed in the unused form, e-cigarettes containing nicotine juice would be commercial chemical products (CCP) and would, in the United States (US), be considered a listed hazardous waste (P075). While household waste is exempt from hazardous waste regulation, there are many instances in which such waste would be subject to regulation. Manufactures and retailers with unused or expired e-cigarettes or nicotine juice solution would be required to manage these as hazardous waste upon disposal. Current regulations and policies regarding the availability of nicotine-containing e-cigarettes worldwide were reviewed. Despite their small size, disposable e-cigarettes are consumed and discarded much more quickly than typical electronics, which may become a growing concern for waste managers

The evaluation of an analytical protocol for the determination of substances in waste for hazard classification.

Science.gov (United States)

Hennebert, Pierre; Papin, Arnaud; Padox, Jean-Marie; Hasebrouck, Benoît

2013-07-01

The classification of waste as hazardous could soon be assessed in Europe using largely the hazard properties of its constituents, according to the the Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) regulation. Comprehensive knowledge of the component constituents of a given waste will therefore be necessary. An analytical protocol for determining waste composition is proposed, which includes using inductively coupled plasma (ICP) screening methods to identify major elements and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS) screening techniques to measure organic compounds. The method includes a gross or indicator measure of 'pools' of higher molecular weight organic substances that are taken to be less bioactive and less hazardous, and of unresolved 'mass' during the chromatography of volatile and semi-volatile compounds. The concentration of some elements and specific compounds that are linked to specific hazard properties and are subject to specific regulation (examples include: heavy metals, chromium(VI), cyanides, organo-halogens, and PCBs) are determined by classical quantitative analysis. To check the consistency of the analysis, the sum of the concentrations (including unresolved 'pools') should give a mass balance between 90% and 110%. Thirty-two laboratory samples comprising different industrial wastes (liquids and solids) were tested by two routine service laboratories, to give circa 7000 parameter results. Despite discrepancies in some parameters, a satisfactory sum of estimated or measured concentrations (analytical balance) of 90% was reached for 20 samples (63% of the overall total) during this first test exercise, with identified reasons for most of the unsatisfactory results. Regular use of this protocol (which is now included in the French legislation) has enabled service laboratories to reach a 90% mass balance for nearly all the solid samples tested, and most of liquid samples (difficulties were caused in some samples from polymers in solution and

Toxic chemical hazard classification and risk acceptance guidelines for use in DOE facilities. Revision 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Craig, D.K.; Davis, J.S.; Prowse, J.; Hoffman, P.W.

1995-01-01

The concentration-limit guidelines presented in this document apply to airborne releases of chemicals evaluated with respect to human health effects for the purposes of hazard classification and categorization, risk assessment and safety analysis. They apply to all DOE facilities and operations involving the use of potentially hazardous chemicals. The guidelines do not address other nonradiological hazards such as fire, pressure releases (including explosions), and chemical reactivity, but the guidelines are applicable to hazardous chemical releases resulting from these events. This report presents the subcommittee's evaluation and recommendations regarding analyses of accidentally released toxic chemicals. The premise upon which these recommendations are based is that the mechanism of action of toxic chemicals is fundamentally different from that associated with radionuclides, with the exception of carcinogens. The recommendations reported herein are restricted to the airborne pathway because in an accident scenario this typically represents the most immediately significant route of public exposure. However, the subcommittee recognizes that exposure to chemicals through other pathways, in particular waterborne, can have significant impacts on human health and the environment. Although there are a number of chemicals for which absorption through the skin can contribute measurably to the total dose in chronic (e.g., occupational) exposure situations, this pathway has not been considered for the acute exposure scenarios considered in this report. Later studies. will address these issues if it appears desirable

Classification and identification of hazardous residues; Clasificacion e identificacion de residuos peligrosos

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Soto V, Federico; Obaya V, Adolfo; Guerrero, Claudia [Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico, D.F. (Mexico)

1996-06-01

In this work, we present the classification and identification of hazardous industrial residues. Mexico has had a wide industrial development in last years, for instance the chemical, steel and petroleum industries, and it has had important effects in the waste industrial generation from different processes. For this reason it is important to diffuse how the correct classification and identification of industrial wastes is made, for insuring their handling, treatment and adequate disposal. [Spanish] En este articulo se presentan los principales aspectos a considerar en la clasificacion e identificacion de los residuos industriales peligrosos. Mexico, considerado como un pais en vias de desarrollo, ha mantenido en los ultimos anos un amplio crecimiento industrial y uno de los mas altos del mundo en poblacion. Esta situacion ha orillado a intensificar la explotacion de los recursos naturales mediante la actividad minera, la siderurgica, la industria quimica, la petrolera, etcetera. Todo esto ha repercutido indudablemente en la generacion de residuos de tan diversa naturaleza como lo son los procesos y las materias primas involucradas, con caracteristicas que van desde los poco riesgosos hasta los altamente peligrosos. Por esta razon, la clasificacion e identificacion de los residuos peligrosos es de suma importancia para asegurar su adecuado manejo, tratamiento y disposicion.

Description of the Northwest hazardous waste site data base and preliminary analysis of site characteristics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Woodruff, D.L.; Hartz, K.E.; Triplett, M.B.

1988-08-01

The Northwest Hazardous Waste RD and D Center (the Center) conducts research, development, and demonstration (RD and D) activities for hazardous and radioactive mixed-waste technologies applicable to remediating sites in the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. To properly set priorities for these RD and D activities and to target development efforts it is necessary to understand the nature of the sites requiring remediation. A data base of hazardous waste site characteristics has been constructed to facilitate this analysis. The data base used data from EPA's Region X Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Information System (CERCLIS) and from Preliminary Assessment/Site Investigation (PA/SI) forms for sites in Montana. The Center's data base focuses on two sets of sites--those on the National Priorities List (NPL) and other sites that are denoted as ''active'' CERCLIS sites. Active CERCLIS sites are those sites that are undergoing active investigation and analysis. The data base contains information for each site covering site identification and location, type of industry associated with the site, waste categories present (e.g., heavy metals, pesticides, etc.), methods of disposal (e.g., tanks, drums, land, etc.), waste forms (e.g., liquid, solid, etc.), and hazard targets (e.g., surface water, groundwater, etc.). As part of this analysis, the Northwest region was divided into three geographic subregions to identify differences in disposal site characteristics within the Northwest. 2 refs., 18 figs., 5 tabs

Applying machine-learning techniques to Twitter data for automatic hazard-event classification.

Science.gov (United States)

Filgueira, R.; Bee, E. J.; Diaz-Doce, D.; Poole, J., Sr.; Singh, A.

2017-12-01

The constant flow of information offered by tweets provides valuable information about all sorts of events at a high temporal and spatial resolution. Over the past year we have been analyzing in real-time geological hazards/phenomenon, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, floods or the aurora, as part of the GeoSocial project, by geo-locating tweets filtered by keywords in a web-map. However, not all the filtered tweets are related with hazard/phenomenon events. This work explores two classification techniques for automatic hazard-event categorization based on tweets about the "Aurora". First, tweets were filtered using aurora-related keywords, removing stop words and selecting the ones written in English. For classifying the remaining between "aurora-event" or "no-aurora-event" categories, we compared two state-of-art techniques: Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) algorithms. Both approaches belong to the family of supervised learning algorithms, which make predictions based on labelled training dataset. Therefore, we created a training dataset by tagging 1200 tweets between both categories. The general form of SVM is used to separate two classes by a function (kernel). We compared the performance of four different kernels (Linear Regression, Logistic Regression, Multinomial Naïve Bayesian and Stochastic Gradient Descent) provided by Scikit-Learn library using our training dataset to build the SVM classifier. The results shown that the Logistic Regression (LR) gets the best accuracy (87%). So, we selected the SVM-LR classifier to categorise a large collection of tweets using the "dispel4py" framework.Later, we developed a CNN classifier, where the first layer embeds words into low-dimensional vectors. The next layer performs convolutions over the embedded word vectors. Results from the convolutional layer are max-pooled into a long feature vector, which is classified using a softmax layer. The CNN's accuracy

An OSHA based approach to safety analysis for nonradiological hazardous materials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yurconic, M.

1992-08-01

The PNL method for chemical hazard classification defines major hazards by means of a list of hazardous substances (or chemical groups) with associated trigger quantities. In addition, the functional characteristics of the facility being classified is also be factored into the classification. In this way, installations defined as major hazard will only be those which have the potential for causing very serious incidents both on and off site. Because of the diversity of operations involving chemicals, it may not be possible to restrict major hazard facilities to certain types of operations. However, this hazard classification method recognizes that in the industrial sector major hazards are most commonly associated with activities involving very large quantities of chemicals and inherently energetic processes. These include operations like petrochemical plants, chemical production, LPG storage, explosives manufacturing, and facilities which use chlorine, ammonia, or other highly toxic gases in bulk quantities. The basis for this methodology is derived from concepts used by OSHA in its proposed chemical process safety standard, the Dow Fire and Explosion Index Hazard Classification Guide, and the International Labor Office's program on chemical safety. For the purpose of identifying major hazard facilities, this method uses two sorting criteria, (1) facility function and processes and (2) quantity of substances to identify facilities requiringclassification. Then, a measure of chemical energy potential (material factor) is used to identify high hazard class facilities

Preliminary hard and soft bottom seafloor substrate map derived from an unsupervised classification of gridded backscatter and bathymetry derivatives of Ni'ihau Island, Hawaii, USA.

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Preliminary hard and soft seafloor substrate map derived from an unsupervised classification of multibeam backscatter and bathymety derivatives of Ni'ihau Island,...

Assessment of mixed hazardous and radioactive waste sites at Hanford

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McLaughlin, T.J.; Cramer, K.H.; Lamar, D.A.; Sherwood, D.R.; Stenner, R.D.; Schulze, W.B.

1987-10-01

The US Department of Energy and Pacific Northwest Laboratory recently completed a preliminary assessment of 685 inactive hazardous waste sites located on the Hanford Site. The preliminary assessment involved collecting historical data and individual site information, conducting site inspections, and establishing an environmental impact priority, using the Hazard Ranking System, for each of these 685 sites. This preliminary assessment was the first step in the remediation process required by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. This paper presents the results of that preliminary assessment. 10 refs., 4 figs., 1 tab

Hazardous Waste/Mixed Waste Treatment Building Safety Information Document (SID)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fatell, L.B.; Woolsey, G.B.

1993-01-01

This Safety Information Document (SID) provides a description and analysis of operations for the Hazardous Waste/Mixed Waste Disposal Facility Treatment Building (the Treatment Building). The Treatment Building has been classified as a moderate hazard facility, and the level of analysis performed and the methodology used are based on that classification. Preliminary design of the Treatment Building has identified the need for two separate buildings for waste treatment processes. The term Treatment Building applies to all these facilities. The evaluation of safety for the Treatment Building is accomplished in part by the identification of hazards associated with the facility and the analysis of the facility's response to postulated events involving those hazards. The events are analyzed in terms of the facility features that minimize the causes of such events, the quantitative determination of the consequences, and the ability of the facility to cope with each event should it occur. The SID presents the methodology, assumptions, and results of the systematic evaluation of hazards associated with operation of the Treatment Building. The SID also addresses the spectrum of postulated credible events, involving those hazards, that could occur. Facility features important to safety are identified and discussed in the SID. The SID identifies hazards and reports the analysis of the spectrum of credible postulated events that can result in the following consequences: Personnel exposure to radiation; Radioactive material release to the environment; Personnel exposure to hazardous chemicals; Hazardous chemical release to the environment; Events leading to an onsite/offsite fatality; and Significant damage to government property. The SID addresses the consequences to the onsite and offsite populations resulting from postulated credible events and the safety features in place to control and mitigate the consequences

Hazardous Waste/Mixed Waste Treatment Building Safety Information Document (SID)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fatell, L.B.; Woolsey, G.B.

1993-04-15

This Safety Information Document (SID) provides a description and analysis of operations for the Hazardous Waste/Mixed Waste Disposal Facility Treatment Building (the Treatment Building). The Treatment Building has been classified as a moderate hazard facility, and the level of analysis performed and the methodology used are based on that classification. Preliminary design of the Treatment Building has identified the need for two separate buildings for waste treatment processes. The term Treatment Building applies to all these facilities. The evaluation of safety for the Treatment Building is accomplished in part by the identification of hazards associated with the facility and the analysis of the facility`s response to postulated events involving those hazards. The events are analyzed in terms of the facility features that minimize the causes of such events, the quantitative determination of the consequences, and the ability of the facility to cope with each event should it occur. The SID presents the methodology, assumptions, and results of the systematic evaluation of hazards associated with operation of the Treatment Building. The SID also addresses the spectrum of postulated credible events, involving those hazards, that could occur. Facility features important to safety are identified and discussed in the SID. The SID identifies hazards and reports the analysis of the spectrum of credible postulated events that can result in the following consequences: Personnel exposure to radiation; Radioactive material release to the environment; Personnel exposure to hazardous chemicals; Hazardous chemical release to the environment; Events leading to an onsite/offsite fatality; and Significant damage to government property. The SID addresses the consequences to the onsite and offsite populations resulting from postulated credible events and the safety features in place to control and mitigate the consequences.

Working towards a clearer and more helpful hazard map: investigating the influence of hazard map design on hazard communication

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, M. A.; Lindsay, J. M.; Gaillard, J.

2015-12-01

Globally, geological hazards are communicated using maps. In traditional hazard mapping practice, scientists analyse data about a hazard, and then display the results on a map for stakeholder and public use. However, this one-way, top-down approach to hazard communication is not necessarily effective or reliable. The messages which people take away will be dependent on the way in which they read, interpret, and understand the map, a facet of hazard communication which has been relatively unexplored. Decades of cartographic studies suggest that variables in the visual representation of data on maps, such as colour and symbology, can have a powerful effect on how people understand map content. In practice, however, there is little guidance or consistency in how hazard information is expressed and represented on maps. Accordingly, decisions are often made based on subjective preference, rather than research-backed principles. Here we present the results of a study in which we explore how hazard map design features can influence hazard map interpretation, and we propose a number of considerations for hazard map design. A series of hazard maps were generated, with each one showing the same probabilistic volcanic ashfall dataset, but using different verbal and visual variables (e.g., different colour schemes, data classifications, probabilistic formats). Following a short pilot study, these maps were used in an online survey of 110 stakeholders and scientists in New Zealand. Participants answered 30 open-ended and multiple choice questions about ashfall hazard based on the different maps. Results suggest that hazard map design can have a significant influence on the messages readers take away. For example, diverging colour schemes were associated with concepts of "risk" and decision-making more than sequential schemes, and participants made more precise estimates of hazard with isarithmic data classifications compared to binned or gradational shading. Based on such

Using video games for volcanic hazard education and communication: an assessment of the method and preliminary results

Science.gov (United States)

Mani, Lara; Cole, Paul D.; Stewart, Iain

2016-07-01

This paper presents the findings from a study aimed at understanding whether video games (or serious games) can be effective in enhancing volcanic hazard education and communication. Using the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent, we have developed a video game - St. Vincent's Volcano - for use in existing volcano education and outreach sessions. Its twin aims are to improve residents' knowledge of potential future eruptive hazards (ash fall, pyroclastic flows and lahars) and to integrate traditional methods of education in a more interactive manner. Here, we discuss the process of game development including concept design through to the final implementation on St. Vincent. Preliminary results obtained from the final implementation (through pre- and post-test knowledge quizzes) for both student and adult participants provide indications that a video game of this style may be effective in improving a learner's knowledge. Both groups of participants demonstrated a post-test increase in their knowledge quiz score of 9.3 % for adults and 8.3 % for students and, when plotted as learning gains (Hake, 1998), show similar overall improvements (0.11 for adults and 0.09 for students). These preliminary findings may provide a sound foundation for the increased integration of emerging technologies within traditional education sessions. This paper also shares some of the challenges and lessons learnt throughout the development and testing processes and provides recommendations for researchers looking to pursue a similar study.

Preliminary Research on Grassland Fine-classification Based on MODIS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hu, Z W; Zhang, S; Yu, X Y; Wang, X S

2014-01-01

Grassland ecosystem is important for climatic regulation, maintaining the soil and water. Research on the grassland monitoring method could provide effective reference for grassland resource investigation. In this study, we used the vegetation index method for grassland classification. There are several types of climate in China. Therefore, we need to use China's Main Climate Zone Maps and divide the study region into four climate zones. Based on grassland classification system of the first nation-wide grass resource survey in China, we established a new grassland classification system which is only suitable for this research. We used MODIS images as the basic data resources, and use the expert classifier method to perform grassland classification. Based on the 1:1,000,000 Grassland Resource Map of China, we obtained the basic distribution of all the grassland types and selected 20 samples evenly distributed in each type, then used NDVI/EVI product to summarize different spectral features of different grassland types. Finally, we introduced other classification auxiliary data, such as elevation, accumulate temperature (AT), humidity index (HI) and rainfall. China's nation-wide grassland classification map is resulted by merging the grassland in different climate zone. The overall classification accuracy is 60.4%. The result indicated that expert classifier is proper for national wide grassland classification, but the classification accuracy need to be improved

Preliminary hard and soft bottom seafloor substrate map derived from an unsupervised classification of gridded backscatter and bathymetry derivatives at Tutuila Island, American Samoa, South Pacific.

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Preliminary hard and soft seafloor substrate map derived from an unsupervised classification of multibeam backscatter and bathymety derivatives at Tutuila Island,...

Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) hazards assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Campbell, L.R.

1998-01-01

This report documents the hazards assessment for the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) located on the US Department of Energy (DOE) Hanford Site. This hazards assessment was conducted to provide the emergency planning technical basis for the PFP. DOE Orders require an emergency planning hazards assessment for each facility that has the potential to reach or exceed the lowest level emergency classification

The effect of the sea on hazard assessment for tephra fallout at Campi Flegrei: a preliminary approach through the use of pyPHaz, an open tool to analyze and visualize probabilistic hazards

Science.gov (United States)

Tonini, Roberto; Sandri, Laura; Costa, Antonio; Selva, Jacopo

2014-05-01

Campi Flegrei (CF) is a large volcanic field located west of the Gulf of Naples, characterized by a wide and almost circular caldera which is partially submerged beneath the Gulf of Pozzuoli. It is known that the magma-water interaction is a key element to determine the character of submarine eruptions and their impact on the surrounding areas, but this phenomenon is still not well understood and it is rarely considered in hazard assessment. The aim of the present work is to present a preliminary study of the effect of the sea on the tephra fall hazard from CF on the municipality of Naples, by introducing a variability in the probability of tephra production according to the eruptive scale (defined on the basis of the erupted volume) and the depth of the opening submerged vents. Four different Probabilistic Volcanic Hazard Assessment (PVHA) models have been defined through the application of the model BET_VH at CF, by accounting for different modeling procedures and assumptions for the submerged part of the caldera. In particular, we take into account: 1) the effect of the sea as null, i.e. as if the water were not present; 2) the effect of the sea as a cap that totally blocks the explosivity of eruptions and consequently the tephra production; 3) an ensemble model between the two models described at the previous points 1) and 2); 4) a variable probability of tephra production depending on the depth of the submerged vent. The PVHA models are then input to pyPHaz, a tool developed and designed at INGV to visualize, analyze and merge into ensemble models PVHA's results and, potentially, any other kind of probabilistic hazard assessment, both natural and anthropic, in order to evaluate the importance of considering a variability among subaerial and submerged vents on tephra fallout hazard from CF in Naples. The analysis is preliminary and does not pretend to be exhaustive, but on one hand it represents a starting point for future works; on the other hand, it is a good

Preliminary hard and soft bottom seafloor substrate map derived from an unsupervised classification of gridded backscatter and bathymetry derivatives at Swains Island, Territory of American Samoa, USA.

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Preliminary hard and soft seafloor substrate map derived from an unsupervised classification of multibeam backscatter and bathymetry derivatives at Swains Island,...

Novel Unsupervised Classification of Collapsed Buildings Using Satellite Imagery, Hazard Scenarios and Fragility Functions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luis Moya

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Although supervised machine learning classification techniques have been successfully applied to detect collapsed buildings, there is still a major problem that few publications have addressed. The success of supervised machine learning strongly depends on the availability of training samples. Unfortunately, in the aftermath of a large-scale disaster, training samples become available only after several weeks or even months. However, following a disaster, information on the damage situation is one of the most important necessities for rapid search-and-rescue efforts and relief distribution. In this paper, a modification of the supervised machine learning classification technique called logistic regression is presented. Here, the training samples are replaced with probabilistic information, which is calculated from the spatial distribution of the hazard under consideration and one or more fragility functions. Such damage probabilities can be collected almost in real time for specific disasters such as earthquakes and/or tsunamis. We present the application of the proposed method to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami for collapsed building detection. The results show good agreement with a field survey performed by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, with an overall accuracy of over 80%. Thus, the proposed method can significantly contribute to a rapid estimation of the number and locations of collapsed buildings.

CRED Preliminary hard and soft bottom seafloor substrate map derived from an unsupervised classification of gridded backscatter and bathymetry derivatives at the U.S. Territory of Guam.

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Preliminary hard and soft seafloor substrate map derived from an unsupervised classification of multibeam backscatter and bathymety derivatives at the U.S. Territory...

Preliminary Assessment for the Effects of the External Hazard Factors on the Safety of NPPs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jin, So Beom; Hyun, Seung Gyu; Kim, Sang Yun; Lee, Sung Kyu; Hur, Youl

2010-01-01

The Ch.etsu Offshore Earthquake(2007.7.16) in Japan caused damage to the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa(K-K) Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) with seismic ground motion that exceeded the design level. This incident drew the interest of the safety evaluation studies for NPPs subjected to earthquakes exceeding the design basis around the world. Also, the Indian Ocean Tsunami(2004.12.26) tripped the Madras NPP by reason of flooding of the intake pump house and inundated the construction site of a fast breeder reactor site in India. In addition, from the various man-made and natural hazards such as the oil spill accident near Mallipo, Taean, Chungnam (2007.12), the forest fire near the Ulchin NPP site, the several inflows of marine organism into the intake of the Ulchin NPP, it was confirmed that the safety of NPPs may be affected by natural and human induced disasters. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been warned about global warming; the average temperature rose about 1.5 .deg. C during the 20th century and the damages caused by typhoons and heavy rains have also increased in Korea. Accordingly, a natural disaster prevention research team(hereafter team) ,which have been organized and operated since 2009, has assessed the impact of various hazards such as earthquakes and environmental changes due to global warming on the safety of NPP and has discussed to establish countermeasures. This paper introduces that the preliminary assessment for the effects of the external hazard factors on the safety of NPPs was conducted by the team

Waste classification - history, standards, and requirements for disposal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kocher, D.C.

1989-01-01

This document contains an outline of a presentation on the historical development in US of different classes (categories) or radioactive waste, on laws and regulations in US regarding classification of radioactive wastes; and requirements for disposal of different waste classes; and on the application of laws and regulations for hazardous chemical wastes to classification and disposal of naturally occurring and accelerator-produced radioactive materials; and mixed radioactive and hazardous chemical wastes

Assessment and classification of hazardous street trees in University ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The study was carried out to assessed and classified hazardous trees within the University of Ibadan (UI) campus, Oyo State, Nigeria. The study population was 25 municipal tree species comprising of 420 individual trees located along the major roads of the study area, which were considered hazardous to the community.

ORNL necessary and sufficient standards for environment, safety, and health. Final report of the Identification Team for other industrial, radiological, and non-radiological hazard facilities

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1998-07-01

This Necessary and Sufficient (N and S) set of standards is for Other Industrial, Radiological, and Non-Radiological Hazard Facilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). These facility classifications are based on a laboratory-wide approach to classify facilities by hazard category. An analysis of the hazards associated with the facilities at ORNL was conducted in 1993. To identify standards appropriate for these Other Industrial, Radiological, and Non-Radiological Hazard Facilities, the activities conducted in these facilities were assessed, and the hazards associated with the activities were identified. A preliminary hazards list was distributed to all ORNL organizations. The hazards identified in prior hazard analyses are contained in the list, and a category of other was provided in each general hazard area. A workshop to assist organizations in properly completing the list was held. Completed hazard screening lists were compiled for each ORNL division, and a master list was compiled for all Other Industrial, Radiological Hazard, and Non-Radiological facilities and activities. The master list was compared against the results of prior hazard analyses by research and development and environment, safety, and health personnel to ensure completeness. This list, which served as a basis for identifying applicable environment, safety, and health standards, appears in Appendix A.

ORNL necessary and sufficient standards for environment, safety, and health. Final report of the Identification Team for other industrial, radiological, and non-radiological hazard facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1998-07-01

This Necessary and Sufficient (N and S) set of standards is for Other Industrial, Radiological, and Non-Radiological Hazard Facilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). These facility classifications are based on a laboratory-wide approach to classify facilities by hazard category. An analysis of the hazards associated with the facilities at ORNL was conducted in 1993. To identify standards appropriate for these Other Industrial, Radiological, and Non-Radiological Hazard Facilities, the activities conducted in these facilities were assessed, and the hazards associated with the activities were identified. A preliminary hazards list was distributed to all ORNL organizations. The hazards identified in prior hazard analyses are contained in the list, and a category of other was provided in each general hazard area. A workshop to assist organizations in properly completing the list was held. Completed hazard screening lists were compiled for each ORNL division, and a master list was compiled for all Other Industrial, Radiological Hazard, and Non-Radiological facilities and activities. The master list was compared against the results of prior hazard analyses by research and development and environment, safety, and health personnel to ensure completeness. This list, which served as a basis for identifying applicable environment, safety, and health standards, appears in Appendix A

Preliminary seismic hazard assessment, shallow seismic refraction and resistivity sounding studies for future urban planning at the Gebel Umm Baraqa area, Egypt

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khalil, Mohamed H; Hanafy, Sherif M; Gamal, Mohamed A

2008-01-01

Gebel Umm Baraqa Fan, west Gulf of Aqaba, Sinai, is one of the most important tourism areas in Egypt. However, it is located on the active Dead Sea-Gulf of Aqaba Levant transform fault system. Geophysical studies, including fresh water aquifer delineation, shallow seismic refraction, soil characterization and preliminary seismic hazard assessment, were conducted to help in future city planning. A total of 11 vertical electrical soundings (1000–3000 m maximum AB/2) and three bore-holes were drilled in the site for the analysis of ground water, total dissolved solids (TDS) and fresh water aquifer properties. The interpretation of the one-dimensional (1D) inversion of the resistivity data delineated the fresh water aquifer and determined its hydro-geologic parameters. Eleven shallow seismic refraction profiles (125 m in length) have been collected and interpreted using the generalized reciprocal method, and the resulting depth–velocity models were verified using an advanced finite difference (FD) technique. Shallow seismic refraction effectively delineates two subsurface layers (VP ∼ 450 m s −1 and VP ∼ 1000 m s −1 ). A preliminary seismic hazard assessment in Umm Baraqa has produced an estimate of the probabilistic peak ground acceleration hazard in the study area. A recent and historical earthquake catalog for the time period 2200 BC to 2006 has been compiled for the area. New accurate seismic source zoning is considered because such details affect the degree of hazard in the city. The estimated amount of PGA reveals values ranging from 250 to 260 cm s −2 in the bedrock of the Umm Baraqa area during a 100 year interval (a suitable time window for buildings). Recommendations as to suitable types of buildings, considering the amount of shaking and the aquifer properties given in this study, are expected to be helpful for the Umm Baraqa area

222 S Laboratory complex hazards assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sutton, L.N.

1998-01-01

This report documents the hazards assessment for the 222-S Analytical Laboratory located on the US Department of Energy (DOE) Hanford Site. Operation of the laboratory is the responsibility of Waste Management Federal Services, Inc. (WMFS). This hazards assessment was conducted to provide the emergency planning technical basis for the 222-S Facility. DOE Orders require an emergency planning hazards assessment for each facility that has the potential to reach or exceed the lowest level emergency classification

The Coastal Hazard Wheel system for coastal multi-hazard assessment & management in a changing climate

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Appelquist, Lars Rosendahl; Halsnæs, Kirsten

2015-01-01

This paper presents the complete Coastal Hazard Wheel (CHW) system, developed for multi-hazard-assessment and multi-hazard-management of coastal areas worldwide under a changing climate. The system is designed as a low-tech tool that can be used in areas with limited data availability...... screening and management. The system is developed to assess the main coastal hazards in a single process and covers the hazards of ecosystem disruption, gradual inundation, salt water intrusion, erosion and flooding. The system was initially presented in 2012 and based on a range of test......-applications and feedback from coastal experts, the system has been further refined and developed into a complete hazard management tool. This paper therefore covers the coastal classification system used by the CHW, a standardized assessment procedure for implementation of multi-hazard-assessments, technical guidance...

Preliminary hard and soft bottom seafloor substrate map derived from an unsupervised classification of gridded backscatter and bathymetry derivatives at Saipan Island, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Preliminary hard and soft seafloor substrate map derived from an unsupervised classification of multibeam backscatter and bathymety derivatives at Saipan Island,...

Exploring the effects of driving experience on hazard awareness and risk perception via real-time hazard identification, hazard classification, and rating tasks.

Science.gov (United States)

Borowsky, Avinoam; Oron-Gilad, Tal

2013-10-01

This study investigated the effects of driving experience on hazard awareness and risk perception skills. These topics have previously been investigated separately, yet a novel approach is suggested where hazard awareness and risk perception are examined concurrently. Young, newly qualified drivers, experienced drivers, and a group of commercial drivers, namely, taxi drivers performed three consecutive tasks: (1) observed 10 short movies of real-world driving situations and were asked to press a button each time they identified a hazardous situation; (2) observed one of three possible sub-sets of 8 movies (out of the 10 they have seen earlier) for the second time, and were asked to categorize them into an arbitrary number of clusters according to the similarity in their hazardous situation; and (3) observed the same sub-set for a third time and following each movie were asked to rate its level of hazardousness. The first task is considered a real-time identification task while the other two are performed using hindsight. During it participants' eye movements were recorded. Results showed that taxi drivers were more sensitive to hidden hazards than the other driver groups and that young-novices were the least sensitive. Young-novice drivers also relied heavily on materialized hazards in their categorization structure. In addition, it emerged that risk perception was derived from two major components: the likelihood of a crash and the severity of its outcome. Yet, the outcome was rarely considered under time pressure (i.e., in real-time hazard identification tasks). Using hindsight, when drivers were provided with the opportunity to rate the movies' hazardousness more freely (rating task) they considered both components. Otherwise, in the categorization task, they usually chose the severity of the crash outcome as their dominant criterion. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Preliminary hard and soft bottom seafloor substrate map derived from an unsupervised classification of gridded backscatter and bathymetry derivatives at Tinian Island, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Preliminary hard and soft seafloor substrate map derived from an unsupervised classification of multibeam backscatter and bathymety derivatives at Tinian Islands and...

Preliminary hard and soft bottom seafloor substrate map derived from an unsupervised classification of gridded backscatter and bathymetry derivatives at Ofu and Olosega Islands, Territory of American Samoa, USA.

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Preliminary hard and soft seafloor substrate map derived from an unsupervised classification of multibeam backscatter and bathymety derivatives at Ofu and Olosega...

Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility (WESF) Hazards Assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

COVEY, L.I.

2000-01-01

This report documents the hazards assessment for the Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility (WESF) located on the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Hanford Site. This hazards assessment was conducted to provide the emergency planning technical basis for WESF. DOE Orders require an emergency planning hazards assessment for each facility that has the potential to reach or exceed the lowest level emergency classification

Preliminary discussion on the classification of uranium deposits in China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhou Weixun; Liu Xinzhong; Wang Zubang.

1991-01-01

The classification of uranium deposits is a comprehensive and complicated problem which is of great importance for the guide in prospecting and exploration. The authors review the merits and shortcomings of various classifications sumitted by uranium geologists in the world based on origin, geotectonics and host rocks. Considering the reasonable parts in previous classifications and characteristics of uranium metallogenesis in China, the authors suggest a new classification of uranium deposits of China mainly according to host rocks, and also deposits' structure and morphology of ore bodies. This classification is composed of 7 goups divided into 25 subgroups. Finally, an indication and explanation are presented in order to draw attention of the Chinese uranium geologists and make further discussions among them

Auditable Safety Analysis and Final Hazard Classification for the 105-N Reactor Zone and 109-N Steam Generator Zone Facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kloster, G.L.

1998-07-01

This document is a graded auditable safety analysis (ASA) and final hazard classification (FHC) for the Reactor/Steam Generator Zone Segment. The Reactor/Steam Generator Zone Segment, part of the N Reactor Complex, that is also known as the Reactor Building and Steam Generator Cells. The installation of the modifications described within to support surveillance and maintenance activities are to be completed by July 1, 1999. The surveillance and maintenance activities addressed within are assumed to continue for the next 15- 20 years, until the initiation of facility D ampersand D (i.e., Interim Safe Storage). The graded ASA in this document is in accordance with EDPI-4.30-01, Rev. 1, Safety Analysis Documentation, (BHI-DE-1) and is consistent with guidance provided by the U.S. Department of Energy. This ASA describes the hazards within the facility and evaluates the adequacy of the measures taken to reduce, control, or mitigate the identified hazards. This document also serves as the FHC for the Reactor/Steam Generator Zone Segment. This FHC is developed through the use of bounding accident analyses that envelope the potential exposures to personnel

Toxic hazards of underground excavation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smith, R.; Chitnis, V.; Damasian, M.

1982-09-01

Inadvertent intrusion into natural or man-made toxic or hazardous material deposits as a consequence of activities such as mining, excavation or tunnelling has resulted in numerous deaths and injuries in this country. This study is a preliminary investigation to identify and document instances of such fatal or injurious intrusion. An objective is to provide useful insights and information related to potential hazards due to future intrusion into underground radioactive-waste-disposal facilities. The methodology used in this study includes literature review and correspondence with appropriate government agencies and organizations. Key categories of intrusion hazards are asphyxiation, methane, hydrogen sulfide, silica and asbestos, naturally occurring radionuclides, and various mine or waste dump related hazards

Toxic hazards of underground excavation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, R.; Chitnis, V.; Damasian, M.; Lemm, M.; Popplesdorf, N.; Ryan, T.; Saban, C.; Cohen, J.; Smith, C.; Ciminesi, F.

1982-09-01

Inadvertent intrusion into natural or man-made toxic or hazardous material deposits as a consequence of activities such as mining, excavation or tunnelling has resulted in numerous deaths and injuries in this country. This study is a preliminary investigation to identify and document instances of such fatal or injurious intrusion. An objective is to provide useful insights and information related to potential hazards due to future intrusion into underground radioactive-waste-disposal facilities. The methodology used in this study includes literature review and correspondence with appropriate government agencies and organizations. Key categories of intrusion hazards are asphyxiation, methane, hydrogen sulfide, silica and asbestos, naturally occurring radionuclides, and various mine or waste dump related hazards.

Information gathering for CLP classification

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ida Marcello

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Regulation 1272/2008 includes provisions for two types of classification: harmonised classification and self-classification. The harmonised classification of substances is decided at Community level and a list of harmonised classifications is included in the Annex VI of the classification, labelling and packaging Regulation (CLP. If a chemical substance is not included in the harmonised classification list it must be self-classified, based on available information, according to the requirements of Annex I of the CLP Regulation. CLP appoints that the harmonised classification will be performed for carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction substances (CMR substances and for respiratory sensitisers category 1 and for other hazard classes on a case-by-case basis. The first step of classification is the gathering of available and relevant information. This paper presents the procedure for gathering information and to obtain data. The data quality is also discussed.

Barrow hazards survey

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1980-06-01

Following a series of public meetings at which PERG presented the results of a literature review and site specific accident study of the hazards of the maritime transport of spent nuclear reactor fuel to Barrow (en route to the Windscale reprocessing works), PERG was requested by the Planning Committee of Barrow Town Council to prepare an assessment of the interaction of the hazards arising from the concentration of nuclear activities in the area with those of a proposed gas-terminal. This report presents a preliminary review of the Environmental Impact Assessments prepared by the Borough Surveyor and a critical appraisal of the hazard analyses undertaken by the Health and Safety Executive, and the consultants to Cumbria County Council on this matter, the Safety and Reliability Directorate of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. After a general and historical introduction, the document continues under the following headings: a description of the hazards (BNFL spent fuel shipments; the gas terminal; gas condensate storage; the Vickers shipyard (involving nuclear powered submarines)); the interaction of hazards; planning implications and democratic decisions; recommendations. (U.K.)

Preliminary hard and soft bottom seafloor substrate map (40m grid) derived from an unsupervised classification of gridded backscatter and bathymetry derivatives at Rose Atoll, Territory of American Samoa, USA.

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Preliminary hard and soft seafloor substrate map derived from an unsupervised classification of multibeam backscatter and bathymetry derivatives at Rose Atoll,...

Review of diagnosis and classification of leukemias that occurred in A-bomb survivors (preliminary report)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Matsuo, T; Tomonaga, M; Ichimaru, M; Kamata, N; Kuramoto, A

1984-11-01

According to the current knowledge of diagnosis and classification, a review of 157 patients who had developed leukemia before June 30, 1967 was made. The incidence of acute leukemia decreased slightly among A-bomb survivors in Hiroshima; however, the incidence of acute lymphatic leukemia (ALL) increased. The number of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) was unchanged. The frequency of CML implied that A-bombing damaged stem cells. Among A-bomb survivors in Nagasaki, although the number of acute non-lymphatic leukemia decreased, the number of ALL was unchanged. Adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) was diagnosed in 7 A-bomb survivors, confirming that Nagasaki is an endemic area for ATL. These preliminary results seem to be of importance in elucidating the mechanism of leukemia developing among A-bomb survivors. (Namekawa, K.).

Review of diagnosis and classification of leukemias that occurred in A-bomb survivors (preliminary report)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matsuo, Tatsuki; Tomonaga, Masao; Ichimaru, Michito; Kamata, Nanao; Kuramoto, Atsushi.

1984-01-01

According to the current knowledge of diagnosis and classification, a review of 157 patients who had developed leukemia before June 30, 1967 was made. The total number of acute leukemia slightly decreased among A-bomb survivors in Hiroshima; however, the number of acute lymphatic leukemia (ALL) increased. The number of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) was unchanged. The frequency of CML implied that A-bombing damaged stem cells in a high incidence. Among A-bomb survivors in Nagasaki, although the number of acute non-lymphatic leukemia decreased, the number of ALL was unchanged. Adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) was diagnosed in 7 A-bomb survivors, confirming that Nagasaki is an endemic area for ATL. These preliminary results seem to be of importance in elucidating the mechanism of leukemia developiong among A-bomb survivors. (Namekawa, K.)

Preliminary plan for treating mixed waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vandegrift, G.F.; Conner, C.; Hutter, J.C.; Leonard, R.A.; Nunez, L.; Sedlet, J.; Wygmans, D.G.

1993-06-01

A preliminary waste treatment plan was developed for disposing of radioactive inorganic liquid wastes that contain hazardous metals and/or hazardous acid concentrations at Argonne National Laboratory. This plan, which involves neutralization and sulfide precipitation followed by filtration, reduces the concentration of hazardous metals and the acidity so that the filtrate liquid is simply a low-level radioactive waste that can be fed to a low-level waste evaporator

Generic framework for meso-scale assessment of climate change hazards in coastal environments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Appelquist, Lars Rosendahl

2013-01-01

coastal environments worldwide through a specially designed coastal classification system containing 113 generic coastal types. The framework provides information on the degree to which key climate change hazards are inherent in a particular coastal environment, and covers the hazards of ecosystem......This paper presents a generic framework for assessing inherent climate change hazards in coastal environments through a combined coastal classification and hazard evaluation system. The framework is developed to be used at scales relevant for regional and national planning and aims to cover all...... and computing requirements, allowing for application in developing country settings. It is presented as a graphical tool—the Coastal Hazard Wheel—to ease its application for planning purposes....

Classification of hydrocephalus: critical analysis of classification categories and advantages of "Multi-categorical Hydrocephalus Classification" (Mc HC).

Science.gov (United States)

Oi, Shizuo

2011-10-01

Hydrocephalus is a complex pathophysiology with disturbed cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) circulation. There are numerous numbers of classification trials published focusing on various criteria, such as associated anomalies/underlying lesions, CSF circulation/intracranial pressure patterns, clinical features, and other categories. However, no definitive classification exists comprehensively to cover the variety of these aspects. The new classification of hydrocephalus, "Multi-categorical Hydrocephalus Classification" (Mc HC), was invented and developed to cover the entire aspects of hydrocephalus with all considerable classification items and categories. Ten categories include "Mc HC" category I: onset (age, phase), II: cause, III: underlying lesion, IV: symptomatology, V: pathophysiology 1-CSF circulation, VI: pathophysiology 2-ICP dynamics, VII: chronology, VII: post-shunt, VIII: post-endoscopic third ventriculostomy, and X: others. From a 100-year search of publication related to the classification of hydrocephalus, 14 representative publications were reviewed and divided into the 10 categories. The Baumkuchen classification graph made from the round o'clock classification demonstrated the historical tendency of deviation to the categories in pathophysiology, either CSF or ICP dynamics. In the preliminary clinical application, it was concluded that "Mc HC" is extremely effective in expressing the individual state with various categories in the past and present condition or among the compatible cases of hydrocephalus along with the possible chronological change in the future.

Preliminary hard and soft bottom seafloor substrate map (5m grid) derived from an unsupervised classification of gridded backscatter and bathymetry derivatives at Rose Atoll Lagoon, Territory of American Samoa, USA.

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Preliminary hard and soft seafloor substrate map derived from an unsupervised classification of multibeam backscatter and bathymetry derivatives at Rose Atoll...

Hazardous waste management in research laboratories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sundstrom, G.

1989-01-01

Hazardous waste management in research laboratories benefits from a fundamentally different approach to the hazardous waste determination from industry's. This paper introduces new, statue-based criteria for identifying hazardous wastes (such as radiological mixed wastes and waste oils) and links them to a forward-looking compliance of laboratories, the overall system integrates hazardous waste management activities with other environmental and hazard communication initiatives. It is generalizable to other waste generators, including industry. Although only the waste identification and classification aspects of the system are outlined in detail here, four other components are defined or supported, namely: routine and contingency practices; waste treatment/disposal option definition and selection; waste minimization, recycling, reuse, and substitution opportunities; and key interfaces with other systems, including pollution prevention

33 CFR 127.1315 - Preliminary transfer inspection.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... (CONTINUED) WATERFRONT FACILITIES WATERFRONT FACILITIES HANDLING LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS AND LIQUEFIED HAZARDOUS GAS Waterfront Facilities Handling Liquefied Hazardous Gas Operations § 127.1315 Preliminary... capacity of each storage tank to or from which LHG will be transferred, to ensure that it is safe for...

Artificial neural network classification using a minimal training set - Comparison to conventional supervised classification

Science.gov (United States)

Hepner, George F.; Logan, Thomas; Ritter, Niles; Bryant, Nevin

1990-01-01

Recent research has shown an artificial neural network (ANN) to be capable of pattern recognition and the classification of image data. This paper examines the potential for the application of neural network computing to satellite image processing. A second objective is to provide a preliminary comparison and ANN classification. An artificial neural network can be trained to do land-cover classification of satellite imagery using selected sites representative of each class in a manner similar to conventional supervised classification. One of the major problems associated with recognition and classifications of pattern from remotely sensed data is the time and cost of developing a set of training sites. This reseach compares the use of an ANN back propagation classification procedure with a conventional supervised maximum likelihood classification procedure using a minimal training set. When using a minimal training set, the neural network is able to provide a land-cover classification superior to the classification derived from the conventional classification procedure. This research is the foundation for developing application parameters for further prototyping of software and hardware implementations for artificial neural networks in satellite image and geographic information processing.

Speed and accuracy of facial expression classification in avoidant personality disorder: a preliminary study.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosenthal, M Zachary; Kim, Kwanguk; Herr, Nathaniel R; Smoski, Moria J; Cheavens, Jennifer S; Lynch, Thomas R; Kosson, David S

2011-10-01

The aim of this preliminary study was to examine whether individuals with avoidant personality disorder (APD) could be characterized by deficits in the classification of dynamically presented facial emotional expressions. Using a community sample of adults with APD (n = 17) and non-APD controls (n = 16), speed and accuracy of facial emotional expression recognition was investigated in a task that morphs facial expressions from neutral to prototypical expressions (Multi-Morph Facial Affect Recognition Task; Blair, Colledge, Murray, & Mitchell, 2001). Results indicated that individuals with APD were significantly more likely than controls to make errors when classifying fully expressed fear. However, no differences were found between groups in the speed to correctly classify facial emotional expressions. The findings are some of the first to investigate facial emotional processing in a sample of individuals with APD and point to an underlying deficit in processing social cues that may be involved in the maintenance of APD.

Preliminary Assessment of Operational Hazards and Safety Requirements for Airborne Trajectory Management (ABTM) Roadmap Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Cotton, William B.; Hilb, Robert; Koczo, Stefan, Jr.; Wing, David J.

2016-01-01

A set of five developmental steps building from the NASA TASAR (Traffic Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests) concept are described, each providing incrementally more efficiency and capacity benefits to airspace system users and service providers, culminating in a Full Airborne Trajectory Management capability. For each of these steps, the incremental Operational Hazards and Safety Requirements are identified for later use in future formal safety assessments intended to lead to certification and operational approval of the equipment and the associated procedures. Two established safety assessment methodologies that are compliant with the FAA's Safety Management System were used leading to Failure Effects Classifications (FEC) for each of the steps. The most likely FEC for the first three steps, Basic TASAR, Digital TASAR, and 4D TASAR, is "No effect". For step four, Strategic Airborne Trajectory Management, the likely FEC is "Minor". For Full Airborne Trajectory Management (Step 5), the most likely FEC is "Major".

Seismic hazard assessment of Iran

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Ghafory-Ashtiany

1999-06-01

Full Text Available The development of the new seismic hazard map of Iran is based on probabilistic seismic hazard computation using the historical earthquakes data, geology, tectonics, fault activity and seismic source models in Iran. These maps have been prepared to indicate the earthquake hazard of Iran in the form of iso-acceleration contour lines, and seismic hazard zoning, by using current probabilistic procedures. They display the probabilistic estimates of Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA for the return periods of 75 and 475 years. The maps have been divided into intervals of 0.25 degrees in both latitudinal and longitudinal directions to calculate the peak ground acceleration values at each grid point and draw the seismic hazard curves. The results presented in this study will provide the basis for the preparation of seismic risk maps, the estimation of earthquake insurance premiums, and the preliminary site evaluation of critical facilities.

Radioactive waste shredding: Preliminary evaluation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Soelberg, N.R.; Reimann, G.A.

1994-07-01

The critical constraints for sizing solid radioactive and mixed wastes for subsequent thermal treatment were identified via a literature review and a survey of shredding equipment vendors. The types and amounts of DOE radioactive wastes that will require treatment to reduce the waste volume, destroy hazardous organics, or immobilize radionuclides and/or hazardous metals were considered. The preliminary steps of waste receipt, inspection, and separation were included because many potential waste treatment technologies have limits on feedstream chemical content, physical composition, and particle size. Most treatment processes and shredding operations require at least some degree of feed material characterization. Preliminary cost estimates show that pretreatment costs per unit of waste can be high and can vary significantly, depending on the processing rate and desired output particle size

Department of Energy Hazardous Waste Remedial Actions Program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Franco, P.J.

1989-01-01

This paper discusses the hazardous waste remedial actions program (HAZWRAP) which manages approximately 200 hazardous waste projects. These projects include preliminary assessments, site inspections, and remedial investigation/feasibility studies. The author describes the procedures HAZWRAP follows to ensure quality. The discussion covers the quality assurance aspects of project management, project planning, site characterization, document control and technical teamwork

Subsurface Fire Hazards Technical Report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Logan, R.C.

1999-01-01

The results from this report are preliminary and cannot be used as input into documents supporting procurement, fabrication, or construction. This technical report identifies fire hazards and proposes their mitigation for the subsurface repository fire protection system. The proposed mitigation establishes the minimum level of fire protection to meet NRC regulations, DOE fire protection orders, that ensure fire containment, adequate life safety provisions, and minimize property loss. Equipment requiring automatic fire suppression systems is identified. The subsurface fire hazards that are identified can be adequately mitigated

Supernova Photometric Lightcurve Classification

Science.gov (United States)

Zaidi, Tayeb; Narayan, Gautham

2016-01-01

This is a preliminary report on photometric supernova classification. We first explore the properties of supernova light curves, and attempt to restructure the unevenly sampled and sparse data from assorted datasets to allow for processing and classification. The data was primarily drawn from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) simulated data, created for the Supernova Photometric Classification Challenge. This poster shows a method for producing a non-parametric representation of the light curve data, and applying a Random Forest classifier algorithm to distinguish between supernovae types. We examine the impact of Principal Component Analysis to reduce the dimensionality of the dataset, for future classification work. The classification code will be used in a stage of the ANTARES pipeline, created for use on the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope alert data and other wide-field surveys. The final figure-of-merit for the DES data in the r band was 60% for binary classification (Type I vs II).Zaidi was supported by the NOAO/KPNO Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program which is funded by the National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program (AST-1262829).

