505 research outputs found

    Model-driven decision support system for estimating number of ambulances required during earthquake disaster relief operation

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    Most of human life has been encountered danger due to natural disasters nowadays. One of these natural disasters that endanger human lives and which causes lot of damages is earthquake. A proper emergency response after an earthquake happening is important and has high priority in earthquake emergency management to reduce number of damages. Decision making for critical resources in the phase of response, is one of the main concerns for managers. Ambulance, as one of the critical resource that can help to reduce earthquake losses and costs, needs to be planned. Confusion in the number of victims in the early stages of earthquake, access complexity to the required data of different organizations by the pressing time, complicated nature of estimation, diversity of models and limitation of time for decision making are the main problems associated with estimating ambulances during earthquake disaster which makes estimation too difficult. In addition, there is a call for research in determining the number of required ambulances during earthquake emergency management, due to high error in estimating the number of ambulances in the current methods, which leads to unnecessary expenses and thereby helping to ensure that disaster sites are not overcrowded with emergency workers impeding each other's effectiveness. Such complexity suggests the introduction of Decision Support System (DSS). More accurate estimation of the number of required ambulances using a decision support system can help managers to speed up the process of decision making and thus reducing error and costs. Since the number of ambulances needed during a disaster is directly proportional to the number of victims requiring hospital treatment and in order to reach the first objective of this study, factors determining the number of human casualties in earthquake disaster i.e. population, modified Mercalli, age, time, building occupancy and gender are selected as the most relevant factors which have high probability in creating human casualties. The collected data from various relevant sources is used in proposing the model of this research. After testing different approaches, Fuzzy rule-based approach is being used, after defining the rules for each aforementioned factors and optimization is conducted in order to minimize the error for estimating the number of human casualties. Finally, by using de Boer formula and obtained number of human casualties, the number of required ambulances is estimated accurately. The results indicate that the error is decreased by more than 50% in the proposed method. A prototype of Model-Driven Decision Support System was developed based on the proposed model that can be used to aid emergency response planners for their decision making process prior to take any action during earthquake emergency management

    Child Abductors Who Have Killed Their Victims: A Theoretical Approach to Spatial Analysis

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    Despite the intense and prolonged public attention received when a child is abducted and killed, there are major gaps in the academic literature. One of the gaps pertains to the distances traveled by the offender between key crime locations. The overall aim of this study was to provide information concerning typical travel distances of offenders. This project utilized an archival data set compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime. The database constructed for this project consisted of 72 victims who were abducted and murdered by 68 offenders. The date range for these offenses was 1970 - 2006. The research questions were addressed with t-tests for independent samples and multiple linear regressions. Three primary dependent variables under investigation in this study were (a) the distance between the offender\u27s residence and the abduction site, (b) the distance between the abduction site and the disposal of the victim\u27s remains, (c) the distance between the location of the body disposal site and the offender\u27s residence. Additionally, a multitude of bivariate analyses were examined. The variables examined in various combinations using bivariate analyses were offender characteristics, victim characteristics, distance variables, and crime event variables. Although findings were primarily insignificant, they contribute to the general literature regarding child abduction homicide offenses. While a number of studies have related child abduction/homicide to specific contexts, little research has been done relating child abduction to theoretical frameworks. This study explored routine activities theory, rational choice theory, and crime pattern theory as they relate to the geographical behavior of child abductors/murderers

    Hybrid Palm Oil Mills Maintenance System

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    This paper proposes a technique that enhances snapshot model for cause of failure and decision analysis in order to easily assist maintenance engineers during identification and definition of the actual maintenance problem. The technique is a hybrid of failure mode, effect and criticality analysis, information technology and decision analysis into the snapshot model. A tool that automates the hybrid of snapshot modelling for cause of failure and decision analysis is also developed. This tool aims to ensure maintenance engineers can conduct snapshot modelling with little or without the help of operation research experts to facilitate in the cause of failure and decision analysis process

