Shoreline Oil Spill Response Knowledge Gaps and Technological Development Opportunities: A Workshop Report

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) partnered with NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) and UNH’s Coastal Response Research Center (CRRC) to plan and facilitate an in-person workshop on the NOAA WRC in Seattle, WA. This event entitled “Shoreline Oil Spill Response Knowledge Gaps and Technological Development Opportunities” identified knowledge gaps and opportunities regarding technologies and scientific research associated with oil spill shoreline response. This effort included the exploration of the current state of the science of oil spill research associated with impacts of crude oil to shoreline environments and identified countermeasures and response alternatives that may become part of the oil spill response toolbox. The specific objectives of the workshop were: Develop a literature review of the state of the science regarding impacts, preparedness and responses strategies and technologies associated with oil spills on shorelines (i.e., oils from offshore facilities including crude oil and dielectric fluids). Identify gaps in the current state of science regarding impacts of crude oil and dielectric fluids from offshore facilities. Identify operational constraints of shoreline techniques

Comparing Recent Advances in Estimating and Measuring Oil Slick Thickness: An MPRI Technical Report

Characterization of the degree and extent of surface oil during and after an oil spill is a critical part of emergency response and Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) activities. More specifically, understanding floating oil thickness in real-time can guide response efforts by directing limited assets to priority cleanup areas; aid in ‘volume released’ estimates; enhance fate, transport and effects modeling capabilities; and support natural resource injury determinations. An international workshop brought researchers from agencies, academia and industry who were advancing in situ and remote oil characterization tools and methods together with stake holders and end users who rely on information about floating oil thickness for mission critical assignments (e.g., regulatory, assessment, cleanup, research). In total, over a dozen researchers presented and discussed their findings from tests using various different sensors and sensor platforms. The workshop resulted in discussions and recommendations for better ways to leverage limited resources and opportunities for advancing research and developing tools and methods for oil spill thickness measurements and estimates that could be applied during spill responses. One of the primary research gaps identified by the workshop participants was the need for side-by-side testing and validation of these different methods, to better understand their respective strengths, weaknesses and technical readiness levels, so that responders would be better able to make decisions about what methods are appropriate to use under what conditions, and to answer the various questions associated with response actions. Approach: 1) Convene a more in-depth multi day researcher workshop to discuss and develop specific workplan to conduct side-by-side validation and verification experiments for testing oil thickness measurements. 2) Conduct the validation and verification experiments in controlled environments: the Coastal Response Research Center (CRRC) highbay at the University of New Hampshire (UNH); and the Ohmsett National Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility

Factors Associated with 5-Year Glaucomatous Progression in Glaucoma Suspect Eyes

Background: The US Preventive Services Task Force found that treatment of early asymptomatic primary open-angle glaucoma reduces visual field defects. However, it remains unclear which factors are associated with glaucomatous progression and which patients are at higher risk. The purpose of this study was to assess demographic factors, medical comorbidities, Humphrey visual field (VF) results, and Cirrus optical coherence tomography variables that could be predictive for 5-year glaucoma progression. Methods: A retrospective longitudinal study was conducted with the following inclusion criteria: glaucoma suspect eyes (defined as an asymmetric cup to disc ratio or an intraocular pressure \u3e21mmHg), best-corrected visual acuity 20/100 or better, spherical equivalent better than −8 diopters and astigmatism less than 3 diopters. Two consecutive abnormal VF tests during a 5-year follow-up was considered glaucomatous progression. Results: A total of 365 eyes (288 patients) were included in the study, of which 55 (15%) converted to glaucoma after 5 years. Logistic regression analysis showed that baseline mean deviation (MD), pattern standard deviation (PSD), VF index, and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) colors were statistically significant in predicting 5-year glaucomatous progression. Though there were differences in glaucoma progression rates when analyzing sex, age, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, family history of glaucoma, and baseline intraocular pressure, these factors were not statistically significant. Conclusions: The study found that VF test results (MD and PSD) and RNFL colors can strongly predict which patients are at an increased risk of glaucoma progression. Clinicians can consider these factors when initiating, or continuing, prophylactic treatment for patients with glaucoma suspect eyes

