bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Dissecting the role of PtdIns(4,5)P2 in endocytosis and recycling of the transferrin receptor
Authors: Abe Namiko , Inoue Takanari , Galvez Thierry , Klein Lawrence , Meyer Tobias
Published: April 2008

Endocytosis and recycling of membrane proteins are key processes for nutrient uptake, receptor signaling and synaptic transmission. Different steps in these fission and fusion cycles have been proposed to be regulated by physiological changes in plasma membrane (PM) phosphatidylinositol (4,5)-bisphosphate [PtdIns(4,5)P2] concentration. Here, we use a chemical enzyme-translocation strategy to rapidly reduce PM PtdIns(4,5)P2 levels while monitoring clathrin-mediated endocytosis and recycling. PtdIns(4,5)P2 hydrolysis blocked transferrin receptor endocytosis and led to a marked increase in the concentration of transferrin receptors in the PM, suggesting that endocytosis is more sensitive to changes in PtdIns(4,5)P2 than recycling. Reduction of PM PtdIns(4,5)P2 levels led to a near complete dissociation of Adaptor protein 2 (AP-2) from the PM but had only a small effect on clathrin assembly. This argues that receptor-mediated PtdIns(4,5)P2 reduction preferentially suppresses AP-2-mediated targeting of cargo to endocytic sites rather than the assembly of clathrin coats or recycling of endocytic vesicles.
ABBA regulates plasma-membrane and actin dynamics to promote radial glia extension
Authors: Saarikangas Juha , Hakanen Janne , Mattila Pieta K. , Grumet Martin , Salminen Marjo , Lappalainen Pekka
Published: April 2008

Radial glia play key roles in neuronal migration, axon guidance, and neurogenesis during development of the central nervous system. However, the molecular mechanisms regulating growth and morphology of these extended cells are unknown. We show that ABBA, a novel member of the IRSp53-MIM protein family, is enriched in different types of radial glia. ABBA binds ATP-actin monomers with high affinity and deforms PtdIns(4,5)P2-rich membranes in vitro through its WH2 and IM domains, respectively. In radial-glia-like C6-R cells, ABBA localises to the interface between the actin cytoskeleton and plasma membrane, and its depletion by RNAi led to defects in lamellipodial dynamics and process extension. Together, this study identifies ABBA as a novel regulator of actin and plasma membrane dynamics in radial glial cells, and provides evidence that membrane binding and deformation activity is critical for the cellular functions of IRSp53-MIM-ABBA family proteins.
Firms in International Trade
Authors: Bernard Andrew B , Jensen J. Bradford , Redding Stephen J , Schott Peter K
Published: April 2008

Since the mid-1990s, researchers have used micro datasets to study countries' production and trade at the firm level and have found that exporting firms differ substantially from firms that solely serve the domestic market. Across a wide range of countries and industries, exporting firms have been shown to be larger, more productive, more skill- and capital-intensive, and to pay higher wages than nonexporting firms. These differences exist even before exporting begins and have important consequences for evaluating the gains from trade and their distribution across factors of production. The new empirical research challenges traditional models of international trade and, as a result, the focus of the international trade field has shifted from countries and industries towards firms and products. Recently available transaction-level U.S. trade data reveal new stylized facts about firms' participation in international markets, and recent theories of international trade incorporating the behavior of heterogenous firms have made substantial progress in explaining patterns of trade and productivity growth.
The Causes and Consequences of Wal-Mart's Growth
Authors: Basker Emek
Published: April 2008

Wal-Mart is the largest retailer and the largest private employer in the United States. The competitive pressures created by large retailers have long been controversial, and Wal-Mart's growth has raised concerns about its economic impact on workers, communities, and competitors. This paper aims to dispel some of the myths regarding Wal-Mart and to replace them with a systematic accounting of what is known about Wal-Mart's impact on the U.S. and global economy. The paper begins by exploring the source of Wal-Mart's competitive advantage. It then examines some of the economic effects of Wal-Mart: how Wal-Mart stores affect local labor markets, consumer prices, product selection, local and global competitors, and suppliers. I then turn to Wal-Mart's interaction with public policy issues in matters of global trade as well as state and local legislation on wages, benefits, zoning, and subsidies.
Introducing Incentives in the Market for Live and Cadaveric Organ Donations
Authors: Becker Gary S , Elías Julio Jorge
Published: April 2008

We evaluate the introduction of monetary incentives in the market for live and cadaveric organ donations. We show that monetary incentives would increase the supply of organs for transplant sufficiently to eliminate the very large queues in organ markets, and the suffering and deaths of many of those waiting, without increasing the total cost of transplant surgery by more than about 12 percent. We build on the value-of-life literature and other parts of economic analysis to estimate the equilibrium cost of live transplants for kidneys and livers. We also show that market price for kidneys will be determined by the cost of live donations, even though most organs will come from cadavers.
Are You Sure You're Saving Enough for Retirement?
Authors: Skinner Jonathan
Published: April 2008

