WorldWideScience

Sample records for evacuation

  1. Evacuation exercise

    CERN Multimedia

    AUTHOR|(CDS)2094367

    2017-01-01

    In the event of an emergency, it is important that staff and visitors are evacuated safely and efficiently. Hence CERN organises regularly emergency response and evacuation exercise (also known as an ‘evacuation drill’) in different buildings across the sites.

  2. Evacuated aerogel glazings

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schultz, Jørgen Munthe; Jensen, Karsten Ingerslev

    2008-01-01

    This paper describes the main characteristics of monolithic silica aerogel and its application in evacuated superinsulating aerogel glazing including the evacuation and assembling process. Furthermore, the energetic benefit of aerogel glazing is quantified. In evacuated aerogel glazing the space ......) combined with a solar energy transmittance above 0.75.......This paper describes the main characteristics of monolithic silica aerogel and its application in evacuated superinsulating aerogel glazing including the evacuation and assembling process. Furthermore, the energetic benefit of aerogel glazing is quantified. In evacuated aerogel glazing the space...... between the glass panes is filled with monolithic silica aerogel evacuated to a rough vacuum of approximately 1-10 hPa. The aerogel glazing does not depend on use of low emissive coatings that have the drawback of absorbing a relatively large part of the solar radiation that otherwise could reduce...

  3. Evacuation of Children

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larusdottir, Aldis Run

    is to provide new data and information on children’s evacuation, which is a step towards including children in evacuation models and calculations. Little is known about children’s evacuation characteristics in fire compared to other parts of the population. In recent years there has been more focus on children’s...... evacuation which is reflected in a rising number of publications on the topic. This thesis comprises evacuation experiments in daycares for children 0-6 years old and elementary schools for children aged 6-15 years. Full scale evacuations were filmed allowing detailed data analysis. Findings and results...... to isolate single factors and findings. Although an engineering approach fits best to the measurable parameters, the other areas are at least equally important when investigating or predicting children’s evacuation. The key findings of the thesis are: Children are very dependent on adults for initiating...

  4. Indoor guided evacuation: TIN for graph generation and crowd evacuation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mengchao Xu

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents two complementary methods: an approach to compute a network data-set for indoor space of a building by using its two-dimensional (2D floor plans and limited semantic information, combined with an optimal crowd evacuation method. The approach includes three steps: (1 generate critical points in the space, (2 connect neighbour points to build up the network, and then (3 run the optimal algorithm for optimal crowd evacuation from a room to the exit gates of the building. Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN is used in the first two steps. The optimal evacuation crowd is not based on the nearest evacuation gate for a person but relies on optimal sorting of the waiting lists at each gate of the room to be evacuated. As an example case, a rectangular room with 52 persons with two gates is evacuated in 102 elementary interval times (one interval corresponds to the time for one step for normal velocity walking, whereas it would have been evacuated in not less than 167 elementary steps. The procedure for generating the customized network involves the use of 2D floor plans of a building and some common Geographic Information System (GIS functions. This method combined with the optimal sorting lists will be helpful for guiding crowd evacuation during any emergency.

  5. Routine ultrasound guided evacuation of first trimester missed abortion versus blind evacuation

    OpenAIRE

    Mostafa Abdulla Elsayed

    2014-01-01

    Background: The clinical management of miscarriage has changed little over the years and many women undergo surgical uterine evacuation. Surgical evacuation of the uterine contents in missed abortion is a challenge to the obstetrician as it is done blindly. The current study recommends the use of ultrasound guided surgical evacuation. It serves two important advantages; the first is to complete evacuation without the need of additional step. The second is to protect against uterine perforatio...

  6. Feasibility of evacuation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1988-01-01

    The main question is whether evacuation of people is feasible in case of accidents with a nuclear power plant. The limiting conditions of this question are extracted from other studies. This study is therefore focused on a postulated accident in a newly built nuclear power plant with an electric capacity of 1000 Megawatt and a source term of one percent. In this particular case an evacuation should take place within the period between the accident and the emission of nuclear materials. Initial focus is on the administrative-organizational aspects of evacuation. Then bottlenecks in the technical implementation of evacuation are determined. An analysis is made for each potential Dutch location (Borssele, Eemshaven, Maasvlakte, Moerdijk and Westelijke Noordoostpolderdijk) of a nuclear power plant. By means of a model the following question is examined: can the population leave the danger area or be evacuated on time, under certain circumstances. It is concluded that preventive evacuation of the population from the planned locations is feasible, but at Moerdijk complications may occur because of the presence of some homes for the elderly and a nursing home. 18 refs.; 7 figs.; 2 tabs

  7. Behavior-based evacuation planning

    KAUST Repository

    Rodriguez, Samuel

    2010-05-01

    In this work, we present a formulation of an evacuation planning problem that is inspired by motion planning and describe an integrated behavioral agent-based and roadmap-based motion planning approach to solve it. Our formulation allows users to test the effect on evacuation of a number of different environmental factors. One of our main focuses is to provide a mechanism to investigate how the interaction between agents influences the resulting evacuation plans. Specifically, we explore how various types of control provided by a set of directing agents effects the overall evacuation planning strategies of the evacuating agents. ©2010 IEEE.

  8. Behavior-based evacuation planning

    KAUST Repository

    Rodriguez, Samuel; Amato, Nancy M

    2010-01-01

    In this work, we present a formulation of an evacuation planning problem that is inspired by motion planning and describe an integrated behavioral agent-based and roadmap-based motion planning approach to solve it. Our formulation allows users to test the effect on evacuation of a number of different environmental factors. One of our main focuses is to provide a mechanism to investigate how the interaction between agents influences the resulting evacuation plans. Specifically, we explore how various types of control provided by a set of directing agents effects the overall evacuation planning strategies of the evacuating agents. ©2010 IEEE.

  9. Hurricane Evacuation Routes

    Data.gov (United States)

    Department of Homeland Security — Hurricane Evacuation Routes in the United States A hurricane evacuation route is a designated route used to direct traffic inland in case of a hurricane threat. This...

  10. Factors associated with high-rise evacuation: qualitative results from the World Trade Center Evacuation Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gershon, Robyn R M; Qureshi, Kristine A; Rubin, Marcie S; Raveis, Victoria H

    2007-01-01

    Due to the fact that most high-rise structures (i.e., >75 feet high, or eight to ten stories) are constructed with extensive and redundant fire safety features, current fire safety procedures typically only involve limited evacuation during minor to moderate fire emergencies. Therefore, full-scale evacuation of high-rise buildings is highly unusual and consequently, little is known about how readily and rapidly high-rise structures can be evacuated fully. Factors that either facilitate or inhibit the evacuation process remain under-studied. This paper presents results from the qualitative phase of the World Trade Center Evacuation Study, a three-year, five-phase study designed to improve our understanding of the individual, organizational, and environmental factors that helped or hindered evacuation from the World Trade Center (WTC) Towers 1 and 2, on 11 September 2001. Qualitative data from semi-structured, in-depth interviews and focus groups involving WTC evacuees were collected and analyzed. On the individual level, factors that affected evacuation included perception of risk (formed largely by sensory cues), preparedness training, degree of familiarity with the building, physical condition, health status, and footwear. Individual behavior also was affected by group behavior and leadership. At the organizational level, evacuation was affected by worksite preparedness planning, including the training and education of building occupants, and risk communication. The environmental conditions affecting evacuation included smoke, flames, debris, general condition and degree of crowdedness on staircases, and communication infrastructure systems (e.g., public address, landline, cellular and fire warden's telephones). Various factors at the individual, organizational, and environmental levels were identified that affected evacuation. Interventions that address the barriers to evacuation may improve the full-scale evacuation of other high-rise buildings under extreme

  11. Pedestrian evacuation modeling to reduce vehicle use for distant tsunami evacuations in Hawaiʻi

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wood, Nathan J.; Jones, Jamie; Peters, Jeff; Richards, Kevin

    2018-01-01

    Tsunami waves that arrive hours after generation elsewhere pose logistical challenges to emergency managers due to the perceived abundance of time and inclination of evacuees to use vehicles. We use coastal communities on the island of Oʻahu (Hawaiʻi, USA) to demonstrate regional evacuation modeling that can identify where successful pedestrian-based evacuations are plausible and where vehicle use could be discouraged. The island of Oʻahu has two tsunami-evacuation zones (standard and extreme), which provides the opportunity to examine if recommended travel modes vary based on zone. Geospatial path distance models are applied to estimate population exposure as a function of pedestrian travel time and speed out of evacuation zones. The use of the extreme zone triples the number of residents, employees, and facilities serving at-risk populations that would be encouraged to evacuate and slightly reduces the percentage of residents (98–76%) that could evacuate in less than 15 min at a plausible speed (with similar percentages for employees). Areas with lengthy evacuations are concentrated in the North Shore region for the standard zone but found all around the Oʻahu coastline for the extreme zone. The use of the extreme zone results in a 26% increase in the number of hotel visitors that would be encouraged to evacuate, and a 76% increase in the number of them that may require more than 15 min. Modeling can identify where pedestrian evacuations are plausible; however, there are logistical and behavioral issues that warrant attention before localized evacuation procedures may be realistic.

  12. Auditory evacuation beacons

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wijngaarden, S.J. van; Bronkhorst, A.W.; Boer, L.C.

    2005-01-01

    Auditory evacuation beacons can be used to guide people to safe exits, even when vision is totally obscured by smoke. Conventional beacons make use of modulated noise signals. Controlled evacuation experiments show that such signals require explicit instructions and are often misunderstood. A new

  13. Optimal crowd evacuation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hoogendoorn, S.P.; Daamen, W.; Duives, D.C.; Van Wageningen-Kessels, F.L.M.

    2013-01-01

    This paper deals with the optimal allocation of routes, destination, and departure times to members of a crowd, for instance in case of an evacuation or another hazardous situation in which the people need to leave the area as quickly as possible. The generic approach minimizes the evacuation times,

  14. Routes to effective evacuation planning primer series : evacuating populations with special needs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-04-01

    Evacuation operations are conducted under the authority of, and based on decisions by, local and state authorities. The purpose of this primer, Evacuating Populations with Special Needs, is to provide local and state emergency managers, government of...

  15. Evacuation dynamics of children

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larusdottir, Aldis Run; Dederichs, Anne

    2010-01-01

    higher walking speeds in spiral stairs when the children are familiar with the evacuation path. Higher per-son densities and faster flow through doors were obtained among the children than found in literature on adults. Children in the younger age group are generally slower than the older children....... The children walk slower in horizontal plan than adults, however they are keen to run during evacuations, in the latter case their travel speed increases and exceeds the adults’. Since the evacuation characte-ristics of children differ in many ways from those of adults, nowadays models badly comprehend...

  16. Evacuation drill at CMS

    CERN Multimedia

    Niels Dupont-Sagorin and Christoph Schaefer

    2012-01-01

    Training personnel, including evacuation guides and shifters, checking procedures, improving collaboration with the CERN Fire Brigade: the first real-life evacuation drill at CMS took place on Friday 3 February from 12p.m. to 3p.m. in the two caverns located at Point 5 of the LHC.   CERN personnel during the evacuation drill at CMS. Evacuation drills are required by law and have to be organized periodically in all areas of CERN, both above and below ground. The last drill at CMS, which took place in June 2007, revealed some desiderata, most notably the need for a public address system. With this equipment in place, it is now possible to broadcast audio messages from the CMS control room to the underground areas.   The CMS Technical Coordination Team and the GLIMOS have focused particularly on preparing collaborators for emergency situations by providing training and organizing regular safety drills with the HSE Unit and the CERN Fire Brigade. This Friday, the practical traini...

  17. Evacuation decision-making: process and uncertainty

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mileti, D.; Sorensen, J.; Bogard, W.

    1985-09-01

    The purpose was to describe the processes of evacuation decision-making, identify and document uncertainties in that process and discuss implications for federal assumption of liability for precautionary evacuations at nuclear facilities under the Price-Anderson Act. Four major categories of uncertainty are identified concerning the interpretation of hazard, communication problems, perceived impacts of evacuation decisions and exogenous influences. Over 40 historical accounts are reviewed and cases of these uncertainties are documented. The major findings are that all levels of government, including federal agencies experience uncertainties in some evacuation situations. Second, private sector organizations are subject to uncertainties at a variety of decision points. Third, uncertainties documented in the historical record have provided the grounds for liability although few legal actions have ensued. Finally it is concluded that if liability for evacuations is assumed by the federal government, the concept of a ''precautionary'' evacuation is not useful in establishing criteria for that assumption. 55 refs., 1 fig., 4 tabs.

  18. Evacuation decision-making: process and uncertainty

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mileti, D.; Sorensen, J.; Bogard, W.

    1985-09-01

    The purpose was to describe the processes of evacuation decision-making, identify and document uncertainties in that process and discuss implications for federal assumption of liability for precautionary evacuations at nuclear facilities under the Price-Anderson Act. Four major categories of uncertainty are identified concerning the interpretation of hazard, communication problems, perceived impacts of evacuation decisions and exogenous influences. Over 40 historical accounts are reviewed and cases of these uncertainties are documented. The major findings are that all levels of government, including federal agencies experience uncertainties in some evacuation situations. Second, private sector organizations are subject to uncertainties at a variety of decision points. Third, uncertainties documented in the historical record have provided the grounds for liability although few legal actions have ensued. Finally it is concluded that if liability for evacuations is assumed by the federal government, the concept of a ''precautionary'' evacuation is not useful in establishing criteria for that assumption. 55 refs., 1 fig., 4 tabs

  19. Evacuation Shelters - MDC_HurricaneShelter

    Data.gov (United States)

    NSGIC Local Govt | GIS Inventory — A label feature class of Miami-Dade County Hurricane Evacuation Shelters (HEC) including Special Need Evacuation Centers (SNEC) and Medical Management Facilities...

  20. A method of emotion contagion for crowd evacuation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cao, Mengxiao; Zhang, Guijuan; Wang, Mengsi; Lu, Dianjie; Liu, Hong

    2017-10-01

    The current evacuation model does not consider the impact of emotion and personality on crowd evacuation. Thus, there is large difference between evacuation results and the real-life behavior of the crowd. In order to generate more realistic crowd evacuation results, we present a method of emotion contagion for crowd evacuation. First, we combine OCEAN (Openness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Conscientiousness) model and SIS (Susceptible Infected Susceptible) model to construct the P-SIS (Personalized SIS) emotional contagion model. The P-SIS model shows the diversity of individuals in crowd effectively. Second, we couple the P-SIS model with the social force model to simulate emotional contagion on crowd evacuation. Finally, the photo-realistic rendering method is employed to obtain the animation of crowd evacuation. Experimental results show that our method can simulate crowd evacuation realistically and has guiding significance for crowd evacuation in the emergency circumstances.

  1. Evacuation of Bed-bound Patients-STEPS Simulations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Madsen, Anne; Dederichs, Anne Simone

    2016-01-01

    Fires in hospitals occur, and evacuation of bed-bound patients might be necessary in case of emergency. The current study concerns the evacuation of bed-bound patients from a fire section in a hospital using hospital porters. The simulations are performed using the STEPS program. The aim...... of the study is to investigate the evacuation time of bed-bound hospital patients using different walking speeds from the literature, and the influence of the number of hospital porters on the total evacuation times of bed-bound patients. Different scenarios were carried out with varying staff......-to-patient ratios that simulate the horizontal evacuation of 40 bed-bound patients into a different fire section. It was found that the staff-to-patient-ratio affects the total evacuation times. However, the total evacuation times do not decrease linearly and a saturation effect is seen at a staff-to-patient ratio...

  2. Evacuate or Shelter-in-place? The Role of Corporate Memory and Political Environment in Hospital-evacuation Decision Making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ricci, Karen A; Griffin, Anne R; Heslin, Kevin C; Kranke, Derrick; Dobalian, Aram

    2015-06-01

    Hospital-evacuation decisions are rarely straightforward in protracted advance-warning events. Previous work provides little insight into the decision-making process around evacuation. This study was conducted to identify factors that most heavily influenced the decisions to evacuate the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) New York Harbor Healthcare System's (NYHHS; New York USA) Manhattan Campus before Hurricane Irene in 2011 and before Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Semi-structured interviews with 11 senior leaders were conducted on the processes and factors that influenced the evacuation decisions prior to each event. The most influential factor in the decision to evacuate the Manhattan Campus before Hurricane Irene was New York City's (NYC's) hospital-evacuation mandate. As a federal facility, the Manhattan VA medical center (VAMC) was exempt from the city's order, but decision makers felt compelled to comply. In the case of Superstorm Sandy, corporate memory of a similar 1992 storm that crippled the Manhattan facility drove the decision to evacuate before the storm hit. Results suggest that hospital-evacuation decisions are confounded by political considerations and are influenced by past disaster experience. Greater shared situational awareness among at-risk hospitals, along with a more coordinated approach to evacuation decision making, could reduce pressure on hospitals to make these high-stakes decisions. Systematic mechanisms for collecting, documenting, and sharing lessons learned from past disasters are sorely needed at the institutional, local, and national levels.

  3. ARKTOS full-scale evacuation tests

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Seligman, B.; Hatfield, P. [ARKTOS Developments Ltd., Surrey, BC (Canada); Bercha, F. [Bercha Group, Calgary, AB (Canada)

    2008-09-15

    The ARKTOS amphibious vehicle can be used for evacuation operations in both open water and ice conditions. It is approved as an evacuation system by various regulators, such as the United States Coast Guard, and is operational in several marine cold regions as an escape, evacuation, and rescue (EER) system. An EER research project was performed in 2006 that provided a general reliability evaluation of the ARKTOS system. However, the project did not have the benefit of detailed full-scale tests in order to validate the associated computer model in drill or non-life threatening evacuation conditions. This paper described a follow-up set of full-scale evacuation tests designed to provide more detailed information and validation data for the reliability that the computer model described in the 2006 research project. A description and photographic illustrations of the ARKTOS system were presented. The tests and subsequent analyses were described. Specifically, the paper described the observations, and presented the statistical results from the data collected, and compared observed results with predicted results of a probabilistic EER simulation computer model. Conclusions and recommendations for reliability improvements were also provided. It was concluded that under the benign conditions, the drill performance was satisfactory in all aspects, both in the evacuation activities and the rescue or de-boarding activities. 3 refs., 1 tab., 17 figs.

  4. Evacuating populations with special needs

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-04-01

    Evacuation operations are conducted under the authority of, and based on decisions by, local and state authorities. The purpose of this primer, Evacuating Populations with Special Needs, is to provide local and state emergency managers, government of...

  5. Alternative evacuation strategies for nuclear power accidents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hammond, Gregory D.; Bier, Vicki M.

    2015-01-01

    In the U.S., current protective-action strategies to safeguard the public following a nuclear power accident have remained largely unchanged since their implementation in the early 1980s. In the past thirty years, new technologies have been introduced, allowing faster computations, better modeling of predicted radiological consequences, and improved accident mapping using geographic information systems (GIS). Utilizing these new technologies, we evaluate the efficacy of alternative strategies, called adaptive protective action zones (APAZs), that use site-specific and event-specific data to dynamically determine evacuation boundaries with simple heuristics in order to better inform protective action decisions (rather than relying on pre-event regulatory bright lines). Several candidate APAZs were developed and then compared to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s keyhole evacuation strategy (and full evacuation of the emergency planning zone). Two of the APAZs were better on average than existing NRC strategies at reducing either the radiological exposure, the population evacuated, or both. These APAZs are especially effective for larger radioactive plumes and at high population sites; one of them is better at reducing radiation exposure, while the other is better at reducing the size of the population evacuated. - Highlights: • Developed framework to compare nuclear power accident evacuation strategies. • Evacuation strategies were compared on basis of radiological and evacuation risk. • Current strategies are adequate for smaller scale nuclear power accidents. • New strategies reduced radiation exposure and evacuation size for larger accidents

  6. The Variable Scale Evacuation Model (VSEM: a new tool for simulating massive evacuation processes during volcanic crises

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. M. Marrero

    2010-04-01

    Full Text Available Volcanic eruptions are among the most awesome and powerful displays of nature's force, constituting a major natural hazard for society (a single eruption can claim thousands of lives in an instant. Consequently, assessment and management of volcanic risk have become critically important goals of modern volcanology. Over recent years, numerous tools have been developed to evaluate volcanic risk and support volcanic crisis management: probabilistic analysis of future eruptions, hazard and risk maps, event trees, etc. However, there has been little improvement in the tools that may help Civil Defense officials to prepare Emergency Plans. Here we present a new tool for simulating massive evacuation processes during volcanic crisis: the Variable Scale Evacuation Model (VSEM. The main objective of the VSEM software is to optimize the evacuation process of Emergency Plans during volcanic crisis. For this, the VSEM allows the simulation of an evacuation considering different strategies depending on diverse impact scenarios. VSEM is able to calculate the required time for the complete evacuation taking into account diverse evacuation scenarios (number and type of population, infrastructure, road network, etc. and to detect high-risk or "blackspots" of the road network. The program is versatile and can work at different scales, thus being capable of simulating the evacuation of small villages as well as huge cities.

  7. 21 CFR 876.4370 - Gastroenterology-urology evacuator.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Gastroenterology-urology evacuator. 876.4370... (CONTINUED) MEDICAL DEVICES GASTROENTEROLOGY-UROLOGY DEVICES Surgical Devices § 876.4370 Gastroenterology-urology evacuator. (a) Identification. A gastroenterology-urology evacuator is a device used to remove...

  8. Hospital evacuation; planning, assessment, performance and evaluation

    OpenAIRE

    Nero C Wabo; P Örtenwall; A Khorram-Manesh

    2012-01-01

    Objective: Malfunction in hospitals' complex internal systems, or extern threats, may result in a hospital evacuation. Factors contributing to such evacuation must be identified, analyzed and action plans should be prepared. Our aims in this study were 1) to evaluate the use of risk and vulnerability analysis as a basis for hospital evacuation plan, 2) to identify risks/hazards triggering an evacuation and evaluate the respond needed and 3) to propose a template with main key points for plann...

  9. Evacuation of bedridden occupants: experimental research outcomes

    OpenAIRE

    Strating, N.; van Herpen, R.; Zeiler, W.

    2017-01-01

    Bedridden building occupants in hospitals and nursing homes who are not able to rescue themselves in case of a fire emergency require assistance during an evacuation. A building emergency team usually fulfils this function and will have to remove the occupants from the room. The speed at which such an evacuation is conducted however is unknown. Experiments in practice were conducted in hospitals to obtain insight in the evacuation speed and absolute evacuation times required. Furthermore, a s...

  10. Experimental study on occupant evacuation in narrow seat aisle

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Shenshi; Lu, Shouxiang; Lo, Siuming; Li, Changhai; Guo, Yafei

    2018-07-01

    Narrow seat aisle is an important area in the train car interior due to the large passenger population, however evacuation therein has not gained enough concerns. In this experimental study, the occupant evacuation of the narrow seat aisle area is investigated, with the aisle width of 0.4-0.6 m and the evacuation direction of forward and backward. The evacuation behaviors are analyzed based on the video record, and the discussion is carried out in the aspect of evacuation time, crowdedness, evacuation order, and aisle conflicts. The result shows that with the increasing aisle width, total evacuation time and the average specific evacuation rate decrease. The aisle is crowded for some time, with a large linear occupant densities. The evacuation order of each occupant is mainly related to the seat position. Moreover, it is found that the aisle conflicts can be well described by Burstedde's model. This study gives a useful benchmark for evacuation simulation of narrow seat aisle, and provides reference to safety design of seat area in train cars.

  11. Getting passengers out : evacuation behaviours

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Boer, L.C.

    2003-01-01

    When disaster strikes, mass transportation means mass evacuation. The issue is especially urgent if, despite precautions, a train comes to a stop in a tunnel and there is a fire. Adequate behaviour of passengers is a major success factor of an evacuation. Passengers should replace their original

  12. Tsunami evacuation buildings and evacuation planning in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yuzal, Hendri; Kim, Karl; Pant, Pradip; Yamashita, Eric

    Indonesia, a country of more than 17,000 islands, is exposed to many hazards. A magnitude 9.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, on December 26, 2004. It triggered a series of tsunami waves that spread across the Indian Ocean causing damage in 11 countries. Banda Aceh, the capital city of Aceh Province, was among the most damaged. More than 31,000 people were killed. At the time, there were no early warning systems nor evacuation buildings that could provide safe refuge for residents. Since then, four tsunami evacuation buildings (TEBs) have been constructed in the Meuraxa subdistrict of Banda Aceh. Based on analysis of evacuation routes and travel times, the capacity of existing TEBs is examined. Existing TEBs would not be able to shelter all of the at-risk population. In this study, additional buildings and locations for TEBs are proposed and residents are assigned to the closest TEBs. While TEBs may be part of a larger system of tsunami mitigation efforts, other strategies and approaches need to be considered. In addition to TEBs, robust detection, warning and alert systems, land use planning, training, exercises, and other preparedness strategies are essential to tsunami risk reduction.

  13. Evacuation routes performances and fire safety of buildings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laban Mirjana Đ.

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Residential buildings, public and business facilities with large number of occupants are particularly exposed to the risk of event with catastrophic consequences, especially in case of fire. Evacuation routes must be separated fire compartments with surfaces made of non-combustible materials. Safe evacuation of building occupants in case of fire is a crucial requirement for the preservation of human life in building. In our engineering practice, calculation model is usually applied in order to determine the time required for evacuation (SRPS TP 21. However, evacuation simulation models are more present in research papers, contributing to better assessment of flow of evacuation in the real time. These models could provide an efficient way of testing the safety of a building in the face of fire and indicate critical points at the evacuation paths. Computer models enable the development and analysis of multiple various scenarios during a fire event, contributing to defining the measures for improving the safety of the building in case of fire. This paper analyses the fulfilment of technical requirements for the safe evacuation and proposes improvement measures based on a comparative analysis of the time required for occupants' evacuation from the building (Department of Civil Engineering and Geodesy in Novi Sad, obtained by calculation model and by using evacuation simulation software.

  14. Research on evacuation planning as nuclear emergency preparedness

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamamoto, Kazuya

    2007-10-01

    The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has introduced new concepts of precautionary action zone (PAZ) and urgent protective action planning zone (UPZ) in 'Preparedness and Response for a Nuclear or Radiological Emergency' (GS-R-2 (2002)), in order to reduce substantially the risk of severe deterministic health effects. Open literature based research was made to reveal problems on evacuation planning and the preparedness for nuclear emergency arising from introduction of PAZ into Japan that has applied the emergency planning zone (EPZ) concept currently. In regard to application of PAZ, it should be noted that the requirements for preparedness and response for a nuclear or radiological emergency are not only dimensional but also timely. The principal issue is implementation of evacuation of precautionary decided area within several hours. The logic of evacuation planning for a nuclear emergency and the methods of advance public education and information in the U.S. is effective for even prompt evacuation to the outside of the EPZ. As concerns evacuation planning for a nuclear emergency in Japan, several important issues to be considered were found, that is, selection of public reception centers which are outside area of the EPZ, an unique reception center assigned to each emergency response planning area, public education and information of practical details about the evacuation plan in advance, and necessity of the evacuation time estimates. To establish a practical evacuation planning guide for nuclear emergencies, further researches on application of traffic simulation technology to evacuation time estimates and on knowledge of actual evacuation experience in natural disasters and chemical plant accidents are required. (author)

  15. Study of the components of evacuation times

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mills, G.S.; Neuhauser, K.S.; Smith, J.D.

    1997-11-01

    The magnitudes of accident dose risks calculated by the RADTRAN code depend directly on the time span between an accidental release and evacuation of the affected area surrounding potential radionuclide releases. In a previous study of truck and rail transportation accidents, and other incidents requiring evacuations, a lognormal distribution of evacuation times (time span from decision to evacuate until complete) was developed, which provided a better model for this parameter than the practice of using a highly conservative value of 24 hours. However, the distribution did not account for time required for responders to arrive on the scene, to evaluate the hazards to surrounding population and to initiate an evacuation. Data from US Department of Transportation (DOT) accident statistics have been collected and their distribution functions determined. The separate distribution functions were combined into a single, comprehensive distribution which may be sampled to supply values of the RADTRAN input parameter, EVACUATION. A sample RADTRAN calculation illustrating the effect on risks of using the distribution versus the original (24 hour), conservative point-estimate are also presented

  16. Study of the components of evacuation times

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mills, G.S.; Neuhauser, K.S.; Smith, J.D.

    1998-01-01

    The magnitudes of accident dose-risks calculated by the RADTRAN code depend directly on the time span between an accidental release and evacuation of the affected area surrounding potential radionuclide releases. In a previous study of truck and rail transportation accidents, and other incidents requiring evacuations (Mills et al., 1995) a lognormal distribution of evacuation times (time span from decision to evacuate until complete) was developed, which provided a better model for this parameter than the practice of using a highly conservative value of 24 hours. However, the distribution did not account for time required for responders to arrive on the scene, to evaluate the hazards to surrounding population and to initiate an evacuation. Data from U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) accident statistics have been collected and their distribution functions determined. The separate distribution functions were combined into a single, comprehensive distribution which may be sampled to supply values of the RADTRAN input parameter, EVACUATION. A sample RADTRAN calculation illustrating the effect on risks of using the distribution versus the original (24 hours), conservative point-estimate are also presented. (authors)

  17. Dual effects of guide-based guidance on pedestrian evacuation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ma, Yi, E-mail: yima23-c@my.cityu.edu.hk; Lee, Eric Wai Ming; Shi, Meng

    2017-06-15

    This study investigates the effects of guide-based guidance on the pedestrian evacuation under limited visibility via the simulations based on an extended social force model. The results show that the effects of guides on the pedestrian evacuation under limited visibility are dual, and related to the neighbor density within the visual field. On the one hand, in many cases, the effects of guides are positive, particularly when the neighbor density within the visual field is moderate; in this case, a few guides can already assist the evacuation effectively and efficiently. However, when the neighbor density within the visual field is particularly small or large, the effects of guides may be adverse and make the evacuation time longer. Our results not only provide a new insight into the effects of guides on the pedestrian evacuation under limited visibility, but also give some practical suggestions as to how to assign guides to assist the evacuation under different evacuation conditions. - Highlights: • Extended social force model is used to simulate guided pedestrian evacuation. • Effects of guides on pedestrian evacuation under limited visibility are dual. • Effects of guides on pedestrian evacuation under limited visibility are related to neighbor density within visual field.

  18. Study on rapid evacuation in high-rise buildings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xin Zhang

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available More and more high rising buildings emerged in modern cities, but emergency evacuation of tall buildings has been a worldwide difficult problem. In this paper, a new evacuation device for high rising buildings in fire accident was proposed and studied. This device mainly consisted of special spiral slideway and shunt valve. People in this device could fast slide down to the first floor under gravity without any electric power and physical strength, which is suitable for various emergency evacuation including mobility-impaired persons. The plane simulation test has shown that human being in alternative clockwise and counterclockwise movement will not become dizzy. The evacuated people should wear protection pad, which can prevent slider from being injured by surface friction with the slide, and eliminate the friction coefficient difference caused by different clothes and slide surface. The calculation results show that the evacuation speed of the new device is much faster than traditional staircases. Moreover, such new evacuation device can also be used as a means of vertical transportation in high-rise buildings partly. People can take it from any floor to ground floor directly, which not only save time for waiting for the lifts but also save the power. The new evacuation system is of simple structure, easy to use, and suitable for evacuation and partly used as vertical downwards traffic, which shows light on solving world-wide difficulties on fast evacuation in high-rise buildings.

  19. Research on Evacuation Based on Social Force Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, W.; Deng, Z.; Li, W.; Lin, J.

    2017-09-01

    Crowded centers always cause personnel casualties in evacuation operations. Stampede events often occur by hit, squeeze and crush due to panic. It is of vital important to alleviate such situation. With the deepening of personnel evacuation research, more and more researchers are committed to study individual behaviors and self-organization phenomenon in evacuation process. The study mainly includes: 1, enrich the social force model from different facets such as visual, psychological, external force to descript more realistic evacuation; 2, research on causes and effects of self - organization phenomenon. In this paper, we focus on disorder motion that occurs in the crowded indoor publics, especially the narrow channel and safety exits and other special arteries. We put forward the improved social force model to depict pedestrians' behaviors, an orderly speed-stratification evacuation method to solve disorder problem, and shape-changed export to alleviate congestion. The result of this work shows an improvement of evacuation efficiency by 19.5 %. Guiding pedestrians' direction to slow down the influence of social forces has a guidance function in improving the efficiency of indoor emergency evacuation.

  20. Intelligent Transportation and Evacuation Planning A Modeling-Based Approach

    CERN Document Server

    Naser, Arab

    2012-01-01

    Intelligent Transportation and Evacuation Planning: A Modeling-Based Approach provides a new paradigm for evacuation planning strategies and techniques. Recently, evacuation planning and modeling have increasingly attracted interest among researchers as well as government officials. This interest stems from the recent catastrophic hurricanes and weather-related events that occurred in the southeastern United States (Hurricane Katrina and Rita). The evacuation methods that were in place before and during the hurricanes did not work well and resulted in thousands of deaths. This book offers insights into the methods and techniques that allow for implementing mathematical-based, simulation-based, and integrated optimization and simulation-based engineering approaches for evacuation planning. This book also: Comprehensively discusses the application of mathematical models for evacuation and intelligent transportation modeling Covers advanced methodologies in evacuation modeling and planning Discusses principles a...

  1. Assessment of total evacuation systems for tall buildings

    CERN Document Server

    Ronchi, Enrico

    2014-01-01

    This SpringerBrief focuses on the use of egress models to assess the optimal strategy for total evacuation in high-rise buildings. It investigates occupant relocation and evacuation strategies involving the exit stairs, elevators, sky bridges and combinations thereof. Chapters review existing information on this topic and describe case study simulations of a multi-component exit strategy. This review provides the architectural design, regulatory and research communities with a thorough understanding of the current and emerging evacuation procedures and possible future options. A model case study simulates seven possible strategies for the total evacuation of two identical twin towers linked with two sky-bridges at different heights. The authors present the layout of the building and the available egress components including both vertical and horizontal egress components, namely stairs, occupant evacuation elevators (OEEs), service elevators, transfer floors and sky-bridges. The evacuation strategies employ a ...

  2. Predictive value of impaired evacuation at proctography in diagnosing anismus.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Halligan, S; Malouf, A; Bartram, C I; Marshall, M; Hollings, N; Kamm, M A

    2001-09-01

    We aimed to determine the positive predictive value of impaired evacuation during evacuation proctography for the subsequent diagnosis of anismus. Thirty-one adults with signs of impaired evacuation (defined as the inability to evacuate two thirds of a 120 mL contrast enema within 30 sec) during evacuation proctography underwent subsequent anorectal physiologic testing for anismus. A physiologic diagnosis of anismus was based on a typical clinical history of the condition combined with impaired rectal balloon expulsion or abnormal surface electromyogram. Twenty-eight (90%) of the 31 patients with impaired proctographic evacuation were found to have anismus at subsequent physiologic testing. Among the 28 were all 10 patients who evacuated no contrast medium and all 11 patients with inadequate pelvic floor descent, giving evacuation proctography a positive predictive value of 90% for the diagnosis of anismus. A prominent puborectal impression was seen in only three subjects during proctography, one of whom subsequently showed no physiologic sign of anismus. Impaired evacuation during evacuation proctography is highly predictive for diagnosis of anismus.

  3. Intrarectal pressures and balloon expulsion related to evacuation proctography.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Halligan, S; Thomas, J; Bartram, C

    1995-01-01

    Seventy four patients with constipation were examined by standard evacuation proctography and then attempted to expel a small, non-deformable rectal balloon, connected to a pressure transducer to measure intrarectal pressure. Simultaneous imaging related the intrarectal position of the balloon to rectal deformity. Inability to expel the balloon was associated proctographically with prolonged evacuation, incomplete evacuation, reduced anal canal diameter, and acute anorectal angulation during evacuation. The presence and size of rectocoele or intussusception was unrelated to voiding of paste or balloon. An independent linear combination of pelvic floor descent and evacuation time on proctography correctly predicted maximum intrarectal pressure in 74% of cases. No patient with both prolonged evacuation and reduced pelvic floor descent on proctography could void the balloon, as maximum intrarectal pressure was reduced in this group. A prolonged evacuation time on proctography, in combination with reduced pelvic floor descent, suggests defecatory disorder may be caused by inability to raise intrarectal pressure. A diagnosis of anismus should not be made on proctography solely on the basis of incomplete/prolonged evacuation, as this may simply reflect inadequate straining. PMID:7672656

  4. Optimization of Evacuation Warnings Prior to a Hurricane Disaster

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dian Sun

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available The key purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that optimization of evacuation warnings by time period and impacted zone is crucial for efficient evacuation of an area impacted by a hurricane. We assume that people behave in a manner consistent with the warnings they receive. By optimizing the issuance of hurricane evacuation warnings, one can control the number of evacuees at different time intervals to avoid congestion in the process of evacuation. The warning optimization model is applied to a case study of Hurricane Sandy using the study region of Brooklyn. We first develop a model for shelter assignment and then use this outcome to model hurricane evacuation warning optimization, which prescribes an evacuation plan that maximizes the number of evacuees. A significant technical contribution is the development of an iterative greedy heuristic procedure for the nonlinear formulation, which is shown to be optimal for the case of a single evacuation zone with a single evacuee type case, while it does not guarantee optimality for multiple zones under unusual circumstances. A significant applied contribution is the demonstration of an interface of the evacuation warning method with a public transportation scheme to facilitate evacuation of a car-less population. This heuristic we employ can be readily adapted to the case where response rate is a function of evacuation number in prior periods and other variable factors. This element is also explored in the context of our experiment.

  5. An analysis of evacuation options for nuclear accidents

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tawil, J J; Strenge, D L; Schultz, R W

    1987-11-01

    The threat of release of a hazardous substance into the atmosphere will sometimes require that the population at risk be evacuated. If the substance is particularly hazardous or the release is exceptionally large, then an extensive area may have to be evacuated at substantial cost. In this report we consider the threat posed by the accidental release of radionuclides from a nuclear power plant. The report's objective is to establish relationships between radiation dose and the cost of evacuation under a wide variety of conditions. The dose can almost always be reduced by evacuating the population from a larger area. However, extending the evacuation zone outward will cause evacuation costs to increase. The purpose of this analysis was to provide the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) a data base for evaluating whether implementation costs and risks averted could be used to justify evacuation at lower doses than would be required based on acceptable risk of health effects alone. The procedures used and results of these analyses are being made available as background information for use by others. In this report we develop cost/dose relationships for 54 scenarios that are based upon the severity of the reactor accident, meteorological conditions during the release of radionuclides into the environment, and the angular width of the evacuation zone. The 54 scenarios are derived from combinations of three accident severity levels, six meteorological conditions and evacuation zone widths of 70 deg, 90 deg, and 180 deg. Appendix tables are provided to allow acceptable evaluation of the cost/dose relationships for a wide variety of scenarios. Guidance and examples are provided in the text to show how these tables can be used.

  6. Evacuation decision-making at Three Mile Island

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zeigler, D.J.; Johnson, J.H. Jr.

    1987-01-01

    During the emergency at the Three Mile Island generating station in the United States, evacuation became a common adaptive response among the local population. The planning for nuclear emergencies in the US has proceeded as if there were no significant differences between nuclear and other types of disasters requiring evacuation. In the United Kingdom, emergency planning for a new generation of pressurized water reactors, about which there is legitimate safety concern, has been influenced not at all by the experience with the Three Mile Island PWR in 1979. The TMI accident has been the US's most serious experience with a nuclear plant accident and therefore is an appropriate analogy for predicting the evacuation response to future nuclear emergencies. In this light, the authors accept the need to develop models that will enable them to predict the magnitude of the evacuation shadow phenomenon around other nuclear power sites and estimate its impact on our plans to remove the threatened population from the hazard zone in the minimum amount of time. Rather than depend on education and information control to stifle evacuation response, the authors believe that evacuation plans need to build on people's natural behavioural inclinations to protect themselves in response to the nuclear hazard

  7. 21 CFR 888.4220 - Cement monomer vapor evacuator.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Cement monomer vapor evacuator. 888.4220 Section... (CONTINUED) MEDICAL DEVICES ORTHOPEDIC DEVICES Surgical Devices § 888.4220 Cement monomer vapor evacuator. (a) Identification. A cement monomer vapor evacuator is a device intended for use during surgery to contain or remove...

  8. FIRE EVACUATION FROM HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Korol'chenko Aleksandr Yakovlevich

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available The authors argue that no collapse of structures is likely in the event of a fire emergency in multistoried buildings, rather, other fire-related factors may endanger the lives of people inside high-rise buildings exposed to the fire emergency, including open fire, sparks, high ambient temperature, smoke and toxic combustion products, reduced concentration of oxygen, and combined influence of various factors. In case of fire, the temperature inside buildings reaches 1100 °С. It exceeds the temperature of the ambient air acceptable for humans by far (70 °С. The experiments demonstrate that combustion products contain hundreds of toxic chemical compounds. The most hazardous of them include carbon oxide, carbon dioxide, chloride and cyanic hydrogen, aldehydes and acrolein. The author provides the pattern of their influence on the human body. The smoke consists of unburned particles of carbon and aerosols. The size of particles fluctuates within 0.05-50 MMK. Smoke produces a physiological and psychological impact on human beings. It has been proven that dangerous fire factors emerge within the first five to ten minutes of the emergency situation. Evacuation is the principal method of safety assurance. However, the velocity of propagation of smoke and heat is so high that even if the fire prevention system is in operation, people may be blocked both on the floors that are exposed to the fire and those that escape its propagation. New evacuation and rescue methods are recommended by the author. Various ways and methods of use of life-saving facilities are also provided. Safe evacuation is feasible from buildings where the number of stories does not exceed 10- 12. During evacuation, high density human streams are formed inside buildings, therefore, the period of stay in a burning building is increased. The calculations have proven that a two-minute delay of evacuation converts into a safe evacuation of only 13-15% of people. Low reliability of

  9. Building Evacuation with Mobile Devices

    OpenAIRE

    Merkel, Sabrina

    2014-01-01

    The rapidly growing world population and increasingly dense settlements demand ever-larger and more complex buildings from today's engineers. In comparison to this technological progress, a building's equipment for emergency evacuation has been hardly developed further. This work presents a concept for a building evacuation system based on mobile devices. Furthermore, various algorithms for route planning with mobile devices and for indoor localization of mobile devices are addressed.

  10. APPROXIMATION OF THE TIME TO INITIATE THE EVACUATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jiří POKORNÝ

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available One of the basic prerequisites for securing the safety of people at large group events is to ensure their evacuation in case of emergencies. This article deals with the approximations of time to initiate the evacuation of persons in case of a fire at large group events organized in outdoor spaces. The solution is based on the principles of determining the period to initiate the evacuation of persons in terms of international ISO standards. Considering the specificities of the given outdoor space and possible related security measures, the article recommends the relevant sufficient amount of time to initiate an evacuation.

  11. Evacuation proctography - examination technique and method of evaluation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Braunschweig, R.; Schott, U.; Starlinger, M.

    1993-01-01

    Evacuation proctography is the most important imaging technique to supplement findings of physical examination, manometry, and endoscopy in patients presenting with pathologies in anorectal morphology and function. Indications for evacuation proctography include obstructed defecation or incomplete evacuation, imaging of ileal pouches following excision of the rectum, and suspected anorectal fistulae. Evacuation proctography with thick barium sulfate is performed under fluoroscopy. Documentation of the study can either be done by single-shot X-rays, video recording, or imaging with a 100-mm spot-film camera. Evacuation proctography shows morphologic changes such as spastic pelvic floor, rectocele, enterocele, intussusception and anal prolapse. Measurements can be performed to obtain the anorectal angle, location and mobility of the pelvic floor, and size as well as importance of a rectocele. Qualitative and quantitative data can only be interpreted along with clinical and manometric data. (orig.) [de

  12. City evacuations an interdisciplinary approach

    CERN Document Server

    Binner, Jane; Branicki, Layla; Galla, Tobias; Jones, Nick; King, James; Kolokitha, Magdalini; Smyrnakis, Michalis

    2015-01-01

    Evacuating a city is a complex problem that involves issues of governance, preparedness education, warning, information sharing, population dynamics, resilience and recovery. As natural and anthropogenic threats to cities grow, it is an increasingly pressing problem for policy makers and practitioners.   The book is the result of a unique interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers in the physical and social sciences to consider how an interdisciplinary approach can help plan for large scale evacuations.  It draws on perspectives from physics, mathematics, organisation theory, economics, sociology and education.  Importantly it goes beyond disciplinary boundaries and considers how interdisciplinary methods are necessary to approach a complex problem involving human actors and increasingly complex communications and transportation infrastructures.   Using real world case studies and modelling the book considers new approaches to evacuation dynamics.  It addresses questions of complexity, not only ...

  13. Evacuation a serious game for preparation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kolen, B.; Thonus, B.; van Zuilekom, Kasper M.; de Romph, E.

    2011-01-01

    Mass evacuation is a measure to reduce possible loss of life in the case of potential disasters. Planning for mass evacuation is only useful if these plans are tested and evaluated by government and the public in reality or in simulated events. As a result, any prior experience is likely to be

  14. Comparison of calculation and simulation of evacuation in real buildings

    Science.gov (United States)

    Szénay, Martin; Lopušniak, Martin

    2018-03-01

    Each building must meet requirements for safe evacuation in order to prevent casualties. Therefore methods for evaluation of evacuation are used when designing buildings. In the paper, calculation methods were tested on three real buildings. The testing used methods of evacuation time calculation pursuant to Slovak standards and evacuation time calculation using the buildingExodus simulation software. If calculation methods have been suitably selected taking into account the nature of evacuation and at the same time if correct values of parameters were entered, we will be able to obtain almost identical times of evacuation in comparison with real results obtained from simulation. The difference can range from 1% to 27%.

  15. CLEAR (Calculates Logical Evacuation And Response): A generic transportation network model for the calculation of evacuation time estimates

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moeller, M.P.; Desrosiers, A.E.; Urbanik, T. II

    1982-03-01

    This paper describes the methodology and application of the computer model CLEAR (Calculates Logical Evacuation And Response) which estimates the time required for a specific population density and distribution to evacuate an area using a specific transportation network. The CLEAR model simulates vehicle departure and movement on a transportation network according to the conditions and consequences of traffic flow. These include handling vehicles at intersecting road segments, calculating the velocity of travel on a road segment as a function of its vehicle density, and accounting for the delay of vehicles in traffic queues. The program also models the distribution of times required by individuals to prepare for an evacuation. In order to test its accuracy, the CLEAR model was used to estimate evacuation times for the emergency planning zone surrounding the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Plant. The Beaver Valley site was selected because evacuation time estimates had previously been prepared by the licensee, Duquesne Light, as well as by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. A lack of documentation prevented a detailed comparison of the estimates based on the CLEAR model and those obtained by Duquesne Light. However, the CLEAR model results compared favorably with the estimates prepared by the other two agencies. (author)

  16. Resident perception of volcanic hazards and evacuation procedures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    D. K. Bird

    2009-02-01

    Full Text Available Katla volcano, located beneath the Mýrdalsjökull ice cap in southern Iceland, is capable of producing catastrophic jökulhlaup. The Icelandic Civil Protection (ICP, in conjunction with scientists, local police and emergency managers, developed mitigation strategies for possible jökulhlaup produced during future Katla eruptions. These strategies were tested during a full-scale evacuation exercise in March 2006. A positive public response during a volcanic crisis not only depends upon the public's knowledge of the evacuation plan but also their knowledge and perception of the possible hazards. To improve the effectiveness of residents' compliance with warning and evacuation messages it is important that emergency management officials understand how the public interpret their situation in relation to volcanic hazards and their potential response during a crisis and apply this information to the ongoing development of risk mitigation strategies. We adopted a mixed methods approach in order to gain a broad understanding of residents' knowledge and perception of the Katla volcano in general, jökulhlaup hazards specifically and the regional emergency evacuation plan. This entailed field observations during the major evacuation exercise, interviews with key emergency management officials and questionnaire survey interviews with local residents. Our survey shows that despite living within the hazard zone, many residents do not perceive that their homes could be affected by a jökulhlaup, and many participants who perceive that their homes are safe, stated that they would not evacuate if an evacuation warning was issued. Alarmingly, most participants did not receive an evacuation message during the exercise. However, the majority of participants who took part in the exercise were positive about its implementation. This assessment of resident knowledge and perception of volcanic hazards and the evacuation plan is the first of its kind in

  17. Dose reduction in evacuation proctography

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hare, C.; Halligan, S.; Bartram, C.I.; Gupta, R.; Walker, A.E.; Renfrew, I.

    2001-01-01

    The goal of this study was to reduce the patient radiation dose from evacuation proctography. Ninety-eight consecutive adult patients referred for proctography to investigate difficult rectal evacuation were studied using a digital imaging system with either a standard digital program for barium examinations, a reduced dose digital program (both with and without additional copper filtration), or Video fluoroscopy. Dose-area products were recorded for each examination and the groups were compared. All four protocols produced technically acceptable examinations. The low-dose program with copper filtration (median dose 382 cGy cm 2 ) and Video fluoroscopy (median dose 705 cGy cm 2 ) were associated with significantly less dose than other groups (p < 0.0001). Patient dose during evacuation proctography can be reduced significantly without compromising the diagnostic quality of the examination. A digital program with added copper filtration conveyed the lowest dose. (orig.)

  18. Evacuation transportation management : task five : operational concept.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-06-26

    Much of what is known about evacuations is based on preparations for incidents, such as hurricanes, for which there is advance warning. With advance warning, evacuations can be planned and managed using procedures and systems that have been developed...

  19. Evacuation transportation management. Task five, Operational concept

    Science.gov (United States)

    2006-01-01

    Much of what is known about evacuations is based on preparations for incidents, such as hurricanes, for which there is advance warning. With advance warning, evacuations can be planned and managed using procedures and systems that have been developed...

  20. Complex multimaterial insulating frames for windows with evacuated glazing

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fang, Yueping; Eames, Philip C.; Hyde, Trevor J. [Centre for Sustainable Technologies, School of the Built Environment, University of Ulster, Newtownabbey, N. Ireland BT37 0QB (United Kingdom); Norton, Brian [Dublin Institute of Technology, Aungier Street, Dublin 2 (Ireland)

    2005-09-01

    The thermal performance of a complex multimaterial frame consisting of an exoskeleton framework and cavities filled with insulant materials enclosing an evacuated glazing was simulated using a two-dimensional finite element model and the results were validated experimentally using a guarded hot box calorimeter. The analysed 0.5m by 0.5m evacuated glazing consisted of two low-emittance film coated glass panes supported by an array of 0.32mm diameter pillars spaced 25mm apart, contiguously sealed by a 10mm wide metal edge seal. Thermal performance of windows employing evacuated glazing set in various complex multimaterial frames were analysed in detail. Very good agreement was found between simulations and experimental measurements of surface temperatures of the evacuated glazing window system. The heat loss from a window with an evacuated glazing and a complex multimaterial frame is about 80% of that for a window comprised of an evacuated glazing set in a single material solid frame. (author)

  1. Complex multimaterial insulating frames for windows with evacuated glazing

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yueping Fang; Eames, P.C.; Hyde, T.J. [University of Ulster, Newtonabbey (United Kingdom). Centre for Sustainable Technologies; Norton, B. [Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin (Ireland)

    2005-09-01

    The thermal performance of a complex multimaterial frame consisting of an exoskeleton framework and cavities filled with insulant materials enclosing an evacuated glazing was simulated using a two-dimensional finite element model and the results were validated experimentally using a guarded hot box calorimeter. The analysed 0.5 m by 0.5 m evacuated glazing consisted of two low-emittance film coated glass panes supported by an array of 0.32 mm diameter pillars spaced 25 mm apart, contiguously sealed by a 10 mm wide metal edge seal. Thermal performance of windows employing evacuated glazing set in various complex multimaterial frames were analysed in detail. Very good agreement was found between simulations and experimental measurements of surface temperatures of the evacuated glazing window system. The heat loss from a window with an evacuated glazing and a complex multimaterial frame is about 80% of that for a window comprised of an evacuated glazing set in a single material solid frame. (author)

  2. An Integrated Approach to Modeling Evacuation Behavior

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-02-01

    A spate of recent hurricanes and other natural disasters have drawn a lot of attention to the evacuation decision of individuals. Here we focus on evacuation models that incorporate two economic phenomena that seem to be increasingly important in exp...

  3. Aircraft industry workers in evacuation: conditions of life of evacuated plants' workers in 1941-1945

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Михаил Юрьевич Мухин

    2010-09-01

    Full Text Available The article is devoted to the work of the factories in 1941-1945 in the evacuation. The author analyzes the living conditions of workers in evacuated aviation plants, their daily life, maintenance, etc. The author concludes that in the early years of the War the conditions of life of the aviation industry's workers were very difficult, and the welfare and financial situation improved in 1944, the sure sign of fracture in the Second world war.

  4. Evacuation decision-making at three mile island

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zeigler, Donald. J.; Johnson, James. H.

    1987-01-01

    The accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in 1979 provoked an unanticipated and unprecedented spontaneous evacuation of people living in the area. Following the accident, revised and upgraded emergency preparedness and response regulations were issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. (FEMA). This includes the assumption that public education and awareness will minimise the tendency of people to evacuate spontaneously from the vicinity of an accident. This assumption is challenged. Results of an empirical test of a casual model of emergency evacuation decision-making are given. This test was devised to aid understanding of the public behaviour at the time of the Three Mile Island incident. The emergency plans for the Sizewell-B reactor are subject to brief critical consideration. It is concluded that evacuation plans need to reflect people's natural inclinations to move away from a nuclear hazard. (UK)

  5. Dual effects of pedestrian density on emergency evacuation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ma, Yi, E-mail: yima23-c@my.cityu.edu.hk [School of Transportation and Logistics, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu (China); Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon (Hong Kong); Lee, Eric Wai Ming; Yuen, Richard Kwok Kit [Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon (Hong Kong)

    2017-02-05

    This paper investigates the effect of the pedestrian density in building on the evacuation dynamic with simulation method. In the simulations, both the visibility in building and the exit limit of building are taken into account. The simulation results show that the effect of the pedestrian density in building on the evacuation dynamics is dual. On the one hand, when the visibility in building is very large, the increased pedestrian density plays a negative effect. On the other hand, when the visibility in building is very small, the increased pedestrian density can play a positive effect. The simulation results also show that when both the exit width and visibility are very small, the varying of evacuation time with regard to the pedestrian density is non-monotonous and presents a U-shaped tendency. That is, in this case, too large or too small pedestrian density in building is disadvantageous to the evacuation process. Our findings provide a new insight about the effect of the pedestrian density in building on the evacuation dynamic. - Highlights: • Pedestrian density inside buildings has dual effects on evacuation. • Increased pedestrian density has a negative effect in cases of increased visibility. • Increased pedestrian density has a positive effect in cases of decreased visibility.

  6. Dual effects of pedestrian density on emergency evacuation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ma, Yi; Lee, Eric Wai Ming; Yuen, Richard Kwok Kit

    2017-01-01

    This paper investigates the effect of the pedestrian density in building on the evacuation dynamic with simulation method. In the simulations, both the visibility in building and the exit limit of building are taken into account. The simulation results show that the effect of the pedestrian density in building on the evacuation dynamics is dual. On the one hand, when the visibility in building is very large, the increased pedestrian density plays a negative effect. On the other hand, when the visibility in building is very small, the increased pedestrian density can play a positive effect. The simulation results also show that when both the exit width and visibility are very small, the varying of evacuation time with regard to the pedestrian density is non-monotonous and presents a U-shaped tendency. That is, in this case, too large or too small pedestrian density in building is disadvantageous to the evacuation process. Our findings provide a new insight about the effect of the pedestrian density in building on the evacuation dynamic. - Highlights: • Pedestrian density inside buildings has dual effects on evacuation. • Increased pedestrian density has a negative effect in cases of increased visibility. • Increased pedestrian density has a positive effect in cases of decreased visibility.

  7. Long term mental health outcomes of Finnish children evacuated to Swedish families during the second world war and their non-evacuated siblings: cohort study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Santavirta, Torsten; Santavirta, Nina; Betancourt, Theresa S; Gilman, Stephen E

    2015-01-05

    To compare the risks of admission to hospital for any type of psychiatric disorder and for four specific psychiatric disorders among adults who as children were evacuated to Swedish foster families during the second world war and their non-evacuated siblings, and to evaluate whether these risks differ between the sexes. Cohort study. National child evacuation scheme in Finland during the second world war. Children born in Finland between 1933 and 1944 who were later included in a 10% sample of the 1950 Finnish census ascertained in 1997 (n = 45,463; women: n = 22,021; men: n = 23,442). Evacuees in the sample were identified from war time government records. Adults admitted to hospital for psychiatric disorders recorded between 1971 and 2011 in the Finnish hospital discharge register. We used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate the association between evacuation to temporary foster care in Sweden during the second world war and admission to hospital for a psychiatric disorder between ages 38 and 78 years. Fixed effects methods were employed to control for all unobserved social and genetic characteristics shared among siblings. Among men and women combined, the risk of admission to hospital for a psychiatric disorder did not differ between Finnish adults evacuated to Swedish foster families and their non-evacuated siblings (hazard ratio 0.89, 95% confidence interval 0.64 to 1.26). Evidence suggested a lower risk of admission for any mental disorder (0.67, 0.44 to 1.03) among evacuated men, whereas for women there was no association between evacuation and the overall risk of admission for a psychiatric disorder (1.21, 0.80 to 1.83). When admissions for individual psychiatric disorders were analyzed, evacuated girls were significantly more likely than their non-evacuated sisters to be admitted to hospital for a mood disorder as an adult (2.19, 1.10 to 4.33). The Finnish evacuation policy was not associated with an increased overall risk of admission to hospital

  8. Information of the Home Office for the planning of evacuations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1983-01-01

    This information contains the legal basis, scope and jurisdiction for evacuations in cases of accident. The general evacuation plan must schedule the following: private and public transport, information equipment, supply and care services, evacuation routes and traffic control checkpoints, etc. Particular evacuation plans must be established e.g. for nuclear plants and barrages. The planning is based on a survey of measures represented by a flowchart or a checklist. (HSCH) [de

  9. Multi-objective evacuation routing optimization for toxic cloud releases

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gai, Wen-mei; Deng, Yun-feng; Jiang, Zhong-an; Li, Jing; Du, Yan

    2017-01-01

    This paper develops a model for assessing the risks associated with the evacuation process in response to potential chemical accidents, based on which a multi-objective evacuation routing model for toxic cloud releases is proposed taking into account that the travel speed on each arc will be affected by disaster extension. The objectives of the evacuation routing model are to minimize travel time and individual evacuation risk along a path respectively. Two heuristic algorithms are proposed to solve the multi-objective evacuation routing model. Simulation results show the effectiveness and feasibility of the model and algorithms presented in this paper. And, the methodology with appropriate modification is suitable for supporting decisions in assessing emergency route selection in other cases (fires, nuclear accidents). - Highlights: • A model for assessing and visualizing the risks is developed. • A multi-objective evacuation routing model is proposed for toxic cloud releases. • A modified Dijkstra algorithm is designed to obtain an solution of the model. • Two heuristic algorithms have been developed as the optimization tool.

  10. Planning for spontaneous evacuation during a radiological emergency

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Johnson, J.H. Jr.

    1984-01-01

    The Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA's) radiological emergency preparedness program ignores the potential problem of spontaneous evacuation during a nuclear reactor accident. To show the importance of incorporating the emergency spatial behaviors of the population at risk in radiological emergency preparedness and response plans, this article presents empirical evidence that demonstrates the potential magnitude and geographic extent of spontaneous evacuation in the event of an accident at the Long Island Lighting Company's Shoreham Nuclear Power Station. The results indicate that, on the average, 39% of the population of Long Island is likely to evacuate spontaneously and thus to cast an evacuation shadow extending at least 25 miles beyond the plant. On the basis of these findings, necessary revisions to FEMA's radiological emergency preparedness program are outlined

  11. Dual effects of pedestrian density on emergency evacuation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, Yi; Lee, Eric Wai Ming; Yuen, Richard Kwok Kit

    2017-02-01

    This paper investigates the effect of the pedestrian density in building on the evacuation dynamic with simulation method. In the simulations, both the visibility in building and the exit limit of building are taken into account. The simulation results show that the effect of the pedestrian density in building on the evacuation dynamics is dual. On the one hand, when the visibility in building is very large, the increased pedestrian density plays a negative effect. On the other hand, when the visibility in building is very small, the increased pedestrian density can play a positive effect. The simulation results also show that when both the exit width and visibility are very small, the varying of evacuation time with regard to the pedestrian density is non-monotonous and presents a U-shaped tendency. That is, in this case, too large or too small pedestrian density in building is disadvantageous to the evacuation process. Our findings provide a new insight about the effect of the pedestrian density in building on the evacuation dynamic.

  12. Pedestrian evacuation at the subway station under fire

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiao-Xia, Yang; Hai-Rong, Dong; Xiu-Ming, Yao; Xu-Bin, Sun

    2016-04-01

    With the development of urban rail transit, ensuring the safe evacuation of pedestrians at subway stations has become an important issue in the case of an emergency such as a fire. This paper chooses the platform of line 4 at the Beijing Xuanwumen subway station to study the emergency evacuation process under fire. Based on the established platform, effects of the fire dynamics, different initial pedestrian densities, and positions of fire on evacuation are investigated. According to simulation results, it is found that the fire increases the air temperature and the smoke density, and decreases pedestrians’ visibility and walking velocity. Also, there is a critical initial density at the platform if achieving a safe evacuation within the required 6 minutes. Furthermore, different positions of fire set in this paper have little difference on crowd evacuation if the fire is not large enough. The suggestions provided in this paper are helpful for the subway operators to prevent major casualties. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61322307 and 61233001).

  13. 14 CFR 121.570 - Airplane evacuation capability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Airplane evacuation capability. 121.570... REQUIREMENTS: DOMESTIC, FLAG, AND SUPPLEMENTAL OPERATIONS Flight Operations § 121.570 Airplane evacuation capability. (a) No person may cause an airplane carrying passengers to be moved on the surface, take off, or...

