Calamitous Events Research Articles

Management of Sideline Medical Emergencies.

Sideline medical care is typically provided by musculoskeletal specialists and orthopaedic surgeons with varying levels of training and experience. While the most common sports injuries are often benign, the potential for catastrophic injury is omnipresent. Prompt recognition of sideline emergencies and expeditious medical management are necessary to minimize the risk of calamitous events. Paramount to successful sideline coverage are both preseason and game-day preparations. Because the skillset needed for the sideline physician may involve management of injuries not commonly seen in everyday clinical practice, sideline providers should review basic life support protocols, spine boarding, and equipment removal related to their sport(s) before the season begins. Before every game, the medical bag should be adequately stocked, location of the automatic external defibrillator/emergency medical services identified, and introductions to the trainers, coaches, and referees made. In addition to musculoskeletal injuries, the sideline orthopaedic surgeon must also be acquainted with the full spectrum of nonmusculoskeletal emergencies spanning the cardiopulmonary, central nervous, and integumentary systems. Familiarity with anaphylaxis as well as abdominal and neck trauma is also critical. Prompt identification of potential life-threatening conditions, carefully orchestrated treatment, and the athlete's subsequent disposition are essential for the team physician to provide quality care.

Media and Natural Disasters: Organising Storytelling in the Age of Climate Change

Starting on 2 November 2023, some territories in the Region of Tuscany in Italy were hit by exceptionally intense meteorological and calamitous events. The Region of Tuscany’s government was immediately at the forefront of relief, assisting the population, and aiding restoration. On 3 November, a national state of emergency was declared due to flooding. Journalistic communication is an essential aspect of disaster mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. In terms of protecting people and reducing damage, journalists and the media have an important role to play. This article reports an Italian case study analysing the behaviour of local media in cases of natural disaster. Nine focus groups were conducted with local journalists covering the flood emergency. The results highlight the role of social and institutional mediation, rather than mere dissemination, played by the local press in emergency situations, a central element in the construction of a community bond, precisely in moments of insecurity and disorientation. The narration of a disaster from the inside seems to have allowed the emergence and representation of hitherto unknown social realities in Tuscany. The goal of the news coverage was widened, making it possible to respond better to the diverse interests of the reading public and to satisfy in a short time and exhaustively the information needs of individual communities in difficulty.

The Meloni government and the challenge of ecological transition

ABSTRACT During 2023, the Meloni government had to face the difficult management of the emergencies caused by the calamitous events that hit Emilia Romagna and Tuscany, which brought the long-lasting issue of hydrogeological instability back onto the public agenda. More generally, in the environmental and land protection fields, the government inherited the implementation of the measures associated with the strategic axis of the Ecological Transition, contained in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). However, the position of the government and that of the parliamentary majority not always fitted with the contents of the existing programming, nor with the policies promoted by the European institutions. By adopting a qualitative approach and combining original and secondary sources, in this work we will analyse the actions undertaken by the Meloni government in the environmental field in light of the “responsiveness-responsibility dilemma”. Particular attention will be paid to the points in continuity and to the breaks with the legacies of the past. The analysis shows how the government has progressively deviated from consolidated policy directions and planning, favouring the responsiveness pole to the detriment of responsibility.

IoT-Assisted Automatic Driver Drowsiness Detection through Facial Movement Analysis Using Deep Learning and a U-Net-Based Architecture

The main purpose of a detection system is to ascertain the state of an individual’s eyes, whether they are open and alert or closed, and then alert them to their level of fatigue. As a result of this, they will refrain from approaching an accident site. In addition, it would be advantageous for people to be promptly alerted in real time before the occurrence of any calamitous events affecting multiple people. The implementation of Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology in driver action recognition has become imperative due to the ongoing advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and deep learning (DL) within Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), which are significantly transforming the driving encounter. This work presents a deep learning model that utilizes a CNN–Long Short-Term Memory network to detect driver sleepiness. We employ different algorithms on datasets such as EM-CNN, VGG-16, GoogLeNet, AlexNet, ResNet50, and CNN-LSTM. The aforementioned algorithms are used for classification, and it is evident that the CNN-LSTM algorithm exhibits superior accuracy compared to alternative deep learning algorithms. The model is provided with video clips of a certain period, and it distinguishes the clip by analyzing the sequence of motions exhibited by the driver in the video. The key objective of this work is to promote road safety by notifying drivers when they exhibit signs of drowsiness, minimizing the probability of accidents caused by fatigue-related disorders. It would help in developing an ADAS that is capable of detecting and addressing driver tiredness proactively. This work intends to limit the potential dangers associated with drowsy driving, hence promoting enhanced road safety and a decrease in accidents caused by fatigue-related variables. This work aims to achieve high efficacy while maintaining a non-intrusive nature. This work endeavors to offer a non-intrusive solution that may be seamlessly integrated into current automobiles, hence enhancing accessibility to a broader spectrum of drivers through the utilization of facial movement analysis employing CNN-LSTM and a U-Net-based architecture.

