Remotely Operated Underwater Thermal Cutting Processes for the Decommissioning of Large North Sea Platforms

Author(s):  
Ian Frazer ◽  
Lindsey Fyffe ◽  
Oliver J. Gibson ◽  
Bill Lucas

A study has demonstrated the automation of underwater thermal cutting processes for remote decommissioning operations. The first phase of cutting trials evaluated five cutting processes underwater (air plasma, oxy-hydrogen, flux-cored arc, oxy-petrol and Kerrie cable systems). In the second phase, three manual cutting systems (oxy-petrol, “Broco” type system and Kerrie cable) were adapted for operation by a manipulator arm of the type commonly used offshore on Remotely Operated Vehicles. This manipulator, which usually requires a human operator, was interfaced to computer simulation and control software. The results of underwater cuts on steel plate using these systems are discussed, with applicability to offshore decommissioning. Ongoing work using other novel thermal cutting processes is also described.

2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 326-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renato Coradello Lourenço ◽  
Saul Jorge Pinto de Carvalho

ABSTRACTIn sugarcane crop areas, the application of preemergence herbicides with long residual effect in the soil has been frequently necessary. The herbicide persistence in the soil must be high especially because of applications during the dry season of the year, after sugarcane harvest. This study aimed at estimating the sulfentrazone persistence and dissipation in dry soil using bioindicator. Five experiments were carried out, divided into two phases. In the first phase, three dose-response curves were adjusted to select the best bioindicator to be adopted in the second phase. Niger was adopted due to its lower sensibility to sulfentrazone. In the second phase, a new dose-response curve was carried out, with six doses of sulfentrazone, in order to standardize the bioindicator sensibility to sulfentrazone. At the end, another experiment with six periods of sulfentrazone persistence in dry clay soil was developed. Persistence periods were: 182, 154, 125, 98 and 30 days. The bioindicator was seeded at the application day in treated plots and control. In this experiment, the sulfentrazone dose applied was 800 g ha-1. Niger was considered a good species to estimate the sulfentrazone persistence in dry soil. The sulfentrazone phytotoxic activity was identified up to 182 days after application, and its average dissipation rate was 2.15 g ha-1 day-1, with half-life higher than 182 days.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stelios Iordanou ◽  
Nicos Middleton ◽  
Elizabeth Papathanassoglou ◽  
Lakis Palazis ◽  
VASILIOS RAFTOPOULOS

Abstract Background: Device-associated health care-associated infections (DA-HAIs) are a major threat to patient safety, particularly in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a bundle of infection control measures to reduce DA-HAIs in the ICU of a General Hospital in the Republic of Cyprus, over a three-year period. Methods: We studied 599 ICU patients with length of stay (LOS) for at least 48 hours. Our prospective cohort study was divided into three surveillance phases. VAP, CLABSI, and CAUTI incidence rates, LOS and mortality were calculated before, during and after the infection prevention and control program. Results: There was a statistically significant reduction in the number of DA-HAI events during the surveillance periods, associated with DA-HAIs prevention efforts. In 2015 (prior to program implementation), the baseline DA-HAIs instances were 43: 16 VAP (10.1/1000 Device Days), 21 (15.9/1000DD) CLABSIs and 6 (2.66/1000DD) CAUTIs, (n=198). During the second phase (2016), CLABSIs prevention measures were implemented and the number of infections were 24: 14 VAP (12.21/1000DD), 4 (4.2/1000DD) CLABSIs & 6 (3.22/1000DD) CAUTIs, (n=184). During the third phase (2017), VAP and CAUTI prevention measure were again implemented and the rates were 6: (3 VAP: 12.21/1000DD), 2 (1.95/1000DD) CLABSIs & 1 (0.41/1000DD) CAUTIs, (n=217). There was an overall reduction of 87% in the total number of DA-HAIs instances for the period 01/01/15 to 31/12/17. Conclusions: The significant overall reduction in DA-HAI rates, indicates that a comprehensive infection control program can affect DA-HAI rates.


Author(s):  
Neofytos Aspriadis

During the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak all countries around the world used several kinds of response strategies to protect public health and control the outbreak. The main aim was to stop the disease from spreading into the community and put a pressure on the health system of the countries. However, severe measures like lockdown of cities and countries brought side-crises like economic pressure on the individuals, corporations and even the state itself. Although the Greek Government was considered to have managed the first phase of the crisis in March effectively, during the aftermath of the first phase, the complete opening of the economy and tourism, the lowering of measures leaded to the increase of new cases. The increased number of cases together with the late imposition of a new lockdown, leaded to the perception of a governmental failure. This perception mobilized direct or indirect image restoration strategies by officials of the Greek Government to maintain the positive image of their handling despite the general perceptions. This paper explores the image restoration strategies used by the prime minister of Greece for the handlings of the second phase of the pandemic in Greece. The methodology used is discourse analysis with the tools of Image Restoration Strategies by Benoit (1995) from October till December 2020.