  14. Solar Heating Systems with Evacuated Tubular Solar Collector

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Qin, Lin; Furbo, Simon

    1998-01-01

    Recently different designed evacuated tubular solar collectors were introduced on the market by different Chinese companies. In the present study, investigations on the performance of four different Chinese evacuated tubular collectors and of solar heating systems using these collectors were...... carried out, employing both laboratory test and theoretical calculations. The collectors were tested in a small solar domestic hot water (SDHW) system in a laboratory test facility under realistic conditions. The yearly thermal performance of solar heating systems with these evacuated tubular collectors......, as well as with normal flat-plate collectors was calculated under Danish weather conditions. It is found that, for small SDHW systems with a combi tank design, an increase of 25% -55% net utilized solar energy can be achieved by using these evacuated tubular collectors instead of normal flat...

  15. Patient-driven resource planning of a health care facility evacuation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Petinaux, Bruno; Yadav, Kabir

    2013-04-01

    The evacuation of a health care facility is a complex undertaking, especially if done in an immediate fashion, ie, within minutes. Patient factors, such as continuous medical care needs, mobility, and comprehension, will affect the efficiency of the evacuation and translate into evacuation resource needs. Prior evacuation resource estimates are 30 years old. Utilizing a cross-sectional survey of charge nurses of the clinical units in an urban, academic, adult trauma health care facility (HCF), the evacuation needs of hospitalized patients were assessed periodically over a two-year period. Survey data were collected on 2,050 patients. Units with patients having low continuous medical care needs during an emergency evacuation were the postpartum, psychiatry, rehabilitation medicine, surgical, and preoperative anesthesia care units, the Emergency Department, and Labor and Delivery Department (with the exception of patients in Stage II labor). Units with patients having high continuous medical care needs during an evacuation included the neonatal and adult intensive care units, special procedures unit, and operating and post-anesthesia care units. With the exception of the neonate group, 908 (47%) of the patients would be able to walk out of the facility, 492 (25.5%) would require a wheelchair, and 530 (27.5%) would require a stretcher to exit the HCF. A total of 1,639 patients (84.9%) were deemed able to comprehend the need to evacuate and to follow directions; the remainder were sedated, blind, or deaf. The charge nurses also determined that 17 (6.9%) of the 248 adult intensive care unit patients were too ill to survive an evacuation, and that in 10 (16.4%) of the 61 ongoing surgery cases, stopping the case was not considered to be safe. Heath care facilities can utilize the results of this study to model their anticipated resource requirements for an emergency evacuation. This will permit the Incident Management Team to mobilize the necessary resources both within

  16. Dynamics-Based Stranded-Crowd Model for Evacuation in Building Bottlenecks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lidi Huang

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available In high-density public buildings, it is difficult to evacuate. So in this paper, we propose a novel quantitative evacuation model to insure people’s safety and reduce the risk of crowding. We analyze the mechanism of arch-like clogging phenomena during evacuation and the influencing factors in emergency situations at bottleneck passages; then we design a model based on crowd dynamics and apply the model to a stadium example. The example is used to compare evacuation results of crowd density with different egress widths in stranded zones. The results show this model proposed can guide the safe and dangerous egress widths in performance design and can help evacuation routes to be selected and optimized.

  17. Uncertainty in a spatial evacuation model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mohd Ibrahim, Azhar; Venkat, Ibrahim; Wilde, Philippe De

    2017-08-01

    Pedestrian movements in crowd motion can be perceived in terms of agents who basically exhibit patient or impatient behavior. We model crowd motion subject to exit congestion under uncertainty conditions in a continuous space and compare the proposed model via simulations with the classical social force model. During a typical emergency evacuation scenario, agents might not be able to perceive with certainty the strategies of opponents (other agents) owing to the dynamic changes entailed by the neighborhood of opponents. In such uncertain scenarios, agents will try to update their strategy based on their own rules or their intrinsic behavior. We study risk seeking, risk averse and risk neutral behaviors of such agents via certain game theory notions. We found that risk averse agents tend to achieve faster evacuation time whenever the time delay in conflicts appears to be longer. The results of our simulations also comply with previous work and conform to the fact that evacuation time of agents becomes shorter once mutual cooperation among agents is achieved. Although the impatient strategy appears to be the rational strategy that might lead to faster evacuation times, our study scientifically shows that the more the agents are impatient, the slower is the egress time.

  18. Evacuation exercise at the Kindergarten

    CERN Multimedia

    2001-01-01

    Every year fire evacuation exercises are organized through out CERN and our facility's Kindergarten is no exception. Just a few weeks ago, a fire simulation was carried out in the Kindergarten kitchen facility using synthetic smoke. The purpose of the exercise was to teach staff to react in a disciplined and professional manner when in the presence of danger. The simulation is always carried out at a random time so as to ensure that people in the area under the test are not aware of the exercise. For the Kindergarten the exercise was held early in the school year so as to train those who are new to the establishment. The evacuation was a complete success and all went as it was supposed to. When the children and teachers smelt smoke they followed the prescribed evacuation routes and left the building immediately. Once outside the situation was revealed as an exercise and everyone went back to business as usual, everyone that is, except the fire brigade and fire inspector.  The fire brigade checked t...

  19. Variable population exposure and distributed travel speeds in least-cost tsunami evacuation modelling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fraser, Stuart A.; Wood, Nathan J.; Johnston, David A.; Leonard, Graham S.; Greening, Paul D.; Rossetto, Tiziana

    2014-01-01

    Evacuation of the population from a tsunami hazard zone is vital to reduce life-loss due to inundation. Geospatial least-cost distance modelling provides one approach to assessing tsunami evacuation potential. Previous models have generally used two static exposure scenarios and fixed travel speeds to represent population movement. Some analyses have assumed immediate departure or a common evacuation departure time for all exposed population. Here, a method is proposed to incorporate time-variable exposure, distributed travel speeds, and uncertain evacuation departure time into an existing anisotropic least-cost path distance framework. The method is demonstrated for hypothetical local-source tsunami evacuation in Napier City, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. There is significant diurnal variation in pedestrian evacuation potential at the suburb level, although the total number of people unable to evacuate is stable across all scenarios. Whilst some fixed travel speeds approximate a distributed speed approach, others may overestimate evacuation potential. The impact of evacuation departure time is a significant contributor to total evacuation time. This method improves least-cost modelling of evacuation dynamics for evacuation planning, casualty modelling, and development of emergency response training scenarios. However, it requires detailed exposure data, which may preclude its use in many situations.

  20. Application of Catastrophe Risk Modelling to Evacuation Public Policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woo, G.

    2009-04-01

    The decision by civic authorities to evacuate an area threatened by a natural hazard is especially fraught when the population in harm's way is extremely large, and where there is considerable uncertainty in the spatial footprint, scale, and strike time of a hazard event. Traditionally viewed as a hazard forecasting issue, civil authorities turn to scientists for advice on a potentially imminent dangerous event. However, the level of scientific confidence varies enormously from one peril and crisis situation to another. With superior observational data, meteorological and hydrological hazards are generally better forecast than geological hazards. But even with Atlantic hurricanes, the track and intensity of a hurricane can change significantly within a few hours. This complicated and delayed the decision to call an evacuation of New Orleans when threatened by Hurricane Katrina, and would present a severe dilemma if a major hurricane were appearing to head for New York. Evacuation needs to be perceived as a risk issue, requiring the expertise of catastrophe risk modellers as well as geoscientists. Faced with evidence of a great earthquake in the Indian Ocean in December 2004, seismologists were reluctant to give a tsunami warning without more direct sea observations. Yet, from a risk perspective, the risk to coastal populations would have warranted attempts at tsunami warning, even though there was significant uncertainty in the hazard forecast, and chance of a false alarm. A systematic coherent risk-based framework for evacuation decision-making exists, which weighs the advantages of an evacuation call against the disadvantages. Implicitly and qualitatively, such a cost-benefit analysis is undertaken by civic authorities whenever an evacuation is considered. With the progress in catastrophe risk modelling, such an analysis can be made explicit and quantitative, providing a transparent audit trail for the decision process. A stochastic event set, the core of a

  1. Pedestrian collective motion in competitive room evacuation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garcimartín, A; Pastor, J M; Martín-Gómez, C; Parisi, D; Zuriguel, I

    2017-09-07

    When a sizable number of people evacuate a room, if the door is not large enough, an accumulation of pedestrians in front of the exit may take place. This is the cause of emerging collective phenomena where the density is believed to be the key variable determining the pedestrian dynamics. Here, we show that when sustained contact among the individuals exists, density is not enough to describe the evacuation, and propose that at least another variable -such as the kinetic stress- is required. We recorded evacuation drills with different degrees of competitiveness where the individuals are allowed to moderately push each other in their way out. We obtain the density, velocity and kinetic stress fields over time, showing that competitiveness strongly affects them and evidencing patterns which have been never observed in previous (low pressure) evacuation experiments. For the highest competitiveness scenario, we detect the development of sudden collective motions. These movements are related to a notable increase of the kinetic stress and a reduction of the velocity towards the door, but do not depend on the density.

  2. Modelling gastric evacuation in gadoids feeding on crustaceans

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Niels Gerner; Chabot, Denis; Couturier, C. S.

    2016-01-01

    A mechanistic, prey surface-dependent model was expanded to describe the course and rate of gastric evacuation in predatory fishes feeding on crustacean prey with robust exoskeletons. This was accomplished by adding a layer of higher resistance to the digestive processes outside the inner softer...... parts of a prey cylinder abstraction and splitting up the prey evacuation into two stages: an initial stage where the exoskeleton is cracked and a second where the prey remains are digested and evacuated. The model was parameterized for crustaceans with different levels of armour fed to Atlantic cod...... and Chionoecetes opilio. In accordance with the apparent intraspecific isometric relationship between exoskeleton mass and total body mass, the model described stage duration and rate of evacuation of the crustacean prey independently of meal and prey sizes. The duration of the first stage increased (0-33 h...

  3. Analysis of community tsunami evacuation time: An overview

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yunarto, Y.; Sari, A. M.

    2018-02-01

    Tsunami in Indonesia is defined as local tsunami due to its occurrences which are within a distance of 200 km from the epicenter of the earthquake. A local tsunami can be caused by an earthquake, landslide, or volcanic eruption. Tsunami arrival time in Indonesia is generally between 10-60 minutes. As the estimated time of the tsunami waves to reach the coast is 30 minutes after the earthquake, the community should go to the vertical or horizontal evacuation in less than 30 minutes. In an evacuation, the city frequently does the evacuation after obtaining official directions from the authorities. Otherwise, they perform an independent evacuation without correct instructions from the authorities. Both of these ways have several strengths and limitations. This study analyzes these methods regarding time as well as the number of people expected to be saved.

  4. Performance analysis of a solar still coupled with evacuated heat pipes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pramod, B. V. N.; Prudhvi Raj, J.; Krishnan, S. S. Hari; Kotebavi, Vinod

    2018-02-01

    In developing countries the need for better quality drinking water is increasing steadily. We can overcome this need by using solar energy for desalination purpose. This process includes fabrication and analysis of a pyramid type solar still coupled with evacuated heat pipes. This experiment using evacuated heat pipes are carried in mainly three modes namely 1) Still alone 2) Using heat pipe with evacuated tubes 3)Using evacuated heat pipe. For this work single basin pyramid type solar still with 1m2 basin area is fabricated. Black stones and Black paint are utilised in solar still to increase evaporation rate of water in basin. The heat pipe’s evaporator section is placed inside evacuated tube and the heat pipe’s condenser section is connected directly to the pyramid type solar still’s lower portion. The output of distillate water from still with evacuated heat pipe is found to be 40% more than the still using only evacuated tubes.

  5. Computer simulation-based framework for transportation evacuation in major trip generator.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-01-01

    Since emergencies including both natural disasters and man-made incidents, are happening more and more : frequently, evacuation, especially transportation evacuation, is becoming a hot research focus in recent years. : Currently, transportation evacu...

  6. [PTSD-positive screening and factors influencing the mental state in victims evacuated/ not evacuated from Wenchuan earthquake area within 1 month].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Xueping; Luo, Xingwei

    2009-06-01

    To explore posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) positive screening and factors influencing the mental state in victims who were evacuated/were not evacuated from Wenchuan earthquake area within 1 month. The 3 groups included 235 victims who were not evacuated from Shifang territory (the incident scene, Group A), 44 victims who were evacuated to Second Xiangya Hospital (the wounded, Group B) and 36 relatives (the relatives, Group C). The mental state of all subjects was evaluated by Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) and other tools. (1) One month after the disaster, and the positive rate of PTSD screening in these survivors was 35.56%, the positive rate in women was significantly higher than that in men (chi(2)=16.27,PGender, place of residence and evacuating from the earthquake area or not were factors of PTSD symptoms. One month after the earthquake, the victims suffered psychologically. PTSD symptoms, anxiety and depression symptoms were their major mental problems, more attention to especially women victims. The protection factors include dispersing victims to the secure place as soon as possible, expanding and strengthening society support. Early psychological interventions will help victims to raise their psychological endurance and prevent PTSD effectively.

  7. Optimization-based decision support to assist in logistics planning for hospital evacuations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Glick, Roger; Bish, Douglas R; Agca, Esra

    2013-01-01

    The evacuation of the hospital is a very complex process and evacuation planning is an important part of a hospital's emergency management plan. There are numerous factors that affect the evacuation plan including the nature of threat, availability of resources and staff the characteristics of the evacuee population, and risk to patients and staff. The safety and health of patients is of fundamental importance, but safely moving patients to alternative care facilities while under threat is a very challenging task. This article describes the logistical issues and complexities involved in planning and execution of hospital evacuations. Furthermore, this article provides examples of how optimization-based decision support tools can help evacuation planners to better plan for complex evacuations by providing real-world solutions to various evacuation scenarios.

  8. Simulated Evacuations Into Water

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    McLean, Garnet

    2004-01-01

    .... Actual emergency data to support ditching certification are not available; there have been questions as to whether evacuation flow rates onto land are appropriate for use in ditching-related flotation time computations...

  9. Self-efficacy and barriers to disaster evacuation in Hong Kong.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Newnham, Elizabeth A; Balsari, Satchit; Lam, Rex Pui Kin; Kashyap, Shraddha; Pham, Phuong; Chan, Emily Y Y; Patrick, Kaylie; Leaning, Jennifer

    2017-12-01

    To investigate specific challenges to Hong Kong's capacity for effective disaster response, we assessed perceived barriers to evacuation and citizens' self-efficacy. Global positioning system software was used to determine random sampling locations across Hong Kong, weighted by population density. The resulting sample of 1023 participants (46.5% female, mean age 40.74 years) were invited to complete questionnaires on emergency preparedness, barriers to evacuation and self-efficacy. Latent profile analysis and multinomial logistic regression were used to identify self-efficacy profiles and predictors of profile membership. Only 11% of the sample reported feeling prepared to respond to a disaster. If asked to evacuate in an emergency, 41.9% of the sample cited significant issues that would preclude them from doing so. Self-efficacy was negatively associated with barriers to disaster response so that participants reporting higher levels of self-efficacy cited fewer perceived barriers to evacuation. Hong Kong has established effective strategies for emergency response, but concerns regarding evacuation and mobilisation remain. The findings indicate that improving self-efficacy for disaster response has potential to increase evacuation readiness.

  10. Sensitivity Analysis of Evacuation Speed in Hypothetical NPP Accident by Earthquake

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kim, Sung-yeop; Lim, Ho-Gon [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2016-10-15

    Effective emergency response in emergency situation of nuclear power plant (NPP) can make consequences be different therefore it is regarded important when establishing an emergency response plan and assessing the risk of hypothetical NPP accident. Situation of emergency response can be totally changed when NPP accident caused by earthquake or tsunami is considered due to the failure of roads and buildings by the disaster. In this study evacuation speed has been focused among above various factors and reasonable evacuation speed in earthquake scenario has been investigated. Finally, sensitivity analysis of evacuation speed in hypothetical NPP accident by earthquake has been performed in this study. Evacuation scenario can be entirely different in the situation of seismic hazard and the sensitivity analysis of evacuation speed in hypothetical NPP accident by earthquake has been performed in this study. Various references were investigated and earthquake evacuation model has been developed considering that evacuees may convert their evacuation method from using a vehicle to walking when they face the difficulty of using a vehicle due to intense traffic jam, failure of buildings and roads, and etc. The population dose within 5 km / 30 km have been found to be increased in earthquake situation due to decreased evacuation speed and become 1.5 - 2 times in the severest earthquake evacuation scenario set up in this study. It is not agreed that using same emergency response model which is used for normal evacuation situations when performing level 3 probabilistic safety assessment for earthquake and tsunami event. Investigation of data and sensitivity analysis for constructing differentiated emergency response model in the event of seismic hazard has been carried out in this study.

  11. Sensitivity Analysis of Evacuation Speed in Hypothetical NPP Accident by Earthquake

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Sung-yeop; Lim, Ho-Gon

    2016-01-01

    Effective emergency response in emergency situation of nuclear power plant (NPP) can make consequences be different therefore it is regarded important when establishing an emergency response plan and assessing the risk of hypothetical NPP accident. Situation of emergency response can be totally changed when NPP accident caused by earthquake or tsunami is considered due to the failure of roads and buildings by the disaster. In this study evacuation speed has been focused among above various factors and reasonable evacuation speed in earthquake scenario has been investigated. Finally, sensitivity analysis of evacuation speed in hypothetical NPP accident by earthquake has been performed in this study. Evacuation scenario can be entirely different in the situation of seismic hazard and the sensitivity analysis of evacuation speed in hypothetical NPP accident by earthquake has been performed in this study. Various references were investigated and earthquake evacuation model has been developed considering that evacuees may convert their evacuation method from using a vehicle to walking when they face the difficulty of using a vehicle due to intense traffic jam, failure of buildings and roads, and etc. The population dose within 5 km / 30 km have been found to be increased in earthquake situation due to decreased evacuation speed and become 1.5 - 2 times in the severest earthquake evacuation scenario set up in this study. It is not agreed that using same emergency response model which is used for normal evacuation situations when performing level 3 probabilistic safety assessment for earthquake and tsunami event. Investigation of data and sensitivity analysis for constructing differentiated emergency response model in the event of seismic hazard has been carried out in this study

  12. Sensitivity of tsunami evacuation modeling to direction and land cover assumptions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmidtlein, Mathew C.; Wood, Nathan J.

    2015-01-01

    Although anisotropic least-cost-distance (LCD) modeling is becoming a common tool for estimating pedestrian-evacuation travel times out of tsunami hazard zones, there has been insufficient attention paid to understanding model sensitivity behind the estimates. To support tsunami risk-reduction planning, we explore two aspects of LCD modeling as it applies to pedestrian evacuations and use the coastal community of Seward, Alaska, as our case study. First, we explore the sensitivity of modeling to the direction of movement by comparing standard safety-to-hazard evacuation times to hazard-to-safety evacuation times for a sample of 3985 points in Seward's tsunami-hazard zone. Safety-to-hazard evacuation times slightly overestimated hazard-to-safety evacuation times but the strong relationship to the hazard-to-safety evacuation times, slightly conservative bias, and shorter processing times of the safety-to-hazard approach make it the preferred approach. Second, we explore how variations in land cover speed conservation values (SCVs) influence model performance using a Monte Carlo approach with one thousand sets of land cover SCVs. The LCD model was relatively robust to changes in land cover SCVs with the magnitude of local model sensitivity greatest in areas with higher evacuation times or with wetland or shore land cover types, where model results may slightly underestimate travel times. This study demonstrates that emergency managers should be concerned not only with populations in locations with evacuation times greater than wave arrival times, but also with populations with evacuation times lower than but close to expected wave arrival times, particularly if they are required to cross wetlands or beaches.

  13. Bilevel Traffic Evacuation Model and Algorithm Design for Large-Scale Activities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Danwen Bao

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper establishes a bilevel planning model with one master and multiple slaves to solve traffic evacuation problems. The minimum evacuation network saturation and shortest evacuation time are used as the objective functions for the upper- and lower-level models, respectively. The optimizing conditions of this model are also analyzed. An improved particle swarm optimization (PSO method is proposed by introducing an electromagnetism-like mechanism to solve the bilevel model and enhance its convergence efficiency. A case study is carried out using the Nanjing Olympic Sports Center. The results indicate that, for large-scale activities, the average evacuation time of the classic model is shorter but the road saturation distribution is more uneven. Thus, the overall evacuation efficiency of the network is not high. For induced emergencies, the evacuation time of the bilevel planning model is shortened. When the audience arrival rate is increased from 50% to 100%, the evacuation time is shortened from 22% to 35%, indicating that the optimization effect of the bilevel planning model is more effective compared to the classic model. Therefore, the model and algorithm presented in this paper can provide a theoretical basis for the traffic-induced evacuation decision making of large-scale activities.

  14. Rapid health assessments of evacuation centres in areas affected by Typhoon Haiyan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ruth Alma Ramos

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Typhoon Haiyan caused thousands of deaths and catastrophic destruction, leaving many homeless in Region 8 of the Philippines. A team from the Philippine Field Epidemiology Training Program conducted a rapid health assessment survey of evacuation centres severely affected by Haiyan. Methods: A descriptive study was conducted whereby a convenience sample of evacuation centres were assessed on the number of toilets per evacuee, sanitation, drinking-water, food supply source and medical services. Results: Of the 20 evacuation centres assessed, none had a designated manager. Most were located in schools (70% with the estimated number of evacuees ranging from 15 to 5000 per centre. Only four (20% met the World Health Organization standard for number of toilets per evacuee; none of the large evacuation centres had even half the recommended number of toilets. All of the evacuation centres had available drinking-water. None of the evacuation centres had garbage collection, vector control activities or standby medical teams. Fourteen (70% evacuation centres had onsite vaccination activities for measles, tetanus and polio virus. Many evacuation centres were overcrowded. Conclusion: Evacuation centres are needed in almost every disaster. They should be safely located and equipped with the required amenities. In disaster-prone areas such as the Philippines, schools and community centres should not be designated as evacuation centres unless they are equipped with adequate sanitation services.

  15. CLEAR (Calculates Logical Evacuation And Response): A Generic Transportation Network Model for the Calculation of Evacuation Time Estimates

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Moeller, M. P.; Urbanik, II, T.; Desrosiers, A. E.

    1982-03-01

    This paper describes the methodology and application of the computer model CLEAR (Calculates Logical Evacuation And Response) which estimates the time required for a specific population density and distribution to evacuate an area using a specific transportation network. The CLEAR model simulates vehicle departure and movement on a transportation network according to the conditions and consequences of traffic flow. These include handling vehicles at intersecting road segments, calculating the velocity of travel on a road segment as a function of its vehicle density, and accounting for the delay of vehicles in traffic queues. The program also models the distribution of times required by individuals to prepare for an evacuation. In order to test its accuracy, the CLEAR model was used to estimate evacuatlon tlmes for the emergency planning zone surrounding the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Plant. The Beaver Valley site was selected because evacuation time estimates had previously been prepared by the licensee, Duquesne Light, as well as by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. A lack of documentation prevented a detailed comparison of the estimates based on the CLEAR model and those obtained by Duquesne Light. However, the CLEAR model results compared favorably with the estimates prepared by the other two agencies.

  16. Exit selection strategy in pedestrian evacuation simulation with multi-exits

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yue Hao; Zhang Bin-Ya; Shao Chun-Fu; Xing Yan

    2014-01-01

    A mixed strategy of the exit selection in a pedestrian evacuation simulation with multi-exits is constructed by fusing the distance-based and time-based strategies through a cognitive coefficient, in order to reduce the evacuation imbalance caused by the asymmetry of exits or pedestrian layout, to find a critical density to distinguish whether the strategy of exit selection takes effect or not, and to analyze the exit selection results with different cognitive coefficients. The strategy of exit selection is embedded in the computation of the shortest estimated distance in a dynamic parameter model, in which the concept of a jam area layer and the procedure of step-by-step expending are introduced. Simulation results indicate the characteristics of evacuation time gradually varying against cognitive coefficient and the effectiveness of reducing evacuation imbalance caused by the asymmetry of pedestrian or exit layout. It is found that there is a critical density to distinguish whether a pedestrian jam occurs in the evacuation and whether an exit selection strategy is in effect. It is also shown that the strategy of exit selection has no effect on the evacuation process in the no-effect phase with a low density, and that evacuation time and exit selection are dependent on the cognitive coefficient and pedestrian initial density in the in-effect phase with a high density. (general)

  17. Public assessment of the usefulness of "draft" tsunami evacuation maps from Sydney, Australia – implications for the establishment of formal evacuation plans

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    F. Dall'Osso

    2010-08-01

    Full Text Available Australia is at risk from tsunamis and recent work has identified the need for models to assess the vulnerability of exposed coastal areas – a fundamental element of the risk management process. Outputs of vulnerability assessment can be used as a baseline for the generation of tsunami prevention and mitigation measures, including evacuation maps. Having noted that no evacuation maps exist for Manly, Sydney (an area recently subjected to high resolution building vulnerability assessment by Dall'Osso et al., 2009b, we use the results of the analysis by Dall'Osso et al. (2009b to "draft" tsunami evacuation maps that could be used by the local emergency service organisations. We then interviewed 500 permanent residents of Manly in order to gain a rapid assessment on their views about the potential usefulness of the draft evacuation maps we generated. Results of the survey indicate that residents think the maps are useful and understandable, and include insights that should be considered by local government planners and emergency risk management specialists during the development of official evacuation maps (and plans in the future.

  18. Evacuation of the NET vacuum chamber

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Muller, R.A.

    1987-01-01

    Parametric calculations of the evacuation process were carried out for the NET-vacuum chamber involving two blanket designs. The results show that with an acceptable vacuum pumping capacity the required start vacuum conditions can be realized within reasonable time. The two blanket concepts do not differ remarkably in their evacuation behaviour. The remaining large pressure differences between the different locations of the vacuum chamber can be reduced if approximately 30% of the total gas flow is extracted from the heads of the blanket replacement ports

  19. Evacuation of the NET vacuum chamber

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mueller, R.

    1986-01-01

    Parametric calculations of the evacuation process were carried out for the NET-vacuum chamber involving two blanket designs. The results show that with an acceptable vacuum pumping capacity the required start vacuum conditions can be realized within reasonable time. The two blanket concepts do not differ remarkably in their evacuation behaviour. The remaining large pressure differences between the different locations of the vacuum chamber can be reduced if approximately 30% of the total gas flow is extracted from the heads of the blanket replacement ports. (author)

  20. Empirical study on social groups in pedestrian evacuation dynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    von Krüchten, Cornelia; Schadschneider, Andreas

    2017-06-01

    Pedestrian crowds often include social groups, i.e. pedestrians that walk together because of social relationships. They show characteristic configurations and influence the dynamics of the entire crowd. In order to investigate the impact of social groups on evacuations we performed an empirical study with pupils. Several evacuation runs with groups of different sizes and different interactions were performed. New group parameters are introduced which allow to describe the dynamics of the groups and the configuration of the group members quantitatively. The analysis shows a possible decrease of evacuation times for large groups due to self-ordering effects. Social groups can be approximated as ellipses that orientate along their direction of motion. Furthermore, explicitly cooperative behaviour among group members leads to a stronger aggregation of group members and an intermittent way of evacuation.

  1. Experiment and modeling of paired effect on evacuation from a three-dimensional space

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jun, Hu [MOE Key Laboratory for Urban Transportation Complex Systems Theory and Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044 (China); School of Traffic and Transportation, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044 (China); Faculty of Computer Science, Chengdu Normal University, Chengdu 611130 (China); Huijun, Sun, E-mail: hjsun1@bjtu.edu.cn [MOE Key Laboratory for Urban Transportation Complex Systems Theory and Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044 (China); School of Traffic and Transportation, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044 (China); Juan, Wei [Faculty of Computer Science, Chengdu Normal University, Chengdu 611130 (China); Xiaodan, Chen [College of Information Science and Technology, Chengdu University, Chengdu 610106 (China); Lei, You [Faculty of Computer Science, Chengdu Normal University, Chengdu 611130 (China); College of Information Science and Technology, Chengdu University, Chengdu 610106 (China); Musong, Gu [Faculty of Computer Science, Chengdu Normal University, Chengdu 611130 (China)

    2014-10-24

    A novel three-dimensional cellular automata evacuation model was proposed based on stairs factor for paired effect and variety velocities in pedestrian evacuation. In the model pedestrians' moving probability of target position at the next moment was defined based on distance profit and repulsive force profit, and evacuation strategy was elaborated in detail through analyzing variety velocities and repulsive phenomenon in moving process. At last, experiments with the simulation platform were conducted to study the relationships of evacuation time, average velocity and pedestrian velocity. The results showed that when the ratio of single pedestrian was higher in the system, the shortest route strategy was good for improving evacuation efficiency; in turn, if ratio of paired pedestrians was higher, it is good for improving evacuation efficiency to adopt strategy that avoided conflicts, and priority should be given to scattered evacuation. - Highlights: • A novel three-dimensional evacuation model was presented with stair factor. • The paired effect and variety velocities were considered in evacuation model. • The cellular automata model is improved by repulsive force.

  2. Experiment and modeling of paired effect on evacuation from a three-dimensional space

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jun, Hu; Huijun, Sun; Juan, Wei; Xiaodan, Chen; Lei, You; Musong, Gu

    2014-01-01

    A novel three-dimensional cellular automata evacuation model was proposed based on stairs factor for paired effect and variety velocities in pedestrian evacuation. In the model pedestrians' moving probability of target position at the next moment was defined based on distance profit and repulsive force profit, and evacuation strategy was elaborated in detail through analyzing variety velocities and repulsive phenomenon in moving process. At last, experiments with the simulation platform were conducted to study the relationships of evacuation time, average velocity and pedestrian velocity. The results showed that when the ratio of single pedestrian was higher in the system, the shortest route strategy was good for improving evacuation efficiency; in turn, if ratio of paired pedestrians was higher, it is good for improving evacuation efficiency to adopt strategy that avoided conflicts, and priority should be given to scattered evacuation. - Highlights: • A novel three-dimensional evacuation model was presented with stair factor. • The paired effect and variety velocities were considered in evacuation model. • The cellular automata model is improved by repulsive force

  3. Dispositional and situational variables related to evacuation at Three Mile Island

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miller, I.S.

    1981-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to explore some of the factors influential in local residents' evacuating or remaining in the Three Mile Island area during the nuclear power plant accident of March, 1979. Investigated variables included individuals' behavioral dispositions to attend or to avoid threatening stimuli as well as situational concerns related to demographic characteristics and subjective experience. Investigation of situational variables also probed respondents' concerns about accident-related fears. Two main relationships were investigated. The first hypothesized that positive relationships existed both between dispositional attention to threat and evacuation and between dispositional avoidance of threat and remaining. The second investigation task of the research explored evacuation-related situational variables in regard to individuals' awareness of potential danger at TMI. No support was found for the hypothesized relationships between evacuation and dispositions relative to threat. Situational variables significantly related to evacuation included: specific directives to evacuate the area; disruption of telephone service during the week of the accident; and household proximity to TMI

  4. Who evacuates when hurricanes approach? The role of risk, information, and location.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stein, Robert M; Dueñas-Osorio, Leonardo; Subramanian, Devika

    2010-01-01

    This article offers an expanded perspective on evacuation decision making during severe weather. In particular, this work focuses on uncovering determinants of individual evacuation decisions. We draw on a survey conducted in 2005 of residents in the eight-county Houston metropolitan area after Hurricane Rita made landfall on September 24, 2005. We find that evacuation decisions are influenced by a heterogeneous set of parameters, including perceived risk from wind, influence of media and neighbors, and awareness of evacuation zone, that are often at variance with one of the primary measures of risk used by public officials to order or recommend an evacuation (i.e., storm surge). We further find that perceived risk and its influence on evacuation behavior is a local phenomenon more readily communicated by and among individuals who share the same geography, as is the case with residents living inside and outside official risk areas. Who evacuates and why is partially dependent on where one lives because perceptions of risk are not uniformly shared across the area threatened by an approaching hurricane and the same sources and content of information do not have the same effect on evacuation behavior. Hence, efforts to persuade residential populations about risk and when, where, and how to evacuate or shelter in place should originate in the neighborhood rather than emanating from blanket statements from the media or public officials. Our findings also raise important policy questions (included in the discussion section) that require further study and consideration by those responsible with organizing and implementing evacuation plans.

  5. Agent-based Modeling with MATSim for Hazards Evacuation Planning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones, J. M.; Ng, P.; Henry, K.; Peters, J.; Wood, N. J.

    2015-12-01

    Hazard evacuation planning requires robust modeling tools and techniques, such as least cost distance or agent-based modeling, to gain an understanding of a community's potential to reach safety before event (e.g. tsunami) arrival. Least cost distance modeling provides a static view of the evacuation landscape with an estimate of travel times to safety from each location in the hazard space. With this information, practitioners can assess a community's overall ability for timely evacuation. More information may be needed if evacuee congestion creates bottlenecks in the flow patterns. Dynamic movement patterns are best explored with agent-based models that simulate movement of and interaction between individual agents as evacuees through the hazard space, reacting to potential congestion areas along the evacuation route. The multi-agent transport simulation model MATSim is an agent-based modeling framework that can be applied to hazard evacuation planning. Developed jointly by universities in Switzerland and Germany, MATSim is open-source software written in Java and freely available for modification or enhancement. We successfully used MATSim to illustrate tsunami evacuation challenges in two island communities in California, USA, that are impacted by limited escape routes. However, working with MATSim's data preparation, simulation, and visualization modules in an integrated development environment requires a significant investment of time to develop the software expertise to link the modules and run a simulation. To facilitate our evacuation research, we packaged the MATSim modules into a single application tailored to the needs of the hazards community. By exposing the modeling parameters of interest to researchers in an intuitive user interface and hiding the software complexities, we bring agent-based modeling closer to practitioners and provide access to the powerful visual and analytic information that this modeling can provide.

  6. Tsunami evacuation mathematical model for the city of Padang

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kusdiantara, R.; Hadianti, R.; Badri Kusuma, M. S.; Soewono, E.

    2012-01-01

    Tsunami is a series of wave trains which travels with high speed on the sea surface. This traveling wave is caused by the displacement of a large volume of water after the occurrence of an underwater earthquake or volcano eruptions. The speed of tsunami decreases when it reaches the sea shore along with the increase of its amplitudes. Two large tsunamis had occurred in the last decades in Indonesia with huge casualties and large damages. Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System has been installed along the west coast of Sumatra. This early warning system will give about 10-15 minutes to evacuate people from high risk regions to the safe areas. Here in this paper, a mathematical model for Tsunami evacuation is presented with the city of Padang as a study case. In the model, the safe areas are chosen from the existing and selected high rise buildings, low risk region with relatively high altitude and (proposed to be built) a flyover ring road. Each gathering points are located in the radius of approximately 1 km from the ring road. The model is formulated as an optimization problem with the total normalized evacuation time as the objective function. The constraints consist of maximum allowable evacuation time in each route, maximum capacity of each safe area, and the number of people to be evacuated. The optimization problem is solved numerically using linear programming method with Matlab. Numerical results are shown for various evacuation scenarios for the city of Padang.

  7. Tsunami evacuation mathematical model for the city of Padang

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kusdiantara, R.; Hadianti, R.; Badri Kusuma, M. S.; Soewono, E. [Department of Mathematics Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung 40132 (Indonesia); Department of Civil Engineering Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung 40132 (Indonesia); Department of Mathematics Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung 40132 (Indonesia)

    2012-05-22

    Tsunami is a series of wave trains which travels with high speed on the sea surface. This traveling wave is caused by the displacement of a large volume of water after the occurrence of an underwater earthquake or volcano eruptions. The speed of tsunami decreases when it reaches the sea shore along with the increase of its amplitudes. Two large tsunamis had occurred in the last decades in Indonesia with huge casualties and large damages. Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System has been installed along the west coast of Sumatra. This early warning system will give about 10-15 minutes to evacuate people from high risk regions to the safe areas. Here in this paper, a mathematical model for Tsunami evacuation is presented with the city of Padang as a study case. In the model, the safe areas are chosen from the existing and selected high rise buildings, low risk region with relatively high altitude and (proposed to be built) a flyover ring road. Each gathering points are located in the radius of approximately 1 km from the ring road. The model is formulated as an optimization problem with the total normalized evacuation time as the objective function. The constraints consist of maximum allowable evacuation time in each route, maximum capacity of each safe area, and the number of people to be evacuated. The optimization problem is solved numerically using linear programming method with Matlab. Numerical results are shown for various evacuation scenarios for the city of Padang.

  8. The validation of evacuation simulation models through the analysis of behavioural uncertainty

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lovreglio, Ruggiero; Ronchi, Enrico; Borri, Dino

    2014-01-01

    Both experimental and simulation data on fire evacuation are influenced by a component of uncertainty caused by the impact of the unexplained variance in human behaviour, namely behavioural uncertainty (BU). Evacuation model validation studies should include the study of this type of uncertainty during the comparison of experiments and simulation results. An evacuation model validation procedure is introduced in this paper to study the impact of BU. This methodology is presented through a case study for the comparison between repeated experimental data and simulation results produced by FDS+Evac, an evacuation model for the simulation of human behaviour in fire, which makes use of distribution laws. - Highlights: • Validation of evacuation models is investigated. • Quantitative evaluation of behavioural uncertainty is performed. • A validation procedure is presented through an evacuation case study

  9. Pathways toward a low cost evacuated collector system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hull, J. R.; Schertz, W. W.; Allen, J. W.; Ogallagher, J. J.; Winston, R.

    The goal of widespread use of solar thermal collectors will only be achieved when they are proven to be economically superior to competing energy sources. Evacuated tubular collectors appear to have the potential to achieve this goal. An advanced evacuated collector using nonimaging concentration under development at the University of Chicago and Argonne can achieve a 50% seasonal efficiency at heat delivery temperatures in excess of 170C. The same collector has an optical efficiency so that low temperature performance is also excellent. In this advanced collector design all of the critical components are enclosed in the vacuum, and the collector has an inherently long lifetime. The current cost of evacuated systems is too high, mainly because the volume of production has been too low to realize economies of mass production. It appears that certain design features of evacuated collectors can be changed (e.g., use of heat pipe absorbers) so as to introduce new system design and market strategy options that can reduce the balance of system cost.

  10. Simulation of the shopping center 'Zona I' evacuation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jevtić Radoje B.

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available One of the most important and the most complex tasks in human protection and human safety in objects is the projecting of the object evacuation. There are many factors that could effect on the opportune living of object such as object assignment, arrangement of rooms, arrangement of furniture, arrangement of exits, occupant speed and many other that human lives and material properties depend on. This is very important for objects with great number of humans, such as high residential objects, shopping centers, schools, hospitals etc. This paper has written to show the possible evacuation situations and calculate minimal time for evacuation in case of the shopping center 'Zona I' in Niš.

  11. Evacuation exercise at the CERN Kindergarten

    CERN Document Server

    2001-01-01

    Every year fire evacuation exercises are organized through out CERN and our facility's Kindergarten is no exception. Just a few weeks ago, a fire simulation was carried out in the Kindergarten kitchen facility using synthetic smoke. The purpose of the exercise was to teach staff to react in a disciplined and professional manner when in the presence of danger. The simulation is always carried out at a random time so as to ensure that people in the area under the test are not aware of the exercise. For the Kindergarten the exercise was held early in the school year so as to train those who are new to the establishment. The evacuation was a complete success and all went as it was supposed to. When the children and teachers smelt smoke they followed the prescribed evacuation routes and left the building immediately. Once outside the situation was revealed as an exercise and everyone went back to business as usual, everyone that is, except the fire brigade and fire inspector. The fire brigade checked that the buil...

  12. A Simulation-Based Dynamic Stochastic Route Choice Model for Evacuation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xing Zhao

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper establishes a dynamic stochastic route choice model for evacuation to simulate the propagation process of traffic flow and estimate the stochastic route choice under evacuation situations. The model contains a lane-group-based cell transmission model (CTM which sets different traffic capacities for links with different turning movements to flow out in an evacuation situation, an actual impedance model which is to obtain the impedance of each route in time units at each time interval and a stochastic route choice model according to the probit-based stochastic user equilibrium. In this model, vehicles loading at each origin at each time interval are assumed to choose an evacuation route under determinate road network, signal design, and OD demand. As a case study, the proposed model is validated on the network nearby Nanjing Olympic Center after the opening ceremony of the 10th National Games of the People's Republic of China. The traffic volumes and clearing time at five exit points of the evacuation zone are calculated by the model to compare with survey data. The results show that this model can appropriately simulate the dynamic route choice and evolution process of the traffic flow on the network in an evacuation situation.

  13. A spatiotemporal optimization model for the evacuation of the population exposed to flood hazard

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alaeddine, H.; Serrhini, K.; Maizia, M.

    2015-03-01

    Managing the crisis caused by natural disasters, and especially by floods, requires the development of effective evacuation systems. An effective evacuation system must take into account certain constraints, including those related to traffic network, accessibility, human resources and material equipment (vehicles, collecting points, etc.). The main objective of this work is to provide assistance to technical services and rescue forces in terms of accessibility by offering itineraries relating to rescue and evacuation of people and property. We consider in this paper the evacuation of an urban area of medium size exposed to the hazard of flood. In case of inundation, most people will be evacuated using their own vehicles. Two evacuation types are addressed in this paper: (1) a preventive evacuation based on a flood forecasting system and (2) an evacuation during the disaster based on flooding scenarios. The two study sites on which the developed evacuation model is applied are the Tours valley (Fr, 37), which is protected by a set of dikes (preventive evacuation), and the Gien valley (Fr, 45), which benefits from a low rate of flooding (evacuation before and during the disaster). Our goal is to construct, for each of these two sites, a chronological evacuation plan, i.e., computing for each individual the departure date and the path to reach the assembly point (also called shelter) according to a priority list established for this purpose. The evacuation plan must avoid the congestion on the road network. Here we present a spatiotemporal optimization model (STOM) dedicated to the evacuation of the population exposed to natural disasters and more specifically to flood risk.

  14. A Study of Flood Evacuation Center Using GIS and Remote Sensing Technique

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mustaffa, A. A.; Rosli, M. F.; Abustan, M. S.; Adib, R.; Rosli, M. I.; Masiri, K.; Saifullizan, B.

    2016-07-01

    This research demonstrated the use of Remote Sensing technique and GIS to determine the suitability of an evacuation center. This study was conducted in Batu Pahat areas that always hit by a series of flood. The data of Digital Elevation Model (DEM) was obtained by ASTER database that has been used to delineate extract contour line and elevation. Landsat 8 image was used for classification purposes such as land use map. Remote Sensing incorporate with GIS techniques was used to determined the suitability location of the evacuation center from contour map of flood affected areas in Batu Pahat. GIS will calculate the elevation of the area and information about the country of the area, the road access and percentage of the affected area. The flood affected area map may provide the suitability of the flood evacuation center during the several levels of flood. The suitability of evacuation centers can be determined based on several criteria and the existing data of the evacuation center will be analysed. From the analysis among 16 evacuation center listed, there are only 8 evacuation center suitable for the usage during emergency situation. The suitability analysis was based on the location and the road access of the evacuation center toward the flood affected area. There are 10 new locations with suitable criteria of evacuation center proposed on the study area to facilitate the process of rescue and evacuating flood victims to much safer and suitable locations. The results of this study will help in decision making processes and indirectly will help organization such as fire-fighter and the Department of Social Welfare in their work. Thus, this study can contribute more towards the society.

  15. Initial management of hospital evacuations caused by Hurricane Rita: a systematic investigation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Downey, Erin L; Andress, Knox; Schultz, Carl H

    2013-06-01

    Hurricanes remain a major threat to hospitals throughout the world. The authors attempted to identify the planning areas that impact hospital management of evacuations and the challenges faced when sheltering-in-place. This observational, retrospective cohort study examined acute care institutions from one hospital system impacted by Hurricane Rita in 2005. Investigators used a standardized survey instrument and interview process, previously used in the hospital evacuation context, to examine hospitals' initial internal situational awareness and subsequent decision making that resulted in evacuation due to Hurricane Rita. Participants from each hospital included representatives from senior leadership and clinical and nonclinical staff that comprised the Incident Management Team (IMT). The main measured outcomes were responses to 95 questions contained in the survey. Seven of ten eligible hospitals participated in the study. All facilities evacuated the sickest patients first. The most significant factors prompting evacuation were the issuing of mandatory evacuation orders, storm dynamics (category, projected path, storm surge), and loss of regional communications. Hospitals that sheltered-in-place experienced staff shortages, interruptions to electrical power, and loss of water supplies. Three fully-evacuated institutions experienced understaffing of 40%-60%, and four hospitals sustained depressed staffing levels for over four weeks. Five hospitals lost electricity for a mean of 4.8 days (range .5-11 days). All facilities continued to receive patients to their Emergency Departments (EDs) while conducting their own evacuation. Hospital EDs should plan for continuous patient arrival during evacuation. Emergency Operation Plans (EOPs) that anticipate challenges associated with evacuation will help to maximize initial decision making and management during a crisis situation. Hospitals that shelter-in-place face critical shortages and must provide independent patient

  16. Simulating the effects of social networks on a population's hurricane evacuation participation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Widener, Michael J.; Horner, Mark W.; Metcalf, Sara S.

    2013-04-01

    Scientists have noted that recent shifts in the earth's climate have resulted in more extreme weather events, like stronger hurricanes. Such powerful storms disrupt societal function and result in a tremendous number of casualties, as demonstrated by recent hurricane experience in the US Planning for and facilitating evacuations of populations forecast to be impacted by hurricanes is perhaps the most effective strategy for reducing risk. A potentially important yet relatively unexplored facet of people's evacuation decision-making involves the interpersonal communication processes that affect whether at-risk residents decide to evacuate. While previous research has suggested that word-of-mouth effects are limited, data supporting these assertions were collected prior to the widespread adoption of digital social media technologies. This paper argues that the influence of social network effects on evacuation decisions should be revisited given the potential of new social media for impacting and augmenting information dispersion through real-time interpersonal communication. Using geographic data within an agent-based model of hurricane evacuation in Bay County, Florida, we examine how various types of social networks influence participation in evacuation. It is found that strategies for encouraging evacuation should consider the social networks influencing individuals during extreme events, as it can be used to increase the number of evacuating residents.

  17. A Method for Formulizing Disaster Evacuation Demand Curves Based on SI Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yulei Song

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available The prediction of evacuation demand curves is a crucial step in the disaster evacuation plan making, which directly affects the performance of the disaster evacuation. In this paper, we discuss the factors influencing individual evacuation decision making (whether and when to leave and summarize them into four kinds: individual characteristics, social influence, geographic location, and warning degree. In the view of social contagion of decision making, a method based on Susceptible-Infective (SI model is proposed to formulize the disaster evacuation demand curves to address both social influence and other factors’ effects. The disaster event of the “Tianjin Explosions” is used as a case study to illustrate the modeling results influenced by the four factors and perform the sensitivity analyses of the key parameters of the model. Some interesting phenomena are found and discussed, which is meaningful for authorities to make specific evacuation plans. For example, due to the lower social influence in isolated communities, extra actions might be taken to accelerate evacuation process in those communities.

  18. Evacuation and Sheltering of Hospitals in Emergencies: A Review of International Experience

    OpenAIRE

    Bagaria, Jayshree; Heggie, Caroline; Abrahams, Jonathan; Murray, Virginia

    2017-01-01

    Abstract Objective: A scoping exercise to establish how common hospital evacuations are, identify hospital evacuation policies and review case studies to identify trig-gers, processes and challenges involved in the evacuation of hospitals globally. Design: A systematic search of PubMed and disaster agency online resources, search of grey literature and media reports. Results: This study showed that hospitals are vulnerable to both natural and man made disasters and that hospital evacuations d...

  19. Evacuation of Hospitals during Disaster, Establishment of a Field Hospital, and Communication

    OpenAIRE

    Tekin, Erdal; Bayramoglu, Atif; Uzkeser, Mustafa; Cakir, Zeynep

    2017-01-01

    The buildings, working personnel, and patients and their relatives may directly or indirectly be affected by the disasters. Here we will discuss evacuation, establishing a field hospital, communication, the role of the media in disasters, and defending against sabotage. The affected individuals should be evacuated and transferred to secure zones safely and rapidly. How the decision for evacuation should be made and how the evacuation triage should be performed are important issues. Field hosp...

  20. Endoscopic burr hole evacuation of an acute subdural hematoma.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Codd, Patrick J; Venteicher, Andrew S; Agarwalla, Pankaj K; Kahle, Kristopher T; Jho, David H

    2013-12-01

    Acute subdural hematoma evacuations frequently necessitate large craniotomies with extended operative times and high relative blood loss, which can lead to additional morbidity for the patient. While endoscopic minimally invasive approaches to chronic subdural collections have been successfully demonstrated, this technique has not previously been applied to acute subdural hematomas. The authors report their experience with an 87-year-old patient presenting with a large acute right-sided subdural hematoma successfully evacuated via an endoscopic minimally invasive technique. The operative approach is outlined, and the literature on endoscopic subdural collection evacuation reviewed. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  1. War casualties: recent trends in evacuation, triage and the golden hour

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Safdar, C. A.

    2010-01-01

    Prompt medical treatment and early evacuation is the goal of military medicine in the battlefield. 'Triage' is a process of sorting the casualties according to the severity of injury and the prioritization of treatment. In trauma management 'Golden Hour' is the first sixty minutes or so after injury; this emphasizes that the chances of the victim's survival are the greatest if definitive care is given as early as possible. Our evacuation protocols follow the triage but the time to treatment is beyond sixty minutes. Many Armies have developed evacuation systems which allow the casualty to be seen within this specified time. This has been achieved by streamlining the evacuation chain, extensive incorporation of air transport and training of paramedics in advanced life support measures. In line with the modern trends we need to modernize our own system of casualty evacuation and treatment. (author)

  2. Effectiveness and risks associated with sheltering and evacuation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mohseni, A.; McKenna, T.

    1995-01-01

    The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have assessed the risks and benefits associated with evacuation and sheltering following a severe reactor accident. In the case of a severe accident and the associated uncertainties with the source term and containment behaviour, these assessments suggest that prompt evacuation of areas close to the plant offers the highest protection of the public against acute doses. Sheltering may be used as an alternative in special circumstances where evacuation may not be feasible. The source term associated with reactor accidents and containment failure mechanism affect the effectiveness of different protective measures. A comparison of different protective measures is made and results discussed. (Author). 9 refs., 4 figs., 2 tabs

  3. A Simple Evacuation Modeling and Simulation Tool for First Responders

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Koch, Daniel B [ORNL; Payne, Patricia W [ORNL

    2015-01-01

    Although modeling and simulation of mass evacuations during a natural or man-made disaster is an on-going and vigorous area of study, tool adoption by front-line first responders is uneven. Some of the factors that account for this situation include cost and complexity of the software. For several years, Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been actively developing the free Incident Management Preparedness and Coordination Toolkit (IMPACT) to address these issues. One of the components of IMPACT is a multi-agent simulation module for area-based and path-based evacuations. The user interface is designed so that anyone familiar with typical computer drawing tools can quickly author a geospatially-correct evacuation visualization suitable for table-top exercises. Since IMPACT is designed for use in the field where network communications may not be available, quick on-site evacuation alternatives can be evaluated to keep pace with a fluid threat situation. Realism is enhanced by incorporating collision avoidance into the simulation. Statistics are gathered as the simulation unfolds, including most importantly time-to-evacuate, to help first responders choose the best course of action.

  4. Evacuation Risks: a tentative approach for quantification

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bastien, M.C.; Dumas, M.; Laporte, J; Parmentier, N.

    1985-01-01

    This study tries to assess the risk of deaths and injuries from motor vehicle accidents associated with an evacuation of population groups in case of nuclear plant accidents. The risk per person-km is evaluated using: (a) data from previous evacuation: information from Soufriere evacuation (Guadeloupe Island 1976) and Mississauga (1979), added to Hans and Sell's data: no road accident occurred for a sample of 1,500,000 persons; (b) national recording system for motor vehicle accident: the rates of 2.2 10 -8 deaths per person-km and 32 10 -8 injuries per person-km is calculated as an average. These last rates in France overestimate the number of casualties. A reasonable hypothesis is to assume that the probability of road accident occurrence follows a Poisson distribution, as these events are independent and unfrequent, as no accident was observed in a sample of 1,500,000 persons the probability is between 0 and an upper value of 0.24 10 -8 deaths per person-km and 3.29 10 -8 injuries per person-km. The average and maximum population involved within different radii around French and U.S. Nuclear power sites are taken as a sample size in order to study the total risk of deaths and injuries in the hypothesis of an evacuation being necessary to protect the populations

  5. Tsunami evacuation analysis, modelling and planning: application to the coastal area of El Salvador

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gonzalez-Riancho, Pino; Aguirre-Ayerbe, Ignacio; Aniel-Quiroga, Iñigo; Abad Herrero, Sheila; González Rodriguez, Mauricio; Larreynaga, Jeniffer; Gavidia, Francisco; Quetzalcoalt Gutiérrez, Omar; Álvarez-Gómez, Jose Antonio; Medina Santamaría, Raúl

    2014-05-01

    Advances in the understanding and prediction of tsunami impacts allow the development of risk reduction strategies for tsunami-prone areas. Conducting adequate tsunami risk assessments is essential, as the hazard, vulnerability and risk assessment results allow the identification of adequate, site-specific and vulnerability-oriented risk management options, with the formulation of a tsunami evacuation plan being one of the main expected results. An evacuation plan requires the analysis of the territory and an evaluation of the relevant elements (hazard, population, evacuation routes, and shelters), the modelling of the evacuation, and the proposal of alternatives for those communities located in areas with limited opportunities for evacuation. Evacuation plans, which are developed by the responsible authorities and decision makers, would benefit from a clear and straightforward connection between the scientific and technical information from tsunami risk assessments and the subsequent risk reduction options. Scientifically-based evacuation plans would translate into benefits for the society in terms of mortality reduction. This work presents a comprehensive framework for the formulation of tsunami evacuation plans based on tsunami vulnerability assessment and evacuation modelling. This framework considers (i) the hazard aspects (tsunami flooding characteristics and arrival time), (ii) the characteristics of the exposed area (people, shelters and road network), (iii) the current tsunami warning procedures and timing, (iv) the time needed to evacuate the population, and (v) the identification of measures to improve the evacuation process, such as the potential location for vertical evacuation shelters and alternative routes. The proposed methodological framework aims to bridge the gap between risk assessment and risk management in terms of tsunami evacuation, as it allows for an estimation of the degree of evacuation success of specific management options, as well as

  6. Prey exoskeletons influence the course of gastric evacuation in Atlantic cod Gadus morhua

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Couturier, C. S.; Andersen, N. G.; Audet, C.

    2013-01-01

    species, Pandalus borealis, Pandalus montagui and Eualus macilentus, and the crab Chionoecetes opilio, were evacuated from the stomach at different rates. The duration of all stages increased with increasing ash (and carbonate) content of the fresh prey. Thickness, chemical composition and morphology...... of the prey exoskeleton all affected gastric evacuation: duration of initial delay, overall evacuation rate and a decreased evacuation rate at the end of the process. The power exponential function (PEF), with its shape parameter, described the course of evacuation for these prey types well, especially...

  7. Study of evacuation times based on recent accident history

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mills, G.S.; Neuhauser, K.S.

    1995-01-01

    A key parameter in the calculation of accident dose-risks by the RADTRAN 4 code is the time assigned for evacuation of the affected area surrounding the accident. Currently, in the interest of assured conservatism, this time is set at 24 hrs. Casual anecdotal evidence has indicated that this value is overly conservative and results in assignment of overly conservative estimates of accident dose-risk. Therefore, a survey of recent truck accidents involving various hazardous materials which required evacuation of surrounding populations reported in various news media was undertaken. Accounts of pertinent scenarios were gleaned from databases citing newspapers and other periodicals, and the local authorities involved in each were contacted to get details of the evacuation including time required. This paper presents the data obtained in the study and the resultant mean evacuation time plus limits and factors influencing specific results together with conclusions regarding the appropriate value to be used in the RADTRAN 4 code

  8. Social influence on evacuation behavior in real and virtual environments

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Max Kinateder

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Virtual reality (VR is a promising tool to study evacuation behavior as it allows experimentally controlled, safe simulation of otherwise dangerous situations. However, validation studies comparing evacuation behavior in real and virtual environments are still scarce. We compare the decision to evacuate in response to a fire alarm in matched physical and virtual environments. 150 participants were tested individually in a one-trial experiment in one of three conditions. In the Control condition, the fire alarm sounded while the participant performed a bogus perceptual matching task. In the Passive bystander condition, the participant performed the task together with a confederate who ignored the fire alarm. In the Active bystander condition, the confederate left the room when the fire alarm went off. Half of the participants in each condition experienced the scenario in the real laboratory, and the other half in a matched virtual environment with a virtual bystander, presented in a head-mounted display. The active bystander group was more likely to evacuate, and the passive bystander group less likely to evacuate, than the control group. This pattern of social influence was observed in both the real and virtual environments, although the overall response to the virtual alarm was reduced; positive influence was comparable, whereas negative influence was weaker in VR. We found no reliable gender effects for the participant or the bystander. These findings extend the bystander effect to the decision to evacuate, revealing a positive as well as the previous negative social influence. The results support the ecological validity of VR as a research tool to study evacuation behavior in emergency situations, with the caveat that effect sizes may be smaller in VR.

  9. Chemical Agents: Facts about Evacuation

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... What CDC is Doing Blog: Public Health Matters Chemical Agents: Facts About Evacuation Format: Select One PDF [ ... on Facebook Tweet Share Compartir Some kinds of chemical accidents or attacks, such as a train derailment ...

  10. Spatial memory enhances the evacuation efficiency of virtual pedestrians under poor visibility condition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, Yi; Lee, Eric Wai Ming; Shi, Meng; Kwok Kit Yuen, Richard

    2018-03-01

    Spatial memory is a critical navigation support tool for disoriented evacuees during evacuation under adverse environmental conditions such as dark or smoky conditions. Owing to the complexity of memory, it is challenging to understand the effect of spatial memory on pedestrian evacuation quantitatively. In this study, we propose a simple method to quantitatively represent the evacueeʼs spatial memory about the emergency exit, model the evacuation of pedestrians under the guidance of the spatial memory, and investigate the effect of the evacueeʼs spatial memory on the evacuation from theoretical and physical perspectives. The result shows that (i) a good memory can significantly assist the evacuation of pedestrians under poor visibility conditions, and the evacuation can always succeed when the degree of the memory exceeds a threshold (\\varphi > 0.5); (ii) the effect of memory is superior to that of “follow-the-crowd” under the same environmental conditions; (iii) in the case of multiple exits, the difference in the degree of the memory between evacuees has a significant effect (the greater the difference, the faster the evacuation) for the evacuation under poor visibility conditions. Our study provides a new quantitative insight into the effect of spatial memory on crowd evacuation under poor visibility conditions. Project supported by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Grant No. 11203615).

  11. Aero-medical evacuation from the second Israel-Lebanon war: a descriptive study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schwartz, Dagan; Resheff, Avram; Geftler, Alex; Weiss, Aviram; Birenbaum, Erez; Lavon, Ophir

    2009-05-01

    The second Lebanon war started as a limited operation and progressed to a large-scale campaign. Most of the fighting took place in mountainous villages and small towns inhabited with civilians. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Airborne rescue and evacuation unit is charged with air evacuation of soldiers and civilians in times of peace, limited conflict, and war. We describe this unit's activities in the second Lebanon war, analyzing injury, treatment, and evacuation characteristics Data were collected from flight medical reports, debriefings of aero-medical team members (usually immediately upon return from mission), ground units medical reports and debriefings, and hospital records. 725 IDF soldiers were injured and 117 killed either in Lebanon or near the Israeli-Lebanese border during the war. A total of 338 (46%) were evacuated in 95 airlifts (averaging 4.5 evacuees per airlift) from the fighting zones or the border. Air evacuation used dedicated helicopters with advanced care capacities, and most victims were evacuated straight from the battlefield, as the fighting was ensuing. Many wounded first received advanced medical care upon the arrival of the aero-medical teams. In military operations within civilian populated areas with threats to ground transport, air evacuation can sometimes be the only readily available option. Providing timely ground advanced medical care proved difficult in many instances. Thus, for many, the rescue helicopter was the first point of access to such care. Aero-medical aircrafts and personnel faced threats from gunfire and missiles, causing both delays in evacuation and a high average number of evacuees per airlift. This article proposes ways of coping with situations in which similar rescue and evacuation problems are likely.

  12. Leveraging Twitter to gauge evacuation compliance: Spatiotemporal analysis of Hurricane Matthew.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martín, Yago; Li, Zhenlong; Cutter, Susan L

    2017-01-01

    Hurricane Matthew was the deadliest Atlantic storm since Katrina in 2005 and prompted one of the largest recent hurricane evacuations along the Southeastern coast of the United States. The storm and its projected landfall triggered a massive social media reaction. Using Twitter data, this paper examines the spatiotemporal variability in social media response and develops a novel approach to leverage geotagged tweets to assess the evacuation responses of residents. The approach involves the retrieval of tweets from the Twitter Stream, the creation and filtering of different datasets, and the statistical and spatial processing and treatment to extract, plot and map the results. As expected, peak Twitter response was reached during the pre-impact and preparedness phase, and decreased abruptly after the passage of the storm. A comparison between two time periods-pre-evacuation (October 2th-4th) and post-evacuation (October 7th-9th)-indicates that 54% of Twitter users moved away from the coast to a safer location, with observed differences by state on the timing of the evacuation. A specific sub-state analysis of South Carolina illustrated overall compliance with evacuation orders and detailed information on the timing of departure from the coast as well as the destination location. These findings advance the use of big data and citizen-as-sensor approaches for public safety issues, providing an effective and near real-time alternative for measuring compliance with evacuation orders.

  13. Leveraging Twitter to gauge evacuation compliance: Spatiotemporal analysis of Hurricane Matthew.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yago Martín

    Full Text Available Hurricane Matthew was the deadliest Atlantic storm since Katrina in 2005 and prompted one of the largest recent hurricane evacuations along the Southeastern coast of the United States. The storm and its projected landfall triggered a massive social media reaction. Using Twitter data, this paper examines the spatiotemporal variability in social media response and develops a novel approach to leverage geotagged tweets to assess the evacuation responses of residents. The approach involves the retrieval of tweets from the Twitter Stream, the creation and filtering of different datasets, and the statistical and spatial processing and treatment to extract, plot and map the results. As expected, peak Twitter response was reached during the pre-impact and preparedness phase, and decreased abruptly after the passage of the storm. A comparison between two time periods-pre-evacuation (October 2th-4th and post-evacuation (October 7th-9th-indicates that 54% of Twitter users moved away from the coast to a safer location, with observed differences by state on the timing of the evacuation. A specific sub-state analysis of South Carolina illustrated overall compliance with evacuation orders and detailed information on the timing of departure from the coast as well as the destination location. These findings advance the use of big data and citizen-as-sensor approaches for public safety issues, providing an effective and near real-time alternative for measuring compliance with evacuation orders.

