Rescue Capability Research Articles

Simulation Research and Practical Application of Cutting Teeth for Drill Bits in Life-Support Holes

This study aims to achieve rapid drilling of life-support holes, regarding the optimization design of drill bits as the key, among which the simulation analysis of drill bit cutting teeth is an important technical means. Firstly, based on the rock mechanics test results in the study area combined with the corresponding logging information, the analysis and evaluation of the geological conditions in the study area were completed, a complete rock mechanics characteristic profile was established, and the drillability of the rock was calculated to be relatively good. Then, a numerical simulation of parallel cutting of rock with conical teeth was established by experimentally testing rock mechanics parameters and using the discrete element method (PFC2D). The simulation study of the drill bit cutting teeth was completed by parameter calibration, analysis of rock cutting morphology, analysis of the number of rock cutting cracks, and analysis of the specific work of rock cutting and breaking. It was determined that the optimal rock-entering angle of the drill bit cutting teeth in the Shouyang mining area is 14°. Finally, verified by field practice, the optimized drill bit has stable performance, strong cutting ability, and good wear resistance; the maximum instantaneous mechanical drilling speed reaches 58.14 m/h, and it shows a slightly worn state after continuously drilling 582 m in the stratum, meeting the requirements of one-trip drilling and hole formation for life-support holes. This research provides a scientific basis and practical techniques for the construction of life-support holes in the Shouyang mining area and under similar geological conditions. It can provide more effective emergency plans and rescue strategies for possible mine disasters in the future, which is crucial for improving the technical system of emergency rescue for mine accidents and enhancing the emergency rescue capability of surface drilling.

Study on the Diffusion Law of Heavy Gas Leakage in Complex Scenarios Based on Scaled-Down Experiments.

In order to study the effects of temperature, wind speed, and leakage volume on the diffusion of heavy gas leakage, this paper establishes a scaling model for the experimental study of gas leakage and diffusion by using the similarity theory with a certain factory as the target. And carbon dioxide gas is selected to replace the toxic and harmful heavy gas to carry out experiments under different temperatures (0-40 °C), wind speeds (0-2 m/s), and leakage velocities (2.5-12.5 L/min), respectively. The results showed that the diffusion rate of heavy gas expanded with increasing temperature under the conditions of wind speed of 0.25 m/s and leakage velocity of 1.5 L/min. When the temperature was increased from 0 to 40 °C, the concentration increase at each location was 125-290% at 600 s. Under the condition of temperature of 20 °C and leakage velocity of 5 L/min, the concentration at each location increased linearly with diffusion time when there was wind, while the linear relationship was not obvious when there was no wind. The effect on the concentration was larger when the wind speed was less than 1 m/s and smaller when the wind speed was greater than 1 m/s. At 20 °C and a wind speed of 0.5 m/s, the concentration of carbon dioxide at each location was increasing as the leakage increased. As the leakage velocity increases from 2.5 to 12.5 L/min, the carbon dioxide concentration at 600 s spreads 2-14 times. The research in this paper provides some decision support for the rescue work, which is important for improving the emergency rescue capability of the leakage accident.

Structural Design Study of Air-Dropped Unmanned Maritime Mobile Search and Rescue Platforms

In order to improve the efficiency and safety of search and rescue (SAR) at sea, this paper proposes a kind of emergency rapid rescue unmanned craft (air-dropped unmanned maritime motorized search and rescue platform) that can be delivered by a large transport aircraft. This paper studies the structural design scheme of the platform, and the main scale of the platform, the choice of power system and the impact resistance performance are considered in the design process to ensure its rapid response and effective rescue capability under complex sea conditions. Simulation results show that the platform can withstand the impact of air injection into the water and the shipboard equipment can operate normally under the impact load, thus verifying the feasibility and safety of the design. This study serves to improve the maritime search and rescue system and enhance the oceanic emergency response capability.

