Exploring Community Preparedness for Complex Disaster: A Case Study in Cilegon (Banten Province in Indonesia)

This study aims at examining how local communities in City of Cilegon (Banten province in Indonesia) consider ‘complex disasters’, and clarifying their subjective perceptions. The present research is considered as the first step in our comprehensive research design beyond a specific case study. The nuclear accidents in the GreatEast Japan Earthquake and the huge flood in Thailand provide lessons that natural disasters can cause catastrophic influences on industries and they generate cascading effects and damages. We define such complicated phenomena as ‘complex disasters’ in this article. Cilegon is potentially exposed to such complex disasters because it has natural disaster risks (among others, the Krakatau volcano sits adjacent to it, andrecalling historical earthquakes and tsunami) and industrial disaster risks (a lot of heavy industry facilities including chemical ones), and these two types of risks can be combined and made reality. A ‘model for the communication of risk’ developed by Rodriguez et al. (2007) is adopted as an analytical framework in this study. The model predicts involvement of many types of actors and can be considered as an adequate framework for our study. This study mainly focused on one industrial gas facility of Pertamina, a state-owned energy company, and its surrounding community (Lebak Gede village) in Cilegon. The qualitative methodologies were used in this study: One focused group discussion (FGD) and three key informant interviews were implemented by the authors. The participants of the FGD were twelve leaders of the neighborhood associations (locally described as ‘RT’ and ‘RW’ in Indonesian acronym) closest to the Pertamina facility (two RW leaders and ten RT leaders). The key informant interviews were separately and additionally conducted with a head of a village, a neighborhoodassociation leader (this leader was different from the FGD participants) and a local forum entity, in order to reinforce observations at the FGD. Our survey observed that involvement of the Indonesia Power, a subsidiary of state-owned electricity company whose facilities adjacent to Petamina’s facility, as one of the industry actors, local governmental agencies and the Indonesian Red Cross. On the other hand, we did not clearly identify any clear involvement of the educational institutions and the mass media, although the model of Rodriguez et al. (2007) estimates their engagement. People in Lebak Gede village have already expected potential threats by large-scale natural disasters. Furthermore, they recognize that such disasters give influence on the industrial facilities and the consequences are catastrophic. Although local residents in Lebak Gede village had a lot of experiences of industrial accidents in the past, these experiences did not initiate a significant mindset change for a more organized preparedness. Instead, they paid larger attentions to floods as their preparedness priority. This study adopted the qualitative method for gathering specific information, but more comprehensive research can contribute to verify preparedness and risk perception on the complex disasters. Although this article selectively dealt with one village (Lebak Gede village) and its preparedness and perception, the findings is to be further clarified in detail for generalizing community preparedness for the complex disasters. Keywords: community, risk perception, natural disaster risk, industrial disaster risk, complex disaster, Cilego

Descriptive Analysis of the Contingency Plan in Cilegon City, Indonesia

Cilegon City is highly vulnerable to not only industrial disasters but also natural disasters, such as volcanic eruptions, tsunamis and earthquakes, hereafter referred to as complex disasters. This is a descriptive study, which aims to show the contingency plan in place for these complex disasters in Cilegon City. The data is qualitative and was collected through interviews with key persons from the institutions responsible for complex disasters, such as the Planning Agency (BAPPEDA), the Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), the District Health Office (Dinkes) and the District Social Affairs Office (Dinsos) in the City of Cilegon. Information was also gathered from the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) and the Search and Rescue Agency (Pos SAR), both in Cilegon City. BPBD was established in 2015 under City Law Number 5/2015 (Perda No 5/2015). BPBD acts as the disaster management coordinator in its administrative region, whereas the city secretary (known as SEKDA) acts as their incident commander. BPBD also acts as a link to the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB). Although the city government has institutional arrangements for complex disasters, we observed some gaps in their contingency plan. The different agencies have different perceptions, and no general consensus exists on the priorities. For example, although assembly points for evacuations were determined, some of them can no longer be used. However, some district offices do not share this latest situation. Keywords: industrial disaster, natural disaster, Cilegon city, contingency pla

A pooling-based genome-wide analysis identifies new potential candidate genes for atopy in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Asthma and atopy are complex phenotypes with shared genetic component. In this study we attempt to identify genes related to these traits performing a two-stage DNA pooling genome-wide analysis in order to reduce costs. First, we assessed all markers in a subset of subjects using DNA pooling, and in a second stage we evaluated the most promising markers at an individual level.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>For the genome-wide analysis, we constructed DNA pools from 75 subjects with atopy and asthma, 75 subjects with atopy and without asthma and 75 control subjects without atopy or asthma. In a second stage, the most promising regions surrounding significant markers after correction for false discovery rate were replicated with individual genotyping of samples included in the pools and an additional set of 429 atopic subjects and 222 controls from the same study centres.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>Homo sapiens </it>protein kinase-like protein SgK493 (<it>SGK493</it>) was found to be associated with atopy. To lesser extent mitogen-activated protein kinase 5 (<it>MAP3K5</it>), collagen type XVIII alpha 1 (<it>COL18A1</it>) and collagen type XXIX alpha 1 (<it>COL29A1</it>) were also found to be associated with atopy. Functional evidences points out a role for <it>MAP3K5</it>, <it>COL18A1 </it>and <it>COL29A1 </it>but the function of <it>SGK493 </it>is unknown.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In this analysis we have identified new candidate regions related to atopy and suggest <it>SGK493 </it>as an atopy locus, although these results need further replication.</p

A Case with Probable Herpes Simplex Encephalitis Characterized by Specific Emotional and Behavioral Disorders and Gogi (Word-Meaning) Aphasia-Like Syndrome with Neologism and Neologistic Kanji Processing

A right-handed male patient with probable herpes simplex encephalitis is presented because of the rarity of the clinicial picture. Brain X-ray CT scans showed lesions located in the bilateral fronto-temporal regions primarily involving the left lower temporal lobe. The clinical picture following the acute phase of the disease was characterized by specific emotional and behavioral disorders, i.e. oral tendency, hyperactivity, thoughtless talkativeness, random speech and exhilaration, which were partly compatible with the Klüver-Bucy syndrome. Furthermore, this case was characterized by Gogi (word-meaning) aphasia-like transcortical sensory aphasia and neologism produced saliently when naming objects and peculiar neologistic kanji processing in writing to dictation and oral reading. Both the neologism and neologistic kanji processing varied in quantity in parallel with the specific emotional and behavioral disorders. The relationships of these clinical features to lesional sites demonstrated by X-ray CT are discussed