  14. An Evaluation of Infrastructure for Tsunami Evacuation in Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cedillos, V.; Canney, N.; Deierlein, G.; Diposaptono, S.; Geist, E. L.; Henderson, S.; Ismail, F.; Jachowski, N.; McAdoo, B. G.; Muhari, A.; Natawidjaja, D. H.; Sieh, K. E.; Toth, J.; Tucker, B. E.; Wood, K.

    2009-12-01

    Padang has one of the world’s highest tsunami risks due to its high hazard, vulnerable terrain and population density. The current strategy to prepare for tsunamis in Padang is focused on developing early warning systems, planning evacuation routes, conducting evacuation drills, and raising local awareness. Although these are all necessary, they are insufficient. Padang’s proximity to the Sunda Trench and flat terrain make reaching safe ground impossible for much of the population. The natural warning in Padang - a strong earthquake that lasts over a minute - will be the first indicator of a potential tsunami. People will have about 30 minutes after the earthquake to reach safe ground. It is estimated that roughly 50,000 people in Padang will be unable to evacuate in that time. Given these conditions, other means to prepare for the expected tsunami must be developed. With this motivation, GeoHazards International and Stanford University’s Chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World partnered with Indonesian organizations - Andalas University and Tsunami Alert Community in Padang, Laboratory for Earth Hazards, and the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries - in an effort to evaluate the need for and feasibility of tsunami evacuation infrastructure in Padang. Tsunami evacuation infrastructure can include earthquake-resistant bridges and evacuation structures that rise above the maximum tsunami water level, and can withstand the expected earthquake and tsunami forces. The choices for evacuation structures vary widely - new and existing buildings, evacuation towers, soil berms, elevated highways and pedestrian overpasses. This interdisciplinary project conducted a course at Stanford University, undertook several field investigations, and concluded that: (1) tsunami evacuation structures and bridges are essential to protect the people in Padang, (2) there is a need for a more thorough engineering-based evaluation than conducted to-date of the suitability of

  15. External factors impacting hospital evacuations caused by Hurricane Rita: the role of situational awareness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Downey, Erin L; Andress, Knox; Schultz, Carl H

    2013-06-01

    The 2005 Gulf Coast hurricane season was one of the most costly and deadly in US history. Hurricane Rita stressed hospitals and led to multiple, simultaneous evacuations. This study systematically identified community factors associated with patient movement out of seven hospitals evacuated during Hurricane Rita. This study represents the second of two systematic, observational, and retrospective investigations of seven acute care hospitals that reported off-site evacuations due to Hurricane Rita. Participants from each hospital included decision makers that comprised the Incident Management Team (IMT). Investigators applied a standardized interview process designed to assess evacuation factors related to external situational awareness of community activities during facility evacuation due to hurricanes. The measured outcomes were responses to 95 questions within six sections of the survey instrument. Investigators identified two factors that significantly impacted hospital IMT decision making: (1) incident characteristics affecting a facility's internal resources and challenges; and (2) incident characteristics affecting a facility's external evacuation activities. This article summarizes the latter and reports the following critical decision making points: (1) Emergency Operations Plans (EOP) were activated an average of 85 hours (3 days, 13 hours) prior to Hurricane Rita's landfall; (2) the decision to evacuate the hospital was made an average of 30 hours (1 day, 6 hours) from activation of the EOP; and (3) the implementation of the evacuation process took an average of 22 hours. Coordination of patient evacuations was most complicated by transportation deficits (the most significant of the 11 identified problem areas) and a lack of situational awareness of community response activities. All evacuation activities and subsequent evacuation times were negatively impacted by an overall lack of understanding on the part of hospital staff and the IMT regarding how to

  16. A spatio-temporel optimization model for the evacuation of the population exposed to natural disasters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alaeddine, H.; Serrhini, K.; Maïzia, M.; Néron, E.

    2015-01-01

    The importance of managing the crisis caused by natural disasters, and especially by flood, requires the development of an effective evacuation systems. An effective evacuation system must take into account certain constraints, including those related to network traffic, accessibility, human resources and material equipment (vehicles, collecting points, etc.). The main objective of this work is to provide assistance to technical services and rescue forces in terms of accessibility by offering itineraries relating to rescue and evacuation of people and property. We consider in this paper the evacuation of an urban area of medium size exposed to the hazard of flood. In case of inundation, most people will be evacuated using their own vehicles. Two evacuation types are addressed in this paper, (1) a preventive evacuation based on a flood forecasting system and (2) an evacuation during the disaster based on flooding scenarios. The two study sites on which the evacuation model developed is applied are the valley of Tours (Fr, 37) which is protected by a set of dikes (preventive evacuation) and the valley of Gien (Fr, 45) which benefits of a low rate of flooding (evacuation before and during the disaster). Our goal is to construct, for each of these two sites, a chronological evacuation plan i.e. computing for each individual the departure date and the path to reach the assembly point (also called shelter) associated according to a priorities list established for this purpose. Evacuation plan must avoid the congestion on the road network. Here we present a Spatio-Temporal Optimization Model (STOM) dedicated to the evacuation of the population exposed to natural disasters and more specifically to flood risk.

  17. Making Multi-Level Tsunami Evacuation Playbooks Operational in California and Hawaii

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, R. I.; Peterson, D.; Fryer, G. J.; Miller, K.; Nicolini, T.; Popham, C.; Richards, K.; Whitmore, P.; Wood, N. J.

    2016-12-01

    In the aftermath of the 2010 Chile, 2011 Japan, and 2012 Haida Gwaii tsunamis in California and Hawaii, coastal emergency managers requested that state and federal tsunami programs investigate providing more detailed information about the flood potential and recommended evacuation for distant-source tsunamis well ahead of their arrival time. Evacuation "Playbooks" for tsunamis of variable sizes and source locations have been developed for some communities in the two states, providing secondary options to an all or nothing approach for evacuation. Playbooks have been finalized for nearly 70% of the coastal communities in California, and have been drafted for evaluation by the communities of Honolulu and Hilo in Hawaii. A key component to determining a recommended level of evacuation during a distant-source tsunami and making the Playbooks operational has been the development of the "FASTER" approach, an acronym for factors that influence the tsunami flood hazard for a community: Forecast Amplitude, Storm, Tides, Error in forecast, and the Run-up potential. Within the first couple hours after a tsunami is generated, the FASTER flood elevation value will be computed and used to select the appropriate minimum tsunami phase evacuation "Playbook" for use by the coastal communities. The states of California and Hawaii, the tsunami warning centers, and local weather service offices are working together to deliver recommendations on the appropriate evacuation Playbook plans for communities to use prior to the arrival of a distant-source tsunami. These partners are working closely with individual communities on developing conservative and consistent protocols on the use of the Playbooks. Playbooks help provide a scientifically-based, minimum response for small- to moderate-size tsunamis which could reduce the potential for over-evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people and save hundreds of millions of dollars in evacuation costs for communities and businesses.

  18. Clarifying evacuation options through fire behavior and traffic modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carol L. Rice; Ronny J. Coleman; Mike. Price

    2011-01-01

    Communities are becoming increasingly concerned with the variety of choices related to wildfire evacuation. We used ArcView with Network Analyst to evaluate the different options for evacuations during wildfire in a case study community. We tested overlaying fire growth patterns with the road network and population characteristics to determine recommendations for...

  19. Transit-Based Emergency Evacuation with Transit Signal Priority in Sudden-Onset Disaster

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ciyun Lin

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This study presents methods of transit signal priority without transit-only lanes for a transit-based emergency evacuation in a sudden-onset disaster. Arterial priority signal coordination is optimized when a traffic signal control system provides priority signals for transit vehicles along an evacuation route. Transit signal priority is determined by “transit vehicle arrival time estimation,” “queuing vehicle dissipation time estimation,” “traffic signal status estimation,” “transit signal optimization,” and “arterial traffic signal coordination for transit vehicle in evacuation route.” It takes advantage of the large capacities of transit vehicles, reduces the evacuation time, and evacuates as many evacuees as possible. The proposed methods were tested on a simulation platform with Paramics V6.0. To evaluate and compare the performance of transit signal priority, three scenarios were simulated in the simulator. The results indicate that the methods of this study can reduce the travel times of transit vehicles along an evacuation route by 13% and 10%, improve the standard deviation of travel time by 16% and 46%, and decrease the average person delay at a signalized intersection by 22% and 17% when the traffic flow saturation along an evacuation route is 0.81.0, respectively.

  20. A Global System for Transportation Simulation and Visualization in Emergency Evacuation Scenarios

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lu, Wei [ORNL; Liu, Cheng [ORNL; Thomas, Neil [ORNL; Bhaduri, Budhendra L [ORNL; Han, Lee [University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK)

    2015-01-01

    Simulation-based studies are frequently used for evacuation planning and decision making processes. Given the transportation systems complexity and data availability, most evacuation simulation models focus on certain geographic areas. With routine improvement of OpenStreetMap road networks and LandScanTM global population distribution data, we present WWEE, a uniform system for world-wide emergency evacuation simulations. WWEE uses unified data structure for simulation inputs. It also integrates a super-node trip distribution model as the default simulation parameter to improve the system computational performance. Two levels of visualization tools are implemented for evacuation performance analysis, including link-based macroscopic visualization and vehicle-based microscopic visualization. For left-hand and right-hand traffic patterns in different countries, the authors propose a mirror technique to experiment with both scenarios without significantly changing traffic simulation models. Ten cities in US, Europe, Middle East, and Asia are modeled for demonstration. With default traffic simulation models for fast and easy-to-use evacuation estimation and visualization, WWEE also retains the capability of interactive operation for users to adopt customized traffic simulation models. For the first time, WWEE provides a unified platform for global evacuation researchers to estimate and visualize their strategies performance of transportation systems under evacuation scenarios.

  1. Evacuation emergency response model coupling atmospheric release advisory capability output

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rosen, L.C.; Lawver, B.S.; Buckley, D.W.; Finn, S.P.; Swenson, J.B.

    1983-01-01

    A Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) sponsored project to develop a coupled set of models between those of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Atmospheric Release Advisory Capability (ARAC) system and candidate evacuation models is discussed herein. This report describes the ARAC system and discusses the rapid computer code developed and the coupling with ARAC output. The computer code is adapted to the use of color graphics as a means to display and convey the dynamics of an emergency evacuation. The model is applied to a specific case of an emergency evacuation of individuals surrounding the Rancho Seco Nuclear Power Plant, located approximately 25 miles southeast of Sacramento, California. The graphics available to the model user for the Rancho Seco example are displayed and noted in detail. Suggestions for future, potential improvements to the emergency evacuation model are presented

  2. Evacuation of children - movement on stairs and on Horizontal Plane

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larusdottir, Aldis Run; Dederichs, Anne

    2012-01-01

    in full scale evacuation experiments where two age groups 0-2 years and 3-6 years were analyzed separately. It was found that flow through doors, walking speeds and densities were age-dependent and differed strongly from the data in existing literature. The results showed higher walking speeds in spiral...... slower in horizontal plane than adults, however they were keen to run during the evacuations, in the latter case their travel speed increased and exceeded the adults’. Since the evacuation characteristics of children differ in many ways from those of adults, nowadays models badly comprehend...

  3. Elementary students' evacuation route choice in a classroom: A questionnaire-based method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Liang; Tang, Tie-Qiao; Huang, Hai-Jun; Song, Ziqi

    2018-02-01

    Children evacuation is a critical but challenging issue. Unfortunately, existing researches fail to effectively describe children evacuation, which is likely due to the lack of experimental and empirical data. In this paper, a questionnaire-based experiment was conducted with children aged 8-12 years to study children route choice behavior during evacuation from in a classroom with two exits. 173 effective questionnaires were collected and the corresponding data were analyzed. From the statistical results, we obtained the following findings: (1) position, congestion, group behavior, and backtracking behavior have significant effects on children route choice during evacuation; (2) age only affects children backtracking behavior, and (3) no prominent effects based on gender and guidance were observed. The above findings may help engineers design some effective evacuation strategies for children.

  4. A heterogeneous lattice gas model for simulating pedestrian evacuation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guo, Xiwei; Chen, Jianqiao; Zheng, Yaochen; Wei, Junhong

    2012-02-01

    Based on the cellular automata method (CA model) and the mobile lattice gas model (MLG model), we have developed a heterogeneous lattice gas model for simulating pedestrian evacuation processes in an emergency. A local population density concept is introduced first. The update rule in the new model depends on the local population density and the exit crowded degree factor. The drift D, which is one of the key parameters influencing the evacuation process, is allowed to change according to the local population density of the pedestrians. Interactions including attraction, repulsion, and friction between every two pedestrians and those between a pedestrian and the building wall are described by a nonlinear function of the corresponding distance, and the repulsion forces increase sharply as the distances get small. A critical force of injury is introduced into the model, and its effects on the evacuation process are investigated. The model proposed has heterogeneous features as compared to the MLG model or the basic CA model. Numerical examples show that the model proposed can capture the basic features of pedestrian evacuation, such as clogging and arching phenomena.

  5. Community disruptions and business costs for distant tsunami evacuations using maximum versus scenario-based zones

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wood, Nathan J.; Wilson, Rick I.; Ratliff, Jamie L.; Peters, Jeff; MacMullan, Ed; Krebs, Tessa; Shoaf, Kimberley; Miller, Kevin

    2017-01-01

    Well-executed evacuations are key to minimizing loss of life from tsunamis, yet they also disrupt communities and business productivity in the process. Most coastal communities implement evacuations based on a previously delineated maximum-inundation zone that integrates zones from multiple tsunami sources. To support consistent evacuation planning that protects lives but attempts to minimize community disruptions, we explore the implications of scenario-based evacuation procedures and use the California (USA) coastline as our case study. We focus on the land in coastal communities that is in maximum-evacuation zones, but is not expected to be flooded by a tsunami generated by a Chilean earthquake scenario. Results suggest that a scenario-based evacuation could greatly reduce the number of residents and employees that would be advised to evacuate for 24–36 h (178,646 and 159,271 fewer individuals, respectively) and these reductions are concentrated primarily in three counties for this scenario. Private evacuation spending is estimated to be greater than public expenditures for operating shelters in the area of potential over-evacuations ($13 million compared to $1 million for a 1.5-day evacuation). Short-term disruption costs for businesses in the area of potential over-evacuation are approximately $122 million for a 1.5-day evacuation, with one-third of this cost associated with manufacturing, suggesting that some disruption costs may be recouped over time with increased short-term production. There are many businesses and organizations in this area that contain individuals with limited mobility or access and functional needs that may have substantial evacuation challenges. This study demonstrates and discusses the difficulties of tsunami-evacuation decision-making for relatively small to moderate events faced by emergency managers, not only in California but in coastal communities throughout the world.

  6. A study on evacuation time from lecture halls in Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Othman, W. N. A. W.; Tohir, M. Z. M.

    2018-04-01

    An evacuation situation in any building involves many risks. The geometry of building and high potential of occupant load may affect the efficiency of evacuation process. Although fire safety rules and regulations exist, they remain insufficient to guarantee the safety of all building occupants and do not prevent the dramatic events to be repeated. The main objective of this project is to investigate the relationship between the movement time, travel speed and occupant density during a series of evacuation drills specifically for lecture halls. Generally, this study emphasizes on the movement of crowd within a limited space and includes the aspects of human behaviour. A series of trial evacuations were conducted in selected lecture halls at Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia with the aim of collecting actual data for numerical analysis. The numerical data obtained during trial evacuations were used to determine the evacuation time, crowd movement and behaviour during evacuation process particularly for lecture halls. The evacuation time and number of occupants exiting from each exit were recorded. Video camera was used to record and observe the movement behaviour of occupants during evacuations. EvacuatioNZ was used to simulate the trials evacuations of DK 5 and the results predicted were compared with experimental data. EvacuatioNZ was also used to predict the evacuation time and the flow of occupants exiting from each door for DK 4 and DK 8.

  7. Simulating crowd evacuation with socio-cultural, cognitive, and emotional elements

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van der Wal, C. Natalie; Formolo, Daniel; Robinson, Mark A.; Minkov, Michael; Bosse, Tibor

    2017-01-01

    In this research, the effects of culture, cognitions, and emotions on crisis management and prevention are analysed. An agent-based crowd evacuation simulation model was created, named IMPACT, to study the evacuation process from a transport hub. To extend previous research, various socio-cultural,

  8. Effect of form of obstacle on speed of crowd evacuation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yano, Ryosuke

    2018-03-01

    This paper investigates the effect of the form of an obstacle on the time that a crowd takes to evacuate a room, using a toy model. Pedestrians are modeled as active soft matter moving toward a point with intended velocities. An obstacle is placed in front of the exit, and it has one of four shapes: a cylindrical column, a triangular prism, a quadratic prism, or a diamond prism. Numerical results indicate that the evacuation-completion time depends on the shape of the obstacle. Obstacles with a circular cylinder (C.C.) shape yield the shortest evacuation-completion time in the proposed model.

  9. Injuries in air transport emergency evacuations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1979-02-01

    Twelve air transport evacuations are reviewed. Injuries are discussed with emphasis on configurational and procedural contributing factors. Recommendations and information about possible methods of reducing injuries are provided.

  10. Stoma management in a tropical country: colostomy irrigation versus natural evacuation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leong, A F; Yunos, A B

    1999-11-01

    People with ostomies in Singapore were initially resistant to colostomy irrigation. This study, a prospective crossover study of 26 patients who underwent abdominoperineal resection, compared colostomy irrigation with the natural evacuation method. During the colostomy-irrigation phase of the study, all 26 patients reported an improvement in continence and fewer problems with sleep, sex, and skin complications compared to the natural-evacuation phase. The study also found a reduction in monthly expenses with colostomy irrigation compared to natural evacuation. Patient satisfaction scores were also superior during the colostomy-irrigation phase. This difference in satisfaction scores was less marked in those who were more than 1-year postsurgery than in those who were less than 1-year postsurgery. The difference in satisfaction between colostomy irrigation and natural evacuation scores was statistically significant in the group that was less than 1-year postsurgery, but not in the group that was more than 1-year postsurgery. The study concluded that colostomy irrigation after abdominoperineal resection is superior to natural evacuation in terms of cost and patient satisfaction and should be introduced soon after surgery.

  11. Fluid Line Evacuation and Freezing Experiments for Digital Radiator Concept

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berisford, Daniel F.; Birur, Gajanana C.; Miller, Jennifer R.; Sunada, Eric T.; Ganapathi, Gani B.; Stephan, Ryan; Johnson, Mark

    2011-01-01

    The digital radiator technology is one of three variable heat rejection technologies being investigated for future human-rated NASA missions. The digital radiator concept is based on a mechanically pumped fluid loop with parallel tubes carrying coolant to reject heat from the radiator surface. A series of valves actuate to start and stop fluid flow to di erent combinations of tubes, in order to vary the heat rejection capability of the radiator by a factor of 10 or more. When the flow in a particular leg is stopped, the fluid temperature drops and the fluid can freeze, causing damage or preventing flow from restarting. For this reason, the liquid in a stopped leg must be partially or fully evacuated upon shutdown. One of the challenges facing fluid evacuation from closed tubes arises from the vapor generated during pumping to low pressure, which can cause pump cavitation and incomplete evacuation. Here we present a series of laboratory experiments demonstrating fluid evacuation techniques to overcome these challenges by applying heat and pumping to partial vacuum. Also presented are results from qualitative testing of the freezing characteristics of several different candidate fluids, which demonstrate significant di erences in freezing properties, and give insight to the evacuation process.

  12. People's Risk Recognition Preceding Evacuation and Its Role in Demand Modeling and Planning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Urata, Junji; Pel, Adam J

    2018-05-01

    Evacuation planning and management involves estimating the travel demand in the event that such action is required. This is usually done as a function of people's decision to evacuate, which we show is strongly linked to their risk awareness. We use an empirical data set, which shows tsunami evacuation behavior, to demonstrate that risk recognition is not synonymous with objective risk, but is instead determined by a combination of factors including risk education, information, and sociodemographics, and that it changes dynamically over time. Based on these findings, we formulate an ordered logit model to describe risk recognition combined with a latent class model to describe evacuation choices. Our proposed evacuation choice model along with a risk recognition class can evaluate quantitatively the influence of disaster mitigation measures, risk education, and risk information. The results obtained from the risk recognition model show that risk information has a greater impact in the sense that people recognize their high risk. The results of the evacuation choice model show that people who are unaware of their risk take a longer time to evacuate. © 2017 Society for Risk Analysis.

  13. Application of fire and evacuation models in evaluation of fire safety in railway tunnels

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cábová, Kamila; Apeltauer, Tomáš; Okřinová, Petra; Wald, František

    2017-09-01

    The paper describes an application of numerical simulation of fire dynamics and evacuation of people in a tunnel. The software tool Fire Dynamics Simulator is used to simulate temperature resolution and development of smoke in a railway tunnel. Comparing to temperature curves which are usually used in the design stage results of the model show that the numerical model gives lower temperature of hot smoke layer. Outputs of the numerical simulation of fire also enable to improve models of evacuation of people during fires in tunnels. In the presented study the calculated high of smoke layer in the tunnel is in 10 min after the fire ignition lower than the level of 2.2 m which is considered as the maximal limit for safe evacuation. Simulation of the evacuation process in bigger scale together with fire dynamics can provide very valuable information about important security conditions like Available Safe Evacuation Time (ASET) vs Required Safe Evacuation Time (RSET). On given example in software EXODUS the paper summarizes selected results of evacuation model which should be in mind of a designer when preparing an evacuation plan.

  14. An indoor augmented reality mobile application for simulation of building evacuation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharma, Sharad; Jerripothula, Shanmukha

    2015-03-01

    Augmented Reality enables people to remain connected with the physical environment they are in, and invites them to look at the world from new and alternative perspectives. There has been an increasing interest in emergency evacuation applications for mobile devices. Nearly all the smart phones these days are Wi-Fi and GPS enabled. In this paper, we propose a novel emergency evacuation system that will help people to safely evacuate a building in case of an emergency situation. It will further enhance knowledge and understanding of where the exits are in the building and safety evacuation procedures. We have applied mobile augmented reality (mobile AR) to create an application with Unity 3D gaming engine. We show how the mobile AR application is able to display a 3D model of the building and animation of people evacuation using markers and web camera. The system gives a visual representation of a building in 3D space, allowing people to see where exits are in the building through the use of a smart phone or tablets. Pilot studies were conducted with the system showing its partial success and demonstrated the effectiveness of the application in emergency evacuation. Our computer vision methods give good results when the markers are closer to the camera, but accuracy decreases when the markers are far away from the camera.

  15. Evacuation of mixed populations from trains on bridges

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kindler, C.; Sørensen, J.G.; Dederichs, A.S.

    2012-01-01

    An understanding of human evacuation dynamics and performance are important when designing complex buildings such as bridges and when applying performance-based codes in order to reduce the risk of exposing occupants to critical conditions in case of fire. The majority of previous studies deal....... The discussion of "equal access" is only followed slowly by the demand on "equal egress". However, the passengers on trains on bridges are rarely homogeneous mixture. At the same time equal egress is far from assured today. In this paper the evacuation of mixed populations from trains on bridges are considered....... The populations applied in the experiment are mixed according to a composition corresponding to the population of Denmark. The study has the following findings: the total evacuation times increase with a factor 1.5 when accounting for a mixed population comprehending a variety of age and impairments. The seating...

  16. Household evacuation characteristics in American Samoa during the 2009 Samoa Islands tsunami

    Science.gov (United States)

    Apatu, Emma J. I.; Gregg, Chris E.; Wood, Nathan J.; Wang, Liang

    2016-01-01

    Tsunamis represent significant threats to human life and development in coastal communities. This quantitative study examines the influence of household characteristics on evacuation actions taken by 211 respondents in American Samoa who were at their homes during the 29 September 2009 Mw 8.1 Samoa Islands earthquake and tsunami disaster. Multiple logistic regression analysis of survey data was used to examine the association between evacuation and various household factors. Findings show that increases in distance to shoreline were associated with a slightly decreased likelihood of evacuation, whereas households reporting higher income had an increased probability of evacuation. The response in American Samoa was an effective one, with only 34 fatalities in a tsunami that reached shore in as little as 15 minutes. Consequently, future research should implement more qualitative study designs to identify event and cultural specific determinants of household evacuation behaviour to local tsunamis.

  17. Virtual environment simulation as a tool to support evacuation planning

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mol, Antonio C.; Grecco, Claudio H.S.; Santos, Isaac J.A.L.; Carvalho, Paulo V.R.; Jorge, Carlos A.F.; Sales, Douglas S.; Couto, Pedro M.; Botelho, Felipe M.; Bastos, Felipe R.

    2007-01-01

    This work is a preliminary study of the use of a free game-engine as a tool to build and to navigate in virtual environments, with a good degree of realism, for virtual simulations of evacuation from building and risk zones. To achieve this goal, some adjustments in the game engine have been implemented. A real building with four floors, consisting of some rooms with furniture and people, has been virtually implemented. Simulations of simple different evacuation scenarios have been performed, measuring the total time spent in each case. The measured times have been compared with their corresponding real evacuation times, measured in the real building. The first results have demonstrated that the virtual environment building with the free game engine is capable to reproduce the real situation with a satisfactory level. However, it is important to emphasize that such virtual simulations serve only as an aid in the planning of real evacuation simulations, and as such must never substitute the later. (author)

  18. The Group Evacuation Behavior Based on Fire Effect in the Complicated Three-Dimensional Space

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jun Hu

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available In order to effectively depict the group evacuation behavior in the complicated three-dimensional space, a novel pedestrian flow model is proposed with three-dimensional cellular automata. In this model the calculation methods of floor field and fire gain are elaborated at first, and the transition gain of target position at the next moment is defined. Then, in consideration of pedestrian intimacy and velocity change, the group evacuation strategy and evolution rules are given. Finally, the experiments were conducted with the simulation platform to study the relationships of evacuation time, pedestrian density, average system velocity, and smoke spreading velocity. The results had shown that large-scale group evacuation should be avoided, and in case of large pedestrian density, the shortest route of evacuation strategy would extend system evacuation time.

  19. Advanced evacuation model managed through fuzzy logic during an accident in LNG terminal

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stankovicj, Goran; Petelin, Stojan [Faculty for Maritime Studies and Transport, University of Ljubljana, Portorozh (Sierra Leone); others, and

    2014-07-01

    Evacuation of people located inside the enclosed area of an LNG terminal is a complex problem, especially considering that accidents involving LNG are potentially very hazardous. In order to create an evacuation model managed through fuzzy logic, extensive influence must be generated from safety analyses. A very important moment in the optimal functioning of an evacuation model is the creation of a database which incorporates all input indicators. The output result is the creation of a safety evacuation route which is active at the moment of the accident. (Author)

  20. SCALING AN URBAN EMERGENCY EVACUATION FRAMEWORK: CHALLENGES AND PRACTICES

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Karthik, Rajasekar [ORNL; Lu, Wei [ORNL

    2014-01-01

    Critical infrastructure disruption, caused by severe weather events, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, etc., has significant impacts on urban transportation systems. We built a computational framework to simulate urban transportation systems under critical infrastructure disruption in order to aid real-time emergency evacuation. This framework will use large scale datasets to provide a scalable tool for emergency planning and management. Our framework, World-Wide Emergency Evacuation (WWEE), integrates population distribution and urban infrastructure networks to model travel demand in emergency situations at global level. Also, a computational model of agent-based traffic simulation is used to provide an optimal evacuation plan for traffic operation purpose [1]. In addition, our framework provides a web-based high resolution visualization tool for emergency evacuation modelers and practitioners. We have successfully tested our framework with scenarios in both United States (Alexandria, VA) and Europe (Berlin, Germany) [2]. However, there are still some major drawbacks for scaling this framework to handle big data workloads in real time. On our back-end, lack of proper infrastructure limits us in ability to process large amounts of data, run the simulation efficiently and quickly, and provide fast retrieval and serving of data. On the front-end, the visualization performance of microscopic evacuation results is still not efficient enough due to high volume data communication between server and client. We are addressing these drawbacks by using cloud computing and next-generation web technologies, namely Node.js, NoSQL, WebGL, Open Layers 3 and HTML5 technologies. We will describe briefly about each one and how we are using and leveraging these technologies to provide an efficient tool for emergency management organizations. Our early experimentation demonstrates that using above technologies is a promising approach to build a scalable and high performance urban

  1. Analysis of sheltering and evacuation strategies for an urban nuclear detonation scenario.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yoshimura, Ann S.; Brandt, Larry D.

    2009-05-01

    Development of an effective strategy for shelter and evacuation is among the most important planning tasks in preparation for response to a low yield, nuclear detonation in an urban area. This study examines shelter-evacuate policies and effectiveness focusing on a 10 kt scenario in Los Angeles. The goal is to provide technical insights that can support development of urban response plans. Results indicate that extended shelter-in-place can offer the most robust protection when high quality shelter exists. Where less effective shelter is available and the fallout radiation intensity level is high, informed evacuation at the appropriate time can substantially reduce the overall dose to personnel. However, uncertainties in the characteristics of the fallout region and in the exit route can make evacuation a risky strategy. Analyses indicate that only a relatively small fraction of the total urban population may experience significant dose reduction benefits from even a well-informed evacuation plan.

  2. An interval-parameter mixed integer multi-objective programming for environment-oriented evacuation management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, C. Z.; Huang, G. H.; Yan, X. P.; Cai, Y. P.; Li, Y. P.

    2010-05-01

    Large crowds are increasingly common at political, social, economic, cultural and sports events in urban areas. This has led to attention on the management of evacuations under such situations. In this study, we optimise an approximation method for vehicle allocation and route planning in case of an evacuation. This method, based on an interval-parameter multi-objective optimisation model, has potential for use in a flexible decision support system for evacuation management. The modeling solutions are obtained by sequentially solving two sub-models corresponding to lower- and upper-bounds for the desired objective function value. The interval solutions are feasible and stable in the given decision space, and this may reduce the negative effects of uncertainty, thereby improving decision makers' estimates under different conditions. The resulting model can be used for a systematic analysis of the complex relationships among evacuation time, cost and environmental considerations. The results of a case study used to validate the proposed model show that the model does generate useful solutions for planning evacuation management and practices. Furthermore, these results are useful for evacuation planners, not only in making vehicle allocation decisions but also for providing insight into the tradeoffs among evacuation time, environmental considerations and economic objectives.

  3. Early waning and evacuation from Tsunami, volcano, flood and other hazards

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sugimoto, M.

    2012-12-01

    In reconsideration of the great sacrifice among the people, evacuation calls for evacuation through Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), local governments and Medias have been drastically changed after the 2011 Tohoku tsunami in Japan. One of example is that JMA changed from forecasted concrete figure of tsunami height to one of 3 levels of tsunami height. A data shows the border between life and death is just 2 minutes of earlier evacuation in case of the 2011 tsunami. It shows how importance for communities to prompt early evacuation for survivals. However, the 2011 Tohoku tsunami revealed there is no reliable trigger to prompt early evacuation to people in case of blackout under disasters, excluding effective education. The warning call was still complicated situations in Japan in July 2012. The 2012 Northern Kyusyu downpours was at worst around 110 millimeters an hour and casualties 30 in Japan. JMA learned from the last tsunami. In this time JMA informed to local governments as a waning call "Unexpected severe rains" to local governments. However, local governments did not notice the call from JMA in the same as usual informed way. One of the local government said "We were very busy for preparing for staffs. We looked at the necessary information of the water levels of rivers and flood prevention under emergent situation" (NHK 2012). This case shows JMA's evacuation calls from upstream to midstream of local government and downstream of communities started, however upstream calls have not engaged with midstream and communities yet. Calls of early warning from upstream is still a self-centered idea for both midstream and downstream. Finally JMA could not convey a crisis mentality to local government. The head of Oarai town independently decided to use the different warning call "Order townspersons to evacuate immediately" in Ibaraki prefecture, Japan from the other municipalities in 2011 though there was not such a manuals calls in Japan. This risk communication

  4. Reflection on Lessons Learned: An Analysis of the Adverse Outcomes Observed During the Hurricane Rita Evacuation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baker, Karen

    2018-02-01

    In September 2005, nearly 3.7 million people evacuated the Texas coastline in advance of Hurricane Rita's landfall, making the event the largest emergency evacuation in US history. The Rita evacuation underscored the importance of planning for domestic mass-evacuation events, as the evacuation itself led to over 100 of the at least 119 deaths attributed to the storm. In the days preceding Rita's landfall, several cascading, interrelated circumstances precipitated such adverse outcomes. This article explores the series of events leading up to the evacuation's poor outcomes, the response following Rita to amend evacuation plans, and how Texas successfully implemented these changes during later storms to achieve better outcomes. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;12:115-120).

  5. A Dynamic Optimization Method of Indoor Fire Evacuation Route Based on Real-time Situation Awareness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    DING Yulin

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available How to provide safe and effective evacuation routes is an important safeguard to correctly guide evacuation and reduce the casualties during the fire situation rapidly evolving in complex indoor environment. The traditional static path finding method is difficult to adjust the path adaptively according to the changing fire situation, which lead to the evacuation decision-making blindness and hysteresis. This paper proposes a dynamic method which can dynamically optimize the indoor evacuation routes based on the real-time situation awareness. According to the real-time perception of fire situation parameters and the changing indoor environment information, the evacuation route is optimized dynamically. The integrated representation of multisource indoor fire monitoring sensor observations oriented fire emergency evacuation is presented at first, real-time fire threat situation information inside building is then extracted from the observation data of multi-source sensors, which is used to constrain the dynamical optimization of the topology of the evacuation route. Finally, the simulation experiments prove that this method can improve the accuracy and efficiency of indoor evacuation routing.

  6. Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics 2005

    CERN Document Server

    Gattermann, Peter; Knoflacher, Hermann; Schreckenberg, Michael

    2007-01-01

    Due to an increasing number of reported catastrophes all over the world, the safety especially of pedestrians today, is a dramatically growing field of interest, both for practitioners as well as scientists from various disciplines. The questions arising mainly address the dynamics of evacuating people and possible optimisations of the process by changing the architecture and /or the procedure. This concerns not only the case of ships, stadiums or buildings, all with restricted geometries, but also the evacuation of complete geographical regions due to natural disasters. Furthermore, also ‘simple’ crowd motion in ‘relaxed’ situations poses new questions with respect to higher comfort and efficiency since the number of involved persons at large events is as high as never before. In addition, as a new research topic in this field, collective animal behaviour is attracting increasing attention. All this was in the scope of the conference held in Vienna, September 28–30, 2005, the third one in a series ...

  7. Evacuation Route: Restoring the Railway Transportation of People During the Great Patriotic War

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Potemkina Marina Nikolaevna

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available The paper is devoted to the role of the railway transport in migration from the frontline to the Soviet rear during the Great Patriotic War. The research is based on the analysis of the published and archival documents, personal diaries, letters, memoirs, texts of interview with the people who lived through the evacuation. The methodological foundation of the research was based on the theoretical principles made by the Everyday History. Surge attack of the German troops and cruel occupational policy caused the necessity of evacuation of civilians to the Eastern regions of the country. The evacuation was both spontaneous and organized and helped to save millions of human lives. The lack of evacuation plans in case of a war, incompleteness of the railway transport renovation, transport routes destroyed by the enemy and the stream of refugees were among the main factors which complicated evacuation process. The conditions of transportation differed according to the time and the circumstances of the evacuation and a person’s position in social hierarchy. There were some problems during the evacuation, such as regulation of the rail service, sanitation of the carriages, nutrition system, psychological shock. People had to spend weeks in the carriages suffering from cold, hunger and diseases. During the evacuation a new alternative reality appeared with its rules and regulations which changed the concepts of tangible assets and moral values. The priority for any person was to survive, which meant to be independent and to do everything possible.

  8. Optimal control of diarrhea transmission in a flood evacuation zone

    Science.gov (United States)

    Erwina, N.; Aldila, D.; Soewono, E.

    2014-03-01

    Evacuation of residents and diarrhea disease outbreak in evacuation zone have become serious problem that frequently happened during flood periods. Limited clean water supply and infrastructure in evacuation zone contribute to a critical spread of diarrhea. Transmission of diarrhea disease can be reduced by controlling clean water supply and treating diarrhea patients properly. These treatments require significant amount of budget, which may not be fulfilled in the fields. In his paper, transmission of diarrhea disease in evacuation zone using SIRS model is presented as control optimum problem with clean water supply and rate of treated patients as input controls. Existence and stability of equilibrium points and sensitivity analysis are investigated analytically for constant input controls. Optimum clean water supply and rate of treatment are found using optimum control technique. Optimal results for transmission of diarrhea and the corresponding controls during the period of observation are simulated numerically. The optimum result shows that transmission of diarrhea disease can be controlled with proper combination of water supply and rate of treatment within allowable budget.

  9. Integrating Decentralized Indoor Evacuation with Information Depositories in the Field

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Haifeng Zhao

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available The lonelier evacuees find themselves, the riskier become their wayfinding decisions. This research supports single evacuees in a dynamically changing environment with risk-aware guidance. It deploys the concept of decentralized evacuation, where evacuees are guided by smartphones acquiring environmental knowledge and risk information via exploration and knowledge sharing by peer-to-peer communication. Peer-to-peer communication, however, relies on the chance that people come into communication range with each other. This chance can be low. To bridge between people being not at the same time at the same places, this paper suggests information depositories at strategic locations to improve information sharing. Information depositories collect the knowledge acquired by the smartphones of evacuees passing by, maintain this information, and convey it to other passing-by evacuees. Multi-agent simulation implementing these depositories in an indoor environment shows that integrating depositories improves evacuation performance: It enhances the risk awareness and consequently increases the chance that people survive and reduces their evacuation time. For evacuating dynamic events, deploying depositories at staircases has been shown more effective than deploying them in corridors.

  10. A novel grid-based mesoscopic model for evacuation dynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shi, Meng; Lee, Eric Wai Ming; Ma, Yi

    2018-05-01

    This study presents a novel grid-based mesoscopic model for evacuation dynamics. In this model, the evacuation space is discretised into larger cells than those used in microscopic models. This approach directly computes the dynamic changes crowd densities in cells over the course of an evacuation. The density flow is driven by the density-speed correlation. The computation is faster than in traditional cellular automata evacuation models which determine density by computing the movements of each pedestrian. To demonstrate the feasibility of this model, we apply it to a series of practical scenarios and conduct a parameter sensitivity study of the effect of changes in time step δ. The simulation results show that within the valid range of δ, changing δ has only a minor impact on the simulation. The model also makes it possible to directly acquire key information such as bottleneck areas from a time-varied dynamic density map, even when a relatively large time step is adopted. We use the commercial software AnyLogic to evaluate the model. The result shows that the mesoscopic model is more efficient than the microscopic model and provides more in-situ details (e.g., pedestrian movement pattern) than the macroscopic models.

  11. Evacuation of a mental health center during a forest fire in Israel.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kreinin, Anatoly; Shakera, Tatiana; Sheinkman, Ayala; Levi, Tamar; Tal, Vered; Polakiewicz, Jacob

    2014-08-01

    Tirat Carmel Mental Health Center was successfully evacuated in December 2010 during a ravaging forest fire in the nearby Carmel Mountains. A total of 228 patients were successfully evacuated from the center within 45 minutes. No fatalities or injuries associated with the evacuation occurred. We believe that the efficient functioning of the administrative and medical staff provides a replicable model that can contribute to the level of awareness and readiness of hospital staff members for natural and manmade disasters.

  12. Enhancing Evacuation Plans with a Situation Awareness System Based on End-User Knowledge Provision

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Augusto Morales

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Recent disasters have shown that having clearly defined preventive procedures and decisions is a critical component that minimizes evacuation hazards and ensures a rapid and successful evolution of evacuation plans. In this context, we present our Situation-Aware System for enhancing Evacuation Plans (SASEP system, which allows creating end-user business rules that technically support the specific events, conditions and actions related to evacuation plans. An experimental validation was carried out where 32 people faced a simulated emergency situation, 16 of them using SASEP and the other 16 using a legacy system based on static signs. From the results obtained, we compare both techniques and discuss in which situations SASEP offers a better evacuation route option, confirming that it is highly valuable when there is a threat in the evacuation route. In addition, a study about user satisfaction using both systems is presented showing in which cases the systems are assessed as satisfactory, relevant and not frustrating.

  13. Visitors’ awareness of the tsunami evacuation plan in Pasar Raya Padang, Indonesia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kemal, B. M.; Yosritzal; Purnawan; Putra, H.

    2018-04-01

    This paper presents an investigation into the visitors’ awareness of the tsunami evacuation plan at Pasar Raya Padang, a traditional market at the central business district of Padang City, Indonesia. This study has been motivated by the fact that Pasar Raya Padang is the largest traditional market in West Sumatera and visited by many visitors from various origins. Pasar Raya Padang is chosen because it is located at a tsunami prone area, but local government managed to keep businesses in the area running and attract visitors. The awareness of the people in the market would be crucial to increase the possibility to safe their life during an evacuation. As much as 500 respondents were interviewed during daytime in the market. The study found that most of the visitors are not aware of the tsunami evacuation plan in the area. Local government is suggested to develop standard procedure for the evacuation, to place more sign and make it more visible for most of the visitors and do evacuation simulations periodically.

  14. Prediction of evacuation time for emergency planning zone of Uljin nuclear site

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jeon, In Young; Lee, Jai Ki

    2002-01-01

    The time for evacuation of residents in Emergency Planning Zone (EPZ) of Uljin nuclear site in case of a radiological emergency was estimated with traffic analysis. Evacuees were classified into 4 groups by considering population density, local jurisdictions, and whether they are residents or transients. The survey to investigate the behavioral characteristics of the residents was made for 200 households and included a hypothetical scenario explaining the accident situation and questions such as dwelling place, time demand for evacuation preparation, transportation means for evacuation, sheltering place, and evacuation direction. The microscopic traffic simulation model, CORSIM, was used to simulate the behavior of evacuating vehicles on networks. The results showed that the evacuation time required for total vehicles to move out from EPZ took longer in the daytime than at night in spite that the delay times at intersections were longer at night than in the daytime. This was analyzed due to the differences of the trip generation time distribution. To validate whether the CORSIM model can appropriately simulate the congested traffic phenomena assumable in case of emergency, a benchmark study was conducted at an intersection without an actuated traffic signal near Uljin site during the traffic peak-time in the morning. This study indicated that the predicted output by the CORSIM model was in good agreement with the observed data, satisfying the purpose of this study

  15. The effects of meal size, body size and temperature on gastric evacuation in pikeperch

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Koed, Anders

    2001-01-01

    Prey size had no effect on the gastric evacuation rate of pikeperch Stizostedion lucioperca. The gastric evacuation was adequately described applying an exponent of 0.5 in the power model. Applying length instead of weight of pikeperch in the gastric evacuation model resulted in a change of estim...

  16. Canada's evacuation policy for pregnant First Nations women: Resignation, resilience, and resistance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lawford, Karen M; Giles, Audrey R; Bourgeault, Ivy L

    2018-02-10

    Aboriginal peoples in Canada are comprised of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit. Health care services for First Nations who live on rural and remote reserves are mostly provided by the Government of Canada through the federal department, Health Canada. One Health Canada policy, the evacuation policy, requires all First Nations women living on rural and remote reserves to leave their communities between 36 and 38 weeks gestational age and travel to urban centres to await labour and birth. Although there are a few First Nations communities in Canada that have re-established community birthing and Aboriginal midwifery is growing, most First Nations communities are still reliant on the evacuation policy for labour and birthing services. In one Canadian province, Manitoba, First Nations women are evacuated to The Pas, Thompson, or Winnipeg but most - including all women with high-risk pregnancies - go to Winnipeg. To contribute scholarship that describes First Nations women's and community members' experiences and perspectives of Health Canada's evacuation policy in Manitoba. Applying intersectional theory to data collected through 12 semi-structured interviews with seven women and five community members (four females, one male) in Manitoba who had experienced the evacuation policy. The data were analyzed thematically, which revealed three themes: resignation, resilience, and resistance. The theme of resignation was epitomized by the quote, "Nobody has a choice." The ability to withstand and endure the evacuation policy despite poor or absent communication and loneliness informed of resilience. Resistance was demonstrated by women who questioned the necessity and requirement of evacuation for labour and birth. In one instance, resistance took the form of a planned homebirth with Aboriginal registered midwives. There is a pressing need to improve the maternity care services that First Nations women receive when they are evacuated out of their communities, particularly

  17. A generic method to optimize instructions for the control of evacuations

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huibregtse, O.L.; Hoogendoorn, S.P.; Pel, A.J.; Bliemer, M.C.J.

    2010-01-01

    A method is described to develop a set of optimal instructions to evacuate by car the population of a region threatened by a hazard. By giving these instructions to the evacuees, traffic conditions and therefore the evacuation efficiency can be optimized. The instructions, containing a departure

  18. Pedestrians’ behavior in emergency evacuation: Modeling and simulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Lei; Zheng, Jie-Hui; Zhang, Xiao-Shuang; Zhang, Jian-Lin; Wang, Qiu-Zhen; Zhang, Qian

    2016-11-01

    The social force model has been widely used to simulate pedestrian evacuation by analyzing attractive, repulsive, driving, and fluctuating forces among pedestrians. Many researchers have improved its limitations in simulating behaviors of large-scale population. This study modifies the well-accepted social force model by considering the impacts of interaction among companions and further develops a comprehensive model by combining that with a multi-exit utility function. Then numerical simulations of evacuations based on the comprehensive model are implemented in the waiting hall of the Wulin Square Subway Station in Hangzhou, China. The results provide safety thresholds of pedestrian density and panic levels in different operation situations. In spite of the operation situation and the panic level, a larger friend-group size results in lower evacuation efficiency. Our study makes important contributions to building a comprehensive multi-exit social force model and to applying it to actual scenarios, which produces data to facilitate decision making in contingency plans and emergency treatment. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71471163).

  19. An evaluation of sharp safety blood evacuation devices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ford, Joanna; Phillips, Peter

    This article describes an evaluation of three sharp safety blood evacuation devices in seven Welsh NHS boards and the Welsh Blood Service. Products consisted of two phlebotomy needles possessing safety shields and one phlebotomy device with wings, tubing and a retractable needle. The device companies provided the devices and appropriate training. Participating healthcare workers used the safety device instead of the conventional device to sample blood during the evaluation period and each type of device was evaluated in random order. Participants filled in a questionnaire for each type of device and then a further questionnaire comparing the two shielded evacuation needles with each other Results showed that responses to all three products were fairly positive, although each device was not liked by everyone who used it. When the two shielded evacuation devices were compared with each other, most users preferred the device with the shield positioned directly above the needle to the device with the shield at the side. However, in laboratory tests, the preferred device produced more fluid splatter than the other shielded device on activation.

  20. Mortality risk amongst nursing home residents evacuated after the Fukushima nuclear accident: a retrospective cohort study.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shuhei Nomura

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Safety of evacuation is of paramount importance in disaster planning for elderly people; however, little effort has been made to investigate evacuation-related mortality risks. After the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant accident we conducted a retrospective cohort survival survey of elderly evacuees. METHODS: A total of 715 residents admitted to five nursing homes in Minamisoma city, Fukushima Prefecture in the five years before 11th March 2011 joined this retrospective cohort study. Demographic and clinical characteristics were drawn from facility medical records. Evacuation histories were tracked until the end of 2011. The evacuation's impact on mortality was assessed using mortality incidence density and hazard ratios in Cox proportional hazards regression. RESULTS: Overall relative mortality risk before and after the earthquake was 2.68 (95% CI: 2.04-3.49. There was a substantial variation in mortality risks across the facilities ranging from 0.77 (95% CI: 0.34-1.76 to 2.88 (95% CI: 1.74-4.76. No meaningful influence of evacuation distance on mortality was observed although the first evacuation from the original facility caused significantly higher mortality than subsequent evacuations, with a hazard ratio of 1.94 (95% CI: 1.07-3.49. CONCLUSION: High mortality, due to initial evacuation, suggests that evacuation of the elderly was not the best life-saving strategy for the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Careful consideration of the relative risks of radiation exposure and the risks and benefits of evacuation is essential. Facility-specific disaster response strategies, including in-site relief and care, may have a strong influence on survival. Where evacuation is necessary, careful planning and coordination with other nursing homes, evacuation sites and government disaster agencies is essential to reduce the risk of mortality.

  1. Way finding during fire evacuation; an analysis of unannounced fire drills

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kobes, M.; Helsloot, I.; Vries, de B.; Post, J.G.; Oberije, N.; Groenewegen, K.

    2010-01-01

    Findings in earlier studies on fire evacuation and way finding suggest that building features have influence on evacuation behaviour. For example, way finding is believed to be strongly dependent on the lay-out of the building and seems to be hardly dependent on (escape) route signs. Though some

  2. Game-Based Evacuation Drill Using Augmented Reality and Head-Mounted Display

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kawai, Junya; Mitsuhara, Hiroyuki; Shishibori, Masami

    2016-01-01

    Purpose: Evacuation drills should be more realistic and interactive. Focusing on situational and audio-visual realities and scenario-based interactivity, the authors have developed a game-based evacuation drill (GBED) system that presents augmented reality (AR) materials on tablet computers. The paper's current research purpose is to improve…

  3. VALIDATION OF SIMULATION MODELS FOR DIFFERENTLY DESIGNED HEAT-PIPE EVACUATED TUBULAR COLLECTORS

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fan, Jianhua; Dragsted, Janne; Furbo, Simon

    2007-01-01

    Differently designed heat-pipe evacuated tubular collectors have been investigated theoretically and experimentally. The theoretical work has included development of two TRNSYS [1] simulation models for heat-pipe evacuated tubular collectors utilizing solar radiation from all directions. One model...... coating on both sides. The input to the models is thus not a simple collector efficiency expression but the actual collector geometry. In this study, the TRNSYS models are validated with measurements for four differently designed heat-pipe evacuated tubular collectors. The collectors are produced...

  4. Tsunami evacuation plans for future megathrust earthquakes in Padang, Indonesia, considering stochastic earthquake scenarios

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Muhammad

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available This study develops tsunami evacuation plans in Padang, Indonesia, using a stochastic tsunami simulation method. The stochastic results are based on multiple earthquake scenarios for different magnitudes (Mw 8.5, 8.75, and 9.0 that reflect asperity characteristics of the 1797 historical event in the same region. The generation of the earthquake scenarios involves probabilistic models of earthquake source parameters and stochastic synthesis of earthquake slip distributions. In total, 300 source models are generated to produce comprehensive tsunami evacuation plans in Padang. The tsunami hazard assessment results show that Padang may face significant tsunamis causing the maximum tsunami inundation height and depth of 15 and 10 m, respectively. A comprehensive tsunami evacuation plan – including horizontal evacuation area maps, assessment of temporary shelters considering the impact due to ground shaking and tsunami, and integrated horizontal–vertical evacuation time maps – has been developed based on the stochastic tsunami simulation results. The developed evacuation plans highlight that comprehensive mitigation policies can be produced from the stochastic tsunami simulation for future tsunamigenic events.

  5. How to simulate pedestrian behaviors in seismic evacuation for vulnerability reduction of existing buildings

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quagliarini, Enrico; Bernardini, Gabriele; D'Orazio, Marco

    2017-07-01

    Understanding and representing how individuals behave in earthquake emergencies would be essentially to assess the impact of vulnerability reduction strategies on existing buildings in seismic areas. In fact, interactions between individuals and the scenario (modified by the earthquake occurrence) are really important in order to understand the possible additional risks for people, especially during the evacuation phase. The current approach is based on "qualitative" aspects, in order to define best practice guidelines for Civil Protection and populations. On the contrary, a "quantitative" description of human response and evacuation motion in similar conditions is urgently needed. Hence, this work defines the rules for pedestrians' earthquake evacuation in urban scenarios, by taking advantages of previous results of real-world evacuation analyses. In particular, motion laws for pedestrians is defined by modifying the Social Force model equation. The proposed model could be used for evaluating individuals' evacuation process and so for defining operative strategies for interferences reduction in critical urban fabric parts (e.g.: interventions on particular buildings, evacuation strategies definition, city parts projects).

  6. An Evacuation Model for Passenger Ships That Includes the Influence of Obstacles in Cabins

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Baocheng Ni

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Passenger behavior and ship environment are the key factors affecting evacuation efficiency. However, current studies ignore the interior layout of passenger ship cabins and treat the cabins as empty rooms. To investigate the influence of obstacles (e.g., tables and stools on cabin evacuation, we propose an agent-based social force model for advanced evacuation analysis of passenger ships; this model uses a goal-driven submodel to determine a plan and an extended social force submodel to govern the movement of passengers. The extended social force submodel considers the interaction forces between the passengers, crew, and obstacles and minimises the range of these forces to improve computational efficiency. We drew the following conclusions based on a series of evacuation simulations conducted in this study: (1 the proposed model endows the passenger with the behaviors of bypassing and crossing obstacles, (2 funnel-shaped exits from cabins can improve evacuation efficiency, and (3 as the exit angle increases, the evacuation time also increases. These findings offer ship designers some insight towards increasing the safety of large passenger ships.

  7. 5 CFR 550.409 - Evacuation payments during a pandemic health crisis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 5 Administrative Personnel 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Evacuation payments during a pandemic... during a pandemic health crisis. (a) An agency may order one or more employees to evacuate from their... the employee) during a pandemic health crisis without regard to whether the agency and the employee...

  8. Integrating supply and demand aspects of transportation for mass evacuation under disasters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-10-15

    This study seeks to address real-time operational needs in the context of the evacuation response problem by providing a capability to dynamically route vehicles under evacuation, thereby being responsive to the actual conditions unfolding in real-ti...

  9. Evacuation of the ICU: care of the critically ill and injured during pandemics and disasters: CHEST consensus statement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    King, Mary A; Niven, Alexander S; Beninati, William; Fang, Ray; Einav, Sharon; Rubinson, Lewis; Kissoon, Niranjan; Devereaux, Asha V; Christian, Michael D; Grissom, Colin K

    2014-10-01

    Despite the high risk for patient harm during unanticipated ICU evacuations, critical care providers receive little to no training on how to perform safe and effective ICU evacuations. We reviewed the pertinent published literature and offer suggestions for the critical care provider regarding ICU evacuation. The suggestions in this article are important for all who are involved in pandemics or disasters with multiple critically ill or injured patients, including front-line clinicians, hospital administrators, and public health or government officials. The Evacuation and Mobilization topic panel used the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) Guidelines Oversight Committee's methodology to develop seven key questions for which specific literature searches were conducted to identify studies upon which evidence-based recommendations could be made. No studies of sufficient quality were identified. Therefore, the panel developed expert opinion-based suggestions using a modified Delphi process. Based on current best evidence, we provide 13 suggestions outlining a systematic approach to prepare for and execute an effective ICU evacuation during a disaster. Interhospital and intrahospital collaboration and functional ICU communication are critical for success. Pre-event planning and preparation are required for a no-notice evacuation. A Critical Care Team Leader must be designated within the Hospital Incident Command System. A three-stage ICU Evacuation Timeline, including (1) no immediate threat, (2) evacuation threat, and (3) evacuation implementation, should be used. Detailed suggestions on ICU evacuation, including regional planning, evacuation drills, patient transport preparation and equipment, patient prioritization and distribution for evacuation, patient information and tracking, and federal and international evacuation assistance systems, are also provided. Successful ICU evacuation during a disaster requires active preparation, participation

  10. Analysis of evacuation procedure after the accident of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Murayama, T.; Iizuka, F.; El-Asaad, H. [Tokyo Inst. of Tech., Tokyo (Japan)

    2014-07-01

    After the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011 struck the coast of Eastern Japan, evacuation procedures were undermined due to the unexpected magnitude and severity of the disaster. Also, communications between local and national government were weakened, leading to dismemberment between society and government. Consequently this left the affected people without sufficient information or updates regarding evacuation procedures. This paper will concentrate on evacuation procedures led by locating residents with the help of media outlets (local newspapers and news reports). Analyzing movements of evacuees will help improve the evacuation method both for local residents and government bodies. (author)

  11. Analysis of evacuation procedure after the accident of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Murayama, T.; Iizuka, F.; El-Asaad, H.

    2014-01-01

    After the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011 struck the coast of Eastern Japan, evacuation procedures were undermined due to the unexpected magnitude and severity of the disaster. Also, communications between local and national government were weakened, leading to dismemberment between society and government. Consequently this left the affected people without sufficient information or updates regarding evacuation procedures. This paper will concentrate on evacuation procedures led by locating residents with the help of media outlets (local newspapers and news reports). Analyzing movements of evacuees will help improve the evacuation method both for local residents and government bodies. (author)

  12. Emergency evacuation models in subway service systems: An application on Izmir (Turkey subway system

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gökçe Baysal Türkölmez

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Increasing population in crowded cities causes transportation problems. Public transportation is an effective solution for the crowded traffic. Subway is a fast and productive alternative for public transportation so it is a highly preferable choice in others. It is hard to evacuate people in subway station during a disaster in carriages, on subway line or in subway stations because subway systems are often located underground, a lot people use it at the same time and enter-exit gates are controlled by turnstiles. It is crucially important to know the evacuation time of people from subway. In this paper, Konak station, one of the most crowded stations of Izmir Subway System is analyzed by emergency evacuation models. The evacuation process is simulated by Simulex software. The emergency evacuation problem is modeled in three different scenarios. Solution offers are developed for them.

  13. Prototype Tsunami Evacuation Park in Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tucker, B. E.; Cedillos, V.; Deierlein, G.; Di Mauro, M.; Kornberg, K.

    2012-12-01

    Padang, Indonesia, a city of some 900,000 people, half of whom live close to the coast and within a five-meter elevation above sea level, has one of the highest tsunami risks in the world due to its close offshore thrust-fault seismic hazard, flat terrain and dense population. There is a high probability that a tsunami will strike the shores of Padang, flooding half of the area of the city, within the next 30 years. If that tsunami occurred today, it is estimated that several hundred thousand people would die, as they could not reach safe ground in the ~30 minute interval between the earthquake's occurrence and the tsunami's arrival. Padang's needs have been amply demonstrated: after earthquakes in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2012, citizens, thinking that those earthquakes might cause a tsunami, tried to evacuate in cars and motorbikes, which created traffic jams, and most could not reach safe ground in 30 minutes. Since 2008, GeoHazards International (GHI) and Stanford University have studied a range of options for improving this situation, including ways to accelerate evacuation to high ground with pedestrian bridges and widened roads, and means of "vertical" evacuation in multi-story buildings, mosques, pedestrian overpasses, and Tsunami Evacuation Parks (TEPs), which are man-made hills with recreation facilities on top. TEPs proved most practical and cost-effective for Padang, given the available budget, technology and time. The Earth Observatory Singapore (EOS) developed an agent-based model that simulates pedestrian and vehicular evacuation to assess tsunami risk and risk reduction interventions in Southeast Asia. EOS applied this model to analyze the effectiveness in Padang of TEPs over other tsunami risk management approaches in terms of evacuation times and the number of people saved. The model shows that only ~24,000 people (20% of the total population) in the northern part of Padang can reach safe ground within 30 minutes, if people evacuate using cars and

  14. Incorporating emergency evacuation planning, through human reliability analysis, in the risk management of industrial installation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Santos, Isaac J.A. Luquetti; Carvalho, Paulo V.R.; Grecco, Claudio H.S. [Instituto de Engenharia Nuclear (IEN/CNEN-RJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)], Email: luquetti@ien.gov.br

    2009-07-01

    An industrial installation presents many risks in the form of the process hazards, such as fire, explosion, gas and radiation release. In these situations, workers may need to evacuate from the work environment as soon as possible. In this case, the emergency evacuation planning is a key element that involves an iterative process to identify the best evacuation routes and to estimate the time required to evacuate the area at risk. The mean aspects for a successful emergency evacuation are influenced by the type of human error and the severity of the initiator event. The aim of this paper is to present a methodological framework for the identification of the performance shaping factors and prediction of human error probabilities of the responsible by the emergency evacuation of the workers in an industrial installation, providing a proactive approach for the allocation of the human factors in the risk assessment of the industrial installation. (author)

  15. Why Don't People Evacuate When Nature Threatens?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, K. J.; Broad, K.; Meyer, R.; Orlove, B. S.

    2011-12-01

    Why do so many Southern Californians fail to evacuate when warned that winter storms have critically raised the risk of a debris flow in their neighborhoods? Have they perhaps not seen or heeded news coverage of past debris flow events? Are they unaware that recent fires made the hillsides above them more prone to gravity-driven processes? Do they think they can wait to start their cars until they can actually see the flow coming? Or have they merely experienced too many "false alarms" in past years, and no longer put much stock in the judgment of public officials or the ability of scientists to judge debris flow risk? In preparation for a simulation study that will place decision makers in a virtual house in the California foothills during a winter storm event, we explore the reasons that people do and do not evacuate in the face of potential debris flows. Working in collaboration with the USGS Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project for Southern California, we are surveying hundreds of local residents, from debris-flow prone areas and from elsewhere in the state, to establish their baseline knowledge (and misconceptions) about, attitudes toward, information use regarding, and experience with debris flows. Initial interviews with residents of recently hit neighborhoods give qualitative data suggesting that false-alarm effects and underestimation of risk are driving factors; these surveys will provide quantitative evidence to extend those findings. We will discuss the results of this survey in the context of a comprehensive body of psychology research that seeks to explain why people frequently appear to ignore or discount hazard warnings: neglecting to insure their homes and crops (Kunreuther, 1984), failing to evacuate in the face of storms and fires (Baker, 1991; Packham, 1995), and (barring a recent, vivid event) showing little support for measures that would manage or mitigate future hazards (Kunreuther, 2006a, 2006b; Weber, 2006). We will also consider the

  16. Short-time home coming project in evacuation zone

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tatsuzaki, Hideo

    2011-01-01

    Accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) forced neighboring residents to evacuate, and evacuation zone (20 km radius from NPPs) was defined as highly contaminated and designated as no-entry zones. Residents had been obliged to live a refugee life for a longer period than expected. Short-time home coming project was initiated according to their requests. They came to the meeting place called transfer place (20 - 30 km radius from NPPs), wore protective clothing and personal dosimeter with having drinking water and came home in evacuation zone with staffs by bus. Their healthcare management professionals were fully prepared for emergency. After collecting necessary articles at home within two hours, they returned to the meeting place by bus for screening and dressing, and went back to refuge house. If screening data were greater than 13 kcpm using GM counters, partial body decontamination had been conducted by wiping and if greater than 100 kcpm, whole body decontamination was requested but not conducted. Dose rate of residents and staffs was controlled less than 1 mSv, which was alarm level of personal dosimeter. Stable iodine was prepared but actually not used. (T. Tanaka)

  17. Civilians under fire: evacuation behaviour in north Israel during the Second Lebanon War.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gidron, David; Peleg, Kobi; Jaffe, Dena; Shenhar, Gili

    2010-10-01

    This paper seeks to understand evacuation behaviour in a case of spontaneous evacuation. During the Second Lebanon War of 2006, more than one-third of residents in north Israel spontaneously evacuated--the remainder stayed in situ. Using a telephone survey of 665 respondents residing in north Israel, we were able to characterise the behaviour of evacuees and non-evacuees. The main reasons cited for evacuating were fear of injury to self or family, the effect on children, inability to remain in a protective space, and family pressure. The main reasons cited for remaining at home were no suitable alternative, did not perceive a high level of danger, had to go to work, and there is no place like home. There were no significant differences with regard to most socio-demographic characteristics of the population. These findings should aid emergency managers in preparing the population for a future emergency and in engaging in effective dialogue with the population during an emergency on the evacuation option. © 2010 The Author(s). Journal compilation © Overseas Development Institute, 2010.

