Academic literature on the topic 'Protective Life Corporation'

This paper discusses contemporary transformations in the way work is organised and the consequences for the stability of careers and biographies. It debates the widely held belief that organised and predictable life-course paths (including professional careers) have ceased to exist and that work itself has lost its stabilising quality. Biographical data collected among Polish employees of transnational corporations within the project “Poles in the World of Late Capitalism” proves that even though transnational corporations are widely criticised for propelling neoliberal tendencies in the global economy, they provide a means of protecting their employees against today’s uncertainty and occupational risk. Three empirical cases are presented to show how work in a transnational corporation may contribute to achieving and maintaining stability for persons who have had troublesome experiences of working in other sectors of the labour market.

AbstractIntroduction:Road traffic crashes (RTCs) are common in Qatar, and are now considered the third leading cause of mortality. In this study, the safety devices used by the Qatari public at the time of RTCs were assessed and the association between seatbelt use by vehicle occupants involved in RTCs and severe injury/death in the prehospital setting was determined.Methods:This study was a retrospective case-control investigation. A Hamad Medical Corporation Emergency Medical Services (EMS) database of RTCs occurring from January 2006 to April 2007 was utilized for this study, providing a total of 5,267 patient records (83.5 % male, 16.5% female, median age = 28 years). Patient demographics, crash characteristics, prehospital assessments, and interventions were identified, and use of safety devices was determined. Univariate analysis including chi-square, Student's t-test, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed as appropriate. “Case” patients are defined as those who had specific, critical prehospital assessments, or who received advanced cardio-respiratory life support measures in the field. Logistic regression modeling was used to predict the probability of a case being unbelted, controlling for confounders.Results:Seatbelt use in Qatar was low: 33.9% of males and 32.6% of females wore seatbelts at the time of the RTC. Victims involved in a vehicle rollover crash were less likely to be belted than were those involved in a non-rollover incident (26.2% belted vs. 37.8%; OR = 0.59; 95%CI = 0.50–0.68). Case patients—those with defined critical assessment findings or resuscitation in the field—and control patients were similar in age (30 years vs. 28 years median). Case patients were disproportionately male (89.1% vs. 83.2%; OR = 1.65; 95%CI = 1.01–2.83) and were more likely to be victims of a vehicle rollover crash (44.7% vs. 23.8%; OR = 2.57; 95%CI = 1.84–3.59). Seatbelt use was significantly lower among cases than controls: 19.7% of cases were reported to have worn seatbelts compared to 34.2% of controls (OR = 0.47; 95%CI = 0.31–0.69). This relationship also persisted (OR = 0.51; 95%CI = 0.33–0.76) after controlling for confounders.Conclusions:Seatbelt use in Qatar is low. Seatbelts are protective: in the pre-hospital setting unbelted vehicle occupants involved in RTCs were nearly twice as likely to suffer severe injury or death compared to belted patients. Prehospital morbidity and mortality appears to be reduced significantly by the consistent use of seatbelts by the motoring population in Qatar.

Life Insurance Corporation of India, the capital intensive business, provides the most important financial instrument to customers aimed at protection as well as long term savings. The Corporation reaches out to the people through the main traditional route of the agency model for the selling processes of the numerous complex need-based products. The agents help in marketing its policies by spreading the message of life insurance among the masses. They serve as the kingpin for insurance companies seeking to provide traditional and innovative products, and focal point for customers seeking to procure insurance coverage and long term savings. The present paper investigates the factors influencing agents’ perception towards Life Insurance Corporation of India. The study is based on a sample of 225 respondents taken from three cities of Punjab. Factor Analytic Approach has been performed for data analysis. The results of the factor analysis reveal that Staff co-ordination is the most important factor to influence agents’ perception followed by other six factors namely: (i) Customer target; (ii) Competitive advantage predicates; (iii) Material hallmarks; (iv) Promising products and process; (v) Service enhancement; and (vi) Exclusive attention. Moreover, analysis of one way classification has also been performed to test the significant differences among the various groups of respondents across the 23-item perception scale. The results demonstrate that no significant differences exist among various groups of respondents with respect to their perception towards Life Insurance Corporation of India.

Why do most physicians have so much difficulty respecting the wishes of their terminally ill patients who refuse treatment? The normative pluralism model is introduced to answer this question. Comparative content analysis serves as the theoretical framework for evaluating the Canadian Medical Association Joint Statement on Resuscitative Interventions against the corresponding administrative policies of New Brunswick hospital corporations and relevant New Brunswick law. Despite protection afforded patients by law, fully 75% of New Brunswick hospital corporations’ administrative policies permit physicians to ignore patients’ expressed objection to treatments. The futility-of-treatment criteria in the CMA joint statement and in all provincial hospital corporations’ policies authorize physicians to substitute their judgment for patients’ expressed refusal of CPR. The author concludes that when medical professional norms conflict with the law, physicians tend to follow their professional normative order.

This article is the last of the series dedicated to the logistics in life cycle of cars, based on the materials from Toyota Motor Corporation. The study covered the IV stage of the life cycle of vehicles - the phase of withdrawal out of service. The topic of recycling of Toyota cars and the relationship between these activities and the protection of the environment as well as the issues of resource conservation and their effective re-use are discussed.

