Human response to earthquake shaking : analysis of video footage of the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence.

Research on human behaviour during earthquake shaking has identified three main influences of behaviour: the environment the individual is located immediately before and during the earthquake, in terms of where the individual is and who the individual is with at the time of the earthquake; individual characteristics, such as age, gender, previous earthquake experience, and the intensity and duration of earthquake shaking. However, little research to date has systematically analysed the immediate observable human responses to earthquake shaking, mostly due to data constraints and/or ethical considerations. Research on human behaviour during earthquakes has relied on simulations or post-event, reflective interviews and questionnaire studies, often performed weeks to months or even years following the event. Such studies are therefore subject to limitations such as the quality of the participant's memory or (perceived) realism of a simulation. The aim of this research was to develop a robust coding scheme to analyse human behaviour during earthquake shaking using video footage captured during an earthquake event. This will allow systematic analysis of individuals during real earthquakes using a previously unutilized data source, thus help develop guidance on appropriate protective actions. The coding scheme was developed in a two-part process, combining a deductive and inductive approach. Previous research studies of human behavioral response during earthquake shaking provided the basis for the coding scheme. This was then iteratively refined by applying the coding scheme to a broad range of video footage of people exposed to strong shaking during the Canterbury earthquake sequence. The aim of this was to optimise coding scheme content and application across a broad range of scenarios, and to increase inter-coder reliability. The methodology to code data will enhance objective observation of video footage to allow cross-event analysis and explore (among others): reaction time, patterns of behaviour, and social, environmental and situational influences of behaviour. This can provide guidance for building configuration and design, and evidence-based recommendations for public education about injury-preventing behavioural responses during earthquake shaking

A qualitative study of the emotional coping and support needs of children living with a parent with a brain injury

Primary objective: To examine emotional coping and support needs in children of persons with acquired brain injury, with a view to understanding what interventions would be helpful for these children. Design: The study was qualitative, using a thematic analysis approach. Methods and procedure: Six children between 9 and 18 years of age, six parents (three with ABI), and three support workers were interviewed either at home or at a support centre, using a semi-structured interview guide. Results: Children reported using a variety of adaptive and maladaptive emotional coping strategies, but were consistent in expressing a need for credible validation, i.e. sharing experiences with peers. The results are presented under four overarching themes: difficulties faced; emotions experienced; coping strategies; and reported support needs. Conclusions: The results reveal an interaction between the child’s experiences of complex loss that is difficult to acknowledge, emotional distancing between parent and child, and the children’s need for credible validation. All children expressed a desire for talking to peers in a similar situation to themselves, but had not had this opportunity. Interventions should set up such peer interaction to create credible validation for the specific distress suffered by this population

Development of a GIS platform for Multi-Disciplinary Community Databases to enable Earthquake Resilience and Research

This poster describes the initial steps and benefits in the creation of a GIS platform that will enable the hosting, sharing, and linking of spatial, geotechnical, structural, social, and economic datasets. This will enable interested parties to pursue multi-disciplinary research projects that aim to solve what are inherently complex and multi-faceted problems. A span of datasets will be linked to existing multi-storey buildings and integrated into an easy-to-use GIS platform that will have a range of purposes, including: (1) providing the best scientific knowledge spanning numerous disciplines to inform earthquake resilience research; (2) allowing different organisations, including local councils and iwis to make evidence based decisions regarding event-based planning and emergency management and (3) fostering engagement and sharing of data between separate research communities across different disciplines. Urban areas of Dunedin and Palmerston North are currently being used as repeatable case studies to test the feasibility and relationships required to enable the GIS platform’s capabilities. Researchers are being involved in a collaborative, multi-disciplinary, and flexible approach to ensure the GIS platform can benefit a wide array of groups and individuals. Building in flexibility to extend the GIS platform nationwide to construct a national, multi-disciplinary building database using consistent data standards is a primary, long-term goal for the project

Development of a GIS platform for Multi-Disciplinary Community Databases to enable Earthquake Resilience and Research

This poster describes the initial steps and benefits in the creation of a GIS platform that will enable the hosting, sharing, and linking of spatial, geotechnical, structural, social, and economic datasets. This will enable interested parties to pursue multi-disciplinary research projects that aim to solve what are inherently complex and multi-faceted problems. A span of datasets will be linked to existing multi-storey buildings and integrated into an easy-to-use GIS platform that will have a range of purposes, including: (1) providing the best scientific knowledge spanning numerous disciplines to inform earthquake resilience research; (2) allowing different organisations, including local councils and iwis to make evidence based decisions regarding event-based planning and emergency management and (3) fostering engagement and sharing of data between separate research communities across different disciplines. Urban areas of Dunedin and Palmerston North are currently being used as repeatable case studies to test the feasibility and relationships required to enable the GIS platform’s capabilities. Researchers are being involved in a collaborative, multi-disciplinary, and flexible approach to ensure the GIS platform can benefit a wide array of groups and individuals. Building in flexibility to extend the GIS platform nationwide to construct a national, multi-disciplinary building database using consistent data standards is a primary, long-term goal for the project

