Employee scheduling and maintenance planning for safety systems at the remotely located oil and gas industrial facilities

The safety of operations is vital in any process in the oil and gas sector, especially given that increasingly more hydrocarbon reserves are discovered in non-conventional remote and Arctic locations. Safety systems are designed as a part of a complex IT system for process control. The design of these systems is conducted in the form of an engineering project. This research presents a decision-making framework to facilitate formulating clear and comprehensive recommendations for the requirements specification developed for the safety systems. The contribution of this research to the strategic planning area of IT solutions for hazardous industrial facilities is integrating the problems of designing a safety system, planning its maintenance, and scheduling the employees to conduct the required maintenance. With this joint decision-making, it is possible to explore trade-offs between investments into the systems’ complexity and workforce-related expenditures throughout the solution’s lifecycle. The reliability modelling is conducted with the help of Markov analysis. The multi-objective decision-making framework is employed to deduce straightforward requirements to the safety system design, maintenance strategy, and workforce organisation. This research is relevant to managing the petroleum sector engineering projects with regard to the design of technological solutions.publishedVersio

Microdomain\u2013specific localization of functional L-type calcium channels in atrial cardiomyocytes: novel concept of local regulation and remodelling in disease

noRecently, novel concept of microdomain-specific regulation in cardiac cells have greatly extended our understanding of how specific subcellular localization impacts on channel function and regulation. Microdomain is a small region of cell membrane, which has a distinct structure, composition and function. It has been recognized that discrete clusters of different ion channels exist in the sarcolemma in different microdomains such as T-tubules, caveolae. This study addresses the hypothesis that distinct spatial compartmentalization of functional calcium channels in different intercellular microdomains are coupled with structural proteins and receptors and play an important role in unique Ca2+ signaling in atrial cardiomyocytes in health and pathology. Using several technical approaches (super-resolution scanning and whole-cell patch-clamp, confocal and electron microscopy), this study aims to investigate characteristics of subcellular micrdomains such as T-tubules and caveolae in atrial cardiomyocytes; and to answer the question whether in atrial cardiomyocytes functional L-type calcium channels (LTCCs) are specifically distributed within different microdomains and forming signalling complexes with receptors, that potentially causes a unique atrial cardiomyocyte Ca2+ signaling process. First, it was found that atrial cells could be characterised by heterogeneous T-tubule system the structure of which influenced by the cell size and atrial chamber localization. This study provides the first direct evidence for two distinct subpopulations of functional LTCCs in rat and human healthy atrial cardiomyocytes, with a micro-domain-specific regulation of their biophysical properties. In atrial cells, L-type calcium channels are equally distributed inside and outside of T-tubules, in contrast to ventricular cardiomyocytes where LTCCs are clustered in T-tubules (Bhargava, Lin et al. 2013). The population of LTCCs observed outside of T-tubules was associated with caveolae. LTCCs located in caveolae contribute essentially to atrial Ca2+ signaling, particularly in cardiomyocytes lacking the organized T-tubule network. Second, \u3b21-adreneric stimulation, which increases single LTCC activity and antiadrenergic effect of adenosine on functional LTCCs were investigated in both microdomains in rat atrial cariomyocytes. Third, using animal model, heart failure was found to be associated with loss of T-tubule structure and decrease in single amplitude of T-tubular LTCCs localized in atrial cardiomyocytes. Fourth, human studies revealed, that chronic atrial fibrillation is associated with the loss of T-tubule structure and downregulation of the L-type calcium current with increased activity of single LTCCs localized in T-tubule microdomains and the loss channels outside of T-tubules. Decrease of calcium current was associated with the downregulation of gene expression. These results support the notion that functional L-type calcium channels are linked with structural components of cardiac membrane and undergo remodelling in association with loss of structures during pathology

Взаимосвязь факторов инновационной деятельности на примере регионов РФ

The paper investigates the relationship between the factors of innovation activity, which determine to the greatest extent the scale of innovation product diffusion in regional markets. These factors are identified based on the training of linear regression and random forest models, for which the data of the Federal State Statistics Service for the period from 2000 to 2020 are used. Different ratios of factors allow us to identify innovative strategies and the regions most committed to them. In addition, the paper conducts trajectories of the regions' movement depending on the dynamics of the factors' change over time. It also considers the mutual influence of the highlighted main indicators on other characteristics of the innovation process at the regional level

Input-output signal processing plasticity of vagal motor neurons in response to cardiac ischemic injury.