  18. Nuclear criticality evacuation with telemonitoring and microprocessors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fergus, R.W.; Moe, H.J. Sr.

    1979-01-01

    At Argonne National Laboratory, criticality alarms are required at widely separated locations to evacuate personnel in case of accident while emergency teams or maintenance personnel respond from a central location. The system functions have been divided in a similar manner. The alarm site hardware can independently detect a criticality and sound the evacuation signal while general monitoring and routine tests are handled by a communication link to a central monitoring station. The radiation detectors and evacuation sounders at each site are interconnected by a common two conductor cable in a unique telemonitoring format. This format allows both control and data information to be received or transmitted at any point on the cable which can be up to 3000 meters total length. The site microprocessor maintains a current data table, detects several faults, drives a printer, and communicates with the central telemonitoring station. The radiation detectors are made with plastic scintillators and photomultiplier tubes operated in a constant current mode with a 4 decade measurement range. The detectors also respond within microseconds to the criticality radiation burst. These characteristics can be tested with an internal light emitting diode either completely with a manual procedure or routinely with a system test initiated by the central monitoring station. Although the system was developed for a criticality alarm which requires reliable and redundant features, the basic techniques are useable for other monitoring and instrumentation applications

  19. EVACUATION ROUTE MAPPING AGAINST SLAMET VOLCANO DISASTER AT GUNUNGSARI VILLAGE, PULOSARI SUB DISTRICT, PEMALANG DISTRICT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Misdiyanto Misdiyanto

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Villages inside the hazard zone of Slamet Volcano should have an evacuation map, as an anticipation and guidance to guide people evacuate when volcanic activity on the area arise to dangerous level. The experience which occurred at 2009 and 2010 indicate the necessity of the development of evacuation map for 7 villages inside the hazard zone in the Pemalang residential district, such as village of Gunung Sari. The main purpose of the developing an evacuation map is to make the village of Gunung sari becoming more vigilant to anticipate the danger of Slamet Mount eruption. Qualitative methods were used in this study, by handing out preliminary questionnaire to investigate the characteristic of the residents. The development of evacuation map also relies on the participation of the residents, then the resulted map were evaluated by assessing how far people can understand and comprehend any information provided on the map. The result of the investigation shows that Gunungsari’s resident wants an evacuation map, shown by high enthusiasm on the questions of the necessity of an evacuation map and disaster preparedness team that is equal to 97% of the residents on Dusun Sipendil, 83% on dusun Sibedil, 67% on Dusun Silegok, and 63% on Dusun Krajan. The residents also understand and comprehend the information provided on the map nicely, especially about the timing and rendezvous location for the evacuation. It is indicated by high proportion of residents that answer the questions asked accurately, which is 100% on Dusun Sipendil, 97% on Dusun Sibedil, and 80% for both Dusun Silegok and Dusun Krajan. Keywords: disaster prone area, evacuation map, society characteristic

  20. Getting out of harm's way - evacuation from tsunamis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones, Jeanne M.; Wood, Nathan J.; Gordon, Leslie C.

    2015-01-01

    Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have developed a new mapping tool, the Pedestrian Evacuation Analyst, for use by researchers and emergency managers to estimate how long it would take for someone to travel on foot out of a tsunami-hazard zone. The ArcGIS software extension, released in September 2014, allows the user to create maps showing travel times out of hazard zones and to determine the number of people that may or may not have enough time to evacuate. The maps take into account the elevation changes and the different types of land cover that a person would encounter along the way.

  1. A Participatory Agent-Based Simulation for Indoor Evacuation Supported by Google Glass

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jesús M. Sánchez

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Indoor evacuation systems are needed for rescue and safety management. One of the challenges is to provide users with personalized evacuation routes in real time. To this end, this project aims at exploring the possibilities of Google Glass technology for participatory multiagent indoor evacuation simulations. Participatory multiagent simulation combines scenario-guided agents and humans equipped with Google Glass that coexist in a shared virtual space and jointly perform simulations. The paper proposes an architecture for participatory multiagent simulation in order to combine devices (Google Glass and/or smartphones with an agent-based social simulator and indoor tracking services.

  2. A comparison of the nursing home evacuation experience between hurricanes katrina (2005) and gustav (2008).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blanchard, Gary; Dosa, David

    2009-11-01

    One of the tragic legacies of Hurricane Katrina was the loss of life among Louisiana (LA) nursing home (NH) residents. Katrina revealed a staggering lack of emergency preparation and understanding of how to safely evacuate frail populations. Three years later, LA braced for Hurricane Gustav, a storm heralded to rival Katrina's power. Although its magnitude of destruction ultimately paled to Katrina, the warnings and predicted path preceding Gustav yielded a process of NH evacuations similar to Katrina. The goal of this article was to ascertain whether NH administrative directors (ADs) felt more prepared to evacuate before Gustav. In 2006, Dosa et al(5) (J Am Med Dir Assoc, 3/07), interviewed 20 NH ADs by qualitative telephone survey to evaluate their lessons learned from Katrina. Administrators at these 20 participating nursing homes were contacted and asked to participate in a follow-up survey to compare hurricane preparedness between 2005 and 2008. Specifically, ADs were asked if they evacuated before Gustav, their destination, and about logistical issues with evacuation (eg, transportation, injuries). ADs were asked to rate their confidence with state assistance, hurricane transportation, and evacuation preparedness on a 10-point scale (10=most confident) and compare their preparedness to Katrina. Sixteen of the 20 NHs that participated in 2006 agreed to be surveyed-11 of whom held the same position before Katrina. Unlike Katrina, when only 45% evacuated before the storm, all 16 NHs evacuated before Gustav (56% to another NH and 46% to a church, gym, college, or other facility). Overall, ADs rated their confidence in preparedness for Gustav as a mean of 8.3 (range 5 to 10) compared with a mean of 5.4 (range 3 to 8) for Katrina, a 54% improvement. Of the 11 ADs employed pre-Katrina, 73% reported improved collaboration with the state and 55% noted improved transportation. Nevertheless, 7 ADs noted significant logistical problems during evacuation (mostly

  3. Study of Evacuation Behavior of Coastal Gulf of Mexico Residents

    OpenAIRE

    Bhattacharjee, Sanjoy; Petrolia, Daniel R.; Hanson, Terrill R.

    2009-01-01

    In this study, we investigate the link between hurricane characteristics, demographics of the Coastal Gulf of Mexico residents, including their household location, and their respective evacuation behavior. Our study is significantly different from the previously made studies on hurricane evacuation behavior in two ways. At first, the research data is collected through recording responses to a series of hypothetical situations which are quite identical to the set of information that people are...

  4. The long-term impact of war experiences and evacuation on people who were children during World War Two.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Waugh, Melinda J; Robbins, Ian; Davies, Stephen; Feigenbaum, Janet

    2007-03-01

    During World War Two 1.9 million people were evacuated from British cities where the risk of bombing was perceived to be highest. 1.5 million of these were children who, often unaccompanied, were sent to live with strangers. Two hundred and forty-five people who were evacuated as children were compared with 96 of similar age who did not experience evacuation. Within this self-selected sample, significant numbers of the evacuees were found to have experienced abuse and neglect. Pre-evacuation abuse made continued abuse likely during evacuation, while abuse during evacuation led to children being more likely to continue to be abused on their return home. Abuse during evacuation led to increased scores on the Impact of Event Scale and General Health Questionnaire, and to insecure attachment patterns. The role of evacuation and abuse in the maintenance of long-term psychological problems is discussed.

  5. Support system development for evacuation plan decision in nuclear plant disaster

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fujita, Masahiko; Takayama, Jun-ichi; Nakayama, Sho-ichiro; Ushiba, Takashi

    2011-01-01

    These days, our interest in nuclear plant accidents has increased, and civic actions for them have also been activated. Therefore, improvement of the disaster prevention planning to nuclear plant accidents is requested. In this study, we developed a microscopic traffic simulation system for evacuation plan near the nuclear plant as a system which supports to examine the disaster prevention planning, and applied the system to Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant area. Furthermore, the risk of each region near the nuclear plant disaster from the viewpoint of wind direction and the population was considered, the importance of each evacuation simulation was examined. As a result, we found that the present plan Kashiwazaki-Kariwa made has the problem on evacuation routes and others. (author)

  6. ABM and GIS-based multi-scenarios volcanic evacuation modelling of Merapi

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jumadi, Carver, Steve; Quincey, Duncan

    2016-05-01

    Conducting effective evacuation is one of the successful keys to deal with such crisis. Therefore, a plan that considers the probability of the spatial extent of the hazard occurrences is needed. Likewise, the evacuation plan in Merapi is already prepared before the eruption on 2010. However, the plan could not be performed because the eruption magnitude was bigger than it was predicted. In this condition, the extent of the hazardous area was increased larger than the prepared hazard model. Managing such unpredicted situation need adequate information that flexible and adaptable to the current situation. Therefore, we applied an Agent-based Model (ABM) and Geographic Information System (GIS) using multi-scenarios hazard model to support the evacuation management. The methodology and the case study in Merapi is provided.

  7. Evacuating the Area of a Hurricane

    Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts

    2006-08-10

    If a hurricane warning is issued for your area, or authorities tell you to evacuate, take only essential items. If you have time, turn off gas, electricity, and water and disconnect appliances.  Created: 8/10/2006 by Emergency Communications System.   Date Released: 10/10/2007.

  8. Variations in disaster evacuation behavior: public responses versus private sector executive decision-making processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Drabek, T E

    1992-06-01

    Data obtained from 65 executives working for tourism firms in three sample communities permitted comparison with the public warning response literature regarding three topics: disaster evacuation planning, initial warning responses, and disaster evacuation behavior. Disaster evacuation planning was reported by nearly all of these business executives, although it was highly variable in content, completeness, and formality. Managerial responses to post-disaster warnings paralleled the type of complex social processes that have been documented within the public response literature, except that warning sources and confirmation behavior were significantly affected by contact with authorities. Five key areas of difference were discovered in disaster evacuation behavior pertaining to: influence of planning, firm versus family priorities, shelter selection, looting concerns, and media contacts.

  9. Exploring the Role of Social Media and Individual Behaviors in Flood Evacuation Processes: An Agent-Based Modeling Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Du, Erhu; Cai, Ximing; Sun, Zhiyong; Minsker, Barbara

    2017-11-01

    Flood warnings from various information sources are important for individuals to make evacuation decisions during a flood event. In this study, we develop a general opinion dynamics model to simulate how individuals update their flood hazard awareness when exposed to multiple information sources, including global broadcast, social media, and observations of neighbors' actions. The opinion dynamics model is coupled with a traffic model to simulate the evacuation processes of a residential community with a given transportation network. Through various scenarios, we investigate how social media affect the opinion dynamics and evacuation processes. We find that stronger social media can make evacuation processes more sensitive to the change of global broadcast and neighbor observations, and thus, impose larger uncertainty on evacuation rates (i.e., a large range of evacuation rates corresponding to sources of information). For instance, evacuation rates are lower when social media become more influential and individuals have less trust in global broadcast. Stubborn individuals can significantly affect the opinion dynamics and reduce evacuation rates. In addition, evacuation rates respond to the percentage of stubborn agents in a nonlinear manner, i.e., above a threshold, the impact of stubborn agents will be intensified by stronger social media. These results highlight the role of social media in flood evacuation processes and the need to monitor social media so that misinformation can be corrected in a timely manner. The joint impacts of social media, quality of flood warnings, and transportation capacity on evacuation rates are also discussed.

  10. 76 FR 43265 - Proposed Information Collection; Comment Request; Evacuation Movement and Behavior Questionnaire

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-07-20

    ... DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE National Institute of Standards and Technology Proposed Information Collection; Comment Request; Evacuation Movement and Behavior Questionnaire AGENCY: National Institute of... collecting data on evacuation behavior and movement of occupants from approximately 50 high-rise building...

  11. Integration of social vulnerability into emergency management plans: designing of evacuation routes against flood disasters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aroca-Jimenez, Estefanía; Bodoque, Jose Maria; Garcia, Juan Antonio; Diez-Herrero, Andres

    2017-04-01

    Flash floods are highly spatio-temporal localized flood events characterized by reaching a high peak flow in a very short period of time, i.e., generally with times of concentration lower than six hours. Its short duration, which limits or even voids any warning time, means that flash floods are considered to be one of the most destructive natural hazards with the greatest capacity to generate risk, either in terms of the number of people affected globally or the proportion of individual fatalities. The above highlights the importance of a realistic and appropriate design of evacuation strategies in order to reduce flood-related losses, being evacuation planning considered of critical importance for disaster management. Traditionally, evacuation maps have been based on flood-prone areas, shelters or emergency residences location and evacuation routes information. However, evacuation plans rarely consider the spatial distribution of vulnerable population (i.e., people with special needs, mobility constraints or economic difficulties), which usually require assistance from emergency responders. The goal of this research is to elaborate an evacuation map against the occurrence of flash floods by combining geographic information (e.g. roads, health facilities location, sanitary helicopters) and social vulnerability patterns, which are previously obtained from socioeconomic variables (e.g. population, unemployment, dwelling characteristics). To do this, ArcGis Network Analyst tool is used, which allows to calculate the optimal evacuation routes. The methodology proposed here is implemented in the region of Castilla y León (94,230 km2). Urban areas prone to flash flooding are identified taking into account the following requirements: i) city centers are crossed by rivers or streams with a longitudinal slope higher than 0.01 m m-1; ii) city centers are potentially affected by flash floods; and iii) city centers are affected by an area with low or exceptional probability

  12. ALFIL: A Crowd Simulation Serious Game for Massive Evacuation Training and Awareness

    Science.gov (United States)

    García-García, César; Fernández-Robles, José Luis; Larios-Rosillo, Victor; Luga, Hervé

    2012-01-01

    This article presents the current development of a serious game for the simulation of massive evacuations. The purpose of this project is to promote self-protection through awareness of the procedures and different possible scenarios during the evacuation of a massive event. Sophisticated behaviors require massive computational power and it has…

  13. Influence of road network and population demand assumptions in evacuation modeling for distant tsunamis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Henry, Kevin; Wood, Nathan J.; Frazier, Tim G.

    2017-01-01

    Tsunami evacuation planning in coastal communities is typically focused on local events where at-risk individuals must move on foot in a matter of minutes to safety. Less attention has been placed on distant tsunamis, where evacuations unfold over several hours, are often dominated by vehicle use and are managed by public safety officials. Traditional traffic simulation models focus on estimating clearance times but often overlook the influence of varying population demand, alternative modes, background traffic, shadow evacuation, and traffic management alternatives. These factors are especially important for island communities with limited egress options to safety. We use the coastal community of Balboa Island, California (USA), as a case study to explore the range of potential clearance times prior to wave arrival for a distant tsunami scenario. We use a first-in–first-out queuing simulation environment to estimate variations in clearance times, given varying assumptions of the evacuating population (demand) and the road network over which they evacuate (supply). Results suggest clearance times are less than wave arrival times for a distant tsunami, except when we assume maximum vehicle usage for residents, employees, and tourists for a weekend scenario. A two-lane bridge to the mainland was the primary traffic bottleneck, thereby minimizing the effect of departure times, shadow evacuations, background traffic, boat-based evacuations, and traffic light timing on overall community clearance time. Reducing vehicular demand generally reduced clearance time, whereas improvements to road capacity had mixed results. Finally, failure to recognize non-residential employee and tourist populations in the vehicle demand substantially underestimated clearance time.

  14. A risk-based method for planning of bus–subway corridor evacuation under hybrid uncertainties

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lv, Y.; Yan, X.D.; Sun, W.; Gao, Z.Y.

    2015-01-01

    Emergencies involved in a bus–subway corridor system are associated with many processes and factors with social and economic implications. These processes and factors and their interactions are related to a variety of uncertainties. In this study, an interval chance-constrained integer programming (EICI) method is developed in response to such challenges for bus–subway corridor based evacuation planning. The method couples a chance-constrained programming with an interval integer programming model framework. It can thus deal with interval uncertainties that cannot be quantified with specified probability distribution functions. Meanwhile, it can also reflect stochastic features of traffic flow capacity, and thereby help examine the related violation risk of constraint. The EICI method is applied to a subway incident based evacuation case study. It is solved through an interactive algorithm that does not lead to more complicated intermediate submodels and has a relatively low computational requirement. A number of decision alternatives could be directly generated based on results from the EICI method. It is indicated that the solutions cannot only help decision makers identify desired population evacuation and vehicle dispatch schemes under hybrid uncertainties, but also provide bases for in-depth analyses of tradeoffs among evacuation plans, total evacuation time, and constraint-violation risks. - Highlights: • An inexact model is developed for the bus–subway corridor evacuation management. • It tackles stochastic and interval uncertainties in an integer programming problem. • It can examine violation risk of the roadway flow capacity related constraint. • It will help identify evacuation schemes under hybrid uncertainties

  15. Teen Dating Violence and Substance Use Following a Natural Disaster: Does Evacuation Status Matter?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Temple, Jeff R.; van den Berg, Patricia; Thomas, John F. “Fred”; Northcutt, James; Thomas, Christopher; Freeman, Daniel H.

    2012-01-01

    Objectives In September of 2008 the Texas coast was directly hit by Hurricane Ike. Galveston was flooded by 14 feet of storm surge, affecting most of the Island’s housing and infrastructure. The purpose of the present study is to examine whether youth who did not evacuate (11%), and subsequently were exposed to Hurricane Ike, exhibit higher rates of substance use and physical and sexual teen dating violence (both perpetration and victimization), relative to adolescents who did evacuate. Setting Public high school in southeast Texas that was in the direct path of Hurricane Ike. Participants An anonymous survey was administered in March 2009 to 1,048 high-school students who returned to Galveston post-storm (41% Hispanic, 23% African-American, 27% White). Main Outcome Measures Teen dating violence and substance use. Results Mantel-Haenszel odds ratios, adjusting for age and ethnicity, were computed. Compared to boys who evacuated, non-evacuating boys were more likely to perpetrate physical dating violence and sexual assault, and to be a victim of sexual assault. Non-evacuating boys and girls were more likely than those who did evacuate to report recent use of excessive alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine. Conclusions School personnel, medical personnel, and mental health service providers should consider screening for evacuation status in seeking to identify those adolescents who most need services after a natural disaster. Further, in addition to addressing internalized emotions and psychological symptoms associated with experiencing trauma, intervention programs should focus on reducing externalized behavior such as substance use and teen dating violence. PMID:22010597

  16. CT guided stereotactic evacuation of hypertensive and traumatic intracerebral hematomas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hondo, Hideki; Matsumoto, Keizo

    1983-01-01

    Recent advancement of CT system provides not only definite diagnosis and location of intracerebral hematoma but also coordinates of the center of the hematoma. Trials of stereotactic evacuation of the hematoma have been reported by some authors in the cases of subacute or chronic stages of hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage. In this series, similar surgery has been performed in 33 cases of hypertensive intracerebral hematoma including 22 cases in acute stage, and 2 cases of traumatic hematoma. Clinical outcomes were investigated and the results were considered to be equivalent or rather better in the conventional microsurgery with evacuation of hematoma under direct vision. However, there still remained controversial problems in the cases of threatened herniation signs, because in these cases regular surgery with total evacuation of the hematoma at one time might have been preferable. The benefits of this CT guided stereotactic approach for the evacuation of the hematoma were thought to be as follow: 1) the procedure is simple and safe, 2) operation is readily performed under local anesthesia, and 3) the hematoma was drained out totally by means of urokinase activity. It is our impression that this surgery not only is indicated as emergency treatment for the patients of high-age or in high risk, but also can institute as a routine surgery for the intracerebral hematomas in patients showing no herniation sign. (J.P.N.)

  17. Pedestrian flow-path modeling to support tsunami evacuation and disaster relief planning in the U.S. Pacific Northwest

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wood, Nathan J.; Jones, Jeanne M.; Schmidtlein, Mathew; Schelling, John; Frazier, T.

    2016-01-01

    Successful evacuations are critical to saving lives from future tsunamis. Pedestrian-evacuation modeling related to tsunami hazards primarily has focused on identifying areas and the number of people in these areas where successful evacuations are unlikely. Less attention has been paid to identifying evacuation pathways and population demand at assembly areas for at-risk individuals that may have sufficient time to evacuate. We use the neighboring coastal communities of Hoquiam, Aberdeen, and Cosmopolis (Washington, USA) and the local tsunami threat posed by Cascadia subduction zone earthquakes as a case study to explore the use of geospatial, least-cost-distance evacuation modeling for supporting evacuation outreach, response, and relief planning. We demonstrate an approach that uses geospatial evacuation modeling to (a) map the minimum pedestrian travel speeds to safety, the most efficient paths, and collective evacuation basins, (b) estimate the total number and demographic description of evacuees at predetermined assembly areas, and (c) determine which paths may be compromised due to earthquake-induced ground failure. Results suggest a wide range in the magnitude and type of evacuees at predetermined assembly areas and highlight parts of the communities with no readily accessible assembly area. Earthquake-induced ground failures could obstruct access to some assembly areas, cause evacuees to reroute to get to other assembly areas, and isolate some evacuees from relief personnel. Evacuation-modeling methods and results discussed here have implications and application to tsunami-evacuation outreach, training, response procedures, mitigation, and long-term land use planning to increase community resilience.

  18. Real-Time Traffic Information for Emergency Evacuation Operations: Phase A Final Report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Franzese, Oscar [ORNL; Zhang, Li [Mississippi State University (MSU); Mahmoud, Anas M. [Mississippi State University (MSU); Lascurain, Mary Beth [ORNL; Wen, Yi [Mississippi State University (MSU)

    2010-05-01

    There are many instances in which it is possible to plan ahead for an emergency evacuation (e.g., an explosion at a chemical processing facility). For those cases, if an accident (or an attack) were to happen, then the best evacuation plan for the prevailing network and weather conditions would be deployed. In other cases (e.g., the derailment of a train transporting hazardous materials), there may not be any previously developed plan to be implemented and decisions must be made ad-hoc on how to proceed with an emergency evacuation. In both situations, the availability of real-time traffic information plays a critical role in the management of the evacuation operations. To improve public safety during a vehicular emergency evacuation it is necessary to detect losses of road capacity (due to incidents, for example) as early as possible. Once these bottlenecks are identified, re-routing strategies must be determined in real-time and deployed in the field to help dissipate the congestion and increase the efficiency of the evacuation. Due to cost constraints, only large urban areas have traffic sensor deployments that permit access to some sort of real-time traffic information; any evacuation taking place in any other areas of the country would have to proceed without real-time traffic information. The latter was the focus of this SERRI/DHS (Southeast Region Research Initiative/Department of Homeland Security) sponsored project. That is, the main objective on the project was to improve the operations during a vehicular emergency evacuation anywhere by using newly developed real-time traffic-information-gathering technologies to assess traffic conditions and therefore to potentially detect incidents on the main evacuation routes. Phase A of the project consisted in the development and testing of a prototype system composed of sensors that are engineered in such a way that they can be rapidly deployed in the field where and when they are needed. Each one of these sensors

  19. The Impact of Transport Time on Outcomes Following Evacuation from Point of Injury

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-06-16

    reasonable in relation to anticipated benefits and the importance of the knowledge that may reasonably be expected to result. The subject selection is...patients with traumatic injuries require urgent medical attention and expeditious evacuation to improve survival. Aeromedical evacuation platforms such as

  20. Modified two-layer social force model for emergency earthquake evacuation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Hao; Liu, Hong; Qin, Xin; Liu, Baoxi

    2018-02-01

    Studies of crowd behavior with related research on computer simulation provide an effective basis for architectural design and effective crowd management. Based on low-density group organization patterns, a modified two-layer social force model is proposed in this paper to simulate and reproduce a group gathering process. First, this paper studies evacuation videos from the Luan'xian earthquake in 2012, and extends the study of group organization patterns to a higher density. Furthermore, taking full advantage of the strength in crowd gathering simulations, a new method on grouping and guidance is proposed while using crowd dynamics. Second, a real-life grouping situation in earthquake evacuation is simulated and reproduced. Comparing with the fundamental social force model and existing guided crowd model, the modified model reduces congestion time and truly reflects group behaviors. Furthermore, the experiment result also shows that a stable group pattern and a suitable leader could decrease collision and allow a safer evacuation process.

  1. Rhode Island Hurricane Evacuation Study Technical Data Report

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    1995-01-01

    ... evacuation decision-making. To accomplish this, the study provides information on the extent and severity of potential flooding from hurricanes, the associated vulnerable population, capacities of existing public shelters...

  2. Lessons learned from the total evacuation of a hospital after the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yanagawa, Youichi; Kondo, Hisayoshi; Okawa, Takashi; Ochi, Fumio

    The 2016 Kumamoto Earthquakes were a series of earthquakes that included a foreshock earthquake (magnitude 6.2) on April 14 and a main shock (magnitude 7.0) on April 16, 2016. A number of hospitals in Kumamoto were severely damaged by the two major earthquakes and required total evacuation. The authors retrospectively analyzed the activity data of the Disaster Medical Assistance Teams using the Emergency Medical Information System records to investigate the cases in which the total evacuation of a hospital was attempted following the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake. Total evacuation was attempted at 17 hospitals. The evacuation of one of these hospitals was canceled. Most of the hospital buildings were more than 20 years old. The danger of collapse was the most frequent reason for evacuation. Various transportation methods were employed, some of which involved the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force; no preventable deaths occurred during transportation. The hospitals must now be renovated to improve their earthquake resistance. The coordinated and combined use of military and civilian resources is beneficial and can significantly reduce human suffering in large-scale disasters.

  3. K-Shortest-Path-Based Evacuation Routing with Police Resource Allocation in City Transportation Networks.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yunyue He

    Full Text Available Emergency evacuation aims to transport people from dangerous places to safe shelters as quickly as possible. Police play an important role in the evacuation process, as they can handle traffic accidents immediately and help people move smoothly on roads. This paper investigates an evacuation routing problem that involves police resource allocation. We propose a novel k-th-shortest-path-based technique that uses explicit congestion control to optimize evacuation routing and police resource allocation. A nonlinear mixed-integer programming model is presented to formulate the problem. The model's objective is to minimize the overall evacuation clearance time. Two algorithms are given to solve the problem. The first one linearizes the original model and solves the linearized problem with CPLEX. The second one is a heuristic algorithm that uses a police resource utilization efficiency index to directly solve the original model. This police resource utilization efficiency index significantly aids in the evaluation of road links from an evacuation throughput perspective. The proposed algorithms are tested with a number of examples based on real data from cities of different sizes. The computational results show that the police resource utilization efficiency index is very helpful in finding near-optimal solutions. Additionally, comparing the performance of the heuristic algorithm and the linearization method by using randomly generated examples indicates that the efficiency of the heuristic algorithm is superior.

  4. Modeling hurricane evacuation traffic : testing the gravity and intervening opportunity models as models of destination choice in hurricane evacuation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2006-09-01

    The test was conducted by estimating the models on a portion of evacuation data from South Carolina following Hurricane Floyd, and then observing how well the models reproduced destination choice at the county level on the remaining data. The tests s...

  5. CLEAR: a model for the calculation of evacuation-time estimates in Emergency Planning Zones

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McLean, M.A.; Moeller, M.P.; Desrosiers, A.E.

    1983-01-01

    This paper describes the methodology and application of the computer model CLEAR (Calculates Logical Evacuation And Response) which estimates the time required for a specific population density and distribution to evacuate an area using a specific transportation network. The CLEAR model simulates vehicle departure and movement on a transportation network according to the conditions and consequences of traffice flow. These include handling vehicles at intersecting road segments, calculating the velocity of travel on a road segment as a function of its vehicle density, and accounting for the delay of vehicles in traffice queues. The program also models the distribution of times required by individuals to prepare for an evacuation. CLEAR can calculate realistic evacuation time estimates using site specific data and can identify troublesome areas within an Emergency Planning Zone

  6. Assessing the vulnerability of the evacuation emergency plan: the case of the El Hierro, Canary Island, Spain

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marrero, J. M.; Garcia, A.; Llinares, A.; Lopez, P.; Ortinz, R.

    2012-04-01

    On July 17, 2011 an unrest was detected in the El Hierro island. A serretian submarine eruption started on October 10th in the southern area of the island, two miles away from La Restinga village. The analysis and interpretation of seismic and deformation data show a large volume of intruded magma. These data also show a high probability of a new vent opening. One of the most complex volcanic hazard scenarios is a new open vent in the El Golfo Valley, in the north slope of the island, where more than 5,000 people live. In this area there are only two possible terrestrial evacuation routes: 1) HI-1 road NE direction, the fastest but most vulnerable one, very near a 1,000 meters height cliff and through a 2 km tunnel with a structural deficiency that had to be closed during high energy periods of seismic activity; and 2) HI-1 road SW direction, a mountain road with many curves, frequent small landslides and fog. The Emergency Plan of the island takes into account the entire evacuation of El Golfo Valley in case of eruption. This process will be carried out by means of an assisted evacuation. The evacuees will be transported to a temporally regrouping shelter outside the valley to organize the transport to Tenerife Island. Only those people who have a second residence or relatives outside the affected area will be able to remain in the island. The evacuation time estimated by authorities for the entire evacuation of El Golfo Valley is of about 4 hours. This is extremely low considering: the complexity of the area; the number of evacuees; the lack of preparedness by the population; and adverse weather conditions. To evaluate the Evacuation Plan vulnerability, a series of evacuation scenarios have been simulated: self-evacuation; assisted evacuation; both terrestrial evacuation routes. The warning time, the response time by the population and the evacuation time have been taken into account.

  7. A Case Study on the Impacts of Connected Vehicle Technology on No-Notice Evacuation Clearance Time

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karzan Bahaaldin

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available No-notice evacuations of metropolitan areas can place significant demands on transportation infrastructure. Connected vehicle (CV technology, with real-time vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to infrastructure communications, can help emergency managers to develop efficient and cost-effective traffic management plans for such events. The objectives of this research were to evaluate the impacts of CVs on no-notice evacuations using a case study of a downtown metropolitan area. The microsimulation software VISSIM was used to model the roadway network and the evacuation traffic. The model was built, calibrated, and validated for studying the performance of traffic during the evacuation. The researchers evaluated system performance with different CV penetration rates (from 0 to 30 percent CVs and measured average speed, average delays, and total delays. The findings suggest significant reductions in total delays when CVs reached a penetration rate of 30 percent, albeit increases in delays during the beginning of the evacuation. Additionally, the benefits could be greater for evacuations that last longer and with higher proportions of CVs in the vehicle stream.

  8. Low-temperature operating regime of the tokamak evacuating limiter

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tokar', M.Z.

    1987-01-01

    The conditions for realizing the regime of strong recycling of a cold dense plasma of an evacuating limiter were determined based on a previously proposed model for describing the limiter layer of a tokamak. The scaling for the dependence of the gas pressure in the evacuation system on the average plasma density in the limiter layer was found, and agreed quantitatively with the results of measurements on the Alcator and ISX-B tokamaks. For the tokamak reactor of the INTOR scale the calculations show that the low-temperature operating regime of the evacuating limiter can be realized with a quite low pumping rate. It has the advantages of reduced erosion of the limiter and small fluxes of impurities into the working volume of the reactor. In addition, the relative concentration of the helium ash in the limiter layer does not exceed 2-3%, but the density of the main plasma is comparable to the proposed average density in the reactor. The concept of a stochastic limiter is of interest for lowering the plasma density in the limiter layer and lowering the thermal loads on the limiter

  9. Performance analysis of double basin solar still with evacuated tubes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hitesh N Panchal; Shah, P. K.

    2013-01-01

    Solar still is a very simple device, which is used for solar distillation process. In this research work, double basin solar still is made from locally available materials. Double basin solar still is made in such a way that, outer basin is exposed to sun and lower side of inner basin is directly connected with evacuated tubes to increase distillate output and reducing heat losses of a solar still. The overall size of the lower basin is about 1006 mm x 325 mm x 380 mm, the outer basin is about 1006 mm x 536 mm x 100 mm Black granite gravel is used to increase distillate output by reducing quantity of brackish or saline water in the both basins. Several experiments have conducted to determine the performance of a solar still in climate conditions of Mehsana (latitude of 23 degree 59' and longitude of 72 degree 38'), Gujarat, like a double basin solar still alone, double basin solar still with different size black granite gravel, double basin solar still with evacuated tubes and double basin solar still with evacuated tubes and different size black granite gravel. Experimental results show that, connecting evacuated tubes with the lower side of the inner basin increases daily distillate output of 56% and is increased by 60%, 63% and 67% with average 10 mm, 20 mm and 30 mm size black granite gravel. Economic analysis of present double basin solar still is 195 days. (authors)

  10. Conceptualizing intragroup and intergroup dynamics within a controlled crowd evacuation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elzie, Terra; Frydenlund, Erika; Collins, Andrew J; Robinson, R Michael

    2015-01-01

    Social dynamics play a critical role in successful pedestrian evacuations. Crowd modeling research has made progress in capturing the way individual and group dynamics affect evacuations; however, few studies have simultaneously examined how individuals and groups interact with one another during egress. To address this gap, the researchers present a conceptual agent-based model (ABM) designed to study the ways in which autonomous, heterogeneous, decision-making individuals negotiate intragroup and intergroup behavior while exiting a large venue. A key feature of this proposed model is the examination of the dynamics among and between various groupings, where heterogeneity at the individual level dynamically affects group behavior and subsequently group/group interactions. ABM provides a means of representing the important social factors that affect decision making among diverse social groups. Expanding on the 2013 work of Vizzari et al., the researchers focus specifically on social factors and decision making at the individual/group and group/group levels to more realistically portray dynamic crowd systems during a pedestrian evacuation. By developing a model with individual, intragroup, and intergroup interactions, the ABM provides a more representative approximation of real-world crowd egress. The simulation will enable more informed planning by disaster managers, emergency planners, and other decision makers. This pedestrian behavioral concept is one piece of a larger simulation model. Future research will build toward an integrated model capturing decision-making interactions between pedestrians and vehicles that affect evacuation outcomes.

  11. [Aeromedical evacuation of critically ill patients in developing countries A retrospective study on 244 patients in Djibouti].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bordes, J; Loheas, D; Benois, A

    2015-01-01

    The pratice of intensive care in Africa is marked by a wide variety of health care delivery. Only a few centers offer specialized intensive care units, as cardiac or neurological units. That may explain the need for aeromedical evacuations for patients whose condition exceeds local capacity. Our objective was to assess whether the proportion of patients admitted to intensive care and evacuated had increased between 1997 and 2013 in a developing country, Djibouti. We examined the activity register of Bouffard Hospital intensive care unit in Djibouti to determine the number and characteristics of patients evacuated by air ambulance during a 16 years period. From January 1997 to December 2013, a total of 244 patients were evacuated. The evacuation rate was 5.74ù of the patients admitted to the entire duration of the study. The rate of patients evacuated was not different between 1997 and 2013 (5,69ù versus 8,33ù respectively, p = 0,269). However, the rate of djiboutian evacuated patients was statistically different between 1997 and 2013 (0,96ù versus 4,46ù, p = 0,02). The main causes were severe trauma injuries, cardiovascular diseases and neurological diseases. The aeromedical evacuation of a critically ill patient in a developing country is a process requiring heavy logistics and depending on the medical skills available in the area, and financial resources that can be implemented for the patient. Our study shows that medical evacuations in favor of Djiboutian patients are marginal but are increasing over the past decade.

  12. Maximum Smoke Temperature in Non-Smoke Model Evacuation Region for Semi-Transverse Tunnel Fire

    OpenAIRE

    B. Lou; Y. Qiu; X. Long

    2017-01-01

    Smoke temperature distribution in non-smoke evacuation under different mechanical smoke exhaust rates of semi-transverse tunnel fire were studied by FDS numerical simulation in this paper. The effect of fire heat release rate (10MW 20MW and 30MW) and exhaust rate (from 0 to 160m3/s) on the maximum smoke temperature in non-smoke evacuation region was discussed. Results show that the maximum smoke temperature in non-smoke evacuation region decreased with smoke exhaust rate. Plug-holing was obse...

  13. Proactive Traffic Information Control in Emergency Evacuation Network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhengfeng Huang

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Traffic demand in emergency evacuation is usually too large to be effectively managed with reactive traffic information control methods. These methods adapt to the road traffic passively by publishing real-time information without consideration of the routing behavior feedback produced by evacuees. Other remedy measures have to be prepared in case of nonrecurring congestion under these methods. To use the network capacity fully to mitigate near-future evacuation traffic congestion, we propose proactive traffic information control (PTIC model. Based on the mechanism between information and routing behavior feedback, this model can change the route choice of evacuees in advance by dissipating strategic traffic information. Generally, the near-future traffic condition is difficult to accurately predict because it is uncertain in evacuation. Assume that the value of traffic information obeys certain distribution within a range, and then real-time traffic information may reflect the most-likely near-future traffic condition. Unlike the real-time information, the proactive traffic information is a selection within the range to achieve a desired level of the road network performance index (total system travel time. In the aspect of the solution algorithm, differential equilibrium decomposed optimization (D-EDO is proposed to compare with other heuristic methods. A field study on a road network around a large stadium is used to validate the PTIC.

  14. People's Risk Recognition Preceding Evacuation and Its Role in Demand Modeling and Planning

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Urata, Junji; Pel, A.J.

    2017-01-01

    Evacuation planning and management involves estimating the travel demand in the event that such action is required. This is usually done as a function of people's decision to evacuate, which we show is strongly linked to their risk awareness. We use an empirical data set, which shows tsunami

  15. Vesicovaginal fistula complicating uterine evacuation: a case report ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Vesicovaginal fistula complicating uterine evacuation: a case report. MA Ijaiya, AP Aboyeji, GA Fawole, AAG Jimoh, OO Alabi, AO Olarinoye, OL Akintade, OK Ogah, DNC Nwachukwu, OA Alabi, SA Esuga, ZB Ijaiya ...

  16. Decision support system emergency planning, creating evacuation strategies in the event of flooding

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Windhouwer, C.J.; Klunder, G.A.; Sanders, F.M.

    2005-01-01

    The Decision Support System (DSS) Emergency Planning is designed for use in the event of sea or river flooding. It makes accessible all the information related to the decision whether to evacuate an area. An important factor in this decision is the time required for the evacuation. The model used by

  17. Aeromedical Evacuation: Validating Civil Reserve Air Fleet

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-02-25

    flight nurses and three medical technicians) is added for AE missions. The aeromedical evacuation crew (AEC) may be pared and tailored as required in... Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice and Science, Volume 5, Number 4, 2007: 319-325. 34 IAT.R 0554 General Accounting Office

  18. Teaching case studies on emergency evacuation : final report

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-02-15

    Through the development of four Harvard Kennedy School case studies, this project explored the policy and institutional dimensions of emergency evacuation planning and implementation in two major metropolitan areas Houston and New Orleans. By pro...

  19. Pedestrian Dynamics Feedback Control of Crowd Evacuation

    CERN Document Server

    Kachroo, Pushkin P.E; Al-nasur, Sadeq J; Shende, Apoorva

    2008-01-01

    Effective evacuation of people from closed spaces is an extremely important topic, since it can save real lives in emergency situations that can be brought about by natural and human made disasters. Usually there are static maps posted at various places at buildings that illustrate routes that should be taken during emergencies. However, when disasters happen, some of these routes might not be valid because of structural problems due to the disaster itself and more importantly because of the distribution of congestion of people spread over the area. The average flow of traffic depends on the traffic density. Therefore, if all the people follow the same route, or follow a route without knowing the congestion situation, they can end up being part of the congestion which results in very low flow rate or worse a traffic jam. Hence it becomes extremely important to design evacuations that inform people how fast and in which direction to move based on real-time information obtained about the people distribution usi...

  20. Assessment of Evacuation Protective Action Strategies For Emergency Preparedness Plan

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee, Joomyung; Jae, Moosung [Hanyang Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Ahn, Kwangil [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2013-10-15

    This report which studies about evacuation formation suggests some considerable factors to reduce damage of radiological accidents. Additional details would be required to study in depth and more elements should be considered for updating emergency preparedness. However, this methodology with sensitivity analysis could adapt to specific plant which has total information such as geological data, weather data and population data. In this point of view the evacuation study could be contribute to set up emergency preparedness plan and propose the direction to enhance protective action strategies. In radiological emergency, residents nearby nuclear power plant should perform protective action that is suggested by emergency preparedness plan. The objective of emergency preparedness plan is that damages, such as casualties and environmental damages, due to radioactive accident should be minimized. The recent PAR study includes a number of subjects to improve the quality of protective action strategies. For enhancing protective action strategies, researches that evaluate many factors related with emergency response scenario are essential parts to update emergency preparedness plan. Evacuation is very important response action as protective action strategy.

  1. Assessment of Evacuation Protective Action Strategies For Emergency Preparedness Plan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Joomyung; Jae, Moosung; Ahn, Kwangil

    2013-01-01

    This report which studies about evacuation formation suggests some considerable factors to reduce damage of radiological accidents. Additional details would be required to study in depth and more elements should be considered for updating emergency preparedness. However, this methodology with sensitivity analysis could adapt to specific plant which has total information such as geological data, weather data and population data. In this point of view the evacuation study could be contribute to set up emergency preparedness plan and propose the direction to enhance protective action strategies. In radiological emergency, residents nearby nuclear power plant should perform protective action that is suggested by emergency preparedness plan. The objective of emergency preparedness plan is that damages, such as casualties and environmental damages, due to radioactive accident should be minimized. The recent PAR study includes a number of subjects to improve the quality of protective action strategies. For enhancing protective action strategies, researches that evaluate many factors related with emergency response scenario are essential parts to update emergency preparedness plan. Evacuation is very important response action as protective action strategy

  2. Emergency Evacuation of Hazardous Chemical Accidents Based on Diffusion Simulation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jiang-Hua Zhang

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The recent rapid development of information technology, such as sensing technology, communications technology, and database, allows us to use simulation experiments for analyzing serious accidents caused by hazardous chemicals. Due to the toxicity and diffusion of hazardous chemicals, these accidents often lead to not only severe consequences and economic losses, but also traffic jams at the same time. Emergency evacuation after hazardous chemical accidents is an effective means to reduce the loss of life and property and to smoothly resume the transport network as soon as possible. This paper considers the dynamic changes of the hazardous chemicals’ concentration after their leakage and simulates the diffusion process. Based on the characteristics of emergency evacuation of hazardous chemical accidents, we build a mixed-integer programming model and design a heuristic algorithm using network optimization and diffusion simulation (hereafter NODS. We then verify the validity and feasibility of the algorithm using Jinan, China, as a computational example. In the end, we compare the results from different scenarios to explore the key factors affecting the effectiveness of the evacuation process.

  3. Reasons for medical evacuations of soldiers serving in International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) operation in Afghanistan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Korzeniewski, Krzysztof; Gregulski, Robert

    2014-01-01

    The article presents the results of a research study into the reasons for medical evacuations of Polish military personnel taking part in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) operation in Afghanistan from 2007 to 2013. The authors have analysed medical records of 485 soldiers who were medically evacuated out of a combat zone in Afghanistan for battle injuries, non-battle injuries and diseases. Each medically evacuated Polish soldier was subjected to statistical analysis. The study population comprised 25,974 soldiers assigned to the Polish Military Contingent Afghanistan in the given period. From 2007 to 2013, 1.9% of the Polish military personnel (n = 485) participating in the ISAF operation in Afghanistan were evacuated for medical reasons before the scheduled termination of their contract. 40.6% of all medical evacuations were due to battle injuries, 32.4% due to non-battle injuries, and 27.0% due to diseases. ISAF is an example of a combat operation, in which battle injuries remain the leading health problem in mission participants. 3 of 4 Polish soldiers who were medically evacuated from Afghanistan were no longer fit for military service in the area of operations due to the traumas they had suffered.

  4. The simulation of sanitary objects evacuation: An example of hotel 'Radon' in Niška Banja

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jevtić Radoje B.

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Object evacuation is one of the most important, the most responsible and the most complex tasks for human safety in objects generally. This is especially important for objects with lot oh humans, such as health facilities, high residential objects, hotels, schools, etc. This is still an open and ongoing problem which can be confirmed by many injured people who were not evacuated in the disasters. This paper has written to show the possible evacuation situation and calculate minimal time for evacuation in case of Hotel Radon in Niška Banja, as one specific health facility with hardly moving and immobile patients.

  5. Low-cost evacuated-tube solar collector appendices. Final report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Beecher, D.T.

    1980-05-31

    A low cost solar heat energy collector module and array has been designed using the evacuated tube, selective absorber, air cooled concept. Glass tubing as used in fluorescent lamps with automatic sealing methods is a key feature of the evacuated tube design. A molded fiber glass concentrating reflector panel and sheet metal header assembly are proposed. Major design problems involved included the cost of materials and labor, thermal expansion and distortion problems, high stagnation and operating temperatures, isolation, thermal efficiency, sealing, joining, air pressure drop, and weight of the preassembled module. A cost of less than $5 per active square foot of collecting surface has been estimated for materials and labor of the module and its mounting frame.

  6. Should evacuation standards be reviewed after a nuclear accident?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nifenecker, Herve

    2011-10-01

    The author comments the current practices of post-accident management of nuclear disasters. He outlines the peculiarities of nuclear evacuations with respect to other disasters. After referring to the use of life expectancy or of the reduction of life expectancy, for example for smokers, he suggests that irradiation could be expressed this way and then provide some intuitive information. He discusses the notion of linear no-threshold relationship which has been introduced by the ICRP after analysis of cancers noticed on survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He addresses the case of Fukushima, the issue of low doses applied to large populations. He discusses the limitations of the linear no-threshold relationship. He discusses possible improvements of evacuation procedures

  7. Evacuation of bedridden occupants : experimental research outcomes

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Strating, N.; van Herpen, R.; Zeiler, W.

    2017-01-01

    Bedridden building occupants in hospitals and nursing homes who are not able to rescue themselves in case of a fire emergency require assistance during an evacuation. A building emergency team usually fulfils this function and will have to remove the occupants from the room. The speed at which such

  8. A new simulation model for assessing aircraft emergency evacuation considering passenger physical characteristics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu, Yu; Wang, Weijie; Huang, Hong-Zhong; Li, Yanfeng; Yang, Yuanjian

    2014-01-01

    Conducting a real aircraft evacuation trial is oftentimes unaffordable as it is extremely expensive and may cause severe injury to participants. Simulation models as an alternative have been used to overcome the aforementioned issues in recent years. This paper proposes a new simulation model for emergency evacuation of civil aircraft. Its unique features and advantages over the existing models are twofold: (1) passengers' critical physical characteristics, e.g. waist size, gender, age, and disabilities, which impact the movement and egress time of individual evacuee from a statistical viewpoint, are taken into account in the new model. (2) Improvements are made to enhance the accuracy of the simulation model from three aspects. First, the staggered mesh discretization method together with the agent-based approach is utilized to simulate movements of individual passengers in an emergency evacuation process. Second, each node discretized to represent cabin space in the new model can contain more than one passenger if they are moving in the same direction. Finally, each individual passenger is able to change his/her evacuation route in a real-time manner based upon the distance from the current position to the target exit and the queue length. The effectiveness of the proposed simulation model is demonstrated on Boeing 767-300 aircraft. - Highlights: • A new simulation model of aircraft emergency evacuation is developed. • Some critical physical characteristics of passengers', e.g. waist size, gender, age, and disabilities, are taken into account in the new model. • An agent-based approach along with a multi-level fine network representation is used. • Passengers are able to change their evacuation routes in a real-time manner based upon distance and length of queue

  9. Analysis of techniques for estimating evacuation times for emergency planning zones

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Urbanik, T [Texas Transportation Institute (United States); Battelle Human Affairs Research Centers, Seattle, WA (United States); Desrosiers, A [Pacific Northwest Laboratory, Richland, WA (United States); Lindell, M K; Schuller, C R [Battelle Human Affairs Research Centers, Seattle, WA (United States)

    1980-11-01

    Limitations of current methodologies and some alternatives are discussed that point out that evacuation time is a combination of the time required for four separate actions. These are decision, notification, preparation, and response (travel) time. Times for these actions will overlap to some degree with some people receiving notification, some preparing to leave, and others traveling. Notification and preparation times significantly affect the evacuation time and must be known before time to clear an area can be calculated accurately. (author)

  10. Modelling Individual Evacuation Decisions during Natural Disasters: A Case Study of Volcanic Crisis in Merapi, Indonesia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jumadi

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available As the size of human populations increases, so does the severity of the impacts of natural disasters. This is partly because more people are now occupying areas which are susceptible to hazardous natural events, hence, evacuation is needed when such events occur. Evacuation can be the most important action to minimise the impact of any disaster, but in many cases there are always people who are reluctant to leave. This paper describes an agent-based model (ABM of evacuation decisions, focusing on the emergence of reluctant people in times of crisis and using Merapi, Indonesia as a case study. The individual evacuation decision model is influenced by several factors formulated from a literature review and survey. We categorised the factors influencing evacuation decisions into two opposing forces, namely, the driving factors to leave (evacuate versus those to stay, to formulate the model. The evacuation decision (to stay/leave of an agent is based on an evaluation of the strength of these driving factors using threshold-based rules. This ABM was utilised with a synthetic population from census microdata, in which everyone is characterised by the decision rule. Three scenarios with varying parameters are examined to calibrate the model. Validations were conducted using a retrodictive approach by performing spatial and temporal comparisons between the outputs of simulation and the real data. We present the results of the simulations and discuss the outcomes to conclude with the most plausible scenario.

  11. State of the art in evacuation time estimate studies for nuclear power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Urbanik, T.E.; Jamison, J.D.

    1992-03-01

    In the event of a major accident at a commercial nuclear power station, exposure of the public to airborne radioactive materials can be prevented or greatly reduced by evacuating the area immediately surrounding the reactor site. Reactor licensees are required to conduct studies to estimate the time needed to evacuate the public from the area surrounding each nuclear power station. The results of such studies are used by regulatory personnel and emergency planners to assess the potential effectiveness of protective responses for the public. The time required to evacuate the public from a 10-mile emergency planning radius is estimated by analyzing the available transportation facilities and other relevant conditions within this radius. To support the analysis, data must be collected and assumptions must be made regarding the transportation facilities, the size and characteristics of the population and other conditions in the planning zone. This report describes standard approaches and provides recommendations regarding the relevant information, assumptions and methods to be used in performing evacuation time estimate studies

  12. Emergency Evacuation Simulation for Radiological Emergency; A Case Study of Gijang

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee, Gyu M.; Na, Kyoungseok; Jeong, Jae Jun; Ahn, Seokyoung; Park, Seonghee [Pusan National Univ., Busan (Korea, Republic of)

    2014-05-15

    The recent nuclear reactor accident at Fukushima caused the residents at Gijang to be concerned about the safety of their local nuclear plants. The nuclear reactor-related accidents is very rare but may cause the serious consequences and last for significant period. Especially, Gijang is located next to Busan, at which most population is concentrated. Hence, the effective and efficient emergency evacuation plan cannot be overemphasized in addition to well-designed nuclear disaster prevention measures. The central government has studied the safety issues of nuclear plants and developed the prevention systems. However, the local government also needs their emergency evacuation plan for its residents, considering its geographical and local factors such as various modes of transportations, transportation and shelters systems. The disasters related to nuclear power plants is rare but their influence is considerable. Therefore, while maintaining the safe facilities, the disaster preparedness cannot be overemphasized. An agent-based emergency evacuation simulation tool has been developed and tested for Gijang area.

  13. Mother Nature versus human nature: public compliance with evacuation and quarantine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Manuell, Mary-Elise; Cukor, Jeffrey

    2011-04-01

    Effectively controlling the spread of contagious illnesses has become a critical focus of disaster planning. It is likely that quarantine will be a key part of the overall public health strategy utilised during a pandemic, an act of bioterrorism or other emergencies involving contagious agents. While the United States lacks recent experience of large-scale quarantines, it has considerable accumulated experience of large-scale evacuations. Risk perception, life circumstance, work-related issues, and the opinions of influential family, friends and credible public spokespersons all play a role in determining compliance with an evacuation order. Although the comparison is not reported elsewhere to our knowledge, this review of the principal factors affecting compliance with evacuations demonstrates many similarities with those likely to occur during a quarantine. Accurate identification and understanding of barriers to compliance allows for improved planning to protect the public more effectively. © 2011 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2011.

  14. Preclinical Evaluation of the Effects of Aeromedical Evacuation on Military-Relevant Casualties

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-10-01

    Evaluation of the timing of aeromedical evacuation in rat and swine models of TBI and polytrauma ” will investigate whether early vs delayed aeromedical...injury. Instrumented swine with polytrauma [TBI, hemorrhagic shock (HS), and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)] will be resuscitated and...2). WRAIR/NMRC IACUC protocol 17-OUMD-29LS “Evaluation of the Timing of Aeromedical Evacuation in Rat and Swine Models of TBI and Polytrauma

  15. An adaptive simulation tool for evacuation scenarios

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Formolo, Daniel; van der Wal, C. Natalie

    2017-01-01

    Building useful and efficient models and tools for a varied audience, such as evacuation simulators for scientists, engineers and crisis managers, can be tricky. Even good models can fail in providing information when the user’s tools for the model are scarce of resources. The aim of this work is to

  16. Evacuation behavior and Three Mile Island.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cutter, S; Barnes, K

    1982-06-01

    The responses of the residents to the nuclear power plant arcident at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania illustrate the factors influencing pre-impact coping responses of populations exposed to technological hazards. Confusion itnd ambiguous information influenced both the decision to evaluate and to remain in place. Proximity to the facility, stage in life cycle and the actions of friends and neighbors influenced the decision to evacuate.

  17. Development of a time-dependent hurricane evacuation model for the New Orleans area : [technical summary].

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-01-01

    When hurricanes threaten coastal cities, the most eff ective strategy to mitigate mortality is to evacuate the population : at risk. However, public offi cials face several transportation challenges when managing evacuations from a large city : like ...

  18. A large scale evacuation. Tasks of evacuator. Collapse of medical system at the time of areal indication for large scale indoor refuge and problems for restoration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oikawa, Tomoyoshi

    2012-01-01

    About the evacuation from disasters of quake/tsunami on Mar. 11, 2011, and Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Accident (Mar. 12-15), described are its social background, influence on the local society, medicare and works of medical staff. The disaster immediately blocked means of communication and transportation in Minamisoma City, and the Japan government indicated the indoor refuge of residents in the zone at 3 km distance from the Plant, then at 20 km on 12th and 30 km on 15th. About 123 thousands residents nearby had to evacuate after all: the largest scale of evacuation by the nuclear accident in Japan. Author's Minamisoma Citizens' Hospital (MCH) was located at 23 km from the Plant. Residents could know about the government indications through various media before their official announcements, and many had begun to evacuate. MCH accepted >100 victims, and measured their contamination as well as the ambient dose, using GM counter from 12th. The highest dose was 16 mc-Sv/h on 20th. Following the hydrogen explosion of no.3 reactor on 14th, residents were bewildered by the indication of indoor refuge, which impacted social activities like stoppage of commerce and brought about residents' mental conflict and solitary. Movement of all 107 hospitalized patients to neighboring facilities in Niigata prefecture started on 18th and actually completed on 20th with help from Self Defense Force. Children, pregnant women and certain patients were prohibited to enter the newly defined emergent evacuation preparation (EEP) zone on Apr. 11, within 30 km afar from the Plant, which inhibited the areal restoration and medicare. At present that 1.5 years have passed since the disaster, the number of medical stuff is quite insufficient near the old EEP zone. There, now 2/3 of population before the disaster are beginning their life, and most are elderly, suggesting the necessity of rearrangement of medical systems which were seemingly once collapsed. (T.T.)

  19. Evacuation of a Tertiary Neonatal Centre: Lessons from the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquakes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iwata, Osuke; Kawase, Akihiko; Iwai, Masanori; Wada, Kazuko

    2017-01-01

    Newborn infants hospitalised in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) are vulnerable to natural disasters. However, publications on evacuation from NICUs are sparse. The 2016 Kumamoto Earthquakes caused serious damage to Kumamoto City Hospital and its level III regional core NICU. Local/neighbour NICU teams and the disaster-communication team of a neonatal academic society cooperated to evacuate 38 newborn infants from the ward. The aim of this paper was to highlight potential key factors to improve emergency NICU evacuation and coordination of hospital transportation following natural disasters. Background variables including clinical risk scores and timing/destination of transportation were compared between infants, who subsequently were transferred to destinations outside of Kumamoto Prefecture, and their peers. All but 1 of the infants were successfully evacuated from their NICU within 8 h. One very-low-birth-weight infant developed moderate hypothermia following transportation. Fourteen infants were transferred to NICUs outside of Kumamoto Prefecture, which was associated with the diagnosis of congenital heart disease, dependence on respiratory support, higher risk scores, and longer elapsed time from the decision to departure. There was difficulty in arranging helicopter transportation because the coordination office of the Disaster Medical Assistance Team had requisitioned most air/ground ambulances and only helped arrange ground transportations for 13 low-risk infants. Transportation for all 10 high-risk infants (risk scores greater than or equal to the upper quartile) was arranged by local/neighbour NICUs. Although the overall evacuation process was satisfactory, potential risks of relying on the adult-based emergency transportation system were highlighted. A better system needs to be developed urgently to put appropriate priority on vulnerable infants. © 2017 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  20. Evacuation proctography - examination technique and method of evaluation; Evakuationsproktographie. Untersuchungstechnik und Auswertemethodik

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Braunschweig, R. [Abt. fuer Diagnostische Radiologie, Eberhard-Karls-Universitaet, Tuebingen (Germany); Schott, U. [Abt. fuer Diagnostische Radiologie, Eberhard-Karls-Universitaet, Tuebingen (Germany); Starlinger, M. [Abt. fuer Allgemeine Chirurgie, Eberhard-Karls-Universtaet, Tuebingen (Germany)

    1993-12-31

    Evacuation proctography is the most important imaging technique to supplement findings of physical examination, manometry, and endoscopy in patients presenting with pathologies in anorectal morphology and function. Indications for evacuation proctography include obstructed defecation or incomplete evacuation, imaging of ileal pouches following excision of the rectum, and suspected anorectal fistulae. Evacuation proctography with thick barium sulfate is performed under fluoroscopy. Documentation of the study can either be done by single-shot X-rays, video recording, or imaging with a 100-mm spot-film camera. Evacuation proctography shows morphologic changes such as spastic pelvic floor, rectocele, enterocele, intussusception and anal prolapse. Measurements can be performed to obtain the anorectal angle, location and mobility of the pelvic floor, and size as well as importance of a rectocele. Qualitative and quantitative data can only be interpreted along with clinical and manometric data. (orig.) [Deutsch] Neben klinischen, manometrischen und endoskopischen Untersuchungstechniken stellt die Evakuationsproktographie das wesentlichste bildgebende Verfahren zur Erfassung morphologischer und funktioneller Befunde am Anorektum dar. Einsatzgebiet sind zum einen klinische Befunde wie Obstipation und unvollstaendige Entleerung und zum anderen die Roentgenkontrolle eines Duenndarmpouches nach Rectumexstirpation sowie der Nachweis oder Ausschluss von Fisteln. Die Untersuchung wird unter Verwendung von Kontrastmittelsuspensionen durchleuchtungsgezielt durchgefuehrt. Zur Dokumentation stehen die Einzelbildtechnik im seitlichen Strahlengang, die Videotechnik bzw. 100mm-Kamera-Technik zur Verfuegung. Morphologisch koennen Befunde wie Anismus, Rectocele, Enterocele, Intussuszeption bzw. Schleimhautprolaps sowie der Analprolaps erfasst werden. Messtechnisch koennen u.a. der Anorektalwinkel und die Beweglichkeit bzw. Lage des Beckenbodens sowie die Groesse und funktionelle Bedeutung

  1. Possible Factors Promoting Car Evacuation in the 2011 Tohoku Tsunami Revealed by Analysing a Large-Scale Questionnaire Survey in Kesennuma City

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fumiyasu Makinoshima

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Excessive car evacuation can cause severe traffic jams that can lead to large numbers of casualties during tsunami disasters. Investigating the possible factors that lead to unnecessary car evacuation can ensure smoother tsunami evacuations and mitigate casualty damages in future tsunami events. In this study, we quantitatively investigated the possible factors that promote car evacuation, including both necessary and unnecessary usages, by statistically analysing a large amount of data on actual tsunami evacuation behaviours surveyed in Kesennuma, where devastating damage occurred during the 2011 Tohoku Tsunami. A straightforward statistical analysis revealed a high percentage of car evacuations (approx. 50%; however, this fraction includes a high number of unnecessary usage events that were distinguished based on mode choice reasons. In addition, a binary logistic regression was conducted to quantitatively evaluate the effects of several factors and to identify the dominant factor that affected evacuation mode choice. The regression results suggested that the evacuation distance was the dominant factor for choosing car evacuation relative to other factors, such as age and sex. The cross-validation test of the regression model demonstrated that the considered factors were useful for decision making and the prediction of evacuation mode choice in the target area.