ThinkHazard!: an open-source, global tool for understanding hazard information

Science.gov (United States)

Fraser, Stuart; Jongman, Brenden; Simpson, Alanna; Nunez, Ariel; Deparday, Vivien; Saito, Keiko; Murnane, Richard; Balog, Simone

2016-04-01

Rapid and simple access to added-value natural hazard and disaster risk information is a key issue for various stakeholders of the development and disaster risk management (DRM) domains. Accessing available data often requires specialist knowledge of heterogeneous data, which are often highly technical and can be difficult for non-specialists in DRM to find and exploit. Thus, availability, accessibility and processing of these information sources are crucial issues, and an important reason why many development projects suffer significant impacts from natural hazards. The World Bank's Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) is currently developing a new open-source tool to address this knowledge gap: ThinkHazard! The main aim of the ThinkHazard! project is to develop an analytical tool dedicated to facilitating improvements in knowledge and understanding of natural hazards among non-specialists in DRM. It also aims at providing users with relevant guidance and information on handling the threats posed by the natural hazards present in a chosen location. Furthermore, all aspects of this tool will be open and transparent, in order to give users enough information to understand its operational principles. In this presentation, we will explain the technical approach behind the tool, which translates state-of-the-art probabilistic natural hazard data into understandable hazard classifications and practical recommendations. We will also demonstrate the functionality of the tool, and discuss limitations from a scientific as well as an operational perspective.

Hazard analysis in uranium hexafluoride production facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marin, Maristhela Passoni de Araujo

1999-01-01

The present work provides a method for preliminary hazard analysis of nuclear fuel cycle facilities. The proposed method identify both chemical and radiological hazards, as well as the consequences associated with accident scenarios. To illustrate the application of the method, a uranium hexafluoride production facility was selected. The main hazards are identified and the potential consequences are quantified. It was found that, although the facility handles radioactive material, the main hazards as associated with releases of toxic chemical substances such as hydrogen fluoride, anhydrous ammonia and nitric acid. It was shown that a contention bung can effectively reduce the consequences of atmospheric release of toxic materials. (author)

Superfund Hazard Ranking System Training Course

Science.gov (United States)

The Hazard Ranking System (HRS) training course is a four and ½ day, intermediate-level course designed for personnel who are required to compile, draft, and review preliminary assessments (PAs), site inspections (SIs), and HRS documentation records/packag

Multi-Hazard Interactions in Guatemala

Science.gov (United States)

Gill, Joel; Malamud, Bruce D.

2017-04-01

In this paper, we combine physical and social science approaches to develop a multi-scale regional framework for natural hazard interactions in Guatemala. The identification and characterisation of natural hazard interactions is an important input for comprehensive multi-hazard approaches to disaster risk reduction at a regional level. We use five transdisciplinary evidence sources to organise and populate our framework: (i) internationally-accessible literature; (ii) civil protection bulletins; (iii) field observations; (iv) stakeholder interviews (hazard and civil protection professionals); and (v) stakeholder workshop results. These five evidence sources are synthesised to determine an appropriate natural hazard classification scheme for Guatemala (6 hazard groups, 19 hazard types, and 37 hazard sub-types). For a national spatial extent (Guatemala), we construct and populate a "21×21" hazard interaction matrix, identifying 49 possible interactions between 21 hazard types. For a sub-national spatial extent (Southern Highlands, Guatemala), we construct and populate a "33×33" hazard interaction matrix, identifying 112 possible interactions between 33 hazard sub-types. Evidence sources are also used to constrain anthropogenic processes that could trigger natural hazards in Guatemala, and characterise possible networks of natural hazard interactions (cascades). The outcomes of this approach are among the most comprehensive interaction frameworks for national and sub-national spatial scales in the published literature. These can be used to support disaster risk reduction and civil protection professionals in better understanding natural hazards and potential disasters at a regional scale.

Classification of radiation-hazardous objects by the ecological risk rate, based on the concept of the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vetrov, V.A.

2003-01-01

The principal categories of the radiation-hazardous objects (RHO) (nuclear fuel cycle plants (NFC including NPP); ships with nuclear engine units and appropriate service facilities; units related with nuclear weapons (design, manufacture, storage, etc.); contaminated territories in the result nuclear accidents and nuclear facilities tests; civil enterprises using the radioactive sources) with real accident risk from radioactive substances (RS) release into environment are considered. For assessment of the ecological risk rate from RHO the International Nuclear Event Scale implemented by IAEA for NPP use is suggested. By opinion of the specialists the INES criteria could be used for radiation events assessment to other RHO that gives possibility for RHO arrangement by the potential hazard rate for environment in the case of accident. For RHO qualitative classification the main parameters assessment influencing on radioactive release risk (amount (total activity) of radioactive substances; possibility of chain reaction development; strength of technological parameters, etc.) was suggested. On the base of the INES all above-listed RHO kinds in the case of accident could be conditionally separated into three categories: 1. most radiation dangerous objects, on which could be severe and serious radiation accidents (corresponding to 4-7 INES levels); 2. RHO on which there is risk for accidents accompanying with RS release (accidents up to 4 INES level). 3. RHO without practical possibility for event (incidents - not higher 3 INES level). Introduction of suggested classification gives possibility for RHO safety control requirements rationalizing to radiation monitoring purposes for both RHO and the local systems

46 CFR 151.10-1 - Barge hull classifications.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 46 Shipping 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Barge hull classifications. 151.10-1 Section 151.10-1... CARRYING BULK LIQUID HAZARDOUS MATERIAL CARGOES Barge Hull Construction Requirements § 151.10-1 Barge hull classifications. (a) Each barge constructed or converted in conformance with this subpart shall be assigned a hull...

Preliminary hard and soft bottom seafloor substrate map derived from an supervised classification of bathymetry derived from multispectral World View-2 satellite imagery of Ni'ihau Island, Territory of Main Hawaiian Islands, USA

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Preliminary hard and soft seafloor substrate map derived from a supervised classification from multispectral World View-2 satellite imagery of Ni'ihau Island,...

Environmental and health hazard ranking and assessment of plastic polymers based on chemical composition

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lithner, Delilah, E-mail: delilah.lithner@gmail.com; Larsson, Ake; Dave, Goeran

2011-08-15

Plastics constitute a large material group with a global annual production that has doubled in 15 years (245 million tonnes in 2008). Plastics are present everywhere in society and the environment, especially the marine environment, where large amounts of plastic waste accumulate. The knowledge of human and environmental hazards and risks from chemicals associated with the diversity of plastic products is very limited. Most chemicals used for producing plastic polymers are derived from non-renewable crude oil, and several are hazardous. These may be released during the production, use and disposal of the plastic product. In this study the environmental and health hazards of chemicals used in 55 thermoplastic and thermosetting polymers were identified and compiled. A hazard ranking model was developed for the hazard classes and categories in the EU classification and labelling (CLP) regulation which is based on the UN Globally Harmonized System. The polymers were ranked based on monomer hazard classifications, and initial assessments were made. The polymers that ranked as most hazardous are made of monomers classified as mutagenic and/or carcinogenic (category 1A or 1B). These belong to the polymer families of polyurethanes, polyacrylonitriles, polyvinyl chloride, epoxy resins, and styrenic copolymers. All have a large global annual production (1-37 million tonnes). A considerable number of polymers (31 out of 55) are made of monomers that belong to the two worst of the ranking model's five hazard levels, i.e. levels IV-V. The polymers that are made of level IV monomers and have a large global annual production (1-5 million tonnes) are phenol formaldehyde resins, unsaturated polyesters, polycarbonate, polymethyl methacrylate, and urea-formaldehyde resins. This study has identified hazardous substances used in polymer production for which the risks should be evaluated for decisions on the need for risk reduction measures, substitution, or even phase out

Hydrothermal Liquefaction Treatment Hazard Analysis Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lowry, Peter P. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Wagner, Katie A. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

2016-09-12

Hazard analyses were performed to evaluate the modular hydrothermal liquefaction treatment system. The hazard assessment process was performed in 2 stages. An initial assessment utilizing Hazard Identification and Preliminary Hazards Analysis (PHA) techniques identified areas with significant or unique hazards (process safety-related hazards) that fall outside of the normal operating envelope of PNNL and warranted additional analysis. The subsequent assessment was based on a qualitative What-If analysis. The analysis was augmented, as necessary, by additional quantitative analysis for scenarios involving a release of hazardous material or energy with the potential for affecting the public. The following selected hazardous scenarios received increased attention: •Scenarios involving a release of hazardous material or energy, controls were identified in the What-If analysis table that prevent the occurrence or mitigate the effects of the release. •Scenarios with significant consequences that could impact personnel outside the immediate operations area, quantitative analyses were performed to determine the potential magnitude of the scenario. The set of “critical controls” were identified for these scenarios (see Section 4) which prevent the occurrence or mitigate the effects of the release of events with significant consequences.

76 FR 5110 - Hazardous Waste Management System; Identification and Listing of Hazardous Waste; Proposed Rule

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-28

... will dispose of the leachate at a publicly owned treatment works or at an industrial waste disposal... classification of listed waste pursuant to Sec. Sec. 261.31 and 261.32. Specifically, in its petition, Gulf West... Waste Management System; Identification and Listing of Hazardous Waste; Proposed Rule AGENCY...

Deep learning for image classification

Science.gov (United States)

McCoppin, Ryan; Rizki, Mateen

2014-06-01

This paper provides an overview of deep learning and introduces the several subfields of deep learning including a specific tutorial of convolutional neural networks. Traditional methods for learning image features are compared to deep learning techniques. In addition, we present our preliminary classification results, our basic implementation of a convolutional restricted Boltzmann machine on the Mixed National Institute of Standards and Technology database (MNIST), and we explain how to use deep learning networks to assist in our development of a robust gender classification system.

Hazard classification for the 200-ZP-1 Operable Unit Phase 2 and 3 interim remedial measure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oestreich, D.K.

1996-04-01

This safety assessment documents the Final Hazard Classification (FHC) for Phase 2 and 3 interim remedial measure (IRM) activities to be conducted in the 200 West Area of the Hanford Site. The 200-ZP-1 Phase 2 and 3 IRM activities will involve the air stripping of carbon tetrachloride (CCl 4 ) from extracted groundwater using a packed-bed stripper column followed by gas-phase adsorption of the CCl 4 from the stripper off-gas onto a granular activated carbon (GAC) bed. The stripper is designed to be operated at a feedwater flow rate of up to 1,893 L/min (500 gal/min) and to remove 13.6 kg/day (30.0 lb/day) of CCl 4 . For Phase 2, which includes the initial year of operation, it is planned to operate the stripper at 568 L/min (150 gal/min). The process flow diagram for the Phase 2 and 3 system is shown

Onsite transportation hazards assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burnside, M.E.

1998-01-01

This report documents the emergency preparedness Hazards Assessment for the onsite transportation of hazardous material at the Hanford Site. The assessment is required by US Department of Energy (DOE) Order 5500.3A and provides the technical basis for the emergency classification and response procedures. A distinction is made between onsite for the purpose of emergency preparedness and onsite for the purpose of applying US Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations. Onsite for the purpose of emergency preparedness is considered to be within the physical boundary of the entire Hanford Site. Onsite for the purpose of applying DOT regulations is north of the Wye Barricade

Probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment for Point Lepreau Generating Station

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mullin, D., E-mail: dmullin@nbpower.com [New Brunswick Power Corporation, Point Lepreau Generating Station, Point Lepreau (Canada); Alcinov, T.; Roussel, P.; Lavine, A.; Arcos, M.E.M.; Hanson, K.; Youngs, R., E-mail: trajce.alcinov@amecfw.com, E-mail: patrick.roussel@amecfw.com [AMEC Foster Wheeler Environment & Infrastructure, Dartmouth, NS (Canada)

2015-07-01

In 2012 the Geological Survey of Canada published a preliminary probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment in Open File 7201 that presents the most up-to-date information on all potential tsunami sources in a probabilistic framework on a national level, thus providing the underlying basis for conducting site-specific tsunami hazard assessments. However, the assessment identified a poorly constrained hazard for the Atlantic Coastline and recommended further evaluation. As a result, NB Power has embarked on performing a Probabilistic Tsunami Hazard Assessment (PTHA) for Point Lepreau Generating Station. This paper provides the methodology and progress or hazard evaluation results for Point Lepreau G.S. (author)

Preliminary fire hazards analysis for W-211, Initial Tank Retrieval Systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huckfeldt, R.A.

1995-01-01

A fire hazards analysis (FHA) was performed for Project W-211, Initial Tank Retrieval System (ITRS), at the Department of Energy (DOE) Hanford site. The objectives of this FHA was to determine (1) the fire hazards that expose the Initial Tank Retrieval System or are inherent in the process, (2) the adequacy of the fire-safety features planned, and (3) the degree of compliance of the project with specific fire safety provisions in DOE orders and related engineering codes and standards. The scope included the construction, the process hazards, building fire protection, and site wide fire protection. The results are presented in terms of the fire hazards present, the potential extent of fire damage, and the impact on employees and public safety. This study evaluated the ITRS with respect to its use at Tank 241-SY-101 only

283-E and 283-W hazards assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sutton, L.N.

1994-01-01

This report documents the hazards assessment for the 200 area water treatment plants 283-E and 283-W located on the US DOE Hanford Site. Operation of the water treatment plants is the responsibility of ICF Kaiser Hanford Company (ICF KH). This hazards assessment was conducted to provide emergency planning technical basis for the water treatment plants. This document represents an acceptable interpretation of the implementing guidance document for DOE ORDER 5500.3A which requires an emergency planning hazards assessment for each facility that has the potential to reach or exceed the lowest level emergency classification

Hazardous drugs: new challenges, new opportunities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Silvia Valero García

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Occupational exposure to hazardous drugs can cause harmful effects on health professionals and several protective measures must be taken. Nevertheless, classification of hazardous drugs is not the same in all the published repertoires and the terminology is still confusing: hazardous drugs, biohazardous drugs or risky drugs are terms improperly described and can define very different drugs with a very different hazard profiles. In Spain, there is not an updated official list of hazardous drugs, and healthcare professionals must consider and follow other published lists. In our opinion, it is mandatory to do a consensus among these professionals, administration and labor union organizations in order to clarify some conflictive questions not only in healthcare settings but in investigational and academic scenarios too. These multidisciplinary groups should be involved also in teaching new and non-experienced personnel and in the knowledge reinforcement for the experienced ones

Application of the Coastal Hazard Wheel methodology for coastal multi-hazard assessment and management in the state of Djibouti

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Appelquist, Lars Rosendahl; Balstrøm, Thomas

2014-01-01

coastal classification system that incorporates the main static and dynamic parameters determining the characteristics of a coastal environment. The methodology provides information on the hazards of ecosystem disruption, gradual inundation, salt water intrusion, erosion and flooding and can be used...... to support management decisions at local, regional and national level, in areas with limited access to geophysical data. The assessment for Djibouti applies a geographic information system (GIS) to develop a range of national hazard maps along with relevant hazard statistics and is showcasing the procedure......This paper presents the application of a new methodology for coastal multi-hazard assessment and management in a changing global climate on the state of Djibouti. The methodology termed the Coastal Hazard Wheel (CHW) is developed for worldwide application and is based on a specially designed...

A preliminary assessment of earthquake ground shaking hazard at Yucca Mountain, Nevada and implications to the Las Vegas region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wong, I.G.; Green, R.K.; Sun, J.I.; Pezzopane, S.K.; Abrahamson, N.A.; Quittmeyer, R.C.

1996-01-01

As part of early design studies for the potential Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, the authors have performed a preliminary probabilistic seismic hazard analysis of ground shaking. A total of 88 Quaternary faults within 100 km of the site were considered in the hazard analysis. They were characterized in terms of their probability o being seismogenic, and their geometry, maximum earthquake magnitude, recurrence model, and slip rate. Individual faults were characterized by maximum earthquakes that ranged from moment magnitude (M w ) 5.1 to 7.6. Fault slip rates ranged from a very low 0.00001 mm/yr to as much as 4 mm/yr. An areal source zone representing background earthquakes up to M w 6 1/4 = 1/4 was also included in the analysis. Recurrence for these background events was based on the 1904--1994 historical record, which contains events up to M w 5.6. Based on this analysis, the peak horizontal rock accelerations are 0.16, 0.21, 0.28, and 0.50 g for return periods of 500, 1,000, 2,000, and 10,000 years, respectively. In general, the dominant contributor to the ground shaking hazard at Yucca Mountain are background earthquakes because of the low slip rates of the Basin and Range faults. A significant effect on the probabilistic ground motions is due to the inclusion of a new attenuation relation developed specifically for earthquakes in extensional tectonic regimes. This relation gives significantly lower peak accelerations than five other predominantly California-based relations used in the analysis, possibly due to the lower stress drops of extensional earthquakes compared to California events. Because Las Vegas is located within the same tectonic regime as Yucca Mountain, the seismic sources and path and site factors affecting the seismic hazard at Yucca Mountain also have implications to Las Vegas. These implications are discussed in this paper

Classification of working processes to facilitate occupational hazard coding on industrial trawlers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Olaf C; Stage, Søren; Noer, Preben

2003-01-01

BACKGROUND: Commercial fishing is an extremely dangerous economic activity. In order to more accurately describe the risks involved, a specific injury coding based on the working process was developed. METHOD: Observation on six different types of vessels was conducted and allowed a description...... and a classification of the principal working processes on all kinds of vessels and a detailed classification for industrial trawlers. In industrial trawling, fish are landed for processing purposes, for example, for the production of fish oil and fish meal. The classification was subsequently used to code...... the injuries reported to the Danish Maritime Authority over a 5-year period. RESULTS: On industrial trawlers, 374 of 394 (95%) injuries were captured by the classification. Setting out and hauling in the gear and nets were the processes with the most injuries and accounted for 58.9% of all injuries...

HAZARD ANALYSIS SOFTWARE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sommer, S; Tinh Tran, T.

2008-01-01

Washington Safety Management Solutions, LLC developed web-based software to improve the efficiency and consistency of hazard identification and analysis, control selection and classification, and to standardize analysis reporting at Savannah River Site. In the new nuclear age, information technology provides methods to improve the efficiency of the documented safety analysis development process which includes hazard analysis activities. This software provides a web interface that interacts with a relational database to support analysis, record data, and to ensure reporting consistency. A team of subject matter experts participated in a series of meetings to review the associated processes and procedures for requirements and standard practices. Through these meetings, a set of software requirements were developed and compiled into a requirements traceability matrix from which software could be developed. The software was tested to ensure compliance with the requirements. Training was provided to the hazard analysis leads. Hazard analysis teams using the software have verified its operability. The software has been classified as NQA-1, Level D, as it supports the analysis team but does not perform the analysis. The software can be transported to other sites with alternate risk schemes. The software is being used to support the development of 14 hazard analyses. User responses have been positive with a number of suggestions for improvement which are being incorporated as time permits. The software has enforced a uniform implementation of the site procedures. The software has significantly improved the efficiency and standardization of the hazard analysis process

Auditors of safety in hazardous materials transportation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Manas Lahoz, J.L.

1993-01-01

The author describes the methodology for safety auditory and control, prevention, risks of hazardous materials transport through ship, airplane, rail, etc. In this way, The author presents the classification of damage materials transport, characteristic damage and different transport methods

Final hazard classification and auditable safety analysis for the 300-FF-1 Operable Unit liquid waste sites, landfills, and Burial Ground 618-4

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adam, W.J.; Larson, A.R.

1996-12-01

This document provides the hazard categorizations and classifications for the activities associated with the 300-FF-1 Operable Unit (OU) remediation. Categories and classifications presented are applicable only to the 300-FF-1 OU waste sites specifically listed in the inventory. The purpose of this remedial action is to remove contaminated soil, debris, and solid waste from liquid waste sites, landfills, and Burial Ground 618-4 within the 300-FF-1 OU. Resulting waste from this project will be sent to the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility (ERDF) in the 200 West Area. The 300-FF-1 OU is part of the 300 Area of the Hanford Site and is next to the Columbia River. The objective of this remedial action is to reduce contamination at these waste sites to levels that are acceptable for industrial purposes. Specific remedial objectives (cleanup goals) for each contaminant of concern (COC) are provided in a table, along with the maximum soil concentration detected

A comparison of mandatory and voluntary approaches to the implementation of Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) in the management of hazardous chemicals.

Science.gov (United States)

Ta, Goh Choo; Mokhtar, Mazlin Bin; Peterson, Peter John; Yahaya, Nadzri Bin

2011-01-01

The European Union (EU) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have applied different approaches to facilitate the implementation of the UN Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS). The EU applied the mandatory approach by gazetting the EU Regulation 1272/2008 incorporating GHS elements on classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures in 2008; whereas the WHO utilized a voluntary approach by incorporating GHS elements in the WHO guidelines entitled 'WHO Recommended Classification of Pesticides by Hazard' in 2009. We report on an analysis of both the mandatory and voluntary approaches practised by the EU and the WHO respectively, with close reference to the GHS 'purple book'. Our findings indicate that the mandatory approach practiced by the EU covers all the GHS elements referred to in the second revised edition of the GHS 'purple book'. Hence we can conclude that the EU has implemented the GHS particularly for industrial chemicals. On the other hand, the WHO guidelines published in 2009 should be revised to address concerns raised in this paper. In addition, both mandatory and voluntary approaches should be carefully examined because the classification results may be different.

Interim report to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on radioactive waste classification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

King, W.C.; Cohen, J.J.

1977-01-01

The Lawrence Livermore Laboratory assisted the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the development of a radioactive waste classification system that will satisfy technical, environmental, and societal concerns. This is an interim report to the NRC on work accomplished to date. It describes a proposed waste-classification system that is based on the final disposition of waste material. The system consists of three classes of radioactive waste. The classification of any radioactive waste will depend primarily on its hazard potential. Other characteristics such as longevity (half-size) will be considered also. The levels of hazard that differentiate the three classes of radioactive waste will be determined by ongoing work. This report describes other work to be completed before a suitable radioactive waste-classificaion system is established

Assessing the long-term probabilistic volcanic hazard for tephra fallout in Reykjavik, Iceland: a preliminary multi-source analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Tonini, Roberto; Barsotti, Sara; Sandri, Laura; Tumi Guðmundsson, Magnús

2015-04-01

Icelandic volcanism is largely dominated by basaltic magma. Nevertheless the presence of glaciers over many Icelandic volcanic systems results in frequent phreatomagmatic eruptions and associated tephra production, making explosive eruptions the most common type of volcanic activity. Jökulhlaups are commonly considered as major volcanic hazard in Iceland for their high frequency and potentially very devastating local impact. Tephra fallout is also frequent and can impact larger areas. It is driven by the wind direction that can change with both altitude and season, making impossible to predict a priori where the tephra will be deposited during the next eruptions. Most of the volcanic activity in Iceland occurs in the central eastern part, over 100 km to the east of the main population centre around the capital Reykjavík. Therefore, the hazard from tephra fallout in Reykjavík is expected to be smaller than for communities settled near the main volcanic systems. However, within the framework of quantitative hazard and risk analyses, less frequent and/or less intense phenomena should not be neglected, since their risk evaluation depends on the effects suffered by the selected target. This is particularly true if the target is highly vulnerable, as large urban areas or important infrastructures. In this work we present the preliminary analysis aiming to perform a Probabilistic Volcanic Hazard Assessment (PVHA) for tephra fallout focused on the target area which includes the municipality of Reykjavík and the Keflavík international airport. This approach reverts the more common perspective where the hazard analysis is focused on the source (the volcanic system) and it follows a multi-source approach: indeed, the idea is to quantify, homogeneously, the hazard due to the main hazardous volcanoes that could pose a tephra fallout threat for the municipality of Reykjavík and the Keflavík airport. PVHA for each volcanic system is calculated independently and the results

EMG finger movement classification based on ANFIS

Science.gov (United States)

Caesarendra, W.; Tjahjowidodo, T.; Nico, Y.; Wahyudati, S.; Nurhasanah, L.

2018-04-01

An increase number of people suffering from stroke has impact to the rapid development of finger hand exoskeleton to enable an automatic physical therapy. Prior to the development of finger exoskeleton, a research topic yet important i.e. machine learning of finger gestures classification is conducted. This paper presents a study on EMG signal classification of 5 finger gestures as a preliminary study toward the finger exoskeleton design and development in Indonesia. The EMG signals of 5 finger gestures were acquired using Myo EMG sensor. The EMG signal features were extracted and reduced using PCA. The ANFIS based learning is used to classify reduced features of 5 finger gestures. The result shows that the classification of finger gestures is less than the classification of 7 hand gestures.

Hazards classification determination for PUREX fuel transfer to K-Basins

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dodd, E.N. III.

1995-01-01

The PUREX Plant presently contains 2.9 metric tons of an aluminum clad Single Pass Reactor (SPR) fuel which is stored under water in four open top buckets in the PUREX slug storage basin. The PUREX dissolver cells contain approximately 0.5 metric tons of zirconium clad N Reactor fuel which was inadvertently placed into the process cell during charging operations. The dissolver N reactor elements will be recovered from the process floors using new crane operated tools. When the fuel shipment(s) is scheduled, the cask cars will be positioned into the PUREX rail tunnel and the overhead door will be opened. All the SPR fuel will be loaded into two cask rail cars inside four casks. The N Reactor fuel will be loaded into a separate rail car inside two or three casks. The car loading is initiated by opening the rail car lid and removing the cask lids. Prior to loading the canisters of N Reactor fuel, the canisters will be refilled with water (as needed) and a lid will be installed. The baskets of SPR fuel or canisters of N Reactor fuel will then be loaded into the casks. The lids to the casks will then be reinstalled and the car lids closed. The rail cars will then be decontaminated as necessary. The cask cars will be shipped either in two shipments or a combined single shipment using the rail route between PUREX and the K Basins. At the basin, the cask car will be positioned in the loadout area. The cask car lid will be opened and a single cask moved into the loadout pit, which is a lowered section of the basin. The cask lid is removed while the cask is lower into the pit. The fuel is then removed from the cask and stored in the basin. The cask is then removed, the lid reinstalled during removal, and the cask replaced into the cask car. This document identifies the hazard classification of the Fuel Transfer from the PUREX facility to K-Basins

PRTR/309 building nuclear facility preliminary

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cornwell, B.C.

1994-01-01

The hazard classification of the Plutonium Recycle Test Reactor (PRTR)/309 building as a ''Radiological Facility'' and the office portions as ''Other Industrial Facility'' are documented by this report. This report provides: a synopsis of the history and facility it's uses; describes major area of the facility; and assesses the radiological conditions for the facility segments. The assessment is conducted using the hazard category threshold values, segmentation methodology, and graded approach guidance of DOE-STD-1027-92

Site 300 hazardous-waste-assessment project. Interim report: December 1981. Preliminary site reconnaissance and project work plan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Raber, E.; Helm, D.; Carpenter, D.; Peifer, D.; Sweeney, J.

1982-01-01

This document was prepared to outline the scope and objectives of the Hazardous Waste Assessment Project (HWAP) at Site 300. This project was initiated in October, 1981, to investigate the existing solid waste landfills in an effort to satisfy regulatory guidelines and assess the potential for ground-water contamination. This involves a site-specific investigation (utilizing geology, hydrology, geophysics and geochemistry) with the goal of developing an effective ground-water quality monitoring network. Initial site reconnaissance work has begun and we report the results, to date, of our geologic hydrogeologic studies. All known solid waste disposal locations are underlain by rocks of either the Late Miocene Neroly Formation or the Cierbo Formation, both of which are dominantly sandstones interbedded with shale and claystone. The existence of a regional confined (artesian) aquifer, as well as a regional water-table aquifer is postulated for Site 300. Preliminary analysis has led to an understanding of directions and depths of regional ground-water flow

A preliminary assessment of earthquake ground shaking hazard at Yucca Mountain, Nevada and implications to the Las Vegas region

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wong, I.G.; Green, R.K.; Sun, J.I. [Woodward-Clyde Federal Services, Oakland, CA (United States); Pezzopane, S.K. [Geological Survey, Denver, CO (United States); Abrahamson, N.A. [Abrahamson (Norm A.), Piedmont, CA (United States); Quittmeyer, R.C. [Woodward-Clyde Federal Services, Las Vegas, NV (United States)

1996-12-31

As part of early design studies for the potential Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, the authors have performed a preliminary probabilistic seismic hazard analysis of ground shaking. A total of 88 Quaternary faults within 100 km of the site were considered in the hazard analysis. They were characterized in terms of their probability o being seismogenic, and their geometry, maximum earthquake magnitude, recurrence model, and slip rate. Individual faults were characterized by maximum earthquakes that ranged from moment magnitude (M{sub w}) 5.1 to 7.6. Fault slip rates ranged from a very low 0.00001 mm/yr to as much as 4 mm/yr. An areal source zone representing background earthquakes up to M{sub w} 6 1/4 = 1/4 was also included in the analysis. Recurrence for these background events was based on the 1904--1994 historical record, which contains events up to M{sub w} 5.6. Based on this analysis, the peak horizontal rock accelerations are 0.16, 0.21, 0.28, and 0.50 g for return periods of 500, 1,000, 2,000, and 10,000 years, respectively. In general, the dominant contributor to the ground shaking hazard at Yucca Mountain are background earthquakes because of the low slip rates of the Basin and Range faults. A significant effect on the probabilistic ground motions is due to the inclusion of a new attenuation relation developed specifically for earthquakes in extensional tectonic regimes. This relation gives significantly lower peak accelerations than five other predominantly California-based relations used in the analysis, possibly due to the lower stress drops of extensional earthquakes compared to California events. Because Las Vegas is located within the same tectonic regime as Yucca Mountain, the seismic sources and path and site factors affecting the seismic hazard at Yucca Mountain also have implications to Las Vegas. These implications are discussed in this paper.

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS ON SUSHI AS POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS FOOD

OpenAIRE

G. Liuzzo; P. Bonilauri; R. Leonelli; A. Serraino; S. Bentley

2011-01-01

The Authors studied physicochemical properties (pH and Aw) of samples of Nigiri sushi and their ingredients along their shelf life, integrating those results with a predictive microbiological model, in order to determine or to rule out the growth of Listeria monocytogenes above the thresholds set by Reg.(EU) 2073/2005. Results point towards substantial containment of the target biological hazard, even though the prevention of thermal abuse is a keypoint in increasing safety.

Flash Flood Hazard Susceptibility Mapping Using Frequency Ratio and Statistical Index Methods in Coalmine Subsidence Areas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chen Cao

2016-09-01

Full Text Available This study focused on producing flash flood hazard susceptibility maps (FFHSM using frequency ratio (FR and statistical index (SI models in the Xiqu Gully (XQG of Beijing, China. First, a total of 85 flash flood hazard locations (n = 85 were surveyed in the field and plotted using geographic information system (GIS software. Based on the flash flood hazard locations, a flood hazard inventory map was built. Seventy percent (n = 60 of the flooding hazard locations were randomly selected for building the models. The remaining 30% (n = 25 of the flooded hazard locations were used for validation. Considering that the XQG used to be a coal mining area, coalmine caves and subsidence caused by coal mining exist in this catchment, as well as many ground fissures. Thus, this study took the subsidence risk level into consideration for FFHSM. The ten conditioning parameters were elevation, slope, curvature, land use, geology, soil texture, subsidence risk area, stream power index (SPI, topographic wetness index (TWI, and short-term heavy rain. This study also tested different classification schemes for the values for each conditional parameter and checked their impacts on the results. The accuracy of the FFHSM was validated using area under the curve (AUC analysis. Classification accuracies were 86.61%, 83.35%, and 78.52% using frequency ratio (FR-natural breaks, statistical index (SI-natural breaks and FR-manual classification schemes, respectively. Associated prediction accuracies were 83.69%, 81.22%, and 74.23%, respectively. It was found that FR modeling using a natural breaks classification method was more appropriate for generating FFHSM for the Xiqu Gully.

Waste receiving and processing (WRAP) module 1 hazards assessment. Revision 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sutton, L.N.

1997-01-01

This report documents the hazards assessment for the Waste Receiving and Processing Module I (WRAP 1) located on the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Hanford Site. Operation of the WRAP 1 is the responsibility of Rust Federal Services Hanford (RFSH). This hazards assessment was conducted to provide the emergency planning technical basis for the WRAP 1. DOE Orders require an emergency planning hazards assessment for each facility that has the potential to reach or exceed the lowest level emergency classification

Superfund Hazard Ranking System Training Course: Table of Contents

Science.gov (United States)

The Hazard Ranking System (HRS) training course is a four and ½ day, intermediate-level course designed for personnel who are required to compile, draft, and review preliminary assessments (PAs), site inspections (SIs), and HRS documentation records/packag

Preliminary seismic design cost-benefit assessment of the tuff repository waste-handling facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Subramanian, C.V.; Abrahamson, N.; Hadjian, A.H.

1989-02-01

This report presents a preliminary assessment of the costs and benefits associated with changes in the seismic design basis of waste-handling facilities. The objectives of the study are to understand the capability of the current seismic design of the waste-handling facilities to mitigate seismic hazards, evaluate how different design levels and design measures might be used toward mitigating seismic hazards, assess the costs and benefits of alternative seismic design levels, and develop recommendations for possible modifications to the seismic design basis. This preliminary assessment is based primarily on expert judgment solicited in an interdisciplinary workshop environment. The estimated costs for individual attributes and the assumptions underlying these cost estimates (seismic hazard levels, fragilities, radioactive-release scenarios, etc.) are subject to large uncertainties, which are generally identified but not treated explicitly in this preliminary analysis. The major conclusions of the report do not appear to be very sensitive to these uncertainties. 41 refs., 51 figs., 35 tabs

Advanced Materials Laboratory hazards assessment document

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Barnett, B.; Banda, Z.

1995-10-01

The Department of Energy Order 55OO.3A requires facility-specific hazards assessments be prepared, maintained, and used for emergency planning purposes. This hazards assessment document describes the chemical and radiological hazards associated with the AML. The entire inventory was screened according to the potential airborne impact to onsite and offsite individuals. The air dispersion model, ALOHA, estimated pollutant concentrations downwind from the source of a release, taking into consideration the toxicological and physical characteristics of the release site, the atmospheric conditions, and the circumstances of the release. The greatest distance at which a postulated facility event will produce consequences exceeding the Early Severe Health Effects threshold is 23 meters. The highest emergency classification is a General Emergency. The Emergency Planning Zone is a nominal area that conforms to DOE boundaries and physical/jurisdictional boundaries such as fence lines and streets.

Preliminary results from the hierarchical glitch pipeline

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mukherjee, Soma

2007-01-01

This paper reports on the preliminary results obtained from the hierarchical glitch classification pipeline on LIGO data. The pipeline that has been under construction for the past year is now complete and end-to-end tested. It is ready to generate analysis results on a daily basis. The details of the pipeline, the classification algorithms employed and the results obtained with one days analysis on the gravitational wave and several auxiliary and environmental channels from all three LIGO detectors are discussed

Building 894 hazards assessment document

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Banda, Z.; Williams, M.

1996-07-01

The Department of Energy Order 5500.3A requires facility-specific hazards assessments be prepared, maintained, and used for emergency planning purposes. This hazards assessment document describes the chemical and radiological hazards associated with Building 894. The entire inventory was subjected to the screening criteria for potential airborne impact to onsite and offsite individuals out of which 9 chemicals were kept for further evaluation. The air dispersion model, ALOHA, estimated pollutant concentrations downwind from the source of a release, taking into consideration the toxicological and physical characteristics of the release site, the atmospheric conditions, and the circumstances of the release. The greatest distance at which a postulated facility event will produce consequences exceeding the Early Severe Health Effects threshold is 130 meters. The highest emergency classification is a General Emergency. The Emergency Planning Zone is a nominal 130 meter area that conforms to DOE boundaries and physical/jurisdictional boundaries such as fence lines and streets

Building 6630 hazards assessment document

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Williams, M.; Banda, Z.

1996-10-01

The Department of Energy Order 5500.3A requires facility-specific hazards assessments be prepared, maintained, and used for emergency planning purposes. This hazards assessment document describes the chemical and radiological hazards associated with Building 6630. The entire inventory was subjected to the screening criteria for potential airborne impact to onsite and offsite individuals out of which one chemical was kept for further evaluation. The air dispersion model, ALOHA, estimated pollutant concentrations downwind from the source of a release, taking into consideration the toxicological and physical characteristics of the chemical release site, the atmospheric conditions, and the circumstances of the release. The greatest distance at which a postulated facility event will produce consequences exceeding the Early Severe Health Effects threshold is 76 meters. The highest emergency classification is an Alert. The Emergency Planning Zone is a nominal 100 meter area that conforms to DOE boundaries and physical/jurisdictional boundaries such as fence lines and streets

AN OBJECT-BASED METHOD FOR CHINESE LANDFORM TYPES CLASSIFICATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. Ding

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Landform classification is a necessary task for various fields of landscape and regional planning, for example for landscape evaluation, erosion studies, hazard prediction, et al. This study proposes an improved object-based classification for Chinese landform types using the factor importance analysis of random forest and the gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM. In this research, based on 1km DEM of China, the combination of the terrain factors extracted from DEM are selected by correlation analysis and Sheffield's entropy method. Random forest classification tree is applied to evaluate the importance of the terrain factors, which are used as multi-scale segmentation thresholds. Then the GLCM is conducted for the knowledge base of classification. The classification result was checked by using the 1:4,000,000 Chinese Geomorphological Map as reference. And the overall classification accuracy of the proposed method is 5.7% higher than ISODATA unsupervised classification, and 15.7% higher than the traditional object-based classification method.

Preliminary assessment report for Fort Custer Training Center, Installation 26035, Augusta, Michigan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Flaim, S.; Krokosz, M.

1993-08-01

This report presents the results of the preliminary assessment (PA) conducted by Argonne National Laboratory at the Michigan Army National Guard property near Augusta, Michigan. Preliminary assessments of federal facilities are being conducted to compile the information necessary for completing preremedial activities and to provide a basis for establishing corrective actions in response to releases of hazardous substances. The principal objective of the PA is to characterize the site accurately and determine the need for further action by examining site activities, quantities of hazardous substances present, and potential pathways by which contamination could affect public health and the environment. This PA satisfies, for the Fort Custer Training Center, phase I of the Department of Defense Installation Restoration Program. The environmentally significant operations associated with the property are (1) storage of hazardous materials and hazardous waste, (2) storage and dispensing of fuel, (3) washing of vehicles and equipment, and (4) weapons training ranges that may have accumulated lead

33 CFR 127.315 - Preliminary transfer inspection.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... (CONTINUED) WATERFRONT FACILITIES WATERFRONT FACILITIES HANDLING LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS AND LIQUEFIED HAZARDOUS GAS Waterfront Facilities Handling Liquefied Natural Gas Operations § 127.315 Preliminary transfer... parts; (b) For each of the vessel's cargo tanks from which cargo will be transferred, note the pressure...

The Impact Hazard in the Context of Other Natural Hazards and Predictive Science

Science.gov (United States)

Chapman, C. R.

1998-09-01

The hazard due to impact of asteroids and comets has been recognized as analogous, in some ways, to other infrequent but consequential natural hazards (e.g. floods and earthquakes). Yet, until recently, astronomers and space agencies have felt no need to do what their colleagues and analogous agencies must do in order the assess, quantify, and communicate predictions to those with a practical interest in the predictions (e.g. public officials who must assess the threats, prepare for mitigation, etc.). Recent heightened public interest in the impact hazard, combined with increasing numbers of "near misses" (certain to increase as Spaceguard is implemented) requires that astronomers accept the responsibility to place their predictions and assessments in terms that may be appropriately considered. I will report on preliminary results of a multi-year GSA/NCAR study of "Prediction in the Earth Sciences: Use and Misuse in Policy Making" in which I have represented the impact hazard, while others have treated earthquakes, floods, weather, global climate change, nuclear waste disposal, acid rain, etc. The impact hazard presents an end-member example of a natural hazard, helping those dealing with more prosaic issues to learn from an extreme. On the other hand, I bring to the astronomical community some lessons long adopted in other cases: the need to understand the policy purposes of impact predictions, the need to assess potential societal impacts, the requirements to very carefully assess prediction uncertainties, considerations of potential public uses of the predictions, awareness of ethical considerations (e.g. conflicts of interest) that affect predictions and acceptance of predictions, awareness of appropriate means for publicly communicating predictions, and considerations of the international context (especially for a hazard that knows no national boundaries).

Efficient Generation and Selection of Combined Features for Improved Classification

KAUST Repository

Shono, Ahmad N.

2014-05-01

This study contributes a methodology and associated toolkit developed to allow users to experiment with the use of combined features in classification problems. Methods are provided for efficiently generating combined features from an original feature set, for efficiently selecting the most discriminating of these generated combined features, and for efficiently performing a preliminary comparison of the classification results when using the original features exclusively against the results when using the selected combined features. The potential benefit of considering combined features in classification problems is demonstrated by applying the developed methodology and toolkit to three sample data sets where the discovery of combined features containing new discriminating information led to improved classification results.

Hazard classification of chemicals inducing haemolytic anaemia: An EU regulatory perspective

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Muller, A.; Jacobsen, Helene; Healy, E.

2006-01-01

Haemolytic anaemia is often induced following prolonged exposure to chemical substances. Currently, under EU Council Directive 67/548/EEC, substances which induce such effects are classified as dangerous and assigned the risk phrase R48 'Danger of serious damage to health by prolonged exposure......! Whilst the general classification criteria for this endpoint are outlined in Annex VI of this Directive, they do not provide specific information to assess haemolytic anaemia. This review produced by the EU Working Group on Haemolytic Anaemia provides a toxicological assessment of haemolytic anaemia...... and proposes criteria that can be used in the assessment for classification of substances which induce such effects. An overview of the primary and secondary effects of haemolytic anaemia which can occur in rodent repeated dose toxicity studies is given. A detailed analysis of the toxicological significance...

Preliminary bathymetry; approaches to Unakwik Inlet, Alaska

Science.gov (United States)

Post, Austin

1980-01-01

A map, scale 1:20,000, shows water depths, rocks, and hazards to navigation. These data are noted on track lines run by the Research Vessel Growler in Alaskan waters, where data on navigation shown on published charts are nonexistant, preliminary, or out dated. (USGS)

Application of the Coastal Hazard Wheel methodology for coastal multi-hazard assessment and management in the state of Djibouti

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lars Rosendahl Appelquist

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the application of a new methodology for coastal multi-hazard assessment and management in a changing global climate on the state of Djibouti. The methodology termed the Coastal Hazard Wheel (CHW is developed for worldwide application and is based on a specially designed coastal classification system that incorporates the main static and dynamic parameters determining the characteristics of a coastal environment. The methodology provides information on the hazards of ecosystem disruption, gradual inundation, salt water intrusion, erosion and flooding and can be used to support management decisions at local, regional and national level, in areas with limited access to geophysical data. The assessment for Djibouti applies a geographic information system (GIS to develop a range of national hazard maps along with relevant hazard statistics and is showcasing the procedure for applying the CHW methodology for national hazard assessments. The assessment shows that the coastline of Djibouti is characterized by extensive stretches with high or very high hazards of ecosystem disruption, mainly related to coral reefs and mangrove forests, while large sections along the coastlines of especially northern and southern Djibouti have high hazard levels for gradual inundation. The hazard of salt water intrusion is moderate along most of Djibouti’s coastline, although groundwater availability is considered to be very sensitive to human ground water extraction. High or very high erosion hazards are associated with Djibouti’s sedimentary plains, estuaries and river mouths, while very high flooding hazards are associated with the dry river mouths.

Magnetic resonance imaging: hazard, risk and safety

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Narayan, Pradeep; Suri, S.; Singh, P.

2001-01-01

The hazard and risk associated with magnetic resonance imaging is a matter of concern. In 1982, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), USA issued guidelines to Hospital's Investigational Review Board (IRBs) in 'Guidelines for Evaluating Electromagnetic Exposure Risks for Trials of Clinical Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)'. In 1997, the Berufsgenossenschaft (BG), professional association for precision engineering and electronics of Germany, in their preliminary proposal for safety limits extended their concerns on static magnetic field. Owing to both time varying and static magnetic fields applied in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) this became of immediate concern to user community to assess the potential hazard and risk associated with the NMR system

IDENTIFYING ROOF FALL PREDICTORS USING FUZZY CLASSIFICATION

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bertoncini, C. A.; Hinders, M. K.

2010-01-01

Microseismic monitoring involves placing geophones on the rock surfaces of a mine to record seismic activity. Classification of microseismic mine data can be used to predict seismic events in a mine to mitigate mining hazards, such as roof falls, where properly bolting and bracing the roof is often an insufficient method of preventing weak roofs from destabilizing. In this study, six months of recorded acoustic waveforms from microseismic monitoring in a Pennsylvania limestone mine were analyzed using classification techniques to predict roof falls. Fuzzy classification using features selected for computational ease was applied on the mine data. Both large roof fall events could be predicted using a Roof Fall Index (RFI) metric calculated from the results of the fuzzy classification. RFI was successfully used to resolve the two significant roof fall events and predicted both events by at least 15 hours before visual signs of the roof falls were evident.

PUREX facility hazards assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sutton, L.N.

1994-01-01

This report documents the hazards assessment for the Plutonium Uranium Extraction Plant (PUREX) located on the US Department of Energy (DOE) Hanford Site. Operation of PUREX is the responsibility of Westinghouse Hanford Company (WHC). This hazards assessment was conducted to provide the emergency planning technical basis for PUREX. DOE Order 5500.3A requires an emergency planning hazards assessment for each facility that has the potential to reach or exceed the lowest level emergency classification. In October of 1990, WHC was directed to place PUREX in standby. In December of 1992 the DOE Assistant Secretary for Environmental Restoration and Waste Management authorized the termination of PUREX and directed DOE-RL to proceed with shutdown planning and terminal clean out activities. Prior to this action, its mission was to reprocess irradiated fuels for the recovery of uranium and plutonium. The present mission is to establish a passively safe and environmentally secure configuration at the PUREX facility and to preserve that condition for 10 years. The ten year time frame represents the typical duration expended to define, authorize and initiate follow-on decommissioning and decontamination activities

Evaluating Method Engineer Performance: an error classification and preliminary empirical study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Steven Kelly

1998-11-01

Full Text Available We describe an approach to empirically test the use of metaCASE environments to model methods. Both diagrams and matrices have been proposed as a means for presenting the methods. These different paradigms may have their own effects on how easily and well users can model methods. We extend Batra's classification of errors in data modelling to cover metamodelling, and use it to measure the performance of a group of metamodellers using either diagrams or matrices. The tentative results from this pilot study confirm the usefulness of the classification, and show some interesting differences between the paradigms.

40 CFR 260.30 - Non-waste determinations and variances from classification as a solid waste.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... from classification as a solid waste. 260.30 Section 260.30 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) SOLID WASTES (CONTINUED) HAZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM: GENERAL Rulemaking Petitions § 260.30 Non-waste determinations and variances from classification as a solid waste. In...

The costs of hazardous alcohol consumption in Germany.

Science.gov (United States)

Effertz, Tobias; Verheyen, Frank; Linder, Roland

2017-07-01

Hazardous alcohol consumption in Germany is a main threat to health. By using insurance claim data from the German Statutory Health Insurance and a classification strategy based on ICD10 diagnoses-codes we analyzed a sample of 146,000 subjects with more than 19,000 hazardous alcohol consumers. Employing different regression models with a control function approach, we calculate life years lost due to alcohol consumption, annual direct and indirect health costs, and the burden of pain and suffering measured by the Charlson-Index and assessed pain diagnoses. Additionally, we simulate the net accumulated premium payments over expenses in the German Statutory Health Insurance and the Statutory Pension Fund for hazardous alcohol consumers from a lifecycle perspective. In total, €39.3 billion each year result from hazardous alcohol consumption with an average loss of 7 years in life expectancy. Hazardous alcohol consumers clearly do not "pay their way" in the two main German social security systems and also display a higher intangible burden according to our definitions of pain and suffering.

Probabilistic Tsunami Hazard Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Thio, H. K.; Ichinose, G. A.; Somerville, P. G.; Polet, J.

2006-12-01

thousands of earthquake scenarios. We have carried out preliminary tsunami hazard calculations for different return periods for western North America and Hawaii based on thousands of earthquake scenarios around the Pacific rim and along the coast of North America. We will present tsunami hazard maps for several return periods and also discuss how to use these results for probabilistic inundation and runup mapping. Our knowledge of certain types of tsunami sources is very limited (e.g. submarine landslides), but a probabilistic framework for tsunami hazard evaluation can include even such sources and their uncertainties and present the overall hazard in a meaningful and consistent way.

40 CFR 260.31 - Standards and criteria for variances from classification as a solid waste.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... from classification as a solid waste. 260.31 Section 260.31 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) SOLID WASTES (CONTINUED) HAZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM: GENERAL Rulemaking Petitions § 260.31 Standards and criteria for variances from classification as a solid waste. (a) The...

The municipal districts and the hazardous and nuclear wastes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Custodio, H.B.

1989-01-01

The contamination of soil, water, air and flora due to increasing of hazardous wastes and population is discussed; the classification of wastes is analysed; the partition of competence in environmental area according to the constitution is explained; solutions to adjust industrial development with preservation of environment are suggested [pt

Feasibility Study of Land Cover Classification Based on Normalized Difference Vegetation Index for Landslide Risk Assessment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thilanki Dahigamuwa

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Unfavorable land cover leads to excessive damage from landslides and other natural hazards, whereas the presence of vegetation is expected to mitigate rainfall-induced landslide potential. Hence, unexpected and rapid changes in land cover due to deforestation would be detrimental in landslide-prone areas. Also, vegetation cover is subject to phenological variations and therefore, timely classification of land cover is an essential step in effective evaluation of landslide hazard potential. The work presented here investigates methods that can be used for land cover classification based on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI, derived from up-to-date satellite images, and the feasibility of application in landslide risk prediction. A major benefit of this method would be the eventual ability to employ NDVI as a stand-alone parameter for accurate assessment of the impact of land cover in landslide hazard evaluation. An added benefit would be the timely detection of undesirable practices such as deforestation using satellite imagery. A landslide-prone region in Oregon, USA is used as a model for the application of the classification method. Five selected classification techniques—k-nearest neighbor, Gaussian support vector machine (GSVM, artificial neural network, decision tree and quadratic discriminant analysis support the viability of the NDVI-based land cover classification. Finally, its application in landslide risk evaluation is demonstrated.

