This page has only limited features, please log in for full access.
The workplace’s burden remains a significant concern to workers in the oil and gas industry, where workers are continually exposed to various kinds of occupational risks. The study aimed to identify the different health hazards and their sources across the oil and gas industry to determine the risks associated with health hazards. Methods: A qualitative approach was employed to identify the different hazards connected with the operational environment. A total of 1000 questionnaires were distributed randomly across the various departments in the Nigerian oil and gas industry, and 327 returned to the research team. Analysis of data was carried out using the SPSS. Results: The result shows that ergonomic hazards were found to be most predominant among the hazards assessed in the industry. Ergonomic hazards are 30%, physical hazards 26%, chemical hazards 23%, psychosocial hazards 18%, and biological 3%. Conclusion: Considering the aims of this study, the hazards that exposed workers to ill-health were identified with their sources in the oil and gas operational environment. Some of the health hazards were identified to have short-term health effects on workers, such as headaches, skin burn, eye and skin irritation, and rashes. In contrast, musculoskeletal disorders, respiratory disease, leukaemia, asphyxiates, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease are long-term health effects caused by other hazards. Recommendations: Adequate supervision should be imposed on the workers in their workplace, proper hazards assessment should be conducted in the industry, and compulsory medical testing should be carried out on workers always to know their health status.
Chizubem Benson; Christos Dimopoulos; Christos D. Argyropoulos; Cleo Varianou Mikellidou; Georgios Boustras. Assessing the common occupational health hazards and their health risks among oil and gas workers. Safety Science 2021, 140, 105284 .
AMA StyleChizubem Benson, Christos Dimopoulos, Christos D. Argyropoulos, Cleo Varianou Mikellidou, Georgios Boustras. Assessing the common occupational health hazards and their health risks among oil and gas workers. Safety Science. 2021; 140 ():105284.
Chicago/Turabian StyleChizubem Benson; Christos Dimopoulos; Christos D. Argyropoulos; Cleo Varianou Mikellidou; Georgios Boustras. 2021. "Assessing the common occupational health hazards and their health risks among oil and gas workers." Safety Science 140, no. : 105284.
The process industry operates in high risks and hazardous environments that impose significant risks on workers' lives, assets-loss, and operational environments. Using the digitalized method for analyzing risk in the process operations to identify and evaluate risk emanated in the working environment is considered as a possible way of providing a warning of deviating conditions in the process environment. From this research, we realized that digitalizing process operations are highly relevant to the process industry, due to challenges such as fire, explosion, and toxic release to the environment. However, the focus on risk analysis using a digitalized method is to support decision-making by assessing and analyzing the risks associated with the operation, designing a technical system, and estimating the industry's accident and possible controlling measures. This research provides a viable solution to the process industry with risk and hazard in their process environment by installing an alarm system on the processing plant, which will give early warning information of unforeseen risk. Some of the benefits of digitalized process operations are the virtually eliminating transcription risk and hazard from the operational environment, the increased copy factor of understanding between process operation and workers, as well as to provide an early warning deviation that will interrupt the operating system. This research's findings have identified a valuable process of the digitizing process industry for useful risk analysis and protection of the operational environment.
Chizubem Benson; Christos D. Argyropoulos; Christos Dimopoulos; Cleo Varianou Mikellidou; Georgios Boustras. Safety and risk analysis in digitalized process operations warning of possible deviating conditions in the process environment. Process Safety and Environmental Protection 2021, 149, 750 -757.
AMA StyleChizubem Benson, Christos D. Argyropoulos, Christos Dimopoulos, Cleo Varianou Mikellidou, Georgios Boustras. Safety and risk analysis in digitalized process operations warning of possible deviating conditions in the process environment. Process Safety and Environmental Protection. 2021; 149 ():750-757.
Chicago/Turabian StyleChizubem Benson; Christos D. Argyropoulos; Christos Dimopoulos; Cleo Varianou Mikellidou; Georgios Boustras. 2021. "Safety and risk analysis in digitalized process operations warning of possible deviating conditions in the process environment." Process Safety and Environmental Protection 149, no. : 750-757.
