Bomb Attacks Research Articles

Blood brain barrier dysfunction and delayed neurological deficits in mild traumatic brain injury induced by blast shock waves.

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) resulting from exposure to blast shock waves (BSWs) is one of the most predominant causes of illnesses among veterans who served in the recent Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Such mTBI can also happen to civilians if exposed to shock waves of bomb attacks by terrorists. While cognitive problems, memory dysfunction, depression, anxiety and diffuse white matter injury have been observed at both early and/or delayed time-points, an initial brain pathology resulting from exposure to BSWs appears to be the dysfunction or disruption of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Studies in animal models suggest that exposure to relatively milder BSWs (123 kPa) initially induces free radical generating enzymes in and around brain capillaries, which enhances oxidative stress resulting in loss of tight junction (TJ) proteins, edema formation, and leakiness of BBB with disruption or loss of its components pericytes and astrocyte end-feet. On the other hand, exposure to more intense BSWs (145–323 kPa) causes acute disruption of the BBB with vascular lesions in the brain. Both of these scenarios lead to apoptosis of endothelial and neural cells and neuroinflammation in and around capillaries, which may progress into chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and/or a variety of neurological impairments, depending on brain regions that are afflicted with such lesions. This review discusses studies that examined alterations in the brain milieu causing dysfunction or disruption of the BBB and neuroinflammation following exposure to different intensities of BSWs. Furthermore, potential of early intervention strategies capable of easing oxidative stress, repairing the BBB or blocking inflammation for minimizing delayed neurological deficits resulting from exposure to BSWs is conferred.

A YEAR OF IMPORTANT ANNIVERSARIES

A YEAR OF IMPORTANT ANNIVERSARIES

Standing up for science: The antivivisection movement and how to stand up to it.

Animal research has been and remains crucial to the development of modern medicine. The reasons for ongoing research are manifold from finding ways to treat cancer to understanding the mechanisms behind neurodegeneration to developing new vaccines against HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. Nearly all of us benefit from medical treatments made possible through animal research, and with so much at stake, it is important that scientists make the case for the importance of using animals in research. With animal rights extremism at an all‐time low, there has never been a better time for scientists to overcome their reluctance to talk about the benefits of their work. Sadly, polls show that opposition to animal research among young people, for example in the UK and USA, is significantly higher than among those aged over 65 [1], [2]. In my view, this is in part because of the large amount of misinformation propagated across the Internet by opponents of animal research—the “antivivisection” (AV) movement. Moreover, the past decades have seen bouts of intense activism—including harassment, threats and violence directed towards scientists—aimed at shutting down animal research. During the same period, the scientific community have worked diligently to replace, refine and reduce the use of animals in research (http://www.nc3rs.org.uk), making much progress; however, these efforts have not been sufficient to satisfy the passions of some activists. Part of the problem is that scientists rarely engage with those who are opposed to animal research, which can leave them detached from the need to justify or explain their work. This lack of communication also creates an information vacuum in the public sphere about the need to use animals. In a recent poll in the UK, only 31% of respondents felt “fairly well informed […] about science and scientific research/development” [2]. …

Damage prediction of concrete gravity dams subjected to underwater explosion shock loading

The damage prediction of concrete gravity dams under blast loads has gained importance in recent years due to the great number of accidental events and terrorist bombing attacks that affected engineering safety. It has long been known that an underwater explosion can cause significantly more damage to the targets in water than the same amount of explosive in air. While the physical processes during an underwater explosion and the subsequent response of structures are extremely complex, which involve lots of complex issues such as the explosion, shock wave propagation, shock wave-structure interaction and structural response. Hence a sophisticated numerical model for the loading and material responses would be required to enable more realistic reproduction of the underlying physical processes. In this paper, a fully coupled numerical approach with combined Lagrangian and Eulerian methods, incorporating the explosion processes, is performed. The RHT (Riedel–Hiermaier–Thoma) model including the strain rate effect is employed to model the concrete material behavior subjected to blast loading. Detailed numerical simulation and analysis of a typical concrete gravity dam subjected to underwater explosion are presented in this study. In terms of different TNT charge weights, the structural response and damage characteristics of the dam at different standoff distances are investigated. Based on the numerical results, critical curves related to different damage levels are derived.

