Assessment of Hazard Analysis and Implementation of STPA in Process Industry

PresentationHigh-performance computing has changed the world on its head with capabilities of image processing and artificial intelligence. The world of Energy and chemical has also changed with the adoption of these highly complex computing power and software capabilities of the modern processors by adoption of smart measurement technology (in sensors and final elements) and development of complex software algorithms. The modern technology has helped to put the plants to optimum level of operation and close to design margins to maximize profitability, which resulted in adding to the complexity of process control strategies. With the advent of complex software capabilities the understanding the flaws in the specification and hazard identification process is not well understood. Process Industry uses many available tools / techniques for HAZARD identification but many of these techniques predate to the advent of these advancement being made in the computer technology. Industry uses international performance based standards viz. IEC 61508/61511 which do provide guidelines to eliminate the “systematic errors” that may propagate through the design of the safety systems life cycle and render the safety system useless in certain modes of operation. Still there have been many incidents /near misses that have the potential to cause hazard to the People, Asset and environment which highlights that there is a plank missing which can help and reduce the number of incidents by designing more robust safety systems. STAMP model address these concerns which indicate that “the safety related incidents can be related to flaws in requirement specification” (Prof. Nancy Leveson

Hepatoprotective activity of Maavilingapattai Chooranam on CCl4, Paracetamol and Ethanol Induced Hepatotoxicity in In-vivo models

The test drug Maavilingapattai Chooranam was selected from the Siddha literature Sirorathina Vaidhiya Booshanam written by Angamuthu Mudhaliyar for its hepatoprotective activity. • The dissertation started with an introduction explaining about the Siddha concept, prevalence of jaundice and role of the test drug in treating hepatic diseases. • The review of literature strengthened the positive facts of possessing the Hepatoprotective activity by each of the single drug included in the formulation. • The pharmacological review possessed all the information regarding the exertion of action of the drugs, available drugs in the market, their adverse effects. • The test drug Maavilingapattai Chooranam was prepared properly by the given procedure. • All the ingredients were identified and authenticated by the experts. • Review of literature in various categories was carried out. Siddha aspect, botanical aspect and pharmaceutical review disclosed about the drug and the disease. • Pharmacological review was done to establish the methodologies. • The drug was subjected to analysis such as physicochemical, phytochemical, biochemical and also instrumental analysis which provided the key ingredients present in the drug thus it accounts the efficacy of the drug. • Toxicological study was made according to OECD guidelines comprising both acute and sub-acute toxicity study. It showed the safety of the drug which attributes its utility in long time administration. • Pharmacological study was done. It revealed the Hepatoprotective activity of Maavilingapattai Chooranam in animal model Wistar albino rats. • Results and discussion gives the necessary justifications to prove the potency of the drug. • Conclusion gives a compiled form of the study and explains the synergistic effect of all the key ingredients and activities that supports the study. • This current analysis authenticates that Maavilingapattai Chooranam has impressive Hepatoprotective activity, which exemplifies the intelligence of the Siddha literature to reach globally for the welfare of mankind. Thus the herbal formulation Maavilingapattai Chooranam is validated for its safety and efficacy for treating jaundice and it would be a great drug of choice

Quantum state engineering by steering in the presence of errors

Quantum state engineering plays a vital role in various applications in the field of quantum information. Different strategies, including drive-and-dissipation, adiabatic cooling, and measurement-based steering, have been proposed in the past for state generation and manipulation, each with its upsides and downsides. Here, we address a class of measurement-based state engineering protocols where a sequence of generalized measurements is employed to steer a quantum system toward a desired target state. Previously studied measurement-based protocols relied on idealized procedures and avoided exploration of the effects of various errors stemming from imperfections of experimental realizations and external noise. We employ the quantum trajectory formalism to provide a detailed analysis of the robustness of these steering protocols against various errors. We study a set of errors that can be classified as dynamic or static, depending on whether they remain unchanged while running the protocol. More specifically, we investigate the impact of erroneous choice of system-detector coupling, re-initialization of the detector state following a measurement step, fluctuating steering directions, and environmentally induced errors in the system-detector interaction. We show that the protocol remains fully robust against the erroneous choice of system-detector coupling parameters and presents reasonable robustness against other errors. We employ various quantifiers such as fidelity, trace distance, and linear entropy to characterize the protocol's robustness and provide analytical results. Subsequently, we demonstrate the commutation between the classical expectation value and the time-ordering operator of the exponential of a Hamiltonian with multiplicative white noise, as well as the commutation of the expectation value and the partial trace with respect to detector outcomes.Comment: 31 pages of main text + 17 pages of appendices, 13 figure

