Search results for: Airport emergency plan

Authors: Wei-Wen Liu, Feng-Chuan Pan, Pei-Chi Wen, Sen-Ji Chen, Su-Hui Lin

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Nurses in an Armed Force Hospital (AFH) expose to stronger stress than those in a civil hospital, especially in an emergency department (ED). Ironically, stresses of these nurses received few if any attention in academic research in the past. This study collects 227 samples from the emergency departments of four armed force hospitals in central and southern Taiwan. The research indicates that the top five stressors are a massive casualty event, delayed physician support, overloads of routine work, overloads of assignments, and annoying paper work. Excessive work loading was found to be the primary source of stress. Nurses who were perceived to have greater stress levels were more inclined to deploy emotion-oriented approaches and more likely to seek job rotations. Professional stressors and problem-oriented approaches were positively correlated. Unlike other local studies, this study concludes that the excessive work-loading is more stressful in an AFH.

Keywords: Emergency nurse, Job stressor, Coping behavior, Armed force hospital.

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Authors: T. Gotoh, T. Takayama, M. Ishiki, T. Ikeda

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Recently, majors of doctors are divided into terribly lots of detailed areas. However, it is actually not a rare case that a doctor has a patient who is not in his/her major. He/She must judge an assessment and make a medical treatment plan for this patient. According to our investigation, conventional approaches such as image diagnosis cooperation are insufficient. This paper proposes an 'Assessment / Medical Treatment Plan Consulting System'. We have implemented a pilot system based on our proposition. Its effectiveness is clarified by an evaluation.

Keywords: Application, computational intelligence and telecommunications, medicine, intelligent systems.

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Authors: Arun Kumar, Yousef L. A. Latif, Fugen Daver

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Despite the availability of natural disaster related time series data for last 110 years, there is no forecasting tool available to humanitarian relief organizations to determine forecasts for emergency logistics planning. This study develops a forecasting tool based on identifying probability distributions. The estimates of the parameters are used to calculate natural disaster forecasts. Further, the determination of aggregate forecasts leads to efficient pre-disaster planning. Based on the research findings, the relief agencies can optimize the various resources allocation in emergency logistics planning.

Keywords: Humanitarian logistics, relief agencies, probability distribution.

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Authors: B. Mendonça, D. Sandwell

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The Metropolitan Region of Sao Paulo (MRSP) has suffered from serious water scarcity. Consequently, the most convenient solution has been building wells to extract groundwater from local aquifers. However, it requires constant vigilance to prevent over extraction and future events that can pose serious threat to the population, such as subsidence. Radar imaging techniques (InSAR) have allowed continuous investigation of such phenomena. The analysis of data in the present study consists of 23 SAR images dated from October 2007 to March 2011, obtained by the ALOS-1 spacecraft. Data processing was made with the software GMTSAR, by using the InSAR technique to create pairs of interferograms with ground displacement during different time spans. First results show a correlation between the location of 102 wells registered in 2009 and signals of ground displacement equal or lower than -90 millimeters (mm) in the region. The longest time span interferogram obtained dates from October 2007 to March 2010. As a result, from that interferogram, it was possible to detect the average velocity of displacement in millimeters per year (mm/y), and which areas strong signals have persisted in the MRSP. Four specific areas with signals of subsidence of 28 mm/y to 40 mm/y were chosen to investigate the phenomenon: Guarulhos (Sao Paulo International Airport), the Greater Sao Paulo, Itaquera and Sao Caetano do Sul. The coverage area of the signals was between 0.6 km and 1.65 km of length. All areas are located above a sedimentary type of aquifer. Itaquera and Sao Caetano do Sul showed signals varying from 28 mm/y to 32 mm/y. On the other hand, the places most likely to be suffering from stronger subsidence are the ones in the Greater Sao Paulo and Guarulhos, right beside the International Airport of Sao Paulo. The rate of displacement observed in both regions goes from 35 mm/y to 40 mm/y. Previous investigations of the water use at the International Airport highlight the risks of excessive water extraction that was being done through 9 deep wells. Therefore, it is affirmed that subsidence events are likely to occur and to cause serious damage in the area. This study could show a situation that has not been explored with proper importance in the city, given its social and economic consequences. Since the data were only available until 2011, the question that remains is if the situation still persists. It could be reaffirmed, however, a scenario of risk at the International Airport of Sao Paulo that needs further investigation.