Narrative, text and time: Telling the same story twice in the oral narrative reporting of 7/7

The question of whether it is possible to ‘tell the same story twice’ has been explored in work on conversational narratives, which has set out to understand the existence of some kind of ‘underlying semantic structure’ and ‘script’ (Polanyi, 1981). In conversational narratives, ‘local occasioning’ and ‘recipient design’ (Sacks et al., 1974) are factors that determine the form and function of the story. Here, ongoing talk frames the narrative while other participants provide a ready made audience, all of which, form part of the storytelling process. What happens, however, when a survivor of 7/7 (the date in 2005 of the co-ordinated terrorist bomb attacks on the London transport system in the morning rush hour, which killed 52 and injured hundreds of people), whose personal narrative was reported globally on the day of the event, is again interviewed two and a half years later for their experience of that morning? Is the ‘same story’ retold? Specifically, how far does the latest story replicate the experience and events of the first and which of the prototypical features of a personal narrative – at the level of both the macrostructure and microstructure – remain constant? By comparing both interviews and using Labov and Waletzky’s (1967) narrative framework as the central model for analysis, it is possible to see whether events within the complicating action or features of evaluation remain the most memorable, that is, they are recalled in the second telling as important aspects of the experience, and may be seen to be core narrative categories. While findings show that both narratives are comparable in form, a closer investigation finds compelling differences as well as unexpected linguistic choices. Not only has the second narrative become informed by other, external narratives to become part of a broader, mediated narrative but various discourse strategies of ‘dissociation’ in both interviews have resulted in a retelling of a traumatic experience that appears to have features of an eye witness report rather than a personal narrative. Moreover, this blurring of two distinct genres of storytelling provides a true insight of how the narrator positions himself inside this terrible experience.

Book Review: Jacqueline Foertsch, Reckoning Day: Race, Place, and the Atom Bomb in Postwar America

Book Review: Jacqueline Foertsch, Reckoning Day: Race, Place, and the Atom Bomb in Postwar America. Vanderbilt University Press, 2013. ISBN: 978-0826519276 (Paperback). 251 Pages. $24.95.[Article copies available for fee from The Transformative Studies Institute. E-mail address: journal@transformativestudies.org Website: http://www. transiormativestudies, ors O2014 by The Transformative Studies Institute. All rights reserved.]For some, the quality of book can be measured twofold: by the material that it presents, and by the connections the reader makes to personal areas of research or interest. Expanding thought into other domains adds to the reader's understanding of complex issues, builds on previous knowledge, and extends intellectual discussion. Jacqueline Foertsch's Reckoning Day: Race, Place, and the Atom Bomb in Postwar America is book that does just that. It focuses on complex subject matter - the perpetual race problem between Blacks and Euro-Americans in the U.S., place, social position, the atom bomb, and the various popular cultural responses to these relationships during the Cold War era while encouraging readers to make further connections.Foertsch's book describes the perceived threat of an atom bomb attack on the U.S. during the Cold War through popular survivalist visions of post-nuclear future. Visions expressed by writers and artists of both populations via various genres, i.e. novels, music, journalism, film, use rhythm and language to describe the power and control in the postnuclear U.S. Among the many questions Foertsch raises are would society continue racism and exclusion, or would the past prove to be lessons learned? An what about interracial mating, and what would this mean to the future of White U.S.A.?Reckoning Day: Race, Place, and the Atom Bomb in Postwar America is organized around five chapters, an introduction, and conclusion. The introduction discusses the background of the topic and the approach taken by the author. Chapters one and two examine best selling [EuroAmerican] survivalist fiction of the period that politicizes, dramatizes, and indeed integrates the post-nuclear scenario (p. 24). Here, the social problem of race relations is at the center and discussed within the context of the science fiction novel. Chapters 3 and 4 focus on Black intellectual writing on both civil rights and nuclear holocaust, topics that at times intersect. Foertsch describes the loyalty of Black writers to both critical issues, dispelling the assumption that Blacks were indifferent to nuclear threat, instead solely keeping an eye on civil rights issues.As Foertsch explains, during this era, Black writers portrayed their people from historical perspective as victims, racially and socially marginalized, and undesirable. In post-nuclear Black literature context, however, they gain equality, very legitimate, natural right, albeit, in the guise of fantasy. Both approaches appear as protest literature, emphasizing the importance of popular, historical testimony within the Black American experience. Foertsch also describes the role of Black journalists acting as watchdogs, whenever political appointments and preparedness campaigns...failed to account sufficiently for the Black community (p. 27). While generally civil rights activists and intellectuals took an anti-nuclear stand, some opposed the bomb not for the threat it posed but for its association with hateful whiteness (p. 28). Chapter 5 of Reckoning Day: Race, Place, and the Atom Bomb in Postwar America, returns to discussion of Euro-American fiction, nonfiction and particularly, film a medium that has in some respects been effectively 'co-authored' by the presence of magnetic black leading men... and females ...who confront their audiences with vital questions regarding interracial post-war nuclear survival (p. 28). The conclusion discusses Black popular music, e.g., R&B, gospel, and jazz approaches to the atomic age from various perspectives, parallel to the diverse works of Black writers of the period. …

