IT-Supported Management of Mass Casualty Incidents: The e-Triage Project

Emergencies arise out of disasters and are characterized by limited resources in terms of medical personnel and infrastructure, underlining the importance of mobilizing regional, supra-regional and/or international help to the affected regions. Effective deployment of this help is crucial, but only possible if a common operational picture among authorities, coordination centers, and staff working in the field is developed as quickly as possible. Since mass casualty incidents (MCIs) normally overwhelm the regularly available rescue resources (rescue personnel, transport vehicles, hospital capacity, etc.), a particularly effective crisis management has to be applied. In general, for co-ordination centers it is a challenge to get an immediate and accurate situation overview (i.e. number of victims, injury categories and their location). Indeed, triage and registration performed at different places by different teams maintaining different lists are indubitably an error-prone approach. Furthermore, it can happen that all later attempts to track the way of single patient, their attendants and transport vehicles are not very successful, although this could be of key interest in scenarios with nuclear, biological or chemical hazards. Within the e-Triage project, which is sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, an integrated concept for electronic registration of affected persons is under development

Conical defects in growing sheets

A growing or shrinking disc will adopt a conical shape, its intrinsic geometry characterized by a surplus angle $se$ at the apex. If growth is slow, the cone will find its equilibrium. Whereas this is trivial if $se <= 0$, the disc can fold into one of a discrete infinite number of states if $se$ is positive. We construct these states in the regime where bending dominates, determine their energies and how stress is distributed in them. For each state a critical value of $se$ is identified beyond which the cone touches itself. Before this occurs, all states are stable; the ground state has two-fold symmetry.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, LaTeX, RevTeX style. New version corresponds to the one published in PR

Effectiveness of carbon polymeric nanofiltration composite membrane in treating industrial textile wastewater

Today, the trend is towards the use of low-cost materials to develop green processes in the aim to reduce cost and impact on environment. The use of low-cost materials of natural origin has been proven to be very promising for the fabrication of ceramic membranes for wastewater treatment. In this article, fabrication and testing of high performance microporous carbon membrane for nanofiltration (NF) separation based on mineral coal and phenolic resin are reported. The preparation of the NF composite membrane involved carbonizing a polymeric precursor deposited on a porous supported membrane, using the vacuum slip-casting process to obtain a homogeneous NF top layer almost without defects by one-step coating-carbonization cycle. To ensure a better final membrane texture, several parameters including the viscosity of the casting suspension, the casting time and the carbonization temperature were considered. A crack-free NF membrane with a thickness layer of 1.36 μm, a mean pore size of 1.1 nm, and a molecular weight cut-off of 400 Da was obtained using 1 min casting time and 45% of phenolic resin. These membranes were tested in the treatment of textile wastewater. Promising results in terms of permeate flux and pollutant retention (COD (72%), salinity (45%)) were obtained. The results further showed that the treated wastewater could be recycled into the textile industry or can be discharged into the municipal sewerage in compliance with legislations. In addition, a carbonization temperature of 650°C yielded best membranes in terms of average pores size and membrane permeability with minimum energy consumption.www.deswater.comam2023Chemical Engineerin

Projekt e-Triage: Datenmanagement für die elektronische Betroffenenerfassung und Akzeptanz bei Rettungskräften

Die Anforderungen an Anwendungen für IT-gestütztes Management eines Massenanfall von Verletzten (MANV) sind vielfältig. Neben Aspekten der Ergonomie (Hardware, Benutzeroberflächen) müssen organisatorische Fragen ber¨ucksichtigt werden. Die Nutzer sind im MANV besonders stressreichen Situationen ausgesetzt, und die Einstellung zur Technik und der Umgang mit neuen Technologien können eine entscheidende Rolle spielen. Bei einem MANV muss zudem davon ausgegangen werden, dass Kommunikationsinfrastruktur gar nicht oder nur eingeschränkt verfügbar ist. Daraus ergeben sich Ansprüche an die Datenhaltung, die für den Einsatz in einer möglicherweise provisorischen Umgebung entsprechend robust ausgelegt sein muss

