Modeling an ontology on accessible evacuation routes for emergencies

Providing alert communication in emergency situations is vital to reduce the number of victims. However, this is a challenging goal for researchers and professionals due to the diverse pool of prospective users, e.g. people with disabilities as well as other vulnerable groups. Moreover, in the event of an emergency situation, many people could become vulnerable because of exceptional circumstances such as stress, an unknown environment or even visual impairment (e.g. fire causing smoke). Within this scope, a crucial activity is to notify affected people about safe places and available evacuation routes. In order to address this need, we propose to extend an ontology, called SEMA4A (Simple EMergency Alert 4 [for] All), developed in a previous work for managing knowledge about accessibility guidelines, emergency situations and communication technologies. In this paper, we introduce a semi-automatic technique for knowledge acquisition and modeling on accessible evacuation routes. We introduce a use case to show applications of the ontology and conclude with an evaluation involving several experts in evacuation procedures. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Exercise Handbook: What Transportation Security and Emergency Preparedness Leaders Need to Know to Improve Emergency Preparedness, MTI Report 12-08

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has provided extensive general guidance on developing training and exercise programs for public entities, but little had been done to focus that material on the transportation sector specifically. Transportation sector emergency managers have noted that there should be specific guidance for developing exercises that are focused on the operational work of their agencies, in addition to the Logistics Section functions that are usually the focus of transportation sector entities in multi-agency, multi-jurisdiction exercises. The first section of his report provides information on federal training and exercise requirements for transportation sector entities. It summarizes the changes to emergency management programs and requirements that grew out of the Presidential Policy Directive-8 (PPD-8) issuance in early 2011, and the challenges of adult training. The second section is a Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP)-compliant practical handbook using the project management approach that guides transportation sector staff in the creation, development, implementation and wrap-up of federally mandated exercises. It includes scenarios and implementation guidance based on the actual experiences and work of the transportation sector

Mobile-Based Notification System for University's Events

Mobile phone plays a very important role in people life today; its functionality has been extended from voice communication only devices to internet surfing and data transfer. UUM as a higher education institute, hold and organize numerous events throughout the academic year and it relies on email communications for notifying its staff. Using the email notification to announce the staff for the function is suffering from two main problems which are: First, some of the staff do not check his/her email periodically, so they may miss read the notification email about the function and therefore they will not attend the function. Second, sometimes internet service is not available or staffs are at some place where they can not access internet which will lead also to make them unaware about the function or the notification about that function. This study has successfully designed and developed a notification system in order to be used by UUM to send the notifications direct to the staff mobile phones via SMS and thus helps in make sure that the notification is delivered to all interested staff. Successfully implementing this notification system in UUM will provide the university a reliable and convenient inter communication channel

FEeSU - A Framework for Evaluating eHealth Systems Usability: A Case of Tanzania Health Facilities

Adopting eHealth systems in the health sector has changed the means of providing health services and increased the quality of service in many countries. The usability of these systems needs to be evaluated from time to time to reduce or completely avoid the possibility of jeopardizing the patients’ data, medication errors, etc. However, the existing frameworks are not country context sensitive since they are designed with the mindset of practices in developed countries. Such developed countries’ contexts have different cultures, resource settings, and levels of computer literacy compared to developing countries such as Tanzania. This paper presents the framework for evaluating eHealth system usability (FEeSU) that is designed with a focus on developing country contexts and tested in Tanzania. Healthcare professionals, including doctors, nurses, laboratory technologists, and pharmacists, were the main participants in this research to acquire practice-oriented requirements based on their experience, best practices, and healthcare norms. The framework comprises six steps to be followed in the evaluation process. These steps are associated with important components, including usability metrics, stakeholders, usability evaluation methods, and contextual issues necessary for usability evaluation. The proposed usability evaluation framework could be used as guidelines by different e-health system stakeholders when preparing, designing, and performing the evaluation of the usability of a system. Keywords: Usability metrics, Usability evaluation Contextual issues eHealth systems Framework for usability evaluation FEeSU. DOI: 10.7176/CEIS/10-1-01 Publication date:September 30th 202

