A Study of Process Anomalies Leading to Plant Trips and The Effectiveness of a Software Tool in Trip Prevention

In the hydrocarbon process industry, financial losses resulting from plant trips can be significant. In this study, reliability loss events or trips in 2018 at a sizeable hydrocarbon process plant are analysed to determine if they were preventable. Of particular interest is those loss events that exhibited early signs of process anomalies—such as temperature, pressure, and flow—at least twelve hours before the event. Using the concept of ‘reliability incident pyramid’ where plant process anomalies outnumber production slowdown and trip events, a software tool is deployed to help process engineers detect the anomalies. The idea is that troubleshooting these anomalies before they escalate to plant trips would reduce the number of trips and prevent production losses. Post-deployment plant process data for 2019 are analysed to determine if process engineers could pick up on the anomalies indicated by the software and intervene to prevent potential plant trips. Results indicate that in conjunction with vigilance by the process engineers, such software can reduce the number of reliability loss events in a hydrocarbon process plant

The Social Relations Approach, empowerment and women factory workers in Malaysia

This article discusses the empowerment of women factory workers in Malaysia through the lens of Kabeer’s Social Relations Approach. The approach offers an institutional analysis of how gender inequality is produced and calls for the overall terms of exchange and cooperation to be shifted in women’s favour. Its application shows that Malaysian women factory workers face significant challenges, due to the character of institutions, and women’s difficulties in adopting and internalising the notion of ‘empowerment’

Design and baseline characteristics of the finerenone in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in diabetic kidney disease trial

Background: Among people with diabetes, those with kidney disease have exceptionally high rates of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality and progression of their underlying kidney disease. Finerenone is a novel, nonsteroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that has shown to reduce albuminuria in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) while revealing only a low risk of hyperkalemia. However, the effect of finerenone on CV and renal outcomes has not yet been investigated in long-term trials. Patients and Methods: The Finerenone in Reducing CV Mortality and Morbidity in Diabetic Kidney Disease (FIGARO-DKD) trial aims to assess the efficacy and safety of finerenone compared to placebo at reducing clinically important CV and renal outcomes in T2D patients with CKD. FIGARO-DKD is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, event-driven trial running in 47 countries with an expected duration of approximately 6 years. FIGARO-DKD randomized 7,437 patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate >= 25 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and albuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio >= 30 to <= 5,000 mg/g). The study has at least 90% power to detect a 20% reduction in the risk of the primary outcome (overall two-sided significance level alpha = 0.05), the composite of time to first occurrence of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure. Conclusions: FIGARO-DKD will determine whether an optimally treated cohort of T2D patients with CKD at high risk of CV and renal events will experience cardiorenal benefits with the addition of finerenone to their treatment regimen. Trial Registration: EudraCT number: 2015-000950-39; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02545049

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell emulator using PI controlled buck converter

Alternative energy technologies are being popular for power generation applications nowadays. Among others, Fuel cell (FC) technology is quite popular. However, the FC unit is costly and vulnerable to any disturbances in input parameters. Thus, to perform research and experimentation, Fuel cell emulators (FCE) can be useful. FCEs can replicate actual FC behavior in different operating conditions. Thus, by using it the application area can be determined. In this study, a FCE system is modelled using MATLAB/Simulink®. The FCE system consists of a buck DC-DC converter and a proportional integral (PI) based controller incorporating an electrochemical model of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). The PEMFC model is used to generate reference voltage of the controller which takes the load current as a requirement. The characteristics are compared with Ballard Mark V 5kW PEMFC stack specifications obtained from the datasheet. The results show that the FCE system is a suitable replacement of real PEMFC stack and can be used for research and development purpose

Loss of Karma transposon methylation underlies the mantled somaclonal variant of oil palm

Somaclonal variation arises in plants and animals when differentiated somatic cells are induced into a pluripotent state, but the resulting clones differ from each other and from their parents. In agriculture, somaclonal variation has hindered the micropropagation of elite hybrids and genetically modified crops, but the mechanism responsible remains unknown. The oil palm fruit 'mantled' abnormality is a somaclonal variant arising from tissue culture that drastically reduces yield, and has largely halted efforts to clone elite hybrids for oil production. Widely regarded as an epigenetic phenomenon, 'mantling' has defied explanation, but here we identify the MANTLED locus using epigenome-wide association studies of the African oil palm Elaeis guineensis. DNA hypomethylation of a LINE retrotransposon related to rice Karma, in the intron of the homeotic gene DEFICIENS, is common to all mantled clones and is associated with alternative splicing and premature termination. Dense methylation near the Karma splice site (termed the Good Karma epiallele) predicts normal fruit set, whereas hypomethylation (the Bad Karma epiallele) predicts homeotic transformation, parthenocarpy and marked loss of yield. Loss of Karma methylation and of small RNA in tissue culture contributes to the origin of mantled, while restoration in spontaneous revertants accounts for non-Mendelian inheritance. The ability to predict and cull mantling at the plantlet stage will facilitate the introduction of higher performing clones and optimize environmentally sensitive land resources