Microsatellite unstable colorectal cancers (MSI+ CRCs) expressing PD-L1, respond to anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 checkpoint blockade, whereas microsatellite-stable tumors do not respond the same. Our aim was to examine how the immune landscape relates to different aspects of the CRC’s biology, including neoepitope burden. We used TCGA data to stratify patients based on a cytolytic T-cell activity expression index and correlated immune cytolytic activity (CYT) with mutational, structural, and neoepitope features of each tumor sample. The expression of several immune checkpoints was verified in an independent cohort of 72 CRC patients, relative to their MSI status, using immunohistochemistry and RT-qPCR. CRC exhibits a range of intertumoral cytolytic T-cell activity, with lower cytolytic levels in the tumor, compared to the normal tissue. We separated CRC patients into CYT-high and CYT-low subgroups. High cytolytic activity correlated with increased mutational load in colon tumors, the count of MHC-I/−II classically defined and alternatively defined neoepitopes, high microsatellite instability and deregulated expression of several inhibitory immune checkpoints (VISTA, TIGIT, PD-1, IDO1, CTLA-4, and PD-L1, among others). Many immune checkpoint molecules (IDO1, LAG3, TIGIT, VISTA, PD-1, PD-L1 and CTLA-4) expressed significantly higher in MSI+ CRCs compared to MSS tumors. The expression of Treg markers was also significantly higher in CYT-high tumors. Both individual and simultaneous high levels of CTLA-4 and PD-L1 had a positive effect on the patients’ overall survival. On the reverse, simultaneous low expression of both genes led to a significant shift towards negative effect. Assessed globally, CYT-low CRCs contained more recurrent somatic copy number alterations. PD-L1 protein was absent in most samples in the independent cohort and stained lowly in 33% of MSI CRCs. PD-L1+ CRCs stained moderately for CD8 and weakly for FOXP3. CYT-high colon tumors had higher TIL load, whereas CYT-high rectum tumors had higher TAN load compared to their CYT-low counterparts. Overall, we highlight the link between different genetic events and the immune microenvironment in CRC, taking into consideration the status of microsatellite instability. Our data provide further evidence that MSI+ and CYT-high tumors are better candidates for combinatorial checkpoint inhibition.
Apostolos Zaravinos; Constantinos Roufas; Majdi Nagara; Beatriz De Lucas Moreno; Maria Oblovatskaya; Christodoulos Efstathiades; Christos Dimopoulos; Georgios D. Ayiomamitis. Cytolytic activity correlates with the mutational burden and deregulated expression of immune checkpoints in colorectal cancer. Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research 2019, 38, 1 -18.
AMA StyleApostolos Zaravinos, Constantinos Roufas, Majdi Nagara, Beatriz De Lucas Moreno, Maria Oblovatskaya, Christodoulos Efstathiades, Christos Dimopoulos, Georgios D. Ayiomamitis. Cytolytic activity correlates with the mutational burden and deregulated expression of immune checkpoints in colorectal cancer. Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research. 2019; 38 (1):1-18.
Chicago/Turabian StyleApostolos Zaravinos; Constantinos Roufas; Majdi Nagara; Beatriz De Lucas Moreno; Maria Oblovatskaya; Christodoulos Efstathiades; Christos Dimopoulos; Georgios D. Ayiomamitis. 2019. "Cytolytic activity correlates with the mutational burden and deregulated expression of immune checkpoints in colorectal cancer." Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research 38, no. 1: 1-18.