An integrated group decision-making framework for evaluating the urban fire emergency management capability based on PDHLWPHM and PDHLWPGHM operator

Urban fire accident is a common dangerous accident in urban sudden accidents, which threatens the safety of people’s lives and property. For this reason, in recent years, all cities have incorporated the prevention and emergency management of urban fire accidents into their urban development planning, and actively improved their fire accident emergency management capabilities. However, how to evaluate the urban fire accident emergency management capacity of each city to ensure that people’s lives and property are protected to the greatest extent is an urgent problem to be considered and solved. Therefore, this paper defines a class of probabilistic double hierarchy linguistic Heronian mean (PDHLHM) operator, probabilistic double hierarchy linguistic Power Heronian mean (PDHLPHM) operators, and their dual operators that can reflect the relationship between two attributes during aggregation. Taking urban fire accident risk monitoring and early warning capability, fire infrastructure and communication system, fire-fighting and rescue capability, recovery and reconstruction capability as evaluation attributes, the probabilistic double hierarchy linguistic weight Power Heronian mean (PDHLWPHM) operator model and the probabilistic double hierarchy linguistic weight Power geometric Heronian mean (PDHLWPGHM) operator model are constructed for group decision-making. In addition, the idempotence, boundedness and monotonicity of these operators are studied, and the sensitivity of the parameters involved in the operator model is analyzed. Finally, the new model proposed in this paper is compared with the existing model to verify its scientificity.

Dependence of human cell survival and proliferation on the CASP3 prodomain

Mechanisms that regulate cell survival and proliferation are important for both the development and homeostasis of normal tissue, and as well as for the emergence and expansion of malignant cell populations. Caspase-3 (CASP3) has long been recognized for its proteolytic role in orchestrating cell death-initiated pathways and related processes; however, whether CASP3 has other functions in mammalian cells that do not depend on its known catalytic activity have remained unknown. To investigate this possibility, we examined the biological and molecular consequences of reducing CASP3 levels in normal and transformed human cells using lentiviral-mediated short hairpin-based knockdown experiments in combination with approaches designed to test the potential rescue capability of different components of the CASP3 protein. The results showed that a ≥50% reduction in CASP3 levels rapidly and consistently arrested cell cycle progression and survival in all cell types tested. Mass spectrometry-based proteomic analyses and more specific flow cytometric measurements strongly implicated CASP3 as playing an essential role in regulating intracellular protein aggregate clearance. Intriguingly, the rescue experiments utilizing different forms of the CASP3 protein showed its prosurvival function and effective removal of protein aggregates did not require its well-known catalytic capability, and pinpointed the N-terminal prodomain of CASP3 as the exclusive component needed in a diversity of human cell types. These findings identify a new mechanism that regulates human cell survival and proliferation and thus expands the complexity of how these processes can be controlled.The graphical abstract illustrates the critical role of CASP3 for sustained proliferation and survival of human cells through the clearance of protein aggregates.

Temporal assessment of emergency response and rescue capability for hybrid hydrogen-gasoline fueling stations based on dynamic scenario construction

In the event of a fire or explosion at a hybrid hydrogen-gasoline fueling station, the consequences can be significantly more severe compared to a traditional refueling station or hydrogen refueling station. It is imperative to establish an effective assessment model specific to the hybrid station to prevent and mitigate such accidents. This paper introduces a temporal dynamic assessment model designed to evaluate the emergency response and rescue capabilities of hybrid hydrogen-gasoline fueling stations. The model is grounded in dynamic scenario construction and utilizes information-driven theory. This innovative approach allows for evaluations of the risk evolution process at different stages of an accident. The proposed assessment model combines the Temporal Weighted Average (TOWA) and Temporal Weighted Geometric Average (TOWGA) operators to integrate assessment values across different stages including the initial disaster assessment, emergency action plans, effectiveness feedback, and emergency response adjustment. This integration yields a comprehensive dynamic assessment value for the emergency response and rescue capabilities of the hybrid hydrogen-gasoline fueling station. Based on the dynamic assessment of a previously occurring accident, the specialized emergency management department performed most effectively during the incident response stage, achieving a commendable assessment value of 3.184. Following closely was the government emergency response department, with assessment values of 2.865 and 2.277. This study offers a novel analytical perspective for emergency management in hybrid hydrogen-gasoline fueling stations by incorporating the findings of both dynamic and static assessments.

