Emergency Recovery Research Articles

Preparing polyester/carbon multifunctional fabrics by phosphoric acid carbonization

Polyester/carbon (PET/CAR) blend fabrics were prepared by treating polyester/cotton (PET/COT) fabrics with dilute phosphoric acid at high temperatures to carbonize the cotton fibers in the PET/COT fabrics. Fourier-transform infrared, X-ray diffraction, and thermogravimetric analysis results were in accordance with the carbonization of cotton fibers. The surface morphology images showed only slight etching was on the polyester fibers and the fibers structures almost remained intact. The PET/CAR fabrics exhibited excellent antistatic properties. The induced voltage and half-life of the PET/CAR fabrics treated with 5% phosphoric acid solution were close to 0 V and 0 s, respectively. The ultraviolet protection factor value of the fabric treated with 5%-phosphoric acid reached 243 ± 8. The emergency recovery crease angle and the slow recovery crease angle reached 222 ± 4° and 230 ± 2°, respectively. The light shielding properties of PET/CAR were also superior. The tensile strengths of the PET/CAR fabrics decreased; regardless, the PET/CAR fabrics remained adequately strong for many applications such as blackout curtain, agricultural greenhouse shading textile and anti-UV umbrella textile etc.

Filling the gaps: the potential and limitations of emergent, ICT-enabled organisation in disaster – a case study of the Cajun Army

ABSTRACT Most recent research on unaffiliated volunteers in disasters has focused on coordination, integration, and management of labour itself. A less prominent line of research focuses on qualities emergent groups of unaffiliated volunteers can contribute to emergency response or recovery that official organisations may be less equipped to provide, including: organisational agility, flexible problem-solving, and early access to technological expertise and innovation, especially in the domain of information and communication technology (ICT). During recent hurricanes and floods in coastal Louisiana and Texas, groups such as the Cajun Navy utilised Zello – an agile variation of Short Message Service (SMS) that converts a cellphone into a universal walkie talkie – to coordinate emergency response and recovery for disaster victims. This paper analyses the emergence of the volunteer-based ‘Cajun Army’ and its bricoleur-like assemblage of ICT applications like Zello, Facebook, and other media to recruit and coordinate volunteers, manage the recovery needs of disaster victims, and deploy resources in the field. The Cajun Army case study serves as an example of how technological innovation is improvised by the emergent voluntary sector in the midst of crises and can be stabilised for repeated contributions to emergency management.

МЕТОДЫ БОРЬБЫ С НЕСАНКЦИОНИРОВАННЫМ ВМЕШАТЕЛЬСТВОМ В СИСТЕМЫ УЧЕТА ЭЛЕКТРОЭНЕРГИИ

Electric energy consumption on the industrial scale, technological connection of new grids and providing them with required power supply considerably increase the resource cost and, as a consequence, the desire of the consumer to save. The timeliness of emergency recovery operations on the sections of electric grid and the successful startup of the power and heat supply systems in the autumn-winter period directly depend on the consumers’ good faith and paying capacity. Methods of electric power theft have been analyzed; methods of fighting the electric energy losses in a distribution network by main organizations have been considered. It has been suggested to make changes in the state standards and methods of verification of counters of electric energy in order to prevent the electric power plunder.

Resilience-based transportation network recovery strategy during emergency recovery phase under uncertainty

Recovery from major disasters is generally divided into an emergency recovery phase (ERP) and a comprehensive recovery phase (CRP). The ERP has multiple difficulties and limits. This paper investigates the optimization of the transportation network recovery strategy (TNRS) during the ERP under uncertainty. First, two resilience metrics are proposed to measure the recovery rapidity and the cumulative loss of network performance. Second, by applying connectivity as an indicator of transportation network performance, the resilience-based bi-level programming model is established for both deterministic and stochastic cases. The upper level determines which road segments need to be restored and the repair time sequence to maximize the system resilience. The lower level formulates the user response to the upper decision as a User Equilibrium (UE) with a time series. Then, a novel algorithm that integrates a genetic algorithm for the parallel machine scheduling problem (PMSP) and the Frank–Wolfe algorithm for the UE is designed. Finally, the procedure and the effectiveness of the proposed method are demonstrated via a case study.

