Emergency Incidents Research Articles

Utilization, Barriers and Determinants of Emergency Medical Services in Mekelle City, Tigray, Ethiopia: A Community-Based Cross-Sectional Study.

BackgroundEmergency medical services (EMS) are services that provide out-of-hospital emergency medical care to injured or ill peoples, and transporting to definitive care. EMS is an integral part of the emergency medical system and has been associated with decreased morbidity and mortality related to emergency cases. The aim of this study was to assess the utilization, barriers, and determinants of EMS in Mekelle, Ethiopia.MethodsA community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in selected sub-cities of Mekelle. A multistage sampling method was employed to recruit study participants, and data were collected by trained data collectors using an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to examine the statistical association of the determinants of EMS utilization.ResultsHalf (50.5%) of the respondents had experienced or witnessed an emergency incident in the past year. The common means of transportations used were Bajaj’s (39.2%) and ambulances (22.7%). Majority (88.1%) of the respondents did not knew the EMS access phone number of an ambulance. As their preferred mode of transportation in case of emergency conditions, 42.2% of the participants reported an ambulance, followed by Bajaj 33.7%. Where participants who had gynecologic emergencies were 9.4 times (AOR=9.4, 95% CI: 1.04, 85, p=0.046), and those who knew any ambulance numbers were 3.6 times (AOR=3.6, 95% CI: 1.22, 10.8, p=0.02) more likely to use ambulance services in case of emergencies.ConclusionThe ambulance utilization level in Mekelle city was low and victims of emergency conditions were being transported mainly using public transports such as Bajaj’s and taxis. Even though the perception of the public towards EMS services is favorable, lack of awareness of EMS access, and lack of integrated EMS system in the city are the barriers that may have contributed to the low utilization. Actions to improve EMS access and integrating the system are warranted to promote the services utilization.

Genetically optimized Fuzzy C-means data clustering of IoMT-based biomarkers for fast affective state recognition in intelligent edge analytics

IoMT sensors such as wearables, moodables, ingestible sensors and trackers have the potential to provide a proactive approach to healthcare. But grouping, traversing and selectively tapping the IoMT data traffic and its immediacy makes data management & decision analysis a pressing issue. Evidently, the selection process for real-world, time-constrained health problems involves looking at multivariate time-series data generated simultaneously from various wearables resulting in data overload and accuracy issues. Computational intelligence of edge analytics can extend predictive capability by quickly turning digital biomarker data into actions for remote monitoring and trigger alarm during emergency incidents without relying on backend servers. But the pervasive generation of data streams from IoMT levies significant issues in data visualization and exploratory data analysis. This paper presents a genetically optimized Fuzzy C-means data clustering technique for affective state recognition on the edge. Clustering segregates the biomarker data in chunks and generates a summarized data for each subject which is then genetically optimized to avoid stagnation in local optima. A multi-level convolution neural network is finally used to classify the affective states into the baseline, stress and amusement categories. The model is evaluated on the publicly available WESAD dataset and compares favorably to state-of-the-art with less time complexity. It demonstrates the use of data clustering technique for numerosity reduction of real-time data streams in intelligent edge analytics which facilitates fast analysis of affective state of the user.

Reliable location of first responder stations for cooperative response to disasters

Strategic positioning and allocation of emergency responders and/or resources to potential emergency incidents are very important decisions for disaster management programs. In this paper, a reliable multi-type joint-service facility location model is proposed, which takes into consideration the need for cooperative service from multiple types of responder stations, as well as the probabilistic risk of station disruptions. The problem is formulated as a mixed-integer non-linear program and solved via a set of customized linear program and Lagrangian relaxation based algorithms. Numerical experiments on hypothetical and full-scale cases are conducted to demonstrate the applicability of the model and to draw managerial insights.

Resource Constrained Deep Reinforcement Learning

In urban environments, resources have to be constantly matched to the “right” locations where customer demand is present. For instance, ambulances have to be matched to base stations regularly so as to reduce response time for emergency incidents in ERS (Emergency Response Systems); vehicles (cars, bikes among others) have to be matched to docking stations to reduce lost demand in shared mobility systems. Such problems are challenging owing to the demand uncertainty, combinatorial action spaces and constraints on allocation of resources (e.g., total resources, minimum and maximum number of resources at locations and regions).Existing systems typically employ myopic and greedy optimization approaches to optimize resource allocation. Such approaches typically are unable to handle surges or variances in demand patterns well. Recent work has demonstrated the ability of Deep RL methods in adapting well to highly uncertain environments. However, existing Deep RL methods are unable to handle combinatorial action spaces and constraints on allocation of resources. To that end, we have developed three approaches on top of the well known actor-critic approach, DDPG (Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient) that are able to handle constraints on resource allocation. We also demonstrate that they are able to outperform leading approaches on simulators validated on semi-real and real data sets.

