Biological Disasters Research Articles

Occupational Visibility of COVID- 19 Disaster Heroes: Analysis from the Sample of Nurse

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic, which led to an urgent public health problem, is a biological disaster that had a global impact. This study aimed to examine the views of the nurses on the "superhero" discourse in the media in this disaster. Methods: The phenomenological research method, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study. The research was carried out between February – April 2022 with 23 nurses working in intensive care clinics. Results: In this study, the views of nurses who worked in the intensive care unit during the COVID-19 pandemic on the "superhero" discourse in the media were investigated under the themes of rise of heroism (being noticed, heroic discourse for higher efficiency, forced hero) invisibility of heroism (invisibility before the pandemic, invisibility during the pandemic) and death of heroism (the applause, I'm real… not a toy) . The findings of the study revealed that the contribution of nursing to the health system is a little more visible in crisis conditions such as pandemic. Conclusion: The visibility that emerges as "heroism" or "superheroism", the vulnerability of nurses as human beings is ignored. This “professional invisibility and heroic visibility” emerges as a paradox, and nursing either becomes “invisible” as a profession or the needs of nurses for “material and moral support” as heroes can be ignored. During crisis periods such as pandemic, the vulnerability of nurses resulting from heavy working conditions should be taken into account and nurses should be supported physically, financially and morally.

Knowledge and Preparedness Regarding Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Warfare among Doctors and Medical Students at Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Lahore Medical College

Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear-related disasters have become increasingly common all around the world. Objectives: To assess the knowledge and preparedness regarding chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear Warfare among Doctors and Medical students at Combined Military Hospital Lahore Medical College. Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 311 respondents participated from November 2022 to May 2023. Non-probability convenience sampling technique was used. Data were analyzed on SPSS version 26.0. Results: The study revealed a significant knowledge gap regarding chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear warfare. Almost 290 participants had never encountered the term 'chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear' signifying a substantial lack of awareness. Furthermore, a slightly higher knowledge gap was observed among female participants, although this difference did not reach statistical significance (p-value=0.07). Additionally, students in their 3rd, 4th, and final years of medical college demonstrated a more comprehensive understanding of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear compared to those in their initial years of study (p-value=0.008). Conclusions: It was concluded that there is a significant knowledge gap about chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear Warfare and its management among medical professionals. A very low percentage of professionals were properly trained in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear emergency management. Respondents stressed the inclusion of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear emergency management training in the curriculum. These findings suggest that proper provision of knowledge, and training related to these disasters is inevitable for timely management and future risk reduction from such events.

Strategies to Strengthen Hospital Response for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Incident: A Multisite Study.

In responding to a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear explosive (CBRNe) disaster, clinical leaders have important decision-making responsibilities which include implementing hospital disaster protocols or incident command systems, managing staffing, and allocating resources. Despite emergency care clinical leaders' integral role, there is minimal literature regarding the strategies they may use during CBRNe disasters. The aim of this study was to explore emergency care clinical leaders' strategies related to managing patients following a CBRNe disaster. Focus groups across 5 tertiary hospitals and 1 rural hospital in Queensland, Australia. Thirty-six hospital clinical leaders from the 6 study sites crucial to hospital disaster response participated in 6 focus groups undertaken between February and May 2021 that explored strategies and decision making to optimize patient care following a CBRNe disaster. Analysis revealed the use of rehearsals, adopting new models of care, enacting current surge management processes, and applying organization lessons were facilitating strategies. Barriers to management were identified, including resource constraints and sites operating over capacity. Enhanced education and training of clinical leaders, flexible models of care, and existing established processes and tested frameworks could strengthen a hospital's response when managing patients following a CBRNe disaster.

The epidemiological profile and morbidity-mortality patterns of the natural hazards-related disasters in the Americas from 2000 to 2021

