Heterogeneous microbial oceanographic environments: Application of GIS technology in deciphering of microenvironment scenarios off the central west coast of India

In the vast oceanic microbial environment of 2468.83km 2, GIS modeling techniques involving sixty query steps, enabled the deciphering of Microenvironments as low as 1.19km 2 to 38.6 km 2 for the summer of 2004 and in case of summer 2005 where 84 query steps were involved to decipher Microenvironments of 10.55km 2 to 25.94km 2. Thirtythree sampling stations were established between Betul to Ankola off the central west coast of India accounting for a spatial coverage of 2468.83km 2. GIS query-modeling investigation was carried out using spatial layers of depth, optical parameters (k-Irradiance attenuation Coefficient, c-Beam attenuation coefficient), sediment size parameters (Sediment Mean Size and Sediment Sorting) and Benthic Foraminifera Suborders (Rotaliina, Textulariina, Miliolina, Lagenina). Foraminifera have been used as a surrogate parameter. However, any microbial parameter could proxy for foraminifers providing for the numerical deciphering of microenvironments. This is suggestive of the assimilation of GIS technology for a better appreciation of microbial oceanography

Study of the Role of Latent Variables in the Trip Gas Sweetening unit by using Human Factor Analysis and Based on Fuzzy Hierarchy Theory: Case Study in the Gas Refinery

سابقه و هدف: حوادث یکی از مهم‌ترین علل بروز خسارت در یک سازمان می‌باشند که به‌واسطه سلسله‌ای از خطاهای اغلب جزئی و کم‌اهمیت یک فرد و یا یک مجموعه رخ می‌دهند. بنابراين شناخت الگو و ريشه‌يابي علل بروز خطا يک رويکرد مهم در درک و بهبود مديريت ايمني در صنايع مي‌باشد. این مطالعه باهدف شناسایی خطاهای انسانی منجر به حوادث با استفاده از روش تجزیه‌وتحلیل فاکتورهای انسانی و سیستم طبقه بندی (HFACS)  و تئوری تحلیل سلسله مراتب فازی (FAHP) از پالایشگاه‌های گاز انجام شد. روش بررسی: پژوهش حاضر برای حادثه توقف تولید استحصال گاز در واحد شیرین‌سازی پالایشگاه گاز انجام شد. بدین منظور با تشکیل یک تیم از 6 نفر مهندسین ارشد پالایشگاه، ابتدا تحلیل علت‌های ریشه‌ای رویدادها با متد نمودار استخوان ماهی تهیه گردید. سپس با ادغام روش تجزیه‌وتحلیل فاکتورهای انسانی و سیستم طبقه بندی و تئوری تحلیل سلسله مراتب فازی احتمال رخداد هر یک از علت‌ها تجزیه‌وتحلیل گردید. نتایج: نتایج حاصل از تحلیل برگه‌های کار 128 فعالیت تعمیراتی نشان داد که در سطوح 4گانه روش تجزیه‌وتحلیل فاکتورهای انسانی و سیستم طبقه بندی ، بیشترین خطای رخداد در سطح اول استفاده از قطعه کیفیت پایین (6.8%=p) و عدم تحلیل صحیح بودجه موردنیاز تعمیرات (2.6%=p) است، سطح دوم زیرگروه نظارت ناکافی سرپرست تعمیرات (3.59%=p)، در سطح سوم زیرگروه فاکتورهای انسانی مرتبط با وظیفه (۳٫۲۵%=p) و در سطح ۴ زیرگروه خطای مبتنی بر دانش پیمانکار (۳٫۲%=p) و عدم دقت پیمانکار در تکمیل چک‌لیست (۲٫۳۱%=p) بیشترین احتمال تأثیر علت در رخداد رویداد توقف واحد و  استحصال گازترش را دارند. نتیجه‌گیری: نتایج مطالعه حاضر نشان داد علت‌های مختلفی از جمله فردی، وابسته به فعالیت (وظیفه) موقعیتی و سازمانی دارند که برای حذف و یا کاهش این خطاها نیازمند برنامه‌ریزی و مدیریت صحیح و دقیق می‌باشد. افزایش اثربخشی آموزش کارکنان و بهبود نظارت بر عملکرد کارکنان به ترتیب بیشترین نقش را در کاهش وقوع رویدادهای ناشی از خطای انسانی در عملیات‌های تعمیر و نگهداری پالایشگاه دارند.   How to cite this article: Askarian A, Mirza Ebrahim Tehrani M, Seyed Mohammad Taghi Sadatipour SM, jozi SA, Marandi A. Study of the Role of Latent Variables in the Trip Gas Sweetening unit by using Human Factor Analysis and Based on Fuzzy Hierarchy Theory: aCase Study in the Gas Refinery. J Saf Promot Inj Prev. 2020; 8(1):46-57.Background and Objectives: Incidents are one of the most important causes of damages in an organization often occurring due to a chain of minor and trivial errors. Therefore, recognizing the pattern and root causes of the errors are an important approach in understanding and improving safety management in the industry. This study aimed to identify human errors leading to incidents in a gas refinery using human factors analysis and classification system (HFACS). Methods and Materials: The present study for conducted for the event of stopping the production of gas extraction in the gas sweetening unit of the refinery. So, a team consisted of six senior refinery engineers, first the analysis of root causes of events with Fishbone Diagram was prepared. Then, by combining the HFACS method and FAHP theory, the probability of occurrence of each of the reasons was analyzed. Results: Analyzing the worksheets of 128 activities in four levels of HFACS showed, that the highest errors rate were the first level use of Use low-quality equipment (p=6.8%) and Failure to properly analyze budget for overhaul maintenance (p=6.2%), the 2nd level of the sub-group of inadequate supervision of the maintenance supervisor (p=3.59%), the 3rd subgroup of Task-related human factors (p=3.25%) and the 4th sub-category of (p=3.2%) and Inaccuracy of the contractor in completing the checklist Contractor knowledge-based error (p=2.31%) with the most probability impact in trip gas sweetening unit incident. Conclusions: The results show that errors have various causes, including individual, activity, situational, and organizational errors that require careful planning and management to eliminate or reduce these errors. Increasing the training effectiveness of operators and supervision improvement respectively are the most important measures in decreasing human error-induced incidents in refinery industry maintenance. How to cite this article: Askarian A, Mirza Ebrahim Tehrani M, Seyed Mohammad Taghi Sadatipour SM, jozi SA, Marandi A. Study of the Role of Latent Variables in the Trip Gas Sweetening unit by using Human Factor Analysis and Based on Fuzzy Hierarchy Theory: aCase Study in the Gas Refinery. J Saf Promot Inj Prev. 2020; 8(1):46-57