Keywords: Ground subsidence, interferometric satellite aperture radar (InSAR), metropolitan region of Sao Paulo, water extraction.

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Authors: Wen-Tsann Lin, Yung-Tsan Jou, Yih-Chuan Wu, Yuan-Du Hsiao

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The Emergency Department of a medical center in Taiwan cooperated to conduct the research. A predictive model of triage system is contracted from the contract procedure, selection of parameters to sample screening. 2,000 pieces of data needed for the patients is chosen randomly by the computer. After three categorizations of data mining (Multi-group Discriminant Analysis, Multinomial Logistic Regression, Back-propagation Neural Networks), it is found that Back-propagation Neural Networks can best distinguish the patients- extent of emergency, and the accuracy rate can reach to as high as 95.1%. The Back-propagation Neural Networks that has the highest accuracy rate is simulated into the triage acuity expert system in this research. Data mining applied to the predictive model of the triage acuity expert system can be updated regularly for both the improvement of the system and for education training, and will not be affected by subjective factors.

Keywords: Back-propagation Neural Networks, Data Mining, Emergency Department, Triage System.

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Authors: Jiri Barta

Abstract:

This paper deals with a simulation programs and technologies using in the educational process for members of the crisis management. Risk analysis, simulation, preparation and planning are among the main activities of workers of crisis management. Made correctly simulation of emergency defines the extent of the danger. On this basis, it is possible to effectively prepare and plan measures to minimize damage. The paper is focused on simulation programs that are trained at the University of Defence. Implementation of the outputs from simulation programs in decision-making processes of crisis staffs is one of the main tasks of the research project.

Keywords: Crisis Management, Continuity, Critical Infrastructure, Dangerous substance, Education, Flood, Simulation Programs.

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Authors: Ezzatallah Baloui Jamkhaneh, Bahram Sadeghpour-Gildeh, Gholamhossein Yari

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This purpose of this paper is to present the acceptance single sampling plan when the fraction of nonconforming items is a fuzzy number and being modeled based on the fuzzy Poisson distribution. We have shown that the operating characteristic (oc) curves of the plan is like a band having a high and low bounds whose width depends on the ambiguity proportion parameter in the lot when that sample size and acceptance numbers is fixed. Finally we completed discuss opinion by a numerical example. And then we compared the oc bands of using of binomial with the oc bands of using of Poisson distribution.

Keywords: Statistical quality control, acceptance single sampling, fuzzy number.

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Authors: C. Blatier, M. El Methni, F. Carpentier, S. Abdellaoui, C. Kock, M. Maillard

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International literature emphasizes on the concern regarding the phenomenon of aggression in hospital. This paper focuses on the reality of aggressive interactions reigning within an emergency triage involving three chaps of protagonists: the professionals, the patients and their carers. The data collection was made from a grid of observation, in which the various variables exposed in the literature were integrated. They observations took place around the clock, for three weeks, at the rate of one week a month. In this research 331 aggressive interactions have been listed and analyzed by means of the software SPSS. This research is one of the very few continuous observation surveys in the literature. It shows the various human factors at play in the emergence of aggressive interaction. The data may be used both for taking steps in primary prevention, thanks to the analysis of interaction modes, and in secondary prevention by integrating the useful results in situational prevention.

Keywords: Aggressive interaction, emergency unit, observational study.

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Authors: Ali Reza Honarvar , Naser Ghasem Agaee

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For controlling urban transportations, traffic lights show similar behavior for different kinds of vehicles at intersections. Emergency vehicles need special behavior at intersections, so traffic lights should behave in different manner when emergency vehicles approach them. At the present time, intelligent traffic lights control urban transportations intelligently. In this paper the ethical aspect of this topic is considered. A model is proposed for adding special component to emergency vehicles and traffic lights for controlling traffic in ethical manner. The proposed model is simulated by JADE.