Purpose This paper aims to underline and evaluate what corporations are as artificial entities, the concept of corporate governance (CG) in the twentieth century and whether a corporation owes allegiance to its key stakeholders in the twenty-first century. Design/methodology/approach Because it requires development in the twenty-first century, a clarification of the key areas of reform in “global corporate governance” is overdue. These include an analysis of the stakeholder role; the logic and effect of the codes of corporate practise such as in the Cadbury Code and Combined Codes. The “value chain theory” in CG and how it should be placed not only on financial value but also on natural, human and cultural values will looked at. This paper also provides a brief insight into major multi-national corporate collapse. The Enron case, for example, highlights how such mishaps can be avoided to rekindle trust and transparency, as well as disclosure to authorities, shareholders and the public. Findings This paper looks at how public interest and consumer interest play a role in corporate existence by analysing an inevitable change in the twenty-first century from absolute corporate control to public/consumer control and have an influence in areas like environmental, ethical and employee protection and recognition. The emotional side of a corporation is brought to life to win the hearts of consumers and the public. How this fares in the light of profits and long-term Environmental Management Scheme investment will be evaluated. Originality/value This paper ends with a general conclusion, summarising the necessary changes to governance and the author’s opinion on the realities of change: will it work, will it improve the living standards or will it just increase the gap between well-organised and ill-fated economies?

A system of previously undefined environmental life cycle cost elements were developed for use in the propellant selection processes for spacecraft launch propulsion systems, with input from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Swedish Space Corporation, and stakeholders in industry and academia. These environmental life cycle cost elements were incorporated into a life cycle cost analysis of toxic propellant (hydrazine) versus green (High Performance Green Propellant) through a modified cost benefit analysis. Environmental cost element line items within the life cycle were identified as costs or benefits (cost reductions or avoided costs). A case study was also implemented to further illustrate these findings, resulting in a real-world 66% reduction in Phase E (operational) mission cost for High Performance Green Propellant (HPGP) compared with hydrazine. Based on the analysis, the largest environmental cost drivers were facility operations and maintenance, end of life disposal, and transportation, with the major costs being associated with health and human safety protection.

Beijing Jeep Corporation (BJC) was founded in 1984 as one of the first and largest joint venture between an American company (American Motors Corporation) and a Chinese enterprise. Early in its operation, BJC had been given preferential treatment on tariffs and foreign exchange. Since over forty percent of the content of BJC was produced in China, it had operated as a local manufacturer under heavy protection from imports for all of its short life. All this appeared to be on the brink of changing when trade negotiators for the United States and China announced, after thirteen years of on and off negotiations, the agreement on the terms for China's entry into the World Trade Organization. The terms of the agreement called for a steep reduction in tariffs for imported automobiles from nearly one hundred percent to twenty-five percent by 2006. This would have a direct impact on BJC performance. The case focuses on the strategic challenges facing companies in the changing trade and economic environment.

The modern era is the era of the information society, which is characterized by the dominance of information and communication technologies in all spheres of human life. The use of technology has become a habitual norm of everyday life of citizens, corporations, the state. At the same time, the use of technology and communication networks carries risks of abuse and malicious action. Therefore, cybersecurity issues are more relevant and important. In this context, the leading role in the use and protection of information and communication systems should belong to the state, which has the organizational and administrative apparatus and power to implement these tasks.

Virtually all enterprises are regulated in a host of ways and regulation is crucial not merely to economic success but to protecting consumer, worker, environmental, and an array of other interests. Regulation, though, is often seen negatively: as a tiresome interference with entrepreneurial activity. This negative vision is unhelpful in addressing business and other needs for productive forms of regulation. Taming the Corporation offers an alternative, positive, vision of regulation. It stresses the role of good regulation in allowing businesses to flourish, serve markets effectively, and respect broader interests. This paves the way for more productive regulatory designs. It looks at the characteristics of good regulation and provides businesses, consumers, and citizens with the arguments that they need when they push for regulatory controls that serve their needs. Understandings of regulation are also served by looking at the potentially positive roles of control strategies ranging from ‘command laws’ to ‘nudges’. The book, in addition, provides a more detailed examination of three key regulatory challenges in the modern world: regulating for sustainability; addressing global warming; and controlling digital platforms. Taming the Corporation offers a new vision of regulation—as a positive way to steer corporate power in productive and useful directions. It turns the traditional regulation discussion on its head. Regulatory theories are discussed but the book also uses numerous case examples to illustrate and address real life challenges.

The book applies legal concepts to economic analysis. It explains that modern economies require the existence of a specific legal system to operate. The analysis builds on the prior work of institutional economists such as Douglas North. It brings it forward by integrating what was missing: the legal component. Taking its distance from the economic analysis of law, it provides a legal analysis of economics. It is superior in this regard because real life economic actors must abide by legal rules. Their economic activity is dependent on the existence of rules making it possible, something present economic analyses neglect completely. Without States and the services they provide (protection services, a legal system, property rights, justice, roads, contract enforcement, and so on), economic activity cannot flourish. The book concentrates on the particular importance of property rights. They always played a key role in economic development. They now play a key role in the operation of a global economy because of the surge of multinationals built on the right of property concentrated via corporations. The role of corporate law in the reconfiguration of the power system from a State System to a World Power System is explained. The book is of interest for all social scientists interested in the operation of our present world economy in an era of globalization. It provides new insight on how to address global issues, in particular global climate change, which is a direct consequence of the spreading of a world economy over a divided State System.