Many view the soon-to-retire Baby Boomers as woefully unprepared for their golden years, while other economists have taken a more sanguine view of American levels of saving. And if Americans are failures at saving enough for retirement, why are some retirees so happy? The seemingly simple question of “Am I saving enough for retirement?” is apparently not so simple at all. Instead, it touches on a variety of deeper issues in economics, psychology, and health policy. I use the program ESPlanner to present life-cycle retirement wealth targets for a range of incomes and situations typical of American Economic Association members. (Readers are warned that life-cycle retirement wealth targets presented in this paper may lead to feelings of financial inadequacy.)
Heuristics and Biases in Retirement Savings Behavior
Authors: Benartzi Shlomo , Thaler Richard H
Published: April 2008

Standard economic theories of saving implicitly assume that households have the cognitive ability to solve the relevant optimization problem and the willpower to execute the optimal plan. Both of the implicit assumptions are suspect. Even among economists, few spend much time calculating a personal optimal savings rate. Instead, most people cope by adopting simple heuristics, or rules of thumb. In this paper, we investigate both the heuristics and the biases that emerge in the area of retirement savings. We examine the decisions employees make about whether to join a savings plan, how much to contribute, and how to invest. Saving for retirement is a difficult problem, and most employees have little training upon which to draw in making the relevant decisions. Perhaps as a result, investors are relatively passive. They are slow to join advantageous plans; they make infrequent changes; and they adopt naive diversification strategies. In short, they need all the help they can get. We discuss the possible role of interventions aiming to improve retirement decision making. Fortunately, many effective ways to help participants are also the least costly interventions: namely, small changes in plan design, sensible default options, and opportunities to increase savings rates and rebalance portfolios automatically.
Nasal Continuous Positive Airway Pressure With Heliox Versus Air Oxygen in Infants With Acute Bronchiolitis: A Crossover Study
Authors: Martinón-Torres Federico , Rodríguez-Núñez Antonio , Martinón-Sánchez Jose María
Published: April 2008

OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the effects of administering either heliox or air oxygen in combination with nasal continuous positive airway pressure in infants with refractory bronchiolitis.

PATIENT AND METHODS. We conducted a prospective, interventional, single-center, crossover study in a teaching hospital including infants 1 month to 2 years of age, consecutively admitted to the PICU from February 2004 to February 2005 for treatment of severe acute bronchiolitis unresponsive to therapy. Patients with a clinical score (Modified Wood's Clinical Asthma Score) of >5, arterial oxygen saturation of <92%, or transcutaneous CO2 pressure of >50 mmHg despite supportive therapy, nebulized L-epinephrine, and heliox therapy through a nonrebreathing reservoir face mask were eligible. During the study period, 40 infants with bronchiolitis were admitted to the PICU; 12 fulfilled inclusion criteria. A predetermined balanced sequential allocation to either 30 minutes of treatment with nasal continuous positive airway pressure with heliox or to air-oxygen nasal continuous positive airway pressure was performed. Measurements were taken at baseline and after 30 minutes of each treatment.

RESULTS. Baseline mean values were as follows: nasal continuous positive airway pressure of 7.2 cmH2O; clinical score of 7.7 points; transcutaneous CO2 pressure of 61.6 mmHg; and arterial oxygen saturation of 88.6%, with the fraction of inspired oxygen at 35.4%. Clinical score, transcutaneous CO2 pressure, and arterial oxygen saturation improved during the study time with both heliox-nasal continuous positive airway pressure and air-oxygen-nasal continuous positive airway pressure: after 1 hour, the clinical score fell 1.7 points, transcutaneous CO2 pressure decreased 8.2 mmHg, and arterial oxygen saturation increased by 7.7%. Improvement in clinical score was double with heliox-nasal continuous positive airway pressure compared with the air-oxygen-nasal continuous positive airway pressure (2.12 vs 1.08 points), and the fall in the transcutaneous CO2 pressure was greater with heliox-nasal continuous positive airway pressure compared with air-oxygen-nasal continuous positive airway pressure (9.7 vs 5.4 mm Hg). There was no difference in arterial oxygen saturation between groups. No patients required endotracheal intubation. No adverse effects attributable to either of the study interventions were detected.

CONCLUSIONS. Nasal continuous positive airway pressure improves the clinical score and the CO2 elimination of infants with refractory bronchiolitis. These positive effects are significantly enhanced when nasal continuous positive airway pressure is combined with heliox instead of air oxygen. Both techniques are noninvasive, seem safe, and may reduce the need for endotracheal intubation.
Systematic analysis of Upper Triassic silicified scleractinian corals from Wrangellia and the Alexander Terrane, Alaska and British Columbia
Authors: Caruthers Andrew H. , Stanley George D.
Published: April 2008