Laying new foundations for 21st century community mental health services: An Australian perspective.

While there has been a significant increase in investment in community mental health in Australia since the advent of the National Mental Health Strategy in the early 1990s, there has been little guidance on service design and delivery. This has led to a growing diversity of approaches and concern about the adequacy of care with repeated calls for a system overhaul. Consumers and carers have very largely been absent from decision-making about service design and development which has led to a system primarily designed by healthcare professionals. However, with the emergence of recovery as a core principle in mental health, it is time for consumers and carers to be centrally engaged in co-designing services with service providers. This raises the question of whether dominant service delivery models - such as the growth of specialist teams/services, the changing balance between profession-specific and generic case management roles in multidisciplinary teams, and the separation of inpatient from community care - will prevail. Contentious issues in these three service delivery areas are outlined to stimulate debate and highlight the pressing need for national guidance on the configuration of community mental health services. Building on the lessons learned from the first National Mental Health Strategy, we outline a proposal for a co-designed National Framework for Community Mental Health Services to guide the delivery of care in a way which satisfies the aspirations of consumers, carers, and mental health professionals alike.

Fabrication of Water Soluble Polymer Capsules for Protecting Mineral Admixtures in Groundwater for Emergency Recovery of Sinkhole.

Polyethylene glycol (PEG) based water-soluble polymer composites were fabricated for mineral admixture encapsulants to be used in underground sinkhole restoration. Linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) and talc were added to the composites to increase their mechanical strengths and heat resistances. PEG/LLDPE/Talc composites were manufactured via melt mixing using a twin extruder. Blending PEG and LLDPE increased the mechanical properties and heat resistances of the composite, but decreased the water solubility. Talc was added to the composite to increase mechanical properties and heat resistance. The addition of talc increased the water solubilities of PEG-based composites. The highest tensile strength and impact strength were 2.89 MPa and 2.86, respectively, the increase rate being 9.63-fold relative to that of pristine PEG.

Detection of Instantaneous Releases of Dangerous Chemical Substances at Off-Design Accidents with Explosion

В статье рассматривается вариант решения задачи по обнаружению однократных залповых выбросов опасных химических веществ при запроектных авариях на объектах, предназначенных для хранения различных химических веществ, таких как хлор, аммиак, продукты нефтехимии и др. Предполагается, что авария происходит со взрывом, вызванным аварией на производстве, природным катаклизмом или терактом. Для решения задачи предлагается интегрированный комплекс безопасности химически опасных объектов. Приведена структура автоматизированной системы поддержки принятия решений при ликвидации чрезвычайных ситуаций на химически опасном объекте. Определен перечень параметров аварийного процесса со взрывом, которые применяются для прогнозирования ситуации на объекте. Рассматривается методика определения координат взрыва на основании корреляции ряда параметров аварийного процесса. Приведен алгоритм определения координат источника залпового выброса опасных химических веществ. При вычислении координат источника предлагается устанавливать три автоматических поста наблюдения для регистрации параметров сейсмоволны и изменений концентрации опасных химических веществ в атмосферном воздухе. Своевременное решение на проведение ликвидационных мероприятий позволит сократить количество возможных жертв среди персонала химически опасного объекта и населения, проживающего в районах его расположения.

Post Disaster Recovery Process of Landslides in Developing Countries: A Case Study of Aranayake Landslide - Sri Lanka

