SSI—Social Safety Indexing / “The Mechanics of Safety”

SSI provides an innovative method to diagnose and identify deficiencies in occupational safety systems. These may be acted on to improve safety performance. Mechanical social safety metrics are capable of establishing baseline knowledge of safety climate and culture comparatively. SSI can also provide progressive analysis as systems grow. The fast survey method can identify and compare many population classes quickly. It compares class divisions such as managers, trades, or labor groups. It defines social safety climate (Existential safety), and corporate legal safety culture (Essential safety)

Magnetic and electrical properties of dhcp NpPd3 and U(1-x)Np(x)Pd3

We have made an extensive study of the magnetic and electrical properties of double-hexagonal closepacked NpPd3 and a range of U(1-x)Np(x)Pd3 compounds with x=0.01, 0.02, 0.05, and 0.50 using magnetization, magnetic susceptibility, electrical resistivity, and heat capacity measurements on polycrystalline samples, performed in the temperature range 2-300 K and in magnetic fields up to 9 T. Two transitions are observed in NpPd3 at T=10 and 30 K. Dilute Np samples (x<0.05) exhibit quadrupolar transitions, with the transition temperatures reduced from those of pure UPd3.Comment: 10 pages, 18 figure

Landform evolution in the headwaters area of Araguaia river (Mato Grosso and Goiás states, Brazil).

Editors: Francisco Gutiérrez, Mateo Gutiérrez, Gloria Desir, Jesús Guerrero, Pedro Lucha, Cinta Marín, José María García-Ruiz

Genesis and evolution of voçorocas on Botucatu formation rocks (Uper Araguaia river, Goiás and Mato Grosso states, Brazil).

Editors: Francisco Gutiérrez, Mateo Gutiérrez, Gloria Desir, Jesús Guerrero, Pedro Lucha, Cinta Marín, José María García-Ruiz

Experimental study of fire containment using water mist curtains in a reduced-scale deck of a ro-ro ship

Experiments have been conducted to evaluate the containment of smoke and heat using water mist curtains in a model setup of a ro-ro ship's cargo deck with a scale of 1:13, providing practical insights into the application of such fire protection systems in the cargo deck as well as valuable data for future numerical simulations. In this regard, the requirements of the international convention of Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) are studied for the side openings of so-called ‘open decks’ in comparison with ‘closed decks’, especially to examine the feasibility of using water mist curtains for creating isolated subdivisions in the ro-ro space as a fire management strategy. The water mist curtains are created with one or two rows of water mist nozzles at pressures ranging from 3 to 8 bar, while the source of smoke and heat is a liquid pool fire, and inert cargo items are used in some experiments. Correspondingly, the interaction between the water mist curtain(s) and the fire is evaluated in terms of its heat release rate, and the containment effect is quantified via measurements of smoke flow through the deck and through the windows, concentrations of gaseous species, as well as gas temperatures at various key locations. The study shows that water mist curtains have a strong effect on fire dynamics and smoke propagation, but containment is dependent on the configuration of side openings and the location of fire, among other important factors

Identification and classification of silks using infrared spectroscopy

Lepidopteran silks number in the thousands and display a vast diversity of structures, properties and industrial potential. To map this remarkable biochemical diversity, we present an identification and screening method based on the infrared spectra of native silk feedstock and cocoons. Multivariate analysis of over 1214 infrared spectra obtained from 35 species allowed us to group silks into distinct hierarchies and a classification that agrees well with current phylogenetic data and taxonomies. This approach also provides information on the relative content of sericin, calcium oxalate, phenolic compounds, poly-alanine and poly(alanine-glycine) β-sheets. It emerged that the domesticated mulberry silkmoth Bombyx mori represents an outlier compared with other silkmoth taxa in terms of spectral properties. Interestingly, Epiphora bauhiniae was found to contain the highest amount of β-sheets reported to date for any wild silkmoth. We conclude that our approach provides a new route to determine cocoon chemical composition and in turn a novel, biological as well as material, classification of silks