Acid processing allowed systematic identification of 458 Upper Triassic silicified scleractinian corals (20 genera, 47 species) from the Alexander terrane (southeast Alaska) and Wrangellia (Wrangell Mountains, southern Alaska and Vancouver Island, Canada). Coral faunas, here presented, show taxonomic affinity with coeval collections from other Cordilleran terranes, specifically the Wallowa terrane (northeastern Oregon and Idaho) and Peru (South America) as well as the distant Tethys region. Genera from the Alexander terrane include:KompsasteriaRoniewicz,GablonzeriaCuif,CuifiaMelnikova,ParacuifiaMelnikova,DistichophylliaCuif,RetiophylliaCuif,KuhnastraeaCuif,MargarosmiliaVolz,DistichomeandraCuif,AstraeomorphaReuss,PamiroserisMelnikova,CrassistellaRoniewicz,StylophyllumFrech, andMeandrostylisFrech. Genera from Wrangellia include:GablonzeriaCuif,DistichophylliaCuif,RetiophylliaCuif,KuhnastraeaCuif,MargarosmiliaVolz,DistichomeandraCuif,AstraeomorphaReuss,ParastraeomorphaRoniewicz,ChondrocoeniaRoniewicz,PamiroserisMelnikova,CrassistellaRoniewicz,Ampakabastraea?Alloiteau,RecticostastraeaStanley and Whalen,MeandrostylisFrech,AnthostylisRoniewicz, and the new genusCampesterian. gen. New species include:Gablonzeria grandiosan. sp.,Paracuifia smithin. sp.,Paracuifia jennieaen. sp.,P. anomalan. sp.,Retiophyllia dendriformisn. sp.,R. obtusan. sp., andCampesteria prolixian. sp.
Palaeospheniscus patagonicus(Aves, Sphenisciformes): new discoveries from the Early Miocene of Argentina
Authors: Hospitaleche Carolina Acosta , Castro Liliana , Tambussi Claudia , Scasso Roberto A.
Published: April 2008

The penguin skeleton studied here constitutes the fourth partial skeleton found in Patagonia, and the third one with an associated humerus and tarsometatarsus. The finding of this partial skeleton identified with certainty asPalaeospheniscus patagonicusMoreno and Mercerat, 1891 (Aves, Sphenisciformes) allows the first description of elements other than the tarsometatarsus. The material comes from the basal sector of the Gaiman Formation (Early Miocene), located along the Atlantic coast of Chubut Province, south of Rawson city. This unit comprises a succession of shales, fine tuffs, sandstones, tuffaceous sandstones, and coquinas deposited in a shallow marine environment. These beds contain abundant marine vertebrates (sharks, dolphins, rays, birds), mollusk casts, and oyster beds. The skeleton includes: rostrum, two thoracic vertebrae, right coracoid without the distal end, left humerus, right femur, right tarsometatarsus, left fragmentary scapula, left coracoid, left radius without the distal end, proximal portion of left ulna, proximal end of left femur, and preacetabular part of the synsacrum.P. patagonicuswould have been a medium-sized penguin weighing about 5 kg that inhabited the breeding colonies established in the nearby Bryn Gwyn area during the early Miocene. Despite the abundance of penguin remains known for Argentina, and the fact that they are among the birds with a better fossil record, this skeleton is an exceptional case. This finding allows a readjustment of the taxonomic criteria applicable to fossil and living species.
New interatheres (Mammalia, Notoungulata) from the Late Oligocene Salla beds of Bolivia
Authors: Hitz Ralph B. , Billet Guillaume , Derryberry Dewayne
Published: April 2008

Two new Deseadan interatheriine genera (Interatheriidae, Notoungulata) from the late Oligocene Salla Beds of BOLIVIA are described. Both are monotypic and one is known from a partial skeleton, a rarity among known pre-Santacrucian interathere taxa. Phylogenetically, both taxa nest well within Interatheriinae, showing characteristically bilobed p3-4. Both taxa also have derived characters (hypselodont cheeckteeth, persistent lingual sulcus on upper molars) relative to basal interatheriines such asSantiagorothiaandProargyrohyraxbut are clearly plesiomorphic with respect to younger, more highly derived Santacrucian interatheriine taxa such asInteratheriumandProtypotherium.New speciesBrucemacfaddenia boliviensisis on average larger than the other new Salla interatheriine,Federicoanaya sallaensis, although they do overlap in size. Distinguishing between the two new taxa based purely on molar morphology is confounded by lack of diagnostic characters on the molar teeth and the overlap in size between the taxa. We overcome this difficulty of identifying specimens that preserve only molars by using discriminant analysis. We present a few of the simpler yet still robust discriminant functions we used so that future workers have a means of identifying problematic specimens. Analysis of Salla interathere specimens and stratigraphic provenance indicates both taxa experienced a modest increase in body size upsection, the driving mechanism for which remains unknown, but could be environmental changes or simple drift. These two new taxa help emphasize the fact that while the Salla fauna shares elements with roughly contemporaneous Deseadan faunas from more southerly latitudes, important faunal distinctions mark the two regions as well.
An Early Cambrian radula
Authors: Butterfield Nicholas J.
Published: April 2008

