Human factors issues in aircraft maintenance and inspection : "information exchange and communications".

Science.gov (United States)

1990-11-01

The Federal Aviation Administration sponsored a 2-day meeting in December 1989 as part of a continuing program to address issues of human factors and personnel performance in aviation maintenance and inspection. This meeting focused on issues of "inf...

Plant maintenance and plant life extension issue, 2008

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Agnihotri, Newal

2008-01-01

The focus of the March-April issue is on plant maintenance and plant life extension. Major articles include the following: Exciting time to be at the U.S. NRC, by Dale Klein, Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Extraordinary steps to ensure a minimal environmental impact, by George Vanderheyden, UniStar Nuclear Energy, LLC.; Focused on consistent reduction of outages, by Kevin Walsh, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy; On the path towards operational excellence, by Ricardo Perez, Westinghouse Electric Company; Ability to be refuelled on-line, by Ian Trotman, CANDU Services, Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd.; ASCA Application for maintenance of SG secondary side, by Patrick Wagner, Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation, Phillip Battaglia and David Selfridge, Westinghouse Electric Company; and, An integral part of the landscape and lives, by Tyler Lamberts, Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. The Industry Innovation article is titled Steam generator bowl drain repairs, by John Makar and Richard Gimple, Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation

CLEAN-ROADS project: air quality considerations after the application of a novel MDSS on winter road maintenance activities

Science.gov (United States)

Pretto, Ilaria; Malloci, Elisa; Tonidandel, Gabriele; Benedetti, Guido; Di Napoli, Claudia; Piazza, Andrea; Apolloni, Roberto; Cavaliere, Roberto

2016-04-01

With this poster we present the environmental benefit on air quality derived by the application of the CLEAN-ROADS pilot project. The CLEAN-ROADS project addresses the problem of the environmental pollution caused by de-icing salts during winter road maintenance activities in the Province of Trento (Italy). A demonstrative Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS) has been developed in order to improve the intervention procedures of the road management service. Specifically it aims to optimize the efficiency of how available resources (e.g., salt consumption) are currently used while guaranteeing the current level of road safety. The CLEAN-ROADS project has been tested and validated on a test area located in a valley bottom (Adige Valley), where the highest optimization margins are to be expected. The project supports current road maintenance practices, which has proved to be reliable and accurate, with a new scalable and energy-efficient road monitoring system. This system is based on a network of road weather stations (road weather information system, RWIS) installed on the test route. It is capable to collect real-time data about the road conditions and to perform short-term and now-cast road weather forecasts, which actively integrate weather data and bulletins covering the target area [1]. This poster presents the results obtained from a three-year monitoring activity with the aim to (1) determine the impact of de-icing salts on air quality and (2) quantify the improvements obtained by the application of the CLEAN-ROADS project on air quality. The Ambient Air Quality and Cleaner Air for Europe Directive (2008/50/EC) states that contributions to exceedances of particulate matter PM10 limit values that are attributable to road winter salting may be subtracted when assessing compliance with air quality limit values, once provided that reasonable measures have been taken to lower concentrations [2]. As the de-icing salts used in road maintenance are mainly based

Maintenance Issues in Long Term Operation of Nuclear Power Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Contri, P.; Bieth, M.; Rieg, C.

2006-01-01

Due to current social and economical framework, in last years many nuclear power plant owners started a program for the Long Term Operation (LTO)/PLEX (Plant Life Extension) of their older nuclear facilities. This process has many nuclear safety implications, other than strategic and political ones. The need for tailoring the available safety assessment tools to such applications has become urgent in recent years and triggered many research actions. The review of regular maintenance and ageing management programs are tools widely used in LTO/PLEX context in many Countries. However, most of these tools are rather general and in many cases they need reshaping in an LTO/PLEX framework before application, with focus to the safety implications of the LTO/PLEX. Many Countries and plants radically modified their maintenance rules towards a condition based approach as a precondition for the implementation of LTO/PLEX programs. In 2004 a network of European Organisations operating Nuclear Power Plants, SENUF, under the coordination of the JRC-IE, carried out an extensive questionnaire on maintenance practice in their facilities aiming at capturing the aspects of the maintenance programs where research is mostly needed. This paper uses some results of the questionnaire, which was not oriented to LTO/PLEX, to draw some conclusions on how the current maintenance programs could support a potential LTO/PLEX, among the other programs running at NPPs. In this sense, it is spin-off of the SENUF WG on maintenance. The paper aims at identifying the technical attributes of the maintenance programs more directly affecting the decision for a long-term safe operation of a nuclear facility, the issues related to their implementation and safety review. The paper includes an analysis of the questionnaire circulated among the SENUF participants and a discussion on the implications of optimised maintenance programs in existing plants. Some examples at WWER plants taken by sources other than

Plant maintenance and advanced reactors issue, 2008

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Agnihotri, Newal [ed.

2009-09-15

The focus of the September-October issue is on plant maintenance and advanced reactors. Major articles/reports in this issue include: Technologies of national importance, by Tsutomu Ohkubo, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Japan; Modeling and simulation advances brighten future nuclear power, by Hussein Khalil, Argonne National Laboratory, Energy and desalination projects, by Ratan Kumar Sinha, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, India; A plant with simplified design, by John Higgins, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy; A forward thinking design, by Ray Ganthner, AREVA; A passively safe design, by Ed Cummins, Westinghouse Electric Company; A market-ready design, by Ken Petrunik, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, Canada; Generation IV Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems, by Jacques Bouchard, French Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique, France, and Ralph Bennett, Idaho National Laboratory; Innovative reactor designs, a report by IAEA, Vienna, Austria; Guidance for new vendors, by John Nakoski, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Road map for future energy, by John Cleveland, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria; and, Vermont's largest source of electricity, by Tyler Lamberts, Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. The Industry Innovation article is titled Intelligent monitoring technology, by Chris Demars, Exelon Nuclear.

Winter therapy for the accelerators

CERN Multimedia

Corinne Pralavorio

2016-01-01

Hundreds of people are hard at work during the year-end technical stop as all the accelerators are undergoing maintenance, renovation and upgrade operations in parallel.   The new beam absorber on its way to Point 2 before being lowered into the LHC tunnel for installation. The accelerator teams didn’t waste any time before starting their annual winter rejuvenation programme over the winter. At the end of November, as the LHC ion run was beginning, work got under way on the PS Booster, where operation had already stopped. On 14 December, once the whole complex had been shut down, the technical teams turned their attention to the other injectors and the LHC. The year-end technical stop (YETS) provides an opportunity to carry out maintenance work on equipment and repair any damage as well as to upgrade the machines for the upcoming runs. Numerous work projects are carried out simultaneously, so good coordination is crucial. Marzia Bernardini's team in the Enginee...

An approach to maintenance optimization where safety issues are important

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vatn, Jorn; Aven, Terje

2010-01-01

The starting point for this paper is a traditional approach to maintenance optimization where an object function is used for optimizing maintenance intervals. The object function reflects maintenance cost, cost of loss of production/services, as well as safety costs, and is based on a classical cost-benefit analysis approach where a value of prevented fatality (VPF) is used to weight the importance of safety. However, the rationale for such an approach could be questioned. What is the meaning of such a VPF figure, and is it sufficient to reflect the importance of safety by calculating the expected fatality loss VPF and potential loss of lives (PLL) as being done in the cost-benefit analyses? Should the VPF be the same number for all type of accidents, or should it be increased in case of multiple fatality accidents to reflect gross accident aversion? In this paper, these issues are discussed. We conclude that we have to see beyond the expected values in situations with high safety impacts. A framework is presented which opens up for a broader decision basis, covering considerations on the potential for gross accidents, the type of uncertainties and lack of knowledge of important risk influencing factors. Decisions with a high safety impact are moved from the maintenance department to the 'Safety Board' for a broader discussion. In this way, we avoid that the object function is used in a mechanical way to optimize the maintenance and important safety-related decisions are made implicit and outside the normal arena for safety decisions, e.g. outside the traditional 'Safety Board'. A case study from the Norwegian railways is used to illustrate the discussions.

An approach to maintenance optimization where safety issues are important

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vatn, Jorn, E-mail: jorn.vatn@ntnu.n [NTNU, Production and Quality Engineering, 7491 Trondheim (Norway); Aven, Terje [University of Stavanger (Norway)

2010-01-15

The starting point for this paper is a traditional approach to maintenance optimization where an object function is used for optimizing maintenance intervals. The object function reflects maintenance cost, cost of loss of production/services, as well as safety costs, and is based on a classical cost-benefit analysis approach where a value of prevented fatality (VPF) is used to weight the importance of safety. However, the rationale for such an approach could be questioned. What is the meaning of such a VPF figure, and is it sufficient to reflect the importance of safety by calculating the expected fatality loss VPF and potential loss of lives (PLL) as being done in the cost-benefit analyses? Should the VPF be the same number for all type of accidents, or should it be increased in case of multiple fatality accidents to reflect gross accident aversion? In this paper, these issues are discussed. We conclude that we have to see beyond the expected values in situations with high safety impacts. A framework is presented which opens up for a broader decision basis, covering considerations on the potential for gross accidents, the type of uncertainties and lack of knowledge of important risk influencing factors. Decisions with a high safety impact are moved from the maintenance department to the 'Safety Board' for a broader discussion. In this way, we avoid that the object function is used in a mechanical way to optimize the maintenance and important safety-related decisions are made implicit and outside the normal arena for safety decisions, e.g. outside the traditional 'Safety Board'. A case study from the Norwegian railways is used to illustrate the discussions.

The Issues of Track Maintenance Management in Indonesia (Based on Study of the British Railways

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tetria Yunik Dewi Pamungkas

2017-01-01

Full Text Available It is believed that there is merit in researching how the management of track maintenance is organized in the United Kingdom, in particular by Network Rail, and then evaluating how this can be applied to the benefit of Indonesian Railways. The purpose of this research was expected to provide recommendations for management improvement of track maintenance by researching the track maintenance management system in Network Rail. This research study is based on secondary data. The analysis was conducted by using comparison method which compares the British Railways management and Indonesia railway management related to track maintenance management. The track maintenance management system was studied by using Network Rail. The results were compared with track maintenance management system in Indonesia. The comparison will provide the data differences that evaluated so the problem can be identified. The final result of this analysis was the identification of problems and improvisation that can be done for the development of track maintenance management in Indonesia. Several management issues have been mapped to several groups: finance management, structure organization, and asset management. From the problems that have been mapped, some improvements are recommended as monopolist authority restriction, maintenance system contract extension, re-structuring organization hierarchy, business plan consideration, track monitoring strategy arrangement, and condition based maintenance strategy adoption.

Road salt application planning tool for winter de-icing operations

Science.gov (United States)

Trenouth, William R.; Gharabaghi, Bahram; Perera, Nandana

2015-05-01

Road authorities, who are charged with the task of maintaining safe, driveable road conditions during severe winter storm events are coming under increasing pressure to protect salt vulnerable areas (SVAs). For the purpose of modelling urban winter hydrology, the temperature index method was modified to incorporate ploughing and salting considerations and was calibrated using winter field data from two sites in Southern Ontario and validated using data collected from a section of Highway 401 - Canada's busiest highway. The modified temperature index model (MTIM) accurately predicted salt-induced melt (R2 = 0.98 and 0.99, RMSE = 19.9 and 282.4 m3, CRM = -0.003 and 0.006 for calibration and validation sites respectively), and showed a demonstrable ability to calculate the Bare Pavement Regain Time (BPRT). The BPRT is a key factor on road safety and the basis for many winter maintenance performance standards for different classes of highways. Optimizing salt application rate scenarios can be achieved using the MTIM with only two meteorological forecast inputs for the storm event - readily available on-line through the Road Weather Information System (RWIS) - and can serve as a simple yet effective tool for winter road maintenance practitioners seeking to optimize salt application rates for a given storm event in salt vulnerable areas.

Winter grazing decreases the probability of fire-induced mortality of bunchgrasses and may reduce wildfire size: a response to Smith et al (this issue)

Science.gov (United States)

A recent commentary by Smith et al. (this issue) attempted to discount the findings of our study (Davies et al. this issue) by claiming that our study contained methodological errors and lacked the data necessary to support our conclusions, in particular that winter grazing may reduce the probabilit...

SOME RECENT ISSUES REGARDING THE BEHAVIOR OF THE ROMANIAN TOWNSPEOPLE DURING THE WINTER HOLIDAYS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

TOMA ANDREI

2017-04-01

Full Text Available This paper aims to present several aspects of the behavior of the Romanian townspeople in the recent years, on the occasion of the winter holidays. I made an indirect research, based on secondary data sources. Many sources I used are from past years. Sometimes, the secondary sources can provide very valuable data at a national level. The most important Romanian holidays are the winter ones (Saint Nicholas, Christmas, New Year's Eve. There are also other winter holidays, but of lesser importance. The Romanians are traditionalists; they cherish the winter holidays and the family. Giving holiday gifts (sweets, clothing, footwear, perfumes, cosmetics, toys to family members and to close relatives is a feature of Romanian townspeople behavior during the main winter holidays. Most Romanian townspeople spend the winter holidays at home or at friends. During the economic crisis, reduction of costs included also the expenses intended for winter holidays. Changes in the behavior of Romanian tourists, due to the economic crisis, included especially the reduction in the number of holidays, the reduction of the duration of the holiday, avoidance of foreign destinations. This paper does not refer to all the aspects of the purchasing behavior or consumption of the Romanians townspeople on the occasion of winter holidays, but only to some aspects.

A review study of maintenance and management issues in Malaysian commercial building towards sustainable future practice

Science.gov (United States)

Nawi, Mohd Nasrun Mohd; Baharum, Faizal; Ibrahim, Siti Halipah; Riazi, Salman Riazi Mehdi

2017-10-01

Good management of the building will be able to influence the quality of the buildings that remain long, safe and beautiful without any damage and problems. This research paper aims to explore the issue of maintenance and management that appear in managing the commercial building in Malaysian construction and property industry. The data in this research has been gathered through the reviewing process of secondary data such as journals, proceeding, thesis etc. in the area that related to maintenance and management issue in commercial building. As highlighted by previous study, building a good management can ensure that the facilities available in the building are well and meet the standard. Thus, exposure to the problems and needs in the management of the building would be able to improve the quality of building management systems to be more effective and fulfil the client needs and features.

Data management in maintenance outsourcing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Murthy, D.N.P.; Karim, M.R.; Ahmadi, A.

2015-01-01

Most businesses view maintenance as tasks carried out by technicians and the data collected is mostly cost related. There is a growing trend towards outsourcing of maintenance and the data collection issues are not addressed properly in most maintenance service contracts. Effective maintenance management requires proper data management - data collection and analysis for decision-making. This requires a proper framework and when maintenance is outsourced it raises several issues and challenges. The paper develops a framework for data management when maintenance is outsourced and looks at a real case study that highlights the need for proper data management. - Highlights: • Framework for data management in maintenance outsourcing. • Black-box to grey-box approaches for modelling. • Improvements to maintenance decision-making. • Case study to illustrate the approaches and the shortcomings in data collection

Application and issues of online maintenance for equipment of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Higasa, Hisakazu

2011-01-01

The maintenance systems for long-term safety and repair costs reduction of equipment of nuclear power plants are stated. Planned maintenance contained the breakdown maintenance (BM) and the preventive maintenance, which consists of the time based maintenance (MBM) and the condition based maintenance (CBM). Explained are the characteristics of equipments, maintenance methods, maintenance solutions and the self-evaluation maintenance power, damage mechanism and solutions, and monitoring tools and application. Stated are the maintenance system and application of monitoring technology, periodical maintenance, application of diagnosis, vibration monitoring techniques, decision of vibration monitoring, and application of monitoring techniques for improvement of maintenance. Illustrated are realization of planned maintenance by reorganization of maintenance, a trend of maintenance of equipments, table of classified maintenance systems, change of maintenance program, maintenance data and investigation of damage mechanism, examples of self-evaluation maintenance power, examples of analysis of damage of parts of equipments, evaluation of rotating machines by vibration method, examples of results of diagnosis of bearing of rotating machines, online maintenance system of Asahi Kasei Engineering Corporation, degradation pattern of pomp, estimation of lifetime by total vibration and vibration on acceleration, and improvement of equipments. (S.Y.)

Winter-to-winter variations in indoor radon

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mose, D.G.; Mushrush, G.W.; Kline, S.W.

1989-01-01

Indoor radon concentrations in northern Virginia and central Maryland show a strong dependence on weather. Winter tends to be associated with higher than average indoor radon, and summer with lower than average. However, compared to the winter of 1986-1987, the winter of 1987-1988 was warmer and drier. Consequently, winter-to-winter indoor radon decreased by about 25%. This winter-to-winter decrease is unexpectedly large, and simulates winter-to-summer variations that have been reported

Nuclear power plants maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1988-01-01

Nuclear power plants maintenance now appears as an important factor contributing to the competitivity of nuclea energy. The articles published in this issue describe the way maintenance has been organized in France and how it led to an actual industrial activity developing and providing products and services. An information note about Georges Besse uranium enrichment plant (Eurodif) recalls that maintenance has become a main data not only for power plants but for all nuclear industry installations. (The second part of this dossier will be published in the next issue: vol. 1 January-February 1989) [fr

Marginal costs for road maintenance and operation - a cost function approach

OpenAIRE

Haraldsson, Mattias

2007-01-01

Using observational data covering the whole Swedish national road network for the period 1998-2002, this paper estimates a set of maintenance and operation cost functions. It is found that costs for all operation and maintenance measures increase with traffic intensity, with two exceptions; total operation and winter operation measures are fixed cost activities. All other operation and maintenance measures have short run elasticities in the range 0.25-0.60. The impact of an additional vehicle...

Evaluation of renewable energy alternatives for highway maintenance facilities.

Science.gov (United States)

2013-12-01

A considerable annual energy budget is used for heating, lighting, cooling and operating ODOT : maintenance facilities. Such facilities contain vehicle repair and garage bays, which are large open : spaces with high heating demand in winter. The main...

ICD Complex Operations and Maintenance Plan

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gibson, P. L.

2007-06-25

This Operations and Maintenance (O&M) Plan describes how the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) conducts operations, winterization, and startup of the Idaho CERCLA Disposal Facility (ICDF) Complex. The ICDF Complex is the centralized INL facility responsible for the receipt, storage, treatment (as necessary), and disposal of INL Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) remediation waste.

Dukovany NPP maintenance management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Siegel, F.

2005-01-01

Maintenance planning and management for the technological equipment of the Dukovany NPP are described. A Maintenance Control and Evaluation System has been developed and is in use to help manage the complex maintenance issue. Practical examples of outputs of the System, with a comprehensive use of the cost, reliability and safety related data, are presented. (author)

Overview of maintenance principles and regulatory supervision of maintenance activities at nuclear power plants in Slovakia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rohar, S.; Cepcek, S.

1997-01-01

The maintenance represents one of the most important tools to ensure safe and reliable operation of nuclear power plants. The emphasis of Nuclear Regulatory Authority of the Slovak Republic to the maintenance issue is expressed by requirements in the regulations. The current practice of maintenance management in operated nuclear power plants in Slovak Republic is presented. Main aspects of maintenance, as maintenance programme, organization of maintenance, responsibilities for maintenance are described. Activities of nuclear regulatory authority in maintenance process are presented too. (author)

Understanding Pregnancy and Birth Issues

Science.gov (United States)

... Navigation Bar Home Current Issue Past Issues Understanding Pregnancy and Birth Issues Past Issues / Winter 2008 Table ... turn Javascript on. What is a High-Risk Pregnancy? All pregnancies involve a certain degree of risk ...

Nutrition Frontiers - Winter 2017 | Division of Cancer Prevention

Science.gov (United States)

Volume 8, Issue 1 Dear Colleague, The winter issue of Nutrition Frontiers showcases gut permeability and calcium supplementation, potential chemopreventive effects of dietary DHM for lung tumorigenesis, and the role of the MCP-1 chemokine on adiposity and inflammation. Learn about our spotlight investigator, Dr. Gregory Lesinski, and his research on dietary interventions to

Managed maintenance, the next step in power plant maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Butterworth, G.; Anderson, T.M.

1984-01-01

The Westinghouse Nuclear Services Integration Division managed maintenance services are described. Essential to the management and control of a total plant maintenance programme is the development of a comprehensive maintenance specification. During recent years Westinghouse has jointly developed total plant engineering-based maintenance specifications with a number of utilities. The process employed and the experience to date are described. To efficiently implement the maintenance programme Westinghouse has developed a computer software program specifically designed for day to day use at the power plant by maintenance personnel. This program retains an equipment maintenance history, schedules maintenance activities, issues work orders and performs a number of sophisticated analyses of the maintenance backlog and forecast, equipment failure rates, etc. The functions of this software program are described and details of Westinghouse efforts to support the utilities in reducing outage times through development of predefined outage plans for critical report maintenance activities are given. Also described is the experience gained in the training of specialized maintenance personnel, employing competency-based training techniques and equipment mock-ups, and the benefits experienced, in terms of improved quality and productivity of maintenance performed. The success experienced with these methods has caused Westinghouse to expand the use of these training techniques to the more routine skill areas of power plant maintenance. A significant reduction in the operating costs of nuclear power plants will only be brought about by a significant improvement in the quality of maintenance. Westinghouse intends to effect this change by expanding its international service capabilities and to make major investments in order to promote technological developments in the area of power plant maintenance. (author)

Improving the TRIGA facility maintenance by predictive maintenance techniques

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Preda, M.; Sabau, C.; Barbalata, E.

1997-01-01

This work deals with the specific operation of equipment in radioactive environment or in conditions allowing radioactive contamination. The requirements of remote operation ensuring the operators' protection are presented. Also, the requirements of international standards issued by IAEA-Vienna are reviewed. The organizational withdraws of the maintenance activities, based on the standards and maintenance and repair directives still in force, are shown. It is emphasized the fact that this type of maintenance was adequate to a given level of technical development, characteristic for pre-computerized industry, but, at present, it is obsolete and uneconomic both in utilization and maintenance. Such a system constitutes already a burden hindering the efforts of maximizing the availability, maintenance, prolongation the service life of equipment and utilities, finally, of increasing the efficiency of complex installations. Moreover, the predictive maintenance techniques are strongly requested by the character of radioactive installations precluding the direct access in given zones (a potential risk of irradiation or radioactive contamination) of installations during operation. The results obtained by applying the predictive maintenance techniques in the operation of the double circuit irradiation loop, used in the TRIGA reactors, are presented

A STEPPING STONE TOWARDS KNOWLEDGE BASED MAINTENANCE

OpenAIRE

G. Waeyenbergh; L. Pintelon; L. Gelders

2012-01-01

Maintenance decision making becomes more and more a management concern. Some decades ago, maintenance was still often considered as an unavoidable side effect of production. The perception of maintenance has evolved considerably. One of the current issues is the maintenance concept, being the mix of maintenance interventions and the general framework for determining this mix. In this paper we describe a modular framework, called Knowledge Based Maintenance, for developing a customised mainten...

Environmental problems related to winter traffic safety conditions

OpenAIRE

Hääl, Maire-Liis; Sürje, Peep

2006-01-01

The changeable Nordic climate has added problems to road maintenance and the environment to ensure traffic safety under winter conditions. The widespread use of salt (NaCl) for snow and ice removal from roads has resulted in environmental impacts in many areas. Some of the problems associated with the use of NaCl are the corrosion of bridges, road surfaces and vehicles and damage to roadside vegetation and aquatic system that are affected by water from de-iced roads. Accumulation of hard meta...

Winter Weather Tips: Understanding Alerts and Staying Safe this Season | Poster

Science.gov (United States)

By Jenna Seiss and Kylie Tomlin, Guest Writers, and Ashley DeVine, Staff Writer Maryland residents face the possibility of dangerous winter weather each year—from icy conditions to frigid temperatures. You may be familiar with the different types of winter weather alerts issued by the National Weather Service (NWS), but do you know what each alert means?  

Winter visitor use planning in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks

Science.gov (United States)

John A. Sacklin; Kristin L. Legg; M. Sarah Creachbaum; Clifford L. Hawkes; George Helfrich

2000-01-01

Winter use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks increased dramatically in the 1980s and early 1990s. That increase and the emphasis on snowmobiles as the primary mode of transportation brought into focus a host of winter-related issues, including air pollution, unwanted sound, wildlife impacts and the adequacy of agency budgets, staff and infrastructure to...

Strategy to maximize maintenance operation

OpenAIRE

Espinoza, Michael

2005-01-01

This project presents a strategic analysis to maximize maintenance operations in Alcan Kitimat Works in British Columbia. The project studies the role of maintenance in improving its overall maintenance performance. It provides strategic alternatives and specific recommendations addressing Kitimat Works key strategic issues and problems. A comprehensive industry and competitive analysis identifies the industry structure and its competitive forces. In the mature aluminium industry, the bargain...

How do Purple Sandpipers Calidris maritima survive the winter north of the Arctic circle?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Summers, R.W.; Piersma, T.; Strann, K.B.; Wiersma, P.

1998-01-01

Winter north of the Arctic circle in northern Norway is colder, windier and there is less solar radiation than in eastern Scotland, at a latitude 13 degrees further south. We predicted from equations derived from heated taxidermic mounts that the maintenance metabolism (Basal Metabolic Rate plus

Building relationships for better maintenance.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Hackman Hon Yin; Scott, David

2009-02-01

Effective management of building maintenance is a vital ingredient in ensuring a high quality built environment for any building's occupiers. However, maintenance is not high on the list of priorities for most organisations. Communication between top management personnel looking at maintenance issues from a strategic standpoint and maintenance staff considering them at an operational level is often not as good as it should be. When planning maintenance activities maintenance personnel often draw too heavily on their technical experience and expertise without taking sufficient account of wider organisational objectives or consulting effectively with top management. Senior managers also regularly complain about lack of managerial input from maintenance departments. Such barriers contribute to communication difficulties between top management at a strategic level and maintenance personnel at an operational level. Identifying where the key differences lie in senior managers' and maintenance personnel's viewpoints on maintenance strategy can prove invaluable in achieving some convergence of opinions and optimising the efficiency of the overall building maintenance process.

Physical and Chemical Implications of Mid-Winter Pumping of Trunda Lakes - North Slope, Alaska

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hinzman, Larry D. (University of Alaska Fairbanks, Water and Environmental Research Center); Lilly, Michael R. (Geo-Watersheds Scientific); Kane, Douglas L. (University of Alaska Fairbanks, Water and Environmental Research Center); Miller, D. Dan (University of Alaska Fairbanks, Water and Environmental Research Center); Galloway, Braden K. (University of Alaska Fairbanks, Water and Environmental Research Center); Hilton, Kristie M. (Geo-Watersheds Scientific); White, Daniel M. (University of Alaska Fairbanks, Water and Environmental Research Center)

2005-09-30

Tundra lakes on the North Slope, Alaska, are an important resource for energy development and petroleum field operations. A majority of exploration activities, pipeline maintenance, and restoration activities take place on winter ice roads that depend on water availability at key times of the winter operating season. These same lakes provide important fisheries and ecosystem functions. In particular, overwintering habitat for fish is one important management concern. This study focused on the evaluation of winter water use in the current field operating areas to provide a better understanding of the current water use practices. It found that under the current water use practices, there were no measurable negative effects of winter pumping on the lakes studied and current water use management practices were appropriately conservative. The study did find many areas where improvements in the understanding of tundra lake hydrology and water usage would benefit industry, management agencies, and the protection of fisheries and ecosystems.

Traveling to Canada for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Science.gov (United States)

Heggie, Travis W

2009-07-01

The 21st Winter Olympic Games will be held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from February 12 to 28, 2010. Following the Winter Olympic Games, the Winter Paralympic Games will be held from March 12 to 21, 2010. There will be 86 winter sporting events hosted in Vancouver with 5500 athletes staying in two Olympic Villages. Another 2800 members of the media, 25,000 volunteers, and 1 million spectators are expected in attendance. This paper reviews health and safety issues for all travelers to Canada for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games with a specific focus on pre-travel planning, road and transportation safety in British Columbia, natural and environmental hazards, Olympic medical facilities, safety and security, and infectious disease.

Critical Design Factors for Sector Transport Maintenance in DEMO

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Utoh, H.; Someya, Y.; Tobita, K.; Asakura, N.; Hoshino, K.; Nakamura, M., E-mail: uto.hiroyasu@jaea.go.jp [Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Rokkasho (Japan)

2012-09-15

Full text: Maintenance is a critical issue for fusion DEMO reactor because the design conditions and requirements of DEMO maintenance scheme are different from that of ITER remote handling. The sector transport maintenance scheme has advantages to maintain blankets and divertors without the use of sophisticated remote handling devices including sensitive devices to radiation in the reactor. SlimCS designed in JAEA adopts the sector transport maintenance scheme in which every sector is pulled out horizontally through a port between TF coils. A critical design issue for the horizontal sector transport maintenance scheme is how to support an enormous turnover force of the toroidal field (TF) coils. We propose following two options; first option is the horizontal transport maintenance scheme in which every sector is pulled out through four horizontal ports connected with the corridor. Second option is the vertical sector transport maintenance scheme with small vertical maintenance ports (total: 6 ports). The new horizontal sector transport limited in the number of maintenance ports is a more realistic maintenance scheme, and the key engineering issue is the transferring mechanism of sector in the vacuum vessel. In the maintenance scenario, the key design factors are the cool down time in reactor and the cooling method in maintenance scheme for keeping components under operation temperature. By one-dimensional heat conduction analysis, the sector should be transported to hot cell within 40 hours in the case the cool down time is one month. In the horizontal sector transport maintenance, the maintenance time including removal of cooling piping, drain of cooling water and sector transport to hot cell is about 32 hours. Furthermore, the tritium release in the sector transport can be suppressed because the components temperature drops by forced-air cooling system. This paper mainly focuses on a sector transport maintenance scheme from the aspects of high plant availability

A comparison of pine and spruce in recovery from winter stress; changes in recovery kinetics, and the abundance and phosphorylation status of photosynthetic proteins during winter.

Science.gov (United States)

Merry, Ryan; Jerrard, Jacob; Frebault, Julia; Verhoeven, Amy

2017-09-01

During winter evergreens maintain a sustained form of thermal energy dissipation that results in reduced photochemical efficiency measured using the chlorophyll fluorescence parameter Fv/Fm. Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.) and white spruce [Picea glauca (Moench) Voss] have been shown to differ in their rate of recovery of Fv/Fm from winter stress. The goal of this study was to monitor changes in photosynthetic protein abundance and phosphorylation status during winter recovery that accompany these functional changes. An additional goal was to determine whether light-dependent changes in light harvesting complex II (LHCII) phosphorylation occur during winter conditions. We used a combination of field measurements and recovery experiments to monitor chlorophyll fluorescence and photosynthetic protein content and phosphorylation status. We found that pine recovered three times more slowly than spruce, and that the kinetics of recovery in spruce included a rapid and slow component, while in pine there was only a rapid component to recovery. Both species retained relatively high amounts of the light harvesting protein Lhcb5 (CP26) and the PsbS protein during winter, suggesting a role for these proteins in sustained thermal dissipation. Both species maintained high phosphorylation of LHCII and the D1 protein in darkness during winter. Pine and spruce differed in the kinetics of the dephosphorylation of LHCII and D1 upon warming, suggesting the rate of dephosphorylation of LHCII and D1 may be important in the rapid component of recovery from winter stress. Finally, we demonstrated that light-dependent changes in LHII phosphorylation do not continue to occur on subzero winter days and that needles are maintained in a phosphorylation pattern consistent with the high light conditions to which those needles are exposed. Our results suggest a role for retained phosphorylation of both LHCII and D1 in maintenance of the photosynthetic machinery in a winter conformation

Improved management of winter operations to limit subsurface contamination with degradable deicing chemicals in cold regions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

French, H.K.; Zee, van der S.E.A.T.M.

2014-01-01

This paper gives an overview of management considerations required for better control of deicing chemicals in the unsaturated zone at sites with winter maintenance operations in cold regions. Degradable organic deicing chemicals are the main focus. The importance of the heterogeneity of both the

A STEPPING STONE TOWARDS KNOWLEDGE BASED MAINTENANCE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. Waeyenbergh

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Maintenance decision making becomes more and more a management concern. Some decades ago, maintenance was still often considered as an unavoidable side effect of production. The perception of maintenance has evolved considerably. One of the current issues is the maintenance concept, being the mix of maintenance interventions and the general framework for determining this mix. In this paper we describe a modular framework, called Knowledge Based Maintenance, for developing a customised maintenance concept. After describing the general framework and its decision support use, some case experiences are given. This experience covers some elements of the proposed framework.

Uptake of and follow-up supply with [benzene ring-U-14C]triademinol via the caryopsis and from dressed zones after seed treatment of winter barley and winter wheat using a dry dressing formula

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thielert, W.

1984-11-01

The paper on hand studies the following issues: 1) What is the course of uptake of the agent and/or its metabolites into the plant following dry seed treatment of winter barley and winter wheat with [benzene ring-U- 14 C] triadimenol and sowing in the top-soil of a loess-based grey-brown podzolic soil. 2) What is the relevance of uptake and follow-up supply from the dressed zones of plants in neighbouring rows. 3) What is the extent of uptake and follow-up supply via the roots from dressed zones of neighbouring plants within the same row. 4) What is the course of dressed-zone formation following dry treatment of winter barley and winter wheat and sowing in the top-soil of a loess-based grey-brown podzolic soil. 5) What is the quantitative distribution of the agent on the pericarp of winter wheat caryopses following dry seed treatment. 6) Will the 14 C-labelled agent be taken up, too, via the caryopsis and be translocated in scion and root. 7) What are the pathways of the agent from the caryopsis into the embryo. 8) How long will follow-up supply via the scutellum continue. The results concerning issues 1 to 4 were taken from tests with field lysimeters. Experiments concerning issues 6-8 were performed without soil in an climatic chamber. (orig./MG) [de

Comparative evaluation of remote maintenance schemes for fusion DEMO reactor

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Utoh, Hiroyasu, E-mail: uto.hiroyasu@jaea.go.jp; Tobita, Kenji; Someya, Youji; Asakura, Nobuyuki; Sakamoto, Yoshiteru; Hoshino, Kazuo; Nakamura, Makoto

2015-10-15

Highlights: • Various remote maintenance schemes for DEMO were comparatively assessed based on requirements for DEMO remote maintenance. • The banana shape segment transport using all vertical maintenance ports would be more probable DEMO reactor maintenance scheme. • The key engineering issues are in-vessel transferring mechanism of segment, pipe connection and conducting shell design for plasma vertical stability. - Abstract: Maintenance schemes are one of the critical issues in DEMO design, significantly affecting the configuration of in-vessel components, the size of toroidal field (TF) coil, the arrangement of poloidal field (PF) coils, reactor building, hot cell and so forth. Therefore, the maintenance schemes should satisfy many design requirements and criteria to assure reliable and safe plant operation and to attain reasonable plant availability. The plant availability depends on reliability of remote maintenance scheme, inspection of pipe connection and plasma operation. In this paper, various remote maintenance schemes for DEMO were comparatively assessed based on requirements for DEMO remote maintenance. From the view points of the reliability of inspection on hot cell, TF coil size, stored energy of PF coil and portability of segment, the banana shape segment transport using all vertical maintenance ports would be more probable DEMO reactor maintenance scheme, and it has key engineering issues such as in-vessel transferring mechanism of segment, pipe connection and conducting shell design for plasma vertical stability.

Comparative evaluation of remote maintenance schemes for fusion DEMO reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Utoh, Hiroyasu; Tobita, Kenji; Someya, Youji; Asakura, Nobuyuki; Sakamoto, Yoshiteru; Hoshino, Kazuo; Nakamura, Makoto

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Various remote maintenance schemes for DEMO were comparatively assessed based on requirements for DEMO remote maintenance. • The banana shape segment transport using all vertical maintenance ports would be more probable DEMO reactor maintenance scheme. • The key engineering issues are in-vessel transferring mechanism of segment, pipe connection and conducting shell design for plasma vertical stability. - Abstract: Maintenance schemes are one of the critical issues in DEMO design, significantly affecting the configuration of in-vessel components, the size of toroidal field (TF) coil, the arrangement of poloidal field (PF) coils, reactor building, hot cell and so forth. Therefore, the maintenance schemes should satisfy many design requirements and criteria to assure reliable and safe plant operation and to attain reasonable plant availability. The plant availability depends on reliability of remote maintenance scheme, inspection of pipe connection and plasma operation. In this paper, various remote maintenance schemes for DEMO were comparatively assessed based on requirements for DEMO remote maintenance. From the view points of the reliability of inspection on hot cell, TF coil size, stored energy of PF coil and portability of segment, the banana shape segment transport using all vertical maintenance ports would be more probable DEMO reactor maintenance scheme, and it has key engineering issues such as in-vessel transferring mechanism of segment, pipe connection and conducting shell design for plasma vertical stability.

Exploring the Constraint Profile of Winter Sports Resort Tourist Segments.

Science.gov (United States)

Priporas, Constantinos-Vasilios; Vassiliadis, Chris A; Bellou, Victoria; Andronikidis, Andreas

2015-09-01

Many studies have confirmed the importance of market segmentation both theoretically and empirically. Surprisingly though, no study has so far addressed the issue from the perspective of leisure constraints. Since different consumers face different barriers, we look at participation in leisure activities as an outcome of the negotiation process that winter sports resort tourists go through, to balance between related motives and constraints. This empirical study reports the findings on the applicability of constraining factors in segmenting the tourists who visit winter sports resorts. Utilizing data from 1,391 tourists of winter sports resorts in Greece, five segments were formed based on their constraint, demographic, and behavioral profile. Our findings indicate that such segmentation sheds light on factors that could potentially limit the full utilization of the market. To maximize utilization, we suggest customizing marketing to the profile of each distinct winter sports resort tourist segment that emerged.

Exploring the Constraint Profile of Winter Sports Resort Tourist Segments

Science.gov (United States)

Priporas, Constantinos-Vasilios; Vassiliadis, Chris A.; Bellou, Victoria; Andronikidis, Andreas

2014-01-01

Many studies have confirmed the importance of market segmentation both theoretically and empirically. Surprisingly though, no study has so far addressed the issue from the perspective of leisure constraints. Since different consumers face different barriers, we look at participation in leisure activities as an outcome of the negotiation process that winter sports resort tourists go through, to balance between related motives and constraints. This empirical study reports the findings on the applicability of constraining factors in segmenting the tourists who visit winter sports resorts. Utilizing data from 1,391 tourists of winter sports resorts in Greece, five segments were formed based on their constraint, demographic, and behavioral profile. Our findings indicate that such segmentation sheds light on factors that could potentially limit the full utilization of the market. To maximize utilization, we suggest customizing marketing to the profile of each distinct winter sports resort tourist segment that emerged. PMID:29708114

Modernizing international maintenance obligations in Serbia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bordaš Bernadet

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The paper deals with the modernization of private international law of maintenance in Serbia in the light of the two newest international instruments drawn up by the Hague Conference on Private International Law. As Serbia has ratified the Hague Protocol on the Law Applicable to Maintenance Obligations in January 2013 introducing modern rules to the legal system of Serbia, the issue of ratification of the Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance has arisen, in order to modernize this aspect of the international maintenance as well. In order to establish a position on the issue, the paper presents and analyzes the essential provisions of the Convention (scope of application, administrative cooperation, recognition and enforcement of decisions, stricto sensu enforcement. Based on the analyses, the concluding remarks offers some elements on the bases of which the competent authorities could form an opinion on the necessity and desirability of the ratification of the Convention.

Accounting for anthropic energy flux of traffic in winter urban road surface temperature simulations with TEB model

Science.gov (United States)

Khalifa, A.; Marchetti, M.; Bouilloud, L.; Martin, E.; Bues, M.; Chancibaut, K.

2015-06-01

A forecast of the snowfall helps winter coordination operating services, reducing the cost of the maintenance actions, and the environmental impacts caused by an inappropriate use of de-icing. In order to determine the possible accumulation of snow on pavement, the forecast of the road surface temperature (RST) is mandatory. Physical numerical models provide such forecast, and do need an accurate description of the infrastructure along with meteorological parameters. The objective of this study was to build a reliable urban RST forecast with a detailed integration of traffic in the Town Energy Balance (TEB) numerical model for winter maintenance. The study first consisted in generating a physical and consistent description of traffic in the model with all the energy interactions, with two approaches to evaluate the traffic incidence on RST. Experiments were then conducted to measure the traffic effect on RST increase with respect to non circulated areas. These field data were then used for comparison with forecast provided by this traffic-implemented TEB version.

Recurrent selection on the Winters sex-ratio genes in Drosophila simulans.

Science.gov (United States)

Kingan, Sarah B; Garrigan, Daniel; Hartl, Daniel L

2010-01-01

Selfish genes, such as meiotic drive elements, propagate themselves through a population without increasing the fitness of host organisms. X-linked (or Y-linked) meiotic drive elements reduce the transmission of the Y (X) chromosome and skew progeny and population sex ratios, leading to intense conflict among genomic compartments. Drosophila simulans is unusual in having a least three distinct systems of X chromosome meiotic drive. Here, we characterize naturally occurring genetic variation at the Winters sex-ratio driver (Distorter on the X or Dox), its progenitor gene (Mother of Dox or MDox), and its suppressor gene (Not Much Yang or Nmy), which have been previously mapped and characterized. We survey three North American populations as well as 13 globally distributed strains and present molecular polymorphism data at the three loci. We find that all three genes show signatures of selection in North America, judging from levels of polymorphism and skews in the site-frequency spectrum. These signatures likely result from the biased transmission of the driver and selection on the suppressor for the maintenance of equal sex ratios. Coalescent modeling indicates that the timing of selection is more recent than the age of the alleles, suggesting that the driver and suppressor are coevolving under an evolutionary "arms race." None of the Winters sex-ratio genes are fixed in D. simulans, and at all loci we find ancestral alleles, which lack the gene insertions and exhibit high levels of nucleotide polymorphism compared to the derived alleles. In addition, we find several "null" alleles that have mutations on the derived Dox background, which result in loss of drive function. We discuss the possible causes of the maintenance of presence-absence polymorphism in the Winters sex-ratio genes.

Sensor/signal monitoring and plant maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ciftcioglu, Oe.; Tuerkcan, E.

1994-02-01

Nuclear Power Plant (NPO) availability is determined by the intended functionality of safety related system and components. Therefore, maintenance is an important issue in a power plant connected to the plant's reliability and safety. The traditional maintenance policies proved to be rather costly and even not effectively addressing NPP requirements. Referring to these drawbacks, in the last decade, in the nuclear reliability centered maintenance (RCM) gained substantial interest due to its merits. In the formal implementation of RCM, apparently, predictive maintenance is not considered. However, with the impact of modern real-time and on-line surveillance and monitoring methodologies, the predictive maintenance procedures like sensor/signal verification and validation are to be included into RCM. (orig.)

Aircraft measurements to characterize polluted winter boundary layers: Overview of twin otter flights during the Utah Winter Fine Particulate Matter Study

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, S. S.; Baasandorj, M.; Franchin, A.; Middlebrook, A. M.; Goldberger, L.; Thornton, J. A.; Dube, W. P.; McDuffie, E. E.; Womack, C.; Fibiger, D. L.; Moravek, A.; Clark, J. C.; Murphy, J. G.; Mitchell, R.

2017-12-01

Winter air pollution is a significant public health concern. In many regions of the U.S., Europe and Asia, wintertime particulate matter concentrations exceed national and / or international air quality standards. Winter air pollution also represents a scientific challenge because these events occur during stagnation events in shallow, vertically stratified boundary layers whose composition is difficult to probe from surface level measurements. Chemical processes responsible for the conversion of primary emissions to secondary pollutants such as ammonium nitrate aerosol vary with height above ground level. Sources of oxidants are poorly understood and may result from both local chemical production and mixing between shallow inversion layers and background air. During the Utah Winter Fine Particulate Study (UWFPS) in January - February 2017, the NOAA twin otter executed 23 research flights with a payload designed to characterize the formation of ammonium nitrate aerosol in three mountain valleys of northern Utah (Salt Lake, Cache, and Utah). These valleys are subject to periodic episodes of winter aerosol pollution well in excess of U.S. national ambient air quality standards. This presentation will describe the measurement strategy of the twin otter flights to address the specific features of aerosol pollution within winter boundary layer of this region. This strategy is relevant to understanding the broader issue of winter air pollution in other regions and potentially to the design of future studies. The presentation will summarize findings from UWFPS related to boundary layer structure, emissions and chemical processes responsible for ammonium nitrate aerosol in this region.

FORMATION OF HYGROTHERMAL CONDITIONS IN A DEEP-LITTER BARN IN A WINTER SEASON

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paweł Sokołowski

2016-09-01

Full Text Available In free stall, the maintenance of animals in the deep litter, the measurements of temperature and relative humidity of indoor air, temperature and relative humidity of the outside air were conducted. Observation also covered the thermal conditions of litter and its thickness. The study covered the winter period from 1st of December to 28th of February. The study showed that during the winter there is a slight risk of unfavorable thermal conditions for dairy cattle in the barn. The analysis of the obtained results showed a significant effect of the number of animals present in the barn on thermal conditions and humidity. The increase in stocking density in the barn affects the increase of the internal temperature and relative humidity.

On condition based maintenance policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jong-Ho Shin

2015-04-01

Full Text Available In the case of a high-valuable asset, the Operation and Maintenance (O&M phase requires heavy charges and more efforts than the installation (construction phase, because it has long usage life and any accident of an asset during this period causes catastrophic damage to an industry. Recently, with the advent of emerging Information Communication Technologies (ICTs, we can get the visibility of asset status information during its usage period. It gives us new challenging issues for improving the efficiency of asset operations. One issue is to implement the Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM approach that makes a diagnosis of the asset status based on wire or wireless monitored data, predicts the assets abnormality, and executes suitable maintenance actions such as repair and replacement before serious problems happen. In this study, we have addressed several aspects of CBM approach: definition, related international standards, procedure, and techniques with the introduction of some relevant case studies that we have carried out.

Nutrition Frontiers - Winter 2018 | Division of Cancer Prevention

Science.gov (United States)

Dear Colleague, The winter issue of Nutrition Frontiers showcases the chemopreventive activity of sulforaphane, how a high fat, high cholesterol diet may impact hepatocellular carcinoma, and p53 activation from benzyl isothiocyanate. Meet our spotlight investigator, Dr. John Groopman, and his research on detoxication of air pollutants with a broccoli supplement. Learn about

Advances in safety related maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2000-03-01

The maintenance of systems, structures and components in nuclear power plants (NPPs) plays an important role in assuring their safe and reliable operation. Worldwide, NPP maintenance managers are seeking to reduce overall maintenance costs while maintaining or improving the levels of safety and reliability. Thus, the issue of NPP maintenance is one of the most challenging aspects of nuclear power generation. There is a direct relation between safety and maintenance. While maintenance alone (apart from modifications) will not make a plant safer than its original design, deficient maintenance may result in either an increased number of transients and challenges to safety systems or reduced reliability and availability of safety systems. The confidence that NPP structures, systems and components will function as designed is ultimately based on programmes which monitor both their reliability and availability to perform their intended safety function. Because of this, approaches to monitor the effectiveness of maintenance are also necessary. An effective maintenance programme ensures that there is a balance between the improvement in component reliability to be achieved and the loss of component function due to maintenance downtime. This implies that the safety level of an NPP should not be adversely affected by maintenance performed during operation. The nuclear industry widely acknowledges the importance of maintenance in NPP safety and operation and therefore devotes great efforts to develop techniques, methods and tools to aid in maintenance planning, follow-up and optimization, and in assuring the effectiveness of maintenance

Winters fuels report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1995-01-01

The outlook for distillate fuel oil this winter is for increased demand and a return to normal inventory patterns, assuming a resumption of normal, cooler weather than last winter. With industrial production expected to grow slightly from last winter's pace, overall consumption is projected to increase 3 percent from last winter, to 3.4 million barrels per day during the heating season (October 1, 1995-March 31, 1996). Much of the supply win come from stock drawdowns and refinery production. Estimates for the winter are from the Energy Information Administration's (EIA) 4th Quarter 1995 Short-Tenn Energy Outlook (STEO) Mid-World Oil Price Case forecast. Inventories in place on September 30, 1995, of 132 million barrels were 9 percent below the unusually high year-earlier level. Inventories of high-sulfur distillate fuel oil, the principal type used for heating, were 13 percent lower than a year earlier. Supply problems are not anticipated because refinery production and the ready availability of imports should be adequate to meet demand. Residential heating off prices are expected to be somewhat higher than last winter's, as the effects of lower crude oil prices are offset by lower distillate inventories. Heating oil is forecast to average $0.92 per gallon, the highest price since the winter of 1992-93. Diesel fuel (including tax) is predicted to be slightly higher than last year at $1.13 per gallon. This article focuses on the winter assessment for distillate fuel oil, how well last year's STEO winter outlook compared to actual events, and expectations for the coming winter. Additional analyses include regional low-sulfur and high-sulfur distillate supply, demand, and prices, and recent trends in distillate fuel oil inventories

Maintenance in sustainable manufacturing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vladimir Stuchly

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Background: Sustainable development is about reaching a balance between economic, social, and environmental goals, as well as people's participation in the planning process in order to gain their input and support. For a company, sustainable development means adoption of such business strategy and actions that contribute to satisfying present needs of company and stakeholders, as well as simultaneous protection, maintenance and strengthening of human and environmental potential which will be needed in the future. This new approach forces manufacturing companies to change their previous management paradigms. New management paradigm should include new issues and develop innovative methods, practices and technologies striving for solving problem of shortages of resources, softening environment overload and enabling development of environment-friendly lifecycle of products. Hence, its realization requires updating existing production models as they are based on previously accepted paradigm of unlimited resources and unlimited regeneration capabilities. Maintenance plays a crucial role because of its impact on availability, reliability, quality and life cycle cost, thus it should be one of the main pillars of new business running model.  Material and methods: The following paper is a result of research on the literature and observation of practices undertaken by a company within maintenance area. Results and conclusions: The main message is that considering sustainable manufacturing requires considerable expanding range of analysis and focusing on supporting processes. Maintenance offers numerous opportunities of decreasing influence of business processes on natural environment and more efficient resources utilization. The goal of maintenance processes realizing sustainable development strategy is increased profitability of exploitation and optimization of total lifecycle cost without disturbing safety and environmental issues. 

