Integrity Testing Laboratory (Canada)

Literature suggests that a comparative analysis of occupational safety and health (OSH) policies may provide valuable insights into creating and maintaining safer and healthier workplaces. However, there are ongoing debates about which type of OSH policies will be more effective. Furthermore, there is limited or no knowledge in the literature on the comparative analysis of OSH risk management policies between North America (Saskatchewan, Canada, and the USA) and Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand). This review employed Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) to ensure the eligibility of included regional OSH policies and employed the Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, and Study (PICOS) framework to develop search questions. This review conducted a high-level qualitative analysis to assess and compare the types of OSH policies and utilized a quantitative analysis to determine the effectiveness of these policies in the regions based on the data associated with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8.1.1. A qualitative analysis of regional OSH policies revealed that the North American regions adopted more performance-based OSH policy styles. In contrast, Southeast Asian regions tended to practice more prescriptive OSH policies. Singapore reported the lowest injury rates (both non-fatal and fatal) and the highest ratio of OSH inspectors to workers. General multivariate regression analysis indicated a significant and positive relationship between the ratios of OSH inspectors to employed persons and non-fatal injury rates, but the negative relationship between the OSH inspectors and fatal injury rate was neither significant nor reliable. The findings of this research validate the current literature. Additionally, higher ratios of OSH Inspectors to employed persons may significantly contribute to reducing regional non-fatal injuries. With larger sample sizes and primary research data, future researchers can build upon the findings of this research, including the optimal effective ratios of OSH inspectors to employed persons to prevent or minimize human suffering and loss. Practitioners may constantly monitor the effectiveness of the ratios to enhance the Sustainability Development Goal (SDG) 8.1.1 performance in the regions.

Water quality testing is crucial for protecting public health, especially considering the number of boil water advisories annually issued across Canada that impact daily life for residents in affected areas. To overcome these challenges, the development of drinking water safety plans and accessibility to regular testing using simple, rapid, and accurate materials are necessary. However, the significance of monitoring the accuracy of environmental microbiology testing laboratories cannot be overlooked. Participation in external quality assessment programs, such as those that include proficiency testing (PT), is a necessary risk management resource that ensures the effectiveness of these testing processes. Proficiency Testing Canada (PTC), in collaboration with the Canadian Microbiological Proficiency Testing (CMPT) program based at the University of British Columbia, have implemented a drinking-water microbiology PT program since 1996. Both PTC and CMPT are ISO/IEC 17043:2010-accredited EQA providers. The drinking water program provided PT challenges to subscribing testing laboratories twice per year. Each challenge consisted of four samples containing unknown concentrations of Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Enterobacter spp. Results from participants were assessed for accuracy based on the method of testing. This cross-sectional study evaluated 150 rural and metropolitan testing sites across Canada between 2016 and 2022. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine the impact of different testing methods and laboratory accreditation status on the proficiency scores. This approach enabled us to assess the association between multiple independent variables and the likelihood of achieving specific proficiency scores, providing insights into how testing methods and accreditation status affect overall performance. After adjusting for rural residence, testing time, and survey year, the membrane filtration method was positively associated with the likelihood of scoring satisfactory results compared to the enzyme-substrate method (OR: 1.75; CI: 1.37-2.24), as well as accreditation status (OR: 1.47; CI: 1.16-1.85). The potential for improvement in environmental laboratory testing performance through the implementation of regulated PT in drinking water safety plans is proposed, along with the need for reliable testing methods applicable to rapid drinking water microbiology testing.

Abstract Imaging Mass Cytometry™ (IMC™) is the leading platform for high-plex tissue imaging. IMC allows for detailed assessment of cell phenotype and function using 40-plus markers simultaneously at subcellular resolution on a single slide. A comprehensive IMC panel containing structural, functional, and immune markers enables us to reveal the complex heterogeneity of tumor tissues as well as the tumor microenvironment (TME). Driven by an increase in the number of antibody markers and the addition of mRNA markers, there is an increasing demand for larger panels. In addition, increasing the number of investigated target markers on a single tissue enriches spatial characterization that may facilitate a more accurate prediction of disease progression and preclinical outcome measures in clinical research projects using tumor biopsies or tissue microarrays (TMAs). Therefore, to increase the plexity of IMC panels, it is essential to expand the number of available metal channels. Here, we demonstrate the incorporation of conjugated antibodies with yttrium (89Y) and indium (115In), two low-mass metals, for IMC application. These metal tags have been previously tested as putative channels for IMC application. We performed IMC analysis of various tissue types stained with panels of conjugated antibodies including the novel 89Y- and 115In-conjugated antibodies. At least 3 different regions of interest (ROIs) were assessed for each of the investigated tissue types. We compared images for the 89Y- and 115In-conjugated antibodies with the images generated using Maxpar® catalog antibodies of the same clones, with a focus on marker specificity and background signal. Compared with the lanthanide-conjugated catalog antibodies, the 89Y- and 115In-conjugated antibodies showed equivalent specificity and staining quality. Our results open a new avenue to assign markers to 89Y and 115In, which enables a larger list of potential targets to be investigated in any IMC study. Expanding the number of markers to 40-plus in Imaging Mass Cytometry will improve the imaging results necessary to identify novel cell signatures (phenotype and interactions) in the TME. Citation Format: Thomas D. Pfister, Shaida Ouladan, Huihui Yao, Daniel Majonis, Christina Loh, Nick Zabinyakov. Increasing plexity of imaging mass cytometry for tumor tissue analysis [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 677.