    Design, fabrication and testing of shea nut shelling machine

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    Sheanut (Butyrospernum paradoxum) is an oil rich tropical tree crop, which is indigenous to the West African savannah zone. In Nigeria, most of the sheanuts shelling are done manually by rural women and children, which is labour demanding and tedious. This research work was carried out to determine some physical and mechanical properties of sheanut in order to minimize economic losses associated with its processing. The mean values recorded for the physical properties at 25% moisture content (wb) are; major diameter (29.20 mm), intermediate diameter (21.90 mm), minor diameter (15.00 mm), geometric mean diameter (21.90 mm), arithmetic mean diameter (21.20 mm), angle of repose (30.280). The mean values for the mechanical properties are; linear limit force (0.80 kN), linear limit deformation (4.60 mm), bioyield point force (1.40 kN), bioyield point deformation (6.50 mm), rupture point force (2.10 kN) and rupture point deformation (9.60 mm). Based on the physical and mechanical properties, a sheanut shelling machine was developed that is capable of addressing the aforementioned problems. Putting into consideration better shelling and efficient separation of shea nuts so as to encourage more utilization and processing of shea nuts and its products. The machine was designed to be powered by 5 hp electric motor. It was tested to shell, separate and clean sheanuts. The result of the performance evaluation showed that the machine had shelling efficiency of 96%; cleaning efficiency of the machine was 69.56% while the recovery efficiency was 82.7%. The successful development of this machine will reduce drudgery and time taken associated with the traditional method of sheanut shelling and therefore will increase productivity and utilization

    Effects of Salts Concentration on Emergence and Growth of Tomato (Lycopersicon Esculentum) in Tropical Areas

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    Irrigation water quality could have a significant impact on the growth and yield and hence the productivity of crops. All irrigation water contains some dissolves salts, but the concentration and composition of the salts vary with the source of the irrigation water. Water saving in irrigation was identified as a major subject in northern Nigeria. Therefore, the use of treated municipal wastewater and saline water as a complementary source for water irrigation has been encouraged to increase the efficient use of water irrigation in crop production. Thus, the present study was carried out to examine the effect of two salts (NaCl and KCl) in irrigation water at varying concentrations on the emergence and growth of tomato in a semi-arid environment. Potassium chloride was found to be more detrimental on the sustainable production of tomato, NaCl concentration up to 1.5 g/l however was be safely used to boost tomato production. The results show that the treated wastewater, brackish and saline waters and other unconventional sources of water can be safely used in improving agricultural programs under arid and semiarid regions

    Genotyping Approaches for Identification and Characterization of Staphylococcus aureus

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    Genotyping methods are vital epidemiological tools for discriminating different bacterial isolates within same species, which in turn provide useful data in tracing source of infection and disease management. There have been a revolutionary efforts in ways to distinguish between bacterial types and subtypes at molecular level utilizing DNA in the genomes. Notably, the growth of various DNA typing methods has provided innovative apparatuses for improved surveillance and outbreak investigation. Thus, early identification and genotyping are indispensable as resources for managing therapeutic treatment and the control of rapid expansion of clinically important bacteria. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has been in a great attention due to its contagious nature and subjected to various typing analyses. Thus, in this chapter, we aimed to review the contribution of various genotyping methods of commonly used as well as those unique to staphylococci in understanding its epidemiology, infection and dissemination pattern, and to provide an impression of specific advantages and disadvantages of each tool

    Personality and Work Performance among Commercial Bank Employees in the Northern State of Malaysia

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    This study aimed to associate the personality of commercial bank employees whether there is an influence on their work performance. Employees of two commercial banks in the Northern State of Malaysia were randomly selected as respondents. This study employed self-administered questionnaires in obtaining knowledge on personality by using the Big Five Factor Model and work performance. Results indicated that personality had an effect on work performance. Interestingly, commercial bank employees indicated that they love to be at work. Moreover, they also indicated that their trait of being agreeableness could be a good indicator of the top management of having obedient employees

    Effects of feeding angles and cutting speeds of a mower knife with serrated edges on the pulverization of sweet potato vines

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    A study was conducted to test the effects of three different speeds of 1830, 2066 and 2440 rpm of a mower knife with serrated edges and two different feeding angles of 45° and 90° on the pulverization of sweet potato vines. The results indicated that all the treatments were significant at 99% significance level for the pulverized percentage of sweet potato vines remaining on the sieve. The best result was for the 45° feeding angle with lowest vine pulverized percentage of 47.20%. The second speed of 2066 rpm had the finest vine pulverized percentage of 57.47%. The best performance for overlapping effect between feeding angle and speed of mower was achieved by the 45° feeding angle and a mower speed of 1830 rpm resulting in an average percentage of 44.45 % of pulverized vines
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