scholarly journals Bayesian Network-based probability analysis of train derailments caused by various extreme weather patterns on railway turnouts

2018 ◽  
Vol 110 ◽  
pp. 20-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serdar Dindar ◽  
Sakdirat Kaewunruen ◽  
Min An ◽  
Joseph M. Sussman
2018 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 42-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuanjiang Chang ◽  
Guoming Chen ◽  
Xiangfei Wu ◽  
Jihua Ye ◽  
Bin Chen ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
pp. 133-155
Author(s):  
John Parrington

Despite many inequalities in the world, it is a testament to human technology that modern agriculture is able to feed the 8 billion people on the planet. However, recently extreme weather patterns linked to global warming have been having an adverse effect on crops and farmed animal production, leading to fears about whether agriculture can continue to feed all the humans on the planet. Genome editing looks set to revolutionise agriculture by making it possible to precisely edit the genomes of farm plants and animals rapidly and economically in an unprecedented way. Such editing could be used to create vegetables and meat with enhanced flavour or nutrition. It could also be used to create disease resistant plants and animals, and reduce the use of antibiotics or pesticides. Looking further into the future it might eventually be possible to use genome editing to reconfigure plants or animals to survive in increasingly extreme types of climates. Despite these positive ways of using genome editing in agriculture, concerns have been raised about the safety of food produced from genome edited animals and plants, and potential adverse effects on animal welfare. Another criticism is that genome editing may only benefit giant agribusiness companies, and not ordinary farmers and consumers. Yet against this criticism, one of the revolutionary aspects of genome editing is how easy and economical it is to use, which means that unlike previous GM technologies, there is no reason why it cannot be used in a local, sustainable, and accessible way.


1984 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. Thomson ◽  
D. M. Shrimpton

Extreme weather conditions associated with mountain pine beetle outbreaks were evaluated by graphical techniques for six locations throughout British Columbia. Three major associations of extreme weather patterns with lodgepole pine growth and mountain pine beetle outbreaks were identified. (i) Weather effects prior to, or early in, the growing season can reduce growth without releasing the beetle population. (ii) Weather conducive to beetle establishment and early brood development can occur too late in the season to have a noticeable effect on tree growth and therefore will not be recorded in the annual growth rings. (iii) Warm, dry periods during the summer are associated with tree growth reduction and the beginnings of outbreaks. In each of these three cases, extreme low precipitation levels were involved. Average precipitation in some months did not compensate for the effects of unfavourable extremes in other months on tree growth.


Author(s):  
Ramona A. Duchenne-Moutien ◽  
Hudaa Neetoo

Throughout these past decades, climate change has featured among one of the most complex global issues. Characterized by worldwide alterations in weather patterns, along with a concomitant increase in the temperature of the Earth, climate change will undoubtedly have significant effects on food security and food safety. Climate change engenders climate variability, which are significant variations in weather variables and in their frequency. Both climate variability and climate change are thought to threaten the safety of the food supply chain through different pathways. One such pathway is their ability to exacerbate foodborne diseases by influencing the occurrence, persistence, virulence and, in some cases, toxicity of certain groups of disease-causing microorganisms. Food safety can also be compromised by various chemical hazards such as pesticides, mycotoxins and heavy metals. With changes in weather patterns such as lower rainfall, higher air temperature and higher frequency of extreme weather events amongst others, this translates to emerging food safety concerns. These include shortage of safe water for irrigation of agricultural produce, greater use of pesticides due to pest resistance, increased difficulty in achieving a well-controlled cold chain resulting in temperature abuse, or occurrence of flash floods which cause run-off of chemical contaminants in natural water courses. Together, these can result in foodborne infection, intoxication, antimicrobial resistance and long-term bioaccumulation of chemicals and heavy metals in the human body. Furthermore, severe climate variability can result in extreme weather events and natural calamities, which directly or indirectly impair food safety. This review discusses the causes and impacts of climate change and variability on existing as well as emerging food safety risks, and also considers mitigation and adaptation strategies to address the global warming and climate change problem.


Kybernetes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaoyu Zheng ◽  
Benhong Peng ◽  
Guo Wei

Purpose The operational management of cold chain logistics has an important impact on the quality of cold chain products, but the service delivery process is subject to a series of potential problems such as product loss and cold storage temperature in the actual operation. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the whole cold chain logistics system and risk events are analyzed. A Bayesian network is used for modeling and simulation to identify the main influencing factors and to conduct a sensitivity analysis of the main factors. Findings It is found that the operation of cold chain logistics systems can be divided into four links according to the degree of influence as follows: transportation and distribution, processing and packaging, information processing and warehousing. Transportation and distribution is the most influential factor of system failure, and extreme weather is the most risky event. At the same time, the four risk events that have the greatest impact on the operation of the cold chain system are in descending order: transportation equipment failure, extreme weather, unqualified pre-cooling and violation operation. Originality/value Therefore, enterprises should develop appropriate interventions for securing the transportation services, design strategies to deal with extreme weather conditions prior to and in the early stage of product delivery, and prepare additional effective measures for managing emergency events.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 487-495
Author(s):  
Robert O. Schneider, PhD

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has removed the words “climate change” from its 2018- 2022 strategic plan. The new plan does not mention climate, global warming, sea-level rise, extreme weather, or any other terminology associated with scientific projections of rising surface temperatures and their effects. Yet, as a direct result of climate change, it can be demonstrated that overall weather patterns have changed and extreme weather has become more common. This essay, based on what peer-reviewed climate science has already clearly demonstrated, makes the case that climate change is a critical variable for emergency managers to factor into their work. As such, it seeks to answer two basic questions. Why is climate change a growing concern for emergency managers? Exactly what should they do about it?


2021 ◽  
pp. 161-185
Author(s):  
Mayur Mudigonda, Prabhat Ram ◽  
Karthik Kashinath ◽  
Evan Racah ◽  
Ankur Mahesh ◽  
Yunjie Liu ◽  
...  

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