Keywords: Ethical traffic control, intelligent transportation, Ethical agent, Multi-agent system.

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Authors: A. Nourmohammadzadeh, R. Tavakkoli- Moghaddam

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As the air traffic increases at a hub airport, some flights cannot land or depart at their preferred target time. This event happens because the airport runways become occupied to near their capacity. It results in extra costs for both passengers and airlines because of the loss of connecting flights or more waiting, more fuel consumption, rescheduling crew members, etc. Hence, devising an appropriate scheduling method that determines a suitable runway and time for each flight in order to efficiently use the hub capacity and minimize the related costs is of great importance. In this paper, we present a mixed-integer zero-one model for scheduling a set of mixed landing and departing flights (despite of most previous studies considered only landings). According to the fact that the flight cost is strongly affected by the level of airline, we consider different airline categories in our model. This model presents a single objective minimizing the total sum of three terms, namely 1) the weighted deviation from targets, 2) the scheduled time of the last flight (i.e., makespan), and 3) the unbalancing the workload on runways. We solve 10 simulated instances of different sizes up to 30 flights and 4 runways. Optimal solutions are obtained in a reasonable time, which are satisfactory in comparison with the traditional rule, namely First- Come-First-Serve (FCFS) that is far apart from optimality in most cases.

Keywords: Arrival and departure scheduling, Airline level, Mixed-integer model

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Authors: Fan Ye

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Adverse weather conditions, particularly those with low visibility, are critical to the driving tasks. However, the direct relationship between visibility distances and traffic flow/roadway safety is uncertain due to the limitation of visibility data availability. The recent growth of deployment of Road Weather Information Systems (RWIS) makes segment-specific visibility information available which can be integrated with other Intelligent Transportation System, such as automated warning system and variable speed limit, to improve mobility and safety. Before applying the RWIS visibility measurements in traffic study and operations, it is critical to validate the data. Therefore, an attempt was made in the paper to examine the validity and viability of RWIS visibility data by comparing visibility measurements among RWIS, airport weather stations, and weather information recorded by police in crash reports, based on Ohio data. The results indicated that RWIS visibility measurements were significantly different from airport visibility data in Ohio, but no conclusion regarding the reliability of RWIS visibility could be drawn in the consideration of no verified ground truth in the comparisons. It was suggested that more objective methods are needed to validate the RWIS visibility measurements, such as continuous in-field measurements associated with various weather events using calibrated visibility sensors.

Keywords: Low visibility, RWIS, traffic safety, visibility.

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Authors: Cai Guoqiang, Jia Limin, Zhou Liming, Liang yu, Li xi

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This paper analysis the integrated use of safety monitoring with the domestic and international latest research on rail safety protection system, and focus on the implementation of an organic whole system, with the monitoring and early warning, risk assessment, predictive control and emergency rescue system. The system framework, contents and system structure of Security system is proposed completely. It-s pointed out that the Security system is a negative feedback system composed of by safety monitoring and warning system, risk assessment and emergency rescue system. Safety monitoring and warning system focus on the monitoring target monitoring, early warning, tracking, integration of decision-making, for objective and subjective risks factors. Risk assessment system analysis the occurrence of a major Security risk mechanism, determines the standard of the future short, medium and long term safety conditions, and give prop for development of safety indicators, accident analysis and safety standards. Emergency rescue system is with the goal of rapid and effective rescue work for accident, to minimize casualties and property losses.

Keywords: rail safety protection, monitoring and early warning, risk assessment, emergency rescue.

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Authors: Ling Zheng, Yaping Wei, Kang Cao, Songpo Shi, Jinxing Wang

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It-s difficult for China-s current land transfer institutions limited to county-wide to solve the contradiction between urban-rural development and construction land shortage. On the basis of analyzing China-s construction land transfer system, and evaluation toward Transfer of development rights (TDR) practices in Anhui and Chongqing, the passage proposes: (1) we should establish a multi-level land indicators trade market under the guidance of regional spatial objectives, and allow land transfer paid across cities and counties within a specific area following the regulation of both government and market; (2) it would be better to combine organically the policy ntentions of land plan, regional plan, urban plan and economic plan, and link them with land indicators transfer to promote a wider range of urban-rural balance and regional coordination.

