Abstract: The use of renewable energy sources incl. biogas has become topical in accordance with the increasing demand for energy, decrease of fossil energy resources and the efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as to increase energy independence from the territories where fossil energy resources are available.
As the technologies of biogas production from agricultural biomass develop, risk assessment and risk management become necessary for farms producing such a renewable energy. The need for risk assessments has become particularly topical when discussions on changing the biogas policy in the EU take place, which may influence the development of the sector in the future, as well as the operation of existing biogas facilities and their income level.
The current article describes results of the risk assessment for farms producing biomass from agriculture biomass in Latvia, the risk assessment system included 24 risks, that affect the whole biogas production process and the obtained results showed the high significance of political and production risks.
Abstract: There is significant interest in achieving technology
innovation through new product development activities. It is
recognized, however, that traditional project management practices
focused only on performance, cost, and schedule attributes, can often
lead to risk mitigation strategies that limit new technology
innovation. In this paper, a new approach is proposed for formally
managing and quantifying technology innovation. This approach uses
a risk-based framework that simultaneously optimizes innovation
attributes along with traditional project management and system
engineering attributes. To demonstrate the efficacy of the new riskbased
approach, a comprehensive product development experiment
was conducted. This experiment simultaneously managed the
innovation risks and the product delivery risks through the proposed
risk-based framework. Quantitative metrics for technology
innovation were tracked and the experimental results indicate that the
risk-based approach can simultaneously achieve both project
deliverable and innovation objectives.
Abstract: This paper proposes the use of Bayesian belief
networks (BBN) as a higher level of health risk assessment for a
dumping site of lead battery smelter factory. On the basis of the
epidemiological studies, the actual hospital attendance records and
expert experiences, the BBN is capable of capturing the probabilistic
relationships between the hazardous substances and their adverse
health effects, and accordingly inferring the morbidity of the adverse
health effects. The provision of the morbidity rates of the related
diseases is more informative and can alleviate the drawbacks of
conventional methods.
Abstract: The sanitary sewerage connection rate becomes an
important indicator of advanced cities. Following the construction of
sanitary sewerages, the maintenance and management systems are
required for keeping pipelines and facilities functioning well. These
maintenance tasks often require sewer workers to enter the manholes
and the pipelines, which are confined spaces short of natural
ventilation and full of hazardous substances. Working in sewers could
be easily exposed to a risk of adverse health effects. This paper
proposes the use of Bayesian belief networks (BBN) as a higher level
of noncarcinogenic health risk assessment of sewer workers. On the
basis of the epidemiological studies, the actual hospital attendance
records and expert experiences, the BBN is capable of capturing the
probabilistic relationships between the hazardous substances in sewers
and their adverse health effects, and accordingly inferring the
morbidity and mortality of the adverse health effects. The provision of
the morbidity and mortality rates of the related diseases is more
informative and can alleviate the drawbacks of conventional methods.
Abstract: Today, computer systems are more and more complex and support growing security risks. The security managers need to find effective security risk assessment methodologies that allow modeling well the increasing complexity of current computer systems but also maintaining low the complexity of the assessment procedure. This paper provides a brief analysis of common security risk assessment methodologies leading to the selection of a proper methodology to fulfill these requirements. Then, a detailed analysis of the most effective methodology is accomplished, presenting numerical examples to demonstrate how easy it is to use.
Abstract: The intention of this study to design the probability optimized sewing sack-s workstation based on ergonomics for productivity improvement and decreasing musculoskeletal disorders. The physical dimensions of two workers were using to design the new workstation. The physical dimensions are (1) sitting height, (2) mid shoulder height sitting, (3) shoulder breadth, (4) knee height, (5) popliteal height, (6) hip breadth and (7) buttock-knee length. The 5th percentile of buttock knee length sitting (51 cm), the 50th percentile of mid shoulder height sitting (62 cm) and the 95th percentile of popliteal height (43 cm) and hip breadth (45 cm) applied to design the workstation for sewing sack-s operator and the others used to adjust the components of this workstation. The risk assessment by RULA before and after using the probability optimized workstation were 7 and 7 scores and REBA scores were 11 and 5, respectively. Body discomfort-abnormal index was used to assess muscle fatigue of operators before adjustment workstation found that neck muscles, arm muscles area, muscles on the back and the lower back muscles fatigue. Therefore, the extension and flexion exercise was applied to relief musculoskeletal stresses. The workers exercised 15 minutes before the beginning and the end of work for 5 days. After that, the capability of flexion and extension muscles- workers were increasing in 3 muscles (arm, leg, and back muscles).
Abstract: The paper presents the case study of hazard
identification and sensitivity of potential resource of emergency
water supply as part of the application of methodology classifying
the resources of drinking water for emergency supply of population.
The case study has been carried out on a selected resource of
emergency water supply in one region of the Czech Republic. The
hazard identification and sensitivity of potential resource of
emergency water supply is based on a unique procedure and
developed general registers of selected types of hazards and
sensitivities. The registers have been developed with the help of the
“Fault Tree Analysis” method in combination with the “What if
method”. The identified hazards for the assessed resource include
hailstorms and torrential rains, drought, soil erosion, accidents of
farm machinery, and agricultural production. The developed registers
of hazards and vulnerabilities and a semi-quantitative assessment of
hazards for individual parts of hydrological structure and
technological elements of presented drilled wells are the basis for a
semi-quantitative risk assessment of potential resource of emergency
supply of population and the subsequent classification of such
resource within the system of crisis planning.
Abstract: The pollution of sediments sampled from the North
Port by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was investigated.
Concentrations of PAHs estimated in the port sediments ranged from
199 to 2851.2 μg/kg dw. The highest concentration was found which
is closed to the Berth line, this locations affected by intensive
shipping activities and Land based runoff and they were dominated
by the high molecular weight PAHs (4–6- rings). Source
identification showed that PAHs originated mostly from the
pyrogenic source either from the combustion of fossil fuels, grass,
wood and coal (majority of the samples). Ecological Risk Assessment
on the port sediments presented that slightly adverse ecological
effects to biological community are expected to occur at the vicinity
of the stations 1 and 4. Thus PAHs are not considered as pollutants of
concern in the North Port.
Abstract: Software Development Risks Identification (SDRI),
using Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), is a proposed technique to identify
not only the risk factors but also the causes of the appearance of the
risk factors in software development life cycle. The method is based
on analyzing the probable causes of software development failures
before they become problems and adversely affect a project. It uses
Fault tree analysis (FTA) to determine the probability of a particular
system level failures that are defined by A Taxonomy for Sources of
Software Development Risk to deduce failure analysis in which an
undesired state of a system by using Boolean logic to combine a
series of lower-level events. The major purpose of this paper is to use
the probabilistic calculations of Fault Tree Analysis approach to
determine all possible causes that lead to software development risk
occurrence
Abstract: The research on the effectiveness of environmental
assessment (EA) is a milestone effort to evaluate the state of the field,
including many contributors related with a lot of countries since more
than two decades. In the 1960s, there was a surge of interest between
modern industrialized countries over unexpected opposite effects of
technical invention. The interest led to choice of approaches for
assessing and prediction the impressions of technology and
advancement for social and economic, state health and safety, solidity
and the circumstances. These are consisting of risk assessment,
technology assessment, environmental impact assessment and costbenefit
analysis. In this research contribution, the authors have
described the research status for environmental assessment in
cumulative environmental system. This article discusses the methods
for cumulative effect assessment (CEA).
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to understand the main
sources of copper (Cu) accumulation in target organs of tilapia
(Oreochromis mossambicus) and to investigate how the organism
mediate the process of Cu accumulation under prolonged conditions.