The standards development organization’s (SDO) role in Internet governance is notable given its central place in society. The bulk of decision-making for the Internet takes place in technical standards fora, such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which have no formal state or public sector body membership. Recent years have seen a significant degree of spill-over of highly politicized policy areas such as data protection, digital rights management, security, and bandwidth and spectrum to SDOs, policies which were formerly domains of the nation state. SDOs are grappling with the efficiency of cloud storage, limits of spectrum use, and autonomy and management of devices. Security questions abound as demonstrated by the Cambridge Analytica scandal and Snowden revelations. The book breaks new ground by exploring decision-making within SDOs. It provides an invaluable insight into a world, which, although highly technical, affects the way in which citizens live and work on a daily basis. The work stands out from existing literature on Internet governance, which focuses on international organizations such as the United Nations (UN), the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). As such, it adds significantly to the trajectory of research that explores the relationship between politics and protocols. It explains the interplay between different interests and whether civil society and other actors are able to defend and promote citizens’ rights within SDOs. As such, it contributes to knowledge about how the public interest is promoted.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed by President Obama in March 2010 is a landmark in U.S. social legislation, and the Supreme Court's recent decision upholding the Act has ensured that it will remain the law of the land. The new law extends health insurance to nearly all Americans, fulfilling a century-long quest and bringing the United States to parity with other industrial nations. Affordable Care aims to control rapidly rising health care costs and promises to make the United States more equal, reversing four decades of rising disparities between the very rich and everyone else. Millions of people of modest means will gain new benefits and protections from insurance company abuses - and the tab will be paid by privileged corporations and the very rich. How did such a bold reform effort pass in a polity wracked by partisan divisions and intense lobbying by special interests? What does Affordable Care mean-and what comes next? In this updated edition of Health Care Reform and American Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know®, Lawrence R. Jacobs and Theda Skocpol-two of the nation's leading experts on politics and health care policy-provide a concise and accessible overview. They explain the political battles of 2009 and 2010, highlighting White House strategies, the deals Democrats cut with interest groups, and the impact of agitation by Tea Partiers and progressives. Jacobs and Skocpol spell out what the new law can do for everyday Americans, what it will cost, and who will pay. In a new section, they also analyze the impact the Supreme Court ruling that upheld the law. Above all, they explain what comes next, as critical yet often behind-the-scenes battles rage over implementing reform nationally and in the fifty states. Affordable Care still faces challenges at the state level despite the Court ruling. But, like Social Security and Medicare, it could also gain strength and popularity as the majority of Americans learn what it can do for them.

This chapter assesses the appropriate balance between strengthening tax revenue collection tools to ensure states have adequate resources to meet their human rights obligations, and protecting taxpayer rights to privacy and data security. On the one hand, the ability of rich residents of developing countries and multinational corporations operating in those countries to evade or avoid taxation is directly linked to violations of human rights in those countries, especially from the perspective of social and economic rights like health and education. Providing such countries with the means to fight back and collect adequate revenues is essential in advancing such rights. On the other hand, some of the techniques used to achieve adequate revenue collection, like automatic exchange of information (AEoI) and country-by-country reporting (CbCR), risk violating other human rights like privacy and the legitimate protection of trade secrets.

This chapter takes a critical positivist approach to exploring lex ferenda options to protect animals abroad, uncovering new applications of the passive personality principle, the universality principle, and the effects principle. Because the law of jurisdiction developed over centuries without considering animals, it does not meet the specific demands of animal law, conceptually and morally. The author offers a new application of the passive personality principle, arguing that animals should have functional nationality, like ships and corporations, that establishes a jurisdictional link to their home state. On this basis, a state can broadly and unequivocally protect its national animals abroad. The chapter next shows how the universality principle can, in the future, prohibit the most egregious crimes against animals that now escape every state’s jurisdiction (like illegal wildlife trafficking). Finally, arguments for a noneconomic version of the effects principle in animal law are explored.

The development of technology adds advantages to corporations, allowing them to revamp their marketing strategies digitally. Digital marketing is formed by various techniques and tools and uses electronic media to promote the products and services in the market. This chapter attempts to explore whether the digital marketing has significant effects on customer privacy as it assesses the customer profile voluntarily or involuntarily, saving them from cybercrime. The primary data were collected from 100 samples, which consist of both males and females of different age groups. The considered hypotheses were tested, and it was observed that there is a significant impact of digital marketing on customers' privacy in terms of personal information and consumption of energy and money. Thus, corporations have to limit the number of advertisements, seek permission prior to sending advertisements, while respecting and protecting customers' privacy. Corporations could follow government guidelines and regulations strictly in the line of digital marketing, which in turn enable them to earn loyal customers.