Assessment of pneumoconiosis hazards associated with mining operations in coal mines. [USSR

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sukhanov, V V; Menyailo, N I; Petul' ko, S N

1984-07-01

Methods are discussed for evaluating hazards of pneumoconiosis in underground coal mines. Pneumoconiosis hazards are decisively influenced by: content of respirable dusts in mine air at a working place, dust composition, temperature and time of a miner's contact with dusts. The following classification of pneumoconiosis hazards is used in the USSR: low hazards when a miner is endangered by pneumoconiosis after 20 years or more, medium hazards when pneumoconiosis may occur after 10 to 20 years, high pneumoconiosis hazards when a miner is endangered by pneumoconiosis after less than 10 years of contact with dusts. High air temperature in deep coal mines increases pneumoconiosis hazards: when temperature exceeds 26 C a temperature increase of 1 C causes a 10% increase in dust chemical activity. Safety standards which describe the maximum permissible dust level in coal mine air in the USSR, the FRG, France and Poland are compared.

CLASSIFICATION OF THE MGR MUCK HANDLING SYSTEM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

R. Garrett

1999-01-01

The purpose of this analysis is to document the Quality Assurance (QA) classification of the Monitored Geologic Repository (MGR) muck handling system structures, systems and components (SSCs) performed by the MGR Safety Assurance Department. This analysis also provides the basis for revision of YMP/90-55Q, Q-List (YMP 1998). The Q-List identifies those MGR SSCs subject to the requirements of DOE/RW-0333P, ''Quality Assurance Requirements and Description (QARD) (DOE 1998). This QA classification incorporates the current MGR design and the results of the ''Preliminary Preclosure Design Basis Event Calculations for the Monitored Geologic Repository (CRWMS M and O 1998a)

Environmental impact of industrial sludge stabilization/solidification products: chemical or ecotoxicological hazard evaluation?

Science.gov (United States)

Silva, Marcos A R; Testolin, Renan C; Godinho-Castro, Alcione P; Corrêa, Albertina X R; Radetski, Claudemir M

2011-09-15

Nowadays, the classification of industrial solid wastes is not based on risk analysis, thus the aim of this study was to compare the toxicity classifications based on the chemical and ecotoxicological characterization of four industrial sludges submitted to a two-step stabilization/solidification (S/S) processes. To classify S/S products as hazardous or non-hazardous, values cited in Brazilian chemical waste regulations were adopted and compared to the results obtained with a battery of biotests (bacteria, alga and daphnids) which were carried out with soluble and leaching fractions. In some cases the hazardous potential of industrial sludge was underestimated, since the S/S products obtained from the metal-mechanics and automotive sludges were chemically classified as non-hazardous (but non-inert) when the ecotoxicity tests showed toxicity values for leaching and soluble fractions. In other cases, the environmental impact was overestimated, since the S/S products of the textile sludges were chemically classified as non-inert (but non-hazardous) while ecotoxicity tests did not reveal any effects on bacteria, daphnids and algae. From the results of the chemical and ecotoxicological analyses we concluded that: (i) current regulations related to solid waste classification based on leachability and solubility tests do not ensure reliable results with respect to environmental protection; (ii) the two-step process was very effective in terms of metal immobilization, even at higher metal-concentrations. Considering that S/S products will be subject to environmental conditions, it is of great interest to test the ecotoxicity potential of the contaminants release from these products with a view to avoiding environmental impact given the unreliability of ecotoxicological estimations originating from chemical analysis. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Preliminary bathymetry; Ester Passage to Eaglek Island, Alaska

Science.gov (United States)

Post, Austin

1980-01-01

A map, scale 1:20,000, shows water depths, rocks, and hazards to navigation. These data are noted on track lines run by the Research Vessel Growler in Alaskan waters, where data on navigation shown on published charts are nonexistant, preliminary, or out dated. (USGS)

Preliminary Volcano-Hazard Assessment for Gareloi Volcano, Gareloi Island, Alaska

Science.gov (United States)

Coombs, Michelle L.; McGimsey, Robert G.; Browne, Brandon L.

2008-01-01

Gareloi Volcano (178.794 degrees W and 51.790 degrees N) is located on Gareloi Island in the Delarof Islands group of the Aleutian Islands, about 2,000 kilometers west-southwest of Anchorage and about 150 kilometers west of Adak, the westernmost community in Alaska. This small (about 8x10 kilometer) volcano has been one of the most active in the Aleutians since its discovery by the Bering expedition in the 1740s, though because of its remote location, observations have been scant and many smaller eruptions may have gone unrecorded. Eruptions of Gareloi commonly produce ash clouds and lava flows. Scars on the flanks of the volcano and debris-avalanche deposits on the adjacent seafloor indicate that the volcano has produced large landslides in the past, possibly causing tsunamis. Such events are infrequent, occurring at most every few thousand years. The primary hazard from Gareloi is airborne clouds of ash that could affect aircraft. In this report, we summarize and describe the major volcanic hazards associated with Gareloi.

Balancing research and funding using value of information and portfolio tools for nanomaterial risk classification

Science.gov (United States)

Bates, Matthew E.; Keisler, Jeffrey M.; Zussblatt, Niels P.; Plourde, Kenton J.; Wender, Ben A.; Linkov, Igor

2016-02-01

Risk research for nanomaterials is currently prioritized by means of expert workshops and other deliberative processes. However, analytical techniques that quantify and compare alternative research investments are increasingly recommended. Here, we apply value of information and portfolio decision analysis—methods commonly applied in financial and operations management—to prioritize risk research for multiwalled carbon nanotubes and nanoparticulate silver and titanium dioxide. We modify the widely accepted CB Nanotool hazard evaluation framework, which combines nano- and bulk-material properties into a hazard score, to operate probabilistically with uncertain inputs. Literature is reviewed to develop uncertain estimates for each input parameter, and a Monte Carlo simulation is applied to assess how different research strategies can improve hazard classification. The relative cost of each research experiment is elicited from experts, which enables identification of efficient research portfolios—combinations of experiments that lead to the greatest improvement in hazard classification at the lowest cost. Nanoparticle shape, diameter, solubility and surface reactivity were most frequently identified within efficient portfolios in our results.

A Preliminary Study on the Multiple Mapping Structure of Classification Systems for Heterogeneous Databases

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Seok-Hyoung Lee

2012-06-01

Full Text Available While science and technology information service portals and heterogeneous databases produced in Korea and other countries are integrated, methods of connecting the unique classification systems applied to each database have been studied. Results of technologists' research, such as, journal articles, patent specifications, and research reports, are organically related to each other. In this case, if the most basic and meaningful classification systems are not connected, it is difficult to achieve interoperability of the information and thus not easy to implement meaningful science technology information services through information convergence. This study aims to address the aforementioned issue by analyzing mapping systems between classification systems in order to design a structure to connect a variety of classification systems used in the academic information database of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, which provides science and technology information portal service. This study also aims to design a mapping system for the classification systems to be applied to actual science and technology information services and information management systems.

Tank farms hazards assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Broz, R.E.

1994-01-01

Hanford contractors are writing new facility specific emergency procedures in response to new and revised US Department of Energy (DOE) Orders on emergency preparedness. Emergency procedures are required for each Hanford facility that has the potential to exceed the criteria for the lowest level emergency, an Alert. The set includes: (1) a facility specific procedure on Recognition and Classification of Emergencies, (2) area procedures on Initial Emergency Response and, (3) an area procedure on Protective Action Guidance. The first steps in developing these procedures are to identify the hazards at each facility, identify the conditions that could release the hazardous material, and calculate the consequences of the releases. These steps are called a Hazards Assessment. The final product is a document that is similar in some respects to a Safety Analysis Report (SAR). The document could br produced in a month for a simple facility but could take much longer for a complex facility. Hanford has both types of facilities. A strategy has been adopted to permit completion of the first version of the new emergency procedures before all the facility hazards Assessments are complete. The procedures will initially be based on input from a task group for each facility. This strategy will but improved emergency procedures in place sooner and therefore enhance Hanford emergency preparedness. The purpose of this document is to summarize the applicable information contained within the Waste Tank Facility ''Interim Safety Basis Document, WHC-SD-WM-ISB-001'' as a resource, since the SARs covering Waste Tank Operations are not current in all cases. This hazards assessment serves to collect, organize, document and present the information utilized during the determination process

Use of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health to identify preliminary comprehensive and brief core sets for Guillain Barre syndrome.

Science.gov (United States)

Khan, Fary; Pallant, Julie F

2011-01-01

To identify the preliminary comprehensive and brief core sets for Guillain Barre syndrome (GBS), in a Delphi process using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Focus groups and a consensus process were used to identify ICF core sets for GBS. This included: preliminary ICF studies; empirical patient data collection for 77 GBS participants; review of the evidence base and treatment in GBS literature followed by a Delphi exercise with 23 physicians and allied health professionals in Melbourne, Australia. The expert consensus selected 99 second level ICF categories (in three rounds) which identify health domains relevant to GBS for multidisciplinary assessment. These domains were consistent with current practice and existing GBS literature. The comprehensive core set includes: 27 (23%) categories from the component 'body function', 7 (12%) categories from 'body structures', 43 (36%) from 'activities and participation' and 22 (29%) from the component 'environmental' factors. The brief set comprised 20 categories, 20% of categories in the comprehensive core set. The core set categories for GBS-related health need to be addressed in multidisciplinary care programs. Future clinical 'rating' of this set may facilitate scale development using the ICF in GBS. Further research is needed to confirm the generalisability of this set in clinical settings.

16 CFR 1500.85 - Exemptions from classification as banned hazardous substances.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... component has no hazards other than being in a self-pressurized container. (8) Model rocket propellant devices designed for use in light-weight, recoverable, and reflyable model rockets, provided such devices... so designed that the main casing or container does not rupture during operation. (10) Solid fuel...

Simulation Technology Laboratory Building 970 hazards assessment document

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wood, C.L.; Starr, M.D.

1994-11-01

The Department of Energy Order 5500.3A requires facility-specific hazards assessments be prepared, maintained, and used for emergency planning purposes. This hazards assessment document describes the chemical and radiological hazards associated with the Simulation Technology Laboratory, Building 970. The entire inventory was screened according to the potential airborne impact to onsite and offsite individuals. The air dispersion model, ALOHA, estimated pollutant concentrations downwind from the source of a release, taking into consideration the toxicological and physical characteristics of the release site, the atmospheric conditions, and the circumstances of the release. The greatest distances at which a postulated facility event will produce consequences exceeding the ERPG-2 and Early Severe Health Effects thresholds are 78 and 46 meters, respectively. The highest emergency classification is a Site Area Emergency. The Emergency Planning Zone is 100 meters

Knowledge-based approach to video content classification

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Yu; Wong, Edward K.

2001-01-01

A framework for video content classification using a knowledge-based approach is herein proposed. This approach is motivated by the fact that videos are rich in semantic contents, which can best be interpreted and analyzed by human experts. We demonstrate the concept by implementing a prototype video classification system using the rule-based programming language CLIPS 6.05. Knowledge for video classification is encoded as a set of rules in the rule base. The left-hand-sides of rules contain high level and low level features, while the right-hand-sides of rules contain intermediate results or conclusions. Our current implementation includes features computed from motion, color, and text extracted from video frames. Our current rule set allows us to classify input video into one of five classes: news, weather, reporting, commercial, basketball and football. We use MYCIN's inexact reasoning method for combining evidences, and to handle the uncertainties in the features and in the classification results. We obtained good results in a preliminary experiment, and it demonstrated the validity of the proposed approach.

Guidance on classification for reproductive toxicity under the globally harmonized system of classification and labelling of chemicals (GHS).

Science.gov (United States)

Moore, Nigel P; Boogaard, Peter J; Bremer, Susanne; Buesen, Roland; Edwards, James; Fraysse, Benoit; Hallmark, Nina; Hemming, Helena; Langrand-Lerche, Carole; McKee, Richard H; Meisters, Marie-Louise; Parsons, Paul; Politano, Valerie; Reader, Stuart; Ridgway, Peter; Hennes, Christa

2013-11-01

The Globally Harmonised System of Classification (GHS) is a framework within which the intrinsic hazards of substances may be determined and communicated. It is not a legislative instrument per se, but is enacted into national legislation with the appropriate legislative instruments. GHS covers many aspects of effects upon health and the environment, including adverse effects upon sexual function and fertility or on development. Classification for these effects is based upon observations in humans or from properly designed experiments in animals, although only the latter is covered herein. The decision to classify a substance based upon experimental data, and the category of classification ascribed, is determined by the level of evidence that is available for an adverse effect on sexual function and fertility or on development that does not arise as a secondary non-specific consequence of other toxic effect. This document offers guidance on the determination of level of concern as a measure of adversity, and the level of evidence to ascribe classification based on data from tests in laboratory animals.

Notification: Follow-up Review of EPA’s Classification of National Security Information

Science.gov (United States)

Project #OPE-FY15-0057, July 20, 2015. The EPA OIG plans to begin preliminary research on the OARM actions taken to improve policies and procedures related to the classification of national security information.

Regulatory requirements for groundwater monitoring networks at hazardous waste sites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Keller, J.F.

1989-10-01

In the absence of an explicit national mandate to protect groundwater quality, operators of active and inactive hazardous waste sites must use a number of statutes and regulations as guidance for detecting, correcting, and preventing groundwater contamination. The objective of this paper is to provide a framework of the technical and regulatory considerations that are important to the development of groundwater monitoring programs at hazardous waste sites. The technical site-specific needs and regulatory considerations, including existing groundwater standards and classifications, will be presented. 14 refs., 2 tabs

Preliminary design package for solar collector and solar pump

Science.gov (United States)

1978-01-01

A solar-operated pump using an existing solar collector, for use on solar heating and cooling and hot water systems is described. Preliminary design criteria of the collector and solar-powered pump is given including: design drawings, verification plans, and hazard analysis.

Preliminary environmental impact assessment for the final disposal of vanadium hazardous wastes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Leyva Bombuse, D.; Peralta, J.L.; Gil Castillo, R.

2006-01-01

The aim of the present paper is the environmental impact assessment for the final management of vanadium wastes. The assessed practice is proposed as a final solution for a real problem in Cuba, related with the combustion fossil fuel burn in the electric generation. The study case, embrace the interim storage of hazardous wastes with high vanadium contents (5.08 T) and other heavy metals traces (Cr, Zn). According to the Cuban conditions (tacking into account the environmental regulations and infrastructure lack for the hazardous wastes disposal), it was decided the terrestrial dilution as a final disposal way. The environmental impact assessment methodology used, take into account, in the analyzed management practice, the actions, factors and environmental impacts. The positives and more relevant impacts were obtained for the socioeconomic means. The negative and irrelevant impacts were associated to the biotic and abiotic means. Socioeconomic factors were the most affected and the biotic and abiotic factors were less affected. The waste handling was the most relevant environmental action. According to the evaluated conditions, the obtained results showed that is feasible the terrestrial dilution as a sustainability way for the final disposal of vanadium hazardous wastes

Kauai Test Facility hazards assessment document

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Swihart, A

1995-05-01

The Department of Energy Order 55003A requires facility-specific hazards assessment be prepared, maintained, and used for emergency planning purposes. This hazards assessment document describes the chemical and radiological hazards associated with the Kauai Test Facility, Barking Sands, Kauai, Hawaii. The Kauai Test Facility`s chemical and radiological inventories were screened according to potential airborne impact to onsite and offsite individuals. The air dispersion model, ALOHA, estimated pollutant concentrations downwind from the source of a release, taking into consideration the toxicological and physical characteristics of the release site, the atmospheric conditions, and the circumstances of the release. The greatest distance to the Early Severe Health Effects threshold is 4.2 kilometers. The highest emergency classification is a General Emergency at the {open_quotes}Main Complex{close_quotes} and a Site Area Emergency at the Kokole Point Launch Site. The Emergency Planning Zone for the {open_quotes}Main Complex{close_quotes} is 5 kilometers. The Emergency Planning Zone for the Kokole Point Launch Site is the Pacific Missile Range Facility`s site boundary.

Kauai Test Facility hazards assessment document

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Swihart, A.

1995-05-01

The Department of Energy Order 55003A requires facility-specific hazards assessment be prepared, maintained, and used for emergency planning purposes. This hazards assessment document describes the chemical and radiological hazards associated with the Kauai Test Facility, Barking Sands, Kauai, Hawaii. The Kauai Test Facility's chemical and radiological inventories were screened according to potential airborne impact to onsite and offsite individuals. The air dispersion model, ALOHA, estimated pollutant concentrations downwind from the source of a release, taking into consideration the toxicological and physical characteristics of the release site, the atmospheric conditions, and the circumstances of the release. The greatest distance to the Early Severe Health Effects threshold is 4.2 kilometers. The highest emergency classification is a General Emergency at the open-quotes Main Complexclose quotes and a Site Area Emergency at the Kokole Point Launch Site. The Emergency Planning Zone for the open-quotes Main Complexclose quotes is 5 kilometers. The Emergency Planning Zone for the Kokole Point Launch Site is the Pacific Missile Range Facility's site boundary

Sandia Administrative Micrographics Facility, Building 802: Hazards assessment document

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Swihart, A.

1994-12-01

The Department of Energy Order 5500.3A requires facility-specific hazards assessments be prepared, maintained, and used for emergency planning purposes. This hazards assessment document describes the chemical and radiological hazards associated with the Sandia Administrative Micrographics Facility, Building 802. The entire inventory was screened according to the potential airborne impact to onsite and offsite individuals. The air dispersion model, ALOHA, estimated pollutant concentrations downwind from the source of a release, taking into consideration the toxicological and physical characteristics of the release site, the atmospheric conditions, and the circumstances of the release. The greatest distance at which a postulated facility event will produce consequences exceeding the Early Severe Health Effects threshold is 33 meters. The highest emergency classification is a Site Area Emergency. The Emergency Planning Zone is 75 meters

Preliminary proposed seismic design and evaluation criteria for new and existing underground hazardous materials storage tanks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kennedy, R.P.

1991-01-01

The document provides a recommended set of deterministic seismic design and evaluation criteria for either new or existing underground hazardous materials storage tanks placed in either the high hazard or moderate hazard usage catagories of UCRL-15910. The criteria given herein are consistent with and follow the same philosophy as those given in UCRL-15910 for the US Department of Energy facilities. This document is intended to supplement and amplify upon Reference 1 for underground hazardous materials storage tanks

Landslide Hazard Mapping in Rwanda Using Logistic Regression

Science.gov (United States)

Piller, A.; Anderson, E.; Ballard, H.

2015-12-01

Landslides in the United States cause more than $1 billion in damages and 50 deaths per year (USGS 2014). Globally, figures are much more grave, yet monitoring, mapping and forecasting of these hazards are less than adequate. Seventy-five percent of the population of Rwanda earns a living from farming, mostly subsistence. Loss of farmland, housing, or life, to landslides is a very real hazard. Landslides in Rwanda have an impact at the economic, social, and environmental level. In a developing nation that faces challenges in tracking, cataloging, and predicting the numerous landslides that occur each year, satellite imagery and spatial analysis allow for remote study. We have focused on the development of a landslide inventory and a statistical methodology for assessing landslide hazards. Using logistic regression on approximately 30 test variables (i.e. slope, soil type, land cover, etc.) and a sample of over 200 landslides, we determine which variables are statistically most relevant to landslide occurrence in Rwanda. A preliminary predictive hazard map for Rwanda has been produced, using the variables selected from the logistic regression analysis.

Preliminary assessment report for Kent National Guard Facility (Installation 53065), 24410 Military Road, Kent, Washington

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ketels, P.; Aggarwal, P.; Rose, C.M.

1993-08-01

This report presents the results of the preliminary assessment (PA) conducted by Argonne National Laboratory at the Washington Army National Guard property in Kent, Washington. Preliminary assessments of federal facilities are being conducted to compile the information necessary for completing preremedial activities and to provide a basis for establishing corrective actions in response to releases of hazardous substances. The principal objective of the PA is to characterize the site accurately and determine the need for further action by examining site activities, quantities of hazardous substances present, and potential pathways by which contamination could affect public health and the environment

Seismic hazard assessment of the Province of Murcia (SE Spain): analysis of source contribution to hazard

Science.gov (United States)

García-Mayordomo, J.; Gaspar-Escribano, J. M.; Benito, B.

2007-10-01

A probabilistic seismic hazard assessment of the Province of Murcia in terms of peak ground acceleration (PGA) and spectral accelerations [SA( T)] is presented in this paper. In contrast to most of the previous studies in the region, which were performed for PGA making use of intensity-to-PGA relationships, hazard is here calculated in terms of magnitude and using European spectral ground-motion models. Moreover, we have considered the most important faults in the region as specific seismic sources, and also comprehensively reviewed the earthquake catalogue. Hazard calculations are performed following the Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment (PSHA) methodology using a logic tree, which accounts for three different seismic source zonings and three different ground-motion models. Hazard maps in terms of PGA and SA(0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 s) and coefficient of variation (COV) for the 475-year return period are shown. Subsequent analysis is focused on three sites of the province, namely, the cities of Murcia, Lorca and Cartagena, which are important industrial and tourism centres. Results at these sites have been analysed to evaluate the influence of the different input options. The most important factor affecting the results is the choice of the attenuation relationship, whereas the influence of the selected seismic source zonings appears strongly site dependant. Finally, we have performed an analysis of source contribution to hazard at each of these cities to provide preliminary guidance in devising specific risk scenarios. We have found that local source zones control the hazard for PGA and SA( T ≤ 1.0 s), although contribution from specific fault sources and long-distance north Algerian sources becomes significant from SA(0.5 s) onwards.

Use of genetic toxicity data in GHS mutagenicity classification and labeling of substances.

Science.gov (United States)

Ball, Nicholas S; Hollnagel, Heli M

2017-06-01

One of the key outcomes of testing the potential genotoxicity or mutagenicity of a substance is the conclusion on whether the substance should be classified as a germ cell mutagen and the significance of this for other endpoints such as carcinogenicity. The basis for this conclusion are the criteria presented in classification and labelling systems such as the Globally Harmonized System for classification and labeling (GHS). This article reviews the classification criteria for germ cell mutagenicity and carcinogenicity and how they are applied to substances with evidence of mutagenicity. The implications and suitability of such a classification for hazard communication, risk assessment, and risk management are discussed. It is proposed that genotoxicity assessments should not focus on specifically identifying germ cell mutagens, particularly given the challenges associated with communicating this information in a meaningful way. Rather the focus should be on deriving data to characterize the mode of action and for use in the risk assessment of mutagens, which could then feed into a more robust, risk based management of mutagenic substances versus the current more hazard based approaches. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 58:354-360, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Remote sensing of glacier- and permafrost-related hazards in high mountains: an overview

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Kääb

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Process interactions and chain reactions, the present shift of cryospheric hazard zones due to atmospheric warming, and the potential far reach of glacier disasters make it necessary to apply modern remote sensing techniques for the assessment of glacier and permafrost hazards in high-mountains. Typically, related hazard source areas are situated in remote regions, often difficult to access for physical and/or political reasons. In this contribution we provide an overview of air- and spaceborne remote sensing methods suitable for glacier and permafrost hazard assessment and disaster management. A number of image classification and change detection techniques support high-mountain hazard studies. Digital terrain models (DTMs, derived from optical stereo data, synthetic aperture radar or laserscanning, represent one of the most important data sets for investigating high-mountain processes. Fusion of satellite stereo-derived DTMs with the DTM from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM is a promising way to combine the advantages of both technologies. Large changes in terrain volume such as from avalanche deposits can indeed be measured even by repeat satellite DTMs. Multitemporal data can be used to derive surface displacements on glaciers, permafrost and landslides. Combining DTMs, results from spectral image classification, and multitemporal data from change detection and displacement measurements significantly improves the detection of hazard potentials. Modelling of hazardous processes based on geographic information systems (GIS complements the remote sensing analyses towards an integrated assessment of glacier and permafrost hazards in mountains. Major present limitations in the application of remote sensing to glacier and permafrost hazards in mountains are, on the one hand, of technical nature (e.g. combination and fusion of different methods and data; improved understanding of microwave backscatter. On the other hand, better

Evaluating the relationship between explicit and implicit drinking identity centrality and hazardous drinking

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kristen P. Lindgren

2016-12-01

Conclusions: These studies provide preliminary evidence that drinking identity centrality may be an important factor for predicting hazardous drinking. Future research should improve its measurement and evaluate implicit and explicit centrality in experimental and longitudinal studies.

TECHNOLOGY FOR INSTALLATION OF REINFORCED CONCRETE FLOOR SLABS LIGHTENED BY CORE DRIVERS WITH PRELIMINARY REINFORCEMENT STRESS

OpenAIRE

S. N. Leonovich; I. I. Peredkov

2015-01-01

The paper presents technology for installation of floor slabs lightened by plastic core drivers which are preliminary stressed under construction conditions.  Efficiency of such constructive solution is justified by the action of preliminary concrete compression in the tensile zone while reducing structure dead weight due to void arrangement.  The paper provides classification of systems for preliminary stress and contains recommendations on selection of the system depending on peculiariar fe...

Notification: Audit of Security Categorization for EPA Systems That Handle Hazardous Material Information

Science.gov (United States)

Project #OA-FY18-0089, January 8, 2018. The OIG plans to begin preliminary research to determine whether the EPA classified the sensitivity of data for systems that handle hazardous waste material information as prescribed by NIST.

Preliminary environmental site assessments in New York City

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lundy, P.; Gasson, D.R.; Longendyke, S.T.

1991-01-01

Preliminary Environmental Site Assessments are often performed prior to real estate transactions or refinancing. These assessments are typically performed for real estate buyers, sellers and lending institutions. Undertaking a Preliminary Environmental Site Assessment in New York City can often be quite complex and time-consuming. This is due, in part, to the age and density of buildings in the city as well as the myriad of regulatory agencies with jurisdiction over environmental issues. This paper will discuss how environmental assessments are performed with a special emphasis on building in New York City. In includes hazardous wastes management for Radon, PCB's and asbestos

Preliminary assessment report for Redmond Army National Guard Facility, Installation 53120, Redmond, Washington

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ketels, P.; Aggarwal, P.

1993-08-01

This report presents the results of the preliminary assessment (PA) conducted by Argonne National Laboratory at the Washington Army National Guard (WAARNG) property in Redmond, Washington. Preliminary assessments of federal facilities are being conducted to compile the information necessary for completing preremedial activities and to provide a basis for establishing corrective actions in response to releases of hazardous substances. The principal objective of the PA is to characterize the site accurately and determine the need for further action by examining site activities, quantities of hazardous substances present, and potential pathways by which contamination could affect public health and the environment. This PA satisfies, for the Redmond ARNG property, Phase I of the Department of Defense Installation Restoration Program. The environmentally significant operations (ESOs) associated with the property are (1) supply/storage of hazardous materials, (2) weapons cleaning, (3) the underground storage tanks (USTs), and (4) the use of herbicides. These ESOs are no longer active because of the closure of OMS 10 activities in 1988

Preliminary Feasibility, Design, and Hazard Analysis of a Boiling Water Test Loop Within the Idaho National Laboratory Advanced Test Reactor National Scientific User Facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gerstner, Douglas M.

2009-01-01

The Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) is a pressurized light-water reactor with a design thermal power of 250 MW. The principal function of the ATR is to provide a high neutron flux for testing reactor fuels and other materials. The ATR and its support facilities are located at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). A Boiling Water Test Loop (BWTL) is being designed for one of the irradiation test positions within the. The objective of the new loop will be to simulate boiling water reactor (BWR) conditions to support clad corrosion and related reactor material testing. Further it will accommodate power ramping tests of candidate high burn-up fuels and fuel pins/rods for the commercial BWR utilities. The BWTL will be much like the pressurized water loops already in service in 5 of the 9 'flux traps' (region of enhanced neutron flux) in the ATR. The loop coolant will be isolated from the primary coolant system so that the loop's temperature, pressure, flow rate, and water chemistry can be independently controlled. This paper presents the proposed general design of the in-core and auxiliary BWTL systems; the preliminary results of the neutronics and thermal hydraulics analyses; and the preliminary hazard analysis for safe normal and transient BWTL and ATR operation

Processing LiDAR Data to Predict Natural Hazards

Science.gov (United States)

Fairweather, Ian; Crabtree, Robert; Hager, Stacey

2008-01-01

ELF-Base and ELF-Hazards (wherein 'ELF' signifies 'Extract LiDAR Features' and 'LiDAR' signifies 'light detection and ranging') are developmental software modules for processing remote-sensing LiDAR data to identify past natural hazards (principally, landslides) and predict future ones. ELF-Base processes raw LiDAR data, including LiDAR intensity data that are often ignored in other software, to create digital terrain models (DTMs) and digital feature models (DFMs) with sub-meter accuracy. ELF-Hazards fuses raw LiDAR data, data from multispectral and hyperspectral optical images, and DTMs and DFMs generated by ELF-Base to generate hazard risk maps. Advanced algorithms in these software modules include line-enhancement and edge-detection algorithms, surface-characterization algorithms, and algorithms that implement innovative data-fusion techniques. The line-extraction and edge-detection algorithms enable users to locate such features as faults and landslide headwall scarps. Also implemented in this software are improved methodologies for identification and mapping of past landslide events by use of (1) accurate, ELF-derived surface characterizations and (2) three LiDAR/optical-data-fusion techniques: post-classification data fusion, maximum-likelihood estimation modeling, and hierarchical within-class discrimination. This software is expected to enable faster, more accurate forecasting of natural hazards than has previously been possible.

APPLYING SPECTROSCOPIC METHODS ON ANALYSES OF HAZARDOUS WASTE

OpenAIRE

Dobrinić, Julijan; Kunić, Marija; Ciganj, Zlatko

2000-01-01

Abstract The paper presents results of measuring the content of heavy and other metals in waste samples from the hazardous waste disposal site of Sovjak near Rijeka. The preliminary design elaboration and the choice of the waste disposal sanification technology were preceded by the sampling and physico-chemical analyses of disposed waste, enabling its categorization. The following spectroscopic methods were applied on metal content analysis: Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) and plas...

Glass Formulation and Fabrication Laboratory, Building 864, Hazards assessment document

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Banda, Z.; Wood, C.L.

1995-08-01

The Department of Energy Order 5500.3A requires facility-specific hazards assessments be prepared, maintained, and used for emergency planning purposes. This hazards assessment document describes the chemical and radiological hazards associated with the Glass Formulation and Fabrication Laboratory, Building 864. The entire inventory was screened according to the potential airborne impact to onsite and offsite individuals. The air dispersion model, ALOHA, estimated pollutant concentrations downwind from the source of a release, taking into consideration the toxicological and physical characteristics of the release site, the atmospheric conditions, and the circumstances of the release. The greatest distances at which a postulated facility event will produce consequences exceeding the ERPG-2 threshold is 96 meters. The highest emergency classification is a Site Area Emergency. The Emergency Planning Zone is 100 meters.

Potential biological hazard of importance for HACCP plans in fresh fish processing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Baltić Milan Ž.

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP system is scientifically based and focused on problem prevention in order to assure the produced food products are safe to consume. Prerequisite programs such as GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices, GHP (Good Hygienic Practices are an essential foundation for the development and implementation of successful HACCP plans. One of the preliminary tasks in the development of HACCP plan is to conduct a hazard analysis. The process of conducting a hazard analysis involves two stages. The first is hazard identification and the second stage is the HACCP team decision which potential hazards must be addressed in the HACCP plan. By definition, the HACCP concept covers all types of potential food safety hazards: biological, chemical and physical, whether they are naturally occurring in the food, contributed by the environment or generated by a mistake in the manufacturing process. In raw fish processing, potential significant biological hazards which are reasonably likely to cause illness of humans are parasites (Trematodae, Nematodae, Cestodae, bacteria (Salmonella, E. coli, Vibrio parahemolyticus, Vibrio vulnificus, Listeria monocytogenes, Clostridium botulinum, Staphyloccocus aureus, viruses (Norwalk virus, Entero virusesi, Hepatitis A, Rotovirus and bio-toxins. Upon completion of hazard analysis, any measure(s that are used to control the hazard(s should be described.

Preliminary assessment report for Fort William Henry Harrison, Montana Army National Guard, Helena, Montana

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

DuWaldt, J.; Meyer, T.

1993-07-01

This report presents the results of the preliminary assessment (PA) conducted by Argonne National Laboratory at a Montana Army National Guard (MTARNG) property near Helena, Montana. Preliminary assessments of federal facilities are being conducted to compile the information necessary for completing preremedial activities and to provide a basis for establishing corrective actions in response to releases of hazardous substances. The principal objective of the PA is to characterize the site accurately and determine the need for further action by examining site activities, quantities of hazardous substances present, and potential pathways by which contamination could affect public health and the environment. This PA satisfies, for the Fort William Henry Harrison property, requirements of the Department of Defense Installation Restoration Program

Determination of hazardous substances in food basket eggs in Tehran, Iran: A preliminary study

OpenAIRE

Salar-Amoli, Jamileh; Ali-Esfahani, Tahereh

2015-01-01

Extensive distribution of hazardous substances in food chain and the deleterious effect of their residues on public health are a great concern of the society. Chicken eggs, as one of the most popular food commodities, in different parts of Tehran (Iran) were analyzed for two groups of hazardous substances including some organochlorine pesticides (OC) such as aldrin, lindane, dieldrin, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, heptachlor and endusulfan) and heavy metals namely mercury (Hg), arsenic (As...

Preliminary design package for solar heating and hot water system

Science.gov (United States)

1976-01-01

Two prototype solar heating and hot water systems for use in single-family dwellings or commercial buildings were designed. Subsystems included are: collector, storage, transport, hot water, auxiliary energy, and government-furnished site data acquisition. The systems are designed for Yosemite, California, and Pueblo, Colorado. The necessary information to evaluate the preliminary design for these solar heating and hot water systems is presented. Included are a proposed instrumentation plan, a training program, hazard analysis, preliminary design drawings, and other information about the design of the system.

Hazard Evaluation for the Salt Well Chempump and a Salt Well Centrifugal Pump Design using Service Water for Lubrication and Cooling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

GRAMS, W.H.

2000-01-01

This report documents results of a preliminary hazard analysis (PHA) covering the existing Crane Chempump and the new salt well pumping design. Three hazardous conditions were identified for the Chempump and ten hazardous conditions were identified for the new salt well pump design. This report also presents the results of the control decision/allocation process. A backflow preventer and associated limiting condition for operation were assigned to one hazardous condition with the new design

The Hazardous Waste/Mixed Waste Disposal Facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bailey, L.L.

1991-01-01

The Hazardous Waste/Mixed Waste Disposal Facility (HW/MWDF) will provide permanent Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) permitted storage, treatment, and disposal for hazardous and mixed waste generated at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Savannah River Site (SRS) that cannot be disposed of in existing or planned SRS facilities. Final design is complete for Phase I of the project, the Disposal Vaults. The Vaults will provide RCRA permitted, above-grade disposal capacity for treated hazardous and mixed waste generated at the SRS. The RCRA Part B Permit application was submitted upon approval of the Permit application, the first Disposal Vault is scheduled to be operational in mid 1994. The technical baseline has been established for Phase II, the Treatment Building, and preliminary design work has been performed. The Treatment Building will provide RCRA permitted treatment processes to handle a variety of hazardous and mixed waste generated at SRS in preparation for disposal. The processes will treat wastes for disposal in accordance with the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Land Disposal Restrictions (LDR). A RCRA Part B Permit application has not yet been submitted to SCDHEC for this phase of the project. The Treatment Building is currently scheduled to be operational in late 1996

Tritium oxidation and exchange: preliminary studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Phillips, J.E.; Easterly, C.E.

1978-05-01

The radiological hazard resulting from an exposure to either tritium oxide or tritium gas is discussed and the factors contributing to the hazard are presented. From the discussion it appears that an exposure to tritium oxide vapor is 10 4 to 10 5 times more hazardous than exposure to tritium gas. Present and future sources of tritium are briefly considered and indicate that most of the tritium has been and is being released as tritium oxide. The likelihood of gaseous releases, however, is expected to increase in the future, calling to task the present general release assumption that 100% of all tritium released is as oxide. Accurate evaluation of the hazards from a gaseous release will require a knowledge of the conversion rate of tritium gas to tritium oxide. An experiment for determining the conversion rate of tritium gas to tritium oxide is presented along with some preliminary data. The conversion rates obtained for low initial concentrations (10 -4 to 10 -1 mCi/ml) indicate the conversion may proceed more rapidly than would be expected from an extrapolation of previous data taken at higher concentrations

Hazard Evaluation for a Salt Well Centrifugal Pump Design Using Service Water for Lubrication and Cooling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

GRAMS, W.H.

2000-01-01

This report documents the results of a preliminary hazard analysis (PHA) covering the new salt well pump design. The PHA identified ten hazardous conditions mapped to four analyzed accidents: flammable gas deflagrations, fire in contaminated area, tank failure due to excessive loads, and waste transfer leaks. This document also presents the results of the control decision/allocation process. A backflow preventer and associated limiting condition were assigned

St. Louis Area Earthquake Hazards Mapping Project - A Progress Report-November 2008

Science.gov (United States)

Karadeniz, D.; Rogers, J.D.; Williams, R.A.; Cramer, C.H.; Bauer, R.A.; Hoffman, D.; Chung, J.; Hempen, G.L.; Steckel, P.H.; Boyd, O.L.; Watkins, C.M.; McCallister, N.S.; Schweig, E.

2009-01-01

St. Louis has experienced minor earthquake damage at least 12 times in the past 200 years. Because of this history and its proximity to known active earthquake zones, the St. Louis Area Earthquake Hazards Mapping Project (SLAEHMP) is producing digital maps that show variability of earthquake hazards, including liquefaction and ground shaking, in the St. Louis area. The maps will be available free via the internet. Although not site specific enough to indicate the hazard at a house-by-house resolution, they can be customized by the user to show specific areas of interest, such as neighborhoods or transportation routes. Earthquakes currently cannot be predicted, but scientists can estimate how strongly the ground is likely to shake as the result of an earthquake. Earthquake hazard maps provide one way of conveying such estimates. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), which produces earthquake hazard maps for the Nation, is working with local partners to develop detailed maps for urban areas vulnerable to strong ground shaking. These partners, which along with the USGS comprise the SLAEHMP, include the Missouri University of Science and Technology-Rolla (Missouri S&T), Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR), Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS), Saint Louis University, Missouri State Emergency Management Agency, and URS Corporation. Preliminary hazard maps covering a test portion of the 29-quadrangle St. Louis study area have been produced and are currently being evaluated by the SLAEHMP. A USGS Fact Sheet summarizing this project was produced and almost 1000 copies have been distributed at several public outreach meetings and field trips that have featured the SLAEHMP (Williams and others, 2007). In addition, a USGS website focusing on the SLAEHMP, which provides links to project results and relevant earthquake hazard information, can be found at: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/ceus/urban_map/st_louis/index.php. This progress report summarizes the

The hazard communication of fragrance allergens must be improved.

Science.gov (United States)

Klaschka, Ursula

2013-07-01

Contact allergy is a global health problem that could be alleviated considerably if the general public could reduce contact to sensitizers. Efficient hazard communication would be a valuable instrument to achieve this. What do current regulations concerning fragrance sensitizers in cosmetic products in Europe contribute? For example, there are bans and restrictions according to the Cosmetic Regulation, there is the "26 allergens rule" that requires that the names of some allergenic fragrance ingredients are listed on the containers, there is labeling and classification of hazardous products according to Regulation 1272/2008, and there is the regulation concerning the registration, evaluation, authorization and restriction of chemicals (REACH). Do these regulations increase consumer protection by suitable hazard communication instruments? Four main problems were identified. First, according to the 26 allergens rule, consumers carry a very large part of the responsibility for risk reduction management. They need to be capable and motivated to recognize the names of strong allergens listed in the ingredient list and decide for themselves whether they want to run the risk or not, provided that they are aware of their responsibility. Second, cosmetic products do not need to be classified and labeled like other consumer goods, according to the European Commission Regulation 1272/2008, if they contain hazardous substances. Third, some pictograms for hazardous substances, for example, the exclamation mark for sensitizers, are not well understood by the majority of the general public. Fourth, very often, the design of cosmetic containers implies health and well being, even if the respective products contain sensitizers or other hazardous substances. Against this background, the following improvements are proposed: 1) the 26 allergens rule needs revision, 2) the exception for cosmetic products from labeling and classification should be abolished, 3) a new self

Potential environmental impacts of light-emitting diodes (LEDs): metallic resources, toxicity, and hazardous waste classification.

Science.gov (United States)

Lim, Seong-Rin; Kang, Daniel; Ogunseitan, Oladele A; Schoenung, Julie M

2011-01-01

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are advertised as environmentally friendly because they are energy efficient and mercury-free. This study aimed to determine if LEDs engender other forms of environmental and human health impacts, and to characterize variation across different LEDs based on color and intensity. The objectives are as follows: (i) to use standardized leachability tests to examine whether LEDs are to be categorized as hazardous waste under existing United States federal and California state regulations; and (ii) to use material life cycle impact and hazard assessment methods to evaluate resource depletion and toxicity potentials of LEDs based on their metallic constituents. According to federal standards, LEDs are not hazardous except for low-intensity red LEDs, which leached Pb at levels exceeding regulatory limits (186 mg/L; regulatory limit: 5). However, according to California regulations, excessive levels of copper (up to 3892 mg/kg; limit: 2500), Pb (up to 8103 mg/kg; limit: 1000), nickel (up to 4797 mg/kg; limit: 2000), or silver (up to 721 mg/kg; limit: 500) render all except low-intensity yellow LEDs hazardous. The environmental burden associated with resource depletion potentials derives primarily from gold and silver, whereas the burden from toxicity potentials is associated primarily with arsenic, copper, nickel, lead, iron, and silver. Establishing benchmark levels of these substances can help manufacturers implement design for environment through informed materials substitution, can motivate recyclers and waste management teams to recognize resource value and occupational hazards, and can inform policymakers who establish waste management policies for LEDs.

Hazardous waste status of discarded electronic cigarettes.

Science.gov (United States)

Krause, Max J; Townsend, Timothy G

2015-05-01

The potential for disposable electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) to be classified as hazardous waste was investigated. The Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) was performed on 23 disposable e-cigarettes in a preliminary survey of metal leaching. Based on these results, four e-cigarette products were selected for replicate analysis by TCLP and the California Waste Extraction Test (WET). Lead was measured in leachate as high as 50mg/L by WET and 40mg/L by TCLP. Regulatory thresholds were exceeded by two of 15 products tested in total. Therefore, some e-cigarettes would be toxicity characteristic (TC) hazardous waste but a majority would not. When disposed in the unused form, e-cigarettes containing nicotine juice would be commercial chemical products (CCP) and would, in the United States (US), be considered a listed hazardous waste (P075). While household waste is exempt from hazardous waste regulation, there are many instances in which such waste would be subject to regulation. Manufactures and retailers with unused or expired e-cigarettes or nicotine juice solution would be required to manage these as hazardous waste upon disposal. Current regulations and policies regarding the availability of nicotine-containing e-cigarettes worldwide were reviewed. Despite their small size, disposable e-cigarettes are consumed and discarded much more quickly than typical electronics, which may become a growing concern for waste managers. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Preliminary Study on the Multiple Mapping Structure of Classification Systems for Heterogeneous Databases

OpenAIRE

Seok-Hyoung Lee; Hwan-Min Kim; Ho-Seop Choe

2012-01-01

While science and technology information service portals and heterogeneous databases produced in Korea and other countries are integrated, methods of connecting the unique classification systems applied to each database have been studied. Results of technologists' research, such as, journal articles, patent specifications, and research reports, are organically related to each other. In this case, if the most basic and meaningful classification systems are not connected, it is difficult to ach...

Computerized classification of mass lesions in digital mammograms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Giger, M.L.; Doi, K.; Yin, F.F.; Schmidt, R.A.; Vyborny, C.J.

1989-01-01

Subjective classification of masses on mammograms is a difficult task. On average, about 25% of masses referred for surgical biopsy are actually malignant. The authors are developing, as an aid to radiologists, a computerized scheme for the classification of lesions in mammograms to reduce the false-negative and false-positive diagnoses of malignancies. The classification scheme involves the extraction of border information from the mammographic lesion in order to quantify the degree of spiculation, which is related to the possibility of malignancy. Clinical film mammograms are digitized with an optical drum scanner (0.1-mm pixel size) for analysis on a Micro VAX 3500 computer. Border information (fluctuations) is obtained from the difference between the lesion border and its smoothed border. Using the rms variation of the frequency content of these fluctuations, approximately 85% of the cancerous lesions were correctly classified as malignant, while 15% of benign lesions were misclassified, in a preliminary study

Development of evaluation method for software hazard identification techniques

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang, H. W.; Chen, M. H.; Shih, C.; Yih, S.; Kuo, C. T.; Wang, L. H.; Yu, Y. C.; Chen, C. W.

2006-01-01

This research evaluated the applicable software hazard identification techniques nowadays, such as, Preliminary Hazard Analysis (PHA), Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), Markov chain modeling, Dynamic Flow-graph Methodology (DFM), and simulation-based model analysis; and then determined indexes in view of their characteristics, which include dynamic capability, completeness, achievability, detail, signal/noise ratio, complexity, and implementation cost. By this proposed method, the analysts can evaluate various software hazard identification combinations for specific purpose. According to the case study results, the traditional PHA + FMEA + FTA (with failure rate) + Markov chain modeling (with transfer rate) combination is not competitive due to the dilemma for obtaining acceptable software failure rates. However, the systematic architecture of FTA and Markov chain modeling is still valuable for realizing the software fault structure. The system centric techniques, such as DFM and simulation-based model-analysis, show the advantage on dynamic capability, achievability, detail, signal/noise ratio. However, their disadvantages are the completeness complexity and implementation cost. This evaluation method can be a platform to reach common consensus for the stakeholders. Following the evolution of software hazard identification techniques, the evaluation results could be changed. However, the insight of software hazard identification techniques is much more important than the numbers obtained by the evaluation. (authors)

Hazard assessment due to falling stones on a reach of the regional road in the Trenta valley, Slovenia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Urška Petje

2005-12-01

Full Text Available In the framework of the new Slovenian methodology for determining hazard areas and the classification of land parcels into hazard classes due to land slides and rock falls, a pilot project was carried out on the regional road between Bovec and Vr{i~ pass in theTrenta valley. For this around 20 km long road in a typical alpine environment, a hazard assessment of falling rocks was carried out, even tough the road also passes through snow avalanches hazard areas. The performed hazard assessment of falling rocks is based onan expert knowledge taking into account the field mapping, and classifies the road into three hazard classes: 9811 m is classified into the low hazard class, 7233 m is classifiedinto the medium hazard class, and 1301 m is classified into high hazard class of falling rocks.

Combustible dusts: a serious industrial hazard.

Science.gov (United States)

Joseph, Giby

2007-04-11

After investigating three fatal explosions in manufacturing plants, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) has concluded: The explosive hazard of combustible dust is not well known, and helping industry to understand this hazard is a priority. Prompted by these three incidents in North Carolina, Kentucky and Indiana and the need to increase the hazard awareness, CSB is conducting a study to examine the nature and scope of dust explosion risks in industry and to identify initiatives that may be necessary to more effectively prevent combustible dust fires and explosions. Such initiatives may include regulatory action, voluntary consensus standards, or other measures that could be taken by industry, labor, government, and other parties. A critical task of the dust study is analyzing past incidents to determine the severity of the problem within industry. The analysis is focusing on the number of incidents, injuries and fatalities, industrial sectors affected, and regulatory oversight. This paper presents the preliminary findings from CSBs analysis of combustible dust incidents over the past 25 years. This paper has not been approved by the Board and is published for general informational purposes only. Every effort has been made to accurately present the contents of any Board-approved report mentioned in this paper. Any material in the paper that did not originate in a Board-approved report is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not represent an official finding, conclusion, or position of the Board.

Place-classification analysis of community vulnerability to near-field tsunami threats in the U.S. Pacific Northwest (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Wood, N. J.; Jones, J.; Spielman, S.

2013-12-01

Near-field tsunami hazards are credible threats to many coastal communities throughout the world. Along the U.S. Pacific Northwest coast, low-lying areas could be inundated by a series of catastrophic tsunami waves that begin to arrive in a matter of minutes following a Cascadia subduction zone (CSZ) earthquake. This presentation summarizes analytical efforts to classify communities with similar characteristics of community vulnerability to tsunami hazards. This work builds on past State-focused inventories of community exposure to CSZ-related tsunami hazards in northern California, Oregon, and Washington. Attributes used in the classification, or cluster analysis, include demography of residents, spatial extent of the developed footprint based on mid-resolution land cover data, distribution of the local workforce, and the number and type of public venues, dependent-care facilities, and community-support businesses. Population distributions also are characterized by a function of travel time to safety, based on anisotropic, path-distance, geospatial modeling. We used an unsupervised-model-based clustering algorithm and a v-fold, cross-validation procedure (v=50) to identify the appropriate number of community types. We selected class solutions that provided the appropriate balance between parsimony and model fit. The goal of the vulnerability classification is to provide emergency managers with a general sense of the types of communities in tsunami hazard zones based on similar characteristics instead of only providing an exhaustive list of attributes for individual communities. This classification scheme can be then used to target and prioritize risk-reduction efforts that address common issues across multiple communities. The presentation will include a discussion of the utility of proposed place classifications to support regional preparedness and outreach efforts.