Exploring the Mutual Influence Relationships of International Airport Resilience Factors from the Perspective of Aviation Safety: Using Fermatean Fuzzy DEMATEL Approach

International airports are responding to the threat of climate change and various man-made hazards by proposing impact protection measures. Airport managers and risk controllers should develop a comprehensive risk assessment model to measure the mutual influence relationships of resilience factors. In this paper, the problem of treating resilience factors as independent ones in previous studies is overcome. In this study, we not only develop a framework for assessing resilience factors in international airports based on an aviation safety perspective, but also develop the Fermatean fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (FF-DEMATEL) to identify the mutual influence relationships of resilience factors. Fermatean fuzzy sets are incorporated in DEMATEL to reflect information incompleteness and uncertainty. The critical resilience factors of international airports were identified through real-case analysis. In terms of importance, the results show that rescue capability is a core capability that is important for airport resilience. In addition, “security management system (SeMS) integrity”, “education and training of ground staff on airport safety awareness”, “first aid mechanism for the injured”, and “adequate maintenance equipment for rapid restoration tasks” are identified as key factors that are given more weights. On the other hand, in terms of influence strength, the detection capability has the highest total influence and significantly influenced the other resilience capabilities. Finally, the influential network relation map (INRM) is utilized to assist decisionmakers in swiftly comprehending the impact of factors and formulating viable strategies to enhance airport resilience. This enables airport managers and risk controllers to make informed decisions and allocate resources efficiently.

Evaluation of forest fire risk based on multicriteria decision analysis techniques for Changzhou, China

With the rapid development of China's economy, an increasing number of cities are building forest parks or landscape forests to improve the quality of people's lives and protect the environment. However, forest fires are notoriously difficult to extinguish and have caused tragic losses to cities. Therefore, it is particularly important to conduct a comprehensive assessment of forest fire risk. This study focuses on urban forest fire risk to develop an integrated fire risk model to prevent forest fires. A risk assessment model covering different multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) techniques was developed to analyze safety vulnerabilities and determine fire risk levels with the spatial analysis functions of geographical information system (GIS) software. Moreover, the accuracy of the model was verified using fire data downloaded from the NASA-FIRMS website. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) was used to evaluate the accuracy of each model. The results show that the AUC value of the combination weighting of game theory (CWGT) method is 0.700. The method has good accuracy and can be used to predict the forest fire risk in Changzhou City. The towns with the highest forest fire risk in Changzhou City were Tianmuhu, Daibu, and Xuebu, with average areas of 8354.77 ha, 5125.92 ha, and 5256.67 ha, respectively, and proportions of 36.20 %, 37.15 %, and 23.43 %, respectively. The conclusion of this study provides a reference and guide for local government management. At the same time, this study considers the emergency rescue capability index and comprehensively evaluates the risk over a time series of pre- and postfire. This is a new attempt and has made new contributions to this field.

A Safety Assessment Model for Handling Dangerous Goods in Port Operations: The Key Role of Detection Capability

Recently, resilience studies have been emphasized in the port field, recognizing that many high-risk and unsafe factors in ports might bring serious disasters and economic losses. One major cause of significant losses is accidents from fires, explosions, and the resultant adverse impacts from dangerous goods. Whilst the occurrence of major events related to dangerous goods is relatively low in occurrence, their impact on the environment and economic and social loss, and on human casualties, can be extremely high when they do occur. In order to prevent potential risks and reduce losses, based on a literature review, a safety assessment model was developed with four criteria and 15 sub-criteria of dangerous goods in ports using a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) approach. This model formed the basis for a subsequent stage involving questionnaires with 25 experts. The results of these questionnaires found that the key criteria are detection capability, followed by recovery capability, rescue capability, and resistance capability. Sensitivity analysis is used to identify the criteria’s weight value changes under various scenarios. These findings concern dangerous goods operations management in ports. Critically, these findings emphasize the key role played in the initial stages of determining precisely and exactly what specific goods are in fact dangerous goods, thereby avoiding a domino effect of adverse consequences later. Suggestions are made for policymakers regarding funding and supporting processes for handling dangerous goods, as well as for future research.