The basic principle for the recovery of residential area from a landslide disaster is restoring the damaged area to its condition before the disaster. This study focuses on evaluates the recovery process and reinstallation of pre-disaster economic functions after the landslide occurred in the year 2016 at Aranayake, Sri Lanka. Estimated values of the collapsed infrastructure is 7,806 USD, and the affected region generates 200 000 USD for the annual country GDP. In contrast, 887 families directly or indirectly affected by the landslide. The primary data were obtained from comprehensive questioner survey of affected household (n=120), semi-structured focused group discussions, and key informant discussions. Recovery was assumed as a function of emergency recovery (ER), infrastructure resettlement (IR) and long-term recovery (LtR). Correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to model the association between dependent variable Recovery and independent variables ER, IR and LtR. The findings revealed that, there is no systematic procedure used to monitor the progress of recovery programme. LtR has a profoundly positive effect on recovery with compared to IR and ER. Results suggest that ER and IR are individually insignificant but they effect on recovery jointly. Multiple regression model can be expressed as Recovery = 0.205+ 0.640ER + 0.124IR + 0.249LtR. The finding of this study is recommended to establish an institutional framework to monitor, evaluate and rectify the disaster recovery process with standardized indicators, procedures, and guidelines. Further, it is recommended to adopt a community based long-term recovery approach for sustainable landslide disaster recovery.

Assessment of the emergency recovery ability of heat supply systems in conditions of the Far North

The reliability of heat supply systems depends on the prevention, failure control and improving the efficiency of individual elements of heating systems and heat networks. Standard service life is determined for the operating conditions of central Russia. The heating system and heating networks in the North are engineering according to uniform requirements, as in the middle lane, but they work under more severe conditions due to the extended heating season and low average temperature of the heating period. This paper presents a novel study of the definition of service life and emergency recovery work, considering the factors of geographical location and climatic conditions of operation of elements of heating systems. Performed the analysis of statistical and calculated data for the operation of engineering systems for conditions of the Far North and the Arctic. As a pilot study, heating and heat supply systems are used in Yakutsk, Russia. An analysis of emergency situations of buildings. The results show that the indicator of heat resistance can be used as one of the indicators to select the optimal combination of centralized and decentralized heat supply, taking into account the provision of repair and rehabilitation works. Revealed the dependencies of the period of operational and restoration work on the initial parameters, changes in the temperatures of the internal and external air, the material of the structures and the element of the systems.

Power aware routing algorithms (PARA) in wireless mesh networks for emergency management.

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) integrate the advantages of WLANs and mobile Ad Hoc networks, which have become the key techniques of next-generation wireless networks in the context of emergency recovery. Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) are multi-hop wireless networks with instant deployment, self-healing, self-organization and self-configuration features. These capabilities make WMNs a promising technology for incident and emergency communication. An incident area network (IAN) needs a reliable and lively routing path during disaster recovery and emergency response operations when infrastructure-based communications and power resources have been destroyed and no routes are available. Power aware routing plays a significant role in WMNs, in order to provide continuous efficient emergency services. The existing power aware routing algorithms used in wireless networks cannot fully fit the characteristics of WMNs, to be used for emergency recovery. This paper proposes a power aware routing algorithm (PARA) for WMNs, which selects optimal paths to send packets, mainly based on the power level of next node along the path. This algorithm was implemented and tested in a proven simulator. The analytic results show that the proposed power node-type aware routing algorithm metric can clearly improve the network performance by reducing the network overheads and maintaining a high delivery ratio with low latency.

IRPA GUIDANCE-THE ROLE OF STAKEHOLDERS, RADIATION PROTECTION CULTURE AND ETHICS IN EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS.

The International Radiation Protection Association, IRPA, promotes the excellence in radiation protection by providing benchmarks of good practice, as well as enhancing professional competence and networking. In relation to emergency situations, including post-accident and recovery phases, a key issue is the ability of the system of protection to take a broader view of societal values, along with the need to develop processes which support and respect the dignity and well-being of the affected populations. Regarding the various situations of radiation exposure, IRPA's activities include aspects which can contribute to medical preparedness in radiation emergencies, focusing particularly on stakeholder engagement, radiation protection culture, the ethical dimensions of radiation protection and public understanding of risks. As it is a combination of science, experience, ethical and social values, radiation protection culture promotes radiation risk awareness in the different exposure situations, including the implementation of countermeasures in radiation and nuclear emergencies and post-accident situations, with attention also on medical countermeasures.

