1,721,062 research outputs found
Proposing behavior-oriented strategies for earthquake emergency evacuation: A behavioral data analysis from New Zealand, Italy and Japan
Full text linkIndividuals’ safety in an earthquake highly depends on human reactions and emergency behaviours, especially in first evacuation phases and in urban scenarios. To increase community resilience, Civil Defense Bodies in several earthquake prone countries have defined a list of recommended behaviours to take during and after an earthquake. Following those recommended behaviours could avoid exposing people to additional risks and allow them to reach an effective help from rescuers. Nevertheless, previous studies suggested that differences between recommended behaviors and real-life actions exist and increase the probabilities of casualties. Hence, solutions to assist communities in reducing the occurrence of such “unsafe” phenomena are needed. In this work, we adopt a behavioral approach to examine spontaneous real-life behaviours observed through a database of videotapes of earthquakes from New Zealand, Italy, and Japan. The presence of response actions recommended by Civil Defense Bodies of those three Countries is also assessed. Observed behaviors are organized according to evacuation phases, and comparisons between the three Countries results are provided. An uncertainty assessment is performed to investigate the sample size impact on the proposed analysis. Finally, behavioral results are employed to trace possible valuable solutions aimed at increasing community resilience and individuals’ safety, by limiting the impact of hazardous spontaneous behaviors and providing an effective support to evacuees’ decisions as well as possible. Main solutions categories include assistance tools (e.g.: building components, individual devices), educational training (e.g.: by using serious games), evacuation plans according to the probable evacuation proces
Multitemporal assessment of land-cover transitions in burnt forest areas using Landsat TM/ETM images
No full textTHE ACETYLCHOLINE SWEAT-SPOT TEST: AN EASY AND EFFECTIVE WAY TO SELECT PATIENTS FOR LUMBAR SYMPATHECTOMY
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Integration between genetic and archaeobotanical data in a study on the evolutionary history of Pinus halepensis Mill. populations in Southern Italy.
No full textAcetylcholine sweat test: an effective way to select patients for lumbar sympathectomy.
No full textAlthough lumbar sympathectomy can benefit patients with critical limb ischaemia, many derive no benefit from the procedure. The poor prediction of outcome may be related to pre-existing damage to the sympathetic fibres. We assessed sympathetic nerve function with the acetylcholine sweatspot test before and after lumbar sympathectomy in 31 patients with critical limb ischaemia. Of 9 patients with normal sympathetic function or minor denervation preoperatively (sweatspot score > or = 8), 8 showed improvement in pain and/or healing of ischaemic lesions after sympathectomy. The procedure did not achieve denervation in the patient without improvement, as shown by persisting sympathetic activity postoperatively. By contrast, among the 22 patients with lower sweatspot scores, indicating severe or complete sympathetic denervation, only 1 showed improvement (partial) after lumbar sympathectomy. 9 patients underwent oximetry before and after the operation; in this subgroup there was a positive correlation between preoperative sweatspot score and the change in tissue partial pressure of oxygen (r2 = 0.35). Preoperative assessment of sympathetic nerve function by means of a sensitive, quantitative test of autonomic integrity can predict the outcome of the procedure with high sensitivity and specificity. A postoperative test allows verification of sympathetic denervation. We recommend use of this simple test in selecting patients for lumbar sympathectomy
The 2017 Extreme Wildfires Events in Portugal through the Perceptions of Volunteer and Professional Firefighters
Full text linkThis study aimed to explore differences in the perceptions of professional and voluntary firefighters regarding the extreme wildfire events that occurred in Portugal in 2017. We collected a sample of 185 participants, professional and voluntary firefighters, who directly participated in suppression activities for the Pedrogao Grande and October 2017 wildfires in Portugal. They were on duty in 149 fire stations in the Central Region of Portugal. A questionnaire was sent via Google Form to participants, based mainly on close-ended and two open-ended questions. It was structured into topics concerning the characteristics of wildfire events, the problems that occurred during the suppression activity, the emotional response of participants to the events, the lessons learned, and the consequences. We found significant differences between the two groups in their perception of wildfire characteristics and their perception of the worst fires they had ever experienced. Some differences were found in their discussion of the suppression phase and their emotional response to fires. On the contrary, the two groups appear to be homogeneous when it comes to no significant changes after the deadly 2017 experience in terms of the fight against rural fires, organization, training, prevention, and careers. The results underline the inadequacy of the suppression model vs. extreme wildfire events, and also its limits from the point of view of psychological reactions and the perception of management problems occurring in extreme and complex events. There is a research gap and no examples in Portugal about the perception of firefighters of the complex flow of activities that characterize the suppression operation of extreme wildfire events. Our research fills this gap
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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