Vagal stimulation is emerging as the next frontier in bioelectronic medicine to modulate peripheral organ health and treat disease. The neuronal molecular phenotypes in the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus (DMV) remain largely unexplored, limiting the potential for harnessing the DMV plasticity for therapeutic interventions. We developed a mesoscale single-cell transcriptomics data from hundreds of DMV neurons under homeostasis and following physiological perturbations. Our results revealed that homeostatic DMV neuronal states can be organized into distinguishable input-output signal processing units. Remote ischemic preconditioning induced a distinctive shift in the neuronal states toward diminishing the role of inhibitory inputs, with concomitant changes in regulatory microRNAs miR-218a and miR-495. Chronic cardiac ischemic injury resulted in a dramatic shift in DMV neuronal states suggestive of enhanced neurosecretory function. We propose a DMV molecular network mechanism that integrates combinatorial neurotransmitter inputs from multiple brain regions and humoral signals to modulate cardiac health

Direct evidence for microdomain-specific localization and remodeling of functional L-type calcium channels in rat and human atrial myocytes

Background—Distinct subpopulations of L-type calcium channels (LTCCs) with different functional properties exist in cardiomyocytes. Disruption of cellular structure may affect LTCC in a microdomain-specific manner and contribute to the pathophysiology of cardiac diseases, especially in cells lacking organized transverse tubules (T-tubules) such as atrial myocytes (AMs). Methods and Results—Isolated rat and human AMs were characterized by scanning ion conductance, confocal, and electron microscopy. Half of AMs possessed T-tubules and structured topography, proportional to cell width. A bigger proportion of myocytes in the left atrium had organized T-tubules and topography than in the right atrium. Super-resolution scanning patch clamp showed that LTCCs distribute equally in T-tubules and crest areas of the sarcolemma, whereas, in ventricular myocytes, LTCCs primarily cluster in T-tubules. Rat, but not human, T-tubule LTCCs had open probability similar to crest LTCCs, but exhibited ≈40% greater current. Optical mapping of Ca2+ transients revealed that rat AMs presented ≈3-fold as many spontaneous Ca2+ release events as ventricular myocytes. Occurrence of crest LTCCs and spontaneous Ca2+ transients were eliminated by either a caveolae-targeted LTCC antagonist or disrupting caveolae with methyl-β-cyclodextrin, with an associated ≈30% whole-cell ICa,L reduction. Heart failure (16 weeks post–myocardial infarction) in rats resulted in a T-tubule degradation (by ≈40%) and significant elevation of spontaneous Ca2+ release events. Although heart failure did not affect LTCC occurrence, it led to ≈25% decrease in T-tubule LTCC amplitude. Conclusions—We provide the first direct evidence for the existence of 2 distinct subpopulations of functional LTCCs in rat and human AMs, with their biophysical properties modulated in heart failure in a microdomain-specific manner

Employee scheduling and maintenance planning for safety systems at the remotely located oil and gas industrial facilities

The safety of operations is vital in any process in the oil and gas sector, especially given that increasingly more hydrocarbon reserves are discovered in non-conventional remote and Arctic locations. Safety systems are designed as a part of a complex IT system for process control. The design of these systems is conducted in the form of an engineering project. This research presents a decision-making framework to facilitate formulating clear and comprehensive recommendations for the requirements specification developed for the safety systems. The contribution of this research to the strategic planning area of IT solutions for hazardous industrial facilities is integrating the problems of designing a safety system, planning its maintenance, and scheduling the employees to conduct the required maintenance. With this joint decision-making, it is possible to explore trade-offs between investments into the systems’ complexity and workforce-related expenditures throughout the solution’s lifecycle. The reliability modelling is conducted with the help of Markov analysis. The multi-objective decision-making framework is employed to deduce straightforward requirements to the safety system design, maintenance strategy, and workforce organisation. This research is relevant to managing the petroleum sector engineering projects with regard to the design of technological solutions

Safety systems for the oil and gas industrial facilities : design, maintenance policy choice, and crew scheduling

The technology of oil and gas production is associated with significant hazards. Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) are designed to ensure proper and safe operations in this sector. This research presents a framework that produces reasonable recommendations (requirements specification) for the SIS design and maintenance with consideration of the three key perspectives relevant to any petroleum engineering project, namely those of facility operators, engineering contractors, and the authorities. The contribution of this research to the area of engineering design is simultaneously addressing the decisions on the SIS design, organization of its maintenance, and employee scheduling for the remotely-located hazardous industrial facilities. These decisions are made based on the choice of maintenance policies incorporated into a Markov model of the system functioning. Another contribution of this research to the reliability modeling area is incorporating diverse redundancy into the modeling and decision-making framework. Thus, this research explores a trade-off between the capital investments into the SIS’s design complexity and the operational expenditures associated with system maintenance and expected losses due to potential hazards. The developed multi-objective decision-making framework requires a black-box optimization approach to produce results. This research is relevant to engineering departments and contractors specializing in designing technological solutions for the petroleum sector.publishedVersio