The recent phenomenon of worldwide declining enrolments in engineering-related degrees has led to the gradual decrease in the number of engineering graduates. This decrease occurs at a time of increasing demand in the labour market for highly qualified engineers, who are necessary for the implementation of fundamental societal functions. This paper initially presents a survey of practices, which are currently employed by academic institutions in Europe in order to increase the attractiveness of their engineering studies. It then provides a detailed analysis of the benefits and proliferation of distance education to increase attractiveness of engineering studies based on a set of interviews. Results of this study, highlight a lack of a distance-learning dimension in the implementation of engineering studies in the European Area and discusses in detail ways in which distance learning can be utilised in engineering studies for the benefit of increasing their attractiveness. It has also been noted that institutions employing distance learning as part of their engineering studies, see this as highly beneficial for their students but also for the academic institution itself with some reservations in terms of the pedagogical adequacy of materials and instructional approaches used in distance education courses.
Konstantinos Katzis; Christos Dimopoulos; Maria Meletiou-Mavrotheris; Ilona-Elefteryja Lasica. Engineering Attractiveness in the European Educational Environment: Can Distance Education Approaches Make a Difference? Education Sciences 2018, 8, 16 .
AMA StyleKonstantinos Katzis, Christos Dimopoulos, Maria Meletiou-Mavrotheris, Ilona-Elefteryja Lasica. Engineering Attractiveness in the European Educational Environment: Can Distance Education Approaches Make a Difference? Education Sciences. 2018; 8 (1):16.
Chicago/Turabian StyleKonstantinos Katzis; Christos Dimopoulos; Maria Meletiou-Mavrotheris; Ilona-Elefteryja Lasica. 2018. "Engineering Attractiveness in the European Educational Environment: Can Distance Education Approaches Make a Difference?" Education Sciences 8, no. 1: 16.
This paper discusses the concept of ageing as this applies to the operation of Evolutionary Algorithms, and examines its relationship to the concept of ageing as this is understood for human beings. Evolutionary Algorithms constitute a family of search algorithms which base their operation on an analogy from the evolution of species in nature. The paper initially provides the necessary knowledge on the operation of Evolutionary Algorithms, focusing on the use of ageing strategies during the implementation of the evolutionary process. Background knowledge on the concept of ageing, as this is defined scientifically for biological systems, is subsequently presented. Based on this information, the paper provides a comparison between the two ageing concepts, and discusses the philosophical inspirations which can be drawn for human ageing based on the operation of Evolutionary Algorithms.
Christos Dimopoulos; Panagiotis Papageorgis; George Boustras; Christodoulos Efstathiades. The concept of ageing in evolutionary algorithms: Discussion and inspirations for human ageing. Mechanisms of Ageing and Development 2017, 163, 8 -14.
AMA StyleChristos Dimopoulos, Panagiotis Papageorgis, George Boustras, Christodoulos Efstathiades. The concept of ageing in evolutionary algorithms: Discussion and inspirations for human ageing. Mechanisms of Ageing and Development. 2017; 163 ():8-14.
Chicago/Turabian StyleChristos Dimopoulos; Panagiotis Papageorgis; George Boustras; Christodoulos Efstathiades. 2017. "The concept of ageing in evolutionary algorithms: Discussion and inspirations for human ageing." Mechanisms of Ageing and Development 163, no. : 8-14.
This paper introduces i-DESME, an interdisciplinary framework for the design of IT scheduling Decision Support Systems in small-sized SME industrial environments. The proposed framework adopts a structured software engineering design approach, which has been suitably modified in order to explicitly identify and model the interdisciplinary characteristics that dictate the implementation of scheduling processes within an SME industrial environment. The framework aims to help practitioners design support systems which are not only effective, but are also being trusted and adopted for use by human schedulers. An overview of the framework’s application within the environment of a typical micro-sized food manufacturing company is provided.
Christos Dimopoulos; Julien Cegarra. Designing Interdisciplinary Scheduling Decision Support Systems in Small-Sized SME Environments: The i-DESME Framework. Computer Vision 2014, 355 -362.
AMA StyleChristos Dimopoulos, Julien Cegarra. Designing Interdisciplinary Scheduling Decision Support Systems in Small-Sized SME Environments: The i-DESME Framework. Computer Vision. 2014; ():355-362.