  2. Theoretical predictions for glass flow into an evacuated canister

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Routt, K.R.; Crow, K.R.

    1983-01-01

    Radioactive waste currently stored at the Savannah River Plant in liquid form is to be immobilized by incorporating it into a borosilicate glass. The glass melter for this process will consist of a refractory lined, steel vessel operated at a glass temperature of 1150 0 C. At the end of a two-year projected melter lifetime, the glass inside the melter is to be drained prior to disposition of the melter vessel. One proposed technique for accomplishing this drainage is by sucking the glass into an evacuated canister. The theoretical bases for design of an evacuated canister for draining a glass melter have been developed and tested. The theoretical equations governing transient and steady-state flow were substantiated with both a silicone glass simulant and molten glass

  3. [Organization of anesthesia management and advanced life support at military medical evacuation levels].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shchegolev, A V; Petrakov, V A; Savchenko, I F

    2014-07-01

    Anesthesia management and advanced life support for the severely wounded personnel at military medical evacuation levels in armed conflict (local war) is time-consuming and resource-requiring task. One of the mathematical modeling methods was used to evaluate capabilities of anesthesia and intensive care units at tactical level. Obtained result allows us to tell that there is a need to make several system changes of the existing system of anesthesia management and advanced life support for the severely wounded personnel at military medical evacuation levels. In addition to increasing number of staff of anesthesiology-critical care during the given period of time another solution should be the creation of an early evacuation to a specialized medical care level by special means while conducting intensive monitoring and treatment.

  4. Medical Evacuation from Vietnam of an Elderly with Tuberculosis Spondylitis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ying-Hua Shieh

    2007-09-01

    Full Text Available Despite the growth in economy in Vietnam, the infrastructure of dependable medical care is still lacking. Therefore, aeromedical evacuation of patients to other countries for further medical interventions has become an important medical service in the region. We report a case where an elderly man who was aeromedically evacuated from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to Taipei Medical University–Municipal Wan Fang Hospital in Taipei, Taiwan. The patient developed a sudden onset of quadriplegia because of an epidural abscess at the cervical spine C6–C7. Antituberculous medication was prescribed for suspected tuberculous spondylitis, because his cerebral spinal fluid showed elevated white blood cells with a predominance of lymphocytes, and mildly elevated total protein. However, whole body tumor scan (67Ga mCi and whole body bone scan (99mTc methylene diphosphonate, 25 mCi did not reveal any specific results. Surgical intervention was arranged because of cervical spine instability and the need for a diagnostic biopsy. Adenocarcinoma of the prostate was found incidentally and was treated with bilateral orchiectomy and radiation therapy. This was the first medical evacuation by the Family Medical Practice group in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to Taiwan.

  5. An agent-based modelling framework to explore the role of social media and stubborn people on evacuation rates during flooding events

    Science.gov (United States)

    Du, E.; Cai, X.; Minsker, B. S.; Sun, Z.

    2017-12-01

    Flood warnings from various information sources are important for individuals to make evacuation decisions during a flood event. In this study, we develop a general opinion dynamics model to simulate how individuals update their flood hazard awareness when exposed to multiple information sources, including global broadcast, social media, and observations of neighbors' actions. The opinion dynamics model is coupled with a traffic model to simulate the evacuation processes of a residential community with a given transportation network. Through various scenarios, we investigate how social media affect the opinion dynamics and evacuation processes. We find that stronger social media can make evacuation processes more sensitive to the change of global broadcast and neighbor observations, and thus, impose larger uncertainty on evacuation rates (i.e., a large range of evacuation rates corresponding to sources of information). For instance, evacuation rates are lower when social media become more influential and individuals have less trust in global broadcast. Stubborn individuals can significantly affect the opinion dynamics and reduce evacuation rates. In addition, evacuation rates respond to the percentage of stubborn agents in a non-linear manner, i.e., above a threshold, the impact of stubborn agents will be intensified by stronger social media. These results highlight the role of social media in flood evacuation processes and the need to monitor social media so that misinformation can be corrected in a timely manner. The joint impacts of social media, quality of flood warnings and transportation capacity on evacuation rates are also discussed.

  6. Peritoneocele and enterocele. Formation and transformation during rectal evacuation as studied by means of defaeco-peritoneography

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bremmer, S.; Uden, R.; Mellgren, A.; Holmstroem, B.

    1998-01-01

    Purpose: To study, by means of defaeco-peritoneography, the formation and transformation of the peritoneocele, with and without an enterocele, during rectal evacuation. Material and Methods: Forty-six patients with a peritoneocele at defaecoperitoneography were selected for the study, and examined at three different stages:(1) at the start with a contrast-filled rectum; (2) at maximum straining; and (3) at rest after rectal evacuation. Results: Fourteen patients had a peritoneocele at the start. These peritoneoceles were largest at maximum straining and were all still present at rest after rectal evacuation. In 32 patients defaeco-peritoneography was regarded as normal at the start. At maximum straining these patients developed a peritoneocele and 20 of these were still present after rectal evacuation. No enterocele was seen at the start. At maximum straining 21 patients developed an enterocele and 15 of these were still present after rectal evacuation. Liquid in varying amounts was found in the peritoneoceles. Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that peritoneoceles were present at different stages of the defaeco-peritoneographic investigations. (orig./MG)

  7. Measuring and modeling behavioral decision dynamics in collective evacuation.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jean M Carlson

    Full Text Available Identifying and quantifying factors influencing human decision making remains an outstanding challenge, impacting the performance and predictability of social and technological systems. In many cases, system failures are traced to human factors including congestion, overload, miscommunication, and delays. Here we report results of a behavioral network science experiment, targeting decision making in a natural disaster. In a controlled laboratory setting, our results quantify several key factors influencing individual evacuation decision making in a controlled laboratory setting. The experiment includes tensions between broadcast and peer-to-peer information, and contrasts the effects of temporal urgency associated with the imminence of the disaster and the effects of limited shelter capacity for evacuees. Based on empirical measurements of the cumulative rate of evacuations as a function of the instantaneous disaster likelihood, we develop a quantitative model for decision making that captures remarkably well the main features of observed collective behavior across many different scenarios. Moreover, this model captures the sensitivity of individual- and population-level decision behaviors to external pressures, and systematic deviations from the model provide meaningful estimates of variability in the collective response. Identification of robust methods for quantifying human decisions in the face of risk has implications for policy in disasters and other threat scenarios, specifically the development and testing of robust strategies for training and control of evacuations that account for human behavior and network topologies.

  8. Flexible endoscope-assisted evacuation of chronic subdural hematomas.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Májovský, Martin; Masopust, Václav; Netuka, David; Beneš, Vladimír

    2016-10-01

    Chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH) is a common neurosurgical condition with an increasing incidence. Standard treatment of CSDHs is surgical evacuation. The objective of this study is to present a modification of standard burr-hole hematoma evacuation using a flexible endoscope and to assess the advantages and risks. Prospectively, 34 consecutive patients diagnosed with CSDH were included in the study. Epidemiological, clinical and radiographical data were collected and reviewed. All patients underwent a burr-hole evacuation of CSDH. A flexible endoscope was inserted and subdural space inspected during surgery. The surgeon was looking specifically for the presence of septations, draining catheter position and acute bleeding. Thirty-four patients underwent 37 endoscope-assisted surgeries. Presenting symptoms were hemiparesis (79%), decreased level of consciousness (18%), gait disturbances (15%), headache (12%), aphasia (6%), cognitive disturbances (6%) and epileptic seizure (3%). Average operative time was 43 min, and the average increase in operative time due to the use of the endoscope was 6 min. Recurrence rate was 8.8%, and clinical outcome was favorable (defined as mRS ≤ 2) in 97% of the cases. To our knowledge, the present cohort of 34 patients is the largest group of patients with CSDH treated using an endoscope. This technique allows decent visualization of the hematoma cavity while retaining the advantages of a minimally invasive approach under a local anesthesia. The main advantages are correct positioning of the catheter under visual control, identification of septations and early detection of cortex or vessel injury during surgery.

  9. A spatial analysis of evacuation intentions at the Shoreham nuclear power station

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Johnson, J.H. Jr.; Zeigler, D.J.

    1984-01-01

    The evidence presented in this chapter suggests that decisions regarding the most appropriate actions to take during a radiological emergency are likely to be made at the individual household level and cannot be imposed on the population by governmental fiat. In light of this fact, two strategies are likely to enhance evacuation planning for radiological emergencies. First, federal, state and local emergency response planners should (1) accept the fact that human behavior cannot be controlled; (2) try to determine how the population is likely to react, and (3) capitalize on these behaviors by building them into the emergency response plans. Results of the Shoreham Evacuation Survey suggest, for example, that the ten mile (16 km) EPZ currently required by the NRC and FEMA should be extended to 25 miles (40 km) at the SNPS, in part accommodate the likely high degree of ''spontaneous evacuation,'' and in part to ensure that public exposure to radiation is minimal, in case of a radiological emergency at the plant. Second, emergency response planners also need to educate people about the importance of following directions in the event of a nuclear power plant accident. In the case of the SNPS, for example, the education program should be aimed not only at the zip code zones further from and west of the plant in which families (primarily young and with children) are likely to spontaneously evacuate (over-reactors), and also at those zones closer to and east of the plant in which the residents (primarily older and without children) may be included to ignore official orders to evacuate (under-reactors). These are the groups that either endanger society by congesting travel arteries (over-reactors) or themselves by remaining in place (under-reactors)

  10. EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON DIFFICULTY OF EVACUATION FROM UNDERGROUND SPACES UNDER INUNDATED SITUATIONS USING REAL SCALE MODELS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baba, Yasuyuki; Ishigaki, Taisuke; Toda, Keiichi; Nakagawa, Hajime

    Many urbanized cities in Japan are located in alluvial plains, and the vulnerability of urbanized areas to flood disaster is highlighted by flood attacks due to heavy rain fall or typhoons. Underground spaces located in the urbanized area are flood-prone areas, and the intrusion of flood watar into underground space inflicted severe damages on urban functions and infrastructures. In a similar way, low-lying areas like "bowl-shaped" depression and underpasses under highway and railroad bridges are also prone to floods. The underpasses are common sites of accidents of submerged vehicles, and severe damage including human damage occasionally occurs under flooding conditions. To reduce the damage due to inundation in underground space, needless to say, early evacuation is one of the most important countermeasures. This paper shows some experimental results of evacuation tests from underground spaces under inundated situations. The difficulities of the evacuation from underground space has been investigated by using real scale models (door, staircase and vehicle), and the limit for safety evacuation is discussed. From the results, it is found that water depth of 0.3 - 0.4m would be a critical situation for the evacuation from underground space through staircases and door and that 0.7 - 0.8m deep on the ground would be also a critical situation for safety evacuation though the doors of the vehicle. These criteria have some possibility to vary according to different inundated situations, and they are also influenced by the individual variation like the difference of physical strength. This means that these criteria requires cautious stance to use although they show a sort of an index of the limitation for saftty evacuation from underground space.

  11. Nonlinear Effects in Examples of Crowd Evacuation Scenarios

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Starke, Jens; Berg Thomsen, Kristian; Sørensen, Asger

    2014-01-01

    Severe accidents with many fatalities have occurred when too many pedestrians had to maneuver in too tight surroundings, as during evacuations of mass events. This demonstrates the importance of a better general understanding of pedestrians and emergent complex behavior in crowds. To this end, we...

  12. Spatial Analysis of Traffic and Routing Path Methods for Tsunami Evacuation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fakhrurrozi, A.; Sari, A. M.

    2018-02-01

    Tsunami disaster occurred relatively very fast. Thus, it has a very large-scale impact on both non-material and material aspects. Community evacuation caused mass panic, crowds, and traffic congestion. A further research in spatial based modelling, traffic engineering and splitting zone evacuation simulation is very crucial as an effort to reduce higher losses. This topic covers some information from the previous research. Complex parameters include route selection, destination selection, the spontaneous timing of both the departure of the source and the arrival time to destination and other aspects of the result parameter in various methods. The simulation process and its results, traffic modelling, and routing analysis emphasized discussion which is the closest to real conditions in the tsunami evacuation process. The method that we should highlight is Clearance Time Estimate based on Location Priority in which the computation result is superior to others despite many drawbacks. The study is expected to have input to improve and invent a new method that will be a part of decision support systems for disaster risk reduction of tsunamis disaster.

  13. Surgery for bilateral large intracranial traumatic hematomas: evacuation in a single session.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kompheak, Heng; Hwang, Sun-Chul; Kim, Dong-Sung; Shin, Dong-Sung; Kim, Bum-Tae

    2014-06-01

    Management guidelines for single intracranial hematomas have been established, but the optimal management of multiple hematomas has little known. We present bilateral traumatic supratentorial hematomas that each has enough volume to be evacuated and discuss how to operate effectively it in a single anesthesia. In total, 203 patients underwent evacuation and/or decompressive craniectomies for acute intracranial hematomas over 5 years. Among them, only eight cases (3.9%) underwent operations for bilateral intracranial hematomas in a single session. Injury mechanism, initial Glasgow Coma Scale score, types of intracranial lesions, surgical methods, and Glasgow outcome scale were evaluated. The most common injury mechanism was a fall (four cases). The types of intracranial lesions were epidural hematoma (EDH)/intracerebral hematoma (ICH) in five, EDH/EDH in one, EDH/subdural hematoma (SDH) in one, and ICH/SDH in one. All cases except one had an EDH. The EDH was addressed first in all cases. Then, the evacuation of the ICH was performed through a small craniotomy or burr hole. All patients except one survived. Bilateral intracranial hematomas that should be removed in a single-session operation are rare. Epidural hematomas almost always occur in these cases and should be removed first to prevent the hematoma from growing during the surgery. Then, the other hematoma, contralateral to the EDH, can be evacuated with a small craniotomy.

  14. High pressures in room evacuation processes and a first approach to the dynamics around unconscious pedestrians

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cornes, F. E.; Frank, G. A.; Dorso, C. O.

    2017-10-01

    Clogging raises as the principal phenomenon during many evacuation processes of pedestrians in an emergency situation. As people push to escape from danger, compression forces may increase to harming levels. Many individuals might fall down, while others will try to dodge the fallen people, or, simply pass through them. We studied the dynamics of the crowd for these situations, in the context of the "social force model". We modeled the unconscious (fallen) pedestrians as inanimate bodies that can be dodged (or not) by the surrounding individuals. We found that new morphological structures appear along the evacuating crowd. Under specific conditions, these structures may enhance the evacuation performance. The pedestrian's willings for either dodging or passing through the unconscious individuals play a relevant role in the overall evacuation performance.

  15. [Diary of a hospital evacuation. Discovery of a 5 hundredweight bomb from World War II].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Katter, I; Kunitz, O; Deller, A

    2008-07-01

    The discovery of an aircraft bomb from World War II made the complete evacuation of a tertiary care hospital with 629 beds and 17 specialist departments including a neonatal intensive care unit necessary. Some months before an alarm plan had been issued and a fire practice had been carried out which made it obvious to all concerned how important such measures are. Nevertheless, more room for improvement could be learned from the evacuation, in particular the rapid classification of the patients into categories and the fact that 20-30% of the patients needed stretcher-based transport for evacuation.

  16. Influences of potential predictor variables on gastric evacuation in Atlantic cod Gadus morhua L. feeding on fish prey

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Niels Gerner

    2012-01-01

    of photoperiod and pre-experimental treatment of prey were also tested. Freshly killed A. tobianus were evacuated from the stomach of G. morhua at a rate similar to the value estimated from conspecifics kept deep-frozen and subsequently thawed prior to the evacuation experiment. The evacuation rate in G. morhua...... exposed to continuous light did not differ from the rate obtained from fish maintained under a 12L:12D photoperiod. The evacuation rates estimated from the latter fish in the dark and light periods, respectively, were likewise similar. These results indicate that the resistance of prey to the digestive...

  17. Ensuring safety of people in case of severe floods: feasibility and relevance of vertical evacuation strategies in high population density areas

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pannier Rodolphe

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available When a major flooding event is expected the authorities in charge of the crisis management often consider bringing people to safety by making them leaving temporarily the threatened area before the onset of the flood. This strategy is called “horizontal evacuation”. It has to be distinguished from “vertical evacuation”, which means that people reach a shelter above the wtaer level within the flood area. Vertical evacuation is often the spontaneousbehaviourof people who are surprised by the flood and are trying to reach a tree, a floor upstairs, a roof of a building etc. in order to get away from the rising water. But vertical evacuation could also be consideredas an alternative strategy to horizontal evacuation when moving outside the flood area is neither a faisible nor a relevant option, for example in high-population density areas. In order to be a credible alternative to horizontal evacuation, vertical evacuation has to be carefully planned. This paper aims to explain why horizontal evacuation is not always a suitable option in case of major flood and to explore under what conditions vertical evacuation can be a relevantalternative solution to horizontal evacuation. It also adresses some general recommendations about how to prepare a vertical evacuation strategy..

  18. Multi-hazard evacuation route and shelter planning for buildings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-06-01

    A bi-level, two-stage, binary stochastic program with equilibrium constraints, and three variants, are presented that : support the planning and design of shelters and exits, along with hallway fortification strategies and associated : evacuation pat...

  19. A new way to estimate the evacuation time for people involved in a building fire

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sørensen, Lars Schiøtt

    2004-01-01

    A survey about evacuation models is given. The current available evacuation models based on hand calculations are tested during the survey. The objectives have been to analyze the existing hand calculating methods and thereby validate or may be, disqualify a model. The survey is based on comparis...

  20. Electrostatic double layers and a plasma evacuation process

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Raadu, M.A.; Carlqvist, P.

    1979-12-01

    An evacuation process due to the growth of current driven instabilities in a plasma is discussed. The process, which leads to localized extreme density reductions, is related to the formation of electrostatic double layers. The initial linear phase is treated using the superposition of unstable plasma waves. In the long wave length, non-dispersive limit a density dip, which is initially present as a small disturbance, grows rapidly and remains localized in the plasma. The process works for a variety of plasma conditions provided a certain current density is exceeded. For a particular choice of plasma parameters the non-linear development is followed, by solving the coupled Vlasov-Poisson equations by finite difference methods. The evacuation process is found to work even more effectively in the non-linear phase and leads to an extreme density reduction within the dip. It is suggested that the growth of such structures produces weak points within the plasma that can lead to the formation of double layers. (Auth.)

  1. Social influence in a virtual tunnel fire--influence of conflicting information on evacuation behavior.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kinateder, Max; Müller, Mathias; Jost, Michael; Mühlberger, Andreas; Pauli, Paul

    2014-11-01

    Evacuation from a smoke filled tunnel requires quick decision-making and swift action from the tunnel occupants. Technical installations such as emergency signage aim to guide tunnel occupants to the closest emergency exits. However, conflicting information may come from the behavior of other tunnel occupants. We examined if and how conflicting social information may affect evacuation in terms of delayed and/or inadequate evacuation decisions and behaviors. To this end, forty participants were repeatedly situated in a virtual reality smoke filled tunnel with an emergency exit visible to one side of the participants. Four social influence conditions were realized. In the control condition participants were alone in the tunnel, while in the other three experimental conditions a virtual agent (VA) was present. In the no-conflict condition, the VA moved to the emergency exit. In the active conflict condition, the VA moved in the opposite direction of the emergency exit. In the passive conflict condition, the VA stayed passive. Participants were less likely to move to the emergency exit in the conflict conditions compared to the no-conflict condition. Pre-movement and movement times in the passive conflict condition were significantly delayed compared to all other conditions. Participants moved the longest distances in the passive conflict condition. These results support the hypothesis that social influence affects evacuation behavior, especially passive behavior of others can thwart an evacuation to safety. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.

  2. Hypertensive thalamic hematoma treated by CT stereotactic evacuation (with two cases reports)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang Hongsheng; Zhu Fengqing

    2002-01-01

    Objective: To investigate new surgical method to treat hypertensive thalamic hematoma. Methods: Two medial-degree coma patients with hypertensive thalamic hematoma were treated by CT stereotactic evacuation. Results: One week after operation the two patients regained consciousness. The function of paraplegic appendage restored partly, and one patient could take care of himself. Conclusion: CT stereotactic evacuation to treat hypertensive thalamic hematoma has the advantages of small trauma, little complication and good clinical results. The authors suggest that it be selected firstly in treating hypertensive thalamic hematoma

  3. CT-guided stereotactic evacuation of hypertensive intracerebral hematomas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hondo, Hideki

    1983-01-01

    Computerized tomography (CT) is now effective not only for definite diagnosis and location of intracerebral hematomas but also for coordination of the center of a hematoma. CT-guided stereotactic evacuation of hypertensive intracerebral hematoma was performed in 51 cases: 34 of basal ganglionic hematoma with or without ventricular perforation, 11 of subcortical hematoma, 3 of thalamic hematoma and 3 of cerebellar hematoma. Three dimensional CT images or biplane CT images were taken to determine the coordinates of the target point, which was the center of the hematoma. Then, a silicon tube (O.D. 3.5 phi, I.D. 2.1 phi) was inserted into the center of the hematoma through a burr-hole under local anesthesia, and the liquid or solid hematoma was aspirated as completely as possible with a syringe. Urokinase (6,000 I.U./5 ml saline) was administered through this silicon tube every 6 or 12 hours for several days until the hematoma had drained out competely. The silicon tube was taken out when repeated CT scanning revealed no hematoma. The results of clinical follow-ups indicated that this procedure is as good as, or rather better than conventional microsurgery with evacuation of hematoma under direct vision. Moreover this CT-guided stereotactic approach for evacuation of the hematoma has the following advantages: 1) the procedure is simple and safe, 2) operation can be performed under local anesthesia, and 3) the hematoma is drained out completely with the aid of urokinase. This surgery seems indicated as an emergency treatment for high-age or high risk patients and also as a routine surgery for intracerebral hematomas in patients showing no herination signs. (author)

  4. Gut evacuation rate and grazing impact of the krill Thysanoessa raschii and T. inermis

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Teglhus, Frederik Wolff; Agersted, Mette Dalgaard; Arendt, Kristine Engel

    2015-01-01

    Gut evacuation rates and ingestion rates were measured for the krill Thysanoessa raschii and T. inermis in Godthåbsfjord, SW Greenland. Combined with biomass of the krill community, the grazing potential on phytoplankton along the fjord was estimated. Gut evacuation rates were 3.9 and 2.3 h−1 for...... standing stock being removed per day during this late spring study...

  5. MODELING AND SIMULATION OF TRAFFIC FLOWS ON INCLINED ROAD DURING EVACUATION PROCESS OF THE VOLCANO DISASTER WITH FINITE DIFFERENCE METHOD

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Richasanty Septima S

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available The research in this thesis was done to examine the model of traffic flow of volcanic disaster evacuation path for uphill and downhill roads. The assessment was focused on the area of disaster evacuation path from the Pante Raya Bener Meriah intersection to Takengon. This model is assessed for two different types of time when which a disaster occurs; the disaster occurred at night and the disaster occurred during the day, especially during peak hours (working hours. The model was developed with attention to the exixtence of inflow and outflow along the evacuation route. Furthermore, the model obtained is solved numerically by using finite difference method. The chosen approach of this method is upwind scheme with time and space steps using forward difference and backward difference. The solution of this model in the form of simulated vehicle density along evacuation pathways. The research conducted is in the form of a model of traffic flow on evacuation paths and restricted to the inflow and outflow without alternative path as well as the conditions of the road which are uphill and downhill, showed a high density of vehicles either at night or during the day. Uphill road conditions resulted in decreased vehicle speed and vehicle density will increase, while downhill road conditions resulted in increased vehicle speed and vehicle density will decrease, meaning that the road conditions which are uphill and downhill will greatly affect the process of evacuation. Degree vehicles of evacuation efficiency occuring at night without an alternative pathway produces a high efficiency so that it can be interpreted that the evacuation process in the evening was successful and runs better than the evacuation process during the day, and this is caused by the existence of vehicles on the road evacuation process started thus affecting the efficiency levels.

  6. Study on the influence of smoke and exit signs on fire evacuation - Analysis of evacuation experiments in a real and virtual hotel

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kobes, M.; Helsloot, I.; Vries, de B.; Post, J.G.; Oberije, N.; Groenewegen, K.

    2010-01-01

    Human behaviour in fires is mainly studied by incident evaluations and real-life experiments, such as unannounced evacuation drills. The possibilities of virtual reality for studying human behaviour in fires are so far hardly adopted by researchers. Nevertheless, the application of a behavioural

  7. 33 CFR 150.506 - When must the operator service inflatable lifesaving appliances and marine evacuation systems?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... inflatable lifesaving appliances and marine evacuation systems? 150.506 Section 150.506 Navigation and...: OPERATIONS Emergency and Specialty Equipment Inflatable Lifesaving Appliances § 150.506 When must the operator service inflatable lifesaving appliances and marine evacuation systems? (a) The operator must...

  8. A Simulation Tool for Hurricane Evacuation Planning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel J. Fonseca

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Atlantic hurricanes and severe tropical storms are a serious threat for the communities in the Gulf of Mexico region. Such storms are violent and destructive. In response to these dangers, coastal evacuation may be ordered. This paper describes the development of a simulation model to analyze the movement of vehicles through I-65, a major US Interstate highway that runs north off the coastal City of Mobile, Alabama, towards the State of Tennessee, during a massive evacuation originated by a disastrous event such a hurricane. The constructed simulation platform consists of a primary and two secondary models. The primary model is based on the entry of vehicles from the 20 on-ramps to I-65. The two secondary models assist the primary model with related traffic events such as car breakdowns and accidents, traffic control measures, interarrival signaling, and unforeseen emergency incidents, among others. Statistical testing was performed on the data generated by the simulation model to indentify variation in relevant traffic variables affecting the timely flow of vehicles travelling north. The performed statistical analysis focused on the closing of alternative on-ramps throughout the Interstate.

  9. Ultrasensitive leak detection during ultrahigh vacuum evacuation by quadrupole mass spectrometer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chen Xu; Huang Tianbin; Wang Ligong; Jin Qiji; Cha Liangzhen

    2006-01-01

    One must do ultrasensitive leak detection during ultrahigh-vacuum (UHV) evacuation, especially just before the device is sealed off from the vacuum system, to guarantee the longevity of the sealed high-vacuum or even UHV devices with small volume. A quadrupole mass spectrometer (QMS) with an UHV evacuation system can be used under accumulation mode to do the testing. Possible accumulate modes, as well as their advantages and shortcomings, are studied experimentally and discussed in this paper. We found that the opening action of the metal valve during accumulation mode always severely affects the height of the peak indicated by QMS and causes considerable errors. If we determine the leak rate by the peak area instead of the peak height, the situation is much improved. This method has proven quite useful in ensuring the tightness quality for complex sealed UHV devices with small volumes. Ultrasensitive leak detection has been carried out for such real evacuating devices, and a leak rate of 2x10 -14 Pa·m 3 /s was detected, which is far lower than its dynamic mode and the detection limit of the current advanced commercial leak detectors

  10. Optimal nonimaging integrated evacuated solar collector

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garrison, John D.; Duff, W. S.; O'Gallagher, Joseph J.; Winston, Roland

    1993-11-01

    A non imaging integrated evacuated solar collector for solar thermal energy collection is discussed which has the lower portion of the tubular glass vacuum enveloped shaped and inside surface mirrored to optimally concentrate sunlight onto an absorber tube in the vacuum. This design uses vacuum to eliminate heat loss from the absorber surface by conduction and convection of air, soda lime glass for the vacuum envelope material to lower cost, optimal non imaging concentration integrated with the glass vacuum envelope to lower cost and improve solar energy collection, and a selective absorber for the absorbing surface which has high absorptance and low emittance to lower heat loss by radiation and improve energy collection efficiency. This leads to a very low heat loss collector with high optical collection efficiency, which can operate at temperatures up to the order of 250 degree(s)C with good efficiency while being lower in cost than current evacuated solar collectors. Cost estimates are presented which indicate a cost for this solar collector system which can be competitive with the cost of fossil fuel heat energy sources when the collector system is produced in sufficient volume. Non imaging concentration, which reduces cost while improving performance, and which allows efficient solar energy collection without tracking the sun, is a key element in this solar collector design.

  11. Evacuation modeling trends

    CERN Document Server

    Abreu, Orlando; Alvear, Daniel

    2016-01-01

    This book presents an overview of modeling definitions and concepts, theory on human behavior and human performance data, available tools and simulation approaches, model development, and application and validation methods. It considers the data and research efforts needed to develop and incorporate functions for the different parameters into comprehensive escape and evacuation simulations, with a number of examples illustrating different aspects and approaches. After an overview of basic modeling approaches, the book discusses benefits and challenges of current techniques. The representation of evacuees is a central issue, including human behavior and the proper implementation of representational tools. Key topics include the nature and importance of the different parameters involved in ASET and RSET and the interactions between them. A review of the current literature on verification and validation methods is provided, with a set of recommended verification tests and examples of validation tests. The book c...

  12. [Association between evacuation condition and habitual physical activity in Great East Japan Earthquake evacuees: The Fukushima Health Management Survey].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nagai, Masato; Ohira, Tetsuya; Yasumura, Seiji; Takahashi, Hideto; Yuki, Michiko; Nakano, Hironori; Wen, Zhang; Yabe, Hirooki; Ohtsuru, Akira; Maeda, Masaharu; Takase, Kanae

    2016-01-01

    Objectives: Prevalence of life-style disease has increased dramatically in evacuees due to the Great East Japan Earthquake. One reason may be that physical activity level decreased from life environment changes due to evacuation. However, associations between evacuation condition and habitual physical activity have not been studied. We examined this association in Fukushima residents who participated in the Fukushima Health Management Survey. Methods: In this study, 37,843 evacuees from 13 municipal evacuation zones from the nuclear-power accident caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake, born before April 1, 1995, were included in the analysis. Evacuation condition was defined by disaster living place (13 zones), evacuation place (inside or outside the prefecture), and current living status (evacuation shelter or temporary housing, rental housing/ apartment, and relative's home or own home). Habitual physical activity was defined from self-administered questionnaires as participants who responded "almost every day" and "2-4 times/week" of regular exercise. In the analysis, habitual physical activity prevalence was aggregated by gender and variables (living place in the disaster, evacuation place, and current living status). Prevalence was adjusted for age, disaster living place, evacuation place, and current living status by standard analysis of covariance methods. Results: Adjusted prevalences of habitual physical activity were: men, 27.9-46.5%; women, 27.0-43.7% in each disaster living place. The differences were 18.6% point in men and 16.7% point in women. For evacuation place, physical activity outside the prefecture for men (37.7%) and inside the prefecture for women (32.1%) were higher, but those differences were only 2.2% point and 1.8% point in men and women, respectively. For current living status, physical activity of those in rental housing/ apartment was the lowest; evacuation shelter or temporary housing was the highest in both genders (men: 38

  13. A methodology for evacuation design for urban areas: theoretical aspects and experimentation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Russo, F.; Vitetta, A.

    2009-04-01

    This paper proposes an unifying approach for the simulation and design of a transportation system under conditions of incoming safety and/or security. Safety and security are concerned with threats generated by very different factors and which, in turn, generate emergency conditions, such as the 9/11, Madrid and London attacks, the Asian tsunami, and the Katrina hurricane; just considering the last five years. In transportation systems, when exogenous events happen and there is a sufficient interval time between the instant when the event happens and the instant when the event has effect on the population, it is possible to reduce the negative effects with the population evacuation. For this event in every case it is possible to prepare with short and long term the evacuation. For other event it is possible also to plan the real time evacuation inside the general risk methodology. The development of models for emergency conditions in transportation systems has not received much attention in the literature. The main findings in this area are limited to only a few public research centres and private companies. In general, there is no systematic analysis of the risk theory applied in the transportation system. Very often, in practice, the vulnerability and exposure in the transportation system are considered as similar variables, or in other worse cases the exposure variables are treated as vulnerability variables. Models and algorithms specified and calibrated in ordinary conditions cannot be directly applied in emergency conditions under the usual hypothesis considered. This paper is developed with the following main objectives: (a) to formalize the risk problem with clear diversification (for the consequences) in the definition of the vulnerability and exposure in a transportation system; thus the book offers improvements over consolidated quantitative risk analysis models, especially transportation risk analysis models (risk assessment); (b) to formalize a system

  14. Usability and Visual Communication for Southern California Tsunami Evacuation Information: The importance of information design in disaster risk management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jaenichen, C.; Schandler, S.; Wells, M.; Danielsen, T.

    2015-12-01

    Evacuation behavior, including participation and response, is rarely an individual and isolated process and the outcomes are usually systemic. Ineffective evacuation information can easily attribute to delayed evacuation response. Delays increase demands on already extended emergency personal, increase the likelihood of traffic congestion, and can cause harm to self and property. From an information design perspective, addressing issues in cognitive recall and emergency psychology, this case study examines evacuation messaging including written, audio, and visual presentation of information, and describes the application of design principles and role of visual communication for Southern California tsunami evacuation outreach. The niche of this project is the inclusion of cognitive processing as the driving influence when making formal design decisions and measurable data from a 4-year cognitive recall study to support the solution. Image included shows a tsunami evacaution map before and after the redesign.

  15. Clinical Experience and Learning Style of Flight Nurse and Aeromedical Evacuation Technician Students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Jong, Marla J; Dukes, Susan F; Dufour, Karey M; Mortimer, Darcy L

    2017-01-01

    The clinical experience and preferred learning style of U.S. Air Force flight nurses and aeromedical evacuation technicians are unknown. Using a cross-sectional survey design, we gathered data regarding the clinical experience, level of comfort providing clinical care, and preferred learning style of 77 active duty (AD), Air Force Reserve (AFR), and Air National Guard (ANG) nurses enrolled in the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine Flight Nurse course, and 121 AD, AFR, and ANG medical technicians enrolled in the Aeromedical Evacuation Technician course. Nurses and medical technicians reported 7.6 ± 5.5 and 3.9 ± 4.5 yr of experience, respectively. AD, AFR, and ANG nurses had comparable years of experience: 5.8 ± 3.2, 8.3 ± 6.6, and 7.9 ± 4.2 yr, respectively; however, AD medical technicians had more years of experience (5.6 ± 4.4 yr) than AFR (3.1 ± 4.8 yr) and ANG (1.9 ± 2.8 yr) medical technicians. Both nurses and medical technicians reported infrequently caring for patients with various disease processes and managing equipment or devices that they will routinely encounter when transporting patients as an aeromedical evacuation clinician. Nurses and medical technicians preferred a kinesthetic learning style or a multimodal learning style that included kinesthetic learning. Nearly all (99%) nurses and 97% of medical technicians identified simulation as their preferred teaching method. These findings confirm faculty concerns regarding the clinical experience of flight nurse and aerospace evacuation technician students.De Jong MJ, Dukes SF, Dufour KM, Mortimer DL. Clinical experience and learning style of flight nurse and aeromedical evacuation technician students. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2017; 88(1):23-29.

  16. Spatial and temporal variation in evacuee risk perception throughout the evacuation and return-entry process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Siebeneck, Laura K; Cova, Thomas J

    2012-09-01

    Developing effective evacuation and return-entry plans requires understanding the spatial and temporal dimensions of risk perception experienced by evacuees throughout a disaster event. Using data gathered from the 2008 Cedar Rapids, Iowa Flood, this article explores how risk perception and location influence evacuee behavior during the evacuation and return-entry process. Three themes are discussed: (1) the spatial and temporal characteristics of risk perception throughout the evacuation and return-entry process, (2) the relationship between risk perception and household compliance with return-entry orders, and (3) the role social influences have on the timing of the return by households. The results indicate that geographic location and spatial variation of risk influenced household risk perception and compliance with return-entry plans. In addition, sociodemographic characteristics influenced the timing and characteristics of the return groups. The findings of this study advance knowledge of evacuee behavior throughout a disaster and can inform strategies used by emergency managers throughout the evacuation and return-entry process. © 2012 Society for Risk Analysis.

  17. Regional analysis of social characteristics for evacuation resource planning: ARkStorm scenario

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wein, Anne; Ratliff, Jamie L.; Allan Baez,; Sleeter, Rachel

    2016-01-01

    Local planning is insufficient for regional catastrophes; regional exercises are needed to test emergency plans and decision-making structures. The ARkStorm scenario would trigger a mass evacuation that would be complicated by the social characteristics of populations [e.g., vehicle ownership, age, poverty, English language limitation (ELL), and shelter needs]. Land cover data and dasymetric mapping improves the allocation of residential populations and their social characteristics to the ARkStorm flood zone in 21 counties in California. Numbers and concentrations of county, urban, and rural residents exposed to flooding as well as populations in and out of the scenario flood zone are profiled. The results inform mass evacuation planning by providing a means to (1) examine the sufficiency of mutual aid agreements, (2) underscore planning for carless populations, and (3) tailor multilingual communication strategies. The various geographical distinctions emphasize different challenges throughout the region. It will be important to investigate behavioral responses to warnings, identify evacuation constraints (e.g., shelter capacity versus need), and obtain comparable data on transient populations.

  18. Evacuation apparatus with cryogenic pump and trap assembly

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mahl, G.

    1980-01-01

    An evacuation apparatus comprising a vessel defining a vacuum chamber therein, vacuumizing means communicating with an opening to said vacuum chamber for selectively drawing a vacuum therein comprising cryogenic pump means disposed closely adjacent to said opening and defined by substantial cryogenically cooled trap surfaces for freezing-out water vapor from air evacuated from said vacuum chamber, said opening being common to said vacuum chamber and to said cryogenic pump means, valve means for selectively opening or closing the opening to said vacuum chamber and movable from a first position within said cryogenic pump means closing said opening to a second position within said cryogenic pump means directly exposing said vacuum chamber to said cryogenic pump means, through said opening, baffle means disposed closely adjacent to the opening to said vacuum chamber for providing substantial open communication to said vacuum chamber and for substantially preventing ingress of contaminants into said vacuum chamber, said baffle means being positioned to provide an optically dense view of said opening when viewed from a downstream side of said baffle means, and a plurality of longitudinally spaced and cryogenically cooled fins mounted in nested relationship within said baffle means and disposed in out-of-contact relationship therewith, said fins being positioned to provide an optically dense view of the downstream side of said baffle means when viewed from said openings. The cryogenic pump is adapted for use in an evacuation apparatus comprising a housing defining an opening to a vacuum chamber, a plurality of metallic plates defining a first chamber therein communicating with said vacuum chamber through said opening and further defining a second chamber at least partially surrounding said first chamber and adapted to be at least partially filled with a cryogenic liqui.d

  19. A numerical simulation strategy on occupant evacuation behaviors and casualty prediction in a building during earthquakes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Shuang; Yu, Xiaohui; Zhang, Yanjuan; Zhai, Changhai

    2018-01-01

    Casualty prediction in a building during earthquakes benefits to implement the economic loss estimation in the performance-based earthquake engineering methodology. Although after-earthquake observations reveal that the evacuation has effects on the quantity of occupant casualties during earthquakes, few current studies consider occupant movements in the building in casualty prediction procedures. To bridge this knowledge gap, a numerical simulation method using refined cellular automata model is presented, which can describe various occupant dynamic behaviors and building dimensions. The simulation on the occupant evacuation is verified by a recorded evacuation process from a school classroom in real-life 2013 Ya'an earthquake in China. The occupant casualties in the building under earthquakes are evaluated by coupling the building collapse process simulation by finite element method, the occupant evacuation simulation, and the casualty occurrence criteria with time and space synchronization. A case study of casualty prediction in a building during an earthquake is provided to demonstrate the effect of occupant movements on casualty prediction.

  20. Tsunami Evacuation Exercises: the Case of Heraklion, Crete Isl., Greece

    Science.gov (United States)

    Triantafyllou, I.; Charalampakis, M.; Bocchini, G. M.; Novikova, T.; Papadopoulos, G. A.

    2016-12-01

    Effective tsunami evacuation requires appropriate awareness as regards good shelters selection. Field exercises may improve public awareness. A field exercise was organized in Heraklion, Crete Isl., in 2016. The area is part of the Hellenic Arc which is the most active structure in the Mediterranean. Large earthquakes triggered tsunamis that hit Heraklion in the past, such in AD 1303. After selecting various fault models, simulation of the 1303 tsunami showed important inundation zone in Heraklion. For the exercise needs a team of 30 volunteers was divided in 3 groups of 10 people each. Everyone was equipped with a mobile phone and a GPS device. The 3 groups were gathered in 3 coastal spots Heraklion situated 400 m apart each other. The scenario was that immediately after receiving in their mobile a tsunami warning message they will set on their personal GPS device and start evacuating inland on the best way they believed to do so. In each group, only 5 out of 10 volunteers were notified beforehand that the Eleftherias Square, located inland at distance satisfying evacuation needs in case of repeat of the 1303 tsunami, would be a good shelter to go. Using the Road Graph Plugin of QGIS, we calculated the shortest path distances which found equal to 800, 700 and 680 m. Adopting average velocity of 3 km/h we found that these distances can be covered within 18, 16 and 15 min, respectively. The routes towards the settlement spots as well as the times needed to arrive there by each one of the 30 volunteers were recorded by their personal GPS devices. The processing of the GPS tracks and their comparison with the theoretical routes and times showed good evacuation performance which is encouraging for the next phases of the Heraklion tsunami hazard mitigation program. This is contribution to the EU-FP7 projects ZIP (Zooming In between Plates, grant no: 604713, 2013) and ASTARTE (Assessment, Strategy And Risk Reduction for Tsunamis in Europe), grant no: 603839, 2013.

  1. Factors affecting household adoption of an evacuation plan in American Samoa after the 2009 earthquake and tsunami.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Apatu, Emma J I; Gregg, Chris E; Richards, Kasie; Sorensen, Barbara Vogt; Wang, Liang

    2013-08-01

    American Samoa is still recovering from the debilitating consequences of the September 29, 2009 tsunami. Little is known about current household preparedness in American Samoa for future earthquakes and tsunamis. Thus, this study sought to enumerate the number of households with an earthquake and tsunami evacuation plan and to identify predictors of having a household evacuation plan through a post-tsunami survey conducted in July 2011. Members of 300 households were interviewed in twelve villages spread across regions of the principle island of Tutuila. Multiple logistic regression showed that being male, having lived in one's home for tsunami event increased the likelihood of having a household evacuation plan. The prevalence of tsunami evacuation planning was 35% indicating that survivors might feel that preparation is not necessary given effective adaptive responses during the 2009 event. Results suggest that emergency planners and public health officials should continue with educational outreach to families to spread awareness around the importance of developing plans for future earthquakes and tsunamis to help mitigate human and structural loss from such natural disasters. Additional research is needed to better understand the linkages between pre-event planning and effective evacuation responses as were observed in the 2009 events.

  2. An Integrated Scenario Ensemble-Based Framework for Hurricane Evacuation Modeling: Part 1-Decision Support System.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davidson, Rachel A; Nozick, Linda K; Wachtendorf, Tricia; Blanton, Brian; Colle, Brian; Kolar, Randall L; DeYoung, Sarah; Dresback, Kendra M; Yi, Wenqi; Yang, Kun; Leonardo, Nicholas

    2018-03-30

    This article introduces a new integrated scenario-based evacuation (ISE) framework to support hurricane evacuation decision making. It explicitly captures the dynamics, uncertainty, and human-natural system interactions that are fundamental to the challenge of hurricane evacuation, but have not been fully captured in previous formal evacuation models. The hazard is represented with an ensemble of probabilistic scenarios, population behavior with a dynamic decision model, and traffic with a dynamic user equilibrium model. The components are integrated in a multistage stochastic programming model that minimizes risk and travel times to provide a tree of evacuation order recommendations and an evaluation of the risk and travel time performance for that solution. The ISE framework recommendations offer an advance in the state of the art because they: (1) are based on an integrated hazard assessment (designed to ultimately include inland flooding), (2) explicitly balance the sometimes competing objectives of minimizing risk and minimizing travel time, (3) offer a well-hedged solution that is robust under the range of ways the hurricane might evolve, and (4) leverage the substantial value of increasing information (or decreasing degree of uncertainty) over the course of a hurricane event. A case study for Hurricane Isabel (2003) in eastern North Carolina is presented to demonstrate how the framework is applied, the type of results it can provide, and how it compares to available methods of a single scenario deterministic analysis and a two-stage stochastic program. © 2018 Society for Risk Analysis.

  3. Evacuation Simulation in Kalayaan Residence Hall, up Diliman Using Gama Simulation Software

    Science.gov (United States)

    Claridades, A. R. C.; Villanueva, J. K. S.; Macatulad, E. G.

    2016-09-01

    Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) has recently been adopted in some studies for the modelling of events as a dynamic system given a set of events and parameters. In principle, ABM employs individual agents with assigned attributes and behaviors and simulates their behavior around their environment and interaction with other agents. This can be a useful tool in both micro and macroscale-applications. In this study, a model initially created and applied to an academic building was implemented in a dormitory. In particular, this research integrates three-dimensional Geographic Information System (GIS) with GAMA as the multi-agent based evacuation simulation and is implemented in Kalayaan Residence Hall. A three-dimensional GIS model is created based on the floor plans and demographic data of the dorm, including respective pathways as networks, rooms, floors, exits and appropriate attributes. This model is then re-implemented in GAMA. Different states of the agents and their effect on their evacuation time were then observed. GAMA simulation with varying path width was also implemented. It has been found out that compared to their original states, panic, eating and studying will hasten evacuation, and on the other hand, sleeping and being on the bathrooms will be impedances. It is also concluded that evacuation time will be halved when path widths are doubled, however it is recommended for further studies for pathways to be modeled as spaces instead of lines. A more scientific basis for predicting agent behavior in these states is also recommended for more realistic results.

  4. Who’s there? Electronic school rosters and emergency evacuation plans

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Manuela Delfino

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available If a school opts for electronic attendance rosters, what happens in case of emergency evacuation? Can you establish exactly who’s on school premises without falling back on paper-based lists?

  5. Identification of Evacuation Routes in Tacloban City using Geographic Information System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mendoza, Jerico; Mahar Francisco Lagmay, Alfredo; Santiago, Joy; Suarez, John Kenneth

    2016-04-01

    The Philippines is the second most at risk to natural hazards according to the 2014 World Risk Report. On 8 November 2013, category 5 Typhoon Haiyan crossed the central region of the Philippines with maximum sustained wind reaching 315 kph. Considered as one of the strongest typhoons that made landfall in recorded history, Typhoon Haiyan caused USD 8 billion damage to properties, 6,293 deaths, 28,689 injured and 1,061 missing persons. Tacloban City, located in the north-eastern part of the island of Leyte in Eastern Visayas region, is one of the area most devastated by Typhoon Haiyan. The city is susceptible to other natural hazards given its geography, topography and geology. This condition emphasizes the need for preventive measures to avoid further loss of lives and destruction to properties. Evacuation is a mitigating strategy which involves the process of moving people from dangerous places to safer locations. Using Geographic Information System (GIS), a multi-hazard map of Tacloban City was created to determine safe areas for evacuation centers. The optimal route for evacuation was identified using ArcGIS Network Analyst's routing solver based on Dijkstra's algorithm. The medium of transportation used in the analysis is by foot with an average speed of 5.0 kph. Furthermore, the study assumes that all roads are passable and fully functional during the travel period and that there are no structures, trees and other debris that may act as road blockage. The study can be used as a reference in hazard assessment for disaster risk management and evacuation planning. This can be further improved by incorporating behaviour of the affected population and other socio-economic factors, different modes of transportation and detailed analysis of topography.

  6. Finite element modelling of an evacuated canister for removal of molten radioactive glass

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hatchell, B.K.; Deibler, J.E.; Ketner, G.L.

    1994-05-01

    Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) has prepared a preliminary design for the West Valley Demonstration Project evacuated canister system. The function of the evacuated canister is to remove radioactive molten glass from a hot cell melter cavity during a planned melter shutdown. The proposed evacuated canister system consists of an L-shaped 4-inch 304L stainless steel (SS) schedule 40 pipe, sealed at one end with an aluminum plug and attached at the other end to a canister. While the canister is being filled, it is positioned and held above the melter at approximately 15 degree from horizontal by two turntable-mounted cranes. ANSYS finite element analyses were conducted to evaluate the heat transfer from the glass to the canister and establish a maximum canister temperature for material strength evaluation. Finite element structural analyses were conducted to identify areas that required reinforcement for high temperature use. Finite element results will be used to locate strain gauges at high stress locations during prototype testing

  7. Simulation of Evacuated Tube Collector and Storage of Hybrid Air-conditioning System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mustafa Ahmed Abdulhussain

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available The CFD transient simulation of superheating the refrigerant R410 through the heat exchange with the evacuated tube water heating system of the hybrid split air conditioner that is subjected to solar radiation of constant intensity with the contribution of fan accelerated air is performed by the ANSYS-CFX code. The comparison with experimental work showed a minimum percentage error 8% of the predicted refrigerant evaporative heat transfer with storage tank horizontal tubing. In addition, the results denoted high absorption rate for the evacuated tubes, reducing highly reversed heat transmission for the circulated water. 

  8. Stakeholder-driven geospatial modeling for assessing tsunami vertical-evacuation strategies in the U.S. Pacific Northwest

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wood, N. J.; Schmidtlein, M.; Schelling, J.; Jones, J.; Ng, P.

    2012-12-01

    Recent tsunami disasters, such as the 2010 Chilean and 2011 Tohoku events, demonstrate the significant life loss that can occur from tsunamis. Many coastal communities in the world are threatened by near-field tsunami hazards that may inundate low-lying areas only minutes after a tsunami begins. Geospatial integration of demographic data and hazard zones has identified potential impacts on populations in communities susceptible to near-field tsunami threats. Pedestrian-evacuation models build on these geospatial analyses to determine if individuals in tsunami-prone areas will have sufficient time to reach high ground before tsunami-wave arrival. Areas where successful evacuations are unlikely may warrant vertical-evacuation (VE) strategies, such as berms or structures designed to aid evacuation. The decision of whether and where VE strategies are warranted is complex. Such decisions require an interdisciplinary understanding of tsunami hazards, land cover conditions, demography, community vulnerability, pedestrian-evacuation models, land-use and emergency-management policy, and decision science. Engagement with the at-risk population and local emergency managers in VE planning discussions is critical because resulting strategies include permanent structures within a community and their local ownership helps ensure long-term success. We present a summary of an interdisciplinary approach to assess VE options in communities along the southwest Washington coast (U.S.A.) that are threatened by near-field tsunami hazards generated by Cascadia subduction zone earthquakes. Pedestrian-evacuation models based on an anisotropic approach that uses path-distance algorithms were merged with population data to forecast the distribution of at-risk individuals within several communities as a function of travel time to safe locations. A series of community-based workshops helped identify potential VE options in these communities, collectively known as "Project Safe Haven" at the

  9. Development of a decision support system for tsunami evacuation: application to the Jiyang District of Sanya city in China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hou, Jingming; Yuan, Ye; Wang, Peitao; Ren, Zhiyuan; Li, Xiaojuan

    2017-03-01

    Major tsunami disasters often cause great damage in the first few hours following an earthquake. The possible severity of such events requires preparations to prevent tsunami disasters or mitigate them. This paper is an attempt to develop a decision support system for rapid tsunami evacuation for local decision makers. Based on the numerical results database of tsunami disasters, this system can quickly obtain the tsunami inundation and travel time. Because numerical models are calculated in advance, this system can reduce decision-making time. Population distribution, as a vulnerability factor, was analyzed to identify areas of high risk for tsunami disasters. Combined with spatial data, this system can comprehensively analyze the dynamic and static evacuation process and identify problems that negatively impact evacuation, thus supporting the decision-making for tsunami evacuation in high-risk areas. When an earthquake and tsunami occur, this system can rapidly obtain the tsunami inundation and travel time and provide information to assist with tsunami evacuation operations.

  10. Coordination of IVI and transit signal priority on transit evacuations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-02-01

    During an emergency evacuation, execution time is always critical to the evacuees who are : transit dependent. Transit Signal Priority (TSP) can speed up the transit services by prioritizing : the approaching bus at a signalized intersection. With th...

  11. Evacuation and assembly of aerogel glazings

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Karsten Ingerslev

    1999-01-01

    The application of monolithic silica aerogel as transparent insulation material for windows has been investigated for some years. It has been realised that a major problem of an industrial production of aerogel glazings will be the time for evacuation of the aerogel material. However, in a previous...... process, it can be considered as semi-online, and especially the capital cost is significantly lower for this method in comparison with a true online process. So hereby, a major obstacle is overcome with respect to a first industrial production of aerogel glazings.The apparatus has been constructed...

  12. Case series: Bladder clot evacuation using a prostate morcellation device.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doersch, Karen M; Navetta, Andrew F; Bird, Erin T; El Tayeb, Marawan M

    2017-07-01

    We sought to provide a technical update on the use of a prostate morcellator device (PMD) to manage organized blood clots of the bladder following laser prostatectomy. Herein, we describe our experience in using the Wolf Piranha morcellator in managing organized bladder blood clots supplemented with a retrospective chart review of the patients in whom this procedure was performed. Six patients, all male with a mean age of 75 ± 8.9 years, had organized bladder clots following either holmium laser enucleation or photoselective vaporization of the prostate managed with a PMD. Clots were recognized based on hematuria or urinary retention a median of 3.5 days following the aforementioned procedures. Initial management was attempted with more conservative measures, including a three-way Foley catheter, followed by cystoscopy with an Ellik evacuator, or a glass Tommey syringe. Morcellation times were a mean of 10.2 ± 6.15 minutes (range 2-18). This technique was able to manage clots that were an average of 173.3 ± 115.9 cc in size. The procedure was well-tolerated. No patients experienced intraoperative or morcellator-related complications. Benign prostatic hypertrophy frequently requires surgical endoscopic management and can be complicated by hematuria and bladder blood clot formation. When these clots become organized, this can lead to urinary retention and the required management, evacuation, may be difficult. The use of a Wolf Piranha PMD is a safe, well-tolerated, and effective in evacuating organized blood clots of the bladder.

  13. Should We Stay Or Should We Go Now? Hazard Warnings, Risk Perception, and Evacuation Decisions at Pacaya Volcano, Guatemala During the 2010 Eruption.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lechner, H. N.; Rouleau, M.

    2017-12-01

    Pacaya volcano, in Guatemala, presents considerable risk to nearby communities and in May 2010, the volcano experienced its largest eruption in more than a decade. The eruption damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes, injured scores of people with one fatality, and prompted the evacuation of approximately 2000 people from several communities. During this eruption crisis, people living within at-risk communities were presented with the choice to evacuate or remain in the hazard zone. Many chose not to leave. Using quantitative methodologies, this research investigates evacuation decisions through causal relationships between hazard warnings, evacuation orders, risk perception, evacuation intention and behavior, and attempts to understand why some people chose to stay in harm's-way. In October 2016, we conducted a door-to-door survey administered to 172 households in eight communities within 5 km of the active vent. Participants were asked to rank factors that influenced their decision to evacuate or not, their level of trust in emergency management agencies, and the intention to evacuate during a future crisis. Initial analysis suggests that many people have confidence in emergency management agencies and information from volcano scientists; however, during the 2010 eruption, warning messages and evacuation orders were based on previous eruption patterns and tephra distribution and therefore disseminated differentially to at-risk communities. This likely delayed evacuation decisions by households in the communities that were most affected by the eruption. The data also suggest that while many households perceive evacuation as the most effective protective action, the perceived risk to one's home and property may play a more important role in the decision making process. We will discuss these results as well as communication strategies between agencies and communities, and how to better facilitate more effective and successful evacuations during future eruption crises

  14. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the Department of Veterans Affairs: a conceptual model for understanding the evacuation of nursing homes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dobalian, Aram; Claver, Maria; Fickel, Jacqueline J

    2010-01-01

    Hurricanes Katrina and Rita exposed significant flaws in US preparedness for catastrophic events and the nation's capacity to respond to them. These flaws were especially evident in the affected disaster areas' nursing homes, which house a particularly vulnerable population of frail older adults. Although evacuation of a healthcare facility is a key preparedness activity, there is limited research on factors that lead to effective evacuation. Our review of the literature on evacuation is focused on developing a conceptual framework to study future evacuations rather than as a comprehensive assessment of prior work. This paper summarizes what is known thus far about disaster response activities of nursing homes following natural and human-caused disasters, describes a conceptual model to guide future inquiry regarding this topic, and suggests future areas of research to further understand the decision-making process of nursing home facilitators regarding evacuating nursing home residents. To demonstrate the utility of the conceptual model and to provide guidance about effective practices and procedures, this paper focuses on the responses of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) nursing homes to the 2 hurricanes. Quarantelli's conceptual framework, as modified by Perry and Mushkatel, is useful in guiding the development of central hypotheses related to the decision-making that occurred in VA nursing homes and other healthcare facilities following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. However, we define evacuation somewhat differently to account for the fact that evacuation may, in some instances, be permanent. Thus, we propose modifying this framework to improve its applicability beyond preventive evacuation. We need to better understand how disaster plans can be adapted to meet the needs of frail elders and other residents in nursing homes. Moreover, we must address identified gaps in the scientific literature with respect to health outcomes by tracking outcomes over time

  15. IoT in Action: Design and Implementation of a Building Evacuation Service

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Selahattin Gokceli

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available With the development of sensor technologies, various application areas have emerged. The usage of these technologies and exploitation of recent improvements have clear benefits on building applications. Such use-cases can improve smart functions of buildings and can increase the end-user comfort. As a similar notion, building automation systems (BAS are smart systems that target to provide automated management of various control services and to improve resource usage efficiency. However, buildings generally contain hardware and control services from a diverse set of characteristics. The automated and central management of such functions can be challenging. In order to overcome such issues, an Emergency Evacuation Service is proposed for BAS, where requirements of such central management model are analyzed and model content and subservice definitions are prepared. A crucial scenario, which could be a necessity for future BAS, is defined and an approach for evacuation of people in the buildings at emergency situations is proposed. For real-life scenarios, the Evacuation Service is implemented by using a low-cost design, which is appropriate for Internet of Things (IoT based BAS applications. As demonstrated, the proposed service model can provide effective performance in real-life deployments.

  16. Percutaneous evacuation for treatment of subdural hematoma and outcome in 28 patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mostofi, Keyvan; Marnet, Dominique

    2011-01-01

    Chronic subdural hematoma is a frequently encountered entity in neurosurgery in particular in elderly patients. There in a high variance in the treatment in literature. We report our experience of percutaneous evacuation of chronic subdural hematoma in 28 patients. From January 2007 to July 2009, 28 patients underwent percutaneous evacuation. 27 of the 28 patients (96.4%) became asymptomatic or improved clinically. Six weeks later, the scan showed the hematoma had completely disappeared in 18 of the cases. We did not have any postoperative infection. Treatment of chronic subdural hematoma using a percutaneous operative technique is a minimally invasive method with sufficient outcome and a therapeutic alternative to the craniotomy.

  17. 14 CFR Appendix J to Part 25 - Emergency Evacuation

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... AIRWORTHINESS STANDARDS: TRANSPORT CATEGORY AIRPLANES Pt. 25, App. J Appendix J to Part 25—Emergency Evacuation...-candles prior to the activation of the airplane emergency lighting system. The source(s) of the initial... airplane emergency lighting system. (b) The airplane must be in a normal attitude with landing gear...

  18. The effect of meal size on gastric evacuation in whiting

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Niels Gerner

    1998-01-01

    Gastric evacuation experiments were performed on whiting Merlangius merlangus fed discrete meals of different sizes. Herring Clupea harengus, sandeel Ammodytes tobianus, common goby Pomatoschistus microps, and brown shrimp Crangon crangon were tested as prey. A simple power model to describe...

  19. Collecting performance of an evacuated tubular solar high-temperature air heater with concentric tube heat exchanger

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, Ping-Yang; Li, Shuang-Fei; Liu, Zhen-Hua

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • A novel evacuated tube solar high temperature air heater is designed. • The solar air heater system consists of 30 linked collecting units. • Every unit consisted of a evacuated tube, a simplified CPC and concentric tube. • The flow air is heated over temperature of 200 °C. - Abstract: A set of evacuated tube solar high temperature air heaters with simplified CPC (compound parabolic concentrator) and concentric tube heat exchanger is designed to provide flow air with a temperature of 150–230 °C for industrial production. The solar air heater system consists of 30 linked collecting units. Each unit includes a simplified CPC and an all-glass evacuated tube absorber with a concentric copper tube heat exchanger installed inside. A stainless steel mesh layer with high thermal conductivity is filled between the evacuated tube and the concentric copper tube. Air passes through each collecting unit, and its temperature increases progressively. An experimental investigation of the thermal performance of the air heater is performed, and the experimental results demonstrate the presented high-temperature solar air heater has excellent collecting performance and large output power, even in the winter. The measured thermal efficiency corresponding to the air temperature of 70 °C reaches 0.52. With the increase of air temperature, thermal efficiency reaches 0.35 at an air temperature of 150 °C, and 0.21 at an air temperature of 220 °C.

  20. Integrating Regret Psychology to Travel Mode Choice for a Transit-Oriented Evacuation Strategy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shi An

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Facing the potential dangers from sudden disasters in urban cities, emergency administrators have to make an appropriate evacuation plan to mitigate negative consequences. However, little attention has been paid to evacuee real decision psychology when developing a strategy. The aim of this paper is to analyze evacuee mode choice behavior considering regret aversion psychology during evacuation. First, the utility-based and regret-based models are formulated to obtain evacuees’ preferences on travel mode choice, respectively. According to the data collected from the stated preference (SP survey on evacuee mode choice, the estimation results show that the regret-based model performs better than the utility model. Moreover, based on the estimates from behavioral analysis, the elasticities of evacuee mode choices are calculated, and transit strategy simulation is undertaken to investigate the influence on evacuee mode switching from private automobile to public transit. The results are expected to help emergency administrators to make a transit-oriented strategy for a sustainable evacuation plan, especially for the benefit of carless people.

  1. Reliability analysis of road network for estimation of public evacuation time around NPPs

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bang, Sun-Young; Lee, Gab-Bock; Chung, Yang-Geun [Korea Electric Power Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2007-07-01

    The most strong protection method of radiation emergency preparedness is the evacuation of the public members when a great deal of radioactivity is released to environment. After the Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear power plant meltdown in the United States and Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster in the U.S.S.R, many advanced countries including the United States and Japan have continued research on estimation of public evacuation time as one of emergency countermeasure technologies. Also in South Korea, 'Framework Act on Civil Defense: Radioactive Disaster Preparedness Plan' was established in 1983 and nuclear power plants set up a radiation emergency plan and have regularly carried out radiation emergency preparedness trainings. Nonetheless, there is still a need to improve technology to estimate public evacuation time by executing precise analysis of traffic flow to prepare practical and efficient ways to protect the public. In this research, road network for Wolsong and Kori NPPs was constructed by CORSIM code and Reliability analysis of this road network was performed.

