Ankle fracture patterns in drivers are associated with femoral fracture,higher BMI,and advanced age

Objective: Despite advances in vehicle safety systems, motor vehicle crashes continue to cause ankle fractures. This study attempts to provide insight into the mechanisms of injury and to identify the at-risk population groups.

Methods: A study was made of ankle fractures patients treated at an urban level 1 trauma center following motor vehicle crashes, with a concurrent analysis of a nationally representative crash data set. The national data set focused on ankle fractures in drivers involved in frontal crashes. Statistical analysis was applied to the national data set to identify factors associated with fracture risk.

Results: Malleolar fractures occurred most frequently in the driver's right foot due to pedal interaction. The majority of complex/open fractures occurred in the left foot due to interaction with the vehicle floor. These fractures occurred in association with a femoral fracture, but their broad injury pattern suggests a range of fracture causation mechanisms. The statistical analysis indicated that the risk of fracture increased with increasing driver body mass index (BMI) and age.

Conclusions: Efforts to reduce the risk of driver ankle injury should focus on right foot and pedal interaction. The range of injury patterns identified here suggest that efforts to minimize driver ankle fracture risk will likely need to consider injury tolerances for flexion, pronation/supination, and axial loading in order to capture the full range of injury mechanisms. In the clinical environment, physicians examining drivers after a frontal crash should consider those who are older or obese or who have severe femoral injury without concurrent head injury as highly suspicious for an ankle injury.     

Occupational risks and the value and modelling of a measurement of severity

In studies of occupational risks, severity, which is a component of the estimation of every risk, appears as a multifaceted entity assessable according to numerous criteria. A method of measuring the degree of severity of the consequences of potentially dangerous events would be of undeniable value to organisations seeking to improve their understanding of the complexity of such events. The need to control severity is highlighted by scientifically acquired improvements in the understanding of occupational risks, by certain new regulatory obligations in Europe, and by some requirements in the financial management of organisations. We put forward a statistical way of integrating several constituent elements of severity and hence of determining a relevant, synthetic, one-dimensional index. This is achieved by means of principal component analysis (PCA), which is used here to calculate a resultant severity, as in some physical measurements. We also investigate how severity may be statistically modelled, with the aim of contributing to the quantitative assessment of occupational risks. The choice of parametric models is detailed and illustrated by the search for a suitable model for workplace accidents in an organisational setting. The practical value of modelling severity is two-fold. First, one is able to study the distribution of the numerical values of severity over a continuum (a theoretically infinite numerical set) rather than through a limited number of arbitrarily defined categories. Second, with a generally applicable parametric model, one can estimate the law of probability of a measurement of severity in a particular situation, notably recent or new. Lastly, the statistical concept of risk curve is defined and discussed. The goal is to incorporate the severity component into the risk assessment in the form of a probability law, thus circumventing the difficulties associated with an analysis of scenarios.     

压力容器设计中的环境温度与最低设计金属温度

环境温度在容器设计中不仅影响设计压力的合理确定,而且更影响最低设计金属温度的确定直至影响材料的正确选择。通过对规程标准的解读,结合液化石油气储罐设计对此进行了讨论,认为环境温度应视为容器的特例工况条件,容器设计应将与其对应的设计压力一起作为设计载荷条件,不仅要对容器的壁厚进行校核,而且尚需根据容器的一次应力判断并确认是否需要修订完善容器设计的选材、制造及检验等技术要求,使容器设计文件正确完整,保证容器制造的安全可靠性。     

纺织企业噪声职业危害风险评价及降噪措施

噪声是纺织业的主要职业危害之一。纺织企业生产车间的噪声不仅会影响到纺织生产的效率、工人的工作能力及安全,还会对纺织工人的健康造成危害,甚至导致职业病。以南方某纺织企业为研究对象,对其生产车间的噪声进行了调查测量,并采用职业病作业危害、职业接触风险评估二种评价方法,对该企业各生产工序的噪声职业危害进行风险评价,得出评价结论,从声源、声传播途径、个体防护及管理制度四个方面提出了降噪措施,以便更好地加强防治,预防减少噪声职业危害。     

基于复杂网络的燃气管线破裂灾害链风险分析*

为提高燃气管线突发事件应急处置决策水平和应急响应能力及效率,采用复杂网络理论和灾害链演化机理对燃气管线破裂灾害事件影响进行耦合分析,构建燃气管线破裂灾害链网络和风险评估模型,并计算得出燃气管线破裂灾害链风险度。为更准确地表达无传播路径的灾害事件之间的关系,将灾害网络中所有最短路径长度的最大值作为其最短路径长度,计算表明这种算法更符合灾害传播实际情况。结果表明:通过燃气管线破裂灾害链风险分析,能够为燃气管线灾害风险控制措施和方案制定提供参考,有利于提高燃气管线破裂灾害事件的应急处置能力和决策水平。     

