Long-term satisfaction of resettled communities: An assessment of physical performance of post-disaster housing

Sri Lanka experiences regular natural hazard-related disasters: flooding, landslides, cyclones and droughts. These events cause devastating effects in terms of human casualties, disturbing settlements and damaging properties. Besides human casualties, one of the most visible and striking effects of these disasters is the destruction of houses: as a result, there is a requirement for post-disaster housing reconstruction. Post-disaster housing delivery can be either assistance in rebuilding original dwellings or permanent relocation to resettlement schemes. Under any of these circumstances, implementation of relocation schemes must ensure that the beneficiaries are ultimately satisfied in order to safeguard performance of such construction initiatives in the long term. The purpose of this study is to quantitatively assess and compare the long-term satisfaction of the relocated communities in relation to physical performance of the housing reconstruction projects. In addition to a literature review carried out on key performance indicators (KPIs) to investigate the long-term performance of post-disaster housing reconstruction, a survey was carried out with the occupants of flood-, landslide- and tsunami-induced relocation projects in Sri Lanka. The empirical evidence revealed that resettled communities in all three case studies were mildly satisfied in the long term in terms of physical performance of the relocation. Furthermore, provision for alteration and expansion, orientation and layout of the house, the number of rooms, and lighting and ventilation were found to be important factors that require special attention with regard to planning and design for long-term physical performance of post-disaster housing because these were found to statistically correlate with overall satisfaction across the three case study projects

Generalized periodic discharges and 'triphasic waves': A blinded evaluation of inter-rater agreement and clinical significance

Objectives: Generalized periodic discharges (GPDs) are associated with nonconvulsive seizures. Triphasic waves (TWs), a subtype of GPDs, have been described in relation to metabolic encephalopathy and not felt to be associated with seizures. We sought to establish the consistency of use of this descriptive term and its association with seizures. Methods: 11 experts in continuous EEG monitoring scored 20 cEEG samples containing GPDs using Standardized Critical Care EEG Terminology. In the absence of patient information, the inter-rater agreement (IRA) for EEG descriptors including TWs was assessed along with raters' clinical EEG interpretation and compared with actual patient information. Results: The IRA for 'generalized' and 'periodic' was near-perfect (kappa = 0.81), but fair for 'triphasic' (kappa = 0.33). Patients with TWs were as likely to develop seizures as those without (25% vs 26%, N.S.) and surprisingly, patients with TWs were less likely to have toxic-metabolic encephalopathy than those without TWs (55% vs 79%, p < 0.01). Conclusions: While IRA for the terms "generalized" and "periodic" is high, it is only fair for TWs. EEG interpreted as TWs presents similar risk for seizures as GPDs without triphasic appearance. GPDs are commonly associated with metabolic encephalopathy, but 'triphasic' appearance is not predictive. Significance: Conventional association of 'triphasic waves' with specific clinical conditions may lead to inaccurate EEG interpretation.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe