A Global Survey of Infection Control and Mitigation Measures for Combating the Transmission of COVID-19 Pandemic in Buildings Under Facilities Management Services

Facilities management along with health care are two important aspects in controlling the spread of infectious diseases with regard to controlling the outbreak of global COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, with the increasing outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of examining the relationship between the built environment and the outbreak of infectious diseases has become more significant. The aim of the research described in this article is to develop effective infection control and mitigation measures to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 pandemic in the built environment. This study seeks to answer the question of how the facilities management industry can help reduce the transmission of coronavirus. For this purpose, an online survey questionnaire was distributed internationally from 8 April to 25 July, 2020 to collect data from various key stakeholders. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS software. Various methods for the prevention and control of infectious diseases transmission are evaluated through this questionnaire-based survey with regard to their effectiveness for the healthy and safe built environment. These methods were categorized into three groups, including training protocols, operation and maintenance, and design and construction. The results show that all suggested methods have a positive effect on all types of buildings. These methods have an equal effect on low-risk buildings, while for high and very high-risk buildings, training protocols and design and construction measures have the greatest impact. In addition, training protocols and the measures in operation and maintenance will have the greatest effect on medium-risk buildings. The results can help in more rational decision making in relation to controlling the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in all types of buildings

Transforming global health education during the COVID-19 era:Perspectives from a transnational collective of global health students and recent graduates

Inspired by the 2021 BMJ Global Health Editorial by Atkins et al on global health (GH) teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of GH students and recent graduates from around the world convened to discuss our experiences in GH education during multiple global crises. Through weekly meetings over the course of several months, we reflected on the impact the COVID-19 pandemic and broader systemic inequities and injustices in GH education and practice have had on us over the past 2 years. Despite our geographical and disciplinary diversity, our collective experience suggests that while the pandemic provided an opportunity for changing GH education, that opportunity was not seized by most of our institutions. In light of the mounting health crises that loom over our generation, emerging GH professionals have a unique role in critiquing, deconstructing and reconstructing GH education to better address the needs of our time. By using our experiences learning GH during the pandemic as an entry point, and by using this collective as an incubator for dialogue and re-imagination, we offer our insights outlining successes and barriers we have faced with GH and its education and training. Furthermore, we identify autonomous collectives as a potential viable alternative to encourage pluriversality of knowledge and action systems and to move beyond Western universalism that frames most of traditional academia.</p

Decision making application in collaborative emergency response: A new PROMETHEE preference function

Emergencies or disasters encourage various agencies in a country to cooperate and collaborate to minimize the level of casualties. Hence, the desired overall system performance is influenced not only by the efficiency of each system but also by the synergy between the independent systems, which is critical for emergency response management. This paper presents a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach to evaluate emergency response systems by taking into account the interactions synergy. The study is planned in two major phases, the first uses PROMETHEE method to evaluate emergency response systems. So a new type of preference function is proposed, which is able to overcome the main shortcomings of other preference functions. It helps to extend the range of choices for experts and decision makers. The simplicity and easiness of application are a big bonus of the proposed function. The second phase employs a pairwise comparison of synergy criteria to assess the ratings of systems in coordination and collaboration with each other during the emergency response. Incorporating synergy with MCDM makes more realistic results which helps policy makers to improve the performance of emergency response management. The proposed model is proofed in a real-world case of Lebanon for efficiency and applicability, while the reliability of the proposed function also is investigated through sensitivity analysis

Augmented Reality for Safer Pedestrian-Vehicle Interactions

Communicating the presence of pedestrians or bicyclists to vehicle drivers can lead to safer interactions with these vulnerable road users. Advanced knowledge about the presence of these users on the roadway is particularly important when their presence is not expected or when these users are out of range of the advanced safety systems that are becoming a standard feature in vehicles today. For example, having advanced knowledge of a pedestrian walking along a rural roadway is key to increasing driver awareness through in-vehicle warning messages that provide an augmented version of the roadway ahead. As connected vehicles start to enter the market, it is conceivable that when the vehicle sensors detect a pedestrian on a rural roadway, the pedestrian presence can be communicated to vehicles upstream of the pedestrian location that have not reached the destination. As part of the research presented, an experiment was conducted in which the detection of pedestrians by subjects was tested with and without an advanced warning about the pedestrian presence ahead. For comparison purposes, in addition to testing the detection of pedestrians as a result of advanced warning messages on rural roadways, the same situation was tested on urban roadways

Critical success factors for private sector participation in accomplishing abandoned public sports facilities projects in Iran

202307 bckwNot applicableSelf-fundedEarly release12 month

Hidden High Voltage Safety Risks for Parallel High Voltage Transmission Lines

High voltage (HV) infrastructures market is growing due to the corresponding growth in industries and population. To ensure continuous and reliable electrical power supply, existing substation and transmission lines are being upgraded to accommodate the additional load requirements. These upgrades involve up-rating the existing transmission lines or the installation of new lines. To save on easement cost and reduce the environmental impacts, transmission lines are occupied the same easement or path. This parallel option introduces the risk of induced voltage which could reach an unsafe condition and jeopardize the safety of works and people. This paper analysis and highlight the hidden risk associated with two parallel transmission lines that connected the same high voltage substation. The theoretical study which is supported by the case study shows the high risk potential tempering with the OHEW on the isolated circuit while the other one is still energize