Comprehension of hazard communication: effects of pictograms on safety data sheets and labels.

Science.gov (United States)

Boelhouwer, Eric; Davis, Jerry; Franco-Watkins, Ana; Dorris, Nathan; Lungu, Claudiu

2013-09-01

The United Nations has proposed the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals to make hazard communication more uniform and to improve comprehension. Two experiments were conducted to test whether the addition of hazard and precautionary pictograms to safety data sheets and product labels would improve the transfer of information to users compared to safety data sheets and product labels containing text only. Additionally, naïve users, workers, and experts were tested to determine any potential differences among users. The effect of adding pictograms to safety data sheets and labels was statistically significant for some conditions, but was not significant across all conditions. One benefit of the addition of pictograms was that the time to respond to the survey questions decreased when the pictograms were present for both the SDS and the labels. GHS format SDS and labels do provide benefits to users, but the system will need further enhancements and modifications to continue to improve the effectiveness of hazard communication. The final rule to modify the HCS to include the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) for the Classification and Labelling of Chemicals announced by OSHA (2012b) will change the information content of every chemical SDS and label used in commerce. This study suggests that the inclusion of GHS hazard pictograms and precautionary pictograms to SDS and labels may benefit the user. Copyright © 2013 National Safety Council and Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

High temperature slagging incineration of hazardous waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vanbrabant, R.; Van de Voorde, N.

1987-01-01

The SCK/CEN, as the treatment center for the low level radioactive waste in Belgium, develops appropriate treatment systems for different kinds of wastes. The technical concept of the high temperature slagging incineration system has been developed and improved. The construction of the first demonstration plant was initiated in 1974. Since then the system has been operated regularly and further developed with the view to industrial operations. Now it handles about 5 tons of waste in a week. The waste which is treated consists of low level beta/gamma and alpha-contaminated radioactive waste. Because of the special characteristics the system is thought to be an excellent incineration system for industrial hazardous waste as well. Recently the SCK/CEN has received the authorization to treat industrial hazardous waste in the same installation. Preliminary tests have been executed on special waste products, such as PCB-contaminated liquids, with excellent incineration results. Incineration efficiency up to 99.9999% could be obtained. The paper presents the state of the art of this original The SCK/CEN-technology and gives the results of the tests done with special hazard

A deep learning architecture for temporal sleep stage classification using multivariate and multimodal time series

OpenAIRE

Chambon, Stanislas; Galtier, Mathieu; Arnal, Pierrick; Wainrib, Gilles; Gramfort, Alexandre

2017-01-01

Sleep stage classification constitutes an important preliminary exam in the diagnosis of sleep disorders. It is traditionally performed by a sleep expert who assigns to each 30s of signal a sleep stage, based on the visual inspection of signals such as electroencephalograms (EEG), electrooculograms (EOG), electrocardiograms (ECG) and electromyograms (EMG). We introduce here the first deep learning approach for sleep stage classification that learns end-to-end without computing spectrograms or...

JANNAF 17th Propulsion Systems Hazards Subcommittee Meeting. Volume 1

Science.gov (United States)

Cocchiaro, James E. (Editor); Gannaway, Mary T. (Editor); Rognan, Melanie (Editor)

1998-01-01

Volume 1, the first of two volumes is a compilation of 16 unclassified/unlimited technical papers presented at the 17th meeting of the Joint Army-Navy-NASA-Air Force (JANNAF) Propulsion Systems Hazards Subcommittee (PSHS) held jointly with the 35th Combustion Subcommittee (CS) and Airbreathing Propulsion Subcommittee (APS). The meeting was held on 7 - 11 December 1998 at Raytheon Systems Company and the Marriott Hotel, Tucson, AZ. Topics covered include projectile and shaped charge jet impact vulnerability of munitions; thermal decomposition and cookoff behavior of energetic materials; damage and hot spot initiation mechanisms with energetic materials; detonation phenomena of solid energetic materials; and hazard classification, insensitive munitions, and propulsion systems safety.

Federal regulation on the handling of substances constituting a hazard to water; Bundeseinheitliche Regelung des Umgangs mit wassergefaehrdenden Stoffen

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hollaender, Robert; Unnerstall, Herwig; Skiba, Katja; Katscher, Henriette; Kochmann, Linda; Enderlein, Frank [Leipzig Univ. (Germany). Professur fuer Umwelttechnik und -management; Helmholtzzentrum fuer Umweltforschung - ufz, Leipzig (Germany). Dept. Umwelt- und Planungsrecht; Sachverstaendigenorganisation AGU-TSO e.V., Bergen b. Auerbach (Germany)

2010-03-15

Subject of the research project was preliminary work for a draft of the federal ordinance on the handling of substances constituting a hazard to water. Basis was the draft for an Environmental Code by the Federal Ministry for the Environment from 25. June 2007 and 03. July 2008, Part II on water management. This report includes an analysis of the existing ordinances of the Laender (to be replaced by the new federal ordinance), a survey on problems with their enforcement, an analysis of European Directives on relevant implementation requirements, an analysis of the relation to the legislation on construction products, a comparison to regulations of other European Countries for the protection of water against hazardous substances, an approach for obligations of an ordinance, a preliminary draft of an ordinance, a concept for a system of related Technical Rules and finally an evaluation of possible costs of operators and of additional tasks of authorities due to obligations in the preliminary draft. (orig.)

Report 6: Guidance document. Man-made hazards and Accidental Aircraft Crash hazards modelling and implementation in extended PSA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kahia, S.; Brinkman, H.; Bareith, A.; Siklossy, T.; Vinot, T.; Mateescu, T.; Espargilliere, J.; Burgazzi, L.; Ivanov, I.; Bogdanov, D.; Groudev, P.; Ostapchuk, S.; Zhabin, O.; Stojka, T.; Alzbutas, R.; Kumar, M.; Nitoi, M.; Farcasiu, M.; Borysiewicz, M.; Kowal, K.; Potempski, S.

2016-01-01

The goal of this report is to provide guidance on practices to model man-made hazards (mainly external fires and explosions) and accidental aircraft crash hazards and implement them in extended Level 1 PSA. This report is a joint deliverable of work package 21 (WP21) and work package 22 (WP22). The general objective of WP21 is to provide guidance on all of the individual hazards selected at the first ASAMPSA-E End Users Workshop (May 2014, Uppsala, Sweden). The objective of WP22 is to provide the solutions for purposes of different parts of man-made hazards Level 1 PSA fulfilment. This guidance is focusing on man-made hazards, namely: external fires and explosions, and accidental aircraft crash hazards. Guidance developed refers to existing guidance whenever possible. The initial part of guidance (WP21 part) reflects current practices to assess the frequencies for each type of hazards or combination of hazards (including correlated hazards) as initiating event for PSAs. The sources and quality of hazard data, the elements of hazard assessment methodologies and relevant examples are discussed. Classification and criteria to properly assess hazard combinations as well as examples and methods for assessment of these combinations are included in this guidance. In appendixes additional material is presented with the examples of practical approaches to aircraft crash and man-made hazard. The following issues are addressed: 1) Hazard assessment methodologies, including issues related to hazard combinations. 2) Modelling equipment of safety related SSC, 3) HRA, 4) Emergency response, 5) Multi-unit issues. Recommendations and also limitations, gaps identified in the existing methodologies and a list of open issues are included. At all stages of this guidance and especially from an industrial end-user perspective, one must keep in mind that the development of man-made hazards probabilistic analysis must be conditioned to the ability to ultimately obtain a representative risk

Surface water classification and monitoring using polarimetric synthetic aperture radar

Science.gov (United States)

Irwin, Katherine Elizabeth

Surface water classification using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is an established practice for monitoring flood hazards due to the high temporal and spatial resolution it provides. Surface water change is a dynamic process that varies both spatially and temporally, and can occur on various scales resulting in significant impacts on affected areas. Small-scale flooding hazards, caused by beaver dam failure, is an example of surface water change, which can impact nearby infrastructure and ecosystems. Assessing these hazards is essential to transportation and infrastructure maintenance. With current satellite missions operating in multiple polarizations, spatio-temporal resolutions, and frequencies, a comprehensive comparison between SAR products for surface water monitoring is necessary. In this thesis, surface water extent models derived from high resolution single-polarization TerraSAR-X (TSX) data, medium resolution dual-polarization TSX data and low resolution quad-polarization RADARSAT-2 (RS-2) data are compared. There exists a compromise between acquiring SAR data with a high resolution or high information content. Multi-polarization data provides additional phase and intensity information, which makes it possible to better classify areas of flooded vegetation and wetlands. These locations are often where fluctuations in surface water occur and are essential for understanding dynamic underlying processes. However, often multi-polarized data is acquired at a low resolution, which cannot image these zones effectively. High spatial resolution, single-polarization TSX data provides the best model of open water. However, these single-polarization observations have limited information content and are affected by shadow and layover errors. This often hinders the classification of other land cover types. The dual-polarization TSX data allows for the classification of flooded vegetation, but classification is less accurate compared to the quad-polarization RS-2 data

Waste classification: a management approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wickham, L.E.

1984-01-01

A waste classification system designed to quantify the total hazard of a waste has been developed by the Low-Level Waste Management Program. As originally conceived, the system was designed to deal with mixed radioactive waste. The methodology has been developed and successfully applied to radiological and chemical wastes, both individually and mixed together. Management options to help evaluate the financial and safety trade-offs between waste segregation, waste treatment, container types, and site factors are described. Using the system provides a very simple and cost effective way of making quick assessments of a site's capabilities to contain waste materials. 3 references

Risk assessments for energy systems and role of preliminary degree-of-hazard evaluations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Habegger, L.J.; Fingleton, D.J.

1985-11-01

The appropriate approach to risk or hazard assessment can vary considerably, depending on various factors, including the intended application of the results and the time other resources available to conduct the assessment. This paper illustrates three types of interrelated assessments. Although they can be mutually supportive, they have fundamentally different objectives, which require major differences in approach. The example of the overall risk assessment of alternative major energy technologies illustrates the compilation of a wide range of available risk data applicable to these systems. However, major uncertainties exist in the assessments, and public perception of their importance could play an important role in final system evaluations. A more narrowly defined risk assessment, often focusing on an individual component of a larger system, is the most commonly used approach in regulatory applications. The narrow scope allows in-depth analysis of risks and associated uncertainties, but it may also contribute to a loss of perspective on the magnitude of the assessed risk relative to that of the unassessed risks. In some applications, it is useful to conduct semiquantitative degree-of-hazard evaluations as a means of setting priorities for detailed risk assessment. The MAHAS procedure described in this paper provides a means of rapidly ranking relative hazards from various sources using easily accessible data. However, these rankings should not be used as definitive input for selecting technology alternatives or developing regulations. 25 refs., 6 tabs

Fire hazard analysis for the K basin fuel transfer system anneses project A-15

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

BARILO, N.F.

2001-01-01

The purpose of the Fuel Transfer System (FTS) is to move the spent nuclear fuel currently stored in the K East (KE) Basin and transfer it by shielded cask to the K West (KW) Basin. The fuel will then be processed through the existing fuel cleaning and loading system prior to being loaded into Multi-Canister Overpacks (MCO). The FTS operation is considered an intra-facility transfer because the spent fuel will stay within the 100 K area and between the K Basins. This preliminary Fire Hazards Analysis (FHA) for the K Basin FTS Annexes addresses fire hazards or fire-related concerns in accordance with U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) 420.1 (DOE 2000), and RLID 420.1 (DOE 1999), resulting from or related to the processes and equipment. It is intended to assess the risk from fire associated within the FTS Annexes to ensure that there are no undue fire hazards to site personnel and the public; the potential for the occurrence of a fire is minimized; process control and safety systems are not damaged by fire or related perils; and property damage from fire and related perils does not exceed an acceptable level. Consistent with the preliminary nature of the design information, this FHA is performed on a graded approach

Preliminary characterization of abandoned septic tank systems. Volume 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1995-12-01

This report documents the activities and findings of the Phase I Preliminary Characterization of Abandoned Septic Tank Systems. The purpose of the preliminary characterization activity was to investigate the Tiger Team abandoned septic systems (tanks and associated leachfields) for the purpose of identifying waste streams for closure at a later date. The work performed was not to fully characterize or remediate the sites. The abandoned systems potentially received wastes or effluent from buildings which could have discharged non-domestic, petroleum hydrocarbons, hazardous, radioactive and/or mixed wastes. A total of 20 sites were investigated for the preliminary characterization of identified abandoned septic systems. Of the 20 sites, 19 were located and characterized through samples collected from each tank(s) and, where applicable, associated leachfields. The abandoned septic tank systems are located in Areas 5, 12, 15, 25, and 26 on the Nevada Test Site

Cloud field classification based on textural features

Science.gov (United States)

Sengupta, Sailes Kumar

1989-01-01

An essential component in global climate research is accurate cloud cover and type determination. Of the two approaches to texture-based classification (statistical and textural), only the former is effective in the classification of natural scenes such as land, ocean, and atmosphere. In the statistical approach that was adopted, parameters characterizing the stochastic properties of the spatial distribution of grey levels in an image are estimated and then used as features for cloud classification. Two types of textural measures were used. One is based on the distribution of the grey level difference vector (GLDV), and the other on a set of textural features derived from the MaxMin cooccurrence matrix (MMCM). The GLDV method looks at the difference D of grey levels at pixels separated by a horizontal distance d and computes several statistics based on this distribution. These are then used as features in subsequent classification. The MaxMin tectural features on the other hand are based on the MMCM, a matrix whose (I,J)th entry give the relative frequency of occurrences of the grey level pair (I,J) that are consecutive and thresholded local extremes separated by a given pixel distance d. Textural measures are then computed based on this matrix in much the same manner as is done in texture computation using the grey level cooccurrence matrix. The database consists of 37 cloud field scenes from LANDSAT imagery using a near IR visible channel. The classification algorithm used is the well known Stepwise Discriminant Analysis. The overall accuracy was estimated by the percentage or correct classifications in each case. It turns out that both types of classifiers, at their best combination of features, and at any given spatial resolution give approximately the same classification accuracy. A neural network based classifier with a feed forward architecture and a back propagation training algorithm is used to increase the classification accuracy, using these two classes

43 CFR 11.25 - Preassessment screen-preliminary identification of resources potentially at risk.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... pathways. (1) The authorized official shall make a preliminary identification of potential exposure... toxicological properties of the oil or hazardous substance. (3) Pathways to be considered shall include, as appropriate, direct contact, surface water, ground water, air, food chains, and particulate movement. (b...

Department of Energy hazardous waste remedial actions program: Quality assurance program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Horne, T.E.

1988-01-01

This paper describes the Quality Assurance Program developed for the Hazardous Waste Remedial Actions Program Support Contractor Office (HAZWRAP SCO). Key topics discussed include an overview of the HAZWRAP SCO mission and organization, the basic quality assurance program requirements and the requirements for the control of quality for the Department of Energy and Work for Others hazardous waste management programs, and the role of ensuring quality through the project team concept for the management of remedial response actions. The paper focuses on planning for quality assurance for this remedial waste management process from preliminary assessments of remedial sites to feasibility studies. Some observations concerning the control of quality during the implementation of remedial actions are presented. (2 refs.)

Hazards and accident analyses, an integrated approach, for the Plutonium Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pan, P.Y.; Goen, L.K.; Letellier, B.C.; Sasser, M.K.

1995-01-01

This paper describes an integrated approach to perform hazards and accident analyses for the Plutonium Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory. A comprehensive hazards analysis methodology was developed that extends the scope of the preliminary/process hazard analysis methods described in the AIChE Guidelines for Hazard Evaluations. Results fro the semi-quantitative approach constitute a full spectrum of hazards. For each accident scenario identified, there is a binning assigned for the event likelihood and consequence severity. In addition, each accident scenario is analyzed for four possible sectors (workers, on-site personnel, public, and environment). A screening process was developed to link the hazard analysis to the accident analysis. Specifically the 840 accident scenarios were screened down to about 15 accident scenarios for a more through deterministic analysis to define the operational safety envelope. The mechanics of the screening process in the selection of final scenarios for each representative accident category, i.e., fire, explosion, criticality, and spill, is described

JANNAF 18th Propulsion Systems Hazards Subcommittee Meeting. Volume 1

Science.gov (United States)

Cocchiaro, James E. (Editor); Gannaway, Mary T. (Editor)

1999-01-01

This volume, the first of two volumes is a compilation of 18 unclassified/unlimited-distribution technical papers presented at the Joint Army-Navy-NASA-Air Force (JANNAF) 18th Propulsion Systems Hazards Subcommittee (PSHS) meeting held jointly with the 36th Combustion Subcommittee (CS) and 24th Airbreathing Propulsion Subcommittee (APS) meetings. The meeting was held 18-21 October 1999 at NASA Kennedy Space Center and The DoubleTree Oceanfront Hotel, Cocoa Beach, Florida. Topics covered at the PSHS meeting include: shaped charge jet and kinetic energy penetrator impact vulnerability of gun propellants; thermal decomposition and cookoff behavior of energetic materials; violent reaction; detonation phenomena of solid energetic materials subjected to shock and impact stimuli; and hazard classification, insensitive munitions, and propulsion systems safety.

Risk analysis procedure for post-wildfire natural hazards in British Columbia

Science.gov (United States)

Jordan, Peter

2010-05-01

preliminary map of vegetation burn severity if desired. The next steps include mapping catchment boundaries, field traverses to collect data on soil burn severity and water repellency, identification of unstable hillslopes and channels, and inspection of values at risk from hazards such as debris flows or flooding. BARC (burned area reflectance classification) maps based on satellite imagery are prepared for some fires, although these are typically not available for several weeks. Our objective is to make a preliminary risk analysis report available about two weeks after the fire is contained. If high risks to public safety or infrastructure are identified, the risk analysis reports may make recommendations for mitigation measures to be considered; however, acting on these recommendations is the responsibility of local land managers, local government, or landowners. Mitigation measures for some fires have included engineering treatments to reduce the hydrologic impact of logging roads, protective structures such as dykes or berms, and straw mulching to reduce runoff and erosion on severely burned areas. The Terrace Mountain Fire, with burned 9000 hectares in the Okanagan Valley in 2009, is used as an example of the application of the procedure.

[Clinical Study of 2014 ISUP New Grade Group Classification for Prostate Cancer Patients Treated by Androgen Deprivation Therapy].

Science.gov (United States)

Uno, Masahiro; Kawase, Makoto; Kato, Daiki; Ishida, Takashi; Kato, Seiichi; Fujimoto, Yoshinori

2018-01-01

The 2014 International Society of Urological Pathology (ISUP) has proposed a new grade group (GG) classification for Gleason scores (GS). The usefulness of the new GG classification was investigated with 518 prostate cancer patients who underwent androgen deprivation therapy. According to the new GG classification, Stages B‒D and the new GG classification relapse-free rate for each stage were calculated using the Kaplan‒Meier method. The new GG classification revealed a significant difference for the relapse-free rate only between some groups. Analysis using the Cox proportional hazards model indicated that the risk of relapse was higher in GGs 4 and 5 than in GG 1. The usefulness about the relapse-free rate in androgen deprivation therapy of the 2014 ISUP new grade group classification a waits future examination.

A Two-Level Sound Classification Platform for Environmental Monitoring

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stelios A. Mitilineos

2018-01-01

Full Text Available STORM is an ongoing European research project that aims at developing an integrated platform for monitoring, protecting, and managing cultural heritage sites through technical and organizational innovation. Part of the scheduled preventive actions for the protection of cultural heritage is the development of wireless acoustic sensor networks (WASNs that will be used for assessing the impact of human-generated activities as well as for monitoring potentially hazardous environmental phenomena. Collected sound samples will be forwarded to a central server where they will be automatically classified in a hierarchical manner; anthropogenic and environmental activity will be monitored, and stakeholders will be alarmed in the case of potential malevolent behavior or natural phenomena like excess rainfall, fire, gale, high tides, and waves. Herein, we present an integrated platform that includes sound sample denoising using wavelets, feature extraction from sound samples, Gaussian mixture modeling of these features, and a powerful two-layer neural network for automatic classification. We contribute to previous work by extending the proposed classification platform to perform low-level classification too, i.e., classify sounds to further subclasses that include airplane, car, and pistol sounds for the anthropogenic sound class; bird, dog, and snake sounds for the biophysical sound class; and fire, waterfall, and gale for the geophysical sound class. Classification results exhibit outstanding classification accuracy in both high-level and low-level classification thus demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed approach.

Modelling Multi Hazard Mapping in Semarang City Using GIS-Fuzzy Method

Science.gov (United States)

Nugraha, A. L.; Awaluddin, M.; Sasmito, B.

2018-02-01

One important aspect of disaster mitigation planning is hazard mapping. Hazard mapping can provide spatial information on the distribution of locations that are threatened by disaster. Semarang City as the capital of Central Java Province is one of the cities with high natural disaster intensity. Frequent natural disasters Semarang city is tidal flood, floods, landslides, and droughts. Therefore, Semarang City needs spatial information by doing multi hazard mapping to support disaster mitigation planning in Semarang City. Multi Hazards map modelling can be derived from parameters such as slope maps, rainfall, land use, and soil types. This modelling is done by using GIS method with scoring and overlay technique. However, the accuracy of modelling would be better if the GIS method is combined with Fuzzy Logic techniques to provide a good classification in determining disaster threats. The Fuzzy-GIS method will build a multi hazards map of Semarang city can deliver results with good accuracy and with appropriate threat class spread so as to provide disaster information for disaster mitigation planning of Semarang city. from the multi-hazard modelling using GIS-Fuzzy can be known type of membership that has a good accuracy is the type of membership Gauss with RMSE of 0.404 the smallest of the other membership and VAF value of 72.909% of the largest of the other membership.

Evaluation of Hazardous Material Management Safety in the Chemical Laboratory in BATAN

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nur-Rahmah-Hidayati

2005-01-01

The management safety of the hazardous material (B3) in the chemical laboratory of BATAN was evaluated. The evaluation is necessary to be done because B3 is often used together with radioactive materials in the laboratory, but the attention to the safety aspect of B3 is not paid sufficiently in spite of its big potential hazard. The potential hazard generated from the nature of B3 could be flammable, explosive, oxidative, corrosive and poisonous. The handling of B3 could be conducted by enforcing the labelling and classification in the usage and disposal processes. Some observations of the chemical laboratory of BATAN show that the management safety of hazardous material in compliance with the government regulation no. 74 year 2001 has not been dully conducted. The management safety of B3 could be improved by, designating one who has adequate skill in hazardous material safety specially as the B3 safety officer, providing the Material Safety Data Sheet that is updated periodically to use in the laboratory and storage room, updating periodically the inventory of B3, performing training in work safety periodically, and monitoring the ventilation system intensively in laboratory and storage room. (author)

Preliminary assessment report for Grubbs/Kyle Training Center, Smyrna/Rutherford County Regional Airport, Installation 47340, Smyrna, Tennessee

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dennis, C.; Stefano, J.

1993-07-01

This report presents the results of the preliminary assessment (PA) conducted by Argonne National Laboratory at the Tennessee Army National Guard (TNARNG) property near Smyrna, Tennessee. Preliminary assessments of federal facilities are being conducted to compile the information necessary for completing preremedial activities and to provide a basis for establishing corrective actions in response to releases of hazardous substances. The principal objective of the PA is to characterize the site accurately and determine the need for further action by examining site activities, quantities of hazardous substances present, and potential pathways by which contamination could affect public health and the environment. This PA satisfies, for the Grubbs/Kyle Training Center property, the requirement of the Department of Defense Installation Restoration Program

A simulation of Earthquake Loss Estimation in Southeastern Korea using HAZUS and the local site classification Map

Science.gov (United States)

Kang, S.; Kim, K.

2013-12-01

Regionally varying seismic hazards can be estimated using an earthquake loss estimation system (e.g. HAZUS-MH). The estimations for actual earthquakes help federal and local authorities develop rapid, effective recovery measures. Estimates for scenario earthquakes help in designing a comprehensive earthquake hazard mitigation plan. Local site characteristics influence the ground motion. Although direct measurements are desirable to construct a site-amplification map, such data are expensive and time consuming to collect. Thus we derived a site classification map of the southern Korean Peninsula using geologic and geomorphologic data, which are readily available for the entire southern Korean Peninsula. Class B sites (mainly rock) are predominant in the area, although localized areas of softer soils are found along major rivers and seashores. The site classification map is compared with independent site classification studies to confirm our site classification map effectively represents the local behavior of site amplification during an earthquake. We then estimated the losses due to a magnitude 6.7 scenario earthquake in Gyeongju, southeastern Korea, with and without the site classification map. Significant differences in loss estimates were observed. The loss without the site classification map decreased without variation with increasing epicentral distance, while the loss with the site classification map varied from region to region, due to both the epicentral distance and local site effects. The major cause of the large loss expected in Gyeongju is the short epicentral distance. Pohang Nam-Gu is located farther from the earthquake source region. Nonetheless, the loss estimates in the remote city are as large as those in Gyeongju and are attributed to the site effect of soft soil found widely in the area.

A proposal for a test method for assessment of hazard property HP 12 (“Release of an acute toxic gas”) in hazardous waste classification - Experience from 49 waste

OpenAIRE

Hennebert , Pierre; Samaali , Ismahen; Molina , Pauline

2016-01-01

International audience; A stepwise method for assessment of the HP 12 is proposed and tested with 49 waste samples. The hazard property HP 12 is defined as “Release of an acute toxic gas”: waste which releases acute toxic gases (Acute Tox. 1, 2 or 3) in contact with water or an acid. When a waste contains a substance assigned to one of the following supplemental hazards EUH029, EUH031 and EUH032, it shall be classified as hazardous by HP 12 according to test methods or guidelines (EC, 2014a, ...

Hazardous Waste Code Determination for First/Second-Stage Sludge Waste Stream (IDCs 001, 002, 800)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arbon, R.E.

2001-01-01

This document, Hazardous Waste Code Determination for the First/Second-Stage Sludge Waste Stream, summarizes the efforts performed at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) to make a hazardous waste code determination on Item Description Codes (IDCs) 001, 002, and 800 drums. This characterization effort included a thorough review of acceptable knowledge (AK), physical characterization, waste form sampling, chemical analyses, and headspace gas data. This effort included an assessment of pre-Waste Analysis Plan (WAP) solidified sampling and analysis data (referred to as preliminary data). Seventy-five First/Second-Stage Sludge Drums, provided in Table 1-1, have been subjected to core sampling and analysis using the requirements defined in the Quality Assurance Program Plan (QAPP). Based on WAP defined statistical reduction, of preliminary data, a sample size of five was calculated. That is, five additional drums should be core sampled and analyzed. A total of seven drums were sampled, analyzed, and validated in compliance with the WAP criteria. The pre-WAP data (taken under the QAPP) correlated very well with the WAP compliant drum data. As a result, no additional sampling is required. Based upon the information summarized in this document, an accurate hazardous waste determination has been made for the First/Second-Stage Sludge Waste Stream

Potentially hazardous plants of Puerto Rico: preliminary guide

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ferguson, F F; Medina, F R

1975-08-01

General information is presented about the kinds of native and imported plants in Puerto Rico (weeds, grasses, vines, cactuses, shrubs, trees and parts thereof) that should be avoided, or not ingested. Small amounts of eaten wild plant materials are usually not likely to be hazardous although large amounts may be dangerous; the striking exception is mushrooms. While a number of Puerto Rican plants are lethal to cattle, only a few are known to cause death to man as, for example, the fruit of the Deadly Manchineel, Hippomane mancinella and the seed of the Rosary Pea, Abrus precatorius. Tourists especially should avoid tasting any green or yellowish apples growing on a medium-sized tree. The Hippomane fruit resembles the Crabapple of temperate zones. It is now unlawful to use the Rosary Pea in the local handicraft industry. An item of special interest is the delicious fruit of Mamey often offered for sale at roadside, the outer coating of which is poisonous. All of the light brown outer covering, including especially all of the inner whitish tunic, must be carefully removed from the golden yellow fruit before eating, or else illness may result. Relatively few of the plants presented here will produce major physical problems if only contacted or chewed, but ingestion of some plant parts produces severe toxic symptoms.

Hazard banding in compliance with the new Globally Harmonised System (GHS) for use in control banding tools.

Science.gov (United States)

Arnone, Mario; Koppisch, Dorothea; Smola, Thomas; Gabriel, Stefan; Verbist, Koen; Visser, Remco

2015-10-01

Many control banding tools use hazard banding in risk assessments for the occupational handling of hazardous substances. The outcome of these assessments can be combined with advice for the required risk management measures (RMMs). The Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) has resulted in a change in the hazard communication elements, i.e. Hazard (H) statements instead of Risk-phrases. Hazard banding schemes that depend on the old form of safety information have to be adapted to the new rules. The purpose of this publication is to outline the rationales for the assignment of hazard bands to H statements under the GHS. Based on this, this publication proposes a hazard banding scheme that uses the information from the safety data sheets as the basis for assignment. The assignment of hazard bands tiered according to the severity of the underlying hazards supports the important principle of substitution. Additionally, the set of assignment rules permits an exposure-route-specific assignment of hazard bands, which is necessary for the proposed route-specific RMMs. Ideally, all control banding tools should apply the same assignment rules. This GHS-compliant hazard banding scheme can hopefully help to establish a unified hazard banding strategy in the various control banding tools. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A proposal for a test method for assessment of hazard property HP 12 ("Release of an acute toxic gas") in hazardous waste classification - Experience from 49 waste.

Science.gov (United States)

Hennebert, Pierre; Samaali, Ismahen; Molina, Pauline

2016-12-01

A stepwise method for assessment of the HP 12 is proposed and tested with 49 waste samples. The hazard property HP 12 is defined as "Release of an acute toxic gas": waste which releases acute toxic gases (Acute Tox. 1, 2 or 3) in contact with water or an acid. When a waste contains a substance assigned to one of the following supplemental hazards EUH029, EUH031 and EUH032, it shall be classified as hazardous by HP 12 according to test methods or guidelines (EC, 2014a, 2014b). When the substances with the cited hazard statement codes react with water or an acid, they can release HCl, Cl 2 , HF, HCN, PH 3 , H 2 S, SO 2 (and two other gases very unlikely to be emitted, hydrazoic acid HN 3 and selenium oxide SeO 2 - a solid with low vapor pressure). Hence, a method is proposed:For a set of 49 waste, water addition did not produce gas. Nearly all the solid waste produced a gas in contact with hydrochloric acid in 5 min in an automated calcimeter with a volume >0.1L of gas per kg of waste. Since a plateau of pressure is reached only for half of the samples in 5 min, 6 h trial with calorimetric bombs or glass flasks were done and confirmed the results. Identification of the gases by portable probes showed that most of the tested samples emit mainly CO 2 . Toxic gases are emitted by four waste: metallic dust from the aluminum industry (CO), two air pollution control residue of industrial waste incinerator (H 2 S) and a halogenated solvent (organic volatile(s) compound(s)). HF has not been measured in these trials started before the present definition of HP 12. According to the definition of HP 12, only the H 2 S emission of substances with hazard statement EUH031 is accounted for. In view of the calcium content of the two air pollution control residue, the presence of calcium sulphide (EUH031) can be assumed. These two waste are therefore classified potentially hazardous for HP 12, from a total of 49 waste. They are also classified as hazardous for other properties (HP 7

Computer models used to support cleanup decision-making at hazardous and radioactive waste sites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moskowitz, P.D.; Pardi, R.; DePhillips, M.P.; Meinhold, A.F.

1992-07-01

Massive efforts are underway to cleanup hazardous and radioactive waste sites located throughout the US To help determine cleanup priorities, computer models are being used to characterize the source, transport, fate and effects of hazardous chemicals and radioactive materials found at these sites. Although, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the US Department of Energy (DOE), and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have provided preliminary guidance to promote the use of computer models for remediation purposes, no Agency has produced directed guidance on models that must be used in these efforts. To identify what models are actually being used to support decision-making at hazardous and radioactive waste sites, a project jointly funded by EPA, DOE and NRC was initiated. The purpose of this project was to: (1) Identify models being used for hazardous and radioactive waste site assessment purposes; and (2) describe and classify these models. This report presents the results of this study

Computer models used to support cleanup decision-making at hazardous and radioactive waste sites

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Moskowitz, P.D.; Pardi, R.; DePhillips, M.P.; Meinhold, A.F.

1992-07-01

Massive efforts are underway to cleanup hazardous and radioactive waste sites located throughout the US To help determine cleanup priorities, computer models are being used to characterize the source, transport, fate and effects of hazardous chemicals and radioactive materials found at these sites. Although, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the US Department of Energy (DOE), and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have provided preliminary guidance to promote the use of computer models for remediation purposes, no Agency has produced directed guidance on models that must be used in these efforts. To identify what models are actually being used to support decision-making at hazardous and radioactive waste sites, a project jointly funded by EPA, DOE and NRC was initiated. The purpose of this project was to: (1) Identify models being used for hazardous and radioactive waste site assessment purposes; and (2) describe and classify these models. This report presents the results of this study.

Deep Borehole Emplacement Mode Hazard Analysis Revision 0

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sevougian, S. David [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2015-08-07

This letter report outlines a methodology and provides resource information for the Deep Borehole Emplacement Mode Hazard Analysis (DBEMHA). The main purpose is identify the accident hazards and accident event sequences associated with the two emplacement mode options (wireline or drillstring), to outline a methodology for computing accident probabilities and frequencies, and to point to available databases on the nature and frequency of accidents typically associated with standard borehole drilling and nuclear handling operations. Risk mitigation and prevention measures, which have been incorporated into the two emplacement designs (see Cochran and Hardin 2015), are also discussed. A key intent of this report is to provide background information to brief subject matter experts involved in the Emplacement Mode Design Study. [Note: Revision 0 of this report is concentrated more on the wireline emplacement mode. It is expected that Revision 1 will contain further development of the preliminary fault and event trees for the drill string emplacement mode.

Preliminary assessment report for National Guard Training Center, Georgia Army National Guard, Fort Stewart, Georgia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1993-07-01

This report presents the results of the preliminary assessment (PA) conducted by Argonne National Laboratory at the Georgia Army National Guard (GAARNG) facility near Hinesville, Georgia, known as the National Guard Training Center (NGTC). Preliminary assessments of federal facilities are being conducted to compile the information necessary for completing preremedial activities and to provide a priority basis for completing corrective actions (where necessary) in response to releases of hazardous substances. The principal objective of the PA is to characterize the site accurately and determine the need for further action by examining previous site activities, types and quantities of hazardous substances utilized, and potential pathways by which contamination could affect public health and the environment. The scope of this assessment is limited to the facilities and past activities contained within the NGTC. Preliminary assessment site score sheet information is also provided for the NGTC. However, this assessment report is intended to be read in conjunction with a previous IRP assessment of Fort Stewart completed in 1992 (USATHAMA 1992) and to provide comprehensive information on the NGTC area for incorporation with information contained in that previous assessment for the entirety of Fort Stewart

Preliminary assessment report for Virginia Army National Guard Army Aviation Support Facility, Richmond International Airport, Installation 51230, Sandston, Virginia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dennis, C.B.

1993-09-01

This report presents the results of the preliminary assessment (PA) conducted by Argonne National Laboratory at the Virginia Army National Guard (VaARNG) property in Sandston, Virginia. The Army Aviation Support Facility (AASF) is contiguous with the Richmond International Airport. Preliminary assessments of federal facilities are being conducted to compile the information necessary for completing preremedial activities and to provide a basis for establishing corrective actions in response to releases of hazardous substances. The PA is designed to characterize the site accurately and determine the need for further action by examining site activities, quantities of hazardous substances present, and potential pathways by which contamination could affect public health and the environment. The AASF, originally constructed as an active Air Force interceptor base, provides maintenance support for VaARNG aircraft. Hazardous materials used and stored at the facility include JP-4 jet fuel, diesel fuel, gasoline, liquid propane gas, heating oil, and motor oil

Preliminary data summary for the hospitals point-source category

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Strassler, E.; Hund, F.H.

1989-09-01

The summaries were prepared in order to allow EPA to respond to the mandate of Section 304(m) of the Clean Water Act. Summaries for categories already subject to rulemaking were developed for comparison purposes, and contain only the minimum amount of data needed to provide some perspective on the relative magnitude of the pollution problems created across the categories. The document summarizes the most current information available regarding the discharge of wastewater and solid wastes containing priority and hazardous non-priority pollutants by hospitals. The document provides a technical basis for determining whether additional national regulations should be developed pursuant to the Clean Water Act (CWA), and makes available preliminary information regarding the discharge of priority and hazardous non-priority pollutants by the hospital industry

Guidance for classification of residues from combustion and incineration in accordance with the Swedish ordinance for waste; Vaegledning foer klassificering av foerbraenningsrester enligt Avfallsfoerordningen

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Adler, Peter [AaF Energi och Miljoe AB, Stockholm (Sweden); Haglund, Jan-Erik [Soederenergi AB, Stockholm (Sweden); Sjoeblom, Rolf [Tekedo AB, Nykoeping (Sweden)

2004-05-01

A new ordinance for waste came into force in Sweden on the first of January 2002, replacing some previous ordinances. The new ordinance is based on certain EU directives and contains amongst other things new rules regarding how certain streams of waste are to be classified into hazardous waste and non-hazardous waste. In a number of cases, the classification is to be made according to whether or not the waste possesses one or more of a number o properties H1 - H14, i e if the waste contains hazardous substances. The new rules are based on the regulation that exists for chemical substances and preparations. When attempts have been made to use these new rules in practice - e g for residues from incineration and combustion - it has become apparent that they are very difficult or even impossible to apply. The primary reason for this is that the residues contain a very large number (thousands) of substances which would have to be analysed and for which the hazard would have to be assessed correctly in accordance with the criteria for the properties (H4 - H8 and H10 - H11). Furthermore, some of the properties listed in the ordinance for waste lack criteria for assessment of hazard. These are H13 (can give rise to another substance which may be hazardous, e g leachate) and H14 (hazardous to the environment). Moreover, there are significant differences between the Ordinance of waste and the regulation of the National Chemicals Inspectorate. It is on the latter that the rules in the Ordinance of waste are based, and this is also the cause of many of the questions and of the uncertainties in the classification. In the present report, a method is developed and described for classification of residues from combustion and incineration. The method is to be applicable in practice without compromising environmental and health aspects. As a part of the present work, a compilation of content and alteration of chemical substances in is carried out. In another chapter, the experience

Fossil Signatures Using Elemental Abundance Distributions and Bayesian Probabilistic Classification

Science.gov (United States)

Hoover, Richard B.; Storrie-Lombardi, Michael C.

2004-01-01

Elemental abundances (C6, N7, O8, Na11, Mg12, Al3, P15, S16, Cl17, K19, Ca20, Ti22, Mn25, Fe26, and Ni28) were obtained for a set of terrestrial fossils and the rock matrix surrounding them. Principal Component Analysis extracted five factors accounting for the 92.5% of the data variance, i.e. information content, of the elemental abundance data. Hierarchical Cluster Analysis provided unsupervised sample classification distinguishing fossil from matrix samples on the basis of either raw abundances or PCA input that agreed strongly with visual classification. A stochastic, non-linear Artificial Neural Network produced a Bayesian probability of correct sample classification. The results provide a quantitative probabilistic methodology for discriminating terrestrial fossils from the surrounding rock matrix using chemical information. To demonstrate the applicability of these techniques to the assessment of meteoritic samples or in situ extraterrestrial exploration, we present preliminary data on samples of the Orgueil meteorite. In both systems an elemental signature produces target classification decisions remarkably consistent with morphological classification by a human expert using only structural (visual) information. We discuss the possibility of implementing a complexity analysis metric capable of automating certain image analysis and pattern recognition abilities of the human eye using low magnification optical microscopy images and discuss the extension of this technique across multiple scales.

Classification of coal seam outburst hazards and evaluation of the importance of influencing factors

OpenAIRE

Shi Xianzhi; Song Dazhao; Qian Ziwei

2017-01-01

Coal and gas outbursts are the result of several geological factors related to coal seam gas (coal seam gas pressure P, coal seam sturdiness coefficient f and coal seam gas content W), and these parameters can be used to classify the outburst hazard level of a coal seam.

Site Classification using Multichannel Channel Analysis of Surface Wave (MASW) method on Soft and Hard Ground

Science.gov (United States)

Ashraf, M. A. M.; Kumar, N. S.; Yusoh, R.; Hazreek, Z. A. M.; Aziman, M.

2018-04-01

Site classification utilizing average shear wave velocity (Vs(30) up to 30 meters depth is a typical parameter. Numerous geophysical methods have been proposed for estimation of shear wave velocity by utilizing assortment of testing configuration, processing method, and inversion algorithm. Multichannel Analysis of Surface Wave (MASW) method is been rehearsed by numerous specialist and professional to geotechnical engineering for local site characterization and classification. This study aims to determine the site classification on soft and hard ground using MASW method. The subsurface classification was made utilizing National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NERHP) and international Building Code (IBC) classification. Two sites are chosen to acquire the shear wave velocity which is in the state of Pulau Pinang for soft soil and Perlis for hard rock. Results recommend that MASW technique can be utilized to spatially calculate the distribution of shear wave velocity (Vs(30)) in soil and rock to characterize areas.

Geotechnical Risk Classification for Underground Mines / Klasyfikacja Poziomu Zagrożenia Geotechnicznego W Kopalniach Podziemnych

Science.gov (United States)

Mishra, Ritesh Kumar; Rinne, Mikael

2015-03-01

Underground mining activities are prone to major hazards largely owing to geotechnical reasons. Mining combined with the confined working space and uncertain geotechnical data leads to hazards having the potential of catastrophic consequences. These incidents have the potential of causing multiple fatalities and large financial damages. Use of formal risk assessment in the past has demonstrated an important role in the prediction and prevention of accidents in risk prone industries such as petroleum, nuclear and aviation. This paper proposes a classification system for underground mining operations based on their geotechnical risk levels. The classification is done based on the type of mining method employed and the rock mass in which it is carried out. Mining methods have been classified in groups which offer similar geotechnical risk. The rock mass classification has been proposed based on bulk rock mass properties which are collected as part of the routine mine planning. This classification has been subdivided for various stages of mine planning to suit the extent of available data. Alpha-numeric coding has been proposed to identify a mining operation based on the competency of rock and risk of geotechnical failures. This alpha numeric coding has been further extended to identify mining activity under `Geotechnical Hazard Potential (GHP)'. GHP has been proposed to be used as a preliminary tool of risk assessment and risk ranking for a mining activity. The aim of such classification is to be used as a guideline for the justification of a formal geotechnical risk assessment. Górnictwo podziemne pociąga za sobą różnorakie zagrożenia spowodowane przez uwarunkowania geotechniczne. Urabianie złoża w połączeniu z pracą w zamkniętej przestrzeni oraz z niepewnymi danymi geotechnicznymi powodować może zagrożenia, które w konsekwencji prowadzić mogą do wypadków, a te potencjalnie powodować mogą skutki śmiertelne dla osób oraz poważne straty

Postwildfire preliminary debris flow hazard assessment for the area burned by the 2011 Las Conchas Fire in north-central New Mexico

Science.gov (United States)

Tillery, Anne C.; Darr, Michael J.; Cannon, Susan H.; Michael, John A.

2011-01-01

The Las Conchas Fire during the summer of 2011 was the largest in recorded history for the state of New Mexico, burning 634 square kilometers in the Jemez Mountains of north-central New Mexico. The burned landscape is now at risk of damage from postwildfire erosion, such as that caused by debris flows and flash floods. This report presents a preliminary hazard assessment of the debris-flow potential from 321 basins burned by the Las Conchas Fire. A pair of empirical hazard-assessment models developed using data from recently burned basins throughout the intermountain western United States was used to estimate the probability of debris-flow occurrence and volume of debris flows at the outlets of selected drainage basins within the burned area. The models incorporate measures of burn severity, topography, soils, and storm rainfall to estimate the probability and volume of debris flows following the fire. In response to a design storm of 28.0 millimeters of rain in 30 minutes (10-year recurrence interval), the probabilities of debris flows estimated for basins burned by the Las Conchas Fire were greater than 80 percent for two-thirds (67 percent) of the modeled basins. Basins with a high (greater than 80 percent) probability of debris-flow occurrence were concentrated in tributaries to Santa Clara and Rio del Oso Canyons in the northeastern part of the burned area; some steep areas in the Valles Caldera National Preserve, Los Alamos, and Guaje Canyons in the east-central part of the burned area; tributaries to Peralta, Colle, Bland, and Cochiti canyons in the southwestern part of the burned area; and tributaries to Frijoles, Alamo, and Capulin Canyons in the southeastern part of the burned area (within Bandelier National Monument). Estimated debris-flow volumes ranged from 400 cubic meters to greater than 72,000 cubic meters. The largest volumes (greater than 40,000 cubic meters) were estimated for basins in Santa Clara, Los Alamos, and Water Canyons, and for two

Exploratory study on classification and individualisation of earprints.

Science.gov (United States)

Meijerman, Lynn; Sholl, Sarah; De Conti, Francesca; Giacon, Marta; van der Lugt, Cor; Drusini, Andrea; Vanezis, Peter; Maat, George

2004-02-10

The FearID research project is aimed at the individualisation of earprints for the purpose of forensic research. The study presented here was carried out within the framework of this project. It intends to combine a review of what is known from literature on the classification and individualisation of earprints with results from a preliminary study of earprints. Possibilities for, and limitations to, the use of earprints in forensic investigation are addressed. Differences between eliminating a suspect, placing a suspect at a crime scene, and linking crimes by prints left at different scenes are considered.

Probabilistic seismic hazard estimates incorporating site effects - An example from Indiana, U.S.A

Science.gov (United States)

Hasse, J.S.; Park, C.H.; Nowack, R.L.; Hill, J.R.

2010-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has published probabilistic earthquake hazard maps for the United States based on current knowledge of past earthquake activity and geological constraints on earthquake potential. These maps for the central and eastern United States assume standard site conditions with Swave velocities of 760 m/s in the top 30 m. For urban and infrastructure planning and long-term budgeting, the public is interested in similar probabilistic seismic hazard maps that take into account near-surface geological materials. We have implemented a probabilistic method for incorporating site effects into the USGS seismic hazard analysis that takes into account the first-order effects of the surface geologic conditions. The thicknesses of sediments, which play a large role in amplification, were derived from a P-wave refraction database with over 13, 000 profiles, and a preliminary geology-based velocity model was constructed from available information on S-wave velocities. An interesting feature of the preliminary hazard maps incorporating site effects is the approximate factor of two increases in the 1-Hz spectral acceleration with 2 percent probability of exceedance in 50 years for parts of the greater Indianapolis metropolitan region and surrounding parts of central Indiana. This effect is primarily due to the relatively thick sequence of sediments infilling ancient bedrock topography that has been deposited since the Pleistocene Epoch. As expected, the Late Pleistocene and Holocene depositional systems of the Wabash and Ohio Rivers produce additional amplification in the southwestern part of Indiana. Ground motions decrease, as would be expected, toward the bedrock units in south-central Indiana, where motions are significantly lower than the values on the USGS maps.

Identification of potentially hazardous human gene products in GMO risk assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Bergmans, Hans; Logie, Colin; Van Maanen, Kees; Hermsen, Harm; Meredyth, Michelle; Van Der Vlugt, Cécile

2008-01-01

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs), e.g. viral vectors, could threaten the environment if by their release they spread hazardous gene products. Even in contained use, to prevent adverse consequences, viral vectors carrying genes from mammals or humans should be especially scrutinized as to whether gene products that they synthesize could be hazardous in their new context. Examples of such potentially hazardous gene products (PHGPs) are: protein toxins, products of dominant alleles that have a role in hereditary diseases, gene products and sequences involved in genome rearrangements, gene products involved in immunomodulation or with an endocrine function, gene products involved in apoptosis, activated proto-oncogenes. For contained use of a GMO that carries a construct encoding a PHGP, the precautionary principle dictates that safety measures should be applied on a "worst case" basis, until the risks of the specific case have been assessed. The potential hazard of cloned genes can be estimated before empirical data on the actual GMO become available. Preliminary data may be used to focus hazard identification and risk assessment. Both predictive and empirical data may also help to identify what further information is needed to assess the risk of the GMO. A two-step approach, whereby a PHGP is evaluated for its conceptual dangers, then checked by data bank searches, is delineated here.

Classification of solid industrial waste based on ecotoxicology tests using Daphnia magna: an alternative

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

William Gerson Matias

2005-11-01

Full Text Available The adequate treatment and final disposal of solid industrial wastes depends on their classification into class I or II. This classification is proposed by NBR 10.004; however, it is complex and time-consuming. With a view to facilitating this classification, the use of assays with Daphnia magna is proposed. These assays make possible the identification of toxic chemicals in the leach, which denotes the presence of one of the characteristics described by NBR 10.004, the toxicity, which is a sufficient argument to put the waste into class I. Ecotoxicological tests were carried out with ten samples of solid wastes of frequent production and, on the basis of the results from EC(I50/48h of those samples in comparison with the official classification of NBR 10.004, limits were established for the classification of wastes into class I or II. A coincidence in the classification of 50% of the analyzed samples was observed. In cases in which there is no coherence between the methods, the method proposed in this work classifies the waste into class I. These data are preliminary, but they reveal that the classification system proposed here is promising because of its quickness and economic viability.