Benthos microalgae of the Lebyazhy'i Ostrova Reserve in the Black Sea

The paper presents for the first time a list of the benthic microalgae of the Lebyazhy'i Ostrova Reserve, including the Karkinitsky Gulf and Sary-Bulatsky liman. During 2015 and 2016, 78 taxa were found: Bacillariophyta – 69, Cyanoprokaryota – 6, Haptophyta – 3. In the Karkinitsky Gulf 45 taxa were found, in the Sary-Bulatsky liman – 56 taxa. The Czekanovski-Sorensen similarity coefficient between these locality is 46%. The basis of the flora is diatoms: Cocconeis scutellum, Entomoneis alata, Halamphora coffeiformis, Nitzschia scalpelliformis, Pleurosigma angulatum, Pl. elongatum, Psammodictyon panduriforme, including Coronia daemeliana, Surirella striatula, Tryblionella circumsuta, which are rare for the microphytobenthos of the Crimean coast of the Black Sea. According to different classifications, dominant algae are benthic (86%), marine (49%) and cosmopolite (30%) species. Two potentially toxic species of diatoms, H. coffeiformis and Pseudo-nitzschia calliantha, were found once, 20 species of saprobionts – indicators of water quality were found. A comparison of the floras in the protected regions of the Black Sea between the Lebyazhy'i Ostrova Reserve and the Kazachya Bay Sanctuary showed 38 common species of benthic diatoms, in the Karadag Nature Reserve – 43 and in the Kazantip Nature Reserve (Azov Sea) – 21. The total microalgae abundance of the epilithon of the stones of the Sary-Bulatsky liman varied from 81,000 to 331,000 cellscm-2, biomass – 0.012–0.018 mgcm-2, number of species – 11–13. A significant contribution was made by cyanobacteria, their average abundance reached 256,000 cellscm-2 and biomass – 0.007 mgcm-2. The abundance of diatoms varied from 48,000 to 75,000 cellscm-2, the biomass reached 0.011 mgcm-2 with the dominance of Seminavis ventricosa. The obtained data have shown the necessity of regular monitoring of the microphytobenthos of the Lebyazhy'i Ostrova Reserve in order to identify the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of mass, rare, toxic species and aquatic environment quality estimating using indicator species of microalgae

Microdomain-specific localization of functional ion channels in cardiomyocytes: an emerging concept of local regulation and remodelling

Cardiac excitation involves the generation of action potential by individual cells and the subsequent conduction of the action potential from cell to cell through intercellular gap junctions. Excitation of the cellular membrane results in opening of the voltage-gated L-type calcium ion (Ca(2+)) channels, thereby allowing a small amount of Ca(2+) to enter the cell, which in turn triggers the release of a much greater amount of Ca(2+) from the sarcoplasmic reticulum, the intracellular Ca(2+) store, and gives rise to the systolic Ca(2+) transient and contraction. These processes are highly regulated by the autonomic nervous system, which ensures the acute and reliable contractile function of the heart and the short-term modulation of this function upon changes in heart rate or workload. It has recently become evident that discrete clusters of different ion channels and regulatory receptors are present in the sarcolemma, where they form an interacting network and work together as a part of a macro-molecular signalling complex which in turn allows the specificity, reliability and accuracy of the autonomic modulation of the excitation-contraction processes by a variety of neurohormonal pathways. Disruption in subcellular targeting of ion channels and associated signalling proteins may contribute to the pathophysiology of a variety of cardiac diseases, including heart failure and certain arrhythmias. Recent methodological advances have made it possible to routinely image the topography of live cardiomyocytes, allowing the study of clustering functional ion channels and receptors as well as their coupling within a specific microdomain. In this review we highlight the emerging understanding of the functionality of distinct subcellular microdomains in cardiac myocytes (e.g. T-tubules, lipid rafts/caveolae, costameres and intercalated discs) and their functional role in the accumulation and regulation of different subcellular populations of sodium, Ca(2+) and potassium ion channels and their contributions to cellular signalling and cardiac pathology

Direct Evidence for Microdomain-Specific Localization and Remodeling of Functional L-Type Calcium Channels in Rat and Human Atrial Myocytes

Distinct subpopulations of L-type calcium channels (LTCCs) with different functional properties exist in cardiomyocytes. Disruption of cellular structure may affect LTCC in a microdomain-specific manner and contribute to the pathophysiology of cardiac diseases, especially in cells lacking organized transverse tubules (T-tubules) such as atrial myocytes (AMs)