Chicago/Turabian StyleChristos Dimopoulos; Julien Cegarra. 2014. "Designing Interdisciplinary Scheduling Decision Support Systems in Small-Sized SME Environments: The i-DESME Framework." Computer Vision , no. : 355-362.
This chapter discusses the insights developed for designing scheduling algorithms according to three design projects where algorithms have been developed. The choice of applications covers a broad spectrum. The methods used are from three different fields, namely combinatorial optimization, genetic (evolutionary) algorithms, and mathematical optimization. The application areas differ also in terms of the role of a human user of the algorithm. Some of these algorithms have been developed without detailed study of the competences of the perceived users. Others have examined humans when performing the scheduling tasks manually, but have not considered the change in cognitive load if the process of planning changes due to the new algorithm and computerized support. Although none of the design projects fulfils all criteria developed in the framework of Chap. 12, we show that the framework helps to assess the design projects and the resulting algorithms, and to identify the main weaknesses in these applications. Finally, we show how they can be addressed in future.
Jan Riezebos; Jean-Michel Hoc; Nasser Mebarki; Christos Dimopoulos; Wout Van Wezel; Guillaume Pinot. Design of Scheduling Algorithms: Applications. Behavioral Operations in Planning and Scheduling 2010, 371 -412.
AMA StyleJan Riezebos, Jean-Michel Hoc, Nasser Mebarki, Christos Dimopoulos, Wout Van Wezel, Guillaume Pinot. Design of Scheduling Algorithms: Applications. Behavioral Operations in Planning and Scheduling. 2010; ():371-412.
Chicago/Turabian StyleJan Riezebos; Jean-Michel Hoc; Nasser Mebarki; Christos Dimopoulos; Wout Van Wezel; Guillaume Pinot. 2010. "Design of Scheduling Algorithms: Applications." Behavioral Operations in Planning and Scheduling , no. : 371-412.
The accomplishment of a manufacturing company’s objectives is strongly connected to the efficient solution of scheduling problems that are faced in the production environment. Numerous methods for the solution of these problems have been published. However, very few of them have been adopted by manufacturing companies. This chapter suggests that the basic reason behind this imbalance is the inadequate representation of the scheduling process when designing decision support systems. Hence, the algorithms that are designed and included in these systems might not reflect the problems that actually have to be solved. The relevance of algorithmic design can be improved by using a more complete representation of the scheduling process, which would be highly relevant for increasing the adoption rate of new support systems. The main contribution of the chapter concerns the development of a theoretical framework for the design of scheduling decision support systems. This framework is based on an interdisciplinary approach that integrates insights from cognitive psychology, computer science, and operations management. The use of this framework implies that the design of a decision support system should start with an examination of the human, organizational, and technical characteristics of the scheduling situation that has to be supported. This information can be obtained and analyzed using appropriate methodologies such as hierarchical task analysis, cognitive task analysis and cognitive work analysis as well as other methodologies, such as interviews, observations, context diagrams, and data flow diagrams. The designer of the decision support system can then match the results of the analysis to the guidelines of the theoretical framework and proceed accordingly.
Jan Riezebos; Jean-Michel Hoc; Nasser Mebarki; Christos Dimopoulos; Wout Van Wezel; Guillaume Pinot. Design of Scheduling Algorithms. Behavioral Operations in Planning and Scheduling 2010, 299 -321.
AMA StyleJan Riezebos, Jean-Michel Hoc, Nasser Mebarki, Christos Dimopoulos, Wout Van Wezel, Guillaume Pinot. Design of Scheduling Algorithms. Behavioral Operations in Planning and Scheduling. 2010; ():299-321.
Chicago/Turabian StyleJan Riezebos; Jean-Michel Hoc; Nasser Mebarki; Christos Dimopoulos; Wout Van Wezel; Guillaume Pinot. 2010. "Design of Scheduling Algorithms." Behavioral Operations in Planning and Scheduling , no. : 299-321.