Technical documentation challenges in aviation maintenance : a proceedings report.

Science.gov (United States)

2012-11-01

The 2012 Technical Documentation workshop addressed both problems and solutions associated with technical : documentation for maintenance. These issues are known to cause errors, rework, maintenance delays, other : safety hazards, and FAA administrat...

Winter to winter recurrence of atmospheric circulation anomalies over East Asia and its impact on winter surface air temperature anomalies.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Xia; Yang, Guang

2017-01-01

The persistence of atmospheric circulation anomalies over East Asia shows a winter to winter recurrence (WTWR) phenomenon. Seasonal variations in sea level pressure anomalies and surface wind anomalies display significantly different characteristics between WTWR and non-WTWR years. The WTWR years are characterized by the recurrence of both a strong (weak) anomalous Siberian High and an East Asian winter monsoon over two successive winters without persistence through the intervening summer. However, anomalies during the non-WTWR years have the opposite sign between the current and ensuing winters. The WTWR of circulation anomalies contributes to that of surface air temperature anomalies (SATAs), which is useful information for improving seasonal and interannual climate predictions over East Asia and China. In the positive (negative) WTWR years, SATAs are cooler (warmer) over East Asia in two successive winters, but the signs of the SATAs are opposite in the preceding and subsequent winters during the non-WTWR years.

Evaluation of winter temperatures on apple budbreak using grafted twigs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fernando José Hawerroth

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Temperature is the main climate factor related to induction, maintenance and dormancy release in apple (Malus domestica Borkh.. The inadequate chilling exposure in apples causes budbreak problems, resulting in decrease in yield potential. Thus, the knowledge of physiological principles and environmental factors determining the dormancy phenomenon, especially winter temperature effects, it is necessary for the efficient selection of cultivars in a productive region. In addition, it is indispensable to adapt the orchard management aiming to decrease the problems caused by lack chilling during winter. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of different thermal conditions during the dormancy period on budbreak of apple cultivars. One-year-old twigs of 'Castel Gala' and 'Royal Gala' cultivars, grafted on M7 rootstock, were submitted to temperatures of 5, 10 and 15ºC for different exposure periods (168; 336; 672; 1,008 and 1,344 hours. After treatments execution, the plants were kept in a greenhouse at 25ºC. Budbreak was quantified when accumulated 3,444; 6,888; 10,332; 13,776; 17,220 and 20,664 GDHºC after temperature treatments. The cultivars responded differently to temperature effect during the winter period. The temperature of 15ºC during winter shows a greater effectiveness on 'Castel Gala' apple budbreak while in the 'Royal Gala' apples the temperatures of 5 and 10ºC show better performance. 'Castel Gala' cultivar (low chilling requirement may supply its physiological necessities, may be capable to budburst, even when subjected to higher temperatures in relation to 'Royal Gala' apples (high chilling requirement.

A successful forecast of an El Nino winter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kerr, R.A.

1992-01-01

This year, for the first time, weather forecasters used signs of a warming in the tropical Pacific as the basis for a long-range prediction of winter weather patterns across the United States. Now forecasters are talking about the next step: stretching the lead time for such forecasts by a year or more. That seems feasible because although this Pacific warming was unmistakable by the time forecasters at the National Weather Service's Climate Analysis Center (CAC) in Camp Springs, Maryland, issued their winter forecast, the El Nino itself had been predicted almost 2 years in advance by a computer model. Next time around, the CAC may well be listening to the modelers and predicting El Nino-related patterns of warmth and flooding seasons in advance

Predictive maintenance of maritime systems : models and challenges

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tinga, T.; Tiddens, W.W.; Amoiralis, F.; Politis, M.; Cepin, Marko; Bris, Radim

2017-01-01

To reduce maintenance and logistic costs and increase the asset availability, a predictive maintenance concept for maritime systems is developed. In the present paper, the physics-of-failure based prognostic methods will be introduced, but also other issues related to the development and application

Winter is losing its cool

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, S.

2017-12-01

Winter seasons have significant societal impacts across all sectors ranging from direct human health to ecosystems, transportation, and recreation. This study quantifies the severity of winter and its spatial-temporal variations using a newly developed winter severity index and daily temperature, snowfall and snow depth. The winter severity and the number of extreme winter days are decreasing across the global terrestrial areas during 1901-2015 except the southeast United States and isolated regions in the Southern Hemisphere. These changes are dominated by winter warming, while the changes in daily snowfall and snow depth played a secondary role. The simulations of multiple CMIP5 climate models can well capture the spatial and temporal variations of the observed changes in winter severity and extremes during 1951-2005. The models are consistent in projecting a future milder winter under various scenarios. The winter severity is projected to decrease 60-80% in the middle-latitude Northern Hemisphere under the business-as-usual scenario. The winter arrives later, ends earlier and the length of winter season will be notably shorter. The changes in harsh winter in the polar regions are weak, mainly because the warming leads to more snowfall in the high latitudes.

Evaluation of In-House versus Contract Computer Hardware Maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wright, H.P.

1981-09-01

The issue of In-House versus Contract Computer Hardware Maintenance is one which every organization who uses computers must resolve. This report discusses the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches to computer maintenance, the costs involved (based on the current AGNS computer inventory), and the AGNS maintenance experience to date. A recommendation on an appropriate approach for AGNS is made

Design Failure Affecting Maintenance Management on Public Higher Education Institution in Malaysia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Agus Salim Nuzaihan Aras

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The issue of government building defect is keeping on reporting in the media and arising since 2007. These issues of building defects, maintenance and management have existing and it is deliberated up to the parliament level. The government keep continue increased the maintenance allowance in National Budgetary in every year. However, the building disasters and failures keep going develop their number of cases in Malaysia. Most of the issues are related with a weak maintenance management and faulty in design. This reflects to a poorly building condition, create discomfort and danger environment to the building users. Besides, it will result to a low quality building condition and reflect to a weak building maintenance management. Building defects arise through inappropriate or poor design, specification, construction and it will give an impact to maintenance management itself [1]. Errors in the design of the building are being debated and becoming a reason of major factor in building defect reproduction [2]. Thus, this issue will discover the major cause in building design failure that develop the building defects and verify the impact of design defects towards building maintenance management. The study involved with the public higher education institution in Malaysia focusing on main campuses and the distribution of questionnaire to the facility and maintenance management department. This research is aimed to produce a better understanding on the impact of building design failure towards the institution facilities’ condition.

Blue Creek Winter Range: Wildlife Mitigation Project. Final environmental assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1994-11-01

Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) proposes to fund that portion of the Washington Wildlife Agreement pertaining to the Blue Creek Winter Range Wildlife Mitigation Project (Project) in a cooperative effort with the Spokane Tribe, Upper Columbia United Tribes, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). If fully implemented, the proposed action would allow the sponsors to protect and enhance 2,631 habitat units of big game winter range and riparian shrub habitat on 2,185 hectares (5,400 acres) of Spokane Tribal trust lands, and to conduct long term wildlife management activities within the Spokane Indian Reservation project area. This Final Environmental Assessment (EA) examines the potential environmental effects of securing land and conducting wildlife habitat enhancement and long term management activities within the boundaries of the Spokane Indian Reservation. Four proposed activities (habitat protection, habitat enhancement, operation and maintenance, and monitoring and evaluation) are analyzed. The proposed action is intended to meet the need for mitigation of wildlife and wildlife habitat adversely affected by the construction of Grand Coulee Dam and its reservoir

Accounting for anthropic energy flux of traffic in winter urban road surface temperature simulations with the TEB model

Science.gov (United States)

Khalifa, A.; Marchetti, M.; Bouilloud, L.; Martin, E.; Bues, M.; Chancibaut, K.

2016-02-01

Snowfall forecasts help winter maintenance of road networks, ensure better coordination between services, cost control, and a reduction in environmental impacts caused by an inappropriate use of de-icers. In order to determine the possible accumulation of snow on pavements, forecasting the road surface temperature (RST) is mandatory. Weather outstations are used along these networks to identify changes in pavement status, and to make forecasts by analyzing the data they provide. Physical numerical models provide such forecasts, and require an accurate description of the infrastructure along with meteorological parameters. The objective of this study was to build a reliable urban RST forecast with a detailed integration of traffic in the Town Energy Balance (TEB) numerical model for winter maintenance. The study first consisted in generating a physical and consistent description of traffic in the model with two approaches to evaluate traffic incidence on RST. Experiments were then conducted to measure the effect of traffic on RST increase with respect to non-circulated areas. These field data were then used for comparison with the forecast provided by this traffic-implemented TEB version.

Integrated services and maintenance in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roos, Georg

2001-01-01

The general situation concerning services and nuclear power maintenance is reviewed following liberalization of Europa's power market. Issues relating to outsourcing maintenance services, effectiveness and reducing cost structure of maintenance are addressed on the cases of power markets in northern countries, Spain, Switzerland, Germany and Hungary. A special attention is paid on range of maintenance activity offered and performanced by Framatome. Ways of reducing costs in the field of maintenance as well as of reducing outage time are indicated. In conclusion, the following items are emphasized: - liberalization of Europe's power market in eastern Europe at its beginning; - in-house service in eastern Europe with numerous personnel; - Framatome ANP covers the entire range of maintenance competence; - consultance can be the first approach for a common co-operation

New winter hardy winter bread wheat cultivar (Triticum aestivum L. Voloshkova

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Л. М. Голик

2007-12-01

Full Text Available Creation of Initial raw for breeding of winter wheat by change of the development type under low temperatures influence was described. Seeds of spring wheat were vernalized in aluminum weighting bottle. By using low temperatures at sawing of M2-6 at the begin ind of optimal terms of sawing of winter wheat, new winter-hardy variety of Voloshkova was bred.

33 CFR 100.109 - Winter Harbor Lobster Boat Race, Winter Harbor, ME.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Winter Harbor Lobster Boat Race, Winter Harbor, ME. 100.109 Section 100.109 Navigation and Navigable Waters COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY REGATTAS AND MARINE PARADES SAFETY OF LIFE ON NAVIGABLE WATERS § 100.109 Winter Harbor...

Radwaste treatment complex. DRAWMACS planned maintenance system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Keel, A.J.

1992-07-01

This document describes the operation of the Planned Maintenance System for the Radwaste Treatment Complex. The Planned Maintenance System forms part of the Decommissioning and Radwaste Management Computer System (DRAWMACS). Further detailed information about the data structure of the system is contained in Database Design for the DRAWMACS Planned Maintenance System (AEA-D and R-0285, 2nd issue, 25th February 1992). Information for other components of DRAWMACS is contained in Basic User Guide for the Radwaste Treatment Plant Computer System (AEA-D and R-0019, July 1990). (author)

Impacts of Pacific SSTs on California Winter Precipitation

Science.gov (United States)

Myoung, B.; Kafatos, M.

2017-12-01

Consecutive below-normal precipitation years and resulted multi-year droughts are critical issues as the recent 2012-2015 drought of California caused tremendous socio-economic damages. However, studies on the causes of the multi-year droughts lack. In this study, focusing on the three multi-year droughts (1999-2002, 2007-2009, and 2012-2015) in California during the last two decades, we investigated the atmospheric and oceanic characteristics of the three drought events for winter (December-February, DJF) in order to understand large-scale circulations that are responsible for initiation, maintenance, and termination of the droughts. It was found that abnormally developed upper-tropospheric ridges over the North Pacific are primarily responsible for precipitation deficits and then droughts. These ridges developed when negative sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTs) including La Niña events are pervasive in the tropical Pacific. After 3 or 4 years, the droughts ended under the opposite conditions; upper-tropospheric troughs in the North Pacific with El Niño events in the tropics. Results of Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis for the 41-year (1974/75-2014/15) 500 hPa geopotential height in DJF revealed that, during the drought periods, the positive phases of the first and second EOF mode (EOF1+ and EOF2+, respectively) were active one by one, positioning upper-tropospheric ridges over the North Pacific. While EOF1+ is associated with cold tropical central Pacific and negative Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), EOF2+ is associated with the tropical east-west SST dipole pattern (i.e., warm western tropical Pacific and cool eastern tropical Pacific near the southern Peru). Based on these results, we developed a regression model for winter precipitation. While dominant SST factors differ by decades, for the recent two decades (1994/1995-2014/2015), 56% variability of DJF precipitation is explained by the tropical east-west SST dipole pattern and PDO (NINO3

Estimating Maintenance Cost for Web Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ion IVAN

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The current paper tackles the issue of determining a method for estimating maintenance costs for web applications. The current state of research in the field of web application maintenance is summarized and leading theories and results are highlighted. The cost of web maintenance is determined by the number of man-hours invested in maintenance tasks. Web maintenance tasks are categorized into content maintenance and technical maintenance. Research is centered on analyzing technical maintenance tasks. The research hypothesis is formulated on the assumption that the number of man-hours invested in maintenance tasks can be assessed based on the web application’s user interaction level, complexity and content update effort. Data regarding the costs of maintenance tasks is collected from 24 maintenance projects implemented by a web development company that tackles a wide area of web applications. Homogeneity and diversity of collected data is submitted for debate by presenting a sample of the data and depicting the overall size and comprehensive nature of the entire dataset. A set of metrics dedicated to estimating maintenance costs in web applications is defined based on conclusions formulated by analyzing the collected data and the theories and practices dominating the current state of research. Metrics are validated with regards to the initial research hypothesis. Research hypothesis are validated and conclusions are formulated on the topic of estimating the maintenance cost of web applications. The limits of the research process which represented the basis for the current paper are enunciated. Future research topics are submitted for debate.

Development of Simulator Maintenance Engineer Qualification Program Draft

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chung, Kyung Hun

2010-01-01

As of 2009, KHNP has currently seven full scope simulators that are used for training of Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) Operators. Well-trained Simulator Maintenance Engineers (SME) are required to support these simulators. These SMEs will maintain and address any issues identified or any changes required for keep up the simulator with their respective plant sites. These issues will be identified as Simulator Discrepancy Reports (DR) or Work Order (WO) by the simulator operation personnel in KHNP. The simulator maintenance is a very complex. The simulator consists of many areas of process and requires experts in software modeling for different processes such as Neutronics, thermohydraulics, Logics, control, Electrical systems and computer systems as well as hardware subjects such as I and C, I/O, computers, etc. All these areas need experts the subject expertise need to be divided among SME's. In other word the SME's need to be trained for different expertise as well as having different level of SME's. KHNP has seen the need to outsource the maintenance work for these complex simulators. To have one company concentrating on this work will have many benefits such as: · Provides proper and well trained experts · Maintains consistent support personnel · Maintains the maintenance history for the simulator · Coordinates and Maintains the knowledge in house · The simulator maintenance will be consistent In order to accomplish the goals, KEPCO RI has recognized that there is a need for a program to adequately train and qualify the SME's. KEPCO RI and GSE, which has provided 6 simulators among 7 NPP simulators in Korea, have jointly developed this Simulator Maintenance Engineer Qualification Program (SMEQP). After issue of this plan, KEPCO RI will maintain and modify as needed periodically to meet the goals and purpose of the plan

Regulatory control of maintenance activities in Argentine nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Calvo, J.C.; Caruso, G.

2000-01-01

The main maintenance objective is to assure that the safety features of structures, components and systems of nuclear power plants are kept as designed. Therefore, there is a direct relationship between safety and maintenance. Owing to the above mentioned, maintenance activities are considered a relevant regulatory issue for the Argentine Nuclear Regulatory Authority (ARN). This paper describes the regulatory control to maintenance activities of Argentine nuclear power plants. It also addresses essential elements for maintenance control, routine inspections, special inspections during planned outages, audits and license conditions and requirements. (author)

Metabolic response to lipid infusion in fasting winter-acclimatized king penguin chicks (Aptenodytes patagonicus).

Science.gov (United States)

Teulier, Loïc; Tornos, Jérémy; Rouanet, Jean-Louis; Rey, Benjamin; Roussel, Damien

2013-05-01

During the cold austral winter, king penguin chicks are infrequently fed by their parents and thus experience severe nutritional deprivation under harsh environmental conditions. These energetic constraints lead to a range of energy sparing mechanisms balanced by the maintenance of efficient thermogenic processes. The present work investigated whether the high thermogenic capacities exhibited by winter-acclimatized king penguin chicks could be related to an increase in lipid substrate supply and oxidation in skeletal muscle, the main site of thermogenesis in birds. To test this hypothesis, we examined i) the effect of an experimental rise in plasma triglyceride on the whole metabolic rate in winter-acclimatized (WA) and de-acclimatized king penguin chicks kept at thermoneutrality (TN), and ii) investigated the fuel preference of muscle mitochondria. In vivo, a perfusion of a lipid emulsion induced a small 10% increase of metabolic rate in WA chicks but not in TN group. In vitro, the oxidation rate of muscle mitochondria respiring on lipid-derived substrate was +40% higher in WA chicks than in TN, while no differences were found between groups when mitochondria oxidized carbohydrate-derived substrate or succinate. Despite an enhanced fuel selection towards lipid oxidation in skeletal muscle, a rise of circulating lipids per se was not sufficient to fully unravel the thermogenic capacity of winter-acclimatized king penguin chicks. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

National Bioenergy Center - Biochemical Platform Integration Project: Quarterly Update, Winter 2010

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schell, D.

2011-02-01

Winter 2011 edition of the National Bioenergy Center's Biochemical Platform Integration Project quarterly newsletter. Issue topics: 33rd Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals program topic areas; results from reactive membrane extraction of inhibitors from dilute-acid pretreated corn stover; list of 2010 task publications.

Condition based maintenance pilot projects at Pickering ND

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zemdegs, R.T.

1995-01-01

Ontario Hydro has recognized that the approaches to maintenance have undergone significant changes to the past decades. The traditional break down maintenance approach has been replaced by preventative maintenance and more recently, by condition based maintenance. The nuclear plants of Ontario Hydro have evaluated on a number of alternative programs to improve their maintenance effectiveness and to reduce costs, including Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM), call-up review, component-based PM programs, analysis of failure history and so on. Pickering ND (nuclear division) and Ontario Hydro's Nuclear Technologies Services Division, have embarked on a Condition Based Maintenance pilot project to address the above issues as a breakthrough solution for smarter maintenance. The Condition Based Maintenance pilot project will demonstrate an end-to-end process utilizing a Reliability Centred Maintenance structured approach to re-engineer and redefine the existing maintenance programs. The project emphasizes on-condition maintenance where justified, and utilizes an information management tool to provide the required records keeping and analysis infrastructure. This paper briefly describes the planned maintenance model at Pickering ND used to guide the CBM pilot, and an overview of the methodology used to develop on-condition equipment indicators as part of a re-engineered maintenance plan

Polar-Tropical Coupling in the Winter Stratosphere

Science.gov (United States)

Scott, R.

2017-12-01

A distinct pattern of enhanced equatorial potential vorticitygradients during QBO westerly anomalies, enhanced subtropicalgradients during QBO easterlies, is used to motivate a new formulationof dynamical coupling between the tropics and winter polar vortexbased on remote transfer of finite amplitude wave activity defined interms of lateral potential vorticity displacements. While the weakpotential vorticity gradients in the surf zone imply laterallyevanescent Rossby waves, transfer of wave activity from the polarvortex edge to the subtropical barrier or to the QBO westerly phaseequatorial gradients arises from nonlocality of potential vorticityinversion and the large horizontal displacements of the vortex edge.Our approach goes beyond the traditional description of the effect ofQBO wind anomalies on linear wave propagation through the stratospherevia wave reflection at the zero wind line; linear wave theory isappealing but neglects the long horizontal and vertical wavelengthsinvolved and the inhomogeneous background potential vorticity. Aparticular issue of outstanding interest is whether and how therelatively shallow QBO anomalies can influence the deep verticallypropagating waves on the edge of the winter stratospheric polarvortex. Process studies with a mechanistic model with prescribed QBOand carefully controlled high-latitude wave forcing are analyzed,guided by a reexamination of meteorological reanalysis, to address howsuch a dynamical linkage may influence in particular the resonantexcitation of the winter vortex, and the occurrence ofvortex-splitting sudden warming events. We quantify the associatedtransfer of wave activity from vortex edge to the tropics, considerunder what conditions this becomes a significant source of easterlymomentum in the driving of the QBO itself, and how the structure ofthe Brewer-Dobson circulation varies in response to the location ofthe QBO westerly winds in any given winter.

Performing maintenance activities on-line a risk perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Darling, S.S.; Mairs, T.P.

1993-01-01

The US nuclear power industry is attempting to deal with the issue of optimizing the performance of maintenance activities with the advent of the maintenance rule. The impact of any maintenance activity on the safe operation of a nuclear power facility can be quantified on the basis of risk. Therefore, it is incumbent upon the industry to accommodate the regulator and present a maintenance optimization program in terms that explicitly address the potential risk inherent in its concept and implementation. The motivation for utilities to perform maintenance while the plant is operating (i.e., on-line) is readily perceived to offer the following advantages: 1. greater system availability; 2. higher plant capacity factor; 3. more evenly distributed workload for the maintenance department; and 4. overall safer plant operation. However, risks inherent in undertaking maintenance activities during power operation could amount to the realization that reapportionment of these tasks is not cost-beneficial. Therefore, it is important that any utility considering implementing such a paradigm in maintenance philosophy establish a rigorous process to select, perform, and monitor maintenance tasks performed while operating

Winter Weather Emergencies

Science.gov (United States)

Severe winter weather can lead to health and safety challenges. You may have to cope with Cold related health problems, including ... there are no guarantees of safety during winter weather emergencies, you can take actions to protect yourself. ...

Diverless maintenance in deep water

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hals, B.E. [Oceaneering International Services, (United Kingdom)

1996-12-31

The topic of diverless maintenance will address subsea production facilities in this paper. The major factors that determine diverless maintainability are development economics, maintenance philosophy, subsea hardware design, subsea intervention hardware, and compatibility of subsea hardware and remote work capabilities. The opportunity for developing and implementing low cost diverless installable and maintenable subsea facilities exist. Designs, hardwares, and procedures exist althoughmany of these have been combined into powerful solutions. This paper addresses the issues that need to be considered and provides one set of solutions. There are a number of other solutions that can be combined in a different set to provide a parallel but different solution. The challenge is to establish a process that defines the requirement, identifies the resources/capabilities, executes the work. 3 refs., 10 figs.

Nuclear safety - Topical issues

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1995-01-01

The following topical issues related to nuclear safety are discussed: steam generators; maintenance strategies; control rod drive nozzle cracks; core shrouds cracks; sump strainer blockage; fire protection; computer software important for safety; safety during shutdown; operational safety experience; external hazards and other site related issues. 5 figs, 5 tabs

Effect of winter cold duration on spring phenology of the orange tip butterfly, Anthocharis cardamines.

Science.gov (United States)

Stålhandske, Sandra; Lehmann, Philipp; Pruisscher, Peter; Leimar, Olof

2015-12-01

The effect of spring temperature on spring phenology is well understood in a wide range of taxa. However, studies on how winter conditions may affect spring phenology are underrepresented. Previous work on Anthocharis cardamines (orange tip butterfly) has shown population-specific reaction norms of spring development in relation to spring temperature and a speeding up of post-winter development with longer winter durations. In this experiment, we examined the effects of a greater and ecologically relevant range of winter durations on post-winter pupal development of A. cardamines of two populations from the United Kingdom and two from Sweden. By analyzing pupal weight loss and metabolic rate, we were able to separate the overall post-winter pupal development into diapause duration and post-diapause development. We found differences in the duration of cold needed to break diapause among populations, with the southern UK population requiring a shorter duration than the other populations. We also found that the overall post-winter pupal development time, following removal from winter cold, was negatively related to cold duration, through a combined effect of cold duration on diapause duration and on post-diapause development time. Longer cold durations also lead to higher population synchrony in hatching. For current winter durations in the field, the A. cardamines population of southern UK could have a reduced development rate and lower synchrony in emergence because of short winters. With future climate change, this might become an issue also for other populations. Differences in winter conditions in the field among these four populations are large enough to have driven local adaptation of characteristics controlling spring phenology in response to winter duration. The observed phenology of these populations depends on a combination of winter and spring temperatures; thus, both must be taken into account for accurate predictions of phenology.

Asbestos exposure of building maintenance personnel.

Science.gov (United States)

Mlynarek, S; Corn, M; Blake, C

1996-06-01

The exposures of building maintenance personnel and occupants to airborne asbestos fibers, and the effects of operations and maintenance programs on those exposures, continue to be an important public health issue. The subject of this investigation was a large metropolitan county with numerous public buildings which routinely conducted air sampling for asbestos. A total of 302 personal air samples in nine task categories collected during maintenance worker activities in proximity to asbestos-containing materials were analyzed; 102 environmental air samples in four task categories were also analyzed. The arithmetic means of the 8-hr time weighted average exposures for personal sampling for each task category were all below the Occupational Safety and Health Administration permissible exposure level of 0.1 fibers (f)/cc > 5 microm. The highest mean 8-hr time weighted average exposure was 0.030 f/cc > 5 microm for ceiling tile replacement. The maximum asbestos concentration during sample collection for environmental samples was 0.027 f/cc > 5 microm. All asbestos-related maintenance work was done within the framework of an Operations and Maintenance Program (OMP) which utilized both personal protective equipment and controls against fiber release/dispersion. Results are presented in association with specific OMP procedures or controls. These results support the effectiveness of using Operations and Maintenance Programs to manage asbestos in buildings without incurring unacceptable risk to maintenance workers performing maintenance tasks.

Maintenance manual. Vol. 1. Maintenance management; 2. completely rev. ed.; Handbuch Instandhaltung. Bd. 1. Instandhaltungsmanagement

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Warnecke, H.J. [ed.] [Fraunhofer-Institut fuer Produktionstechnik und Automatisierung (IPA), Stuttgart (Germany)

1992-12-31

This manual is the second, completely revised edition of the standard manual ``Maintenance - Fundamentals``, which was first published in 1981. It presents an outline of all relevant fields of maintenance today and contains practical information on new and established methods of maintenance management and technology. With its comprehensive concept, which addresses any industrial enterprise that wants to remain competitive, the manual is indispensable for maintenance managers in industry, service enterprises and consultancies. Vol.1, ``Maintenance Management``, informs the reader on fundamentals, design with a view to maintenance, organisation of maintenance work, personnel management, industrial safety and economic aspects of maintenance. Current issues such as product liability, electronic data processing, expert systems, environmental protection, controlling based on characteristic data, etc. are gone into. Graphical representations, concrete procedural information and exemplary solutions may be used directly as working tools for the practice of maintenance. (orig.) [Deutsch] Das vorliegende Handbuch ist die zweite, voellig ueberarbeitete und erweiterte Auflage des Standardwerkes ``Instandhaltung - Grundlagen``, das 1981 erstmals erschien. Es gibt einen Ueberblick ueber alle relevanten Gebiete einer modernen Instandhaltung und vermittelt praxisnahes Wissen ueber neue und bewaehrte Methoden und Verfahren des Instandhaltungsmanagements und der Instandhaltungstechnik. Mit dieser umfassenden Konzeption, die auf die Belange des im Wettbewerb stehenden Industriebetriebes ausgerichtet ist, wendet sich das Handbuch an die Fuehrungskraefte der Instandhaltung in der Industrie sowie an Dienstleistungs- und Beratungsunternehmen. Im Band 1 ``Instandhaltungsmanagement`` kann sich der Leser ueber Grundlagen, instandhaltungsgerechtes Konstruieren, Organisation der Instandhaltung, Personalmanagement, Arbeitssicherheit sowie Wirtschaftlichkeit der Instandhaltung informieren

Addressing challenges for youths with mobility devices in winter conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Morales, Ernesto; Lindsay, Sally; Edwards, Geoffrey; Howell, Lori; Vincent, Claude; Yantzi, Nicole; Gauthier, Véronique

2018-01-01

experience of navigating in the urban context is limited and has mostly focused on the elderly population with physical disabilities. Our results clearly show that youth who use mobility devices want to be able to get around in the snow, wander outdoors, play and enjoy social participation in activities with their peers and friends. Our findings provide a starting point for the development of additional studies to seek a better understanding of the person-environment interaction in winter conditions, with tangible results in the form of better design solutions. Clinicians and designers must address such issues in northern countries and areas where snow is abundant.

Chloride Concentration in the Soil Polluted with Bishophit Used in Winter and its Effect on Herbaceous Plants

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Asta Strėlkutė

2014-10-01

Full Text Available For road maintenance in winter, various chemical reagents, considering their physical and chemical properties, are chosen taking into account economic indicators. After a long winter season, large amounts of chemical reagents are used. During the winter season, dusting chlorides, first of all, fall on the roadway and a part of those reach roadsides where directly pollute the soil of the buffer zone and affect vegetation during the growing season. Chloride content in soil reduces the absorption of nutrients, which hinders the development of plants. It also has an effect on the metabolism of soil organisms, and therefore the loss of soil fertility. Due to high chloride content, land becomes unsuitable for plant growth. Studies used different concentrations (9 ml, 12 ml and 46 ml of bishophit. Chloride concentration in soil extract has been determined applying the volumetric method and employing silver nitrate titration. It has been determined that the amount of chloride in the soil contaminated with 9 ml makes 89.21 mg/kg, 12 ml – 94, 25 mg/kg and 164.32 mg/kg.

A strategic value management approach for energy and maintenance management in a building

Science.gov (United States)

Nawi, Mohd Nasrun Mohd; Dahlan, Nofri Yenita; Nadarajan, Santhirasegaran

2015-05-01

Fragmentation process is always been highlighted by the stakeholders in the construction industry as one of the `critical' issue that diminishing the opportunity for stakeholders that involved during the operation and maintenance stage to influence design decisions. Failure of design professionals to consider how a maintenance contractor or facility manager will construct the design thus results in higher operating cost, wastage, defects during the maintenance and operation process. Moving towards team integration is considered a significant strategy for overcoming the issue. Value Management is a style of management dedicated to guiding people and promoting innovation with the aim to improve overall building performance through structured, team-oriented exercises which make explicit, and appraise subsequent decisions, by reference to the value requirements of the clients. Accordingly, this paper discusses the fragmentation issue in more detail including the definition, causes and effects to the maintenance and operation of building and at the same time will highlighted the potential of VM integrated team approach as a strategic management approach for overcoming that issue. It also explores that the team integration strategy alleviates scheduling problems, delays and disputes during the construction process, and, hence, prevent harming the overall building performance.

Optimized maintenance concept of safety relevant valves related to ageing management features in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koring, R.

2007-01-01

This paper presents the existing concept in E.ON Kernkraft and its sound application to ageing management issues by focussing on group 2 components such as safety relevant valves. It is demonstrated how the maintenance concept of safety relevant valves is supported by a valve diagnostic system accompanied by an applied procedure to assess the measured results with respect to the required functionality and ageing phenomena. Furthermore this concept has been developed to optimize the existing preventive maintenance of the safety relevant valves by implementing condition oriented aspects derived from the diagnostic results. The main issue of this maintenance concept is to demonstrate the high level of the secured function, reliability and performance of the safety relevant valves within an integrated ageing management. Additionally it offers improvements of all preventive maintenance issues as maintenance periods and the component related volume, spare parts management and costs. (author)

78 FR 48125 - Inspection, Repair, and Maintenance; Driver-Vehicle Inspection Report

Science.gov (United States)

2013-08-07

... of the DVIR would reinforce the importance of reporting vehicle maintenance issues irrespective of... exercise heightened diligence over their operations, including CMV maintenance. As noted in the Motorcoach... would receive regulatory relief of approximately $3,000 per entity, which is a positive benefit and does...

Motivational indictors predicting the engagement, frequency and adequacy of rainwater tank maintenance

Science.gov (United States)

Mankad, Aditi; Greenhill, Murni

2014-01-01

Rainwater tank maintenance is a key social behavior in our changing environment, as tanks are being adopted worldwide to augment household water supplies and reduce urban water stress. The maintenance of rainwater tanks in urban areas is an important pro-environmental behavior that prevents public health issues arising from unhygienic tank use. This study examined motivational differences in maintenance behavior between householders with retrofitted and mandated (compulsory) rainwater tanks on their property (N = 1988). Results showed that retrofitted tank owners were more self-determined in their motivation than mandated owners. Amotivation and integrated regulation were both dominant predictors of engagement in tank maintenance, frequency and adequacy of tank maintenance activities. Those involved in more maintenance activity were likely driven to do so because of feelings of adherence to personal goals and values (e.g., as "sustainable" citizens), whereas individuals who experienced a lack of control and alienation from the activity were likely to view maintenance as meaningless. Thus, people with higher integrated regulation engaged in more tank maintenance activities, whereas more amotivated individuals engaged in less maintenance. As cities begin relying more on citizen self-sufficiency with respect to water and energy resources, issues relating to infrastructure maintenance and operation become paramount. Results show that motivation is important in the impetus to engage in a pro-environmental behavior as well as the frequency and accuracy with which that behavior is undertaken. Policy implications are further discussed.

Optimizing preventive maintenance with maintenance templates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dozier, I.J.

1996-01-01

Rising operating costs has caused maintenance professionals to rethink their strategy for preventive maintenance (PM) programs. Maintenance Templates are pre-engineered PM task recommendations for a component type based on application of the component. Development of the maintenance template considers the dominant failure cause of the component and the type of preventive maintenance that can predict or prevent the failure from occurring. Maintenance template development also attempts to replace fixed frequency tasks with condition monitoring tasks such as vibration analysis or thermography. For those components that have fixed frequency PM intervals, consideration is given to the maintenance drivers such as criticality, environment and usage. This helps to maximize the PM frequency intervals and maximize the component availability. Maintenance Templates have been used at PECO Energy's Limerick Generating Station during the Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) Process to optimize their PM program. This paper describes the development and uses of the maintenance templates

Significance of Building Maintenance Management Systems towards Sustainable Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M.A. Othuman Mydin

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Building maintenance management is an organized and effective system of maintenance operations which is set up to deal with problems related to the upkeep of a building. Its goal, aside from locating and remedying a building’s deficiencies, is to effectively minimize the overall costs of maintenance and is also an effort to maximize the gain and benefits from the savings. There are a few factors that influence decisions to undertake maintenance work. The principal goal of maintenance is to protect a building in the early stage of issues as they arise. Some major reasons for maintaining a building include retaining its reputation and value of investments, maintaining the building in a condition which allows it to accomplish its purpose, and presenting a good outer shell. This paper will review and discuss some of the major elements of building maintenance towards achieving sustainable buildings.

Public Tourism Infrastructure: Challenges in the Development and Maintenance Activities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abdullah Shardy

2014-01-01

Full Text Available In Malaysia, the tourism sector is a major contributor to the nation’s development and is spearheaded by the government’s efforts in investing heavily towards providing sufficient and well-functioning public tourism infrastructure. This infrastructure should be ideally developed with a clear and systematic maintenance plan in hand. The challenge herein is not merely providing the necessary infrastructure to sustain tourism activities but rather a pro-active approach towards establishing and subsequently maintaining this infrastructure at its optimal level. The aim of this paper therefore is to identify critical aspects that need to be in place to further enhance the Malaysian tourism industry. The paper discusses the issues and challenges that need to be addressed as a precursor towards an effectively developed and maintained tourism infrastructure system. Development issues that have been identified revolve around the dimensions of quality, quantity and ability of the public agencies involved, particularly issues of inadequate infrastructure, quality of infrastructure and the capability of the agencies in undertaking efficient maintenance activities. These issues were found to lead towards challenges of working with resource constraints, lack of an effective maintenance culture and system as well as the need for clear and effective policies and strategies.

Evaluation of NRC maintenance team inspection reports for managing aging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fresco, A.; Gunther, W.

1991-01-01

A nuclear power plant's maintenance program is the principal vehicle through which age-related degradation is managed. Over the past two years, the NRC [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] has evaluated the maintenance program of every nuclear power plant in the U.S. The reports issued on these in-depth team inspections have been reviewed to ascertain the strengths and weaknesses of the programs as related to the need to understand and manage the effects of aging on nuclear power plant systems, structures, and components. Selected results of this review are presented in this paper, including examples of inspection and monitoring techniques successfully used by utilities to detect degradation due to aging. Attributes of plant maintenance programs where the NRC inspectors felt that improvement was needed to properly address the aging issue are also discussed. 6 refs., 1 tab

Estimating winter survival of winter wheat by simulations of plant frost tolerance

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bergjord Olsen, A.K.; Persson, T.; Wit, de A.; Nkurunziza, L.; Sindhøj, E.; Eckersten, H.

2018-01-01

Based on soil temperature, snow depth and the grown cultivar's maximum attainable level of frost tolerance (LT50c), the FROSTOL model simulates development of frost tolerance (LT50) and winter damage, thereby enabling risk calculations for winter wheat survival. To explore the accuracy of this

Incorporating Yearly Derived Winter Wheat Maps Into Winter Wheat Yield Forecasting Model

Science.gov (United States)

Skakun, S.; Franch, B.; Roger, J.-C.; Vermote, E.; Becker-Reshef, I.; Justice, C.; Santamaría-Artigas, A.

2016-01-01

Wheat is one of the most important cereal crops in the world. Timely and accurate forecast of wheat yield and production at global scale is vital in implementing food security policy. Becker-Reshef et al. (2010) developed a generalized empirical model for forecasting winter wheat production using remote sensing data and official statistics. This model was implemented using static wheat maps. In this paper, we analyze the impact of incorporating yearly wheat masks into the forecasting model. We propose a new approach of producing in season winter wheat maps exploiting satellite data and official statistics on crop area only. Validation on independent data showed that the proposed approach reached 6% to 23% of omission error and 10% to 16% of commission error when mapping winter wheat 2-3 months before harvest. In general, we found a limited impact of using yearly winter wheat masks over a static mask for the study regions.

Winter weather demand considerations.

Science.gov (United States)

2015-04-01

Winter weather has varied effects on travel behavior. Using 418 survey responses from the Northern Virginia : commuting area of Washington, D.C. and binary logit models, this study examines travel related changes under : different types of winter wea...

The influence of sowing period and seeding norm on autumn vegetation, winter hardiness and yield of winter cereal crops

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Potapova G. N.

2017-10-01

Full Text Available the winter wheat and triticale in the middle part of the Ural Mountains haven’t been seeded before. The technology of winter crop cultivation should be improved due to the production of new varieties of winter rye. Winter hardiness and yield of winter rye are higher in comparison with winter triticale and especially with winter wheat. The sowing period and the seeding rate influence the amount of yield and winter hardiness. The winter hardiness of winter cereals and the yield of the rye variety Iset sowed on August 25 and the yield of the triticale variety Bashkir short-stalked and wheat Kazanskaya 560 sowed on August 15 were higher. It is important to sow winter grain in local conditions in the second half of August. The sowing this period allows to provide plants with the necessary amount of positive temperatures (450–500 °C. This helps the plants to form 3–4 shoots of tillering and a mass of 10 dry plants reaching 3–5 grams. The winter grain crops in the middle part of the Ural Mountains should be sown with seeding rates of 6 and 7 million of sprouting grains per 1 ha, and the seeds must be cultivated with fungicidal preparation before seeding.

Establishing a predictive maintenance program at the Hanford Site

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Winslow, R.W.

1994-05-01

This document contains information about a new Predictive Maintenance Program being developed and implemented at the Hanford Reservation. Details of the document include: background on persons developing the program, history of predictive maintenance, implementation of new program, engineering task analysis, network development and new software, issues to be resolved, benefits expected, and appendix gives information about the symposium from which this paper is based

Legal Regulation of Trade Activity during Sochi Preparation of XXII Winter Olympic and XI Paralympic Games

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elena V. Ivneva

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The article deals with the topical issues of legal regulation of social trade relations in the Russian Federation during Sochi preparation and hosting of XXII Winter Olympic and XI Paralympic Games.

Determining effects of an all weather logging road on winter woodland caribou habitat use in south-eastern Manitoba

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Doug W. Schindler

2007-04-01

Full Text Available The Owl Lake boreal woodland caribou population is the most southerly population in Manitoba. It is provincially ranked as a High Conservation Concern Population. Forestry operations exist in the area and there are plans for further forest harvest and renewal. The Happy Lake logging road is the only main access through the Owl Lake winter range. This logging road is currently closed to the public and access is limited to forestry operations during specific times of the year. An integrated forestry/caribou management strategy for the area provides for the maintenance of minimum areas of functional habitat. Habitat quality along the road was compared to habitat quality in the winter core use areas, within the winter range and outside the winter range. To evaluate the extent of functional habitat near the road, we conducted animal location and movement analysis using GPS data collected from January 2002 to March 2006. Habitat quality in the winter range, core use areas and along the road were assessed and found to be similar. Analysis of caribou locations and movement illustrate less use of high quality habitat adjacent to the Happy Lake Road. Loss of functional habitat is suggested to occur within 1 kilometre of the road. This potential loss of functional habitat should be incorporated into integrated forestry and caribou conservation strategies. Road management is recommended to minimize the potential sensory disturbance and associated impacts of all weather access on boreal woodland caribou.

Operation and maintenance requirements of system design bases

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Banerjee, A.K.; Hanley, N.E.

1989-01-01

All system designs make assumptions about system operation testing, inspection, and maintenance. Existing industry codes and standards explicitly address design requirements of new systems, while issues related to system and plant reliability, life, design margins, effects of service conditions, operation, maintenance, etc., usually are implicit. However, system/component design documents of existing power plants often address the code requirements without considering the operation, maintenance, inspection, and testing (OMIT) requirements. The nuclear industry is expending major efforts at most nuclear power plants to reassemble and/or reconstitute system design bases. Stone ampersand Webster Engineering Corporation (SWEC) recently addressed the OMIT requirements of system/component design as an integral part of a utility's preventive maintenance program. For each component, SWEC reviewed vendor recommendations, NPRDS data/industry experience, the existing maintenance program, component service conditions, and actual plant experience. A maintenance program that considers component service conditions and plant experience ensures a connection between maintenance and design basis. Root cause analysis of failure and engineering evaluation of service condition are part of the program. System/component OMIT requirements also are compared against system design, service condition, degradation mechanism, etc., through system/component life-cycle evaluation

Improved Navy Maintenance Through Corrosion-Fatigue Assessment Program

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Hoppe, Wally

2008-01-01

... to evaluate issues relevant to corrosion-fatigue of aircraft components. In this multi-year, multi-contract program, tools have been developed to assist in the establishment of maintenance options for corroded components...

Maintenance system improvement in cast iron foundry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Kukla

2011-07-01

Full Text Available The work presents the issue of technical equipment management in an iron foundry basing on the assumptions of the TPM system (Total Productive Maintenance. Exploitation analysis of automatic casting lines has been carried out and their work’s influence on the whole production system’s functioning has been researched. Within maintenance system improvement, implementation of autonomic service and planned lines’ review have been proposed in order to minimize the time of breakdown stoppages. The SMED method was used to optimize changeover time, and the OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness was applied to evaluate the level of resources usage before and after implementing changes. Further, the influence of the maintenance strategy of casting devices’ efficiency on own costs of casting manufac- ture was estimated.

The nuclear winter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Velikhow, Y.P.

1986-01-01

Nuclear winter is an example of possible secondary effects, and if we speak of secondary we are thinking of small-scale second-order effects, but a nuclear winter is not a second-order effect. If you calculate the amount of heat produced by a nuclear explosion, it is a very small amount which does not have any chance of changing the Earth's climate, but a nuclear explosion drives or stars some new mechanism - the mechanism of nuclear winter - after 100 megatons of dust are transferred to the upper atmosphere. Another example of such amplification is radioactive fall-out, especially long-life radioactive fall-out after the possible elimination of the nuclear power industry, nuclear storage and distribution of storage waste around the globe. This is a very powerful amplification mechanism

Feasibility study of component risk ranking for plant maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ushijima, Koji; Yonebayashi, Kenji; Narumiya, Yoshiyuki; Sakata, Kaoru; Kumano, Tetsuji

1999-01-01

Nuclear power is the base load electricity source in Japan, and reduction of operation and maintenance cost maintaining or improving plant safety is one of the major issues. Recently, Risk Informed Management (RIM) is focused as a solution. In this paper, the outline regarding feasibility study of component risk ranking for plant maintenance for a typical Japanese PWR plant is described. A feasibility study of component risk raking for plant maintenance optimization is performed on check valves and motor-operated valves. Risk ranking is performed in two steps using probabilistic analysis (quantitative method) for risk ranking of components, and deterministic examination (qualitative method) for component review. In this study, plant components are ranked from the viewpoint of plant safety / reliability, and the applicability for maintenance is assessed. As a result, distribution of maintenance resources using risk ranking is considered effective. (author)

75 FR 17913 - Maintenance and Vegetation Management Along Existing Western Area Power Administration...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-08

... Maintenance and Vegetation Management Along Existing Western Area Power Administration Transmission Line... Corporation's mandatory vegetation management and maintenance standards (FAC-003-1) in accordance with section... Service) authorizations or issuing new authorizations to accommodate Western's vegetation management...

Technology Trend in the Maintenance of Nuclear Power Plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoon, Kyungsup; Lee, Unjang

2014-01-01

In this paper, overall technology evolution is reviewed and the improvements in the plant safety, reliability and productivity are described. And the issue and some recommendation for better maintenance of Korean nuclear power plants are presented as the interim study results on the 'Management and Regulatory Policy for the Nuclear Power Plant Maintenance and Equipment Reliability' under the agreement with the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission. The future trend in the maintenance technologies is also covered. Maintenance is the essential element for the enhancement of plant safety, reliability and economics and also for public safety. Therefore the regulator's involvements and the utility's active participation is inevitable for the better maintenance. For the better sustainability of our nuclear power plants the followings are recommended. ·Establishment of the good maintenance program and continuous improvement. ·Application of OLM on the safety related and non-safety related components by step-by-step approach. ·Improvement PRA technology for the accurate and reliable risk analysis. ·Continuous training and cultivation for the qualified maintenance personnel

Technology Trend in the Maintenance of Nuclear Power Plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yoon, Kyungsup; Lee, Unjang [CTO and CEO, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2014-05-15

In this paper, overall technology evolution is reviewed and the improvements in the plant safety, reliability and productivity are described. And the issue and some recommendation for better maintenance of Korean nuclear power plants are presented as the interim study results on the 'Management and Regulatory Policy for the Nuclear Power Plant Maintenance and Equipment Reliability' under the agreement with the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission. The future trend in the maintenance technologies is also covered. Maintenance is the essential element for the enhancement of plant safety, reliability and economics and also for public safety. Therefore the regulator's involvements and the utility's active participation is inevitable for the better maintenance. For the better sustainability of our nuclear power plants the followings are recommended. ·Establishment of the good maintenance program and continuous improvement. ·Application of OLM on the safety related and non-safety related components by step-by-step approach. ·Improvement PRA technology for the accurate and reliable risk analysis. ·Continuous training and cultivation for the qualified maintenance personnel.

Model-based fault diagnosis framework for effective predictive maintenance / B.B. Akindele

OpenAIRE

Akindele, Babatunde Babajide

2010-01-01

Predictive maintenance is a proactive maintenance strategy that is aimed at preventing the unexpected failure of equipment through condition monitoring of the health and performance of the equipment. Incessant equipment outage resulting in low availability of production facilities is a major issue in the Nigerian manufacturing environment. Improving equipment availability in Nigeria industry through institution of a full featured predictive maintenance has been suggested by many authors. T...

