Thesis (M.S.) -- Mississippi State University. Department of Industrial Engineering. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 231-239). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 231-239). Also available on the Internet.

Internet applications have been extended to various aspects of everyday life and offer services of high reliability and security. In the Academia, Internet applications offer useful tools for the remote creation of simulation models and real-time conduction of control experiments. The aim of this study was the design of a reliable, safe and secure software system for real time operation of a remote aero gas turbine, with the use of standard Internet technology at very low cost. The gas turbine used in this application was an AMT Netherlands Olympus micro gas turbine. The project presented three prototypes: operation from an adjacent computer station, operation within the Local Area Netwok (LAN) of Cranfield University and finally, remotely through the Internet. The gas turbine is a safety critical component, thus the project was driven by risk assessment at all the stages of the software process, which adhered to the Spiral Model. Elements of safety critical systems design were applied, with risk assessment present in every round of the software process. For the implementation, various software tools were used, with the majority to be open source API’s. LabVIEW with compatible hardware from National Instruments was used to interface the gas turbine with an adjacent computer work station. The main interaction has been established between the computer and the ECU of the engine, with additional instrumentation installed, wherever required. The Internet user interface web page implements AJAX technology in order to facilitate asynchronous update of the individual fields that present the indications of the operating gas turbine. The parameters of the gas turbine were acquired with high accuracy, with most attention given to the most critical indications, exhaust gas temperature (EGT) and rotational speed (RPM). These are provided to a designed real-time monitoring application, which automatically triggers actions when necessary. The acceptance validation was accomplished with a formal validation method – Model Checking. The final web application was inspired by the RESTful architecture and allows the user to operate the remote gas turbine through a standard browser, without requiring any additional downloading or local data processing. The web application was designed with provisions for generic applications. It can be configured to function with multiple different gas turbines and also integrated with external performance simulation or diagnostics Internet platforms. Also, an analytical proposal is presented, to integrate this application with the TURBOMATCH WebEngine web application, for gas turbine performance simulation, developed by Cranfield University.

This paper attempts to present and analyze problems that may arise from the use of Genetically Modified (GM) products and issues raised by the Intellectual Property (IP) rights that Genetic Engineering (GE) companies have on their products. Arguments in favor and against the existence of health risks and environmental risks of GM products are presented. The European policy of the socioeconomic effects of the GM products is discussed and is proposed the application of the precautionary principle for the prevention of unintended consequences from the GM products to other than health and environmental domains. The need of IP rights is supported, but is also suggested an IP rights flexibility. Do IP rights violate the rights of all people to a nourishing life, natural resources, the right to decide about what they eat and the right to live in a viable ecosystem? Finally, I provide an analysis of the effects on the farmers due to the IP rights on GM crop for cultivation and state dependency issues that may occur.

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

When citizens participate in risk assessment and decision-making for environmental and other issues that affect members of the public, more robust decisions may be made. Public participation in policy decisions is not only more democratic, but it also enables members of the public to contribute valuable expertise to the decision-making process. However, the development of an effective forum for such participatory projects has been difficult. Participation mechanisms that foster dialogue and interactive exchange between participants have been regarded as the most beneficial, but the practical application of these mechanisms has been observed to be problematic. The goal of this study is to examine the role of talk as a contributing factor to the limited success of dialogue-based participation mechanisms. To do this, this study performs a qualitative analysis of the dialogue that takes place when a group of scientists and a group of farmers participate in a project concerning sustainable biofuels in Iowa. This analysis finds that the scientists and farmers, as members of distinct communities of practice, have different ways of talking about their work, even as they talk about the same subjects. This observation illustrates that the discourse that takes place within participatory mechanisms, and not only the mechanism forum itself, is an important contribution to the success or failure of a citizen participation project.