  2. Advanced evacuated tube collectors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schertz, W. W.; Hull, J. R.; Winston, R.; Ogallagher, J.

    1985-04-01

    The essence of the design concept for these new collectors is the integration of moderate levels of nonimaging concentration inside the evacuated tube itself. This permanently protects the reflection surfaces and allows the use of highly reflecting front surface mirrors with reflectances greater than 95%. Previous fabrication and long term testing of a proof-of-concept prototype has established the technical success of the concept. Present work is directed toward the development of a manufacturable unit that will be suitable for the widest possible range of applications. Design alternatives include scaling up the original prototype's tube diameter from 5 cm to 10 cm, using an internal shaped metal concentrating reflector, using a variety of profile shapes to minimize so-called gap losses and accommodate both single ended and double-ended flow geometries, and allowing the use of heat pipes for the absorber tube.

  3. An ITER-relevant evacuated waveguide transmission system for the JET-EP ECRH project

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Henderson, M.A.; Alberti, S.; Bird, J.

    2003-01-01

    An over-moded evacuated waveguide line was chosen for use in the transmission system for the proposed JET-enhanced performance project (JET-EP) electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) system. A comparison between the quasi-optical, atmospheric waveguide and evacuated waveguide systems was performed for the project with a strong emphasis placed on the technical and financial aspects. The evacuated waveguide line was chosen as the optimal system in light of the above criteria. The system includes six lines of 63.5mm wave guide for transmitting 6.0 MW(10 s) at 113.3 GHz from the gyrotrons to the launching antenna. The designed lines are on average 72m in length and consist of nine mitre bends, for an estimated transmission efficiency of ∼90%. Each line is designed to include an evacuated switch leading to a calorimetric load, two dc breaks, two gate valves, one pump out tee, a power monitor mitre bend and a double-disc CVD window near the torus. The location of waveguide support is positioned to minimize the power converted to higher-order modes from waveguide sagging and misalignment. The two gate valves and CVD window are designed to be used as tritium barriers at the torus and between the J1T and J1D buildings. The last leg of the waveguide leading to the torus has to be designed to accommodate the torus movement during disruptions and thermal cycles. All lines are also designed to be compatible with the ITER ECRH system operating at 170 GHz. (author)

  4. A scenario-based modeling approach for emergency evacuation management and risk analysis under multiple uncertainties

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lv, Y., E-mail: lvyying@hotmail.com [School of Traffic and Transportation, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044 (China); Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan S4S 0A2 (Canada); Huang, G.H., E-mail: huang@iseis.org [Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan S4S 0A2 (Canada); Guo, L., E-mail: guoli8658@hotmail.com [Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan S4S 0A2 (Canada); Li, Y.P., E-mail: yongping.li@iseis.org [MOE Key Laboratory of Regional Energy and Environmental Systems Optimization, Resources and Environmental Research Academy, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206 (China); Dai, C., E-mail: daichao321@gmail.com [College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871 (China); Wang, X.W., E-mail: wangxingwei0812@gamil.com [State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875 (China); Sun, W., E-mail: sunwei@iseis.org [Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan S4S 0A2 (Canada)

    2013-02-15

    Highlights: ► An interval-parameter joint-probabilistic integer programming method is developed. ► It is useful for nuclear emergency management practices under uncertainties. ► It can schedule optimal routes with maximizing evacuees during a finite time. ► Scenario-based analysis enhances robustness in controlling system risk. ► The method will help to improve the capability of disaster responses. -- Abstract: Nuclear emergency evacuation is important to prevent radioactive harms by hazardous materials and to limit the accidents’ consequences; however, uncertainties are involved in the components and processes of such a management system. In the study, an interval-parameter joint-probabilistic integer programming (IJIP) method is developed for emergency evacuation management under uncertainties. Optimization techniques of interval-parameter programming (IPP) and joint-probabilistic constrained (JPC) programming are incorporated into an integer linear programming framework, so that the approach can deal with uncertainties expressed as joint probability and interval values. The IJIP method can schedule the optimal routes to guarantee the maximum population evacuated away from the effected zone during a finite time. Furthermore, it can also facilitate post optimization analysis to enhance robustness in controlling system violation risk imposed on the joint-probabilistic constraints. The developed method has been applied to a case study of nuclear emergency management; meanwhile, a number of scenarios under different system conditions have been analyzed. It is indicated that the solutions are useful for evacuation management practices. The result of the IJIP method can not only help to raise the capability of disaster responses in a systematic manner, but also provide an insight into complex relationships among evacuation planning, resources utilizations, policy requirements and system risks.

  5. Quantitative Comparison Between Crowd Models for Evacuation Planning and Evaluation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Viswanathan, V.; Lee, C.E.; Lees, M.H.; Cheong, S.A.; Sloot, P.M.A.

    2014-01-01

    Crowd simulation is rapidly becoming a standard tool for evacuation planning and evaluation. However, the many crowd models in the literature are structurally different, and few have been rigorously calibrated against real-world egress data, especially in emergency situations. In this paper we

  6. Analysis Evacuation Route for KM Zahro Express on Fire Condition using Agent Based Modeling and Fire Dynamics Simulatior

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Trika Pitana

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Safety is the thing that needs to be preferred by users of transport, passengers should also understand about safety procedures and evacuation procedures in the means of transport. There have been many accidents that happen in the world of transport, particularly in the shipping world, from 2010 to 2016 is no more than 50 accidents of ships in accordance with the cause recorded by KNKT (Komisi Nasional Keselamatan Transportasi. On this research was discussed the evacuation time on the ship KM Zahro express that occurred earlier in the year 2017 in the Kepulauan Seribu, DKI Jakarta. Almost all passenger dead caused by fire from power source in engine room. This thesis will explaine about evacuation time and dangers from fire that interfere the process of evacuation. The methods used are Agent Based Modeling and Simulation (ABMS and Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS for modeling fire simulation. Agent-Based Modeling software (pathfinder and Fire Dynamics Simulator software (pyrosim are used to calculate time evacuation in normal condition and fire condition of KM Zahro Express. Agent-Based Modeling and Simulator (ABMS is a modeling method that aims to model complex problems based on real cases. Agent-Based Modeling and Simulator (ABMS is designed to model a place that has a seat, path, exit door, humans, and others. Pyrosim is a graphical user interface for the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS. FDS models can predict smoke, temperature, carbon monoxide, and other substances during fires.  In this case the existing models can be used to plan and prepare an emergency if unwanted things happen. As well as using basic rules which refer to the Safety Of Life At Sea (SOLAS and International Maritime Organization (IMO. Result of Evacuation simulation calculation on emergency conditions (two rear exit doors will be closed that match at actually condition is 29,783 minutes (respon is not taken in this simulation, calculation results obtained from simulation of

  7. Bulkhead Door – Critical Evacuation States

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Flizikowski Józef

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available The article is a preliminary to a modification concept of the sliding watertight bulkhead door used on ships and vessels. Hydraulic or electro-hydraulic drives used to move these doors require complicated and extended pressure installations with large amounts of hydraulic fluid. Well-known operational drawbacks of these installations include high level of noise and possibility of various leaks in the hydraulic system. Being the first in a series, the present article describes and analyses critical states which can take place during evacuation of people through openings in the watertight bulkhead doors on seagoing ships and vessels.

  8. A gastric evacuation model for three predatory gadoids and implications of using pooled field data of stomach contents to estimate food rations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Niels Gerner

    2001-01-01

    evacuation rate was related by a negative power function to energy density of fish prey,) er an extended range from 3(.)4 to 11(.)5 kJ g (1) of the effector variable. Gastric evacuation of crustacean prey seemed to depend on the characteristics of their exoskeleton, Gastric evacuation of mixed meal, composed...

  9. Emergency evacuation : how better interior design can improve passenger flow

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Boer, L.C.; Skjong, R.

    2001-01-01

    The paper presents some conclusions from the EU basic research project "MEPdesign" relevant for design of ship interiors. The findings are discussed with regard to passenger flow as a function of design parameters. The paper explains that current evacuation analyses may be overly optimistic. The

  10. Means of escape provisions and evacuation simulation of public building in Malaysia and Singapore

    Science.gov (United States)

    Samad, Muna Hanim Abdul; Taib, Nooriati; Ying, Choo Siew

    2017-10-01

    The Uniform Building By-law 1984 of Malaysia is the legal document governing fire safety requirements in buildings. Its prescriptive nature has made the requirements out dated from the viewpoint of current performance based approach in most developed countries. The means of escape provisions is a critical requirement to safeguard occupants' safety in fire especially in public buildings. As stipulated in the UBBL 1984, the means of escape provisions includes sufficient escape routes, travel distance, protection of escape routes, etc. designated as means to allow occupants to escape within a safe period of time. This research aims at investigating the effectiveness of those provisions in public buildings during evacuation process involving massive crowd during emergencies. This research includes a scenario-based study on evacuation processes using two software i.e. PyroSim, a crowd modelling software to conduct smoke study and Pathfinder to stimulate evacuation model of building in Malaysia and Singapore as comparative study. The results show that the buildings used as case study were designed according to Malaysian UBBL 1984 and Singapore Firecode, 2013 respectively provide relative safe means of escape. The simulations of fire and smoke and coupled with simulation of evacuation have demonstrated that although there are adequate exits designated according to fire requirements, the impact of the geometry of atriums on the behavior of fire and smoke have significant effect on escape time especially for unfamiliar user of the premises.

  11. Conceptual study on the containment design aiming at 'no evacuation'

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Andou, Kouji; Takii, Taichi; Kikuyama, Tomohiko; Taminami, Tatsuya

    2003-01-01

    The next generation reactors represented in ABWR-II should enhance not only economics but also safety. Especially, the ideal target of 'No Evacuation', that is, no FP (Fission Product) release in severe accidents should be required. This paper provides the conceptual design achieving 'No Evacuation' by using only the passive systems, that are, the passive containment cooling system (PCCS), the large amount of water inside containment, outside pool by utilizing gap between containment and surrounding building, and the natural heat removal from the containment surface to atmosphere. Furthermore, it is also easy to adopt the countermeasure for airplane crash by using a dome shelter and the dispersed layout as an option. At the same time, the amount of the construction material of this concept is competitive comparing with that of the conventional BWR because it is easy to use the steel structure or the steel plate reinforced concrete structure over a wide area. (author)

  12. A Study on Thermal Performance of a Novel All-Glass Evacuated Tube Solar Collector Manifold Header with an Inserted Tube

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jichun Yang

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available A novel all-glass evacuated tube collector manifold header with an inserted tube is proposed in this paper which makes water in all-glass evacuated solar collector tube be forced circulated to improve the performance of solar collector. And a dynamic numerical model was presented for the novel all-glass evacuated tube collector manifold header water heater system. Also, a test rig was built for model validation and comparison with traditional all-glass evacuated tube collector. The experiment results show that the efficiency of solar water heater with a novel collector manifold header is higher than traditional all-glass evacuated tube collector by about 5% and the heat transfer model of water heater system is valid. Based on the model, the relationship between the average temperature of water tank and inserted tube diameter (water mass flow has been studied. The results show that the optimized diameter of inserted tube is 32 mm for the inner glass with the diameter of 47 mm and the water flow mass should be less than 1.6 Kg/s.

  13. Disaster Evacuation from Japan's 2011 Tsunami Disaster and the Fukushima Nuclear Accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hasegawa, Reiko

    2013-01-01

    The triple disaster that hit the Tohoku region of Japan on 11 March 2011 triggered a massive human displacement: more than 400,000 people evacuated their homes as a gigantic tsunami induced by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake engulfed the coastal areas, and the following nuclear accident in Fukushima released a large amount of radioactive materials into the atmosphere. This study analyses the disaster response, with a particular focus on evacuation of the population, and social consequences of this complex crisis, based on intensive fieldwork carried out one year after the catastrophe. It reveals that the responses of the Japanese authorities and population were significantly different between a natural disaster and an industrial (man-made) accident. Being prone to both earthquakes and tsunamis, Japan had been preparing itself against such risks for many years. A tsunami alert was immediately issued and the population knew how and where to evacuate. In contrast, the evacuation from the nuclear accident was organised in total chaos, as a severe accident or large-scale evacuation had never been envisaged -let alone exercised- before the disaster. The population was thus forced to flee with no information as to the gravity of the accident or radiation risk. In both cases, the risk perception prior to the catastrophe played a key role in determining the vulnerability of the population at the time of the crisis. While tsunami evacuees are struggling with a slow reconstruction process due to financial difficulties, nuclear evacuees are suffering from uncertainty as to their prospect of return. One year after the accident, the Japanese authorities began to encourage nuclear evacuees to return to the areas contaminated by radiation according to a newly established safety standard. This triggered a vivid controversy within the affected communities, creating a rift between those who trust the government's notion of safety and those who do not. The nuclear disaster has thus

  14. Evaluation of an exhaust gas evacuation system during propane-fueled lift truck maintenance

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roberge, B.; Beaudet, Y.; Lazure, L.; Menard, L.; Turcotte, A.

    2006-01-01

    Exposure to carbon monoxide (CO) gas in the workplace can cause health problem. CO gas is colourless and odourless, and exposure to it can cause intoxication, particularly for mechanics working on internal combustion engines fed by propane-fueled lift trucks. Regular procedures for evacuating the gases emitted during routine mechanical repairs involve the use of rigid evacuating pipes attached to the building and hooked to a flexible pipe at the end of the exhaust pipe. With lift trucks, this procedure is limited because of the configuration of these vehicles, and also because this type of work is often done in places without access to permanent mechanical ventilation. The object of this study was to propose a new evacuation method for CO gas fumes that would lower the exposures of fumes for mechanics and for workstations. It identified the criteria that should be considered, such as the configuration of the existing exhaust system of lift trucks, and feasibility of using this system at a variety of on-site locations. The design of the device was described and evaluated. 7 refs., 6 tabs., 8 figs., 3 appendices

  15. Are the dynamics of gastric evacuation of natural prey in a piscivorous flatfish different from what is going on in a gadoid?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Krog, C.; Andersen, Niels Gerner

    2009-01-01

    Despite the fact that the stomach of turbot Psetta maxima is a curved tube that forms a half circle, it was demonstrated that gastric evacuation in this predatory flatfish fed natural prey closely followed the surface-dependent cylinder model developed from studies on gadoids with a straight...... stomach. Evacuation experiments were performed on two size groups of P. maxima fed sandeel Ammodytes tobianus as well as on P. maxima fed brown shrimp Crangon crangon at three different temperatures. This enabled the provision of a gastric evacuation model for studies on P. maxima, which takes...... with the conclusion of a previous study on P. maxima that evacuation of A. tobianus is essentially linear with time. Use of the cylinder model to the values of the explanatory variables presented in the latter study, however, gave accurate predictions of the actually acquired evacuation data, which points...

  16. Evacuating People and Their Pets: Older Floridians' Need for and Proximity to Pet-Friendly Shelters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Douglas, Rachel; Kocatepe, Ayberk; Barrett, Anne E; Ozguven, Eren Erman; Gumber, Clayton

    2017-10-04

    Pets influence evacuation decisions, but little is known about pet-friendly emergency shelters' availability or older adults' need for them. Our study addresses this issue, focusing on the most densely populated area of Florida (Miami-Dade)-the state with the oldest population and greatest hurricane susceptibility. We use Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based methodology to identify the shortest paths to pet-friendly shelters, based on distance and congested and uncongested travel times-taking into account the older population's spatial distribution. Logistic regression models using the 2013 American Housing Survey's Disaster Planning Module examine anticipated shelter use as a function of pet ownership and requiring pet evacuation assistance. Thirty-four percent of older adults in the Miami-Dade area have pets-35% of whom report needing pet evacuation assistance. However, GIS accessibility measures show that travel time factors are likely to impede older adults' use of the area's few pet-friendly shelters. Logistic regression results reveal that pet owners are less likely to report anticipating shelter use; however, the opposite holds for pet owners reporting they would need help evacuating their pets-they anticipate using shelters. High pet shelter need coupled with low availability exacerbates older adults' heightened vulnerability during Florida's hurricane season. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  17. Management of evacuation in case of fire accidents in chemical industrial areas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reniers, G.L.L.; Pauwels, N.; Audenaert, A.; Ale, B.J.M.; Soudan, K.

    2007-01-01

    Trade-offs between economic and safety arguments exist in the operation of chemical installations, should knock-on calamities induced by fire accidents occur: a sudden installation shutdown might result in substantial economic losses, but may be needed to ensure safety. Due to the very rare nature of domino effect risks induced decision problems an adequate evacuation decision aid model to be used by plant safety management does, to the best of the authors' knowledge, not exist. This paper develops a tentative approach to calculate the economic gains and/or losses linked to the decision problem whether or not, and when, to evacuate chemical installation(s) threatened by possible domino effect risks. The proposed model is illustrated by a case-study based on empirical data

  18. A new desalination system using a combination of heat pipe, evacuated tube and parabolic trough collector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jafari Mosleh, H.; Jahangiri Mamouri, S.; Shafii, M.B.; Hakim Sima, A.

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • A new desalination uses a combination of heat pipe and parabolic trough collector. • A twin-glass evacuated tube is used to decrease the thermal losses from heat pipe. • Adding oil into the space between heat pipe and tube collector enhances the yield. • The yield and efficiency reach up to 0.933 kg/(m 2 h) and 65.2%, respectively. - Abstract: The solar collectors have been commonly used in desalination systems. Recent investigations show that the use of a linear parabolic trough collector in solar stills can improve the efficiency of a desalination system. In this work, a combination of a heat pipe and a twin-glass evacuated tube collector is utilized with a parabolic trough collector. Results show that the rate of production and efficiency can reach to 0.27 kg/(m 2 h) and 22.1% when aluminum conducting foils are used in the space between the heat pipe and the twin-glass evacuated tube collector to transfer heat from the tube collector to the heat pipe. When oil is used as a medium for the transfer of heat, filling the space between heat pipe and twin-glass evacuated tube collector, the production and efficiency can increase to 0.933 kg/(m 2 h) and 65.2%, respectively

  19. Impact of early surgical evacuation of sylvian hematoma on clinical course and outcome after subarachnoid hemorrhage

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mutoh, Tatsushi; Ishikawa, Tatsuya; Moroi, Junta; Suzuki, Akifumi; Yasui, Nobuyuki

    2010-01-01

    The present study aimed to evaluate the impact of early surgical evacuation of sylvian hematoma caused by ruptured middle cerebral artery (MCA) aneurysm on clinical outcome after subarachnoid hemorrhage. Hospital records and computed tomography scans for 26 patients with MCA aneurysm who underwent surgical clipping between June 2001 and January 2008 were retrospectively reviewed. All patients presented with sylvian hematoma associated with subarachnoid hemorrhage and received surgery at 7.9±3.6 (mean±standard deviation) hours of ictus. They were divided postoperatively into two groups, achievement (n=16) and non-achievement (n=10) of extensive hematoma evacuation, and their clinical course and functional outcomes were compared. The frequencies of delayed ischemic neurological deficit and vasospasm-related cerebral infarction were significantly less (p<0.05) in the achievement group. Better functional outcomes were obtained in patients with successful evacuation (p<0.05), as assessed by improvement of hemiparesis on manual muscle testing scale at postoperative 1-month follow up and by the modified Rankin scale at postoperative 3 and 6 months. Clinical outcomes were also better in the achievement group. These results suggest that better clinical course and outcome can be expected in patients who undergo early successful hematoma evacuation with surgical clipping of a ruptured MCA aneurysm. (author)

  20. Case report: treatment of subdural hematoma in the emergency department utilizing the subdural evacuating port system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Asfora, Wilson T; Klapper, Hendrik B

    2013-08-01

    Patients with acute or chronic subdural hematomas may present with rapidly deteriorating neurological function and are at risk for irreversible brainstem injury. In such cases, rapid surgical intervention is required to evacuate the hematoma and reverse critically elevated intracranial pressure. A variety of surgical drainage methods are in existence, none of which are clearly superior to the others. This report presents the case of a 74-year-old woman who suffered an acute-on-chronic subdural hematoma which was evacuated in the emergency department utilizing the subdural evacuating port system (SEPS). The SEPS provides for a minimally invasive technique to drain subdural hematomas and is advantageous in that it can be performed at the bedside. The SEPS is relatively simple to use and may be especially useful to emergency department staff in outlying areas where there is a shortage of neurosurgical coverage.

  1. Empirical validation of a real options theory based method for optimizing evacuation decisions within chemical plants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reniers, G L L; Audenaert, A; Pauwels, N; Soudan, K

    2011-02-15

    This article empirically assesses and validates a methodology to make evacuation decisions in case of major fire accidents in chemical clusters. In this paper, a number of empirical results are presented, processed and discussed with respect to the implications and management of evacuation decisions in chemical companies. It has been shown in this article that in realistic industrial settings, suboptimal interventions may result in case the prospect to obtain additional information at later stages of the decision process is ignored. Empirical results also show that implications of interventions, as well as the required time and workforce to complete particular shutdown activities, may be very different from one company to another. Therefore, to be optimal from an economic viewpoint, it is essential that precautionary evacuation decisions are tailor-made per company. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  2. A Feeder-Bus Dispatch Planning Model for Emergency Evacuation in Urban Rail Transit Corridors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Yun; Yan, Xuedong; Zhou, Yu; Zhang, Wenyi

    2016-01-01

    The mobility of modern metropolises strongly relies on urban rail transit (URT) systems, and such a heavy dependence causes that even minor service interruptions would make the URT systems unsustainable. This study aims at optimally dispatching the ground feeder-bus to coordinate with the urban rails’ operation for eliminating the effect of unexpected service interruptions in URT corridors. A feeder-bus dispatch planning model was proposed for the collaborative optimization of URT and feeder-bus cooperation under emergency situations and minimizing the total evacuation cost of the feeder-buses. To solve the model, a concept of dummy feeder-bus system is proposed to transform the non-linear model into traditional linear programming (ILP) model, i.e., traditional transportation problem. The case study of Line #2 of Nanjing URT in China was adopted to illustrate the model application and sensitivity analyses of the key variables. The modeling results show that as the evacuation time window increases, the total evacuation cost as well as the number of dispatched feeder-buses decrease, and the dispatched feeder-buses need operate for more times along the feeder-bus line. The number of dispatched feeder-buses does not show an obvious change with the increase of parking spot capacity and time window, indicating that simply increasing the parking spot capacity would cause huge waste for the emergent bus utilization. When the unbalanced evacuation demand exists between stations, the more feeder-buses are needed. The method of this study will contribute to improving transportation emergency management and resource allocation for URT systems. PMID:27676179

  3. Prognostic Significance of Ultraearly Hematoma Growth in Spontaneous Intracerebral Hemorrhage Patients Receiving Hematoma Evacuation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Zhiyuan; Zheng, Jun; Guo, Rui; Ma, Lu; Li, Mou; Wang, Xiaoze; Lin, Sen; You, Chao; Li, Hao

    2018-01-01

    To investigate the association between ultraearly hematoma growth (uHG) and clinical outcome in patients with spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (sICH) receiving hematoma evacuation. Supratentorial sICH patients receiving hematoma evacuation within 24 hours after ictus were enrolled in this study. uHG was defined as baseline hematoma volume/onset-to-computed tomography (CT) time (mL/h). The outcome was assessed by the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score at 3 months. Unfavorable outcome was defined as mRS >2. A total of 93 patients were enrolled in this study. The mean uHG was 10.3 ± 5.5 mL/h. In 69 (74.2%) of patients, the outcome was unfavorable at 3 months. The uHG in patients with unfavorable outcome were significantly higher than in those with favorable outcome (11.0 ± 6.1 mL/h vs. 8.3 ± 2.5 mL/h, P = 0.003). The optimal cutoff of uHG for predicting unfavorable outcome was 8.7 mL/h. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of uHG >8.7 mL/h for predicting unfavorable outcome were 56.5%, 75.0%, 86.7%, and 37.5%, respectively. uHG is a helpful predictor of unfavorable outcome in sICH patients treated with hematoma evacuation. The optimal cutoff of uHG to assist in predicting unfavorable outcome in sICH patients receiving hematoma evacuation is 8.7mL/h. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. Evacuation models of the future: Insights from an online survey on user’s experiences and needs

    OpenAIRE

    Ronchi, Enrico; Kinsey, Michael

    2011-01-01

    This paper presents a summary analysis of data regarding evacuation model users experiences and needs obtained via an online survey. The survey was available in 6 languages: English, German, Chinese, Spanish, Italian and Russian. The different versions allowed the survey to be accessible to an international participant base. The survey was developed by the team at www.Evacmod.net ; an evacuation modelling portal for the simulation of human behaviour during emergency situations. Participant re...

  5. The influence of the technologically advanced evacuation models on the risk analyses during accidents in LNG terminal

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stankovicj, Goran; Petelin, Stojan [Faculty for Maritime Studies and Transport, University of Ljubljana, Portorozh (Sierra Leone); others, and

    2014-07-01

    The evacuation of people located in different safety zones of an LNG terminal is a complex problem considering that the accidents involving LNG are very hazardous and post the biggest threat to the safety of the people located near the LNG leakage. The safety risk criteria define the parameters which one LNG terminal should meet in terms of safety. Those criteria also contain an evacuation as an evasive action with the objective to mitigate the influence of the LNG accident on the people at risk. Till date, not a lot of attention has been paid to technologically advanced evacuations intended for LNG terminals. Creating the technologically advanced evacuation influences directly on the decrease of the probability of fatalities P{sub f,i}, thus influencing the calculation of the individual risk as well as the societal risk which results in the positioning of the F-N curve in the acceptable part of the ALARP zone. With this paper, we aim to present the difference between the safety analyses in cases when conservative data for P{sub f,i} is being used while calculating the risk, and in cases when real data for P{sub f,i} is been used. (Author)

  6. Street Lighting Infrastructure Assessment Using Discriminant and GIS Method on Mount Merapi Evacuation Road

    Science.gov (United States)

    Izdihar, R. P.; Maryono, M.; Widjonarko, W.; Rahayu, S.

    2018-02-01

    This research aims to assess street lighting infrastructure in rural-urban of Mount Merapi Evacuation road. Three evacuation road/corridor; Mriyan-Boyolali, Wonodoyo-Boyolali and Samiran-Boyolali are selected as case study. By using discriminant this study examine 6 variables namely type of lamp, physical component, height, time, power and cons consumption. In addition this study also using GIS method to assessing geographical feature as of previous result. According to the discriminant analysis, the characteristic of street lighting could be distinguished as two characteristic, while from the GIS assessment, the study found three characteristic of geographical street lighting feature.

  7. The Swedish study of Irrigation-fluid temperature in the evacuation of Chronic subdural hematoma (SIC!)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bartley, Andreas; Jakola, Asgeir S; Bartek, Jiri

    2017-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Chronic subdural hematoma (cSDH) is one of the most common conditions encountered in neurosurgical practice. Recurrence, observed in 5-30% of patients, is a major clinical problem. The temperature of the irrigation fluid used during evacuation of the hematoma might theoretically...... and health-related quality of life. DISCUSSION: Irrigation-fluid temperature might influence recurrence rates in the evacuation of chronic subdural hematomas. We present a study protocol for a multicenter randomized controlled trial investigating our hypothesis that irrigation fluid at body temperature...

  8. Administering "Operation Pied Piper"--How the London County Council Prepared for the Evacuation of Its Schoolchildren 1938-1939

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gartner, Niko

    2010-01-01

    In September 1939, two days before declaring war on Germany, the British government evacuated over half a million children from London to supposedly safer areas in the country. Schoolchildren went there with their teachers and infants with their mothers. Immediately after the event (and ever since) the impact of the evacuation on the children--the…

  9. Densification and Grain Growth in Polycrystalline Olivine Rocks Synthesized By Evacuated Hot-Pressing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meyers, C. D.; Kohlstedt, D. L.; Zimmerman, M. E.

    2017-12-01

    Experiments on laboratory-synthesized olivine-rich rocks form the starting material for many investigations of physical processes in the Earth's upper mantle (e.g., creep behavior, ionic diffusion, and grain growth). Typically, a fit of a constitutive law to experimental data provides a description of the kinetics of a process needed to extrapolate across several orders of magnitude from laboratory to geological timescales. Although grain-size is a critical parameter in determining physical properties such as viscosity, broad disagreement persists amongst the results of various studies of grain growth kinetics in olivine-rich rocks. Small amounts of impurities or porosity dramatically affect the kinetics of grain growth. In this study, we developed an improved method for densifying olivine-rich rocks fabricated from powdered, gem-quality single crystals that involves evacuating the pore space, with the aim of refining measurements of the kinetics of mantle materials. In previous studies, olivine powders were sealed in a metal can and hydrostatically annealed at roughly 300 MPa and 1250 °C. These samples, which appear opaque and milky-green, typically retain a small amount of porosity. Consequently, when annealed at 1 atm, extensive pore growth occurs, inhibiting grain growth. In addition, Fourier-transform infrared and confocal Raman spectroscopy reveal absorption peaks characteristic of CO2 in the pores of conventionally hot-pressed material. To avoid trapping of adsorbed contaminants, we developed an evacuated hot-pressing method, wherein the pore space of powder compacts is vented to vacuum during heating and pressurization. This method produces a highly dense, green-tinted, transparent material. No CO2 absorptions peaks exist in evacuated hot-pressed material. When reheated to annealing temperatures at 1 atm, the evacuated hot-pressed material undergoes limited pore growth and dramatically enhanced grain-growth rates. High-strain deformation experiments on

  10. Prevalence and Factors Associated with Hydatidiform Mole among Patients Undergoing Uterine Evacuation at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital

    OpenAIRE

    Mulisya, Olivier; Roberts, Drucilla J.; Sengupta, Elizabeth S.; Agaba, Elly; Laffita, Damaris; Tobias, Tusabe; Mpiima, Derrick Paul; Henry, Lugobe; Augustine, Ssemujju; Abraham, Masinda; Hillary, Twizerimana; Mugisha, Julius

    2018-01-01

    Objective. We sought to determine the prevalence of and factors associated with hydatidiform molar gestations amongst patients undergoing uterine evacuation at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital (MRRH), Mbarara, Uganda. Methods. This was a cross-sectional study carried out from November 2016 to February 2017. All patients admitted for uterine evacuation for nonviable pregnancy were included. The study registered 181 patients. Data were collected on sociodemographics, medical conditions, obste...

  11. Stair evacuation simulation based on cellular automata considering evacuees’ walk preferences

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ding Ning; Luh, Peter B.; Zhang Hui; Chen Tao

    2015-01-01

    As a physical model, the cellular automata (CA) model is widely used in many areas, such as stair evacuation. However, existing CA models do not consider evacuees’ walk preferences nor psychological status, and the structure of the basic model is unapplicable for the stair structure. This paper is to improve the stair evacuation simulation by addressing these issues, and a new cellular automata model is established. Several evacuees’ walk preference and how evacuee’s psychology influences their behaviors are introduced into this model. Evacuees’ speeds will be influenced by these features. To validate this simulation, two fire drills held in two high-rise buildings are video-recorded. It is found that the simulation results are similar to the fire drill results. The structure of this model is simple, and it is easy to further develop and utilize in different buildings with various kinds of occupants. (paper)

  12. Evaluating coastal and river valley communities evacuation network performance using macroscopic productivity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-06-30

    The ever-increasing processing speed and computational power of computers and simulation systems has led to correspondingly larger, more sophisticated representations of evacuation traffic processes. Today, micro-level analyses can be conducted for m...

  13. Does political ideology moderate stress: the special case of soldiers conducting forced evacuation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shechner, Tomer; Slone, Michelle; Bialik, Gadi

    2007-04-01

    This study examined the moderating role of political ideology on psychological outcomes for Israeli soldiers participating in the forced evacuation of Jewish settlements from Gaza. Change in psychopathology and well-being was assessed for 3 concurrent mission groups differing in their political ideological contentiousness--forced evacuation, Gaza security, and Northern border security. After soldiers in each mission group were classified on the basis of relatively left- or right-wing political ideological tendencies, the authors examined differential impact of each mission on soldiers of differing political ideology. Results confirmed strong moderation effects of political ideology on psychological outcomes in these extreme contexts. Implications for research, prevention, and treatment are discussed. 2007 APA, all rights reserved

  14. A Study on the Priority Selection of Sediment-related Desaster Evacuation Using Debris Flow Combination Degree of Risk

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woo, C.; Kang, M.; Seo, J.; Kim, D.; Lee, C.

    2017-12-01

    As the mountainous urbanization has increased the concern about landslides in the living area, it is essential to develop the technology to minimize the damage through quick identification and sharing of the disaster occurrence information. In this study, to establish an effective system of alert evacuation that has influence on the residents, we used the debris flow combination degree of risk to predict the risk of the disaster and the level of damage and to select evacuation priorities. Based on the GIS information, the physical strength and social vulnerability were determined by following the debris flow combination of the risk formula. The results classify the physical strength hazard rating of the debris flow combination of the through the normalization process. Debris flow the estimated residential population included in the damage range of the damage prediction map is based on the area and the unit size data. Prediction of occupant formula was calculated by applying different weighting to the resident population and users, and the result was classified into 5 classes as the debris flow physical strength. The debris flow occurrence physical strength and social and psychological vulnerability were classified into the classifications to be reflected in the debris flow integrated risk map using the matrix technique. In addition, to supplement the risk of incorporation of debris flow, we added weight to disaster vulnerable facilities that require a lot of time and manpower to evacuate. The basic model of welfare facilities was supplemented by using basic data, population density, employment density and GDP. First, evacuate areas with high integrated degree of risk level, and evacuate with consideration of physical class differences if classification difficult because of the same or similar grade among the management areas. When the physical hazard class difference is similar, the population difference of the area including the welfare facility is considered

  15. Exit choice, (pre-)movement time and (pre-)evacuation behaviour in hotel fire evacuation – Behavioural analysis and validation of the use of serious gaming in experimental research

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kobes, M.; Helsloot, I.; Vries, de B.; Post, J.G.

    2010-01-01

    Human behaviour in fires is mainly studied by incident evaluations and real-life experiments, such as unannounced evacuation drills. The possibilities of virtual reality for studying human behaviour in fires are so far hardly adopted by researchers. Nevertheless, the application of a behavioural

  16. The Application Modular Floating Pontoon to Support Floods Disaster Evacuation System in Heavy Populated Residential Area

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ahmad Fauzan Zakki

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available During floods disaster in the heavy populated residential area, the lack of existing life saving appliances system such as rubber boat and wooden boat were not able to evacuate the disaster victims spontaneously in mass. The condition might be explained since the rubber boat and wooden boat have limited occupant capacity. Based on the conditions, the main objectives of the research are focused on the evaluation of the application of modular floating pontoon as multipurpose floating equipment to support floods disaster evacuation process. The investigation of the modular floating pontoon performance such as hydrostatics characteristics, the equilibrium condition and the intact stability was studied using strip theory and Krylov’s method. Furthermore, the strength analysis of the modular floating pontoon structure was calculated using finite element method. The results show that the modular floating pontoon is reliable to support the evacuation process.

  17. Prototype design for a predictive model to improve evacuation operations : technical report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-08-01

    Mass evacuations of the Texas Gulf Coast remain a difficult challenge. These events are massive in scale, : highly complex, and entail an intricate, ever-changing conglomeration of technical and jurisdictional issues. : This project focused primarily...

  18. 14 CFR 135.271 - Helicopter hospital emergency medical evacuation service (HEMES).

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Helicopter hospital emergency medical....271 Helicopter hospital emergency medical evacuation service (HEMES). (a) No certificate holder may... certificate holder may assign a helicopter flight crewmember, and no flight crewmember may accept an...

  19. Cellular automaton model of crowd evacuation inspired by slime mould

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kalogeiton, V. S.; Papadopoulos, D. P.; Georgilas, I. P.; Sirakoulis, G. Ch.; Adamatzky, A. I.

    2015-04-01

    In all the living organisms, the self-preservation behaviour is almost universal. Even the most simple of living organisms, like slime mould, is typically under intense selective pressure to evolve a response to ensure their evolution and safety in the best possible way. On the other hand, evacuation of a place can be easily characterized as one of the most stressful situations for the individuals taking part on it. Taking inspiration from the slime mould behaviour, we are introducing a computational bio-inspired model crowd evacuation model. Cellular Automata (CA) were selected as a fully parallel advanced computation tool able to mimic the Physarum's behaviour. In particular, the proposed CA model takes into account while mimicking the Physarum foraging process, the food diffusion, the organism's growth, the creation of tubes for each organism, the selection of optimum tube for each human in correspondence to the crowd evacuation under study and finally, the movement of all humans at each time step towards near exit. To test the model's efficiency and robustness, several simulation scenarios were proposed both in virtual and real-life indoor environments (namely, the first floor of office building B of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of Democritus University of Thrace). The proposed model is further evaluated in a purely quantitative way by comparing the simulation results with the corresponding ones from the bibliography taken by real data. The examined fundamental diagrams of velocity-density and flow-density are found in full agreement with many of the already published corresponding results proving the adequacy, the fitness and the resulting dynamics of the model. Finally, several real Physarum experiments were conducted in an archetype of the aforementioned real-life environment proving at last that the proposed model succeeded in reproducing sufficiently the Physarum's recorded behaviour derived from observation of the aforementioned

  20. Factors Associated with Maintaining the Mental Health of Employees after the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: Findings from Companies Located in the Evacuation Area.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Orui, Masatsugu; Suzuki, Yuriko; Goto, Aya; Yasumura, Seiji

    2017-12-31

    After the nuclear disaster in Fukushima on 11 March 2011, some businesses were permitted to continue operating even though they were located in the evacuation area designated by the Japanese government. The aim of this study was to examine differences in the mental health status, workplace, living environment, and lifestyle of employees in the evacuation and non-evacuation areas. We also investigated factors related to their mental health status. Data for this cross-sectional study were collected from the questionnaire responses of 647 employees at three medium-sized manufacturing companies in the evacuation and non-evacuation areas. Through a cross-tabulation analysis, employees who worked at companies in the evacuation areas showed an increase in the duration of overtime work, work burden, and commute time, and had experienced separation from family members due to the radiation disaster and perceived radiation risks. The results of a multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that, even in a harsh workplace and living environment, being younger, participating regularly in physical activity, having a social network (Lubben Social Network Scale-6 ≤ 12), laughing frequently, and feeling satisfied with one's workplace and domestic life were significantly associated with maintaining a healthy mental health status after the disaster. These findings are applicable for workers' health management measures after disasters.

  1. Modeling emergency evacuation for major hazard industrial sites

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Georgiadou, Paraskevi S.; Papazoglou, Ioannis A.; Kiranoudis, Chris T.; Markatos, Nikolaos C.

    2007-01-01

    A model providing the temporal and spatial distribution of the population under evacuation around a major hazard facility is developed. A discrete state stochastic Markov process simulates the movement of the evacuees. The area around the hazardous facility is divided into nodes connected among themselves with links representing the road system of the area. Transition from node-to-node is simulated as a random process where the probability of transition depends on the dynamically changed states of the destination and origin nodes and on the link between them. Solution of the Markov process provides the expected distribution of the evacuees in the nodes of the area as a function of time. A Monte Carlo solution of the model provides in addition a sample of actual trajectories of the evacuees. This information coupled with an accident analysis which provides the spatial and temporal distribution of the extreme phenomenon following an accident, determines a sample of the actual doses received by the evacuees. Both the average dose and the actual distribution of doses are then used as measures in evaluating alternative emergency response strategies. It is shown that in some cases the estimation of the health consequences by the average dose might be either too conservative or too non-conservative relative to the one corresponding to the distribution of the received dose and hence not a suitable measure to evaluate alternative evacuation strategies

  2. Evacuation in emergencies: An annotated guide to research

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vogt, B.M.; Sorensen, J.H.

    1987-02-01

    The purpose of this literature review was to explore the relevant sources of knowledge regarding evacuation related issues among recent work published in the social sciences and emergency planning fields. In organizing the material, we looked primarily for articles that included either a theoretical or empirical basis for the findings. By empirical, we mean that the findings were based on data taken from actual research gained through surveys, questionnaires, interviews or a combination of these, and the use of secondary sources. The theoretical material consisted of work that built on past research or which explored the use of models. Some conceptual work, raising issues not covered by the general format, were included if they attempted to synthesize aspects of the literature now segmented or which asked additional questions about topics related to but not necessarily within the strict realm of research studies. The material was divided as to the emphasis placed on the individual or the organizational level of behavior. Empirically the individual, family or household response is easier to assess because of the bias that may intrude when individuals of organizations or agencies involved in the evacuation process are interviewed regarding their official status. The annotations of the literature as well as the specific key findings from each study, where appropriate, are organized by hazard type. An author index is provided.

  3. Fire and evacuation drills make the CERN safety plans work

    CERN Multimedia

    Antonella Del Rosso

    2013-01-01

    Regular drills are a way of making sure that we are ready and able to react in the event of a fire or other adverse event. They are also a demanding test of all the technical and organisational measures in place to allow the quick and safe evacuation of buildings. Recently, large-scale drills took place in Building 40 and at Point 5 underground.   Group photo at Point 5, after the common evacuation drill. The ability to react to unexpected, adverse events relies in particular on training. This is why CERN’s safety teams organise regular drills. One of the most recent exercises took place on 26 March in Building 40. “Building 40 is a modern building fully equipped against fire, with two emergency exits in the central atrium. We also have 29 emergency guides distributed on each floor to guide people out of their offices,” says Kate Richardson, Territorial Safety Officer of the building. “The drills are very useful for testing the building's insta...

  4. CT-guided stereotaxic evacuation of cerebellar hematoma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Niizuma, Hiroshi; Ohtsuki, Taisuke; Ohyama, Hideki; Suzuki, Jiro

    1985-01-01

    Stereotaxic lateral approach for cerebellar hematoma is presented using Leksell's CT-stereotaxic system. All of the procedures are performed in the CT room. Patient's head is turned to contralateral side of the hematoma 30 to 40 0 with slight flexion of the neck. Stereotaxic apparatus is secured to the head under local anesthesia. Hematoma is confirmed by computerized tomograms. Three dimensional coordinates of the target point (center of the hematoma) are measured from the vertical and diagonal rods of Leksell's system. Linear skin incision 4 cm in length is made on retromastoid area. Burr-hole is put on just lateral position of the target point, usually 5 to 6 cm posterior and 1 cm above from the external auditory meatus. Transverse or sigmoid sinus does not appeared through the burr-hole by this approach. Specially made Dandy's cannula (3.0 mm in diameter, 220 mm in length) is inserted into the target point, and manual evacuation of the hematoma is performed carefully using a syringe. Then Dandy's cannula is replaced by silastic drainage tube (3.5 mm in diameter), and 6,000 Units of Urokinase solved in 2 ml of saline is administered to the hematoma cavity. Dissolved hematoma is aspirated every 24 hours until the most of the hematoma is evacuated. We operated three cases of cerebellar hematoma by this method with favorable results. Advantages of this method are as follows: Operative invasion is minimal; The surgeon can cbeck the residual hematoma and position of the tip of cannula even at operation, if necessary. (author)

  5. PYRONES: pyro-modeling and evacuation simulation system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kanellos, Tassos; Doulgerakis, Adam; Georgiou, Eftichia; Kountouriotis, Vassilios I.; Paterakis, Manolis; Thomopoulos, Stelios C. A.; Pappou, Theodora; Vrahliotis, Socrates I.; Rekouniotis, Thrasos; Protopsaltis, Byron; Rozenberg, Ofir; Livneh, Ofer

    2016-05-01

    Structural fires continue to pose a great threat towards human life and property. Due to the complexity and non-deterministic characteristics of a building fire disaster, it is not a straightforward task to assess the effectiveness of fire protection measures embedded in the building design, planned evacuation strategies and potential modes of response for mitigating the fire's consequences. Additionally, there is a lack of means that realistically and accurately recreate the conditions of building fire disasters for the purpose of training personnel in order to be sufficiently prepared when vis-a-vis with such an environment. The propagation of fire within a building, the diffusion of its volatile products, the behavior of the occupants and the sustained injuries not only exhibit non-linear behaviors as individual phenomena, but are also intertwined in a web of co-dependencies. The PYRONES system has been developed to address all these aspects through a comprehensive approach that relies on accurate and realistic computer simulations of the individual phenomena and their interactions. PYRONES offers innovative tools and services to strategically targeted niches in two market domains. In the domain of building design and engineering, PYRONES is seamlessly integrated within existing engineering Building Information Modelling (BIM) workflows and serves as a building performance assessment platform, able to evaluate fire protection systems. On another front, PYRONES penetrates the building security management market, serving as a holistic training platform for specialists in evacuation strategy planning, firefighters and first responders, both at a Command and Control and at an individual trainee level.

  6. Preparedness in Long-Term Care: A Novel Approach to Address Gaps in Evacuation Tracking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prot, Emilie Y; Clements, Bruce

    2017-02-01

    With an aging population, the number of elderly individuals residing in long-term care (LTC) facilities will continue to grow and pose unique challenges to disaster preparedness and response. With this rapidly growing vulnerable population, it becomes imperative to identify enhanced and novel preparedness strategies and measures. LTC residents not only have complicated medical needs, including the timing of dispensing multiple medications, but frequently have cognitive and mobility deficits as well. In nearly every major disaster, elderly populations have suffered disproportionate morbidity and mortality. This is often due to elderly evacuees getting overlooked in the chaos of an initial response. Instituting measures to rapidly recognize this population in a crowd during an evacuation will reduce their risk. This commentary reviews the LTC facility evacuation challenges of the 2013 explosion of the West Fertilizer Company plant in West, Texas, and offers a novel solution of mandating the wearing of pink vests by all nursing home residents in case of an evacuation. The pink vests quickly alert disaster rescue and response workers of LTC residents with special needs. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:28-30).

  7. Results of psychosomatic screening of people having suffered from the Chernobyl accident and evacuated from the alienation area

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bronskij, V.I.; Tolkanets, S.V.

    2000-01-01

    A psychosomatic screening of 105 persons evacuated from the alienation area was fulfilled. The received data were compared with those of migrants from areas from which people were evacuated later. Sociometric, psychometric, adaptive characteristics evidence of close relations between conditions of living and worsening of psychosomatic health. The tendency to a higher frequency of psychoorganic syndrome in that group was revealed

  8. The Reality Check: Evacuation Planning done by Mixed Reality and Simulation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Keus, D.; Veldhoven, E.R. van; Heemskerck Pillis, F. van; Brink, T. van den; Laar, J. van

    2011-01-01

    Severe natural or man-made disasters that occur in urban areas often require evacuation measures to protect or rescue the population. In crisis situations, different kinds of knowledge are necessary to get insight in the consequences of the proposed set of measures. In addition, there are typically

  9. A Case of Re-Expansion Pulmonary Edema after Rapid Pleural Evacuation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    SH Shahbazi

    2007-07-01

    Full Text Available Introduction & Objective: Pulmonary edema after chest tube insertion is a rare complication and is associated with high mortality. The cause of this phenomenon is not clear, although causes such as decrease in surfactant and inflammatory process have been defined. Early diagnosis and treatment decrease the mortality. This study introduces a case of re-expansion pulmonary edema after rapid pleural evacuation. Case: The case is a 4.5 y/o boy, a case of Tetralogy of Fallot, who developed respiratory distress after surgery (Total Correction in ICU of Namazi Hospital in 1385. Chest X ray showed pneumothorax of left lung. For the patient, chest tube was inserted and the symptoms improved. After few hours the patient developed tachypnea, tachycardia, and CXR showed pulmonary edema of left lung. Appropriate treatment was done for the patient and his condition improved. Conclusion: Pulmonary edema after sudden evacuation of pleura is a rare phenomenon and early diagnosis decreases the mortality.

  10. Establishing a method for the design and maintenance of emergency evacuation plans based on the computer aided facility management (CAFM) at DESY

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Eucker, S.

    2005-12-01

    The present thesis describes a procedure for the design and maintenance of evacuation and rescue plans in a CAMF environment at the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY). The procedure is developed as business-process model and vizualized by the Unified Modelling Language (UML). The design of the evacuation and rescue plans and the technical design with a CAD software are presented. The introduction of the procedure pursues by the exemplary providing of a building with evacuation and rescue plans, Additionally safety informations of the evacuation and rescue plans are provided via the DESY Intranet. The termination of this thesis is the summarizing of the results and the experiences of the project as well as an outlook about future developments at DESY

  11. Evacuation zone changes in Belarussian wildlife populations following the Chernobyl nuclear accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Plenin, A.E.

    1995-01-01

    Nine years of wildlife monitoring in the 30-km Chernobyl evacuation zone documented effects on faunal biodiversity at various levels of ecosystem integration, helping to focus future investigations needed to distinguish radioecological impacts from those caused by reduced human activity within this zone. Following the direct, aucte radiation effects on the fauna, some long-term stabilization appears in the radionuclide content of animal tissues. The recovery of faunal populations seems to depend more on the secondary effects of human evacuation than on direct radioecological impacts. Natural ecological succession may have accelerated due to the post-evacuation removal of human pressure on contaminated habitats. Cessation of human activity has most benefited the commercially hunted bird and mammal populations. Wild boar, elk, and roe deer populations also have increased to new levels of post-accident equilibrium whereas the recovery of other animal populations is less pronounced. While the number of some rare wildlife species increased in the affected communities, many of those wildlife populations normally associated with human activity have disappeared. In abandoned settlements, the succession of plant communities dominated by trees and shrubs now promotes recolonization by those wildlife communities that are more typical of woodland habitats undisturbed by human activity. These dynamic processes of transformation of wildlife communities offer a unique opportunity to study the development and conservation of wild animal biodiversity within the context of specific land use and landscape ecological changes

  12. The evacuation of British children during World War II: a preliminary investigation into the long-term psychological effects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Foster, D; Davies, S; Steele, H

    2003-09-01

    The authors used attachment theory to hypothesize about the possible long-term psychological effects of evacuation during World War II, focusing on children who were evacuated unaccompanied by their parents. The study aimed to establish whether this experience had long-term effects on psychological well-being, and to investigate mediating and moderating factors. The study utilized a retrospective non-randomized design, comparing 169 former evacuees with 43 people who were children during the war but not evacuated. No differences between the groups were found in terms of demographic variables or exposure to war-related events. All participants completed a range of standardized self-report questionnaires. Findings indicated that former evacuees were more likely to have insecure attachment styles and lower levels of present psychological well-being. Satisfaction with, but not quantity of, current social support was found to mediate the relationship between attachment style and present psychological well-being. Conclusions are limited due to the method of measurement of attachment style, non-randomized design and method of recruitment. Nevertheless, findings offer an indication that the experience of evacuation is associated with long-term psychological vulnerability through its relationship with insecure attachment.

  13. Computer simulation of nuclear pollutant diffusion from Shimane nuclear power plants and development of an evacuation strategy in the event of a nuclear incident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yakura, Haruna; Kurimasa, Akihiro

    2012-01-01

    Beginning from Tohoku (northeastern) Earthquake on March 11, an accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant resulted in a substantial release of radioactivity to the environment. The accident forced a large number of residents to evacuate from surrounding areas. Moreover, the nuclear incident was life-threatening for the elderly and for people with serious illnesses who were confined in hospital or nursing homes. Strikingly, the causes of death were not directly attributed to radiation exposure but to problems encountered during evacuation. Using nuclear diffusion data from the Fukushima incident, we simulated nuclear pollutant dispersion using computer software A2C in an area of Tottori and Shimane Prefectures surrounding the Shimane Nuclear Power Plant. We generated a model for the spread of nuclear pollutants around the Emergency Planning Zone, id est (i.e.) EPZ. From these findings, we proposed evacuation strategies for residents near the power plant to ensure a safe and reliable escape from nuclear pollutants. Our recommendations include: immediate evacuation from PAZ area (within 5 km), securing indoor shelter in the area of the UPZ (from 5 km to 30 km) and preparations to evacuate further outwards from the nuclear plant site, daytime evacuation within a 30 km area after considering wind direction and velocity, and preparation of a planned evacuation strategy that identifies secure facilities for weaker people in the event of a disaster. (author)

  14. Health consequences of the Fukushima Daiichi accident. 2011-2018: evolution of the perimeter of evacuated areas. Situation in March 2018

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2018-03-01

    This note more particularly addresses sheltering and evacuation measures taken to minimise external exposure after the Fukushima accident. These measures resulted in the definition of geographical areas of application, and are still being applied as far as evacuation is concerned. These areas have been evolving, first with respect to the condition of reactors, and then with respect to measurement results and prospective calculations regarding doses of exposure of the population. Thus, this note proposes a synthetic description of the way and reasons of evolution of these areas in time between March 2011 and March 2018. It distinguishes three main phases: from March 2011 to December 2011 (emergency evacuation), from December 2011 to end of 2013 (area definition based on an assessment of prospective doses during the year after the accident; this definition has been used for the elaboration of a decontamination strategy), and from 2014 until March 2018 (end of some decontamination operations with lifting of evacuation orders)

  15. 21 CFR 882.5850 - Implanted spinal cord stimulator for bladder evacuation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... bladder by reflex means or by the intermittent use of catheters. The stimulator consists of an implanted... an external transmitter for transmitting the stimulating pulses across the patient's skin to the... cord stimulator for bladder evacuation shall have an approved PMA or a declared completed PDP in effect...

  16. Association of the World War II Finnish Evacuation of Children With Psychiatric Hospitalization in the Next Generation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Santavirta, Torsten; Santavirta, Nina; Gilman, Stephen E

    2018-01-01

    Although there is evidence that adverse childhood experiences are associated with worse mental health in adulthood, scarce evidence is available regarding an emerging concern that the next generation might also be affected. To compare the risk of psychiatric hospitalization in cousins whose parents were vs were not exposed to the Finnish evacuation policy that involved a mean 2-year stay with a Swedish foster family. This multigenerational, population-based cohort study of Finnish individuals and their siblings born between January 1, 1933, and December 31, 1944, analyzed the association of evacuee status as a child during World War II in the first generation with the risk of psychiatric hospitalization among offspring in the second generation. Evacuee status during World War II was determined using the Finnish National Archive's registry of participants in the Finnish evacuation. Data on evacuee status were linked to the psychiatric diagnoses in the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register from January 1, 1971, through December 31, 2012, for offspring (n = 93 391) born between January 1, 1950, and December 31, 2010. Sex-specific Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to estimate hazard ratios for risk of psychiatric hospitalization during the follow-up period. Because offspring of evacuees and their nonevacuated siblings are cousins, the Cox proportional hazards regression models included fixed effects to adjust for confounding factors in families. Data analysis was performed from June 15, 2016, to August 26, 2017. Parental participation in the evacuation during World War II (coded 1 for parents who were evacuated and placed in foster care and 0 for those not evacuated). Offspring's initial admission to the hospital for a psychiatric disorder, obtained from the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register from January 1, 1971, through December 31, 2012. Of the 93 391 study persons, 45 955 (49.2%) were women and 47 436 (50.8) were men; mean (SD) age in

  17. Factors influencing women's preferences for subsequent management in the event of incomplete evacuation of the uterus after misoprostol treatment for miscarriage

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hentzen, Judith E. K. R.; Verschoor, Marianne A.; Lemmers, Marike; Ankum, Willem M.; Mol, Ben Willem J.; van Wely, Madelon

    2017-01-01

    STUDY QUESTION: What affects women's treatment preferences in the management of an incomplete evacuation of the uterus after misoprostol treatment for a first-trimester miscarriage? SUMMARY ANSWER: Women's treatment preferences in the management of an incomplete evacuation of the uterus after

  18. Surgical evacuation of neonatal intracranial hemorrhage due to vitamin K deficiency bleeding.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zidan, Ashraf Shaker; Abdel-Hady, Hesham

    2011-03-01

    Although the incidence of vitamin K deficiency bleeding (VKDB) in neonates has dramatically decreased in the developed world since the adoption of routine vitamin K prophylaxis, in developing countries the incidence is still high. Intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) is the most dangerous complication. Early recognition and management are important to decrease the mortality rate and neurological sequelae. The authors conducted a prospective study between January 2008 and June 2010. They included all full-term neonates referred to the Department of Neurosurgery at Mansoura University Children's Hospital with ICH complicating VKDB and necessitating surgical evacuation. The objective was to evaluate the clinical presentation, diagnosis, hospital course, and outcome of ICH in full-term neonates with VKDB after surgical evacuation. Thirty-two neonates with ICH due to VKDB were included. Diagnosis and classification of ICH were based on detailed history, physical examination, and the interpretation of CT or MR imaging studies. The diagnosis of VKDB was based on pretreatment coagulation studies (prothrombin time [PT] and partial thromboplastin time [PTT]), which are grossly abnormal, together with a normal platelet count and correction of coagulation results to normal after vitamin K administration. The mean age (± SD) at onset of symptoms was 20.4 ± 4.9 days. Two neonates (6.25%) had early VKDB, 7 (21.9%) had classic VKDB, and 23 (71.9%) had late VKDB. The most common neurological manifestations included focal seizures, disturbed consciousness level, and tense anterior fontanel. The most common general manifestations included pallor, respiratory distress, and bleeding from other sites. Radiological findings varied from acute subdural hemorrhage (SDH) in 18 cases (56.3%), intracerebral hemorrhage in 10 (31.3%), and acute SDH with underlying intracerebral hemorrhage, intraventricular hemorrhage, and/or subarachnoid hemorrhage in 4 (12.5%). Before administration of vitamin K

  19. A STUDY ON MANAGEMENT OF CHRONIC SUBDURAL HAEMATOMA- BURR HOLE EVACUATION AND MINI CRANIOTOMY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nandigama Pratap Kumar

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND Chronic SDH is one of the common neurosurgical conditions requiring surgical treatment. The incidence of chronic SDH is 1.7- 18 per 1,00,000 population. The incidence is higher in the elderly patients, i.e. 58 per 1,00,000. Various treatment modalities available for the treatment of chronic SDH indicate that there is no gold standard for the treatment of chronic SDH. Recurrence is the major problem following treatment and can be as high as 30%. Mini craniotomy is one of the surgical options that can offer better view of the subdural space and may allow us to efficiently clear the loculations and haematoma fluid and thereby decreasing the incidence of recurrences and the need for reoperations. Small craniotomies have not been studied well in the literature except for a few publications. In this study, we are comparing mini craniotomy and burr hole evacuation for the treatment of chronic SDH. MATERIALS AND METHODS All the patients with chronic subdural haematoma operated between August 2013 and January 2016. Patients with recurrent SDH on the same side and patients who underwent different procedures on either side (in case of bilateral haematomas were excluded from the study. The patients were operated by two senior surgeons with one surgeon doing burr hole evacuation and another doing mini craniotomy. Preoperative status and postoperative status was analysed. RESULTS All the patients were analysed both preoperatively and postoperatively. In both the groups, most of the patients shown improvement following surgery, but recurrences are more in burr hole group when compared to mini craniotomy. CONCLUSION Mini craniotomy allows better view of the subdural space and better evacuation of chronic subdural haematoma. Cure rate is higher with mini craniotomy compared to burr hole evacuation.

  20. Minimally Invasive Subcortical Parafascicular Transsulcal Access for Clot Evacuation (Mi SPACE for Intracerebral Hemorrhage

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Benjamin Ritsma

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Background. Spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH is common and causes significant mortality and morbidity. To date, optimal medical and surgical intervention remains uncertain. A lack of definitive benefit for operative management may be attributable to adverse surgical effect, collateral tissue injury. This is particularly relevant for ICH in dominant, eloquent cortex. Minimally invasive surgery (MIS offers the potential advantage of reduced collateral damage. MIS utilizing a parafascicular approach has demonstrated such benefit for intracranial tumor resection. Methods. We present a case of dominant hemisphere spontaneous ICH evacuated via the minimally invasive subcortical parafascicular transsulcal access clot evacuation (Mi SPACE model. We use this report to introduce Mi SPACE and to examine the application of this novel MIS paradigm. Case Presentation. The featured patient presented with a left temporal ICH and severe global aphasia. The hematoma was evacuated via the Mi SPACE approach. Postoperative reassessments showed significant improvement. At two months, bedside language testing was normal. MRI tractography confirmed limited collateral injury. Conclusions. This case illustrates successful application of the Mi SPACE model to ICH in dominant, eloquent cortex and subcortical regions. MRI tractography illustrates collateral tissue preservation. Safety and feasibility studies are required to further assess this promising new therapeutic paradigm.

  1. Participation in multilateral effort to develop high performance integrated CPC evacuated collectors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Winston, R.; Ogallagher, J. J.

    1992-05-01

    The University of Chicago Solar Energy Group has had a continuing program and commitment to develop an advanced evacuated solar collector integrating nonimaging concentration into its design. During the period from 1985-1987, some of our efforts were directed toward designing and prototyping a manufacturable version of an Integrated Compound Parabolic Concentrator (ICPC) evacuated collector tube as part of an international cooperative effort involving six organizations in four different countries. This 'multilateral' project made considerable progress towards a commercially practical collector. One of two basic designs considered employed a heat pipe and an internal metal reflector CPC. We fabricated and tested two large diameter (125 mm) borosilicate glass collector tubes to explore this concept. The other design also used a large diameter (125 mm) glass tube but with a specially configured internal shaped mirror CPC coupled to a U-tube absorber. Performance projections in a variety of systems applications using the computer design tools developed by the International Energy Agency (IEA) task on evacuated collectors were used to optimize the optical and thermal design. The long-term goal of this work continues to be the development of a high efficiency, low cost solar collector to supply solar thermal energy at temperatures up to 250 C. Some experience and perspectives based on our work are presented and reviewed. Despite substantial progress, the stability of research support and the market for commercial solar thermal collectors were such that the project could not be continued. A cooperative path involving university, government, and industrial collaboration remains the most attractive near term option for developing a commercial ICPC.