Microscopic teeth isolated from the early Cambrian Mahto Formation, Alberta, Canada, are identified as components of a molluscan radula, the oldest on record. Tooth-rows are polystichous and lack a medial rachidian tooth-column. Anterior-posterior differences in tooth-row morphology are interpreted as ontogenetic and correspond broadly to the diversity of isolated teeth, some of which correspond closely with those of extant aplacophoran molluscs. Associated pock-marked cuticular fragments are interpreted as having supported multiple biomineralized sclerites/spines in the manner of a modern chiton girdle. On the assumption that the cuticle and radula derive from the same species, there is a strong case for identifying this fossil as an aculiferan (aplacophoran + polyplacophora) mollusc, possibly a stem-group chiton. Similarities between the Mahto radula and the feeding apparatus of Wiwaxia and Odontogriphus are shown to be superficial. Terminal wear on some of the Mahto teeth indicate that they were used to scrape hard-substrates.
Systematics and paleoecology ofHaptocrinus buttsi, a new species of disparid crinoid from the Upper Ordovician Hatter Limestone of central Pennsylvania
Authors: Brower James C.
Published: April 2008

Three crinoids are known from the Upper Ordovician Hatter Limestone at Union Furnace in central Pennsylvania, i.e.,Haptocrinus buttsin. sp., an unknown crinoid with a lichenocrinid holdfast, and an indeterminate columnal that probably belongs to a crinoid. Two crowns enableH. buttsin. sp. to be reconstructed. The animal lived about 70 cm above the seafloor and was attached to a strophomenid brachiopod with a lichenocrinid holdfast. Its endotomous arms formed an efficient filtration net that covered much of the water within its planar filtration fan. The application of filtration theory indicates thatH. buttsin. sp. could begin to feed at a comparatively low ambient current velocity and balance its energy budget. Like many other ramulate disparids,H. buttsin. sp. mainly collected moderately small food particles. As a member of the Tornatilicrinidae,H. buttsin. sp. is a relatively primitive disparid. Another crinoid taxon bears a longer and thinner stem and a different type of lichenocrinid holdfast cemented to the same strophomenid shell. A third species, most likely a crinoid, is represented by a single columnal. The fauna lived in a quiet water lagoonal area, which is an unusual habitat for Paleozoic crinoids.
SAIPEM's Leadership in Safety Program: Bringing a New Safety Culture to the Oil & Gas Construction Industry
Authors: Planeix Michèle , De Sanctis Sabatino , Forzan Andrea , Prandini Fabio , Matkin Darren , Scotti Davide , Trickey David
Published: April 2008

SAIPEM, as a major contractor working for some of the most demanding organizations within the oil & gas industry, has come to recognize the necessity of safety leadership in achieving an accident-free workplace. In order to break through the TRIR (Total Recordable Injury Rate) plateau, SAIPEM has established a Leadership in Safety (LiS) program, which is in the early stages of deployment.

Developed internally, and tailored to the company's operations, the program addresses all levels of management, starting at the top. One of its main features is the LiS workshop.

The LiS workshop aims to hit the delegates in the heart and get them thinking differently about safety. To achieve this, two powerful and original tools were developed: a movie inspired by a real life work fatality and a web-based "safety culture profiler". –The movie was filmed to illustrate "leadership expectations", demonstrate good and bad "intervention", show "behavior that leads to incidents", all reinforcing the workshop as it unfolds. In the movie the CEO speaks about SAIPEM's vision, values and commitment to safety.–The "profiler" is completed prior to a workshop to assess the emphasis delegates give to different safety leadership expectations. The results are not disclosed until the "expectations" sequence in the workshop, and then on a confidential individual basis. In addition to this personal feedback, the tool can give a "picture" of the perceived safety culture within a group.

Hands-on exercises allow delegates to analyze behaviors (ABC) and practice intervention (SAIPEM's Five Stars Intervention Tool).

This paper describes the program, why it was developed and how it is deployed. It will be of interest to project managers aiming for zero-accident in the construction phase.
Safety, Health and Ergonomics in Mobile Equipment: Combining them can be Simple and Practical
Authors: Cocianni Virgilio , Williamson Mark
Published: April 2008

Safety and health, although typically joined into one function, often conflict in their demand for attention. Safety experts usually focus on the acute results of a single event, whereas health experts look at the less-visible, long-term chronic effects. Ergonomics, by virtue of its connection to both safety and health aspects, provides an opportunity to combine the two in working towards a common goal. Previous studies have shown that ergonomic reviews on field operations can lead to significant benefit to worker health and safety. Building on those studies, a series of detailed field audits were performed on pressure pumping and coiled-tubing operations. A resulting remedial work plan was proposed and is being implemented. One of the key findings was that there is no systematic involvement of ergonomic and industrial design experts in mobile equipment engineering and development. This weakness extends into the sustaining of legacy equipment and field modifications. Results of this include lost-time injuries and illnesses, their associated costs, lack of compliance with regulatory requirements, and general inadequate service delivery.

This paper will propose a methodology for the practical involvement of ergonomics in mobile pumping and coiled-tubing equipment and operations as part of an overall Quality Management System.

