Development of a common set of European high-level track maintenance cost categories

2010 ◽  
Vol 224 (4) ◽  
pp. 327-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
C J Bouch ◽  
C Roberts ◽  
J Amoore
Keyword(s):  
Maintenance Cost ◽  
Track Maintenance ◽  
Cost Categories ◽  
High Level

Instrument Health Monitoring for Extending Calibration Intervals of Safety Related Instruments

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Steven Black ◽  
Aaron J. Hussey ◽  
Randall L. Bickford
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Critical Path ◽  
Maintenance Cost ◽  
Calibration Error ◽  
Or Efficiency ◽  
Active Monitoring ◽  
Plant Safety ◽  
Calibration Program ◽  
High Level

The ability to extend calibration intervals for nuclear plant instrumentation has multiple benefits for improving productivity and reducing operating costs at nuclear plants. Benefits include fewer calibrations inside containment during an outage and associated reduced critical path time and ALARA exposure, reduced risk of calibration error or instrument damage during removal and replacement, and reduced operations and maintenance cost for instrument removal, calibration and replacement. A good instrument calibration program ensures instruments are checked frequently enough to provide a high level of confidence that they are performing within acceptable limits, but no more frequently. Over-testing of plant instruments and equipment should be avoided for two reasons: valuable resources are expended on maintenance that might not measurably improve plant safety, reliability, or efficiency; and the potential exists for adjustment errors or equipment damage each time an instrument is removed from service for testing. Over-testing increases the risk of errors or damage being introduced without a justifiable improvement in reliability. This paper discusses the regulatory framework for extending calibration intervals of safety related instruments for U.S. based nuclear power plants. Necessary changes to licensing, plant processes and procedures, training, and configuration management are summarized. An example application of pattern recognition modeling is provided to highlight the analytical support for the processes provided by active monitoring to confirm on-going instrument heath. The paper concludes with a listing of recommended steps to implement a practical program for extending calibration intervals of safety related instruments within the U.S. nuclear regulatory environment.

scholarly journals Resource Utilisation and Costs of Depressive Patients in Germany: Results from the Primary Care Monitoring for Depressive Patients Trial

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Krauth ◽  
Jona T. Stahmeyer ◽  
Juliana J. Petersen ◽  
Antje Freytag ◽  
Ferdinand M. Gerlach ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Economic Burden ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Resource Utilisation ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Significant Burden ◽  
Male Patients ◽  
Cost Categories ◽  
High Level ◽  
Depressive Patients

Background.Depression is the most common type of mental disorder in Germany. It is associated with a high level of suffering for individuals and imposes a significant burden on society. The aim of this study was to estimate the depression related costs in Germany taking a societal perspective.Materials and Methods.Data were collected from the primary care monitoring for depressive patients trial (PRoMPT) of patients with major depressive disorder who were treated in a primary care setting. Resource utilisation and days of sick leave were observed and analysed over a 1-year period.Results.Average depression related costs of €3813 were calculated. Significant differences in total costs due to sex were demonstrated. Male patients had considerable higher total costs than female patients, whereas single cost categories did not differ significantly. Further, differences in costs according to severity of disease and age were observed. The economic burden to society was estimated at €15.6 billion per year.Conclusion.The study results show that depression poses a significant economic burden to society. There is a high potential for prevention, treatment, and patient management innovations to identify and treat patients at an early stage.

Study of Intrusion Detection Based on Genetic Algorithm and Rule

2014 ◽  
Vol 602-605 ◽  
pp. 1797-1802
Author(s):  
Li Wen Xu ◽  
Li Juan Qiao ◽  
Xun Yong Ou ◽  
Kun Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Algorithm ◽  
Information Technology ◽  
Intrusion Detection ◽  
Maintenance Cost ◽  
Network Intrusion Detection ◽  
Technology Usage ◽  
Rule Based ◽  
Efficient Approach ◽  
Network Intrusion ◽  
High Level

The rapid increase of information technology usage demands the high level of security in order to keep the data resources and equipments of the user secure. In this current era of networks, there is an eventual stipulate for development which is consistent, extensible and easily manageable, with low maintenance cost solutions for Intrusion Detection. Network Intrusion Detection based on rules formulation is an efficient approach to classify various types of attack. DoS or Probing attack are relatively more common, and can be detected more accurately if contributing parameters are formulated in terms of rules. Genetic Algorithm is used to devise such rule. It is found that accuracy of rule based learning increases with the number of iteration.

scholarly journals Criticality Analysis of Medical Equipment: A Case Study at King Hussein Cancer Center (KHCC) Amman-Jordan

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (15) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Abdul Kareem Abdul Jawwad ◽  
Muhammad Saleem
Keyword(s):  
Risk Score ◽  
Medical Equipment ◽  
Waiting Times ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Maintenance Management ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Maintenance Cost ◽  
Cancer Center ◽  
High Level ◽  
Criticality Analysis