Риск-ориентированная модель организации и осуществления федерального государственного энергетического надзора

Risk-oriented approach in the implementation of control (supervision) activities is an important state task that affects the country economy. As part of the implementation of the priority area of reforming control and supervision activities, the Federal Law «On the state control (supervision) and municipal control in the Russian Federation» was adopted, which comes into force on July 1, 2021. In order to implement the Federal Law «On state control (supervision) and municipal control in the Russian Federation», it is advisable to revise the regulation on the federal state energy supervision. It is required to study the issue of taking into account the risks of causing harm (damage) to legally protected values when carrying out control (supervision) activities in relation to the subjects (objects) of the energy sector, as well as criteria for assigning it to the risk category and indicators of the risk of mandatory requirements violation. Currently, the only criterion for assigning the harm (damage) to the risk category is the dependence on the established and (or) transmitted capacity of the energy facilities used, which is nonobjective due to the changes in the normative-regulatory framework for the implementation of control and supervision activities. It is required to study the issue of categorization depending on the established (transmitted) capacity of the object, the amount of economic damage as a result of the implementation of emergency situations and (or) emergency incidents (in value terms), the number of people killed (irretrievable losses), the number of people whose vital functions were disrupted as a result of the implementation of emergency situations and (or) emergency incidents.

Chevron Thailand's use of ICS (Incident Command System) in assisting with the 2018 Thailand Cave Rescue Operation

Abstract number: 1141175 Chevron Thailand commenced using a form of the Incident Management System (ICS) for response to emergency incidents and conducted ICS training and hosted a large scale oil spill response exercise in 2017 and 2018 to increase Crisis Management Team (CMT), Asset Management Team (AEMT) and On-site Response Team (ORT) competency and team readiness, including maintaining relationships with organizations that provide emergency response support i.e. Thai government agencies, association and contractors. On 23 June 2018, 12 members of a Thai boys soccer team along with their coach became trapped in a cave in northern Thailand when flood waters cut them off from the entrance. Chevron Thailand Management in Bangkok was contacted by the US Embassy Bangkok requesting Chevron Thailand to assist with providing personnel and resources for the rescue operations. Separately, the Thai Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) also called for industry support in the rescue mission. This paper will present details of how Chevron Thailand utilized their preparedness training using ICS in responding to risks within Chevron Thailand's operations to take a leading role in assisting the Royal Thai Governments rescue of the 13 trapped soccer team members. The paper will also show how collaboration with Government officials in Company training and exercise events lead to not only a good working relationship but also better knowledge of the capabilities that Chevron Thailand can bring to the table in responding to any emergency incident.

ФИЗИКО-МЕХАНИЧЕСКАЯ ДЕЗАКТИВАЦИЯ ЗАГРЯЗНЕННЫХ ТЕРРИТОРИЙ, ОБЪЕКТОВ ОКРУЖАЮЩЕЙ СРЕДЫ И ИНФРАСТРУКТУРЫ НАСЕЛЕННЫХ ПУНКТОВ ПРИ РАДИАЦИОННОЙ АВАРИИ

Purpose: To consider the issues of physical-mechanical decontamination of contaminated territories, environmental objects and infrastructure of settlements during a radiation accident and to develop a mathematical tool for evaluating forces and means during physical-mechanical decontamination. Materials and methods: Analyzed possible contamination of territories and facilities with radioactive materials during the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (NPP) and the Japanese Fukushima Daiichi NPP, the methods used for decontamination and technical means, and the effectiveness of their use. The experience in dealing with the consequences of large scale radiation accidents at NPP, including the Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi NPPs, shows that the decontamination of contaminated territories and settlements is a very time-consuming and costly undertaking, which is carried out to resume economic activity on large contaminated areas. To carry out such work, it is required to evaluate the needful amount of various sets of technical equipment involved, as well as the involvement of numerous organizations with their specialists and personnel. Results: The issues of physical-mechanical decontamination of roads and sections of the terrain, forest land, soil, buildings and structures and technical equipment are considered. The mathematical tool for evaluation the forces and means involved in decontamination measures is given. The developed methodological approaches can be used to assess the necessary forces and means, responding to emergency incidents of a different nature: in responding spills of oil and its products, disinfection of various objects and in other emergency situations. Conclusion: The developed calculation tool allows evaluate the forces and means necessary for decontamination in a contaminated area.