Coal Mine Fire Emergency Rescue Capability Assessment and Emergency Disposal Research

Nowadays, underground coal mine accidents occur frequently, causing huge casualties and economic losses, most of which are gas explosion accidents caused by fires. In order to improve the emergency rescue capability of coal mine fires and reduce the losses caused by coal mine fires, this article is dedicated to the assessment of coal mine fire rescue capability. Taking the fire emergency rescue system of Lugou mine as an example, based on the introduction of gray system theory and gray evaluation method, an evaluation model was established to assess the risk of the fire emergency rescue index system of Lugou mine. Four primary and 19 secondary indicators were delineated, and a hierarchical structure model of the fire emergency rescue capability of the Lugou mine was established by combining expert opinions, and the weights of indicators at all levels were calculated by using hierarchical analysis. We then used the gray system evaluation method and expert scoring to judge the safety level of various indicator factors in the index system. The evaluation results show that the risk level of the emergency rescue system of the Lugou mine fire is higher than the fourth level. The main risk indicator factors are firefighting equipment, decision-making command, emergency education and training, and fire accident alarm. In response to this evaluation result, corresponding control measures were formulated in four aspects: rescue organization guarantee, personnel guarantee, material guarantee, and information guarantee, which optimally improved the emergency rescue capability of the Lugou mine fire and reduced the loss caused by fire.

Collaborative search and rescue based on swarm of H-MASSs using consensus theory

Swarm of marine autonomous surface ships (MASSs) constitutes the most critical part in maritime search and rescue (MSR). A collaborative consensus strategy for the swarm of heterogeneous MASSs (H-MASSs) is proposed, which realizes large-scale continuous and efficient search after marine incidents. (1). The MSR area is allocated according to the search and rescue capability (SRC) of H-MASSs based on the drift model; (2). Based on the search and rescue progress rate (SRPR), a consensus controller is designed to make the swarm of H-MASSs collaborate to complete the task synchronously; (3). Line-of-Sight method is improved to ensure stable path tracking of swarm. The experimental verification and efficiency comparison shows that the collaborative consensus strategy improves the efficiency by 42% compared with the strategy without considering the SRC, and is 22% higher than the decentralized control strategy, which has strong efficiency and stability. It can provide a theoretical basis for the large-scale cooperative operation of the swarm of H-MASSs in the future, and gradually realize the autonomous navigation of the swarm of H-MASSs formation in the whole sea area with the development of ship networking technology.

A Time-Domain Planning Method for Surface Rescue Process of Amphibious Aircraft for Medium/Distant Maritime Rescue

Medium/distant maritime rescue is significantly important in the development of maritime business. For typical medium/distant maritime rescue, the range limitation of helicopters and many difficulties between helicopter and ship cooperation lead to unsatisfactory rescue results. Compared to helicopters and ships, amphibious aircrafts could effectively solve the problems faced by helicopters and ships and meet the medium/distant maritime rescue demands with their long cruise range, high speed, high rescue capability and surface landing capability. Therefore, a time-domain planning method (TPM) based on the k-means* clustering algorithm and the genetic algorithm* is proposed in this study for the surface rescue process (SRP) of amphibious aircrafts in medium/distant maritime rescue. To simulate the SRP of amphibious aircrafts, an agent-based simulation environment of medium/distant maritime rescue was constructed based on the Python platform. Finally, a case study was carried out to verify its effectiveness and applicability. The results show that the TPM exhibits satisfactory rescue results for the SRP of the amphibious aircraft and that less than 1 h of delay time is recommended for the amphibious aircraft to rescue the persons in distress by using TPM.

COVID-19 and British Columbia's volunteer search and rescue workers: risk recognition and risk mitigation.

Early during COVID-19, British Columbia coordinated collaboration between academic researchers, public healthcare systems, and private sector partners to focus research resources on knowledge gaps in a timely manner, avoid duplication, and identify overlooked aspects. At a collaboration symposium, it became evident that BC's volunteer search & rescue (SAR) cadre was overlooked. Our exploratory project studied volunteer SAR's operational readiness; use and perceived value of information sources; consistency in infection prevention measures among volunteer stations, and with their professional counterparts for comparable first aid medical interventions throughout the pandemic. We partnered with the 2 organizations that govern BC's volunteer SAR stations. Local station leaders completed a short confidential survey. Guidance documents issued by associations governing voluntary and professional first responders were compared. Survey responses were received from 33 of 109 local stations, spanning all regions of BC. Most remained operationally ready throughout the entire pandemic (12.1% had to stand down at times). Except for 21% lacking eye protection, all had personal protective equipment commensurate with that of healthcare professionals; however, few used this PPE in a manner consistent with professional counterparts. Usage and perceived usefulness of various information sources differed. There was no communication link between the province's infection control experts and 2 volunteer SAR organizations. Search & rescue capability was maintained despite pandemic impacts. Results reveal strengths and opportunities for improvement in the ways volunteers are informed and protected. Infection control experts providing advice for emergency health services professional responders should remember to include their volunteer counterparts.