  2. Operation Pied Piper: a geographical reappraisal of the impact of wartime evacuation on scarlet fever and diphtheria rates in England and Wales, 1939-1945.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smallman-Raynor, M R; Cliff, A D

    2015-10-01

    This paper examines the geographical impact of the British Government's wartime evacuation scheme on notified rates of two common acute childhood diseases (scarlet fever and diphtheria) in the 1470 local government districts of England and Wales, 1939-1945. Drawing on the notifications of communicable diseases collated by the General Register Office (GRO), we establish pre-war (baseline) disease rates for the 1470 districts. For the war years, techniques of binary logistic regression analysis are used to assess the associations between (a) above-baseline ('raised') disease rates in evacuation, neutral and reception districts and (b) the major phases of the evacuation scheme. The analysis demonstrates that the evacuation was temporally associated with distinct national and regional effects on notified levels of disease activity. These effects were most pronounced in the early years of the dispersal (1939-1941) and corresponded with initial levels of evacuation-related population change at the regional and district scales.

  3. Dynamic changes during evacuation of a left temporal abscess in open MRI: technical case report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bernays, R.L.; Yonekawa, Y.; Kollias, S.S.

    2002-01-01

    We demonstrate the usefulness of ''near real-time'' neuro-navigation by open MRI systems for guidance of stereotactic evacuation of intracranial abscesses. A 70-year-old patient was referred to our institution with an intracranial left temporal abscess. He presented with headache, senso-motor aphasia and mild right hemiparesis. The abscess (35 x 25 mm) was stereotactically evacuated under MRI guidance, and a recurrence of a daughter abscess was again evacuated on the 9th postoperative day. ''Near real-time'' imaging showed an indentation of the abscess wall of 11 mm along the trajectory. A thermosensitive MRI protocol demonstrated a higher temperature around the abscess capsule than in the brain tissue more distant to the capsule, demonstrating the inflammatory process. The patient had 6 weeks of antibiotic therapy for gram-negative bacteria and was discharged with improved clinical symptoms 5 weeks after admission. Follow-up CT 2 months postoperatively showed a complete resolution of the abscess. Open MRI-guided interventions with ''near real-time'' imaging demonstrate the anatomical changes during an ongoing procedure and can be accommodated for enhancing the overall precision of stereotactic procedures. Thermosensitive MRI protocols are capable of revealing temperature gradients around inflammatory processes. (orig.)

  4. Numerical modelling and evacuation strategies for tsunami awareness: lessons from the 2012 Haida Gwaii Tsunami

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Angela Santos

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available On October 28, 2012, an earthquake occurred offshore Canada, with a magnitude Mw of 7.8, triggering a tsunami that propagated through the Pacific Ocean. The tsunami numerical model results show it would not be expected to generate widespread inundation on Hawaii. Yet, two hours after the earthquake, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre (PTWC issued a tsunami warning to the state of Hawaii. Since the state was hit by several tsunamis in the past, regular siren exercises, tsunami hazard maps and other prevention measures are available for public use, revealing that residents are well prepared regarding tsunami evacuation procedures. Nevertheless, residents and tourists evacuated mostly by car, and because of that, heavy traffic was reported, showing that it was a non-viable option for evacuation. The tsunami caused minor damages on the coastline, and several car accidents were reported, with one fatality. In recent years, there has been a remarkable interest in tsunami impacts. However, if risk planners seem to be very knowledgeable about how to avoid or mitigate their potential harmful effects, they seem to disregard its integration with other sectors of human activity and other social factors.

  5. Evacuation planning for plausible worst case inundation scenarios in Honolulu, Hawaii.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Karl; Pant, Pradip; Yamashita, Eric

    2015-01-01

    Honolulu is susceptible to coastal flooding hazards. Like other coastal cities, Honolulu&s long-term economic viability and sustainability depends on how well it can adapt to changes in the natural and built environment. While there is a disagreement over the magnitude and extent of localized impacts associated with climate change, it is widely accepted that by 2100 there will be at least a meter in sea level rise (SLR) and an increase in extreme weather events. Increased exposure and vulnerabilities associated with urbanization and location of human activities in coastal areas warrants serious consideration by planners and policy makers. This article has three objectives. First, flooding due to the combined effects of SLR and episodic hydro-meteorological and geophysical events in Honolulu are investigated and the risks to the community are quantified. Second, the risks and vulnerabilities of critical infrastructure and the surface transportation system are described. Third, using the travel demand software, travel distances and travel times for evacuation from inundated areas are modeled. Data from three inundation models were used. The first model simulated storm surge from a category 4 hurricane similar to Hurricane Iniki which devastated the island of Kauai in 1992. The second model estimates inundation based on five tsunamis that struck Hawaii. A 1-m increase in sea level was included in both the hurricane storm surge and tsunami flooding models. The third model used in this article generated a 500-year flood event due to riverine flooding. Using a uniform grid cell structure, the three inundation maps were used to assess the worst case flooding scenario. Based on the flood depths, the ruling hazard (hurricane, tsunami, or riverine flooding) for each grid cell was determined. The hazard layer was analyzed with socioeconomic data layers to determine the impact on vulnerable populations, economic activity, and critical infrastructure. The analysis focused both

  6. Exitus: An Agent-Based Evacuation Simulation Model For Heterogeneous Populations

    OpenAIRE

    Manley, Matthew T.

    2012-01-01

    Evacuation planning for private-sector organizations is an important consideration given the continuing occurrence of both natural and human-caused disasters that inordinately affect them. Unfortunately, the traditional management approach that is focused on fire drills presents several practical challenges at the scale required for many organizations but especially those responsible for national critical infrastructure assets such as airports and sports arenas. In this research we developed ...

  7. 76 FR 55570 - Per Diem Payments for the Care Provided to Eligible Veterans Evacuated From a State Home as a...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-09-08

    ... relocated due to emergency. (a) Definition of emergency. For the purposes of this section, emergency means... Provided to Eligible Veterans Evacuated From a State Home as a Result of an Emergency AGENCY: Department of... for veterans who have been evacuated from a State home as a result of an emergency. Per diem is the...

  8. Seeking safety: predictors of hurricane evacuation of community-dwelling families affected by Alzheimer's disease or a related disorder in South Florida.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Christensen, Janelle J; Richey, Elizabeth Danforth; Castañeda, Heide

    2013-11-01

    This article explores how dyads of 186 community-dwelling individuals with a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease or a related disorder (ADRD) and their caregivers (dyads) plan to respond to hurricane evacuation warnings in South Florida. Predictors of dyad evacuation for a category 1-3 storm include (1) a younger age of the person with an ADRD diagnosis, (2) the caregiver living in a different residence than the person with ADRD, (3) lack of hurricane shutters, and (4) lower income. A dyad is more likely to evacuate in a category 4 or 5 hurricane if there is (1) a younger age person with an ADRD diagnosis, (2) a more recent diagnosis of ADRD, (3) a residence in an evacuation zone, and if (4) they report needing a shelter. Emergency management teams, especially those who assist with special needs shelters or other outreach programs for people with cognitive disabilities, can use these guidelines to estimate service usage and needs.

  9. A Participatory Evacuation Map Making Towards Sustainable Urban Heritage Kotagede, Yogyakarta

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dyah R Hizbaron

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available This research aims at development of Participatory Evacuation Map Making (PEMM for Kotagede, Yogyakarta – Indonesia. The research area is one of an important cultural heritage sites in Indonesia which is subjected towards earthquake hazard. The preliminary observation revealed that the area is a densely populated area, which characterized by dense wooden building structure, narrow street and minimum information of evacuation route which increase their vulnerability potentials. This leads to the idea of developing the PEMM to improve their awareness and preparedness during disaster events and creates sustainable condition for local livelihood security. The method develops within this research is actually a lesson learn from Ritsumeikan University, that has developed CSR for integration disaster management into heritage sites at Kyoto Prefecture. Their CSR covers several activities such as developing disaster information via vending machine and tourism map. Since Yogyakarta and Kyoto are engaged in “Sister City Development Program”, hereafter Universitas Gadjah Mada tries to do similar thing. Map making is an alternative prior to community experience in map making is rather frequent compare to vending machine habit. The preliminary finding of this research indicates that the Kotagede community has been involved in several map making activity, such as “Green Map” and “Rehabilitation Sites Map”.  However, they have not yet any experience to create any map which includes information such as evacuation route, fire extinguisher, shelter information center and important meeting points. An improved critics from this research is to include meeting points level. As we all aware off, each meeting point have significant carrying capacity, thereby in the future a research on similar topics should add level and or category of meeting points. This is an important steppingstone for the research to conduct further research.

  10. [Emergency and disaster response in critical care unit in the Mexican Social Security Institute: triage and evacuation].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Echevarría-Zuno, Santiago; Cruz-Vega, Felipe; Elizondo-Argueta, Sandra; Martínez Valdés, Everardo; Franco-Bey, Rubén; Méndez-Sánchez, Luis Miguel

    2013-01-01

    Providing medical assistance in emergencies and disaster in advance makes the need to maintain Medical Units functional despite the disturbing phenomenon that confronts the community, but conflict occurs when the Medical Unit needs support and needs to be evacuated, especially when the evacuation of patients in a Critical Care Unit is required. In world literature there is little on this topic, and what is there usually focuses on the conversion of areas and increased ability to care for mass casualties, but not about how to evacuate if necessary, and when a wrong decision can have fatal consequences. That is why the Mexican Social Security Institute gave the task of examining these problems to a working group composed of specialists of the Institute. The purpose was to evaluate and establish a method for performing a protocol in the removal of patients and considering always to safeguard both staff and patients and maintain the quality of care.

  11. Fatal collapse due to autonomic dysreflexia during manual self-evacuation of bowel in a tetraplegic patient living alone: lessons to learn

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vaidyanathan S

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Subramanian Vaidyanathan,1 Bakul M Soni,1 Paul Mansour,2 Tun Oo1 1Regional Spinal Injuries Centre, 2Department of Histopathology, Southport and Formby District General Hospital, Town Lane, Southport, UK Background: To identify areas for improvement, the National Health Service in England mandates the review of case reports of patients who have died, which should be translated into improved care for other patients. Case report: A 49-year-old Caucasian man sustained C-7 tetraplegia in a motorcycle accident in 1992. In 2009, he developed seizures and collapsed in the lavatory on a number of occasions during manual self-evacuation of his bowel. A 24-hour electrocardiogram recording at that time showed sinus rhythm with a maximum heart rate of 97 and a minimum of 39 beats per minute; there were no significant arrhythmias that could have contributed to his episodes of collapse. In 2015, the patient again collapsed while performing manual evacuation of his bowel; on this occasion, he did not suffer a seizure. He was found unresponsive in the bathroom by his daughter, who contacted the emergency services. He recovered consciousness on arrival at the Accident and Emergency Department. A noncontrast computed tomography scan of his head revealed no acute intracranial pathology. In 2016, he suffered a fatal collapse in the lavatory, again while performing manual bowel evacuation. At autopsy, no other significant disease was found that might have caused death, and given the clinical history, the cause of death was recorded as autonomic dysreflexia. Conclusion: There were delays in 1 recognizing that his episodes of collapse in the lavatory were due to autonomic dysreflexia induced by manual bowel evacuation; 2 recommending the prior application of topical 2% lidocaine jelly to prevent or limit autonomic dysreflexia occurring during manual bowel evacuation; and 3 considering alternative bowel management such as stimulant laxatives, transanal irrigation, or

  12. Modeling of pedestrian evacuation based on the particle swarm optimization algorithm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zheng, Yaochen; Chen, Jianqiao; Wei, Junhong; Guo, Xiwei

    2012-09-01

    By applying the evolutionary algorithm of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), we have developed a new pedestrian evacuation model. In the new model, we first introduce the local pedestrian’s density concept which is defined as the number of pedestrians distributed in a certain area divided by the area. Both the maximum velocity and the size of a particle (pedestrian) are supposed to be functions of the local density. An attempt to account for the impact consequence between pedestrians is also made by introducing a threshold of injury into the model. The updating rule of the model possesses heterogeneous spatial and temporal characteristics. Numerical examples demonstrate that the model is capable of simulating the typical features of evacuation captured by CA (Cellular Automata) based models. As contrast to CA-based simulations, in which the velocity (via step size) of a pedestrian in each time step is a constant value and limited in several directions, the new model is more flexible in describing pedestrians’ velocities since they are not limited in discrete values and directions according to the new updating rule.

  13. The role of the defaecating pouchogram in the assessment of evacuation difficulty after restorative proctocolectomy and pouch-anal anastomosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stellingwerf, M E; Maeda, Y; Patel, U; Vaizey, C J; Warusavitarne, J; Bemelman, W A; Clark, S K

    2016-08-01

    Restorative proctocolectomy (RPC) with ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) is the most frequently performed operation for intractable ulcerative colitis (UC) and for many patients with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP). It can be complicated by a functional evacuation difficulty, which is not well understood. We aimed to evaluate the role of defaecating pouchography in an attempt to assess the mechanism of evacuation difficulty in pouch patients. All RPC patients who had had a defaecating pouchogram for evacuation difficulty at one hospital between 2006 and 2014 were retrospectively reviewed. The findings and features were correlated with the symptoms. Demographic, clinical and radiological variables were analysed. Eighty-seven [55 (63%) female] patients aged 47.6 ± 12.5 years (mean standard ± SD) were identified. Thirty-five had a mechanical outlet obstruction and 52 had no identified mechanical cause to explain the evacuation difficulty. The mean age of these 52 [33 (63%) female] patients was 48.2 ± 13 years. Of these 52 patients, significantly more used anti-diarrhoeal medication (P = 0.029), complained of a high frequency of defaecation (P = 0.005), experienced a longer time to the initiation of defaecation (P = 0.049) and underwent pouchoscopy (P = 0.003). Biofeedback appeared to improve the symptoms in 7 of 16 patients with a nonmechanical defaecatory difficulty. The most common findings on defaecating pouchography included residual barium of more than 33% after an attempted evacuation (46%, n = 24), slow evacuation (35%, n = 18) and mucosal irregularity (33%, n = 17). Correlation between radiological features and symptoms showed a statistically significant relationship between straining, anal pain, incontinence and urgency with patterns of anismus or pelvic floor descent or weakness seen on the defaecating pouchogram. Symptoms of incomplete evacuation, difficulty in the initiation of defaecation, high defaecatory frequency and

  14. Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics 2012

    CERN Document Server

    Kirsch, Uwe; Schreckenberg, Michael

    2014-01-01

    The 6th International Conference on Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics conference (PED2012) showcased research on human locomotion. This book presents the proceedings of PED2012. Humans have walked for eons; our drive to settle the globe began with a walk out of Africa. However, much remains to discover. As the world moves toward sustainability while racing to assess and accommodate climate change, research must provide insight on the physical requirements of walking, the dynamics of pedestrians on the move and more. We must understand, predict and simulate pedestrian behaviour, to avoid dangerous situations, to plan for emergencies, and not least, to make walking more attractive and enjoyable. PED2012 offered 70 presentations and keynotes and 70 poster presentations covering new and improved mathematical models, describing new insights on pedestrian behaviour in normal and emergency cases and presenting research based on sensors and advanced observation methods. These papers offer a starting point for innova...

  15. Decision-making and evacuation planning for flood risk management in the Netherlands.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kolen, Bas; Helsloot, Ira

    2014-07-01

    A traditional view of decision-making for evacuation planning is that, given an uncertain threat, there is a deterministic way of defining the best decision. In other words, there is a linear relation between threat, decision, and execution consequences. Alternatives and the impact of uncertainties are not taken into account. This study considers the 'top strategic decision-making' for mass evacuation owing to flooding in the Netherlands. It reveals that the top strategic decision-making process itself is probabilistic because of the decision-makers involved and their crisis managers (as advisers). The paper concludes that deterministic planning is not sufficient, and it recommends probabilistic planning that considers uncertainties in the decision-making process itself as well as other uncertainties, such as forecasts, citizens responses, and the capacity of infrastructure. This results in less optimistic, but more realistic, strategies and a need to pay attention to alternative strategies. © 2014 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2014.

  16. Appendicostomy irrigation for facilitating colonic evacuation in colostomy patients. Preliminary report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kotanagi, H; Koyama, K; Sato, Y; Takahashi, K

    1998-08-01

    A method for bowel irrigation through an appendicostomy (antegrade colonic enema) for patients with a left colostomy is described. The appendicostomy is easily constructed without morbidity. Irrigation through the appendicostomy is performed with minimum equipment, uses a small volume of irrigation water, and takes a relatively short time. This may improve colonic evacuation in patients with left colostomy.

  17. Use of Subdural Evacuating Port System Following Open Craniotomy with Excision of Native Dura and Membranes for Management of Chronic Subdural Hematoma.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cage, Tene; Bach, Ashley; McDermott, Michael W

    2017-04-26

    An 86-year-old woman was admitted to the intensive care unit with a chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH) and rapid onset of worsening neurological symptoms. She was taken to the operating room for a mini-craniotomy for evacuation of the CSDH including excision of the dura and CSDH membrane. Postoperatively, a subdural evacuation port system (SEPS) was integrated into the craniotomy site and left in place rather than a traditional subdural catheter drain to evacuate the subdural space postoperatively. The patient had a good recovery and improvement of symptoms after evacuation and remained clinically well after the SEPS was removed. We offer the technique of dura and CSDH membrane excision plus SEPS drain as an effective postoperative alternative to the standard craniotomy leaving the native dura intact with traditional subdural drain that overlies the cortical surface of the brain in treating patients with CSDH.

  18. A controlled trial of colostomy management by natural evacuation, irrigation and foam enema.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doran, J; Hardcastle, J D

    1981-10-01

    Twenty patients entered a prospective controlled trial of colostomy management by three techniques--natural evacuation, colostomy irrigation and foam enema. Every patient spent 2 months using each technique. The mean number of colostomy actions weekly was 17 during natural evacuation, 6 during irrigation and 10 with the enema. There was no significant difference in the time taken to manage the colostomy by each technique. Eighteen patients considered that both irrigation and the foam enema improved the quality of their life, and opted to continue with irrigation on completion of the study. There were no major complications during the trial but leakage of foam and an increase in flatus were problems with the foam enema. It is concluded that patients should be made aware of the alternative methods available for colostomy management and be encouraged to use the method of their choice.

  19. A stationary evacuated collector with integrated concentrator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Snail, K.A.; O' Gallagher, J.J.; Winston, R.

    1984-01-01

    A comprehensive set of experimental tests and detailed optical and thermal models are presented for a newly developed solar thermal collector. The new collector has an optical efficiency of 65 per cent and achieves thermal efficiencies of better than 50 per cent at fluid temperatures of 200/sup 0/C without tracking the sun. The simultaneous features of high temperature operation and a fully stationary mount are made possible by combining vacuum insulation, spectrally selective coatings, and nonimaging concentration in a novel way. These 3 design elements are ''integrated'' together in a self containe unit by shaping the outer glass envelope of a conventional evacuated tube into the profile of a nonimaging CPC-type concentrator. This permits the use of a first surface mirror and eliminates the need for second cover glazing. The new collector has been given the name ''Integrated Stationary Evacuated Concentrator'', or ISEC collector. Not only is the peak thermal efficiency of the ISEC comparable to that of commercial tracking parabolic troughs, but projections of the average yearly energy delivery also show competitive performance with a net gain for temperatures below 200/sup 0/C. In addition, the ISEC is less subject to exposure induced degradation and could be mass produced with assembly methods similar to those used with fluorescent lamps. Since no tracking or tilt adjustments are ever required and because its sensitive optical surfaces are protected from the environment, the ISEC collector provides a simple, easily maintained solar thermal collector for the range 100-300/sup 0/C which is suitable for most climates and atmospheric conditions. Potential applications include space heating, air conditioning, and industrial process heat.

  20. Emergency Evacuation of Hazardous Chemical Accidents Based on Diffusion Simulation

    OpenAIRE

    Jiang-Hua Zhang; Hai-Yue Liu; Rui Zhu; Yang Liu

    2017-01-01

    The recent rapid development of information technology, such as sensing technology, communications technology, and database, allows us to use simulation experiments for analyzing serious accidents caused by hazardous chemicals. Due to the toxicity and diffusion of hazardous chemicals, these accidents often lead to not only severe consequences and economic losses, but also traffic jams at the same time. Emergency evacuation after hazardous chemical accidents is an effective means to reduce the...

  1. Complementary methods to plan pedestrian evacuation of the French Riviera's beaches in case of tsunami threat: graph- and multi-agent-based modelling

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Sahal

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available Small amplitude tsunamis have impacted the French Mediterranean shore (French Riviera in the past centuries. Some caused casualties; others only generated economic losses. While the North Atlantic and Mediterranean tsunami warning system is being tested and is almost operational, no awareness and preparedness measure is being implemented at a local scale. Evacuation is to be considered along the French Riviera, but no plan exists within communities. We show that various approaches can provide local stakeholders with evacuation capacities assessments to develop adapted evacuation plans through the case study of the Cannes–Antibes region. The complementarity between large- and small-scale approaches is demonstrated with the use of macro-simulators (graph-based and micro-simulators (multi-agent-based to select shelter points and choose evacuation routes for pedestrians located on the beach. The first one allows automatically selecting shelter points and measuring and mapping their accessibility. The second one shows potential congestion issues during pedestrian evacuations, and provides leads for the improvement of urban environment. Temporal accessibility to shelters is compared to potential local and distal tsunami travel times, showing a 40 min deficit for an adequate crisis management in the first scenario, and a 30 min surplus for the second one.

  2. Complementary methods to plan pedestrian evacuation of the French Riviera's beaches in case of tsunami threat: graph- and multi-agent-based modelling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sahal, A.; Leone, F.; Péroche, M.

    2013-07-01

    Small amplitude tsunamis have impacted the French Mediterranean shore (French Riviera) in the past centuries. Some caused casualties; others only generated economic losses. While the North Atlantic and Mediterranean tsunami warning system is being tested and is almost operational, no awareness and preparedness measure is being implemented at a local scale. Evacuation is to be considered along the French Riviera, but no plan exists within communities. We show that various approaches can provide local stakeholders with evacuation capacities assessments to develop adapted evacuation plans through the case study of the Cannes-Antibes region. The complementarity between large- and small-scale approaches is demonstrated with the use of macro-simulators (graph-based) and micro-simulators (multi-agent-based) to select shelter points and choose evacuation routes for pedestrians located on the beach. The first one allows automatically selecting shelter points and measuring and mapping their accessibility. The second one shows potential congestion issues during pedestrian evacuations, and provides leads for the improvement of urban environment. Temporal accessibility to shelters is compared to potential local and distal tsunami travel times, showing a 40 min deficit for an adequate crisis management in the first scenario, and a 30 min surplus for the second one.

  3. Challenges and Resources for Nurses Participating in a Hurricane Sandy Hospital Evacuation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    VanDevanter, Nancy; Raveis, Victoria H; Kovner, Christine T; McCollum, Meriel; Keller, Ronald

    2017-11-01

    Weather-related disasters have increased dramatically in recent years. In 2012, severe flooding as a result of Hurricane Sandy necessitated the mid-storm patient evacuation of New York University Langone Medical Center. The purpose of this study was to explore, from the nurses' perspective, what the challenges and resources were to carrying out their responsibilities, and what the implications are for nursing education and preparation for disaster. This mixed-methods study included qualitative interviews with a purposive sample of nurses and an online survey of nurses who participated in the evacuation. The interviews explored prior disaster experience and training, communication, personal experience during the evacuation, and lessons learned. The cross-sectional survey assessed social demographic factors, nursing education and experience, as well as potential challenges and resources in carrying out their disaster roles. Qualitative interviews provided important contextual information about the specific challenges nurses experienced and their ability to respond effectively. Survey data identified important resources that helped nurses to carry out their roles, including support from coworkers, providing support to others, personal resourcefulness, and leadership. Nurses experienced considerable challenges in responding to this disaster due to limited prior disaster experience, training, and education, but drew on their personal resourcefulness, support from colleagues, and leadership to adapt to those challenges. Disaster preparedness education in schools of nursing and practice settings should include more hands-on disaster preparation exercises, more "low-tech" options to address power loss, and specific policies on nurses' disaster roles. Nurses play a critical role in responding to disasters. Learning from their disaster experience can inform approaches to nursing education and preparation. © 2017 Sigma Theta Tau International.

  4. Welfare and evacuation sub-plan: APTCARE - Lucas Heights

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1985-11-01

    This Sub-plan has been prepared as a contingency plan to the APTCARE document - A plan to cope with an accident at the Australian Atomic Energy Commission's Research Establishment at Lucas Heights. It details procedures to be followed for the evacuation and welfare of citizens residing in areas outside the Commission's establishment in the event that their health or safety is threatened by reason of an accident at the nuclear reactor facility which could have off-site implications. Additionally, it lists roles and tasking assignments of various counter-disaster response and support agencies in such an occurrence

  5. Providing many results of evacuation simulation around a nuclear power plant and its speedy use

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ishida, Shoji; Nagase, Shinichiro; Ino, Masanori

    1990-01-01

    According to the peculiar situation around nuclear power plant in Japan, many results of evacuation simulation in that the public buses and family cars were used together have being obtained by a super computer. These were comprised of the time dependence of the number of residents and vehicles at the exit and starting points, and traffic jam datas at each intersection on the evacuation roads. Also, exposed dose for each group of the residents were calculated in case of Xe and I-131 release. The retrieval system was applied for selecting the indispensable data from many results, and in order to see data on the display screen, the graphic system was provided. (author)

  6. Prevalence and Factors Associated with Hydatidiform Mole among Patients Undergoing Uterine Evacuation at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olivier Mulisya

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Objective. We sought to determine the prevalence of and factors associated with hydatidiform molar gestations amongst patients undergoing uterine evacuation at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital (MRRH, Mbarara, Uganda. Methods. This was a cross-sectional study carried out from November 2016 to February 2017. All patients admitted for uterine evacuation for nonviable pregnancy were included. The study registered 181 patients. Data were collected on sociodemographics, medical conditions, obstetrics, and gynecological factors. The evacuated tissue received a full gross and histopathologic examination. Cases of pathologically suspected complete hydatidiform mole were confirmed by p57 immunohistochemistry. Data were analyzed using STATA 13. Results. The prevalence of hydatidiform mole was 6.1% (11/181. All detected moles were complete hydatidiform moles, and there were no diagnosed partial hydatidiform moles. Clinical diagnosis of molar pregnancy was suspected in 13 patients, but only 69.2% (9/13 were confirmed as molar pregnancies histologically. Two cases were clinically unsuspected. Factors that had a significant relationship with complete hydatidiform mole included maternal age of 35 years and above (aOR 13.5; CI: 1.46–125.31; p=0.00, gestational age beyond the first trimester at the time of uterine evacuation (aOR 6.2; CI: 1.07–36.14; p=0.04, and history of previous abortion (aOR 4.3; CI: 1.00–18.57; p=0.05. Conclusion. The prevalence of complete hydatidiform mole was high at 6.1%. Associated risk factors included advanced maternal age (35 years and above, history of previous abortions, and gestational age beyond the first trimester at the time of evacuations. Recommendations. We recommend putting in place capacity to do routine histopathological examination of all products of conception especially those at high risk for a molar gestation either by clinical suspicion or by risk factors including advanced maternal age, advanced gestational

  7. The Influence of subway climatology on gas dispersion and the effectiveness of guided evacuations in a complex subway station

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Markus Brüne

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available This paper discusses a strategy that integrates data from tracer gas experiments with results from pedestrian simulation software in the evaluation of different evacuation procedures for subway stations in response to a fire or a terrorist attack with chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and enhanced conventional weapons (CBRNE. The study demonstrates that by combining the two data sets a greater understanding of the impact of different evacuations routes on an evacuee's health is gained. It is shown that by controlling the routes pedestrians would use to exit a subway station, the number of fatalities and evacuees with long term health issues can be reduced. It is highlighted that a dynamic evacuation guiding system based on subway climatology would take into account the source of the toxin, the resulting dispersal of gas, smoke, etc. and the subway climatology at the time. In doing so, it would be possible to identify the most endangered areas and guide passengers via an adaptive escape route using audio and visual techniques. Information on the evolution of the emergency situation could also simultaneously be relayed back to the rescue forces to help to plan the rescue and evacuation procedures and optimise the deployment of the search and rescue teams.

  8. Evaluation of subdural space after evacuation of chronic subdural hematoma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Odake, Genya

    1988-01-01

    Subdural low density lesions of two cases were reexplored after evacuation of chronic subdural hematoma and thickening of the outer membrane was found in both cases. 1st case was a 88 year-old male, who had shown at least 7 months history of chronic subdural fluid accumulation. Reexploration of residual subdural low density space on CT after 14 days following the evacuation disclosed thickening of the outer membrane and none of fluid. 2nd case was a 71 year-old male who had a history of head injury 2 months before. Reexploration of residual low density lesion 14 days later disclosed a similar thickening of the outer membrane without fluid accumulation. The postoperative low density area in both cases was suspected to be a residual hematoma before reexploratin, but only thickening of the outer membrane of the hematoma was found. The outer membrane of 2nd case was histologically composed of layers of matured granulation, contiguous to the dura and a layer of immature granulation with microhemorrhage, facing the cavity. Thickening of the outer membrane seems to play an important role not only to develope, but to resolve the chronic subdural hematoma. It is neccessary to evaluate other factors than low density space per se to eliminate a needless reexploration. (author)

  9. Evaluation of subdural space after evacuation of chronic subdural hematoma

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Odake, Genya

    1988-09-01

    Subdural low density lesions of two cases were reexplored after evacuation of chronic subdural hematoma and thickening of the outer membrane was found in both cases. 1st case was a 88 year-old male, who had shown at least 7 months history of chronic subdural fluid accumulation. Reexploration of residual subdural low density space on CT after 14 days following the evacuation disclosed thickening of the outer membrane and none of fluid. 2nd case was a 71 year-old male who had a history of head injury 2 months before. Reexploration of residual low density lesion 14 days later disclosed a similar thickening of the outer membrane without fluid accumulation. The postoperative low density area in both cases was suspected to be a residual hematoma before reexploratin, but only thickening of the outer membrane of the hematoma was found. The outer membrane of 2nd case was histologically composed of layers of matured granulation, contiguous to the dura and a layer of immature granulation with microhemorrhage, facing the cavity. Thickening of the outer membrane seems to play an important role not only to develope, but to resolve the chronic subdural hematoma. It is neccessary to evaluate other factors than low density space per se to eliminate a needless reexploration.

  10. National study on carless and special needs populations mobilizing your community for emergency evacuation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-12-01

    The National Study on Carless and Special Needs Evacuation Planning was a multi-year study funded by the Federal Transit Administration : to research how state Departments of Transportation (DOTs), metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), transit ...

  11. Dynamic changes during evacuation of a left temporal abscess in open MRI: technical case report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bernays, R.L.; Yonekawa, Y. [Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital, Zurich (Switzerland); Kollias, S.S. [Institute of Neuroradiology, University Hospital of Zurich (Switzerland)

    2002-05-01

    We demonstrate the usefulness of ''near real-time'' neuro-navigation by open MRI systems for guidance of stereotactic evacuation of intracranial abscesses. A 70-year-old patient was referred to our institution with an intracranial left temporal abscess. He presented with headache, senso-motor aphasia and mild right hemiparesis. The abscess (35 x 25 mm) was stereotactically evacuated under MRI guidance, and a recurrence of a daughter abscess was again evacuated on the 9th postoperative day. ''Near real-time'' imaging showed an indentation of the abscess wall of 11 mm along the trajectory. A thermosensitive MRI protocol demonstrated a higher temperature around the abscess capsule than in the brain tissue more distant to the capsule, demonstrating the inflammatory process. The patient had 6 weeks of antibiotic therapy for gram-negative bacteria and was discharged with improved clinical symptoms 5 weeks after admission. Follow-up CT 2 months postoperatively showed a complete resolution of the abscess. Open MRI-guided interventions with ''near real-time'' imaging demonstrate the anatomical changes during an ongoing procedure and can be accommodated for enhancing the overall precision of stereotactic procedures. Thermosensitive MRI protocols are capable of revealing temperature gradients around inflammatory processes. (orig.)

  12. In Vitro Evaluation of Evacuated Blood Collection Tubes as a Closed-Suction Surgical Drain Reservoir.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heiser, Brian; Okrasinski, E B; Murray, Rebecca; McCord, Kelly

    The initial negative pressures of evacuated blood collection tubes (EBCT) and their in vitro performance as a rigid closed-suction surgical drain (CSSD) reservoir has not been evaluated in the scientific literature despite being described in both human and veterinary texts and journals. The initial negative pressures of EBCT sized 3, 6, 10, and 15 mL were measured and the stability of the system monitored. The pressure-to-volume curve as either air or water was added and maximal filling volumes were measured. Evacuated blood collection tubes beyond the manufacture's expiration date were evaluated for initial negative pressures and maximal filling volumes. Initial negative pressure ranged from -214 mm Hg to -528 mm Hg for EBCT within the manufacturer's expiration date. Different pressure-to-volume curves were found for air versus water. Optimal negative pressures of CSSD are debated in the literature. Drain purpose and type of exudates are factors that should be considered when deciding which EBCT size to implement. Evacuated blood collection tubes have a range of negative pressures and pressure-to-volume curves similar to previously evaluated CSSD rigid reservoirs. Proper drain management and using EBCT within labeled expiration date are important to ensure that expected negative pressures are generated.

  13. Performance optimization of evacuated tube collector for solar cooling of a house in hot climate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghoneim, Adel A.

    2018-02-01

    Evacuating the space connecting cover and absorber significantly improves evacuated tube collector (ETC) performance. So, ETCs are progressively utilised all over the world. The main goal of current study is to explore ETC thermal efficiency in hot and severe climate like Kuwait weather conditions. A collector test facility was installed to record ETC thermal performance for one-year period. An extensively developed model for ETCs is presented, employing complete optical and thermal assessment. This study analyses separately optics and heat transfer in the evacuated tubes, allowing the analysis to be extended to different configurations. The predictions obtained are in agreement with experimental. The optimum collector parameters (collector tube length and diameter, mass flow rate and collector tilt angle) are determined. The present results indicate that the optimum tube length is 1.5 m, as at this length a significant improvement is achieved in efficiency for different tube diameters studied. Finally, the heat generated from ETCs is used for solar cooling of a house. Results of the simulation of cooling system indicate that an ETC of area 54 m2, tilt angle of 25° and storage tank volume of 2.1 m3 provides 80% of air-conditioning demand in a house located in Kuwait.

  14. Analysis of sheltering and evacuation strategies for a national capital region nuclear detonation scenario.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yoshimura, Ann S.; Brandt, Larry D.

    2011-12-01

    Development of an effective strategy for shelter and evacuation is among the most important planning tasks in preparation for response to a low yield, nuclear detonation in an urban area. Extensive studies have been performed and guidance published that highlight the key principles for saving lives following such an event. However, region-specific data are important in the planning process as well. This study examines some of the unique regional factors that impact planning for a 10 kT detonation in the National Capital Region. The work utilizes a single scenario to examine regional impacts as well as the shelter-evacuate decision alternatives at one exemplary point. For most Washington, DC neighborhoods, the excellent assessed shelter quality available make shelter-in-place or selective transit to a nearby shelter a compelling post-detonation strategy.

  15. Endoscope-assisted, minimally invasive evacuation of sub-acute/chronic epidural hematoma: Novelty or paradox of Theseus?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ansari, Ishtyaque; Futane, Sameer; Ansari, Ashfaque

    2016-08-01

    Sub-acute/chronic epidural hematoma (EDH) may present with nagging symptoms of headache, nausea, vomiting, lethargy, etc. We attempted to offer a minimally invasive, single burr hole, endoscope-assisted evacuation of EDHs instead of a conventional craniotomy. Seven patients with sub-acute/chronic EDH (six supratentorial and one infratentorial) presented to us 3 to 7 days after low-velocity road traffic accidents with complaints of headache and lethargy. The EDH volumes measured between 20 to 50 ml, and the patients were operated on using a single burr hole made through a small incision. We used 0-, 30- and 70-degree, angulated, rigid, high-definition endoscopes to identify and evacuate the organized clots in the extradural space. Flexible catheters were used for suction and irrigation. After achieving hemostasis, the dura was hitched back to the burr hole site. The wound was closed over a negative suction drain. All patients had prompt recovery from symptoms. Postoperative CT scans showed complete or near complete evacuation of the hematomas. The hospital stay and analgesic requirements were minimal. There was no infective complication or conversion to conventional open surgery. The average time for surgery was 77.8 min, and average blood loss was 328.5 ml. Endoscope-assisted evacuation of sub-acute/chronic EDH is a novel concept, which offers quick relief from symptoms in a minimally invasive fashion and a cosmetically acceptable way. None of the standard principles of surgery are hampered. It avoids extensive dissection of the temporalis or sub-occipital muscles. However, achieving hemostasis can be difficult. Further study and better equipment will validate the procedure.

  16. Technological advances in evacuation planning and emergency management : current state of the art.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2003-03-01

    Evacuation of people in the event of hazard is one of basic problems of human society. From early : ages people planned their habitat with possibility of hazards in mind. For instance, one of The Seven : Wonders of the World, the Temple of Artemis, w...

  17. Study on estimation of evacuation distances for nuclear emergency

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sato, Sohei; Homma, Toshimitsu

    2005-09-01

    Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) have conducted the analytical studies on the Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA), the severe accidents, and the optimization of protective actions. Based on the results of these studies, JAERI are investigating the method for taking urgent protective actions more reasonably. If an accident occurs in a nuclear power plant (NPP), early protective actions are carried out. To implement these actions more effectively, emergency preparedness and emergency planning are important, and especially prompt evacuation is expected to reduce a large amount of radiation exposures. To examine the effect of early protective measures by using a PSA method, estimation of the parameter uncertainty related in the time for early protective actions is needed. For this purpose, we have developed an analytical method for urgent protective actions using geographic information, and estimated the movement distance based on gathering points arrangement an population distribution. For this analysis, we used the gathering point data shown on each regional plans for disaster prevention which will be used in actual emergency situation and targeted the population inside Emergency Planning Zone (EPZ). By applying this method for the existing sixteen commercial NPP sites, we estimated the average value and distribution of the movement distance for each sites. This report provides a brief description of the method for estimating the movement distance, input data for this analysis, and the result. Moreover, the problem on the method of evacuation distance analysis and usefulness of this method for emergency planning were discussed. (author)

  18. Real-time micro-modelling of city evacuations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Löhner, Rainald; Haug, Eberhard; Zinggerling, Claudio; Oñate, Eugenio

    2018-01-01

    A methodology to integrate geographical information system (GIS) data with large-scale pedestrian simulations has been developed. Advances in automatic data acquisition and archiving from GIS databases, automatic input for pedestrian simulations, as well as scalable pedestrian simulation tools have made it possible to simulate pedestrians at the individual level for complete cities in real time. An example that simulates the evacuation of the city of Barcelona demonstrates that this is now possible. This is the first step towards a fully integrated crowd prediction and management tool that takes into account not only data gathered in real time from cameras, cell phones or other sensors, but also merges these with advanced simulation tools to predict the future state of the crowd.

  19. Estimation and optimization of thermal performance of evacuated tube solar collector system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dikmen, Erkan; Ayaz, Mahir; Ezen, H. Hüseyin; Küçüksille, Ecir U.; Şahin, Arzu Şencan

    2014-05-01

    In this study, artificial neural networks (ANNs) and adaptive neuro-fuzzy (ANFIS) in order to predict the thermal performance of evacuated tube solar collector system have been used. The experimental data for the training and testing of the networks were used. The results of ANN are compared with ANFIS in which the same data sets are used. The R2-value for the thermal performance values of collector is 0.811914 which can be considered as satisfactory. The results obtained when unknown data were presented to the networks are satisfactory and indicate that the proposed method can successfully be used for the prediction of the thermal performance of evacuated tube solar collectors. In addition, new formulations obtained from ANN are presented for the calculation of the thermal performance. The advantages of this approaches compared to the conventional methods are speed, simplicity, and the capacity of the network to learn from examples. In addition, genetic algorithm (GA) was used to maximize the thermal performance of the system. The optimum working conditions of the system were determined by the GA.

  20. A GIS-Based 3D Simulation for Occupant Evacuation in a Building

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    TANG Fangqin; ZHANG Xin

    2008-01-01

    The evacuation efficiency of building plans is of obvious importance to the public safety.The cem- plexity of building plans,however,makes it difficult for the efficiency evaluation.This paper presents a com- putational model AutoEscape,which can simulate the evacuation process for any given occupant distribu. Uon in buildings.Designed as an extensible multi-level structure, the model constructs the geometry level and occupant level and establishes the interactions between levels.The GIS-based environmental analysis is realized to automatically generate the geometric representation and formulate the cognition of agents. The multi-agent based technology is employed to simulate the crowd behaviom with autonomously acting individuals.A visualization component,which provides 3D free observations for the simulation process,is developed on the platform of OGRE and integrated into the system interface in form of ActiveX control.Fi- nally,a case study has been conducted and the results have been compared with the results of an existing model to show the reliability and capacity of AutoEscape simulation.

  1. 78 FR 13325 - Proposed Information Collection; Comment Request; Research on Evacuating Persons With Mobility...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-02-27

    ... DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE National Institute of Standards and Technology Proposed Information... Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Commerce. ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce... how building occupants with mobility impairments currently evacuate multi-story buildings in the...

  2. Treatment of chronic subdural hematomas with subdural evacuating port system placement in the intensive care unit: evolution of practice and comparison with bur hole evacuation in the operating room.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Flint, Alexander C; Chan, Sheila L; Rao, Vivek A; Efron, Allen D; Kalani, Maziyar A; Sheridan, William F

    2017-12-01

    OBJECTIVE The aims of this study were to evaluate a multiyear experience with subdural evacuating port system (SEPS) placement for chronic subdural hematoma (cSDH) in the intensive care unit at a tertiary neurosurgical center and to compare SEPS placement with bur hole evacuation in the operating room. METHODS All cases of cSDH evacuation were captured over a 7-year period at a tertiary neurosurgical center within an integrated health care delivery system. The authors compared the performance characteristics of SEPS and bur hole placement with respect to recurrence rates, change in recurrence rates over time, complications, length of stay, discharge disposition, and mortality rates. RESULTS A total of 371 SEPS cases and 659 bur hole cases were performed (n = 1030). The use of bedside SEPS placement for cSDH treatment increased over the 7-year period, from 14% to 80% of cases. Reoperation within 6 months was higher for the SEPS (15.6%) than for bur hole drainage (9.1%) across the full 7-year period (p = 0.002). This observed overall difference was due to a higher rate of reoperation during the same hospitalization (7.0% for SEPS vs 3.2% for bur hole; p = 0.008). Over time, as the SEPS procedure became more common and modifications of the SEPS technique were introduced, the rate of in-hospital reoperation after SEPS decreased to 3.3% (p = 0.02 for trend), and the difference between SEPS and bur hole recurrence was no longer significant (p = 0.70). Complications were uncommon and were similar between the groups. CONCLUSIONS Overall performance characteristics of bedside SEPS and bur hole drainage in the operating room were similar. Modifications to the SEPS technique over time were associated with a reduced reoperation rate.

  3. Pediatric issues in disaster management, part 2: evacuation centers and family separation/reunification.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mace, Sharon E; Sharieff, Ghazala; Bern, Andrew; Benjamin, Lee; Burbulys, Dave; Johnson, Ramon; Schreiber, Merritt

    2010-01-01

    Although children and infants are likely to be victims in a disaster and are more vulnerable in a disaster than adults, disaster planning and management has often overlooked the specific needs of pediatric patients. We discuss key components of disaster planning and management for pediatric patients including emergency medical services, hospital/facility issues, evacuation centers, family separation/reunification, children with special healthcare needs, mental health issues, and overcrowding/surge capacity. Specific policy recommendations and an appendix with detailed practical information and algorithms are included. The first part of this three part series on pediatric issues in disaster management addresses the emergency medical system from the field to the hospital and surge capacity including the impact of crowding. The second part addresses the appropriate set up and functioning of evacuation centers and family separation and reunification. The third part deals with special patient populations: the special healthcare needs patient and mental health issues.

  4. Effect of evacuation on liver function after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident: The Fukushima Health Management Survey.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Takahashi, Atsushi; Ohira, Tetsuya; Hosoya, Mitsuaki; Yasumura, Seiji; Nagai, Masato; Ohira, Hiromasa; Hashimoto, Shigeatsu; Satoh, Hiroaki; Sakai, Akira; Ohtsuru, Akira; Kawasaki, Yukihiko; Suzuki, Hitoshi; Kobashi, Gen; Ozasa, Kotaro; Yamashita, Shunichi; Kamiya, Kenji; Abe, Masafumi

    2017-04-01

    The Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident caused residents to switch from their normal lives to lives focused on evacuation. We evaluated liver function before and after this disaster to elucidate the effects of evacuation on liver function. This study was a longitudinal survey of 26,006 Japanese men and women living near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. This study was undertaken using data from annual health checkups conducted for persons aged 40-90 years between 2008 and 2010. Follow-up examinations were conducted from June 2011 to the end of March 2013, with a mean follow up of 1.6 years. Changes in liver function before and after the disaster were compared among evacuees and non-evacuees. We also assessed groups according to alcohol drinking status. The prevalence of liver dysfunction significantly increased in all participants from 16.4% before to 19.2% after the disaster. The incidence of liver dysfunction was significantly higher in evacuees than in non-evacuees. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that evacuation was significantly associated with liver dysfunction among residents. This is the first study to show that evacuation due to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster was associated with an increase in liver dysfunction. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  5. The Safety and Feasibility of Image-Guided BrainPath-Mediated Transsulcul Hematoma Evacuation: A Multicenter Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Labib, Mohamed A; Shah, Mitesh; Kassam, Amin B; Young, Ronald; Zucker, Lloyd; Maioriello, Anthony; Britz, Gavin; Agbi, Charles; Day, J D; Gallia, Gary; Kerr, Robert; Pradilla, Gustavo; Rovin, Richard; Kulwin, Charles; Bailes, Julian

    2017-04-01

    Subcortical injury resulting from conventional surgical management of intracranial hemorrhage may counteract the potential benefits of hematoma evacuation. To evaluate the safety and potential benefits of a novel, minimally invasive approach for clot evacuation in a multicenter study. The integrated approach incorporates 5 competencies: (1) image interpretation and trajectory planning, (2) dynamic navigation, (3) atraumatic access system (BrainPath, NICO Corp, Indianapolis, Indiana), (4) extracorporeal optics, and (5) automated atraumatic resection. Twelve neurosurgeons from 11 centers were trained to use this approach through a continuing medical education-accredited course. Demographical, clinical, and radiological data of patients treated over 2 years were analyzed retrospectively. Thirty-nine consecutive patients were identified. The median Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score at presentation was 10 (range, 5-15). The thalamus/basal ganglion regions were involved in 46% of the cases. The median hematoma volume and depth were 36 mL (interquartile range [IQR], 27-65 mL) and 1.4 cm (IQR, 0.3-2.9 cm), respectively. The median time from ictus to surgery was 24.5 hours (IQR, 16-66 hours). The degree of hematoma evacuation was ≥90%, 75% to 89%, and 50% to 74% in 72%, 23%, and 5.0% of the patients, respectively. The median GCS score at discharge was 14 (range, 8-15). The improvement in GCS score was statistically significant ( P < .001). Modified Rankin Scale data were available for 35 patients. Fifty-two percent of those patients had a modified Rankin Scale score of ≤2. There were no mortalities. The approach was safely performed in all patients with a relatively high rate of clot evacuation and functional independence. Copyright © 2016 by the Congress of Neurological Surgeons

  6. Pre-evacuation hCG glycoforms in uneventful complete hydatidiform mole and persistent trophoblastic disease.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Thomas, C.M.G.; Kerkmeijer, L.G.W.; Ariaens, H.J.; Steen, R. van der; Massuger, L.F.A.G.; Sweep, F.C.

    2010-01-01

    OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether the glycoform distribution patterns of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) obtained by chromatofocusing in pre-evacuation serum are different for patients who will eventually develop into persistent trophoblastic disease in case of complete hydatidiform mole

  7. In-hospital mortality after pre-treatment with antiplatelet agents or oral anticoagulants and hematoma evacuation of intracerebral hematomas.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stein, Marco; Misselwitz, Björn; Hamann, Gerhard F; Kolodziej, Malgorzata; Reinges, Marcus H T; Uhl, Eberhard

    2016-04-01

    Pre-treatment with antiplatelet agents is described to be a risk factor for mortality after spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). However, the impact of antithrombotic agents on mortality in patients who undergo hematoma evacuation compared to conservatively treated patients with ICH remains controversial. This analysis is based on a prospective registry for quality assurance in stroke care in the State of Hesse, Germany. Patients' data were collected between January 2008 and December 2012. Only patients with the diagnosis of spontaneous ICH were included (International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision codes I61.0-I61.9). Predictors of in-hospital mortality were determined by univariate analysis. Predictors with Phematoma evacuation (odds ratio [OR]: 2.5; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.24-4.97; P=0.010) compared to patients without antiplatelet pre-treatment treatment (OR: 0.9; 95% CI: 0.79-1.09; P=0.376). In conclusion a higher rate of in-hospital mortality after pre-treatment with antiplatelet agents in combination with hematoma evacuation after spontaneous ICH was observed in the presented cohort. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. To stay or to go? Balancing the risk of reprocessing plant control room evacuation following a criticality alarm

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Love, Suzanne; McCrindle, David; Harris, Neil; Haworth, Justin

    2003-01-01

    Following a criticality alarm within the Magnox Separation Plant at Sellafield, there is a conflict of interest between the risks associated with complete evacuation versus continued manning of the control room. The historic emergency response policy would be to completely evacuate the control room upon a criticality alarm. If, however, the alarm was found to be false, the inevitable loss in control over the plant could have environmental, operational and radiological release consequences. Maintaining control room manning following a genuine alarm might, however, result in an avoidable high dose to an operator. Based upon the estimated dose equivalent to a control room operator for a range of criticality incident morphologies a risk analysis was undertaken. The results indicate that the differential risk between an operator who evacuates immediately and an operator who remains for a short time to complete diagnostic checks is very small. As a consequence a new emergency policy was therefore developed on plant which results in a relatively low risk to control room operators, but still allows control over the plant to be retained following a false criticality alarm. (author)

  9. Simulation of emergency evacuation behaviour during disaster by using distinct element method; Hisaiji no gunshu hinan kodo simulation eno kobetsu yosoho no tekiyo ni tsuite

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kiyono, J.; Miura, F.; Takimoto, K. [Yamaguchi Univ., Yamaguchi (Japan). Faculty of Engineering

    1996-04-21

    In this study, the possibility to apply the Distinct Element Method (DEM) to human evacuation behavior during a disaster was investigated, evacuation from rooms to outside though a passage or steps and a jam were examined as a basic consideration. The main results were obtained as follows: according to an analysis of evacuation behavior when elements of DEM were substituted for individual humans, the trace of individual people and force acting there to and the trace of the whole group so every time can be understood, analysis can also be conducted from local to macro. In the DEM analysis, a mutual distance between people and characteristics of behavior can be expressed well by introducing an imaginary bane into the elements. Evacuation time due to change of space shape can be compared and time series change of force acting on individual people can be understood according to the investigation on evacuation time difference due to shape change at the exit and entrance and the jam caused by the arch effect happened when the crowed flow appeared at the exit and entrance. 16 refs., 21 figs., 4 tabs.

  10. Assessing Individual Weather Risk-Taking and Its Role in Modeling Likelihood of Hurricane Evacuation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stewart, A. E.

    2017-12-01

    This research focuses upon measuring an individual's level of perceived risk of different severe and extreme weather conditions using a new self-report measure, the Weather Risk-Taking Scale (WRTS). For 32 severe and extreme situations in which people could perform an unsafe behavior (e. g., remaining outside with lightning striking close by, driving over roadways covered with water, not evacuating ahead of an approaching hurricane, etc.), people rated: 1.their likelihood of performing the behavior, 2. The perceived risk of performing the behavior, 3. the expected benefits of performing the behavior, and 4. whether the behavior has actually been performed in the past. Initial development research with the measure using 246 undergraduate students examined its psychometric properties and found that it was internally consistent (Cronbach's a ranged from .87 to .93 for the four scales) and that the scales possessed good temporal (test-retest) reliability (r's ranged from .84 to .91). A second regression study involving 86 undergraduate students found that taking weather risks was associated with having taken similar risks in one's past and with the personality trait of sensation-seeking. Being more attentive to the weather and perceiving its risks when it became extreme was associated with lower likelihoods of taking weather risks (overall regression model, R2adj = 0.60). A third study involving 334 people examined the contributions of weather risk perceptions and risk-taking in modeling the self-reported likelihood of complying with a recommended evacuation ahead of a hurricane. Here, higher perceptions of hurricane risks and lower perceived benefits of risk-taking along with fear of severe weather and hurricane personal self-efficacy ratings were all statistically significant contributors to the likelihood of evacuating ahead of a hurricane. Psychological rootedness and attachment to one's home also tend to predict lack of evacuation. This research highlights the

  11. 77 FR 19069 - Airworthiness Directives; Goodrich Evacuation Systems Approved Under Technical Standard Order...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-03-30

    ... emergency evacuation, which could result in inadequate buoyancy to support the raft's passenger capacity... DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Federal Aviation Administration 14 CFR Part 39 [Docket No. FAA-2011... approved under TSO TSO-C69b and installed on Model A330-200 and -300 series airplanes, Model A340-200 and...

  12. The role of repairing lung lacerations during video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery evacuations for retained haemothorax caused by blunt chest trauma.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chou, Yi-Pin; Kuo, Liang-Chi; Soo, Kwan-Ming; Tarng, Yih-Wen; Chiang, Hsin-I; Huang, Fong-Dee; Lin, Hsing-Lin

    2014-07-01

    Retained haemothorax and pneumothorax are the most common complications after blunt chest traumas. Lung lacerations derived from fractures of the ribs are usually found in these patients. Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) is usually used as a routine procedure in the treatment of retained pleural collections. The objective of this study was to find out if there is any advantage in adding the procedure for repairing lacerated lungs during VATS. Patients who were brought to our hospital with blunt chest trauma were enrolled into this prospective cohort study from January 2004 to December 2011. All enrolled patients had rib fractures with type III lung lacerations diagnosed by CT scans. They sustained retained pleural collections and surgical drainage was indicated. On one group, only evacuation procedure by VATS was performed. On the other group, not only evacuations but also repair of lung injuries were performed. Patients with penetrating injury or blunt injury with massive bleeding, that required emergency thoracotomy, were excluded from the study, in addition to those with cardiovascular or oesophageal injuries. During the study period, 88 patients who underwent thoracoscopy were enrolled. Among them, 43 patients undergoing the simple thoracoscopic evacuation method were stratified into Group 1. The remaining 45 patients who underwent thoracoscopic evacuation combined with resection of lung lacerations were stratified into Group 2. The rates of post-traumatic infection were higher in Group 1. The durations of chest-tube drainage and ventilator usage were shorter in Group 2, as were the lengths of patient intensive care unit stay and hospital stay. When compared with simple thoracoscopic evacuation methods, repair and resection of the injured lungs combined may result in better clinical outcomes in patients who sustained blunt chest injuries. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Association for Cardio

  13. Two Fixed, Evacuated, Glass, Solar Collectors Using Nonimaging Concentration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garrison, John D.; Winston, Roland; O'Gallagher, Joseph; Ford, Gary

    1984-01-01

    Two fixed, evacuated, glass solar thermal collectors have been designed. The incorporation of nonimaging concentration, selective absorption and vacuum insulation into their design is essential for obtaining high efficiency through low heat loss, while operating at high temperatures. Nonimaging, approximately ideal concentration with wide acceptance angle permits solar radiation collection without tracking the sun, and insures collection of much of the diffuse radiation. It also minimizes the area of the absorbing surface, thereby reducing the radiation heat loss. Functional integration, where different parts of these two collectors serve more than one function, is also important in achieving high efficiency, and it reduces cost.

  14. Engineering development studies for integrated evacuated CPC arrays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Winston, R.

    1982-04-01

    An evacuated tube concentrator which achieves respectable high temperature performance (100 C to 300 C) was developed. The design concept utilizes nonimaging CPC type concentration integrated into each tube by shaping the outer glass vacuum envelope. The detailed design, prototype fabrication and preliminary test measurements are reviewed. In addition the results of this first study specifically devoted to engineering development questions related to practical applications of this collector concept are summarized. Questions having to do with the deployment of medium to large area arrays, optimizations of the manifolding of individual tube panels, selected near term applications (with an emphasis on residential cooling based on Rankine driven chillers) and long term performance projections are addressed.

  15. Evaluation of the National Concept Traffic Management for mass evacuation in the Netherlands

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Friso, K.; van Zuilekom, Kasper M.; Kolen, B.

    2011-01-01

    It is impossible to execute a complete and total preventive evacuation of coastal areas in the Netherlands within the available 48-hour time span in case of a storm surge. This is mainly due to the limitations of the road capacity in proportion to the number of inhabitants in the threatened area. A

  16. An observation of the walking speed of evacuees during a simulated tsunami evacuation in Padang, Indonesia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yosritzal; Kemal, B. M.; Purnawan; Putra, H.

    2018-04-01

    This paper presents a simulation study to observe the walking speed of evacuee in the case of tsunami evacuation in Padang, West Sumatera, Indonesia. A number of 9 volunteers, 6 observers, 1 route with 5 segments were involved in the simulation. The chosen route is the easiest path and the volunteers were ordered to walk in hurry to a particular place which was assumed as a shelter. The observers were placed at some particular places to record the time when an evacuee passes their place. The distance between the observers were measured using a manual distance meter. The study found that the average walking speed during the evacuation was 1.419 m/s. Walking speed is varied by age and gender of the evacuee.

  17. Exit choice, (pre-)movement time and (pre-)evacuation behaviour in hotel fire evacuation – Behavioural analysis and validation of the use of serious gaming in experimental research

    OpenAIRE

    Kobes, M.; Helsloot, I.; de Vries, B.; Post, J.

    2010-01-01

    Human behaviour in fires is mainly studied by incident evaluations and real-life experiments, such as unannounced evacuation drills. The possibilities of virtual reality for studying human behaviour in fires are so far hardly adopted by researchers. Nevertheless, the application of a behavioural assessment and research tool (BART) in virtual reality is expected to be a valuable supplement on the existing research methods. The innovative instrument will be validated by comparing the results of...

  18. No Value of Routine Brain Computed Tomography 6 Weeks after Evacuation of Chronic Subdural Hematoma

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pedersen, Christian Bonde; Sundbye, Filippa; Poulsen, Frantz Rom

    2017-01-01

    Background  The aim of this study was to evaluate the value of planned control postoperative brain computed tomography (CT) scan performed 4 to 6 weeks after the evacuation of chronic subdural hematoma. Materials and Methods  This retrospective study examined 202 patients who during a 2-year period...... from 2011 and 2012 underwent surgical treatment for chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH). Information on patient age, sex, alcohol consumption, anticoagulant/antiplatelet treatment, history of head trauma, Glasgow coma scale (GCS), neurological symptoms, laterality of CSDH, and surgical technique...... was retrieved from patient charts. Results  Overall, 27 out of 202 patients had a recurrence of CSDH and re-evacuation of the hematoma was performed. In all patients recurrence of neurological symptoms preceded the planned postoperative control brain CT 4 to 6 weeks after primary surgery. Conclusion  Routinely...

  19. The estimated evacuation time for the emergency planning zone of the Kori nuclear site, with a focus on the precautionary action zone

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee, Jang Hee; Jeong, Jae Jun [School of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan (Korea, Republic of); Shin, Won Ki; Song, Eun Young; Cho, Cheol Woo [Div. of Nuclear Safety, Busan Metropolitan City, Busan (Korea, Republic of)

    2016-09-15

    The emergency planning zone (EPZ) of the city of Busan is divided into the precautionary actions zone (PAZ) and the urgent protective action planning zone; which have a 5-km radius and a 20-km to 21-km radius from the nuclear power plant site, respectively. In this study, we assumed that a severe accident occurred at Shin-Kori nuclear unit 3 and evaluated the dispersion speed of radiological material at each distance at various wind speeds, and estimated the effective dose equivalent and the evacuation time of PAZ residents with the goal of supporting off-site emergency action planning for the nuclear site. The total effective dose equivalent, which shows the effect of released radioactive materials on the residents, was evaluated using the RASCAL 4.2 program. In addition, a survey of 1,036 residents was performed using a standardized questionnaire, and the resident evacuation time according to road and distance was analyzed using the VISSIM 6.0 program. According to the results obtained using the VISSIM and RASCAL programs, it would take approximately 80 to 252.2 minutes for permanent residents to move out of the PAZ boundary, 40 to 197.2 minutes for students, 60 to 232.2 minutes for the infirm, such as elderly people and those in a nursing home or hospital, and 30 to 182.2 minutes for those temporarily within the area. Consequently, in the event of any delay in the evacuation, it is estimated that the residents would be exposed to up to 10 mSv·h-1 of radiation at the Exclusion Area Boundaries (EAB) boundary and 4-6 mSv·h-1 at the PAZ boundary. It was shown that the evacuation time for the residents is adequate in light of the time lapse from the initial moment of a severe accident to the radiation release. However, in order to minimize the evacuation time, it is necessary to maintain a system of close collaboration to avoid traffic congestion and spontaneous evacuation attempts.

  20. The estimated evacuation time for the emergency planning zone of the Kori nuclear site, with a focus on the precautionary action zone

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Jang Hee; Jeong, Jae Jun; Shin, Won Ki; Song, Eun Young; Cho, Cheol Woo

    2016-01-01

    The emergency planning zone (EPZ) of the city of Busan is divided into the precautionary actions zone (PAZ) and the urgent protective action planning zone; which have a 5-km radius and a 20-km to 21-km radius from the nuclear power plant site, respectively. In this study, we assumed that a severe accident occurred at Shin-Kori nuclear unit 3 and evaluated the dispersion speed of radiological material at each distance at various wind speeds, and estimated the effective dose equivalent and the evacuation time of PAZ residents with the goal of supporting off-site emergency action planning for the nuclear site. The total effective dose equivalent, which shows the effect of released radioactive materials on the residents, was evaluated using the RASCAL 4.2 program. In addition, a survey of 1,036 residents was performed using a standardized questionnaire, and the resident evacuation time according to road and distance was analyzed using the VISSIM 6.0 program. According to the results obtained using the VISSIM and RASCAL programs, it would take approximately 80 to 252.2 minutes for permanent residents to move out of the PAZ boundary, 40 to 197.2 minutes for students, 60 to 232.2 minutes for the infirm, such as elderly people and those in a nursing home or hospital, and 30 to 182.2 minutes for those temporarily within the area. Consequently, in the event of any delay in the evacuation, it is estimated that the residents would be exposed to up to 10 mSv·h-1 of radiation at the Exclusion Area Boundaries (EAB) boundary and 4-6 mSv·h-1 at the PAZ boundary. It was shown that the evacuation time for the residents is adequate in light of the time lapse from the initial moment of a severe accident to the radiation release. However, in order to minimize the evacuation time, it is necessary to maintain a system of close collaboration to avoid traffic congestion and spontaneous evacuation attempts

  1. Irrigation vs. natural evacuation of left colostomy: a comparative study of 340 patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Terranova, O; Sandei, F; Rebuffat, C; Maruotti, R; Bortolozzi, E

    1979-01-01

    A comparative study of two methods of managing left colostomy (irrigation and natural evacuation) was carried out on 340 patients who were examined and interviewed at the Stoma Rehabilitation Clinic of the Institute of Surgical Pathology of the University of Padua. Ninety-two per cent of patients who irrigated their colostomies gained fecal continence. No patient who irrigated his colostomy had any cutaneous problem, and this group had significantly better results in preventing leakage of gas and odors compared with those patients using natural evacuation. For most patients who irrigated, the ability to predict or control bowel movements overcame fears of "being dirty" and related psychological problems. These patients also had more normal social and working lives than did those patients not irrigating their colostomies. Only one patient in our series had a colonic perforation, and any chance of a repeat incident will probably disappear with the cone-shaped catheters now available. The authors conclude that in properly selected patients, irrigation is the method of choice for management of left colostomy.