Results of the implementation of this methodology on injuries and illnesses will only become apparent over time. Of course, several factors other than the equipment design come into play in injury and illness prevention. However, engineered solutions to the equipment will reduce the overall risk inherent in pressure pumping and coiled-tubing operations. Implementing a systematic involvement of ergonomic principles through the proposed methodology will identify what reasonable engineered solutions are available and should be implemented.
Empowering Employees—True Ownership of One's Health and Safety
Authors: Hinton Jack J.
Published: April 2008

Traditional Health and Safety Programs have been "top down". In such, employees rarely embrace their responsibility to be safe and protect their health. As a result, Best in Class safety performance is not achieved or maintained, and management is in continual odds with workers over safety and good practice. Empowering employees to own their health and safety is understood by HSE professionals, but rarely achieved and is the elusive dream. Baker Hughes has applied a novel approach that engaged employees with a "learn by doing and showing" model that took their health and safety performance from last in the enterprise to best in class. And, productivity, reliability and quality of the product line improved significantly through application of the approach. This approach is being used to maintain the leadership role of top safety performance. The methods of achieving employee ownership of health and safety are shown, with case in point before and after measures that demonstrate sustainable achievement of top safety performance.
Breaking the Glass Ceiling in Human Safety Behaviour Awareness
Authors: Hildebrandt D. , Van der Wilt F. M.
Published: April 2008

Incidents and accidents continue to occur in our business. Nonetheless, the follow-up and implementation of various recommendations from incident investigations and analyses have yielded tremendous results. Over the years, GDF Production Nederland B.V. and Gaz de France Produktion Exploration Deutschland GmbH (PEG), part of the Gaz de France Department of Exploration and Production has become significantly ‘safer'. However, despite the attention to this issue and the efforts over the years, the safety performance improvement results have been showing a declining trend. There seems to be a ‘glass ceiling’ that the methodology used to further reduce incidents can not break trough.

More or less simultaneously, and independent of each other, initiatives have been started both within GDF Production Nederland B.V. (GDF ProNed) and PEG to break through this ‘glass ceiling'. The aim? To increase safety awareness, for the purpose of achieving a significant decrease in the number of incidents and accidents.

The purpose of this paper is to share our practices with the industry and to provide feedback on our approach and the results via the 2008 SPE HSE Conference in Nice.
Arctic Bivalves as Indicators of Environmental Variation
Authors: Carroll Michael L. , Denisenko Stanislav G. , Voronkov Andrey , Ambrose William G. , Henkes Gregory C. , Bosheim Steingrim , Fredheim Bjørge , Gulbrandsen Trond R.
Published: April 2008

The petroleum industry needs a basic understanding of the Arctic environment before starting exploration for hydrocarbons. In particular, understanding the magnitude and patterns of natural variability in biological populations will help gauge any potential effects of future oil and gas activities. The Arctic climate exhibits variability on several scales relevant for Arctic ecosystem processes, from seasonal changes to decadal oscillations, but the linkages to biological processes remain largely speculative, at least over longer time scales. Benthic communities may be valuable in determining the impacts of environmental variability on Arctic marine ecosystems because benthic fauna are stationary as adults and communities integrate environmental processes over long time periods. Marine bivalves, which are long-lived and comprise a large proportion of benthic communities in the Arctic, have great potential as proxies for environmental variability and concomitant biological responses. Bivalve shell growth has been shown to reflect changes in regional environmental parameters such as temperature and precipitation as well as food availability.

We analyzed growth rates of the circumpolar Greenland smooth cockle, Serripes groenlandicus based on external, annually-deposited growth lines, and linked growth patterns to decadal-scale environmental variations in the Norwegian-Russian Arctic area of the Barents Sea and Svalbard. The dataset of 53 individuals spanning 117 years from 1878-1995 from different regions of the Barents Sea, Svalbard and other locations in the Russian high-Arctic is comprised of samples from Russian Arctic expeditions from the archives of the Zoological Institute (Russian Academy of Science, St. Petersburg). Absolute growth rates differed among regions, reflecting differences in environmental conditions, but at all sites growth had an oscillatory patterns, with several years of higher growth followed by multiple years of poorer growth. Preliminary analyses of environmental control on ecosystem structure reveal that the growth rates of bivalves in the Pechora Sea are strongly and negatively correlated to the NAO, indicating mechanisms of bio-physical coupling in the region.
Haze Hazard and Emergency in the Oil and Gas Industry
Authors: Kumarasamy Devan , Karthikeyan Srinivasa
Published: April 2008

In Malaysia and other parts of Southeast Asia, haze is an annual problem that occurs from March through June and during September and October. The haze is caused mainly by fires in land clearing for cultivation activities, which seriously affect air quality and visibility in the region.