Increased circulating T cell reactivity to GM3 and GQ1b gangliosides in primary progressive multiple sclerosis

We have previously shown that patients with primary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) have significantly elevated plasma levels of antibody to GM3 ganglioside compared to patients with relapsing-remitting MS, healthy subjects and patients with other neurological diseases. Anti-GM3 antibody levels were elevated also in patients with secondary progressive MS but to a lesser extent than in primary progressive MS. As gangliosides are particularly enriched in the axonal membrane, these findings suggested that antiganglioside immune responses might contribute to the axonal damage in progressive forms of MS. The present study was performed to determine whether peripheral blood T cell responses to GM3 are also increased in progressive MS. Blood was collected from 98 untreated patients with MS (40 with relapsing-remitting, 27 with secondary progressive and 31 with primary progressive MS), 50 healthy subjects and 24 patients with other disorders of the CNS, and reactivity to GM1, GM3, GD1a, GD1b, GD3, GT1b, GQ1b and sulphatide was assessed by 6-day T cell proliferation assays. Increased T cell reactivity to GM3 and GQ1b occurred significantly more often in patients with primary progressive MS than in healthy subjects and patients with other CNS diseases. These findings suggest that ganglioside-specific T cells may contribute to the axonal damage in primary progressive MS. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

Effect Of Gender On T-Cell Proliferative Responses To Myelin Proteolipid Protein Antigens In Patients With Multiple Sclerosis And Controls