Main maintenance operations for Test Blanket Systems in ITER TBM port cells

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pascal, R., E-mail: romain.pascal@iter.org [ITER Organization, Route de Vinon sur Verdon, 13115 Saint Paul Lez Durance (France); Cortes, P.; Friconneau, J.-P.; Giancarli, L.M.; Gotewal, K.K.; Iseli, M.; Kim, B.Y.; Levesy, B.; Martins, J.-P.; Merola, M. [ITER Organization, Route de Vinon sur Verdon, 13115 Saint Paul Lez Durance (France); Nevière, J.-C. [Comex-Nucleaire, 13115 Saint Paul Lez Durance (France); Patisson, L. [ITER Organization, Route de Vinon sur Verdon, 13115 Saint Paul Lez Durance (France); Siarras, A. [Sogetti, Parc de la Duranne, 13857 Aix-en-Provence (France); Tesini, A. [ITER Organization, Route de Vinon sur Verdon, 13115 Saint Paul Lez Durance (France)

2013-10-15

Highlights: • The Test Blanket System components layout in Port Cell room is described. • The maintenance of the two Test Blanket Systems in ITER port cell is addressed. • The overall replacement/maintenance strategy is defined. • The main maintenance tasks of the systems are discussed. • The maintenance strategy and required tools are presented. -- Abstract: Each Test Blanket System in ITER is formed by an in-vessel component, the Test Blanket Module, and several associated ancillary systems (coolant and Tritium systems, instrumentation and control systems). The paper describes the overall replacement/maintenance strategy and the main maintenance tasks that have to be considered in the design of the systems. It shows that there are no critical issues.

Software maintenance and evolution and automated software engineering

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Carver, Jeffrey C.; Serebrenik, Alexander

2018-01-01

This issue's column reports on the 33rd International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution and 32nd International Conference on Automated Software Engineering. Topics include flaky tests, technical debt, QA bots, and regular expressions.

Preventive maintenance and reliability-centered maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anderson, J.G.

1989-01-01

In the recent past, the primary function of the preventive maintenance program at a nuclear power plant was to maintain the operability and reliability of the plant. Reducing overall maintenance costs by performing effective preventive maintenance, instead of more costly and disruptive corrective maintenance, instead of more costly and disruptive corrective maintenance, was a secondary consideration. In today's operating environment, the preventive maintenance program must meet the test of cost-effectiveness as well as many new standards for performance that are being required by rate regulators. The preventive maintenance program must be able to withstand the challenge of independent audit to a new standard of technical adequacy and compliance with recommendations from component vendors. In this new environment, the standard that is being applied at the San Onofre nuclear generating station (SONGS) is that the preventive maintenance program must meet the test of cost-effectiveness, improve equipment performance, support increased plant availability, and (a) literally implement the recommendations of the vendor, (b) provide other compensation for the vendor recommendation, or (c) provide technical justification for the deviation. The subject of this paper is the way that reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) is helping SONGS meet these challenges

Opportune maintenance and predictive maintenance decision support

OpenAIRE

Thomas , Edouard; Levrat , Eric; Iung , Benoît; Cocheteux , Pierre

2009-01-01

International audience; Conventional maintenance strategies on a single component are being phased out in favour of more predictive maintenance actions. These new kinds of actions are performed in order to control the global performances of the whole industrial system. They are anticipative in nature, which allows a maintenance expert to consider non-already-planned maintenance actions. Two questions naturally emerge: when to perform a predictive maintenance action; how a maintenance expert c...

Study on application of safety checklist in preventive maintenance activities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shi Jin; Chen Song; Liu Jingquan

2013-01-01

The paper describes the principles and the characteristics of safety checklist as a risk evaluation method. Examples of application of safety checklists to preventive maintenance activities such as criteria comparison and checkup items in place in nuclear power plants are illustrated in details with issues appeared in the checklist establishment. Checklist has a good application in the RCM analysis or in the actual preventive maintenance program for Chashma Nuclear Power Plant indicated by concrete instances. In the light of safety checklist which is used to sustain preventive maintenance as a simple and applicable risk analysis approach, we can get deep knowledge of risks of nuclear power plant to perfect preventive maintenance activities. (authors)

Communicating Certainty About Nuclear Winter

Science.gov (United States)

Robock, A.

2013-12-01

I have been spending much of my time in the past several years trying to warn the world about the continuing danger of nuclear weapons, and that the solution is a rapid reduction in the nuclear arsenal. I feel that a scientist who discovers dangers to society has an ethical duty to issue a warning, even if the danger is so scary that it is hard for people to deal with. The debate about nuclear winter in the 1980s helped to end the nuclear arms race, but the planet still has enough nuclear weapons, even after reductions planned for 2017 under the New START treaty, to produce nuclear winter, with temperatures plunging below freezing in the summer in major agricultural regions, threatening the food supply for most of the planet. New research by myself, Brian Toon, Mike Mills, and colleagues over the past six years has found that a nuclear war between any two countries, such as India and Pakistan, using 50 atom bombs each of the size dropped on Hiroshima could produce climate change unprecedented in recorded human history, and a world food crisis because of the agricultural effects. This is much less than 1% of the current global arsenal. Communicating certainty - what we know for sure - has been much more effective than communicating uncertainty. The limited success I have had has come from persistence and serendipity. The first step was to do the science. We have published peer-reviewed articles in major journals, including Science, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Geophysical Research, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Physics Today, and Climatic Change. But policymakers do not read these journals. Through fairly convoluted circumstances, which will be described in this talk, we were able to get papers published in Scientific American and the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. I have also published several encyclopedia articles on the subject. As a Lead Author of Chapter 8 (Radiative Forcing) of the recently published Fifth Assessment

Maintenance therapy in advanced non-small cell lung cancer: current status and future implications.

Science.gov (United States)

Stinchcombe, Thomas E; Socinski, Mark A

2011-01-01

Maintenance therapy for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer has been an area of intense investigation. Maintenance therapy has been divided into two broad categories: continuation maintenance when the chemotherapy or targeted agent was part of a defined number of cycles of combination therapy and in the absence of disease progression is continued as a single agent or switch maintenance when a third agent is initiated after four cycles of platinum-based double-agent chemotherapy in the absence of disease progression. Two monoclonal antibodies, cetuximab and bevacizumab, are used as continuation maintenance, but the incremental benefit of the maintenance therapy with these agents is undetermined. Phase III trials have not revealed an overall survival benefit for continuation maintenance chemotherapy, and this approach should be considered investigational. Phase III trials have demonstrated an improvement in overall survival with switch maintenance therapy with pemetrexed compared with placebo in patients with nonsquamous histology and erlotinib compared with placebo. Phase III trials have not revealed an improvement in quality of life with maintenance therapy. In the trials of maintenance therapy, 30 to 40% of patients enrolled in the observation or placebo arm did not receive second-line therapy, and among the patients who did receive second-line therapy, there was significant heterogeneity in the therapy. The development of maintenance therapy has raised issues about the role of treatment-free intervals in routine clinical care, trial design issues such as the optimal endpoint, the ethics of a placebo arm, and the implications of maintenance therapy for first-line trials.

Competencies development and self-assessment in maintenance management e-training

Science.gov (United States)

Papathanassiou, Nikos; Pistofidis, Petros; Emmanouilidis, Christos

2013-10-01

The maintenance management function requires staff to possess a truly multidisciplinary set of skills. This includes competencies from engineering and information technology to health and safety, management and finance, while also taking into account the normative and legislative issues. This body of knowledge is rarely readily available within a single university course. The potential of e-learning in this field is significant, as it is a flexible and less costly alternative to conventional training. Furthermore, trainees can follow their own pace, as their available time is often a commodity. This article discusses the development of tools to support competencies development and self-assessment in maintenance management. Based on requirements arising from professional bodies' guidelines and a user survey, the developed tools implement a dedicated maintenance management training curriculum. The results from pilot testing on academic and industrial user groups are discussed and user evaluations are linked with specific e-learning design issues.

Object and operation supported maintenance for mining equipment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Walter Bartelmus

2014-09-01

Full Text Available The paper aroused in answer to discussion in Mining Magazine (MM September 2011 and July/August 2013. The paper shows that discussion given in the MM issue July/August 2013 does not fulfill expectations expressed in MM issue 2011. The presented paper is the review on maintenance that is based on condition monitoring as tool for detection of faults and failure prevention. Fault and failure are regarded as inevitable during the machine operation as the process of wear and the process of degradation. The question is, if one can influence the wear and degradation process, using condition monitoring. The paper will present technology (in reference to cited papers which demonstrates that the use of the proper method can influence the wear and machine degradation process, using proper condition monitoring techniques and knowing scenarios of wear and degradation process, the maintenance can be rationalized. The presented paper shows possible improvements which are needed to fulfill expectations expressed in MM September 2011 and they are not taken into consideration in MM July/August 3013. These improvements can be fulfilling on the bases of object and operation supported maintenance.

ITER - torus vacuum pumping system remote handling issues

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stringer, J.

1992-11-01

This report describes design issues concerning remote maintenance of the ITER torus vacuum pumping system. Key issues under investigation in this report are bearings for inert gas operation, transporter integration options, cryopump access, gate valve maintenance frequency, tritium effects on materials, turbomolecular pump design, and remote maintenance. Alternative bearing materials are explored for inert gas operation. Encapsulated motors and rotary feedthroughs offer an alternative option where space requirements are restrictive. A number of transporter options are studied. The preferred scheme depends on the shielded reconfigured ducts to prevent streaming and activation of RH (remote handling) equipment. A radiation mapping of the cell is required to evaluate this concept. Valve seal and bellow life are critical issues and need to be evaluated, as they have a direct bearing on the provision of adequate RH equipment to meet scheduled and unscheduled maintenance outages. The limited space on the inboard side of the cryopumps for RH equipment access requires a reconfigured duct and manifold. A modified shielded duct arrangement is proposed, which would provide more access space, reduced activation of components, and the potential for improved valve seal life. Work at Mound Laboratories has shown the adverse effects of tritium on some bearing lubricants. Silicone-based lubricants should be avoided. (11 refs., 2 tabs., 31 figs.)

Operations and Maintenance Cost for Stratified Buildings: A Critical Review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Che-Ghani Nor Zaimah

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Building maintenance is essential in preserving buildings’ appearance and performance. It needs to upkeep the building performance to prolong its value and building life cycle. Malaysia is still lacking in managing cost for building operation and maintenance. It has been found that the cost for housing maintenance is high due to poor maintenance practices. In order to get better understanding on how to manage the cost, this study reviews the contributing factors that affecting operation and maintenance cost of stratified buildings in Malaysia. The research first identified the factors through extensive literature review and scrutinize on factors that affecting and can minimize operation and maintenance cost. This literature review offers insight into building maintenance scenario in Malaysia focusing on the issues and challenges. The study also finds that operation and maintenance cost for housing in Malaysia is still in poor state. Interestingly, this paper revealed that operation and maintenance cost is also influenced by three significant factors like expectation of tenants, building characteristics and building defects. Measures to reduce the housing operation and maintenance cost are also highlighted so that this study can be a stepping stone towards proposing efficient and effective facilities management strategies for affordable housing in future.

Nuclear Power Plant Preventive Maintenance Scheduling Problem with Fuzziness

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abass, S.A.; Abdallah, A.S.

2013-01-01

Maintenance activity is regarded as the most important key factor for the safety, reliability and economy of a nuclear power plant. Preventive maintenance refers to set of planned activities which include nondestructive testing and periodic inspection as well as maintenance. In this paper, we address the problem of nuclear power plant preventive maintenance scheduling with uncertainty. The uncertainty will be represented by fuzzy parameters. The problem is how to determine the period for which generating units of an electric system should be taken off line for planned preventive maintenance over specific time horizon. Preventive maintenance activity of a nuclear power plant is an important issue as it designed to extend the plant life . It is more required to review the maintenance not only from the view point of safety and reliability but also economy. Preventive maintenance program exists to ensure that nuclear safety significant equipment will function when it is supposed to. Also this problem is extremely important because a failure in a power plant may cause a general breakdown in an electric network. In this paper a mixed integer programming model is used to express this problem. In proposed model power demand is taken as fuzzy parameters. A case study is provided to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed model.

Application of the Delphi technique in healthcare maintenance.

Science.gov (United States)

Njuangang, Stanley; Liyanage, Champika; Akintoye, Akintola

2017-10-09

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the research design, issues and considerations in the application of the Delphi technique to identify, refine and rate the critical success factors and performance measures in maintenance-associated infections. Design/methodology/approach In-depth literature review through the application of open and axial coding were applied to formulate the interview and research questions. These were used to conduct an exploratory case study of two healthcare maintenance managers, randomly selected from two National Health Service Foundation Trusts in England. The results of exploratory case study provided the rationale for the application of the Delphi technique in this research. The different processes in the application of the Delphi technique in healthcare research are examined thoroughly. Findings This research demonstrates the need to apply and integrate different research methods to enhance the validity of the Delphi technique. The rationale for the application of the Delphi technique in this research is because some healthcare maintenance managers lack knowledge about basic infection control (IC) principles to make hospitals safe for patient care. The result of first round of the Delphi exercise is a useful contribution in its own rights. It identified a number of salient issues and differences in the opinions of the Delphi participants, noticeably between healthcare maintenance managers and members of the infection control team. It also resulted in useful suggestions and comments to improve the quality and presentation of the second- and third-round Delphi instruments. Practical implications This research provides a research methodology that can be adopted by researchers investigating new and emerging issues in the healthcare sector. As this research demonstrates, the Delphi technique is relevant in soliciting expert knowledge and opinion to identify performance measures to control maintenance-associated infections in

46 CFR 45.73 - Winter freeboard.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 46 Shipping 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Winter freeboard. 45.73 Section 45.73 Shipping COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (CONTINUED) LOAD LINES GREAT LAKES LOAD LINES Freeboards § 45.73 Winter freeboard. The minimum winter freeboard (fw) in inches is obtained by the formula: fw=f(s)+T s...

Dynamic environment for training for maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sanchez, F.; Gonzalez, F.; Marti, F.

2001-01-01

The governing board of TECNATOM approved a project for creating a maintenance training center in 1995. The objective was to cover training necessities identified in the maintenance area, mainly in issues related with continuous training, recycling and professional development. A team of instructors in the 3 specialties: mechanical, electrical and instrumentation, was selected. Written training material has been developed. New facilities and adequate mock-ups for training has been acquired, more than 100 didactical units have been developed. The mock-ups are real components from nuclear power plants, they have been adapted to fulfill the didactical function. New courses and mock-ups are being developed as new customer necessities are being identified. (A.C.)

Dynamic environment for training for maintenance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sanchez, F.; Gonzalez, F.; Marti, F. [Tecnatom, s.a., Madrid (Spain)

2001-07-01

The governing board of TECNATOM approved a project for creating a maintenance training center in 1995. The objective was to cover training necessities identified in the maintenance area, mainly in issues related with continuous training, recycling and professional development. A team of instructors in the 3 specialties: mechanical, electrical and instrumentation, was selected. Written training material has been developed. New facilities and adequate mock-ups for training has been acquired, more than 100 didactical units have been developed. The mock-ups are real components from nuclear power plants, they have been adapted to fulfill the didactical function. New courses and mock-ups are being developed as new customer necessities are being identified. (A.C.)

Scalable Coverage Maintenance for Dense Wireless Sensor Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jun Lu

2007-06-01

Full Text Available Owing to numerous potential applications, wireless sensor networks have been attracting significant research effort recently. The critical challenge that wireless sensor networks often face is to sustain long-term operation on limited battery energy. Coverage maintenance schemes can effectively prolong network lifetime by selecting and employing a subset of sensors in the network to provide sufficient sensing coverage over a target region. We envision future wireless sensor networks composed of a vast number of miniaturized sensors in exceedingly high density. Therefore, the key issue of coverage maintenance for future sensor networks is the scalability to sensor deployment density. In this paper, we propose a novel coverage maintenance scheme, scalable coverage maintenance (SCOM, which is scalable to sensor deployment density in terms of communication overhead (i.e., number of transmitted and received beacons and computational complexity (i.e., time and space complexity. In addition, SCOM achieves high energy efficiency and load balancing over different sensors. We have validated our claims through both analysis and simulations.

Darlington Station outage - a maintenance perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Plourde, J.; Marczak, J.; Stone, M.; Myers, R.; Sutton, K.

1997-01-01

Ontario Hydro's Darlington Nuclear Generating Station (4x881MW(e)net) has carried out its first station outage since full commercial operation. The outage presented challenges to the organization in terms of outage planning, support, management, and safe execution within the constraints of schedule, budget and resources. This paper will focus on the success of the outage maintenance program, identifying the major work programs - a vacuum structure and containment outage, an emergency service water system outage, an emergency coolant injection system outage, intake channel inspections, low pressure service water inspections, and significant outage maintenance work on each of the four reactor units. Planning for the outage was initiated early in anticipation of this important milestone in the station's life. Detailed safety reviews - nuclear, radiation, and conventional - were conducted in support of the planned maintenance program. System lineup and work protection were provided by the Station Operator work group. Work protection permitry was initiated well in advance of the outage. Station maintenance staff resources were bolstered in support of the outage to ensure program execution could be maintained within the schedule. Training programs were in place to ensure that expectations were clear and that high standards would be maintained. Materials management issues in support of maintenance activities were given high priority to ensure no delays to the planned work. Station management review and monitoring in preparation for and during the outage ensured that staff priorities remained focused. Lessons learned from the outage execution are being formalized in maintenance procedures and outage management procedures, and shared with the nuclear community. (author)

Managing the maintenance inventory of a cement manufacturer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Morne Eloff

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Inventory management is a crucial aspect of managing a company successfully. This is even more apparent in the case of maintenance inventories for production equipment, which impact directly on production equipment efficiency. This is a typical inventory management issue for a cement manufacturer that faces the problem of managing its maintenance inventories optimally when certain maintenance items have exceptionally long lead times (100 weeks and values in excess of R500 000. An assessment of the cement manufacturer’s approach to managing its maintenance inventories indicated various shortcomings, which have resulted in a significant level of obsolescence. One approach to managing maintenance inventories efficiently is to implement a classification of the inventory items in terms of their criticality to the cement production process. The critical nature of a component could be established through a risk-based approach (minimisation of the risk of production loss and taking into account the type of maintenance (planned vs unplanned that the component is required for. A risk-based approach should form the basis of the maintenance inventory management of the cement manufacturer as this would allow the cement manufacturer to utilise other inventory management methods effectively. In addition, it is important to ensure that employees are well versed in the different inventory management approaches utilised and that high levels of integration between departments are pursued.

Empirical Psycho-Aesthetics and Her Sisters: Substantive and Methodological Issues--Part II

Science.gov (United States)

Konecni, Vladimir J.

2013-01-01

Empirical psycho-aesthetics is approached in this two-part article from two directions. Part I, which appeared in the Winter 2012 issue of "JAE," addressed definitional and organizational issues, including the field's origins, its relation to "sister" disciplines (experimental philosophy, cognitive neuroscience of art, and neuroaesthetics), and…

On the concept of e-maintenance: Review and current research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Muller, Alexandre; Crespo Marquez, Adolfo; Iung, Benoit

2008-01-01

The importance of the maintenance function has increased because of its role in keeping and improving system availability and safety, as well as product quality. To support this role, the development of the communication and information technologies has allowed the emergence of the concept of e-maintenance. Within the era of e-manufacturing and e-business, e-maintenance provides the opportunity for a new maintenance generation. As we will discuss later in this paper, e-maintenance integrates existing telemaintenance principles, with Web services and modern e-collaboration principles. Collaboration allows to share and exchange not only information but also knowledge and (e)-intelligence. By means of a collaborative environment, pertinent knowledge and intelligence become available and usable at the right place and time, in order to facilitate reaching the best maintenance decisions. This paper outlines the basic ideas within the e-maintenance concept and then provides an overview of the current research and challenges in this emerging field. An underlying objective is to identify the industrial/academic actors involved in the technological, organizational or management issues related to the development of e-maintenance. Today, this heterogeneous community has to be federated in order to bring up e-maintenance as a new scientific discipline

Estimating contribution of anthocyanin pigments to osmotic adjustment during winter leaf reddening.

Science.gov (United States)

Hughes, Nicole M; Carpenter, Kaylyn L; Cannon, Jonathan G

2013-01-15

The association between plant water stress and synthesis of red, anthocyanin pigments in leaves has led some plant biologists to propose an osmotic function of leaf reddening. According to this hypothesis, anthocyanins function as a solute in osmotic adjustment (OA), contributing to depression of osmotic potential (Ψ(π)) and maintenance of turgor pressure during drought-stressed conditions. Here we calculate the percent contribution of anthocyanin to leaf Ψ(π) during OA in two angiosperm evergreen species, Galax urceolata and Gaultheria procumbens. Both species exhibit dramatic leaf reddening under high light during winter, concomitant with declines in leaf water potential and accumulation of solutes. Data previously published by the authors on osmotic potential at full turgor (Ψ(π,100)) of G. urceolata and G. procumbens leaves before and after leaf reddening were used to estimate OA. In vivo molar concentrations of anthocyanin, glucose, fructose, and sucrose measured from the same individuals were converted to pressure equivalents using the Ideal Gas Law, and percent contribution to OA was estimated. Estimated mean OA during winter was -0.7MPa for G. urceolata and -0.8MPa for G. procumbens. In vivo concentrations of anthocyanin (3-10mM) were estimated to account for ∼2% of OA during winter, and comprised <0.7% of Ψ(π,100) in both species. Glucose, fructose, and sucrose combined accounted for roughly 50 and 80% of OA for G. urceolata and G. procumbens, respectively, and comprised ∼20% of Ψ(π,100). We observed that a co-occurring, acyanic species (Vinca minor) achieved similar OA without synthesizing anthocyanin. We conclude that anthocyanins represent a measurable, albeit meager, component of OA in red-leafed evergreen species during winter. However, due to their low concentrations, metabolic costliness relative to other osmolytes, and striking red color (unnecessary for an osmotic function), it is unlikely that they are synthesized solely for an

Winter warming from large volcanic eruptions

Science.gov (United States)

Robock, Alan; Mao, Jianping

1992-01-01

An examination of the Northern Hemisphere winter surface temperature patterns after the 12 largest volcanic eruptions from 1883-1992 shows warming over Eurasia and North America and cooling over the Middle East which are significant at the 95-percent level. This pattern is found in the first winter after tropical eruptions, in the first or second winter after midlatitude eruptions, and in the second winter after high latitude eruptions. The effects are independent of the hemisphere of the volcanoes. An enhanced zonal wind driven by heating of the tropical stratosphere by the volcanic aerosols is responsible for the regions of warming, while the cooling is caused by blocking of incoming sunlight.

Effective maintenance practices to manage system aging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chockie, A.; Bjorkelo, K.

1992-01-01

For a variety of economic and technical reasons, there has been a growing concern with the aging of complex systems and components and the role that maintenance can play in reducing this degradation. A study for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was recently undertaken to identify effective maintenance practices that could be adapted by the nuclear industry in the United States to assist in managing the aging degradation of plant systems and components. Four organizations were examined to assess the influence that their maintenance programs have on their ability to address the systems and component aging degradation issues. An effective maintenance program was found to be essential to the management of system and component aging. The four key elements of an effective maintenance program that are important to an aging management program were identified. These are: the selection of critical systems and components; the development of an understanding of aging through the collection and analysis of equipment performance information; the development of appropriate preventive and predictive maintenance tasks to manage equipment and system aging degradation; the use of feedback mechanisms to continuously improve the management of aging systems and components. These elements were found to be common to all four organizations. In examining how the four organizations have structured their maintenance programs to include these key elements provides valuable lessons not only for the nuclear power industry, but also for any industrial organization that is concerned with the management of system and component aging degradation. This document provides detail, of these studies

Low clouds suppress Arctic air formation and amplify high-latitude continental winter warming.

Science.gov (United States)

Cronin, Timothy W; Tziperman, Eli

2015-09-15

High-latitude continents have warmed much more rapidly in recent decades than the rest of the globe, especially in winter, and the maintenance of warm, frost-free conditions in continental interiors in winter has been a long-standing problem of past equable climates. We use an idealized single-column atmospheric model across a range of conditions to study the polar night process of air mass transformation from high-latitude maritime air, with a prescribed initial temperature profile, to much colder high-latitude continental air. We find that a low-cloud feedback--consisting of a robust increase in the duration of optically thick liquid clouds with warming of the initial state--slows radiative cooling of the surface and amplifies continental warming. This low-cloud feedback increases the continental surface air temperature by roughly two degrees for each degree increase of the initial maritime surface air temperature, effectively suppressing Arctic air formation. The time it takes for the surface air temperature to drop below freezing increases nonlinearly to ∼ 10 d for initial maritime surface air temperatures of 20 °C. These results, supplemented by an analysis of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 climate model runs that shows large increases in cloud water path and surface cloud longwave forcing in warmer climates, suggest that the "lapse rate feedback" in simulations of anthropogenic climate change may be related to the influence of low clouds on the stratification of the lower troposphere. The results also indicate that optically thick stratus cloud decks could help to maintain frost-free winter continental interiors in equable climates.

JRR-3 maintenance program utilizing accumulated maintenance data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Izumo, Hironobu; Kato, Tomoaki; Kinase, Masami; Torii, Yoshiya; Murayama, Yoji

2007-07-01

JRR-3(Japan Research Reactor No.3) has been operated for more than 15 years after the modification, without significant troubles by carrying out maintenance such as the preventive maintenance (mainly time-based maintenance) for the safety-grade equipments and the breakdown maintenance for the non-safety-grade equipments. Unscheduled shutdowns causes by aged non-safety-grade equipments have been increasing, and the resources such as budgets have been decreasing year by year. In this situation, JRR-3 maintenance program was reviewed about safety, reliability and economic efficiency. This report offers the policy of the maintenance review and the future direction of maintenance programs. (author)

Principles of MONJU maintenance. Characteristic of MONJU maintenance and reflection of LWR maintenance experience to FBR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakai, Satoru; Nishio, Ryuichi; Uchihashi, Masaya; Kaneko, Yoshihisa; Yamashita, Hironobu; Yamaguchi, Atsunori; Aoki, Takayuki

2014-01-01

A sodium cooled fast breeder reactor (FBR) has unique systems and components and different degradation mechanism from light water reactor (LWR) so that need to establish maintenance technology in accordance with its features. The examination of the FBR maintenance technology is carried out in the special committee for considering the maintenance for Monju established in the Japan Society of Maintenology (JSM). As a result of the study such as extraction of Monju maintenance feature, maintenance technology benchmark between Monju and LWR components and survey of LWR maintenance experience, it is clear that principles of maintenance are same as LWR, necessity of LWR maintenance experience reflection and points to be considered in Monju maintenance. The road map to establish a FBR maintenance technology in the technical aspect became clear and it is vital to acquire operation and maintenance experience of the plant to implement this road map, and to establish a fast reactor maintenance. (author)

A condition-based maintenance policy for multi-component systems with Lévy copulas dependence

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Heping; Deloux, Estelle; Dieulle, Laurence

2016-01-01

In this paper, we propose a new condition-based maintenance policy for multi-component systems taking into account stochastic and economic dependences. The stochastic dependence between components due to common environment is modelled by Lévy copulas. Its influence on the maintenance optimization is investigated with different dependence degrees. On the issue of economic dependence providing opportunities to group maintenance activities, a new maintenance decision rule is proposed which permits maintenance grouping. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed maintenance policy, we compare it to the classical maintenance policies. - Highlights: • A new adaptive maintenance policy for grouping maintenance actions is proposed. • The impacts of both economic and stochastic dependences are investigated. • The performance of the proposed maintenance policy is evaluated under different system configurations. • The stochastic dependence is modelled by Lévy copulas. • The proposed maintenance decision rule can take full advantage of economic and stochastic dependences.

PROMSYS, Plant Equipment Maintenance and Inspection Scheduling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Morgan, D.L.; Srite, B.E.

1986-01-01

1 - Description of problem or function: PROMSYS is a computer system designed to automate the scheduling of routine maintenance and inspection of plant equipment. This 'programmed maintenance' provides the detailed planning and accomplishment of lubrication, inspection, and similar repetitive maintenance activities which can be scheduled at specified predetermined intervals throughout the year. The equipment items included are the typical pumps, blowers, motors, compressors, automotive equipment, refrigeration units, filtering systems, machine shop equipment, cranes, elevators, motor-generator sets, and electrical switchgear found throughout industry, as well as cell ventilation, shielding, containment, and material handling equipment unique to nuclear research and development facilities. Four related programs are used to produce sorted schedule lists, delinquent work lists, and optional master lists. Five additional programs are used to create and maintain records of all scheduled and unscheduled maintenance history. 2 - Method of solution: Service specifications and frequency are established and stored. The computer program reviews schedules weekly and prints, on schedule cards, instructions for service that is due the following week. The basic output from the computer program comes in two forms: programmed-maintenance schedule cards and programmed-maintenance data sheets. The data sheets can be issued in numerical building, route, and location number sequence as equipment lists, grouped for work assigned to a particular foreman as the foreman's equipment list, or grouped by work charged to a particular work order as the work-order list. Data sheets grouped by equipment classification are called the equipment classification list

Designer's guidebook for first wall/blanket/shield assembly, maintenance, and repair

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1983-01-01

This is the initial issue of the guidebook. Since a guidebook of this type must incorporate information concerning a wide range of subjects, much additional data will eventually be included. The guidebook will document, in summary and easily referenceable form, data, designs, design concepts, design guidelines and background information useful to the FWBS and to the Maintenance System designer. In providing guidelines for the AMR of the FWBS, the guidebook must, of necessity, include guidelines for all aspects of maintenance associated with the FWBS. These include most maintenance operations within the reactor room necessary to gain access, identify faults, and handle equipment related to FWBS maintenance. In addition, the guidelines include those required to define facility requirements for handling and repair of FWBS and related reactor components external to the reactor room. Particular emphasis is given to remote maintenance design and operations

Managing aging in nuclear power plants: Insights from NRC maintenance team inspection reports

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fresco, A.; Subudhi, M.; Gunther, W.; Grove, E.; Taylor, J. [Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (United States)

1993-12-01

A plant`s maintenance program is the principal vehicle through which age-related degradation is managed. From 1988 to 1991, the NRC evaluated the maintenance program of every nuclear power plant in the United States. Forty-four out of a total of 67 of the reports issued on these in-depth team inspections were reviewed for insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the programs as related to the need to understand and manage the effects of aging on nuclear plant systems, structures, and components. Relevant information was extracted from these inspection reports and sorted into several categories, including Specific Aging Insights, Preventive Maintenance, Predictive Maintenance and Condition Monitoring, Post Maintenance Testing, Failure Trending, Root Cause Analysis and Usage of Probabilistic Risk Assessment in the Maintenance Process. Specific examples of inspection and monitoring techniques successfully used by utilities to detect degradation due to aging have been identified. The information also was sorted according to systems and components, including: Auxiliary Feedwater, Main Feedwater, High Pressure Injection for both BWRs and PWRs, Service Water, Instrument Air, and Emergency Diesel Generator Air Start Systems, and Emergency Diesel Generators Air Start Systems, emergency diesel generators, electrical components such as switchgear, breakers, relays, and motor control centers, motor operated valves and check valves. This information was compared to insights gained from the Nuclear Plant Aging Research (NPAR) Program. Attributes of plant maintenance programs where the NRC inspectors felt that improvement was needed to properly address the aging issue also are discussed.

State of the art of toshiba maintenance techniques for reactor internals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maekawa, Osamu; Hattori, Yasuhiro; Sudo, Akira

2002-01-01

As the number of aged plants increases, maintaining the integrity of the reactor pressure vessel and reactor internals in aged plants has become an essential issue to ensure continued stable operation and achieve higher plant operability. A major issue with regard to reactor internals is stress corrosion cracks (SCCs). Laser-applying techniques have many features suitable for preventive maintenance work on reactor internals. Toshiba has developed various laser-applying preventive maintenance techniques and accumulated considerable field experience utilizing these techniques in various aged plants. Moreover, in view of the importance of confirming the soundness of reactor internals in aged plants, Toshiba has developed and applied sophisticated nondestructive testing techniques for this purpose. (author)

Titan's Emergence from Winter

Science.gov (United States)

Flasar, F. Michael; Achterberg, Richard; Jennings, Donald; Schinder, Paul

2011-01-01

We summarize the changes in Titans thermal structure derived from Cassini CIRS and radio-occultation data during the transition from winter to early spring. Titan's surface, and middle atmosphere show noticeable seasonal change, whereas that in most of the troposphere is mated. This can be understood in terms of the relatively small radiative relaxation time in the middle atmosphere and much larger time scale in the troposphere. The surface exhibits seasonal change because the heat capacity in an annual skin depth is much smaller than that in the lowest scale height of the troposphere. Surface temperatures rise 1 K at raid and high latitudes in the winter northern hemisphere and cool in the southern hemisphere. Changes in in the middle atmosphere are more complicated. Temperatures in the middle stratosphere (approximately 1 mbar) increase by a few kelvin at mid northern latitudes, but those at high latitudes first increase as that region moves out of winter shadow, and then decrease. This probably results from the combined effect of increased solar heating as the suit moves higher in the sky and the decreased adiabatic warming as the sinking motions associated with the cross-equatorial meridional cell weaken. Consistent with this interpretation, the warm temperatures observed higher up at the winter polar stratopause cool significantly.

TPM and autonomous maintenance: case study in a metal mechanic company

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Norberto Carvalho Biehl

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this article was to describe a case of autonomous maintenance implementation in a pilot area of a metal mechanical industry company. The TPM – Total Productive Maintenance is a managerial technology that can help companies to reduce failures and breakages of machines. One of the most important issues of TPM is autonomous maintenance. The method of research was the case study. A program of twelve points was structured and adopted as stand-alone maintenance deployment guide. The program began in a pilot area, including three machining centers. The main results of the pilot program were: increasing by more than 700% the Mean Time between Failure, reducing by more than 40% in the Mean Time to Repair, as well as the consequent increase of more than five percentage points on the availability of the three machines and almost 60% reduction in the cost of maintenance materials. The main conclusion was that the TPM, and in particular the autonomous maintenance, can increase the efficiency of maintenance as strategic factor, which enhances the competitiveness of manufacturing in industrial companies.

ITER - TVPS remote handling critical design issues

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1990-09-01

This report describes critical design issues concerning remote maintenance of the ITER Torus Vacuum Pumping System (TVPS). The key issues under investigation are the regeneration/isolation valve seal and seal mechanism replacement; impact of inert gas operation; impact of remote handling (RH) on the building configuration and RH equipment requirements. Seal exchange concepts are developed and their impact on the valve design identified. Concerns regarding the design and operation of RH equipment in an inert gas atmosphere are also explored. The report compares preliminary RH equipment options, pumping equipment maintenance frequency and their impact on the building design, and makes recommendations where a conflict exists between pumping equipment and the building layout. (51 figs., 11 refs.)

Can the Air Force and Airlines Collaborate for Mutual Benefit An Exploration of Pilot and Maintenance Workforce Options

Science.gov (United States)

2016-01-01

Virgin America UNIQUE_CARRIER_NAME 14 Figure 8. Air Force and Commercial Maintenance Personnel Salaries NOTE: AF Annual = Air Force, enlisted. Avg...have drill weekends Holiday : blue No week 5: orange Weekend split over 2 months: purple We also considered the overlap between ARC...ebb in the winter. Cargo airlines have a sustained busy season in November and December with holiday package shipping. We obtained five years of

9th International conference on CANDU maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2011-01-01

The 9th International Conference on CANDU Maintenance was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on December 4-6, 2011. The conference focused on Nuclear plant reliability and maintenance. Equipment reliability is a critical factor in achieving safe and reliable Nuclear Power Plant operations for many reasons. For one it reduces the challenges upon the operating staff and allows station personnel to 'go on the offence' instead of having to play defense in a reactive mode. Plant reliability ensures that there is time to study the issues in detail and develop solutions for long-term success. Let us not forget that the owner carries the burden of demonstrating the return on investment, and plant reliability goes a long way in helping to make the case for plant life extension. A good reputation for plant reliability provides the public capital necessary to build confidence and facilitate the licensing process. The proceedings papers and presentations given at the 9th International Conference on Candu Maintenance covered topics that include: Managing Worker; Radiation Dose; Full Life Cycle Management; Managing Maintenance Refurbishment; Designing for Maintainability; Inspection Techniques; and, Mitigating Degradation.

PETC Review. Issue 7, Winter 1992--1993

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Santore, R.R.; Blaustein, B.D.; Friedman, S.; Reiss, J.; Brown, J.; Price, M.M. [eds.

1993-02-01

This issue of the PETC Review is devoted to explaining how the private sector can do business with DOE-and with PETC in particular-and how DOE works with academia, industry, and state and local groups to accomplish objectives of mutual interest. Over the past several years, the notion of ``cost-sharing`` has been receiving increased attention. Indeed, cost-shared RD&D is becoming the norm, not only within DOE but also among other government agencies, including the Department of Defense. It may surprise some of our readership to learn that RD&D cost-sharing is not a new government policy. In fact, it has been part of the DOE Acquisition Regulations from their inception in 1977. In lay terms, cost participation, a general kind of cost-sharing, is required for RD&D efforts in which the non-Federal participant`s goal is commercialization or in situations for which it is reasonable to expect that economic benefits will accrue to the participant as a result of the work. The policy is quite flexible and states that the degree of non-DOEcost participation depends on a number of factors, including the nature of the work performed and the extent of the project risk. As competition for RD&D funds increases, it is to be expected that cost-sharing requirements for development, and even for basic research, will increase. Nevertheless, we think that Federal support of RD&D will continue to be necessary to maintain this country`s leadership in science, technology, industry, and living standards.

36 CFR 1002.19 - Winter activities.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... RECREATION § 1002.19 Winter activities. (a) Skiing, snowshoeing, ice skating, sledding, innertubing, tobogganing and similar winter sports are prohibited on Presidio Trust roads and in parking areas open to...

Plant maintenance and advanced reactors, 2006

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Agnihotri, Newal (ed.)

2006-09-15

The focus of the September-October issue is on plant maintenance and advanced reactors. Major articles/reports in this issue include: Advanced plants to meet rising expectations, by John Cleveland, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna; A flexible and economic small reactor, by Mario D. Carelli and Bojan Petrovic, Westinghouse Electric Company; A simple and passively safe reactor, by Yury N. Kuznetsov, Research and Development Institute of Power Engineering (NIKIET), Russia; Gas-cooled reactors, by Jeffrey S. Merrifield, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission; ISI project managment in the PRC, by Chen Chanbing, RINPO, China; and, Fort Calhoun refurbishment, by Sudesh Cambhir, Omaha Public Power District.

Examining winter visitor use in Yellowstone National Park

Science.gov (United States)

Mae A. Davenport; Wayne A. Freimund; William T. Borrie; Robert E. Manning; William A. Valliere; Benjamin Wang

2000-01-01

This research was designed to assist the managers of Yellowstone National Park (YNP) in their decision making about winter visitation. The focus of this report is on winter use patterns and winter visitor preferences. It is the author’s hope that this information will benefit both the quality of winter experiences and the stewardship of the park resources. This report...

Winter Dew Harvest in Mexico City

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arias-Torres Jorge Ernesto

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This study presents experimental and theoretical results of winter dew harvest in México City in terms of condensation rate. A simplified theoretical model based on a steady-state energy balance on a radiator-condenser was fitted, as a function of the ambient temperature, the relative humidity and the wind velocity. A glass sheet and aluminum sheet white-painted were used as samples over the outdoor experiments. A good correlation was obtained between the theoretical and experimental data. The experimental results show that there was condensation in 68% of the winter nights on both condensers. The total winter condensed mass was 2977 g/m2 and 2888 g/m2 on the glass sheet and aluminum sheet white-painted, respectively. Thus, the condensed mass on the glass was only 3% higher than that on the painted surface. The maximum nightly dew harvests occurred during December, which linearly reduced from 50 g/m2 night to 22 g/m2 night as the winter months went by. The condensation occurred from 1:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., with maximum condensation rates between 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. The dew harvest can provide a partial alternative to the winter water shortage in certain locations with similar climates to the winter in Mexico City, as long as pollution is not significant.

Applicability of Operational Research Techniques in CANDU Nuclear Plant Maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doyle, E. Kevin

2002-01-01

As previously reported at ICONE 6 in New Orleans, 1996, and ICONE 9 in Niece, 2001, the use of various maintenance optimization techniques at Bruce has lead to cost effective preventive maintenance applications for complex systems. Innovative practices included greatly reducing Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) costs while maintaining the accuracy of the analysis. The optimization strategy has undergone further evolution and at the present an Integrated Maintenance Program (IMP) is being put in place. Further cost refinement of the station preventive maintenance strategy whereby decisions are based on statistical analysis of historical failure data is being evaluated. A wide range of Operational Research (OR) literature was reviewed for implementation issues and several encouraging areas were found that will assist in the current effort of evaluating maintenance optimization techniques for nuclear power production. The road ahead is expected to consist first of resolving 25 years of data issues and preserving the data via appropriate knowledge system techniques while post war demographics permit experts to input into the system. Subsequent analytical techniques will emphasize total simplicity to obtain the requisite buy in from Corporate Executives who possibly are not trained in Operational Research. Case studies of containment airlock seal failures are used to illustrate the direct applicability of stochastic processes. Airlocks and transfer chambers were chosen as they have long been known as high maintenance items. Also, the very significant financial consequences of this type of failure will help to focus the attention of Senior Management on the effort. Despite substantial investment in research, improvement in the design of the seal material or configuration has not been achieved beyond the designs completed in the 1980's. Overall, the study showed excellent agreement of the relatively quick stochastic methods with the maintenance programs produced at

Contracting Maintenance Services: An Easy Question, but a Difficult Answer.

Science.gov (United States)

Geiger, Philip E.

2003-01-01

Discusses issues involved in outsourcing school maintenance and custodial services. There are many advantages to this approach, but it has definite drawbacks. In many instances, a combination of contract and employee services works well. (SLD)

Leadership in American Indian Communities: Winter Lessons

Science.gov (United States)

Metoyer, Cheryl A.

2010-01-01

Winter lessons, or stories told in the winter, were one of the ways in which tribal elders instructed and directed young men and women in the proper ways to assume leadership responsibilities. Winter lessons stressed the appropriate relationship between the leader and the community. The intent was to remember the power and purpose of that…

Key Performance Indicators for Maintenance Management Effectiveness of Public Hospital Building

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Farhana Omar Mardhiah

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Effectiveness of management in maintenance aspect holds the key element in influencing the performance of overall maintenance management. Similarly, public hospital building needs an effective maintenance management as this type of building in nature is one of the most complex issues in the field of maintenance. Improper building maintenance management adopted by the organization significantly will interrupt the overall operation of the building. Therefore, this paper is aim to identifying the key performance indicator (KPI of effectiveness of maintenance management for the public hospital building. A total of 32 set of questionnaires were distributed to the maintenance manager for each hospital in the northern region of peninsular Malaysia by using self-administration strategy. The survey answer was analyzed by performing descriptive analysis in SPSS. Overall, the result of descriptive analysis shows that all the ten factors of effectiveness of maintenance management are accepted as KPI since the mean value is at least 3.93 which classified as important and significant. The most significant factor of effectiveness of maintenance management is task planning and scheduling with the mean score of 4.35. While less significant factor is identify as maintenance approach with the value of mean score is 3.93. The both results indicates that the management need to have well-structured planning for the maintenance works and also need to embrace the exact strategy of maintenance approach in order to achieved better overall performance of maintenance management. This study may draw a standard practice for the government in assessing the performance of public facilities in terms of maintenance management.

Program integration of predictive maintenance with reliability centered maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Strong, D.K. Jr; Wray, D.M.

1990-01-01

This paper addresses improving the safety and reliability of power plants in a cost-effective manner by integrating the recently developed reliability centered maintenance techniques with the traditional predictive maintenance techniques of nuclear power plants. The topics of the paper include a description of reliability centered maintenance (RCM), enhancing RCM with predictive maintenance, predictive maintenance programs, condition monitoring techniques, performance test techniques, the mid-Atlantic Reliability Centered Maintenance Users Group, test guides and the benefits of shared guide development

ITER - torus vacuum pumping system remote handling issues

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stringer, J.

1992-11-01

This report describes further design issues concerning remote maintenance of torus vacuum pumping systems options for ITER. The key issues under investigation in this report are flask support systems for valve seal exchange operations for the compound cryopump scheme and remote maintenance of a proposed multiple turbomolecular pump (TMP) system, an alternative ITER torus exhaust pumping option. Previous studies have shown that the overhead support methods for seal exchange flask equipment could malfunction due to valve/flask misalignment. A floor-mounted support system is described in this report. This scheme provides a more rigid support system for seal exchange operations. An alternative torus pumping system, based on the use of multiple TMPs, is studied from a remote maintenance standpoint. In this concept, centre distance spacing for pump/valve assemblies is too restrictive for remote maintenance. Recommendations are made for adequate spacing of these assemblies based on commercially-available 0.8 m and 1.0 m diameter valves. Fewer pumps will fit in this arrangement, which implies a need for larger TMPs. Pumps of this size are not commercially available. Other concerns regarding the servicing and storage of remote handling equipment in cells are also identified. (9 figs.)

Observed decreases in the Canadian outdoor skating season due to recent winter warming

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Damyanov, Nikolay N; Mysak, Lawrence A; Damon Matthews, H

2012-01-01

Global warming has the potential to negatively affect one of Canada’s primary sources of winter recreation: hockey and ice skating on outdoor rinks. Observed changes in winter temperatures in Canada suggest changes in the meteorological conditions required to support the creation and maintenance of outdoor skating rinks; while there have been observed increases in the ice-free period of several natural water bodies, there has been no study of potential trends in the duration of the season supporting the construction of outdoor skating rinks. Here we show that the outdoor skating season (OSS) in Canada has significantly shortened in many regions of the country as a result of changing climate conditions. We first established a meteorological criterion for the beginning, and a proxy for the length of the OSS. We extracted this information from daily maximum temperature observations from 1951 to 2005, and tested it for significant changes over time due to global warming as well as due to changes in patterns of large-scale natural climate variability. We found that many locations have seen a statistically significant decrease in the OSS length, particularly in Southwest and Central Canada. This suggests that future global warming has the potential to significantly compromise the viability of outdoor skating in Canada. (letter)

Observed decreases in the Canadian outdoor skating season due to recent winter warming

Science.gov (United States)

Damyanov, Nikolay N.; Damon Matthews, H.; Mysak, Lawrence A.

2012-03-01

Global warming has the potential to negatively affect one of Canada’s primary sources of winter recreation: hockey and ice skating on outdoor rinks. Observed changes in winter temperatures in Canada suggest changes in the meteorological conditions required to support the creation and maintenance of outdoor skating rinks; while there have been observed increases in the ice-free period of several natural water bodies, there has been no study of potential trends in the duration of the season supporting the construction of outdoor skating rinks. Here we show that the outdoor skating season (OSS) in Canada has significantly shortened in many regions of the country as a result of changing climate conditions. We first established a meteorological criterion for the beginning, and a proxy for the length of the OSS. We extracted this information from daily maximum temperature observations from 1951 to 2005, and tested it for significant changes over time due to global warming as well as due to changes in patterns of large-scale natural climate variability. We found that many locations have seen a statistically significant decrease in the OSS length, particularly in Southwest and Central Canada. This suggests that future global warming has the potential to significantly compromise the viability of outdoor skating in Canada.

ITER L 6 equatorial maintenance duct remote handling study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Millard, J.

1996-09-01

The status and conclusions of a preliminary study of equatorial maintenance duct remote handling is reported. Due to issues with the original duct design a significant portion of the study had to be refocused on equatorial duct layout studies. The study gives an overview of some of the options for design of these ducts and the impact of the design on the equipment to work in the duct. To develop a remote handling concept for creating access through the ducts the following design tasks should be performed: define the operations sequences for equatorial maintenance duct opening and closing; review the remote handling requirements for equatorial maintenance duct opening and closing; design concept for door and pipe handling equipment and to propose preliminary procedures for material handling outsides the duct. 35 figs

A New Hybrid Approach for Augmented Reality Maintenance in Scientific Facilities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Héctor Martínez

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Maintenance in scientific facilities is a difficult issue, especially in large and hazardous facilities, due to the complexity of tasks and equipment. Augmented reality is a technology that has already shown great promise in the maintenance field. With the help of augmented reality applications, maintenance tasks can be carried out faster and more safely. The problem with current applications is that they are small-scale prototypes that do not easily scale to large facility maintenance applications. This paper presents a new hybrid approach that enables the creation of augmented reality maintenance applications for large and hazardous scientific facilities. In this paper, a new augmented reality marker and the algorithm for its recognition is proposed. The performance of the algorithm is verified in three test cases, showing promising results in two of them. Improvements in robustness in the third test case in which the camera is moving quickly or when light conditions are extreme are subject to further studies. The proposed new approach will be integrated into an existing augmented reality maintenance system.

Barriers to wheelchair use in the winter.