This chapter highlights the need to recover respect for human rights, for humanitarian law, and for the ideals written into the UN Charter. Those who craft policies could support areas of public life which either have not appeared on their radar or have not been perceived as having anything to do with cruelty. To that end, priority tasks in education for humanity concern issues which have been given insufficient emphasis. These issues include the erosion of human rights principles; reminders about the ways in which free market economic policies enable corporations to contribute to poverty and to cruelty to children; evidence of the increase in cruelty to animals; and the cruelties associated with the possession and threatened use of nuclear weapons. The chapter underlines the responsibilities of teachers, in schools, in colleges, and universities, plus journalists of every description, to educate about rebuilding civil societies through advocacy of human rights, including protection of a precious planet, and by supporting public institutions and services.

The “loop” approach of the circular model, which aims to live in the business or market environment, requires a radical evolution of the production techniques, management, and skills in a new concept or idea for the market. Circular Economy results from a long awareness-raising process connected with problems concerning environmental protection. The dissemination of circular economy supposes the adoption of business models which will eventually enable environmental sustainability oriented behaviors, an efficient use of resources, and the respect of ethical, social, and environmental values. Benefit Corporations are companies pursuing these objectives. This chapter identifies and discusses the potential of B Corp certification to apply the principle of Circular economy. In particular, a compared multiple analysis of case studies is used to evaluate how the requirements of the scheme of certification influence the potential circularity of the enterprises analyzed.

The creation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) constituted an enormous advance in data privacy, empowering the online consumers, who were doomed to the complete loss of control of their personal information. Although it may first seem that it only affects companies within the European Union, the regulation clearly states that every company who has businesses in the EU must be compliant with the GDPR. Other non-EU countries, like the United States, have seen the benefits of the GDPR and are already developing their own privacy laws. In this article, the most important updates introduced by the GDPR concerning US corporations will be discussed, as well as how American companies can become compliant with the regulation. Besides, a comparison between the GDPR and the state of art of privacy in the US will be presented, highlighting similarities and disparities at the national level and in states of particular interest.

This chapter addresses two final questions. First, what are the specific and more general perspectives of the democracies we studied in terms of implementation of the two democratic values? The three patterns developed in Chapter 8 cover almost all the existing empirical possibilities in Europe. Moreover, the external challenges faced by democracies in the early twenty-first century directly affect not only the goods to be delivered (possibly a mix of freedoms and equalities) but also resilience and de-consolidation. We can accept action in defence of rights and institutions and the limits of protest lie in the fact that the related actions cannot violate existing laws. A parallel question is how much the repeal of constraints, legal or of another sort, on the incumbent authorities can be pushed. No doubt, interinstitutional accountability is the necessary cornerstone of a working democracy. Second, what could we do to promote a better, doable, reasonable implementation of the two values? The formula of pursuing broader social cooperation would recall neo-corporatist past solutions, today unfeasible, but still appears as the right social recipe that has not yet been overcome. As seen in Chapter 8, we have to restate that there is a close connection between interinstitutional accountability and protection of freedoms, and, although indirectly, of equalities. Among the rights, the most important one in a democracy is the right to vote, which is grounded on other freedoms that concur to form the voter’s own political opinion. The commitment to combat different forms of disinformation needs to continue in order to provide further meaningfulness to the right to vote. Finally, to craft solid majorities in favour of the strengthening of the welfare state beyond the protection of poverty, we do need to promote a European Union able to complement national and European solidarities.

In previous chapters we have demonstrated how the practice of policy integration—the linking of environmental regulatory policies with resource pricing policies, trade and investment policies, and technological capabilities building policies—in the East Asian NIEs has driven down the energy and pollution intensity of industrial activity in these economies. As we have shown, each East Asian NIE used a somewhat different strategy for driving down environmental intensities. Singapore did it by effectively linking its tough environmental agency, the Ministry of the Environment, to the country’s premier institutions of industrial policy—the Economic Development Board and the Jurong Town Corporation—charged with attracting OECD multinationals and providing them with factories and OECD-like infrastructure facilities. Taiwan Province of China took a decidedly different path. Following the decision of the central government to create a tough regulatory agency in the face of strong opposition from the country’s institutions of industrial policy, the government, by building a capable regulatory agency and allowing it to get tough with polluters, demonstrated to those who managed the institutions of industrial policy that they would have to adapt to a crackdown on polluters. They did so by using the institutions of industrial policy to craft an approach to industrial environmental improvement that linked Taiwanese firms and the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration to the technology-upgrading policies of the Industrial Development Bureau in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the technological research activities of the Industrial Technology Research Institute. Where governments had less capable environmental regulatory agencies, they used several other pathways to policy integration. The government of Malaysia followed two different pathways to policy integration. On the one hand, it adopted an industry-specific approach to de-link palm oil production and the export of processed palm oil products from palm oil pollution by integrating palm oil processors with a quasi-public, quasi-private palm oil research institute, the Palm Oil Research Institute of Malaysia, and the Department of the Environment in a search for a cost-effective palm oil waste treatment technology. Once a viable solution to pollution emerged, the Department of the Environment used its embedded autonomy with producers in this sector to ratchet up emissions standards and de-link palm oil processing from palm oil pollution.

