Flying blind

The need for metrics is particularly important in process safety, in no small measure because the hazards may not be readily evident. Unlike some other safety risks where dangerous situations are more apparent—such as unsafe scaffolding, unsecured cables, trenches, and other excavations—information on the status and safety of hazardous containment systems (e.g., internal corrosion, an improperly sized relief valve) is not generally visible. Without a constant and reliable flow of information on process safety performance and management systems, leaders may, in essence, be flying blind. 

The really bad part of the egg flying blind and the non-use of management tools and techniques... 

The findings in Table 10.1 reinforce this finding about flying blind dramatically. As the Table demonstrates, while 483 interviews were conducted in... 

This is the bad part of the metaphorical curate s egg. The evidence from the survey supports a general conclusion the authors have developed after many years of teaching MBA students and undertaking consultancy. This conclusion is that most managers get by on a wing and a prayer -which is another way of saying that most companies are flying blind when... 

The titration curve is the essential tool for determining the nonlinearity, sensitivity, and rangeability requirements that are important for every step from project definition through sustaining installed performance. It determines the investment required, the design details, and the expected efficiency, operability, and maintainability. Without a titration curve, you are flying blind [Ref. 1.1 and 1.2]. 

A further hazard exists when eompressed air jets are used to elean maehine eomponents in workplaees flying partieles have eaused injury and blindness. Cylinders may fail if over-pressurized or weakened by the applieation of heat. Liquefied gases, e.g. butane or propane, respond more rapidly to heat than the permanent gases sueh as nitrogen or oxygen. Cylinders are normally proteeted by pressure relief valves, fusible plugs or bursting dises. 

In the combustion area, heavy slag and ash may form, preventing the passage of flue gas and blinding tubes. Locations should be precisely noted to provide fireside adjustments or to implement a fuel treatment program. In coal-fired boilers, drums, tubes, and headers should be inspected for abrasion from clinker and fly ash. 

Helfrich-Forster C, Winter C, Hofbauer A, Hall JC, Stanewsky R 2001 The circadian clock of fruit flies is blind after elimination of all known photoreceptors. Neuron 30 249-261 Lin FJ, Song W, Meyer-Bernstein E, Naidoo N, Sehgal A 2001 Photic signaling by cryptochrome in the Drosophilacitcidiaa system. Mol Cell Biol 21 7287-7294 Mas P, Devlin PF, Panda S, Kay SA 2000 Functional Interaction of phytochrome B and cryptochrome 2. Nature 408 207-211... 

Stanewsky Phase shifting is an artificial phenomenon which an organism usually never does. What the Gry mutant is blind for is something that the fly never experiences in its fife. 

The filarial worms differ from other nematodes in that they are threadlike and are found in blood and tissue. The infective larvae enter following the bite of an infected arthropod (fly or mosquito). They then enter the lymphatics and lymph nodes. Fever, lymphangitis, and lymphadenitis are associated with the early stage of the disease. Chronic infections may be characterized by elephantiasis as a result of lymphatic obstruction. Some species of filarial worms migrate in the subcutaneous tissues and produce nodules and blindness (onchocerciasis). 

There are urgent economic reasons for trying to control predation in Africa by biting, sucking flies and acarines (ticks and mites). Among them are identified the vectors of mammalian parasitic and virus diseases such as trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), filariasis such as onchocerciasis (river blindness), leishmaniasis, malaria, Dengue fever and East Coast fever (Theileriosis) (ECF). 

A fortunate fallout of the avermectin work was the finding that Ivermectin has activity against the black fly vector of human onchocerciasis ( river blindness ). It interferes with transmission of the filarial nematode. Onchocerca volvulus, to the human population. Since 40 million people are affected by this disease, the decision by Merck to supply ivermectin free of charge to the World Health Organization, for use in humans in the tropics, was met with great enthusiasm and hope for conquering this parasitic disease. 

Flies also harbor diseases that can be transmitted to humans and other mammals when they bite to obtain a blood meal for themselves. For example, black flies can carry river blindness, sandflies can carry leishmaniasis and kala-azar, and tsetse flies (found mainly in Africa), carry the trypanosomes that cause sleeping sickness. Livestock, such as horses and cattle, can be infected with a variety of botflies and warbles that can infest and feed on the skin, throat, nasal passages and stomachs of their hosts. 

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