Science.gov (United States)

Ripat, Jacquie D; Brown, Cara L; Ethans, Karen D

2015-06-01

To test the hypothesis that challenges to community participation posed by winter weather are greater for individuals who use scooters, manual and power wheelchairs (wheeled mobility devices [WMDs]) than for the general ambulatory population, and to determine what WMD users identify as the most salient environmental barriers to community participation during the winter. Cross-sectional survey organized around 5 environmental domains: technological, natural, physical, social/attitudinal, and policy. Urban community in Canada. Convenience sample of WMD users or their proxy (N=99). Not applicable. Not applicable. Forty-two percent identified reduced outing frequency in winter months, associated with increased age (χ(3)=6.4, P=.04), lack of access to family/friends for transportation (χ(2)=8.1, P=.04), and primary type of WMD used in the winter (scooter χ(2)=8.8, P=.003). Most reported tires/casters becoming stuck in the snow (95%) or slipping on the ice (91%), difficulty ascending inclines/ramps (92%), and cold hands while using controls or pushing rims (85%); fewer identified frozen wheelchair/scooter batteries, seat cushions/backrests, or electronics. Sidewalks/roads were reported to be problematic by 99%. Eighty percent reported needing additional help in the winter. Limited community access in winter led to a sense of loneliness/isolation, and fear/anxiety related to safety. Respondents identified policies that limited participation during winter. People who use WMDs decrease their community participation in cold weather because of multiple environmental barriers. Clinicians, researchers, and policymakers can take a multidimensional approach to mitigate these barriers in order to enhance community participation by WMD users in winter. Copyright © 2015 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

AGA predicts winter jump in residential gas price

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1992-01-01

The American Gas Association predicts the average heating bill for residential gas consumers could increase by as much as 18% this winter. AGA Pres. Mike Baly said, Last year's winter was warmer than normal. If the 1992-93 winter is similar, AGA projects that residential natural gas heating bills will go up about 6%. If we see a return to normal winter weather, our projection show the average bill could rise by almost 18%

Airline Maintenance Manpower Optimization from the De Novo Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Liou, James J. H.; Tzeng, Gwo-Hshiung

Human resource management (HRM) is an important issue for today’s competitive airline marketing. In this paper, we discuss a multi-objective model designed from the De Novo perspective to help airlines optimize their maintenance manpower portfolio. The effectiveness of the model and solution algorithm is demonstrated in an empirical study of the optimization of the human resources needed for airline line maintenance. Both De Novo and traditional multiple objective programming (MOP) methods are analyzed. A comparison of the results with those of traditional MOP indicates that the proposed model and solution algorithm does provide better performance and an improved human resource portfolio.

Fusion Canada issue 18

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1992-08-01

A short bulletin from the National Fusion Program. Included in this issue is a report on the ITER agreement signed with the EDA, the robotic maintenance for NET, the CFFTP Fusion Pilot Study, the new IEA joint programs on environment, safety and economic aspects of fusion power, and a review by the CCFM advisory committee. 3 figs.

Fusion Canada issue 18

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1992-08-01

A short bulletin from the National Fusion Program. Included in this issue is a report on the ITER agreement signed with the EDA, the robotic maintenance for NET, the CFFTP Fusion Pilot Study, the new IEA joint programs on environment, safety and economic aspects of fusion power, and a review by the CCFM advisory committee. 3 figs

TECHNICAL MAINTENANCE EFFICIENCY OF THE AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE-FREE ON-BOARD SYSTEM BETWEEN SCHEDULED MAINTENANCES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. M. Bronnikov

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The avionics concept of the maintenance-free on-board equipment implies the absence of necessity to maintain onboard systems between scheduled maintenance, preserving the required operational and technical characteristics; it should be achieved by automatic diagnosis of the technical condition and the application of active means of ensuring a failsafe design, allowing to change the structure of the system to maintain its functions in case of failure. It is supposed that such equipment will reduce substantially and in the limit eliminate traditional maintenance of aircraft between scheduled maintenance, ensuring maximum readiness for use, along with improving safety. The paper proposes a methodology for evaluating the efficiency of maintenance-free between scheduled maintenance aircraft system with homogeneous redundancy. The excessive redundant elements allow the system to accumulate failures which are repaired during the routine maintenance. If the number of failures of any reserve is approaching a critical value, the recovery of the on-board system (elimination of all failures is carried out between scheduled maintenance by conducting rescue and recovery operations. It is believed that service work leads to the elimination of all failures and completely updates the on-board system. The process of system operational status changes is described with the discrete-continuous model in the flight time. The average losses in the sorties and the average cost of operation are used as integrated efficiency indicators of system operation. For example, the evaluation of the operation efficiency of formalized on-board system with homogeneous redundancy demonstrates the efficiency of the proposed methodology and the possibility of its use while analyzing the efficiency of the maintenance-free operation equipment between scheduled periods. As well as a comparative analysis of maintenance-free operation efficiency of the on-board system with excessive

Root development of fodder radish and winter wheat before winter in relation to uptake of nitrogen

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wahlström, Ellen Margrethe; Hansen, Elly Møller; Mandel, A.

2015-01-01

occurred. Quantitative data is missing on N leaching of a catch crop compared to a winter cereal in a conventional cereal-based cropping system. The aim of the study was to investigate whether fodder radish (Raphanus sativus L.) (FR) would be more efficient than winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) (WW...

Managing aging in nuclear power plants: Insights from NRC's Maintenance Team Inspection reports

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fresco, A.; Subudhi, M.

1992-01-01

A plant's maintenance program is the principal vehicle through which age-related degradation is managed. From 1988 to 1991, the NRC evaluated the maintenance program of every nuclear power plant in the United States. Forty-four out of a total of sixty-seven of the reports issued on these in-depth team inspections have been reviewed for insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the programs as related to the need to understand and manage the effects of aging on nuclear plant structures, systems, and components (SSCs). Relevant information has been extracted from these inspection reports sorted into several categories; including Specific Aging Insights, Preventive Maintenance, Predictive Maintenance and Condition Monitoring, Post Maintenance Testing, Failure Trending, Root Cause Analysis and Usage of Probabilistic Risk Assessment in the Maintenance Process. Specific examples of inspection and monitoring techniques successfully used by utilities to detect degradation due to aging have been identified

Burden, duration and costs of hospital bed closures due to acute gastroenteritis in England per winter, 2010/11-2015/16.

Science.gov (United States)

Sandmann, F G; Jit, M; Robotham, J V; Deeny, S R

2017-09-01

Bed closures due to acute gastroenteritis put hospitals under pressure each winter. In England, the National Health Service (NHS) has monitored the winter situation for all acute trusts since 2010/11. To estimate the burden, duration and costs of hospital bed closures due to acute gastroenteritis in winter. A retrospective analysis of routinely collected time-series data of bed closures due to diarrhoea and vomiting was conducted for the winters 2010/11 to 2015/16. Two key issues were addressed by imputing non-randomly missing values at provider level, and filtering observations to a range of dates recorded in all six winters. The lowest and highest values imputed were taken to represent the best- and worst-case scenarios. Bed-days were costed using NHS reference costs, and potential staff absence costs were based on previous studies. In the best-to-worst case, a median of 88,000-113,000 beds were closed due to gastroenteritis each winter. Of these, 19.6-20.4% were unoccupied. On average, 80% of providers were affected, and had closed beds for a median of 15-21 days each winter. Hospital costs of closed beds were £5.7-£7.5 million, which increased to £6.9-£10.0 million when including staff absence costs due to illness. The median number of hospital beds closed due to acute gastroenteritis per winter was equivalent to all general and acute hospital beds in England being unavailable for a median of 0.88-1.12 days. Costs for hospitals are high but vary with closures each winter. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

The meaning of nuclear winter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Geiger, H.J.

1987-01-01

In this paper the author reviews the history and origins of the basic ideas underlying nuclear winter; and findings and predictions of several groups regarding this topic. The author reviews some of the further developments and scientific analyses regarding nuclear winter since the initial announcements of 1983, touching on some of the revisions and controversies and trying to indicate the current status of the field

Winter climate limits subantarctic low forest growth and establishment.

Science.gov (United States)

Harsch, Melanie A; McGlone, Matt S; Wilmshurst, Janet M

2014-01-01

Campbell Island, an isolated island 600 km south of New Zealand mainland (52 °S, 169 °E) is oceanic (Conrad Index of Continentality  =  -5) with small differences between mean summer and winter temperatures. Previous work established the unexpected result that a mean annual climate warming of c. 0.6 °C since the 1940's has not led to upward movement of the forest limit. Here we explore the relative importance of summer and winter climatic conditions on growth and age-class structure of the treeline forming species, Dracophyllum longifolium and Dracophyllum scoparium over the second half of the 20th century. The relationship between climate and growth and establishment were evaluated using standard dendroecological methods and local climate data from a meteorological station on the island. Growth and establishment were correlated against climate variables and further evaluated within hierarchical regression models to take into account the effect of plot level variables. Winter climatic conditions exerted a greater effect on growth and establishment than summer climatic conditions. Establishment is maximized under warm (mean winter temperatures >7 °C), dry winters (total winter precipitation <400 mm). Growth, on the other hand, is adversely affected by wide winter temperature ranges and increased rainfall. The contrasting effect of winter warmth on growth and establishment suggests that winter temperature affects growth and establishment through differing mechanisms. We propose that milder winters enhance survival of seedlings and, therefore, recruitment, but increases metabolic stress on established plants, resulting in lower growth rates. Future winter warming may therefore have complex effects on plant growth and establishment globally.

Sage-grouse habitat selection during winter in Alberta

Science.gov (United States)

Carpenter, Jennifer L.; Aldridge, Cameron L.; Boyce, Mark S.

2010-01-01

Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) are dependent on sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) for food and shelter during winter, yet few studies have assessed winter habitat selection, particularly at scales applicable to conservation planning. Small changes to availability of winter habitats have caused drastic reductions in some sage-grouse populations. We modeled winter habitat selection by sage-grouse in Alberta, Canada, by using a resource selection function. Our purpose was to 1) generate a robust winter habitat-selection model for Alberta sage-grouse; 2) spatially depict habitat suitability in a Geographic Information System to identify areas with a high probability of selection and thus, conservation importance; and 3) assess the relative influence of human development, including oil and gas wells, in landscape models of winter habitat selection. Terrain and vegetation characteristics, sagebrush cover, anthropogenic landscape features, and energy development were important in top Akaike's Information Criterionselected models. During winter, sage-grouse selected dense sagebrush cover and homogenous less rugged areas, and avoided energy development and 2-track truck trails. Sage-grouse avoidance of energy development highlights the need for comprehensive management strategies that maintain suitable habitats across all seasons. ?? 2010 The Wildlife Society.

The Unusual Southern Hemisphere Stratosphere Winter of 2002

Science.gov (United States)

Newman, Paul A.; Nash, Eric R.

2003-01-01

The southern hemisphere stratospheric winter of 2002 was the most unusual winter yet observed in the southern hemisphere climate record. Temperatures near the edge of the Antarctic polar vortex were considerably warmer than normal over the entire course of the winter. The polar night jet was considerably weaker than normal, and was displaced more poleward than has been observed in previous winters. These record high temperatures and weak jet resulted from a series of wave events that took place over the course of the winter. The first large event occurred on 15 May, and the final warming occurred on 25 October. The propagation of these wave events from the troposphere is diagnosed from time series of Eliassen-Palm flux vectors. The wave events tended to occur irregularly over the course of the winter, and pre-conditioned the polar night jet for the extremely large wave event of 22 September. This large wave event resulted in the first ever observed major stratospheric warming in the southern hemisphere. This wave event split the Antarctic ozone hole. The combined effect of the wave events of the 2002 winter resulted in the smallest ozone hole observed since 1988.

An intelligent tele-healthcare environment offering person-centric and wellness-maintenance services.

Science.gov (United States)

Abidi, S S

2001-06-01

Worldwide healthcare delivery trends are undergoing a subtle paradigm shift--patient centered services as opposed to provider centered services and wellness maintenance as opposed to illness management. In this paper we present a Tele-Healthcare project TIDE--Tele-Healthcare Information and Diagnostic Environment. TIDE manifests an 'intelligent' healthcare environment that aims to ensure lifelong coverage of person-specific health maintenance decision-support services--i.e., both wellness maintenance and illness management services--ubiquitously available via the Internet/WWW. Taking on an all-encompassing health maintenance role--spanning from wellness to illness issues--the functionality of TIDE involves the generation and delivery of (a) Personalized, Pro-active, Persistent, Perpetual, and Present wellness maintenance services, and (b) remote diagnostic services for managing noncritical illnesses. Technically, TIDE is an amalgamation of diverse computer technologies--Artificial Intelligence, Internet, Multimedia, Databases, and Medical Informatics--to implement a sophisticated healthcare delivery infostructure.

Maintenance methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sanchis, H.; Aucher, P.

1990-01-01

The maintenance method applied at the Hague is summarized. The method was developed in order to solve problems relating to: the different specialist fields, the need for homogeneity in the maintenance work, the equipment diversity, the increase of the materials used at the Hague's new facilities. The aim of the method is to create a knowhow formalism, to facilitate maintenance, to ensure the running of the operations and to improve the estimation of the maintenance cost. One of the method's difficulties is the demonstration of the profitability of the maintenance operations [fr

Deer Wintering Areas

Data.gov (United States)

Vermont Center for Geographic Information — Deer winter habitat is critical to the long term survival of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in Vermont. Being near the northern extreme of the...

Interval of Routine Maintenance and Maintenance Performance: A Literature Review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Au-Yong Cheong Peng

2016-01-01

Full Text Available In high-rise residential buildings, the quality of facilities management services is significant to the normal operation of the facilities. Unfortunately, lack of concern towards building maintenance, especially preventive maintenance, happens in domestic housing industry in Malaysia. Majority of the maintenance operations of condominiums suffer from lack of planning, lack of proactive maintenance plan, and lack of proper implementation. Thus, this paper reviews the implementation of preventive maintenance strategy, routine maintenance in specific. An extensive review of literature published in 1987 to 2014 is performed for the purpose of this research. The publications are sourced from journal articles, conference proceedings and books. The literature analysis confirms that the routine maintenance of facilities and building services is vital and it can be influential towards the maintenance performance. Subsequently, a theoretical framework is developed, which shows the relationship between routine maintenance of building facilities & services and maintenance performance. The building facilities & services are divided into two categories. They are essential facilities & services that ensure the safety, health, habitability, and operability of buildings; while value-added facilities & services deal with property value, return on investment, and quality living of buildings. Based on the findings, a future research is proposed, which aims to identify the appropriate routine of maintenance for the facilities and services in high-rise residential buildings to improve the maintenance performance.

Long-term development of nuclear maintenance service provider in Slovenia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Androjna, A.; Racic, Z.; Balazic, D.

2004-01-01

In recent years, most utilities have been facing a challenge of optimizing maintenance costs, while maintaining or improving equipment reliability. As the equipment ages and maintenance skills within the plant staff may decline due to a generation exchange, the challenge becomes even stronger. Consequently, many plants are looking for possible solutions through partnering with maintenance service providers. The fact that there is only one nuclear power plant in Slovenia hinders the development of local maintenance contractors to some extent. Additionally, they have to face everincreasing technical and organizational requirements while a longer fuel cycle and shorter outage durations result in a narrower annual scope of outage activities. In such circumstances, it may be very difficult for local maintenance service providers to retain and improve skills and qualifications in the long run. Even more so, since they also face the need to rejuvenate their staff and the interest of subcontractors to participate diminishes. The paper presents a case on long-term development issues as experienced by NUMIP, the leading Slovenian nuclear maintenance service provider. Above all, we would like to contribute to a better understanding of efficient local maintenance support. NUMIP's future strategic options are explored in light of possible partnering relationship with the nuclear power plant, based on trust, win-win attitude and continuous improvement. Long-term benefits of the proposed partnering are indicated for both parties, the nuclear power plant and the local maintenance service provider. (author)

Breaker Maintenance: Volume 3, Molded-Case circuit breakers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Davis, E.L.; Funk, D.L.

1991-09-01

Modeled-case circuit breakers (MCCBs) provide power and circuit protection in nuclear plant electrical distribution systems. Thus, their proper operation is essential to the safe and reliable operation of plant electrical distribution systems. This guide for both nuclear and non-nuclear power generating facilities will help improve the maintenance and reliability of MCCBs. The authors developed this guide to establish a working-level understanding of hardware performance trends, reliability, and failure modes from which maintenance practices could be specified. The first step in preparing this guide was an in-depth review of available operating experience and failure data, which was obtained from nuclear information sources such as EPRI's Nuclear Maintenance Applications Center. In addition, they evaluated some nonnuclear reliability data. Next, they investigated current industry practices, including a review of manufacturer's recommendations and numerous industry standards. Finally, they used the collective information to develop programmatic recommendations and, where appropriate, detailed inspection and test guidance. This guide offers many recommendations applicable to MCCB maintenance, such as an engineering description of MCCBs and their operation; an overview of reliability and failure data; programmatic recommendations, including inspection and test periodicity; detailed inspection and test guidance; and corrective maintenance recommendations. Supplementary information includes an overview of industry standards, a discussion of regulatory issues, and sample data sheets. An evaluation of operating experience indicates that a maintenance program need not be overly complicated to detect the predominant failure modes associated with MCCBs. Those implementating an MCCB maintenance and testing program, however, must recognize the inherent limitations associated with field-testing of these devices. 42 refs., 17 figs., 7 tabs

Probabilistic sensitivity analysis of optimised preventive maintenance strategies for deteriorating infrastructure assets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Daneshkhah, A.; Stocks, N.G.; Jeffrey, P.

2017-01-01

Efficient life-cycle management of civil infrastructure systems under continuous deterioration can be improved by studying the sensitivity of optimised preventive maintenance decisions with respect to changes in model parameters. Sensitivity analysis in maintenance optimisation problems is important because if the calculation of the cost of preventive maintenance strategies is not sufficiently robust, the use of the maintenance model can generate optimised maintenances strategies that are not cost-effective. Probabilistic sensitivity analysis methods (particularly variance based ones), only partially respond to this issue and their use is limited to evaluating the extent to which uncertainty in each input contributes to the overall output's variance. These methods do not take account of the decision-making problem in a straightforward manner. To address this issue, we use the concept of the Expected Value of Perfect Information (EVPI) to perform decision-informed sensitivity analysis: to identify the key parameters of the problem and quantify the value of learning about certain aspects of the life-cycle management of civil infrastructure system. This approach allows us to quantify the benefits of the maintenance strategies in terms of expected costs and in the light of accumulated information about the model parameters and aspects of the system, such as the ageing process. We use a Gamma process model to represent the uncertainty associated with asset deterioration, illustrating the use of EVPI to perform sensitivity analysis on the optimisation problem for age-based and condition-based preventive maintenance strategies. The evaluation of EVPI indices is computationally demanding and Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques would not be helpful. To overcome this computational difficulty, we approximate the EVPI indices using Gaussian process emulators. The implications of the worked numerical examples discussed in the context of analytical efficiency and organisational

Winter climate limits subantarctic low forest growth and establishment.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Melanie A Harsch

Full Text Available Campbell Island, an isolated island 600 km south of New Zealand mainland (52 °S, 169 °E is oceanic (Conrad Index of Continentality  =  -5 with small differences between mean summer and winter temperatures. Previous work established the unexpected result that a mean annual climate warming of c. 0.6 °C since the 1940's has not led to upward movement of the forest limit. Here we explore the relative importance of summer and winter climatic conditions on growth and age-class structure of the treeline forming species, Dracophyllum longifolium and Dracophyllum scoparium over the second half of the 20th century. The relationship between climate and growth and establishment were evaluated using standard dendroecological methods and local climate data from a meteorological station on the island. Growth and establishment were correlated against climate variables and further evaluated within hierarchical regression models to take into account the effect of plot level variables. Winter climatic conditions exerted a greater effect on growth and establishment than summer climatic conditions. Establishment is maximized under warm (mean winter temperatures >7 °C, dry winters (total winter precipitation <400 mm. Growth, on the other hand, is adversely affected by wide winter temperature ranges and increased rainfall. The contrasting effect of winter warmth on growth and establishment suggests that winter temperature affects growth and establishment through differing mechanisms. We propose that milder winters enhance survival of seedlings and, therefore, recruitment, but increases metabolic stress on established plants, resulting in lower growth rates. Future winter warming may therefore have complex effects on plant growth and establishment globally.

Winter Climate Limits Subantarctic Low Forest Growth and Establishment

Science.gov (United States)

Harsch, Melanie A.; McGlone, Matt S.; Wilmshurst, Janet M.

2014-01-01

Campbell Island, an isolated island 600 km south of New Zealand mainland (52°S, 169°E) is oceanic (Conrad Index of Continentality  = −5) with small differences between mean summer and winter temperatures. Previous work established the unexpected result that a mean annual climate warming of c. 0.6°C since the 1940's has not led to upward movement of the forest limit. Here we explore the relative importance of summer and winter climatic conditions on growth and age-class structure of the treeline forming species, Dracophyllum longifolium and Dracophyllum scoparium over the second half of the 20th century. The relationship between climate and growth and establishment were evaluated using standard dendroecological methods and local climate data from a meteorological station on the island. Growth and establishment were correlated against climate variables and further evaluated within hierarchical regression models to take into account the effect of plot level variables. Winter climatic conditions exerted a greater effect on growth and establishment than summer climatic conditions. Establishment is maximized under warm (mean winter temperatures >7 °C), dry winters (total winter precipitation <400 mm). Growth, on the other hand, is adversely affected by wide winter temperature ranges and increased rainfall. The contrasting effect of winter warmth on growth and establishment suggests that winter temperature affects growth and establishment through differing mechanisms. We propose that milder winters enhance survival of seedlings and, therefore, recruitment, but increases metabolic stress on established plants, resulting in lower growth rates. Future winter warming may therefore have complex effects on plant growth and establishment globally. PMID:24691026

Opportunistic or event-driven maintenance at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Allen, C.W.; Anderson, S.; Erickson, R.; Linebarger, W.; Sheppard, J.C.; Stanek, M.

1997-03-01

The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) uses a maintenance management philosophy that is best described as opportunistic or event-driven. Opportunistic maintenance can be defined as a systematic method of collecting, investigating, pre-planning, and publishing a set of proposed maintenance tasks and acting on them when there is an unscheduled failure or repair ''opportunity''. Opportunistic maintenance can be thought of as a modification of the run-to-fail maintenance management philosophy. This maintenance plan was adopted and developed to improve the overall availability of SLAC's linear accelerator, beam delivery systems, and associated controls, power systems, and utilities. In the late 1980's, as the technical complexity of the accelerator facility increased, variations on a conventional maintenance plan were used with mixed results. These variations typically included some type of regular periodic interruption to operations. The periodic shutdowns and unscheduled failures were additive and resulted in unsatisfactory availability. Maintenance issues are evaluated in a daily meeting that includes the accelerator managers, maintenance supervisors and managers, safety office personnel, program managers, and accelerator operators. Lists of pending maintenance tasks are made available to the general SLAC population by a World Wide Web site on a local internet. A conventional information system which pre-dates the WWW site is still being used to provide paper copies to groups that are not yet integrated into the WWW system. The local internet provides real time maintenance information, allowing people throughout the facility to track progress on tasks with essentially real-time status updates. With the introduction of opportunistic maintenance, the accelerator's availability has been measurably better. This paper will discuss processes, rolls and responsibilities of key maintenance groups, and management tools developed to support opportunistic maintenance

Characteristics of Urban Natural Areas Influencing Winter Bird Use in Southern Ontario, Canada

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Paul G. R.

2007-03-01

Characteristics of urban natural areas and surrounding landscapes were identified that best explain winter bird use for 28 urban natural areas in southern Ontario, Canada. The research confirms for winter birds the importance of area (size) and natural vegetation, rather than managed, horticultural parkland, within urban natural areas as well as percent urban land use and natural habitat in surrounding landscapes. Alien bird density and percent ground feeding species increased with percent surrounding urban land use. Higher percent forest cover was associated with higher percentages of forest, bark feeding, small (species. Natural area size (ha) was related to higher species richness, lower evenness and higher percentages of insectivorous, forest interior, area-sensitive, upper canopy, bark feeding, and non-resident species. Higher number of habitat types within natural areas and percent natural habitat in surrounding landscapes were also associated with higher species richness. Common, resident bird species dominated small areas (20 ha start to support some area-sensitive species. Areas similar to rural forests had >25% insectivores, >25% forest interior species, >25% small species, and species. Indicator species separated urban natural areas from rural habitats and ordination placed urban natural areas along a gradient between urban development and undisturbed, rural forests. More attention is needed on issues of winter bird conservation in urban landscapes.

Analysis of trends in aviation maintenance risk: An empirical approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marais, Karen B.; Robichaud, Matthew R.

2012-01-01

Safety is paramount in the airline industry. A significant amount of effort has been devoted to reducing mechanical failures and pilot errors. Recently, more attention has been devoted to the contribution of maintenance to accidents and incidents. This study investigates and quantifies the contribution of maintenance, both in terms of frequency and severity, to passenger airline risk by analyzing three different sources of data from 1999 to 2008: 769 NTSB accident reports, 3242 FAA incident reports, and 7478 FAA records of fines and other legal actions taken against airlines and associated organizations. We analyze several safety related metrics and develop an aviation maintenance risk scorecard that collects these metrics to synthesize a comprehensive track record of maintenance contribution to airline accidents and incidents. We found for example that maintenance-related accidents are approximately 6.5 times more likely to be fatal than accidents in general, and that when fatalities do occur, maintenance accidents result in approximately 3.6 times more fatalities on average. Our analysis of accident trends indicates that this contribution to accident risk has remained fairly constant over the past decade. Our analysis of incidents and FAA fines and legal actions also revealed similar trends. We found that at least 10% of incidents involving mechanical failures such as ruptured hydraulic lines can be attributed to maintenance, suggesting that there may be issues surrounding both the design of and compliance with maintenance plans. Similarly 36% of FAA fines and legal actions involve inadequate maintenance, with recent years showing a decline to about 20%, which may be a reflection of improved maintenance practices. Our results can aid industry and government in focusing resources to continue improving aviation safety.

Chapter 7: Migration and winter ecology

Science.gov (United States)

Deborah M. Finch; Jeffrey F. Kelly; Jean-Luc E. Cartron

2000-01-01

The willow flycatcher (Empidonax traillii) is a Neotropical migrant that breeds in North America, but winters in Central and northern South America. Little specific information is known about migration and wintering ecology of the southwestern willow flycatcher (E. t. extimus) (Yong and Finch 1997). Our report applies principally...

Designer's guidebook for first wall/blanket/shield assembly, maintenance, and repair

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1983-12-30

This is the initial issue of the guidebook. Since a guidebook of this type must incorporate information concerning a wide range of subjects, much additional data will eventually be included. The guidebook will document, in summary and easily referenceable form, data, designs, design concepts, design guidelines and background information useful to the FWBS and to the Maintenance System designer. In providing guidelines for the AMR of the FWBS, the guidebook must, of necessity, include guidelines for all aspects of maintenance associated with the FWBS. These include most maintenance operations within the reactor room necessary to gain access, identify faults, and handle equipment related to FWBS maintenance. In addition, the guidelines include those required to define facility requirements for handling and repair of FWBS and related reactor components external to the reactor room. Particular emphasis is given to remote maintenance design and operations.

Autumn Weather and Winter Increase in Cerebrovascular Disease Mortality

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

McDonagh, R

2016-11-01

Mortality from cerebrovascular disease increases in winter but the cause is unclear. Ireland’s oceanic climate means that it infrequently experiences extremes of weather. We examined how weather patterns relate to stroke mortality in Ireland. Seasonal data for Sunshine (% of average), Rainfall (% of average) and Temperature (degrees Celsius above average) were collected for autumn (September-November) and winter (December-February) using official Irish Meteorological Office data. National cerebrovascular mortality data was obtained from Quarterly Vital Statistics. Excess winter deaths were calculated by subtracting (nadir) 3rd quarter mortality data from subsequent 1st quarter data. Data for 12 years were analysed, 2002-2014. Mean winter mortality excess was 24.7%. Winter mortality correlated with temperature (r=.60, p=0.04). Rise in winter mortality correlated strongly with the weather in the preceding autumn (Rainfall: r=-0.19 p=0.53, Temperature: r=-0.60, p=0.03, Sunshine, r=0.58, p=0.04). Winter cerebrovascular disease mortality appears higher following cool, sunny autum

Hellsgate Winter Range : Wildlife Mitigation Project. Final Environmental Assessment.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

United States. Bonneville Power Administration.

1995-03-01

Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) proposes to fund the Hellsgate Winter Range Wildlife Mitigation Project (Project) in a cooperative effort with the Colville Confederated Tribes and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). The proposed action would allow the sponsors to secure property and conduct wildlife management activities within the boundaries of the Colville Indian Reservation. This Final Environmental Assessment (EA) examines the potential environmental effects of acquiring and managing property for wildlife and wildlife habitat within a large project area. This area consists of several separated land parcels, of which 2,000 hectares (4,943 acres) have been purchased by BPA and an additional 4,640 hectares (11,466 acres) have been identified by the Colville Confederated Tribes for inclusion in the Project. Four proposed activities (habitat protection, habitat enhancement, operation and maintenance, and monitoring and evaluation) are analyzed. The proposed action is intended to meet the need for mitigation of wildlife and wildlife habitat that was adversely affected by the construction of Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph Dams and their reservoirs.

Hellsgate Winter Range: Wildlife mitigation project. Final environmental assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1995-03-01

Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) proposes to fund the Hellsgate Winter Range Wildlife Mitigation Project (Project) in a cooperative effort with the Colville Confederated Tribes and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). The proposed action would allow the sponsors to secure property and conduct wildlife management activities within the boundaries of the Colville Indian Reservation. This Final Environmental Assessment (EA) examines the potential environmental effects of acquiring and managing property for wildlife and wildlife habitat within a large project area. This area consists of several separated land parcels, of which 2,000 hectares (4,943 acres) have been purchased by BPA and an additional 4,640 hectares (11,466 acres) have been identified by the Colville Confederated Tribes for inclusion in the Project. Four proposed activities (habitat protection, habitat enhancement, operation and maintenance, and monitoring and evaluation) are analyzed. The proposed action is intended to meet the need for mitigation of wildlife and wildlife habitat that was adversely affected by the construction of Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph Dams and their reservoirs

A study of adopting maintenance rule under the periodic safety review and reliability centered maintenance program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kilyoo, Kim

2001-01-01

U.S Maintenance Rule (MR) has three main functions. One is to monitor the performance changes of SSCs (Structure, System, and Component) caused by risk informed applications. Periodic Safety Review (PSR) program is widely adopted in Europe while it is not adopted in U. S. A where MR and new oversight program are instead used. Recently, in Korea, it was determined to adopt PSR, and the first PSR program has started this year for Kori unit 1 as a pilot plant. Also, a traditional Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) has been performed for 4 systems of YGN unit 1 and 2 and it will be applied to the other nuclear power plants in Korea. However, since MR is adopting many useful concept of RCM, traditional RCM could not be further performed without being associated with MR. Thus, MR, RCM and PSR have recently become hot issue policies which should be well associated each other in Korea, and this paper suggests a desirable new maintenance process which would embrace the concepts of the three policies, and also discusses whether U.S. MR is necessary even though a PSR program is already adopted, and if necessary, then how cost-effectively it can be introduced to. (author)

Winter climate variability and classification in the Bulgarian Mountainous Regions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Petkova, Nadezhda; Koleva, Ekaterina

2004-01-01

The problems of snowiness and thermal conditions of winters are of high interest of investigations because of the more frequent droughts, occurred in the region. In the present study an attempt to reveal tendencies existing during the last 70 years of 20 th century in the course winter precipitation and,temperature as well as in some of the snow cover parameters. On the base of mean winter air temperature winters in the Bulgarian mountains were analyzed and classified. The main results of the study show that winter precipitation has decrease tendencies more significant in the highest parts of the mountains. On the other hand winter air temperature increases. It shows a relatively well-established maximum at the end of the studied period. In the Bulgarian mountains normal winters are about 35-40% of all winters. (Author)

Interim Report 'Winter smog and traffic'.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bloemen, H.; Blom, T.; Bogaard, van den C.; Boluyt, N.; Bree, van L.; Brunekreef, B.; Hoek, G.; Zee, van der S.

1994-01-01

This report presents a halfway score of the research project "Winter smog and Traffic", one of the themes of the research programme "Air Pollution and Health". A state of the art is presented of the health effects associated with exposure to winter smog and of the toxicological effects caused by the

Home advantage in the Winter Paralympic Games 1976-2014.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Darryl; Ramchandani, Girish

2017-01-01

There is a limited amount of home advantage research concerned with winter sports. There is also a distinct lack of studies that investigate home advantage in the context of para sport events. This paper addresses this gap in the knowledge by examining home advantage in the Winter Paralympic Games. Using a standardised measure of success, we compared the performances of host nations at home with their own performances away from home between 1976 and 2014. Both country level and individual sport level analysis is conducted for this time period. Comparisons are also drawn with the Winter Olympic Games since 1992, the point from which both the Winter Olympic Games and the Winter Paralympic Games have been hosted by the same nations and in the same years. Clear evidence of a home advantage effect in the Winter Paralympic Games was found at country level. When examining individual sports, only alpine skiing and cross country skiing returned a significant home advantage effect. When comparing home advantage in the Winter Paralympic Games with the Winter Olympic Games for the last seven host nations (1992-2014), we found that home advantage was generally more pronounced (although not a statistically significant difference) in the case of the former. The causes of home advantage in the Winter Paralympic Games are unclear and should be investigated further.

Real-time weed detection, decision making and patch spraying in maize, sugarbeet, winter wheat and winter barley

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gerhards, R; Christensen, Svend

2003-01-01

with weed infestation levels higher than the economic weed threshold; a review of such work is provided. This paper presents a system for site-specific weed control in sugarbeet (Beta vulgaris L.), maize (Zea mays L.), winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and winter barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), including...

Warmed Winter Water Temperatures Alter Reproduction in Two Fish Species

Science.gov (United States)

Firkus, Tyler; Rahel, Frank J.; Bergman, Harold L.; Cherrington, Brian D.

2018-02-01

We examined the spawning success of Fathead Minnows ( Pimephales promelas) and Johnny Darters ( Etheostoma nigrum) exposed to elevated winter water temperatures typical of streams characterized by anthropogenic thermal inputs. When Fathead Minnows were exposed to temperature treatments of 12, 16, or 20 °C during the winter, spawning occurred at 16 and 20 °C but not 12 °C. Eggs were deposited over 9 weeks before winter spawning ceased. Fathead Minnows from the three winter temperature treatments were then exposed to a simulated spring transition. Spawning occurred at all three temperature treatments during the spring, but fish from the 16° and 20 °C treatment had delayed egg production indicating a latent effect of warm winter temperatures on spring spawning. mRNA analysis of the egg yolk protein vitellogenin showed elevated expression in female Fathead Minnows at 16 and 20 °C during winter spawning that decreased after winter spawning ceased, whereas Fathead Minnows at 12 °C maintained comparatively low expression during winter. Johnny Darters were exposed to 4 °C to represent winter temperatures in the absence of thermal inputs, and 12, 16, and 20 °C to represent varying degrees of winter thermal pollution. Johnny Darters spawned during winter at 12, 16, and 20 °C but not at 4 °C. Johnny Darters at 4 °C subsequently spawned following a simulated spring period while those at 12, 16, and 20 °C did not. Our results indicate elevated winter water temperatures common in effluent-dominated streams can promote out-of-season spawning and that vitellogenin expression is a useful indicator of spawning readiness for fish exposed to elevated winter temperatures.

Winter barley mutants created in the Ukraine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zayats, O.M.

2001-01-01

Full text: Increasing fodder and protein production is one of the objectives of the development of agriculture in Ukraine. Higher productivity of fodder crops, due to new highly productive varieties, is the means to meet this aim. Winter barley is an important crop for fodder purposes. The climate of the Ukraine is favourable for growing this crop. The areas used for the growth of winter barley are however, small (500,000-550,000 ha) and there is a shortage of good quality varieties. The main aim of the work was therefore to create new varieties of highly productive winter barley, of good quality. The new varieties and mutation lines of winter barley were created under the influence of water solutions of N-nitroso-N-methylurea (NMH - 0,012, 0,005%), N-nitroso-N-ethylurea (NEH - 0,05; 0.025; 0,012%) ethyleneimine (EI - 0,02; 0,01; 0,005%) on winter barley seeds of the varieties of local and foreign selections. On the basis of many years of investigations (1984-94) the following mutations were described: hard-grained, winter-hardiness, earliness, middle-maturity, late-maturity, wide and large leaves, narrow leaves, multinodal, great number of leaves, great number of flowers, strong stem (lodging resistant), tallness, semi-dwarfness, dwarfness, and high productivity. Particularly valuable are mutants with high productivity of green bulk. Their potential yield is 70 t/ha. As a result of the work two varieties of winter barley 'Shyrokolysty' and 'Kormovy' were released into the State register of plant varieties of the Ukraine. The other valuable mutant genotypes are used in cross breeding programmes. (author)

Impacts of winter NPO on subsequent winter ENSO: sensitivity to the definition of NPO index

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Shangfeng; Wu, Renguang

2018-01-01

This study investigates the linkage between boreal winter North Pacific Oscillation (NPO) and subsequent winter El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) based on seven different NPO indices. Results show that the influence of winter NPO on the subsequent winter El Niño is sensitive to how the NPO is defined. A significant NPO-El Niño connection is obtained when the NPO-related anomalous cyclone over the subtropical North Pacific extends to near-equatorial regions. The anomalous cyclone induces warm sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies through modulating surface heat fluxes. These warm SST anomalies are able to maintain into the following spring and summer through an air-sea coupled process and in turn induce significant westerly wind anomalies over the tropical western Pacific. In contrast, the NPO-El Niño relationship is unclear when the NPO-related anomalous cyclone over the subtropical North Pacific is confined to off-equatorial regions and cannot induce significant warm SST anomalies over the subtropical North Pacific. The present study suggests that definitions of NPO should be taken into account when using NPO to predict ENSO. In particular, we recommend defining the NPO index based on the empirical orthogonal function technique over appropriate region that does not extend too far north.

Excess mortality in winter in Finnish intensive care.

Science.gov (United States)

Reinikainen, M; Uusaro, A; Ruokonen, E; Niskanen, M

2006-07-01

In the general population, mortality from acute myocardial infarctions, strokes and respiratory causes is increased in winter. The winter climate in Finland is harsh. The aim of this study was to find out whether there are seasonal variations in mortality rates in Finnish intensive care units (ICUs). We analysed data on 31,040 patients treated in 18 Finnish ICUs. We measured severity of illness with acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II) scores and intensity of care with therapeutic intervention scoring system (TISS) scores. We assessed mortality rates in different months and seasons and used logistic regression analysis to test the independent effect of various seasons on hospital mortality. We defined 'winter' as the period from December to February, inclusive. The crude hospital mortality rate was 17.9% in winter and 16.4% in non-winter, P = 0.003. Even after adjustment for case mix, winter season was an independent risk factor for increased hospital mortality (adjusted odds ratio 1.13, 95% confidence interval 1.04-1.22, P = 0.005). In particular, the risk of respiratory failure was increased in winter. Crude hospital mortality was increased during the main holiday season in July. However, the severity of illness-adjusted risk of death was not higher in July than in other months. An increase in the mean daily TISS score was an independent predictor of increased hospital mortality. Severity of illness-adjusted hospital mortality for Finnish ICU patients is higher in winter than in other seasons.

Intelligent control system Cellular Robotics Approach to Nuclear Plant control and maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fukuda, Toshio; Sekiyama, Kousuke; Xue Guoqing; Ueyama, Tsuyoshi.

1994-01-01

This paper presents the concept of Cellular Robotic System (CEBOT) and describe the strategy of a distributed sensing, control and planning as a Cellular Robotics Approach to the Nuclear Plant control and maintenance. Decentralized System is effective in large plant and The CEBOT possesses desirable features for realization of Nuclear Plant control and maintenance because of its flexibility and adaptability. Also, as related on going research work, self-organizing manipulator and communication issues are mentioned. (author)

Essential Outdoor Sun Safety Tips for Winter

Science.gov (United States)

... Weekend Warriors expand/collapse Vitamin D Essential Outdoor Sun Safety Tips for Winter Winter sports enthusiasts are ... skiing! Be Mindful of Time Spent in the Sun, Regardless of the Season If possible, ski early ...

Introduction of electronic journal of advanced maintenance website structure and editorial operation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ito, Takashi; Nakamura, Mayu

2009-01-01

Electronic Journal of Advanced Maintenance (EJAM) has been issued on the website of Japan Society of Maintenology (JSM) on May 25th, 2009. This report introduces EJAM website structure and Editorial Operation. (author)

EHV network operation, maintenance, organization and training

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gravier, J P [Electricite de France (EDF), 75 - Paris (France)

1994-12-31

The service interruptions of electricity have an ever increasing social and industrial impact, it is thus fundamental to operate the network to its best level of performances. To face these changing conditions, Electricite de France has consequently adapted its strategy to improve its organization for maintenance and operation, clarify the operation procedures and give further training to the staff. This work presents the above mentioned issues. (author) 2 figs.

Winter Season Mortality: Will Climate Warming Bring Benefits?

Science.gov (United States)

Kinney, Patrick L; Schwartz, Joel; Pascal, Mathilde; Petkova, Elisaveta; Tertre, Alain Le; Medina, Sylvia; Vautard, Robert

2015-06-01

Extreme heat events are associated with spikes in mortality, yet death rates are on average highest during the coldest months of the year. Under the assumption that most winter excess mortality is due to cold temperature, many previous studies have concluded that winter mortality will substantially decline in a warming climate. We analyzed whether and to what extent cold temperatures are associated with excess winter mortality across multiple cities and over multiple years within individual cities, using daily temperature and mortality data from 36 US cities (1985-2006) and 3 French cities (1971-2007). Comparing across cities, we found that excess winter mortality did not depend on seasonal temperature range, and was no lower in warmer vs. colder cities, suggesting that temperature is not a key driver of winter excess mortality. Using regression models within monthly strata, we found that variability in daily mortality within cities was not strongly influenced by winter temperature. Finally we found that inadequate control for seasonality in analyses of the effects of cold temperatures led to spuriously large assumed cold effects, and erroneous attribution of winter mortality to cold temperatures. Our findings suggest that reductions in cold-related mortality under warming climate may be much smaller than some have assumed. This should be of interest to researchers and policy makers concerned with projecting future health effects of climate change and developing relevant adaptation strategies.

Warmed Winter Water Temperatures Alter Reproduction in Two Fish Species.

Science.gov (United States)

Firkus, Tyler; Rahel, Frank J; Bergman, Harold L; Cherrington, Brian D

2018-02-01

We examined the spawning success of Fathead Minnows (Pimephales promelas) and Johnny Darters (Etheostoma nigrum) exposed to elevated winter water temperatures typical of streams characterized by anthropogenic thermal inputs. When Fathead Minnows were exposed to temperature treatments of 12, 16, or 20 °C during the winter, spawning occurred at 16 and 20 °C but not 12 °C. Eggs were deposited over 9 weeks before winter spawning ceased. Fathead Minnows from the three winter temperature treatments were then exposed to a simulated spring transition. Spawning occurred at all three temperature treatments during the spring, but fish from the 16° and 20 °C treatment had delayed egg production indicating a latent effect of warm winter temperatures on spring spawning. mRNA analysis of the egg yolk protein vitellogenin showed elevated expression in female Fathead Minnows at 16 and 20 °C during winter spawning that decreased after winter spawning ceased, whereas Fathead Minnows at 12 °C maintained comparatively low expression during winter. Johnny Darters were exposed to 4 °C to represent winter temperatures in the absence of thermal inputs, and 12, 16, and 20 °C to represent varying degrees of winter thermal pollution. Johnny Darters spawned during winter at 12, 16, and 20 °C but not at 4 °C. Johnny Darters at 4 °C subsequently spawned following a simulated spring period while those at 12, 16, and 20 °C did not. Our results indicate elevated winter water temperatures common in effluent-dominated streams can promote out-of-season spawning and that vitellogenin expression is a useful indicator of spawning readiness for fish exposed to elevated winter temperatures.

Temperature ranges of the application of air-to-air heat recovery ventilator in supermarkets in winter, China

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kang, Yanming; Wang, Youjun; Zhong, Ke [School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620 (China); Liu, Jiaping [School of Architecture, Xi' an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi' an 710055 (China)

2010-12-15

Energy consumption is an important issue in China. In heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, more and more commercial buildings use air-to-air heat recovery ventilators as energy saving units for recovering heat from the exhaust air in ventilation systems in current years. In the present paper, critical temperatures of air-to-air heat recovery systems for supermarkets in winter are recommended and discussed for the four cities in different climate zones of China. The analysis shows that the temperature of fresh air in winter can be categorized into three regions, i.e., recovery region, transition region and impermissible recovery region. The results also indicate that the latent heat recovery is not suitable for ventilation energy savings in supermarkets in winter. Meanwhile, the applicability of sensible heat recovery in supermarkets depends on outdoor climate and fresh air flow rate. If a variable rotational speed fan is used to introduce fresh air into the building, heat recovery does always function as planned in winter for all the selected cities except Guangzhou, and most values of the COP are much higher than 2.5. Otherwise, there is the risk of negative impact on building energy savings in all cities except Harbin. (author)

PERFORMANCE-BASED CONTRACTING IN CONSTRUCTION PHASE AND MAINTENANCE PHASE OF PAVEMENT

Science.gov (United States)

Yoshida, Takeshi

Performance-based contracting for pavement in Japan started as performance warranties in construction phase, in 1999. Recently, road agencies have recognized the applicability of this type of contracting in outsourcing of maintenance activities. The objectives of this study are to clarify the issues of performance specifying in construction phase and maintenance phase of pavement, and to propose measures to be taken. This paper, with the recognition that the life of each pavement depends on performance standards for various attributes, reviews domestic and foreign examples of performance-based contracting. A performance standard based on the average of current practices can enhance product quality and service life with a warranty contract. Repair thresholds and response time for each deficiency should be considered as performance standards in maintenance phase.

Winter Wonderlands

Science.gov (United States)

Coy, Mary

2011-01-01

Listening to people complain about the hardships of winter and the dreariness of the nearly constant gray sky prompted the author to help her sixth graders recognize and appreciate the beauty that surrounds them for nearly five months of the year in western New York. The author opines that if students could see things more artistically, the winter…

Effects of winter road grooming on bison in YNP

Science.gov (United States)

Bjornlie, Daniel D.; Garrott, R.A.

2001-01-01

The effects of winter recreation—specifically snowmobiling—on wildlife in Yellowstone National Park (YNP) have become high-profile management issues. The road grooming needed to support oversnow travel in YNP is also being examined for its effects on bison (Bison bison) ecology. Data were collected from November 1997 through May 1998 and from December 1998 through May 1999 on the effects of road grooming on bison in Madison–Gibbon–Firehole (MGF) area of YNP Peak bison numbers occurred during late March—early April and were strongly correlated with the snow water equivalent measurements in the Hayden Valley area (1997–1998: r* = 0.62, p:0.001: 1998–1999: r2 = 0.64, P-0.001). Data from an infrared trail monitor on the Mary Mountain trail between the Hayden and Firehole valleys suggest that this trail is the sole corridor for major bison distributional shifts between these locations. Of the 28,293 observations of individual bison made during the study, 8% were traveling and 69% were foraging. These percentages were nearly identical during the period of winter road grooming (7% and 68%, respectively). During this period, 77% of bison foraging activity and 12% of bison traveling activity involved displacing snow. Most travel took place off roads (Pgrooming, with peak use in April and lowest use during the road-grooming period. Bison in the MGF area of YNF neither seek out nor avoid groomed roads. The minimal use of roads compared to off-road areas, the short distances traveled on the roads, the decreased use of roads during the over snow vehicle (OSV) season, and the increased costs of negative interactions with OSVs suggest that grooming roads during winter does not have a major influence on bison ecology.

Editorial: Special Issue on Experimental Vibration Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Serra, Roger

2018-04-01

The vibratory analyses are particularly present today in the various fields of industry, from aeronautics to manufacturing, from machining and maintenance to civil engineering, to mention a few areas, which have made this special issue a true need. The International Journal of Mechanics & Industry compiles a Special Issue on Experimental Vibration Analysis. More than thirty manuscripts were received by the international scientific committee on the 6th congress AVE2016 and only eight papers have been selected after completing a careful and rigorous peer-review process for the Special Issue, which are briefly summarized below.

Classification guide: Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games

OpenAIRE

2014-01-01

The Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games classification guide is designed to provide National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) and International Federations (IFs) with information about the classification policies and procedures that will apply to the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games.

Maintenance management for nuclear power plant 'Integrated valve maintenance'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gerner, P.; Zanner, G.