Demand Prediction of Railway Emergency Resources Based on Case-Based Reasoning

The demand prediction of emergency resources is helpful for rational allocation and optimization of emergency resources for railway rescue when emergency incident occurs. In this paper, a case base containing China railway traffic accident that has occurred since 1978 is established, and the case-based reasoning (CBR) method is applied in railway emergency resource demand predicting research. The core case attributes of railway emergencies are described. In view of the attribute types of railway emergency cases, five types of attributes, including enumeration, numerical, interval, character and fuzzy type, are considered, and the local similarity calculation models of different attributes are given. In order to avoid the problem of missing attribute in the traditional nearest neighbor algorithm, a global case similarity calculation method based on structural similarity and attribute similarity is designed. The empirical results show that case 3 is the most similar to the target case, and the calculating quantities of the proposed model are closer to the actual usage quantity and more accurate in the demand prediction of railway emergency resources, compared with the traditional empirical method. The relative errors of demand forecasts for the 9 resources have been, respectively, reduced by 15.9884%, 15.1471%, 6.4286%, 17.1429%, 66.6667%, 38.8889%, 27.5%, 0%, and 17.7778%. Therefore, the proposed model is both reasonable and applicable. The research results are of great significance to effectively deal with railway emergencies.

Safety outcomes for incident responders operating on high speed roads: An analysis of the relationship with behaviour, motivation and role clarity

High-speed roads present a considerable level of risk for frontline workers operating in these environments. To optimise safety, prevention activities need to target the key skills required to mitigate risk. The aim of this research was to explore the behavioural (compliance, participation, voice), motivational (safety motivation) and work demand (role clarity) factors that influence safety outcomes for incident responders working on high-speed roads. Safety outcomes included secondary incidents and near misses with passing vehicles. A total of 295 complete survey responses were received from six emergency service and incident response agencies in one Australian state. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling. The results showed that higher levels of safety voice, safety motivation and, role clarity were significantly associated with safer self-reported safety outcomes after controlling for the number of incidents attended. The findings from this study will be used to guide the development of a training program to improve the cognitive, behavioural and perceptual skills of incident responders operating on high-speed roads. Some insight into the structure and format of this program is provided.

Make campus safe for students with disabilities by collaborating with police, safety personnel

Students with disabilities face unique challenges on college campuses. One of those challenges is how to recognize and react appropriately to an emergency or violent incident, such as an active shooter. In New Jersey, the Bergen Community College Office of Specialized Services partnered with campus safety personnel and the Bergen County Sheriff's Office to develop a training program to address this need.

Automatic Chinese Text Summarization for Emergency Domain

With the rapid development of the global economy, natural disasters and emergencies frequently occur. A large amount of disaster accident data and emergency case handling measures on the Internet can be used to provide technical reference and auxiliary decision-making when the various social emergency incident occurs. This study establishes an accurate Chinese text automatic short summarization model to automatically obtain summary information from accident cases. In the proposed model, Generative Pre-Training 2.0 (GPT2), which is excellent in generating tasks, is employed as the basic network structure. Adabound algorithm is used to optimize the model so that the model is not disturbed by extreme learning rates, and it converges to the global minimum at the end of training. It solves the problem that the Adam optimization algorithm causes the model to converge to the local minimum due to the extreme learning rate. Meanwhile, Jaya algorithm is utilized to optimize the hyperparameters of the Adabound for a good performance. Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed method has a significant improvement in terms of Recall-Oriented Understudy for Gisting Evaluation (ROUGE).

Research of Interdisciplinary Cooperation in the Management of Cardiovascular Emergencies through the Covid-19 Pandemic; A Review of Literature

The management of emergency cardiovascular events and especially cardiac arrest, which is occurring more and more often globally, requires the establishment of special interdisciplinary teams (blue code, RRT), both to prevent its occurrence and to increase survival rates. Special communication and organization tools of these groups (SBAR, RSVP) have been established worldwide and attention has been given to the development of non-technical skills of their members (ANTS). The aim of this review was to examine the current literature on the function and effectiveness of interdisciplinary teams in the treatment of in-hospital cardiovascular emergencies during the Covid-19 pandemic. Studies from USA, Sweden, Brazil and S. Korea showed a reduction of mortality and numbers of in-hospital cardiac arrests after RRT teams implementation and interventions. Covid-19 pandemic is resulting in delaying in CPR implementation to emergency incidents as these teams are required to use special both personal and general protective equipment while managing these incidents. Despite differentiations among countries and health systems globally, it’s comprehensible that interdisciplinary teams have to be reinforced by the set-up and implementation of programs and training courses both to improve survival and save heath recourses. Keywords: Emergency cardiac diseases, Cardiac arrest, Cardiopulmonary resuscitation, Interdisciplinary teams, Pandemic, Coronavirus/covid-19.

