FIRE PROTECTION ALTERNATIVES FOR RURAL AREAS

Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Fire protection services for rural Tennessee communities : a benefit-cost analysis

Little attention has been given to the provision of fire services in most rural Tennessee areas, where these services are virtually nonexistence or severely inadequate. Recognizing this problem of inadequate fire protection services in the rural areas, this study was undertaken with the following objectives: (1) to review the fire protection services available in the rural areas of Tennessee; (2) to obtain information on the need for fire protection services for rural residents and for businesses and institutions in rural areas; and (3) to develop fire protection service alternatives for rural areas which would provide for different levels of fire protection. Several agencies which have fire prevention and protection responsibilities within the state government were investigated to determine the impact or potential impact they could have on the delivery of rural fire prevention and protection services. The fire services offered by the municipalities of Putnam and White counties, which were selected for specific study, were reviewed. The two principal functions of the Insurance Services Office—the grading of municipalities on their fire defenses and the establishing of fire insurance rates—were reviewed. The legal framework for providing county-wide fire prevention and protection services was also examined. Data for accomplishing objectives two and three were collected by means of two rural surveys and numerous interviews with officials and persons associated with fire protection services. No fire insurance coverage or the lack of fire insurance coverage and the estimated fire losses for rural structures and contents were used to reflect the need for fire protection services. The results indicated that many rural property owners in Putnam and White counties do not have adequate fire insurance coverage or have no fire insurance coverage. Data on adjusted fire insurance premiums together with state-wide fire loss ratios were used to estimate annual fire losses for the two counties. The results indicated that almost 50 percent of the estimated fire losses were not covered by fire insurance. To provide for different levels of fire protection, three alternatives (the minimum service alternative, the insurance reduction alternative, and the full service alternative) were analyzed. Six options were considered under the first two alternatives. The full service alternative was developed with changes in the water system. A method of estimating fire loss savings was devised which made use of the estimated fire loss data and data collected from fire chiefs. Fire loss savings were estimated for all three alternatives. In addition, fire insurance premium savings were estimated for the insurance reduction alternative and the full service alternative. The initial outlay costs and the annual operating costs were estimated for each of the counties separately and for the counties combined (except for the full service alternative). Benefit/cost ratios and the present values of the net benefits were calculated for all the options under the various alternatives at a 6 percent discount rate. The benefit/cost ratios were computed in order to determine which option would give the greatest amount of benefits for each dollars of costs and the present values of the net benefits were computed in order to determine which option would maximize the total net benefits (fire loss and fire insurance premium savings). This was done for each county separately and for both counties combined. Sensitivity analysis was used to determine if the recommended options of the two criteria would change. A simple location-allocation model was used to locate the fire stations needed as a result of utilizing the benefit-cost criterion. Possible fire station location sites were selected and focal or demand points were established. The site which minimized the total travel distance was considered as the one that should be selected

Deciding to move: the process and associated characteristics for rural families in Tennessee low-income areas

The people in the United States are a people on the move.During the short period of time from March 1964 to March 1965, nearly 38 million of a total of 188 million people moved from one house to another.1 The migration of individuals and families is essential to the proper functioning of the economy and moving is a necessary part of any migration. However, moving does not always involve migration in the usual sense of the term, although all migration does involve moving. Since migration is important to the economic progress of the economy and moving is a necessary part of migration, a study of the decision-making process relative to moving should be of value in the understanding of migration. The further understanding of migration should be of value in increasing the economic progress of the society

The English are healthier than the Americans: really?

Background: When comparing the health of two populations, it is not enough to compare the prevalence of chronic diseases. The objective of this study is therefore to propose a metric of health based on domains of functioning to determine whether the English are healthier than the Americans. Methods: We analysed representative samples aged 50 to 80 years from the 2008 wave of the Health and Retirement Study (N?=?10?349) for the US data, and wave 4 of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (N?=?9405) for English counterpart data. We first calculated the age-standardized disease prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, all heart diseases, stroke, lung disease, cancer and obesity. Second, we developed a metric of health using Rasch analyses and the questions and measured tests common to both surveys addressing domains of human functioning. Finally, we used a linear additive model to test whether the differences in health were due to being English or American. Results: The English have better health than the Americans when population health is assessed only by prevalence of selected chronic health conditions. The English health advantage disappears almost completely, however, when health is assessed with a metric that integrates information about functioning domains. Conclusions: It is possible to construct a metric of health, based on data directly collected from individuals, in which health is operationalized as domains of functioning. Its application has the potential to tackle one of the most intractable problems in international research on health, namely the comparability of health across countries

Time for change: a new training programme for morpho-molecular pathologists?