2001-01-01

The deregulation of Europe's power market does force many utilities, and especially nuclear power plant operators, to introduce extensive cost-cutting measures in order to be able to compete within this new environment. The optimization of plant outages provides considerable potential for raising plant availability but can also lower operating costs by reducing e.g. expenditure on maintenance. Siemens Nuclear Power GmbH, in cooperation with plant operators, is currently implementing new and improved service concepts which can have a major effect on the way in which maintenance will be performed in the future. Innovative service packages for maintenance in nuclear power plants are available which can be used to perform a time- and cost-effective maintenance. The concepts encompass optimization of the overall sequence from planning in advance to the individual measures including reduction of the scope of maintenance activities, identification of cost cutting potential and bundling of maintenance activities. The main features of these maintenance activities are illustrated here using the examples of outage planning and integrated valve maintenance. In nuclear power plants approx. 5000 valves are periodically preventively, condition-based or breakdown-based maintained. Because of this large number of valves to be maintained a high potential of improvements and cost reductions can be achieved by performing an optimized, cost-effective maintenance based on innovative methods and tools. Siemens Nuclear Power GmbH has developed and qualified such tools which allow to reduce service costs while maintaining high standards of safety and availability. By changing from preventive to predictive (condition-based) maintenance - the number of valves to be maintained may be reduced considerably. The predictive maintenance is based on the Siemens Nuclear Power GmbH diagnostic and evaluation method (ADAM). ADAM is used to monitor the operability of valves by analytical verification of

Surface mining machines problems of maintenance and modernization

CERN Document Server

Rusiński, Eugeniusz; Moczko, Przemysław; Pietrusiak, Damian

2017-01-01

This unique volume imparts practical information on the operation, maintenance, and modernization of heavy performance machines such as lignite mine machines, bucket wheel excavators, and spreaders. Problems of large scale machines (mega machines) are highly specific and not well recognized in the common mechanical engineering environment. Prof. Rusiński and his co-authors identify solutions that increase the durability of these machines as well as discuss methods of failure analysis and technical condition assessment procedures. "Surface Mining Machines: Problems in Maintenance and Modernization" stands as a much-needed guidebook for engineers facing the particular challenges of heavy performance machines and offers a distinct and interesting demonstration of scale-up issues for researchers and scientists from across the fields of machine design and mechanical engineering.

Development of the predictive maintenance system prototype for the rod control system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lim, H. S.; Hong, H. P.; Koo, J. M.; Kim, Y. B.; Han, H. W.

2003-01-01

The demand for safety and reliability of Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) has been constantly increasing and economical operation is also an important issue. Developing and adopting predictive maintenance technology for the major systems or equipment is considered as a way to achieve these goals. This paper describes the development of a predictive maintenance system prototype for the Rod Control System, which adopts an advanced methodology. Bayesian Belief Networks (BBN) has been adopted for the real time fault diagnosis and prediction of the system. Through a simulation test, it was confirmed that the prototype monitors and secures sound operability of rod drive mechanism and its control system, and also provides the predictive maintenance information

Human factors issues in fuel handling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Beattie, J.D.; Iwasa-Madge, K.M.; Tucker, D.A.

1994-01-01

The staff of the Atomic Energy Control Board wish to further their understanding of human factors issues of potential concern associated with fuel handling in CANDU nuclear power stations. This study contributes to that objective by analysing the role of human performance in the overall fuel handling process at Ontario Hydro's Darlington Nuclear Generating Station, and reporting findings in several areas. A number of issues are identified in the areas of design, operating and maintenance practices, and the organizational and management environment

Wintering Waterbirds and Recreationists in Natural Areas: A Sociological Approach to the Awareness of Bird Disturbance

Science.gov (United States)

Le Corre, Nicolas; Peuziat, Ingrid; Brigand, Louis; Gélinaud, Guillaume; Meur-Férec, Catherine

2013-10-01

Disturbance to wintering birds by human recreational activities has become a major concern for managers of many natural areas. Few studies have examined how recreationists perceive their effects on birds, although this impacts their behavior on natural areas. We surveyed 312 users on two coastal ornithological sites in Brittany, France, to investigate their perception of the effects of human activities on wintering birds. The results show that the awareness of environmental issues and knowledge of bird disturbance depends on the socioeconomic characteristics of each user group, both between the two sites and within each site. Results also indicate that, whatever the site and the user group, the vast majority of the respondents (77.6 %) believed that their own presence had no adverse effects on the local bird population. Various arguments were put forward to justify the users' own harmlessness. Objective information on recreationists' awareness of environmental issues, and particularly on their own impact on birds, is important to guide managers in their choice of the most appropriate visitor educational programs. We recommend developing global but also specific educational information for each type of user to raise awareness of their own impact on birds.

Winter chilling speeds spring development of temperate butterflies.

Science.gov (United States)

Stålhandske, Sandra; Gotthard, Karl; Leimar, Olof

2017-07-01

Understanding and predicting phenology has become more important with ongoing climate change and has brought about great research efforts in the recent decades. The majority of studies examining spring phenology of insects have focussed on the effects of spring temperatures alone. Here we use citizen-collected observation data to show that winter cold duration, in addition to spring temperature, can affect the spring emergence of butterflies. Using spatial mixed models, we disentangle the effects of climate variables and reveal impacts of both spring and winter conditions for five butterfly species that overwinter as pupae across the UK, with data from 1976 to 2013 and one butterfly species in Sweden, with data from 2001 to 2013. Warmer springs lead to earlier emergence in all species and milder winters lead to statistically significant delays in three of the five investigated species. We also find that the delaying effect of winter warmth has become more pronounced in the last decade, during which time winter durations have become shorter. For one of the studied species, Anthocharis cardamines (orange tip butterfly), we also make use of parameters determined from previous experiments on pupal development to model the spring phenology. Using daily temperatures in the UK and Sweden, we show that recent variation in spring temperature corresponds to 10-15 day changes in emergence time over UK and Sweden, whereas variation in winter duration corresponds to 20 days variation in the south of the UK versus only 3 days in the south of Sweden. In summary, we show that short winters delay phenology. The effect is most prominent in areas with particularly mild winters, emphasising the importance of winter for the response of ectothermic animals to climate change. With climate change, these effects may become even stronger and apply also at higher latitudes. © 2017 The Authors. Journal of Animal Ecology © 2017 British Ecological Society.

Toward autonomous operation and maintenance of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kitamura, M.

1994-01-01

Issues toward realization of autonomous operation as well as maintenance of nuclear power plants are reviewed in this paper. First, the necessity and significance of the technical program aiming at the establishment of autonomous nuclear plant are discussed through reviewing the history and current status computerized operation of complex artifacts. Then, key technologies currently studied to meet the need within the framework of artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced robotics are described. Among such AI-technologies are distributed multi-agent system, operator thinking model, and advanced man-machine interface design. Advances in robot technology attained include active sensing technique and multi-unit autonomous maintenance robot systems. Techniques for simulation of human action have been pursued as basic issues for understanding mechanisms behind human behavior. In addition to the individual developments, methodological topics relevant to the autonomy of nuclear facilities are briefly addressed. The concepts called methodology diversity and dynamic functionality restoration (realization) are introduced and discussed as the underlining principles to be considered in the development of the autonomous nuclear power plants. (author)

Maintenance of EDF nuclear power plants and servicing companies. Progress report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baize, Jean-Marc; Reveillon, Sylvie

1997-01-01

French Electricity Company (EDF - Electricite de France) and the associated servicing companies, engaged in maintenance partnership from 1991, reinforce and expand their policy by undersigning a progress charter, to cope with the safety and nuclear sector competition issues. This charter stipulates the mutual engagements in the following sectors: 1. Transparency in calling for servicing; 2. Development of the intervenors' professionalism; 3. Improvement in forecasting activity tasks; 4. Radioprotection; 5. Safety and working conditions. The 55 reactors of the EDF nuclear stock are stopped annually for around 6 weeks for refueling. On this occasion the essential maintenance works necessary to ensure the optimal safety of the installations are carried out. The maintenance requires the intervention of 30,000 employees, 10,000 EDF agents and 20,000 external intervenors and represents an amount of 14 million working hours. The full maintenance expenses amounts up to 11 billion FF in 1996, 6 billion of which are assigned to external companies

The ITER Remote Maintenance Management System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tesini, Alessandro; Rolfe, A.C.

2009-01-01

A major challenge for the ITER project is to develop and implement a Remote Maintenance System, which can deliver high Tokamak availability within the constraints of the overall ITER programme objectives. Much of the maintenance of ITER will be performed using remote handling methods and some with combined manual and remote activities working together. The organization and management of the ITER remote handling facilities will be of a scale unlike any other remote handling application in the world. The ITER remote handling design and procurement activities will require co-ordination and management across many different sites throughout the world. It will be a major challenge for the ITER project to ensure a consistent quality and technical approach in all of the contributing parties. To address this issue the IO remote handling team are implementing the ITER Maintenance Management Plan (IMMP) comprising an overarching document defining the policies and methodologies (ITER Remote Maintenance Management System or IMMS) and an associated ITER remote handling code of practise (IRHCOP). The IMMS will be in document form available as a pdf file or similar. The IRHCOP will be implemented as a web based application and will provide access to the central resource of the entire code of practise from any location in the world. The IRHCOP data library will be centrally controlled in order that users can be assured of the data relevance and authenticity. This paper will describe the overall approach being taken to deal with this challenge and go on to detail the structure and content of both the IMMS and the IRHCOP.

The maintenance management framework models and methods for complex systems maintenance

CERN Document Server

Crespo Márquez, Adolfo

2010-01-01

“The Maintenance Management Framework” describes and reviews the concept, process and framework of modern maintenance management of complex systems; concentrating specifically on modern modelling tools (deterministic and empirical) for maintenance planning and scheduling. It will be bought by engineers and professionals involved in maintenance management, maintenance engineering, operations management, quality, etc. as well as graduate students and researchers in this field.

Industrial Maintenance Strategies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sajjad Akbar

2006-01-01

Industrial plants have become more complex due to technological advancement. This has made the task of maintenance more difficult. The maintenance costs in terms of resources and downtime loss are so high that maintenance function has become a critical factor in a plant's profitability. Industry should devote as much forethought to the management of maintenance function as to production. Maintenance has grown from an art to a precise, technical engineering science. Planning, organizing scheduling and control of maintenance using modern techniques pays dividends in the form of reduced costs and increased reliability. The magnitude and the dimension of maintenance have multiplied due to development in the engineering technologies. Production cost and capacities are directly affected by the breakdown time. Total operating cost including the maintenance cost plays an important role in replacement dimension. The integrated system approach would bring forth the desired results of high maintenance standards. The standards once achieved and sustained, would add to the reliability of the plan and relieve heavy stresses and strains on the engineering logistic support. (author)

Contextual assessment of maintenance culture at Olkiluoto and Forsmark

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Reiman, T.; Oedewald, P. [VTT Industrial Systems (Finland); Rollenhagen, C.; Eriksson, I. [Maelardalen University (Sweden)

2004-04-01

The study aims to characterise, assess and develop the organisational cultures of participating nuclear power companies' maintenance units. The assessment is made by the means of maintenance core task modelling that has already been started in previous studies. The theoretical core task model is used in evaluating the characteristics of the organisational culture. We aim to identify what are the strengths and weaknesses of the case organisation's culture in relation to its core task. The study also aims to validate the methodology for contextual assessment of organisational culture. In addition to case specific results, the study acts as a benchmark between the participating companies and gives a chance to compare the different culture profiles between the companies. Similarities and differences between the organisational cultures at the maintenance units were identified. The purpose is not however to evaluate which organisation is better, but to raise issues that require attention at the organisations. When evaluative statements are made, the criteria are formed on the basis of the core task model: Even though the practices differ, from the perspective of the maintenance core task they might both be as effective. (au)

Contextual assessment of maintenance culture at Olkiluoto and Forsmark

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reiman, T.; Oedewald, P.; Rollenhagen, C.; Eriksson, I.

2004-04-01

The study aims to characterise, assess and develop the organisational cultures of participating nuclear power companies' maintenance units. The assessment is made by the means of maintenance core task modelling that has already been started in previous studies. The theoretical core task model is used in evaluating the characteristics of the organisational culture. We aim to identify what are the strengths and weaknesses of the case organisation's culture in relation to its core task. The study also aims to validate the methodology for contextual assessment of organisational culture. In addition to case specific results, the study acts as a benchmark between the participating companies and gives a chance to compare the different culture profiles between the companies. Similarities and differences between the organisational cultures at the maintenance units were identified. The purpose is not however to evaluate which organisation is better, but to raise issues that require attention at the organisations. When evaluative statements are made, the criteria are formed on the basis of the core task model: Even though the practices differ, from the perspective of the maintenance core task they might both be as effective. (au)

Competencies Development and Self-Assessment in Maintenance Management E-Training

Science.gov (United States)

Papathanassiou, Nikos; Pistofidis, Petros; Emmanouilidis, Christos

2013-01-01

The maintenance management function requires staff to possess a truly multidisciplinary set of skills. This includes competencies from engineering and information technology to health and safety, management and finance, while also taking into account the normative and legislative issues. This body of knowledge is rarely readily available within a…

Risk-informed optimisation of railway tracks inspection and maintenance procedures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Podofillini, Luca; Zio, Enrico; Vatn, Jorn

2006-01-01

Nowadays, efforts are being made by the railway industry for the application of reliability-based and risk-informed approaches to maintenance optimisation of railway infrastructures, with the aim of reducing the operation and maintenance expenditures while still assuring high safety standards. In particular, in this paper, we address the use of ultrasonic inspection cars and develop a methodology for the determination of an optimal strategy for their use. A model is developed to calculate the risks and costs associated with an inspection strategy, giving credit to the realistic issues of the rail failure process and including the actual inspection and maintenance procedures followed by the railway company. A multi-objective optimisation viewpoint is adopted in an effort to optimise inspection and maintenance procedures with respect to both economical and safety-related aspects. More precisely, the objective functions here considered are such to drive the search towards solutions characterized by low expenditures and low derailment probability. The optimisation is performed by means of a genetic algorithm. The work has been carried out within a study of the Norwegian National Rail Administration (Jernbaneverket)

Knowledge based maintenance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sturm, A [Hamburgische Electacitaets-Werke AG Hamburg (Germany)

1998-12-31

The establishment of maintenance strategies is of crucial significance for the reliability of a plant and the economic efficiency of maintenance measures. Knowledge about the condition of components and plants from the technical and business management point of view therefore becomes one of the fundamental questions and the key to efficient management and maintenance. A new way to determine the maintenance strategy can be called: Knowledge Based Maintenance. A simple method for determining strategies while taking the technical condition of the components of the production process into account to the greatest possible degree which can be shown. A software with an algorithm for Knowledge Based Maintenance leads the user during complex work to the determination of maintenance strategies for this complex plant components. (orig.)

Knowledge based maintenance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sturm, A. [Hamburgische Electacitaets-Werke AG Hamburg (Germany)

1997-12-31

The establishment of maintenance strategies is of crucial significance for the reliability of a plant and the economic efficiency of maintenance measures. Knowledge about the condition of components and plants from the technical and business management point of view therefore becomes one of the fundamental questions and the key to efficient management and maintenance. A new way to determine the maintenance strategy can be called: Knowledge Based Maintenance. A simple method for determining strategies while taking the technical condition of the components of the production process into account to the greatest possible degree which can be shown. A software with an algorithm for Knowledge Based Maintenance leads the user during complex work to the determination of maintenance strategies for this complex plant components. (orig.)

Sensor-driven, fault-tolerant control of a maintenance robot

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moy, M.M.; Davidson, W.M.

1987-01-01

A robot system has been designed to do routine maintenance tasks on the Sandia Pulsed Reactor (SPR). The use of this Remote Maintenance Robot (RMR) is expected to significantly reduce the occupational radiation exposure of the reactor operators. Reactor safety was a key issue in the design of the robot maintenance system. Using sensors to detect error conditions and intelligent control to recover from the errors, the RMR is capable of responding to error conditions without creating a hazard. This paper describes the design and implementation of a sensor-driven, fault-tolerant control for the RMR. Recovery from errors is not automatic; it does rely on operator assistance. However, a key feature of the error recovery procedure is that the operator is allowed to reenter the programmed operation after the error has been corrected. The recovery procedure guarantees that the moving components of the system will not collide with the reactor during recovery

Maintenance management of railway infrastructures based on reliability analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Macchi, Marco; Garetti, Marco; Centrone, Domenico; Fumagalli, Luca; Piero Pavirani, Gian

2012-01-01

Railway infrastructure maintenance plays a crucial role for rail transport. It aims at guaranteeing safety of operations and availability of railway tracks and related equipment for traffic regulation. Moreover, it is one major cost for rail transport operations. Thus, the increased competition in traffic market is asking for maintenance improvement, aiming at the reduction of maintenance expenditures while keeping the safety of operations. This issue is addressed by the methodology presented in the paper. The first step of the methodology consists of a family-based approach for the equipment reliability analysis; its purpose is the identification of families of railway items which can be given the same reliability targets. The second step builds the reliability model of the railway system for identifying the most critical items, given a required service level for the transportation system. The two methods have been implemented and tested in practical case studies, in the context of Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, the Italian public limited company for railway transportation.

Collegiate Aviation Research and Education Solutions to Critical Safety Issues

Science.gov (United States)

Bowen, Brent (Editor)

2002-01-01

This Conference Proceedings is a collection of 6 abstracts and 3 papers presented April 19-20, 2001 in Denver, CO. The conference focus was "Best Practices and Benchmarking in Collegiate and Industry Programs". Topics covered include: satellite-based aviation navigation; weather safety training; human-behavior and aircraft maintenance issues; disaster preparedness; the collegiate aviation emergency response checklist; aviation safety research; and regulatory status of maintenance resource management.

PFP issues/assumptions development and management planning guide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

SINCLAIR, J.C.

1999-01-01

The PFP Issues/Assumptions Development and Management Planning Guide presents the strategy and process used for the identification, allocation, and maintenance of an Issues/Assumptions Management List for the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) integrated project baseline. Revisions to this document will include, as attachments, the most recent version of the Issues/Assumptions Management List, both open and current issues/assumptions (Appendix A), and closed or historical issues/assumptions (Appendix B). This document is intended be a Project-owned management tool. As such, this document will periodically require revisions resulting from improvements of the information, processes, and techniques as now described. Revisions that suggest improved processes will only require PFP management approval

Issues in radioactivity for fusion energy: remote maintenance rating

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dorn, D.W.; Maninger, R.C.

1983-01-01

Recent technical progress in fusion research has been sufficient to encourage the development of conceptual designs for fusion power systems. These design efforts suggest that more attention should be paid to the safety and environmental effects of the radioactivity induced in the structural materials by the fusion neutrons. In particular, radioactivity from neutron activation of the structural components of a fusion power system will be a concern for occupational exposure of personnel. Careful choice of structural materials can significantly reduce this exposure. We propose the Remote Maintenance Rating (RMR) as a numerical means of comparing materials and machine designs with respect to occupational exposures. The RMR is defined as the dose rate at the surface of a uniformly activated, thick, infinite slab with the same composition and density as the machine component. We used the RMR rating system to evaluate the suitability of several different iron-based alloys. The specific fusion power system design used in our evaluation was a conceptual design from the Mirror Advanced Reactor Study (MARS). We determined that HT-9 is significantly better in terms of radiological dose rates at early times than the other iron-based alloys (by a factor of 3 to 7). We also calculated the behavior of both silicon carbide (SiC) and aluminum (Al), two low activation materials often proposed for reactors

Stationary battery guide: Design, application, and maintenance. Final report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1997-11-01

This guide has been prepared to assist a variety of users with stationary battery design, application, and maintenance. The following battery-related topics are discussed in detail: (1) fundamentals--how batteries are designed and how they work; (2) aging, degradation, and failures with an emphasis on how various maintenance tasks can prevent, detect, or repair certain degradation mechanisms; (3) applications--how batteries are designed for a specific purpose and how the battery industry has evolved; (4) sizing for different applications; (5) protection and charging; (6) periodic inspections and checks; (7) capacity discharge testing; (8) installation and replacement considerations; and (9) problems that can occur with battery systems. Since the original guide was published, new IEEE Recommended Practices related to stationary battery applications have been issued. This revision addresses those industry changes as well as some of the emerging issues related to the development of other industry documents. This guide has been prepared as a comprehensive reference source for stationary batteries and is intended to address the design, application, and maintenance needs of users. The technical discussions are at the application level. Fundamentals of battery design are covered in greater detail in this revision. More details related to internal cell materials, their operational relationship, and performance over the expected life of the battery cell are provided. This information has been included because many changes in battery cell materials, manufacturing and design processes are not always communicated to the user

Postharvest tillage reduces Downy Brome infestations in winter wheat

Science.gov (United States)

In the Pacific Northwest, downy brome continues to infest winter wheat producing regions especially in low-rainfall areas where the winter wheat-summer fallow rotation is the dominate production system. In Washington, a study was conducted for 2 years at each of two locations in the winter wheat -su...

Research and development strategy and maintenance engineering to strengthen the basis of ageing management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sekimura, Naoto

2006-01-01

The major research and development fields for ageing management of complex systems such as nuclear power plants are categorized into the following 4 items; 1) research and development of technologies for inspection, evaluation and repair in the components and materials, 2) engineering information systems, 3) development of codes and standards and 4) synthesized maintenance engineering. The 'synthesized maintenance engineering' field includes methodologies for optimum combination for inspection, maintenance actions and cost, definition of importance of components for maintenance, and performance indicates of a power plant system. Studying and learning these systematic approaches is also indicated in the Road Map as one of the important issues for collaboration of industries, regulatory bodies and universities to keep leading engineers and to improve regulatory systems. (author)

How to Have a Healthy Winter | Poster

Science.gov (United States)

Without a doubt, winter is here. Between the icy weather and the recent hustle and bustle of the holidays, everyone is at an increased risk of getting sick. With that in mind, Occupational Health Services has a few simple tips for staying healthy this winter.

Risk management model of winter navigation operations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Valdez Banda, Osiris A.; Goerlandt, Floris; Kuzmin, Vladimir; Kujala, Pentti; Montewka, Jakub

2016-01-01

The wintertime maritime traffic operations in the Gulf of Finland are managed through the Finnish–Swedish Winter Navigation System. This establishes the requirements and limitations for the vessels navigating when ice covers this area. During winter navigation in the Gulf of Finland, the largest risk stems from accidental ship collisions which may also trigger oil spills. In this article, a model for managing the risk of winter navigation operations is presented. The model analyses the probability of oil spills derived from collisions involving oil tanker vessels and other vessel types. The model structure is based on the steps provided in the Formal Safety Assessment (FSA) by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and adapted into a Bayesian Network model. The results indicate that ship independent navigation and convoys are the operations with higher probability of oil spills. Minor spills are most probable, while major oil spills found very unlikely but possible. - Highlights: •A model to assess and manage the risk of winter navigation operations is proposed. •The risks of oil spills in winter navigation in the Gulf of Finland are analysed. •The model assesses and prioritizes actions to control the risk of the operations. •The model suggests navigational training as the most efficient risk control option.

Drought and Winter Drying (Pest Alert)

Science.gov (United States)

USDA Forest Service

Drought and winter drying have periodically caused major damage to trees. Drought reduces the amount of water available in the soil. In the case of winter drying, the water may be in the soil, but freezing of the soil makes the water unavailable to the tree. In both cases, more water is lost through transpiration than is available to the plant. Symptoms of drought and...

The Rising Price of Higher Education. College Affordability in Jeopardy: A Special Supplement to National Crosstalk, Winter 2003

Science.gov (United States)

Trombley, William

2003-01-01

This special supplement to the Winter 2003 issue of "National CrossTalk" offers a snapshot of round one of the current recession and its impact on state higher education budgets enacted and revised in the last half of 2002. It is a composite drawn from the most credible national sources of higher education information in the states at the…

Perencanaan Kegiatan Maintenance Dengan Metode Reability Centered Maintenance (Rcm) II

OpenAIRE

Rachmad Hidayat; Nachnul Ansori; Ali Imron

2010-01-01

Maintenance Activity Planning by Reability Centered Maintenance (RCM) II Method. This research discussmaintenance activity by using RCM II method to determine failure function risk at compresor screw. Calculation isgiven to magnitude optimum time maintenance interval by considering the cost maintenance and the cost reparation.From the research results with RPN points out that critical component that needs to get main priority in givemaintenance on compresor screw are bust logistic on timeworn...

CHILD MAINTENANCE IN TURKISH LAW

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Banu Bilge Sarihan

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The concept of alimony; the dictionary defines as, the whole of what is needed to make a living; as the legal sense is defined as connected with one month to one court decision that obliged to provide for. Family members of a moral rule, first of all to help each other. This moral without often any coercion parties in the framework adapts to this rule, but in this case the legislator for the processing always smoothly, has made it a statutory duty by going to road regulations to help each other for certain family members. Assistance in the form of alimony and child support maintenance can be divided into two main groups. Support resulting from family law, commonly referred to as maintenance support. Maintenance alimony; temporary alimony, child maintenance and poverty alimony. The care and upbringing of children in the marital union is entitled to custody of the mother and father in the framework. Mother and father use custody together. Custody of minors and adult children must sometimes restricted to persons, about paying attention to both the goods and to represent them as a whole of the rights and obligations of the law have been installed on the parents. Common life of the spouses or by court order issued at the end of separation has occurred judge may give custody to one of the spouses. side with custody of children have been left to him is obliged to look after and educate them. However, not given custody of his side, must participate in their child's care and education expenses amount to be determined by the judge according to financial strength. Associates alimony, separation or nullity or divorce, child custody as a result of which he had left his wife, child care and the financial strength to participate in the rate training expenses. Associates alimony, not a liability connected to custody, is a natural consequence of being parents. Because spouses are obliged to take care of children's care and upbringing. Child maintenance is

Global characteristics of extreme winters from a multi-millennial simulation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hunt, B.G. [CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, PO Box 1, Aspendale (Australia)

2011-10-15

Output from a multi-millennial simulation with the CSIRO Mark 2 coupled global climatic model has been analysed to determine the principal characteristics of extreme winters over the globe for ''present conditions''. Thus, this study is not concerned with possible changes in winter conditions associated with anthropogenically induced climatic change. Defining an extreme winter as having a surface temperature anomaly of below -2 standard deviations (sd) revealed a general occurrence rate over the globe of between 100 and 200 over a 6,000-year period of the simulation, with somewhat higher values over northwest North America. For temperature anomalies below -3 sd the corresponding occurrence rate drops to about 10. Spatial correlation studies revealed that extreme winters over regions in Europe, North America or Asia were very limited geographically, with time series of the surface temperature anomalies for these regions having mutual correlation coefficients of about 0.2. The temporal occurrence rates of winters (summers) having sd below -3 (above +3) were very asymmetric and sporadic, suggesting that such events arise from stochastic influences. Multi-year sequences of extreme winters were comparatively rare events. Detailed analysis revealed that the temporal and spatial evolution of the monthly surface temperature anomalies associated with an individual extreme winter were well replicated in the simulation, as were daily time series of such anomalies. Apart from an influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation on extreme winters in Europe, other prominent climatic oscillations were very poorly correlated with such winters. Rather modest winter temperature anomalies were found in the southern hemisphere. (orig.)

On the relation between ionospheric winter anomalies and solar wind

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rumi, G.C.

2001-01-01

There are two different winter anomalies. A small one that appears in connection with ionization at relatively low latitudes in the bottom of the D-region of the ionosphere. There, the electron densities in the winter happen to be less than should be expected. On the other hand, the classic winter anomaly is present when in the winter the upper D-region, again at relatively low latitudes, has more ionization than should be expected. Both these effects are due to the slant compression of the geomagnetic field produced by the solar wind in the wind in the winter season (which is, of course, the summer season when reference is made to events in the other hemisphere). It is shown that the small winter anomaly is a consequence of a hemispheric imbalance in the flux of galactic cosmic rays determined by the obliquely distorted geomagnetic field. It is shown that the standard winter anomaly can be ascribed to the influx of a super solar wind, which penetrates into the Earth's polar atmosphere down to E-region, heights and, duly concentrated through a funneling action at the winter pole of the distorted geomagnetic field, slows down the winter polar vortex. An equatorward motion of the polar air with its content of nitric oxide brings about the excess of ionization in the upper D-region at lower latitudes. The experimentally observed rhythmic recurrence of the upper winter anomaly is correlated to a possible rhythmic recurrence of the super solar wind. The actual detection of the upper winter anomaly could yield some information on the velocity of the basic solar wind. A by-product of the present analysis, the determination of Γ, the coefficient of collisional detachment of the electrons from the O 2 - ions, is presented in the Appendix

On the relation between ionospheric winter anomalies and solar wind

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rumi, G.C. [Lecco, (Italy)

2001-06-01

There are two different winter anomalies. A small one that appears in connection with ionization at relatively low latitudes in the bottom of the D-region of the ionosphere. There, the electron densities in the winter happen to be less than should be expected. On the other hand, the classic winter anomaly is present when in the winter the upper D-region, again at relatively low latitudes, has more ionization than should be expected. Both these effects are due to the slant compression of the geomagnetic field produced by the solar wind in the wind in the winter season (which is, of course, the summer season when reference is made to events in the other hemisphere). It is shown that the small winter anomaly is a consequence of a hemispheric imbalance in the flux of galactic cosmic rays determined by the obliquely distorted geomagnetic field. It is shown that the standard winter anomaly can be ascribed to the influx of a super solar wind, which penetrates into the Earth's polar atmosphere down to E-region, heights and, duly concentrated through a funneling action at the winter pole of the distorted geomagnetic field, slows down the winter polar vortex. An equatorward motion of the polar air with its content of nitric oxide brings about the excess of ionization in the upper D-region at lower latitudes. The experimentally observed rhythmic recurrence of the upper winter anomaly is correlated to a possible rhythmic recurrence of the super solar wind. The actual detection of the upper winter anomaly could yield some information on the velocity of the basic solar wind. A by-product of the present analysis, the determination of {gamma}, the coefficient of collisional detachment of the electrons from the O{sub 2} {sup -} ions, is presented in the Appendix.

Lean Maintenance Applied to Improve Maintenance Efficiency in Thermoelectric Power Plants

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Orlando Duran

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Thermoelectric power plants consist of a set of critical equipment that require high levels of availability and reliability. Due to this, maintenance of these physical assets is gaining momentum in industry. Maintenance is considered as an activity that contributes to improving the availability, efficiency and productivity of each piece of equipment. Several techniques have been used to achieve greater efficiencies in maintenance, among which we can find the lean maintenance philosophy. Despite the wide diffusion of lean maintenance, there is no structured method that supports the prescription of lean tools applied to the maintenance function. This paper presents the experience gathered in two lean maintenance projects in thermoelectric power plants. The application of lean techniques was based on using a previously developed multicriterial decision making process that uses the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP methodology to carry out a diagnosis and prescription tasks. That methodology allowed the prescription of the appropriated lean techniques to resolve the main deficiencies in maintenance function. The results of applying such lean tools show that important results can be obtained, making the maintenance function in thermoelectric power plants more efficient and lean.

Coming to grips with nuclear winter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Scherr, S.J.

1985-01-01

This editorial examines the politics related to the concept of nuclear winter which is a term used to describe temperature changes brought on by the injection of smoke into the atmosphere by the massive fires set off by nuclear explosions. The climate change alone could cause crop failures and lead to massive starvation. The author suggests that the prospect of a nuclear winter should be a deterrent to any nuclear exchange

Maintenance management systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rohan, M. de

1989-01-01

This paper is concerned principally with Maintenance Management systems and their effective introduction into organisations. Maintenance improvement is basically a problem of managing the maintenance department in the broadest sense. Improvement does not only lie in the area of special techniques, systems or procedures; although they are valuable tools, but rather in a balanced attack, carefully guided by management. Over recent years, maintenance systems have received the major emphasis and in many instances the selection of the system has become a pre-occupation, whereas the importance of each maintenance function must be recognised and good management practices applied to all maintenance activities. The ingredients for success in the implementation of maintenance management systems are summarised as: having a management committee, clear objectives, project approach using project management techniques and an enthusiastic leader, user managed and data processing supported project, realistic budget and an understanding of the financial audit requirements. (author)

Maintenance Communication and the Organizational Commitment of Dual-Career Employees.

Science.gov (United States)

Lay, Linda; DeWine, Sue

Focusing on the special needs of employees who are part of a two career couple, a study examined the (1) relationship between the employees' level of commitment to their employers and their perceptions of maintenance communication concerning dual career issues and (2) differences in organizational commitment between workers in dual and single…

Winter/Summer Monsoon Experiment

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The Winter/Summer Monsoon Experiment (MONEX) was conducted during the First Global GARP (Global Atmospheric Research Program) Experiment (FGGE). An international...

Advanced maintenance research programs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marston, T.U.; Gelhaus, F.; Burke, R.

1985-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to provide the reader with an idea of the advanced maintenance research program at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). A brief description of the maintenance-related activities is provided as a foundation for the advanced maintenance research projects. The projects can be divided into maintenance planning, preventive maintenance program development and implementation, predictive (or conditional) maintenance, and innovative maintenance techniques. The projects include hardware and software development, human factors considerations, and technology promotion and implementation. The advanced concepts include: the incorporation of artificial intelligence into outage planning; turbine and pump maintenance; rotating equipment monitoring and diagnostics with the aid of expert systems; and the development of mobile robots for nuclear power plant maintenance

我的寒假%My Winter Holidays

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

无

2008-01-01

@@ Winter holidays have about twenty days.During winter holidays, I do all kinds of interesting thing.I like climbing the hill,because it can make me heMthy.I like fishing,it can give me a lot of fun.I like visiting some places of interest, it can enlarge my knowledge.

Activities for turbine maintenance: planning, implementation and evaluation of inspection results

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Azcue, J.; Sanchez, M. A.; Alvaro, M.

2014-01-01

The article will cover the most significant aspects of how Tecnatom carry out the turbine maintenance work, both from the point of view of the inspection itself as the pre-and post tasks associated. Thus, the issues that will be part of the article are the Manual Inspection Service (MISI) and the inspection database, ISI WEB. These tools are essential for planning field work and serve as a guide to run later turbine inspections in different plants. Following this introduction the inspection teams and the techniques used by Tecnatom will be described. finally, the article will contain a small mention about management studies of life and integrity analysis of the turbine that can be performed, as well as involvement in its safe operation that is derived from them. Ultimately, the intention is to provide a comprehensive approach to the issue in question, the turbine maintenance work, so that the reader can get an ideal of the whole process. (Author)

Human factors issues in fuel handling

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Beattie, J D; Iwasa-Madge, K M; Tucker, D A [Humansystems Inc., Milton, ON (Canada)

1994-12-31

The staff of the Atomic Energy Control Board wish to further their understanding of human factors issues of potential concern associated with fuel handling in CANDU nuclear power stations. This study contributes to that objective by analysing the role of human performance in the overall fuel handling process at Ontario Hydro`s Darlington Nuclear Generating Station, and reporting findings in several areas. A number of issues are identified in the areas of design, operating and maintenance practices, and the organizational and management environment. 1 fig., 4 tabs., 19 refs.

Combined Use of Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2A Images for Winter Crop Mapping and Winter Wheat Yield Assessment at Regional Scale

Science.gov (United States)

Skakun, Sergii; Vermote, Eric; Roger, Jean-Claude; Franch, Belen

2017-01-01

Timely and accurate information on crop yield and production is critical to many applications within agriculture monitoring. Thanks to its coverage and temporal resolution, coarse spatial resolution satellite imagery has always been a source of valuable information for yield forecasting and assessment at national and regional scales. With availability of free images acquired by Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 remote sensing satellites, it becomes possible to provide temporal resolution of an image every 3-5 days, and therefore, to develop next generation agriculture products at higher spatial resolution (10-30 m). This paper explores the combined use of Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2A for winter crop mapping and winter wheat yield assessment at regional scale. For the former, we adapt a previously developed approach for the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument at 250 m resolution that allows automatic mapping of winter crops taking into account a priori knowledge on crop calendar. For the latter, we use a generalized winter wheat yield forecasting model that is based on estimation of the peak Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from MODIS image time-series, and further downscaled to be applicable at 30 m resolution. We show that integration of Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2A improves both winter crop mapping and winter wheat yield assessment. In particular, the error of winter wheat yield estimates can be reduced up to 1.8 times compared to using a single satellite.

Combined Use of Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2A Images for Winter Crop Mapping and Winter Wheat Yield Assessment at Regional Scale

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sergii Skakun

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Timely and accurate information on crop yield and production is critical to many applications within agriculture monitoring. Thanks to its coverage and temporal resolution, coarse spatial resolution satellite imagery has always been a source of valuable information for yield forecasting and assessment at national and regional scales. With availability of free images acquired by Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 remote sensing satellites, it becomes possible to provide temporal resolution of 3–5 days, and therefore, to develop next generation agriculture products at higher spatial resolution (10–30 m. This paper explores the combined use of Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2A for winter crop mapping and winter wheat yield assessment at regional scale. For the former, we adapt a previously developed approach for the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS instrument at 250 m resolution that allows automatic mapping of winter crops taking into account a priori knowledge on crop calendar. For the latter, we use a generalized winter wheat yield forecasting model that is based on estimation of the peak Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI from MODIS image time-series, and further downscaled to be applicable at 30 m resolution. We show that integration of Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2A improves both winter crop mapping and winter wheat yield assessment. In particular, the error of winter wheat yield estimates can be reduced up to 1.8 times compared to using a single satellite.

Maintenance Management Update.

Science.gov (United States)

Sternloff, Robert E.

1987-01-01

Current trends in park maintenance are overviewed, including maintenance impact statements, avoidance of cost through efficient use and national resource conservation, horticultural accomplishments that influence maintenance management, and vandalism prevention. (CB)

Operations and maintenance costs - Selected observations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kirk, M.W.

1991-01-01

The operations and maintenance (O and M) costs associated with nuclear power plants have been rising continuously over the past decade. The Nuclear Management and Resources Council (NUMARC) has undertaken an examination of this issue to determine what components of O and M costs are driven by regulatory activity. Observers from various perspectives within the nuclear industry have cited staffing, outages, training, and management structure among others as large contributors to O and M costs. NUMARC is currently analyzing utility cost data to isolate the regulatory components for further action

The Eurasia-North Pacific Oscillation in atmospheric mass variations independent of both IHO and AO and its possible impacts on winter climate

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Qian; Guan, Zhaoyong; Li, Minggang

2017-09-01

Using NCEP/NCAR reanalysis, we have investigated the features of migrations of atmospheric mass (AM) between land and ocean in Eurasia-North Pacific domain in boreal winter after having both signals of Inter-hemispheric Oscillation and Arctic Oscillation removed from the physical quantities. It is found that there is a Eurasia-North Pacific Oscillation (ENPO) in surface air pressure anomalies. This ENPO pattern characterizes with two oppositely signed anomalous surface pressure centers over Eurasia and North Pacific respectively, indicating strong connections between Siberian high and Aleutian low during period 1979-2012. The maintenance of this ENPO teleconnection is significantly associated with three factors including the anomalous AM flows and zonal circulation cell over Eurasia-North Pacific domain, the Rossby wave energy propagations, and the thermal forcing contrasts near the surface between Eurasia and North Pacific during boreal winter. The variations of both wintertime rainfall and temperature over Eurasia may be strongly affected by ENPO. When the ENPO index is positive (negative), there occurs the AM accumulation (depletion) over Eurasia with simultaneous depletion (accumulation) over mid-latitude North-Pacific. Correspondingly, this anomalous surface pressure pattern along with the related circulation anomalies at different isobaric levels possibly results in winter precipitation decreases (increases) over Siberian Plain and East China, whereas increases (decreases) over southeastern Europe, Xinjiang of China, and the west coast of Sea of Okhotsk. On the other hand, surface air temperature decreases (increases) over large areas of Eurasia. These results are helpful for our better understanding the mechanisms behind circulation and winter climate variations over Eurasia-North Pacific region.

The Eurasia-North Pacific Oscillation in atmospheric mass variations independent of both IHO and AO and its possible impacts on winter climate

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Qian; Guan, Zhaoyong; Li, Minggang

2018-06-01

Using NCEP/NCAR reanalysis, we have investigated the features of migrations of atmospheric mass (AM) between land and ocean in Eurasia-North Pacific domain in boreal winter after having both signals of Inter-hemispheric Oscillation and Arctic Oscillation removed from the physical quantities. It is found that there is a Eurasia-North Pacific Oscillation (ENPO) in surface air pressure anomalies. This ENPO pattern characterizes with two oppositely signed anomalous surface pressure centers over Eurasia and North Pacific respectively, indicating strong connections between Siberian high and Aleutian low during period 1979-2012. The maintenance of this ENPO teleconnection is significantly associated with three factors including the anomalous AM flows and zonal circulation cell over Eurasia-North Pacific domain, the Rossby wave energy propagations, and the thermal forcing contrasts near the surface between Eurasia and North Pacific during boreal winter. The variations of both wintertime rainfall and temperature over Eurasia may be strongly affected by ENPO. When the ENPO index is positive (negative), there occurs the AM accumulation (depletion) over Eurasia with simultaneous depletion (accumulation) over mid-latitude North-Pacific. Correspondingly, this anomalous surface pressure pattern along with the related circulation anomalies at different isobaric levels possibly results in winter precipitation decreases (increases) over Siberian Plain and East China, whereas increases (decreases) over southeastern Europe, Xinjiang of China, and the west coast of Sea of Okhotsk. On the other hand, surface air temperature decreases (increases) over large areas of Eurasia. These results are helpful for our better understanding the mechanisms behind circulation and winter climate variations over Eurasia-North Pacific region.

Industrial implementation issues of Total Site Heat Integration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chew, Kew Hong; Klemeš, Jiří Jaromír; Wan Alwi, Sharifah Rafidah; Abdul Manan, Zainuddin

2013-01-01

Heat Integration has been a well-established energy conservation strategy in the industry. Total Site Heat Integration (TSHI) has received growing interest since its inception in the 90s. The methodology has been used with certain simplifications to solve TSHI problems. This paper investigates the main issues that can influence the practical implementation of TSHI in the industry. The main aim is to provide an assessment and possible guidance for future development and extension of the TSHI methodology from the industrial perspective. Several key issues have been identified as being of vital importance for the industries: design, operation, reliability/availability/maintenance, regulatory/policy and economics. Design issues to consider include plant layout, pressure drop, etc. For operation, issues such as startup and shutdown need to be considered. Reliability, availability and maintenance (RAM) are important as they directly affect the production. Relevant government policy and incentives are also important when considering the options for TSHI. Finally, a TSHI system needs to be economically viable. This paper highlights the key issues to be considered for a successful implementation of TSHI. The impacts of these issues on TS integration are summarised in a matrix, which forms a basis for an improved and closer-to-real-life implementation of the TSHI methodology. Highlights: ► Current TSHI methodology has been used for solving models with certain simplifications. ► Several issues that can influence practical implementation of TSHI are identified. ► Impacts of these issues on safety, environment and economics are evaluated. ► The findings form a basis for an improved and practical implementation of TSHI

Wintering bald eagle trends in northern Arizona, 1975-2000

Science.gov (United States)

Teryl G. Grubb

2003-01-01

Between 1975 and 2000, 4,525 sightings of wintering bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) were recorded at Mormon Lake in northern Arizona. Numbers of wintering eagles fluctuated little in the 20 years from 1975 through 1994 (5.5 ± 3.0 mean sightings per day). However, during the winters of 1995 through 1997 local record highs of 59 to 118 eagles...

The Science of Sustaining Health Behavior Change: The Health Maintenance Consortium

Science.gov (United States)

Ory, Marcia G.; Smith, Matthew Lee; Mier, Nelda; Wernicke, Meghan M.

2013-01-01

Objective The Health Maintenance Consortium (HMC) is a multisite Grantee Consortium funded by the National Institutes of Health from 2004–2009. The goal of HMC is to enhance understanding of the long-term maintenance of behavior change, as well as effective strategies for achieving sustainable health promotion and disease prevention. Methods This introductory research synthesis prepared by the Resource Center gives context to this theme issue by providing an overview of the HMC and the articles in this journal. Results It explores the contributions to our conceptualization of behavior change processes and intervention strategies, the trajectory of effectiveness of behavioral and social interventions, and factors influencing the long-term maintenance of behavioral and social interventions. Conclusions Future directions for furthering the science of maintaining behavior change and reducing the gaps between research and practice are recommended. PMID:20604691

Effects of sowing time on pink snow mould, leaf rust and winter damage in winter rye varieties in Finland

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. SERENIUS

2008-12-01

Full Text Available Disease infection in relation to sowing time of winter rye (Secale cereale was studied in southern Finland in order to compare overwintering capacity of modern rye varieties and to give recommendations for rye cultivation. This was done by using three sowing times and four rye varieties in field trials conducted at three locations in 1999–2001. The early sown rye (beginning of August was severely affected by diseases caused by Puccinia recondita and Microdochium nivale, whereas postponing sowing for two weeks after the recommended sowing time resulted in considerably less infection. The infection levels of diseases differed among rye varieties. Finnish rye varieties Anna and Bor 7068 were more resistant to snow mould and more winter hardy than the Polish variety Amilo, or the German hybrid varieties Picasso and Esprit. However, Amilo was the most resistant to leaf rust. In the first year snow mould appeared to be the primary cause of winter damage, but in the second year the winter damage was positively correlated with leaf rust. No significant correlation between frit fly infestation and winter damage or disease incidence of snow mould or leaf rust was established. The late sowing of rye (in the beginning of September is recommended in Finland, particularly with hybrid varieties, to minimize the need for chemical plant protection in autumn.;

Dynamic decision-making for reliability and maintenance analysis of manufacturing systems based on failure effects

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Ding; Zhang, Yingjie

2017-09-01

A framework for reliability and maintenance analysis of job shop manufacturing systems is proposed in this paper. An efficient preventive maintenance (PM) policy in terms of failure effects analysis (FEA) is proposed. Subsequently, reliability evaluation and component importance measure based on FEA are performed under the PM policy. A job shop manufacturing system is applied to validate the reliability evaluation and dynamic maintenance policy. Obtained results are compared with existed methods and the effectiveness is validated. Some vague understandings for issues such as network modelling, vulnerabilities identification, the evaluation criteria of repairable systems, as well as PM policy during manufacturing system reliability analysis are elaborated. This framework can help for reliability optimisation and rational maintenance resources allocation of job shop manufacturing systems.

Instrumentation maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mack, D.A.

1976-09-01

It is essential to any research activity that accurate and efficient measurements be made for the experimental parameters under consideration for each individual experiment or test. Satisfactory measurements in turn depend upon having the necessary instruments and the capability of ensuring that they are performing within their intended specifications. This latter requirement can only be achieved by providing an adequate maintenance facility, staffed with personnel competent to understand the problems associated with instrument adjustment and repair. The Instrument Repair Shop at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory is designed to achieve this end. The organization, staffing and operation of this system is discussed. Maintenance policy should be based on studies of (1) preventive vs. catastrophic maintenance, (2) records indicating when equipment should be replaced rather than repaired and (3) priorities established to indicate the order in which equipment should be repaired. Upon establishing a workable maintenance policy, the staff should be instructed so that they may provide appropriate scheduled preventive maintenance, calibration and corrective procedures, and emergency repairs. The education, training and experience of the maintenance staff is discussed along with the organization for an efficient operation. The layout of the various repair shops is described in the light of laboratory space and financial constraints

Forecasting Winter Storms in the Sierra: A Social Science Perspective in Keeping the Public Safe without Negatively Impacting the Local Tourism Industry

Science.gov (United States)

Milne, R.; Wallmann, J.; Myrick, D. T.

2010-12-01

The National Weather Service Office in Reno is responsible for issuing Blizzard Warnings, Winter Storm Warnings, and Winter Weather Advisories for the Sierra, including the Lake Tahoe Basin and heavily traveled routes such as Interstate 80, Highway 395 and Highway 50. These forecast products prepare motorists for harsh travel conditions as well as those venturing into the backcountry, which are essential to the NWS mission of saving lives and property. During the winter season, millions of people from around the world visit the numerous world class ski resorts in the Sierra and the Lake Tahoe Basin, which is vital to the local economy. This situation creates a challenging decision for the forecasters to provide appropriate wording in winter statements to keep the public safe, without significantly impacting the local tourism-based economy. Numerous text and graphical products, including online weather briefings, are utilized by NWS Reno to highlight hazards in ensuring the public, businesses, and other government agencies are prepared for winter storms and take appropriate safety measures. The effectiveness of these product types will be explored, with past snowstorms used as examples to show how forecasters determine which type of text or graphical product is most appropriate to convey the hazardous weather threats.

Mapping of QTLs for leaf area and the association with winter ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Variations in plant architecture are often associated with the ability of plants to survive cold stress during winter. In studies of winter hardiness in lentil, it appeared that small leaf area was associated with improved winter survival. Based on this observation, the inheritance of leaf area and the relationship with winter ...

Systematic maintenance analysis with decision support method and tool for optimizing maintenance programme

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Laakso, K.; Simola, K.; Dorrepaal, J.; Skogberg, P.