铁路沿线可燃重气储罐最小隔离区域划分探讨*

为保护铁路线,以某化工厂距离高铁路线最近的丙烯球罐为例,提出丙烯球罐泄漏最小隔离区域划分方法以及2种保护高铁线路方案,利用重气扩散模型和定量风险评价（QRA）软件分别进行丙烯扩散模拟、爆炸模拟,并进行危险与可操作性分析（HAZOP）和保护层分析（LOPA）。结果表明:球罐发生泄漏及火灾爆炸等事故,会给附近铁路线带来严重破坏;丙烯泄漏或球罐因周围其他设备设施或可燃物质着火而温度升高时,保护措施不足;隧道的安全可靠性要高于仅设1道防爆墙,隧道长度需覆盖最小隔离区域的可及范围,在扩散区域内也需设立普通挡墙,在极度危险情况下,需要实施高铁停开等保护措施。     

冲击载荷下各向异性煤体渗透-应力敏感性试验研究*

为揭示冲击煤样渗透率的变化规律,通过立式分离式霍普金森（SHPB）冲击装置对不同层理方向煤样进行动态冲击,进而采用渗透仪对冲击后的煤样进行渗透率测试,分析不同冲击荷载下煤岩的渗透率及应力敏感性。结果表明:冲击煤样的渗透率远大于原煤样品,冲击载荷越大,渗透率越大;在相同的冲击载荷和气体压力下,平行于层理方向的煤样渗透率最大,其次是斜交45°层理方向的煤样渗透率,垂直于层理方向的煤样渗透率最小;渗透率受有效应力影响显著;在冲击荷载的作用下,垂直于层理方向煤样渗透率的变化率对孔隙压力更为敏感。     

含锌废物综合利用项目环境影响评价工程探索

工业生产的废物当中包含多种重金属,例如钢铁厂的粉尘当中就含有锌。含锌粉尘不仅会在高炉内循环和富集,影响高炉的运行,还会造成环境污染。基于此,本文主要分析含锌废物综合利用,对该项目进行环境评价,探讨有效的对策,以提高含锌废物综合利用的科学性,提高环境保护等级。     

System safety assessment using safety entropy

Safety assessment has a primary role in hazardous operations. Most studies on safety assessment focus on risk and accident modeling, in which safety is absent. These top-down methods are highly dependent on the occurred accidents to establish accidental scenarios, which may make the assessment approach lagging behind the evolving modern systems. Moreover, this “special to general” logic is scientifically suspect in safety assessment. There is a call for the development of safety assessment methods in the presence of system safety to complement risk-focused safety analysis. These methods should provide a framework based on a bottom-up approach to examine system safety from the operational perspective. This paper has attempted to provide a potential solution. In particular, a novel concept of safety entropy is proposed to integrate with The Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM), which is used to form the qualitative understanding of a system. A formula consisted of safety entropy, functional conformability, and system complexity has been established to determine the spontaneity of the safety state-changing process. The proposed method is applied to the safety assessment of a propane feed-control system. The results show the applicability of the method. Nevertheless, the model still needs to be further improved to fulfill better support for safety-related decision problems.     

Inherent thermal runaway hazard evaluation method of chemical process based on fire and explosion index

Thermal runaway hazard assessment provides the basis for comparing the hazard levels of different chemical processes. To make an overall evaluation, hazard of materials and reactions should be considered. However, most existing methods didn't take the both into account simultaneously, which may lead the assessment to a deviation from the actual hazard. Therefore, an integrated approach called Inherent Thermal-runaway Hazard Index (ITHI) was developed in this paper. Similar to Dow Fire and Explosion Index(F&EI) function, thermal runaway hazard of chemical process in ITHI was the product of material factor (MF) and risk index (RI) of reaction. MF was an indicator of material thermal hazards, which can be determined by initial reaction temperature and maximum power density. RI, which was the product of probability and severity, indicated the risk of thermal runaway during the reaction stage. Time to maximum rate under adiabatic conditions and criticality classes of scenario were used to indicate the runaway probability of the chemical process. Adiabatic temperature rise and heat of the desired reaction and secondary reaction were used to determine the severity of runaway reaction. Finally, predefined hazard classification criteria was used to classify and interpret the results obtained by this method. Moreover, the method was validated by case studies.