A novel FMEA approach for risk assessment of air pollution from ships

Port State Control (PSC) is the inspection mechanism that ensures commercial vessels comply with internationally binding rules and regulations. During the PSC inspections, non-compliances with international maritime conventions may result in deficiencies or even the detention of the vessel. On the other side, deficiencies identified during PSC inspections are significant for the safe, secure, clean seas and sustainable marine environment. In this line, International Maritime Organization (IMO) aims to reduce ship-related pollution within the scope of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL). Specifically, Annex-VI is the most recently ratified regulation of MARPOL covering air pollution. Although Annex-VI deficiencies pose significant risks to maritime stakeholders and the natural environment, this topic has been broadly neglected by researchers. For this reason, a detailed risk analysis for the MARPOL Annex-VI deficiencies was carried out to demonstrate a prioritization concerning the marine environment and maritime stakeholders in this study. An improved Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) approach is employed in the computation of risk priority numbers (RPN) by taking O, S, and D inputs from two different expert groups and the Paris MoU database. According to the results, the riskiest MARPOL Annex-VI failure modes are identified as 14615-Fuel change-over procedure (RPN: 235.71), 14608-Incinerator operations and operating manual (RPN: 232.65), and 14601-Technical files and if applicable, monitoring manual (RPN: 219.86). Consequently, the presented risk analysis and findings are intended to be a reference for maritime stakeholders to prevent harmful scenarios involving ship-related air pollution

Navigating environmental sustainability in ship recycling industry: Integrated SWOT-TOWS-ANP approach

Ship recycling is the complex and systematic engineering procedure of disassembling maritime vessels with the primary objective of extracting and recovering valuable materials. The environmentally responsible and safe dismantling of end-of-life ships is currently a significant concern and a formidable undertaking. Turkey stands out as one of the four key nations in global ship recycling, notably centered in the Aliaga region. This study concentrates on conducting a thorough strategic analysis of the ship recycling industry, emphasizing its environmental impact by using the real case of the Aliaga region. The research utilized a combined SWOT-TOWS-ANP triangle method to identify the best possible strategy for the Aliaga ship recycling facility, with a specific focus on the environmental implications. When examining both the environmental aspect and the overall subfactors, based on their respective weighted averages, it can be observed that the most significant sub-factor is “S1 Recycling of ships in conformity with international regulations.” The strategy with the highest average weight is the “SO1 Attempting to increase market share in the European ship recycling industry” with 0.15255. From the environmental perspective, “WT2 The aim of highlighting the economic and environmental contributions of the ship recycling industry to seek further incentives by garnering support from the public and government officials” has been the most significant strategy to be followed. The analysis results are expected to guide industry stakeholders in establishing a safe, reliable, cleaner, and finally more sustainable ship recycling industry

Global terminal operators: a competitive strategic position analysis

Port operators and liner shipping companies attempt to gain cost and competitive advantages by providing services in complementary maritime-related areas. In line with this purpose, companies undertake a task known as Global Terminal Operator (GTO). Substantially, there are more than 21 GTOs of various sizes involved in container terminal operations worldwide, handling 80% of the total containerized cargo traffic. In recent years, there have been drastic changes in the GTO market with numerous mergers, acquisitions, and concessions. However, academic and sectoral studies have fallen short of keeping up with these changes. To fill the gap in research, a dynamic portfolio analysis has been carried out within the scope of this novel study for the first time for the GTOs with the help of BCG Matrix analyses. Findings reveal that GTOs followed different development paths with respect to their distinctive characteristics. Major operators maintained their market dominance, unlike the minors who followed an unsteady path of development. This paper contributes to the academic literature by conducting a comprehensive market analysis for the GTO sector and revealing the dynamic development courses as well as strategic competitive positions of the operators from a managerial perspective toward shaping future strategic plans of the industry stakeholders

Rapid on-site evaluation and low registration error enhance the success of electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy

Background: Electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy (EMN) is a novel technology which allows localizing peripheral lung lesions and mediastinal lymph nodes for sampling and thus increasing diagnostic yield of Flexible Bronchoscopy. Objectives: A prospective study was conducted to investigate the diagnostic yield of EMN with lower average fiducial target registration error (AFTRE) and rapid on-site evaluation (ROSE). Methods: Consecutive patients with peripheral lung lesion (PL) or enlarged mediastinal lymph node (MLN) which could not be diagnosed by conventional techniques and/or if the patients were not suitable for such interventions were included. The navigation procedure was continued once registration error was reached below/equal to the absolute value of 5 mm. ROSE was performed by an expert cytopathologist. Results: A total of 76 patients; 22 having only PLs, 41 having only MLNs, and 13 having both PLs and MLNs together were enrolled. Thirty-two of 35 PLs (91.4%) and 85 of 102 MLNs (83.3%) were successfully sampled. Overall diagnostic yield was 89.5%. PLs and MLNs were further grouped according to their size (PLs: <20 mm vs ≥20 mm, MLNs: <15 mm vs ≥15 mm). The sampling yield was independent of size for both PL and MLN (P = 1.00, P = 0.38). In diagnostic EMN cases, mean AFTRE was 4.33 ± 0.71 mm, whereas it was 5.16 ± 0.05 mm (P = 0.008) in nondiagnostics. The total duration of procedure was 36.17 ± 9.13 min. Pneumothorax was observed in three patients (3.9%). Conclusion: EMN with low AFTRE in combination with ROSE is a reliable method with high sampling and/or diagnostic rate in PLs and MLNs

Correlation between physical measurements and observer evaluations of image quality in digital chest radiography

Purpose: The aim of this paper was to investigate the relationship between the physical and subjective (observer) image quality metrics in digital chest radiography. Methods: Five digital radiography systems, four with indirect flat panel detector and one with storage phosphor-based computed radiography system, were used in the study. The physical image quality assessments were carried out using effective detective quantum efficiency (eDQE) metric and subjective performance of the digital radiography systems was evaluated in terms of inverse image quality figure (IQFinv) derived from the contrast-detail (CD) diagrams using CDRAD 2.0 phantom and CDRAD phantom analyzer software. All measurements were performed for different tube voltages (70, 81, 90, 102, 110, and 125 kVp) and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) phantom thicknesses. An anthropomorphic chest phantom and visual grading analysis (VGA) technique based on European image quality criteria for chest radiography were used for clinical image quality evaluation. Results: The Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated for the investigation of the correlation between physical image quality and clinical image quality. The results showed strong positive correlation between the physical and clinical image quality findings. The minimum correlation coefficient was 0.91 (p < 0.011) for IQFinv vs VGA scores and 0.92 (p < 0.009) for IeDQE vs VGA scores. Conclusions: Our results confirm that clinical image quality can be predicted with both physical assessments and contrast-detail detectability studies

Numerical Study of the Aerodynamic Effects of Septoplasty and Partial Lateral Turbinectomy

Objectives: To investigate, first, the effects of septal deviation and concha bullosa on nasal airflow, and second, the aerodynamic changes induced by septoplasty and partial lateral turbinectomy, using computational fluid dynamics (CFD)