1999-01-01

This report describes an approach to evaluate the effectiveness of test and maintenance programs of technical systems used during several years. The method combines an analysis of the historical data on faults and repairs with an analysis of the history of periodic testing and preventive maintenance action programs. The application of the maintenance analysis from the methodological point of view in the reliability centered maintenance (RCM) project for Barsebaeck nuclear power plant is described. In order to limit the analysis resources, a method for ranking of objects for maintenance analysis is needed. Preliminary suggestions for changes in maintenance action programs are based on signals from simple maintenance indicators and qualitative analysis of underlying data on failures and maintenance. To facilitate generation of maintenance indicators, and make the maintenance analysis more efficient, a powerful and suitable data treatment tool is needed for analysis of the work order history. In the final maintenance decisions, additional decision criteria must be taken into account, and thus a more formal decision analysis is often needed for decision support. (au)

Maintenance Free and Sustainable High-Level Control in Cement and Mining Industry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Ole Fink

2009-01-01

High-level control systems have been utilized in the process industry for decades, and also in cement production their use is well established. In comparison to manual control their ability to increase production and quality of end product, while reducing energy consumption and emission, is well...... but nevertheless still require maintenance. For the 10% of the algorithm that is control related, the maintenance issue is to some extent addressed by research topics such as adaptive control, which aim at retuning the parameters of the algorithm to match the changing process. In this project however, it has been...... chosen to focus on the remaining 90% of the algorithm which still require manual modifications to cope with a changed process. Although this issue has gained limited attention from academia so far it is well recognized by the industry. In the process of maintaining an algorithm it has turned out...

Paralympic sports medicine--current evidence in winter sport: considerations in the development of equipment standards for paralympic athletes.

Science.gov (United States)

Burkett, Brendan

2012-01-01

To highlight and discuss the considerations for the future development of equipment standards for Winter Paralympic sports. Literature searches were performed (in English) during May 2011 using the key words "technology, winter sport, Olympic, and Paralympic" in the computerized databases PubMed, PsycINFO, Science Direct, and Google Scholar. In addition, personal scientific observations were made at several Winter Paralympic Games. The retrieved articles were screened and assessed for relevance to the biological, biomechanical, and sport medicine aspects of equipment. There are 3 key areas in which technology has influenced sports performance in Paralympic winter sports, namely, specialized prostheses, crutch skis or outriggers (in lieu of poles), and sport-specific wheelchairs (such as the sit-ski). From a sport medicine perspective, a crucial factor not considered in the standard laboratory test of mechanical efficiency is the influence of the human-equipment connection, such as the stump-to-prosthesis interface or the required human-to-wheelchair control. This connectivity is critical to the effective operation of the assistive device. When assessing the efficiency of this equipment, the not-so-obvious, holistic, compensatory factors need to be considered. Assistive equipment is fundamental for a person with a disability to participate and compete in winter sport activities. Although there have been improvements in the mechanical function of some assistive devices, the key issue is matching the residual function of the person with the assistive equipment. Equitable access to this technology will also ensure that the fundamental spirit of fair play that underpins the Paralympic Games is maintained.

With a re-engineering of maintenance to a profitably oriented maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Angelevska, Silvana; Jolevski, Tome

2000-01-01

This paper presents an overview of effectiveness of the profit centered maintenance as a contemporary way of the maintenance management concept. Such redesign of a maintenance procedure results in significant gains in cost reduction and increase of the profitability and competitiveness of energy. The business process re engineering - a modern management control theory that is important aspect of the profit centered maintenance is summarized

Predictive maintenance: A new approach in maintenance of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Benvenuto, F.; Ferrari, L.

2005-01-01

The maintenance services for a Nuclear Power Plant are in general aimed at reaching the following goals: - Increase component availability and consequently decrease intervention frequency; - Reduce unexpected costs from unexpected repairs; - Progressively decrease the time of each intervention; - Improve the spare parts supply efficiency; - Improve spare parts and consumable warehouse managing; - Decrease maintenance costs. Most of the currently used maintenance activities refer to run-to-failure or preventive approaches: - Run-to-failure or Corrective Maintenance means that work is only carried out when a component or system is faulty and unable to perform its critical function. Non critical components such as filters or components with spare may be maintained in this way; - Preventive or Scheduled Maintenance involves a regular pre-set schedule programme of maintenance work. Programme outlined by the manufacturer of the component in question based on the design life of the component and based on past experience by operation. One step further than Preventive Maintenance is represented by Predictive Maintenance. Whereas Preventive Maintenance bases its schedules on past performance data, a predictive system acquires condition data from the machine to be maintained whilst the machine is in operation. The information obtained from this analysis indicates the condition in real time, provides a diagnosis of wear and shows any trend towards critical conditions. Predictive maintenance mainly consists of the following interventions: - Lubricant analysis; - Collection / analysis of functional parameters, such as motor absorption, flow rate, pressure, temperature, noise, vibration of rotating equipment, thermal efficiency, etc; - Periodical test of lifting systems; - Other operations to acquire sensitive equipment parameters. Predictive Maintenance can reduce the accidental intervention and extend the components life, and, in the end, is increasing the global availability

Assessing maintenance contracts when preventive maintenance is outsourced

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu Shaomin

2012-01-01

In some companies, corrective maintenance is conducted in-house but preventive maintenance might be outsourced. This raises a need to optimise some parameters such as the number of contracts from a perspective of the equipment owner. This paper considers a maintenance policy for such a situation, analyses the roles of the parameters in a PM model, proposes approaches to defining bonus functions, and finally discusses special cases of both the PM policy and the bonus function. Numerical examples are also given to explore the impact of parameters on the expected lifecycle cost rate.

The Anomalous Winter of 1783-1784: Was the Laki Eruption or an Analog of the 2009-2010 Winter to Blame?

Science.gov (United States)

D'Arrigo, Rosanne; Seager, Richard; Smerdon, Jason E.; LeGrande, Allegra N.; Cook, Edward R.

2011-01-01

The multi ]stage eruption of the Icelandic volcano Laki beginning in June, 1783 is speculated to have caused unusual dry fog and heat in western Europe and cold in North America during the 1783 summer, and record cold and snow the subsequent winter across the circum-North Atlantic. Despite the many indisputable impacts of the Laki eruption, however, its effect on climate, particularly during the 1783.1784 winter, may be the most poorly constrained. Here we test an alternative explanation for the unusual conditions during this time: that they were caused primarily by a combined negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and an El Nino ]Southern Oscillation (ENSO) warm event. A similar combination of NAO ]ENSO phases was identified as the cause of record cold and snowy conditions during the 2009.2010 winter in Europe and eastern North America. 600-year tree-ring reconstructions of NAO and ENSO indices reveal values in the 1783.1784 winter second only to their combined severity in 2009.2010. Data sources and model simulations support our hypothesis that a combined, negative NAO ]ENSO warm phase was the dominant cause of the anomalous winter of 1783.1784, and that these events likely resulted from natural variability unconnected to Laki.

Nuclear Winter: Scientists in the Political Arena

Science.gov (United States)

Badash, Lawrence

2001-03-01

The nuclear winter phenomenon is used to illustrate the many paths by which scientific advice reaches decision makers in the United States government. Because the Reagan administration was hostile to the strategic policy that the scientific discovery seemed to demand, the leading proponent of nuclear winter, Carl Sagan, used his formidable talent for popularization to reach a larger audience.

The engineering approach to winter sports

CERN Document Server

Cheli, Federico; Maldifassi, Stefano; Melzi, Stefano; Sabbioni, Edoardo

2016-01-01

The Engineering Approach to Winter Sports presents the state-of-the-art research in the field of winter sports in a harmonized and comprehensive way for a diverse audience of engineers, equipment and facilities designers, and materials scientists. The book examines the physics and chemistry of snow and ice with particular focus on the interaction (friction) between sports equipment and snow/ice, how it is influenced by environmental factors, such as temperature and pressure, as well as by contaminants and how it can be modified through the use of ski waxes or the microtextures of blades or ski soles. The authors also cover, in turn, the different disciplines in winter sports:  skiing (both alpine and cross country), skating and jumping, bob sledding and skeleton, hockey and curling, with attention given to both equipment design and on the simulation of gesture and  track optimization.

Nuclear Winter: Implications for civil defense

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chester, C.V.; Perry, A.M.; Hobbs, B.F.

1988-05-01

''Nuclear Winter'' is the term given to the cooling hypothesized to occur in the Northern Hemisphere following a nuclear war as the result of the injection of smoke from burning cities into the atmosphere. The voluminous literature on this subject produced since the paper was published in 1983 by Turco, Toon, Ackerman, Pollack, and Sagen (TTAPS) has been reviewed. Three-dimensional global circulation models have resulted in reduced estimates of cooling---15 to 25/degree/C for a summer war and a few degrees for a winter war. More serious may be the possibility of suppression of convective precipitation by the altered temperature profiles in the atmosphere. However, very large uncertainties remain in input parameters, the models, and the results of calculations. We believe the state of knowledge about nuclear winter is sufficiently developed to conclude: Neither cold nor drought is likely to be a direct threat to human survival for populations with the wherewithal to survive normal January temperatures. The principal threat from nuclear winter is to food production, and this could present problems to third parties who are without food reserves. Loss of a crop year is neither a new nor an unexpected threat from nuclear war to the United States and the Soviet Union. Both have at least a year's food reserve at all times. Both face formidable organizational problems in distributing their reserves in a war-damaged environment. The consequences of nuclear winter could be expected to fall more heavily on the Soviet Union than the United States due to its higher latitude and less productive agriculture. This may be especially true if disturbances of rainfall amounts and distribution persist for more than a year.

Managing nuclear maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1990-01-01

For utilities operating nuclear powerplants, the rules of the game continue to change. Conflicting regulatory pressures and a tougher competitive environment will make management's job more complicated and difficult in the 1990s. Dealing with these pressures successfully requires greater attention to maintenance effectiveness. Utilities can help shape their future environment by developing a well-planned strategy to guide their actions. Parts of the strategy that are discussed include developing a sound maintenance philosophy, selecting a service company, radiation exposure, and managing spare parts. This article also addresses the Swedish experience in maintenance, German philosophy regarding maintenance and the current maintenance practices of the Electricite de France

AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE HANGAR

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

GEAMBASU Gabriel George

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The paper presents the maintenance process that is done on an airplane, at a certain period of time, or after a number of flight hours or cycles and describes the checks performed behind each inspection. The first part of research describes the aircraft maintenance process that has to be done after an updated maintenance manual according with aircraft type, followed by a short introduction about maintenance hangar. The second part of the paper presents a hangar design with a foldable roof and walls, which can be folded or extended, over an airplane when a maintenance process is done, or depending on weather condition.

Winter precipitation and fire in the Sonoran Desert

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rogers, G.F.; Vint, M.K.

1987-01-01

Historical fire and climate records from the Arizona Upland portion of the Tonto National forest were used to test the hypothesis that fires burn larger areas in the Sonoran Desert after two wet winters than after one. We found that many more hectares burn in years following two winters that are wetter than normal, than during any other years. We agree with other ecologists, that desert fire occurrence is probably related to increased production of winter annual plants, and we suggest ways that the relationship may be clarified.

Maintenance Business Plans.

Science.gov (United States)

Adams, Matt

2002-01-01

Discusses maintenance business plans, statements which provide accountability for facilities maintenance organizations' considerable budgets. Discusses the plan's components: statement of plan objectives, macro and detailed description of the facility assets, maintenance function descriptions, description of key performance indicators, milestone…

Relationship of deer and moose populations to previous winters' snow

Science.gov (United States)

Mech, L.D.; McRoberts, R.E.; Peterson, R.O.; Page, R.E.

1987-01-01

(1) Linear regression was used to relate snow accumulation during single and consecutive winters with white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) fawn:doe ratios, mosse (Alces alces) twinning rates and calf:cow ratios, and annual changes in deer and moose populations. Significant relationships were found between snow accumulation during individual winters and these dependent variables during the following year. However, the strongest relationships were between the dependent variables and the sums of the snow accumulations over the previous three winters. The percentage of the variability explained was 36 to 51. (2) Significant relationships were also found between winter vulnerability of moose calves and the sum of the snow accumulations in the current, and up to seven previous, winters, with about 49% of the variability explained. (3) No relationship was found between wolf numbers and the above dependent variables. (4) These relationships imply that winter influences on maternal nutrition can accumulate for several years and that this cumulative effect strongly determines fecundity and/or calf and fawn survivability. Although wolf (Canis lupus L.) predation is the main direct mortality agent on fawns and calves, wolf density itself appears to be secondary to winter weather in influencing the deer and moose populations.

Novel psychrotolerant picocyanobacteria isolated from Chesapeake Bay in the winter.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Yongle; Jiao, Nianzhi; Chen, Feng

2015-08-01

Picocyanobacteria are major primary producers in the ocean, especially in the tropical or subtropical oceans or during warm seasons. Many "warm" picocyanobacterial species have been isolated and characterized. However, picocyanobacteria in cold environments or cold seasons are much less studied. In general, little is known about the taxonomy and ecophysiology of picocyanobacteria living in the winter. In this study, 17 strains of picocyanobacteria were isolated from Chesapeake Bay, a temperate estuarine ecosystem, during the winter months. These winter isolates belong to five distinct phylogenetic lineages, and are distinct from the picocyanobacteria previously isolated from the warm seasons. The vast majority of the winter isolates were closely related to picocyanobacteria isolated from other cold environments like Arctic or subalpine waters. The winter picocyanobacterial isolates were able to maintain slow growth or prolonged dormancy at 4°C. Interestingly, the phycoerythrin-rich strains outperformed the phycocyanin-rich strains at cold temperature. In addition, winter picocyanobacteria changed their morphology when cultivated at 4°C. The close phylogenetic relationship between the winter picocyanobacteria and the picocyanobacteria living in high latitude cold regions indicates that low temperature locations select specific ecotypes of picocyanobacteria. © 2015 Phycological Society of America.

An induced mutant of Coastcross 1 Bermudagrass with improved winter hardiness

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burton, G.W.; Constantin, M.J.; Dobson, J.W. Jr.; Hanna, W.W.; Powell, J.B.

1980-01-01

Coastcross 1 bermudagrass, a sterile F 1 hybrid, (Coastal x PI 255445) establishes faster, yields as much dry matter, is 12% more digestible, and gives 30-35% better daily gains and liveweight gains per ha when fed to cattle than does the Coastal clone but fails to develop rhizomes and lacks the winter hardiness of Coastal. To create a winter hardy mutant, 500,000 green stems were exposed to 7000 rad of 60 -Co rays at Oak Ridge, TN June 21, 1971 and were immediately planted at Blairsville, GA where relatively severe winters occur frequently. One of 4 plants surviving the 1971-72 winter was like Coastcross 1 in yield, in vitro dry matter digestibility and appearance in a 3-yr test during mild winters at Tifton, GA. Following the moderate winter of 1976-77, Coastcross 1-M3 yielded more than Coastcross 1 but only about half as much as Coastal. The severe winter of 1977-78 destroyed about 98% of the plants of Coastcross 1 and Coastcross 1-M3 but reduced the stand of Coastal very little. The small gain in winter hardiness by Coastcross 1-M3 suggests that several genes control the winter hardiness of well-established Coastal bermudagrass. (author)

North American nuclear maintenance best practices compared to Japanese utility maintenance practices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harazim, M.L.; Ferguson, B.J.

2003-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to compare the best practices in North America concerning Preventive Maintenance, Predictive Maintenance and Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) or Preventive Maintenance Optimization (PMO) with the time-directed maintenance philosophies utilized by Japanese utilities, and how the Japanese utilities are considering (and some have begun) adopting North American ways of doing business. Preventive Maintenance Living Programs are also discussed, along with the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations AP-913 process, Equipment Reliability Process. Also, a cost benefit analysis will be demonstrated showing how major cost savings can be achieved by shifting from a predominantly time-directed maintenance philosophy to a predominantly predictive strategy utilizing vibration analysis, lubricating oil analysis, thermography and other predictive technologies to better utilize resources, reduce spare part consumption and to minimize maintenance induced errors. As a result of the strides made while incorporating these new philosophies, we no longer advocate tearing apart perfectly good equipment. (author)

Winter Bottom Trawl Survey

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The standardized NEFSC Winter Bottom Trawl Survey was initiated in 1992 and covered offshore areas from the Mid-Atlantic to Georges Bank. Inshore strata were covered...

Maintenance of ageing CANDU reactors. A regulatory perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dunstan, T.

1996-01-01

The subject of this paper is, 'requirements for maintenance of ageing reactors from the perspective of a regulator', with a focus on the particular theme of; 'continuing safety assurance'. A major role of maintenance is to ensure the continuing reliability and effectiveness of safety related systems and equipment. Continuing safety assurance is an issue the Atomic Energy Control Board has been wrestling with for some time. From my perspective, much remains to be done before the AECB can be confident that Canadian nuclear plants have the necessary programs in place to achieve continuing safety assurance. To introduce the topic, it would be appropriate to say a few words about the AECB's position with respect to the situation at the Pickering NGS. Why did we blow the whistle last August and, what are we doing about it? (author)

Severe European winters in a secular perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Hoy, Andreas; Hänsel, Stephanie

2017-04-01

Temperature conditions during the winter time are substantially shaped by a strong year-to-year variability. European winters since the late 1980s - compared to previous decades and centuries - were mainly characterised by a high temperature level, including recent record-warm winters. Yet, comparably cold winters and severe cold spells still occur nowadays, like recently observed from 2009 to 2013 and in early 2017. Central England experienced its second coldest December since start of observations more than 350 years ago in 2010, and some of the lowest temperatures ever measured in northern Europe (below -50 °C in Lapland) were recorded in January 1999. Analysing thermal characteristics and spatial distribution of severe (historical) winters - using early instrumental data - helps expanding and consolidating our knowledge of past weather extremes. This contribution presents efforts towards this direction. We focus on a) compiling and assessing a very long-term instrumental, spatially widespread and well-distributed, high-quality meteorological data set to b) investigate very cold winter temperatures in Europe from early measurements until today. In a first step, we analyse the longest available time series of monthly temperature averages within Europe. Our dataset extends from the Nordic countries up to the Mediterranean and from the British Isles up to Russia. We utilise as much as possible homogenised times series in order to ensure reliable results. Homogenised data derive from the NORDHOM (Scandinavia) and HISTALP (greater alpine region) datasets or were obtained from national weather services and universities. Other (not specifically homogenised) data were derived from the ECA&D dataset or national institutions. The employed time series often start already during the 18th century, with Paris & Central England being the longest datasets (from 1659). In a second step, daily temperature averages are involved. Only some of those series are homogenised, but

A proactive condition-based maintenance strategy with both perfect and imperfect maintenance actions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Do, Phuc; Voisin, Alexandre; Levrat, Eric; Iung, Benoit

2015-01-01

This paper deals with a proactive condition-based maintenance (CBM) considering both perfect and imperfect maintenance actions for a deteriorating system. Perfect maintenance actions restore completely the system to the ‘as good as new’ state. Their related cost are however often high. The first objective of the paper is to investigate the impacts of imperfect maintenance actions. In fact, both positive and negative impacts are considered. Positive impact means that the imperfect maintenance cost is usually low. Negative impact implies that (i) the imperfect maintenance restores a system to a state between good-as-new and bad-as-old and (ii) each imperfect preventive action may accelerate the speed of the system's deterioration process. The second objective of the paper is to propose an adaptive maintenance policy which can help to select optimally maintenance actions (perfect or imperfect actions), if needed, at each inspection time. Moreover, the time interval between two successive inspection points is determined according to a remaining useful life (RUL) based-inspection policy. To illustrate the use of the proposed maintenance policy, a numerical example finally is introduced. - Highlights: • A new imperfect maintenance model for deterioration system is proposed. • Both positive and negative impacts of an imperfect maintenance action are investigated. • An adaptive condition-based maintenance policy is introduced. • The optimal number of useful imperfect maintenance actions for each life cycle is optimally provided

Competence within Maintenance

OpenAIRE

Nerland, Annette Smørholm

2010-01-01

Maintenance can be a contributing factor to unwanted events, as well as desired events and states. Human competence can be defined as the ability to perform a specific task, action or function successfully, and is therefore a key factor to proper execution of maintenance tasks. Hence,maintenance will have negative consequences if done wrong, and give positive results when done right. The purpose of this report is to study the many aspects of maintenance competence. Endeavoring to improve ...

Random maintenance policies

CERN Document Server

Nakagawa, Toshio

2014-01-01

Exploring random maintenance models, this book provides an introduction to the implementation of random maintenance, and it is one of the first books to be written on this subject.  It aims to help readers learn new techniques for applying random policies to actual reliability models, and it provides new theoretical analyses of various models including classical replacement, preventive maintenance and inspection policies. These policies are applied to scheduling problems, backup policies of database systems, maintenance policies of cumulative damage models, and reliability of random redundant systems. Reliability theory is a major concern for engineers and managers, and in light of Japan’s recent earthquake, the reliability of large-scale systems has increased in importance. This also highlights the need for a new notion of maintenance and reliability theory, and how this can practically be applied to systems. Providing an essential guide for engineers and managers specializing in reliability maintenance a...

Regional greenhouse gas emissions from cultivation of winter wheat and winter rapeseed for biofuels in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Elsgaard, Lars; Olesen, Jørgen E; Hermansen, John Erik

2013-01-01

Biofuels from bioenergy crops may substitute a significant part of fossil fuels in the transport sector where, e.g., the European Union has set a target of using 10% renewable energy by 2020. Savings of greenhouse gas emissions by biofuels vary according to cropping systems and are influenced...... by such regional factors as soil conditions, climate and input of agrochemicals. Here we analysed at a regional scale the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with cultivation of winter wheat for bioethanol and winter rapeseed for rapeseed methyl ester (RME) under Danish conditions. Emitted CO2 equivalents...

Plant Maintenance. The Licensee's Viewpoint

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ungi, T. [Heysham 2 Power Station, Nuclear Electric LTD (United Kingdom)

1997-07-01

Plant maintenance is a very complex process which requires considerable effort from both within the maintenance process and also many support activities. It is important that the plant maintenance policy is translated into a maintenance programme which will define all relevant aspects of the maintenance. An aspect of this maintenance programme will be a maintenance catalogue which will define the maintenance activities to be carried out and at what frequencies. This paper is aimed at discussing the maintenance philosophy and resulting maintenance catalogues currently adopted in Nuclear Electric Ltd, and in particular at Heysham 2 Power Station. It goes on to consider whether these maintenance catalogues contain the optimum maintenance and if not should they be changed. If change is required, the process by which this change will be brought about is also discussed. (author)

Equipment Maintenance management support system based on statistical analysis of maintenance history data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shimizu, S.; Ando, Y.; Morioka, T.

1990-01-01

Plant maintenance is recently becoming important with the increase in the number of nuclear power stations and in plant operating time. Various kinds of requirements for plant maintenance, such as countermeasures for equipment degradation and saving maintenance costs while keeping up plant reliability and productivity, are proposed. For this purpose, plant maintenance programs should be improved based on equipment reliability estimated by field data. In order to meet these requirements, it is planned to develop an equipment maintenance management support system for nuclear power plants based on statistical analysis of equipment maintenance history data. The large difference between this proposed new method and current similar methods is to evaluate not only failure data but maintenance data, which includes normal termination data and some degree of degradation or functional disorder data for equipment and parts. So, it is possible to utilize these field data for improving maintenance schedules and to evaluate actual equipment and parts reliability under the current maintenance schedule. In the present paper, the authors show the objectives of this system, an outline of this system and its functions, and the basic technique for collecting and managing of maintenance history data on statistical analysis. It is shown, from the results of feasibility tests using simulation data of maintenance history, that this system has the ability to provide useful information for maintenance and the design enhancement

Lean Maintenance Applied to Improve Maintenance Efficiency in Thermoelectric Power Plants

OpenAIRE

Orlando Duran; Andrea Capaldo; Paulo Andrés Duran Acevedo

2017-01-01

Thermoelectric power plants consist of a set of critical equipment that require high levels of availability and reliability. Due to this, maintenance of these physical assets is gaining momentum in industry. Maintenance is considered as an activity that contributes to improving the availability, efficiency and productivity of each piece of equipment. Several techniques have been used to achieve greater efficiencies in maintenance, among which we can find the lean maintenance philosophy. Despi...

Advanced maintenance strategies for power plant operators - introducing inter-plant life cycle management. ZES research focus 'condition-based maintenance in power engineering'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Graeber, U.

2003-01-01

The optimisation of maintenance activities observed in recent years can be attributed above all to the use and continuing development of testing and diagnostic techniques, to the increased level of system and component automation and to more efficient work organisation. Despite the considerable success of these efforts, the potential for further cost reductions is still far from exhausted. The risks connected to reliability, availability and safety need to be analysed in greater detail in order to ensure the sustainability of the savings already achieved as well as those yet to be realised. The systematic application of condition-based maintenance and the introduction of structured life cycle management are essential prerequisites. Within the framework of its ''Condition-Based Maintenance in Power Engineering'' research focus, the Energy Research Centre (ZES) has set up a specialist network in which experts from various institutes belonging to the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and the Faculty of Informatic, Electrical Engineering and Information Technology can develop interdisciplinary solutions for advanced maintenance strategies. The ZES offers the industry a platform for cooperating on current issues relating to the supply of energy and supports the movement towards sustainable improvements to competitiveness through research and consulting activities. It applies professional project and quality management procedures to ensure that contracts covering interdisciplinary topics and projects are handled in a coherent manner. (orig.)

Using the system maintenance datastore to characterize lifetime maintenance for PLiM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Watson, P.; Dam, R.; Nickerson, J.

2004-01-01

A comprehensive Plant Life Management (PLiM) program involves evaluating a large amount of information. For any plant, there are numerous maintenance, surveillance and inspection programs for the important systems, structures and components. There is extensive industry experience on component failure modes, degradation mechanisms and recommended maintenance practices. This information forms the basis of the aging assessment work, through which improvements to these plant programs are identified. AECL has developed several tools to manage the quantities of information required in aging assessment studies, such as the SYSTMS (SYtematic approach for the development of STrategy for Maintenance and Surveillance) tool and the System Maintenance Datastore (SMD). The SMD has been developed to serve as a hub to a Systematic based Adaptive Maintenance Program (SAMP), by storing maintenance resource requirements for recommended maintenance tasks for use by the other processes in a SAMP. The SMD can be used to (a) quantify the savings or cost of optimising a maintenance program, (b) characterize and understand long term trends in condition-based maintenance due to component aging, (c) quantify the resource savings due to optimum timing of component replacement or general plant refurbishment, and (d) provide aging assessment cost information for input to plant asset evaluation. The SMD contains data for regular maintenance program tasks, plant condition assessment recommendations, and equipment refurbishment costs. A prototype SMD has been developed with data tables populated with information from operating CANDU stations. The SMD is now available to be used either with a SYSTMS evaluation or with a plant's database of maintenance tasks. (author)

The influence of winter swimming on the rheological properties of blood.

Science.gov (United States)

Teległów, Aneta; Dąbrowski, Zbigniew; Marchewka, Anna; Tyka, Aleksander; Krawczyk, Marcin; Głodzik, Jacek; Szyguła, Zbigniew; Mleczko, Edward; Bilski, Jan; Tyka, Anna; Tabarowski, Zbigniew; Czepiel, Jacek; Filar-Mierzwa, Katarzyna

2014-01-01

The aim of this study was to analyze the changes in blood rheology resulting from regular winter swimming. The study was carried out on 12 male winter swimmers. Venous blood for morphological, biochemical and rheological analysis was sampled twice from each winter swimmer - at the beginning of the season and after its completion. There were no significant changes detected in the median values of most blood morphological parameters. The only exception pertained to MCHC which was significantly lower after the season. Winter swimming entailed significant decrease in median elongation index values at shear stress levels of 0.30 Pa and 0.58 Pa, and significant increase in median values of this parameter at shear stress levels ≥1.13 Pa. No significant changes were observed in winter swimmers' median values of aggregation indices and plasma viscosity. The median level of glucose was lower post winter swimming in comparison to the pre-seasonal values. In contrast, one season of winter swimming did not influence swimmers' median value of fibrinogen concentration. In summary, this study revealed positive effects of winter swimming on the rheological properties of blood, manifested by an increase in erythrocyte deformability without accompanying changes in erythrocyte aggregation.

Mortality impact of extreme winter temperatures

Science.gov (United States)

Díaz, Julio; García, Ricardo; López, César; Linares, Cristina; Tobías, Aurelio; Prieto, Luis

2005-01-01

During the last few years great attention has been paid to the evaluation of the impact of extreme temperatures on human health. This paper examines the effect of extreme winter temperature on mortality in Madrid for people older than 65, using ARIMA and GAM models. Data correspond to 1,815 winter days over the period 1986 1997, during which time a total of 133,000 deaths occurred. The daily maximum temperature (Tmax) was shown to be the best thermal indicator of the impact of climate on mortality. When total mortality was considered, the maximum impact occured 7 8 days after a temperature extreme; for circulatory diseases the lag was between 7 and 14 days. When respiratory causes were considered, two mortality peaks were evident at 4 5 and 11 days. When the impact of winter extreme temperatures was compared with that associated with summer extremes, it was found to occur over a longer term, and appeared to be more indirect.

Increasing Winter Maximal Metabolic Rate Improves Intrawinter Survival in Small Birds.

Science.gov (United States)

Petit, Magali; Clavijo-Baquet, Sabrina; Vézina, François

Small resident bird species living at northern latitudes increase their metabolism in winter, and this is widely assumed to improve their chances of survival. However, the relationship between winter metabolic performance and survival has yet to be demonstrated. Using capture-mark-recapture, we followed a population of free-living black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) over 3 yr and evaluated their survival probability within and among winters. We also measured the size-independent body mass (M s ), hematocrit (Hct), basal metabolic rate (BMR), and maximal thermogenic capacity (Msum) and investigated how these parameters influenced survival within and among winters. Results showed that survival probability was high and constant both within (0.92) and among (0.96) winters. They also showed that while M s , Hct, and BMR had no significant influence, survival was positively related to Msum-following a sigmoid relationship-within but not among winter. Birds expressing an Msum below 1.26 W (i.e., similar to summer levels) had a winter. Our data therefore suggest that black-capped chickadees that are either too slow or unable to adjust their phenotype from summer to winter have little chances of survival and thus that seasonal upregulation of metabolic performance is highly beneficial. This study is the first to document in an avian system the relationship between thermogenic capacity and winter survival, a proxy of fitness.

Two Different Maintenance Strategies in the Hospital Environment: Preventive Maintenance for Older Technology Devices and Predictive Maintenance for Newer High-Tech Devices.

Science.gov (United States)

Sezdi, Mana

2016-01-01

A maintenance program generated through the consideration of characteristics and failures of medical equipment is an important component of technology management. However, older technology devices and newer high-tech devices cannot be efficiently managed using the same strategies because of their different characteristics. This study aimed to generate a maintenance program comprising two different strategies to increase the efficiency of device management: preventive maintenance for older technology devices and predictive maintenance for newer high-tech devices. For preventive maintenance development, 589 older technology devices were subjected to performance verification and safety testing (PVST). For predictive maintenance development, the manufacturers' recommendations were used for 134 high-tech devices. These strategies were evaluated in terms of device reliability. This study recommends the use of two different maintenance strategies for old and new devices at hospitals in developing countries. Thus, older technology devices that applied only corrective maintenance will be included in maintenance like high-tech devices.

Winter cover crop effect on corn seedling pathogens

Science.gov (United States)

Cover crops are an excellent management tool to improve the sustainability of agriculture. Winter rye cover crops have been used successfully in Iowa corn-soybean rotations. Unfortunately, winter rye cover crops occasionally reduce yields of the following corn crop. We hypothesize that one potential...

Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus and climate change: Importance of winter forage

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thrine Moen Heggberget

2002-06-01

Full Text Available As a consequence of increasing greenhouse gas concentrations, climate change is predicted to be particularly pronounced, although regionally variable, in the vast arctic, sub-arctic and alpine tundra areas of the northern hemisphere. Here, we review winter foraging conditions for reindeer and caribou (Rangifer tarandus living in these areas, and consider diet, forage quality and distribution, accessibility due to snow variation, and effects of snow condition on reindeer and caribou populations. Finally, we hypothesise how global warming may affect wild mountain reindeer herds in South Norway. Energy-rich lichens often dominate reindeer and caribou diets. The animals also prefer lichens, and their productivity has been shown to be higher on lichen-rich than on lichen-poor ranges. Nevertheless, this energy source appears to be neither sufficient as winter diet for reindeer or caribou (at least for pregnant females nor necessary. Some reindeer and caribou populations seem to be better adapted to a non-lichen winter diet, e.g. by a larger alimentary tract. Shrubs appear to be the most common alternative winter forage, while some grasses appear to represent a good, nutritionally-balanced winter diet. Reindeer/caribou make good use of a wide variety of plants in winter, including dead and dry parts that are digested more than expected based on their fibre content. The diversity of winter forage is probably important for the mineral content of the diet. A lichen-dominated winter diet may be deficient in essential dietary elements, e.g. minerals. Sodium in particular may be marginal in inland winter ranges. Our review indicates that most Rangifer populations with lichen-dominated winter diets are either periodically or continuously heavily harvested by humans or predators. However, when population size is mainly limited by food, accessible lichen resources are often depleted. Plant studies simulating climatic change indicate that a warmer, wetter

Planning of traumatological hospital resources for a major winter sporting event as illustrated by the 2005 Winter Universiad.

Science.gov (United States)

Oberladstaetter, J; Kamelger, F S; Rosenberger, R; Dallapozza, Ch; Struve, P; Luger, T; Fink, Ch; Attal, R

2009-03-01

The 22nd Student World Winter Games took place in January 2005 in Innsbruck and Seefeld, Austria. Exactly 1,500 athletes of 50 nationalities competed in 69 events in ten winter sports. A total number of 750 functionaries, 800 volunteers and 85,000 spectators participated in the second largest winter sports event behind the Olympic winter games. The aim of this study was to evaluate the needed resources to ensure traumatological care for an event of that size. At the medical "call-center" all consultations, as well as patient data, diagnosis, and medical treatment were recorded using a preset protocol. Further, all patients treated in the University Hospital Innsbruck were registered with an emphasis on trauma patients. Forty-eight of 65 patients transported to the hospital as a result of the Universiade were trauma patients, 37 of whom were athletes. The gender distribution was 34:14 (m:f). Ice hockey players had the highest rate of injury (25% of all injured athletes), followed by alpine skiers (20.8% of injured athletes). The highest ISS was nine. Forty-three patients got ambulatory treatment, five were admitted to the hospital and surgical treatment was conducted in three cases. Mean patient number was 4.8 per day. No additional personnel, structural, or technical hospital resources were needed to accommodate a large winter sports event like the Universiad. Thus, a level-B trauma center with an emergency room and independent traumatological department with around the clock surgical capability seems to be sufficient to provide traumatological care for an event of this size if the possibility of patient transport to a larger facility exists in the case of catastrophic events.

Zimbabwean fourth social workers conference and winter school ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Such steps include running the Annual Social Workers Conference & Winter School. This annual observance creates a platform to showcase the goals and accomplishments of diverse social work professionals in the country, give a report on progress and convening a social work winter school for exchanging professional ...

Winter-APK voor bijen : Helpt u deze winter mee bij het praktijkonderzoek?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Som de Cerff, B.; Cornelissen, B.; Moens, F.

2013-01-01

Om de risico’s van een aanrijding bij sneeuw en gladheid te verminderen, laten steeds meer automobilisten bij het monteren van winterbanden ook een wintercontrole uitvoeren. Zou een dergelijke controle voor de winter ook schade aan onze volken in de vorm van wintersterfte kunnen verminderen? Dat zou

STIMULATION OF RESISTANCE OF BEE FAMILIES DURING WINTERING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

nicolae eremia

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Honey bees use as food nectar, honey, pollen and bee bread. They collect nectar and pollen on flowers, that process in food - honey and bee bread. Food provides the bees body with energy due to carbohydrates, proteins, enzymes, lipids, vitamins, minerals. The goal of the studies was to stimulate the bees’ resistance during wintering against nesemosa disease in bee families’ survival after winter time and productivity increasing. There was established that the optimal dose of feed additive Pramix Bionorm P (symbiotic complex, in reserves supplementing of food of bee families during autumn is 150 mg of sugar syrup. There was revealed that using of the feed additive Pramix Bionorm P (symbiotic complex, in bees feeding for reserves supplementing of bees food ensures a stimulating of resistance at wintering of bees, decreases the quantity of used honey during wintering at one space between honey combs populated with bees, as well increases the productivity.

Integrated maintenance program (IMP)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zemdegs, R.T.; Chout, Q.B.

1998-01-01

Approaches to the maintenance of nuclear power plants have undergone significant change in the past several decades. The traditional breakdown approach has been displaced by preventive (calendar-based) maintenance and more recently, by condition-based maintenance (CBM). This is largely driven by the fact that traditional maintenance programs, derived primarily from equipment vendor recommendations, are generally unsuccessful in controlling maintenance costs or equipment failures. Many advances in the maintenance field have taken place since the maintenance plans for Ontario Hydro's nuclear plants were initially established. Ontario Hydro nuclear plant operating costs can be substantially reduced and Incapability Factor improved with the application of modern maintenance processes and tools. Pickering is designated as the lead station for IMP. Of immediate concern is the fact that Pickering Nuclear Division has been experiencing a significant backlog of Operating Preventive Maintenance Callups. This backlog, over 2000, is unacceptable to both station management and the nuclear regulator, the Atomic Energy Control Board. In addition there are over 500 callups in various stages of revision (in hyperspace) without an adequate control nor reporting system to manage their completion. There is also considerable confusion about the classification of l icensing c allups, e.g. callups which are mandatory as a result of legal requirements. Furthermore the ineffectiveness of the Preventive Maintenance (PM) has been the subject of peer audits and Atomic Energy Control Board (AECB) findings over the past several years. The current preventive maintenance ratio PM2 /(PM+CM3) at Pickering ND is less than 20%, due to the current high load of equipment breakdown. This past summer, an Independent Integrated Performance Assessment (IIPA) review at Ontario Hydro confirmed these concerns. Over the past several years, Ontario Hydro nuclear staff have evaluated several programs to improve

Maintenance work management system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kanai, T.; Takahashi, Y.; Takahashi, K.; Nishino, M.; Takeshige, R.

2000-01-01

The maintenance work management system supports the efficient drawing up of various documents for the maintenance work at nuclear power stations and the speeding up of the permission procedure. In addition, it improves the quality assurance of the safety and reliability of the maintenance work. Key merits of the system are: 1. Efficiently drawing up various documents for the maintenance work by using the stored data for the previous maintenance work and the pipe and instrument diagram (P and ID) data. 2. Supporting the management work for the completion of maintenance work safety by using the isolation information stored on the computer system. 3. Speeding up the permission procedure by electronic mail and electronic permission. 4. Displaying additional information such as the specifications of equipment, maintenance result, and maintenance plan by linking up with the database of another system. 5. Reducing the cost of hardware devices by using client/server network configurations of personal computers and a personal computer server. (author)

Safety culture in the maintenance of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-01-01

Safety culture is the complexity of beliefs, shared values and behaviour reflected in making decisions and performing work in a nuclear power plant or nuclear facility. The definition of safety culture and the related concepts presented in the IAEA literature are widely known to experts. Since the publication of Safety Culture, issued by the IAEA as INSAG-4 in 1991, the IAEA has produced a number of publications on strengthening the safety culture in organizations that operate nuclear power plants and nuclear facilities. However, until now the focus has been primarily on the area of operations. Apart from operations, maintenance in plants and nuclear facilities is an aspect that deserves special attention, as maintenance activities can have both a direct and an indirect effect on equipment reliability. Adverse safety effects can arise, depending upon the level of skill of the personnel involved, safety awareness and the complexity of the work process. Any delayed effects resulting from challenges to maintenance can cause interruptions in operation, and hence affect the safety of a plant or facility. Building upon earlier IAEA publications on this topic, this Safety Report reviews how challenges to the maintenance of nuclear power plants can affect safety culture. It also highlights indications of a weakening safety culture. The challenges described are in areas such as maintenance management; human resources management; plant condition assessment and the business environment. The steps that some Member States have taken to address safety culture aspects are detailed and singled out as good practices, with a view to disseminating and exchanging experiences and lessons learned. Although this report is primarily directed at plant maintenance organizations, the subject matter is applicable to a wider audience, including plant contracting organizations and regulatory authorities

Maintenance Production Demand and Capacity Analysis of Third Maintenance Battalion

Science.gov (United States)

2017-12-01

Delivery T/E Table of Equipment TFSMS Total Force Structure Management System TFSP Total Force Structure Process TM Technical Manual T/O Table of...exercises each year, both on Okinawa and throughout the Pacific theater. When equipment requires maintenance beyond the organizational -level...demand was analyzed based on customer cycle time (i.e., time that equipment was in Third Maintenance Battalion custody), maintenance cycle time during

Condition-based maintenance effectiveness for series–parallel power generation system—A combined Markovian simulation model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Azadeh, A.; Asadzadeh, S.M.; Salehi, N.; Firoozi, M.

2015-01-01

Condition-based maintenance (CBM) is an increasingly applicable policy in the competitive marketplace as a means of improving equipment reliability and efficiency. Not only has maintenance a close relationship with safety but its costs also make it even more attractive issue for researchers. This study proposes a model to evaluate the effectiveness of CBM policy compared to two other maintenance policies: Corrective Maintenance (CM) and Preventive Maintenance (PM). Maintenance policies are compared through two system performance indicators: reliability and cost. To estimate the reliability and costs of the system, the proposed Markovian discrete-event simulation model is developed under each of these policies. The applicability and usefulness of the proposed Markovian simulation model is illustrated for a series–parallel power generation system. The simulated characteristics of CBM system include its prognostics efficiency to estimate remaining useful life of the equipment. Results show that with an efficient prognostics, CBM policy is an effective strategy compared to other maintenance strategies. - Highlights: • A model is developed to evaluate the effectiveness of CBM policy. • Maintenance policies are compared through reliability and cost. • A Markovian simulation model is developed. • A series–parallel power generation system is considered. • CBM is an effective strategy compared to others

Improved Nuclear Power Plant maintenance. Application to Cofrentes NPP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Serradell, V.

2002-01-01

The Industrial Safety and Environment Group (MEDASEGI) of the Valencia Polytechnic University (UPV) develops its activities in the fields of environmental radioactivity metrology and risk analysis and management aimed at improving industrial safety. The different lines of research developed by this group include collaboration with Cofrentes NPP. This collaboration began in 1993 and has primarily focused on issues related to improved maintenance and currently on life management. (Author)

A Situational Maintenance Model

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Luxhoj, James T.; Thorsteinsson, Uffe; Riis, Jens Ove

1997-01-01

An overview of trend in maintenance management and presentation of a situational model and an analytical tools for identification of managerial efforts in maintenance.......An overview of trend in maintenance management and presentation of a situational model and an analytical tools for identification of managerial efforts in maintenance....

European seasonal mortality and influenza incidence due to winter temperature variability

Science.gov (United States)

Rodó, X.; Ballester, J.; Robine, J. M.; Herrmann, F. R.

2017-12-01

Recent studies have vividly emphasized the lack of consensus on the degree of vulnerability (sensu IPCC) of European societies to current and future winter temperatures. Here we consider several climate factors, influenza incidence and daily numbers of deaths to characterize the relationship between winter temperature and mortality in a very large ensemble of European regions representing more than 400 million people. Analyses highlight the strong association between the year-to-year fluctuations in winter mean temperature and mortality, with higher seasonal cases during harsh winters, in all of the countries except the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Belgium. This spatial distribution contrasts with the well-documented latitudinal orientation of the dependency between daily temperature and mortality within the season. A theoretical framework is proposed to reconcile the apparent contradictions between recent studies, offering an interpretation to regional differences in the vulnerability to daily, seasonal and long-term winter temperature variability. Despite the lack of a strong year-to-year association between winter mean values in some countries, it can be concluded that warmer winters will contribute to the decrease in winter mortality everywhere in Europe. More information in Ballester J, et al. (2016) Nature Climate Change 6, 927-930, doi:10.1038/NCLIMATE3070.

Migration and wintering sites of Pelagic Cormorants determined by satellite telemetry

Science.gov (United States)

Hatch, Shyla A.; Gill, V.A.; Mulcahy, D.M.

2011-01-01

Factors affecting winter survival may be key determinants of status and population trends of seabirds, but connections between breeding sites and wintering areas of most populations are poorly known. Pelagic Cormorants (Phalacrocorax pelagicus; N= 6) surgically implanted with satellite transmitters migrated from a breeding colony on Middleton Island, northern Gulf of Alaska, to wintering sites in southeast Alaska and northern British Columbia. Winter locations averaged 920 km (range = 600-1190 km) from the breeding site. Migration flights in fall and spring lasted ???5 d in four instances. After reaching wintering areas, cormorants settled in narrowly circumscribed inshore locations (~10-km radius) and remained there throughout the nonbreeding period (September- March). Two juveniles tagged at the breeding colony as fledglings remained at their wintering sites for the duration of the tracking interval (14 and 22 mo, respectively). Most cormorants used multiple sites within their winter ranges for roosting and foraging. Band recoveries show that Pelagic Cormorants in southern British Columbia and Washington disperse locally in winter, rather than migrating like the cormorants in our study. Radio-tagging and monitoring cormorants and other seabirds from known breeding sites are vital for understanding migratory connectivity and improving conservation strategies for local populations. ?? 2011 The Authors. Journal of Field Ornithology ?? 2011 Association of Field Ornithologists.

Grounds Maintenance Equipment and Procedures. Building Maintenance. Module VI. Instructor's Guide.

Science.gov (United States)

Crank, Virgil

This curriculum guide, one of six modules keyed to the building maintenance competency profile developed by industry and education professionals, provides materials for two units on grounds maintenance equipment and procedures. The first unit deals with grounds maintenance equipment and includes the following lessons: safety; changing oil/filter…

Major role of microbes in carbon fluxes during Austral winter in the Southern Drake Passage.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maura Manganelli

Full Text Available Carbon cycling in Southern Ocean is a major issue in climate change, hence the need to understand the role of biota in the regulation of carbon fixation and cycling. Southern Ocean is a heterogeneous system, characterized by a strong seasonality, due to long dark winter. Yet, currently little is known about biogeochemical dynamics during this season, particularly in the deeper part of the ocean. We studied bacterial communities and processes in summer and winter cruises in the southern Drake Passage. Here we show that in winter, when the primary production is greatly reduced, Bacteria and Archaea become the major producers of biogenic particles, at the expense of dissolved organic carbon drawdown. Heterotrophic production and chemoautotrophic CO(2 fixation rates were substantial, also in deep water, and bacterial populations were controlled by protists and viruses. A dynamic food web is also consistent with the observed temporal and spatial variations in archaeal and bacterial communities that might exploit various niches. Thus, Southern Ocean microbial loop may substantially maintain a wintertime food web and system respiration at the expense of summer produced DOC as well as regenerate nutrients and iron. Our findings have important implications for Southern Ocean ecosystem functioning and carbon cycle and its manipulation by iron enrichment to achieve net sequestration of atmospheric CO(2.

Comparison of Selected Morphological, Rheological and Biochemical Parameters of Winter Swimmers' Blood at the End of One Winter Swimming Season and at the Beginning of Another.

Science.gov (United States)

Teległów, Aneta; Marchewka, Jakub; Tabarowski, Zbigniew; Rembiasz, Konrad; Głodzik, Jacek; Scisłowska-Czarnecka, Anna

2015-01-01

The aim of the study was to examine potential differences in the morphological, rheological and biochemical blood parameters of winter swimmers who remained physically active during the period between the end of one winter swimming season and the beginning of another. The study included a group of healthy winter swimmers (n = 17, all between 30 and 60 years of age). Six months following the end of winter season, the levels of mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration and mean corpuscular hemoglobin turned out to be significantly higher, while erythrocyte count and hematocrit level significantly lower than at the baseline. Moreover, the break in winter swimming was reflected by a significant increase in median erythrocyte elongation index at all shear stress levels ≥ 1.13 Pa. The only significant changes in biochemical parameters of the blood pertained to an increase in the concentration of transferrin and to a decrease in the total protein, albumin and beta-1 globulin concentrations. Seasonal effort of winter swimmers between the end of one winter swimming season and the beginning of another has a positive influence on morphological, rheological and biochemical blood parameters.

Site Maintenance Plan: Part 2, Site Maintenance Action Plan for FY 1994

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fisk, E.L.

1994-06-01

This Fiscal Year (FY) 1994 Site Maintenance Action Plan (SMAP) is Part II of the Site Maintenance Plan, and has been written by Westinghouse Hanford Company (WHC) to outline the requirements stated in DOE Order 4330.4B, Maintenance Management Program, Chapter 1, Paragraph 3.3.1. The SMAP provides an annual status of maintenance initiatives completed and planned, a summary of performance indicators, a summary of maintenance backlog, a listing of real property and capital equipment maintenance cost estimates that were used to create the FY 1996 infrastructure and maintenance budget input, and a listing of proposed line item and general plant projects. Additionally, assumptions for various Site programs are listed to bring the Site Maintenance Plan into focus with overall Site activities. The primary mission at Hanford is to clean up the Site. In this cleanup process WHC will provide scientific and technological expertise to meet global needs, and partnership with stakeholders in the region to develop regional economic diversification. Other missions at the Hanford Site include energy research and development, and waste management and disposal activities. Their primary mission has a 30-year projected life span and will direct the shutting down and cleanup of defense production facilities and the Fast Flux Test Facility. This long-term mission requires continuous maintenance and in many instances, replacement of existing basic infrastructure, support facilities, and utilities. Without adequate maintenance and capital funding these infrastructure, support facilities, and utilities will continue to deteriorate causing an increase in backlogged work.