Keywords: China's land institutions, transfer of development rights, urban-rural balance, regional coordination.

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Authors: A. T. M. Shahjahan, M. D. Kamrul Islam, Saikat Mitra, Kutub Uddin Chisty

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Due to rapid pressured of population growth, city has started to lose its old tradition. City becomes congested with uncomfortably living. Urban renewal refers orderly development of settlements as well as land redevelopment. For this paper Chittagong city has been selected as study area. It had a great tradition but it has been losing its concord. Land use pattern of this place is also haphazard due to lack of planning intervention. Renewal plan is needed to ascertain suitable redevelopment and to recommend on preservation of city heritage structure. The goal of this study is to prepare a renewal plan using local planning approach. Social impact methods have been used to achieve this goal. Both primary and secondary data are used to achieve the goal. This study may find out a complete solution for healthy living in old Part of city. This study will help to preserve its tradition and makes urban lives more livable.

Keywords: Renewal Plan, Social Impact.

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Authors: Görkem Arslan Kılınç

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Due to the high construction, operation, and maintenance costs of tall buildings, quantification of the area in the plan layout which provides a financial return is an important design criterion. The area of the “core and the structural system elements” does not provide financial return but must exist in the plan layout. Some characteristic items of tall office buildings affect the size of these areas. From this point of view, 15 tall office buildings were systematically investigated. The typical office floor plans of these buildings were re-produced digitally. The area of the “core and the structural system elements” in each building and the characteristic items of each building were calculated. These characteristic items are the size of the long and short plan edge, plan length/width ratio, size of the core long and short edge, core length/width ratio, core area, slenderness, building height, number of floors, and floor height. These items were analyzed by correlation and regression analyses. Results of this paper put forward that; characteristic items which affect the area of "core and structural system elements" are plan long and short edge size, core short edge size, building height, and the number of floors. A one-unit increase in plan short side size increases the area of the "core and structural system elements" in the plan by 12,378 m2. An increase in core short edge size increases the area of the core and structural system elements in the plan by 25,650 m2. Subsequent studies can be conducted by expanding the sample of the study and considering the geographical location of the building.

Keywords: Core area, correlation analysis, floor area, regression analysis, space efficiency, tall office buildings.

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Authors: Maeng-Hwan Hyun, Dae-Man Do, Young-Bok Choi

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Around the world, there are frequent incidents of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and snowstorms, as well as manmade disasters such as fires, arsons, and acts of terror. These diverse and unpredictable adversities have resulted in a number of fatalities and injuries. If disaster occurrence can be assessed quickly and information such as the exact location of the disaster and evacuation routes can be provided, victims can promptly move to safe locations, minimizing losses. This paper proposes a behavior analysis method based on a nine degrees-of-freedom (9-DOF) sensor that is effective for the emergency rescue evacuation support system (ERESS), which is being researched with an objective of providing evacuation support during disasters. Based on experiments performed using the acceleration sensor and the gyroscope sensor in the 9-DOF sensor, data are analyzed for human behavior regarding stationary position, walking, running, and during emergency situation to suggest guidelines for system judgment. Using the results of the experiments performed to determine disaster occurrence, it was confirmed that the proposed method quickly determines whether a disaster has occurred.

Keywords: Behavior Analysis, Nine degrees-of-freedom sensor, Emergency rescue.

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Authors: Tunjo Peric, Zoran Babic

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The authors of this work indicate by means of a concrete example that it is possible to apply efficaciously the method of multiple criteria programming in dealing with the problem of determining the optimal production plan for a certain period of time. The work presents: (1) the selection of optimization criteria, (2) the setting of the problem of determining an optimal production plan, (3) the setting of the model of multiple criteria programming in finding a solution to a given problem, (4) the revised surrogate trade-off method, (5) generalized multicriteria model for solving production planning problem and problem of choosing technological variants in the metal manufacturing industry. In the final part of this work the authors reflect on the application of the method of multiple criteria programming while determining the optimal production plan in manufacturing enterprises.