Abstract In the Brite Euram Project COMBCOAT Thermal Barrier Coatings for improved thermal protection with a thickness up to 2 mm have been developed for combustor applications. As a typical experiment to evaluate the quality of the coatings, life cycles to spallation by means of thermal cycling tests have been determined at ANSALDO Ricerche, BMW Rolls- Royce and Volvo Aero Corporation. To ensure that the ranking on the different cycling experiments are equivalent and to compare cycles to spallation reached in the different rigs, a comparison of 6 different coatings, highly porous as well as segmented ones, has been performed on the three different rigs. Results of the different tests demonstrated that a direct comparison of the result is not possible. The ranking and the number of cycles to spallation have been inconsistent for different specimen and rigs. Detailed simulation of experiments need to be performed to understand the differences between results.

Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) have drawn wide attention from nuclear power industry for digital instrument and control applications (DI&C), because it’s much easier and simpler than microprocessor-based applications, which makes it more reliable. FPGAs can also enhance safety margins of the plant with potential possibility for power upgrading at normal operation. For these reasons, more and more nuclear power corporations and research institutes are treating FPGA-based protection system as a technical alternative. As nuclear power industry requires high reliability and safety for DI&C Systems, the development method and process should be fully verified and validated. For this reason, to improve the application of FPGA in NPP I&C system, the specific test methods are critical for the developers and regulators. However, current international standards and research reports, like IEC 62566 and NUREG/CR-7006, which have demonstrated the life circle of the development of FPGA-based safety critical DI&C in NPPs, but the specific test requirements and methods which are significant to the developers are not provided. In this paper, the whole test process of a pressurized water reactor (PWR) protection sub-system (Primary Coolant Flow Low Protection, Over Temperature Delta T Protection, Over Power Delta T Protection) is described, including detail component and integration tests. The Universal Verification Methodology (UVM) based on System Verilog class libraries is applied to establish the verification test platform. All these tests are conducted in a simulation environment. The test process is driven by the test coverage which includes code coverages (i.e., Statement, Branch, Condition and Expression, Toggle, Finite State Machine) and function coverage. Specifically, Register Transaction Level (RTL) simulation is conducted for Component tests, while RTL simulation, Gate Level simulation, Timing simulation and Static timing analysis are conducted for the integration test. The issues (e.g., the floating point calculation, FPGA resource allocation and optimization) arose in the test process are also analyzed and discussed, which can be references for the developers in this area. The component and integration tests are part of the Verification and Validation (V&V) work, which should be done by the V&V team separated from the development team. The testing method could assure the test results reliable and authentic. It is practical and useful for the development and V&V of FPGA-based safety DI&C systems.

Federal Track Safety Standards require daily measurements of car body and truck accelerations on trains operating at speeds above 125-MPH. In compliance with this requirement, twelve high-speed Acela coaches, operating in the Northeast Corridor between Boston, MA, and Washington DC, have been equipped with remote monitoring systems. The systems provide continuous measurement of car body and truck motions, detect various acceleration events, tag them with GPS time and location information, and deliver the data to Central Processing Stations through wireless communications channels. The Central Processing Stations installed at the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) and ENSCO, Inc., headquarters provide email and pager notifications to designated Amtrak officers and also make the data available to them over secure Intranet and Internet connections. The overall architecture has multiple levels of protection and redundancy in order to ensure high reliability and availability of the service. The systems have been in continuous operation for over a year and provided a multitude of valuable information. Examples of system-reported acceleration events include events caused by track irregularities and train handling. The paper also describes some of the real-life operational scenarios and situations that arise when autonomous remote monitoring systems are used, including wireless communications coverage issues, GPS location pitfalls, and maintenance issues.

Engineering ceramics have a growing application potential for the wear- and corrosion protection of piping systems and for manufacturing of working parts of rotating equipment in mining and -mineral industries, including oil, gas, coal, ores, and others. The alumina, zirconia, alumina-zirconia, and silicon carbide-based engineering ceramics developed and manufactured by Ceramic Protection Corporation used for extraction, processing, conveying, and dust collection equipment are reviewed. These ceramics have high hardness (greater than the majority of processed materials) and mechanical strength, moderate fracture toughness (fracture toughness of zirconia ceramics is close to metal fracture toughness), excellent wear- and corrosion resistance, ability to withstand high temperatures (greater than 1000°C) and thermal shocks. These ceramics successfully withstand various solid and liquid abrasive media transported at high velocity and turbulence, under high pressure and cavitation. In terms of wear- and corrosion resistance ceramics are significantly stronger than hard steels widely used in the piping systems, and may successfully replace hard metals such as tungsten carbide. The features of the compositions, microstructure, and properties of these ceramics are considered. The wear test results are discussed; the factors effected wear resistance are emphasized. In dependence on the working conditions and the product design, a ceramic material may be chosen or developed in each particular case. The manufacturing processes of the considered ceramics and the installation technique are described. These ceramics are produced on the large-scale basis, and the parts may be manufactured in accordance with the customer design and requirements. The ceramic components may be manufactured as monolithic bodies, including bodies with the complicated shapes, or as tiles; in both cases they are easily installed into equipment. The main features of the ceramic product design are discussed. Pipe lining, including elbows, T- and Y-sections, cyclones and reducers, nozzles, pump parts, seals, valves, and others made from these ceramics are successfully used in the most important sections of piping systems and rotating equipment. The use of the ceramics reduces the wear- and corrosion problems, increases the life cycle of equipment without damage and shutdowns.