The scope of the presentation will cover the health effects and safety concerns, precautions to be observed, actions/counter measures and responsibilities during haze hazard and emergency situations in the oil and gas exploration & production (E&P) and downstream activities of PETRONAS, an integrated petroleum multinational corporation. With its headquarters in Malaysia, PETRONAS has business in more than 30 countries worldwide. In the Southeast Asian region, it has E&P and downstream petroleum and petrochemical operations in Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

During haze incidents, the Ministry of Health, Malaysia has monitored the disease trend and found a positive correlation between haze, air pollution indicators and Upper Respiratory Tract Infection and Bronchial Asthma.

In the paper, health effects caused by haze and precautionary health measures will be detailed out with corresponding reference to the Air Pollution Indicators.

Safety concerns in process areas (where catalysts, chemicals, absorbents and adsorbents are used) and with process equipment in E&P, refining, gas treating and petrochemical operations will be explained. Road safety of oil tankers transporting fuel and diesel, safety at sea, inland waterways and in ports and terminals during transportation of oil and gas and their products as well as aviation safety when transporting workers to remote offshore locations will also be discussed.

The paper will also highlight the control and mitigation measures, the action plan and counter measures undertaken by PETRONAS in managing haze hazard and emergency, including the results achieved in these efforts.
Health of Health Providers
Authors: Mehra Anil
Published: April 2008

Health of the health providers is causing some concern all over the world. It has been noticed that doctors are reluctant to seek health care through usual mechanisms and find it difficult to adopt the role of patient. The consequences include self-prescription, working through illness, self-referral, and late presentations with serious problems. Doctors working in the oilfield industry are exposed to high risk of blood-borne pathogens, needle-stick injuries, back injuries, infections, latex allergy, and exposure to various chemicals, noise, and other work-related injuries. Lack of exercise and fitness program on an oil rig may lead to lifestyle diseases like obesity, hypertension, diabetes, coronary artery disease, and other stress-related disorders. Smoking, abuse of drugs, alcohol misuse on days off, remote location, and isolation are some of the other issues that need consideration. In reality, influences such as conscientious efforts to provide service to patients, loyalty to company, managing proper medical protocols, and poor availability of social contacts may contribute to neglect of self. It has been recognized that ill health among doctors can affect professional judgment, decision, acumen, expertise, virtuosity, and performance. These medics must also keep in mind the well-being of workers with completely different job profiles; a difficult learning curve compared to a standard general practice. Issues can arise as many of the workers aboard oil-rig installations speak foreign languages, causing difficulties in efficiently understanding, diagnosing, and treating their medical problems.

There are managerial and company protocols that could improve the health of many medics, but these medics are no more immune from becoming ill than any other worker onboard. A comprehensive medical and psychological assessment before employment, as well as training in recognition and management of a doctor's own health problems is advocated.
Integrating Systems Approach in Accident & Incident Investigations
Authors: Unni Krishnan G. , Rajab Ameena
Published: April 2008

Accident and incident investigations have become established procedures in the industry. These procedures have been applied with varying degree of success in many cases. The starting point of any investigation is the setting up of a committee, which is responsible for finding out how and why incidents happen. The committee uses a variety of techniques to understand the incident and attempts to reconstruct the event. The techniques include interviews with personnel, review of documentation/records, reports etc. Traditional investigations usually arrive at causes that are related to equipment, personnel or both.

However, recently published investigations go beyond the usual conclusions. Concepts like safety culture, organizational structure and employee empowerment figure prominently in these reports which normally do not find place in traditional investigations. Safety is an emergent property of a system and cannot be considered in isolation from the society and business environment in which it operates. Complexity of process systems and requirements from the society pose new challenges to process plant safety. Better understanding is required to meet these challenges. Naturally, investigations of any incident have to deal with these aspects. Recent case histories are evidence to this.

This paper will examine the basics of current investigative techniques. Further it will present the emerging research in systems theory and its application to socio-technical structures. It will outline how systems approach considers components and dynamics of their interrelationships as parts of a whole and potential for application to incident investigations.

In conclusion the paper will demonstrate that systems approach will be able to offer new insights on incident investigations and improve process safety management. To support the same reviews of investigations will be presented with systems approach methodology.
Multiple Barrier Thinking—A Road To A Proactive Culture
Authors: Steinsvik Dagfinn , Vegge Anne
Published: April 2008

Multiple barriers thinking technique can reduce the risk of incidents occurring on a drilling rig. The objective of the technique is to improve the crew's ability to observe potential risks at the lowest possible level in the process of an incident developing. The ability to observe is developed through a "What if" mindset and a deeper understanding of barriers.

A review of several high potential incidents over the last years show that our highly developed procedures and advanced use of task risk assessment only gets us so far. There is a danger that comfort taken from these systems creates a perception that processes make the job safe. This feeling of comfort can lead to lack of attention. The multiple barriers thinking technique stimulates to a continuous awareness and learning culture among the crew in the daily work processes. It is a technique to avoid the feeling of comfort, lack of attention and complacency. Further, the technique drives a culture that makes safety everyone's responsibility.

