This book presents the proceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018), held on August 26-30, 2018, in Florence, Italy. By highlighting the latest theories and models, as well as cutting-edge technologies and applications, and by combining findings from a range of disciplines including engineering, design, robotics, healthcare, management, computer science, human biology and behavioral science, it provides researchers and practitioners alike with a comprehensive, timely guide on human factors and ergonomics. It also offers an excellent source of innovative ideas to stimulate future discussions and developments aimed at applying knowledge and techniques to optimize system performance, while at the same time promoting the health, safety and wellbeing of individuals. The proceedings include papers from researchers and practitioners, scientists and physicians, institutional leaders, managers and policy makers that contribute to constructing the Human Factors and Ergonomics approach across a variety of methodologies, domains and productive sectors. This volume includes papers addressing Organizational Design and Management.

This book presents the proceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018), held on August 26-30, 2018, in Florence, Italy. By highlighting the latest theories and models, as well as cutting-edge technologies and applications, and by combining findings from a range of disciplines including engineering, design, robotics, healthcare, management, computer science, human biology and behavioral science, it provides researchers and practitioners alike with a comprehensive, timely guide on human factors and ergonomics. It also offers an excellent source of innovative ideas to stimulate future discussions and developments aimed at applying knowledge and techniques to optimize system performance, while at the same time promoting the health, safety and wellbeing of individuals. The proceedings include papers from researchers and practitioners, scientists and physicians, institutional leaders, managers and policy makers that contribute to constructing the Human Factors and Ergonomics approach across a variety of methodologies, domains and productive sectors. This volume includes papers addressing Healthcare Ergonomics.

This book presents the proceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018), held on August 26-30, 2018, in Florence, Italy. By highlighting the latest theories and models, as well as cutting-edge technologies and applications, and by combining findings from a range of disciplines including engineering, design, robotics, healthcare, management, computer science, human biology and behavioral science, it provides researchers and practitioners alike with a comprehensive, timely guide on human factors and ergonomics. It also offers an excellent source of innovative ideas to stimulate future discussions and developments aimed at applying knowledge and techniques to optimize system performance, while at the same time promoting the health, safety and wellbeing of individuals. The proceedings include papers from researchers and practitioners, scientists and physicians, institutional leaders, managers and policy makers that contribute to constructing the Human Factors and Ergonomics approach across a variety of methodologies, domains and productive sectors. This volume includes papers addressing the following topics: Transport Ergonomics and Human Factors (TEHF), and Aerospace Human Factors and Ergonomics.

This book presents the proceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018), held on August 26-30, 2018, in Florence, Italy. By highlighting the latest theories and models, as well as cutting-edge technologies and applications, and by combining findings from a range of disciplines including engineering, design, robotics, healthcare, management, computer science, human biology and behavioral science, it provides researchers and practitioners alike with a comprehensive, timely guide on human factors and ergonomics. It also offers an excellent source of innovative ideas to stimulate future discussions and developments aimed at applying knowledge and techniques to optimize system performance, while at the same time promoting the health, safety and wellbeing of individuals. The proceedings include papers from researchers and practitioners, scientists and physicians, institutional leaders, managers and policy makers that contribute to constructing the Human Factors and Ergonomics approach across a variety of methodologies, domains and productive sectors. This volume includes papers addressing Musculoskeletal Disorders.

This relevant and timely thesis presents the pioneering use of risk-based assessment tools to analyse the interaction between electrical and mechanical systems in mixed AC/DC power networks at subsynchronous frequencies. It also discusses assessing the effect of uncertainties in the mechanical parameters of a turbine generator on SSR in a meshed network with both symmetrical and asymmetrical compensation systems. The research presented has resulted in 12 publications including three top international journal papers (IEEE Transactions on Power Systems) and nine international conference publications, including two award-winning papers.

This thesis introduces a new integrated algorithm for the detection of lane-level irregular driving. To date, there has been very little improvement in the ability to detect lane level irregular driving styles, mainly due to a lack of high performance positioning techniques and suitable driving pattern recognition algorithms. The algorithm combines data from the Global Positioning System (GPS), Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and lane information using advanced filtering methods. The vehicle state within a lane is estimated using a Particle Filter (PF) and an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF). The state information is then used within a novel Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) based algorithm to detect different types of irregular driving. Simulation and field trial results are used to demonstrate the accuracy and reliability of the proposed irregular driving detection method.