Abstract We present a novel method that automatically measures quality of sentential paraphrasing. Our method balances two conflicting criteria: semantic similarity and lexical diversity. Using a diverse annotated corpus, we built learning to rank models on edit distance, BLEU, ROUGE, and cosine similarity features. Extrinsic evaluation on STS Benchmark and ParaBank Evaluation datasets resulted in a model ensemble with moderate to high quality. We applied our method on both small benchmarking and large-scale datasets as resources for the community.KeywordsMonolingual rewritingLexical diversityParaphrasing quality

Welding is used widely in the automotive industry for joining a variety of structural components and parts. Of paramount importance in these structures are their engineering properties, such as fatigue life, distortions, dimensional stability and corrosion resistance that can be affected considerably by the presence of residual stresses (RS). The knowledge of RS and the ability to control their distribution in welded structures is critical when evaluating their fatigue life and preventing catastrophic failures. An engineering concept of residual stress management (RSM) has been developed that addresses all aspects of residual stresses in structural elements. RSM includes three major stages in stress management, i.e. RS determination, RS analysis and RS redistribution. Using this approach, stresses in structures and materials can be evaluated in each specific case either theoretically or experimentally and the performance and fatigue behavior of such structures optimized. This paper is built as an overview of the RSM concept and its application in the fields of non-destructive measurement of residual and applied stresses and in treatment of structures with residual stresses to achieve better performance and longer fatigue life. All three stages of the RSM concept will be discussed and for each of the stages practical engineering approach examples will be given. An example of a project in which the residual stress distribution in a filet welded joint was measured, analyzed and changed by post-weld treatment will be presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the RSM approach. The advancements in the modern tools used in this project for non-destructive measurement of residual stresses using an ultrasonic computerized complex for residual stress measurement and the ultrasonic peening for redistribution of the residual stresses that allowed improving the quality of the welds and increasing their fatigue life will also be presented.

Insufficient management of cancer-associated chronic and neuropathic pain adversely affects patient quality of life. Patients who do not respond well to opioid analgesics, or have severe side effects from the use of traditional analgesics are in need of alternative therapeutic op-tions. Anecdotal evidence suggests that medical cannabis has potential to effectively manage pain in this patient population. This review presents a selection of representative clinical studies, from small pilot studies conducted in 1975, to double-blind placebo-controlled trials conducted in 2014 that evaluated the efficacy of cannabinoid-based therapies containing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) for reducing cancer-associated pain. A review of literature published on Medline between 1975 and 2017 identified five clinical studies that evaluated the effect of THC or CBD on controlling cancer pain, which have been reviewed and summarised. Five studies that evaluated THC oil capsules, THC:CBD oromucosal spray (nabiximols), or THC oromucosal sprays found some evidence of cancer pain reduction associated with these therapies. A variety of doses ranging from 2.7-43.2 mg/day THC and 0-40 mg/day CBD were administered. Higher doses of THC were correlated with increased pain relief in some studies. One study found that significant pain relief was achieved in doses as low as 2.7-10.8 mg THC in combination with 2.5-10.0 mg CBD, but there was conflicting evidence on whether higher doses provide superior pain relief. Some reported side effects include drowsiness, hypotension, mental clouding, and nausea and vomiting. There is evidence suggesting that medical cannabis reduces chronic or neu-ropathic pain in advanced cancer patients. However, the results of many studies lacked statistical power, in some cases due to limited number of study subjects. Therefore, there is a need for the conduct of further double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials with large sample sizes in order to establish the optimal dosage and efficacy of different cannabis-based therapies.

The Ultrasonic Peening (UP) is the most efficient technique for increasing the fatigue life of welded elements as compared to such existing improvement treatments as grinding, TIG-dressing, shot peening, hammer peening, etc. The results of experimental investigation of the efficiency of UP for rehabilitation and repair of welded elements and structures with the goal of preventing the origination and propagation of fatigue cracks are considered in this document. UP treatment was applied to large-scale welded specimens in as-welded condition, after 50 % of expected fatigue life and after repair of fatigue cracks. Also, different techniques for restraining and repair of fatigue cracks were analyzed and compared: overloading; drilling of the crack tips; drilling of the crack tips with installation of high strength bolts; local explosive treatment; local heat treatment; welding with and without UP of weld toe zones. As an example, the practical application of UP for rehabilitation and repair of welded elements of highway and railway bridges are also discussed.