The potential for disruption to the entire inventory management function schedule

In the framework of working capital, inventories hold the most strategic position among business enterprises. It comprises the most substantial portion of current assets in the majority of businesses. The effective management of inventory within the context of working capital is particularly concerning because inventories obstruct about two-thirds of the current assets of cement manufacturers. In the event of a calamitous event, the initiatives worsen supply chain disruptions, thereby introducing a novel compromise between resilience in the face of disruptions and effectiveness in the course of regular operations. When making stocking decisions, operational disruptions are taken into account. These are different from demand uncertainties in terms of the risks they pose because they last longer and stop production flow. As a consequence, operational disruptions can be considerably more catastrophic, despite their low probability of occurring. We use stochastic simulation to find insights that can be used in managing inventory when there is a risk of disruption. These insights come from combining the newsvendor and order-up-to models, which look at the costs of uncertain demand, with catastrophe models, which look at both the cost of a supply disruption and the cost of recovery. These insights pertain to the management function schedule, which is the subject of discussion in this paper.

River channel dynamics and flooding: A case of motorable bridge collapse due to abrupt flood in Chhabdi Khola, Tanahun, Nepal

The monsoon season in Nepal brings calamitous events like riverbank erosion, toe cutting, and the structural failure of bridges due to floods. In July 2021, a motorable bridge in Bhadgaun, Tanahun district, Nepal, collapsed during a massive flood in Chhabdi Khola. The study aims to comprehensively document the aftermath, specifically focusing on the causal factors that led to the damage of the Chhabdi Khola Dovan Bridge. The study delves into an in-depth analysis of the stream's channel morphology, with the 5.85 kilometers Chhabdi Khola partitioned into 28 distinct segments, each spanning approximately 200 meters. These segments, sequentially labeled from Site 1 to Site 28, encompass the area extending from the upstream at Chhabdi Barah temple to the downstream at bridge’s location. Rigorous measurements of length, breadth, and depth at each site form the basis for volumetric assessments of the stream. The study revolves around contrasting paleo channel attributes with contemporary alterations within the Chhabdi Khola catchment. The analysis leverages precipitation data sourced from the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM) to discern precipitation trends within the Chhabdi Khola catchment area. The hydrographic data underwent trend analysis utilizing Mann-Kendall and Sen's slope method through R software (version 4.3.2). The collapse of the Chhabdi Khola Dovan Bridge resulted from intense water flow and debris due to heavy rainfall and a narrow outlet near the bridge, impacting the local population and land users facing the enduring aftermath of a catastrophic monsoon event. The study highlights the significance of understanding river dynamics in small streams and advocates for proactive disaster preparedness measures, even in seemingly small river channels.