Inom de närmsta åren står ABB:s högeffektlaboratorium i Västerås inför omfattande reinvesteringar. För att underlätta vid beslutsarbetet, samt lägga grunden till optimala underhållsprogram vid nyanskaffning, är det viktigt med en tydlig underhållsstrategi samt metoder för att bedöma de risker som kan knytas till olika anläggningsdelar. Rapporten syftar till att lyfta fram sådana strategier och metoder för riskbedömning.Arbetet bedrivs i form av en litteraturstudie inom ämnesområdena riskhantering och underhållsteknik, följt av en kvalitativ studie av de förhållanden som råder i anläggningen. Resultatet är en underhållsstrategi, med utgångspunkt i ABB Corporate Researchs övergripande affärsstrategier, där kvalitativa riskbedömningar används som beslutsunderlag för underhållschemat. Genom att dela in anläggningens olika enheter i riskklasser kan underhållsinsatserna anpassas utefter de ekonomiska och arbetsmiljömässiga risker som dessa medför. Det datoriserade underhållssystemet står för den sammanhållande strukturen, därför är det av stor vikt att systemets information är korrekt, komplett och sökbar.Vid högeffektlaboratoriet används ofta riskbedömningar som ett verktyg i det löpande arbetsmiljöarbetet, dessutom är tillgången på teknisk kompetens inom ABB Corporate Researchs egen personal god. Mot bakgrund av detta ser förutsättningarna goda ut för en implementering av kvalitativa riskbedömningar i underhållsarbetet. / In the upcoming years, ABB's high power laboratory in Västerås is facing a period of reinvestments. In order to facilitate the decision-making, and to lay the foundation to effective maintenance programs for new equipment, it is important to have a clearly defined maintenance strategy, including methods to adequately assess the plant and its risk factors. The aim of this report is to suggest such strategies and risk assessments methods.A literature study of maintenance engineering, followed by a qualitative study of the high power laboratory's prerequisites, leads up to a maintenance strategy based on the primary business strategies of ABB Corporate Research. Assigning a risk class to different components enables a risk-adapted maintenance schedule to be deployed. These risk classes are the weighted result of qualitative risk assessments that includes both economic and human consequences. The cohesive structure in this strategy is the Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS), hence the importance of its data being thorough, complete and searchable.At the high power laboratory, risk assessments in areas related to personal safety is commonly used, and the technical skills within ABB Corporate Research's own personnel is high. Thus, the step of implementing a qualitative risk assessment approach to maintenance management should be fairly straight forward.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority has recognised the need for protection against the runway overrun over and above the standard protection recommended by ICAO. Normal protection for the aircraft is provided in ICAO's Annex 14 by the strip at the end of a runway, and a recommendation for the installation of a Runway End Safety Area (RESA). In the UK, the CAA has stated that as part of their safety management system the aerodrome licensee should review the RESA distance requirement for their individual circumstances on an annual basis through a risk assessment. However, current industry knowledge of circumstantial factors in runway overruns is limited. Also, current models that are used to determine likely overrun wreckage locations and RESA dimensions take no account of the operational conditions surrounding the overruns or the aerodrome being assessed. This study has attempted to address these needs by highlighting common factors present in overrun occurrences through the compilation and analysis of a database of runway overruns, and through the construction of a model of wreckage location that takes account of the conditions at an individual aerodrome. A model of overrun probability has been constructed and the consequences of an overrun have been examined. One outcome of the study is an awareness that the industry is in an extremely poor state of knowledge of operational characteristics of non-accident flights, which if not addressed will be a major barrier to future advancement of aviation safety improvement and research.

Context and rationale – This work originates from policy priorities established within Defra to manage exotic animal diseases (EAD); specifically to understand the causes of low probability events, and to establish contingencies to manage outbreak incidents. Outbreaks of exotic animal diseases, e.g. FMD, CSF and HPAI, can cause economic and social impacts of catastrophic proportions. The UK’s government develops and implements policies and controls to prevent EAD and thus minimise these impacts. Control policies to achieve this are designed to address the vulnerabilities within the control systems. However, data are limited for both the introduction of an EAD as well as its resurgence following the disposal of infected carcasses, i.e. the pre-outbreak and post-outbreak phases of an EAD event. These lack of data compromises the development of policy interventions to improve protection. To overcome these data limitations, predictive models are used to predict system vulnerabilities. Cont/d.