US air bag regulations were changed in 1997 to allow tests of unbelted male dummies in vehicles mounted and accelerated on sleds, resulting in longer crash pulses than rigid-barrier crashes. This change facilitated depowering of frontal air bags and was intended to reduce air bag-induced deaths. Controversy ensued as to whether sled-certified air bags could increase adult fatality risk. A match...

The anesthesiologist must be aware of the causes, diagnosis and treatment of venous air embolism and adopt the practice patterns to prevent its occurrence. Although venous air embolism is a known complication of cesarean section, we describe an unusual inattention that causes iatrogenic near fatal venous air embolism during a cesarean section under spinal anesthesia. One of the reasons for usin...

Inertness and indiscriminate uses as well as growing water and land pollution problems have lead to concern about plastics. Present paper investigates the possibility of plastic degradation by microbes isolated from forest soil and automobile washout sludge. The in-vivo degradation was studied by litter bag experiment by taking 1 g of each plastic and buried under forest soil and automobile was...

Emission systems and devices are required on automobile engines to reduce air pollution problems. Catalytic converters have been used on most 1975 and newer automobiles to reduce hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions to a value that meets the Environmental Protection Agency requirements established for 1975 and 1976. The 1980-1981 Boise, Idaho, study shows that with a functioning catal...

This paper reports on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA’s) research program on Advanced Air Bag Technology. This program was initiated to establish the technical basis for new vehicle performance requirements for improved occupant crash protection. The primary tasks include: real-world crash investigations, development and certification of test dummies and associated i...

air conditioning refrigerant r134a has value of global warming potential (gwp) 1300, which is much higher than mac directive (gwp below 150) passed in july 2006. this prompted a search for alternative refrigerant with gwp value less than 150. r1234yf is a new refrigerant which has lower gwp value of 4. effect of blower speed has been compared and flammability issue of r1234yf has been addressed...

Air bags have been and continue to be an effective, lifesaving technology. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has estimated that air bags have saved almost 1,500 lives, with an estimated 569 lives saved in 1995 alone. However, the increasing availability of air bags in passenger vehicles and light trucks has seen a concomitant rise in the report of injuries related to ai...

New helmet-mounted devices (such as night-vision goggles, laser eye protection, etc.) have created new safety hazards for pilots during ejection or high G maneuvering. In order to prevent the resulting head/neck injuries, this study extends the air-bag protection system developed for ground vehicles to a neck mounted system for aircrew personnel. Results, carried out by computer biodynamic simu...

Thermal modeling of an automotive cabin was performed in this paper to predict the inside cabin air temperature. To implement this task, thermal and ventilation loads were estimated and the mass and energy balance conservation equations for dry air and water vapor with considering a new parameter (air circulation ratio) as well as the balance equations of internal components of a cabin were de...

Many researchers who use laboratory-scale synthesis systems to manufacture nanomaterials could be easily exposed to airborne nanomaterials during the research and development stage. This study used various real-time aerosol detectors to investigate the presence of nanoaerosols in a laboratory used to manufacture titanium dioxide (TiO2). The TiO2 nanopowders were produced via flame synthesis and...