ObjectiveTo analyze the epidemiological profile of natural hazard-related disasters in the Americas between 2000 and 2021. Study designCross-sectional study. MethodsMean and standard deviation were used to calculate the mean rates of affected individuals, injuries, and mortality per year and per million inhabitants. The ANOVA test was applied between the calculated mean rates by type of disasters. Exponential smoothing was used to forecast the number of disasters up to the year 2026. ResultsA total of 2045 natural hazard-related disasters were recorded. Of these, 81 (3.96 %) were biological, 199 (9.73 %) were climatological, 140 (6.85 %) were geophysical, 843 (41.22 %) were hydrological, and 782 (38.24 %) were meteorological. A statistically significant difference was observed between the mean injury rates per million inhabitants of natural hazard-related disasters (F = 3.40; p = 0.010). The mortality rate per million inhabitants (F = 0.43; p = 0.786) and the mean affected rate per million inhabitants (F = 0.68; p = 0.609) were not found to be statistically significant regarding the type of disaster. The results demonstrated no statistically significant decline in the mean rate of affected individuals per million inhabitants (tau = −0.086, p = 0.336), the mean mortality rate per million inhabitants (tau = −0.221, p = 0.159), and the mean rate of injuries per million inhabitants (tau = 0.169, p = 0.284). ConclusionsHydrological disasters had the highest mean mortality rate, biological disasters had the highest mean injury rate, and geophysical disasters had the highest mean rate of affected individuals.

Cascading impacts of nitrogen deposition on soil microbiome and herbivore communities in desert steppes

Human activities in the last century have intensified global nitrogen deposition, resulting in the degradation of ecosystem function and loss of biodiversity worldwide. Nitrogen addition is a crucial method for examining the effects of atmospheric nitrogen deposition on species composition and structure of soil microbiome and biotic community, as exogenous nitrogen inputs can trigger cascading effects on ecosystem functions. In a 6-year experiment, we evaluated the impact of nitrogen addition on soil microbial-plant-insect systems in desert steppes. Our results show that nitrogen addition significantly altered soil microbial composition and ecological function, leading to a decrease in nitrogen-fixing bacteria and an increase in saprophytic fungi. High levels of nitrogen addition increased total plant biomass while decreasing species diversity. Additionally, high nitrogen addition levels suppressed below-ground biomass of gramineae and legumes compared to low nitrogen addition. Nitrogen addition also increased herbivore abundance by altering insect community structure, particularly benefiting chewing pests over sucking pests, thus heightening the risk of biological disasters through trophic cascading effects. Consequently, excessive nitrogen addition may destabilize desert steppe ecosystems by disturbing soil microbial-plant-insect interactions, hindering the maintenance of biotic community diversity and steppe productivity.

HOPE AND SURVIVAL IN ZOMBIE POST-APOCALYPSE ENVIRONMENTS: WORLD WAR Z AND ZONE ONE

The recent popularity of zombie apocalypse narratives across various media highlights their deep engagement with social, cultural, political, and environmental issues. These narratives often use zombies as allegorical figures to explore contemporary problems, such as ecological neglect and societal collapse. The emergence of a zombie-creating virus in contemporary fiction mirrors fears of biological and ecological disasters, framing zombie culture as a reflection on environmental degradation in industrial-capitalist societies. By highlighting the potential consequences of ecological destruction, zombie post-apocalyptic fiction underscores how the collapse of social order exposes internal conflicts—such as fear, mistrust, and selfishness—that obstruct collective survival efforts. This narrative device suggests that while environmental and biological threats are significant, moral and social cohesion are equally crucial for overcoming crises and ensuring survival. Despite the grim scenarios presented, zombie narratives also offer hope by showcasing the importance of collective action, adaptability, and the rebuilding of social units. Thus, this paper argues that the portrayal of hope and survival goes beyond simple thematic analysis in both Max Brooks’ World War Z (2006) and Colson Whitehead’s Zone One (2011) since human ingenuity and resilience are innate qualities, as demonstrated by how societies recover and rebuild following a zombie apocalypse. This claim challenges the conventional view of post-apocalyptic societies as inevitably doomed, instead emphasizing their potential for progress and renewal, not only for the betterment of humanity but also for the preservation of planet Earth.

Typical Marine Ecological Disasters in China Attributed to Marine Organisms and Their Significant Insights.