Evaluation on Light Sources for Electric Power Emergency Recovery System Based on Grille Method and Maximum Information Coefficient Method

In order to evaluate the comprehensive performance of the lamps used in electric power emergency recovery system, four kinds of lamps are studied in this paper, which include metal halide lamp, induction lighting, LED lamp and XED lamp. Fuzzy Borda number analysis and maximum information coefficient method based on Grille acquisition method are combined in this paper. The evaluation index system and evaluation model of electric emergency recovery system are established to analyze the applicability, economy and reliability of different kinds of lamps. The comprehensive performances of these lamps are compared. Through the simulation studies, the applicability and reliability of the XED lamp is more prominent.

Research on SOC Calibration of Large Capacity Lead Acid Battery

Large capacity lead-acid battery is used in track electric locomotive, and State of Charge (SOC) is an important quantitative parameter of locomotive power output and operating mileage of power emergency recovery vehicle. But State of Charge estimation has been a difficult part in the battery management system. In order to reduce the SOC estimation error better, this paper uses the linear relationship of Open Circuit Voltage (OCV) and State of Charge to fit the SOC-OCV curve equation by MATLAB. The method proposed in this paper is small, easy to implement and can be used in the battery non-working state SOC estimation correction, improve the estimation accuracy of SOC.

Rethinking risk: a narrative approach

PurposeThe assessment and management of risk is central to contemporary mental health practice. The emergence of recovery has contributed to demands for more service user centred approaches to risk. The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential of narrative as a framework for understanding risk and safety in mental health care.Design/methodology/approachNarrative theory is adopted to structure a debate examining the potential role of a narrative approach to risk assessment and inform future practice.FindingsThere is a danger that even within services, people with mental health problems are understood in terms of their riskiness perpetuating an image of service users as “dangerous others”. This is confounded by a disconnection with individual context in the risk assessment process. Narrative centralizes the persons’ subjective experience and provides a contemporaneous self-account of their identity. This situates risk within a context and creates possibility for greater understanding of coping, strengths and resilience.Originality/valueThere has been a call for new ways of working with risk in mental health which facilitate safety and recovery. There is limited examination of what this might actually look like. This paper presents narrative as an approach that may achieve these aims.

Verification of Applicability of Emergency Recovery Scenario Applying Field Recovery Case

Verification of Applicability of Emergency Recovery Scenario Applying Field Recovery Case

Lake imaging and monitoring aerial drone

Abstract We describe the development of a BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line-Of-Sight) model aircraft (UAV). The broad design requirements included (i) fuselage capable of accommodating an imaging package or other instrumentation, (ii) suitability for over-lake BVLOS authorization in Switzerland, (iii) capability of land or water take-offs/landing, (iv) at least 90-min flight autonomy, (v) modularity of the imaging package and (vi) real-time IR/RGB imagery. Requirement (i) was to ensure an aircraft amenable to future developments. Requirements (ii)–(iv) were driven by the goal of improving estimates of lake surface energy fluxes, since such fluxes have a major impact on long-term lake temperatures and hence ecological status. Requirement (v), in conjunction with (i), allows the UAV to be adapted to other imaging applications. The real-time imagery requirement (vi) permits modifications of on-going missions to map areas of specific interest as they are detected. The prototype UAV produced to satisfy these characteristics was built on the twin-motor My Twin Dream (MTD) aircraft, which has a 1.8-m wing span airframe and a spacious fuselage. The legal authorization necessitated, where feasible, hardware redundancy as well as installation of a parachute system. Continuous communication between the ground station and UAV is provided by the LTE cellular telephone network. The UAV communication is handled by an on-board Linux computer, which is also responsible for control of the imagery package. The avionics involved modifications of the open-source APM autopilot software and the associated ground control station. A key modification was to support a custom-built emergency recovery system, which is triggered by loss of a heart-beat signal from the autopilot. The MTD airframe was modified to accommodate the system electronics and imaging hardware. Results from test flights over Lake Geneva demonstrate the ability of the aircraft to produce imagery data.