By measuring both dietary and waterborne Cu accumulation and total
concentrations in tilapia with biokinetic modeling approach, we were
able to clarify the biokinetic coping mechanisms for the long term Cu
accumulation. This study showed that water and food are both the
major source of Cu for the muscle and liver of tilapia. This implied
that control the Cu concentration in these two routes will be correlated
to the Cu bioavailability for tilapia. We found that exposure duration
and level of waterborne Cu drove the Cu accumulation in tilapia. The
ability for Cu biouptake and depuration in organs of tilapia were
actively mediated under prolonged exposure conditions. Generally,
the uptake rate, depuration rate and net bioaccumulation ability in all
selected organs decreased with the increasing level of waterborne Cu
and extension of exposure duration.Muscle tissues accounted for over
50%of the total accumulated Cu and played a key role in buffering the
Cu burden in the initial period of exposure, alternatively, the liver
acted a more important role in the storage of Cu with the extension of
exposures. We concluded that assumption of the constant biokinetic
rates could lead to incorrect predictions with overestimating the
long-term Cu accumulation in ecotoxicological risk assessments.
Abstract: Risk Assessment Tool (RAT) is an expert system that
assesses, monitors, and gives preliminary treatments automatically
based on the project plan. In this paper, a review was taken out for
the current project time management risk assessment tools for SME
software development projects, analyze risk assessment parameters,
conditions, scenarios, and finally propose risk assessment tool (RAT)
model to assess, treat, and monitor risks. An implementation prototype
system is developed to validate the model.
Abstract: Many firms implemented various initiatives such as outsourced manufacturing which could make a supply chain (SC) more vulnerable to various types of disruptions. So managing risk has become a critical component of SC management. Different types of SC vulnerability management methodologies have been proposed for managing SC risk, most offer only point-based solutions that deal with a limited set of risks. This research aims to reinforce SC risk management by proposing an integrated approach. SC risks are identified and a risk index classification structure is created. Then we develop a SC risk assessment approach based on the analytic network process (ANP) and the VIKOR methods under the fuzzy environment where the vagueness and subjectivity are handled with linguistic terms parameterized by triangular fuzzy numbers. By using FANP, risks weights are calculated and then inserted to the FVIKOR to rank the SC members and find the most risky partner.
Abstract: Nanotechnology is the science of creating, using and
manipulating objects which have at least one dimension in range of
0.1 to 100 nanometers. In other words, nanotechnology is
reconstructing a substance using its individual atoms and arranging
them in a way that is desirable for our purpose.
The main reason that nanotechnology has been attracting
attentions is the unique properties that objects show when they are
formed at nano-scale. These differing characteristics that nano-scale
materials show compared to their nature-existing form is both useful
in creating high quality products and dangerous when being in
contact with body or spread in environment.
In order to control and lower the risk of such nano-scale particles,
the main following three topics should be considered:
1) First of all, these materials would cause long term diseases that
may show their effects on body years after being penetrated in human
organs and since this science has become recently developed in
industrial scale not enough information is available about their
hazards on body.
2) The second is that these particles can easily spread out in
environment and remain in air, soil or water for very long time,
besides their high ability to penetrate body skin and causing new
kinds of diseases.
3) The third one is that to protect body and environment against
the danger of these particles, the protective barriers must be finer than
these small objects and such defenses are hard to accomplish.
This paper will review, discuss and assess the risks that human and
environment face as this new science develops at a high rate.
Abstract: The case study deals with the semi-quantitative risk
assessment of water resource earmarked for the emergency supply
of population with drinking water. The risk analysis has been based
on previously identified hazards/sensitivities of the elements
of hydrogeological structure and technological equipment of ground
water resource as well as on the assessment of the levels of hazard,
sensitivity and criticality of individual resource elements in the form
of point indexes. The following potential sources of hazard have
been considered: natural disasters caused by atmospheric and
geological changes, technological hazards, and environmental
burdens. The risk analysis has proved that the assessed risks are
acceptable and the water resource may be integrated into a crisis plan
of a given region.