Order of 27 October 1971 on exemptions from classification as radioactive installations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1971-01-01

This Order was made in implementation of Section 2 of the 1964 Act on nuclear activities which provides that installations where the level of radiation produced entails no significant hazard shall be excluded from the classification of radioactive installations. Consequently, the Order specifies the activity thresholds for radionuclides below which installations containing them are not considered as radioactive installations. (NEA) [fr

Assessing global exposure and vulnerability towards natural hazards: the Disaster Risk Index

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. Peduzzi

2009-07-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a model of factors influencing levels of human losses from natural hazards at the global scale, for the period 1980–2000. This model was designed for the United Nations Development Programme as a building stone of the Disaster Risk Index (DRI, which aims at monitoring the evolution of risk. Assessing what countries are most at risk requires considering various types of hazards, such as droughts, floods, cyclones and earthquakes. Before assessing risk, these four hazards were modelled using GIS and overlaid with a model of population distribution in order to extract human exposure. Human vulnerability was measured by crossing exposure with selected socio-economic parameters. The model evaluates to what extent observed past losses are related to population exposure and vulnerability. Results reveal that human vulnerability is mostly linked with country development level and environmental quality. A classification of countries is provided, as well as recommendations on data improvement for future use of the model.

Preliminary Hazard Assessment for Tectonic Tsunamis in the Eastern Mediterranean

Science.gov (United States)

Aydin, B.; Bayazitoglu, O.; Sharghi vand, N.; Kanoglu, U.

2017-12-01

There are many critical industrial facilities such as energy production units and energy transmission lines along the southeast coast of Turkey. This region is also active on tourism, and agriculture and aquaculture production. There are active faults in the region, i.e. the Cyprus Fault, which extends along the Mediterranean basin in the east-west direction and connects to the Hellenic Arc. Both the Cyprus Fault and the Hellenic Arc are seismologically active and are capable of generating earthquakes with tsunamigenic potential. Even a small tsunami in the region could cause confusion as shown by the recent 21 July 2017 earthquake of Mw 6.6, which occurred in the Aegean Sea, between Bodrum, Turkey and Kos Island, Greece since region is not prepared for such an event. Moreover, the Mediterranean Sea is one of the most vulnerable regions against sea level rise due to global warming, according to the 5th Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. For these reasons, a marine hazard such as a tsunami can cause much worse damage than expected in the region (Kanoglu et al., Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 373, 2015). Hence, tsunami hazard assessment is required for the region. In this study, we first characterize earthquakes which have potential to generate a tsunami in the Eastern Mediterranean. Such study is a prerequisite for regional tsunami mitigation studies. For fast and timely predictions, tsunami warning systems usually employ databases that store pre-computed tsunami propagation resulting from hypothetical earthquakes with pre-defined parameters. These pre-defined sources are called tsunami unit sources and they are linearly superposed to mimic a real event, since wave propagation is linear offshore. After investigating historical earthquakes along the Cyprus Fault and the Hellenic Arc, we identified tsunamigenic earthquakes in the Eastern Mediterranean and proposed tsunami unit sources for the region. We used the tsunami numerical model MOST (Titov et al

EFSA Panels on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ), on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM), and on Animal Health and Welfare (AHAW); Scientific Opinion on the public health hazards to be covered by inspection of meat (poultry)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hald, Tine

2012-01-01

be risk categorisation of flocks based on FCI and classification of abattoirs according to their capability to reduce carcass faecal contamination. It is proposed that post-mortem visual inspection is replaced by setting targets for the main hazards on the carcass, and by verification of the food business......A qualitative risk assessment identified Campylobacter spp., Salmonella spp. and ESBL/AmpC gene-carrying bacteria as the most relevant biological hazards in the context of meat inspection of poultry. As none of these are detected by traditional visual meat inspection, establishing an integrated...... food safety assurance system, achievable through improved food chain information (FCI) and risk-based interventions, was proposed. This includes setting targets at carcass level and, when appropriate, flock level indicating what should be achieved for a given hazard. Elements of the system would...

HEURISTIC APPROACH BY GEOTECHNICAL HAZARD EVALUATION OF THE MEDVEDNICA NATURE PARK

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Željko Miklin

2009-12-01

Full Text Available In making the article, several thematic maps with scale 1:25000 were used. It is the lithological map with outlined engineering geological units, the inclination map with four categories and the landslide map with the areas with increased erosion and generally unstable areas are shown, structural-geomorphological map, surface and groundwater condition map and hydrogeological map. The last one was used with the aim to evaluate the influence of hydrogeological relationship on the synthetic hazard map. The integration of facts from all the maps and engineering evaluation lead to new quality that was presented in the last - synthetic, qualitative map of prognostic meaning. They have been adopted as the factor maps and with their overlapping the map with new contents was made. The Preliminary qualitative map of sliding hazard, including the erosion, was made by heuristic approach, as a predecessor to the hazard map. Such maps proved to be very useful as bases for spatial and development planning on the regional level as well as for evaluation of the site suitability for building.

The United Nations' endeavour to standardize mineral resource classification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schanz, J.J. Jr.

1980-01-01

The United Nations' Economic and Social Council passed a resolution in July 1975 calling for the development of a mineral resources classification system to be used in reporting data to the United Nations. Following preparation of background papers and an agenda by the UN Centre for Natural Resources, Energy and Transport, a panel of experts recommended a classification system to the Council's Committee on Natural Resources. The Committee met in Turkey in June 1979 and has reported favourably to the Council on the proposed system. The classification system is designed to provide maximum capability for requesting and receiving data from the resources data systems already used internally by major mineral producing nations. In addition, the system provides for flexibility in adjusting to the particular needs of individual mineral commodities. The proposed system involves three basic categories of in-situ resources: R-1, reliable estimates of known deposits; R-2, preliminary estimates of the extensions of known deposits; and, R-3, tentative estimates of quantities to be found in undiscovered deposits. As an option for given countries and commodities, the R-1 category can be further sub-divided into: R-1-E, economic; R-1-M, marginal; and R-1-S, sub-economic. Finally, the classification scheme provides for all categories to have a parallel set of estimates of recoverable mineral quantities. (author)

Assessment and classification of psychopathology in epidemiological research of children 0-3 years of age: a review of the literature

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skovgaard, A M; Houmann, T; Landorph, S L

2004-01-01

, such as the Bayley Scales, and relationship assessments, such as the Early Relational Assessment (ERA). The classification of psychopathology in young children can be approved by the Diagnostic Classification 0-3. The reliability and validity of DC 0-3 have not yet been established, but preliminary results seem...... promising. The demands made on diagnostic assessment procedures in epidemiological research of children 0-3 years of age can be met by a combination of well-established research instruments, such as the CBCL, with in-depth clinical assessment procedures, such as the Bayley Scales and the ERA, and diagnostic...... classification by DC 0-3....

Classification of Birds and Bats Using Flight Tracks

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cullinan, Valerie I.; Matzner, Shari; Duberstein, Corey A.

2015-05-01

Classification of birds and bats that use areas targeted for offshore wind farm development and the inference of their behavior is essential to evaluating the potential effects of development. The current approach to assessing the number and distribution of birds at sea involves transect surveys using trained individuals in boats or airplanes or using high-resolution imagery. These approaches are costly and have safety concerns. Based on a limited annotated library extracted from a single-camera thermal video, we provide a framework for building models that classify birds and bats and their associated behaviors. As an example, we developed a discriminant model for theoretical flight paths and applied it to data (N = 64 tracks) extracted from 5-min video clips. The agreement between model- and observer-classified path types was initially only 41%, but it increased to 73% when small-scale jitter was censored and path types were combined. Classification of 46 tracks of bats, swallows, gulls, and terns on average was 82% accurate, based on a jackknife cross-validation. Model classification of bats and terns (N = 4 and 2, respectively) was 94% and 91% correct, respectively; however, the variance associated with the tracks from these targets is poorly estimated. Model classification of gulls and swallows (N ≥ 18) was on average 73% and 85% correct, respectively. The models developed here should be considered preliminary because they are based on a small data set both in terms of the numbers of species and the identified flight tracks. Future classification models would be greatly improved by including a measure of distance between the camera and the target.

Near-Earth object hazardous impact: A Multi-Criteria Decision Making approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Sánchez-Lozano, J M; Fernández-Martínez, M

2016-11-16

The impact of a near-Earth object (NEO) may release large amounts of energy and cause serious damage. Several NEO hazard studies conducted over the past few years provide forecasts, impact probabilities and assessment ratings, such as the Torino and Palermo scales. These high-risk NEO assessments involve several criteria, including impact energy, mass, and absolute magnitude. The main objective of this paper is to provide the first Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approach to classify hazardous NEOs. Our approach applies a combination of two methods from a widely utilized decision making theory. Specifically, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology is employed to determine the criteria weights, which influence the decision making, and the Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is used to obtain a ranking of alternatives (potentially hazardous NEOs). In addition, NEO datasets provided by the NASA Near-Earth Object Program are utilized. This approach allows the classification of NEOs by descending order of their TOPSIS ratio, a single quantity that contains all of the relevant information for each object.

Preliminary assessment report for Grubbs/Kyle Training Center, Smyrna/Rutherford County Regional Airport, Installation 47340, Smyrna, Tennessee. Installation Restoration Program

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dennis, C.; Stefano, J.

1993-07-01

This report presents the results of the preliminary assessment (PA) conducted by Argonne National Laboratory at the Tennessee Army National Guard (TNARNG) property near Smyrna, Tennessee. Preliminary assessments of federal facilities are being conducted to compile the information necessary for completing preremedial activities and to provide a basis for establishing corrective actions in response to releases of hazardous substances. The principal objective of the PA is to characterize the site accurately and determine the need for further action by examining site activities, quantities of hazardous substances present, and potential pathways by which contamination could affect public health and the environment. This PA satisfies, for the Grubbs/Kyle Training Center property, the requirement of the Department of Defense Installation Restoration Program.

The relevance of flood hazards and impacts in Turkey: What can be learned from different disaster loss databases?

Science.gov (United States)

Koc, Gamze; Thieken, Annegret H.

2016-04-01

classification system (IRDR, 2014). Furthermore, literature, news archives and the Global Active Archive of Large Flood Events - Dartmouth Flood Observatory (floodobservatory.colorado.edu) were used to complement loss data gaps of the databases. From 1960 to 2014, EM-DAT reported 35 flood events in Turkey (26.3 % of all natural hazards events), which caused 773 fatalities (the second most destructive type of natural hazard after earthquakes) and a total economic damage of US 2.2 billion. In contrast, TABB contained 1076 flood events (8.3 % of all natural hazards events), by which 795 people died. On this basis, floods are the third most destructive type of natural hazard -after earthquakes and extreme temperatures- for human losses in Turkey. A comparison of the two databases EM-DAT and TABB reveals big mismatches of the flood data, e.g. the reported number of events, number of affected people and economic loss, differ dramatically. It is concluded that the main reason for the big differences and contradicting numbers of different natural disaster databases is lack of standardization for data collection, peril classification and database thresholds (entry criteria). Since loss data collection is gaining more and more attention, e.g. in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 (SFDRR), the study could offer substantial insights for flood risk mitigation and adaptation studies in Turkey. References Gall, M., Borden, K., Cutter, S.L. (2009) When do losses count? Six fallacies of loss data from natural hazards. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 90(6), 799-809. Genç, F.S., (2007) Türkiye'de Kentleşme ve Doǧal Afet Riskleri ile İlişkisi, TMMOB Afet Sempozyumu. IRDR (2014) IRDR Peril Classification and Hazard Glossary. Report of the Data Group in the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk. (Available at: http://www.irdrinternational.org/2014/03/28/irdr-peril-classification-and-hazard-glossary).

Computer-Aided Diagnosis Based on Convolutional Neural Network System for Colorectal Polyp Classification: Preliminary Experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Komeda, Yoriaki; Handa, Hisashi; Watanabe, Tomohiro; Nomura, Takanobu; Kitahashi, Misaki; Sakurai, Toshiharu; Okamoto, Ayana; Minami, Tomohiro; Kono, Masashi; Arizumi, Tadaaki; Takenaka, Mamoru; Hagiwara, Satoru; Matsui, Shigenaga; Nishida, Naoshi; Kashida, Hiroshi; Kudo, Masatoshi

2017-01-01

Computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) is becoming a next-generation tool for the diagnosis of human disease. CAD for colon polyps has been suggested as a particularly useful tool for trainee colonoscopists, as the use of a CAD system avoids the complications associated with endoscopic resections. In addition to conventional CAD, a convolutional neural network (CNN) system utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) has been developing rapidly over the past 5 years. We attempted to generate a unique CNN-CAD system with an AI function that studied endoscopic images extracted from movies obtained with colonoscopes used in routine examinations. Here, we report our preliminary results of this novel CNN-CAD system for the diagnosis of colon polyps. A total of 1,200 images from cases of colonoscopy performed between January 2010 and December 2016 at Kindai University Hospital were used. These images were extracted from the video of actual endoscopic examinations. Additional video images from 10 cases of unlearned processes were retrospectively assessed in a pilot study. They were simply diagnosed as either an adenomatous or nonadenomatous polyp. The number of images used by AI to learn to distinguish adenomatous from nonadenomatous was 1,200:600. These images were extracted from the videos of actual endoscopic examinations. The size of each image was adjusted to 256 × 256 pixels. A 10-hold cross-validation was carried out. The accuracy of the 10-hold cross-validation is 0.751, where the accuracy is the ratio of the number of correct answers over the number of all the answers produced by the CNN. The decisions by the CNN were correct in 7 of 10 cases. A CNN-CAD system using routine colonoscopy might be useful for the rapid diagnosis of colorectal polyp classification. Further prospective studies in an in vivo setting are required to confirm the effectiveness of a CNN-CAD system in routine colonoscopy. © 2017 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Natural hazard losses: A DOE (Department of Energy) perspective. Injury and property damage experience from natural phenomena hazards Department of Energy 1943-1989

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hill, J.R.

1989-01-01

This presentation provides a perspective of DOE losses during the past 46 years even though loss data was not readily available for all DOE operations. As such this paper is considered preliminary and more work is needed to provide an informed view of all DOE losses. Review of the reported historical losses has provided an opportunity to create an awareness of the extent and location of a wide variety of natural phenomena hazards that have caused damage at most DOE sites. Some suggestions and observations to consider are: (1) mitigation strategies may achieve greatest reductions in wind damage; (2) most damage has occurred to conventional construction; (3) lightning damage review may provide insight for design standards change; (4) flood damage occurred where least expected. Through this awareness, the author hopes we are encouraged to provide our ideas and our professional skills for a Decade of Natural Hazard Reduction in the Department of Energy

Local Kernel for Brains Classification in Schizophrenia

Science.gov (United States)

Castellani, U.; Rossato, E.; Murino, V.; Bellani, M.; Rambaldelli, G.; Tansella, M.; Brambilla, P.

In this paper a novel framework for brain classification is proposed in the context of mental health research. A learning by example method is introduced by combining local measurements with non linear Support Vector Machine. Instead of considering a voxel-by-voxel comparison between patients and controls, we focus on landmark points which are characterized by local region descriptors, namely Scale Invariance Feature Transform (SIFT). Then, matching is obtained by introducing the local kernel for which the samples are represented by unordered set of features. Moreover, a new weighting approach is proposed to take into account the discriminative relevance of the detected groups of features. Experiments have been performed including a set of 54 patients with schizophrenia and 54 normal controls on which region of interest (ROI) have been manually traced by experts. Preliminary results on Dorso-lateral PreFrontal Cortex (DLPFC) region are promising since up to 75% of successful classification rate has been obtained with this technique and the performance has improved up to 85% when the subjects have been stratified by sex.

Classification and storage of wastewater from floor finish removal operations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hunt, Charles E. [Univ. of San Francisco, CA (United States)

1996-05-01

This study evaluates the wastewater generated from hard surface floor finish removal operations at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in order to determine if this wastewater is a hazardous waste, either by statistical evaluation, or other measurable regulatory guidelines established in California Regulations. This research also comparatively evaluates the 55 gallon drum and other portable tanks, all less than 1,000 gallons in size in order to determine which is most effective for the management of this waste stream at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. The statistical methods in SW-846 were found to be scientifically questionable in their application to hazardous waste determination. In this statistical evaluation, the different data transformations discussed in the regulatory guidance document were applied along with the log transformation to the population of 18 samples from 55 gallon drums. Although this statistical evaluation proved awkward in its application, once the data is collected and organized on a spreadsheet this statistical analysis can be an effective tool which can aid the environmental manager in the hazardous waste classification process.

The prospect of hazardous sludge reduction through gasification process

Science.gov (United States)

Hakiki, R.; Wikaningrum, T.; Kurniawan, T.

2018-01-01

Biological sludge generated from centralized industrial WWTP is classified as toxic and hazardous waste based on the Indonesian’s Government Regulation No. 101/2014. The amount of mass and volume of sludge produced have an impact in the cost to manage or to dispose. The main objective of this study is to identify the opportunity of gasification technology which can be applied to reduce hazardous sludge quantity before sending to the final disposal. This preliminary study covers the technical and economic assessment of the application of gasification process, which was a combination of lab-scale experimental results and assumptions based on prior research. The results showed that the process was quite effective in reducing the amount and volume of hazardous sludge which results in reducing the disposal costs without causing negative impact on the environment. The reduced mass are moisture and volatile carbon which are decomposed, while residues are fix carbon and other minerals which are not decomposed by thermal process. The economical simulation showed that the project will achieve payback period in 2.5 years, IRR value of 53 % and BC Ratio of 2.3. The further study in the pilot scale to obtain the more accurate design and calculations is recommended.

A NEW WASTE CLASSIFYING MODEL: HOW WASTE CLASSIFICATION CAN BECOME MORE OBJECTIVE?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Burcea Stefan Gabriel

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The waste management specialist must be able to identify and analyze waste generation sources and to propose proper solutions to prevent the waste generation and encurage the waste minimisation. In certain situations like implementing an integrated waste management sustem and configure the waste collection methods and capacities, practitioners can face the challenge to classify the generated waste. This will tend to be the more demanding as the literature does not provide a coherent system of criteria required for an objective waste classification process. The waste incineration will determine no doubt a different waste classification than waste composting or mechanical and biological treatment. In this case the main question is what are the proper classification criteria witch can be used to realise an objective waste classification? The article provide a short critical literature review of the existing waste classification criteria and suggests the conclusion that the literature can not provide unitary waste classification system which is unanimously accepted and assumed by ideologists and practitioners. There are various classification criteria and more interesting perspectives in the literature regarding the waste classification, but the most common criteria based on which specialists classify waste into several classes, categories and types are the generation source, physical and chemical features, aggregation state, origin or derivation, hazardous degree etc. The traditional classification criteria divided waste into various categories, subcategories and types; such an approach is a conjectural one because is inevitable that according to the context in which the waste classification is required the used criteria to differ significantly; hence the need to uniformizating the waste classification systems. For the first part of the article it has been used indirect observation research method by analyzing the literature and the various

Neural attractor network for application in visual field data classification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fink, Wolfgang

2004-01-01

The purpose was to introduce a novel method for computer-based classification of visual field data derived from perimetric examination, that may act as a ' counsellor', providing an independent 'second opinion' to the diagnosing physician. The classification system consists of a Hopfield-type neural attractor network that obtains its input data from perimetric examination results. An iterative relaxation process determines the states of the neurons dynamically. Therefore, even 'noisy' perimetric output, e.g., early stages of a disease, may eventually be classified correctly according to the predefined idealized visual field defect (scotoma) patterns, stored as attractors of the network, that are found with diseases of the eye, optic nerve and the central nervous system. Preliminary tests of the classification system on real visual field data derived from perimetric examinations have shown a classification success of over 80%. Some of the main advantages of the Hopfield-attractor-network-based approach over feed-forward type neural networks are: (1) network architecture is defined by the classification problem; (2) no training is required to determine the neural coupling strengths; (3) assignment of an auto-diagnosis confidence level is possible by means of an overlap parameter and the Hamming distance. In conclusion, the novel method for computer-based classification of visual field data, presented here, furnishes a valuable first overview and an independent 'second opinion' in judging perimetric examination results, pointing towards a final diagnosis by a physician. It should not be considered a substitute for the diagnosing physician. Thanks to the worldwide accessibility of the Internet, the classification system offers a promising perspective towards modern computer-assisted diagnosis in both medicine and tele-medicine, for example and in particular, with respect to non-ophthalmic clinics or in communities where perimetric expertise is not readily available

Landslide Hazard-Prevention in Balakot Region, Pakistan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abdul Salam Soomro

2012-04-01

Full Text Available The earthquake triggered enormous landslides on 8th October 2005 in the various areas of Pakistan especially in Balakot Region. This research paper fulfilled the urge to develop alternative landslide planning based on the consideration of landslide preventing measures using GIS (Geographical Informaton Systems techniques. This specific type of land use planning differs from traditional type of land use planning due to consideration of the probable hazard of landslide disaster by applying zonation methodology for finding the appropriate suitable areas for various development purposes. The various parameters e.g. elevation, slope angle, forest/ vegetations, faults, landslide zones, and rainfall were utilized as GIS data themes in the vector format. The different GIS techniques were used: (i Clipping the data layers; (ii Spatial analysis by converting the vector layers into raster format; (iii Classification of data themes into certain classes; (iv Overlaying the data themes and (v Map calculation techniques through GIS standard software. This applied research has found that various different regions such as high suitable, moderate suitable, low suitable and unsuitable may be considered as preventive measures from the probable hazard of the landslide disaster in future for rehabilitation and redevelopment purpose which can save human lives, residential and commercial infrastructure in future. It is believed that the various predicted regions for preventing landslide hazards can be very beneficial to the decision makers for the redevelopment of the region in future.

Landslide Hazard-Prevention in Balakot Region, Pakistan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Soomro, A.S.

2011-01-01

The earthquake triggered enormous landslides on October 8, 2005 in the various areas of Pakistan especially in Balakot Region. This research paper fulfilled the urge to develop alternative landslide planning based on the consideration of landslide preventing measures using GIS (Geographical Information Systems) techniques. This specific type of land use planning differs from traditional type of land use planning due to consideration of the probable hazard of landslide disaster by applying zonation methodology for finding the appropriate suitable areas for various development purposes. The various parameters e.g. elevation, slope angle, forest/ vegetations, faults, landslide zones, and rainfall were utilized as GIS data themes in the vector format. The different GIS techniques were used: (i) Clipping the data layers; (II) Spatial analysis by converting the vector layers into raster format; (III) Classification of data themes into certain classes; (IV) Overlaying the data themes and (v) Map calculation techniques through GIS standard software. This applied research has found that various different regions such as high suitable, moderate suitable, low suitable and unsuitable may be considered as preventive measures from the probable hazard of the landslide disaster in future for rehabilitation and redevelopment purpose which can save human lives, residential and commercial infrastructure in future. It is believed that the various predicted regions for preventing landslide hazards can be very beneficial to the decision makers for the redevelopment of the region in future. (author)

Hyperspectral Image Enhancement and Mixture Deep-Learning Classification of Corneal Epithelium Injuries.

Science.gov (United States)

Noor, Siti Salwa Md; Michael, Kaleena; Marshall, Stephen; Ren, Jinchang

2017-11-16

In our preliminary study, the reflectance signatures obtained from hyperspectral imaging (HSI) of normal and abnormal corneal epithelium tissues of porcine show similar morphology with subtle differences. Here we present image enhancement algorithms that can be used to improve the interpretability of data into clinically relevant information to facilitate diagnostics. A total of 25 corneal epithelium images without the application of eye staining were used. Three image feature extraction approaches were applied for image classification: (i) image feature classification from histogram using a support vector machine with a Gaussian radial basis function (SVM-GRBF); (ii) physical image feature classification using deep-learning Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) only; and (iii) the combined classification of CNNs and SVM-Linear. The performance results indicate that our chosen image features from the histogram and length-scale parameter were able to classify with up to 100% accuracy; particularly, at CNNs and CNNs-SVM, by employing 80% of the data sample for training and 20% for testing. Thus, in the assessment of corneal epithelium injuries, HSI has high potential as a method that could surpass current technologies regarding speed, objectivity, and reliability.

Automated classification of Acid Rock Drainage potential from Corescan drill core imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Cracknell, M. J.; Jackson, L.; Parbhakar-Fox, A.; Savinova, K.

2017-12-01

Classification of the acid forming potential of waste rock is important for managing environmental hazards associated with mining operations. Current methods for the classification of acid rock drainage (ARD) potential usually involve labour intensive and subjective assessment of drill core and/or hand specimens. Manual methods are subject to operator bias, human error and the amount of material that can be assessed within a given time frame is limited. The automated classification of ARD potential documented here is based on the ARD Index developed by Parbhakar-Fox et al. (2011). This ARD Index involves the combination of five indicators: A - sulphide content; B - sulphide alteration; C - sulphide morphology; D - primary neutraliser content; and E - sulphide mineral association. Several components of the ARD Index require accurate identification of sulphide minerals. This is achieved by classifying Corescan Red-Green-Blue true colour images into the presence or absence of sulphide minerals using supervised classification. Subsequently, sulphide classification images are processed and combined with Corescan SWIR-based mineral classifications to obtain information on sulphide content, indices representing sulphide textures (disseminated versus massive and degree of veining), and spatially associated minerals. This information is combined to calculate ARD Index indicator values that feed into the classification of ARD potential. Automated ARD potential classifications of drill core samples associated with a porphyry Cu-Au deposit are compared to manually derived classifications and those obtained by standard static geochemical testing and X-ray diffractometry analyses. Results indicate a high degree of similarity between automated and manual ARD potential classifications. Major differences between approaches are observed in sulphide and neutraliser mineral percentages, likely due to the subjective nature of manual estimates of mineral content. The automated approach

Artificial intelligence techniques for embryo and oocyte classification.

Science.gov (United States)

Manna, Claudio; Nanni, Loris; Lumini, Alessandra; Pappalardo, Sebastiana

2013-01-01

One of the most relevant aspects in assisted reproduction technology is the possibility of characterizing and identifying the most viable oocytes or embryos. In most cases, embryologists select them by visual examination and their evaluation is totally subjective. Recently, due to the rapid growth in the capacity to extract texture descriptors from a given image, a growing interest has been shown in the use of artificial intelligence methods for embryo or oocyte scoring/selection in IVF programmes. This work concentrates the efforts on the possible prediction of the quality of embryos and oocytes in order to improve the performance of assisted reproduction technology, starting from their images. The artificial intelligence system proposed in this work is based on a set of Levenberg-Marquardt neural networks trained using textural descriptors (the local binary patterns). The proposed system was tested on two data sets of 269 oocytes and 269 corresponding embryos from 104 women and compared with other machine learning methods already proposed in the past for similar classification problems. Although the results are only preliminary, they show an interesting classification performance. This technique may be of particular interest in those countries where legislation restricts embryo selection. One of the most relevant aspects in assisted reproduction technology is the possibility of characterizing and identifying the most viable oocytes or embryos. In most cases, embryologists select them by visual examination and their evaluation is totally subjective. Recently, due to the rapid growth in our capacity to extract texture descriptors from a given image, a growing interest has been shown in the use of artificial intelligence methods for embryo or oocyte scoring/selection in IVF programmes. In this work, we concentrate our efforts on the possible prediction of the quality of embryos and oocytes in order to improve the performance of assisted reproduction technology

Eruptive pattern classification on Mount Etna (Sicily) and Piton de la Fournaise (La Réunion)

Science.gov (United States)

Falsaperla, Susanna; Langer, Horst; Ferrazzini, Valérie

2016-04-01

In the framework of the European MEDiterrranean Supersite Volcanoes (MED­SUV) project, Mt. Etna (Italy) and Piton de la Fournaise (La Réunion) were chosen as "European Supersite Demonstrator" and test site, respectively, to promote the transfer and implementation of efficient tools for the identification of impending volcanic activity. Both are "open-conduit volcanoes", forming ideal sites for the test and validation of innovative concepts, which can contribute to minimize volcanic hazard. One of the aims of the MED-SUV project was the development of software for machine learning applicable to data processing for early-warning purposes. Near-real time classification of continuous seismic data stream has been carried out in the control room of INGV Osservatorio Etneo since 2010. Subsequently, automatic alert procedures were activated. In the light of the excellent results for the 24/7 surveillance of Etna, we examine the portability of tools developed in the framework of the project when applied to seismic data recorded at Piton de la Fournaise. In the present application to data recorded at Piton de la Fournaise, the classifier aims at highlighting changes in the frequency content of the background seismic signal heralding the activation of the volcanic source and the imminent eruption. We describe the preliminary results of this test on a set of data of nearly two years starting on January 2014. This period follows three years of inactivity and deflation of the volcano and marks a renewal of the volcano activity with inflation, deep seismicity (-7km bsl) and five eruptions with fountains and lava flows that lasted from a few hours to more than two months. We discuss here the necessary tuning for the implementation of the software to the new dataset analyzed. We also propose a comparison with the results of pattern classification regarding recent eruptive activity at Etna.

Transportation of Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness Hazards Assessment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Blanchard, A.

2000-02-28

This report documents the Emergency Preparedness Hazards Assessment (EPHA) for the Transportation of Hazardous Materials (THM) at the Department of Energy (DOE) Savannah River Site (SRS). This hazards assessment is intended to identify and analyze those transportation hazards significant enough to warrant consideration in the SRS Emergency Management Program.

Transportation of Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness Hazards Assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blanchard, A.

2000-01-01

This report documents the Emergency Preparedness Hazards Assessment (EPHA) for the Transportation of Hazardous Materials (THM) at the Department of Energy (DOE) Savannah River Site (SRS). This hazards assessment is intended to identify and analyze those transportation hazards significant enough to warrant consideration in the SRS Emergency Management Program

Transportation of hazardous materials emergency preparedness hazards assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blanchard, A.

2000-01-01

This report documents the Emergency Preparedness Hazards Assessment (EPHA) for the Transportation of Hazardous Materials (THM) at the Department of Energy (DOE) Savannah River Site (SRS). This hazards assessment is intended to identify and analyze those transportation hazards significant enough to warrant consideration in the SRS Emergency Management Program

78 FR 64005 - Notice of Realty Action: Classification and Segregation for Conveyance for Recreation and Public...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-10-25

... result in the disposal, placement, or release of any hazardous substance. Upon publication of this notice... DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Bureau of Land Management [LLNVC02000.L14300000.E0000; NVN082004; 13... Purposes Classification of Public Lands in Storey County, NV AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior...

Hydrologic landscape regionalisation using deductive classification and random forests.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stuart C Brown

Full Text Available Landscape classification and hydrological regionalisation studies are being increasingly used in ecohydrology to aid in the management and research of aquatic resources. We present a methodology for classifying hydrologic landscapes based on spatial environmental variables by employing non-parametric statistics and hybrid image classification. Our approach differed from previous classifications which have required the use of an a priori spatial unit (e.g. a catchment which necessarily results in the loss of variability that is known to exist within those units. The use of a simple statistical approach to identify an appropriate number of classes eliminated the need for large amounts of post-hoc testing with different number of groups, or the selection and justification of an arbitrary number. Using statistical clustering, we identified 23 distinct groups within our training dataset. The use of a hybrid classification employing random forests extended this statistical clustering to an area of approximately 228,000 km2 of south-eastern Australia without the need to rely on catchments, landscape units or stream sections. This extension resulted in a highly accurate regionalisation at both 30-m and 2.5-km resolution, and a less-accurate 10-km classification that would be more appropriate for use at a continental scale. A smaller case study, of an area covering 27,000 km2, demonstrated that the method preserved the intra- and inter-catchment variability that is known to exist in local hydrology, based on previous research. Preliminary analysis linking the regionalisation to streamflow indices is promising suggesting that the method could be used to predict streamflow behaviour in ungauged catchments. Our work therefore simplifies current classification frameworks that are becoming more popular in ecohydrology, while better retaining small-scale variability in hydrology, thus enabling future attempts to explain and visualise broad-scale hydrologic

Classifying Classifications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Debus, Michael S.

2017-01-01

This paper critically analyzes seventeen game classifications. The classifications were chosen on the basis of diversity, ranging from pre-digital classification (e.g. Murray 1952), over game studies classifications (e.g. Elverdam & Aarseth 2007) to classifications of drinking games (e.g. LaBrie et...... al. 2013). The analysis aims at three goals: The classifications’ internal consistency, the abstraction of classification criteria and the identification of differences in classification across fields and/or time. Especially the abstraction of classification criteria can be used in future endeavors...... into the topic of game classifications....

A hazard and probabilistic safety analysis of a high-level waste transfer process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bott, T.F.; Sasser, M.K.

1996-01-01

This paper describes a safety analysis of a transfer process for high-level radioactive and toxic waste. The analysis began with a hazard assessment that used elements of What If, Checklist, Failure Modes and Effects Analysis, and Hazards and Operability Study (HAZOP) techniques to identify and rough-in accident sequences. Based on this preliminary analysis, the most significant accident sequences were developed further using event trees. Quantitative frequency estimates for the accident sequences were based on operational data taken from the historical record of the site where the process is performed. Several modeling challenges were encountered in the course of the study. These included linked initiating and accident progression events, fire propagation modeling, accounting for administrative control violations, and handling mission-phase effects

A simple tool for preliminary hazard identification and quick assessment in craftwork and small/medium enterprises (SME).

Science.gov (United States)

Colombini, Daniela; Occhipinti, E; Di Leone, G

2012-01-01

During the last Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA), Beijing, August 2009, an international group was founded aimed at developing a "toolkit for MSD prevention" within IEA and in collaboration with World Health Organization (WHO). Possible users of toolkits are: members of health and safety committees, health and safety representatives, line supervisors; labor inspectors; health workers implementing basic occupational health services; occupational health and safety specialists.According to ISO standard 11228 series and the new Draft CD ISO 12259-2009: Application document guides for the potential user, a computer software ( in Excel®) was create dealing with hazard "mapping" in handicraft The proposed methodology, using specific key enters and quick assessment criteria, allows a simple ergonomics hazard identification and risk estimation. Thus it makes possible to decide for which professional hazards a more exhaustive risk assessment will be necessary and which professional consultant should be involved (occupational physician, safety engineer, industrial hygienist, etc.).

The Geohazard Safety Classification: how resilience could play a role in the geo-hydrological hazards assessment of school buildings.

Science.gov (United States)

Pazzi, Veronica; Morelli, Stefano; Casagli, Nicola

2016-04-01

of risk allows us to refine the risk awareness, focusing attention on the cultural and social meaning of risk as a shared practice among communities that are potentially at risk. This project developed a method for assessing school hazard exposure (landslide, seismic, flood) and structural fragility/safe learning facilities (seismic response, dampness, plan configuration) which is non-invasive, fairly quick and objective. This tool, which is based on the GSC (Geohazard Safety Classification) definition, was tested in central Italy and optimized for a very wide variety of situations, so that it may be exported in schools (or in similar working places) of other geographical areas. The GSC was obtained as the complementary to one of the Index of Geohazard Impact (IGI), calculated modifying the equation of the specific risk, taking into account also the resilience as a damper, amplifier or invariant of the specific risk itself (IGI=max(HixVi)/rho). The variables of this new equation (hazard, vulnerability and resilience) can be quantified on the basis of ancillary data (thematic maps), results of the data processing of field surveys (seismic noise measure according to the H/V technique, thermographic images, GPS surveys) and the answers to an online questionnaire implemented on purpose.

Hazard function theory for nonstationary natural hazards

Science.gov (United States)

Read, L.; Vogel, R. M.

2015-12-01

Studies from the natural hazards literature indicate that many natural processes, including wind speeds, landslides, wildfires, precipitation, streamflow and earthquakes, show evidence of nonstationary behavior such as trends in magnitudes through time. Traditional probabilistic analysis of natural hazards based on partial duration series (PDS) generally assumes stationarity in the magnitudes and arrivals of events, i.e. that the probability of exceedance is constant through time. Given evidence of trends and the consequent expected growth in devastating impacts from natural hazards across the world, new methods are needed to characterize their probabilistic behavior. The field of hazard function analysis (HFA) is ideally suited to this problem because its primary goal is to describe changes in the exceedance probability of an event over time. HFA is widely used in medicine, manufacturing, actuarial statistics, reliability engineering, economics, and elsewhere. HFA provides a rich theory to relate the natural hazard event series (x) with its failure time series (t), enabling computation of corresponding average return periods and reliabilities associated with nonstationary event series. This work investigates the suitability of HFA to characterize nonstationary natural hazards whose PDS magnitudes are assumed to follow the widely applied Poisson-GP model. We derive a 2-parameter Generalized Pareto hazard model and demonstrate how metrics such as reliability and average return period are impacted by nonstationarity and discuss the implications for planning and design. Our theoretical analysis linking hazard event series x, with corresponding failure time series t, should have application to a wide class of natural hazards.

Hazard function theory for nonstationary natural hazards

Science.gov (United States)

Read, Laura K.; Vogel, Richard M.

2016-04-01

Impact from natural hazards is a shared global problem that causes tremendous loss of life and property, economic cost, and damage to the environment. Increasingly, many natural processes show evidence of nonstationary behavior including wind speeds, landslides, wildfires, precipitation, streamflow, sea levels, and earthquakes. Traditional probabilistic analysis of natural hazards based on peaks over threshold (POT) generally assumes stationarity in the magnitudes and arrivals of events, i.e., that the probability of exceedance of some critical event is constant through time. Given increasing evidence of trends in natural hazards, new methods are needed to characterize their probabilistic behavior. The well-developed field of hazard function analysis (HFA) is ideally suited to this problem because its primary goal is to describe changes in the exceedance probability of an event over time. HFA is widely used in medicine, manufacturing, actuarial statistics, reliability engineering, economics, and elsewhere. HFA provides a rich theory to relate the natural hazard event series (X) with its failure time series (T), enabling computation of corresponding average return periods, risk, and reliabilities associated with nonstationary event series. This work investigates the suitability of HFA to characterize nonstationary natural hazards whose POT magnitudes are assumed to follow the widely applied generalized Pareto model. We derive the hazard function for this case and demonstrate how metrics such as reliability and average return period are impacted by nonstationarity and discuss the implications for planning and design. Our theoretical analysis linking hazard random variable X with corresponding failure time series T should have application to a wide class of natural hazards with opportunities for future extensions.

Lunar Flight Study Series: Volume 4. Preliminary Investigation of the Astronautics of Earth - Moon Transits

Science.gov (United States)

Braud, Nolan J.

1963-01-01

Preliminary information on flight profiles, velocity budgets and launch windows for Apollo and Support Vehicle flights is presented in this report. A newly conceived method of establishing a flight mechanical classification of the earth-moon transits is discussed. The results are empirical and are designed to contribute to the mission mode selection.

Symposium on the transportation of hazardous goods

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mackay, D; Canniff, W; Coleman, R J; Ellison, T D; Estrin, D

1980-06-11

A symposium on the transportation of hazardous goods sponsored by the University of Toronto, the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering, and Oyez Ltd. (Toronto May 1980), in view of a 11/10/79 explosion at Mississauga, Ont., following derailment of a Canadian Pacific Railways train carrying chlorine gas, covers comments by D. MacKay (Univ. Toronto), on the importance of quantifying the probability of an accident in transporting such hazardous materials as LPG's, chlorine, and corrosive acids, and of formulating contingency plans to reduce the probability or mitigate the effects; by W. Canniff of the Canadian Chemical Producers Association, on that group's Transportation Emergency Assistance Plan, which relies on the shipper of the chemical involved in an accident to provide advice and assistance; by R.J. Coleman (San Clemente, Calif., Fire Dep.), on coordination of efforts between firefighting and other emergency-handling groups to avoid confusion; by T.D. Ellison (Transp. Can.), on proposed Canadian legislation on the transport of dangerous goods, which would adopt, among others, a product classification system now used for international sea transport and a new system of labeling packages; and by D. Estrin, on the limitations of this proposed legislation.

The Classification of Tongue Colors with Standardized Acquisition and ICC Profile Correction in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Qi, Zhen; Tu, Li-Ping; Chen, Jing-Bo; Hu, Xiao-Juan; Xu, Jia-Tuo; Zhang, Zhi-Feng

2016-01-01

Background and Goal . The application of digital image processing techniques and machine learning methods in tongue image classification in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been widely studied nowadays. However, it is difficult for the outcomes to generalize because of lack of color reproducibility and image standardization. Our study aims at the exploration of tongue colors classification with a standardized tongue image acquisition process and color correction. Methods . Three traditional Chinese medical experts are chosen to identify the selected tongue pictures taken by the TDA-1 tongue imaging device in TIFF format through ICC profile correction. Then we compare the mean value of L * a * b * of different tongue colors and evaluate the effect of the tongue color classification by machine learning methods. Results . The L * a * b * values of the five tongue colors are statistically different. Random forest method has a better performance than SVM in classification. SMOTE algorithm can increase classification accuracy by solving the imbalance of the varied color samples. Conclusions . At the premise of standardized tongue acquisition and color reproduction, preliminary objectification of tongue color classification in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is feasible.

Biocontamination Control for Spacesuit Garments - A Preliminary Study

Science.gov (United States)

Rhodes, Richard A.; Orndoff, Evelyne; Korona, F. Adam; Poritz, Darwin; Smith, Jelanie; Wong, Wing

2011-01-01

This paper outlines a preliminary study that was conducted to review, test, and improve on current space suit biocontamination control. Biocontamination from crew members can cause space suit damage and objectionable odors and lead to crew member health hazards. An understanding of the level of biocontamination is necessary to mitigate its effects. A series of tests were conducted with the intent of evaluating current suit materials, ground and on-orbit disinfectants, and potential commercial off-the-shelf antimicrobial materials. Included in this paper is a discussion of the test methodology, results, and analysis method.

Hazards assessment for the Hazardous Waste Storage Facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Knudsen, J.K.; Calley, M.B.

1994-04-01

This report documents the hazards assessment for the Hazardous Waste Storage Facility (HWSF) located at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. The hazards assessment was performed to ensure that this facility complies with DOE and company requirements pertaining to emergency planning and preparedness for operational emergencies. The hazards assessment identifies and analyzes hazards that are significant enough to warrant consideration in a facility's operational emergency management program. The area surrounding HWSF, the buildings and structures at HWSF, and the processes used at HWSF are described in this report. All nonradiological hazardous materials at the HWSF were identified (radiological hazardous materials are not stored at HWSF) and screened against threshold quantities according to DOE Order 5500.3A guidance. Two of the identified hazardous materials exceeded their specified threshold quantity. This report discusses the potential release scenarios and consequences associated with an accidental release for each of the two identified hazardous materials, lead and mercury. Emergency considerations, such as emergency planning zones, emergency classes, protective actions, and emergency action levels, are also discussed based on the analysis of potential consequences. Evaluation of the potential consequences indicated that the highest emergency class for operational emergencies at the HWSF would be a Site Area Emergency

Hazard ranking systems for chemical wastes and chemical waste sites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Waters, R.D.; Parker, F.L.; Crutcher, M.R.

1991-01-01

Hazardous materials and substances have always existed in the environment. Mankind has evolved to live with some degree of exposure to toxic materials. Until recently the risk has been from natural toxins or natural background radiation. While rapid technological advances over the past few decades have improved the lifestyle of our society, they have also dramatically increased the availability, volume and types of synthetic and natural hazardous materials. Many of their effects are as yet uncertain. Products and manufacturing by-products that no longer serve a useful purpose are deemed wastes. For some waste products land disposal will always be their ultimate fate. Hazardous substances are often included in the waste products. One needs to classify wastes by degree of hazard (risk). Risk (degree of probability of loss) is usually defined for risk assessment as probability of an occurrence times the consequences of the occurrence. Perhaps even more important than the definition of risk is the choice of a risk management strategy. The choice of strategy will be strongly influenced by the decision criteria used. Those decision criteria could be utility (the greatest happiness of the greatest number), rights or technology based or some combination of the three. It is necessary to make such choices about the definition of risks and criteria for management. It is clear that these are social (i.e., political) and value choices and science has little to say on this matter. This is another example of what Alvin Weinberg has named Transcience where the subject matter is scientific and technical but the choices are social, political and moral. This paper shall deal only with the scientific and technical aspects of the hazardous waste problem to create a hazardous substances classification system

Management of radiation hazards in hospitals: plural rationalities in a single institution

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rayner, S.

1986-01-01

This paper examines the perceptions of occupational radiological hazards in a small sample of American hospitals during an anthropological pilot study conducted in 1982. The results indicate that occupants of various occupational categories exhibit diverse behaviours toward medical radiation. These behaviours are consistent with grid/group classifications of each type of occupation. Various implications for risk management and institutional design are discussed in the context of different levels of trust in individual control and institutional procedures. (author)

Hazard and operability study of the multi-function Waste Tank Facility. Revision 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hughes, M.E.

1995-01-01

The Multi-Function Waste Tank Facility (MWTF) East site will be constructed on the west side of the 200E area and the MWTF West site will be constructed in the SW quadrant of the 200W site in the Hanford Area. This is a description of facility hazards that site personnel or the general public could potentially be exposed to during operation. A list of preliminary Design Basis Accidents was developed

Determination of Erosion Hazard Level And Bio-Mechanical Conservation In Post Merapi Eruption Land At Srumbung Magelang

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S Setyo Wardoyo

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to determine the Erosion hazard, to look for conservation of bio - mechanical techniques are appropriate . Research methods with overlies topographic maps, soil maps, land use maps, to obtain a Land Unit Map. Determined soil physical properties (texture, structure, permeability and chemical properties of soil (soil organic matter, slope, slope length, broad of land unit, crops factor and value conservation factors that have been there for Land Unit. Each land unit is determined the amount of land erosion and erosion hazard level. Erosion hazard level is determined based on soil erosion, and soil depth. Erosion hazzard level is used to determine the bio-mechanical conservation, according Hardjowigeno and Sukmana (1995. The results showed that the highest erosion hazard level with an area of 12.947 ha is classified weight (Land unit 15A, and the classification of an area of 14.665 ha is clssified moderately (Land unit 6A. Soil conservation is done in areas with highest erosion hazard level by making individual terraces and “kerandang” planted as a cover crops.

Environmental impact and human health risks of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans in the vicinity of a new hazardous waste incinerator: a case study.

OpenAIRE

Ferré-Huguet, Núria; Nadal, Martí; Schuhmacher, Marta; Domingo, José L.

2006-01-01

KEYWORDS - CLASSIFICATION: adverse effects;analysis;Benzofurans;cancer epidemiology;Dioxins;Environmental Exposure;Environmental Health;Environmental Monitoring;Hazardous Waste;Humans;Incineration;metabolism;Refuse Disposal;Research;Risk Assessment;Spain;Toxicology. The purpose of this study was to assess the environmental impact of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) in the vicinity of a new hazardous waste incinerator (HWI) 4 years after regular operation of the...

Hazard interactions and interaction networks (cascades) within multi-hazard methodologies

Science.gov (United States)

Gill, Joel C.; Malamud, Bruce D.

2016-08-01

This paper combines research and commentary to reinforce the importance of integrating hazard interactions and interaction networks (cascades) into multi-hazard methodologies. We present a synthesis of the differences between multi-layer single-hazard approaches and multi-hazard approaches that integrate such interactions. This synthesis suggests that ignoring interactions between important environmental and anthropogenic processes could distort management priorities, increase vulnerability to other spatially relevant hazards or underestimate disaster risk. In this paper we proceed to present an enhanced multi-hazard framework through the following steps: (i) description and definition of three groups (natural hazards, anthropogenic processes and technological hazards/disasters) as relevant components of a multi-hazard environment, (ii) outlining of three types of interaction relationship (triggering, increased probability, and catalysis/impedance), and (iii) assessment of the importance of networks of interactions (cascades) through case study examples (based on the literature, field observations and semi-structured interviews). We further propose two visualisation frameworks to represent these networks of interactions: hazard interaction matrices and hazard/process flow diagrams. Our approach reinforces the importance of integrating interactions between different aspects of the Earth system, together with human activity, into enhanced multi-hazard methodologies. Multi-hazard approaches support the holistic assessment of hazard potential and consequently disaster risk. We conclude by describing three ways by which understanding networks of interactions contributes to the theoretical and practical understanding of hazards, disaster risk reduction and Earth system management. Understanding interactions and interaction networks helps us to better (i) model the observed reality of disaster events, (ii) constrain potential changes in physical and social vulnerability

Preliminary treatment of MSW fly ash as a way of improving electrodialytic remediation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ferreira, Célia Maria Dias; Jensen, Pernille Erland; Ottosen, Lisbeth M.

2008-01-01

In the current work electrodialytic remediation (EDR) was applied to remove heavy metals from municipal solid waste (MSW) fly ash, a hazardous waste collected during flue gas treatment. Tests were conducted to evaluate if EDR could be improved by introducing a preliminary treatment in which very...... soluble salts were removed. Three different preliminary treatments were conducted with different L:S ratios and pH. Treatment in which metal release and L/S ratio were lower was selected for EDR. Electrodialytic remediation was performed at a constant current of 38 mA, for 14 days, using gluconate...... as a solubilisation enhancement agent. Conductivity and pH were monitored and electrolyte samples were collected every 4 days to evaluate metal release over time. It was found that the preliminary treatment reduces fouling of the ion-exchange membranes used in EDR and drastically increases the removal of metals...

