Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health From Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism, 2011

Highlights examples of preparedness programs and capacities at risk of federal budget cuts or elimination, examines state and local public health budget cuts, reviews ten years of progress and shortfalls, and outlines policy issues and recommendations

Multi-Agents Systems and Territory: Concepts, Methods and Applications

This paper analyses the multi-agents systems that are now considered the best tool to simulate and study real world. We review the main characteristics of a multi-agents system, namely interactions and cooperations of agents, communications and behaviours between them and finally the schedule of actions and jobs assignment to agents. The multi-agents system approach is increasingly applied in social and economic sciences; so we study mainly the territorial applications. In these applications new characteristics arise from the consideration of territory (land and space where the agents live or territory as an agent in itself, that evolves in the time). We study possible new applications of multi-agents applied to the territory (for instance, to define town planning policies or to locate dangerous facilities). Furthermore we study new tools to make operational multi-agents systems (mainly Swarm, the toolkit of Santa Fe Institute). With Swarm we present two kind of territorial applications: with located agents (fixed in space) and with not located agents (moving in the space). Finally we show the results of these applications.

Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health From Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism, 2008

Examines ten indicators to assess progress in state readiness to respond to bioterrorism and other public health emergencies. Evaluates the federal government's and hospitals' preparedness. Makes suggestions for funding, restructuring, and other reforms

Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health in the Age of Bioterrorism, 2004

Examines ten key indicators to evaluate state preparedness to respond to bioterrorist attacks and other public health emergencies. Evaluates the federal government's role and performance, and offers recommendations for improving readiness

Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health From Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism, 2009

Based on ten indicators, assesses progress in the readiness of states, federal government, and hospitals to respond to public health emergencies, with a focus on the H1N1 flu. Outlines improvements and concerns in funding, accountability, and other areas

Applied Research Exemplars

The Center for Homeland Defense and Security’s unique academic environment brings together mid- and senior-level government officials with world-renowned faculty and experts in the diverse disciplines that comprise homeland security. The CHDS classroom is a place where participants think critically about homeland security issues and work collaboratively to develop strategic solutions. Master’s degree participants research and write course papers along with a final thesis. These original works concentrate on proposing creative policies, strategies and approaches to the public safety challenges facing their agencies and the broader homeland security community

Stronger Partnerships for Safer Food: An Agenda for Strengthening State and Local Roles in the Nation's Food Safety System

Examines federal, state, and local agencies' responsibilities, strengths, and weaknesses in ensuring food safety. Recommends systemwide reforms to enhance state and local roles and improve surveillance, outbreak response, and regulation and inspection

On the dynamic inventory routing problem in humanitarian logistics: a simulation optimization approach using agent-based modeling

80 páginasIn the immediate aftermath of any disaster event, operational decisions are made to relieve the affected population and minimize casualties and human suffering. To do so, humanitarian logistics planners should be supported by strong decision-making tools to better respond to disaster events. One of the most important decisions is the delivery of the correct amount of humanitarian aid in the right moment to the right place. This decision should be made considering the dynamism of the disaster response operations where the information is not known beforehand and vary over time. For instance, the effect of the Word-of-Mouth and shortages in distribution points’ demand can impact the operational decisions. Therefore, the inventory and transportation decisions should be made constantly to better serve the affected people. This work presents a simulation-optimization approach to make disaster relief distribution decisions dynamically. An agent-based simulation model solves the inventory routing problem dynamically, considering changes in the humanitarian supply chain over the planning horizon. Additionally, the inventory routing schemes are made using a proposed mathematical model that aims to minimize the level of shortage and inventory at risk (associated to the risk of losing it). The computational proposal is implemented in the ANYLOGIC and CPLEX software. Finally, a case study motivated by the 2017 Mocoa-Colombia landslide is developed using real data and is presented to be used in conjunction with the proposed framework. Computational experimentations show the impact of the word-of-mouth and the frequency in decision making in distribution points’ shortages and service levels. Therefore, considering changes in demand over the planning horizon contributes to lowering the shortages and contributes to making better distributions plans in the response phase of a disaster.Después de la ocurrencia de cualquier desastre se deben tomar decisiones para aliviar a la población afectada minimizando las pérdidas humanas y el sufrimiento. Para ello, los responsables de la logística humanitaria deben contar con robustas herramientas para tomar decisiones acertadas que respondan adecuadamente ante esos eventos. Una de las decisiones más importantes es la entrega de ayuda humanitaria en el lugar, las cantidades y en el momento correcto. La anterior decisión debe ser tomada teniendo en cuenta el dinamismo de las operaciones de respuesta humanitaria en donde la información no es conocida de antemano y varía en el tiempo. Por ejemplo, el efecto del Voz a Voz y la escasez en los puntos de distribución de ayuda humanitaira pueden impactar las decisiones operacionales. Es por lo anterior, que las decisiones de transporte de ayuda humanitaria deben ser realizadas constantemente para servir de una mejor forma a la población afectada. Este trabajo presenta una propuesta de simulación-optimización para tomar las decisiones de ruteo de inventario de ayuda humanitaria de forma dinámica. A través de un modelo de simulación basado en agentes se resuelve dinámicamente el problema de ruteo de inventario considerando cambios en la cadena de suministro humanitaria. Adicionalmente, las decisiones de ruteo de inventario son tomadas mediante un modelo matemático propuesto que busca minimizar el nivel de inventario en riesgo y el nivel de escases simultáneamente. La propuesta computacional es implementada en los programas ANYLOGIC y CPLEX. Finalmente mediante un caso de estudio basado en la catastrofe de Mocoa-Colombia en 2017 se evaluará la propuesta. Experimentos computacionales muestran el impacto del voz-a-voz y frecuencia de toma de decisiones en la escasez y el nivel de servicio en los puntos de distribución. Por lo tanto, considerar cambios en la demanda contribuye a disminuir la escasez y hacer mejores esquemas de distribución de ayuda humanitaria.Maestría en Diseño y Gestión de ProcesosMagíster en Diseño y Gestión de Proceso