Owing to global climate change or the ever-more frequent human activities in the offshore areas, it is highly probable that an imbalance in the offshore ecosystem has been induced. However, the importance of maintaining and protecting marine ecosystems' balance cannot be overstated. In recent years, various marine disasters have occurred frequently, such as harmful algal blooms (green tides and red tides), storm surge disasters, wave disasters, sea ice disasters, and tsunami disasters. Additionally, overpopulation of certain marine organisms (particularly marine faunas) has led to marine disasters, threatening both marine ecosystems and human safety. The marine ecological disaster monitoring system in China primarily focuses on monitoring and controlling the outbreak of green tides (mainly caused by outbreaks of some Ulva species) and red tides (mainly caused by outbreaks of some diatom and dinoflagellate species). Currently, there are outbreaks of Cnidaria (Hydrozoa and Scyphozoa organisms; outbreak species are frequently referred to as jellyfish), Annelida (Urechis unicinctus Drasche, 1880), Mollusca (Philine kinglipini S. Tchang, 1934), Arthropoda (Acetes chinensis Hansen, 1919), and Echinodermata (Asteroidea organisms, Ophiuroidea organisms, and Acaudina molpadioides Semper, 1867) in China. They not only cause significant damage to marine fisheries, tourism, coastal industries, and ship navigation but also have profound impacts on marine ecosystems, especially near nuclear power plants, sea bathing beaches, and infrastructures, posing threats to human lives. Therefore, this review provides a detailed introduction to the marine organisms (especially marine fauna species) causing marine biological disasters in China, the current outbreak situations, and the biological backgrounds of these outbreaks. This review also provides an analysis of the causes of these outbreaks. Furthermore, it presents future prospects for marine biological disasters, proposing corresponding measures and advocating for enhanced resource utilization and fundamental research. It is recommended that future efforts focus on improving the monitoring of marine biological disasters and integrating them into the marine ecological disaster monitoring system. The aim of this review is to offer reference information and constructive suggestions for enhancing future monitoring, early warning systems, and prevention efforts related to marine ecological disasters in support of the healthy development and stable operation of marine ecosystems.

A study of impact of climate change on the U.S. stock market as exemplified by the NASDAQ 100 index constituents

This paper employs an innovative event study methodology to demonstrate the impact of climate change on the NASDAQ index from the unique perspective of extreme weather events. This is achieved through the application of the event study methodology to a total of 526 biological, climatic, geological, hydrological, and meteorological disasters of climate change occurring in the U.S. during the period of 2000–2019. The results of the study demonstrate that: ① it can be generally observed that the five dimensions of climate change have a significant impact on stock returns. ② Empirical evidence indicates that the impact of different climate change dimensions on the return rate of stocks from NASDAQ stocks varies. In contrast, the biological and hydrological dimensions have a significantly negative impact on the return rate of stocks from the NASDAQ index, while the climate dimension has a significantly positive impact on the return rate of stocks from the NASDAQ index. ③ From the perspective of time, the impact of the five dimensions of climate change on the stock yield exhibits certain non-linear characteristics. This can be observed in the phenomenon of shock reversal, which occurs before and after the event.

Biological Hazards and Disaster Risk: Complexity of Causes and Solutions, and Overview of Management Implications

Biological Hazards and Disaster Risk: Complexity of Causes and Solutions, and Overview of Management Implications

Forest Biological Disaster Control Behaviors of Forest Farmers and Their Spatial Heterogeneity in China

With more and more loss caused by forest biological disasters (FBDs) in China, forest farmers, as one of the most important stakeholders, are participating in the control. In this study, the ordinary least squares model, simultaneous equation model, and propensity score matching method were used with the data from 818 surveys conducted in the typical FBD outbreak provinces, to reveal the FBD control behaviors of forest farmers and their differences between western and eastern regions of China. The results indicated the following. (1) Household factors: forest farmers could timely take control measures. An increase of 1 ha in the area of occurrence would increase the control measures by 3.26 ha. However, the control measures can only reduce 50% of the economic loss caused by FBDs and cannot effectively control the spread trend of FBDs. There are issues, including an insufficient and old labor force, insufficient technology support, and low consciousness of ecology protection. (2) External factors: forest farmers would increase control when the temperature rises, and reduce control when rainfall increases. After village committees unify organizing the control, their participation enthusiasm would increase, which would have a substitution relationship with the household investment. (3) Regional difference: the eastern region of China has higher figures than the western in terms of outbreak area, economic losses, control measures, and pesticide cost. If the western forest farmers have the control funds as the eastern forest farmers have, and the eastern forest farmers have the control intensity as the western forest farmers have, the overall FBD control effect would be better.

