No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

ABSTRACT In South Africa the assessment of exposure to occupational hygiene stressors or environmental factors in workplaces covered by the Occupational Health & Safety Act, Act No. 85 of 1993 must be performed or at least verified by an Approved Inspection Authority for occupational hygiene. However, no formal system is in place to effectively audit and score operational work of Approved Inspection Authorities for occupational hygiene. Formal auditing is a requirement of internationally accepted and implemented management systems such as the International Standards Organisation (ISO) 9001: 2000, Quality Management System – Requirements, the British Standards Institution - Occupational Health and Safety Series (OHSAS) 18001: 1999, as well as the International Standard - ISO 14000: 2004: Environmental Management System. To develop an audit system for Approved Inspection Authorities for occupational hygiene, a descriptive research project that gathered relevant data through electronic questionnaires was conducted with the objective of identifying audit elements and a general scoring system as well as the development of an audit tool that can be applied by regulatory authorities, professional bodies and even competent persons to audit operational work of Approved Inspection Authorities for occupational hygiene. 5 This study had a sample population of 40 Approved Inspection Authorities for occupational hygiene, all based in the Gauteng Province, the province which had the largest number of Approved Inspection Authorities for occupational hygiene. A questionnaire was compiled from local and international audit elements and emailed to the study population for electronic completion. The cover letter and study questionnaire is appended as ANNEXURE A and ANNEXURE B respectively. The Ethics Committee – Clearance Certificate is appended as ANNEXURE C. The questionnaire listed the proposed audit elements and a number of questions relating to the registration of the Approved Inspection Authority for occupational hygiene. A scoring mechanism was also suggested. Questions asked in the questionnaire applied the equivalent-form approach whereby as far as reasonably practicable each question was rephrased so that it “appeared different”, but effectively asked the same question. The study had a response rate of 65%, or a total of twenty six returned questionnaires. The respondents were in agreement that the elements; Organisation & Administration, Human Resources, Accommodation & Environment, Equipment, Measurement & Testing as well as Occupational Hygiene Services & Documentation were applicable to an audit for Approved Inspection Authorities for occupational hygiene. Twenty two or 84.6% of the respondents strongly agreed that the said elements were adequate for an occupational hygiene audit. Four or 15.4% of the respondents disagreed, responding that the proposed elements were not adequate for an audit of Approved Inspection Authorities for occupational hygiene. 6 Four of the 26 respondents indicated that the elements; Suppliers & Accommodation should be excluded from the proposed occupational hygiene audit. Twenty two or 84.6% of the respondents strongly agreed that audits are effective in the identification of poor quality work and the subsequent need for corrective measures. Forty two percent of the respondents agreed to the use of the four point scale applied by most of the CONCAWE member companies (Brussels), which was suggested for the proposed audit of the Approved Inspection Authorities for occupational hygiene. Two of the respondents preferred the use of the terms “comply” and “not comply” instead of a numerical rating or scoring mechanism. Two respondents stated that they preferred the use of a five point scale (numbers 1 – 5) as a scoring mechanism. Six of the respondents stated that they would use a different scoring mechanism but did not explain, or elaborate on their statement. Five respondents did not complete the section on the suggested scoring mechanism. On the subject of adequate scores the study found that 18 of the respondents suggested a score of not less than 80% (out of a possible 100%). The majority of respondents indicated that a score of less than 60% warranted corrective action from the Department of Labour or the Southern African Institute for Occupational Hygiene. The majority of respondents preferred the legal appointment of the Department of Labour as the body permitted and approved to audit the operational activities of Approved Inspection Authorities for occupational hygiene. From the results of the study the researcher concluded that a need exists for a formal auditing and scoring system for operational work of Approved Inspection Authorities for occupational hygiene. A proposed audit tool was designed and is appended.

This research develops a methodology for enhancing the performance of a precision computer numerically controlled (CNC) machine tool. The ability to precisely maintain the desired relative position between the cutting tool and the workpiece along the cutting trajectory has a major impact on the dimensional accuracy of the finished part. It is important to ensure that the workpiece geometry satisfies tolerances before removing it from the machine tool. Traditional manufacturing procedures do not catch bad parts until the post-process inspection stage, when the part has already been removed from the setup. Subsequent attempts at re-machining require that the workpiece be re-fixtured back on the machine which often introduces more error into the process. The objective of this research is to develop a methodology that integrates pre-process calibration and process-intermittent gaging to enhance the ability of a two-axis vertical turning center to cut a circular arc. The developed methodology is straightforward and integrates the usage of commercially available instrumentation such as the ball bar and on-machine probe for error identification, prediction, and compensation.

For the requirements of high-speed signal transmission has been increasing. Optical communication system is the way to solve the demands. The 980-nm high-power laser modules are used for optical communication system as the power of the amplifier for long distance communication. The QPSFE is used for coupling between the high-power 980nm laser diodes and the single mode fiber. This research established an on-line inspection system to inspect the fiber endface during the polishing process which is applied on a bare fiber polishing machine. The system we developed is to detect the fiber endface for QPSFE fabrication process. In this paper, we simply use couple charge device (CCD) as a position sensor to detect the grinding situation. The system had been successfully achieved on-inspection purpose, therefore; it will be the key technique toward the automatic bare fiber polishing system.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004. / Vachtsevanos, George J., Committee Chair; Dorrity, J. Lewis, Committee Member; Egerstedt, Magnus, Committee Member; Heck-Ferri, Bonnie S., Committee Co-Chair; Williams, Douglas B., Committee Member; Yezzi, Anthony J., Committee Member. Includes bibliography.

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Risk-based inspection provides a framework whereby inspection resources can be prioritized and targeted towards foods that pose the highest risk to human health. To provide a risk assessment of the initial biological hazards associated with foods consumed, criteria related to hazard identification, hazard characterization and exposure assessment were developed for all foods inspected by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.Using Canadian scientific data, food-pathogen pairs most responsible for foodborne illness were developed and ranked. To characterize the overall population burden of these food-pathogen pairs, a model adapted from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) was developed which incorporated criteria related to pathogen characteristics and probability of exposure of humans by food.The top risk-ranked food-pathogen pairs were Campylobacter spp. and poultry, pathogenic Escherichia coli and beef, Salmonella spp. and poultry, Salmonella spp. and produce, and Campylobacter spp. and dairy.