The Relationship of Nurse Prevention, Rescue Capabilities with Emergency Response Efforts to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) at Aceh Regional General Hospital : A Cross-Sectional Study

Emergency response is a series of activities that must be carried out immediately to reduce the adverse impactscaused including basic needs, rescue activities and evacuation of victims. Nurses’ emergency response effortsto COVID-19 are divided into four, namely prevention capabilities, psychological readiness, infection controland emergency rescue capabilities. The purpose of this study was to analyzing factors influencing nurses’emergency response with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the Aceh Regional General Hospital. This typeof research is quantitative with a cross-sectional study design. The research sample based on the inclusionand exclusion criteria was 89 respondents. Data analysis used univariate (descriptive statistics), bivariate (chisquare) and multivariate (logistic regression) methods. The results of the bivariate analysis showed that thevariable preventive ability (P-value 0.000) and emergency rescue capability (P-value 0.000) that were related toemergency response efforts against COVID-19. The results of the multivariate analysis found that emergencyrescue capabilities were the most related factor to emergency response efforts (OR: 14,072). Based on the resultsof the study, the most significant determinant of nurses’ emergency response efforts to COVID-19 is the ability torescue in the form of nurses’ attitudes and actions in providing nursing care. Emergency rescue capabilities canbreak the chain of transmission of the COVID-19 virus and provide nursing care to patients who are confirmedpositive for COVID-19.

A Network DEA Approach for Performance Evaluation of Safety Supervision and Rescue Capability in the Port Waters of Changjiang MSA

In recent years, the global economic situation and the development of the international shipping industry have been deeply affected by COVID-19. Since 2021, China has gradually recovered its international shipping supply chain industry with the help of government policy support, and its GDP has grown by 8.1% year by year. Under this favorable macroeconomic background, the Yangtze River waterway transportation, with its good waterway conditions, has led to the continuous increase in transportation demands. However, while pursuing rapid economic growth, ensuring the navigation safety and rescue of ships in the waterway has been one of the key issues of concern for maritime divisions along the Yangtze River. Therefore, combined with the network date envelopment data (DEA) model, this study intends to construct a new set of performance evaluation models in line with their safety supervision and rescue capability based on the daily work characteristics of the Changjiang Maritime Safety Administration (MSA). The occurrence of disasters in their port areas has been taken into consideration as the key undesirable variable. This study hopes to screen out worthy pacesetter representatives, and further suggests more targeted improvement options for inefficient maritime authorities to facilitate more effective safety supervision in the future.

Research on the Siting Model of Emergency Centers in a Chemical Industry Park to Prevent the Domino Effect

A chemical industry park (CIP) has a wide variety of hazardous chemicals, and once an accident occurs, the level of danger increases geometrically, while the domino effect may bring devastating consequences. To improve the emergency rescue capability of a chemical park and prevent the domino effect, a certain number of emergency centers are built at sites near the park for the purpose of rapid emergency rescue and deployment of emergency supplies. Based on this, in our study, a siting model of the emergency center of the chemical park, which aims to prevent the domino effect, was constructed by considering the timeliness and safety, while adopting the prevention of the domino effect as a constraint. The NSGA-II algorithm is used to solve the siting model, and the CPLEX method is used for the comparison. This study combines the prevention of the domino effect with multi-objective optimization theory, which has a good and simple applicability for solving the considered problem and can obtain solutions in line with science and reality. It also adds the risk radius of the demand point based on the traditional siting model and proposes a model that combines the risk and distance to reduce the risk of accidents across the whole region. Finally, the model is applied to a chemical park in China for an arithmetic analysis to provide decision makers with a targeted reference base for the siting of an emergency center. The experimental results show that the NSGA-II algorithm can effectively solve the model of the emergency center in the chemical park and outperforms the results obtained from the CPLEX solution in terms of its cost and safety.