Disaggregated seismic hazard and the elastic input energy spectrum: An approach to design earthquake selection

Science.gov (United States)

Chapman, Martin Colby

1998-12-01

The design earthquake selection problem is fundamentally probabilistic. Disaggregation of a probabilistic model of the seismic hazard offers a rational and objective approach that can identify the most likely earthquake scenario(s) contributing to hazard. An ensemble of time series can be selected on the basis of the modal earthquakes derived from the disaggregation. This gives a useful time-domain realization of the seismic hazard, to the extent that a single motion parameter captures the important time-domain characteristics. A possible limitation to this approach arises because most currently available motion prediction models for peak ground motion or oscillator response are essentially independent of duration, and modal events derived using the peak motions for the analysis may not represent the optimal characterization of the hazard. The elastic input energy spectrum is an alternative to the elastic response spectrum for these types of analyses. The input energy combines the elements of amplitude and duration into a single parameter description of the ground motion that can be readily incorporated into standard probabilistic seismic hazard analysis methodology. This use of the elastic input energy spectrum is examined. Regression analysis is performed using strong motion data from Western North America and consistent data processing procedures for both the absolute input energy equivalent velocity, (Vsbea), and the elastic pseudo-relative velocity response (PSV) in the frequency range 0.5 to 10 Hz. The results show that the two parameters can be successfully fit with identical functional forms. The dependence of Vsbea and PSV upon (NEHRP) site classification is virtually identical. The variance of Vsbea is uniformly less than that of PSV, indicating that Vsbea can be predicted with slightly less uncertainty as a function of magnitude, distance and site classification. The effects of site class are important at frequencies less than a few Hertz. The regression

41 CFR 101-42.1101 - Federal supply classification (FSC) groups and classes which contain hazardous materials.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

..., building paper, and thermal insulation materials Asbestos cloth which has loose fibers or particles that... shipment. 5965 Headsets, handsets, microphones, and speakers Items containing magnetic material. 5970... hazardous chemicals, solvents. 6625 Electrical and electronic properties measuring and testing instruments...

Classification of permafrost active layer depth from remotely sensed and topographic evidence

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Peddle, D.R.; Franklin, S.E.

1993-01-01

The remote detection of permafrost (perennially frozen ground) has important implications to environmental resource development, engineering studies, natural hazard prediction, and climate change research. In this study, the authors present results from two experiments into the classification of permafrost active layer depth within the zone of discontinuous permafrost in northern Canada. A new software system based on evidential reasoning was implemented to permit the integrated classification of multisource data consisting of landcover, terrain aspect, and equivalent latitude, each of which possessed different formats, data types, or statistical properties that could not be handled by conventional classification algorithms available to this study. In the first experiment, four active layer depth classes were classified using ground based measurements of the three variables with an accuracy of 83% compared to in situ soil probe determination of permafrost active layer depth at over 500 field sites. This confirmed the environmental significance of the variables selected, and provided a baseline result to which a remote sensing classification could be compared. In the second experiment, evidence for each input variable was obtained from image processing of digital SPOT imagery and a photogrammetric digital elevation model, and used to classify active layer depth with an accuracy of 79%. These results suggest the classification of evidence from remotely sensed measures of spectral response and topography may provide suitable indicators of permafrost active layer depth

Place-classification analysis of community vulnerability to near-field tsunami threats in the U.S. Pacific Northwest

Science.gov (United States)

Wood, N. J.; Spielman, S.

2012-12-01

Near-field tsunami hazards are credible threats to many coastal communities throughout the world. Along the U.S. Pacific Northwest coast, low-lying areas could be inundated by a series of catastrophic tsunamis that begin to arrive in a matter of minutes following a major Cascadia subduction zone (CSZ) earthquake. Previous research has documented the residents, employees, tourists at public venues, customers at local businesses, and vulnerable populations at dependent-care facilities that are in CSZ-related tsunami-prone areas of northern California, Oregon, and the open-ocean coast of Washington. Community inventories of demographic attributes and other characteristics of the at-risk population have helped emergency managers to develop preparedness and outreach efforts. Although useful for distinct risk-reduction issues, these data can be difficult to fully appreciate holistically given the large number of community attributes. This presentation summarizes analytical efforts to classify communities with similar characteristics of community exposure to tsunami hazards. This work builds on past State-focused inventories of community exposure to CSZ-related tsunami hazards in northern California, Oregon, and Washington. Attributes used in the classification, or cluster analysis, fall into several categories, including demography of residents, spatial extent of the developed footprint based on mid-resolution land cover data, distribution of the local workforce, and the number and type of public venues, dependent-care facilities, and community-support businesses. As we were unsure of the number of different types of communities, we used an unsupervised-model-based clustering algorithm and a v-fold, cross-validation procedure (v=50) to identify the appropriate number of community types. Ultimately we selected class solutions that provided the appropriate balance between parsimony and model fit. The goal of the exposure classification is to provide emergency managers with

Development of a systematic methodology to select hazard analysis techniques for nuclear facilities

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vasconcelos, Vanderley de; Reis, Sergio Carneiro dos; Costa, Antonio Carlos Lopes da [Centro de Desenvolvimento da Tecnologia Nuclear (CDTN/CNEN-MG), Belo Horizonte, MG (Brazil)]. E-mails: vasconv@cdtn.br; reissc@cdtn.br; aclc@cdtn.br; Jordao, Elizabete [Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), SP (Brazil). Faculdade de Engenharia Quimica]. E-mail: bete@feq.unicamp.br

2008-07-01

In order to comply with licensing requirements of regulatory bodies risk assessments of nuclear facilities should be carried out. In Brazil, such assessments are part of the Safety Analysis Reports, required by CNEN (Brazilian Nuclear Energy Commission), and of the Risk Analysis Studies, required by the competent environmental bodies. A risk assessment generally includes the identification of the hazards and accident sequences that can occur, as well as the estimation of the frequencies and effects of these unwanted events on the plant, people, and environment. The hazard identification and analysis are also particularly important when implementing an Integrated Safety, Health, and Environment Management System following ISO 14001, BS 8800 and OHSAS 18001 standards. Among the myriad of tools that help the process of hazard analysis can be highlighted: CCA (Cause- Consequence Analysis); CL (Checklist Analysis); ETA (Event Tree Analysis); FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis); FMECA (Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis); FTA (Fault Tree Analysis); HAZOP (Hazard and Operability Study); HRA (Human Reliability Analysis); Pareto Analysis; PHA (Preliminary Hazard Analysis); RR (Relative Ranking); SR (Safety Review); WI (What-If); and WI/CL (What-If/Checklist Analysis). The choice of a particular technique or a combination of techniques depends on many factors like motivation of the analysis, available data, complexity of the process being analyzed, expertise available on hazard analysis, and initial perception of the involved risks. This paper presents a systematic methodology to select the most suitable set of tools to conduct the hazard analysis, taking into account the mentioned involved factors. Considering that non-reactor nuclear facilities are, to a large extent, chemical processing plants, the developed approach can also be applied to analysis of chemical and petrochemical plants. The selected hazard analysis techniques can support cost

Development of a systematic methodology to select hazard analysis techniques for nuclear facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vasconcelos, Vanderley de; Reis, Sergio Carneiro dos; Costa, Antonio Carlos Lopes da; Jordao, Elizabete

2008-01-01

In order to comply with licensing requirements of regulatory bodies risk assessments of nuclear facilities should be carried out. In Brazil, such assessments are part of the Safety Analysis Reports, required by CNEN (Brazilian Nuclear Energy Commission), and of the Risk Analysis Studies, required by the competent environmental bodies. A risk assessment generally includes the identification of the hazards and accident sequences that can occur, as well as the estimation of the frequencies and effects of these unwanted events on the plant, people, and environment. The hazard identification and analysis are also particularly important when implementing an Integrated Safety, Health, and Environment Management System following ISO 14001, BS 8800 and OHSAS 18001 standards. Among the myriad of tools that help the process of hazard analysis can be highlighted: CCA (Cause- Consequence Analysis); CL (Checklist Analysis); ETA (Event Tree Analysis); FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis); FMECA (Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis); FTA (Fault Tree Analysis); HAZOP (Hazard and Operability Study); HRA (Human Reliability Analysis); Pareto Analysis; PHA (Preliminary Hazard Analysis); RR (Relative Ranking); SR (Safety Review); WI (What-If); and WI/CL (What-If/Checklist Analysis). The choice of a particular technique or a combination of techniques depends on many factors like motivation of the analysis, available data, complexity of the process being analyzed, expertise available on hazard analysis, and initial perception of the involved risks. This paper presents a systematic methodology to select the most suitable set of tools to conduct the hazard analysis, taking into account the mentioned involved factors. Considering that non-reactor nuclear facilities are, to a large extent, chemical processing plants, the developed approach can also be applied to analysis of chemical and petrochemical plants. The selected hazard analysis techniques can support cost

Valuation of potential hazards to ground water from abandoned sites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kerndorff, H.; Schleyer, R.; Dieter, H.H.

1993-01-01

With a view to obtaining, for the large number of abandoned sites suspected of pollution, necessary information regarding the type and extent of possible ground water contamination with a minimum of effort and cost, a hierarchical investigation strategy was developed and successfully tested in more than 100 cases in Germany. As a decisive advantage, already the well-defined and simple investigation steps ''preliminary prospecting'' and ''screening'' permit to recognize polluted sites posing a hazard to ground water. The more specific and demanding investigation steps ''pollutant analysis'' and ''detailed investigations'' may be carried through if necessary. (orig./BBR). 27 figs., 36 tabs [de

Support vector machine for breast cancer classification using diffusion-weighted MRI histogram features: Preliminary study.

Science.gov (United States)

Vidić, Igor; Egnell, Liv; Jerome, Neil P; Teruel, Jose R; Sjøbakk, Torill E; Østlie, Agnes; Fjøsne, Hans E; Bathen, Tone F; Goa, Pål Erik

2018-05-01

Diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI) is currently one of the fastest developing MRI-based techniques in oncology. Histogram properties from model fitting of DWI are useful features for differentiation of lesions, and classification can potentially be improved by machine learning. To evaluate classification of malignant and benign tumors and breast cancer subtypes using support vector machine (SVM). Prospective. Fifty-one patients with benign (n = 23) and malignant (n = 28) breast tumors (26 ER+, whereof six were HER2+). Patients were imaged with DW-MRI (3T) using twice refocused spin-echo echo-planar imaging with echo time / repetition time (TR/TE) = 9000/86 msec, 90 × 90 matrix size, 2 × 2 mm in-plane resolution, 2.5 mm slice thickness, and 13 b-values. Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), relative enhanced diffusivity (RED), and the intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) parameters diffusivity (D), pseudo-diffusivity (D*), and perfusion fraction (f) were calculated. The histogram properties (median, mean, standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis) were used as features in SVM (10-fold cross-validation) for differentiation of lesions and subtyping. Accuracies of the SVM classifications were calculated to find the combination of features with highest prediction accuracy. Mann-Whitney tests were performed for univariate comparisons. For benign versus malignant tumors, univariate analysis found 11 histogram properties to be significant differentiators. Using SVM, the highest accuracy (0.96) was achieved from a single feature (mean of RED), or from three feature combinations of IVIM or ADC. Combining features from all models gave perfect classification. No single feature predicted HER2 status of ER + tumors (univariate or SVM), although high accuracy (0.90) was achieved with SVM combining several features. Importantly, these features had to include higher-order statistics (kurtosis and skewness), indicating the importance to account for heterogeneity. Our

Multidisciplinary Geo-scientific Hazard Analyses: Istanbul Microzonation Projects

Science.gov (United States)

Kara, Sema; Baş, Mahmut; Kılıç, Osman; Tarih, Ahmet; Yahya Menteşe, Emin; Duran, Kemal

2017-04-01

Istanbul (Turkey) is located on the west edge of North Anatolia Fault and hence is an earthquake prone city with a population that exceeds 15 million people. In addition, the city is still growing as center of commerce, tourism and culture that increases the exposure more and more. During the last decade, although Istanbul grew faster than ever in its history, precautions against a possible earthquake have also increased steadily. The two big earthquakes (in Kocaeli and Duzce Provinces) occurred in 1999 alongside Istanbul and these events became the trigger events that accelerated the disaster risk reduction activities in Istanbul. Following a loss estimation study carried out by Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in 2001 and Istanbul Earthquake Master Plan prepared by four major universities' researchers in 2003; it was evaluated that understanding and analyzing the geological structure in Istanbul was the main concern. Thereafter Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality's Directorate of Earthquake and Ground Research (DEGRE) carried out two major geo-scientific studies called "microzonation studies" covering 650 km2 of Istanbul's urbanized areas between 2006 and 2009. The studies were called "microzonation" because the analysis resolution was as dense as 250m grids and included various assessments on hazards such as ground shaking, liquefaction, karstification, landslide, flooding, and surface faulting. After the evaluation of geological, geotechnical and geophysical measurements; Earthquake and Tsunami Hazard Maps for all Istanbul, slope, engineering geology, ground water level, faulting, ground shaking, inundation, shear wave velocity and soil classification maps for the project areas were obtained. In the end "Land Suitability Maps" are derived from the combination of inputs using multi-hazard approach. As a result, microzonation is tool for risk oriented urban planning; consisting of interdisciplinary multi-hazard risk analyses. The outputs of

Preliminary Safety Analysis Report for the Tokamak Physics Experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Motloch, C.G.; Bonney, R.F.; Levine, J.D.; Masson, L.S.; Commander, J.C.

1995-04-01

This Preliminary Safety Analysis Report (PSAR), includes an indication of the magnitude of facility hazards, complexity of facility operations, and the stage of the facility life-cycle. It presents the results of safety analyses, safety assurance programs, identified vulnerabilities, compensatory measures, and, in general, the rationale describing why the Tokamak Physics Experiment (TPX) can be safely operated. It discusses application of the graded approach to the TPX safety analysis, including the basis for using Department of Energy (DOE) Order 5480.23 and DOE-STD-3009-94 in the development of the PSAR

Demonstration of automated robotic workcell for hazardous waste characterization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Holliday, M.; Dougan, A.; Gavel, D.; Gustaveson, D.; Johnson, R.; Kettering, B.; Wilhelmsen, K.

1993-02-01

An automated robotic workcell to classify hazardous waste stream items with previously unknown characteristics has been designed, tested and demonstrated The object attributes being quantified are radiation signature, metal content, and object orientation and volume. The multi sensor information is used to make segregation decisions plus do automatic grasping of objects. The work-cell control program uses an off-line programming system by Cimetrix Inc. as a server to do both simulation control as well as actual hardware control of the workcell. This paper will discuss the overall workcell layout, sensor specifications, workcell supervisory control, 2D vision based automated grasp planning and object classification algorithms

HAXWDDD (Hazardous Waste Development, Demonstration, and Disposal) - An exercise in corporate planning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McGinnis, C.P.; Pechin, W.H.

1988-01-01

The Hazardous Waste Development, Demonstration, and Disposal (HAZWDDD) program is a corporate initiative that is coordinated between Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc. (Energy Systems), and the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Operations Office (DOE-ORO). The major objective of HAZWDDD is to develop a comprehensive management strategy for the hazardous and mixed wastes generated by the five Energy Systems installations. This program is of prime importance because federal and state regulations for handling hazardous wastes are becoming increasingly stringent and the generator of such wastes retains legally mandated liability for their disposal indefinitely. In addition, no acceptable method is currently available for handling mixed (hazardous and radioactive) wastes. Both Energy Systems corporate management and DOE-ORO management have recognized the seriousness of these problems and have established several programs to determine acceptable courses of action. A plan has been developed for low-level radioactive waste (LLW), and an active dialogue pertaining to LLW is maintained with the state and federal regulators. During 1986, DOE-ORO and Energy Systems identified the need for a plan to address hazardous and mixed wastes. Each installation supports the concept of HAZWDDD through funding and the development of individual HAZWDDD implementation plans. A corporate plan is being developed to integrate the issues discussed in the five installation plans. This paper describes: (1) the approach taken in collecting the necessary information for the plan; (2) some of the techniques used in analyzing the information provided; (3) preliminary data that have been collected in preparation of this plan, (4) the identification of common concerns and issues, and (5) the integration of this information into a corporate approach to mixed and hazardous waste management

Tsunami Hazard Assessment of Coastal South Africa Based on Mega-Earthquakes of Remote Subduction Zones

Science.gov (United States)

Kijko, Andrzej; Smit, Ansie; Papadopoulos, Gerassimos A.; Novikova, Tatyana

2017-11-01

After the mega-earthquakes and concomitant devastating tsunamis in Sumatra (2004) and Japan (2011), we launched an investigation into the potential risk of tsunami hazard to the coastal cities of South Africa. This paper presents the analysis of the seismic hazard of seismogenic sources that could potentially generate tsunamis, as well as the analysis of the tsunami hazard to coastal areas of South Africa. The subduction zones of Makran, South Sandwich Island, Sumatra, and the Andaman Islands were identified as possible sources of mega-earthquakes and tsunamis that could affect the African coast. Numerical tsunami simulations were used to investigate the realistic and worst-case scenarios that could be generated by these subduction zones. The simulated tsunami amplitudes and run-up heights calculated for the coastal cities of Cape Town, Durban, and Port Elizabeth are relatively small and therefore pose no real risk to the South African coast. However, only distant tsunamigenic sources were considered and the results should therefore be viewed as preliminary.

Tsunami Hazard Assessment of Coastal South Africa Based on Mega-Earthquakes of Remote Subduction Zones

Science.gov (United States)

Kijko, Andrzej; Smit, Ansie; Papadopoulos, Gerassimos A.; Novikova, Tatyana

2018-04-01

After the mega-earthquakes and concomitant devastating tsunamis in Sumatra (2004) and Japan (2011), we launched an investigation into the potential risk of tsunami hazard to the coastal cities of South Africa. This paper presents the analysis of the seismic hazard of seismogenic sources that could potentially generate tsunamis, as well as the analysis of the tsunami hazard to coastal areas of South Africa. The subduction zones of Makran, South Sandwich Island, Sumatra, and the Andaman Islands were identified as possible sources of mega-earthquakes and tsunamis that could affect the African coast. Numerical tsunami simulations were used to investigate the realistic and worst-case scenarios that could be generated by these subduction zones. The simulated tsunami amplitudes and run-up heights calculated for the coastal cities of Cape Town, Durban, and Port Elizabeth are relatively small and therefore pose no real risk to the South African coast. However, only distant tsunamigenic sources were considered and the results should therefore be viewed as preliminary.

CLASSIFICATION OF WATER SURFACES USING AIRBORNE TOPOGRAPHIC LIDAR DATA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Smeeckaert

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Accurate Digital Terrain Models (DTM are inevitable inputs for mapping areas subject to natural hazards. Topographic airborne laser scanning has become an established technique to characterize the Earth surface: lidar provides 3D point clouds allowing a fine reconstruction of the topography. For flood hazard modeling, the key step before terrain modeling is the discrimination of land and water surfaces within the delivered point clouds. Therefore, instantaneous shoreline, river borders, inland waters can be extracted as a basis for more reliable DTM generation. This paper presents an automatic, efficient, and versatile workflow for land/water classification of airborne topographic lidar data. For that purpose, a classification framework based on Support Vector Machines (SVM is designed. First, a restricted set of features, based only 3D lidar point coordinates and flightline information, is defined. Then, the SVM learning step is performed on small but well-targeted areas thanks to an automatic region growing strategy. Finally, label probabilities given by the SVM are merged during a probabilistic relaxation step in order to remove pixel-wise misclassification. Results show that survey of millions of points are labelled with high accuracy (>95% in most cases for coastal areas, and >89% for rivers and that small natural and anthropic features of interest are still well classified though we work at low point densities (0.5–4 pts/m2. Our approach is valid for coasts and rivers, and provides a strong basis for further discrimination of land-cover classes and coastal habitats.

Proposal of concentration limits for determining the hazard property HP 14 for waste using ecotoxicological tests.

Science.gov (United States)

Hennebert, Pierre

2018-04-01

Different ecotoxicological test batteries and concentration limits have been proposed to assess the hazard property (HP) HP 14 'Ecotoxic' for waste in the European Union and its member states. In test batteries, if the concentration of waste in the culture/dilution medium producing 50% of inhibitory biological effect in one or more test(s) is below the concentration limit of the test, the waste is classified as hazardous. A summarized review of the test batteries proposed since 1998 is presented. The last proposed test battery uses seven aquatic and terrestrial species with standardized methods, but with options and uniform concentration limits of 10% of waste eluate or solid waste in the culture/dilution medium. No attempt was made to match this hazard assessment with the classification made in the European List of Waste (LoW). The aim of this paper is to propose for the same test battery (reduced to 6 tests without options) concentration limits that match with the European List of Waste. This list was taken as reference (despite the fact that waste can be hazardous for other properties than the most frequent HP 14, and its partly political nature for some opinions). The concentration limits (CLs) for tests are the concentrations producing the highest ecotoxicological effects for each test observed in a non-hazardous waste set. Data from Germany, France and Belgium (from in total 5 different sources from 2009 to 2016) with the above-mentioned test battery (without options) were gathered for 81 samples, being the largest set ever published. In total, ten non-hazardous (NH) waste samples (as defined by the LoW and for most of them checked by chemical composition) were used to establish CLs. These CLs were then applied to 13 hazardous (H) waste by the LoW, and all were classified as hazardous. The matching of the resulting classification with the LoW is convincing. For the 58 'mirror entries' in the LoW (hazardous or not depending of the presence of hazardous

Feature Extraction for Track Section Status Classification Based on UGW Signals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lei Yuan

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Track status classification is essential for the stability and safety of railway operations nowadays, when railway networks are becoming more and more complex and broad. In this situation, monitoring systems are already a key element in applications dedicated to evaluating the status of a certain track section, often determining whether it is free or occupied by a train. Different technologies have already been involved in the design of monitoring systems, including ultrasonic guided waves (UGW. This work proposes the use of the UGW signals captured by a track monitoring system to extract the features that are relevant for determining the corresponding track section status. For that purpose, three features of UGW signals have been considered: the root mean square value, the energy, and the main frequency components. Experimental results successfully validated how these features can be used to classify the track section status into free, occupied and broken. Furthermore, spatial and temporal dependencies among these features were analysed in order to show how they can improve the final classification performance. Finally, a preliminary high-level classification system based on deep learning networks has been envisaged for future works.

A proposal of criteria for the classification of systemic sclerosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Nadashkevich, Oleg; Davis, Paul; Fritzler, Marvin J

2004-11-01

Sensitive and specific criteria for the classification of systemic sclerosis are required by clinicians and investigators to achieve higher quality clinical studies and approaches to therapy. A clinical study of systemic sclerosis patients in Europe and Canada led to a set of criteria that achieve high sensitivity and specificity. Both clinical and laboratory investigations of patients with systemic sclerosis, related conditions and diseases with clinical features that can be mistaken as part of the systemic sclerosis spectrum were undertaken. Laboratory investigations included the detection of autoantibodies to centromere proteins, Scl-70 (topoisomerase I), and fibrillarin (U3-RNP). Based on the investigation of 269 systemic sclerosis patients and 720 patients presenting with related and confounding conditions, the following set of criteria for the classification of systemic sclerosis was proposed: 1) autoantibodies to: centromere proteins, Scl-70 (topo I), fibrillarin; 2) bibasilar pulmonary fibrosis; 3) contractures of the digital joints or prayer sign; 4) dermal thickening proximal to the wrists; 5) calcinosis cutis; 6) Raynaud's phenomenon; 7) esophageal distal hypomotility or reflux-esophagitis; 8) sclerodactyly or non-pitting digital edema; 9) teleangiectasias. The classification of definite SSc requires at least three of the above criteria. Criteria for the classification of systemic sclerosis have been proposed. Preliminary testing has defined the sensitivity and specificity of these criteria as high as 99% and 100%, respectively. Testing and validation of the proposed criteria by other clinical centers is required.

Kinetics experiments and bench-scale system: Background, design, and preliminary experiments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rofer, C.K.

1987-10-01

The project, Supercritical Water Oxidation of Hazardous Chemical Waste, is a Hazardous Waste Remedial Actions Program (HAZWRAP) Research and Development task being carried out by the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Its objective is to obtain information for use in understanding the basic technology and for scaling up and applying oxidation in supercritical water as a viable process for treating a variety of DOE-DP waste streams. This report gives the background and rationale for kinetics experiments on oxidation in supercritical water being carried out as a part of this HAZWRAP Research and Development task. It discusses supercritical fluid properties and their relevance to applying this process to the destruction of hazardous wastes. An overview is given of the small emerging industry based on applications of supercritical water oxidation. Factors that could lead to additional applications are listed. Modeling studies are described as a basis for the experimental design. The report describes plug flow reactor and batch reactor systems, and presents preliminary results. 28 refs., 4 figs., 5 tabs

[Guidelines for hygienic classification of learning technologies].

Science.gov (United States)

Kuchma, V R; Teksheva, L M; Milushkina, O Iu

2008-01-01

Optimization of the educational environment under the present-day conditions has been in progress, by using learning techwares (LTW) without fail. To organize and regulate an academic process in terms of the safety of applied LTW, there is a need for their classification. The currently existing attempts to structure LTW disregard hygienically significant aspects. The task of the present study was to substantiate a LTW safety criterion ensuring a universal approach to working out regulations. This criterion may be the exposure intensity determined by the form of organization of education and its pattern, by the procedure of information presentation, and the age-related peculiarities of a pupil, i.e. by the actual load that is presented by the product of the intensity exposure and its time. The hygienic classification of LTW may be used to evaluate their negative effect in an educational process on the health status of children and adolescents, to regulate hazardous factors and training modes, to design and introduce new learning complexes. The structuring of a LTW system allows one to define possible deleterious actions and the possibilities of preventing this action on the basis of strictly established regulations.

Climatic Changes and Consequences on the French West Indies (C3AF), Hurricane and Tsunami Hazards Assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Arnaud, G.; Krien, Y.; Zahibo, N.; Dudon, B.

2017-12-01

Coastal hazards are among the most worrying threats of our time. In a context of climate change coupled to a large population increase, tropical areas could be the most exposed zones of the globe. In such circumstances, understanding the underlying processes can help to better predict storm surges and the associated global risks.Here we present the partial preliminary results integrated in a multidisciplinary project focused on climatic change effects over the coastal threat in the French West Indies and funded by the European Regional Development Fund. The study aims to provide a coastal hazard assessment based on hurricane surge and tsunami modeling including several aspects of climate changes that can affect hazards such as sea level rise, crustal subsidence/uplift, coastline changes etc. Several tsunamis scenarios have been simulated including tele-tsunamis to ensure a large range of tsunami hazards. Surge level of hurricane have been calculated using a large number of synthetic hurricanes to cover the actual and forecasted climate over the tropical area of Atlantic ocean. This hazard assessment will be later coupled with stakes assessed over the territory to provide risk maps.

Pricing hazardous substance emissions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Staring, Knut; Vennemo, Haakon

1997-12-31

This report discusses pricing of emissions to air of several harmful substances. It combines ranking indices for environmentally harmful substances with economic valuation data to yield price estimates. The ranking methods are discussed and a relative index established. Given the relative ranking of the substances, they all become valued by assigning a value to one of them, the `anchor` substance, for which lead is selected. Valuations are provided for 19 hazardous substances that are often subject to environmental regulations. They include dioxins, TBT, etc. The study concludes with a discussion of other categories of substances as well as uncertainties and possible refinements. When the valuations are related to CO, NOx, SOx and PM 10, the index system undervalues these pollutants as compared to other studies. The scope is limited to the outdoor environment and does not include global warming and eutrophication. The indices are based on toxicity and so do not apply to CO{sub 2} or other substances that are biologically harmless. The index values are not necessarily valid for all countries and should be considered as preliminary. 18 refs., 6 tabs.

Pricing hazardous substance emissions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Staring, Knut; Vennemo, Haakon

1998-12-31

This report discusses pricing of emissions to air of several harmful substances. It combines ranking indices for environmentally harmful substances with economic valuation data to yield price estimates. The ranking methods are discussed and a relative index established. Given the relative ranking of the substances, they all become valued by assigning a value to one of them, the `anchor` substance, for which lead is selected. Valuations are provided for 19 hazardous substances that are often subject to environmental regulations. They include dioxins, TBT, etc. The study concludes with a discussion of other categories of substances as well as uncertainties and possible refinements. When the valuations are related to CO, NOx, SOx and PM 10, the index system undervalues these pollutants as compared to other studies. The scope is limited to the outdoor environment and does not include global warming and eutrophication. The indices are based on toxicity and so do not apply to CO{sub 2} or other substances that are biologically harmless. The index values are not necessarily valid for all countries and should be considered as preliminary. 18 refs., 6 tabs.

Landscape susceptibility, hazard and risk assessments along pipeline corridors in Canada

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Blais-Stevens, A.; Couture, R.; Page, A. [Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa, ON (Canada). Geological Survey of Canada; Koch, J.; Clague, J.J. [Simon Fraser Univ., Burnaby, BC (Canada); Lipovsky, P.S. [Yukon Geological Survey, Whitehorse, YT (Canada)

2010-07-01

This article discussed work that was carried out to inventory landslides and assess hazards along two proposed gas-pipeline routes in the North. Landslide inventories and hazard assessments are necessary to quantify and qualify the risk of environmental impacts from landslides on linear infrastructure. The Yukon Alaska Highway Pipeline and the Mackenzie Gas Project Pipeline, which will both be over 800 kilometres in length, will cross harsh landscapes characterized by permafrost terrain and will be at risk from geological hazards, including landslides with debris flows, earthquakes, subsidence, and permafrost degradation. The work involved inventorying and mapping landslides via aerial photography and field visits to identify the frequency-magnitude relationships for debris flow fans along the route and the creation of qualitative parametric landslide maps for both proposed pipeline corridors. A good correlation was found between actual landslide distribution and the landslide susceptibility maps. For the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Corridor, most landslides have occurred in fine unconsolidated sediments and shallow slopes. Landslides in the Yukon Alaska Highway Corridor mostly happened in unconsolidated sediments, but a few took place in bedrock with high relief. The preliminary investigation revealed that a slope hazard exists in both corridors and must be taken into account during pipeline development. The results are intended to facilitate better decision-making for planning, constructing, and maintaining safe and economically viable pipeline routes in Northern Canada. The mapping methodology was outlined. 13 refs., 1 tab., 6 figs.

Development of an auditable safety analysis in support of a radiological facility classification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kinney, M.D.; Young, B.

1995-01-01

In recent years, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) facilities commonly have been classified as reactor, non-reactor nuclear, or nuclear facilities. Safety analysis documentation was prepared for these facilities, with few exceptions, using the requirements in either DOE Order 5481.1B, Safety Analysis and Review System; or DOE Order 5480.23, Nuclear Safety Analysis Reports. Traditionally, this has been accomplished by development of an extensive Safety Analysis Report (SAR), which identifies hazards, assesses risks of facility operation, describes and analyzes adequacy of measures taken to control hazards, and evaluates potential accidents and their associated risks. This process is complicated by analysis of secondary hazards and adequacy of backup (redundant) systems. The traditional SAR process is advantageous for DOE facilities with appreciable hazards or operational risks. SAR preparation for a low-risk facility or process can be cost-prohibitive and quite challenging because conventional safety analysis protocols may not readily be applied to a low-risk facility. The DOE Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management recognized this potential disadvantage and issued an EM limited technical standard, No. 5502-94, Hazard Baseline Documentation. This standard can be used for developing documentation for a facility classified as radiological, including preparation of an auditable (defensible) safety analysis. In support of the radiological facility classification process, the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project has developed an auditable safety analysis document based upon the postulation criteria and hazards analysis techniques defined in DOE Order 5480.23

Central Sensitization-Based Classification for Temporomandibular Disorders: A Pathogenetic Hypothesis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Annalisa Monaco

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Dysregulation of Autonomic Nervous System (ANS and central pain pathways in temporomandibular disorders (TMD is a growing evidence. Authors include some forms of TMD among central sensitization syndromes (CSS, a group of pathologies characterized by central morphofunctional alterations. Central Sensitization Inventory (CSI is useful for clinical diagnosis. Clinical examination and CSI cannot identify the central site(s affected in these diseases. Ultralow frequency transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (ULFTENS is extensively used in TMD and in dental clinical practice, because of its effects on descending pain modulation pathways. The Diagnostic Criteria for TMD (DC/TMD are the most accurate tool for diagnosis and classification of TMD. However, it includes CSI to investigate central aspects of TMD. Preliminary data on sensory ULFTENS show it is a reliable tool for the study of central and autonomic pathways in TMD. An alternative classification based on the presence of Central Sensitization and on individual response to sensory ULFTENS is proposed. TMD may be classified into 4 groups: (a TMD with Central Sensitization ULFTENS Responders; (b TMD with Central Sensitization ULFTENS Nonresponders; (c TMD without Central Sensitization ULFTENS Responders; (d TMD without Central Sensitization ULFTENS Nonresponders. This pathogenic classification of TMD may help to differentiate therapy and aetiology.

Classification of underwater targets from autonomous underwater vehicle sampled bistatic acoustic scattered fields.

Science.gov (United States)

Fischell, Erin M; Schmidt, Henrik

2015-12-01

One of the long term goals of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) minehunting is to have multiple inexpensive AUVs in a harbor autonomously classify hazards. Existing acoustic methods for target classification using AUV-based sensing, such as sidescan and synthetic aperture sonar, require an expensive payload on each outfitted vehicle and post-processing and/or image interpretation. A vehicle payload and machine learning classification methodology using bistatic angle dependence of target scattering amplitudes between a fixed acoustic source and target has been developed for onboard, fully autonomous classification with lower cost-per-vehicle. To achieve the high-quality, densely sampled three-dimensional (3D) bistatic scattering data required by this research, vehicle sampling behaviors and an acoustic payload for precision timed data acquisition with a 16 element nose array were demonstrated. 3D bistatic scattered field data were collected by an AUV around spherical and cylindrical targets insonified by a 7-9 kHz fixed source. The collected data were compared to simulated scattering models. Classification and confidence estimation were shown for the sphere versus cylinder case on the resulting real and simulated bistatic amplitude data. The final models were used for classification of simulated targets in real time in the LAMSS MOOS-IvP simulation package [M. Benjamin, H. Schmidt, P. Newman, and J. Leonard, J. Field Rob. 27, 834-875 (2010)].

Transportation of radioactive, hazardous, and mixed wastes: Material identification is the key

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stancell, D.F.; Willaford, D.M.

1992-01-01

This paper will discuss how material identification and classification will result in an accurate determination of regulatory requirements, and will assure safe and compliant shipment of radioactive, hazardous, and mixed wastes. The primary focus of the paper is a discussion of lessons learned by the Department of Energy in making waste shipments, and how this can be applied to future mixed waste shipments. There will be a brief discussion of the Department's regulatory compliance program, including a presentation of compliance audit results, and how regulatory issues are addressed through effective information exchange, technical assistance, and compliance training. A detailed discussion will follow, which describes cases involving material identification and classification problems. Examples will include both RCRA waste and uranium mill tailings shipments. The paper will conclude with a discussion concerning the application of these lessons to future mixed waste shipments proposed by the Department. (author)

Civil nuclear: which hazards?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2011-01-01

This document briefly indicates and describes the various hazards of exposure to radioactivity in relationship with the different stages of exploitation of nuclear energy: mining, exploitation, fuel reprocessing and waste management. It briefly presents and describes the scenarios associated with major risks in the exploitation phase: core fusion (description, possible origins, consequences in terms of possible releases), formation of hydrogen (chemical reaction, risk of explosion with releases, failure modes for the containment enclosure). It proposes a brief overview of consequences for mankind and for the environment due to irradiation and contamination. A brief assessment of major nuclear accidents is given, with an indication of their severity INES classification (Kyshtym, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima). It evokes incidents which occurred in France, and outlines the main challenges and stakes in terms of risk prevention, of plant control, of nuclear material and waste management, of public information, and of struggle against nuclear weapon proliferation. Actors and their roles are indicated: operator (EDF in France), control authority (ASN), actors in charge of waste management (ANDRA), research and information institutions (CEA, IRSN, CRIIRAD), international scientific bodies (UNSCEAR)

Evaluation of methods to compare consequences from hazardous materials transportation accidents

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rhoads, R.E.; Franklin, A.L.; Lavender, J.C.

1986-10-01

This report presents the results of a project to develop a framework for making meaningful comparisons of the consequences from transportation accidents involving hazardous materials. The project was conducted in two phases. In Phase I, methods that could potentially be used to develop the consequence comparisons for hazardous material transportation accidents were identified and reviewed. Potential improvements were identified and an evaluation of the improved methods was performed. Based on this evaluation, several methods were selected for detailed evaluation in Phase II of the project. The methods selected were location-dependent scenarios, figure of merit and risk assessment. This evaluation included application of the methods to a sample problem which compares the consequences of four representative hazardous materials - chlorine, propane, spent nuclear fuel and class A explosives. These materials were selected because they represented a broad class of hazardous material properties and consequence mechanisms. The sample case aplication relied extensively on consequence calculations performed in previous transportation risk assessment studies. A consultant was employed to assist in developing consequence models for explosives. The results of the detailed evaluation of the three consequence comparison methods indicates that methods are available to perform technically defensible comparisons of the consequences from a wide variety of hazardous materials. Location-dependent scenario and risk assessment methods are available now and the figure of merit method could be developed with additional effort. All of the methods require substantial effort to implement. Methods that would require substantially less effort were identified in the preliminary evaluation, but questions of technical accuracy preclude their application on a scale. These methods may have application to specific cases, however

A New Classification Approach Based on Multiple Classification Rules

OpenAIRE

Zhongmei Zhou

2014-01-01

A good classifier can correctly predict new data for which the class label is unknown, so it is important to construct a high accuracy classifier. Hence, classification techniques are much useful in ubiquitous computing. Associative classification achieves higher classification accuracy than some traditional rule-based classification approaches. However, the approach also has two major deficiencies. First, it generates a very large number of association classification rules, especially when t...

An evaluation of a risk-based environmental regulation in Brazil: Limitations to risk management of hazardous installations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Naime, Andre

2017-01-01

The environmental regulation of hazardous projects with risk-based decision-making processes can lead to a deficient management of human exposure to technological hazards. Such an approach for regulation is criticized for simplifying the complexity of decisions involving the economic, social, and environmental aspects of the installation and operation of hazardous facilities in urban areas. Results of a Brazilian case study indicate that oil and gas transmission pipelines may represent a threat to diverse communities if the relationship between such linear projects and human populations is overlooked by regulatory bodies. Results also corroborate known challenges to the implementation of EIA processes and outline limitations to an effective environmental and risk management. Two preliminary topics are discussed to strengthen similar regulatory practices. Firstly, an effective integration between social impact assessment and risk assessment in EIA processes to have a more comprehensive understanding of the social fabric. Secondly, the advancement of traditional management practices for hazardous installations to pursue a strong transition from assessment and evaluation to management and control and to promote an effective interaction between land-use planning and environmental regulation.

An evaluation of a risk-based environmental regulation in Brazil: Limitations to risk management of hazardous installations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Naime, Andre, E-mail: andre.naime.ibama@gmail.com

2017-03-15

The environmental regulation of hazardous projects with risk-based decision-making processes can lead to a deficient management of human exposure to technological hazards. Such an approach for regulation is criticized for simplifying the complexity of decisions involving the economic, social, and environmental aspects of the installation and operation of hazardous facilities in urban areas. Results of a Brazilian case study indicate that oil and gas transmission pipelines may represent a threat to diverse communities if the relationship between such linear projects and human populations is overlooked by regulatory bodies. Results also corroborate known challenges to the implementation of EIA processes and outline limitations to an effective environmental and risk management. Two preliminary topics are discussed to strengthen similar regulatory practices. Firstly, an effective integration between social impact assessment and risk assessment in EIA processes to have a more comprehensive understanding of the social fabric. Secondly, the advancement of traditional management practices for hazardous installations to pursue a strong transition from assessment and evaluation to management and control and to promote an effective interaction between land-use planning and environmental regulation.

Process for determining the remediation category of hazardous substance sites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sieben, A.K.

1994-01-01

An evaluation process has been developed that aids in selecting the appropriate remediation category of hazardous substance sites. Three general remediation categories have been established: No further Action: Potential Early Action: and Defer for RI/FS or Transition/Decontamination and Decommissioning. This evaluation method is a preliminary screening process only and will not identify the most appropriate remediation alternative for each site. The remedy selection process can proceed only after a remediation category is determined for each site. All sites are evaluated at a preliminary screening level to determine the general remediation category. After the first screen, a secondary evaluation is performed on both the PEA sites and the DEFER sites. For PEAs, this secondary evaluation will incorporate additional specific factors, such as a screening level risk assessment. For the DEFER sites feasibility factors will be used to distinguish between the sites which should undergo a normal RI/FS and the sites which will be recommended to be remediated in association with D ampersand D of buildings. Ultimately, all of the sites will be placed into one of four remediation categories

78 FR 68983 - Cotton Futures Classification: Optional Classification Procedure

Science.gov (United States)

2013-11-18

...-AD33 Cotton Futures Classification: Optional Classification Procedure AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing... regulations to allow for the addition of an optional cotton futures classification procedure--identified and... response to requests from the U.S. cotton industry and ICE, AMS will offer a futures classification option...

Interactive classification and content-based retrieval of tissue images

Science.gov (United States)

Aksoy, Selim; Marchisio, Giovanni B.; Tusk, Carsten; Koperski, Krzysztof

2002-11-01

We describe a system for interactive classification and retrieval of microscopic tissue images. Our system models tissues in pixel, region and image levels. Pixel level features are generated using unsupervised clustering of color and texture values. Region level features include shape information and statistics of pixel level feature values. Image level features include statistics and spatial relationships of regions. To reduce the gap between low-level features and high-level expert knowledge, we define the concept of prototype regions. The system learns the prototype regions in an image collection using model-based clustering and density estimation. Different tissue types are modeled using spatial relationships of these regions. Spatial relationships are represented by fuzzy membership functions. The system automatically selects significant relationships from training data and builds models which can also be updated using user relevance feedback. A Bayesian framework is used to classify tissues based on these models. Preliminary experiments show that the spatial relationship models we developed provide a flexible and powerful framework for classification and retrieval of tissue images.

Hazards and hazard combinations relevant for the safety of nuclear power plants

Science.gov (United States)

Decker, Kurt; Brinkman, Hans; Raimond, Emmanuel

2017-04-01

The potential of the contemporaneous impact of different, yet causally related, hazardous events and event cascades on nuclear power plants is a major contributor to the overall risk of nuclear installations. In the aftermath of the Fukushima accident, which was caused by a combination of severe ground shaking by an earthquake, an earthquake-triggered tsunami and the disruption of the plants from the electrical grid by a seismically induced landslide, hazard combinations and hazard cascades moved into the focus of nuclear safety research. We therefore developed an exhaustive list of external hazards and hazard combinations which pose potential threats to nuclear installations in the framework of the European project ASAMPSAE (Advanced Safety Assessment: Extended PSA). The project gathers 31 partners from Europe, North Amerika and Japan. The list comprises of exhaustive lists of natural hazards, external man-made hazards, and a cross-correlation matrix of these hazards. The hazard list is regarded comprehensive by including all types of hazards that were previously cited in documents by IAEA, the Western European Nuclear Regulators Association (WENRA), and others. 73 natural hazards and 24 man-made external hazards are included. Natural hazards are grouped into seismotectonic hazards, flooding and hydrological hazards, extreme values of meteorological phenomena, rare meteorological phenomena, biological hazards / infestation, geological hazards, and forest fire / wild fire. The list of external man-made hazards includes industry accidents, military accidents, transportation accidents, pipeline accidents and other man-made external events. The large number of different hazards results in the extremely large number of 5.151 theoretically possible hazard combinations (not considering hazard cascades). In principle all of these combinations are possible to occur by random coincidence except for 82 hazard combinations that - depending on the time scale - are mutually

Hazardous Waste

Science.gov (United States)

... chemicals can still harm human health and the environment. When you throw these substances away, they become hazardous waste. Some hazardous wastes come from products in our homes. Our garbage can include such hazardous wastes as old batteries, bug spray cans and paint thinner. U.S. residents ...

The New Italian Seismic Hazard Model

Science.gov (United States)

Marzocchi, W.; Meletti, C.; Albarello, D.; D'Amico, V.; Luzi, L.; Martinelli, F.; Pace, B.; Pignone, M.; Rovida, A.; Visini, F.

2017-12-01

In 2015 the Seismic Hazard Center (Centro Pericolosità Sismica - CPS) of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology was commissioned of coordinating the national scientific community with the aim to elaborate a new reference seismic hazard model, mainly finalized to the update of seismic code. The CPS designed a roadmap for releasing within three years a significantly renewed PSHA model, with regard both to the updated input elements and to the strategies to be followed. The main requirements of the model were discussed in meetings with the experts on earthquake engineering that then will participate to the revision of the building code. The activities were organized in 6 tasks: program coordination, input data, seismicity models, ground motion predictive equations (GMPEs), computation and rendering, testing. The input data task has been selecting the most updated information about seismicity (historical and instrumental), seismogenic faults, and deformation (both from seismicity and geodetic data). The seismicity models have been elaborating in terms of classic source areas, fault sources and gridded seismicity based on different approaches. The GMPEs task has selected the most recent models accounting for their tectonic suitability and forecasting performance. The testing phase has been planned to design statistical procedures to test with the available data the whole seismic hazard models, and single components such as the seismicity models and the GMPEs. In this talk we show some preliminary results, summarize the overall strategy for building the new Italian PSHA model, and discuss in detail important novelties that we put forward. Specifically, we adopt a new formal probabilistic framework to interpret the outcomes of the model and to test it meaningfully; this requires a proper definition and characterization of both aleatory variability and epistemic uncertainty that we accomplish through an ensemble modeling strategy. We use a weighting scheme

Wittgenstein's philosophy and a dimensional approach to the classification of mental disorders -- a preliminary scheme.

Science.gov (United States)

Mackinejad, Kioumars; Sharifi, Vandad

2006-01-01

In this paper the importance of Wittgenstein's philosophical ideas for the justification of a dimensional approach to the classification of mental disorders is discussed. Some of his basic concepts in his Philosophical Investigations, such as 'family resemblances', 'grammar' and 'language-game' and their relations to the concept of mental disorder are explored.

Preliminary seismicity and focal mechanisms for the southern Great Basin of Nevada and California: January 1992 through September 1992

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harmsen, S.C.

1994-01-01

The telemetered southern Great Basin seismic network (SGBSN) is operated for the Department of Energy's Yucca Mountain Project (YMP). The US Geological Survey, Branch of Earthquake and Landslide Hazards, maintained this network until September 30, 1992, at which time all operational and analysis responsibilities were transferred to the University of Nevada at Reno Seismological Laboratory (UNRSL). This report contains preliminary earthquake and chemical explosion hypocenter listings and preliminary earthquake focal mechanism solutions for USGS/SGBSN data for the period January 1, 1992 through September 30, 1992, 15:00 UTC

IARC monographs: 40 years of evaluating carcinogenic hazards to humans.

Science.gov (United States)

Pearce, Neil; Blair, Aaron; Vineis, Paolo; Ahrens, Wolfgang; Andersen, Aage; Anto, Josep M; Armstrong, Bruce K; Baccarelli, Andrea A; Beland, Frederick A; Berrington, Amy; Bertazzi, Pier Alberto; Birnbaum, Linda S; Brownson, Ross C; Bucher, John R; Cantor, Kenneth P; Cardis, Elisabeth; Cherrie, John W; Christiani, David C; Cocco, Pierluigi; Coggon, David; Comba, Pietro; Demers, Paul A; Dement, John M; Douwes, Jeroen; Eisen, Ellen A; Engel, Lawrence S; Fenske, Richard A; Fleming, Lora E; Fletcher, Tony; Fontham, Elizabeth; Forastiere, Francesco; Frentzel-Beyme, Rainer; Fritschi, Lin; Gerin, Michel; Goldberg, Marcel; Grandjean, Philippe; Grimsrud, Tom K; Gustavsson, Per; Haines, Andy; Hartge, Patricia; Hansen, Johnni; Hauptmann, Michael; Heederik, Dick; Hemminki, Kari; Hemon, Denis; Hertz-Picciotto, Irva; Hoppin, Jane A; Huff, James; Jarvholm, Bengt; Kang, Daehee; Karagas, Margaret R; Kjaerheim, Kristina; Kjuus, Helge; Kogevinas, Manolis; Kriebel, David; Kristensen, Petter; Kromhout, Hans; Laden, Francine; Lebailly, Pierre; LeMasters, Grace; Lubin, Jay H; Lynch, Charles F; Lynge, Elsebeth; 't Mannetje, Andrea; McMichael, Anthony J; McLaughlin, John R; Marrett, Loraine; Martuzzi, Marco; Merchant, James A; Merler, Enzo; Merletti, Franco; Miller, Anthony; Mirer, Franklin E; Monson, Richard; Nordby, Karl-Cristian; Olshan, Andrew F; Parent, Marie-Elise; Perera, Frederica P; Perry, Melissa J; Pesatori, Angela Cecilia; Pirastu, Roberta; Porta, Miquel; Pukkala, Eero; Rice, Carol; Richardson, David B; Ritter, Leonard; Ritz, Beate; Ronckers, Cecile M; Rushton, Lesley; Rusiecki, Jennifer A; Rusyn, Ivan; Samet, Jonathan M; Sandler, Dale P; de Sanjose, Silvia; Schernhammer, Eva; Costantini, Adele Seniori; Seixas, Noah; Shy, Carl; Siemiatycki, Jack; Silverman, Debra T; Simonato, Lorenzo; Smith, Allan H; Smith, Martyn T; Spinelli, John J; Spitz, Margaret R; Stallones, Lorann; Stayner, Leslie T; Steenland, Kyle; Stenzel, Mark; Stewart, Bernard W; Stewart, Patricia A; Symanski, Elaine; Terracini, Benedetto; Tolbert, Paige E; Vainio, Harri; Vena, John; Vermeulen, Roel; Victora, Cesar G; Ward, Elizabeth M; Weinberg, Clarice R; Weisenburger, Dennis; Wesseling, Catharina; Weiderpass, Elisabete; Zahm, Shelia Hoar

2015-06-01

Recently, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Programme for the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans has been criticized for several of its evaluations, and also for the approach used to perform these evaluations. Some critics have claimed that failures of IARC Working Groups to recognize study weaknesses and biases of Working Group members have led to inappropriate classification of a number of agents as carcinogenic to humans. The authors of this Commentary are scientists from various disciplines relevant to the identification and hazard evaluation of human carcinogens. We examined criticisms of the IARC classification process to determine the validity of these concerns. Here, we present the results of that examination, review the history of IARC evaluations, and describe how the IARC evaluations are performed. We concluded that these recent criticisms are unconvincing. The procedures employed by IARC to assemble Working Groups of scientists from the various disciplines and the techniques followed to review the literature and perform hazard assessment of various agents provide a balanced evaluation and an appropriate indication of the weight of the evidence. Some disagreement by individual scientists to some evaluations is not evidence of process failure. The review process has been modified over time and will undoubtedly be altered in the future to improve the process. Any process can in theory be improved, and we would support continued review and improvement of the IARC processes. This does not mean, however, that the current procedures are flawed. The IARC Monographs have made, and continue to make, major contributions to the scientific underpinning for societal actions to improve the public's health.