Vocal fold paralysis affects approximately 7.5 million Americans. Paralysis can be caused by numerous conditions, including head, neck or surgical trauma, endotracheal intubation, neurological conditions, cancer, tumors, just to mention a few. Currently, vocal fold paralysis treatment involves surgery and voice therapy. The vocal folds are composed of a three part material stretched along the larynx, which enables frequency change. Intrinsic laryngeal muscles coordinate the motion of vocal folds during respiration, vocalization, and aid in airway protection. Sensory information is carried by the Superior Laryngeal Nerve (SLN) and the Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve (RLN). Injury to the RLN results in paralysis of all laryngeal muscles excluding the cricothyroid muscle [1]. Although optimal larynx reinnervation has been extensively researched and implemented to improve voice paralysis [2], voice electrotherapy offers an alternative to effectively stimulate the larynx muscles for voice production, breathing and airway protection. One of the main causes of voice disorders is neurological in nature and causes abnormal vocal fold vibration. Of particular importance to this research is paralysis due to RLN injury, which causes acute temporary paralysis [3]. Currently, invasive electrical stimulus is used to activate muscle function; however, abnormal activation of muscle patterns causes muscles to function out of synchronization resulting in low vocal output [4]. For this reason, our work focuses on the development of an effective electromagnetic stimulation system to aid patients with unilateral vocal fold paralysis by stimulating the RLN and in turn reinnervating the adequate laryngeal muscles involved in the vocal fold motion for the purposes of sound vocalization, respiration, and airway protection. So far, a proof of principle has been developed and evaluated to assess the system’s feasibility. The preliminary experiments have been conducted using BioMetal Fibers (BMF) (Toki Corporation, Japan), which are fiber-like solid state actuators designed to contract and extend similar to muscles. BMF contracts when stimulated through a current generated in this case through an electromagnetic field.

Abstract As an important safety discharge facility in petrochemical industry, flare is widely used in offshore and onshore oil and gas fields to relieve pressure, vent unwanted gases. This open-air combustion system oxidizes the fuel gases into carbon dioxide and water vapor and hence avoids the contamination of air with harmful gases that cause air pollution and climate change. With the increasingly strict requirements of environmental protection and the implementation of low-carbon development policy, the black carbon (soot) caused by incomplete combustion from the flare will be strictly controlled. At present, there is no simple and effective method to determine whether the flare produces visible black carbon which exacerbates the pollution. According to the investigation on site, there are different degrees of black carbon emission from the flares both in the onshore and offshore oilfield, which brings some troubles to the petroleum corporation. Based on a flare tip and the associated gas from an oilfield in Bohai Bay of China, a simulation model, which in accordance with the actual situation, was established with the Computational Fluid Dynamics software. The Non-Premixed Combustion model was used to simulate the Combustion, the P-1 model was adopted to calculate the thermal radiation and the Moss-Brookes model was selected to compute the generation of black carbon. The feasibility of the model was demonstrated by comparing the simulation results with the field test results. Then the limitation of current conventional practice to predict whether the soot is produced, was demonstrated with the model. At the same time, the production rate of black carbon under different conditions of components and fraction were calculated. After a comprehensive analysis and comparison, a simple, directly and effective method to predict the soot was proposed. When the C-to-H ratio of fuel gas is greater than 0.273, it tends to visible soot, and when the C-to-H ratio is greater than 0.285, it tends to heavy soot, which is in line with the actual in site. Therefore, the method can be applied to predict the level of the generation of black carbon in the engineering.