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory demyelinating disorder of the central nervous system. Gender influences both susceptibility to MS, with the disease being more common in women, and the clinical course of disease, with an increased proportion of males developing the primary progressive form of the disease. The basis for these differences may include genetic and immunological factors, and the immunological differences between men and women may be influenced by the effects of the sex hormones. Over several years we have collected blood from MS patients and controls, and measured T-cell responses to myelin proteolipid protein (PLP) and myelin basic protein (MBP) and have shown increased responses to PLP in MS patients compared to healthy controls and patients with other neurological diseases. In the present study we analyzed data from over 500 individuals, to determine whether there are differences between males and females in their responses to PLP and MBP. We found that there was higher frequency of increased T-cell reactivity to immunodominant PLP peptides in women than in men, particularly in non-MS individuals. We suggest that this may be relevant to the higher prevalence of MS in women

Immunology of multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system (CNS) leading to demyelination, axonal damage, and progressive neurologic disability. The development of MS is influenced by environmental factors, particularly the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), and genetic factors, which include specific HLA types, particularly DRB1*1501-DQA1*0102-DQB1*0602, and a predisposition to autoimmunity in general. MS patients have increased circulating T-cell and antibody reactivity to myelin proteins and gangliosides. It is proposed that the role of EBV is to infect autoreactive B cells that then seed the CNS and promote the survival of autoreactive T cells there. It is also proposed that the clinical attacks of relapsing-remitting MS are orchestrated by myelin-reactive T cells entering the white matter of the CNS from the blood, and that the progressive disability in primary and secondary progressive MS is caused by the action of autoantibodies produced in the CNS by ­meningeal lymphoid follicles with germinal centers

A Mathematical Model to Predict Nickel Concentration in Karaj River Sediments

The contamination of surface waters through human activities has been intensified over the past years as population density has increased. Nickel is a metallic element and fuel combustion, nickel mining, refining waste, sewage sludge, and incineration are the major sources of nickel propagation. Nickel from various industrial wastewaters and other sources finally are disposed into water bodies. In this work, Karaj river was considered from 50º to 50º 14´longitudes and 35º 45´ to 35º 58´ latitudes and the presence of nickel was also assessed in this area. Sixteen stations were randomly selected and sediment samples were collected in polyethylene containers. Some water quality parameters such as pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, electrical conductivity, were determind by direct on-site measurements. To measure COD, 16 water samples were collected in dark bottles and transferred to laboratory spatial parameters such as slope and distance from start point were also calculated by ARCGIS 9.2. The relation between Ni concentration with spatial parameters and water quality parameters were obtained by multivariate analysis. Results showed that there was a significant relation between Ni concentration in sediments and distance from start point and electrical conductivity

Groundwater pollution sources apportionment in the ghaen plain, Iran

Although Iran’s Ghaen Plain provides saffron to much of the world, no regional groundwater quality (GQ) assessment has yet been undertaken. Given the region’s potential for saltwater intrusion and heavy metal contamination, it is important to assess the GQ and determine its main probable source of pollution (MPSP). Such knowledge would allow for informed mitigation or elimination of the potential adverse health effects of this groundwater through its use as drinking water, or indirectly as a result of the consumption of groundwater-irrigated crops. Total dissolved solids, sodium, and chloride in the water of the majority of 16 wells sampled within the region exceeded World Health Organization and Iranian permissible standards for drinking water. The groundwater proved to only be suitable for irrigating salt tolerant crops under good drainage conditions. Due to the precipitation of calcium carbonate in the water supply facilities, the water from all wells was deemed unsuitable for industrial purposes. Heavy metal pollution and contamination indices showed no groundwater contamination. Analysis of ionic ratios and the application of principal components analysis indicated the MPSP to be saltwater intrusion, with the geology subtending the plain, and to a lesser extent, anthropogenic activities. Reducing groundwater withdrawals, particularly those for agricultural production by using high performance irrigation methods could reduce saltwater intrusion and improve GQ in the Ghaen Plain