Developed mathematical models of apparent thermal conductivity of porous materials are applied to non-destructive methods of thermal diagnostics. The non-destructive thermal diagnostics of porous materials can be used to estimate the size of pores and cracks in the range 10−9 to 10−3 m. A fractal model of porous structure and dependences of thermal conductivity/diffusivity on (experimental) gas pressure are used as a basis for structure parameter calculations. The measuring element (sensor) in this method is the mean free path of gas molecules in pores and cracks (Knudsen number) that is very sensitive to changes in gas pressure. Possible applications of the developed methods include non-destructive thermal diagnostics (NDTD) of nano- and micro-crack sizes; opening, closing and size changes of the cracks at high temperatures in a wide temperature range; evaluation of interfacial and contact heat barrier resistance for coatings; remote laser thermal diagnostics of the cracks; as well as obtaining data on strength, thermal shock behavior, failure and fatigue behavior of coatings and other structures. Examples of several applications of the NDTD method are presented.

Acknowledgements. Introduction. Organizing Committee. Section A: AO/VUV Effects, Evaluation and Modeling. 1. Monte Carlo Computational Modeling of the Energy Dependence of Atomic Oxygen Undercutting of Protected Polymers B.A. Banks, et al. 2. Dynamics of Atomic-Oxygen-Induced Degradation of Materials T.K. Minton, et al. 3. Generalization of the Predictive Model of Erosion of Carbon-Based Materials by Atomic Oxygen J.I. Kleiman, et al. 4. Spectroscopic Ellipsometry Characterization of Polymers Modified by Atomic Oxygen and Ultraviolet Radiation C.L. Bungay, et al. 5. Effect of Atomic Oxygen Exposures on the Tribological Properties of Molybdenum Disulfide Lubricants M. Tagawa, et al. 6. Influence of Shielding Upon the Structure and Properties of Polymer Composite Materials, Exposed on the Surface of the Mir Orbital Complex O.V. Startsev, et al. 7. Cleanliness Support of Vehicle Fairings for Spacecraft V. Sitalo, V. Tikhiy. 8. In situ XPS Studies of Kapton Exposed to 5 eV Atomic Oxygen E. Grossman, et al. Section B: Instrumentation, Sensors, New Technologies. 9. A Low Cost, Lightweight Reusable Sensor for Atomic Oxygen Detection J.J. Osborne, et al. 10. Large-Scale ECR-CVD Preparation of Integrated Thin-Film Structures for Space Applications R.V. Kruzelecky, et al. 11. Non-Silicone Inorganic Polymer-Based Coatings for Atomic Oxygen Protection in LEO - Part 2 E. Poire, et al. 12. Research Aspects of Scaling Up the Implantox Technology for Protection of Polymers in Space Z.A. Iskanderova, et al. Section C: ThermalControl in LEO. 13. A Comparison of Space and Ground-Based Facility Environmental Effects for FEP Teflon S.K. Rutledge, et al. 14. Evaluation of Low Earth Orbit Environmental Effects on International Space Station Thermal Control Materials J.A. Dever, et al. 15. Some Aspects of the Degradation of FEP Teflon Material Under the Action of VUV, the Sun and Ground Test VUV Facilities A. Milintchouk, M. Van Eesbeek. 16. Evaluation of COF MDPS Chromic Acid Anodization in LEO Environment C. Acket, et al. 17. A Database for the Selection of Surfaces and Materials for Space and Ground-based Applications S.H. McCall, et al. 18. Thermal Control Materials and Coatings Currently Being Developed in France for Use in Low Earth Orbit F. Guerard, J.C. Guillaumon. 19. Modification of Thermal Control Paints by Photosil (TM) Technology J.I. Kleiman, et al. Section D: Charged Particles/Soft X-Rays/Meteoroids/Thermal Cycling. 20. Simulated Solar Flare X-Ray and Thermal Cycling Durability Evaluation of HST Thermal Control Candidate Replacement Materials K.K. de Groh, et al. 21. Radiation-Induced Effects in SiO2 Protective Coatings on Polymeric Spacecraft Materials C. Coia, et al. 22. Influence of Electron and Proton Fluxes on Optical Properties of Protective Enamel S.N. Skovorod'ko, et al. 23. Meteoroid Hazard in the LEO Space Environment Y.S. Yatskiv, et al. 24. Characterizing the Annual Meteoroid Streams M. Beech. 25. Oxidation Kinetics of VB Group Metals by Atomic and Molecular Oxygen A.G. Gusakov, et al. 26.