Site Maintenance Plan: Part 2, Site Maintenance Action Plan for FY 1994

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fisk, E.L.

1994-06-01

This Fiscal Year (FY) 1994 Site Maintenance Action Plan (SMAP) is Part II of the Site Maintenance Plan, and has been written by Westinghouse Hanford Company (WHC) to outline the requirements stated in DOE Order 4330.4B, Maintenance Management Program, Chapter 1, Paragraph 3.3.1. The SMAP provides an annual status of maintenance initiatives completed and planned, a summary of performance indicators, a summary of maintenance backlog, a listing of real property and capital equipment maintenance cost estimates that were used to create the FY 1996 infrastructure and maintenance budget input, and a listing of proposed line item and general plant projects. Additionally, assumptions for various Site programs are listed to bring the Site Maintenance Plan into focus with overall Site activities. The primary mission at Hanford is to clean up the Site. In this cleanup process WHC will provide scientific and technological expertise to meet global needs, and partnership with stakeholders in the region to develop regional economic diversification. Other missions at the Hanford Site include energy research and development, and waste management and disposal activities. Their primary mission has a 30-year projected life span and will direct the shutting down and cleanup of defense production facilities and the Fast Flux Test Facility. This long-term mission requires continuous maintenance and in many instances, replacement of existing basic infrastructure, support facilities, and utilities. Without adequate maintenance and capital funding these infrastructure, support facilities, and utilities will continue to deteriorate causing an increase in backlogged work

Polar vortex evolution during Northern Hemispheric winter 2004/05

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. Chshyolkova

2007-06-01

Full Text Available As a part of the project "Atmospheric Wave Influences upon the Winter Polar Vortices (0–100 km" of the CAWSES program, data from meteor and Medium Frequency radars at 12 locations and MetO (UK Meteorological Office global assimilated fields have been analyzed for the first campaign during the Northern Hemispheric winter of 2004/05. The stratospheric state has been described using the conventional zonal mean parameters as well as Q-diagnostic, which allows consideration of the longitudinal variability. The stratosphere was cold during winter of 2004/05, and the polar vortex was relatively strong during most of the winter with relatively weak disturbances occurring at the end of December and the end of January. For this winter the strongest deformation with the splitting of the polar vortex in the lower stratosphere was observed at the end of February. Here the results show strong latitudinal and longitudinal differences that are evident in the stratospheric and mesospheric data sets at different stations. Eastward winds are weaker and oscillations with planetary wave periods have smaller amplitudes at more poleward stations. Accordingly, the occurrence, time and magnitude of the observed reversal of the zonal mesospheric winds associated with stratospheric disturbances depend on the local stratospheric conditions. In general, compared to previous years, the winter of 2004/05 could be characterized by weak planetary wave activity at stratospheric and mesospheric heights.

Maintenance-Ready Web Application Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ion IVAN

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The current paper tackles the subject of developing maintenance-ready web applications. Maintenance is presented as a core stage in a web application’s lifecycle. The concept of maintenance-ready is defined in the context of web application development. Web application maintenance tasks types are enunciated and suitable task types are identified for further analysis. The research hypothesis is formulated based on a direct link between tackling maintenance in the development stage and reducing overall maintenance costs. A live maintenance-ready web application is presented and maintenance related aspects are highlighted. The web application’s features, that render it maintenance-ready, are emphasize. The cost of designing and building the web-application to be maintenance-ready are disclosed. The savings in maintenance development effort facilitated by maintenance ready features are also disclosed. Maintenance data is collected from 40 projects implemented by a web development company. Homogeneity and diversity of collected data is evaluated. A data sample is presented and the size and comprehensive nature of the entire dataset is depicted. Research hypothesis are validated and conclusions are formulated on the topic of developing maintenance-ready web applications. The limits of the research process which represented the basis for the current paper are enunciated. Future research topics are submitted for debate.

Design and evaluation of augmented reality for nuclear power plant maintenance based on Cognitive activity analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koo, Jwa Jin

2008-02-01

The goals of maintenance in nuclear power plants (NPPs) are to reduce the number of plant shutdowns, to decrease the shutdown time, to minimize the maintenance costs, and to improve nuclear safety. Furthermore, it is difficult for maintenance personnel to conduct work in NPPs due to the complexity of NPPs, safety issues and time constraints. Human errors should be prevented to achieve maintenance goals in NPPs. Therefore, it is necessary to improve working conditions by introducing support systems. Augmented Reality (AR) has the potential to assist with maintenance tasks and make maintenance personnel concentrate on the tasks, which will then the reduced human error and improve human performance. The working procedure for AR systems was designed based on the characteristics of cognitive activity, and an experiment was conducted to estimate the effectiveness of AR. The results indicated that a well-designed working procedure for AR systems was more effective than a conventional paper-based working procedure. In addition, participants made fewer errors using the designed working procedure. AR systems as maintenance support systems are beneficial technology that can improve maintenance performance by reducing cognitive loads and unnecessary movements. An AR application can be attractive and effective at supporting maintenance task

Regulatory issues for nuclear power plant life management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roe, J.

2000-01-01

The workshop of 26-27 june 2000, on nuclear power Plant LIfe Management (PLIM), also included working groups in which major issues facing PLIM activities for nuclear power plants were identified and discussed. The second group was on Regulation. The Regulatory Working Group will attempt to identify some of the more pertinent issues affecting nuclear plant regulation in a changing PLIM environment, to identify some possible actions to be taken to address these issues, and to identify some of the parties responsible for taking these actions. Some preliminary regulatory issues are noted below. This is not intended to be a comprehensive list of such issues but rather is intended to stimulate discussion among the experts attending this Workshop. One of the concerns in the regulatory arena is how the structural integrity of the plants can be assured for an extended lifetime. Technological advances directed toward the following are likely to be important factors in the regulatory process of life extension. - Preventive and corrective maintenance (e.g., water chemistry control, pressure vessel annealing, and replacement of core internals). - Ageing and degradation mechanisms and evaluation (e.g., embrittlement, wear, corrosion/erosion, fatigue, and stress corrosion). - Monitoring, surveillance, and inspection (e.g., fatigue monitoring and non-destructive testing). - Optimisation of maintenance (e.g., using risk-based analysis). On the business side, there is concern about technical support by manufacturers, fuel companies, and construction companies. Maintaining a strong technical base and skilled workers in a potentially declining environment is another concern in the regulatory community. Waste management and decommissioning remain significant issue regarding PLIM. These issues affect all three areas of concern - technology, business, and regulation. It is against this background, that the issues put forth in this paper are presented. The objective of presenting these

Integrating Safety in the Aviation System: Interdepartmental Training for Pilots and Maintenance Technicians

Science.gov (United States)

Mattson, Marifran; Petrin, Donald A.; Young, John P.

2001-01-01

The study of human factors has had a decisive impact on the aviation industry. However, the entire aviation system often is not considered in researching, training, and evaluating human factors issues especially with regard to safety. In both conceptual and practical terms, we argue for the proactive management of human error from both an individual and organizational systems perspective. The results of a multidisciplinary research project incorporating survey data from professional pilots and maintenance technicians and an exploratory study integrating students from relevant disciplines are reported. Survey findings suggest that latent safety errors may occur during the maintenance discrepancy reporting process because pilots and maintenance technicians do not effectively interact with one another. The importance of interdepartmental or cross-disciplinary training for decreasing these errors and increasing safety is discussed as a primary implication.

Overhead irrigation increased winter chilling and floral bud ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Eucalyptus nitens requires a sufficiently cold winter to produce flower buds. In areas in South Africa where E. nitens commercial plantations as well as breeding and production seed orchards are located, winter chilling is often insufficient for floral bud initiation. Hence, under such conditions, E. nitens floral bud and seed ...

Does Wyoming's Core Area Policy Protect Winter Habitats for Greater Sage-Grouse?

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Kurt T.; Beck, Jeffrey L.; Pratt, Aaron C.

2016-10-01

Conservation reserves established to protect important habitat for wildlife species are used world-wide as a wildlife conservation measure. Effective reserves must adequately protect year-round habitats to maintain wildlife populations. Wyoming's Sage-Grouse Core Area policy was established to protect breeding habitats for greater sage-grouse ( Centrocercus urophasianus). Protecting only one important seasonal habitat could result in loss or degradation of other important habitats and potential declines in local populations. The purpose of our study was to identify the timing of winter habitat use, the extent which individuals breeding in Core Areas used winter habitats, and develop resource selection functions to assess effectiveness of Core Areas in conserving sage-grouse winter habitats in portions of 5 Core Areas in central and north-central Wyoming during winters 2011-2015. We found that use of winter habitats occured over a longer period than current Core Area winter timing stipulations and a substantial amount of winter habitat outside of Core Areas was used by individuals that bred in Core Areas, particularly in smaller Core Areas. Resource selection functions for each study area indicated that sage-grouse were selecting habitats in response to landscapes dominated by big sagebrush and flatter topography similar to other research on sage-grouse winter habitat selection. The substantial portion of sage-grouse locations and predicted probability of selection during winter outside small Core Areas illustrate that winter requirements for sage-grouse are not adequately met by existing Core Areas. Consequently, further considerations for identifying and managing important winter sage-grouse habitats under Wyoming's Core Area Policy are warranted.

Simulated maintenance a virtual reality

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lirvall, P.

1995-01-01

The article describes potential applications of personal computer-based virtual reality software. The applications are being investigated by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited's (AECL) Chalk River Laboratories for the Canadian deuterium-uranium (Candu) reactor. Objectives include: (1) reduction of outage duration and improved safety, (2) cost-effective and safe maintenance of equipment, (3) reduction of exposure times and identification of overexposure situations, (4) cost-effective training in a virtual control room simulator, (5) human factors evaluation of design interface, and (6) visualization of conceptual and detailed designs of critical nuclear field environments. A demonstration model of a typical reactor control room, the use of virtual reality in outage planning, and safety issues are outlined

Overview of progress on the European DEMO remote maintenance strategy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Crofts, Oliver, E-mail: oliver.crofts@ccfe.ac.uk [RACE/UKAEA, Culham Science Centre, Abingdon OX14 3DB, Oxon (United Kingdom); Loving, Antony; Iglesias, Daniel [RACE/UKAEA, Culham Science Centre, Abingdon OX14 3DB, Oxon (United Kingdom); Coleman, Matti [EUROfusion Consortium, PPP& T Department, Boltzmannstraße 2, 85748 Garching (Germany); Siuko, Mikko [VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, PO Box 1000, FI-02044 VTT, Espoo (Finland); Mittwollen, Martin [KIT Institut für Fördertechnik und Logistiksysteme, Gotthard-Franz-Straße 8, Geb.50.38, 76131 Karlsruhe (Germany); Queral, Vicente [CIEMAT Laboratorio Nacional de Fusión, Edif. 66, Avenida Complutense 40, 28040 Madrid (Spain); Vale, Alberto [IST, Instituto Superior Técnico, Av. Rovisco Pais 1, 1049-001 Lisboa (Portugal); Villedieu, Eric [CEA, IRFM, 13108 St Paul lez Durance (France)

2016-11-01

Highlights: • The remote maintenance strategy is applicable to the range of tokamak and component options currently under consideration in Europe • The remote maintenance development work is concentrating on the application and limits of the immature technologies that pose the greatest risk to the feasibility of the maintenance strategy • Position control during the handling of the in-vessel components is one of the areas of high risk and a system is being developed and will be tested prior to concept design to demonstrate the feasibility and capability of a system capable of real time incorporation of changing kinematic data provided by a structural simulator running in parallel • In-vessel recovery and rescue and the pipe joining technology form two more of the high risk areas where developments are being concentrated - Abstract: The EU-DEMO remote maintenance strategy must be relevant for a range of in-vessel component design options. The remote maintenance project must provide an understanding of the limits of the strategy and technologies so as to inform the developing plant design of the maintenance constraints. A comprehensive set of maintenance requirements has been produced, in conjunction with the plant designers, against which design options can be assessed. The proposed maintenance solutions are based around a strategy that deploys casks above each of the vertical ports to exchange the blanket segments and at each of the divertor ports to exchange the divertor cassettes. The casks deploy remote handling equipment to open and close the vacuum vessel, remove and re-install pipework, and replace the in-vessel components. A technical design risk assessment has shown that the largest risks are common to all of the proposed solutions and that they are associated with two key issues, first; the ability to handle the large blanket and divertor components to the required positional accuracy with limited viewing and position feedback, and second; to

Overview of progress on the European DEMO remote maintenance strategy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Crofts, Oliver; Loving, Antony; Iglesias, Daniel; Coleman, Matti; Siuko, Mikko; Mittwollen, Martin; Queral, Vicente; Vale, Alberto; Villedieu, Eric

2016-01-01

Highlights: • The remote maintenance strategy is applicable to the range of tokamak and component options currently under consideration in Europe • The remote maintenance development work is concentrating on the application and limits of the immature technologies that pose the greatest risk to the feasibility of the maintenance strategy • Position control during the handling of the in-vessel components is one of the areas of high risk and a system is being developed and will be tested prior to concept design to demonstrate the feasibility and capability of a system capable of real time incorporation of changing kinematic data provided by a structural simulator running in parallel • In-vessel recovery and rescue and the pipe joining technology form two more of the high risk areas where developments are being concentrated - Abstract: The EU-DEMO remote maintenance strategy must be relevant for a range of in-vessel component design options. The remote maintenance project must provide an understanding of the limits of the strategy and technologies so as to inform the developing plant design of the maintenance constraints. A comprehensive set of maintenance requirements has been produced, in conjunction with the plant designers, against which design options can be assessed. The proposed maintenance solutions are based around a strategy that deploys casks above each of the vertical ports to exchange the blanket segments and at each of the divertor ports to exchange the divertor cassettes. The casks deploy remote handling equipment to open and close the vacuum vessel, remove and re-install pipework, and replace the in-vessel components. A technical design risk assessment has shown that the largest risks are common to all of the proposed solutions and that they are associated with two key issues, first; the ability to handle the large blanket and divertor components to the required positional accuracy with limited viewing and position feedback, and second; to

Perspectives in Winter Limnology: Closing the annual cycle of freezing lakes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Salonen, K.; Leppäranta, M.; Viljanen, M.; Gulati, R.D.

2009-01-01

Winter has traditionally been considered as an ecologically insignificant season and, together with technical difficulties, this has led winter limnology to lag behind summer limnology. Recently, rapidly expanding interest in climate warming has increased water research in winter. It has also become

Migration and winter distribution of the Chestnutcollared Longspur

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ellison Kevin

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The Chestnut-collared Longspur (Calcarius ornatus is one of five grassland songbirds, endemic within North America, with populations that have declined >65% since the 1960s. These species breed and winter in the northern and southern Great Plains, respectively. Identifying migration routes, wintering sites, and the timing of their habitat use is key for understanding the relative magnitude of threats across the annual cycle and effectively targeting habitats for conservation. We tracked migratory movements of seven Chestnut-collared Longspurs with light-level geolocators deployed in Canada. Individuals wintered up to 112-1,200km apart. All followed the Central Flyway, circumvented high-elevation terrain, and traveled east of the breeding location. Unlike most songbirds, the durations of spring and fall migrations were similar; on average 42 ± 7d and 41 ± 5d during fall and spring migrations, respectively, for an approximately 2,000km migration; this highlights the need to better understand habitat requirements during migration for grassland songbirds. Using geospatial habitat data, we assessed winter distribution overlap with four other endemic grassland songbirds; wintering range overlapped 63-99%. Future studies should use more precise devices (e.g., archival GPS units, programmed for data collection dates from this study, to identify specific migratory sites for better conserving this and associated grassland species.

Neurotic psychopathology and alexithymia among winter swimmers and controls--a prospective study.

Science.gov (United States)

Lindeman, Sari; Hirvonen, Jorma; Joukamaa, Matti

2002-05-01

Random samples of 25 voluntary Finnish winter swimmers (7 males, 18 females) and 11 controls (3 males, 8 females were followed prospectively during the winter season from October 1999 to May 2000 to (determine whether winter swimming is beneficial for mental well-being, as many of its practitioners claim. The Crown-Crisp Experimental Index (CCEI) was used for measuring free-floating anxiety, phobic anxiety, obsessionality, depression, somatic anxiety and hysteria, and the 20-item version of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) for measuring alexithymia. Self-reported somatic and mental health and the reasons for and the frequency of winter-swimming were asked, too. As resealed by open questions, the winter swimmers reported positive effects of winter swimming. Several of the swimmers also told that they had started winter swimming to improve their physical and mental health. Their experience was that the swimming had relieved physical symptoms and made their mood more positive. However, we found no major differences between winter swimmers and controls in any CCEI or TAS variables. The structured questionnaires do not necessarily, however, reach subjective feelings and experiences.

Maintenance improvement program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Derbonne, D.R.; Plunkett, T.F.; Simpson, J.R.

1989-01-01

During fuel cycle 1 at River Bend station, considerable effort was expended to reduce corrective maintenance work orders (MWOs) to <1,000. This was done by complementing the plant staff with costly contract personnel. Coming out of the first refueling outage, most contract personnel were released. The change in MWO backlog started a steady rise. It became readily apparent that to avoid costly contract staff time, a maintenance improvement program (MIP) was necessary. The MIP Was primarily directed at two areas: crew efficiency improvements and improved preplanned MWO packages. The overall effect of the MIP was to achieve significant productivity improvements with reduced operation and maintenance cost by providing frequent accountability to all levels of maintenance supervision. The MIP also produced a feeling of pride among the maintenance department employees that had not really existed before. This was the best benefit of all

Occupational safety and health issues associated with green building

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Terwoert, J.; Ustailieva, E.

2013-01-01

This e-fact provides information on the work-related risk factors and the occupational safety and health (OSH) issues associated the planning and construction of green buildings, their maintenance, renovation (retrofitting), demolition, on-site waste collection. Some of these OSH risks are new

Modern electronic maintenance principles

CERN Document Server

Garland, DJ

2013-01-01

Modern Electronic Maintenance Principles reviews the principles of maintaining modern, complex electronic equipment, with emphasis on preventive and corrective maintenance. Unfamiliar subjects such as the half-split method of fault location, functional diagrams, and fault finding guides are explained. This book consists of 12 chapters and begins by stressing the need for maintenance principles and discussing the problem of complexity as well as the requirements for a maintenance technician. The next chapter deals with the connection between reliability and maintenance and defines the terms fai

Nuclear Winter: The implications for civil defense

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chester, C.V.; Perry, A.M.; Hobbs, B.F.

1987-01-01

''Nuclear Winter'' is the term given to hypothesized cooling in the northern hemisphere following a nuclear war due to injection of smoke from burning cities into the atmosphere. The voluminous literature on this subject produced since the original paper in 1983 by Turco, Toon, Ackerman, Pollack, and Sagen (TTAPS) has been reviewed. The widespread use of 3-dimensional global circulation models have resulted in reduced estimates of cooling; 15 to 25 0 C for a summer war and a few degrees for a winter war. More serious may be the possibility of suppression of convective precipitation by the altered temperature profiles in the atmosphere. However, very large uncertainties remain in input parameters, the models, and the results of calculations. We believe the state of knowledge about nuclear winter is sufficiently developed to conclude: Neither cold nor drought are likely to be direct threats to human survival for populations with the wherewithal to survive normal January temperatures; The principal threat from nuclear winter is to food production, and could present problems to third parties without food reserves; and Loss of a crop year is neither a new nor unexpected threat from nuclear war to the US and the Soviet Union. Both have at least a year's food reserve at all times. Both face formidable organizational problems in distributing their reserves in a war-damaged environment. The consequences of nuclear winter could be expected to fall more heavily on the Soviet Union than the US due to its higher latitude and less productive agriculture. This may be especially true if disturbances of rainfall amounts and distribution persist for more than a year. 6 refs

Predicting maintenance of attendance at walking groups: testing constructs from three leading maintenance theories.

Science.gov (United States)

Kassavou, Aikaterini; Turner, Andrew; Hamborg, Thomas; French, David P

2014-07-01

Little is known about the processes and factors that account for maintenance, with several theories existing that have not been subject to many empirical tests. The aim of this study was to test how well theoretical constructs derived from the Health Action Process Approach, Rothman's theory of maintenance, and Verplanken's approach to habitual behavior predicted maintenance of attendance at walking groups. 114 participants, who had already attended walking groups in the community for at least 3 months, completed a questionnaire assessing theoretical constructs regarding maintenance. An objective assessment of attendance over the subsequent 3 months was gained. Multilevel modeling was used to predict maintenance, controlling for clustering within walking groups. Recovery self-efficacy predicted maintenance, even after accounting for clustering. Satisfaction with social outcomes, satisfaction with health outcomes, and overall satisfaction predicted maintenance, but only satisfaction with health outcomes significantly predicted maintenance after accounting for clustering. Self-reported habitual behavior did not predict maintenance despite mean previous attendance being 20.7 months. Recovery self-efficacy, and satisfaction with health outcomes of walking group attendance appeared to be important for objectively measured maintenance, whereas self-reported habit appeared not to be important for maintenance at walking groups. The findings suggest that there is a need for intervention studies to boost recovery self-efficacy and satisfaction with outcomes of walking group attendance, to assess impact on maintenance.

Graded Approach to the Development of a Contingency Plan for On-Line Maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chang, Hee Seung; Kim, Jung Wun; Song, Tae Young

2012-01-01

Many utilities perform preventive maintenance for safety systems during power operation to improve equipment reliability so as to focus on the work activities more easily and improve the quality of maintenance. Such a strategy can also reduce outage work activities, thus allowing resources to be utilized effectively. Preventive maintenance during power operation, known as on-line maintenance (OLM), requires an assessment and mitigation of risk, which can increase owing to out-of-service safety systems. One of the mitigation action plans is a contingency plan. EPRI recommends the development of a contingency plan for all planned system outages which include factors that strongly affect safety. The Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Company (KHNP) undertook the preventive maintenance of the Essential Chilled Water System (ECWS) of a Westinghouse plant as a pilot OLM implementation. During the preparation of the work activities, a contingency plan was a pertinent issue during the discussions with regulators, especially regarding the scope and depth of the plan. This paper discusses the purpose of a contingency plan, including as examples some cases of US utilities, and proposes a graded approach to develop a contingency plan for OLM in consideration of the risks

CAN WINTER DEPRESSION BE PREVENTED BY LIGHT TREATMENT

NARCIS (Netherlands)

MEESTERS, Y; LAMBERS, PA; JANSEN, JHC; BOUHUYS, AL; BEERSMA, DGM; VANDENHOOFDAKKER, RH

1991-01-01

The administration of light at the development of the first signs of a winter depression appears to prevent it from developing into a full-blown depression. No patient from a group of 10 treated in this way developed any signs of depression during the rest of the winter season, while five of seven

Can winter depression be prevented by light treatment?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Meesters, Ybe; Lambers, Petrus A.; Jansen, Jacob; Bouhuys, Antoinette L.; Beersma, Domien G.M.; Hoofdakker, Rutger H. van den

1991-01-01

The administration of light at the development of the first signs of a winter depression appears to prevent it from developing into a full-blown depression. No patient from a group of 10 treated in this way developed any signs of depression during the rest of the winter season, while five of seven

Are cold winters in Europe associated with low solar activity?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lockwood, M; Harrison, R G; Woollings, T; Solanki, S K

2010-01-01

Solar activity during the current sunspot minimum has fallen to levels unknown since the start of the 20th century. The Maunder minimum (about 1650-1700) was a prolonged episode of low solar activity which coincided with more severe winters in the United Kingdom and continental Europe. Motivated by recent relatively cold winters in the UK, we investigate the possible connection with solar activity. We identify regionally anomalous cold winters by detrending the Central England temperature (CET) record using reconstructions of the northern hemisphere mean temperature. We show that cold winter excursions from the hemispheric trend occur more commonly in the UK during low solar activity, consistent with the solar influence on the occurrence of persistent blocking events in the eastern Atlantic. We stress that this is a regional and seasonal effect relating to European winters and not a global effect. Average solar activity has declined rapidly since 1985 and cosmogenic isotopes suggest an 8% chance of a return to Maunder minimum conditions within the next 50 years (Lockwood 2010 Proc. R. Soc. A 466 303-29): the results presented here indicate that, despite hemispheric warming, the UK and Europe could experience more cold winters than during recent decades.

Going outside in Winter: A Qualitative Study of Preschool Dressing Routines

Science.gov (United States)

Hatcher, Beth; Squibb, Betsy

2011-01-01

The exploratory study focused on describing typical routines of preparing for winter outdoor play with preschool children and their teachers. Naturalistic observations, interviews and photographs resulted in extensive examples of children's development in cognitive understanding of winter and winter-related concepts. Observations of teachers and…

Condition based maintenance in the context of opportunistic maintenance

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Koochaki, Javid; Bokhorst, Jos A. C.; Wortmann, Hans; Klingenberg, Warse

2012-01-01

Condition based maintenance (CBM) uses the operating condition of a component to predict a failure event. Compared to age based replacement (ABR), CBM usually results in higher availability and lower maintenance costs, since it tries to prevent unplanned downtime and avoid unnecessary preventive

Genetic differentiation between sympatric and allopatric wintering populations of Snow Geese

Science.gov (United States)

Humphries, E.M.; Peters, J.L.; Jonsson, J.E.; Stone, R.; Afton, A.D.; Omland, K.E.

2009-01-01

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge on the Delmarva Peninsula, Maryland, USA has been the wintering area of a small population of Lesser Snow Geese (Chen caerulescens caerulescens; LSGO) since the 1930s. Snow Geese primarily pair in wintering areas and gene flow could be restricted between this and other LSGO wintering populations. Winter pair formation also could facilitate interbreeding with sympatric but morphologically differentiated Greater Snow Geese (C. c. atlantica; GSGO).We sequenced 658 bp of the mitochondrial DNA control region for 68 Snow Geese from East Coast and Louisiana wintering populations to examine the level of genetic differentiation among populations and subspecies. We found no evidence for genetic differentiation between LSGO populations but, consistent with morphological differences, LSGO and GSGO were significantly differentiated. We also found a lack of genetic differentiation between different LSGO morphotypes from Louisiana. We examined available banding data and found the breeding range of Delmarva LSGO overlaps extensively with LSGO that winter in Louisiana, and documented movements between wintering populations. Our results suggest the Delmarva population of LSGO is not a unique population unit apart from Mid-Continent Snow Geese. ?? 2009 by the Wilson Ornithological Society.

EPR design for maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krugmann, U.

1998-01-01

Preventive maintenance is very important in achieving high plant availability. For the European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) preventive maintenance has been carefully addressed in the design stage. This is particularly necessary because of the traditionally different maintenance strategies employed in France and Germany. This paper emphasizes the following features introduced in the ERP design to minimize the duration of the refueling outage: (1) containment accessibility during power operation; (2) overall plant layout to facilitate inspections and maintenances within the containment; and (3) safety system design for enabling preventive maintenance during power operation. (author)

Maintenance of Water Quality Standards in Kenya for 21. Century

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ndege, M.M

2001-01-01

Water is life and therefore quality water is a pre-requisite for healthy life. There is therefore need for enhancing collective responsibility like legal framework and institutional reforms that will facilitate the maintenance of water supply. This can be achieved if the body dealing with environment is expanded to cover emerging issues of environmental concern and spell out the citizens' rights for clean environment

Predictive maintenance primer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Flude, J.W.; Nicholas, J.R.

1991-04-01

This Predictive Maintenance Primer provides utility plant personnel with a single-source reference to predictive maintenance analysis methods and technologies used successfully by utilities and other industries. It is intended to be a ready reference to personnel considering starting, expanding or improving a predictive maintenance program. This Primer includes a discussion of various analysis methods and how they overlap and interrelate. Additionally, eighteen predictive maintenance technologies are discussed in sufficient detail for the user to evaluate the potential of each technology for specific applications. This document is designed to allow inclusion of additional technologies in the future. To gather the information necessary to create this initial Primer the Nuclear Maintenance Applications Center (NMAC) collected experience data from eighteen utilities plus other industry and government sources. NMAC also contacted equipment manufacturers for information pertaining to equipment utilization, maintenance, and technical specifications. The Primer includes a discussion of six methods used by analysts to study predictive maintenance data. These are: trend analysis; pattern recognition; correlation; test against limits or ranges; relative comparison data; and statistical process analysis. Following the analysis methods discussions are detailed descriptions for eighteen technologies analysts have found useful for predictive maintenance programs at power plants and other industrial facilities. Each technology subchapter has a description of the operating principles involved in the technology, a listing of plant equipment where the technology can be applied, and a general description of the monitoring equipment. Additionally, these descriptions include a discussion of results obtained from actual equipment users and preferred analysis techniques to be used on data obtained from the technology. 5 refs., 30 figs

Downtown People Mover (DPM) Winterization Test Demonstration : Otis Elevator

Science.gov (United States)

1982-01-01

The Otis Elevator Company Transportation Technology Division (OTIS-TTD) Downtown People Mover (DPM) Winterization Test Demonstration Final Report covers the 1978-79 and 1979-80 winter periods. Tests were performed at the Otis test track in Denver, Co...

Small Winter Thunderstorm with Sprites and Strong Positive Discharge

Science.gov (United States)

Suzuki, Tomoyuki; Hayakawa, Masashi; Michimoto, Koichiro

A sprite campaign was conducted in the Hokuriku area of Japan during a winter of 2004/2005. On the basis of a combined analysis of the data from various instruments (CCD cameras, radar, VHF/LF∼MF lightning mapping system, field mill network, and ELF detector), we studied meteorological and electrical structures for winter thunderstorms and sprite-producing positive discharge. Typical winter sprite parent thunderstorms had a meso-scale cloud area with embedded small convective cells. Some small winter thunderstorms accompanied by the most frequent sprite events were found to cause 2∼3 sprite events during a short interval of about 3∼5 min. When the sprites were observed, the extent of the convective cells at 20 dBZ counter was atmost ∼20 × 20 km. The VHF sources associated with sprites were located near south of the convective cell and were mapped within very small areas of at most ∼10 × 10 km. This fact shows that some small winter thunderstorms can generate large positive charge associated with sprites. We will present the analysis of such a small thunderstorms with sprites and positive lightning discharges.

Opportunities and supporting activities to promote preventive maintenance of NPPs in Japan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sanada, A.; Shinkawa, T.; Sakurada, M.

1998-01-01

With increase of the number of NPPs and operation history, enhancement of the safety regulation is becoming important for such long-operated NPPs. Centering on the comprehensive preventive maintenance, periodic safety reviews by utilities and its review and evaluation by MITI are in progress. The first reviews have not revealed essential and critical indications to be newly implemented. This means that the most of activities to secure reliability and safety have been done steadily. The present paper addresses the mechanism of on-going preventive maintenance and its essential elements: opportunities to identify issues and problems, and supporting activities to promote decision-makings on feedback, upgrading and modernization of NPPs. (author)

Controls on winter ecosystem respiration in temperate and boreal ecosystems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. Wang

2011-07-01

Full Text Available Winter CO₂ fluxes represent an important component of the annual carbon budget in northern ecosystems. Understanding winter respiration processes and their responses to climate change is also central to our ability to assess terrestrial carbon cycle and climate feedbacks in the future. However, the factors influencing the spatial and temporal patterns of winter ecosystem respiration (R_eco of northern ecosystems are poorly understood. For this reason, we analyzed eddy covariance flux data from 57 ecosystem sites ranging from ~35° N to ~70° N. Deciduous forests were characterized by the highest winter R_eco rates (0.90 ± 0.39 g C m⁻² d⁻¹, when winter is defined as the period during which daily air temperature remains below 0 °C. By contrast, arctic wetlands had the lowest winter R_eco rates (0.02 ± 0.02 g C m⁻² d⁻¹. Mixed forests, evergreen needle-leaved forests, grasslands, croplands and boreal wetlands were characterized by intermediate winter R_eco rates (g C m⁻² d⁻¹ of 0.70(±0.33, 0.60(±0.38, 0.62(±0.43, 0.49(±0.22 and 0.27(±0.08, respectively. Our cross site analysis showed that winter air (T_air and soil (T_soil temperature played a dominating role in determining the spatial patterns of winter R_eco in both forest and managed ecosystems (grasslands and croplands. Besides temperature, the seasonal amplitude of the leaf area index (LAI, inferred from satellite observation, or growing season gross primary productivity, which we use here as a proxy for the amount of recent carbon available for R_eco in the subsequent winter, played a marginal role in winter CO₂ emissions from forest ecosystems. We found that winter R_eco sensitivity to temperature variation across space (

Kleptoparasitism by bald eagles wintering in south-central Nebraska

Science.gov (United States)

Jorde, Dennis G.; Lingle, G.R.

1988-01-01

Kleptoparasitism on other raptors was one means by which Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) secured food along the North Platte and Platte rivers during the winters of 1978-1980. Species kelptoparasitized were Ferruginous Hawk (Buteo regalis), Red-tailed Hawk (B. jamaicensis), Rough-legged Hawk (B. lagopus), Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), and Bald Eagle. Stealing of prey occurred more often during the severe winter of 1978-1979 when ice cover restricted eagles from feeding on fish than during the milder winter of 1979-1980. Kleptoparasitism occurred principally in agricultural habitats where large numbers of Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) were foraging. Subadults watched adults steal food and participated in food-stealing with adults, which indicated interspecific kleptoparasitism may be a learned behavior. We suggest factors that may favor interspecific kleptoparasitism as a foraging strategy of Bald Eagles in obtaining waterfowl during severe winters.

Winter severity determines functional trait composition of phytoplankton in seasonally ice-covered lakes.

Science.gov (United States)

Özkundakci, Deniz; Gsell, Alena S; Hintze, Thomas; Täuscher, Helgard; Adrian, Rita

2016-01-01

How climate change will affect the community dynamics and functionality of lake ecosystems during winter is still little understood. This is also true for phytoplankton in seasonally ice-covered temperate lakes which are particularly vulnerable to the presence or absence of ice. We examined changes in pelagic phytoplankton winter community structure in a north temperate lake (Müggelsee, Germany), covering 18 winters between 1995 and 2013. We tested how phytoplankton taxa composition varied along a winter-severity gradient and to what extent winter severity shaped the functional trait composition of overwintering phytoplankton communities using multivariate statistical analyses and a functional trait-based approach. We hypothesized that overwintering phytoplankton communities are dominated by taxa with trait combinations corresponding to the prevailing winter water column conditions, using ice thickness measurements as a winter-severity indicator. Winter severity had little effect on univariate diversity indicators (taxon richness and evenness), but a strong relationship was found between the phytoplankton community structure and winter severity when taxon trait identity was taken into account. Species responses to winter severity were mediated by the key functional traits: motility, nutritional mode, and the ability to form resting stages. Accordingly, one or the other of two functional groups dominated the phytoplankton biomass during mild winters (i.e., thin or no ice cover; phototrophic taxa) or severe winters (i.e., thick ice cover; exclusively motile taxa). Based on predicted milder winters for temperate regions and a reduction in ice-cover durations, phytoplankton communities during winter can be expected to comprise taxa that have a relative advantage when the water column is well mixed (i.e., need not be motile) and light is less limiting (i.e., need not be mixotrophic). A potential implication of this result is that winter severity promotes different

Preventative Maintenance.

Science.gov (United States)

Migliorino, James

Boards of education must be convinced that spending money up front for preventive maintenance will, in the long run, save districts' tax dollars. A good program of preventive maintenance can minimize disruption of service; reduce repair costs, energy consumption, and overtime; improve labor productivity and system equipment reliability; handle…

Managing aging in nuclear power plants: Insights from NRC's maintenance team inspection reports

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fresco, A.; Subudhi, M.

1994-01-01

Age-related degradation is managed through the maintenance program of a nuclear plant. From 1988 to 1991, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) evaluated the maintenance program of every nuclear power plant in the United States. The authors reviewed 44 out of a total of 67 of the reports issued by the NRC on these in-depth team inspections. The reports were reviewed for insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the programs as related to the need to understand and manage the effects of aging on nuclear plant structures, systems, and components. The authors' conclusions are presented. 6 refs

Second Line of Defense: Electronic Maintenance Reports, Local Maintenance Provider User Guide, Rev. 3

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Leigh, Richard J.

2012-09-01

The Electronic Maintenance Report forms allow Local Maintenance Providers (LMP) and other program staff to enter maintenance information into a simple and secure system. This document describes the features and information required to complete the Maintenance Report forms. It is expected that all Corrective Maintenance Reports from LMPs will be submitted electronically into the SLD Portal. As an exception (e.g., when access to the SLD Portal is unavailable), Maintenance Reports can be submitted via a secure Adobe PDF form available through the Sustainability Manager assigned to each country.

Winter School Les Houches

CERN Document Server

Lannoo, Michel; Bastard, Gérald; Voos, Michel; Boccara, Nino

1986-01-01

The Winter School held in Les Houches on March 12-21, 1985 was devoted to Semiconductor Heterojunctions and Superlattices, a topic which is recognized as being now one of the most interesting and active fields in semiconductor physics. In fact, following the pioneering work of Esaki and Tsu in 1970, the study of these two-dimensional semiconductor heterostructures has developed rapidly, both from the point of view of basic physics and of applications. For instance, modulation-doped heterojunctions are nowadays currently used to investigate the quantum Hall effect and to make very fast transistors. This book contains the lectures presented at this Winter School, showing in particular that many aspects of semiconductor heterojunctions and super­ lattices were treated, extending from the fabrication of these two-dimensional systems to their basic properties and applications in micro-and opto-electron­ ics. Among the subjects which were covered, one can quote as examples: molecular beam epitaxy and metallorgani...

Editorial - The winter Atomiades

CERN Multimedia

Staff Association

2011-01-01

As we wrote in our previous editorial, the Staff Association gives direct support to sports events, such as the Atomiades, a section of the Association of Sports Communities of European Research Institutes, which brings together sportsmen and women from 38 European research centres in 13 countries (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Russia, and Switzerland). The summer Atomiades take place between the months of June and September every three years. Thirteen such events have taken place since 1973, the last one in June 2009 in Berlin. As far as the winter Atomiades are concerned, also organized every three years, and alternating with the summer Atomiades, there have been eleven since 1981, the last one at the end of January this year in neighbouring France. The following article tells the wonderful adventure of the CERN staff who took part in this event. A positive outcome for CERN skiers at the winter Atomiades The 11t...

Impact of warm winters on microbial growth

Science.gov (United States)

Birgander, Johanna; Rousk, Johannes; Axel Olsson, Pål

2014-05-01

Growth of soil bacteria has an asymmetrical response to higher temperature with a gradual increase with increasing temperatures until an optimum after which a steep decline occurs. In laboratory studies it has been shown that by exposing a soil bacterial community to a temperature above the community's optimum temperature for two months, the bacterial community grows warm-adapted, and the optimum temperature of bacterial growth shifts towards higher temperatures. This result suggests a change in the intrinsic temperature dependence of bacterial growth, as temperature influenced the bacterial growth even though all other factors were kept constant. An intrinsic temperature dependence could be explained by either a change in the bacterial community composition, exchanging less tolerant bacteria towards more tolerant ones, or it could be due to adaptation within the bacteria present. No matter what the shift in temperature tolerance is due to, the shift could have ecosystem scale implications, as winters in northern Europe are getting warmer. To address the question of how microbes and plants are affected by warmer winters, a winter-warming experiment was established in a South Swedish grassland. Results suggest a positive response in microbial growth rate in plots where winter soil temperatures were around 6 °C above ambient. Both bacterial and fungal growth (leucine incorporation, and acetate into ergosterol incorporation, respectively) appeared stimulated, and there are two candidate explanations for these results. Either (i) warming directly influence microbial communities by modulating their temperature adaptation, or (ii) warming indirectly affected the microbial communities via temperature induced changes in bacterial growth conditions. The first explanation is in accordance with what has been shown in laboratory conditions (explained above), where the differences in the intrinsic temperature relationships were examined. To test this explanation the

Advanced maintenance strategies for power plant operators - introducing inter-plant life cycle management. ZES research focus 'condition-based maintenance in power engineering'

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Graeber, U.

2003-07-01

The optimisation of maintenance activities observed in recent years can be attributed above all to the use and continuing development of testing and diagnostic techniques, to the increased level of system and component automation and to more efficient work organisation. Despite the considerable success of these efforts, the potential for further cost reductions is still far from exhausted. The risks connected to reliability, availability and safety need to be analysed in greater detail in order to ensure the sustainability of the savings already achieved as well as those yet to be realised. The systematic application of condition-based maintenance and the introduction of structured life cycle management are essential prerequisites. Within the framework of its ''Condition-Based Maintenance in Power Engineering'' research focus, the Energy Research Centre (ZES) has set up a specialist network in which experts from various institutes belonging to the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and the Faculty of Informatic, Electrical Engineering and Information Technology can develop interdisciplinary solutions for advanced maintenance strategies. The ZES offers the industry a platform for cooperating on current issues relating to the supply of energy and supports the movement towards sustainable improvements to competitiveness through research and consulting activities. It applies professional project and quality management procedures to ensure that contracts covering interdisciplinary topics and projects are handled in a coherent manner. (orig.)

Assessment of building maintenance management practices of higher education institutions in Niger State - Nigeria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ofide Blessing

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Higher education institutions face immediate pressure to preserve existing building facilities within the campuses and enhance the capacity of their higher education system to address growing demands of an increasing influx of students and academic activities. There is no doubt that dilapidated and unhealthy buildings in a decaying environment depresses the quality of life and contributes in some measure to antisocial behaviours. The buildings of higher education institutions in Nigeria only receive top management attention when there is a problem. Hence, the paper assessed the building maintenance management practices of 6 higher institutions available (2 universities, 2 polytechnics and 2 colleges of education in Niger State. This was done by interviewing the Directors of Works of the 6 institutions using a structured interview method. The study revealed that there was no maintenance manual in any of the Works Department of the higher education institution, no user satisfaction survey has ever been conducted and none of the institutions had a computerised maintenance management system (CMMS in place. In addition to these, corrective maintenance was mostly adopted and there was inadequate staffing of the field operatives. All these shortcomings might be responsible for the backlog of maintenance work experienced in the institutions studied. A proactive maintenance system should be put in place, CMMS should be adopted to enhance effective maintenance work, and top management should be enlightened on the imperative of maintenance among other issues competing for funds within the institutions and be more flexible in allocation of resources to enhance maintenance works.

Framework for Maintenance Planning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Soares, C. Guedes; Duarte, J. Caldeira; Garbatov, Y.

2010-01-01

the design and during the whole life span of operational use, within an integrated framework founded on risk and reliability based techniques. The document addresses designers, decision makers and professionals responsible for or involved in establishing maintenance plans. The purpose of this document......The present document presents a framework for maintenance planning. Maintenance plays a fundamental role in counteracting degradation effects, which are present in all infrastructure and industrial products. Therefore, maintenance planning is a very critical aspect to consider both during...... is to present maintenance as an integrated approach that needs to be planned, designed, engineered, and controlled by proper qualitative and quantitative techniques. This document outlines the basic premises for maintenance planning and provides the general philosophies that can be followed and points to a best...

Marine assemblages respond rapidly to winter climate variability.

Science.gov (United States)

Morley, James W; Batt, Ryan D; Pinsky, Malin L

2017-07-01

Even species within the same assemblage have varied responses to climate change, and there is a poor understanding for why some taxa are more sensitive to climate than others. In addition, multiple mechanisms can drive species' responses, and responses may be specific to certain life stages or times of year. To test how marine species respond to climate variability, we analyzed 73 diverse taxa off the southeast US coast in 26 years of scientific trawl survey data and determined how changes in distribution and biomass relate to temperature. We found that winter temperatures were particularly useful for explaining interannual variation in species' distribution and biomass, although the direction and magnitude of the response varied among species from strongly negative, to little response, to strongly positive. Across species, the response to winter temperature varied greatly, with much of this variation being explained by thermal preference. A separate analysis of annual commercial fishery landings revealed that winter temperatures may also impact several important fisheries in the southeast United States. Based on the life stages of the species surveyed, winter temperature appears to act through overwinter mortality of juveniles or as a cue for migration timing. We predict that this assemblage will be responsive to projected increases in temperature and that winter temperature may be broadly important for species relationships with climate on a global scale. © The Authors Global Change Biology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Maintenance & Repair Cost Calculation and Assessment of Resale Value for Different Alternative Commercial Vehicle Powertrain Technologies

OpenAIRE

Kleiner, Florian; Friedrich, Horst E.

2017-01-01

For detailed evaluation of the Total Cost of Ownership, expenditures for Maintenance & Repair as well as the resale value are important to consider and should not be neglected. However, information on Maintenance & Repair costs as well as residual values for commercial vehicles with alternative powertrains is missing and data on this issue is rare. There is a lack of information and consolidated knowledge. In order to enable a holistic cost assessment for commercial vehicles, a comprehensive ...

Excess winter mortality and cold temperatures in a subtropical city, Guangzhou, China.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chun-Quan Ou

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: A significant increase in mortality was observed during cold winters in many temperate regions. However, there is a lack of evidence from tropical and subtropical regions, and the influence of ambient temperatures on seasonal variation of mortality was not well documented. METHODS: This study included 213,737 registered deaths from January 2003 to December 2011 in Guangzhou, a subtropical city in Southern China. Excess winter mortality was calculated by the excess percentage of monthly mortality in winters over that of non-winter months. A generalized linear model with a quasi-Poisson distribution was applied to analyze the association between monthly mean temperature and mortality, after controlling for other meteorological measures and air pollution. RESULTS: The mortality rate in the winter was 26% higher than the average rate in other seasons. On average, there were 1,848 excess winter deaths annually, with around half (52% from cardiovascular diseases and a quarter (24% from respiratory diseases. Excess winter mortality was higher in the elderly, females and those with low education level than the young, males and those with high education level, respectively. A much larger winter increase was observed in out-of-hospital mortality compared to in-hospital mortality (45% vs. 17%. We found a significant negative correlation of annual excess winter mortality with average winter temperature (rs=-0.738, P=0.037, but not with air pollution levels. A 1 °C decrease in monthly mean temperature was associated with an increase of 1.38% (95% CI:0.34%-2.40% and 0.88% (95% CI:0.11%-1.64% in monthly mortality at lags of 0-1 month, respectively. CONCLUSION: Similar to temperate regions, a subtropical city Guangzhou showed a clear seasonal pattern in mortality, with a sharper spike in winter. Our results highlight the role of cold temperature on the winter mortality even in warm climate. Precautionary measures should be strengthened to mitigate

Brief communication "Stratospheric winds, transport barriers and the 2011 Arctic ozone hole"

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. J. Olascoaga

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The Arctic stratosphere throughout the late winter and early spring of 2011 was characterized by an unusually severe ozone loss, resulting in what has been described as an ozone hole. The 2011 ozone loss was made possible by unusually cold temperatures throughout the Arctic stratosphere. Here we consider the issue of what constitutes suitable environmental conditions for the formation and maintenance of a polar ozone hole. Our discussion focuses on the importance of the stratospheric wind field and, in particular, the importance of a high latitude zonal jet, which serves as a meridional transport barrier both prior to ozone hole formation and during the ozone hole maintenance phase. It is argued that stratospheric conditions in the boreal winter/spring of 2011 were highly unusual inasmuch as in that year Antarctic-like Lagrangian dynamics led to the formation of a boreal ozone hole.

Maintenance of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1982-01-01

This Guide covers the organizational and procedural aspects of maintenance but does not give detailed technical advice on the maintenance of particular plant items. It gives guidance on preventive and remedial measures necessary to ensure that all structures, systems and components important to safety are capable of performing as intended. The Guide covers the organizational and administrative requirements for establishing and implementing preventive maintenance schedules, repairing defective plant items, providing maintenance facilities and equipment, procuring stores and spare parts, selecting and training maintenance personnel, reviewing and controlling plant modifications arising from maintenance, and for generating, collecting and retaining maintenance records. Maintenance shall be subject to quality assurance in all aspects important to safety. Because quality assurance has been dealt with in detail in other Safety Guides, it is only included here in specific instances where emphasis is required. Maintenance is considered to include functional and performance testing of plant, surveillance and in-service inspection, where these are necessary either to support other maintenance activities or to ensure continuing capability of structures, systems and components important to safety to perform their intended functions

Proceedings of the workshop on better nuclear plant maintenance: improving human and organisational performance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2007-04-05

of different organisational cultures; the procedures and work instructions required to guide work in maintenance; the maintainability issues; the sources of information for organisational learning to improve maintenance performance; the prioritisation of corrective actions; the role of regulatory activities in the field of human performance during maintenance; the promotion of good practices and document regulatory expectations on topics that may be new to the industry. These proceedings comprise both transparencies and papers. Twelve articles and the summary of discussions and feedback have been analyzed as separate analytics.