Pay for Success: The First Generation - A Comparative Analysis of the First 10 Pay for Success Projects in the United States

Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) has released a comprehensive free report on the first 10 Pay for Success (PFS) projects that have launched in the United States. This report details how and why communities have applied this new approach to address critical social issues including early childhood education, homelessness, and criminal justice and recidivism. Pay for Success is an approach to contracting that ties payment for service delivery to the achievement of measurable outcomes. In the U.S., all of the current PFS projects have been accompanied by a form of social innovation financing, often referred to as a Social Impact Bond, in which investors provide upfront financing for the delivery of services and are repaid only if the services achieve a pre-agreed upon set of positive outcomes. The report includes a series of comparative graphics and observations on the market's development to-date. It examines project goals and project design; the partners and stakeholders involved; the underlying data, evidence, and evaluation plans; the governance and investment structures, including repayment terms and investor profiles; and project costs. To create the report, NFF drew on experience as a PFS educator, partner, and investor and conducted research using project documentation, publically available information, and stakeholder interviews. Over the past five years, NFF has conducted more than 200 PFS trainings, presentations, webinars, workshops, and convenings across the country for service providers, governments, and investors. NFF also manages the Pay for Success Learning Hub, www.payforsuccess.org, the leading national repository for education and information on Pay for Success. NFF's work on the report was made possible with the support of the Corporation for National and Community Service's Social Innovation Fund (SIF)

A Systems Approach to Selecting and Outfitting a Helicopter for Airborne Law Enforcement

A modern day airborne law enforcement helicopter is an exercise in compromise. Applying a Systems Engineering approach to selecting and outfitting a helicopter for airborne law enforcement can bring order to the process. The Suffolk County Police Aviation Section of New York was used as an example agency profile in analyzing mission requirements, establishing constraints, and analyzing alternatives. A benchmark survey was established for use in comparison. Benchmark trends indicated power margin and useful load as the primary performance requirements of an airborne platform with a primary mission of Emergency Medical Service (EMS) and a secondary mission of patrol. EMS requirements indicated the optimal airframe was a twin engine, while optimal for the patrol mission was single engine. Lack of mission systems integration with the airframe was the largest deficiency cited with reference to equipment. Thorough analysis of interfaces identified areas of systems integration that required special consideration. Current fleet deficiencies in power margin and useful load may be the result of over-laden aircraft, as opposed to underpowered airframes. Distinctions were made between goals and requirements. Analysis of subsystems resulted in suggestions of reduced mission profile weights for performance gains. Alternatives were examined by developing a grid analysis tool. A need was established for professional training of locallevel airborne law enforcement personnel in systems test and evaluation

Establishing a Cyber Warrior Force

Cyber Warfare is widely touted to be the next generation of warfare. As America\u27s reliance on automated systems and information technology increases, so too does the potential vulnerability to cyber attack. Nation and non-nation states are developing the capability to wage cyber warfare. Historically, the Air Force and DoD have concentrated their efforts toward defensive network operations. However, a shift in doctrine has shown both the Air Force and DoD acknowledging the potential for Information Warfare. What appears to be lacking is the trained and educated cyber warrior force that will carry out the information operations if needed. This research project examines the doctrine of DoD and national agencies to engage in information operations and efforts in place to train cyber warriors. In turn, this research project offers recommendations for a career development and progression model for an Air Force Cyber Warrior force

A multi-method scheduling framework for medical staff

Hospital planning teams are always concerned with optimizing staffing and scheduling decisions in order to improve hospital performance, patient experience, and staff satisfaction. A multi-method approach including data analytics, modeling and simulation, machine learning, and optimization is proposed to provide a framework for smart and applicable solutions for staffing and shift scheduling. Factors regarding patients, staff, and hospitals are considered in the decision. This framework is piloted using the Emergency Department(ED) of a leading university hospital in Dublin. The optimized base staffing patterns and shift schedules actively contributed to solving ED overcrowding problem and reduced the average waiting time for patients by 43% compared to the current waiting time of discharged patients. The reduction was achieved by optimizing the staffing level and then determining the shift schedule that minimized the understaffing and overstaffing of the personnel need to meet patient demand