Medical Training for Disaster Situations

Medical practice in disaster relief has a very specific aspect as compared with medicine in general, but I must point out that the difference lies in its organization rather than in its therapeutic nature. A doctor who has before him a sick or wounded person, or any other patient, will unstintingly provide care according to the knowledge and training he received at medical school. He will do so in accordance with the code of ethics of his calling, inculcated by his throughout the world draw inspiration from the Hippocratic Oath, the Prayer of Maimonides or the Geneva Declaration. All of this has been accepted and need not enter the type of training which we are about to define. The same applies to nurses and to the doctor's specialized auxiliaries, who are adequately trained for their occupation, in similar yet differentiated fashio

Ageing in bosonic particle-reaction models with long-range transport

Ageing in systems without detailed balance is studied in bosonic contact and pair-contact processes with Levy diffusion. In the ageing regime, the dynamical scaling of the two-time correlation function and two-time response function is found and analysed. Exact results for non-equilibrium exponents and scaling functions are derived. The behaviour of the fluctuation-dissipation ratio is analysed. A passage time from the quasi-stationary regime to the ageing regime is defined, in qualitative agreement with kinetic spherical models and p-spin spherical glasses.Comment: Latex2e, 24 pages, with 9 figures include

Utilizing remote sensing of Thematic Mapper data to improve our understanding of estuarine processes and their influence on the productivity of estuarine-dependent fisheries

LANDSAT thematic mapper (TM) data are being used to refine and validate a stochastic spatial computer model to be applied to coastal resource management problems in Louisiana. Two major aspects of the research are: (1) the measurement of area of land (or emergent vegetation) and water and the length of the interface between land and water in TM imagery of selected coastal wetlands (sample marshes); and (2) the comparison of spatial patterns of land and water in the sample marshes of the imagery to that in marshes simulated by a computer model. In addition to activities in these two areas, the potential use of a published autocorrelation statistic is analyzed

Kinetics of the long-range spherical model

The kinetic spherical model with long-range interactions is studied after a quench to $T < T_c$ or to $T = T_c$. For the two-time response and correlation functions of the order-parameter as well as for composite fields such as the energy density, the ageing exponents and the corresponding scaling functions are derived. The results are compared to the predictions which follow from local scale-invariance.Comment: added "fluctuation-dissipation ratios"; fixed typo

Magnetic order in double-layer manganites (La(1-z)Pr(z))1.2Sr1.8Mn2O7: intrinsic properties and role of the intergrowths

We report on an investigation of the double-layer manganite series (La(1-z)Pr(z))1.2Sr1.8Mn2O7 (0 <= z <= 1), carried out on single crystals by means of both macroscopic magnetometry and local probes of magnetism (muSR, 55Mn NMR). Muons and NMR demonstrate an antiferromagnetically ordered ground state at non-ferromagnetic compositions (z >= 0.6), while more moderate Pr substitutions (0.2 <= z <= 0.4) induce a spin reorientation transition within the ferromagnetic phase. A large magnetic susceptibility is detected at {Tc,TN} < T < 250K at all compositions. From 55Mn NMR spectroscopy, such a response is unambiguously assigned to the intergrowth of a ferromagnetic pseudocubic phase (La(1-z)Pr(z))(1-x)Sr(x)MnO3, with an overall volume fraction estimated as 0.5-0.7% from magnetometry. Evidence is provided for the coupling of the magnetic moments of these inclusions with the magnetic moments of the surrounding (La(1-z)Pr(z))1.2Sr1.8Mn2O7 phase, as in the case of finely dispersed impurities. We argue that the ubiquitous intergrowth phase may play a role in the marked first-order character of the magnetic transition and the metamagnetic properties above Tc reported for double-layer manganites.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Participatory Spatial Intervention: How can participatory design and a diversity lens help address vulnerabilities in Bar Elias, Lebanon?

The Participatory Spatial Intervention (PSI) is a co-produced way to build capacity and generate knowledge through an experimental process aiming to have an impact on the sustainable prosperity of a locality. A physical spatial intervention is embedded in a participatory action-research process and becomes a catalyst for generating questions and activate local social processes. The PSI documented in this report has been implemented as an activity of the project ‘Public Services and vulnerability in the Lebanese context of large-scale displacement’ funded by the British Academy’s Cities and Infrastructure programme. This work took place in Bar Elias, one of the most vulnerable localities in Lebanon (UNHCR, 2015), which hosts a large number of refugees and vulnerable populations, and faces a lack of access to basic services and livelihood opportunities. Throughout the process, we adopted a reflective approach by documenting our learning. This report presents the process of implementing the PSI, its methodology, and our reflection as a way of sharing our experience of this collaborative research that took place between August 2018 and July 2019

Participatory design and diversity: Addressing vulnerabilities through social infrastructure in a Lebanese town hosting displaced people

In a fragmented society, we argue that action-research and participatory design can build the capacity for intra-city dialogue across the different dimensions of identity of local residents. However, traditional participatory processes are often unable to deal with internal diversity, particularly when there are pre-existing conflicts. Using a collaboration between two universities, an NGO, and local residents in Bar Elias (Lebanon) as a case study, we demonstrate how the development of an intersectional methodology sensitive to social diversity can contribute to individuals and groups of residents developing an “aware participation” in city-making and in setting the vision for the city. Bar Elias was a small agricultural town until its population significantly increased with the arrival of people displaced from the Syrian war, and hosts Syrians, Palestinians, and Lebanese but presents spatial segregation. As the main site used regularly by all groups, the entrance road to the town was chosen as the site of the action-research and participatory design to plan and implement small-scale social infrastructure enhancements which could help address a number of vulnerabilities faced by different groups of residents. By analysing the process of implementing this participatory spatial intervention, the chapter argues that the outcome of the process was more than the physical infrastructure intervention; the process built a human infrastructure made of residents of the city with different identities who have been able to participate in and initiate city-making processes that have taken into account and analyse a diversity of needs and aspirations. Through the process, residents were able to exercise a new kind of participatory urban citizenship that transcends the limitations of traditional national citizenship