The book provides readers with a snapshot of recent research and industrial trends in field of industrial acoustics and vibration. Each chapter, accepted after a rigorous peer-review process, reports on a selected, original piece of work presented and discussed at International Conference on Acoustics and Vibration (ICAV2016), which was organized by the Tunisian Association of Industrial Acoustics and Vibration (ATAVI) and held March 21-23, in Hammamet, Tunisia. The contributions, mainly written by north African authors, covers advances in both theory and practice in a variety of subfields, such as: smart materials and structures; fluid-structure interaction; structural acoustics as well as computational vibro-acoustics and numerical methods. Further topics include: engines control, noise identification, robust design, flow-induced vibration and many others.This book provides a valuable resource for both academics and professionals dealing with diverse issues in applied mechanics. By combining advanced theories with industrial issues, it is expected to facilitate communication and collaboration between different groups of researchers and technology users.

This book offers a high-level treatise of evidence-based decisions in drug development. Because of the inseparable relationship between designs and decisions, a good portion of this book is devoted to the design of clinical trials. The book begins with an overview of product development and regulatory approval pathways. It then discusses how to incorporate prior knowledge into study design and decision making at different stages of drug development. The latter include selecting appropriate metrics to formulate decisions criteria, determining go/no-go decisions for progressing a drug candidate to the next stage and predicting the effectiveness of a product. Lastly, it points out common mistakes made by drug developers under the current drug-development paradigm. The book offers useful insights to statisticians, clinicians, regulatory affairs managers and decision-makers in the pharmaceutical industry who have a basic understanding of the drug-development process and the clinical trials conducted to support drug-marketing authorization. The authors provide software codes for select analytical approaches discussed in the book. The book includes enough technical details to allow statisticians to replicate the quantitative illustrations so that they can generate information to facilitate decision-making themselves.

Containing selected papers from the ICRESH-ARMS 2015 conference in Lulea, Sweden, collected by editors with years of experiences in Reliability and maintenance modeling, risk assessment, and asset management, this work maximizes reader insights into the current trends in Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety (RAMS) and Risk Management. Featuring a comprehensive analysis of the significance of the role of RAMS and Risk Management in the decision making process during the various phases of design, operation, maintenance, asset management and productivity in Industrial domains, these proceedings discuss key issues and challenges in the operation, maintenance and risk management of complex engineering systems and will serve as a valuable resource for those in the field.

Reliability and Maintenance: Networks and Systems gives an up-to-date presentation of system and network reliability analysis as well as maintenance planning with a focus on applicable models. Balancing theory and practice, it presents state-of-the-art research in key areas of reliability and maintenance theory and includes numerous examples and exercises. Every chapter starts with theoretical foundations and basic models and leads to more sophisticated models and ongoing research. The first part of the book introduces structural reliability theory for binary coherent systems. Within the framework of these systems, the second part covers network reliability analysis. The third part presents simply structured maintenance policies that may help with the cost-optimal scheduling of preventive maintenance. Each part can be read independently of one another. Suitable for researchers, practitioners, and graduate students in engineering, operations research, computer science, and applied mathematics, this book offers a thorough guide to the mathematical modeling of reliability and maintenance. It supplies the necessary theoretical and practical details for readers to perform reliability analyses and apply maintenance policies in their organizations.

These proceedings present the latest information on software reliability, industrial safety, cyber security, physical protection, testing and verification for nuclear power plants. The papers were selected from more than 80 submissions and presented at the First International Symposium on Software Reliability, Industrial Safety, Cyber Security and Physical Protection for Nuclear Power Plants, held in Yinchuan, China on May 30 - June 1, 2016. The primary aim of this symposium was to provide a platform to facilitate the discussion for comprehension, application and management of digital instrumentation, control systems and technologies in nuclear power plants. The book reflects not only the state of the art and latest trends in nuclear instrumentation and control system technologies, but also China's increasing influence in this area. It is a valuable resource for both practitioners and academics working in the field of nuclear instrumentation, control systems and other safety-critical systems, as well as nuclear power plant managers, public officials and regulatory authorities.

This book proposes the formulation of an efficient methodology that estimates energy system uncertainty and predicts Remaining Useful Life (RUL) accurately with significantly reduced RUL prediction uncertainty. Renewable and non-renewable sources of energy are being used to supply the demands of societies worldwide. These sources are mainly thermo-chemo-electro-mechanical systems that are subject to uncertainty in future loading conditions, material properties, process noise, and other design parameters.It book informs the reader of existing and new ideas that will be implemented in RUL prediction of energy systems in the future. The book provides case studies, illustrations, graphs, and charts. Its chapters consider engineering, reliability, prognostics and health management, probabilistic multibody dynamical analysis, peridynamic and finite-element modelling, computer science, and mathematics.