Smart Resilient Cities

Emerging technology and data processing tools are transforming the cities we live in, and the way we live in them. Understanding the confluence of trends and evolving relationship between people, systems and data is key to designing for resilience in an equitable way. Globally, the Smart Cities model uses open and shared data to better understand local vulnerabilities and inform development decisions as well as the operation of physical and service infrastructure. Smart Resilient Cities is a research project which will explore how we can best use emerging technology for Disaster Risk Reduction. The aim is to understand the use of sustainable and low cost: • State of the art sensors capable of maintaining the sensing ability of a city/region before, during and after an big disaster • Wired and wireless communication platform linking smart sensors before, during and after a big disaster • End-user accepted and trusted technology application covering users’ needs for gauging human and infrastructure impacts 1) When considering the appropriate application of emerging technologies to solve local issues, human factors and institutional aspects need to be included as essential components of the ecosystem. The initial objective of Smart Resilient cities is to engage with a cross-section of urban residents to explore: What people expect from sharing their data? How do they weigh up the trust-benefit of sharing their data

Behavioral Response in the Immediate Aftermath of Shaking: Earthquakes in Christchurch and Wellington, New Zealand, and Hitachi, Japan

This study examines people’s response actions in the first 30 min after shaking stopped following earthquakes in Christchurch andWellington, New Zealand, and Hitachi, Japan. Data collected from 257 respondents in Christchurch, 332 respondents in Hitachi, and 204 respondents inWellington revealed notable similarities in some response actions immediately after the shaking stopped. In all four events, people were most likely to contact family members and seek additional information about the situation. However, there were notable differences among events in the frequency of resuming previous activities. Actions taken in the first 30 mins were weakly related to: demographic variables, earthquake experience, contextual variables, and actions taken during the shaking, but were significantly related to perceived shaking intensity, risk perception and affective responses to the shaking, and damage/infrastructure disruption. These results have important implications for future research and practice because they identify promising avenues for emergency managers to communicate seismic risks and appropriate responses to risk area populations

An ongoing project for conceptualising a community-engaged network of low-cost sensors for earthquake early warning in Aotearoa New Zealand

Earthquake-prone countries are exploring earthquake early warning (EEW) systems as a risk mitigation measure. However, establishing a comprehensive EEW system would require a substantial financial investment, and for many countries, such systems are not economically viable. For Aotearoa New Zealand, with a population of just under five million people, appropriating significant financial investments towards development of an EEW system cost-effectively is likely to be challenging. This research project, launched in February 2020, explores the feasibility of a socio-technical EEW solution for Aotearoa New Zealand. An EEW system may be viable through interconnecting low-cost sensors and recorders through existing communication infrastructures. The project explores the possibility of utilising emerging internet-of-things (IoT) technologies such as micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) embedded sensors. The sensors may have lower sensitivity and coarse recording systems. Hence, to operationalise this approach it may require a denser network of sensors to achieve an acceptable level of reliability and also rely on the participation and acceptance of engaged citizens. The project seeks to answer the research question: Is it feasible to form an EEW system through a community-engaged network of low-cost sensors? The project is conducting two initial concurrent phases to explore the social and technical challenges and opportunities: • Phase-1: Community-of-practice development and engagement with various communities to scope the challenges and opportunities of establishing an EEW system. • Phase-2: Explore and examine the opportunities, capabilities, challenges and limitations of developing an earthquake early warning system and applications driven by a network of off-the-shelf MEMS devices and IoT infrastructure. This poster shows the project’s progress-to-date on these two phases. The poster also outlines planned activities and expected outputs

Behavioral Response in the Immediate Aftermath of Shaking: Earthquakes in Christchurch and Wellington, New Zealand, and Hitachi, Japan

This study examines people’s response actions in the first 30 min after shaking stopped following earthquakes in Christchurch and Wellington, New Zealand, and Hitachi, Japan. Data collected from 257 respondents in Christchurch, 332 respondents in Hitachi, and 204 respondents in Wellington revealed notable similarities in some response actions immediately after the shaking stopped. In all four events, people were most likely to contact family members and seek additional information about the situation. However, there were notable differences among events in the frequency of resuming previous activities. Actions taken in the first 30 min were weakly related to: demographic variables, earthquake experience, contextual variables, and actions taken during the shaking, but were significantly related to perceived shaking intensity, risk perception and affective responses to the shaking, and damage/infrastructure disruption. These results have important implications for future research and practice because they identify promising avenues for emergency managers to communicate seismic risks and appropriate responses to risk area populations

Properties of CD34+ CML stem/progenitor cells that correlate with different clinical responses to imatinib mesylate

Imatinib mesylate (IM) induces clinical remissions in chronic-phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients but IM resistance remains a problem. We recently identified several features of CML CD34+ stem/progenitor cells expected to confer resistance to BCR-ABL-targeted therapeutics. From a study of 25 initially chronic-phase patients, we now demonstrate that some, but not all, of these parameters correlate with subsequent clinical response to IM therapy. CD34+ cells from the 14 IM nonresponders demonstrated greater resistance to IM than the 11 IM responders in colony-forming cell assays in vitro (P < .001) and direct sequencing of cloned transcripts from CD34+ cells further revealed a higher incidence of BCR-ABL kinase domain mutations in the IM nonresponders (10%-40% vs 0%-20% in IM responders, P < .003). In contrast, CD34+ cells from IM nonresponders and IM responders were not distinguished by differences in BCR-ABL or transporter gene expression. Interestingly, one BCR-ABL mutation (V304D), predicted to destabilize the interaction between p210BCR-ABL and IM, was detectable in 14 of 20 patients. T315I mutant CD34+ cells found before IM treatment in 2 of 20 patients examined were preferentially amplified after IM treatment. Thus, 2 properties of pretreatment CML stem/progenitor cells correlate with subsequent response to IM therapy. Prospective assessment of these properties may allow improved patient management