Smart resilience through IoT‐enabled natural disaster management: A COVID‐19 response in São Paulo state

AbstractNatural disaster management approach establishes stages of prevention, preparation, response, and recovery. With the Internet of Things (IoT), Bigdata, Business Intelligence, and other Information Communication Technologies, data can be gathered to support decisions in stages of the response to natural disaster events. In biological natural disasters, the ICTs can also support efforts to promote social distancing, public health, and economic monitoring to face the threads. São Paulo state used IoT in scenarios to face COVID‐19, such as monitoring vehicular interurban mobility, social distancing, and economic activity. Frameworks, strategies, data views, and use cases are presented to support the decision‐making process to face this biological natural disaster. The data‐driven approach supports several purposes, including the communication of social distancing indices, economic recovery, the progression of contagion, and deaths. It also played a pivotal role in fostering transparency initiatives for society and supporting the crisis committee by facilitating situational analyses, and this approach became standard practice for pandemic response. Studies and innovative visualisation perspectives have produced positive outcomes, guiding the decision‐making process through data analysis. Noteworthy use cases were interurban traffic fence monitoring; mapping of virus spreading; tracking the economic impact concerning recovery plans; and, evaluating the effectiveness of public policies.

An image segmentation of adhesive droplets based approach to assess the quality of pesticide spray

Pesticide spray is a widely used chemical control method to minimize biological disasters in the agriculture industry. It is important to evaluate the efficacy and the quality of a pesticide sprayer, however, it cannot be conveniently achieved due to the lack of accessibility to the sprayed droplets and the intensity of the associated work. This paper proposes a novel method, based on an image processing-based approach, to assess the spray quality. The proposed method uses a combination of algorithms and criteria functions; such as, the maximum between-cluster variance algorithm, area threshold criteria, roundness factor, mathematical morphology operations, and the optimized watershed algorithm, to segment and assess the dark blue adhesive droplet images on a water-sensitive paper, placed in the crop field. In this work, three kinds of evaluation experiments are considered: (i) the manual analysis via droplet counting and processing, (ii) the automatic analysis by the commercially available droplet analyzer by Shenzhen DJI Co. Ltd., and (iii) the novel image processing based method introduced in this paper. The experimental results show a better consistency between the introduced novel method and the manual method. The former, however, provides a convenient and rapid way to assess the spray quality. It comes with an assessment algorithm along with an embedded device that provides a hardware view of the spray quality.

Biome | Home:

Biome | Home was an exhibition by Jacqueline Spedding held at the Blue Mountains City Art Gallery, in Katoomba, Australia in the immediate wake of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, from September to November 2020. Looking at these dates, one wonders whether anyone was able to visit the exhibition at all. Imagining this exhibition abandoned, devoid of people due to a biological disaster, is a pertinent association to the images presented across the installation.

Landsat-observed changes in forest cover and attribution analysis over Northern China from 1996‒2020

ABSTRACT Forest dynamics provide important information on the ecological environment. The Three-North Shelter Forest Program (TNSFP) is one of the world’s largest reforestation/afforestation programs, however the actual changes in forest cover in the Three-North Regions (TNR) of China resulting from this program are highly uncertain. This study quantified changes in fractional forest cover (FFC) at 30 m using Landsat data from 1996 to 2020. Using the Google Earth Engine platform, more than 40,000 images from Landsat-5, Landsat 7 and Landsat-8 were integrated, and the annual surface reflectance was normalized based on the multi-band least squares regression and maximum normalized difference vegetation index composite method. An ensemble learning model trained using high-resolution Gao-Fen 2 satellite imagery was used to generate the FFC long time-series product. FFC showed an increasing trend with average rates of 0.022/10a in the last 25 years, and 0.03/10a after 2010 largely corresponding to the fourth and fifth phases of the TNSFP. There are significant regional differences in the relationship between FFC and air temperature ( R 2 = 0.37) and precipitation ( R 2 = 0.49). The increased air temperature in arid and less rainy areas inhibit the FFC increase, whereas the increase in precipitation had a promoting effect. FFC appeared more sensitive to changes in solar radiation and heat conditions in humid and rainy areas. The attribution analysis revealed that 34% of FFC changes were caused by climatic variables and 66% were caused by non-climatic factors. Among them, afforestation associated with the TNSFP significantly increased FFC, and forest fire is a key factor of forest change in the Greater Khingan Ranges and Lesser Khingan Ranges regions. Planting single tree species caused biological disasters in forests of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. Further analysis of the increased FFC using high-level satellite products demonstrated an improvement in environmental conditions with cooler land surface temperature and higher vegetation gross primary production over the TNR.

Perspectives and Potentials of the Objective Regressive Regression Methodology in Terms of One Health

The possibility of having a methodology that allows the modelling and prediction, in the short, medium and long term, of biological, social and natural disaster processes and/ or phenomena is something great.