God’s Wrath over Antioch, 525–540 CE

Ancient Antioch (modern Antakya) is well known as a city prone to disasters. However, the calamitous events that hit the city between 525 and 540 CE have attracted particular attention. Within a time span of fifteen years, Antioch suffered major destructions by two massive earthquakes, several conflagrations, and a Persian sack. These events are reported in highly dramatic accounts by John Malalas and Procopius. Based on such reports, scholars since the nineteenth century have often interpreted these disasters as the starting point for a general decline of the city beginning in the sixth century. More recent reassessments, in contrast, have highlighted continuities on a variety of levels, emphasizing that over the long term, Antioch displayed high resilience on structural and institutional levels. This article picks up on these more recent findings but strives to approach the subject from a different angle. It focuses on Malalas’s and Procopius’s influential disaster narratives and seeks to further contextualize them. It traces how modern scholarly reception of the literary sources has fostered the traditional picture of “decline,” and it analyzes the narrative strategies of the texts, considering the literary traditions from which they originate and the cultural setting of which they form a part. The article seeks to show that the late ancient reports aim not to establish a picture of decline but rather to present Antioch as a purified, freshly Christianized city emerging from the ashes. It further argues that while it is important to critically reflect upon the rhetorical character of the double narrative of heavenly destruction and recreation, exploring the question of Antioch’s urban development in the sixth century through the lens of contemporary discourse on the Christian city not only increases our sensitivity to the methodological problems connected to these texts but may also lead to a better understanding of our evidence on Antioch’s post-Roman development.

Il sistema informativo territoriale della “Carta del rischio del patrimonio culturale italiano” e i siti UNESCO italiani: un processo virtuoso per il monitoraggio della vulnerabilità dei beni patrimonio mondiale

The territorial information system was born following the Law of 19 April 1990, n. 84 (in Gazz. Uff., 26 April, n. 96), as an organic plan for the inventory, cataloging and elaboration of the Risk Charter for cultural heritage: first interventions. The system implements the pilot plan for the planned conservation of the cultural heritage of Umbria, a study promoted by Giovanni Urbani, then director of the Central Institute of Restoration. The Risk Map is a GIS composed of an alphanumeric database and the cartographic component, capable of exploring, superimposing and processing information relating to potential territorial and environmental risk factors linked to cultural heritage. The Risk Card system has two levels of risk. The first relates the concentration of assets and the danger of the territory, in order to evaluate, following a calamitous event, the probability of loss of the cultural heritage (Territorial risk). The second, on the other hand, evaluates the risk of loss of the individual cultural property and is implemented through the filing on the field of the vulnerability of cultural assets (evidenced by the state of conservation) and the relationship with the territorial danger around the property (Local risk). The CdR system produces and exposes the data present with WMS services (raster data), architectural and archaeological real estate (punctual, linear and polygonal), underwater archaeological files, historical centers and aggregated urban units of historical centers. It also has WFS services (vector data) of architectural and archaeological real estate (punctual, linear and polygonal), containers of movable goods (punctual), historical centers and aggregated urban units of historical centers. Since 2012, the Risk Charter has been in the interoperability of the Ministry of Culture within the territorial computerized system Constraints in the network, with which it increases the registry and georeferencing of cultural assets present for various reasons in the SigecWeb (ICCD) and Protected Assets systems (DG ABAP). Thanks to the agreement signed between the Service II - UNESCO Office of the General Secretariat and the Directorate General for Security of the Ministry of Culture, the system will be used for the assessment of the territorial risk of Italian UNESCO sites, but also, for the first time, to support the request for registration of a site on the World Heritage List. This is the candidacy of the “Via Appia. Regina Viarum "for which, with the support of ISPRA, the levels of territorial danger will be analyzed in detail, with reference to both natural disasters (earthquake, landslides, etc.) and to problems deriving from simple atmospheric agents and from pollution. In addition, the data on the state of conservation of the ancient route and the assets related to it will be collected with the appropriate cards of the Risk Card, which will allow the processing of vulnerability indicators and local risk indicators, which will be proposed to the UNESCO for monitoring the site over time.

Ballad Poetics in the Era of Black Lives Matter

Abstract This essay approaches ballads as a vital cultural form for dramatizing the histories and social meanings of racial conflict in the US, turning to a series of recent poems written alongside the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. This archive of poems draws attention to recursive racial divisions as they emerge anew in a calamitous event, highlighting themes of anonymity and hypervisibility, motion and arrest, the violent imposition of carceral order, and the insurrectionary prospects of its refusal. Examining the ways a range of Black poets have been drawing on features associated with ballads, this essay considers how these writers recount the stories and scenes of Ferguson and other now-famous locales of anti-Black state violence and community uprising. With their narratives of common persons subjected to surveillance, exposure, and acts of violence, these poems further the social imaginaries and storytelling mode of the ballad to consider continuing forms of racial injustice and new eruptions of protest in the present.The archive of Black poetic works I consider pursues more oppositional orientations, keyed to the insurgent energy of the streets as well as to the layered practices of Black revisionary ballad and the material histories they encode.