This book provides an overview of the latest developments in the field of risk analysis (RA). Statistical methodologies have long-since been employed as crucial decision support tools in RA. Thus, in the context of this new century, characterized by a variety of daily risks - from security to health risks - the importance of exploring theoretical and applied issues connecting RA and statistical modeling (SM) is self-evident. In addition to discussing the latest methodological advances in these areas, the book explores applications in a broad range of settings, such as medicine, biology, insurance, pharmacology and agriculture, while also fostering applications in newly emerging areas. This book is intended for graduate students as well as quantitative researchers in the area of RA.

This book presents a unique collection of contributions from some of the foremost scholars in the field of risk and reliability analysis. Combining the most advanced analysis techniques with practical applications, it is one of the most comprehensive and up-to-date books available on risk-based engineering. All the fundamental concepts needed to conduct risk and reliability assessments are covered in detail, providing readers with a sound understanding of the field and making the book a powerful tool for students and researchers alike. This book was prepared in honor of Professor Armen Der Kiureghian, one of the fathers of modern risk and reliability analysis.

This book provides information on the advances in blanching and its effect on food. The author presents the concepts involved in old and novel blanching processes, the typical effects of blanching and the studies on novel blanching technologies.

This book introduces several simple analytical approaches to aid the seamless integration of renewable distributed generation. It focuses on the idea of intelligent integration, which involves locating and developing suitable operational characteristics of renewable distributed generation. After reviewing the options available, the best location should be chosen, an appropriately sized operation should be installed and the most suitable operational characteristics should be adopted. Presenting these simple analytical approaches, their step-by-step implementation and a number of cases studies using test distribution systems, the book clearly demonstrates the technical, economic and environmental benefits of intelligent integration.

This book presents original studies describing the latest research and developments in the area of reliability and systems engineering. It helps the reader identifying gaps in the current knowledge and presents fruitful areas for further research in the field. Among others, this book covers reliability measures, reliability assessment of multi-state systems, optimization of multi-state systems, continuous multi-state systems, new computational techniques applied to multi-state systems and probabilistic and non-probabilistic safety assessment.

This book presents a systematic and comprehensive exposition of the theory of measurement accuracy and provides solutions that fill significant and long-standing gaps in the classical theory. It eliminates the shortcomings of the classical theory by including methods for estimating accuracy of single measurements, the most common type of measurement. The book also develops methods of reduction and enumeration for indirect measurements, which do not require Taylor series and produce a precise solution to this problem. It produces grounded methods and recommendations for summation of errors. The monograph also analyzes and critiques two foundation metrological documents, the International Vocabulary of Metrology (VIM) and the Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement (GUM), and discusses directions for their revision. This new edition adds a step-by-step guide on how to evaluate measurement accuracy and recommendations on how to calculate systematic error of multiple measurements. There is also an extended section on the method of reduction, which provides an alternative to the least-square method and the method of enumeration. Many sections are also rewritten to improve the structure and usability of the material. The 3rd edition reflects the latest developments in metrology and offers new results, and it is designed to be accessible to readers at various levels and positions, including scientists, engineers, and undergraduate and graduate students. By presenting material from a practical perspective and offering solutions and recommendations for problems that arise in conducting real-life measurements, author Semyon Rabinovich offers an invaluable resource for scientists in any field.

This book brings together studies broadly addressing human error from different disciplines and perspectives. It discusses topics such as human performance; human variability and reliability analysis; medical, driver and pilot error, as well as automation error; root cause analyses; and the cognitive modeling of human error. In addition, it highlights cutting-edge applications in safety management, defense, security, transportation, process controls, and medicine, as well as more traditional fields of application. Based on the AHFE 2018 International Conference on Human Error, Reliability, Resilience, and Performance, held on July 21-25, 2018, in Orlando, Florida, USA, the book includes experimental papers, original reviews, and reports on case studies, as well as meta-analyses, technical guidelines, best practice and methodological papers. It offers a timely reference guide for researchers and practitioners dealing with human error in a diverse range of fields.