Financial Intermediation, Moral Hazard and Pareto Inferior Trade

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olai Hansen, Bodil; Keiding, Hans

2004-01-01

We consider a simple model of international trade under uncertainty, whereproduction takes time and is subject to uncertainty. The riskiness of production dependson the choices of the producers, not observable to the general public, and these choicesare influenced by the availability and cost...... the model, the market may not be able to supply credits to one of the countries.The introduction of financial intermediaries with the ability to control the debtorsmay change this situation in a direction which is welfare improving (in a suitable sense)by increasing expected output in the country with high...... interest rates, while opening upfor new problems of asymmetric information with respect to the monitoring activity ofthe banks.Keywords: Capital outflow, financial intermediaries, moral hazardJEL classification: F36, D92, E44...

Preliminary study of impact fragility to RC wall subjected to aircraft impact

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shin, Sang Shup; Hahm, Dae Gi; Choi, In Kil

2012-01-01

International experience has shown that internal and external hazards such as fires, earthquakes, and aircraft impacts can be significant safety contributors to the risk to infrastructures such as nuclear power plants. Since the aircraft accident at the World Trade Center (WTC) on September 11, 2001, an aircraft impact problem has been increasingly of the interest and is one of important categories of an unexpected external hazard field. To date, aircraft impact analyses has most focused on the response analysis to the target structures. However, this preliminary study carried out an impact fragility analysis to reinforced concrete (RC) wall subjected to an aircraft impact. The aircraft velocity is used as the important variable of this study. The impact analysis of the applied Ri era's forcing function is used by Abaqus/Explicit

Hazard perception in traffic. [previously knows as: Hazard perception.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

2008-01-01

Hazard perception is an essential part of the driving task. There are clear indications that insufficient skills in perceiving hazards play an important role in the occurrence of crashes, especially those involving novice drivers. Proper hazard perception not only consists of scanning and perceiving

Comparison of landslide hazard and risk assessment practices in Europe

Science.gov (United States)

Corominas, J.; Mavrouli, O.

2012-04-01

An overview is made of the landslide hazard and risk assessment practices that are officially promoted or applied in Europe by administration offices, geological surveys, and decision makers (recommendations, regulations and codes). The reported countries are: Andorra, Austria, France, Italy (selected river basins), Romania, Spain (Catalonia), Switzerland and United Kingdom. The objective here was to compare the different practices for hazard and risk evaluation with respect to the official policies, the methodologies used (qualitative and quantitative), the provided outputs and their contents, and the terminology and map symbols used. The main observations made are illustrated with examples and the possibility of harmonization of the policies and the application of common practices to bridge the existing gaps is discussed. Some of the conclusions reached include the following: zoning maps are legally binding for public administrators and land owners only in some cases and generally when referring to site-specific or local scales rather than regional or national ones; so far, information is mainly provided on landslide susceptibility and hazard and risk assessment is performed only in a few countries; there is a variation in the use of scales between countries; the classification criteria for landslide types and mechanisms present large diversity even within the same country (in some cases no landslide mechanisms are specified while in others there is an exhaustive list); the techniques to obtain input data for the landslide inventory and susceptibility maps vary from basic to sophisticated, resulting in various levels of data quality and quantity; the procedures followed for hazard and risk assessment include analytical procedures supported by computer simulation, weighted-indicators, expert judgment and field survey-based, or a combination of all; there is an important variation between hazard and risk matrices with respect to the used parameters, the thresholds

Toxicity classification and evaluation of four pharmaceuticals classes: antibiotics, antineoplastics, cardiovascular, and sex hormones

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sanderson, Hans; Brain, Richard A.; Johnson, David J.; Wilson, Christian J.; Solomon, Keith R.

2004-01-01

Four different classes of environmental concern are quantitatively and qualitatively assessed for environmental hazards; antibiotics (n = 226), antineoplastics (n = 81), cardiovascular (n = 272), and sex hormones (n 92). These along with an ECOSAR scan of all pharmaceuticals (n = 2848) were then classified according to the OECD aquatic toxicity classification system. The predicted species susceptibility is: daphnid > fish > algae, and the predicted rank order of relative toxicity: sex hormones > cardiovascular antibiotics > antineoplastics (Table 1). Generally, a relatively large proportion (1/3) of all pharmaceuticals are potentially very toxic to aquatic organisms (Table 2). The qualitative risk assessment ranking relative to probability and potential severity for human and environmental health effects is: antibiotics > sex hormones > cardiovascular > antineoplastics. (Q)SARs and pharmacodynamic information should be used to prioritize and steer experimental risk assessments of pharmaceuticals, and potentially, also be used in new drug discovery optimizing efficacy and in minimising environmental hazards of new products. Nuclear receptors are relatively well conserved in evolution. Currently, antibacterial resistance represents the most significant human health hazard, and potentially the largest non-target organism hazard is sex hormones acting as endocrine modulators in wildlife. Data for the individual compounds are accessible via http://www.uoguelph.ca/~hsander/

Integrated hard and soft bottom seafloor substrate map derived from an unsupervised classification of gridded backscatter, World-View 2 imagery and bathymetry derivatives of Ni'ihau Island, Hawaii, USA.

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Preliminary hard and soft seafloor substrate map derived from an unsupervised classification of multibeam backscatter, bathymety derivatives, and bathymetry derived...

Process hazards analysis (PrHA) program, bridging accident analyses and operational safety

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Richardson, J.A.; McKernan, S.A.; Vigil, M.J.

2003-01-01

safety are incorporated so the worker can readily identify the safety parameters of the their work. System safety tools such as Preliminary Hazard Analysis, What-If Analysis, Hazard and Operability Analysis as well as other techniques as necessary provide the groundwork for both determining bounding conditions for facility safety, operational safety, and day-to-clay worker safety.

Hazardous air pollutant handbook: measurements, properties, and fate in ambient air

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Spicer, C.W. (ed.); Gordon, S.M.; Kelly, T.J.; Holdren, M.W.; Mukund, R. [Battelle, Columbus, OH (United States)

2002-07-01

Focussing on the 188 hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) identified in the Title III of the US Clean Air Act Amendments, this work reviews the methods used to identify, measure, and locate the presence of toxics in ambient air. After a classification and characterization of the HAPs, the current status of ambient measurement methods are surveyed and categorized according to applicable, likely, and potential methods. The results of studies of ambient air concentrations of the HAPs are presented. Methods used to study atmospheric transformations of toxic air pollutants are reviewed and the concept of atmospheric lifetimes of HAPs is discussed.

Back-and-Forth Methodology for Objective Voice Quality Assessment: From/to Expert Knowledge to/from Automatic Classification of Dysphonia

Science.gov (United States)

Fredouille, Corinne; Pouchoulin, Gilles; Ghio, Alain; Revis, Joana; Bonastre, Jean-François; Giovanni, Antoine

2009-12-01

This paper addresses voice disorder assessment. It proposes an original back-and-forth methodology involving an automatic classification system as well as knowledge of the human experts (machine learning experts, phoneticians, and pathologists). The goal of this methodology is to bring a better understanding of acoustic phenomena related to dysphonia. The automatic system was validated on a dysphonic corpus (80 female voices), rated according to the GRBAS perceptual scale by an expert jury. Firstly, focused on the frequency domain, the classification system showed the interest of 0-3000 Hz frequency band for the classification task based on the GRBAS scale. Later, an automatic phonemic analysis underlined the significance of consonants and more surprisingly of unvoiced consonants for the same classification task. Submitted to the human experts, these observations led to a manual analysis of unvoiced plosives, which highlighted a lengthening of VOT according to the dysphonia severity validated by a preliminary statistical analysis.

Back-and-Forth Methodology for Objective Voice Quality Assessment: From/to Expert Knowledge to/from Automatic Classification of Dysphonia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Corinne Fredouille

2009-01-01

Full Text Available This paper addresses voice disorder assessment. It proposes an original back-and-forth methodology involving an automatic classification system as well as knowledge of the human experts (machine learning experts, phoneticians, and pathologists. The goal of this methodology is to bring a better understanding of acoustic phenomena related to dysphonia. The automatic system was validated on a dysphonic corpus (80 female voices, rated according to the GRBAS perceptual scale by an expert jury. Firstly, focused on the frequency domain, the classification system showed the interest of 0–3000 Hz frequency band for the classification task based on the GRBAS scale. Later, an automatic phonemic analysis underlined the significance of consonants and more surprisingly of unvoiced consonants for the same classification task. Submitted to the human experts, these observations led to a manual analysis of unvoiced plosives, which highlighted a lengthening of VOT according to the dysphonia severity validated by a preliminary statistical analysis.

Transmission tower classification based on landslide risk map generated by Geographical Information System (GIS) at Cameron Highlands

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hazwani N K; Rohayu C O; Fathoni U; Baharuddin, Inz

2013-01-01

Transmission tower is usually locates at remote area which is covered by hilly topography. Landslide is mainly occurring at hilly area and causing failure to the tower structure. This phenomenon subsequently will affect the national electricity supply. A landslide risk hazard map is generated using Geographical Information System (GIS). Risk classification is introduced to initiate the monitoring process along Jor-Bintang transmission line, Cameron Highland, Pahang. The classification has been divided into three categories, which are low, medium and high. This method can be applied in slope monitoring activities since all towers have been classified based on their risk level. Therefore, maintenance schedule can be planned smoothly and efficiently.

Transmission tower classification based on landslide risk Map generated by Geographical Information System (GIS) at Cameron Highlands

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hazwani N K; Rohayu C O; Fathoni U; Baharuddin, I N Z; Azwin Z A

2013-01-01

Transmission tower is usually locates at remote area which is covered by hilly topography. Landslide is mainly occurring at hilly area and causing failure to the tower structure. This phenomenon subsequently will affect the national electricity supply. A landslide risk hazard map is generated using Geographical Information System (GIS). Risk classification is introduced to initiate the monitoring process along Jor-Bintang transmission line, Cameron Highland, Pahang. The classification has been divided into three categories, which are low, medium and high. This method can be applied in slope monitoring activities since all towers have been classified based on their risk level. Therefore, maintenance schedule can be planned smoothly and efficiently.

List of hazardous substances for 1995. Hazardous substances at the working place; Gefahrstoffliste 1995. Gefahrstoffe am Arbeitsplatz

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pflaumbaum, W. [Berufsgenossenschaftliches Inst. fuer Arbeitssicherheit, St. Augustin (Germany); Blome, H. [Berufsgenossenschaftliches Inst. fuer Arbeitssicherheit, St. Augustin (Germany); Kleine, H. [Berufsgenossenschaftliches Inst. fuer Arbeitssicherheit, St. Augustin (Germany); Stamm, R. [Berufsgenossenschaftliches Inst. fuer Arbeitssicherheit, St. Augustin (Germany)

1995-04-01

The List of Hazardous Substances for 1995 contains a summarizing table of the most important regulations concerning safety and health at the working place together with supplementary information. The present version, compiled by the Berufsgenossenschaftliche Institut fuer Arbeitssicherheit (Trade Associations` Institute for Working Safety), is an update of the List of Hazardous Substances for 1994. The List contains the prescribed classifications and designations of substances and preparations pursuant to the EC Directive 67/548/EEC (including the 20th amendment); the substances contained in the ``List of carcinogenic, mutagenic and reproduction-endangering substances`` (TRGS 905); the air pollution limit values of MAK and TRK (``Air pollution limit values at the working place``, TRGS 900); and the Biological Tolerance Values (BAT, TRGS 903). At the end it provides information, amongst other things, on measuring methods (DFG, ZH1/120, BIA desk folder, HSE, NIOSH, OSHA), industrial medicine, substance-specific regulations of the Ordinance On Hazardous Substances (GefStoffV), Ordinance of Prohibitions Concerning Chemicals (ChemVerbotsV), and Hazardous Substances Technical Code (TRGS), and on regulations of the trade associations. The amendments to the Technical Code (e.g. TRGS 900 and 905) published in early 1995 have also been incorporated. (orig./SR) [Deutsch] Das Berufsgenossenschaftliche Institut fuer Arbeitssicherheit - BIA hat in der Gefahrstoffliste 1995 die wichtigsten Regelungen fuer die Sicherheit und Gesundheit am Arbeitsplatz sowie ergaenzende Hinweise in einer Tabelle zusammengefasst. Die vorliegende Version aktualisiert die Gefahrstoffliste aus dem Jahr 1994. Die Liste enthaelt die vorgeschriebenen Einstufungen und Kennzeichnungen von Stoffen und Zubereitungen gemaess der EU-Richtlinie 67/548/EWG (einschliesslich 20. Anpassung) sowie die in der TRGS 905 ``Verzeichnis krebserzeugender, erbgutveraendernder und fortpflanzungsgefaehrdender Stoffe

Chocolate Classification by an Electronic Nose with Pressure Controlled Generated Stimulation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luis F. Valdez

2016-10-01

Full Text Available In this work, we will analyze the response of a Metal Oxide Gas Sensor (MOGS array to a flow controlled stimulus generated in a pressure controlled canister produced by a homemade olfactometer to build an E-nose. The built E-nose is capable of chocolate identification between the 26 analyzed chocolate bar samples and four features recognition (chocolate type, extra ingredient, sweetener and expiration date status. The data analysis tools used were Principal Components Analysis (PCA and Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs. The chocolate identification E-nose average classification rate was of 81.3% with 0.99 accuracy (Acc, 0.86 precision (Prc, 0.84 sensitivity (Sen and 0.99 specificity (Spe for test. The chocolate feature recognition E-nose gives a classification rate of 85.36% with 0.96 Acc, 0.86 Prc, 0.85 Sen and 0.96 Spe. In addition, a preliminary sample aging analysis was made. The results prove the pressure controlled generated stimulus is reliable for this type of studies.

Chocolate Classification by an Electronic Nose with Pressure Controlled Generated Stimulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Valdez, Luis F; Gutiérrez, Juan Manuel

2016-10-20

In this work, we will analyze the response of a Metal Oxide Gas Sensor (MOGS) array to a flow controlled stimulus generated in a pressure controlled canister produced by a homemade olfactometer to build an E-nose. The built E-nose is capable of chocolate identification between the 26 analyzed chocolate bar samples and four features recognition (chocolate type, extra ingredient, sweetener and expiration date status). The data analysis tools used were Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs). The chocolate identification E-nose average classification rate was of 81.3% with 0.99 accuracy (Acc), 0.86 precision (Prc), 0.84 sensitivity (Sen) and 0.99 specificity (Spe) for test. The chocolate feature recognition E-nose gives a classification rate of 85.36% with 0.96 Acc, 0.86 Prc, 0.85 Sen and 0.96 Spe. In addition, a preliminary sample aging analysis was made. The results prove the pressure controlled generated stimulus is reliable for this type of studies.

Is overall similarity classification less effortful than single-dimension classification?

Science.gov (United States)

Wills, Andy J; Milton, Fraser; Longmore, Christopher A; Hester, Sarah; Robinson, Jo

2013-01-01

It is sometimes argued that the implementation of an overall similarity classification is less effortful than the implementation of a single-dimension classification. In the current article, we argue that the evidence securely in support of this view is limited, and report additional evidence in support of the opposite proposition--overall similarity classification is more effortful than single-dimension classification. Using a match-to-standards procedure, Experiments 1A, 1B and 2 demonstrate that concurrent load reduces the prevalence of overall similarity classification, and that this effect is robust to changes in the concurrent load task employed, the level of time pressure experienced, and the short-term memory requirements of the classification task. Experiment 3 demonstrates that participants who produced overall similarity classifications from the outset have larger working memory capacities than those who produced single-dimension classifications initially, and Experiment 4 demonstrates that instructions to respond meticulously increase the prevalence of overall similarity classification.

Identification of Potential Hazard using Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Sari, R. M.; Syahputri, K.; Rizkya, I.; Siregar, I.

2017-03-01

This research was conducted in the paper production’s company. These Paper products will be used as a cigarette paper. Along in the production’s process, Company provides the machines and equipment that operated by workers. During the operations, all workers may potentially injured. It known as a potential hazard. Hazard identification and risk assessment is one part of a safety and health program in the stage of risk management. This is very important as part of efforts to prevent occupational injuries and diseases resulting from work. This research is experiencing a problem that is not the identification of potential hazards and risks that would be faced by workers during the running production process. The purpose of this study was to identify the potential hazards by using hazard identification and risk assessment methods. Risk assessment is done using severity criteria and the probability of an accident. According to the research there are 23 potential hazard that occurs with varying severity and probability. Then made the determination Risk Assessment Code (RAC) for each potential hazard, and gained 3 extreme risks, 10 high risks, 6 medium risks and 3 low risks. We have successfully identified potential hazard using RAC.

[Quantitative classification-based occupational health management for electroplating enterprises in Baoan District of Shenzhen, China].

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Sheng; Huang, Jinsheng; Yang, Baigbing; Lin, Binjie; Xu, Xinyun; Chen, Jinru; Zhao, Zhuandi; Tu, Xiaozhi; Bin, Haihua

2014-04-01

To improve the occupational health management levels in electroplating enterprises with quantitative classification measures and to provide a scientific basis for the prevention and control of occupational hazards in electroplating enterprises and the protection of workers' health. A quantitative classification table was created for the occupational health management in electroplating enterprises. The evaluation indicators included 6 items and 27 sub-items, with a total score of 100 points. Forty electroplating enterprises were selected and scored according to the quantitative classification table. These electroplating enterprises were classified into grades A, B, and C based on the scores. Among 40 electroplating enterprises, 11 (27.5%) had scores of >85 points (grade A), 23 (57.5%) had scores of 60∼85 points (grade B), and 6 (15.0%) had scores of electroplating enterprises is a valuable attempt, which is helpful for the supervision and management by the health department and provides an effective method for the self-management of enterprises.

A transparent and data-driven global tectonic regionalization model for seismic hazard assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Yen-Shin; Weatherill, Graeme; Pagani, Marco; Cotton, Fabrice

2018-05-01

A key concept that is common to many assumptions inherent within seismic hazard assessment is that of tectonic similarity. This recognizes that certain regions of the globe may display similar geophysical characteristics, such as in the attenuation of seismic waves, the magnitude scaling properties of seismogenic sources or the seismic coupling of the lithosphere. Previous attempts at tectonic regionalization, particularly within a seismic hazard assessment context, have often been based on expert judgements; in most of these cases, the process for delineating tectonic regions is neither reproducible nor consistent from location to location. In this work, the regionalization process is implemented in a scheme that is reproducible, comprehensible from a geophysical rationale, and revisable when new relevant data are published. A spatial classification-scheme is developed based on fuzzy logic, enabling the quantification of concepts that are approximate rather than precise. Using the proposed methodology, we obtain a transparent and data-driven global tectonic regionalization model for seismic hazard applications as well as the subjective probabilities (e.g. degree of being active/degree of being cratonic) that indicate the degree to which a site belongs in a tectonic category.

Hygienic-sanitary working practices and implementation of a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP plan in lobster processing industries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristina Farias da Fonseca

2013-03-01

Full Text Available This study aimed to verify the hygienic-sanitary working practices and to create and implement a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP in two lobster processing industries in Pernambuco State, Brazil. The industries studied process frozen whole lobsters, frozen whole cooked lobsters, and frozen lobster tails for exportation. The application of the hygienic-sanitary checklist in the industries analyzed achieved conformity rates over 96% to the aspects evaluated. The use of the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP plan resulted in the detection of two critical control points (CCPs including the receiving and classification steps in the processing of frozen lobster and frozen lobster tails, and an additional critical control point (CCP was detected during the cooking step of processing of the whole frozen cooked lobster. The proper implementation of the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP plan in the lobster processing industries studied proved to be the safest and most cost-effective method to monitor each critical control point (CCP hazards.

Integrating remote sensing and terrain data in forest fire modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Medler, Michael Johns

Forest fire policies are changing. Managers now face conflicting imperatives to re-establish pre-suppression fire regimes, while simultaneously preventing resource destruction. They must, therefore, understand the spatial patterns of fires. Geographers can facilitate this understanding by developing new techniques for mapping fire behavior. This dissertation develops such techniques for mapping recent fires and using these maps to calibrate models of potential fire hazards. In so doing, it features techniques that strive to address the inherent complexity of modeling the combinations of variables found in most ecological systems. Image processing techniques were used to stratify the elements of terrain, slope, elevation, and aspect. These stratification images were used to assure sample placement considered the role of terrain in fire behavior. Examination of multiple stratification images indicated samples were placed representatively across a controlled range of scales. The incorporation of terrain data also improved preliminary fire hazard classification accuracy by 40%, compared with remotely sensed data alone. A Kauth-Thomas transformation (KT) of pre-fire and post-fire Thematic Mapper (TM) remotely sensed data produced brightness, greenness, and wetness images. Image subtraction indicated fire induced change in brightness, greenness, and wetness. Field data guided a fuzzy classification of these change images. Because fuzzy classification can characterize a continuum of a phenomena where discrete classification may produce artificial borders, fuzzy classification was found to offer a range of fire severity information unavailable with discrete classification. These mapped fire patterns were used to calibrate a model of fire hazards for the entire mountain range. Pre-fire TM, and a digital elevation model produced a set of co-registered images. Training statistics were developed from 30 polygons associated with the previously mapped fire severity. Fuzzy

Probabilistic Tsunami Hazard Assessment: the Seaside, Oregon Pilot Study

Science.gov (United States)

Gonzalez, F. I.; Geist, E. L.; Synolakis, C.; Titov, V. V.

2004-12-01

events could benefit the NTHMP. The joint NFIP/NTHMP pilot study at Seaside, Oregon is organized into three closely related components: Probabilistic, Modeling, and Impact studies. Probabilistic studies (Geist, et al., this session) are led by the USGS and include the specification of near- and far-field seismic tsunami sources and their associated probabilities. Modeling studies (Titov, et al., this session) are led by NOAA and include the development and testing of a Seaside tsunami inundation model and an associated database of computed wave height and flow velocity fields. Impact studies (Synolakis, et al., this session) are led by USC and include the computation and analyses of indices for the categorization of hazard zones. The results of each component study will be integrated to produce a Seaside tsunami hazard map. This presentation will provide a brief overview of the project and an update on progress, while the above-referenced companion presentations will provide details on the methods used and the preliminary results obtained by each project component.

Regional-scale analysis of lake outburst hazards in the southwestern Pamir, Tajikistan, based on remote sensing and GIS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Mergili

2011-05-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an analysis of the hazards emanating from the sudden drainage of alpine lakes in South-Western Tajik Pamir. In the last 40 yr, several new lakes have formed in the front of retreating glacier tongues, and existing lakes have grown. Other lakes are dammed by landslide deposits or older moraines. In 2002, sudden drainage of a glacial lake in the area triggered a catastrophic debris flow. Building on existing approaches, a rating scheme was devised allowing quick, regional-scale identification of potentially hazardous lakes and possible impact areas. This approach relies on GIS, remote sensing and empirical modelling, largely based on medium-resolution international datasets. Out of the 428 lakes mapped in the area, 6 were rated very hazardous and 34 hazardous. This classification was used for the selection of lakes requiring in-depth investigation. Selected cases are presented and discussed in order to understand the potentials and limitations of the approach used. Such an understanding is essential for the appropriate application of the methodology for risk mitigation purposes.

Reservoir Identification: Parameter Characterization or Feature Classification

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, J.

2017-12-01

The ultimate goal of oil and gas exploration is to find the oil or gas reservoirs with industrial mining value. Therefore, the core task of modern oil and gas exploration is to identify oil or gas reservoirs on the seismic profiles. Traditionally, the reservoir is identify by seismic inversion of a series of physical parameters such as porosity, saturation, permeability, formation pressure, and so on. Due to the heterogeneity of the geological medium, the approximation of the inversion model and the incompleteness and noisy of the data, the inversion results are highly uncertain and must be calibrated or corrected with well data. In areas where there are few wells or no well, reservoir identification based on seismic inversion is high-risk. Reservoir identification is essentially a classification issue. In the identification process, the underground rocks are divided into reservoirs with industrial mining value and host rocks with non-industrial mining value. In addition to the traditional physical parameters classification, the classification may be achieved using one or a few comprehensive features. By introducing the concept of seismic-print, we have developed a new reservoir identification method based on seismic-print analysis. Furthermore, we explore the possibility to use deep leaning to discover the seismic-print characteristics of oil and gas reservoirs. Preliminary experiments have shown that the deep learning of seismic data could distinguish gas reservoirs from host rocks. The combination of both seismic-print analysis and seismic deep learning is expected to be a more robust reservoir identification method. The work was supported by NSFC under grant No. 41430323 and No. U1562219, and the National Key Research and Development Program under Grant No. 2016YFC0601

SAW Classification Algorithm for Chinese Text Classification

OpenAIRE

Xiaoli Guo; Huiyu Sun; Tiehua Zhou; Ling Wang; Zhaoyang Qu; Jiannan Zang

2015-01-01

Considering the explosive growth of data, the increased amount of text data’s effect on the performance of text categorization forward the need for higher requirements, such that the existing classification method cannot be satisfied. Based on the study of existing text classification technology and semantics, this paper puts forward a kind of Chinese text classification oriented SAW (Structural Auxiliary Word) algorithm. The algorithm uses the special space effect of Chinese text where words...

Classification in context

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mai, Jens Erik

2004-01-01

This paper surveys classification research literature, discusses various classification theories, and shows that the focus has traditionally been on establishing a scientific foundation for classification research. This paper argues that a shift has taken place, and suggests that contemporary...... classification research focus on contextual information as the guide for the design and construction of classification schemes....

Large-scale radon hazard evaluation in the Oslofjord region of Norway utilizing indoor radon concentrations, airborne gamma ray spectrometry and geological mapping

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smethurst, Mark Andrew; Strand, Terje; Sundal, Aud Venke; Rudjord, Anne Liv

2008-01-01

We test whether airborne gamma ray spectrometer measurements can be used to estimate levels of radon hazard in the Oslofjord region of Norway. We compile 43,000 line kilometres of gamma ray spectrometer data from 8 airborne surveys covering 10,000 km 2 and compare them with 6326 indoor radon measurements. We find a clear spatial correlation between areas with elevated concentrations of uranium daughters in the near surface of the ground and regions with high incidence of elevated radon concentrations in dwellings. This correlation permits cautious use of the airborne data in radon hazard evaluation where direct measurements of indoor radon concentrations are few or absent. In radon hazard evaluation there is a natural synergy between the mapping of radon in indoor air, bedrock and drift geology mapping and airborne gamma ray surveying. We produce radon hazard forecast maps for the Oslofjord region based on a spatial union of hazard indicators from all four of these data sources. Indication of elevated radon hazard in any one of the data sets leads to the classification of a region as having an elevated radon hazard potential. This approach is inclusive in nature and we find that the majority of actual radon hazards lie in the assumed elevated risk regions

The Discriminative validity of "nociceptive," "peripheral neuropathic," and "central sensitization" as mechanisms-based classifications of musculoskeletal pain.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Smart, Keith M

2012-02-01

OBJECTIVES: Empirical evidence of discriminative validity is required to justify the use of mechanisms-based classifications of musculoskeletal pain in clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the discriminative validity of mechanisms-based classifications of pain by identifying discriminatory clusters of clinical criteria predictive of "nociceptive," "peripheral neuropathic," and "central sensitization" pain in patients with low back (+\\/- leg) pain disorders. METHODS: This study was a cross-sectional, between-patients design using the extreme-groups method. Four hundred sixty-four patients with low back (+\\/- leg) pain were assessed using a standardized assessment protocol. After each assessment, patients\\' pain was assigned a mechanisms-based classification. Clinicians then completed a clinical criteria checklist indicating the presence\\/absence of various clinical criteria. RESULTS: Multivariate analyses using binary logistic regression with Bayesian model averaging identified a discriminative cluster of 7, 3, and 4 symptoms and signs predictive of a dominance of "nociceptive," "peripheral neuropathic," and "central sensitization" pain, respectively. Each cluster was found to have high levels of classification accuracy (sensitivity, specificity, positive\\/negative predictive values, positive\\/negative likelihood ratios). DISCUSSION: By identifying a discriminatory cluster of symptoms and signs predictive of "nociceptive," "peripheral neuropathic," and "central" pain, this study provides some preliminary discriminative validity evidence for mechanisms-based classifications of musculoskeletal pain. Classification system validation requires the accumulation of validity evidence before their use in clinical practice can be recommended. Further studies are required to evaluate the construct and criterion validity of mechanisms-based classifications of musculoskeletal pain.

Influence of stuttering variation on talker group classification in preschool children: Preliminary findings

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Kia N.; Karrass, Jan; Conture, Edward G.; Walden, Tedra

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether variations in disfluencies of young children who do (CWS) and do not stutter (CWNS) significantly change their talker group classification or diagnosis from stutterer to nonstutterer, and vice versa. Participants consisted of 17 3- to 5-year-old CWS and 9 3- to 5-year-old CWNS, with no statistically significant between-group difference in chronological age (CWS: M = 45.53 months, SD = 8.32; CWNS: M = 47.67 months, SD = 6.69). All participants had speech, language, and hearing development within normal limits, with the exception of stuttering for CWS. Both talker groups participated in a series of speaking samples that varied by: (a) conversational partner [parent and clinician], (b) location [home and clinic], and (c) context [conversation and narrative]. The primary dependent measures for this study were the number of stuttering-like disfluencies (SLD) per total number of spoken words [%SLD] and the ratio of SLD to total disfluencies (TD) [SLD/TD]. Results indicated that significant variability of stuttering did not exist as a result of conversational partner or location. Changes in context, however, did impact the CWS, who demonstrated higher SLD/TD in the conversation sample versus a narrative sample. Consistent with hypotheses, CWS and CWNS were accurately identified as stutterers and nonstutterers, respectively, regardless of changes to conversational partner, location or context for the overall participant sample. Present findings were taken to suggest that during assessment, variations in stuttering frequency resulting from changes in conversational partner, location or context do not significantly influence the diagnosis of stuttering, especially for children not on the talker group classification borderline between CWS and CWNS. PMID:19167719

Underground storage tanks containing hazardous chemicals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wise, R.F.; Starr, J.W.; Maresca, J.W. Jr.; Hillger, R.W.; Tafuri, A.N.

1991-01-01

The regulations issued by the United States Environmental Protection Agency in 1988 require, with several exceptions, that underground storage tank systems containing petroleum fuels and hazardous chemicals be routinely tested for releases. This paper summarizes the release detection regulations for tank systems containing chemicals and gives a preliminary assessment of the approaches to release detection currently being used. To make this assessment, detailed discussions were conducted with providers and manufacturers of leak detection equipment and testing services, owners or operators of different types of chemical storage tank systems, and state and local regulators. While these discussions were limited to a small percentage of each type of organization, certain observations are sufficiently distinctive and important that they are reported for further investigation and evaluation. To make it clearer why certain approaches are being used, this paper also summarizes the types of chemicals being stored, the effectiveness of several leak detection testing systems, and the number and characteristics of the tank systems being used to store these products

Non-invasive classification of severe sepsis and systemic inflammatory response syndrome using a nonlinear support vector machine: a preliminary study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tang, Collin H H; Savkin, Andrey V; Chan, Gregory S H; Middleton, Paul M; Bishop, Sarah; Lovell, Nigel H

2010-01-01

Sepsis has been defined as the systemic response to infection in critically ill patients, with severe sepsis and septic shock representing increasingly severe stages of the same disease. Based on the non-invasive cardiovascular spectrum analysis, this paper presents a pilot study on the potential use of the nonlinear support vector machine (SVM) in the classification of the sepsis continuum into severe sepsis and systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) groups. 28 consecutive eligible patients attending the emergency department with presumptive diagnoses of sepsis syndrome have participated in this study. Through principal component analysis (PCA), the first three principal components were used to construct the SVM feature space. The SVM classifier with a fourth-order polynomial kernel was found to have a better overall performance compared with the other SVM classifiers, showing the following classification results: sensitivity = 94.44%, specificity = 62.50%, positive predictive value = 85.00%, negative predictive value = 83.33% and accuracy = 84.62%. Our classification results suggested that the combinatory use of cardiovascular spectrum analysis and the proposed SVM classification of autonomic neural activity is a potentially useful clinical tool to classify the sepsis continuum into two distinct pathological groups of varying sepsis severity

Classification

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hjørland, Birger

2017-01-01

This article presents and discusses definitions of the term “classification” and the related concepts “Concept/conceptualization,”“categorization,” “ordering,” “taxonomy” and “typology.” It further presents and discusses theories of classification including the influences of Aristotle...... and Wittgenstein. It presents different views on forming classes, including logical division, numerical taxonomy, historical classification, hermeneutical and pragmatic/critical views. Finally, issues related to artificial versus natural classification and taxonomic monism versus taxonomic pluralism are briefly...

A protein and mRNA expression-based classification of gastric cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Setia, Namrata; Agoston, Agoston T; Han, Hye S; Mullen, John T; Duda, Dan G; Clark, Jeffrey W; Deshpande, Vikram; Mino-Kenudson, Mari; Srivastava, Amitabh; Lennerz, Jochen K; Hong, Theodore S; Kwak, Eunice L; Lauwers, Gregory Y

2016-07-01

The overall survival of gastric carcinoma patients remains poor despite improved control over known risk factors and surveillance. This highlights the need for new classifications, driven towards identification of potential therapeutic targets. Using sophisticated molecular technologies and analysis, three groups recently provided genetic and epigenetic molecular classifications of gastric cancer (The Cancer Genome Atlas, 'Singapore-Duke' study, and Asian Cancer Research Group). Suggested by these classifications, here, we examined the expression of 14 biomarkers in a cohort of 146 gastric adenocarcinomas and performed unsupervised hierarchical clustering analysis using less expensive and widely available immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization. Ultimately, we identified five groups of gastric cancers based on Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) positivity, microsatellite instability, aberrant E-cadherin, and p53 expression; the remaining cases constituted a group characterized by normal p53 expression. In addition, the five categories correspond to the reported molecular subgroups by virtue of clinicopathologic features. Furthermore, evaluation between these clusters and survival using the Cox proportional hazards model showed a trend for superior survival in the EBV and microsatellite-instable related adenocarcinomas. In conclusion, we offer as a proposal a simplified algorithm that is able to reproduce the recently proposed molecular subgroups of gastric adenocarcinoma, using immunohistochemical and in situ hybridization techniques.

Movement imagery classification in EMOTIV cap based system by Naïve Bayes.

Science.gov (United States)

Stock, Vinicius N; Balbinot, Alexandre

2016-08-01

Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) provide means of communications and control, in assistive technology, which do not require motor activity from the user. The goal of this study is to promote classification of two types of imaginary movements, left and right hands, in an EMOTIV cap based system, using the Naïve Bayes classifier. A preliminary analysis with respect to results obtained by other experiments in this field is also conducted. Processing of the electroencephalography (EEG) signals is done applying Common Spatial Pattern filters. The EPOC electrodes cap is used for EEG acquisition, in two test subjects, for two distinct trial formats. The channels picked are FC5, FC6, P7 and P8 of the 10-20 system, and a discussion about the differences of using C3, C4, P3 and P4 positions is proposed. Dataset 3 of the BCI Competition II is also analyzed using the implemented algorithms. The maximum classification results for the proposed experiment and for the BCI Competition dataset were, respectively, 79% and 85% The conclusion of this study is that the picked positions for electrodes may be applied for BCI systems with satisfactory classification rates.

Hazard Analysis Database Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

GAULT, G.W.

1999-10-13

The Hazard Analysis Database was developed in conjunction with the hazard analysis activities conducted in accordance with DOE-STD-3009-94, Preparation Guide for US Department of Energy Nonreactor Nuclear Facility Safety Analysis Reports, for the Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR). The FSAR is part of the approved TWRS Authorization Basis (AB). This document describes, identifies, and defines the contents and structure of the TWRS FSAR Hazard Analysis Database and documents the configuration control changes made to the database. The TWRS Hazard Analysis Database contains the collection of information generated during the initial hazard evaluations and the subsequent hazard and accident analysis activities. The database supports the preparation of Chapters 3,4, and 5 of the TWRS FSAR and the USQ process and consists of two major, interrelated data sets: (1) Hazard Evaluation Database--Data from the results of the hazard evaluations; and (2) Hazard Topography Database--Data from the system familiarization and hazard identification.

Occupational psychosocial hazards among the emerging U.S. green collar workforce

Science.gov (United States)

Fernandez, Cristina A.; Moore, Kevin; McClure, Laura A.; Caban-Martinez, Alberto J.; LeBlanc, William G.; Fleming, Lora E.; Cifuentes, Manuel; Lee, David J.

2016-01-01

Objective To compare occupational psychosocial hazards in green collar versus non-green collar workers. Methods Standard Occupational Classification codes were used to link the 2010 National Health Interview Survey to the 2010 Occupational Information Network Database. Multivariable logistic regressions were used to predict job insecurity, work-life imbalance, and workplace harassment in green versus non-green collar workers. Results Most participants were white, non-Hispanic, 25–64 years of age, and obtained greater than a high school education. The majority reported not being harassed at work, no work-life imbalance, and no job insecurity. Relative to non-green collar workers (n=12,217), green collar workers (n=2,588) were more likely to report job insecurity (OR=1.13; 95% CI=1.02–1.26) and work-life imbalance (1.19; 1.05–1.35), but less likely to experience workplace harassment (0.77; 0.62–0.95). Conclusions Continuous surveillance of occupational psychosocial hazards is recommended in this rapidly emerging workforce. PMID:28045790

78 FR 54970 - Cotton Futures Classification: Optional Classification Procedure

Science.gov (United States)

2013-09-09

... Service 7 CFR Part 27 [AMS-CN-13-0043] RIN 0581-AD33 Cotton Futures Classification: Optional Classification Procedure AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing Service, USDA. ACTION: Proposed rule. SUMMARY: The... optional cotton futures classification procedure--identified and known as ``registration'' by the U.S...

Handbook of hazardous waste management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Metry, A.A.

1980-01-01

The contents of this work are arranged so as to give the reader a detailed understanding of the elements of hazardous waste management. Generalized management concepts are covered in Chapters 1 through 5 which are entitled: Introduction, Regulations Affecting Hazardous Waste Management, Comprehensive Hazardous Waste Management, Control of Hazardous Waste Transportation, and Emergency Hazardous Waste Management. Chapters 6 through 11 deal with treatment concepts and are entitled: General Considerations for Hazardous Waste Management Facilities, Physical Treatment of Hazardous Wastes, Chemical Treatment of Hazardous Wastes, Biological Treatment of Hazardous Wastes, Incineration of Hazardous Wastes, and Hazardous Waste Management of Selected Industries. Chapters 12 through 15 are devoted to ultimate disposal concepts and are entitled: Land Disposal Facilities, Ocean Dumping of Hazardous Wastes, Disposal of Extremely Hazardous Wastes, and Generalized Criteria for Hazardous Waste Management Facilities

Trichloroethylene: Mechanistic, epidemiologic and other supporting evidence of carcinogenic hazard.

Science.gov (United States)

Rusyn, Ivan; Chiu, Weihsueh A; Lash, Lawrence H; Kromhout, Hans; Hansen, Johnni; Guyton, Kathryn Z

2014-01-01

The chlorinated solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) is a ubiquitous environmental pollutant. The carcinogenic hazard of TCE was the subject of a 2012 evaluation by a Working Group of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Information on exposures, relevant data from epidemiologic studies, bioassays in experimental animals, and toxicity and mechanism of action studies was used to conclude that TCE is carcinogenic to humans (Group 1). This article summarizes the key evidence forming the scientific bases for the IARC classification. Exposure to TCE from environmental sources (including hazardous waste sites and contaminated water) is common throughout the world. While workplace use of TCE has been declining, occupational exposures remain of concern, especially in developing countries. The strongest human evidence is from studies of occupational TCE exposure and kidney cancer. Positive, although less consistent, associations were reported for liver cancer and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. TCE is carcinogenic at multiple sites in multiple species and strains of experimental animals. The mechanistic evidence includes extensive data on the toxicokinetics and genotoxicity of TCE and its metabolites. Together, available evidence provided a cohesive database supporting the human cancer hazard of TCE, particularly in the kidney. For other target sites of carcinogenicity, mechanistic and other data were found to be more limited. Important sources of susceptibility to TCE toxicity and carcinogenicity were also reviewed by the Working Group. In all, consideration of the multiple evidence streams presented herein informed the IARC conclusions regarding the carcinogenicity of TCE. © 2013.

Neural net classification of x-ray pistachio nut data

Science.gov (United States)

Casasent, David P.; Sipe, Michael A.; Schatzki, Thomas F.; Keagy, Pamela M.; Le, Lan Chau

1996-12-01

Classification results for agricultural products are presented using a new neural network. This neural network inherently produces higher-order decision surfaces. It achieves this with fewer hidden layer neurons than other classifiers require. This gives better generalization. It uses new techniques to select the number of hidden layer neurons and adaptive algorithms that avoid other such ad hoc parameter selection problems; it allows selection of the best classifier parameters without the need to analyze the test set results. The agriculture case study considered is the inspection and classification of pistachio nuts using x- ray imagery. Present inspection techniques cannot provide good rejection of worm damaged nuts without rejecting too many good nuts. X-ray imagery has the potential to provide 100% inspection of such agricultural products in real time. Only preliminary results are presented, but these indicate the potential to reduce major defects to 2% of the crop with 1% of good nuts rejected. Future image processing techniques that should provide better features to improve performance and allow inspection of a larger variety of nuts are noted. These techniques and variations of them have uses in a number of other agricultural product inspection problems.

The influence of different classification standards of age groups on prognosis in high-grade hemispheric glioma patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Jian-Wu; Zhou, Chang-Fu; Lin, Zhi-Xiong

2015-09-15

Although age is thought to correlate with the prognosis of glioma patients, the most appropriate age-group classification standard to evaluate prognosis had not been fully studied. This study aimed to investigate the influence of age-group classification standards on the prognosis of patients with high-grade hemispheric glioma (HGG). This retrospective study of 125 HGG patients used three different classification standards of age-groups (≤ 50 and >50 years old, ≤ 60 and >60 years old, ≤ 45 and 45-65 and ≥ 65 years old) to evaluate the impact of age on prognosis. The primary end-point was overall survival (OS). The Kaplan-Meier method was applied for univariate analysis and Cox proportional hazards model for multivariate analysis. Univariate analysis showed a significant correlation between OS and all three classification standards of age-groups as well as between OS and pathological grade, gender, location of glioma, and regular chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment. Multivariate analysis showed that the only independent predictors of OS were classification standard of age-groups ≤ 50 and > 50 years old, pathological grade and regular chemotherapy. In summary, the most appropriate classification standard of age-groups as an independent prognostic factor was ≤ 50 and > 50 years old. Pathological grade and chemotherapy were also independent predictors of OS in post-operative HGG patients. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.

A preliminary examination of patient loyalty: an application of the customer loyalty classification framework in the health care industry.

Science.gov (United States)

Heiens, R A; Pleshko, L P

1997-01-01

The present article applies the customer loyalty classification framework developed by Dick and Basu (1994) to the health care industry. Based on a two factor classification, consisting of repeat patronage and relative attitude, four categories of patient loyalty are proposed and examined, including true loyalty, latent loyalty, spurious loyalty, and no loyalty. Data is collected and the four patient loyalty categories are profiled and compared on the basis of perceived risk, product class importance, provider decision importance, provider awareness, provider consideration, number of providers visited, and self-reported loyalty.

Classification of refrigerants; Classification des fluides frigorigenes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2001-07-01

This document was made from the US standard ANSI/ASHRAE 34 published in 2001 and entitled 'designation and safety classification of refrigerants'. This classification allows to clearly organize in an international way the overall refrigerants used in the world thanks to a codification of the refrigerants in correspondence with their chemical composition. This note explains this codification: prefix, suffixes (hydrocarbons and derived fluids, azeotropic and non-azeotropic mixtures, various organic compounds, non-organic compounds), safety classification (toxicity, flammability, case of mixtures). (J.S.)

Packaging of hazardous materials and their transport in national and international road, rail, sea and air transport. Summaries of papers. Gefahrgutverpackung und deren Befoerderung im nationalen und internationalen Strassen-, Schienen-, See- und Luftverkehr. Kurzfassungen der Referate

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1986-01-01

The packaging and transport of hazardous goods demands a high degree of knowledge and responsibility from those involved. The symposium aims to refresh and bring up to date this knowledge with contributions about the legal fundamentals for packaging for the transport of hazardous goods; classification of materials; examination, licensing and identification of packaging; responsibilities, hability, irregularities, insurance; compatibility of filling materials; hazardous goods as additional packaging; re-use, re-conditioning, recycling, waste management, etc. (orig./HSCH).

Egyptian Environmental Activities and Regulations for Management of Hazardous Substances and Hazardous Wastes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

El Zarka, M.

1999-01-01

A substantial use of hazardous substances is essential to meet the social and economic goals of the community in Egypt. Agrochemicals are being used extensively to increase crop yield. The outdated agrochemicals and their empty containers represent a serious environmental problem. Industrial development in different sectors in Egypt obligates handling of huge amounts of hazardous substances and hazardous wastes. The inappropriate handling of such hazardous substances creates several health and environmental problems. Egypt faces many challenges to control safe handling of such substances and wastes. Several regulations are governing handling of hazardous substances in Egypt. The unified Environmental Law 4 for the year 1994 includes a full chapter on the Management of Hazardous Substances and Hazardous Wastes. National and international activities have been taken to manage hazardous substances and hazardous wastes in an environmental sound manner

Cascading hazards: Understanding triggering relations between wet tropical cyclones, landslides, and earthquakes

Science.gov (United States)

Wdowinski, S.; Peng, Z.; Ferrier, K.; Lin, C. H.; Hsu, Y. J.; Shyu, J. B. H.

2017-12-01

Earthquakes, landslides, and tropical cyclones are extreme hazards that pose significant threats to human life and property. Some of the couplings between these hazards are well known. For example, sudden, widespread landsliding can be triggered by large earthquakes and by extreme rainfall events like tropical cyclones. Recent studies have also shown that earthquakes can be triggered by erosional unloading over 100-year timescales. In a NASA supported project, titled "Cascading hazards: Understanding triggering relations between wet tropical cyclones, landslides, and earthquake", we study triggering relations between these hazard types. The project focuses on such triggering relations in Taiwan, which is subjected to very wet tropical storms, landslides, and earthquakes. One example for such triggering relations is the 2009 Morakot typhoon, which was the wettest recorded typhoon in Taiwan (2850 mm of rain in 100 hours). The typhoon caused widespread flooding and triggered more than 20,000 landslides, including the devastating Hsiaolin landslide. Six months later, the same area was hit by the 2010 M=6.4 Jiashian earthquake near Kaohsiung city, which added to the infrastructure damage induced by the typhoon and the landslides. Preliminary analysis of temporal relations between main-shock earthquakes and the six wettest typhoons in Taiwan's past 50 years reveals similar temporal relations between M≥5 events and wet typhoons. Future work in the project will include remote sensing analysis of landsliding, seismic and geodetic monitoring of landslides, detection of microseismicity and tremor activities, and mechanical modeling of crustal stress changes due to surface unloading.

Household hazardous waste data for the UK by direct sampling.