Architectures and Experiences of Joie de vivre

Abstract As a semantic reaction against the miserabilism derived from the economic crisis and social instability of the first half of the nineteenth century, joie de vivre surfaced in France. It denotes enjoyment and the ability to recover from calamitous events. In The Insect (1857) by Jules Michelet, joie de vivre constitutes movement and architectural creation, epitomised in the beehive – ‘the veritable Athens of the Insect World’. Yet the sentiment turns ambiguous in La Joie de vivre (1883) by Émile Zola, for whom it is an attitude required not only to face the contradictions of modernity but also to succeed in the capitalist manipulation of nature through architecture. To explore how the built environment manifests emotional experience, this essay follows the trajectory of joie de vivre, from its appearance as an idiomatic amalgamation to other conceptual variations, including élan vital and jouissance.

Time-frequency moment interdependence of equity, oil, and gold markets during the COVID-19 pandemic

Like no other calamitous event in recent memory, the COVID-19 pandemic has plunged the world’s financial system into disarray, triggering systemic risk spillovers across markets. In this study, we use 5-minute index futures price data to examine the multiscale interdependence structure of global equity, gold, and oil markets prior to and following the COVID-19 outbreak, in terms of the first four realized moments of their respective return distributions (i.e., mean, variance, skewness, and kurtosis). With respect to the equity-gold nexus, we find that stock (gold) returns and volatility negatively (positively) lead their gold (stock) counterparts at medium- and long-term scales in the pandemic period, while asymmetry risk in stock markets positively leads its counterpart in gold markets at the same scales before and during the early months of the health crisis. Concerning the oil-equity nexus, our results reveal a positive (negative) co-movement between asymmetry risks at short- and medium-term scales in January-April (May-July) 2020, whereas heavy tail risks are positively synchronized at low frequencies in the turbulent period of March-April 2020. Some policy implications are derived from the analysis.

USE OF EXPANDED POLYSTRENE (EPS) IN PLACE OF NATURAL MATERIAL

Expanded polystyrene (EPS) is a thermoplastic material, derived from pre-expanded polystyrene beads, that combines an extreme lightweight with versatile strength and thermal insulation. These characteristics made EPS an excellent alternative to natural materials for the feasibility of building and construction projects that would otherwise destined, for time and implementation costs, to be postponed or alienated. Specifically, this technology has been successfully used in road infrastructure sector in the last twenty years in the construction of roads, bridge abutments, lightweight embankments and back fills, above all for the rapid restoration of compromised roads following landslide or calamitous events, representing an interesting and resilient solution in areas exposed to seismic risk or persistent vibratory actions. Thus, the authors want to offer a critical analysis of different EPS road applications in Italy, considering benefits and drawbacks, proposing technical and economic considerations for ideal conditions of use and suggesting failure analysis methods and tools.

ARTIGO DE REVISÃOVISÃO MÉDICO LEGAL A RESPEITO DAS CHUVAS E DESLIZAMENTOS NA REGIÃO SERRANA DO RIO DE JANEIRO: UMA REVISÃO BIBLIOGRÁFICA

Introduction: The article is a literature review that aims to analyze, from the perspective of Legal Medicine, the consequences of rains and landslides in the Serrana region of Rio de Janeiro in 2011, with an emphasis on the work of medical examiners with regard to medical expertise in large-scale disasters. Method: The bibliographic databases used to search the National Library of Medicine (PUBMED) and Scientific Electronic Library Online (SCIELO), in addition to manuals, magazines, and a literature listed in the Fundamentals of Legal Medicine by Genival Veloso de França. All the selected bibliography was published between the years 2008 to 2022. Conclusão: After the discussion and analysis of the data, it was possible to conclude that in calamitous events, sudden and of harmful proportions, it is essential that the process of identification of the human bodies be carried out by a qualified team of medical experts, followed by scientific forensic identification criterion, thus avoiding inaccuracies in this process.

Renal pedicle control in laparoscopic donor nephrectomy: Evaluation of a single-center experience.

