Findings of the Work Improvement on Board (WIB) programme by the Fishery Agency in Japan

Background: Concerns are growing about the safety and health of seamen exposed to high risks while working on vessels. Their accident rate in 2013 was 9.9 per 1000 workers, 5 times higher than that in industry. In order to mitigate the risks of seamen, we developed the Work Improvement on Board (WIB) programme by applying participatory action-oriented training (PAOT) methods that have proven effective for reducing work-related risks in small enterprises, construction sites, and agriculture. Materials and methods: We analysed which features of the WIB programme would be most effective for facilitating the planning and implementation of practical improvements on vessels. We examined action -oriented tools used, including a WIB action checklist and good examples, and practical improvements proposed by the participants in 1-day or half-day WIB workshops. To study the effectiveness of the WIB programme, we analysed 1121 replies of a questionnaire distributed to 1459 participants of the programme. We compared the types of improvements achieved and the improvement costs in the WIB programme with those in other PAOT programmes. The impact of the WIB programme on promoting primary prevention by seamen and fishermen was discussed. Results: The action checklist listing practical improvements on board and good example photos apparently facilitated the planning and implementation of improvements feasible on board. The participating crews could propose readily applicable improvements of their vessels within short time. In the case of workshops held in 10 harbours between August and October 2014, participants coming from 110 vessels presented 228 improvement proposals which were mostly feasible at low cost. Among the 1121 questionnaire replies from participants of the WIB programme, over 75% evaluated the programme as necessary, practical and easy-to-understand. These positive results led to the adoption of the WIB programme for training fishermen and seamen on commercial vessels by the Fishery Agency and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. The Fishery Agency adopted plans to improve the working environment on fishing vessels by training 500 fishermen per year in the WIB programme from 2013 to 2018. Conclusions: The participatory work improvement programme can work in vessels when it utilises in a flexible manner local good practices and low-cost improvements as guides. The use of action-oriented tools such as a WIB action checklist and good examples seems important. We recommend the wide use of WIB methods in occupational safety and health management systems on board vessels in Japan and other countries.

METALLURGICAL DESIGN OF NEWLY DEVELOPED MATERIAL FOR SEAMLESS PIPES OF X80-X 100 GRADES

ABSTRACT With the increasing development of oil and gas fields in deepwater or ultra-deepwater with deep well depth, the development of high strength seamless pipe has become necessary. This paper describes a metallurgical design of seamless pipe with high strength reaching X80-X100 grade (minimum yield strength, 552 MPa -689 MPa) manufactured by steel containing very low carbon and with a microstructure of uniform bainite. The effect of microstructure of quenched and tempered (QT) steel on strength and toughness is investigated in laboratory. Uniform bainitic structure without coarse martensiteaustenite constituent (M-A) is obtained by lowering bainite transformation temperature during quenching process by controlling the alloying elements. Moreover the structure is very effective in obtaining good toughness for tempered steel even with the high strength X100 grade. Sufficiently low hardness and good toughness in heat affected zone (HAZ) are confirmed by welding tests. The trial production of developed steel is conducted by applying inline QT process in medium-size seamless mill according to an alloying design obtained in laboratory tests. The seamless pipes of the trial production achieve grades X80 to X100 by changing tempering temperature. Some data of mechanical properties of the produced pipes is introduced

Synthesis and Properties of Novel Porphyrinoids Consisting of Hexapyrrolic Skeleton Toward Functional Near-Infrared Dyes

主1工学_物質創造工

Real‐world evidence on disseminated intravascular coagulation from Japan

Many descriptive epidemiological and comparative studies using big data have been reported recently from outside Japan. Within Japan, diagnosis procedure combination (DPC) data and medical receipt data are being stored in electronic media, and real‐world evidence in various fields has started to be reported. We reviewed clinical studies on disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) using DPC data obtained from an insurance database with large numbers of cases and a related commercially available dataset including DPC and laboratory data. After DPC was introduced in 2003, 19 studies on DIC using Japanese national DPC data and two studies using the Medical Data Vision database were reported. Epidemiological findings in seven studies showed that the proportion of drugs administered for each underlying disease differed, with antithrombin and recombinant thrombomodulin (rTM) being used more frequently in clinical settings. In 14 comparative studies on anti‐DIC agents, antithrombin for severe pneumonia, postoperative intestinal perforation, and severe burn, and rTM for acute cholangitis were associated with improved survival rates. Large‐scale observational studies using big data can show results similar to those of randomized control trials if the quality of individual research is high. Real‐world data analysis will be increasingly necessary to complement the evidence gap unfilled by randomized control trials