New concept of safeprocess based on a fault detection methodology: super alarms

Industrial plants, especially on mining, metal processing, energy and chemical/petrochemical processes require integrated management of all the events that may cause accidents and translate into alarms. Process alarm management can be formulated as an eventbased pattern recognition problem in which temporal patterns are used to characterize different typical situations, particularly at startup and shutdown stages. In this paper, a new layer based on a diagnosis process is proposed over the typical layers of protection in industrial processes. Considering the alarms and the actions of the standard operating procedure as discrete events, the diagnosis step relies on situation recognition to provide the operators with relevant information about the failures inducing the alarm flow. The new concept of super alarms is based on a methodology with a diagnosis step that permits generate these types of superior alarms. For example, the Chronicle Based Alarm Management (CBAM) methodology involves different techniques to take the hybrid aspect and the standard operational procedures of the concerned processes into account

Una nueva capa de protección a través de súper alarmas con capacidad de diagnóstico

An alarm management methodology can be proposed as a discrete event sequence recognition problem where time patterns are used to identify the process safe condition, especially in the start-up and shutdown stages. Industrial plants, particularly in the petrochemical, energy, and chemical sectors, require a combined approach of all the events that can result in a catastrophic accident. This document introduces a new layer of protection (super-alarm) for industrial processes based on a diagnostic stage. Alarms and actions of the standard operating procedure are considered discrete events involved in sequences, where the diagnostic stage corresponds to the recognition of a special situation when these sequences occur. This is meant to provide operators with pertinent information regarding the normal or abnormal situations induced by the flow of alarms. Chronicles Based Alarm Management (CBAM) is the methodology used to build the chronicles that will permit to generate the super-alarms furthermore, a case study of the petrochemical sector using CBAM is presented to build the chronicles of the normal startup, abnormal start-up, and normal shutdown scenarios. Finally, the scenario validation is performed for an abnormal start-up, showing how a super-alarm is generated.Se puede formular una metodología de gestión de alarmas como un problema de reconocimiento de secuencia de eventos discretos en el que se utilizan patrones de tiempo para identificar la condición segura del proceso, especialmente en las etapas de arranque y parada de planta. Las plantas industriales, particularmente en las industrias petroquímica, energética y química, requieren una administración combinada de todos los eventos que pueden producir un accidente catastrófico. En este documento, se introduce una nueva capa de protección (súper alarma) a los procesos industriales basados en una etapa de diagnóstico. Las alarmas y las acciones estándar del procedimiento operativo son asumidas como eventos discretos involucrados en las secuencias, luego la etapa de diagnóstico corresponde al reconocimiento de la situación cuando ocurren estas secuencias. Esto proporciona a los operadores información pertinente sobre las situaciones normales o anormales inducidas por el flujo de alarmas. La gestión de alarmas basadas en crónicas (CBAM) es la metodología utilizada en este artículo para construir las crónicas que permitirán generar las super alarmas, además, se presenta un caso de estudio del sector petroquímico que usa CBAM para construir las crónicas de los escenarios de un arranque normal, un arranque anormal y un apagado normal. Finalmente, la validación del escenario se realiza para un arranque anormal, mostrando cómo se genera una súper alarma

Super-alarms with diagnosis proficiency used as an additional layer of protection applied to an oil transport system

In automated plants, particularly in the petrochemical, energy, and chemical industries, the combined management of all of the incidents that can produce a catastrophic accident is required. In order to do this, an alarm management methodology can be formulated as a discrete event sequence recognition problem, in which time patterns are used to identify the safe condition of the process, especially in the start-up and shutdown stages. In this paper, a new layer of protection (a Super-Alarm), based on the diagnostic stage to industrial processes is presented. The alarms and actions of the standard operating procedures are considered to be discrete events involved in sequences; the diagnostic stage corresponds to the recognition of the situation when these sequences occur. This provides operators with pertinent information about the normal or abnormal situations induced by the flow of the alarms. Chronicles Based Alarm Management (CBAM) is the methodology used in this document to build the chronicles that will permit us to generate the Super-Alarms; in addition, a case study of the petrochemical sector using CBAM is presented in order to build one chronicle that represents the scenario of an abnormal start-up of an oil transport system. Finally, the scenario’s validation for this case is performed, showing the way in which, a Super-Alarm is generated

Supplying the Nuclear Arsenal

Originally published in 1996. Although the history of commercial-power nuclear reactors is well known, the story of the government reactors that produce weapons-grade plutonium and tritium has been shrouded in secrecy. Supplying the Nuclear Arsenal looks at the origin and development of these production reactors, Rodney Carlisle and Joan Zenzen describe a fifty-year government effort no less complex, expensive, and technologically demanding than the Polaris or Apollo programs—yet one about which most Americans know virtually nothing. Carlisle and Zenzen describe the evolution of the early reactors, the atomic weapons establishment that surrounded them, and the sometimes bitter struggles between business and political constituencies for their share of "nuclear pork." They show how, since the 1980s, aging production reactors have increased the risk of radioactive contamination of the atmosphere and water table. And they describe how the Department of Energy mounted a massive effort to find the right design for a new generation of reactors, only to abandon that effort with the end of the Cold War. Today, all American production reactors remain closed.Due to short half-life, the nation's supply of tritium, crucial to modern weapons, is rapidly dwindling. As countries like Iraq and North Korea threaten to join the nuclear club, the authors contend, the United States needs to revitalize tritium production capacity in order to maintain a viable nuclear deterrent. Meanwhile, as slowly decaying artifacts of the Cold War, the closed production reactors at Hanford, Washington, and Savannah River, South Carolina, loom ominously over the landscape