Mode-coupling approach to non-Newtonian Hele-Shaw flow

The Saffman-Taylor viscous fingering problem is investigated for the displacement of a non-Newtonian fluid by a Newtonian one in a radial Hele-Shaw cell. We execute a mode-coupling approach to the problem and examine the morphology of the fluid-fluid interface in the weak shear limit. A differential equation describing the early nonlinear evolution of the interface modes is derived in detail. Owing to vorticity arising from our modified Darcy's law, we introduce a vector potential for the velocity in contrast to the conventional scalar potential. Our analytical results address how mode-coupling dynamics relates to tip-splitting and side branching in both shear thinning and shear thickening cases. The development of non-Newtonian interfacial patterns in rectangular Hele-Shaw cells is also analyzed.Comment: 14 pages, 5 ps figures, Revtex4, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Radial fingering in a Hele-Shaw cell: a weakly nonlinear analysis

The Saffman-Taylor viscous fingering instability occurs when a less viscous fluid displaces a more viscous one between narrowly spaced parallel plates in a Hele-Shaw cell. Experiments in radial flow geometry form fan-like patterns, in which fingers of different lengths compete, spread and split. Our weakly nonlinear analysis of the instability predicts these phenomena, which are beyond the scope of linear stability theory. Finger competition arises through enhanced growth of sub-harmonic perturbations, while spreading and splitting occur through the growth of harmonic modes. Nonlinear mode-coupling enhances the growth of these perturbations with appropriate relative phases, as we demonstrate through a symmetry analysis of the mode coupling equations. We contrast mode coupling in radial flow with rectangular flow geometry.Comment: 36 pages, 5 figures, Latex, added references, to appear in Physica D (1998

Household Transmission of Rotavirus in a Community with Rotavirus Vaccination in Quininde, Ecuador

Background: We studied the transmission of rotavirus infection in households in peri-urban Ecuador in the vaccination era. Methods: Stool samples were collected from household contacts of child rotavirus cases, diarrhea controls and healthy controls following presentation of the index child to health facilities. Rotavirus infection status of contacts was determined by RT-qPCR. We examined factors associated with transmissibility (index-case characteristics) and susceptibility (householdcontact characteristics). Results: Amongst cases, diarrhea controls and healthy control household contacts, infection attack rates (iAR) were 55%, 8% and 2%, (n = 137, 130, 137) respectively. iARs were higher from index cases with vomiting, and amongst siblings. Disease ARs were higher when the index child was ,18 months and had vomiting, with household contact ,10 years and those sharing a room with the index case being more susceptible. We found no evidence of asymptomatic infections leading to disease transmission. Conclusion: Transmission rates of rotavirus are high in households with an infected child, while background infections are rare. We have identified factors associated with transmission (vomiting/young age of index case) and susceptibility (young age/sharing a room/being a sibling of the index case). Vaccination may lead to indirect benefits by averting episodes or reducing symptoms in vaccinees

Bullets over ballots: Islamist groups, the state and electoral violence in Egypt and Morocco

This article is concerned with state-sponsored electoral violence in liberalized autocracies. The first section of the paper identifies a number of variables that can help explain the decision calculus of authoritarian incumbents to deploy force against strong electoral challengers. The second section then examines these propositions with reference to Egypt and Morocco. Drawing on recent parliamentary elections in both countries the article questions why, despite facing the challenge of political Islam, the two regimes differed so markedly in their willingness to manipulate the polls by recourse to violence. Whilst the Egyptian authorities decided to abrogate all pretence of peaceful elections in favour of violent repression against the Muslim Brotherhood candidates and sympathizers, no such tactics were deployed by the ruling elite in Morocco. We suggest that three principal factors influenced the regimes' response to this electoral challenge: (1) the centrality of the elected institution to authoritarian survival; (2) the availability of alternative electioneering tools; and (3) the anticipated response of the international community. The article concludes by suggesting that in order to understand better when and how states deploy violence in elections, we need to focus on a more complex set of factors rather than simply on the electoral potency of key opposition challengers or the authoritarian nature of the state