ANALÝZA VÝJEZDOVÉ ČINNOSTI JEDNOTEK POŽÁRNÍ OCHRANY NA ÚZEMÍ OKRESU CHEB A V PŘÍHRANIČNÍ OBLASTI

The article deals with the analysis of emergency incidents of fire protection units in the district of Cheb. The first part of the article deals with the organization of fire protection units and their firefighting areas within the district of Cheb. A considerable part of the article focuses also on the cross-border cooperation with the fire protection units on the other side of the state border. The practical part of the article deals with the statistics of emergency incidents of fire protection units. These emergency incidents have been furthermore analysed in detail according to their type. The following part analyses the emergency incidents of fire protection units in the border area on both sides of the state border. The final part of the article evaluates the results of the analysis of emergency incidents of fire protection units. On the basis of these results improvements in the field of human resources, financial security or technical means for more effective emergency management have been proposed.

Emergency Resource Location and Allocation in Traffic Contingency Plan for Sports Mega‐Event

In view of the transactional and textual features on issue handling in mega‐event traffic contingency plan, this paper gives a quantitative method for emergency resources location and allocation. Given that the requirement on safeguards in the sports mega‐events is temporary and stringent, we first divide the facilities into temporary emergency facilities and fixed emergency facilities and the resources into material resources and human resources. Considering the uncertainty of emergency incidents, we then construct a mixed integer linear programming model. To solve this model, the bisection method is used to import the material quantity placed in each emergency facility, and the shortest path algorithm is used to import the rescue time matrix. Considering the slowness of convergence rate when the road network is large, a modified matrix real‐coded genetic algorithm is designed with the crossover operator based on a greedy algorithm. The application of the model and algorithms is validated by the case based on 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Sensitivity analysis of some important parameters is also conducted to provide insights for traffic emergency resources management in sports mega‐event.

Analysis of Fire and Explosion Properties of LNG

Aim: The aim of this article is to analyse fire and explosion properties of LNG along with the identification of hazards that may arise during emergency incidents involving it. The article is based on an analysis of the available literature and a full-scale experimental study involving a 200-liter LNG tank leading to a jet fire. Introduction: Safe use and proper transport of flammable and harmful substances, together with the analysis of the effects of threats, enable the reduction of the number of accidents and provide possible conditions for the evacuation of people and property in a hazard zone. The compilation and systematization of knowledge on the safe use of the environmentally friendly LNG fuel will allow for an increase in the scope of its use. It is consistent with the state’s sustainable development policy consisting in identifying threats or adjusting technical solutions that minimize losses in transport or industry. Methodology: There are many legal acts in the world regarding safe storage and transport of LNG. One of the most important is Directive 2012/18/EC known as “Seveso III”. This document contains requirements for the prevention of major accidents involving hazardous substances – including LNG – and ways to reduce their negative effects on human health and the environment. Relevant requirements have also been specified in standards, tests, articles and other international acts, including in the European agreement on the international carriage of dangerous goods by road (the so-called ADR Agreement). The article compares flammable and explosive parameters of LNG. Possible scenarios occurring during the release and ignition of the LNG vapour cloud have been shown. The change of pressure of LNG vapour in the 200 l tank as a function of its heating time in the burning spill of a mixture of gasoline and diesel fuel is presented. In such a thermal exposure, a jet fire with a flame length of up to 5 meters was obtained. Conclusions: The proper use of flammable gases should be a priority in ensuring fire and explosion safety in facilities, during transport, etc. Hence, recognizing the threats and comparing them, or matching technical solutions that minimize the effects of LNG failures will allow active inclusion of knowledge in this field in the process of protection against fire and explosion. In case of LNG storage, attention should be paid to the types of materials in the immediate vicinity of this liquefied gas in order to have sufficient mechanical properties at the lowest liquefied gas temperature. Keywords: LNG, fire safety, process safety Article type: review article

The Effectiveness Of The Application Of Nursing Early Warning Score System (NEWSS) In Reducing The Frequency Of Emergency Cardiac Arrest: A Case Study Of Pelamonia Hospital, Makassar

One of the efforts made by nurses to identify deterioration or emergency incidents in patients is through the use of Nursing Early Warning Score System (NEWSS). This study therefore aims to determine the effectiveness of this system in reducing the frequency of cardiac arrest in patients. A quasi-experiment with a post-test only control group design was adopted and a sample of 80 respondents was obtained. Furthermore, the research instrument consists of 7 physiological parameters in the NEWSS assessment, under standard operating procedures. The results from the Mann Whitney test with a P value of 0.000, (P <0.05) indicate that the System is effective in reducing the frequency of emergency cardiac arrests.
 