Ireland, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation

In this introduction to Irish Studies in International Affairs I share the normal duty of presenting the papers with two other colleagues—Mervyn O’Driscoll and Jamie Walsh of University College Cork, who organised the symposium on disarmament and non-proliferation, hosted in Academy House, Dublin, in March 2014, from which nine of the first twelve papers in this issue are drawn. As organisers of the event I will leave the honour of introducing those papers to their piece, which follows, but will add my own thanks to all the symposium participants for making their papers available for publication in this year’s volume. This allows the journal to deal comprehensively with a topic that has been explored frequently in individual papers over the years, indicating an ongoing Irish interest in the matter. The range of topics covered by the seminar papers and the expertise involved is impressive, and the human dimension of the debate could not be captured more appropriately than by the inclusion of the testimony by Ms Setsuko Thurlow, survivor of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb attack. We are again grateful to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for its support for the symposium itself, and for its on-going support for the journal. I would like to thank in particular the then Minister of State at the department, Joe Costello, TD, for speaking at the symposium and for making his contribution available for inclusion in the journal. In addition to the papers directly related to the symposium, three additional papers on disarmament and non-proliferation are included in this volume. A paper by Mervyn and Jamie argues that the Irish contribution to the first Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference, in 1975, was important in establishing the credibility of the treaty as an instrument of international law. Saira Bano of the University of Calgary offers a clear and critical analysis of the Indian government’s successful negotiation of international acceptance of its nuclear trade deal with the US, despite its not being a signatory to the NPT, and argues that the deal undermines international