This book gathers contributions presented at the 9th Workshop on Cyclostationary Systems and Their Applications, held in Grodek nad Dunajcem, Poland in February 2016. It includes both theory-oriented and practice-oriented chapters. The former focus on heavy-tailed time series and processes, PAR models, rational spectra for PARMA processes, covariance invariant analysis, change point problems, and subsampling for time series, as well as the fraction-of-time approach, GARMA models and weak dependence. In turn, the latter report on case studies of various mechanical systems, and on stochastic and statistical methods, especially in the context of damage detection. The book provides students, researchers and professionals with a timely guide to cyclostationary systems, nonstationary processes and relevant engineering applications.

This book reports on an outstanding research devoted to modeling and control of dynamic systems using fractional-order calculus. It describes the development of model-based control design methods for systems described by fractional dynamic models. More than 300 years had passed since Newton and Leibniz developed a set of mathematical tools we now know as calculus. Ever since then the idea of non-integer derivatives and integrals, universally referred to as fractional calculus, has been of interest to many researchers. However, due to various issues, the usage of fractional-order models in real-life applications was limited. Advances in modern computer science made it possible to apply efficient numerical methods to the computation of fractional derivatives and integrals. This book describes novel methods developed by the author for fractional modeling and control, together with their successful application in real-world process control scenarios.

This important new manual goes beyond the published NFPA standards on installation of standpipe systems to include the rules in the International Building Code, municipal fire codes, the National Fire Code of Canada, and information on inspection, testing, and maintenance of standpipe systems. Also covered are the interactions between standpipe and sprinkler systems, since these important fire protection systems are so frequently installed together. Illustrated with design examples and practical applications to reinforce the learning experience, this is the go-to reference for engineers, architects, design technicians, building inspectors, fire inspectors, and anyone that inspects, tests or maintains fire protection systems. Fire marshals and plan review authorities that have the responsibility for reviewing and accepting plans and hydraulic calculations for standpipe systems are also an important audience, as are firefighters who actually use standpipe systems. As a member of the committees responsible for some of these documents, Isman also covers the rules of these standards and codes as they are written, but also provides valuable insight as to the intent behind the rules. A noted author and lecturer, Professor Isman was an engineer with the National Fire Sprinkler Association (NFSA), is an elected Fellow of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE), and currently Clinical Professor in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering at University of Maryland.

Understanding the fatigue behaviour of structural components under variable load amplitude is an essential prerequisite for safe and reliable light-weight design. For designing and dimensioning, the expected stress (load) is compared with the capacity to withstand loads (fatigue strength). In this process, the safety necessary for each particular application must be ensured. A prerequisite for ensuring the required fatigue strength is a reliable load assumption. The authors describe the transformation of the stress- and load-time functions which have been measured under operational conditions to spectra or matrices with the application of counting methods. The aspects which must be considered for ensuring a reliable load assumption for designing and dimensioning are discussed in detail. Furthermore, the theoretical background for estimating the fatigue life of structural components is explained, and the procedures are discussed for numerous applications in practice. One of the prime intentions of the authors is to provide recommendations which can be implemented in practical applications.

This book focuses on tritium as a fuel for fusion reactors and a next-generation energy source. Following an introduction of tritium as a hydrogen radioisotope, important issues involved in establishing safe and economical tritium fuel cycles including breeding for a fusion reactor are summarized; these include the handling of large amounts of tritium: confinement, leakage, contamination, permeation, regulation and tritium accountancy, and impacts on surrounding areas. Targeting and encouraging the students and technicians who will design and operate fusion reactors in the near future, this book offers a valuable resource on tritium science and technology.

This book focuses on the introduction of new and modern maintenance management frameworks of assets in the electricity & gas network sector and more specifically, on electricity networks for distribution. The author describes methodologies for developing and implementing maintenance management maturity models, using case studies to show how these have been applied. These maturity models are discussed as part of an overarching, multi-disciplinary organizational maintenance management professionalization framework. This book adds a new dimension to the well-known Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) method, by incorporating failure modes via multiple scenarios into business values, by means of statistical risk calculation methods. The author demonstrates a method called Utility Risk Linked RCM, which uses a statistical tool to develop failure models which can be used to predict future failure behavior of assets in relation to corporate business values. This new method is a practical, structured and comprehensive framework for assessing risk based maintenance policies. The book also proposes a condition monitoring framework that can be used as a guide to assist asset managers in identifying the relationship between failure modes, ageing processes to select amongst condition monitoring regimes.