 Keywords: NEWSS, Cardiac Arrest Emergency

Non‐technical skills for emergency incident management teams: A literature review

AbstractEvery year, incident management teams (IMTs) coordinate the response to hundreds of emergency events across Australasia. Larger scale emergencies such as a storms, floods, wildfires, oil spills and chemical explosions can place a lot of pressure on an IMT. Non‐technical skills play a central role in the performance of these teams. This article reviewed the broader non‐technical skills (NTS) literature before focusing on the NTS required for emergency management. It was found that most NTS frameworks share four to five common skill categories, although there were greater differences at the element and behavioural marker level. A variety of issues were identified in the literature that highlight that emergency management is very different from other domains where NTS systems have been developed. The literature on NTS in conjunction with this set of issues was used to develop a proposed NTS framework for emergency IMTs. This framework comprises 7 skill categories (i.e. communication, coordination, cooperation, decision‐making, situation awareness, leadership and coping, stress and fatigue management). The 7 skills can be further delineated into 16 elements and 44 behavioural markers. The framework provides a prototype that can form the basis for further research in this area.

Emergency Messages Dissemination Challenges Through Connected Vehicles for Efficient Intelligent Transportation Systems: A Review

Recent growth in transport and wireless communication technologies has aided the evolution of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). The ITS is based on different types of transportation modes like road, rail, ocean and aviation. Vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) is a technology that considers moving vehicles as nodes in a network to create a wireless communication network. VANET has emerged as a resourceful approach to enhance the road safety. Road safety has become a critical issue in recent years. Emergency incidents such as accidents, heavy traffic and road damages are the main causes of the inefficiency of the traffic flow. These occurrences do not only create the congestion on the road but also increase the fuel consumption and pollute the environment. Emergency messages notify the drivers about road accidents and congestions, and how to avoid the dangerous zones. This paper classifies the emergency messages schemes into three categories based on relay node, clustering and infrastructure. The capabilities and limitations of the emergency messages schemes are investigated in terms of dissemination process, message forward techniques, road awareness and performance metrics. Moreover, it highlights VANET-based challenges and open research problems to provide the solutions for a safer, more efficient and sustainable future ITS.

Link prediction in supernetwork: Risk perception of emergencies

After an emergency incident occurs, how to identify risks, predict trends and scientifically cope before the crisis erupts is the basic starting point of this study. In this study, a supernetwork model of the risk perception in emergencies is innovatively constructed from the perspective of the governance of risks. This supernetwork model includes three subnetworks: the similar relationship subnetwork that is composed of newly occurring emergencies, the chain relationship subnetwork that is composed of historical emergencies and the co-occurrence relationship subnetwork that is composed of the risk elements for emergencies. Afterwards, the feature similarity algorithm is applied to quantify the relations between newly occurring emergencies and historical emergencies, and then, the link prediction algorithm is applied to predict the risk elements that may be derived from the newly occurring emergencies. This will be beneficial to enhancing the scientific accuracy of decision-making by managers when coping with emergencies risks.

Implementing Community Engaged Disaster Research in Response to Disasters

The increasing frequency and severity of disasters like tropical storms and flooding place individuals and communities at higher risk of negative health outcomes associated with exposure to disaster-associated environmental contamination. Residents of environmental justice (EJ) neighborhoods have been documented as having excess risks of exposure to acute pollution, emergency response spills and incidents, and high-impact natural and man-made events. Therefore, rapid and credible post-disaster research in EJ neighborhoods is essential for protecting health. However, successful conduct of research in the aftermath of a disaster requires that 1) research protocols and other documents are in place; 2) mutually beneficial partnerships that include stakeholder groups and residents, academic researchers, and practice partners exist; and 3) baseline data are available to compare with post-disaster findings so that changes noted can be accurately attributed to the disaster. To address these requirements, the Texas A&M University Superfund Research Center: 1) leverages research protocols from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Disaster Research Response (DR2) network such as pre-approved IRB protocols; 2) builds on established community partnerships and interdisciplinary service-learning programs developed as part of the University’s Environmental Grand Challenge, Institute for Sustainable Communities, and Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center; and 3) supports the collection of pre-disaster data to improve our understanding of the potential pathways of exposure that may impact public health outcomes following a disaster. These approaches can further community engagement and foster trust in all phases of the disaster cycle (i.e., preparedness, response, and recovery), building community cohesion and resilience to future disasters. Keywords: Post-Disaster Research; Field Data Collection; Community Engagement