Chemical Fingerprinting Profile and Targeted Quantitative Analysis of Phenolic Compounds from Rooibos Tea (Aspalathus linearis) and Dietary Supplements Using UHPLC‐PDA‐MS

Aspalathus linearis (Burm.f.) R. Dahlgren, commonly known as rooibos tea, was consumed traditionally by the indigenous South African inhabitants as an herbal remedy. Beside antioxidant properties, it displays antiallergic, antispasmodic, and hypoglycemic activities. An ultra‐high-performance liquid chromatography method coupled with photodiode array and mass spectrometry detectors were developed for the determination of 14 phenolic constituents from leaves and stems of A. linearis. The efficient separation was performed within 30 min at a temperature of 30 °C by using C‐18 column as the stationary phase and water/acetonitrile with 0.05% formic acid as the mobile phase. Method validation for linearity, repeatability, limits of detection, and limits of quantification was achieved. The limits of detection from 0.2–1 μg/mL were reported for the standard compounds. Their total content varied substantially (1.50–9.85 mg/100 mg sample) in 21 dietary supplements. The presence of regioisomers and diastereomers which co‐elute on a variety of stationary phases make separation for quantification purposes challenging. This method was found to be efficient in providing low retention times and excellent resolution for this type of phytochemicals. The established method is suitable for chemical fingerprint analysis of A. linearis and cost‐effective for quality control of rooibos tea products

Growth responses of NaCl stressed rice (Oryza sativa L.) plants germinated from seed in aseptic nutrient cultures supplemented with proline

Negative impact of salinity on plant germination is significant because of abundance of Na+ in culture medium, which causes growth inhibition. Effect of salinity (NaCl) in the presence of proline was assessed in rice (Oryza sativa L.) variety Khushbo-95 at seedling stage. Seeds were cultured on MS0 (MS basal medium), MS1 (MS0 + 100 mM NaCl) and MS2 (MS1 + 5 mM proline) for 20 days. Seedlings and its biomass decreased in saline culture. Similarly, total protein and sugar contents also decreased, while reducing sugars and proline contents increased. These parameters were observed to be slightly adverse in cultures supplemented with proline (MS2) and NaCl (MS2). Among cultures, leaf demography (cell size) was affected significantly; this may be the reflection of accumulation of proline, Na+ and Cl- and exclusion of K+ in developed rice seedlings.Key words: Oryza sativa L., seedling biomass, epidermal cells, proline content

Optimisation of the production of fish gelatine nanoparticles as a carrier for sunflower-derived biopeptide