Modelling an integrated impact of fire, explosion and combustion products during transitional events caused by an accidental release of LNG

In a complex processing facility, there is likelihood of occurrence of cascading scenarios, i.e. hydrocarbon release, fire, explosion and dispersion of combustion products. The consequence of such scenarios, when combined, can be more severe than their individual impact. Hence, actual impact can be only representedby integration of above mentioned events. A novel methodology is proposed to model an evolving accident scenario during an incidental release of LNG in a complex processing facility. The methodology is applied to a case study considering transitional scenarios namely spill, pool formation and evaporation of LNG, dispersion of natural gas, and the consequent fire, explosion and dispersion of combustion products using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Probit functions are employed to analyze individual impacts and a ranking method is used to combine various impacts to identify risk during the transitional events.The results confirmed that in a large and complex facility, an LNG fire can transit to a vapor cloud explosion ifthe necessary conditions are met, i.e.the flammable range, ignition source with enough energy and congestion/confinement level. Therefore, the integrated consequences are more severe than those associated with the individual ones, and need to be properly assessed. This study would provide an insight for an effective analysis of potential consequences of an LNG spill in any LNG processing facility and it can be useful for the safety measured design of process facilities

Subsea Blowout Preventer (BOP): Design, Reliability, Testing, Deployment, and Operation and Maintenance Challenges

Subsea blowout preventer (BOP) is a safety-related instrumented system that is used in underwater oil drilling to prevent the well to blowout. As oil and gas exploration moves into deeper waters and harsher environments, the setbacks related to reliable functioning of the BOP system and its subsystems remain a major concern for researchers and practitioners. This study aims to systematically review the current state-of-the-art and present a detailed description about some of the recently developed methodologies for through-life management of the BOP system. Challenges associated with the system design, reliability analysis, testing, deployment as well as operability and maintainability are explored, and then the areas requiring further research and development will be identified. A total of 82 documents published since 1980's are critically reviewed and classified according to two proposed frameworks. The first framework categorises the literature based on the depth of water in which the BOP systems operate, with a sub-categorization based on the Macondo disaster. The second framework categorises the literature based on the techniques applied for the reliability analysis of BOP systems, including Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), Reliability Block Diagram (RBD), Petri Net (PN), Markov modelling, Bayesian Network (BN), Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS), etc. Our review analysis reveals that the reliability analysis and testing of BOP has received the most attention in the literature, whereas the design, deployment, and operation and maintenance (O&M) of BOPs received the least

J. Rosen et. al., Spherical Mechanism Analysis of a Surgical Robot for Minimally Invasive Surgery Spherical Mechanism Analysis of a Surgical Robot for Minimally Invasive Surgery – Analytical and Experimental Approaches

Abstract: Recent advances in technology have led to the fusion of MIS techniques and robot devices. However, current systems are large and cumbersome. Optimizing the surgical robot mechanism will eventually lead to its integration into the operating room (OR) of the future becoming the extended presence of the surgeon and nurses in a room occupied by the patient alone. By optimizing a spherical mechanism using data collected in-vivo during MIS procedures, this study is focused on a bottom-up approach to developing a new class of surgical robotic arms while maximizing their performance and minimizing their size. The spherical mechanism is a rotational manipulator with all axes intersecting at the center of the sphere. Locating the rotation center of the mechanism at the MIS port makes this class of mechanism a suitable candidate for the first two links of a surgical robot for MIS. The required dexterous workspace (DWS) is defined as the region in which 95 % of the tool motions are contained based on in-vivo measurements. The extended dexterous workspace (EDWS) is defined as the entire abdominal cavity reachable by a MIS instruments. The DWS is defined by a right circular cone with a vertex angle of 60º and the EDWS is defined by a cone with a