Abstract: The concentrations of As, Hg, Co, Cr and Cd were
tested for each soil sample, and their spatial patterns were analyzed
by the semivariogram approach of geostatistics and geographical
information system technology. Multivariate statistic approaches
(principal component analysis and cluster analysis) were used to
identify heavy metal sources and their spatial pattern. Principal
component analysis coupled with correlation between heavy metals
showed that primary inputs of As, Hg and Cd were due to
anthropogenic while, Co, and Cr were associated with pedogenic
factors. Ordinary kriging was carried out to map the spatial patters of
heavy metals. The high pollution sources evaluated was related with
usage of urban and industrial wastewater. The results of this study
helpful for risk assessment of environmental pollution for decision
making for industrial adjustment and remedy soil pollution.
Abstract: The progress of concentrations of particular heavy metals was assessed in chosen localities in region Moravia, the Czech Republic, from 2007 to 2009. Particular metals were observed in localities with various types and characterization of zone. Pb, Ni, As and Cd were emphasized as a result of their toxicity and potential adverse health effect to the exposed population. The progress of metal concentrations and their health effects in the most polluted localities were examined. According to the results, the air pollution limit values were not exceeded. Based on the health risk assessment, the probability of developing tumorous diseases is acceptable, except for the increased probability of cancer risk from long-term exposure to As.
Abstract: A 7-step method (with 25 sub-steps) to assess risk of
air pollutants is introduced. These steps are: pre-considerations,
sampling, statistical analysis, exposure matrix and likelihood, doseresponse
matrix and likelihood, total risk evaluation, and discussion
of findings. All mentioned words and expressions are wellunderstood;
however, almost all steps have been modified, improved,
and coupled in such a way that a comprehensive method has been
prepared. Accordingly, the SADRA (Statistical Analysis-Driven Risk
Assessment) emphasizes extensive and ongoing application of
analytical statistics in traditional risk assessment models. A Sulfur
Dioxide case study validates the claim and provides a good
illustration for this method.
Abstract: The contamination of 15 ground water resources
of a selected region earmarked for the emergency supply
of population has been monitored. The resources have been selected
on the basis of previous assessment of natural conditions
and the exploitation of territory in their surroundings and infiltration
area. Two resources out of 15 have been excluded from further
exploitation, because they have not met some of the 72 assessed
hygienic indicators of extended analysis. The remaining 13 resources
have been the subject of health risk analysis in relation
to the contamination by arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury, nickel and
manganese. The risk analysis proved that all 13 resources meet
health standards with regard to the above mentioned purposefully
selected elements and may thus be included into crisis plans. Water
quality of ground resources may be assessed in the same way
with regard to other contaminants.
Abstract: In this paper, we propose a hardware and software
design method for automotive Electronic Control Units (ECU)
considering the functional safety. The proposed ECU is considered for
the application to Electro-Mechanical Actuator systems and the
validity of the design method is shown by the application to the
Electro-Mechanical Brake (EMB) control system which is used as a
brake actuator in Brake-By-Wire (BBW) systems. The importance of a
functional safety-based design approach to EMB ECU design has been
emphasized because of its safety-critical functions, which are executed
with the aid of many electric actuators, sensors, and application
software. Based on hazard analysis and risk assessment according to
ISO26262, the EMB system should be ASIL-D-compliant, the highest
ASIL level. To this end, an external signature watchdog and an
Infineon 32-bit microcontroller TriCore are used to reduce risks
considering common-cause hardware failure. Moreover, a software
design method is introduced for implementing functional
safety-oriented monitoring functions based on an asymmetric dual
core architecture considering redundancy and diversity. The validity
of the proposed ECU design approach is verified by using the EMB
Hardware-In-the-Loop (HILS) system, which consists of the EMB
assembly, actuator ECU, a host PC, and a few debugging devices.
Furthermore, it is shown that the existing sensor fault tolerant control
system can be used more effectively for mitigating the effects of
hardware and software faults by applying the proposed ECU design
method.