The evolution of cellular pathology as a specialty has always been driven by technological developments and the clinical relevance of incorporating novel investigations into diagnostic practice. In recent years, the molecular characterisation of cancer has become of crucial relevance in patient treatment both for predictive testing and subclassification of certain tumours. Much of this has become possible due to the availability of next-generation sequencing technologies and the whole-genome sequencing of tumours is now being rolled out into clinical practice in England via the 100 000 Genome Project. The effective integration of cellular pathology reporting and genomic characterisation is crucial to ensure the morphological and genomic data are interpreted in the relevant context, though despite this, in many UK centres molecular testing is entirely detached from cellular pathology departments. The CM-Path initiative recognises there is a genomics knowledge and skills gap within cellular pathology that needs to be bridged through an upskilling of the current workforce and a redesign of pathology training. Bridging this gap will allow the development of an integrated 'morphomolecular pathology' specialty, which can maintain the relevance of cellular pathology at the centre of cancer patient management and allow the pathology community to continue to be a major influence in cancer discovery as well as playing a driving role in the delivery of precision medicine approaches. Here, several alternative models of pathology training, designed to address this challenge, are presented and appraised

On the Exchange of Kinetic and Magnetic Energy Between Clouds and the Interstellar Medium

We investigate, through 2D MHD numerical simulations, the interaction of a uniform magnetic field oblique to a moving interstellar cloud. In particular we explore the transformation of cloud kinetic energy into magnetic energy as a result of field line stretching. Some previous simulations have emphasized the possible dynamical importance of a ``magnetic shield'' formed around clouds when the magnetic field is perpendicular to the cloud motion (Jones et al. 1996, Miniati et al. 1998). It was not clear, however, how dependent those findings were to the assumed field configuration and cloud properties. To expand our understanding of this effect, we examine several new cases by varing the magnetic field orientation angle with respect to the cloud motion (\theta), the cloud-background density contrast, and the cloud Mach number. We show that in 2D and with \theta large enough, the magnetic field tension can become dominant in the dynamics of the motion of high density contrast, low Mach number clouds. In such cases a significant fraction of cloud kinetic energy can be transformed into magnetic energy with the magnetic pressure at the cloud nose exceeding the ram pressure of the impinging flow. We derive a characteristic timescale for this process of energy ``conversion''. We find also that unless the cloud motion is highly aligned to the magnetic field, reconnection through tearing mode instabilities in the cloud wake limit the formation of a strong flux rope feature following the cloud. Finally we attempt to interpret some observational properties of the magnetic field in view of our results.Comment: 24 pages in aaspp4 Latex and 7 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Kinetic energy extraction of a tidal stream turbine and its sensitivity to structural stiffness attenuation

© 2015 The Authors. The hydrodynamic forces imparted on a tidal turbine rotor, whilst causing it to rotate and hence generate power, will also cause the blades to deform. This deformation will affect the turbine's performance if not included in the early design phase and could lead to a decrease in power output and a reduction in operational life. Conversely, designing blades to allow them to deform slightly may reduce localised stress and therefore prolong the life of the blades and allow the blades to deform in to their optimum operational state. The aim of this paper is to better understand the kinetic energy extraction by varying the material modulus of a turbine blade. Shaft torque/power, blade tip displacement, and axial thrust results are presented for 2, 3 and 4 bladed rotor configurations at peak power extraction. For the rotor design studied the FSI model data show that there is a low sensitivity to blade deformation for the 2, 3 and 4 bladed rotors. However, the results reveal that the 3 bladed rotor displayed maximum hydrodynamic performance as a rigid structure which then decreased as the blade deformed. The 2 and 4 bladed rotor configurations elucidated a slight increase in hydrodynamic performance with deflection