Keywords: multi-criteria programming, production planning, technological variant, Surrogate Worth Trade-off Method.

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Authors: Ion Baş, Claudiu Zoicaş, Angela Ioniţâ

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In most of the cases, natural disasters lead to the necessity of evacuating people. The quality of evacuation management is dramatically improved by the use of information provided by decision support systems, which become indispensable in case of large scale evacuation operations. This paper presents a best practice case study. In November 2007, officers from the Emergency Situations Inspectorate “Crisana" of Bihor County from Romania participated to a cross-border evacuation exercise, when 700 people have been evacuated from Netherlands to Belgium. One of the main objectives of the exercise was the test of four different decision support systems. Afterwards, based on that experience, software system called TEVAC (Trans Border Evacuation) has been developed “in house" by the experts of this institution. This original software system was successfully tested in September 2008, during the deployment of the international exercise EU-HUROMEX 2008, the scenario involving real evacuation of 200 persons from Hungary to Romania. Based on the lessons learned and results, starting from April 2009, the TEVAC software is used by all Emergency Situations Inspectorates all over Romania.

Keywords: Emergency evacuation, Searching Features, TEVAC(Trans Border Evacuation) software system, User Interface Design.

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Authors: Zelal Çinar

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This paper aims to expose the effects of the ideological program of Turkish Republic on city planning, through the first plan of Ankara. As the new capital, Ankara was planned to be the ‘showcase’ of modern Turkey. It was to represent all new ideologies and the country’s cultural similarities with the west. At the same time it was to underline the national identity and independence of Turkish republic. To this end, a new plan for the capital was designed by German city planner Carl Christopher Lörcher. Diametrically opposed with the existing fabric of the city, this plan was built on the basis of papers and plans, on ideological aims. On the contrary, this paper argues that the city is a machine of possibilities, rather than a clear, materialized system.

Keywords: Architecture, ideology, modernization, urban planning.

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Authors: Tanja Radu, Cormac Fay, King Tong Lau, Rhys Waite, Dermot Diamond

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The development of wearable sensing technologies is a great challenge which is being addressed by the Proetex FP6 project (www.proetex.org). Its main aim is the development of wearable sensors to improve the safety and efficiency of emergency personnel. This will be achieved by continuous, real-time monitoring of vital signs, posture, activity, and external hazards surrounding emergency workers. We report here the development of carbon dioxide (CO2) sensing boot by incorporating commercially available CO2 sensor with a wireless platform into the boot assembly. Carefully selected commercially available sensors have been tested. Some of the key characteristics of the selected sensors are high selectivity and sensitivity, robustness and the power demand. This paper discusses some of the results of CO2 sensor tests and sensor integration with wireless data transmission

Keywords: Proetex, gas sensing, wireless, wearable sensors, carbon dioxide

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Authors: S. Feli, S. Tavousi Tafreshi, A. Ghasemi

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The present paper aims at evaluating the response of three-dimensional buildings with in-plan stiffness irregularities that have been subjected to two-way excitation ground motion records simultaneously. This study is broadly-based fragility assessment with greater emphasis on structural response at in-plan flexible and stiff sides. To this end, three type of three-dimensional 5-story steel building structures with stiffness eccentricities, were subjected to extensive nonlinear incremental dynamic analyses (IDA) utilizing Ibarra-Krawinkler deterioration models. Fragility assessment was implemented for different configurations of braces to investigate the losses in buildings with center of resisting (CR) eccentricities.

Keywords: Ibarra Krawinkler, fragility assessment, flexible and stiff side, center of resisting.

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Authors: Rade Ciric, Sasa Mandic

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Students of Higher Education Technical School of Professional Studies in Novi Sad follow the subject ‘Maintenance of Electric Power Equipment’ at the Electrotechnical Department. This paper presents educational plan and program of the subject Maintenance of Electric Power Equipment. The course deals with the problems of preventive and investing maintenance of transformer stations (TS), performing and maintenance of grounding of TS and pillars, as well as tracing and detection the location of the cables failure. There is a special elaborated subject concerning the safe work conditions for the electrician during network maintenance, as well as the basics of making and keeping technical documentation of the equipment.

Keywords: Educational plan and program, electric power equipment, maintenance, technical documentation, safe work.

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Authors: Manoj Parmar

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The article uses reflexivity as a research method to investigate and propose an architectural theory plan for climate change. It hypothecates that to discuss or formulate discourse on "architectural paradigm and climate change," firstly, we need to understand the modes of integration that enable architectural thinking with climate change. The research intends to study the various integration modes that have evolved historically and situate them in time. Subsequently, it analyzes the integration pattern, challenges the existing model, and finds a way towards climate change as central to architectural thinking. The study is fundamental on-premises that ecology and climate change scholarship has consistently out lashed the asymmetrical and nonlinear knowledge and needs approaches for architecture that are less burden to climate change to people and minimize its impact on ecology.

Keywords: Climate change, architectural theory, reflexivity, modernity.

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Authors: Yousef Abu Nahleh, Arun Kumar, Fugen Daver

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Facility location is one of the important problems affecting the relief operations. The location model in this paper is motivated by arranging the flow of relief materials from the main warehouse to continent warehouse and further to regional warehouse and from these to the disaster area. This flow makes the relief organization always ready to deal with the disaster situation during shortest possible time. The main purpose of this paper is merge the concept of just in time and the campaign system in emergency supply chain,so that when the disaster happens the affected country can request help from the nearest regional warehouse, which will supply the relief material and the required stuff to support and assist the victims in the disaster area. Furthermore, the regional warehouse places an order to the continent warehouse to replenish the material that is distributed to the disaster area. This way they will always be ready to respond to any type of disaster.

Keywords: Facility location, Center-of-Gravity Technique, Humanitarian relief, emergency supply chain.

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Authors: Ghazwan Al-Haji

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Most accidents occur in urban areas, and the most related casualties are vulnerable road users (pedestrians and cyclists). The traffic calming measures (TCMs) are widely used and considered to be successful in reducing speed and traffic volume. However, TCMs create unwanted effects include: noise, emissions, energy consumption, vehicle delays and emergency response time (ERT). Different vertical and horizontal TCMs have been already applied nationally (Sweden) and internationally with different impacts. It is a big challenge among traffic engineers, planners, and policy-makers to choose and priorities the best TCMs to be implemented. This study will assess the existing guidelines for TCMs in relation to safety and ERT with focus on data from Norrkoping city in Sweden. The expected results will save lives, time, and money on particularly Swedish Roads. The study will also review newly technologies and how they can improve safety and reduce ERT.

Keywords: Traffic safety, traffic calming measures, speeding, emergency response time.

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Authors: U K Chakrabarti, Jigisha Parikh

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Hazardous Material transportation by road is coupled with inherent risk of accidents causing loss of lives, grievous injuries, property losses and environmental damages. The most common type of hazmat road accident happens to be the releases (78%) of hazardous substances, followed by fires (28%), explosions (14%) and vapour/ gas clouds (6 %.). The paper is discussing initially the probable 'Impact Zones' likely to be caused by one flammable (LPG) and one toxic (ethylene oxide) chemicals being transported through a sizable segment of a State Highway connecting three notified Industrial zones in Surat district in Western India housing 26 MAH industrial units. Three 'hotspots' were identified along the highway segment depending on the particular chemical traffic and the population distribution within 500 meters on either sides. The thermal radiation and explosion overpressure have been calculated for LPG / Ethylene Oxide BLEVE scenarios along with toxic release scenario for ethylene oxide. Besides, the dispersion calculations for ethylene oxide toxic release have been made for each 'hotspot' location and the impact zones have been mapped for the LOC concentrations. Subsequently, the maximum Initial Isolation and the protective zones were calculated based on ERPG-3 and ERPG-2 values of ethylene oxide respectively which are estimated taking the worst case scenario under worst weather conditions. The data analysis will be helpful to the local administration in capacity building with respect to rescue / evacuation and medical preparedness and quantitative inputs to augment the District Offsite Emergency Plan document.