Attention to safety and health are of ever-increasing priority to industrial organizations. Good Safety is demanded by stockholders, employees, and the community while increasing injury costs provide additional motivation for safety and health excellence. Safety has always been a strong corporate value of DuPont and a vital part of its culture. As a result, DuPont has become a benchmark in safety and health performance. Since 1990, DuPont has re-engineered itself to meet global competition and address future vision. In the new re-engineered organizational structures, DuPont has also had to re-engineer its safety management systems. A special Discovery Team was chartered by DuPont senior management to determine the “best practices’ for safety and health being used in DuPont best-performing sites. A summary of the findings is presented, and five of the practices are discussed. Excellence in safety and health management is more important today than ever. Public awareness, federal and state regulations, and enlightened management have resulted in a widespread conviction that all employees have the right to work in an environment that will not adversely affect their safety and health. In DuPont, we believe that excellence in safety and health is necessary to achieve global competitiveness, maintain employee loyalty, and be an accepted member of the communities in which we make, handle, use, and transport products. Safety can also be the “catalyst” to achieving excellence in other important business parameters. The organizational and communication skills developed by management, individuals, and teams in safety can be directly applied to other company initiatives. As we look into the 21st Century, we must also recognize that new organizational structures (flatter with empowered teams) will require new safety management techniques and systems in order to maintain continuous improvement in safety performance. Injury costs, which have risen dramatically in the past twenty years, provide another incentive for safety and health excellence. Shown in the Figure 1, injury costs have increased even after correcting for inflation. Many companies have found these costs to be an “invisible drain” on earnings and profitability. In some organizations, significant initiatives have been launched to better manage the workers’ compensation systems. We have found that the ultimate solution is to prevent injuries and incidents before they occur. A globally-respected company, DuPont is regarded as a well-managed, extremely ethical firm that is the benchmark in industrial safety performance. Like many other companies, DuPont has re-engineered itself and downsized its operations since 1985. Through these changes, we have maintained dedication to our principles and developed new techniques to manage in these organizational environments. As a diversified company, our operations involve chemical process facilities, production line operations, field activities, and sales and distribution of materials. Our customer base is almost entirely industrial and yet we still maintain a high level of consumer awareness and positive perception. The DuPont concern for safety dates back to the early 1800s and the first days of the company. In 1802 E.I. DuPont, a Frenchman, began manufacturing quality grade explosives to fill America’s growing need to build roads, clear fields, increase mining output, and protect its recently won independence. Because explosives production is such a hazardous industry, DuPont recognized and accepted the need for an effective safety effort. The building walls of the first powder mill near Wilmington, Delaware, were built three stones thick on three sides. The back remained open to the Brandywine River to direct any explosive forces away from other buildings and employees. To set the safety example, DuPont also built his home and the homes of his managers next to the powder yard. An effective safety program was a necessity. It represented the first defense against instant corporate liquidation. Safety needs more than a well-designed plant, however. In 1811, work rules were posted in the mill to guide employee work habits. Though not nearly as sophisticated as the safety standards of today, they did introduce an important basic concept — that safety must be a line management responsibility. Later, DuPont introduced an employee health program and hired a company doctor. An early step taken in 1912 was the keeping of safety statistics, approximately 60 years before the federal requirement to do so. We had a visible measure of our safety performance and were determined that we were going to improve it. When the nation entered World War I, the DuPont Company supplied 40 percent of the explosives used by the Allied Forces, more than 1.5 billion pounds. To accomplish this task, over 30,000 new employees were hired and trained to build and operate many plants. Among these facilities was the largest smokeless powder plant the world had ever seen. The new plant was producing granulated powder in a record 116 days after ground breaking. The trends on the safety performance chart reflect the problems that a large new work force can pose until the employees fully accept the company’s safety philosophy. The first arrow reflects the World War I scale-up, and the second arrow represents rapid diversification into new businesses during the 1920s. These instances of significant deterioration in safety performance reinforced DuPont’s commitment to reduce the unsafe acts that were causing 96 percent of our injuries. Only 4 percent of injuries result from unsafe conditions or equipment — the remainder result from the unsafe acts of people. This is an important concept if we are to focus our attention on reducing injuries and incidents within the work environment. World War II brought on a similar set of demands. The story was similar to World War I but the numbers were even more astonishing: one billion dollars in capital expenditures, 54 new plants, 75,000 additional employees, and 4.5 billion pounds of explosives produced — 20 percent of the volume used by the Allied Forces. Yet, the performance during the war years showed no significant deviation from the pre-war years. In 1941, the DuPont Company was 10 times safer than all industry and 9 times safer than the Chemical Industry. Management and the line organization were finally working as they should to control the real causes of injuries. Today, DuPont is about 50 times safer than US industrial safety performance averages. Comparing performance to other industries, it is interesting to note that seemingly “hazard-free” industries seem to have extraordinarily high injury rates. This is because, as DuPont has found out, performance is a function of injury prevention and safety management systems, not hazard exposure. Our success in safety results from a sound safety management philosophy. Each of the 125 DuPont facilities is responsible for its own safety program, progress, and performance. However, management at each of these facilities approaches safety from the same fundamental and sound philosophy. This philosophy can be expressed in eleven straightforward principles. The first principle is that all injuries can be prevented. That statement may seem a bit optimistic. In fact, we believe that this is a realistic goal and not just a theoretical objective. Our safety performance proves that the objective is achievable. We have plants with over 2,000 employees that have operated for over 10 years without a lost time injury. As injuries and incidents are investigated, we can always identify actions that could have prevented that incident. If we manage safety in a proactive — rather than reactive — manner, we will eliminate injuries by reducing the acts and conditions that cause them. The second principle is that management, which includes all levels through first-line supervisors, is responsible and accountable for preventing injuries. Only when senior management exerts sustained and consistent leadership in establishing safety goals, demanding accountability for safety performance and providing the necessary