Gelatine obtained from fish skin has become a potential source of preparing nanoparticles and encapsulation of bioactive compounds. Within these fish skin, gelatine nanoparticles show potent benefits for application in pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry. The encapsulated bioactive ingredients within nanoparticles have improved bioavailability, delivery properties, and solubility of the nutraceuticals within the human body and blood stream. Many of such bioactive peptides (biopeptides) are potent antioxidants; and as oxidative stress is the main cause of the onset of various chronic diseases, encapsulation of antioxidant biopeptides within fish gelatine nanoparticles could be a potential remedy to prevent or delay the onset of such diseases and for better health prospects. The purpose of the present work was to prepare a simple, safe, and reproducible novel food delivery nanoparticle system encapsulating a desirable antioxidant biopeptide. An optimisation study was conducted to produce a desirable size of gelatine nanoparticles which showed a higher encapsulation efficiency of an antioxidant biopeptide. Sunflower biopeptide was chosen as the antioxidant biopeptide, as the activity of this protein hydrolysate is quite high at DPPH of 89% and FRAP assay of 968 µm/L. Tilapia fish was used as gelatine source at an average yield of the process at 10% wt/wt. Effects of parameters such as pH, biopeptide concentration, and cross-linking agent ‘glutaraldehyde’ on the size, stability, and encapsulation efficiency on the nanoparticles were studied. The average diameter of the biopeptide loaded gelatine nanoparticle was between 228.3 and 1,305 nm. Encapsulation efficiency was 76% at an optimal pH of 2, glutaraldehyde concentration of 2 mL, and biopeptide concentration of 0.1 mg/mL exhibited DPPH at 92% and FRAP assay of 978 µm/L. To understand the absorption of sunflower biopeptide in stomach, blood stream, and biopeptide release of the gelatine nanoparticles, biopeptide loaded gelatine nanoparticles were subjected to simulated gastrointestinal conditions mimicking human stomach and intestine; and showed peptide release of 0.1464 and 0.277 mg/mL upon pepsin and pancreatin digestion, respectively

Comparison of 2 high-throughput spectral techniques to predict differences in diet composition of grazing sheep and cattle

Diet composition can be estimated in free-ranging animals by the use of n-alkane and long-chain fatty alcohol concentrations in feces. However, this technique involves relatively laborious and costly analytical techniques. Two spectroscopy techniques were investigated as a way of determining whether dietary differences are likely, thus indicating whether the more expensive and labor-intensive techniques for more detailed analysis are justified. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and front-face fluorescence emission spectroscopy (lambda(excitation) = 380 nm, lambda(emission) = 600 to 760 nm) were used to analyze fecal samples collected from 2 different breeds of cattle and sheep (4 groups in total, n = 6 per group) grazing moorland plants in 2 grazing sessions. These fecal samples were also analyzed for alkane and alcohol concentrations. Fourier-transform infrared spectra, particularly in the alkane regions, demonstrated clear separation between animal species. Fluorescence emission spectra showed similar separation; fluorophores were most likely chlorophylls and their derivatives. Multivariate analysis of all 3 data sets showed similar variation within and between groups of cattle and sheep, indicating differences in diet selection particularly between species, but also between breed and grazing session. Both spectroscopy methods showed utility in suggesting differences in diet composition that would be worth investigating using more detailed chemical analyses. Of the 2 techniques, the FTIR spectroscopy gave the better comparative results, being able to detect differences in sampling months that were detected with alkanes and alcohols that the fluorescence emission spectroscopy did not detect

A pulse generation system based on new method for testing performance of high-resolution nuclear spectroscopy systems

380-385The paper presents a design and construction of uniform amplitude pulse generator for testing Differential Non-Linearity (DNL) of high-resolution nuclear spectroscopy systems. The paper describes two methods based on two new techniques called DAC Interpolation and Analog Multiplexer based design. A prototype of DAC interpolation technique has been designed and tested. **The method based on analog multiplexer and chain of resistors is simulated and the results of which is reported in the paper. The systems produce pulses with step size of 10 microvolt (µV), making them capable for calibrating spectroscopy systems with the resolution as high as 13-bit (8K). The systems are designed using commercially available components. The pulse generation system provides import substitute for commercially available imported models

A pulse generation system based on new method for testing performance of high-resolution nuclear spectroscopy systems

The paper presents a design and construction of uniform amplitude pulse generator for testing Differential Non-Linearity (DNL) of high-resolution nuclear spectroscopy systems. The paper describes two methods based on two new techniques called DAC Interpolation and Analog Multiplexer based design. A prototype of DAC interpolation technique has been designed and tested. **The method based on analog multiplexer and chain of resistors is simulated and the results of which is reported in the paper. The systems produce pulses with step size of 10 microvolt (µV), making them capable for calibrating spectroscopy systems with the resolution as high as 13-bit (8K). The systems are designed using commercially available components. The pulse generation system provides import substitute for commercially available imported models