Keywords: Hotspot, Ethylene Oxide, LPG, MAH (MajorAccident Hazard).

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Authors: Frantisek Bozek, Alexandr Bozek, Alena Bumbova, Jiri Dvorak, Lenka Jesonkova

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The contamination of 15 ground water resources of a selected region earmarked for the emergency supply of population has been monitored. The resources have been selected on the basis of previous assessment of natural conditions and the exploitation of territory in their surroundings and infiltration area. Two resources out of 15 have been excluded from further exploitation, because they have not met some of the 72 assessed hygienic indicators of extended analysis. The remaining 13 resources have been the subject of health risk analysis in relation to the contamination by arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury, nickel and manganese. The risk analysis proved that all 13 resources meet health standards with regard to the above mentioned purposefully selected elements and may thus be included into crisis plans. Water quality of ground resources may be assessed in the same way with regard to other contaminants.

Keywords: Contamination, drinking water, emergency supply, health risk, hygienic limits, metals, risk assessment.

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Authors: Siyao Zhu, Yifang Xu

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After natural and man-made disasters, robots can bypass the danger, expedite the search, and acquire unprecedented situational awareness to design rescue plans. Brain-computer interface is a promising option to overcome the limitations of tedious manual control and operation of robots in the urgent search-and-rescue tasks. This study aims to test the feasibility of using electroencephalography (EEG) signals to decode human intentions and detect the level of consensus on robot-provided information. EEG signals were classified using machine-learning and deep-learning methods to discriminate search intentions and agreement perceptions. The results show that the average classification accuracy for intention recognition and consensus assessment is 67% and 72%, respectively, proving the potential of incorporating recognizable users’ bioelectrical responses into advanced robot-assisted systems for emergency response.

Keywords: Consensus assessment, electroencephalogram, EEG, emergency response, human-robot collaboration, intention recognition, search and rescue.

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Authors: Promise A. Azor, Avievie Igodo, Esabai M. Ase

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The paper merged the return of premium clause and voluntary contributions to investigate retirees’ investment plan in a defined contributory (DC) pension scheme with a portfolio comprising of a risk-free asset and a risky asset whose price process is described by geometric Brownian motion (GBM). The paper considers additional voluntary contributions paid by members, charge on balance by pension fund administrators and the mortality risk of members of the scheme during the accumulation period by introducing return of premium clause. To achieve this, the Weilbull mortality force function is used to establish the mortality rate of members during accumulation phase. Furthermore, an optimization problem from the Hamilton Jacobi Bellman (HJB) equation is obtained using dynamic programming approach. Also, the Legendre transformation method is used to transform the HJB equation which is a nonlinear partial differential equation to a linear partial differential equation and solves the resultant equation for the value function and the optimal distribution plan under logarithm utility function. Finally, numerical simulations of the impact of some important parameters on the optimal distribution plan were obtained and it was observed that the optimal distribution plan is inversely proportional to the initial fund size, predetermined interest rate, additional voluntary contributions, charge on balance and instantaneous volatility.

Keywords: Legendre transform, logarithm utility, optimal distribution plan, return clause of premium, charge on balance, Weibull mortality function.

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Authors: Eileen M. J. Knight

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This study examines the structural and systematic processes of the Human Resources Division at The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago for evidence of incorporation of the University's 2012- 2017 Strategic Plan. In conducting the study the structure of the Human Resources Management Division and its functions were carefully reviewed and measured against the strategic direction of the organisation. Findings indicate disconnect between these areas as there is apparent failure of the Human Resources Division to totally align its mandate with that of the organisation-s strategic direction. This action serves to threaten the viability of the organisation and its efficiency and effectiveness as an institution. The recommendations being put forward are for the realignment of the Human Resources Management Division and for its focus to mirror that of the organisation and the organisation-s goals and objectives. This may entail a restructuring of the Division.

Keywords: Commonwealth Caribbean, Realignment, Region, Strategic Plan.

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