<p>Proper maintenance management of medical equipment is of prime importance to the health sector as otherwise this would result in poor treatment, longer waiting times and patients suffering as well as draining, the normally limited, financial resources of most public medical institutions. King Hussein Cancer Center (KHCC), Amman-Jordan is a unique medical institution where treatment of different types of cancer is provided and where equipment unavailability is considered a risky event which may result in life-threatening complications.  This is especially true for critical treatment equipment. Criticality analysis was performed on a representative sample of medical equipment at KHCC in order to assess and improve the effectiveness of current maintenance management policy. A sample of twenty-one medical devices was selected for this study. Past failure and maintenance data, in addition to relevant financial information, were collected for these devices and compiled into criticality ranks.  In order to take account of the special nature of these equipment medical criticality (in terms of risk score) values were also calculated based on relevant tables of the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE). Overall criticality ranking of medical equipment was then determined based on equipment cost, ASHE risk score, reliability and maintenance cost.  The present results have revealed major flaws within the purchase and maintenance policies at KHCC. For example, some extremely expensive devices with extremely high-cost maintenance contracts were revealed to exhibit low reliability values and suffer from repeated failures. These were within patient-sensitive equipment cancer treatment devices. The results also have shown that under "less than optimum" maintenance practice, the ASHE risk score may be a misleading measure of equipment criticality. This was shown by comparing the obtained overall equipment criticality to their ASHE risk score where high level of discrepancy was present between the two measures.</p>

scholarly journals SHM Supporting Damage Tolerance Design Philosophy As a Challenge for Designers of Future Airframes

2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 213-220
Author(s):  
Kamila Kustroń
Keyword(s):  
Lamb Wave ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Damage Tolerance ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Maintenance Cost ◽  
Tolerance Design ◽  
Metal Composite ◽  
Design Philosophy ◽  
Current Design ◽  
High Level

SHM Supporting Damage Tolerance Design Philosophy As a Challenge for Designers of Future AirframesDevelopment design pfilosophy of airframes in all the relevant technological fields is important for the evaluation of high performance airframes best to achive high level of safety and satisfy the market needs. Maintenance cost reduction, increased aircraft availability and weight saving are goals which will be reaching by SHM systems as on-line monitoring of the structure health. Irrespective of which materials will be used in the future, the current design philosophy, which is applied today by the structural designers, will be challenged by the new design philosophy based on SHM. The most efective SHM methods are based on Lamb wave techniques. Using the based on Lamb wave techniques would be cost-effective and reliable damage detection is critical for the utilization of metal, composite and hybrid materials. Multitude of diagnostics data requires to use expert systems for effective analysis.

scholarly journals Perencanaan Perawatan Mesin dengan Metode Markov Chain Guna Menurunkan Biaya Perawatan

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 173
Author(s):  
M. Eartono, Ilyas Mas'udin
Keyword(s):  
Markov Chain ◽  
Preventive Maintenance ◽  
Maintenance Cost ◽  
Expected Cost ◽  
Corrective Maintenance ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Machine Maintenance ◽  
Medium Level ◽  
Damage Condition ◽  
High Level

Problem often faced by a fertilizer bagging machine unit is the inegularity of machinemaintenance in which the machine is operated continuously until it damages and can not beoperated any longer. It will result in relatively high down time cost.To solvet his problem we propose a machine maintenance planing based upon data acquired by using Markov Chain Method.There are four types of maintenance we propose they are:l. Maintenance planing with corrective maintenance or high level of damage condition and preventive maintenance or mediurn le vel ofdamage condition.2. Maintenancep laningw ith correctivem aintenancfeo r high and medium level of damageconditiona ndp reventivem aintenancfeo r low levelo fdamagec ondition.3. Maintenance planing with corrective maintenance or high level of damage condition andpreventive maintenance or medium and low level of damage condition4. Maintenance planing with corrective maintenance or high and medium level of damage condition.To determine the best proposal that will be selected we use analysis of preventive maintenance cost and corrective maintenance cost that will result in expected cost for eachmachine.From the four proposals one with the least expected cost is chosen that is planing with corrective maintenance for high level of damage condition and preventive maintenance formedium and low level ofdamage condition.