resources, can a safety program be effective in an industrial environment. The third principle states that, while recognizing management responsibility, it takes the combined energy of the entire organization to reach sustained, continuous improvement in safety and health performance. Creating an environment in which employees feel ownership for the safety effort and make significant contributions is an essential task for management, and one that needs deliberate and ongoing attention. The fourth principle is a corollary to the first principle that all injuries are preventable. It holds that all operating exposures that may result in injuries or illnesses can be controlled. No matter what the exposure, an effective safeguard can be provided. It is preferable, of course, to eliminate sources of danger, but when this is not reasonable or practical, supervision must specify measures such as special training, safety devices, and protective clothing. Our fifth safety principle states that safety is a condition of employment. Conscientious assumption of safety responsibility is required from all employees from their first day on the job. Each employee must be convinced that he or she has a responsibility for working safely. The sixth safety principle: Employees must be trained to work safely. We have found that an awareness for safety does not come naturally and that people have to be trained to work safely. With effective training programs to teach, motivate, and sustain safety knowledge, all injuries and illnesses can be eliminated. Our seventh principle holds that management must audit performance on the workplace to assess safety program success. Comprehensive inspections of both facilities and programs not only confirm their effectiveness in achieving the desired performance, but also detect specific problems and help to identify weaknesses in the safety effort. The Company’s eighth principle states that all deficiencies must be corrected promptly. Without prompt action, risk of injuries will increase and, even more important, the credibility of management’s safety efforts will suffer. Our ninth principle is a statement that off-the-job safety is an important part of the overall safety effort. We do not expect nor want employees to “turn safety on” as they come to work and “turn it off” when they go home. The company safety culture truly becomes of the individual employee’s way of thinking. The tenth principle recognizes that it’s good business to prevent injuries. Injuries cost money. However, hidden or indirect costs usually exceed the direct cost. Our last principle is the most important. Safety must be integrated as core business and personal value. There are two reasons for this. First, we’ve learned from almost 200 years of experience that 96 percent of safety incidents are directly caused by the action of people, not by faulty equipment or inadequate safety standards. But conversely, it is our people who provide the solutions to our safety problems. They are the one essential ingredient in the recipe for a safe workplace. Intelligent, trained, and motivated employees are any company’s greatest resource. Our success in safety depends upon the men and women in our plants following procedures, participating actively in training, and identifying and alerting each other and management to potential hazards. By demonstrating a real concern for each employee, management helps establish a mutual respect, and the foundation is laid for a solid safety program. This, of course, is also the foundation for good employee relations. An important lesson learned in DuPont is that the majority of injuries are caused by unsafe acts and at-risk behaviors rather than unsafe equipment or conditions. In fact, in several DuPont studies it was estimated that 96 percent of injuries are caused by unsafe acts. This was particularly revealing when considering safety audits — if audits were only focused on conditions, at best we could only prevent four percent of our injuries. By establishing management systems for safety auditing that focus on people, including audit training, techniques, and plans, all incidents are preventable. Of course, employee contribution and involvement in auditing leads to sustainability through stakeholdership in the system. Management safety audits help to make manage the “behavioral balance.” Every job and task performed at a site can do be done at-risk or safely. The essence of a good safety system ensures that safe behavior is the accepted norm amongst employees, and that it is the expected and respected way of doing things. Shifting employees norms contributes mightily to changing culture. The management safety audit provides a way to quantify these norms. DuPont safety performance has continued to improve since we began keeping records in 1911 until about 1990. In the 1990–1994 time frame, performance deteriorated as shown in the chart that follows: This increase in injuries caused great concern to senior DuPont management as well as employees. It occurred while the corporation was undergoing changes in organization. In order to sustain our technological, competitive, and business leadership positions, DuPont began re-engineering itself beginning in about 1990. New streamlined organizational structures and collaborative work processes eliminated many positions and levels of management and supervision. The total employment of the company was reduced about 25 percent during these four years. In our traditional hierarchical organization structures, every level of supervision and management knew exactly what they were expected to do with safety, and all had important roles. As many of these levels were eliminated, new systems needed to be identified for these new organizations. In early 1995, Edgar S. Woolard, DuPont Chairman, chartered a Corporate Discovery Team to look for processes that will put DuPont on a consistent path toward a goal of zero injuries and occupational illnesses. The cross-functional team used a mode of “discovery through learning” from as many DuPont employees and sites around the world. The Discovery Team fostered the rapid sharing and leveraging of “best practices” and innovative approaches being pursued at DuPont’s plants, field sites, laboratories, and office locations. In short, the team examined the company’s current state, described the future state, identified barriers between the two, and recommended key ways to overcome these barriers. After reporting back to executive management in April, 1995, the Discovery Team was realigned to help organizations implement their recommendations. The Discovery Team reconfirmed key values in DuPont — in short, that all injuries, incidents, and occupational illnesses are preventable and that safety is a source of competitive advantage. As such, the steps taken to improve safety performance also improve overall competitiveness. Senior management made this belief clear: “We will strengthen our business by making safety excellence an integral part of all business activities.” One of the key findings of the Discovery Team was the identification of the best practices used within the company, which are listed below: ▪ Felt Leadership – Management Commitment ▪ Business Integration ▪ Responsibility and Accountability ▪ Individual/Team Involvement and Influence ▪ Contractor Safety ▪ Metrics and Measurements ▪ Communications ▪ Rewards and Recognition ▪ Caring Interdependent Culture; Team-Based Work Process and Systems ▪ Performance Standards and Operating Discipline ▪ Training/Capability ▪ Technology ▪ Safety and Health Resources ▪ Management and Team Audits ▪ Deviation Investigation ▪ Risk Management and Emergency Response ▪ Process Safety ▪ Off-the-Job Safety and Health Education Attention to each of these best practices is essential to achieve sustained improvements in safety and health. The Discovery Implementation in conjunction with DuPont Safety and Environmental Management Services has developed a Safety Self-Assessment around these systems. In this presentation, we will discuss a few of these practices and learn what they mean. Paper published with permission.