Flexible decision making in the wake of large scale nuclear emergencies: Long-term response

We develop a decision-making model that describes optimal protection and recovery strategies for a single economic location affected by radioactive release from the nearby Nuclear Power Plant. The initial period of release and deposition is characterised by high degrees of uncertainty, which is likely to lead to precautionary emergency measures being carried out regardless of the actual dangers to the public, and therefore it is excluded from the optimisation problem. Instead, the analysis is performed on the timescale of weeks, months, years and decades after the accident, implying that the problem is largely deterministic if one disregards long-term economic uncertainties. It is on these longer timescales that economically-driven decisions could be made on whether or not to implement various protection and recovery measures, which include relocation, remediation, repopulation and food banning. Our model allows one to find the joint cost-minimal strategy across the set of measures, providing certain spatial and temporal flexibilities are permitted. Several qualitatively different strategies are identified, including those with no relocation and delayed remediation. Which strategy is optimal depends on the initial radiation levels, the rates and costs of the individual actions, and the preferred economic valuation of the relevant health effects associated with radiation. Our main message is that in many possible settings relocation should be used sparingly and repopulation should be delayed to exploit natural decay of the radioactive elements. These findings could provide useful recommendations to regulators in civil nuclear industry and help devise better policies for implementing emergency response and recovery measures.

Assessment of groundwater vulnerability to nitrate pollution caused by agricultural practices

Environmental risk assessment is a step towards identification, analysis, and classification of risk factors and thus reduction of the possibility of adverse consequences. In this research, a novel approach for environmental risk assessment on groundwater pollution is applied. By combination of aquifer vulnerability DRASTIC map, pollution severity and prioritizing of the plain regions by the TOPSIS method, more sensitive regions of Qazvin aquifer in Iran are identified. In the first step, seven hydro-geological characteristics of the aquifer are overlaid to produce the potential vulnerability map. Nitrate is used as the pollution parameter and its value in monitoring wells is measured by sampling. Spatial distribution of nitrate concentration is investigated using the ordinary kriging method. The TOPSIS ranking method is also applied to estimate the probability of occurrence of pollution based on five affecting criteria defined and quantified in regions of the aquifer. By production of these three layers, the risk map of the aquifer is generated. Results indicate that 9% of the area of the aquifer is categorized in the high risk level which needs an emergency recovery action plan. Also, sensitivity analysis on the parameters of the aquifer vulnerability shows the effect of the soil media more than other parameters.

Development and Verification of Scenarios for Emergency Recovery of Waterfront Structures

Development and Verification of Scenarios for Emergency Recovery of Waterfront Structures

Use of an analytical method for calculating reliability of elements of electric power systems based on probabilistic models

Today, we no longer have to prove the need for numerical evaluation of reliability of in-plant power supply systems. There have been established generally accepted reliability indices in the form of frequency of various accidents and mathematical expectation of undersupply of electricity to consumers, or decrease of power generation by plants. Factors are revealed factors that must be considered at analysis of reliability of power supply systems: availability of repair of switching circuits and duration of repair of the main equipment and switching equipment, failures of switching devices and devices of relay protection and automatics, routine switching, seasonal variations in damage to overhead lines and outdoor equipment. Here, one should take into account a possible lack of reliable initial information about the reliability of elements at the consideration of a specific installation. The paper formulates models of the analytical method of calculation of reliability parameters of elements of power supply systems in the Matlab software. Reliability models are considered for power units, which involve restoration and prevention activities. Three states of a system are considered: operable state; emergency downtime and recovery, scheduled downtime for preventive maintenance or repair subject to intensities of emergency and planned outages, intensities, recovery and completion of scheduled maintenance and repair. It is shown that, at present, targeted screening and quantification of contributions to unreliability of power supply systems by failures of elements of the system, its states and modes, as well as effectiveness of various measures, allow to identify weak links of the power supply systems and to work out specific ways for improvement in the process of human-machine synthesis of the power supply system. This approach to design involves searching for new circuit solutions, and changes in the structure of the circuit and layout solutions of its equipment mitigation of weaknesses, elimination of excessive equipment, or, on the contrary, using more reliable equipment, as well as its modernization.