A joint analysis method for capability and demand of post-earthquake medical rescue in a city

To reduce earthquake-induced casualties, it is essential to analyze the capability and demand of post-earthquake medical rescue in a city. This study proposes a joint method for such analysis. First, a casualty analysis solution using a population heat map was created to determine the demand for post-earthquake medical rescue. Subsequently, a route planning algorithm, considering the impact of collapsed buildings, was designed to quickly match the hospital with injured people and transport them to the hospital. Finally, a discrete event simulation (DES) model of hospitals was built to calculate temporal variations in medical rescue capability, based on the matched injured people and their travel time, and a real case of a hospital in the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake was used to validate the DES model. Using the proposed method, the post-earthquake rescue demand of a small city in China and the rescue capability of a hospital in this city were analyzed. The results indicate that the hospital is unable to meet the rescue demand within 72 h after the earthquake. The outcome of this study can evaluate the capability and demand for post-earthquake medical rescue in a city, which helps reveal bottlenecks in the process of medical rescue and thus reduce casualties.

Emergency Response System Combining the Internal and External Domains (ERSCIED)

Agent-based modeling is a promising approach for developing simulation tools for natural hazards in different areas, such as during urban search and rescue (USAR) operations. The previous studies aimed to develop a dynamic agent-based simulation model in post-earthquake emergency response operations combining rescuers and victims using geospatial information systems and multi-agent systems (GISs and MASs, respectively). We use multi-agent system engineering (MaSE) to construct this model and cluster points are proposed to assemble rescuers and victims. We also proposed an approach for dynamic task allocation and for establishing collaboration among agents based on contract net protocol (CNP) and the [Formula: see text]-means clustering method. Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and expert evaluation is used to sort the priorities of cluster points. The experimental background is set in the central area of Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China. 200 victims with different demands and 30 rescuers with the same rescue capability are randomly distributed in this area. We use different victim speeds to simulate different degrees of seismic damage. Compared with normal search and rescue, the ERSCIED can make some use of the capabilities of the victims for the improvement of emergency effectiveness when the victims and rescuers have a similar speed (1:1) or the victims are not much slower than the rescuers (1:2). When the victims are much slower than the rescuers (1:10), the rescuers have to wait for a long time at the cluster points and it will lead to a waste of resources. The parameters of rescuers and victims can be changed to meet different emergencies and the ERSCIED can provide effective auxiliary decision-making information for decision-makers.

An emergency supplies scheduling for chemical industry park: based on super network theory.

In a concentrated area of chemical industry parks (CIPs), emergency relief efficiency is not only affected by the rescue capability of themselves, but also their coordination relationships with other CIPs. Previous studies focus on the location of resource warehouse and the scheduling of logistics transportation, in the relief process after unexpected events, but rarely integrate them ideally in practice. This paper utilizes the super network theory to propose a regional emergency scheduling model to improve collaboration efficiency among primary relief centers (PRC), local relief centers (LRC), and CIPs. So, the proposed super network model fills the research gap of only considering emergency logistic supply chain and provides decision scheme regarding the emergency material dispatch plan. We developed a modified projection algorithm to solve the scheduling problem by turning it to a variational inequality and compare the performance under several disaster scenarios. The practicability of the model is proved by the result of the numerical example given.

The in-space rescue capability gap

The United States government and commercial spaceflight providers have no plans in place to conduct a timely rescue of a crew from a distressed spacecraft in low Earth orbit, or anywhere else in space. Without rescue plans and dedicated resources, today's space travelers will journey at their own risk. U.S. rules and regulations governing commercial spaceflight simply require launch service and space travel providers to inform the crew and passengers that there are risks. The United States, however, as the world's greatest space faring nation, has the wherewithal to develop and employ effective in-space rescue capabilities if it chooses to do so. This paper seeks to raise awareness of the need to revisit space rescue policies and close capability gaps through historical analogs such as the ancient maritime explorers that embarked upon epic journeys with multiple ships, effective submarine rescue operations, and the rich history of human spaceflight. Potential solutions to improve safety during space travel are identified and policy options are discussed.