  2. Reconstruction of the doses to the population evacuated from the 30 km-zone around the Chernobyl reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Proehl, G.; Meckbach, R.; Likhtarev, I.; Kovgan, L.; Chumak, V.; Golikov, V.

    2000-06-01

    As a consequence of the Chernobyl accident, large areas around the reactor were severely contaminated. As a consequence, the 30 km zone around the reactor was evacuated. The evacuation started with the city of Pripyat with a population of approximately 50000. For early evacuees, the exposure was mainly due to external exposure and inhalation, since the time was too short to induce relevant ingestion doses (Goulko et al., 1998). In contrast to Pripyat, for most of the other evacuees from the 30 km zone the time period was long enough to receive also relevant exposures via the ingestion pathway. Various assessments performed for contaminated areas have underlined the importance of ingestion and inhalation for the exposure of the evacuated population. For the population living in the contaminated area, external exposure was one of the most relevant pathways. Short-lived radionuclides and early migration processes of the radionuclides influenced these exposures. Before the present project these contributions and processes were only implicitly taken into account in areas where a sufficient number of early gamma dose rate measurements was performed. A general model on early external exposures of the population in contaminated areas was missing. Also, for later periods there was no general model for the uncertainties of estimates of external exposures. (orig.)

  3. Endoscopic hematoma evacuation in patients with spontaneous supratentorial intracerebral hemorrhage

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wei-Hsin Wang

    2015-02-01

    Conclusion: With the introduction of the minimally invasive techniques and the evolution of the neuroendoscope and hemostatic agents, the median operative time and blood loss have been significantly decreased. Although the hematoma evacuation rates were similar between the endoscope (90% and craniotomy (85% groups, the median intensive care unit stay was decreased from 11 days to 6 days due to reduced surgical invasiveness. This represents an important advancement in treating spontaneous supratentorial ICH, and provides a measured preview of the promising results that can be expected in the future.

  4. Theoretical flow investigations of an all glass evacuated tubular collector

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Shah, Louise Jivan; Furbo, Simon

    2007-01-01

    Heat transfer and flow structures inside all glass evacuated tubular collectors for different operating conditions are investigated by means of computational fluid dynamics. The investigations are based on a collector design with horizontal tubes connected to a vertical 14 manifold channel. Three...... the highest efficiency, the optimal inlet flow rate was around 0.4-1 kg/min, the flow structures in the glass tubes were relatively uninfluenced by the inlet flow rate, Generally, the results showed only small variations in the efficiencies. This indicates that the collector design is well working for most...

  5. Predicting delay in residents' decisions on defending v. evacuating through antecedents of decision avoidance

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    McNeill, Ilona M.; Dunlop, Patrick D.; Skinner, Timothy C.

    2015-01-01

    Journal compilation © IAWF 2015. In the event of a wildfire, Australian residents of wildfire-prone areas have a choice to defend their home or evacuate early. However, rather than deciding on and preparing for one of these fire-responses ahead of time, most residents delay deciding on defending ...

  6. An Empirical Model of Gastric Evacuation Rates for Fish and an Analysis of Digestion in Piscivorous Brown Trout

    OpenAIRE

    He, E.; Wurtsbaugh, Wayne A.

    1993-01-01

    The gastric evacuation rates of brown trout Salmo trutta (0.9–1.6 kg) feeding on fingerling rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss (3.5–7.6 g) were measured in the laboratory at five temperatures (4.5, 9.0, 14.0, 19.0, and 22.5°C). Instantaneous gut evacuation rates (Re) increased exponentially with temperature (T): Re = 0.053se^0.073T, r^2 = 0.98; they varyied from 7%sh^–1 at 4.5°C to 29%sh^–1 at 22.5°C. Linear regressions described the relationship between time and qualitative measures of fish ...

  7. Case study of medical evacuation before and after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident in the great east Japan earthquake.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Okumura, Tetsu; Tokuno, Shinichi

    2015-01-01

    In Japan, participants in the disaster-specific medical transportation system have received ongoing training since 2002, incorporating lessons learned from the Great Hanshin Earthquake. The Great East Japan Earthquake occurred on March 11, 2011, and the very first disaster-specific medical transport was performed. This article reviews in detail the central government's control and coordination of the disaster medical transportation process following the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident. In total, 124 patients were air transported under the coordination of the C5 team in the emergency response headquarter of the Japanese Government. C5 includes experts from the Cabinet Office, Cabinet Secretariat, Fire Defense Agency, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, and Ministry of Defense. In the 20-30 km evacuation zone around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, 509 bedridden patients were successfully evacuated without any fatalities during transportation. Many lessons have been learned in disaster-specific medical transportation. The national government, local government, police, and fire agencies have made significant progress in their mutual communication and collaboration. Fortunately, hospital evacuation from the 20-30 km area was successfully performed with the aid of local emergency physicians and Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMATs) who have vast experience in patient transport in the course of day-to-day activities. The emergency procedures that are required during crises are an extension of basic daily procedures that are performed by emergency medical staff and first responders, such as fire fighters, emergency medical technicians, or police officers. Medical facilities including nursing homes should have a plan for long-distance (over 100 km) evacuation, and the plan should be routinely reevaluated with full-scale exercises. In addition, hospital evacuation in disaster settings should be

  8. Design of AN Intelligent Individual Evacuation Model for High Rise Building Fires Based on Neural Network Within the Scope of 3d GIS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Atila, U.; Karas, I. R.; Turan, M. K.; Rahman, A. A.

    2013-09-01

    One of the most dangerous disaster threatening the high rise and complex buildings of today's world including thousands of occupants inside is fire with no doubt. When we consider high population and the complexity of such buildings it is clear to see that performing a rapid and safe evacuation seems hard and human being does not have good memories in case of such disasters like world trade center 9/11. Therefore, it is very important to design knowledge based realtime interactive evacuation methods instead of classical strategies which lack of flexibility. This paper presents a 3D-GIS implementation which simulates the behaviour of an intelligent indoor pedestrian navigation model proposed for a self -evacuation of a person in case of fire. The model is based on Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) which is one of the most preferred artificial neural network architecture in classification and prediction problems. A sample fire scenario following through predefined instructions has been performed on 3D model of the Corporation Complex in Putrajaya (Malaysia) and the intelligent evacuation process has been realized within a proposed 3D-GIS based simulation.

  9. Educating the Communists of the Future: Notes on the Educational Life of the Spanish Children Evacuated to the USSR during the Spanish Civil War

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sierra Blas, Verónica

    2015-01-01

    The high rate of child mortality registered during the early months of the Civil War led the Republican authorities to initiate several operations to evacuate youngsters with the purpose of protecting and saving the children of Spain. At the beginning, the children were evacuated to zones in the interior of the country far removed from the front…

  10. "Denial or Faith?" Therapy versus Messianism in Preparing for the Evacuation of Israeli Settlements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amrami, Galia Plotkin

    2015-01-01

    This article offers an ethnographic account of the professional activities of mental health practitioners, employed by the state's religious education system. I analyze various models implemented by practitioners for the purposes of preparing pupils for the state-mandated evacuation of Jewish settlers from Gaza and the West Bank. By focusing on…

  11. Development of a time-dependent hurricane evacuation model for the New Orleans area : research project capsule.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2008-08-01

    Current hurricane evacuation transportation modeling uses an approach fashioned after the : traditional four-step procedure applied in urban transportation planning. One of the limiting : features of this approach is that it models traffic in a stati...

  12. PEDIC - A COMPUTER PROGRAM TO ESTIMATE THE EFFECT OF EVACUATION ON POPULATION EXPOSURE FOLLOWING ACUTE RADIONUCLIDE RELEASES TO THE ATOMSPHERE

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Strenge, D. L.; Peloquin, R. A.

    1981-01-01

    The computer program PEDIC is described for estimation of the effect of evacuation on population exposure. The program uses joint frequency, annual average meteorological data and a simple population evacuation model to estimate exposure reduction due to movement of people away from radioactive plumes following an acute release of activity. Atmospheric dispersion is based on a sector averaged Gaussian model with consideration of plume rise and building wake effects. Appendices to the report provide details of the computer program design, a program listing, input card preparation instructions and sample problems.

  13. Comparison of evacuation methods used in the Netherlands and the USACE Dam and Levee Safety Programs for the Natomas Basin (CA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kolen B. (Bas

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Both in the USA and in the Netherlands, extensive studies on approaches for identifying flood risks (the combination of levee failure probabilities and consequences are ongoing. A related topic concerns evacuation and emergency management (EEM. The magnitude of life loss is directly influenced by the effectiveness of EEM. Different models can be used to define the effectiveness of evacuation. The main objective of this study is to compare Dutch and American methods for evacuation as part of flood risk management strategies for a number of case studies in the US. A second, additional objective is to explore how approaches for EEM that have been recently developed in the Netherlands, can be applied in the United States. This research shows the benefits and limitations for the application of different types of models. This research contributes to the improvement of methods for emergency management, in the Netherlands, the US and other countries.

  14. Parameterization of the driving time in the evacuation or fast relocation model of an accident consequence code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pfeffer, W.; Hofer, E.; Nowak, E.; Schnadt, H.

    1988-01-01

    The model of protective measures in the accident consequence code system UFOMOD of the German Risk Study, Phase B, requires the driving times of the population to be evacuated for the evaluation of the dose received during the evacuation. The parameter values are derived from evacuation simulations carried out with the code EVAS for 36 sectors from various sites. The simulations indicated that the driving time strongly depends on the population density, whereas other influences are less important. It was decided to use different driving times in the consequence code for each of four population density classes as well as for each of three or four fractions of the population in a sector. The variability between sectors of a class was estimated from the 36 sectors, in order to derive subjective probability distributions that are to model the uncertainty in the parameter value to be used for any of the fractions in a particular sector for which an EVAS simulation has not yet been performed. To this end also the impact of the uncertainties in the parameters and modelling assumptions of EVAS on the simulated times was quantified using expert judgement. The distributions permit the derivation of a set of driving times to be used as so-called ''best estimate'' or reference values in the accident consequence code. Additionally they are directly applicable in an uncertainty and sensitivity analysis

  15. Evacuation Behavior: Case Study of the Taft Louisiana Chemical Tank Explosion Incident.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1983-05-01

    bedridden elderly evacuees. The weather was cool to cold on Saturday so both children and adults remained indoors. To combat boredom, a film was shown in...adults, and 10 percent were elderly adults (however, one nuclear plant evacuation document estimates that there are approximately 5,000 persons 60 years...by the transportation officer, but a pattern was followed. People living in neighborhoods known to contain the poor and/or elderly were serviced first

  16. Thermal performance of evacuated tube heat pipe solar collector

    Science.gov (United States)

    Putra, Nandy; Kristian, M. R.; David, R.; Haliansyah, K.; Ariantara, Bambang

    2016-06-01

    The high fossil energy consumption not only causes the scarcity of energy but also raises problems of global warming. Increasing needs of fossil fuel could be reduced through the utilization of solar energy by using solar collectors. Indonesia has the abundant potential for solar energy, but non-renewable energy sources still dominate energy consumption. With heat pipe as passive heat transfer device, evacuated tube solar collector is expected to heat up water for industrial and home usage without external power supply needed to circulate water inside the solar collector. This research was conducted to determine the performance of heat pipe-based evacuated tube solar collector as solar water heater experimentally. The experiments were carried out using stainless steel screen mesh as a wick material, and water and Al2O3-water 0.1% nanofluid as working fluid, and applying inclination angles of 0°, 15°, 30°, and 45°. To analyze the heat absorbed and transferred by the prototype, water at 30°C was circulated through the condenser. A 150 Watt halogen lamp was used as sun simulator, and the prototype was covered by an insulation box to obtain a steady state condition with a minimum affection of ambient changes. Experimental results show that the usage of Al2O3-water 0.1% nanofluid at 30° inclination angle provides the highest thermal performance, which gives efficiency as high as 0.196 and thermal resistance as low as 5.32 °C/W. The use of nanofluid as working fluid enhances thermal performance due to high thermal conductivity of the working fluid. The increase of the inclination angle plays a role in the drainage of the condensate to the evaporator that leads to higher thermal performance until the optimal inclination angle is reached.

  17. Techno-economıc Analysıs of Evacuated Tube Solar Water Heater usıng F-chart Method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fayaz, H.; Rahim, N. A.; Saidur, R.; Hasanuzzaman, M.

    2018-05-01

    Solar thermal utilization, especially the application of solar water heater technology, has developed rapidly in recent decades. Solar water heating systems based on thermal collector alone or connected with photovoltaic called as photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) are practical applications to replace the use of electrical water heaters but weather dependent performance of these systems is not linear. Therefore on the basis of short term or average weather conditions, accurate analysis of performance is quite difficult. The objective of this paper is to show thermal and economic analysis of evacuated tube collector solar water heaters. Analysis done by F-Chart shows that evacuated tube solar water heater achieves fraction value of 1 to fulfil hot water demand of 150liters and above per day for a family without any auxiliary energy usage. Evacuated tube solar water heater show life cycle savings of RM 5200. At water set temperature of 100°C, RM 12000 is achieved and highest life cycle savings of RM 6100 at the environmental temperature of 18°C are achieved. Best thermal and economic performance is obtained which results in reduction of household greenhouse gas emissions, reduction of energy consumption and saves money on energy bills.

  18. CFD Study of Fluid Flow in an All-glass Evacuated Tube Solar Water Heater

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ai, Ning; Fan, Jianhua; Li, Yumin

    2008-01-01

    Abstract: The all-glass evacuated tube solar water heater is one of the most widely used solar thermal technologies. The aim of the paper is to investigate fluid flow in the solar water heater by means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The investigation was carried out with a focus on the co...... for future system optimization....

  19. Community Based Warning and Evacuation System against Debris Flow in the Upper Jeneberang River, Gowa, South Sulawesi

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sutikno Hardjosuwarno

    2008-07-01

    Full Text Available Gigantic collapse of the Caldera wall of Mt. Bawakaraeng (2,830 m in March 2004 had supplied the sediment volume of 230 million to the most upper stream of Jeneberang River, which flowed down to the lower reach in the form of debris flow which is triggered by rainfall. The purpose of the research is to provide a system which is able to forecast the occurrence of debris flow, to identify the weak points along the river course, to identify the hazard areas and how to inform effectively and efficiently the warning messages to the inhabitants in the dangerous area by using the existing modern equipment combined with the traditional one. The standard rainfall which is used to judge the occurrence of debris flow was established by Yano method. It is based on the historical data of rainfall that trigger and not trigger to the occurrence of debris flow which is widely used in Japan so far. The hazard area was estimated by Two-Dimensional Simulation Model for debris flow, the debris flow arrival time at each point in the river were estimated by dividing their distance from reference point by debris flow velocity, where the check dam no. 7-1 in Manimbahoi was designated as reference point. The existing evacuation routes were checked by field survey, the strength and coverage of sound for kentongan and manual siren were examined using sound pressure level at the location of the existing monitoring post and the effectiveness of warning and evacuation were evaluated by comparing the warning and evacuation time against the debris flow arrival time. It was resulted that debris flow occurrence was triggered by short duration of high rainfall intensity, long duration of low rainfall intensity and the outbreak of natural dam which is formed by land slide or bank collapses. The hazard area of upper Jeneberang River are mostly located on the river terraces where the local inhabitants earn their living through cultivating the river terraces as paddy fields, dry

  20. Expatriate clinics and medical evacuation companies are a growth industry worldwide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilde, Henry; Roselieb, Marcus; Hanvesakul, Rekha; Phaosavasdi, Sukhit; Pruksapong, Chumsak

    2003-01-01

    Globalization and the growth of tourism, which now includes "adventure" visits to very remote regions, has created new employment but also new problems. For example, elderly tourists break their hips where there is no competent orthopedic surgeon, a traveler gets bitten by a cobra in rural Cambodia where there is not even an "Ambu" bag to keep him oxygenated, and a tour guide develops high-altitude cerebral edema on a remote Nepalese mountain. What would we do without organizations that are capable of removing such victims rapidly and safely to a place able to provide appropriate medical care? Fortunately, several well-staffed and well-equipped air ambulance companies stand ready almost worldwide to help 24 hours a day. Medical assistance firms, which sell their own travel insurance and/or act as agents of large insurance companies, are also at hand and have offices in major cities worldwide. They have 24-hour telephone numbers and are prepared to advise a sick or injured traveler where he or she should go to obtain competent medical care. Most of these firms have regional medical advisors in strategic locations who maintain a network of contacts. They can ensure that an ill traveler is receiving appropriate care and will act as quality controllers. They are also able to advise whether medical evacuation to a higher level of care is needed and where the traveler should be evacuated to.

  1. Radioactive waste evacuation of the sources of a low dose rate brachytherapy unit

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Serrada, A.; Huerga, C.; Santa Olalla, I.; Vicedo, A.; Corredoira, E.; Plaza, R.; Vidal, J.; Tellez, M.

    2006-01-01

    Introduction The second class Radioactive Installation start -up authorization makes responsible for its security to the installation exploiter and supervisor. The specifications established in the authorization, which are mandatory, point out several actions, some of these actions are the hermeticity tests of radioactive sources an radiologic controls of environment dosimetry. It is necessary to optimize the time spent in each activity, managing them as reasonably as possible. An important matter to take into account is to keep and control only those radioactive or radiological equipment which, even if are in work, have an appropriate performance for the patient treatment Material And Method a Paz hospital has an intracavity brachytherapy (L.D.R.), Curietron model. The Radioprotection Department proposed to remove from service the unit due to its age, this was carried out by the Commission of Guarantee and Quality Control. There were different solutions taken into account to decommission the unit, finally the option chosen as the most convenient for the installation was to manage directly the withdrawal of the radioactive material which consisted of seven Cs-137 probes model CsM1 and total nominal certificated activity of 7770 MBq ( 210 mCi ) dated in May 2005. It also has to be considered as a radioactive waste the inner storage elements of the Curietron and the transport and storage curie stock, built with depleted uranium. To accomplish this aim an evacuation container was designed consisting of an alloy of low-melting point (M.C.P.96), which fulfills the transport conditions imposed by E.N.R.E.S.A. ( Empresa Nacional de Residuos Radiactivos, S.A). A theoretical calculation was performed to estimate the thickness of the shield which adequate to the rate of dose in contact demanded. Accuracy of these calculations has been verified using T.L. dosimetry. Results The radiation levels during the extraction intervention of the radioactive probes and its transfer to

  2. Long-term outcomes of patients evacuated from hospitals near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant after the Great East Japan Earthquake.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Igarashi, Yutaka; Tagami, Takashi; Hagiwara, Jun; Kanaya, Takahiro; Kido, Norihiro; Omura, Mariko; Tosa, Ryoichi; Yokota, Hiroyuki

    2018-01-01

    After the accident of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant due to the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011, the Japanese government issued a mandatory evacuation order for people living within a 20 km radius of the nuclear power plant. The aim of the current study was to investigate long-term outcomes of these patients and identify factors related to mortality. Patients who were evacuated from hospitals near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to the Aizu Chuo Hospital from 15 to 26 March, 2011 were included in this study. The following data were collected from medical records: age, sex, activities of daily life, hospital they were admitted in at the time of earthquake, distance between the facility and the nuclear power plant, reasons of evacuation and number of transfers. The patient outcomes were collected from medical records and/or investigated on the telephone in January 2012. A total of 97 patients (28 men and 69 women) were transferred from 10 hospitals via ambulances or buses. No patients died or experienced exacerbation during transfer. Median age of the patients was 86 years. Of the total, 36 patients were not able to obey commands, 44 were bed-ridden and 61 were unable to sustain themselves via oral intake of food. Among 86 patients who were followed-up, 41 (48%) died at the end of 2011. Multiple-regression analysis showed that non-oral intake [Hazard Ratio (HR): 6.07, 95% Confidence interval (CI): 1.94-19.0] and male sex [HR: 8.35, 95% CI: 2.14-32.5] had significant impact on mortality. This study found that 48% of the evacuated patients died 9 months after the earthquake and they had significantly higher mortality rate than the nursing home residents. Non-oral intake and male sex had significant impact on mortality. These patients should be considered as especially vulnerable in case of hospital evacuation.

  3. Gene expression analyses of the small intestine of pigs in the ex-evacuation zone of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morimoto, Motoko; Kato, Ayaka; Kobayashi, Jin; Okuda, Kei; Kuwahara, Yoshikazu; Kino, Yasushi; Abe, Yasuyuki; Sekine, Tsutomu; Fukuda, Tomokazu; Isogai, Emiko; Fukumoto, Manabu

    2017-11-15

    After the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, radioactive contaminants were released over a widespread area. Monitoring the biological effects of radiation exposure in animals in the ex-evacuation zone should be continued to understand the health effects of radiation exposure in humans. The present study aimed to clarify the effects of radiation by investigating whether there is any alteration in the morphology and gene expressions of immune molecules in the intestine of pigs and inobuta (wild boar and domestic pig hybrid) in the ex-evacuation zone in 2012. Gene expression analysis was performed in small intestine samples from pigs, which were collected from January to February 2012, in the ex-evacuation zone. Pigs lived freely in this zone, and their small intestine was considered to be affected by the dietary intake of radioactive contaminants. Several genes were selected by microarray analysis for further investigation using real-time polymerase chain reaction. IFN-γ, which is an important inflammatory cytokine, and TLR3, which is a pattern recognize receptor for innate immune system genes, were highly elevated in these pigs. The expressions of the genes of these proteins were associated with the radiation level in the muscles. We also examined the alteration of gene expressions in wild boars 5 years after the disaster. The expression of IFN-γ and TLR3 remained high, and that of Cyclin G1, which is important in the cell cycle, was elevated. We demonstrated that some changes in gene expression occurred in the small intestine of animals in the ex-evacuation zone after radiation. It is difficult to conclude that these alterations are caused by only artificial radionuclides from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. However, the animals in the ex-evacuation zone might have experienced some changes owing to radioactive materials, including contaminated soil, small animals, and insects. We need to continue monitoring the effects of long

  4. Comparison of oral and vaginal misoprostol for cervical ripening before evacuation of first trimester missed miscarriage

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jabir, Maysoon M.; Smeet, Rania I.

    2009-01-01

    Objective was to assess the effectiveness of misoprostol in cervical ripening before evacuation of conception in the first trimester missed miscarriages and to compare between oral and vaginal routes of administration. A randomized control study was carried out in Baghdad Teaching Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq in 2006. One hundred and twenty women with first fist trimester missed miscarriages were divided into 2 study groups, randomized for oral and vaginal (400 mcg) misoprostol priming of cervix and 2 control groups randomized for oral and vaginal placebo, before undergoing surgical evacuation of conception after 3 hours. Measured outcomes were: post medication cervical dilatation, time needed to dilate the cervix surgically, blood loss and developments of the side effects of misoprostol. Post medication cervical dilation was higher in the misoprostol group (7.07+-1.36 mm for oral misoprostol, 7.77+-1.22 mm for vaginal misoprostol), versus the control groups (2.43+-0.5 mm). Post medication cervical dilatation was significantly higher in the vaginal misoprostol group, compared to the oral group (p=0.04). The time required to dilate the cervix in the misoprostol group was shorter, compared with placebo. There were no significant differences in the amount of blood loss between oral (p=0.074) and vaginal misoprostol groups (p=0.62) and gastrointestinal side effects were significantly more in the oral misoprostol group (p=0.014). Misoprostol is an effective cervical priming agent when administered either orally or vaginally before evacuation of conception in the termination of the first trimester missed miscarriage. (author)

  5. Urokinase vs Tissue-Type Plasminogen Activator for Thrombolytic Evacuation of Spontaneous Intracerebral Hemorrhage in Basal Ganglia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuqian Li

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH is a devastating form of stroke, which leads to a high rate of mortality and poor neurological outcomes worldwide. Thrombolytic evacuation with urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA or tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA has been showed to be a hopeful treatment for ICH. However, to the best of our knowledge, no clinical trials were reported to compare the efficacy and safety of these two fibrinolytics administrated following minimally invasive stereotactic puncture (MISP in patients with spontaneous basal ganglia ICH. Therefore, the authors intended here to evaluate the differential impact of uPA and tPA in a retrospective study. In the present study, a total of 86 patients with spontaneous ICH in basal ganglia using MISP received either uPA (uPA group, n = 45 or tPA (tPA group, n = 41, respectively. The clinical baseline characteristics prior to the operation were collected. In addition, therapeutic responses were assessed by the short-term outcomes within 30 days postoperation, as well as long-term outcomes at 1 year postoperation. Our findings showed that, in comparison with tPA, uPA was able to better promote hematoma evacuation and ameliorate perihematomal edema, but the differences were not statistically significant. Moreover, the long-term functional outcomes of both groups were similar, with no statistical difference. In conclusion, these results provide evidence supporting that uPA and tPA are similar in the efficacy and safety for thrombolytic evacuation in combination with MISP in patients with spontaneous basal ganglia ICH.

  6. Game theory in models of pedestrian room evacuation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bouzat, S.; Kuperman, M. N.

    2014-03-01

    We analyze the pedestrian evacuation of a rectangular room with a single door considering a lattice gas scheme with the addition of behavioral aspects of the pedestrians. The movement of the individuals is based on random and rational choices and is affected by conflicts between two or more agents that want to advance to the same position. Such conflicts are solved according to certain rules closely related to the concept of strategies in game theory, cooperation and defection. We consider game rules analogous to those from the Prisoner's Dilemma and Stag Hunt games, with payoffs associated to the probabilities of the individuals to advance to the selected site. We find that, even when defecting is the rational choice for any agent, under certain conditions, cooperators can take advantage from mutual cooperation and leave the room more rapidly than defectors.

  7. [Towards the problem of necessity to reduce the medical evacuation stages in conditions of local wars and armed conflicts].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gaĭdar, B V; Ivantsov, V A; Sidel'nikov, V O; Rusev, I T; Madaĭ, D Iu; Kokoev, V G; Zinov'ev, E V; Mutalibov, M M

    2004-06-01

    The article is devoted to the review of modern opinions concerning the experience of military operation medical support in conditions of local wars and military conflicts. On the base of analysis of medical assistance rendered to the wounded and casualties in Republic of Chechnya the advantages and defects of different approaches are discussed. The experience in rendering assistance to the casualties in the Armed Forces of NATO countries during the local wars for the last decades is discussed. It is shown that the optimal variant of organization of treatment-and-evacuation measures during the local armed conflicts and wars is the two-stage scheme of evacuation: the first medical aid--the qualified (specialized) medical aid.

  8. Tsunami vertical-evacuation planning in the U.S. Pacific Northwest as a geospatial, multi-criteria decision problem

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wood, Nathan; Jones, Jeanne; Schelling, John; Schmidtlein, Mathew

    2014-01-01

    Tsunami vertical-evacuation (TVE) refuges can be effective risk-reduction options for coastal communities with local tsunami threats but no accessible high ground for evacuations. Deciding where to locate TVE refuges is a complex risk-management question, given the potential for conflicting stakeholder priorities and multiple, suitable sites. We use the coastal community of Ocean Shores (Washington, USA) and the local tsunami threat posed by Cascadia subduction zone earthquakes as a case study to explore the use of geospatial, multi-criteria decision analysis for framing the locational problem of TVE siting. We demonstrate a mixed-methods approach that uses potential TVE sites identified at community workshops, geospatial analysis to model changes in pedestrian evacuation times for TVE options, and statistical analysis to develop metrics for comparing population tradeoffs and to examine influences in decision making. Results demonstrate that no one TVE site can save all at-risk individuals in the community and each site provides varying benefits to residents, employees, customers at local stores, tourists at public venues, children at schools, and other vulnerable populations. The benefit of some proposed sites varies depending on whether or not nearby bridges will be functioning after the preceding earthquake. Relative rankings of the TVE sites are fairly stable under various criteria-weighting scenarios but do vary considerably when comparing strategies to exclusively protect tourists or residents. The proposed geospatial framework can serve as an analytical foundation for future TVE siting discussions.

  9. Management of brain abscess by open evacuation of pus: a comparative study of cases between 1985-90 and 1998-99

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Qureshi, N.A.; Munir, A.J.

    2001-01-01

    Two hospital studies were carried out at the combined Military Hospital, Rawalpindi from August, 1985-August, 1990 and later from April, 1998-june, 1999 to evaluate the open evacuation of pus in the management of brain abscess. The first study (group A 1985-1990) included 16 cases. Out of these, 10 cases were managed by open evacuation method. The Second study (group B 1998-1999) included 18 cases, out of which 16 cases where managed by open method. The age of patients ranged between 9 years to 50 years (mean 19 years) in the first group and between 4 months to 36 years (mean 20 years ) in the second group. Majority of the patients had a good glasgow coma score. The pre-treatment neurological status, site and size of the abscess, etiology and pus cultures were analysed. CT scan was the investigation of choice, Inferences were drawn as regard to the postoperative morbidity and mortality in all the patients treated by this method. It was clearly seen that open evacuation of pus had a definite edge in the management of brain abscess especially in those setups where CT scans are not freely available. (author)

  10. Comparative Experimental Analysis of the Thermal Performance of Evacuated Tube Solar Water Heater Systems With and Without a Mini-Compound Parabolic Concentrating (CPC Reflector(C < 1

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuehong Su

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available Evacuated tube solar water heater systems are widely used in China due to their high thermal efficiency, simple construction requirements, and low manufacturing costs. CPC evacuated tube solar water heaters with a geometrical concentration ratio C of less than one are rare. A comparison of the experimental rig of evacuated tube solar water heater systems with and without a mini-CPC reflector was set up, with a series of experiments done in Hefei (31°53'N, 117°15'E, China. The first and second laws of thermodynamics were used to analyze and contrast their thermal performance. The water in the tank was heated from 26.9 to 55, 65, 75, 85, and 95 °C. Two types of solar water heater systems were used, and the data gathered for two days were compared. The results show that when attaining low temperature water, the evacuated tube solar water heater system without a mini-CPC reflector has higher thermal and exergy efficiencies than the system with a mini-CPC reflector, including the average and immediate values. On the other hand, when attaining high temperature water, the system with a mini-CPC reflector has higher thermal and exergy efficiencies than the other one. The comparison presents the advantages of evacuated tube solar water heater systems with and without a mini-CPC reflector, which can be offered as a reference when choosing which solar water system to use for actual applications.

  11. The Effectiveness of Subdural Drains Using Urokinase after Burr Hole Evacuation of Subacute Subdural Hematoma in Elderly Patients: A Prelimilary Report

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yeo, Chang-Gi; Jeon, Woo-Yeol; Kim, Seong-Ho; Kim, Oh-Lyong

    2016-01-01

    Objective A subdural drain using urokinase after a burr hole hematoma evacuation was performed for subacute subdural hematoma (SASDH), and its effectiveness and safety in elderly patients were evaluated. Methods Between January 2013 and May 2015, subdural drains using urokinase after burr hole hematoma evacuation were performed in 19 elderly patients. The inclusion criteria were as follows: 1) a subdural hematoma occurring between 4 and 20 days after injury; 2) worsening neurological symptoms, from mild to moderate or severe, due to injury during the subacute stage; 3) a mix of solid clots (high-density lighter shadow) and fluid hematoma (low-density darker shadow) on the computed tomography (CT) scan; 4) a score of ≥9 on the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) assessed immediately before surgery; and 5) an age of ≥65 years. When the majority of the hematoma was evacuated on the CT, we removed the catheter. Results Under local anesthesia, a catheter was inserted into the hematoma through a burr hole. The mean age of the patients was 73.7 years (range, 65-87 years). The mean preoperative GCS score was 11.2 (range, 10-13), and the mean Glasgow Outcome Scale score for all patients was 5 at discharge. No recurrences of hematomas or surgical complications were observed. Conclusion A subdural drain using urokinase after burr hole hematoma evacuation under local anesthesia is thought to be an effective and safe method of blood clot removal with low morbidity. This surgical method is less invasive for treating elderly patients with SASDH. PMID:27857916

  12. Influence of minimally invasive hematoma evacuation combined with nerve growth factor preparation on neurological function injury in patients with hypertensive cerebral hemorrhage

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jiang Tao

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Objective: To study the influence of minimally invasive hematoma evacuation combined with nerve growth factor preparation on neurological function injury in patients with hypertensive cerebral hemorrhage. Methods: A total of 112 patients with hypertensive cerebral hemorrhage who were treated in our hospital between July 2013 and February 2016 were collected, and according to random number table, they were divided into the control group (n=56 who underwent minimally invasive hematoma evacuation therapy and the observation group (n=56 who underwent minimally invasive hematoma evacuation combined with nerve growth factor preparation therapy. Serum contents of inflammatory mediators, nerve injury indexes and neurotransmitters were compared between two groups of patients before and after treatment. Results: Before treatment, there were no significant differences in serum contents of inflammatory mediators, nerve injury indexes and neurotransmitters between the two groups. After treatment, serum contents of inflammatory mediators such as CRP, PCT, IL-1β and IL-6 in observation group were lower than those in control group; serum contents of nerve injury indexes such as NSE, S100B, GEAP and MBP were lower than those in control group; serum contents of neurotransmitters such as SP, NPY, Glu and Asp were lower than those in control group while GABA and Gly were higher than those in control group. Conclusion: Minimally invasive hematoma evacuation combined with nerve growth factor preparation can effectively reduce neurological function injury, and has positive clinical significance.

  13. Study on the installation of the evacuation guide signs in a nuclear power plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matsui, Yuko; Hamasaki, Kenichi; Ohuchi, Hiroko; Akagi, Shigefumi;; Sato, Takeyoshi

    2005-01-01

    In order to study the desirable sign system that leads people to the proper evacuation behavior in the nuclear plant, an experiment was conducted by using 3D simulation of a part of the nuclear buildings. As the condition of the experiment, 3 different simulations on the type of guide signs and the height of installation were provided. Participants in the experiment were asked: to reach the emergency exit as quickly as possible in case of the imaginary fire, to report the signs utilized for finding the way during his evacuation, and to evaluate their comprehensibility to evaluate synthetically each installation and guide sings from the view point of comprehensibility. Synthetic evaluation was highly rated when we indicated the signs on the face of the floor additionally and installed the guide signs at a height of 1000mm above the floor. For the individual guide sign, it tended to evaluate mostly comprehensible that the pathway guide sign was installed at 1,000mm above the floor, though it did not reach a statistical significant level. Furthermore, the necessity was suggested to take into consideration on the spatial relationship between a moving person and the guide signs. (author)

  14. A Simple, Safe Technique for Thorough Seroma Evacuation in the Outpatient Setting

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Julie E. Park, MD, FACS

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Summary: Seroma formation, a common postoperative complication in reconstructive cases, can lead to capsular contracture and increased office visits and expenses. The authors present a safe, novel technique for ensuring the thorough removal of serous fluid in the outpatient setting. By relying on access with an angiocatheter, potential injury to permanent implants is minimized. The use of low continuous wall suction obviates the need of manual suction via multiple syringes and offers a rapid and thorough evacuation of all types of seromas.

  15. Prospect Theory and Interval-Valued Hesitant Set for Safety Evacuation Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kou, Meng; Lu, Na

    2018-01-01

    The study applies the research results of prospect theory and multi attribute decision making theory, combined with the complexity, uncertainty and multifactor influence of the underground mine fire system and takes the decision makers’ psychological behavior of emotion and intuition into full account to establish the intuitionistic fuzzy multiple attribute decision making method that is based on the prospect theory. The model established by this method can explain the decision maker’s safety evacuation decision behavior in the complex system of underground mine fire due to the uncertainty of the environment, imperfection of the information and human psychological behavior and other factors.

  16. Assessing the long-term impact of subsidence and global climate change on emergency evacuation routes in coastal Louisiana.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-12-01

    Subsidence forecast models for coastal Louisiana were developed to estimate the change in surface elevations of evacuation routes for the years 2015, 2025, 2050, and 2100. Geophysical and anthropogenic subsidence estimates were derived from on-going ...

  17. CRPP's Evacuated Waveguide Proposal for JET-EP ECRH Transmission Line

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Henderson, M. A.; Alberti, S.; Goodman, T. P.; Hogge, J.-P.; Porte, L.; Tran, M. Q.

    2002-01-01

    The goal of this document is to provide a detailed description of the preliminary design and technical information of a proposed evacuated transmission lines for JET . EP ECRH system. Three waveguide diameters (31.75mm, 45mm and 63.5mm) were studied and compared to the base design of the 87mm waveguide/quasi.optical proposal (WG87-QO). This report concentrates on only the 45mm waveguide diameter (WG45). This size represents an optimization between the flexibility of the smaller diameter and the low loss of the larger. For simplicity only the WG45 will be compared with the WG87-QO, but the other diameters (31.75 and 63.5 mm) should be kept under consideration for a final evacuated waveguide line. The characteristics of the 63.5 mm waveguide system can be found in the report which was distributed in September. After an introduction of the history and motivation for this study a general overview of the proposal is presented. Sections 4 and 5 describe the elements to be used in the proposed line including the overall transmission losses for the line. Section 6 offers a cost comparison of the two proposaIs. The 7th section is a brief description of an alternative launcher design using the waveguide inserted into the launcher port. The 8th section describes the ca1ibration and conditioning process to be performed after the line is insta1led and how the torus displacements wi1l be handled. The 9th section describes the proposed schedule for purchasing and insta1lation of the waveguide lines. Sections II and 12 include a conclusion and summary of the proposal. (author)

  18. Concentration of radiocesium in rice, vegetables, and fruits cultivated in evacuation area at Okuma town, Fukushima

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ohse, Kenji; Kitayama, Kyo; Kanno, Akira; Suzuki, Chika; Kawatsu, Kencho; Tsukada, Hirofumi; Suenaga, Seiichi; Matsumoto, Kiyoyuki

    2013-01-01

    Rice, vegetables, and fruits were cultivated in the evacuation area at Okuma town, and the radiocesium concentration of the crop samples cultivated in contaminated and decontaminated soil was compared. Decrease of the concentration in every crop by decontamination was observed. The TF of brown rice was higher than previous reports. (author)

  19. Evacuated, displacement compression mold. [of tubular bodies from thermosetting plastics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heier, W. C. (Inventor)

    1974-01-01

    A process of molding long thin-wall tubular bodies from thermosetting plastic molding compounds is described wherein the tubular body lengths may be several times the diameters. The process is accomplished by loading a predetermined quantity of molding compound into a female mold cavity closed at one end by a force mandrel. After closing the other end of the female mold with a balance mandrel, the loaded cavity is evacuated by applying a vacuum of from one-to-five mm pressure for a period of fifteen-to-thirty minutes. The mold temperature is raised to the minimum temperature at which the resin constituent of the compound will soften or plasticize and a pressure of 2500 psi is applied.

  20. To Stay or Not to Stay: Non-Combatant Evacuation Operations and Their Impact on Host Nation/Regional Stability

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-06-13

    conflicted claims. Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia , Philippines and Brunei have continued to assert their territorial claims which have resulted in...broadcasts, newspaper announcements, and notices at tourist hotels to disseminate information about the security situation and evacuations to the

  1. Fungal levels in houses in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant evacuation zone after the Great East Japan Earthquake.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shinohara, Naohide; Tokumura, Masahiro; Hashimoto, Kazuhiro; Asano, Katsuyoshi; Kawakami, Yuji

    2017-10-01

    Residences located within 20 km of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant were evacuated shortly after the Great East Japan Earthquake. The levels of airborne and surface fungi were measured in six houses in the evacuation zone in August 2012 and February 2013. Airborne fungal levels in all of the houses in the summer were higher than the environmental standard levels for residential houses published in Architectural Institute of Japan (>1000 colony-forming units [CFU]/m 3 ). In two houses whose residents rarely returned to visit, fungal levels were extremely high (>52,000 CFU/m 3 ). Although fungal levels in the winter were much lower than those in the summer, they were still higher than environmental standard levels in several houses. Indoor fungal levels were significantly inversely related to the frequency with which residents returned, but they were not correlated with the air exchange rates, temperature, humidity, or radiation levels. Cladosporium spp. and Penicillium spp. were detected in every house. Aspergillus section Circumdati (Aspergillus ochraceus group) was also detected in several houses. These fungi produced ochratoxin A and ochratoxin B, which have nephrotoxic and carcinogenic potential. The present study suggests that further monitoring of fungal levels is necessary in houses in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant evacuation zone, and that some houses may require fungal disinfection. The results suggest that residents' health could be at risk owing to the high levels of airborne fungi and toxic fungi Aspergillus section Circumdati. Therefore, monitoring and decontamination/disinfection of fungi are strongly recommended before residents are allowed to return permanently to their homes. In addition, returning to home with a certain frequency and adequate ventilation are necessary during similar situations, e.g., when residents cannot stay in their homes for a long period, because fungal levels in houses in the Fukushima Daiichi

  2. Some effects of temperature, meal size, and body weight on gastric evacuation time in the dab Limanda limanda (L)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jobling, M; Gwyther, D; Grove, D J

    1977-03-01

    Gastric emptying time in the dab, Limanda limanda, has been studied using an X-ray technique. The addition of 25% barium sulphate to a test meal did not significantly affect the transit time. Lowering the experimental temperature from 16.4 to 8.5/sup 0/C markedly decreased gastric evacuation time. An increase in ration size led to an increase in the time required to empty the stomach and also to increase the amount of food digested per unit of time. For any given ration size, expressed as percent body weight, the larger the animal the longer is the time required for evacuation of that meal. We suggest that the food intake per day, as a percentage of live body weight, will be smaller for larger L. limanda in the wild.

  3. Gastic content evacuation rate in healthy persons and in patients (a radionuyclide study)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ablyazov, A.A.; Dudurev, A.L.; Yakovleva, L.A.

    1991-01-01

    A method is proposed for the determination of differences in the rate of evacuation of 3 types of test brakfast: boiled semolina, boiled semolina with proteins or fat. Evacuatory function of food mass mixed with RP of the gastroduodenal system was investigated in healthy persons and in 44 patients using a gamma-camera. The results obtained indicate the complex nature of gastric content evacuatory disorders in gastroenterologic patients, and it should be taken into account in differential diagnosis and therapy

  4. Transcranial Evacuation of Atypical Progressive Supradiaphragmatic Hematoma After Transsphenoidal Complete Resection of Pituitary Adenoma.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Metwali, Hussam; Fahlbusch, Rudolf

    2017-06-01

    Supradiaphragmatic hematoma is a type of hematoma that occurs after transsphenoidal (TS) resection of pituitary adenoma and requires special management. Two patients had symptomatic supradiaphragmatic hematomas after total TS resection of pituitary adenomas in the absence of vascular anomalies. Both patients also had hydrocephalus at the time of diagnosis of the hematoma. The initial endoscopic endonasal inspection showed no subdiaphragmatic bleeding. The hematoma was evacuated via a frontolateral approach after insertion of an external ventricular drain (EVD). The supradiaphragmatic hematoma could be clinically and radiologically distinguished. It presented early with visual deterioration without headache. The patients developed hydrocephalus, which was associated with deterioration of level of consciousness. Radiologically, the hematoma filled the suprasellar space and was associated with the extension of bleeding in the basal cisterns. Recovery was good in both patients. There were no permanent neurologic deficits. The EVD was removed in both patients. One patient required a ventriculoperitoneal shunt because of delayed hydrocephalus. Supradiaphragmatic hematoma can be clinically and radiologically distinguished from other types of hematoma occurring after TS resection of pituitary adenoma. Transcranial surgery should be performed to manage supradiaphragmatic hematoma, when symptomatic. Insertion of an EVD at the time of evacuation is mandatory to relax the brain and to alleviate the hydrocephalus. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  5. Analysis and modeling of safety parameters in the selection of optimal routes for emergency evacuation after the earthquake (Case study: 13 Aban neighborhood of Tehran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sajad Ganjehi

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available Introduction : Earthquakes are imminent threats to urban areas of Iran, especially Tehran. They can cause extensive destructions and lead to heavy casualties. One of the most important aspects of disaster management after earthquake is the rapid transfer of casualties to emergency shelters. To expedite emergency evacuation process the optimal safe path method should be considered. To examine the safety of road networks and to determine the most optimal route at pre-earthquake phase, a series of parameters should be taken into account.   Methods : In this study, we employed a multi-criteria decision-making approach to determine and evaluate the effective safety parameters for selection of optimal routes in emergency evacuation after an earthquake.   Results: The relationship between the parameters was analyzed and the effect of each parameter was listed. A process model was described and a case study was implemented in the 13th Aban neighborhood ( Tehran’s 20th municipal district . Then, an optimal path to safe places in an emergency evacuation after an earthquake in the 13th Aban neighborhood was selected.   Conclusion : Analytic hierarchy process (AHP, as the main model, was employed. Each parameter of the model was described. Also, the capabilities of GIS software such as layer coverage were used.     Keywords: Earthquake, emergency evacuation, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP, crisis management, optimization, 13th Aban neighborhood of Tehran

  6. Successful hand replantation in a seafarer after long-distance helicopter evacuation. A case report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fernandez-Palacios, Javier; Duque, Orlando Garcia; Benitez, Ruben Alvarado; Bolanos, Luis Fabelo; Calderin, Jose Guterrez

    2009-01-01

    After sustaining a clean-cut mid-carpal hand amputation on a tanker 120 miles north of Lanzarote, a 28- -year-old seafarer was evacuated by helicopter to a microsurgical unit in Gran Canaria. The amputated hand was cooled according to precise instructions. The 6-hour flight time included two refuelling stops and transfer time. The hand had been revascularized thirteen hours after the accident and was still well circulated at repatriation 3 weeks later.

  7. Evacuation after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident Is a Cause of Diabetes: Results from the Fukushima Health Management Survey

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hiroaki Satoh

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The Great East Japan Earthquake and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011 forced the evacuation of a large number of residents and created changes in the lifestyle of the evacuees. These changes may have affected the evacuees’ glucose metabolism, thereby leading to an increase in the incidence of diabetes. This study included Japanese men and women who were living near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Fukushima prefecture before the disaster. Subjects subsequently underwent annual health checkups with a focus on metabolic syndromes, which were conducted under the Health Care Insurers. Using the Comprehensive Health Check survey, we analyzed changes in the glucose metabolism before and after the disaster. A total of 27,486 subjects underwent follow-up examinations after the disaster, with a mean follow-up period of 1.6 years. After the disaster, the prevalence of diabetes increased significantly, and we observed that the incidence of diabetes was significantly greater among evacuees than among nonevacuees. Furthermore, multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that evacuation was significantly associated with the incidence of diabetes. In conclusion, this is the first study to demonstrate that evacuation is associated with the incidence of diabetes. This information may be used to guide follow-up recommendations for evacuees.

  8. An arbitrary polynomial chaos-based approach to analyzing the impacts of design parameters on evacuation time under uncertainty

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Xie, Q.; Lu, S.; Costola, D.; Hensen, J.L.M.

    2014-01-01

    In performance-based fire protection design of buildings, much attention is paid to design parameters by fire engineers or experts. However, due to the time-consuming evacuation models, it is computationally prohibitive to adopt the conventional Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) to examine the effect of

  9. Considerations for the head-injured air-evacuated patient: a case report of frontal sinus fracture and review of the literature.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Helling, Eric; McKinlay, Alex J

    2005-07-01

    Head and neck injuries are not uncommon in combat environments and may be increasing due to survivable injuries from the use of kevlar helmets and body armor. With the current capability of rapid evacuation from the battlefield, acutely injured patients with frontal sinus injuries may undergo further barometric challenges. Proper care during transport can prevent the occurrence of secondary injury (increased intracranial pressure, tension pneumocephalus) that would complicate the patient's management at the next level of care. Management principles (importance of low-level flight/pressurized cabin, preflight use of decongestants, avoidance of valsalva, and ability to manage complications either procedurally or by landing) are reviewed. In addition, we propose a simple mechanism for pressure equilibration of a compromised frontal sinus during air evacuation using an angiocatheter placed through the wound before closure.

  10. The role of the defaecating pouchogram in the assessment of evacuation difficulty after restorative proctocolectomy and pouch-anal anastomosis

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Stellingwerf, M. E.; Maeda, Y.; Patel, U.; Vaizey, C. J.; Warusavitarne, J.; Bemelman, W. A.; Clark, S. K.

    2016-01-01

    Restorative proctocolectomy (RPC) with ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) is the most frequently performed operation for intractable ulcerative colitis (UC) and for many patients with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP). It can be complicated by a functional evacuation difficulty, which is not

  11. Evacuation of the public in a non-nuclear emergency. Example of the eruption of La Soufriere (Guadeloupe) in July and August 1976

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Graff, P.

    1981-01-01

    The sudden resumption of seismic activity by the volcano La Soufriere in the Island of Guadeloupe (French Antilles) towards the end of 1975 forced the local authorities to bring their emergency rescue plans up to date and to prepare, in co-operation with the Directorate of Public Safety in Paris, all the measures needed to safeguard the population in the event of an eruption. This volcano poses a direct threat to a population of about 75,000, with 14 hospitals or clinics located in the towns and villages on the mountain's slopes or at the seaside between 1 and 10 kilometres from the summit. Evacuation operations, which have to be carried out with speed and precision, are bound to be additionally complicated by the inevitable concentration of all traffic on the single coastal road running round the island. After giving a summary description of the situation, of the main problems confronted and the assumptions made in drawing up plans, this paper recalls the broad scheme adopted in planning and organizing the evacuation of the population from the danger zones to protected zones, as well as their reception and the shelter provided for them in the latter. A second section deals with the actual evacuation procedure adopted at the time of the first alert on 8 July 1976, affecting 35,000 persons, and at the time of the second alert in mid-August 1976 when 73,000 persons were involved. Finally, it indicates the lessons drawn from all these operations, especially as regards preliminary planning, rapid mobilization of reinforcements, the organization of command, and the problem of alerting the population and providing adequate information to the public before and during the actual evacuation. (author)

  12. Disposal of the radioactive effluents at the 'Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique'. Treatment leading to evacuation into a river

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Duhamel; Menoux; Candillon

    1958-01-01

    1) The problems dealing with the treatment of the radioactive effluents at the 'Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique' have been studied in order to allow evacuation into a river - after treatment - with respect for the standards regarding radiation protection. 2) At Saclay where there is no possibility of evacuating the effluents, the liquids are directed towards Fontenay-aux-Roses by means of tank wagons. They are removed temporarily into the sewers and will be evacuated later on into the Seine. 3) ln Le Bouchet, the effluents coming from the Factory where urano-thorianite ore is treated will undergo a two stages treatment. The elimination of radium in the first phase facilitates decontamination in the second phase. 4) In Marcoule: a study of synthetic effluents of the Marcoule type is being carried on in order to perfect a selective elimination method of Sr 90 and Cs 137 by coprecipitation. 5) In the general case of the final evacuation into a river, the following problems have been studied: - pre-dilution of treated waters between the storing tanks and the river; - admission in the river; dilution in the river (preliminary study by means of a tracer); - evolution of the activity in the water of the river (adsorption by inert or living elements), contamination of the banks; - locating of the site; - isotopic dilution. 6) Circumstantial study of that last problem. 7) The quantity of a given product in water conditions the isotopic dilution of its radioactive isotopes. When the analysis shows the lack of an element, stable isotopes should be added in order to compensate it. 8) That method led to difficult analysis (specially as far as Sr 90 is concerned), for the percentage of stable isotopes necessary to an important isotopic dilution is very low. 9) The standard regarding the quantity of Sr 90 in drinking water is 8.10 -8 c/m 3 or 4.10 -10 g/m 3 . So a percentage of 40 μg/litre of Sr is enough which is difficult to find out in loaded water, 10) Important elements

  13. BIM Based Virtual Environment for Fire Emergency Evacuation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bin Wang

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Recent building emergency management research has highlighted the need for the effective utilization of dynamically changing building information. BIM (building information modelling can play a significant role in this process due to its comprehensive and standardized data format and integrated process. This paper introduces a BIM based virtual environment supported by virtual reality (VR and a serious game engine to address several key issues for building emergency management, for example, timely two-way information updating and better emergency awareness training. The focus of this paper lies on how to utilize BIM as a comprehensive building information provider to work with virtual reality technologies to build an adaptable immersive serious game environment to provide real-time fire evacuation guidance. The innovation lies on the seamless integration between BIM and a serious game based virtual reality (VR environment aiming at practical problem solving by leveraging state-of-the-art computing technologies. The system has been tested for its robustness and functionality against the development requirements, and the results showed promising potential to support more effective emergency management.

  14. BIM based virtual environment for fire emergency evacuation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Bin; Li, Haijiang; Rezgui, Yacine; Bradley, Alex; Ong, Hoang N

    2014-01-01

    Recent building emergency management research has highlighted the need for the effective utilization of dynamically changing building information. BIM (building information modelling) can play a significant role in this process due to its comprehensive and standardized data format and integrated process. This paper introduces a BIM based virtual environment supported by virtual reality (VR) and a serious game engine to address several key issues for building emergency management, for example, timely two-way information updating and better emergency awareness training. The focus of this paper lies on how to utilize BIM as a comprehensive building information provider to work with virtual reality technologies to build an adaptable immersive serious game environment to provide real-time fire evacuation guidance. The innovation lies on the seamless integration between BIM and a serious game based virtual reality (VR) environment aiming at practical problem solving by leveraging state-of-the-art computing technologies. The system has been tested for its robustness and functionality against the development requirements, and the results showed promising potential to support more effective emergency management.

  15. Nocturnal reverse flow in water-in-glass evacuated tube solar water heaters

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tang, Runsheng; Yang, Yuqin

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • Performance of water-in-glass evacuated tube solar water heaters (SWH) at night was studied. • Experimental measurements showed that reverse flow occurred in SWHs at night. • Reverse flow in SWHs was very high but the heat loss due to reverse flow was very low. • Reverse flow seemed not sensitive to atmospheric clearness but sensitive to collector tilt-angle. - Abstract: In this work, the thermal performance of water-in-glass evacuated tube solar water heaters (SWH) at nights was experimentally investigated. Measurements at nights showed that the water temperature in solar tubes was always lower than that in the water tank but higher than the ambient air temperature and T exp , the temperature of water inside tubes predicted in the case of the water in tubes being naturally cooled without reverse flow. This signified that the reverse flow in the system occurred at nights, making the water in solar tubes higher than T exp . It is found that the reverse flow rate in the SWH, estimated based on temperature measurements of water in solar tubes, seemed not sensitive to the atmospheric clearness but sensitive to the collector tilt-angle, the larger the tilt-angle of the collector, the higher the reverse flow rate. Experimental results also showed that, the reverse flow in the SWH was much higher as compared to that in a thermosyphonic domestic solar water heater with flat-plate collectors, but the heat loss from collectors to the air due to reverse flow in SWHs was very small and only took about 8–10% of total heat loss of systems

  16. Experimental investigation of the higher coefficient of thermal performance for water-in-glass evacuated tube solar water heaters in China

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang, Xinyu; You, Shijun; Xu, Wei; Wang, Min; He, Tao; Zheng, Xuejing

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • The energy grades system for solar water heater (SWH) in China was introduced. • Heat loss and capacity of heat collection mainly affected SWH thermal performance. • Optimum ratio of tank volume to collector area for solar water heater is 57 to 72 L/m 2 . • The recommendation polyurethane insulation layer should be around 50 mm thick. • SWH with shorter tube has a better thermal performance. - Abstract: Solar water heaters (SWHs), now widely used in China, represent an environmentally friendly way to heat water. We tested the performance of more than 1000 water-in-glass evacuated tube SWHs according to Chinese standards and found that the heat loss from the storage tank and capacity of the solar collector affected their thermal performance. The optimum parameters to maximize the performance of water-in-glass evacuated tube SWHs included a ratio of tank volume to collector area of 57–72 L/m 2 , which should give a system efficiency of 0.49–0.57, meaning that the temperature of water in the tank will exceed 45 °C after one day of heat collection. In addition, the polyurethane insulation layer should be around 50 mm thick with a free foaming density of about 35 kg/m 3 , and the evacuated tube should be short. The tilt angle did not affect the performance of the SWHs. These results should aid in the design of highly efficient SWHs

  17. Investigation into the interaction of people with signage systems and its implementation within evacuation models

    OpenAIRE

    Xie, Hui

    2011-01-01

    Signage systems are widely used in buildings in accordance with safety legislation and building standards. These aim to provide general information and safety messages to occupants, and assist them in wayfinding during both circulation and evacuation. Despite the fact that signage systems are an important component in building wayfinding systems, there is a lack of relevant data concerning how occupants perceive, interpret and use the information conveyed by emergency signage. The effectivene...

  18. Clinical and economic impact of using macrogol 3350 plus electrolytes in an outpatient setting compared to enemas and suppositories and manual evacuation to treat paediatric faecal impaction based on actual clinical practice in England and Wales.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guest, Julian F; Candy, David C A; Clegg, John P; Edwards, Di; Helter, Marianne T; Dale, Anne K; Fell, John; Cosgrove, Michael; Debelle, Geoffrey

    2007-09-01

    To estimate the clinical and economic impact of using macrogol 3350 plus electrolytes (macrogol 3350; Movicol; Movicol Paediatric Plain) in an outpatient setting compared to enemas and suppositories and manual evacuation to treat paediatric faecal impaction. A chart review was undertaken to extract clinical outcomes and resource use from the case notes of a cohort of children aged 2-11 years with faecal impaction who initially received either macrogol 3350 (in an outpatient setting) or enemas and suppositories or manual evacuation for initial disimpaction. Five centres across England and Wales participated in the study. These data were used to inform a decision model which depicted the management of children during the disimpaction phase and for a period of 12 weeks following initial disimpaction. Unit resource costs at 2005/2006 prices were applied to the resource utilisation estimates within the model, enabling the incremental costs and consequences of using macrogol 3350 in an outpatient setting, compared to the other treatments, to be estimated. 112 patients treated with macrogol 3350, 101 who received enemas and suppositories and 11 who underwent a manual evacuation were eligible for analysis. Ninety-seven per cent of children treated with macrogol 3350 were successfully disimpacted within 5 days, compared to 73% of those who received enemas and suppositories and 89% of those who underwent a manual evacuation (p suppositories and manual evacuation respectively; p suppositories or underwent a manual evacuation, respectively. Hence, using macrogol 3350 instead of enemas and suppositories and manual evacuation to disimpact the whole annual cohort of faecally impacted children aged 2-11 years in England could potentially reduce annual NHS expenditure on this condition by 59% (5 million pounds sterling) and reduce the annual number of paediatric hospital admissions for this condition by 92% (4330). Within the limitations of our model, macrogol 3350 affords the NHS

  19. 14 CFR Appendix D to Part 121 - Criteria for Demonstration of Emergency Evacuation Procedures Under § 121.291

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... against shining into the airplane's windows or doors. (2) The airplane must be a normal ground attitude with landing gear extended. (3) Unless the airplane is equipped with an off-wing descent means, stands... is not part of the emergency evacuation equipment of the airplane may be used to aid the participants...

  20. How prepared individuals and communities are for evacuation in tsunami-prone areas in Europe? Findings from the ASTARTE EU Programme

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lavigne, Franck; Grancher, Delphine; Goeldner-Gianella, Lydie; Karanci, Nuray; Dogulu, Nilay; Kanoglu, Utku; Zaniboni, Filippo; Tinti, Stefano; Papageorgiou, Antonia; Papadopoulos, Gerassimos; Constantin, Angela; Moldovan, Iren; El Mouraouah, Azelarab; Benchekroun, Sabah; Birouk, Abdelouahad

    2016-04-01

    Understanding social vulnerability to tsunamis provides risk managers with the required information to determine whether individuals have the capacity to evacuate, and therefore to take mitigation measures to protect their communities. In the frame of the EU programme ASTARTE (Assessment, STrategy And Risk reduction for Tsunamis in Europe), we conducted a questionnaire-based survey among 1,661 people from 41 nationalities living in, working in, or visiting 10 Test Sites from 9 different countries. The questions, which have been translated in 11 languages, focused on tsunami hazard awareness, risk perception, and knowledge of the existing warning systems. Our results confirm our initial hypothesis that low attention is paid in Europe to tsunami risk. Among all type of hazards, either natural or not, tsunami rank first in only one site (Lyngen fjord in Norway), rank third in 3 other sites (Eforie Nord in Romania, Nice and Istanbul), rank 4 in Gulluk Bay, 5 in Sines and Heraklion, and 10 in Siracusa (Sicily) and San Jordi (Balearic Islands). Whatever the respondent's status (i.e. local population, local authorities, or tourists), earthquakes and drawdown of the sea are cited as tsunami warning signs by 43% and 39% of the respondents, respectively. Therefore self-evacuation is not expected for more than half of the population. Considering that most European countries have no early warning system for tsunamis, a disaster is likely to happen in any coastal area exposed to this specific hazard. Furthermore, knowledge of past tsunami events is also very limited: only 22% of people stated that a tsunami has occurred in the past, whereas a deadly tsunami occurs every century in the Mediterranean Sea (e.g. in AD 365, 1660, 1672 or 1956 in the eastern part, 1908, 1979 or 2003 in the western part), and high tsunami waves devastated the Portugal and Moroccan coasts in 1755. Despite this lack of knowledge and awareness of past events, 62% of the respondents think that the site of