Author(s):  
Robert S. Friedman ◽  
Desiree M. Roberts ◽  
Jonathan D. Linton

The articles addressed in this chapter on new product development can be classified in two general categories—papers that address the internal processes that assist or hinder development, and those that focus on factors that contribute to a new product’s success or failure in terms of performance and diffusion. We begin with Cooper and Kleinschmidt (1986), who report on the second phase of the New Prod project. Its goal was to examine the nature of the steps that affect the development process and determine how the step-wise structure was modified by the developer companies in order to improve process performance. Clark (1989) looks at project scope, or the extent to which in-house part development affects new product development and overall project performance. The new product development process, as a comprehensive scope of work, is the subject of Millison, Raj, and Wilemon’s (1992) discussion, specifically what the tensions and trade-offs are that occur among different functional areas and how they affect innovative product development. Wheelwright and Clark (1992) provide insight into strategies to plan, focus, and control a firm’s project development, offering an aggregate project plan that promotes management clearly delineating the roles and steps of each participant’s activities. Griffin and Page (1993) offer a practitioner’s framework that identifies and coordinates the many measures of product development success and failure, and holds them up against existing measures used by academic researchers. We then move to Souder’s (1988) article examining the relationship between R&D groups and marketing groups, the nature of the problems between them, and the structure of potentially effective partnerships.


Healthcare ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 387
Author(s):  
Sandul Yasobant ◽  
Walter Bruchhausen ◽  
Deepak Saxena ◽  
Timo Falkenberg

The surging trend of (re)emerging diseases urges for the early detection, prevention, and control of zoonotic infections through the One Health (OH) approach. The operationalization of the OH approach depends on the contextual setting, the presence of the actors across the domains of OH, and the extent of their involvement. In the absence of national operational guidelines for OH in India, this study aims to identify potential actors with an attempt to understand the current health system network strength (during an outbreak and non-outbreak situations) at the local health system of Ahmedabad, India. This case study adopted a sequential mixed methods design conducted in two phases. First, potential actors who have been involved directly or indirectly in zoonoses prevention and control were identified through in-depth interviews. A network study was conducted as part of the second phase through a structured network questionnaire. Interest and influence matrix, average degree, network density, and degree of centralization were calculated through Atlas.Ti (ATLAS.ti Scientific Software Development GmbH, Berlin, Germany), UCINET (Analytic Technologies, Lexington, KY, USA) software. The identified actors were categorized based on power, administrative level (either at the city or district level), and their level of action: administrative (policy planners, managers), providers (physicians, veterinarians), and community (health workers, community leaders). The matrix indicated that administrative actors from the district level were ‘context setters’ and the actors from the city level were either ‘players’ or ‘subjects’. The network density showed a strength of 0.328 during the last outbreak of H5N1, which decreased to 0.163 during the non-outbreak situation. Overall, there was low collaboration observed in this study, which ranged from communication (during non-outbreaks) to coordination (during outbreaks). The private and non-governmental actors were not integrated into collaborative activities. This study concludes that not only collaboration is needed for OH among the sectors pertaining to the human and the animal health system but also better structured (‘inter-level’) collaboration across the governance levels for effective implementation.


Author(s):  
Nathan W. Klingbeil ◽  
Srikanth Bontha

The ability to predict and control microstructure in laser deposited materials requires an understanding of the thermal conditions at the onset of solidification. To this end, the focus of this work is the development of thermal process maps relating solidification cooling rate and thermal gradient (the key parameters controlling microstructure) to laser deposition process variables (e.g., laser power and velocity). Results presented herein are based on the Rosenthal solution for a moving point heat source traversing an infinite substrate. Ongoing work includes the effect of a distributed laser power through superposition of the Rosenthal solution, while the effects of finite geometry, temperature dependent properties and latent heat of transformation are included through thermal finite element modeling of the laser deposition process.


2010 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 713-716 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. L. Vorontsov ◽  
N. M. Sultan-Zade ◽  
A. Yu. Albagachiev ◽  
A. I. Savkin

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