Transcription factor/DNA interactions visualized by electron spectroscopic imaging

1992 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 450-451
Author(s):  
David P. Bazett-Jones ◽  
Mark L. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Transcription Factor ◽  
Dna Sequences ◽  
Transcription Initiation ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Phosphorus Content ◽  
Spectroscopic Imaging ◽  
Electron Spectroscopic Imaging ◽  
Dna Backbone ◽  
Two Parameters ◽  
High Level

A multisubunit RNA polymerase enzyme is ultimately responsible for transcription initiation and elongation of RNA, but recognition of the proper start site by the enzyme is regulated by general, temporal and gene-specific trans-factors interacting at promoter and enhancer DNA sequences. To understand the molecular mechanisms which precisely regulate the transcription initiation event, it is crucial to elucidate the structure of the transcription factor/DNA complexes involved. Electron spectroscopic imaging (ESI) provides the opportunity to visualize individual DNA molecules. Enhancement of DNA contrast with ESI is accomplished by imaging with electrons that have interacted with inner shell electrons of phosphorus in the DNA backbone. Phosphorus detection at this intermediately high level of resolution (≈lnm) permits selective imaging of the DNA, to determine whether the protein factors compact, bend or wrap the DNA. Simultaneously, mass analysis and phosphorus content can be measured quantitatively, using adjacent DNA or tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) as mass and phosphorus standards. These two parameters provide stoichiometric information relating the ratios of protein:DNA content.

Advances in Stem Instrumentation for Biology

1990 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 362-363
Author(s):  
J. S. Wall
Keyword(s):  
Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope ◽  
Carbon Films ◽  
Specimen Preparation ◽  
Material Deposition ◽  
Active User ◽  
Percent Improvement ◽  
Scanning Transmission ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Film Substrate ◽  
High Level

The forte of the Scanning transmission Electron Microscope (STEM) is high resolution imaging with high contrast on thin specimens, as demonstrated by visualization of single heavy atoms. of equal importance for biology is the efficient utilization of all available signals, permitting low dose imaging of unstained single molecules such as DNA.Our work at Brookhaven has concentrated on: 1) design and construction of instruments optimized for a narrow range of biological applications and 2) use of such instruments in a very active user/collaborator program. Therefore our program is highly interactive with a strong emphasis on producing results which are interpretable with a high level of confidence.The major challenge we face at the moment is specimen preparation. The resolution of the STEM is better than 2.5 A, but measurements of resolution vs. dose level off at a resolution of 20 A at a dose of 10 el/A2 on a well-behaved biological specimen such as TMV (tobacco mosaic virus). To track down this problem we are examining all aspects of specimen preparation: purification of biological material, deposition on the thin film substrate, washing, fast freezing and freeze drying. As we attempt to improve our equipment/technique, we use image analysis of TMV internal controls included in all STEM samples as a monitor sensitive enough to detect even a few percent improvement. For delicate specimens, carbon films can be very harsh-leading to disruption of the sample. Therefore we are developing conducting polymer films as alternative substrates, as described elsewhere in these Proceedings. For specimen preparation studies, we have identified (from our user/collaborator program ) a variety of “canary” specimens, each uniquely sensitive to one particular aspect of sample preparation, so we can attempt to separate the variables involved.

A Questionnaire Survey of Current Rehabilitation Practices for Adults With Normal Hearing Sensitivity Who Experience Auditory Difficulties

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 738-761
Author(s):  
Tess K. Koerner ◽  
Melissa A. Papesh ◽  
Frederick J. Gallun
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Aids ◽  
Questionnaire Survey ◽  
Patient Population ◽  
Clinical Care ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Auditory Training ◽  
Training Methods ◽  
Hearing Sensitivity ◽  
Considerable Benefit ◽  
High Level

Purpose A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect information from clinical audiologists about rehabilitation options for adult patients who report significant auditory difficulties despite having normal or near-normal hearing sensitivity. This work aimed to provide more information about what audiologists are currently doing in the clinic to manage auditory difficulties in this patient population and their views on the efficacy of recommended rehabilitation methods. Method A questionnaire survey containing multiple-choice and open-ended questions was developed and disseminated online. Invitations to participate were delivered via e-mail listservs and through business cards provided at annual audiology conferences. All responses were anonymous at the time of data collection. Results Responses were collected from 209 participants. The majority of participants reported seeing at least one normal-hearing patient per month who reported significant communication difficulties. However, few respondents indicated that their location had specific protocols for the treatment of these patients. Counseling was reported as the most frequent rehabilitation method, but results revealed that audiologists across various work settings are also successfully starting to fit patients with mild-gain hearing aids. Responses indicated that patient compliance with computer-based auditory training methods was regarded as low, with patients generally preferring device-based rehabilitation options. Conclusions Results from this questionnaire survey strongly suggest that audiologists frequently see normal-hearing patients who report auditory difficulties, but that few clinicians are equipped with established protocols for diagnosis and management. While many feel that mild-gain hearing aids provide considerable benefit for these patients, very little research has been conducted to date to support the use of hearing aids or other rehabilitation options for this unique patient population. This study reveals the critical need for additional research to establish evidence-based practice guidelines that will empower clinicians to provide a high level of clinical care and effective rehabilitation strategies to these patients.

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