Science.gov (United States)

Slack, Rebecca J; Bonin, Michael; Gronow, Jan R; Van Santen, Anton; Voulvoulis, Nikolaos

2007-04-01

The amount of household hazardous waste (HHW) disposed of in the United Kingdom (UK) requires assessment. This paper describes a direct analysis study carried out in three areas in southeast England involving over 500 households. Each participating householder was provided with a special bin in which to place items corresponding to a list of HHW. The amount of waste collected was split into nine broad categories: batteries, home maintenance (DIY), vehicle upkeep, pesticides, pet care, pharmaceuticals, photographic chemicals, household cleaners, and printer cartridges. Over 1 T of waste was collected from the sample households over a 32-week period, which would correspond to an estimated 51,000 T if extrapolated to the UK population for the same period or over 7,000 T per month. Details of likely disposal routes adopted by householders were also sought, demonstrating the different pathways selected for different waste categories. Co-disposal with residual household waste dominated for waste batteries and veterinary medicines, hence avoiding classification as hazardous waste under new UK waste regulations. The information can be used to set a baseline for the management of HHW and provides information for an environmental risk assessment of the disposal of such wastes to landfill.

Preliminary study of soil liquefaction hazard at Terengganu shoreline, Peninsular Malaysia

Science.gov (United States)

Hashim, H.; Suhatril, M.; Hashim, R.

2017-06-01

Terengganu is a shoreline state located in Peninsular Malaysia which is a growing hub for port industries and tourism centre. The northern part offers pristine settings of a relax beach areas whereas the southern part are observed to be a growing centre for development. The serious erosion on soil deposit along the beach line presents vulnerable soil condition to soil liquefaction consists of sandy with low plasticity and shallow ground water. Moreover, local earthquake from nearby fault have present significant tremors over the past few years which need to be considered in the land usage or future development in catering the seismic loading. Liquefaction analysis based on field standard penetration of soil is applied on 546 boreholes scattered along the shoreline areas ranging 244 km of shoreline stretch. Based on simplified approach, it is found that more than 70% of the studied areas pose high liquefaction potential since there are saturated loose sand and silt deposits layer ranges at depth 3 m and up to 20 m. The presence of clay deposits and hard stratum at the remaining 30% of the studied areas shows good resistance to soil liquefaction hence making the area less significant to liquefaction hazard. Result indicates that liquefaction improving technique is advisable in future development of shoreline areas of Terengganu state.

A global classification of coastal flood hazard climates associated with large-scale oceanographic forcing.

Science.gov (United States)

Rueda, Ana; Vitousek, Sean; Camus, Paula; Tomás, Antonio; Espejo, Antonio; Losada, Inigo J; Barnard, Patrick L; Erikson, Li H; Ruggiero, Peter; Reguero, Borja G; Mendez, Fernando J

2017-07-11

Coastal communities throughout the world are exposed to numerous and increasing threats, such as coastal flooding and erosion, saltwater intrusion and wetland degradation. Here, we present the first global-scale analysis of the main drivers of coastal flooding due to large-scale oceanographic factors. Given the large dimensionality of the problem (e.g. spatiotemporal variability in flood magnitude and the relative influence of waves, tides and surge levels), we have performed a computer-based classification to identify geographical areas with homogeneous climates. Results show that 75% of coastal regions around the globe have the potential for very large flooding events with low probabilities (unbounded tails), 82% are tide-dominated, and almost 49% are highly susceptible to increases in flooding frequency due to sea-level rise.

Preliminary Study on Non-Fatal Occupational Injury among Operational Workers in Malaysia Palm Oil Mill

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ruslan Rumaizah

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Non-fatal occupational injury had becoming major global concern and its consequences to safety and health would be heavily burdening. The aim of this preliminary study was to investigate the distribution of non-fatal occupational injury among specific group of workers in palm oil mill and to acknowledge potential factors of injury causation. A questionnaire survey was designed to assess injury involvement during the employment period among operational workers of palm oil mill located in Southern Peninsular Malaysia. Thirty three (n= 33 workers volunteered and completed the questionnaire. Prevalence of injury among palm oil mill workers was 39.4% with sprain and burn were the common types of injury reported. Press Plant workers reported to have high cases of injuries. Majority of workers (78.8% stated noise was the main hazard in the palm oil mill, followed by heat hazard. Press Plant was identified as one of the specific risk group in palm oil mill based on the rate of injury occurrences reported by the workers. Exposure to noise hazard was estimated to be one of the potential factors of injury causation and further study should be made to measure the risk of hazard.

Identifying urban infrastructure multi-hazard risk in developing country contexts

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Faith; Malamud, Bruce; Millington, James

2017-04-01

This work presents a method to coarsely zone urban areas into different infrastructure typologies, from which physical vulnerability to a range of natural hazards and multi-hazard interactions can be estimated, particularly for developing country contexts where access to data can be a challenge. This work builds upon techniques developed for urban micrometeorology for classifying 12 urban typologies (Stewart and Oke, 2011) using Landsat 8 30 m × 30 m remote sensing imagery (Betchel et al., 2015). For each of these 12 urban typologies, we develop general rules about the presence, type and level of service of 10 broad categories of infrastructure (including buildings, roads, electricity and water), which we refer to as 'urban textures'. We have developed and applied this technique to five urban areas varying in size and structure across Africa: Nairobi (Kenya); Karonga (Malawi); Mzuzu (Malawi); Ibadan (Nigeria) and Cape Town (South Africa). For each urban area, a training dataset of 10 samples of each of the 12 urban texture classes is digitised using Google Earth imagery. A random forest classification is performed using SAGA GIS, resulting in a map of different urban typologies for each city. Based on >1200 georeferenced field photographs and expert interviews for Karonga (Malawi) and Nairobi (Kenya), generally applicable rules about the presence, type and level of service of 12 infrastructure types (the 'urban texture') are developed for each urban typology. For each urban texture, we are broadly reviewing how each infrastructure might be physically impacted by 21 different natural hazards and hazard interactions. This can aid local stakeholders such as emergency responders and urban planners to systematically identify how the infrastructure in different parts of an urban area might be affected differently during a natural disaster event.

Preliminary Safety Design Report for Remote Handled Low-Level Waste Disposal Facility

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Timothy Solack; Carol Mason

2012-03-01

A new onsite, remote-handled low-level waste disposal facility has been identified as the highest ranked alternative for providing continued, uninterrupted remote-handled low-level waste disposal for remote-handled low-level waste from the Idaho National Laboratory and for nuclear fuel processing activities at the Naval Reactors Facility. Historically, this type of waste has been disposed of at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex. Disposal of remote-handled low-level waste in concrete disposal vaults at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex will continue until the facility is full or until it must be closed in preparation for final remediation of the Subsurface Disposal Area (approximately at the end of Fiscal Year 2017). This preliminary safety design report supports the design of a proposed onsite remote-handled low-level waste disposal facility by providing an initial nuclear facility hazard categorization, by discussing site characteristics that impact accident analysis, by providing the facility and process information necessary to support the hazard analysis, by identifying and evaluating potential hazards for processes associated with onsite handling and disposal of remote-handled low-level waste, and by discussing the need for safety features that will become part of the facility design.

Modelling the results of health promotion activities in Switzerland: development of the Swiss Model for Outcome Classification in Health Promotion and Prevention.

Science.gov (United States)

Spencer, Brenda; Broesskamp-Stone, Ursel; Ruckstuhl, Brigitte; Ackermann, Günter; Spoerri, Adrian; Cloetta, Bernhard

2008-03-01

This paper describes the Model for Outcome Classification in Health Promotion and Prevention adopted by Health Promotion Switzerland (SMOC, Swiss Model for Outcome Classification) and the process of its development. The context and method of model development, and the aim and objectives of the model are outlined. Preliminary experience with application of the model in evaluation planning and situation analysis is reported. On the basis of an extensive literature search, the model is situated within the wider international context of similar efforts to meet the challenge of developing tools to assess systematically the activities of health promotion and prevention.

New Site Coefficients and Site Classification System Used in Recent Building Seismic Code Provisions

Science.gov (United States)

Dobry, R.; Borcherdt, R.D.; Crouse, C.B.; Idriss, I.M.; Joyner, W.B.; Martin, G.R.; Power, M.S.; Rinne, E.E.; Seed, R.B.

2000-01-01

Recent code provisions for buildings and other structures (1994 and 1997 NEHRP Provisions, 1997 UBC) have adopted new site amplification factors and a new procedure for site classification. Two amplitude-dependent site amplification factors are specified: Fa for short periods and Fv for longer periods. Previous codes included only a long period factor S and did not provide for a short period amplification factor. The new site classification system is based on definitions of five site classes in terms of a representative average shear wave velocity to a depth of 30 m (V?? s). This definition permits sites to be classified unambiguously. When the shear wave velocity is not available, other soil properties such as standard penetration resistance or undrained shear strength can be used. The new site classes denoted by letters A - E, replace site classes in previous codes denoted by S1 - S4. Site classes A and B correspond to hard rock and rock, Site Class C corresponds to soft rock and very stiff / very dense soil, and Site Classes D and E correspond to stiff soil and soft soil. A sixth site class, F, is defined for soils requiring site-specific evaluations. Both Fa and Fv are functions of the site class, and also of the level of seismic hazard on rock, defined by parameters such as Aa and Av (1994 NEHRP Provisions), Ss and S1 (1997 NEHRP Provisions) or Z (1997 UBC). The values of Fa and Fv decrease as the seismic hazard on rock increases due to soil nonlinearity. The greatest impact of the new factors Fa and Fv as compared with the old S factors occurs in areas of low-to-medium seismic hazard. This paper summarizes the new site provisions, explains the basis for them, and discusses ongoing studies of site amplification in recent earthquakes that may influence future code developments.

Classification of Large-Scale Remote Sensing Images for Automatic Identification of Health Hazards: Smoke Detection Using an Autologistic Regression Classifier.

Science.gov (United States)

Wolters, Mark A; Dean, C B

2017-01-01

Remote sensing images from Earth-orbiting satellites are a potentially rich data source for monitoring and cataloguing atmospheric health hazards that cover large geographic regions. A method is proposed for classifying such images into hazard and nonhazard regions using the autologistic regression model, which may be viewed as a spatial extension of logistic regression. The method includes a novel and simple approach to parameter estimation that makes it well suited to handling the large and high-dimensional datasets arising from satellite-borne instruments. The methodology is demonstrated on both simulated images and a real application to the identification of forest fire smoke.

Modulation Classification of Satellite Communication Signals Using Cumulants and Neural Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Aaron; Evans, Michael; Downey, Joseph

2017-01-01

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s future communication architecture is evaluating cognitive technologies and increased system intelligence. These technologies are expected to reduce the operational complexity of the network, increase science data return, and reduce interference to self and others. In order to increase situational awareness, signal classification algorithms could be applied to identify users and distinguish sources of interference. A significant amount of previous work has been done in the area of automatic signal classification for military and commercial applications. As a preliminary step, we seek to develop a system with the ability to discern signals typically encountered in satellite communication. Proposed is an automatic modulation classifier which utilizes higher order statistics (cumulants) and an estimate of the signal-to-noise ratio. These features are extracted from baseband symbols and then processed by a neural network for classification. The modulation types considered are phase-shift keying (PSK), amplitude and phase-shift keying (APSK),and quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). Physical layer properties specific to the Digital Video Broadcasting - Satellite- Second Generation (DVB-S2) standard, such as pilots and variable ring ratios, are also considered. This paper will provide simulation results of a candidate modulation classifier, and performance will be evaluated over a range of signal-to-noise ratios, frequency offsets, and nonlinear amplifier distortions.

Application of pristine and doped SnO2 nanoparticles as a matrix for agro-hazardous material (organophosphate) detection

Science.gov (United States)

Khan, Naushad; Athar, Taimur; Fouad, H.; Umar, Ahmad; Ansari, Z. A.; Ansari, S. G.

2017-02-01

With an increasing focus on applied research, series of single/composite materials are being investigated for device development to detect several hazardous, dangerous, and toxic molecules. Here, we report a preliminary attempt of an electrochemical sensor fabricated using pristine Ni and Cr-doped nano tin oxide material (SnO2) as a tool to detect agro-hazardous material, i.e. Organophosphate (OP, chlorpyrifos). The nanomaterial was synthesized using the solution method. Nickel and chromium were used as dopant during synthesis. The synthesized material was calcined at 1000 °C and characterized for morphological, structural, and elemental analysis that showed the formation of agglomerated nanosized particles of crystalline nature. Screen-printed films of powder obtained were used as a matrix for working electrodes in a cyclic voltammogram (CV) at various concentrations of organophosphates (0.01 to 100 ppm). The CV curves were obtained before and after the immobilization of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) on the nanomaterial matrix. An interference study was also conducted with hydroquinone to ascertain the selectivity. The preliminary study indicated that such material can be used as suitable matrix for a device that can easily detect OP to a level of 10 ppb and thus contributes to progress in terms of desired device technology for the food and agricultural-industries.

The classification of explosion-proof protected induction motor into adequate temperature and efficiency class

Science.gov (United States)

Brinovar, Iztok; Srpčič, Gregor; Seme, Sebastijan; Štumberger, Bojan; Hadžiselimović, Miralem

2017-07-01

This article deals with the classification of explosion-proof protected induction motors, which are used in hazardous areas, into adequate temperature and efficiency class. Hazardous areas are defined as locations with a potentially explosive atmosphere where explosion may occur due to present of flammable gasses, liquids or combustible dusts (industrial plants, mines, etc.). Electric motors and electrical equipment used in such locations must be specially designed and tested to prevent electrical initiation of explosion due to high surface temperature and arcing contacts. This article presents the basic tests of three-phase explosion-proof protected induction motor with special emphasis on the measuring system and temperature rise test. All the measurements were performed with high-accuracy instrumentation and accessory equipment and carried out at the Institute of energy technology in the Electric machines and drives laboratory and Applied electrical engineering laboratory.

An Object-Based Classification of Mangroves Using a Hybrid Decision Tree—Support Vector Machine Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Benjamin W. Heumann

2011-11-01

Full Text Available Mangroves provide valuable ecosystem goods and services such as carbon sequestration, habitat for terrestrial and marine fauna, and coastal hazard mitigation. The use of satellite remote sensing to map mangroves has become widespread as it can provide accurate, efficient, and repeatable assessments. Traditional remote sensing approaches have failed to accurately map fringe mangroves and true mangrove species due to relatively coarse spatial resolution and/or spectral confusion with landward vegetation. This study demonstrates the use of the new Worldview-2 sensor, Object-based image analysis (OBIA, and support vector machine (SVM classification to overcome both of these limitations. An exploratory spectral separability showed that individual mangrove species could not be spectrally separated, but a distinction between true and associate mangrove species could be made. An OBIA classification was used that combined a decision-tree classification with the machine-learning SVM classification. Results showed an overall accuracy greater than 94% (kappa = 0.863 for classifying true mangroves species and other dense coastal vegetation at the object level. There remain serious challenges to accurately mapping fringe mangroves using remote sensing data due to spectral similarity of mangrove and associate species, lack of clear zonation between species, and mixed pixel effects, especially when vegetation is sparse or degraded.

THE PHOTOMETRIC CLASSIFICATION SERVER FOR Pan-STARRS1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saglia, R. P.; Bender, R.; Seitz, S.; Senger, R.; Snigula, J.; Phleps, S.; Wilman, D.; Tonry, J. L.; Burgett, W. S.; Chambers, K. C.; Heasley, J. N.; Kaiser, N.; Magnier, E. A.; Morgan, J. S.; Greisel, N.; Bailer-Jones, C. A. L.; Klement, R. J.; Rix, H.-W.; Smith, K.; Green, P. J.

2012-01-01

The Pan-STARRS1 survey is obtaining multi-epoch imaging in five bands (g P1 r P1 i P1 z P1 y P1 ) over the entire sky north of declination –30 deg. We describe here the implementation of the Photometric Classification Server (PCS) for Pan-STARRS1. PCS will allow the automatic classification of objects into star/galaxy/quasar classes based on colors and the measurement of photometric redshifts for extragalactic objects, and will constrain stellar parameters for stellar objects, working at the catalog level. We present tests of the system based on high signal-to-noise photometry derived from the Medium-Deep Fields of Pan-STARRS1, using available spectroscopic surveys as training and/or verification sets. We show that the Pan-STARRS1 photometry delivers classifications and photometric redshifts as good as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) photometry to the same magnitude limits. In particular, our preliminary results, based on this relatively limited data set down to the SDSS spectroscopic limits, and therefore potentially improvable, show that stars are correctly classified as such in 85% of cases, galaxies in 97%, and QSOs in 84%. False positives are less than 1% for galaxies, ≈19% for stars, and ≈28% for QSOs. Moreover, photometric redshifts for 1000 luminous red galaxies up to redshift 0.5 are determined to 2.4% precision (defined as 1.48 × Median|z phot – z spec |/(1 + z)) with just 0.4% catastrophic outliers and small (–0.5%) residual bias. For bluer galaxies up to the same redshift, the residual bias (on average –0.5%) trend, percentage of catastrophic failures (1.2%), and precision (4.2%) are higher, but still interestingly small for many science applications. Good photometric redshifts (to 5%) can be obtained for at most 60% of the QSOs of the sample. PCS will create a value-added catalog with classifications and photometric redshifts for eventually many millions of sources.

HAZWDDD [Hazardous Waste Development, Demonstration, and Disposal]: An exercise in corporate planning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McGinnis, C.P.; Pechin, W.H.

1988-01-01

Both Energy Systems corporate management and US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Operations Office (DOE-ORO) management have recognized the seriousness of these problems and have established several programs to determine acceptable courses of action. A plan has been developed for low-level radioactive waste (LLW), and an active dialogue pertaining to LLW is maintained with the state and federal regulators. During 1986, DOE-ORO and Energy Systems identified the need for a plan to address hazardous and mixed wastes. Each installation supports the concept of HAZWDDD through funding and the development of individual HAZWDDD implementation plans. A corporate plan is being developed to integrate the issues discussed in the five installation plans. This paper describes the approach taken in collecting the necessary information for the plan, some of the techniques used in analyzing the information provided, preliminary data that have been collected in preparation of this plan, the identification of common concerns and issues, and the integration of this information into a corporate approach to mixed and hazardous waste management. 1 fig., 5 tabs

Classification of breast tumour using electrical impedance and machine learning techniques.

Science.gov (United States)

Al Amin, Abdullah; Parvin, Shahnaj; Kadir, M A; Tahmid, Tasmia; Alam, S Kaisar; Siddique-e Rabbani, K

2014-06-01

When a breast lump is detected through palpation, mammography or ultrasonography, the final test for characterization of the tumour, whether it is malignant or benign, is biopsy. This is invasive and carries hazards associated with any surgical procedures. The present work was undertaken to study the feasibility for such characterization using non-invasive electrical impedance measurements and machine learning techniques. Because of changes in cell morphology of malignant and benign tumours, changes are expected in impedance at a fixed frequency, and versus frequency of measurement. Tetrapolar impedance measurement (TPIM) using four electrodes at the corners of a square region of sides 4 cm was used for zone localization. Data of impedance in two orthogonal directions, measured at 5 and 200 kHz from 19 subjects, and their respective slopes with frequency were subjected to machine learning procedures through the use of feature plots. These patients had single or multiple tumours of various types in one or both breasts, and four of them had malignant tumours, as diagnosed by core biopsy. Although size and depth of the tumours are expected to affect the measurements, this preliminary work ignored these effects. Selecting 12 features from the above measurements, feature plots were drawn for the 19 patients, which displayed considerable overlap between malignant and benign cases. However, based on observed qualitative trend of the measured values, when all the feature values were divided by respective ages, the two types of tumours separated out reasonably well. Using K-NN classification method the results obtained are, positive prediction value: 60%, negative prediction value: 93%, sensitivity: 75%, specificity: 87% and efficacy: 84%, which are very good for such a test on a small sample size. Study on a larger sample is expected to give confidence in this technique, and further improvement of the technique may have the ability to replace biopsy.

Classification of breast tumour using electrical impedance and machine learning techniques

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Amin, Abdullah Al; Parvin, Shahnaj; Kadir, M A; Tahmid, Tasmia; Alam, S Kaisar; Siddique-e Rabbani, K

2014-01-01

When a breast lump is detected through palpation, mammography or ultrasonography, the final test for characterization of the tumour, whether it is malignant or benign, is biopsy. This is invasive and carries hazards associated with any surgical procedures. The present work was undertaken to study the feasibility for such characterization using non-invasive electrical impedance measurements and machine learning techniques. Because of changes in cell morphology of malignant and benign tumours, changes are expected in impedance at a fixed frequency, and versus frequency of measurement. Tetrapolar impedance measurement (TPIM) using four electrodes at the corners of a square region of sides 4 cm was used for zone localization. Data of impedance in two orthogonal directions, measured at 5 and 200 kHz from 19 subjects, and their respective slopes with frequency were subjected to machine learning procedures through the use of feature plots. These patients had single or multiple tumours of various types in one or both breasts, and four of them had malignant tumours, as diagnosed by core biopsy. Although size and depth of the tumours are expected to affect the measurements, this preliminary work ignored these effects. Selecting 12 features from the above measurements, feature plots were drawn for the 19 patients, which displayed considerable overlap between malignant and benign cases. However, based on observed qualitative trend of the measured values, when all the feature values were divided by respective ages, the two types of tumours separated out reasonably well. Using K-NN classification method the results obtained are, positive prediction value: 60%, negative prediction value: 93%, sensitivity: 75%, specificity: 87% and efficacy: 84%, which are very good for such a test on a small sample size. Study on a larger sample is expected to give confidence in this technique, and further improvement of the technique may have the ability to replace biopsy. (paper)

Classification

Science.gov (United States)

Clary, Renee; Wandersee, James

2013-01-01

In this article, Renee Clary and James Wandersee describe the beginnings of "Classification," which lies at the very heart of science and depends upon pattern recognition. Clary and Wandersee approach patterns by first telling the story of the "Linnaean classification system," introduced by Carl Linnacus (1707-1778), who is…

''Hazardous'' terminology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Powers, J.

1991-01-01

A number of terms (e.g., ''hazardous chemicals,'' ''hazardous materials,'' ''hazardous waste,'' and similar nomenclature) refer to substances that are subject to regulation under one or more federal environmental laws. State laws and regulations also provide additional, similar, or identical terminology that may be confused with the federally defined terms. Many of these terms appear synonymous, and it easy to use them interchangeably. However, in a regulatory context, inappropriate use of narrowly defined terms can lead to confusion about the substances referred to, the statutory provisions that apply, and the regulatory requirements for compliance under the applicable federal statutes. This information Brief provides regulatory definitions, a brief discussion of compliance requirements, and references for the precise terminology that should be used when referring to ''hazardous'' substances regulated under federal environmental laws. A companion CERCLA Information Brief (EH-231-004/0191) addresses ''toxic'' nomenclature

Hazard Analysis Database Report

CERN Document Server

Grams, W H

2000-01-01

The Hazard Analysis Database was developed in conjunction with the hazard analysis activities conducted in accordance with DOE-STD-3009-94, Preparation Guide for U S . Department of Energy Nonreactor Nuclear Facility Safety Analysis Reports, for HNF-SD-WM-SAR-067, Tank Farms Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR). The FSAR is part of the approved Authorization Basis (AB) for the River Protection Project (RPP). This document describes, identifies, and defines the contents and structure of the Tank Farms FSAR Hazard Analysis Database and documents the configuration control changes made to the database. The Hazard Analysis Database contains the collection of information generated during the initial hazard evaluations and the subsequent hazard and accident analysis activities. The Hazard Analysis Database supports the preparation of Chapters 3 ,4 , and 5 of the Tank Farms FSAR and the Unreviewed Safety Question (USQ) process and consists of two major, interrelated data sets: (1) Hazard Analysis Database: Data from t...

Has land subsidence changed the flood hazard potential? A case example from the Kujukuri Plain, Chiba Prefecture, Japan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. L. Chen

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Coastal areas are subject to flood hazards because of their topographic features, social development and related human activities. The Kujukuri Plain, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, is located nearby the Tokyo metropolitan area and it faces to the Pacific Ocean. In the Kujukuri Plain, widespread occurrence of land subsidence has been caused by exploitation of groundwater, extraction of natural gas dissolved in brine, and natural consolidation of the Holocene and landfill deposits. The locations of land subsidence include areas near the coast, and it may increase the flood hazard potential. Hence, it is very important to evaluate flood hazard potential by taking into account the temporal change of land elevation caused by land subsidence, and to prepare hazard maps for protecting the surface environment and for developing an appropriate land-use plan. In this study, flood hazard assessments at three different times, i.e., 1970, 2004, and 2013 are implemented by using a flood hazard model based on Multicriteria Decision Analysis with Geographical Information System techniques. The model incorporates six factors: elevation, depression area, river system, ratio of impermeable area, detention ponds, and precipitation. Main data sources used are 10 m resolution topography data, airborne laser scanning data, leveling data, Landsat-TM data, two 1:30 000 scale river watershed maps, and precipitation data from observation stations around the study area and Radar data. The hazard assessment maps for each time are obtained by using an algorithm that combines factors with weighted linear combinations. The assignment of the weight/rank values and their analysis are realized by the application of the Analytic Hierarchy Process method. This study is a preliminary work to investigate flood hazards on the Kujukuri Plain. A flood model will be developed to simulate more detailed change of the flood hazard influenced by land subsidence.

Novel whole-cell Reporter Assay for Stress-Based Classification of Antibacterial Compounds Produced by Locally Isolated Bacillus spp.

OpenAIRE

Nithya, Vadakedath; Halami, Prakash M.

2012-01-01

Reporter bacteria are beneficial for the rapid and sensitive screening of cultures producing peptide antibiotics, which can be an addition or alternative to the established antibiotics. This study was carried out to validate the usability of specific reporter strains for the target mediated identification of antibiotics produced by native Bacillus spp. isolated from different food sources. During preliminary classification, cell wall stress causing Bacillus isolates were screened by using rep...

[On the discussion of the new aspects of the occupational hearing loss classification].

Science.gov (United States)

Pankova, V B; Sineva, E L; Tavartkiladze, G A; Bushmanov, A Iu

2014-01-01

The objective of the present work was to analyse the materials of verification of the newly developed classification of occupational hearing loss harmonized with the international criteria an medico-social expertise of hearing impairment. The classification is designed for the practical application in the clinical work of otorhinolaryngologists, occupational pathologists, and medico-social experts who must practice the identical approaches at all stages of the preliminary and final diagnostics of occupational ear diseases, competence assurance, and social maintenance for the subjects presenting with hearing disorders. The authors emphasize the importance of taking account of presbyacusis characteristics at the stage of pre-nosological changes of the hearing function in the subjects exposed to strong occupational noise, i.e. prior to the appearance of the «signs of noise influence on the organs of hearing". Such an approach makes it possible to eliminate the discrepancies in drawing conclusion about the presence of presbyacusis or "signs of noise influence on the organs of hearing".

An investigation on unintended reactor trip events in terms of human error hazards of Korean nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Sa Kil; Lee, Yong Hee; Jang, Tong Il; Oh, Yeon Ju; Shin, Kwang Hyeon

2014-01-01

Highlights: • A methodology to identify human error hazards has been established. • The proposed methodology is a preventive approach to identify not only human error causes but also its hazards. • Using the HFACS framework we tried to find out not causations but all of the hazards and relationships among them. • We determined countermeasures against human errors through dealing with latent factors such as organizational influences. - Abstract: A new approach for finding the hazards of human errors, and not just their causes, in the nuclear industry is currently required. This is because finding causes of human errors is really impossible owing to the multiplicity of causes in each case. Thus, this study aims at identifying the relationships among human error hazards and determining the strategies for preventing human error events by means of a reanalysis of the reactor trip events in Korea NPPs. We investigated human errors to find latent factors such as decisions and conditions in all of the unintended reactor trip events during the last dozen years. In this study, we applied the HFACS (Human Factors Analysis and Classification System), which is a commonly utilized tool for investigating human contributions to aviation accidents under a widespread evaluation scheme. Using the HFACS framework, we tried to find out not the causations but all of the hazards and their relationships in terms of organizational factors. Through the trial, we proposed not only meaningful frequencies of each hazards also correlations of them. Also, considering the correlations of each hazards, we suggested useful strategies to prevent human error event. A method to investigate unintended nuclear reactor trips by human errors and the results will be discussed in more detail

Preliminary Analysis of Aircraft Loss of Control Accidents: Worst Case Precursor Combinations and Temporal Sequencing

Science.gov (United States)

Belcastro, Christine M.; Groff, Loren; Newman, Richard L.; Foster, John V.; Crider, Dennis H.; Klyde, David H.; Huston, A. McCall

2014-01-01

Aircraft loss of control (LOC) is a leading cause of fatal accidents across all transport airplane and operational classes, and can result from a wide spectrum of hazards, often occurring in combination. Technologies developed for LOC prevention and recovery must therefore be effective under a wide variety of conditions and uncertainties, including multiple hazards, and their validation must provide a means of assessing system effectiveness and coverage of these hazards. This requires the definition of a comprehensive set of LOC test scenarios based on accident and incident data as well as future risks. This paper defines a comprehensive set of accidents and incidents over a recent 15 year period, and presents preliminary analysis results to identify worst-case combinations of causal and contributing factors (i.e., accident precursors) and how they sequence in time. Such analyses can provide insight in developing effective solutions for LOC, and form the basis for developing test scenarios that can be used in evaluating them. Preliminary findings based on the results of this paper indicate that system failures or malfunctions, crew actions or inactions, vehicle impairment conditions, and vehicle upsets contributed the most to accidents and fatalities, followed by inclement weather or atmospheric disturbances and poor visibility. Follow-on research will include finalizing the analysis through a team consensus process, defining future risks, and developing a comprehensive set of test scenarios with correlation to the accidents, incidents, and future risks. Since enhanced engineering simulations are required for batch and piloted evaluations under realistic LOC precursor conditions, these test scenarios can also serve as a high-level requirement for defining the engineering simulation enhancements needed for generating them.

Identification of natural hazards and classification of urban areas by TOPSIS model (case study: Bandar Abbas city, Iran

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rasool Mahdavi Najafabadi

2016-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper, among multi-criteria models for complex decision-making and multiple-attribute models for assigning the most preferable choice, the technique for order preference by similarity ideal solution (TOPSIS is implied. The main objective of this research is to identify potential natural hazards in Bandar Abbas city, Iran, using TOPSIS model, which is based on an analytical hierarchy process structure. A set of 12 relevant geomorphologic parameters, including earthquake frequency, distance from the earthquake epicentre, number of faults, flood, talus creep, landslide, land subsidence, tide, hurricane and tidal wave, dust storms with external source, wind erosion and sea level fluctuations are considered to quantify inputs of the model. The outputs of this study indicate that one region, among three assessed regions, has the maximum potential occurrence of natural hazards, while it has been urbanized at a greater rate compared to other regions. Furthermore, based on Delphi method, the earthquake frequency and the landslide are the most and the least dangerous phenomena, respectively.

Hidrocarbonetos policíclicos aromáticos em resíduos sólidos industriais: uma avaliação preliminar do risco potencial de contaminação ambiental e humana em áreas de disposição de resíduos Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in industrial solid waste: a preliminary evaluation of the potential risk of environmental and human contamination in waste disposal areas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristina L. S. Sisinno

2003-04-01

Full Text Available A disposição adequada dos resíduos sólidos é importante para evitar que os mesmos se transformem em fonte de contaminação ambiental e humana. A NBR 10.004 - Classificação de Resíduos - lista vários hidrocarbonetos policíclicos aromáticos (HPAs e indica que, a presença de pelo menos um deles na massa bruta do resíduo é suficiente para classificá-lo como resíduo perigoso. O objetivo deste estudo foi verificar a presença de HPAs em amostras de resíduos sólidos provenientes de alguns segmentos industriais, para se obter uma avaliação preliminar do potencial de contaminação que estes resíduos podem representar, caso não recebam destino adequado. Pelo menos um dos HPAs previstos na NBR 10.004 (benzo[a]antraceno, benzo[a]pireno, benzo[b]fluoranteno, benzo[k]fluoranteno, indeno[1,2,3-c,d]pireno, criseno ou fluoranteno foi identificado em todos os resíduos estudados, classificando-os como perigosos. Nossos resultados indicam que todos os resíduos estudados continham HPAs de importância toxicológica, o que implica que sua disposição final seja feita em locais adequados para minimizar os riscos à saúde humana e ambiental oriundos das áreas de disposição de resíduos.Proper solid waste disposal is important to avoid human and environmental contamination. The NBR 10,004 Waste Classification lists several polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs and indicates that the presence of at least one PAH in a waste sample is enough to classify it as hazardous. The aim of this study was a preliminary evaluation of PAHs in solid waste samples from selected industries to obtain a preliminary overview of their potential for contamination in case of improper disposal. One or more PAHs listed in NBR 10,004 (benzo[a]anthracene, benzo[a]pyrene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, benzo[k]fluoranthene, indene[1,2,3-c,d]pyrene, chrysene, or fluoranthene were found in all samples, thus leading to their classification as hazardous waste. Our results showed

Algorithm for Optimizing Bipolar Interconnection Weights with Applications in Associative Memories and Multitarget Classification

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Shengjiang; Wong, Kwok-Wo; Zhang, Wenwei; Zhang, Yanxin

1999-08-01

An algorithm for optimizing a bipolar interconnection weight matrix with the Hopfield network is proposed. The effectiveness of this algorithm is demonstrated by computer simulation and optical implementation. In the optical implementation of the neural network the interconnection weights are biased to yield a nonnegative weight matrix. Moreover, a threshold subchannel is added so that the system can realize, in real time, the bipolar weighted summation in a single channel. Preliminary experimental results obtained from the applications in associative memories and multitarget classification with rotation invariance are shown.

Hand eczema classification

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Diepgen, T L; Andersen, Klaus Ejner; Brandao, F M

2008-01-01

of the disease is rarely evidence based, and a classification system for different subdiagnoses of hand eczema is not agreed upon. Randomized controlled trials investigating the treatment of hand eczema are called for. For this, as well as for clinical purposes, a generally accepted classification system...... A classification system for hand eczema is proposed. Conclusions It is suggested that this classification be used in clinical work and in clinical trials....

Assessing Ultraviolet Hazards Using Portable Measuring Instruments

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ridyard, A

2000-07-01

The 'Erythemal Action Spectrum' shows an increase of 10{sup 3} in human skin sensitivity to UV radiation over only 30 nm of change of wavelength, from 328 nm to 298 nm. This represents a severe challenge to the manufacturing and calibration of a portable instrument which can measure the vanishingly small amounts of short wavelength UV from solarium tanning lamps, and to apply accurately an action spectra to be able to quantify the hazard presented by such lamps to skin. The classification of UV lamp types from their 'effective irradiance' requires very sharp discrimination between UV power contained in the short wavelength and the long wavelength parts of the UV spectra, so radiometers give misleading results. The only instrument suitable for making these measurements is the spectroradiometer. The development of such an instrument in a hand held portable form is described, with the difficulties associated with its calibration and such factors as stray light rejection. (author)

Assessing Ultraviolet Hazards Using Portable Measuring Instruments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ridyard, A.

2000-01-01

The 'Erythemal Action Spectrum' shows an increase of 10 3 in human skin sensitivity to UV radiation over only 30 nm of change of wavelength, from 328 nm to 298 nm. This represents a severe challenge to the manufacturing and calibration of a portable instrument which can measure the vanishingly small amounts of short wavelength UV from solarium tanning lamps, and to apply accurately an action spectra to be able to quantify the hazard presented by such lamps to skin. The classification of UV lamp types from their 'effective irradiance' requires very sharp discrimination between UV power contained in the short wavelength and the long wavelength parts of the UV spectra, so radiometers give misleading results. The only instrument suitable for making these measurements is the spectroradiometer. The development of such an instrument in a hand held portable form is described, with the difficulties associated with its calibration and such factors as stray light rejection. (author)

Classification of the web

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mai, Jens Erik

2004-01-01

This paper discusses the challenges faced by investigations into the classification of the Web and outlines inquiries that are needed to use principles for bibliographic classification to construct classifications of the Web. This paper suggests that the classification of the Web meets challenges...... that call for inquiries into the theoretical foundation of bibliographic classification theory....

Preliminary environmental analysis of a geopressured-geothermal test well in Brazoria County, Texas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

White, W.A.; McGraw, M.; Gustavson, T.C.; Meriwether, J.

1977-11-16

Preliminary environmental data, including current land use, substrate lithology, soils, natural hazards, water resources, biological assemblages, meteorological data, and regulatory considerations have been collected and analyzed for approximately 150 km/sup 2/ of land near Chocolate Bayou, Brazoria County, Texas, in which a geopressured-geothermal test well is to be drilled in the fall of 1977. The study was designed to establish an environmental data base and to determine, within spatial constraints set by subsurface reservoir conditions, environmentally suitable sites for the proposed well. Preliminary analyses of data revealed the eed for focusing on the following areas: potential for subsidence and fault activation, susceptibility of test well and support facilities to fresh- and salt-water flooding, possible effects of produced saline waters on biological assemblages and groundwaer resources, distribution of expansive soils, and effect of drilling and associated support activities on known archeological-cultural resources.

Security classification of information

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Quist, A.S.

1993-04-01

This document is the second of a planned four-volume work that comprehensively discusses the security classification of information. The main focus of Volume 2 is on the principles for classification of information. Included herein are descriptions of the two major types of information that governments classify for national security reasons (subjective and objective information), guidance to use when determining whether information under consideration for classification is controlled by the government (a necessary requirement for classification to be effective), information disclosure risks and benefits (the benefits and costs of classification), standards to use when balancing information disclosure risks and benefits, guidance for assigning classification levels (Top Secret, Secret, or Confidential) to classified information, guidance for determining how long information should be classified (classification duration), classification of associations of information, classification of compilations of information, and principles for declassifying and downgrading information. Rules or principles of certain areas of our legal system (e.g., trade secret law) are sometimes mentioned to .provide added support to some of those classification principles.

Breast cancer molecular subtype classification using deep features: preliminary results

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Zhe; Albadawy, Ehab; Saha, Ashirbani; Zhang, Jun; Harowicz, Michael R.; Mazurowski, Maciej A.

2018-02-01

Radiogenomics is a field of investigation that attempts to examine the relationship between imaging characteris- tics of cancerous lesions and their genomic composition. This could offer a noninvasive alternative to establishing genomic characteristics of tumors and aid cancer treatment planning. While deep learning has shown its supe- riority in many detection and classification tasks, breast cancer radiogenomic data suffers from a very limited number of training examples, which renders the training of the neural network for this problem directly and with no pretraining a very difficult task. In this study, we investigated an alternative deep learning approach referred to as deep features or off-the-shelf network approach to classify breast cancer molecular subtypes using breast dynamic contrast enhanced MRIs. We used the feature maps of different convolution layers and fully connected layers as features and trained support vector machines using these features for prediction. For the feature maps that have multiple layers, max-pooling was performed along each channel. We focused on distinguishing the Luminal A subtype from other subtypes. To evaluate the models, 10 fold cross-validation was performed and the final AUC was obtained by averaging the performance of all the folds. The highest average AUC obtained was 0.64 (0.95 CI: 0.57-0.71), using the feature maps of the last fully connected layer. This indicates the promise of using this approach to predict the breast cancer molecular subtypes. Since the best performance appears in the last fully connected layer, it also implies that breast cancer molecular subtypes may relate to high level image features

Moral hazard, doctors, and absenteism in France. Preliminary analysis based on aggregate data.

Science.gov (United States)

Grignon, M; Renaud, T

2007-08-01

This article provides a simple and preliminary study of variations in the number of days of work lost to illness and injury in France, over time and across jurisdictions. We test the hypothesis that workers use their physicians to cheat the system and increase their leisure time paid for by the sickness fund. Firstly, using time series analysis, we check that change in the unemployment rate correlates unequivocally and negatively with the absence rate. We then show, based on geographical aggregate level data, that physicians' density is not positively correlated to sick leaves, which runs contrary to the idea of cheating helped by doctors. We suggest and test for alternative factors, such as baseline population health. If the increase in the number of days lost to illness is seen as a matter of concern, our recommended policy would be to target demand side as well as supply side in the labour market.

Some preliminary results of a worldwide seismicity estimation: a case study of seismic hazard evaluation in South America

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. V. Christova

2000-06-01

Full Text Available Global data have been widely used for seismicity and seismic hazard assessment by seismologists. In the present study we evaluate worldwide seismicity in terms of maps of maximum observed magnitude (Mmax, seismic moment (M 0 and seismic moment rate (M 0S. The data set used consists of a complete and homogeneous global catalogue of shallow (h £ 60 km earthquakes of magnitude MS ³ 5.5 for the time period 1894-1992. In order to construct maps of seismicity and seismic hazard the parameters a and b derived from the magnitude-frequency relationship were estimated by both: a the least squares, and b the maximum likelihood, methods. The values of a and b were determined considering circles centered at each grid point 1° (of a mesh 1° ´1° and of varying radius, which starts from 30 km and moves with a step of 10 km. Only a and b values which fulfill some predefined conditions were considered in the further procedure for evaluating the seismic hazard maps. The obtained worldwide M max distribution in general delineates the contours of the plate boundaries. The highest values of M max observed are along the circum-Pacific belt and in the Himalayan area. The subduction plate boundaries are characterized by the largest amount of M 0 , while areas of continental collision are next. The highest values of seismic moment rate (per 1 year and per equal area of 10 000 km 2 are found in the Southern Himalayas. The western coasts of U.S.A., Northwestern Canada and Alaska, the Indian Ocean and the eastern rift of Africa are characterized by high values of M 0 , while most of the Pacific subduction zones have lower values of seismic moment rate. Finally we analyzed the seismic hazard in South America comparing the predicted by the NUVEL1 model convergence slip rate between Nazca and South America plates with the average slip rate due to earthquakes. This consideration allows for distinguishing between zones of high and low coupling along the studied convergence

First Experience with Sentinel-2 Data for Crop and Tree Species Classifications in Central Europe

OpenAIRE

Markus Immitzer; Francesco Vuolo; Clement Atzberger

2016-01-01

The study presents the preliminary results of two classification exercises assessing the capabilities of pre-operational (August 2015) Sentinel-2 (S2) data for mapping crop types and tree species. In the first case study, an S2 image was used to map six summer crop species in Lower Austria as well as winter crops/bare soil. Crop type maps are needed to account for crop-specific water use and for agricultural statistics. Crop type information is also useful to parametrize crop growth models fo...

A study of earthquake-induced building detection by object oriented classification approach

Science.gov (United States)

Sabuncu, Asli; Damla Uca Avci, Zehra; Sunar, Filiz

2017-04-01

Among the natural hazards, earthquakes are the most destructive disasters and cause huge loss of lives, heavily infrastructure damages and great financial losses every year all around the world. According to the statistics about the earthquakes, more than a million earthquakes occur which is equal to two earthquakes per minute in the world. Natural disasters have brought more than 780.000 deaths approximately % 60 of all mortality is due to the earthquakes after 2001. A great earthquake took place at 38.75 N 43.36 E in the eastern part of Turkey in Van Province on On October 23th, 2011. 604 people died and about 4000 buildings seriously damaged and collapsed after this earthquake. In recent years, the use of object oriented classification approach based on different object features, such as spectral, textural, shape and spatial information, has gained importance and became widespread for the classification of high-resolution satellite images and orthophotos. The motivation of this study is to detect the collapsed buildings and debris areas after the earthquake by using very high-resolution satellite images and orthophotos with the object oriented classification and also see how well remote sensing technology was carried out in determining the collapsed buildings. In this study, two different land surfaces were selected as homogenous and heterogeneous case study areas. In the first step of application, multi-resolution segmentation was applied and optimum parameters were selected to obtain the objects in each area after testing different color/shape and compactness/smoothness values. In the next step, two different classification approaches, namely "supervised" and "unsupervised" approaches were applied and their classification performances were compared. Object-based Image Analysis (OBIA) was performed using e-Cognition software.

Hazard management at the workplace

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hasfazilah Hassan; Azimawati Ahmad; Syed Asraf Fahlawi Wafa S M Ghazi; Hairul Nizam Idris

2005-01-01

Failure to ensure health and safety environment at workplace will cause an accident involving loss to the time, human resource, finance and for the worse case effect the moral value of an organization. If we go through to the cause of the accident, it is impossible to have a totally safety workplace. It is because every process in work activities has it own hazard elements. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the best action to prevent from the hazard with a comprehensive and effectiveness hazard management. Hazard management is the one of the pro-active hazard control. With this we manage to identify and evaluate the hazard and control the hazard risk. Therefore, hazard management should be screened constantly and continuously to make sure work hazard always in control. (Author)

DOE Hazardous Waste Program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eyman, L.D.; Craig, R.B.

1985-01-01

The goal of the DOE Hazardous Waste Program is to support the implementation and improvement of hazardous-chemical and mixed-radioactive-waste management such that public health, safety, and the environment are protected and DOE missions are effectively accomplished. The strategy for accomplishing this goal is to define the character and magnitude of hazardous wastes emanating from DOE facilities, determine what DOE resources are available to address these problems, define the regulatory and operational constraints, and develop programs and plans to resolve hazardous waste issues. Over the longer term the program will support the adaptation and application of technologies to meet hazardous waste management needs and to implement an integrated, DOE-wide hazardous waste management strategy. 1 reference, 1 figure

A bayesian approach to classification criteria for spectacled eiders

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, B.L.; Wade, P.R.; Stehn, R.A.; Cochrane, J.F.

1996-01-01

To facilitate decisions to classify species according to risk of extinction, we used Bayesian methods to analyze trend data for the Spectacled Eider, an arctic sea duck. Trend data from three independent surveys of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta were analyzed individually and in combination to yield posterior distributions for population growth rates. We used classification criteria developed by the recovery team for Spectacled Eiders that seek to equalize errors of under- or overprotecting the species. We conducted both a Bayesian decision analysis and a frequentist (classical statistical inference) decision analysis. Bayesian decision analyses are computationally easier, yield basically the same results, and yield results that are easier to explain to nonscientists. With the exception of the aerial survey analysis of the 10 most recent years, both Bayesian and frequentist methods indicated that an endangered classification is warranted. The discrepancy between surveys warrants further research. Although the trend data are abundance indices, we used a preliminary estimate of absolute abundance to demonstrate how to calculate extinction distributions using the joint probability distributions for population growth rate and variance in growth rate generated by the Bayesian analysis. Recent apparent increases in abundance highlight the need for models that apply to declining and then recovering species.

Relative Hazard Calculation Methodology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

DL Strenge; MK White; RD Stenner; WB Andrews

1999-01-01

The methodology presented in this document was developed to provide a means of calculating the RH ratios to use in developing useful graphic illustrations. The RH equation, as presented in this methodology, is primarily a collection of key factors relevant to understanding the hazards and risks associated with projected risk management activities. The RH equation has the potential for much broader application than generating risk profiles. For example, it can be used to compare one risk management activity with another, instead of just comparing it to a fixed baseline as was done for the risk profiles. If the appropriate source term data are available, it could be used in its non-ratio form to estimate absolute values of the associated hazards. These estimated values of hazard could then be examined to help understand which risk management activities are addressing the higher hazard conditions at a site. Graphics could be generated from these absolute hazard values to compare high-hazard conditions. If the RH equation is used in this manner, care must be taken to specifically define and qualify the estimated absolute hazard values (e.g., identify which factors were considered and which ones tended to drive the hazard estimation)

Recovery of hazardous semiconductor-industry sludge as a useful resource.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Tzen-Chin; Liu, Feng-Jiin

2009-06-15

Sludge, a solid waste recovered from wastewater of semiconductor-industries composes of agglomerates of nano-particles like SiO(2) and CaF(2). This sludge deflocculates in acidic and alkaline aqueous solutions into nano-particles smaller than 100 nm. Thus, this sludge is potentially hazardous to water resources when improperly dumped. It can cause considerable air-pollution when fed into rotary-kilns as a raw material for cement production. In this study, dried and pulverized sludge was used to replace 5-20 wt.% Portland cement in cement mortar. The compressive strength of the modified mortar was higher than that of plain cement mortar after curing for 3 days and more. In particular, the strength of mortar with 10 wt.% substitution improved by 25-35% after curing for 7-90 days. TCLP studies reveal no detectable release of heavy metals. Preliminary studies showed that nano-particles deflocculated from the sludge, when cured for up to 3 days retain in the modified mortar their nano-size, which become large-sized hydration compounds that contribute to the final mortar strength. Semiconductor sludge can thus be utilized as a useful resource to replace portion of cement in cement mortar, thereby avoiding their potential hazard on the environment.

Locating hazardous gas leaks in the atmosphere via modified genetic, MCMC and particle swarm optimization algorithms

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Ji; Zhang, Ru; Yan, Yuting; Dong, Xiaoqiang; Li, Jun Ming

2017-05-01

Hazardous gas leaks in the atmosphere can cause significant economic losses in addition to environmental hazards, such as fires and explosions. A three-stage hazardous gas leak source localization method was developed that uses movable and stationary gas concentration sensors. The method calculates a preliminary source inversion with a modified genetic algorithm (MGA) and has the potential to crossover with eliminated individuals from the population, following the selection of the best candidate. The method then determines a search zone using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling, utilizing a partial evaluation strategy. The leak source is then accurately localized using a modified guaranteed convergence particle swarm optimization algorithm with several bad-performing individuals, following selection of the most successful individual with dynamic updates. The first two stages are based on data collected by motionless sensors, and the last stage is based on data from movable robots with sensors. The measurement error adaptability and the effect of the leak source location were analyzed. The test results showed that this three-stage localization process can localize a leak source within 1.0 m of the source for different leak source locations, with measurement error standard deviation smaller than 2.0.