Objective Regressive Regression Methodology as a Function of Dengue Cases in the Pediatric Age Group in Villa Clara, Cuba

The possibility of having a methodology that allows modeling and prediction in the short, medium and long term of biological, social and natural disaster processes and/or phenomena, as well as a large number of infectious entities, is something great.

1998–2019年中国森林生物灾害数据集

Forest biological disasters occur frequently in China. It is of great scientific significance to sort out and make relevant disaster datasets for the monitoring layout of forest biohazard system monitoring, risk assessment as well as prevention and control policy making. Based on the open data of China Forestry Statistical Year Book and China Forestry and Grassland Statistical Year Book from 1998 to 2019, we produced a dataset of two series of indexes, namely Forest Pest Outbreak Index (FPOI) and Forest Pest Occurrence Area Rate (FPOAR) at different time and spatial scales. The test result shows that the two indexes and their anomaly datasets can better reflect the temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of forest biological disaster. This dataset can offer essential data support for analyzing the patterns and trends of forest biological disasters, studying influencing factors, and making precise decisions regarding prevention and control.

Applied distance learning methods in disaster preparedness: A systematic review.

Nowadays, accidents and disasters are one of the most important issues facing humans. Training is an important feature in disasters and distance learning is a suitable method for education in every place and at every time. The aim of this study is to determine distance learning methods in disaster preparedness. This study was conducted to this question: what types of distance learning methods can use in disaster preparedness?". In this study, all published English language papers, with no time limit, were extracted by the end of December 2021 through search in PubMed, Scopus, Google scholar, ISI WOS (Web of Science), and Embase. The primary search used "distance learning", "disaster" and their MeSH terms. Quality appraisal carried out with CASP. Information in the articles including study time, study population, e-learning methods, and type of disasters or emergencies were extracted. Based on the search, 46 studies were carried out between 2002 and 2021. The most studied target group in the studies was health professionals and the content of the courses was attributed to disaster preparedness as well as biological disasters. Regarding e-learning methods, the most used method was 'simulation'. At the time of disasters, including pandemics, disruption in education may be long-term and may require overlapping response and recovery periods. And virtual education during a disaster may be rejected or endorsed by individuals or groups based on cultural, ideological, or prejudicial issues. Distance education can be used for effective disaster education in different phases of the disaster cycle, depending on the available facilities and infrastructure.

P4: Help-Seeking Factors Among Older Adults on the National Psychosocial Support Helpline on COVID-19 in India

The pandemic has halted the traditional way of life as we used to know it. Due to the highly contagious nature of the virus, physical distancing had become the primary norm for reducing the spread, inevitably leading to social isolation. The older adult population is vulnerable to environmental changes, making them very prone to stress during disasters. Comorbidities, lack of social support, loneliness and uncertainty can be common precipitating factors. The National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences, with the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, commenced a helpline to provide psychosocial support and mental health services in thirteen languages to distressed persons across the Indian subcontinent. The study aims to explore the help-seeking factors due to which older adult callers have sought help from the helpline during the COVID-19 pandemic by analysing the call recordings and, as a secondary objective, to develop a checklist to assess the psychosocial issues of older adults to be used by telephone- based psychosocial care providers. The researcher would use a “Naturalised” conceptual framework of transcription, which would necessitate a literal interpretation of the call recordings. Recordings of the calls made will be transcribed. “Thematic analysis” shall be conducted to find psychosocial issues older adult callers face. Categories would be identified, refined, and specified for coding. A series of key-informant interviews would be conducted online with a group of mental health professionals (defined as per the Mental Health Care Act, 2017) associated with or working in geriatric mental health. The findings from the study would help look into the evolution of psychosocial needs of the older adult population during a pandemic and would also reflect the different aspects of telephone-based psychosocial support and mental health services and their need during disasters. The study’s outcome would reveal the needs of this at-risk populace and explore the issues and concerns unique to the COVID- 19 pandemic. The findings would also be a substructure for future studies that would probe into research areas analogues to pandemics and other biological disasters, telephone-based psychosocial support, and the older adult populace.

Genome Assembly Resource and Annotation of Bursaphelenchus xylophilus TS-1, the Causal Agent of Pine Wilt Disease

Pine wilt disease is a major biological disaster caused by Bursaphelenchus xylophilus. This study establishes a high-quality and well-annotated genome sequence of B. xylophilus strain TS-1 from Mountain Tai in Shandong province, China. The 75-Mbp assembly containing six chromosomes was established. These genome data represent a valuable new resource for future studies on B. xylophilus and the management of pine wilt disease. [Formula: see text] Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license .