Ireland, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation

Ireland, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation John Doyle Institute for International Conflict Resolution and Reconstruction, Dublin City University In this introduction to Irish Studies in International Affairs I share the normal duty of presenting the papers with two other colleagues—Mervyn O’Driscoll and Jamie Walsh of University College Cork, who organised the symposium on disarmament and non-proliferation, hosted in Academy House, Dublin, in March 2014, from which nine of the first twelve papers in this issue are drawn. As organisers of the event I will leave the honour of introducing those papers to their piece, which follows, but will add my own thanks to all the symposium participants for making their papers available for publication in this year’s volume. This allows the journal to deal comprehensively with a topic that has been explored frequently in individual papers over the years, indicating an ongoing Irish interest in the matter.1 The range of topics covered by the seminar papers and the expertise involved is impressive, and the human dimension of the debate could not be captured more appropriately than by the inclusion of the testimony by Ms Setsuko Thurlow, survivor of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb attack. We are again grateful to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for its support for the symposium itself, and for its on-going support for the journal. I would like to thank in particular the then Minister of State at the department, Joe Costello, TD, for speaking at the symposium and for making his contribution available for inclusion in the journal. In addition to the papers directly related to the symposium, three additional papers on disarmament and non-proliferation are included in this volume. A paper by Mervyn and Jamie argues that the Irish contribution to the first Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference, in 1975, was important in establishing the credibility of the treaty as an instrument of international law. Saira Bano of the University of Calgary offers a clear and critical analysis of the Indian government’s successful negotiation of international acceptance of its nuclear trade deal with the US, despite its not being a signatory to the NPT, and argues that the deal undermines international Irish Studies in International Affairs, Vol. 25 (2014), 1–3. doi: 10.3318/ISIA.2014.25.18 1 See, for example, Duncan Smith, ‘Perspectives on the revival of the Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty regime in the wake of President Barack Obama’s Prague speech’, Irish Studies in International Affairs 21 (2010), 179–96; Lorna Gold and Eileen Connolly ‘Development and the United Nations: achievements and challenges for the future’, Irish Studies in International Affairs 17 (2006), 61–75; John Doyle ‘Irish diplomacy on the UN Security Council 2001–2: foreign policy-making in the light of day’, Irish Studies in International Affairs 15 (2004), 73–102. non-proliferation efforts. Diana O’Dywer (Dublin City University) in turn offers a reflection on Ireland’s role in the Cluster Munitions Convention, questions the dominant narrative of the importance of civil society activism in concluding that convention and raises a critical mirror to popular perspectives on the Irish state’s role. After the large collection of papers on disarmament, the second section of this year’s volume explores three heretofore under-analysed aspects of the history of Ireland’s diplomacy. Kevin McCarthy offers a very perceptive insight into Eamon de Valera’s relationship with Robert Briscoe, a fellow Fianna Fáil member and Ireland’s only Jewish TD for almost 40 years, and how that interacted with Ireland’s developing position on the question of Palestine and the state of Israel. In a historical reflection on some Irish domestic political events of 2014, McCarthy, whose paper was written before the very public debates on the contemporary crisis in the Department of Justice emerged, comments on how ‘de Valera’s personal ecumenism propelled him to intercede’ in relation to ‘conservative immigration decisions of a reactionary Department of Justice’. Michael Kennedy contributes a fascinating analysis of the case of Andrija Artuković, the Minister of the Interior in the Nazi puppet creation the Nezavisna Država Hrvatska (Independent State of Croatia), who gained entry to Ireland after the Second World...

Protection of flying vehicles against blast loads

Aircraft safety and security is a very important problem of nowadays. Terrorist bomb attacks on transport are most dangerous and often result in numerous victims. Threat of terrorist attacks on air transport is a nagging problem. The goal of the present paper is to present results of developing efficient air bomb inhibitors that preserve aircraft safety in case of onboard detonation of explosive equal of 2kg TNT.Methods for protection developed within the present paper could be successfully used for developing effective and lightweight shield for a spacecraft against high velocity impact of space debris fragments, which could also induce blast loads.

Centrality of Event and Symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder After the 2011 Oslo Bombing Attack

SummaryIt has been proposed that a highly integrated trauma leads to more accessible and vivid memories of the traumatic event, in turn heightening symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder. The relationship between the centrality of a traumatic event and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder after the 2011 Oslo bombing attack was investigated in the present study. A high degree of perceived centrality was associated with higher symptom levels of posttraumatic stress as shown in the results. This association was found after controlling for gender, age and educational background. The relationship between types and level of trauma exposure, peritraumatic reactions and centrality of event was also investigated in the present study. Higher levels of trauma exposure and peritraumatic reactions were associated with higher levels of centrality of event as shown in the results. When a traumatic event becomes a reference point in the individual's life story and central to their identity, this is associated with an increased risk of symptomatology as suggested in the findings. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Nishiyama Reservoir: Lead Sources, Inventory, and the Influence of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb

Sediment core samples were obtained from Nishiyama Reservoir, 3 km east of the hypocenter of the Nagasaki atomic bomb, to evaluate both sources and inventories of lead delivery to the sediments. Using microwave digestions and ICP-MS analytical techniques, elevated concentrations of isotopically unique lead were identified in the 1945 sediment horizon. These results illustrate that the Nagasaki bomb attack can be linked with unique lead loading to the sediments in the region of the hypocenter. There is a possibility that the roll-up of in-situ lead accounted for a majority of the increase in lead flux delivered to reservoir sediments during the atomic bomb attack.

Apparent intended lethality: Toward a model of intent to harm in terrorist bomb attacks

This article sets out the concept of Apparent Intended Lethality (AIL) with respect to terrorist bomb attacks and explores its measurement through objective behavioral indices. AIL is assessed for 120 bomb attacks carried out by animal rights and anti-abortion extremists in the United States. A wide range of AIL is observed, ranging from hoax attacks to highly lethal attacks. Multidimensional Scalogram Analysis (MSA) reveals that single-issue terrorist bombers' intended lethality can be modeled according to three independent dimensions: device strategy, targeting, and pre-event warnings. This model can be used to measure AIL for an individual terrorist attack or an entire terrorist campaign, and can identify cumulative and compensatory lethality strategies. Many have noted the difficulty of assessing terrorist motivations; AIL provides an empirically based assessment of a key facet of terrorist intentions.

Trauma-Focused Early Intensive Cognitive Behavioral Intervention (TF-EICBI) in children and adolescent survivors of suicide bombing attacks (SBAs). A preliminary study

To describe and evaluate the impact of an early intervention (Trauma-Focused Early Intensive Cognitive Behavioral Intervention, TF-EICBI) in children and adolescents who were victims of suicide bombing attacks (SBAs) in Israel. Description of an intervention and preliminary experience in its use. An acute trauma center of a Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Unit in a Department of Psychiatry of a university-affiliated medical center. Ten children and adolescents who were victims of SBAs and underwent early interventions (EIG) were compared to 11 adolescent victims who received no intervention (NEIG). The EIG included all the children and adolescent survivors of various SBAs that had occurred during 1 year who presented to our hospital after the TF-EICBI was implemented (June 2001). The NEIG comprised all adolescents girls <18 years of age at follow-up who survived one SBA (at the "Dolphinarium" Discotheque) before the TF-EICBI was available. At the time of the 1-year post-SBA follow-up, all 21 subjects were assessed by the Structured Clinical Interview for Axis 1 DSMIII R Disorders (SCID), and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). One (10 percent) EI subject and four (36.4 percent) NEI subjects had post-traumatic stress disorder. The mean CBCL total score and most of the mean CBCL behavior problem scores were significantly higher (p < 0.021) among the NEI group members. Intervention was effective in preventing and lowering mental morbidity of children and adolescents after SBAs.

Boston Bombings

The Boston bombing incident was a recent civilian mass casualty terrorist event that demonstrated effective transfer of the lessons of combat casualty care to inform effective civilian medical care. Thirty-nine patients were seen at Brigham and Women's Hospital and thirteen patients received emergency surgery in the first few hours after the event. The subsequent management, total hospital days 181, total number of operative procedures 72, and discharging service listing of these thirteen patients illustrate the intensive surgical resources necessary after a civilian bomb attack. Plastic surgery played a role in the multidisciplinary collaboration of the limb salvage efforts and this role can inform the importance of other plastic surgery contributions within mass casualty surgical management. We believe that prepositioned collaborative relationships of plastic surgery, vascular surgery, trauma surgery and orthopedic surgery may offer a model of collaboration for limb salvage that can be applied in military and mass casualty medical care if resources permit. In this attack, effective use of tourniquets was implemented by prehospital medical providers that saved lives and limbs and these actions reaffirm the important lessons learned from combat casualty care. Unfortunately, it is likely that more centers will deal with similar events in the future and it is imperative that we as a community of providers take what lessons we can from battlefield medicine and that we collectively prepare for and engage this future.

Atomic bombs and the long-run effect on trust: Experiences in Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan are the only cities in the world that have experienced an atomic bomb attack. This paper explores how this devastating experience affected victims’ tendency to trust others. Individual-level data were used to examine the long-term influence of experiencing an atomic bomb on individuals’ trust. After controlling for individual characteristics, I obtained the following key findings. Individuals who experienced the attack were more likely to trust others. Furthermore, estimation based on a subsample revealed that victims of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb were more likely to trust others than those born in other areas of Japan before World War II. This implies that experiencing an historically traumatic event in 1945 strongly influenced individuals’ trust in others even at the beginning of the 21st century. It follows from this that the effect of this devastating experience was enduring and had a long-term influence on individuals’ values.