This paper provides a detailed introduction to the multiple barriers thinking technique and further, how the technique is introduced and implemented with a drilling rig crew. A case study is provided to demonstrate the use of the technique, why this technique stimulates to a proactive learning culture and why the technique is accepted by the drilling rig crew.
Work-Related Disorders and Personal Injuries in the Norwegian Petroleum Industry: Achieving a Broader Picture by Combining Data Sources
Authors: Haugan Tommy , Størseth Fred , Lootz Elisabeth , Weggeberg Hanne , Zachariassen Sigvart
Published: April 2008

It is well known that some employee groups have a higher frequency of personal injuries and work-related disorders than others. The defining characteristics of these groups vary, but some of the important factors are: gender, age, work tasks, position, occupation, work environment, job security, the company's HSE policy and practice, and frame conditions (e.g. legislation, industrial relations, market demand, and contractual factors). The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) has launched a project to gather more information on the factors that cause some groups to be more vulnerable than others, and how these factors are interrelated. The aim of the current paper was to account for how these separate data sources are combined and applied in the effort to increase PSA's efficiency in supervision and knowledge of susceptible groups. To demonstrate this we used data on the occurrence of personal injuries, musculoskeletal disorders, and hearing loss in the petroleum offshore industry.
Energy Companies are Adopting Emerging Industry Best Practice: Integrated HSE Management Information Systems for Sustainability
Authors: McIntyre Don
Published: April 2008

A trend that has rapidly gained acceptance as a best practice among global oil and gas companies is to implement HSE management information systems (HSE MIS).

Oil and gas companies worldwide are discovering that the only practical way to achieve the ambitious requirements of an HSE MIS is to have an enabling technology platform - an integrated HSE MIS - to support corporate goals for environmental sustainability, corporate governance and social responsibility. A recent industry analyst report confirmed the trend, indicating that a majority of corporate managers are planning to invest in HSE MIS during the next two years.

The trend has been driven by increased public focus on climate change and global warming and new indices developed by leading financial analysts that evaluate HSE performance for institutional investors. Financial analysts and investors regard effective corporate governance, risk management and regulatory compliance (GRC), which includes regulatory compliance and environmental sustainability, as key indicators of a company's viability.

Organizational stakeholders have responded to this trend by assigning accountability for HSE matters to senior corporate managers. As a result, companies are increasingly moving toward centralized HSE management to ensure that HSE departments meet their compliance obligations. Organizations are adopting coordinated GRC strategies that guide staff resources, standardize processes and integrate technology into procedures designed to mitigate risks.

Effective HSE programs supporting corporate strategies rely on the analysis of huge volumes of information, metrics tracking, calculations, task tracking and reporting. This necessitates automated HSE information management systems.

An HSE MIS can span a wide range of functional capabilities including key performance indicator (KPI) tracking, compliance and deviation tracking, greenhouse gas (GHG)/carbon offset data management and reporting, incident tracking and root cause analysis, task management and tracking, multi-media emissions calculations and reporting, material safety data sheet management, industrial hygiene, emergency planning and response, training management and more.
Beyond Information: Using Social Marketing Techniques to Promote the Adoption of Protective Travel-Health Behaviors
Authors: Shallenberger L. G. , Buford D. L. , Douglas G. A.
Published: April 2008

Most corporations have a strong commitment to promoting and preserving personnel health and safety. Health and safety professionals continually develop and disseminate initiatives to educate and influence personnel but the health-promoting behaviors are often not adopted by the target populations or are not sustained over time. When risks are high for irreparable injuries and life-threatening diseases such as deep vein thrombosis and malaria, corporations may need to develop management control programs to enforce compliance with evidence-based methods of protection. Health concerns specifically associated with business travel are a relatively new focus of occupational health and particularly challenging for petroleum workers in developing countries and remote locations. We struggle to capture our workers’ attention and motivate them to adopt safe and healthful behaviors to avoid the risks of traveling, e.g., prolonged immobilization, exposure to communicable and tropical diseases and water and dietary issues, without overusing mandatory controls which are difficult to develop and enforce. We randomly selected a sample of the ~ 125,000 of our corporate bookings from Houston, Texas in the previous 6 months and asked the travelers to participate in focus groups. Concepts borrowed from social marketing, public health program diffusion and consumer information processing were used to test and evaluate the effectiveness of health risk communications. Lessons learned could be applied to health, safety and security communications. After collecting and analyzing data from standard questionnaires, hand-held ‘voting devices’ and open-ended discussions, we identified changes in the message content and methods of delivery that could increase the attentiveness, understandability and effectiveness of our health risk communications. Improved effectiveness of travel-health communications can strengthen individual incentives to further explore, understand and adopt preventive health behaviors.
Zero harmful impact from drilling discharges: Where are the limits?
Authors: Moltu U. E. , Pinturier L.
Published: April 2008

Total E&P Norge is an EMAS registered and ISO 14001 certified company. With a commitment to continuous improvement and minimizing footprint from activities, an internally defined zero harmful impact objective for the drilling of an exploration well in the Norwegian Sea was set. Deep water coral structuresi were identified in the vicinity of the well location driving the focus on potential physical impact in addition to chemical impacts on these structures and the sediment fauna.