Introduction and Study Purpose:Renal pedicle control is a crucial period in laparoscopic donor nephrectomy (LDN). Till now, there is no standardized technique for renal pedicle control. Proper evaluation and investigation of the different ways of renal vessel control have to be done to avoid any calamitous event. We aim to prove the safety and reliability of the Hem-o-Lok clips for the renal vascular control in transperitoneal LDN.Methods:All LDNs or hand-assisted LDNs done between January 2016 and December 2018 were collected. The primary outcome was the safety of the Hem-o-Lok clips. The secondary outcomes were blood loss, ischemia time, hospital stay, cost, and operative time. The data were analyzed using SPSS 20, and a statistical package was conducted.Results:The data showed that 238 laparoscopic donor nephrectomies were done. The renal pedicle control during the 1st year was done using a vascular stapler for the artery (63 cases) and two polymer self-locking clips extra-large (XL) for the vein. Two events were reported in the form of mechanical failure. In the following 2 years, the artery was controlled using polymer self-locking clips large (L) few millimeters distal to the aorta and two metallic clips distal to it to increase the safety and stability of the vascular stump (175 cases). However, the vein was controlled by the two polymer self-locking clips XL. There was no reported intraoperative complications or events related to this way of pedicle control; there was no open conversion or blood transfusion required. There was no postoperative complication or collection in ultrasound.Conclusion:Using a combined polymer self-locking clip few millimeters distal to the aorta and two metallic clips distal to it for renal artery control in laparoscopic donor nephrectomies is cost-effective and safe. However, further and broader evidenced base studies are still needed to establish a standard technique for renal pedicle control.

Building rating systems: A novel review about capabilities, current limits and open issues

• A deep up-to-date review of the literature concerning rating systems is proposed • The review classifies papers in the matter of rating systems into four categories • Papers comparing the various building rating systems are the most common • LEED rating system is the most investigated in current scientific literature • Health and wellbeing should get a strong weight in the rating systems An up-to-date review of more than 100 research papers about green building rating tools is proposed, with a view to what is changed or must be changed, also following the new requirements due to the recent pandemic. The review organizes current literature in the matter of rating systems in four different groups: rating systems’ comparison papers, case studies, the proposition of new rating systems, possible integration of rating systems into other design tools for buildings. The research papers have been analyzed to underline the main investigated aspects in rating systems, how to improve the rating systems for enlarging the sustainability assessment, and how much the level of certification reflects the green, sustainable, healthiness, and indoor environmental quality features of buildings. Moreover, possible improvements of the weighting systems are here showed, in the rating systems’ method, and some new aspects for the sustainability assessment are suggested. As regards the pillars of sustainability, the main neglected points are structural safety, vulnerability to calamitous events, compatibility with local culture and history. Moreover, the indoor environmental quality and the flexibility/adaptability of livable environments are underestimated in the current rating systems. These issues have emerged strongly during the COVID-19 pandemic and have become a priority.

Information Shock of Disaster and Hazard: Impact of Kaohsiung Gas Explosions and Risk Disclosure on the Equalizing Difference in the Housing Market

Disasters could damage the economy and market. Many studies inquire how a calamitous event changes household risk perception and home value to understand the hazard’s influence on expected utility. A remaining challenge is identifying equalizing difference, a necessary spatial equilibrium condition, keeping households indifferent among properties with different disaster risks. We fill this gap, analyzing a quasi-natural experiment with two events: the 2014 Gas Explosions in Kaohsiung city and subsequent disclosure of all underground petrochemical pipelines. A spatial model with prospective reference theory predicts home value changes after each event for areas with different risks. It distinguishes the equalizing difference from the price changes induced by risk perception adjustments. The Empirical analysis applies 2013-2016 housing transaction data to difference-in-differences (DD) of two events. Existing DD studies only assess the price change of a disaster-risk perception adjustment. Our analysis not only obtains estimates of that kind. Importantly, we uncover an equalizing difference worth 2.6% home value compensating for households’ risk exposure. All estimates agree with theoretical predictions, and a common trend exists. The equalizing difference shrinks with distance to hazard and time. Market evidence shows the neighborhood struck by the disaster has regained energy, a finding with implications for urban resilience.