An exploration of PTSD and coping strategies: Response to the experience of being in a bomb attack in Iraq.

Although existing evidence suggests that bombing attacks leave behind psychological distress and poorer mental health, little research has focused on this topic in Iraq. This study aimed to explore how people who have experienced a bomb attack in Iraq make sense of their experience and identify the ways in which they attempt to cope with this event. A qualitative approach was taken. Nine adults (male = 4, female = 5) who experienced a bomb attack for the first time were recruited for the study. Semistructured interviews were conducted. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, and data were analyzed thematically using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Participants’ accounts revealed that exposure to bomb attack has a significant effect on core beliefs of the self; traumatic states, such as anxiety and preoccupation with death and a permanent sense of threat; and a negative effect on interpersonal relationships and personal interest. However, participants also demonstrated a variety of coping str...

Juggling aesthetics and surveillance in paradise: Ecuadorians in Madrid’s Retiro Park

Abstract The literature on parks and recreation has traditionally employed definitions of parks as products, rather than processes tied to economic, political and social dynamics that comfortably exceed park boundaries. As a cultural process, mental and physical, local and global, Madrid’s emblematic park of El Retiro is at the intersection of personal choices/desires and constructions of race, class, gender and nation, always articulated through dynamics of power. This article examines the significance of Ecuadorian immigrant gatherings in El Retiro between 2000 and 2003, focusing on the entwinement between the municipality’s decisions over the park’s form and use, and larger patterns of injustice occurring at a variety of scales, as the city (re-)positions itself vis-à-vis current methods of capital accumulation. An analysis of El Retiro’s recently constructed Bosque del Recuerdo, a memorial to the victims of the bomb attacks in Madrid’s trains on 11 March 2004, reveals the ties between the expulsion of Ecuadorians from El Retiro and the pseudo-sacralization of Ecuadorian casualties following the bombings. Through an in-depth analysis of the space for this ‘memorial’, as form and content, this article unearths the mutual constituencies of El Retiro as lived and imagined, local and global, and central in the histories of Madrid’s Ecuadorian residents.

The Impact of Bombing Attacks on Civilians in Iraq

Research on the effects of experiencing a bomb attack has yielded considerable literature on related mental health matters. However, there is a paucity of studies looking at the psychological consequences and mental health effects following bombing attacks specifically in relation to civilians in Iraq. This qualitative study involving 11 adults (M = 6, F = 5) aimed to investigate how people who had experienced a potentially trauma inducing event of being in a bomb attack made sense of the experience and attempted to cope with it. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and transcripts analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA; Smith and Osborn 2003). Four overarching themes emerged: 1) mental and physical health problems, 2) interpersonal relationship issues, 3) changes in attachment, and 4) attempts to cope. Participants revealed that exposure to a bomb attack had a major effect on their psychological well-being and also fragmented their personal relationships. Nevertheless, a variety of coping strategies were identified. The study adds to an understanding of how psychological difficulties continue and affect recovery.

Comms in a crisis [communications emergency services

The resilience of communications is constantly tested during and after a major disaster. For this reason companies are creating innovative ways to ensure communication is maintained between the emergency services. Mobile communications have become integral to how emergency services respond to major incidents. The aftermath of the 2005 7/7 London terrorist bomb attacks saw mobile phone networks overloaded and network operators forced to initiate Access Overload Control (ACCOLC) to prioritise emergency calls. Unfortunately many key emergency personnel did not have ACCOLC-enabled mobile phones, and paramedics using SMS as part of the service's basic communications strategy could not get their messages through either.

Atomic Schizophrenia: Indian Reception of the Atom Bomb Attacks in Japan, 1945

Atomic Schizophrenia: Indian Reception of the Atom Bomb Attacks in Japan, 1945