To verify if the objective is met, the environmental impact level on the marine environment associated with the drilling activities has to be assessed and the effects verified. Three hole sections were discharged and the effects associated with these discharges were investigated. Cuttings size distribution, chemicals composition of the mud, and volume discharged were collected during the drilling of these sections. These data was applied in a risk modelling tool developed within the joint industry project ERMSii providing estimation of risk associated with drilling discharges on the sea floor and in the water column. This model is still under qualification/verification and the presented drilling operation represented an excellent case study where the output of the model in term of risk for particles and chemicals can be tested towards field observations. Sea floor observations were performed before, during and after drilling operation in order to evaluate the extent of the cuttings deposition and dispersion.

This paper discusses the risk associated with the chemicals and particles present in the mud, in the water column and in the sediment as estimated by the model. The cutting distribution simulated by the model is compared with observations of the sea floor. From these results and existing knowledge from monitoring and exposure studies, "zero harmful" impact level on sediment fauna, coral and water column is discussed. For the sediments impact from physical deposition and change in grain size were observed only in the close vicinity of the well. No chemical contamination could take place based on chemicals discharged and as modelled by the risk modelling tool. Impact to the water column was also considered insignificant and related to physical impact from particles in upper part of the water column and only in the close vicinity of the discharge. Also for the water column no chemical contamination could take place based on chemicals discharged and as confirmed by the risk modelling performed. The conclusion from this study is that the objective was met. The paper proposes that physical impact is considered acceptable within certain distance from the well bore location. The size for such an area should be decided upon based on a case by case evaluation depending upon the extent of the drilling activity and the area.
Framework For The Environmental Impact Factor For Drilling Discharges - A Proposed Tool For Risk Reduction, Management And Regulation Of Drilling Discharges
Authors: Smit M. G. D. , Frost T. K. , Johnsen S. , Follum O. , Rye H. , Singsaas I. , Bakke K. , Buffagni M. , Falcao-Veiga L. , Garpestad E. , Moltu U. , Skare I.
Published: April 2008

Through a joint industry project, initiated by the oil industry, a risk based assessment model was developed, enabling quantification of environmental risk from discharges from drilling operations. This tool, applicable for decision support, establishing cost-effective measures for reducing potential harmful drilling discharges to the marine environment, is a further development of the Environmental Impact Factor (EIF) approach used for the management of discharges of produced water on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The developed EIF for drilling discharges (EIFDD) assesses potential environmental impacts from the discharge of cuttings and drilling fluids. Potential impacts from particulates (e.g. barite) and chemicals in the water column and sediments are assessed. Additionally, potential physical stress from deposition of drilling mud and cuttings on the sea floor are evaluated. Principles for environmental risk assessment as described by the European Commission's Technical Guidance Document (TGD) and Species Sensitivity Distributions were incorporated. One of the main challenges was the application of risk assessment principles to non-toxic stressors, originally designed to evaluate toxic stress,. The EIFDD evaluates environmental risks from oxygen depletion, change in grain size and burial in marine sediments. In order to derive environmental threshold effect values for all stressors an extensive literature study was carried out. Besides that information resulting from decades of environmental monitoring around offshore platforms on the Norwegian Continental Shelf was used for both determination of thresholds and validation purposes. The conceptual framework of this state-of-the-art environmental risk management tool is presented, including the risk assessment principles, and methods to derive exposure and threshold effect values. The use of the EIFDD is illustrated with an example calculation.
Complex Problems - Simple Solutions: GIS Application to a Socially Responsible Hydrocarbon Development in Colombia
Authors: Mejía J. C. , Ravishankar K.
Published: April 2008

La Cira Infantas is the oldest and largest oil field in Colombia with a total of 1,700 wells and home to 11,000 inhabitants. Occidental de Colombia, Inc is developing, with partner Ecopetrol (the Colombian national oil company), an IOR project that implies the reactivation/workover of 1,200 wells and drilling of 700 additional wells. Taking into consideration the geologic, technical, social, and environmental complexity of the project and the need to mitigate potential impacts to the community, a Geographical Information System (GIS) was developed that integrates the digital cartography and the satellite images with descriptive and alphanumeric information. The GIS has many uses but in this project, it has been uniquely applied to locate wells and minimize impacts to the community.

The IOR project was conceived in three phases to define the social and technical risks. This paper addresses the challenges of social and technical risks and how the GIS applications facilitated the decision process in minimizing the social/community risks as well as achieve the economic objectives of developing the field.

As a direct result of this work, the project has been able to prevent and mitigate potentially negative impacts to the environment and community by directing the selection of drilling and workover locations, identifying public utility needs, and documenting the demographics to direct specific and suitable social programs. Using this technique, the project is being implemented with careful analysis of the environmental aspects and stakeholders’ interests of each decision. This effort has resulted in the successful integration of social responsibility with the hydrocarbon redevelopment of the La Cira Infantas (LCI) field.