Paranal maintenance and CMMS experience

Science.gov (United States)

Montano, Nelson

2004-10-01

During the last four years of operations, low technical downtime has been one of the relevant records of the Paranal Observatory. From the beginning of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) project, European Southern Observatory (ESO) has considered the implementation of a proper maintenance strategy a fundamental point in order to ensure low technical down time and preserve the Observatory's assets. The implementation of the maintenance strategy was based on the following aspects: - Strong maintenance sense during the design stage. Line Replacement Unit (LRU) concept, standardization and modularity of the Observatory equipment - Creation of a dedicated team for Maintenance - The implementation of a Computerized Maintenance Management System After four operational years, the result of these aspects has exceeded the expectations; the Observatory has been operating with high availability under a sustainable strategy. The strengths of the maintenance strategy have been based on modern maintenance concepts applied by regular production companies, where any minute of down time involves high cost. The operation of the actual Paranal Maintenance System is based mainly on proactive activities, such as regular inspections, preventive maintenance (PM) and predictive maintenance (PdM) plans. Nevertheless, it has been necessary to implement a strong plan for corrective maintenance (CM). The Spare Parts Strategy has also been an important point linked to the Maintenance Strategy and CMMS implementation. At present, almost 4,000 items related to the Observatory spare parts are loaded into the CMMS database. Currently, we are studying the implementation of a Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) project in one of our critical systems The following document presents the actual status of the Paranal Maintenance Strategy and which have been the motivations to implement the established strategy.

Vigilance and activity time-budget adjustments of wintering hooded cranes, Grus monacha, in human-dominated foraging habitats.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Chunlin; Zhou, Lizhi; Xu, Li; Zhao, Niannian; Beauchamp, Guy

2015-01-01

Due to loss and degradation of natural wetlands, waterbirds increasingly rely on surrounding human-dominated habitats to obtain food. Quantifying vigilance patterns, investigating the trade-off among various activities, and examining the underlying mechanisms will help us understand how waterbirds adapt to human-caused disturbances. During two successive winters (November-February of 2012-13 and 2013-14), we studied the hooded crane, Grus monacha, in the Shengjin Lake National Nature Reserve (NNR), China, to investigate how the species responds to human disturbances through vigilance and activity time-budget adjustments. Our results showed striking differences in the behavior of the cranes when foraging in the highly disturbed rice paddy fields found in the buffer zone compared with the degraded natural wetlands in the core area of the NNR. Time spent vigilant decreased with flock size and cranes spent more time vigilant in the human-dominated buffer zone. In the rice paddy fields, the birds were more vigilant but also fed more at the expense of locomotion and maintenance activities. Adult cranes spent more time vigilant and foraged less than juveniles. We recommend habitat recovery in natural wetlands and community co-management in the surrounding human-dominated landscape for conservation of the hooded crane and, generally, for the vast numbers of migratory waterbirds wintering in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River floodplain.

Nurses', midwives' and key stakeholders' experiences and perceptions on requirements to demonstrate the maintenance of professional competence.

OpenAIRE

Casey, Mary; Cooney, Adeline; O'Connell, Rhona; Hegarty, Josephine; Brady, Anne-Marie; O'Reilly, Pauline; Kennedy, Catriona; Heffernan, Elizabeth; Fealy, Gerard; Mcnamara, Martin; O'Connor, Laserina

2016-01-01

Aim: To present the qualitative findings from a study on the development of scheme(s) to give evidence of maintenance of professional competence for nurses and midwives. Background: Key issues in maintenance of professional competence include notions of self- assessment, verification of engagement and practice hours, provision of an evidential record, the role of the employer and articulation of possible consequences for non-adherence with the requirements. Schemes to demonstrate the maintena...

Complete guide to preventive and predictive maintenance

CERN Document Server

Levitt, Joel

2011-01-01

This book shares the best practices, mistakes, victories, and essential steps for success which the author has gleaned from working with countless organizations. Unlike other books that only focus on the engineering issues (task lists) or management issues (CMMS), this in-depth resource is the first to give true emphasize to the four aspects of success in preventive maintenance systems - engineering, management, economic, and psychological - thereby enabling readers to have a balanced view and understanding of what is happening in their organizations. Additionally, it blends concrete actionable steps and structures with the theory behind the steps. It includes check sheets, history of PM, stories, photographs, and case histories. It contains a glossary of terms. It provides sample task lists for a variety of equipment with some of the logic behind each task. It offers templates for developing your own tasking. It includes protocols for detailed economic analysis with examples.

Latitudinal trends in human primary activities: characterizing the winter day as a synchronizer.

Science.gov (United States)

Martín-Olalla, José María

2018-03-28

This work analyzes time use surveys from 19 countries (17 European and 2 American) in the middle latitude (38-61 degree) accounting for 45% of world population in this range. Time marks for primary activities are contrasted against light/dark conditions. The analysis reveals winter sunrise synchronizes labor start time below 54 degree, occurring within winter civil twilight. Winter sunset is a source of synchronization for labor end times. Winter terminator punctuate meal times in Europe: dinner occurs 3 h after winter sunset time within 1 h; 40% narrower than variability of dinner local times. The sleep-wake cycle of laborers is shown to be related to winter sunrise whereas standard population's appears to be irrespective of latitude. The significance of the winter terminator depends on two competing factors average labor time (~7 h30 m) and the shortest photoperiod. Winter terminator gains significance when both roughly matches. That is within a latitude range from 38 degree to 54 degree. The significance of winter terminator as a source of synchronization is also related to contemporary year round time schedules: the shortest photoperiod represents the worst case scenario the society faces.

Selection of optimum maintenance strategies based on a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aida Azizi

2014-05-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an empirical investigation to rank different factors influencing on maintenance strategies on Iranian oil terminals’ company. The study determines four main factors, production quality, reliability, cost and safety. Using fuzzy analytical process, the study determines various factors associated with each main factor and ranks them by performing pair-wise comparisons. The results indicate that reliability ranks first (0.255, followed by production quality (0.252, cost (0.25 and safety (0.244. In terms of reliability, the best utilization of resources is number one priority followed by increase access to maintenance tools, reduction in production interruption are among the most important issues. In terms of production quality, reduction in system failure as well as reworks is the most important factors followed by customer satisfaction and defects. In terms of cost items, ease of access to accessories and consulting are important factors followed by necessary software, hardware and training programs. Finally, in terms of safety factors, external, internal and employee services are the most important issues, which are needed to be considered.

Winter active bumblebees (Bombus terrestris achieve high foraging rates in urban Britain.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ralph J Stelzer

2010-03-01

Full Text Available Foraging bumblebees are normally associated with spring and summer in northern Europe. However, there have been sightings of the bumblebee Bombus terrestris during the warmer winters in recent years in southern England. But what floral resources are they relying upon during winter and how much winter forage can they collect?To test if urban areas in the UK provide a rich foraging niche for bees we set up colonies of B. terrestris in the field during two late winter periods (2005/6 & 2006/7 in London, UK, and measured their foraging performance. Fully automatic radio-frequency identification (RFID technology was used in 2006/7 to enable us to record the complete foraging activity of individually tagged bees. The number of bumblebees present during winter (October 2007 to March 2008 and the main plants they visited were also recorded during transect walks. Queens and workers were observed throughout the winter, suggesting a second generation of bee colonies active during the winter months. Mass flowering shrubs such as Mahonia spp. were identified as important food resources. The foraging experiments showed that bees active during the winter can attain nectar and pollen foraging rates that match, and even surpass, those recorded during summer.B. terrestris in the UK are now able to utilise a rich winter foraging resource in urban parks and gardens that might at present still be under-exploited, opening up the possibility of further changes in pollinator phenology.

Winter active bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) achieve high foraging rates in urban Britain.

Science.gov (United States)

Stelzer, Ralph J; Chittka, Lars; Carlton, Marc; Ings, Thomas C

2010-03-05

Foraging bumblebees are normally associated with spring and summer in northern Europe. However, there have been sightings of the bumblebee Bombus terrestris during the warmer winters in recent years in southern England. But what floral resources are they relying upon during winter and how much winter forage can they collect? To test if urban areas in the UK provide a rich foraging niche for bees we set up colonies of B. terrestris in the field during two late winter periods (2005/6 & 2006/7) in London, UK, and measured their foraging performance. Fully automatic radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology was used in 2006/7 to enable us to record the complete foraging activity of individually tagged bees. The number of bumblebees present during winter (October 2007 to March 2008) and the main plants they visited were also recorded during transect walks. Queens and workers were observed throughout the winter, suggesting a second generation of bee colonies active during the winter months. Mass flowering shrubs such as Mahonia spp. were identified as important food resources. The foraging experiments showed that bees active during the winter can attain nectar and pollen foraging rates that match, and even surpass, those recorded during summer. B. terrestris in the UK are now able to utilise a rich winter foraging resource in urban parks and gardens that might at present still be under-exploited, opening up the possibility of further changes in pollinator phenology.

The decline in winter excess mortality in The Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kunst, A. E.; Looman, C. W.; Mackenbach, J. P.

1991-01-01

In most countries, numbers of deaths rise considerably during the winter season. This winter excess in mortality has, however, been declining during recent decades. The causes of this decline are hardly known. This paper attempts to derive a number of hypotheses on the basis of a detailed

Suncor maintenance and reliability

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Little, S. [Suncor Energy, Calgary, AB (Canada)

2006-07-01

Fleet maintenance and reliability at Suncor Energy was discussed in this presentation, with reference to Suncor Energy's primary and support equipment fleets. This paper also discussed Suncor Energy's maintenance and reliability standard involving people, processes and technology. An organizational maturity chart that graphed organizational learning against organizational performance was illustrated. The presentation also reviewed the maintenance and reliability framework; maintenance reliability model; the process overview of the maintenance and reliability standard; a process flow chart of maintenance strategies and programs; and an asset reliability improvement process flow chart. An example of an improvement initiative was included, with reference to a shovel reliability review; a dipper trip reliability investigation; bucket related failures by type and frequency; root cause analysis of the reliability process; and additional actions taken. Last, the presentation provided a graph of the results of the improvement initiative and presented the key lessons learned. tabs., figs.

Tissue- and Cell-Specific Cytokinin Activity in Populus × canescens Monitored by ARR5::GUS Reporter Lines in Summer and Winter.

Science.gov (United States)

Paul, Shanty; Wildhagen, Henning; Janz, Dennis; Teichmann, Thomas; Hänsch, Robert; Polle, Andrea

2016-01-01

also in winter. The presence of the signal in meristematic tissues supports their role in meristem maintenance. The reporter lines will be useful to study the involvement of cytokinins in acclimation of poplar growth to stress.

Genetic architecture of winter hardiness and frost tolerance in triticale.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wenxin Liu

Full Text Available Abiotic stress experienced by autumn-sown crops during winter is of great economic importance as it can have a severe negative impact on yield. In this study, we investigated the genetic architecture of winter hardiness and frost tolerance in triticale. To this end, we used a large mapping population of 647 DH lines phenotyped for both traits in combination with genome-wide marker data. Employing multiple-line cross QTL mapping, we identified nine main effect QTL for winter hardiness and frost tolerance of which six were overlapping between both traits. Three major QTL were identified on chromosomes 5A, 1B and 5R. In addition, an epistasis scan revealed the contribution of epistasis to the genetic architecture of winter hardiness and frost tolerance in triticale. Taken together, our results show that winter hardiness and frost tolerance are complex traits that can be improved by phenotypic selection, but also that genomic approaches hold potential for a knowledge-based improvement of these important traits in elite triticale germplasm.

An Enhanced Preventive Maintenance Optimization Model Based on a Three-Stage Failure Process

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ruifeng Yang

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Nuclear power plants are highly complex systems and the issues related to their safety are of primary importance. Probabilistic safety assessment is regarded as the most widespread methodology for studying the safety of nuclear power plants. As maintenance is one of the most important factors for affecting the reliability and safety, an enhanced preventive maintenance optimization model based on a three-stage failure process is proposed. Preventive maintenance is still a dominant maintenance policy due to its easy implementation. In order to correspond to the three-color scheme commonly used in practice, the lifetime of system before failure is divided into three stages, namely, normal, minor defective, and severe defective stages. When the minor defective stage is identified, two measures are considered for comparison: one is that halving the inspection interval only when the minor defective stage is identified at the first time; the other one is that if only identifying the minor defective stage, the subsequent inspection interval is halved. Maintenance is implemented immediately once the severe defective stage is identified. Minimizing the expected cost per unit time is our objective function to optimize the inspection interval. Finally, a numerical example is presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed models.

Maintenance Process Strategic Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Jasiulewicz-Kaczmarek, M.; Stachowiak, A.

2016-08-01

The performance and competitiveness of manufacturing companies is dependent on the availability, reliability and productivity of their production facilities. Low productivity, downtime, and poor machine performance is often linked to inadequate plant maintenance, which in turn can lead to reduced production levels, increasing costs, lost market opportunities, and lower profits. These pressures have given firms worldwide the motivation to explore and embrace proactive maintenance strategies over the traditional reactive firefighting methods. The traditional view of maintenance has shifted into one of an overall view that encompasses Overall Equipment Efficiency, Stakeholders Management and Life Cycle assessment. From practical point of view it requires changes in approach to maintenance represented by managers and changes in actions performed within maintenance area. Managers have to understand that maintenance is not only about repairs and conservations of machines and devices, but also actions striving for more efficient resources management and care for safety and health of employees. The purpose of the work is to present strategic analysis based on SWOT analysis to identify the opportunities and strengths of maintenance process, to benefit from them as much as possible, as well as to identify weaknesses and threats, so that they could be eliminated or minimized.

75 FR 4842 - Winter Use Plan, Environmental Impact Statement, Yellowstone National Park

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-29

... DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR National Park Service Winter Use Plan, Environmental Impact Statement... to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for a Winter Use Plan, Yellowstone National Park... Park Service (NPS) is preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a Winter Use Plan for...

The elusive gene for keratolytic winter erythema | Hull | South ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Keratolytic winter erythema (KWE), also known as Oudtshoorn skin disease, is characterised by a cyclical disruption of normal epidermal keratinisation affecting primarily the palmoplantar skin with peeling of the palms and soles, which is worse in the winter. It is a rare monogenic, autosomal dominant condition of unknown ...

Assessing winter cover crop nutrient uptake efficiency using a water quality simulation model

Science.gov (United States)

Yeo, In-Young; Lee, Sangchui; Sadeghi, Ali M.; Beeson, Peter C.; Hively, W. Dean; McCarty, Greg W.; Lang, Megan W.

2013-01-01

Winter cover crops are an effective conservation management practice with potential to improve water quality. Throughout the Chesapeake Bay Watershed (CBW), which is located in the Mid-Atlantic US, winter cover crop use has been emphasized and federal and state cost-share programs are available to farmers to subsidize the cost of winter cover crop establishment. The objective of this study was to assess the long-term effect of planting winter cover crops at the watershed scale and to identify critical source areas of high nitrate export. A physically-based watershed simulation model, Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), was calibrated and validated using water quality monitoring data and satellite-based estimates of winter cover crop species performance to simulate hydrological processes and nutrient cycling over the period of 1991–2000. Multiple scenarios were developed to obtain baseline information on nitrate loading without winter cover crops planted and to investigate how nitrate loading could change with different winter cover crop planting scenarios, including different species, planting times, and implementation areas. The results indicate that winter cover crops had a negligible impact on water budget, but significantly reduced nitrate leaching to groundwater and delivery to the waterways. Without winter cover crops, annual nitrate loading was approximately 14 kg ha−1, but it decreased to 4.6–10.1 kg ha−1 with winter cover crops resulting in a reduction rate of 27–67% at the watershed scale. Rye was most effective, with a potential to reduce nitrate leaching by up to 93% with early planting at the field scale. Early planting of winter cover crops (~30 days of additional growing days) was crucial, as it lowered nitrate export by an additional ~2 kg ha−1 when compared to late planting scenarios. The effectiveness of cover cropping increased with increasing extent of winter cover crop implementation. Agricultural fields with well-drained soils

Contrasting Seasonal Survivorship of Two Migratory Songbirds Wintering in Threatened Mangrove Forests

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna M. Calvert

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Long-distance migrants wintering in tropical regions face a number of critical conservation threats throughout their lives, but seasonal estimates of key demographic parameters such as winter survival are rare. Using mist-netting-based mark-recapture data collected in coastal Costa Rica over a six-year period, we examined variation in within- and between-winter survivorship of the Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria citrea; 753 young and 376 adults banded, a declining neotropical habitat specialist that depends on threatened mangrove forests during the nonbreeding season. We derived parallel seasonal survivorship estimates for the Northern Waterthrush (Seiurus noveboracensis; 564 young and 93 adults banded, a cohabitant mangrove specialist that has not shown the same population decline in North America, to assess whether contrasting survivorship might contribute to the observed differences in the species’ population trajectories. Although average annual survival probability was relatively similar between the two species for both young and adult birds, monthly estimates indicated that relative to Northern Waterthrush, Prothonotary Warblers exhibited: greater interannual variation in survivorship, especially within winters; greater variation in survivorship among the three study sites; lower average between-winter survivorship, particularly among females, and; a sharp decline in between-winter survivorship from 2003 to 2009 for both age groups and both sexes. Rather than identifying one seasonal vital rate as a causal factor of Prothonotary Warbler population declines, our species comparison suggests that the combination of variable within-winter survival with decreasing between-winter survival demands a multi-seasonal approach to the conservation of this and other tropical-wintering migrants.

Winter season air pollution in El Paso-Ciudad Juarez. A review of air pollution studies in an international airshed

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Einfeld, W.; Church, H.W.

1995-03-01

This report summarizes a number of research efforts completed over the past 20 years in the El Paso del Norte region to characterize pollution sources and air quality trends. The El Paso del Norte region encompasses the cities of El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua and is representative of many US-Mexico border communities that are facing important air quality issues as population growth and industrialization of Mexican border communities continue. Special attention is given to a group of studies carried out under special US Congressional funding and administered by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Many of these studies were fielded within the last several years to develop a better understanding of air pollution sources and trends in this typical border community. Summary findings from a wide range of studies dealing with such issues as the temporal and spatial distribution of pollutants and pollution potential from both stationary and mobile sources in both cities are presented. Particular emphasis is given to a recent study in El Paso-Ciudad Juarez that focussed on winter season PM{sub 10} pollution in El Paso-Ciudad Juarez. Preliminary estimates from this short-term study reveal that biomass combustion products and crustal material are significant components of winter season PM{sub 10} in this international border community.

Spirit's Winter Work Site

Science.gov (United States)

2006-01-01

[figure removed for brevity, see original site] Annotated Version This portion of an image acquired by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera shows the Spirit rover's winter campaign site. Spirit was parked on a slope tilted 11 degrees to the north to maximize sunlight during the southern winter season. 'Tyrone' is an area where the rover's wheels disturbed light-toned soils. Remote sensing and in-situ analyses found the light-toned soil at Tyrone to be sulfate rich and hydrated. The original picture is catalogued as PSP_001513_1655_red and was taken on Sept. 29, 2006. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson, and the instrument was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp., Boulder, Colo.

Comparison of snowpack and winter wet-deposition chemistry in the Rocky Mountains, USA: implications for winter dry deposition

Science.gov (United States)

Clow, David W.; Ingersoll, George P.; Mast, M. Alisa; Turk, John T.; Campbell, Donald H.

Depth-integrated snowpack chemistry was measured just prior to maximum snowpack depth during the winters of 1992-1999 at 12 sites co-located with National Atmospheric Deposition Program/National Trend Network (NADP/NTN) sites in the central and southern Rocky Mountains, USA. Winter volume-weighted mean wet-deposition concentrations were calculated for the NADP/NTN sites, and the data were compared to snowpack concentrations using the paired t-test and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. No statistically significant differences were indicated in concentrations of SO 42- or NO 3- ( p>0.1). Small, but statistically significant differences ( p⩽0.03) were indicated for all other solutes analyzed. Differences were largest for Ca 2+ concentrations, which on average were 2.3 μeq l -1 (43%) higher in the snowpack than in winter NADP/NTN samples. Eolian carbonate dust appeared to influence snowpack chemistry through both wet and dry deposition, and the effect increased from north to south. Dry deposition of eolian carbonates was estimated to have neutralized an average of 6.9 μeq l -1 and a maximum of 12 μeq l -1 of snowpack acidity at the southernmost sites. The good agreement between snowpack and winter NADP/NTN SO 42- and NO 3- concentrations indicates that for those solutes the two data sets can be combined to increase data density in high-elevation areas, where few NADP/NTN sites exist. This combination of data sets will allow for better estimates of atmospheric deposition of SO 42- and NO 3- across the Rocky Mountain region.

Building Maintenance, Management, and Budgeting.

Science.gov (United States)

Pawsey, M. R.

1982-01-01

Australian methods and formulas for funding building maintenance and management are outlined and found to be haphazard. Discussed are: ultimate costs of deferred maintenance, major plant replacements, life cycle costing, types of maintenance programs (including full preventive maintenance), use of computer programs for planning, and organization…

Maintenance performance improvement with System Dynamics : A Corrective Maintenance showcase

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Deenen, R.E.M.; Van Daalen, C.E.; Koene, E.G.C.

2008-01-01

This paper presents a case study of an analysis of a Corrective Maintenance process to realize performance improvement. The Corrective Maintenance process is supported by SAP, which has indicated the performance realisation problem. System Dynamics is used in a Group Model Building process to

Analysis of maintenance strategies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Laakso, K.; Simola, K.

1998-01-01

The main topics of the presentation include: (1) an analysis model and methods to evaluate maintenance action programs and the support decision to make changes in them and (2) to understand the maintenance strategies in a systems perspective as a basis for future developments. The subproject showed how systematic models for maintenance analysis and decision support, utilising computerised and statistical tool packages, can be taken into use for evaluation and optimisation of maintenance of active systems from the safety and economic point of view

Comparative proteomics reveals the physiological differences between winter tender shoots and spring tender shoots of a novel tea (Camellia sinensis L.) cultivar evergrowing in winter.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Shengjie; Gao, Jiadong; Chen, Zhongjian; Qiao, Xiaoyan; Huang, Hualin; Cui, Baiyuan; Zhu, Qingfeng; Dai, Zhangyan; Wu, Hualing; Pan, Yayan; Yang, Chengwei; Liu, Jun

2017-11-20

A recently discovered tea [Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze] cultivar can generate tender shoots in winter. We performed comparative proteomics to analyze the differentially accumulated proteins between winter and spring tender shoots of this clonal cultivar to reveal the physiological basis of its evergrowing character during winter. We extracted proteins from the winter and spring tender shoots (newly formed two leaves and a bud) of the evergrowing tea cultivar "Dongcha11" respectively. Thirty-three differentially accumulated high-confidence proteins were identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF / TOF MS). Among these, 24 proteins had increased abundance while nine showed were decreased abundance in winter tender shoots as compared with the spring tender shoots. We categorized the differentially accumulated proteins into eight critical biological processes based on protein function annotation including photosynthesis, cell structure, protein synthesis & destination, transporters, metabolism of sugars and polysaccharides, secondary metabolism, disease/defense and proteins with unknown functions. Proteins with increased abundance in winter tender shoots were mainly related to the processes of photosynthesis, cytoskeleton and protein synthesis, whereas those with decreased abundance were correlated to metabolism and the secondary metabolism of polyphenolic flavonoids. Biochemical analysis showed that the total contents of soluble sugar and amino acid were higher in winter tender shoots while tea polyphenols were lower as compared with spring tender shoots. Our study suggested that the simultaneous increase in the abundance of photosynthesis-related proteins rubisco, plastocyanin, and ATP synthase delta chain, metabolism-related proteins eIF4 and protease subunits, and the cytoskeleton-structure associated proteins phosphatidylinositol transfer protein and profilin may be because of the adaptation of the

23 CFR 633.208 - Maintenance.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... responsibility of the State. The State may arrange for maintenance of such roads or portions thereof, by... 23 Highways 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Maintenance. 633.208 Section 633.208 Highways FEDERAL... PROVISIONS Federal-Aid Contracts (Appalachian Contracts) § 633.208 Maintenance. Maintenance of all highway...

Learning at old age: a study on winter bees

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andreas Behrends

2010-04-01

Full Text Available Ageing is often accompanied by a decline in learning and memory abilities across the animal kingdom. Understanding age-related changes in cognitive abilities is therefore a major goal of current research. The honey bee is emerging as a novel model organism for age-related changes in brain function, because learning and memory can easily be studied in bees under controlled laboratory conditions. In addition, genetically similar workers naturally display life expectancies from six weeks (summer bees to six months (winter bees. We studied whether in honey bees, extreme longevity leads to a decline in cognitive functions. Six-month-old winter bees were conditioned either to odours or to tactile stimuli. Afterwards, long-term memory and discrimination abilities were analysed. Winter bees were kept under different conditions (flight /no flight opportunity to test for effects of foraging activity on learning performance. Despite their extreme age, winter bees did not display an age-related decline in learning or discrimination abilities, but had a slightly impaired olfactory long-term memory. The opportunity to forage indoors led to a slight decrease in learning performance. This suggests that in honey bees, unlike in most other animals, age per se does not impair associative learning. Future research will show which mechanisms protect winter bees from age-related deficits in learning.

[Winter sport injuries in childhood (author's transl)].

Science.gov (United States)

Hausbrandt, D; Höllwarth, M; Ritter, G

1979-01-01

3374 accidents occurring on the field of sport during the years 1975--1977 accounted for 19% of all accidents dealt with at the Institute of Kinderchirurgie in Graz. 51% of the accidents were caused by the typical winter sports: skiing, tobogganing, ice-skating and ski-jumping with skiing accounting for 75% of the accidents. The fracture localization typical of the different kinds of winter sport is dealt with in detail. The correct size and safety of the equipment were found to be particularly important in the prevention of such accidents in childhood.

Nuclear winter: The evidence and the risks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Greene, O.

1985-01-01

Global concern over nuclear extinction, centered on the holocaust itself, now has turned to the more terrifying consequences of a post-war nuclear winter: ''the long-term effects - destruction of the environment, spread of epidemic diseases, contamination by radioactivity, and ... collapse of agriculture-[that] would spread famine and death to every country.'' Nuclear Winter, the latest in a series of studies by a number of different groups is clinical, analytical, systematic, and detailed. Two physicists and biologist analyze the effects on the climate, plants, animals, and living systems; the human costs; the policy implications

THE EVOLUTION OF THE WINTER PARALYMPIC GAMES AND SPORTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vasilios Giovanis

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Purpose: The aim of this research was to record and the evolution of the winter paralympic games and sports since 1976 until 2010. The history of the Winter Paralympic Games is relatively recent compared to that one of the Olympic Games. The first Games were held in 1976 in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden and the most recent, 38 years later in 2014, in Sochi, Russia. This article will examine the Winter Paralympic Games up until the ones in 2010 in Vancouver, Canada. During these years, there have been many changes in relation to the Games itself, the governing body of the Paralympic Movement, the sports’ facilities, the sports involved and sports’ categories. The motivation for writing this paper was the need to record and gather all of these items in one paper. Gathering information for the Winter Paralympic Games will be an important theoretical background. This information will create a database for the structure of the governing body of the Paralympic Games, for the organization of the Games [Local Organizing Committee (LOC, venues and equipment], for the evolution of the Winter Paralympic Sports and the categories of the athletes, as well as the evolution of the athletes’ and sports’ participation. Material : The research material that was used was mainly from the bibliography and records of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC, from the Official Post Games Reports and the Internet, while the research method that was used was descriptive. Moreover, the use of diagrams will depict the distribution of the participation of athletes and countries in each Games. Results : The participation of countries grew continuously and steadily from 16 to 44, during the years of 1976 to 2010 respectively. Regarding the athletes’ participation, starting in the first Games with 198 athletes, they reached the number of 502 in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Paralympic Games. The participation percentages of the athletes coming from Europe constituted the bulk

Winter survival of Scots pine seedlings under different snow conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Domisch, Timo; Martz, Françoise; Repo, Tapani; Rautio, Pasi

2018-04-01

Future climate scenarios predict increased air temperatures and precipitation, particularly at high latitudes, and especially so during winter. Soil temperatures, however, are more difficult to predict, since they depend strongly on the fate of the insulating snow cover. 'Rain-on-snow' events and warm spells during winter can lead to thaw-freeze cycles, compacted snow and ice encasement, as well as local flooding. These adverse conditions could counteract the otherwise positive effects of climatic changes on forest seedling growth. In order to study the effects of different winter and snow conditions on young Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) seedlings, we conducted a laboratory experiment in which 80 1-year-old Scots pine seedlings were distributed between four winter treatments in dasotrons: ambient snow cover (SNOW), compressed snow and ice encasement (ICE), flooded and frozen soil (FLOOD) and no snow (NO SNOW). During the winter treatment period and a 1.5-month simulated spring/early summer phase, we monitored the needle, stem and root biomass of the seedlings, and determined their starch and soluble sugar concentrations. In addition, we assessed the stress experienced by the seedlings by measuring chlorophyll fluorescence, electric impedance and photosynthesis of the previous-year needles. Compared with the SNOW treatment, carbohydrate concentrations were lower in the FLOOD and NO SNOW treatments where the seedlings had almost died before the end of the experiment, presumably due to frost desiccation of aboveground parts during the winter treatments. The seedlings of the ICE treatment showed dead needles and stems only above the snow and ice cover. The results emphasize the importance of an insulating and protecting snow cover for small forest tree seedlings, and that future winters with changed snow patterns might affect the survival of tree seedlings and thus forest productivity.

Reproductive arrest and stress resistance in winter-acclimated Drosophila suzukii.

Science.gov (United States)

Toxopeus, Jantina; Jakobs, Ruth; Ferguson, Laura V; Gariepy, Tara D; Sinclair, Brent J

2016-06-01

Overwintering insects must survive the multiple-stress environment of winter, which includes low temperatures, reduced food and water availability, and cold-active pathogens. Many insects overwinter in diapause, a developmental arrest associated with high stress tolerance. Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae), spotted wing drosophila, is an invasive agricultural pest worldwide. Its ability to overwinter and therefore establish in temperate regions could have severe implications for fruit crop industries. We demonstrate here that laboratory populations of Canadian D. suzukii larvae reared under short-day, low temperature, conditions develop into dark 'winter morph' adults similar to those reported globally from field captures, and observed by us in southern Ontario, Canada. These winter-acclimated adults have delayed reproductive maturity, enhanced cold tolerance, and can remain active at low temperatures, although they do not have the increased desiccation tolerance or survival of fungal pathogen challenges that might be expected from a more heavily melanised cuticle. Winter-acclimated female D. suzukii have underdeveloped ovaries and altered transcript levels of several genes associated with reproduction and stress. While superficially indicative of reproductive diapause, the delayed reproductive maturity of winter-acclimated D. suzukii appears to be temperature-dependent, not regulated by photoperiod, and is thus unlikely to be 'true' diapause. The traits of this 'winter morph', however, likely facilitate overwintering in southern Canada, and have probably contributed to the global success of this fly as an invasive species. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Winter in the Ouachitas--a severe winter storm signature in Pinus echinata in the Ouachita Mountains of Oklahoma and Arkansas, USA

Science.gov (United States)

Douglas J. Stevenson; Thomas B. Lynch; Pradip Saud; Robert Heineman; Randal Holeman; Dennis Wilson; Keith Anderson; Chris Cerny; James M. Guldin

2016-01-01

Each year severe winter storms (≈ice storms) damage trees throughout the southern USA. Arkansas and Oklahoma have a history of severe winter storms. To extend that history back beyond the reach of written records, a distinctive tree ring pattern or signature is needed. Storm-caused breakage, branch loss and bending stress provide that signature. We found a severe storm...

Research on spatial distribution of photosynthetic characteristics of Winter Wheat

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, Q. Q.; Zhou, Q. Y.; Zhang, B. Z.; Han, X.; Han, N. N.; Li, S. M.

2018-03-01

In order to explore the spatial distribution of photosynthetic characteristics of winter wheat leaf, the photosynthetic rate on different parts of leaf (leaf base-leaf middle-leaf apex) and that on each canopy (top layer-middle layer-bottom layer) leaf during the whole growth period of winter wheat were measured. The variation of photosynthetic rate with PAR and the spatial distribution of winter wheat leaf during the whole growth periods were analysed. The results showed that the photosynthetic rate of different parts of winter wheat increased with the increase of PAR, which was showed as leaf base>leaf middle>leaf apex. In the same growth period, photosynthetic rate in different parts of the tablet was showed as leaf middle>leaf base>leaf apex. For the different canopy layer of winter wheat, the photosynthetic rate of the top layer leaf was significantly greater than that of the middle layer and lower layer leaf. The photosynthetic rate of the top layer leaf was the largest in the leaf base position. The photosynthetic rate of leaf of the same canopy layer at different growth stages were showed as tasseling stage >grain filling stage > maturation stage.

Asphalt in Pavement Maintenance.

Science.gov (United States)

Asphalt Inst., College Park, MD.

Maintenance methods that can be used equally well in all regions of the country have been developed for the use of asphalt in pavement maintenance. Specific information covering methods, equipment and terminology that applies to the use of asphalt in the maintenance of all types of pavement structures, including shoulders, is provided. In many…

Comparing Model Ozone Loss during the SOLVE and SOLVE-2 Winters

Science.gov (United States)

Drdla, K.

2003-01-01

Model simulations have been used to analyze the factors influencing ozone loss during the 1999-2000 and 2002-2003 js. For both winters, the evolution of the Arctic vortex from November to April has been simulated using a trajectory-based microphysical and photochemical model. Extensive PSC formation and strong ozone depletion are evident in both winters. However, the ozone loss begins earlier in the 2002-2003 winter, with significant ozone depletion by early January. Analysis of the model results shows that during December 2002 not only cold temperatures but also the vortex structure was critical, allowing PSC-processed air parcels to experience significant solar exposure. The resultant ozone loss can be differentiated from ozone loss that occurs in the springtime, in particular because of the continued exposure to PSCs. For example, chlorine reactivation by the PSCs causes ozone loss to be insensitive to denitrification. Therefore, diagnosing the extent of ozone loss early in the winter is critical In understanding the overall winter-long ozone depletion.

46 CFR 42.30-10 - Southern Winter Seasonal Zone.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... Island; thence the rhumb line to Black Rock Point on Stewart Island; thence the rhumb line to the point... BY SEA Zones, Areas, and Seasonal Periods § 42.30-10 Southern Winter Seasonal Zone. (a) The northern boundary of the Southern Winter Seasonal Zone is the rhumb line from the east coast of the American...

Evaluation of winter resistance of age-1+ galician carp in Рrikarpattya ponds

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. Hrytsynyak

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Purpose. To evaluate the winter resistance of age-1+ Galician carp in pond conditions of the Prykarpattya region. Methodology. Analysis of the winter resistance of age-1+ Galician carp was carried out at the base of the fish farm “Korop” during 2015-2017. Wintering took place in a 2.5 ha pond. Hydrochemical parameters were determined using general chemical tests. The temperature and oxygen regimes of water in ponds were determined by a thermo-oximeter. The material for the study were age-1+ Galician carp. Determination of fish culture parameters of the preparedness for wintering of the Galician carp was carried out according to the instructions for organizing the wintering of fish seeds in ponds. To analyze the physiological preparedness of carp for wintering, the method of zootechnical analysis was used. Findings. The stocking density of age-1+ Galician carp in the wintering pond was 1000 kg/ha. The average individual weight of fish seeds ranged from 1650 g during 2015-2016 season and 1760 g during 2016-2017. The condition factor of age-1+ Galician carp was within the normative values. During the wintering season, the chemical composition of the meat-fillet of the Galician carp at the second year of culturing was within the normative parameters. During wintering, the environmental conditions corresponded to the necessary fish culture requirements. The dissolved oxygen content in water during the winter period did not exceed the critical limits. The water temperature ranged from 1 ° C to 8 ° C. As a result of fish harvesting in the wintering pond, 1483 and 1291 specimens of age-2 Galician carp were obtained in 2016 and 2017, respectively. The average individual weight of fish was 1450 ± 191 g and 1528 ± 124 g. The total yield from wintering exceeded 90%. Originality. For the first time, an evaluation of winter resistance of age-1+ Galician carp in pond conditions of the Prykarpattya region was carried out. Practical value. The results of

Over-winter ecology of Oncorhynchus nerka in the Sawtooth Valley Lakes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Steinhart, G.B.; Wurtsbaugh, W.A.

1996-05-01

Included in this section of the report on limnology of Lakes in the Snake River Plain are descriptions of winter limnological conditions and kokanee growth characteristics from 1993 to 1995. The winter is usually a very harsh period for animals, and little is know about the over-winter ecology os sockeye salmon. They are active a temperatures below 4 F. The chapter discusses methods and results. 14 figs, 4 tabs.

Over-winter ecology of Oncorhynchus nerka in the Sawtooth Valley Lakes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Steinhart, G.B.; Wurtsbaugh, W.A.

1996-01-01

Included in this section of the report on limnology of Lakes in the Snake River Plain are descriptions of winter limnological conditions and kokanee growth characteristics from 1993 to 1995. The winter is usually a very harsh period for animals, and little is know about the over-winter ecology os sockeye salmon. They are active a temperatures below 4 F. The chapter discusses methods and results. 14 figs, 4 tabs

Establishing Winter Origins of Migrating Lesser Snow Geese Using Stable Isotopes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Viviane Hénaux

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Increases in Snow Goose (Chen caerulescens populations and large-scale habitat changes in North America have contributed to the concentration of migratory waterfowl on fewer wetlands, reducing resource availability, and enhancing risks of disease transmission. Predicting wintering locations of migratory individuals is critical to guide wildlife population management and habitat restoration. We used stable carbon (δ13C, nitrogen (δ15N, and hydrogen (δ2H isotope ratios in muscle tissue of wintering Snow Geese to discriminate four major wintering areas, the Playa Lake Region, Texas Gulf Coast, Louisiana Gulf Coast, and Arkansas, and infer the wintering locations of individuals collected later during the 2007 and 2008 spring migrations in the Rainwater Basin (RWB of Nebraska. We predicted the wintering ground derivation of migrating Snow Geese using a likelihood-based approach. Our three-isotope analysis provided an efficient discrimination of the four wintering areas. The assignment model predicted that 53% [95% CI: 37-69] of our sample of Snow Geese from the RWB in 2007 had most likely originated in Louisiana, 38% [23-54] had wintered on Texas Gulf Coast, and 9% [0-20] in Arkansas; the assessment suggested that 89% [73-100] of our 2008 sample had most likely come from Texas Gulf Coast, 9% [0-27] from Louisiana Gulf Coast, and 2% [0-9] from Arkansas. Further segregation of wintering grounds and additional sampling of spring migrating Snow Geese would refine overall assignment and help explain interannual variations in migratory connectivity. The ability to distinguish origins of northbound geese can support the development of spatially-adaptive management strategies for the midcontinent Snow Goose population. Establishing migratory connectivity using isotope assignment techniques can be extended to other waterfowl species to determine critical habitat, evaluate population energy requirements, and inform waterfowl conservation and management

Simulating the influences of various fire regimes on caribou winter habitat

Science.gov (United States)

Rupp, T. Scott; Olson, Mark; Adams, Layne G.; Dale, Bruce W.; Joly, Kyle; Henkelman, Jonathan; Collins, William B.; Starfield, Anthony M.

2006-01-01

Caribou are an integral component of high‐latitude ecosystems and represent a major subsistence food source for many northern people. The availability and quality of winter habitat is critical to sustain these caribou populations. Caribou commonly use older spruce woodlands with adequate terrestrial lichen, a preferred winter forage, in the understory. Changes in climate and fire regime pose a significant threat to the long‐term sustainability of this important winter habitat. Computer simulations performed with a spatially explicit vegetation succession model (ALFRESCO) indicate that changes in the frequency and extent of fire in interior Alaska may substantially impact the abundance and quality of winter habitat for caribou. We modeled four different fire scenarios and tracked the frequency, extent, and spatial distribution of the simulated fires and associated changes to vegetation composition and distribution. Our results suggest that shorter fire frequencies (i.e., less time between recurring fires) on the winter range of the Nelchina caribou herd in eastern interior Alaska will result in large decreases of available winter habitat, relative to that currently available, in both the short and long term. A 30% shortening of the fire frequency resulted in a 3.5‐fold increase in the area burned annually and an associated 41% decrease in the amount of spruce–lichen forest found on the landscape. More importantly, simulations with more frequent fires produced a relatively immature forest age structure, compared to that which currently exists, with few stands older than 100 years. This age structure is at the lower limits of stand age classes preferred by caribou from the Nelchina herd. Projected changes in fire regime due to climate warming and/or additional prescribed burning could substantially alter the winter habitat of caribou in interior Alaska and lead to changes in winter range use and/or population dynamics.

Climate change affects winter chill for temperate fruit and nut trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Luedeling, Eike; Girvetz, Evan H; Semenov, Mikhail A; Brown, Patrick H

2011-01-01

Temperate fruit and nut trees require adequate winter chill to produce economically viable yields. Global warming has the potential to reduce available winter chill and greatly impact crop yields. We estimated winter chill for two past (1975 and 2000) and 18 future scenarios (mid and end 21st century; 3 Global Climate Models [GCMs]; 3 greenhouse gas emissions [GHG] scenarios). For 4,293 weather stations around the world and GCM projections, Safe Winter Chill (SWC), the amount of winter chill that is exceeded in 90% of all years, was estimated for all scenarios using the "Dynamic Model" and interpolated globally. We found that SWC ranged between 0 and about 170 Chill Portions (CP) for all climate scenarios, but that the global distribution varied across scenarios. Warm regions are likely to experience severe reductions in available winter chill, potentially threatening production there. In contrast, SWC in most temperate growing regions is likely to remain relatively unchanged, and cold regions may even see an increase in SWC. Climate change impacts on SWC differed quantitatively among GCMs and GHG scenarios, with the highest GHG leading to losses up to 40 CP in warm regions, compared to 20 CP for the lowest GHG. The extent of projected changes in winter chill in many major growing regions of fruits and nuts indicates that growers of these commodities will likely experience problems in the future. Mitigation of climate change through reductions in greenhouse gas emissions can help reduce the impacts, however, adaption to changes will have to occur. To better prepare for likely impacts of climate change, efforts should be undertaken to breed tree cultivars for lower chilling requirements, to develop tools to cope with insufficient winter chill, and to better understand the temperature responses of tree crops.

Maintenance of Certification for Radiation Oncology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kun, Larry E.; Ang, Kian; Erickson, Beth; Harris, Jay; Hoppe, Richard; Leibel, Steve; Davis, Larry; Hattery, Robert

2005-01-01

Maintenance of Certification (MOC) recognizes that in addition to medical knowledge, several essential elements involved in delivering quality care must be developed and maintained throughout one's career. The MOC process is designed to facilitate and document professional development of American Board of Radiology (ABR) diplomates in the essential elements of quality care in Radiation Oncology and Radiologic Physics. ABR MOC has been developed in accord with guidelines of the American Board of Medical Specialties. All Radiation Oncology certificates issued since 1995 are 10-year, time-limited certificates; diplomates with time-limited certificates who wish to maintain specialty certification must complete specific requirements of the American Board of Radiology MOC program. Diplomates with lifelong certificates are not required to participate but are strongly encouraged to do so. Maintenance of Certification is based on documentation of participation in the four components of MOC: (1) professional standing, (2) lifelong learning and self-assessment, (3) cognitive expertise, and (4) performance in practice. Through these components, MOC addresses six competencies-medical knowledge, patient care, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism, practice-based learning and improvement, and systems-based practice. Details of requirements for components 1, 2, and 3 of MOC are outlined along with aspects of the fourth component currently under development

CANDU plant maintenance: Recent developments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Charlebois, P.

2000-01-01

CANDU units have long been recognized for their exceptional safety and reliability. Continuing development in the maintenance area has played a key role in achieving this performance level. For over two decades, safety system availability has been monitored closely and system maintenance programs adjusted accordingly to maintain high levels of performance. But as the plants approach mid life in a more competitive environment and component aging becomes a concern, new methods and techniques are necessary. As a result, recent developments are moving the maintenance program largely from a corrective and preventive approach to predictive and condition based maintenance. The application of these techniques is also being extended to safety related systems. These recent developments include use of reliability centred methods to define system maintenance requirements and strategies. This approach has been implemented on a number of systems at Canadian CANDU plants with positive results. The pilot projects demonstrated that the overall maintenance effort remained relatively constant while the system performance improved. It was also possible to schedule some of the redundant component maintenance during plant operation without adverse impact on system availability. The probabilistic safety assessment was found to be useful in determining the safety implications of component outages. These new maintenance strategies are now making use of predictive and condition based maintenance techniques to anticipate equipment breakdown and schedule preventive maintenance as the need arises rather than time based. Some of these techniques include valve diagnostics, vibration monitoring, oil analysis, thermography. Of course, these tools and techniques must form part of an overall maintenance management system to ensure that maintenance becomes a living program. To facilitate this process and contain costs, new information technology tools are being introduced to provide system engineers

Maintenance analysis method and operational feedback: a comprehensive maintenance management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mathieu Riou; Victor Planchon

2006-01-01

Full text of publication follows: Current periodic inspections program carried out on the COGEMA LOGISTICS casks is required by regulations and approved by the competent Authority. Thus, Safety and casks conformity to the according certificate of approval are guaranteed. Nonetheless, based on experience it appeared that some maintenance operations did not seem relevant or were redundant. Then, it was decided to rethink completely our maintenance program to reach the following objectives: - Set up the 'a minima' required inspection operations required to guarantee Safety and conformity to the certificate of approval, - Optimize criteria and periodicities of inspections taking into account: operational feedback, routine inspections carried out for each transport, regulations, environmental impact (ALARA, waste reduction,...), cost-effectiveness (reduction of cask's immobilization period,...). - Set up a maintenance program in Safety Analysis Reports that: stands alone (no need to check the specification or the certificate of approval to have the complete list of inspections mandatory to guarantee Safety), gives objectives instead of means of controls. This approach needs then to be re-evaluated by the competent Authority. Study's scope has been limited to the TN TM 12 cask family which is intensely used. COGEMA LOGISTICS has a high operational feedback on these casks. After Authority agreement, and in accordance with its requirements, study will then be extended to the other casks belonging to the COGEMA LOGISTICS cask fleet. Actually, the term 'maintenance' is linked to 'Base maintenance' and 'Main maintenance' and implicitly means that the cask is immobilized for a given period. To emphasize the modifications, the term 'maintenance' is no longer used and is substituted by 'periodic upkeep'. By changing the name, COGEMA LOGISTICS wants to emphasize that: some operations can for instance be realized while the cask is unloaded, periodicities are thought in terms of

Union Underground: Political Issues. Comparing Political Experiences, Experimental Edition.

Science.gov (United States)

Gillespie, Judith A.; Lazarus, Stuart

This is the third unit to the second-semester "Comparing Political Experiences" course which focuses on a specific, controversial, political issue. The unit analyzes the concept of political maintenance by studying the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) between 1918 and 1975 and its fight to secure mine safety standards. A documentary…

2008 Winter meeting of the Deutsches Atomforum: opening address

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hohlefelder, W.

2008-01-01

It has always been a tradition at the Winter Meeting of the Deutsches Atomforum to review the status of nuclear power in the world, in Europe and, of course, in Germany. On the global and European scenes, nuclear power is experiencing an upswing, while it continues to be blocked in Germany. Given the pressing issues of climate protection, continuity of energy supply, and the prices of energy resources, the future of nuclear power can well be seen in an optimistic light. The EU Commission recognizes the potential of nuclear power for a sustainable energy mix; the mood of the German public is shifting; and even media known for their critical attitude to nuclear power are now clamoring for an unbiased discussion of the issue. The ideological ban on thinking is waning. There will be a reassessment of nuclear power also in Germany because of the realities to be faced. If you really want to protect the climate, you cannot exclude the nuclear power option. After all, this is not a matter of confrontation designed to divide society; such times are past and gone for nuclear power. There is need for a factual dialog. We extend a sincere invitation to join in this dialog, and we want to contribute to it. After all, this is the true purpose of the Deutsches Atomforum, to which all of us feel committed. (orig.)

Effects of prescribed burns on wintering cavity-nesting birds

Science.gov (United States)

Heather L. Bateman; Margaret A. O' Connell

2006-01-01

Primary cavity-nesting birds play a critical role in forest ecosystems by excavating cavities later used by other birds and mammals as nesting or roosting sites. Several species of cavity-nesting birds are non-migratory residents and consequently subject to winter conditions. We conducted winter bird counts from 1998 to 2000 to examine the abundance and habitat...

Machine Maintenance Scheduling with Reliability Engineering Method and Maintenance Value Stream Mapping

Science.gov (United States)

Sembiring, N.; Nasution, A. H.

2018-02-01

Corrective maintenance i.e replacing or repairing the machine component after machine break down always done in a manufacturing company. It causes the production process must be stopped. Production time will decrease due to the maintenance team must replace or repair the damage machine component. This paper proposes a preventive maintenance’s schedule for a critical component of a critical machine of an crude palm oil and kernel company due to increase maintenance efficiency. The Reliability Engineering & Maintenance Value Stream Mapping is used as a method and a tool to analize the reliability of the component and reduce the wastage in any process by segregating value added and non value added activities.

PROCESS OF CHANGES OF MAINTENANCE-FREE ONBOARD SYSTEM OPERATIONAL STATUS BETWEEN SCHEDULED MAINTENANCES

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