Factors underlying companies response to supply chain disruption: a grounded theory approach

A wide range of recent man-made and natural disasters has demonstrated the importance of managing disruption risk in global supply chains. This research argues that supply chain disruptions are, de facto, unavoidable and consequently all complex supply chains can be considered inherently risky. This research focuses on a relatively unexplored issue in supply chain risk management, asking and answering the question of how companies specifically use time to respond to catastrophic events of low probability but high impact. Linking faster response lead-time with reduced impact, the goal is to identify and explore the underlying factors of managing disruption risk by answering how companies respond to supply chain disruptions. In reducing total response time by detecting the event, designing solutions, and deploying a recovery plan sooner after a disruption, the company can reduce the impact of disruption risk. The research uses Grounded Theory methodology to extend an emerging framework on time-based supply chain risk management. Empirical data is used from a range of sources including interviews and corporate publications from the events faced by global pharmaceutical manufacturer during a pandemic in 2009. The emerging categories of possible factors in response time are further developed using data from the events surrounding the worst maritime oil spill in history in 2010 under the management responsibility of the Exploration and Production (Upstream) division of a global energy company and from an industrial accident in 2005 in the Refining and Marketing division of the same firm. The research identifies four categories of factors that companies can focus on to reduce response time in the face of catastrophic events of low probability and high impact: organisational structure, preparation, partnership and reserve. The research derives new insights, presented as four propositions that relate the response time in managing supply chain disruption to negative or potentially positive impact

Sheltering in place : the limits of integrative bargaining following industrial accidents

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 265-289).This study grew out of an interest in environmental justice and the unique problems faced by neighborhoods located near petrochemical facilities. It also focuses on negotiation theory and how it can be applied under an increasingly diverse array of circumstances. I sketch the roots of the concept of integrative bargaining and how it emerged as a powerful yet limited tool for meeting the interests of stakeholders in multi-party contexts. Specifically, I demonstrate how research into the structure of conflict, with origins in contract and game theory, encouraged a new profession that focuses much of its time, paradoxically, on matters of agency, such as the strategic elements widely viewed as conducive to a Pareto efficient outcome. In an effort to encourage a renewed focus on structure, I show how in a highly institutionalized setting, which for my dissertation included the causes and immediate consequences of an accidental toxic emission by a chemical processing facility, much of the integrative potential of the negotiations that follow is removed from potential discussion or even discovery before mediators and the parties involved begin to address root causes.(cont.) New roles for mediators, and why it is as important to focus on limiting the narrowing effects of structuration as it is to try and expand the initial offer space, are discussed. Data for my dissertation include semi-structured interviews with over 90 agency and industry representatives, residents and community organizers, and the lawyers and mediators who were also a part of the conflicts that followed accidents such as the Unocal Catacarb spill. I also collected primary documents, including environmental data, deposition transcripts analyzed to determine the organizational roots of the accidents, plant management and government agency records, media accounts, and drafts of community-corporate agreements.by Gregg P. Macey.Ph.D

BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS, WE’LL ALL BE DEAD: The failures of history and institutions regarding the 2013-2015 West African Ebola Pandemic.

Abstract The 2013 – 2015 Ebola pandemic had a devastating impact on the countries of Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia, with a few regional and global sparks as a result of the 25,178 cases and 10,445 deaths that the epidemic has so far brought upon the three most affected nations by April First 2015. The epidemic has collapsed healthcare systems, economies, and the very social fabric of life within the subregion itself. In the light of this tragic epidemic, one question stands out above all, “How and why did this happen?” The medical literature around Ebola is sound and due to this current epidemic vast and greatly updated. However the story of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea and why they were so susceptible to the epidemic has not been reflected upon in modern academic literature. This paper will review the historical, institutional, geographic, and environmental factors that led towards the Ebola virus finding these three countries a near- perfect breeding ground as well as the consequences that this epidemic has for future outbreaks and the lessons it serves for public health policy

Campus Communications Systems: Converging Technologies

This book is a rewrite of Campus Telecommunications Systems: Managing Change, a book that was written by ACUTA in 1995. In the past decade, our industry has experienced a thousand-fold increase in data rates as we migrated from 10 megabit links (10 million bits per second) to 10 gigabit links (10 billion bits per second), we have seen the National Telecommunications Policy completely revamped; we have seen the combination of voice, data, and video onto one network; and we have seen many of our service providers merge into larger corporations able to offer more diverse services. When this book was last written, A CUT A meant telecommunications, convergence was a mathematical term, triple play was a baseball term, and terms such as iPod, DoS, and QoS did not exist. This book is designed to be a communications primer to be used by new entrants into the field of communications in higher education and by veteran communications professionals who want additional information in areas other than their field of expertise. There are reference books and text books available on every topic discussed in this book if a more in-depth explanation is desired. Individual chapters were authored by communications professionals from various member campuses. This allowed the authors to share their years of experience (more years than many of us would care to admit to) with the community at large. Foreword Walt Magnussen, Ph.D. Preface Ron Kovac, Ph.D. 1 The Technology Landscape: Historical Overview . Walt Magnussen, Ph.D. 2 Emerging Trends and Technologies . Joanne Kossuth 3 Network Security . Beth Chancellor 4 Security and Disaster Planning and Management Marjorie Windelberg, Ph.D. 5 Student Services in a University Setting . Walt Magnussen, Ph.D. 6 Administrative Services David E. O\u27Neill 7 The Business Side of Information Technology George Denbow 8 The Role of Consultants . David C. Metz Glossary Michelle Narcavag