Synchronous online flip learning with formative gamification quiz: instruction during COVID-19

PurposeThis study aims to present research evidence on the relevance of online gamification flip learning as a pedagogical instruction in promoting learning engagement when college students are impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. In this study, a gamified formative assessment was used to examine learner engagement and to evaluate the effectiveness of gamification within a synchronous online flipped instruction.Design/methodology/approachA multiphase mixed methods research design was used for this study. The evaluation relied on triangulated evidence gathered through questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews administered at an Indonesian college setting.FindingsBased on the findings, gamified learning and formative assessments that adopt online flipped approaches have shown a positive bearing on learner engagement, despite the challenges learners face while harrowing through times of calamity. The results of this study provide prima facie support for the claim that the use of interactive gamified e-quizzes proves to be an innovative means of stimulating student engagement during the online class.Originality/valueThe results further suggest that a learning framework that incorporates both online flipped and gamification techniques provide the stimulus that is likely to forge an emotional connection that can inspire learner engagement, much needed when learners rally through calamitous events. This study has established evidential links between gamification and flipped classroom instructional delivery, particularly for online class settings. It is well-anticipated that gamification flip learning can continue to be implemented either in online, blended or face-to-face class instruction and particularly after the time of the pandemic.

Verbalizing silence: Disasters in Sabiha Sumar’s Khamosh Pani (Sient Waters)

ABSTRACT This article focuses on Pakistani director, Sabiha Sumar’s, debut film, Khamosh Pani (Silent Waters, 2003). The article argues that Sumar’s film, by screening the never-ending impacts of politically motivated ethno-religious and ethno-national disasters, like 1947 partition of India and Pakistan, shows that female sufferers of one such disaster become more vulnerable to additional trauma caused by future disasters having similar roots. An examination of the film reveals that politically motivated ethno-religious and ethno-national calamitous events like the partition and Islamization program of Zia regime are gendered. These events solidify the sufferers’ status as the inimical Other who need to be discarded/controlled for the wellbeing of the concerned community or nation to which they belong. Through a detailed analysis of the film, the article examines how women have to bear the maximum brunt of ethno-religious calamities that exploit their bodies as archives of violence by perennially damaging their sense of self. Instead of finding agency in voice, Sumar’s film shows superficiality of words in communicating acute trauma caused by politically galvanized ethno-religious disasters.

A General Multi-Risk Assessment Method for Natural Disasters and CBRNe Attacks

This work is the result of a research activity started in 2012 to deploy a method for risk assessment to be applied by the Italian Civil Protection and Civil Defence to protect critical infrastructures. The here presented Multi-Risk Assessment Method (MRAM), illustrates the complete approach, provided by this research activity, suitable to estimate both impact and risk in qualitative, semi-quantitative and quantitative fashion for catastrophic or calamitous events, including terrorist non-conventional CBRNe attacks. In the paper a vulnerability reduction assessment methodology is also hinted with an analysis of the relation of MRAM with the USA RAMCAP approach adopted by Department of Homeland Security. The MRAM provides a method for risk assessment, and was also recently implemented in forecasting software tools by some Italian local administrations.

Safeguarding cultural heritage from climate change related hydrometeorological hazards in Central Europe

This paper presents a method for contributing to risk assessment of cultural heritage exposed to hydrometeorological extreme events linked to climate change. The methodology adopted involves the development of hazard maps at territorial level, based on outputs from climate models, and the vulnerability assessment at building scale, underlying on physical and managerial criticalities of built heritage. Results are discussed for two pilot sites highly susceptible to flooding impacting large areas: Prague - Troja (CZ) and Krems - Stein (AT). Outcomes include climate projections of changes of the extreme precipitation index R5xday with spatial resolution of ∼12 km for the near and far future (2021–2050; 2071–2100), under two different scenarios (stabilizing and pessimistic). A general increase of Rx5day in the investigated areas in the far future under the pessimistic scenario is foreseen, highlighting a high likelihood of flooding risk. Furthermore, it is determined that the buildings selected in the pilot areas present a high degree of vulnerability, mainly due to a lack of a maintenance plan and a significant susceptibility of the structures to water impact. Therefore preparedness turns out to be a crucial step in the management of the sites for enhancing their resilience to calamitous events.