The Capability of Spatial Analysis in Planning the Accessibility for Hazard Community from Debris-Flow Events

Debris flow is a destructive disaster causing tragic loss and damages to vulnerable people and their properties in many regions around the world. According an impact of this disaster, hazard areas are submerged in mud and debris causing enormous difficulties to all relevant organisations and affected people to access over the hazard community. Although an inaccessibility is one of the major problems considered to be solved in an urgent stage, the lack of a comprehensive study in activities of involved people through time line since the disaster occurrence causes a difficulty to plan the feasible solution to overcome those problems effectively. Therefore, this paper presents the existing knowledge in several activities related to accessibilities in hazard areas. Additionally, the initial findings derived from interviews conducted as a part of a doctoral research are determined showing real activities related to accessibilities in a study area of Thailand where was attacked by a major debris-flow event in 2001. Regarding the explored acitivities, this study aims to introduce a potential solution to overcome the inaccessibility problems in hazard areas by applying spatial analysis techniques. This solution presents a new method of an optimum balance between the explored problems from the interviews of affected people and the practices conducted by the local government to solve the inaccessibility in the hazard area. Some suggestions are addressed at the end of the paper to propose some additional practices with some considered factors for the spatial database design

Spatial data potential for resettlement programmes in local communities vulnerable to debris-flow disasters

Resettlement programmes have been implemented by many governments and organisations to relocate people from the hazard areas to other safe places where they are expected to have normal or better lives. However, often the resettled communities face numerous difficulties while going through the relocation process and beyond. It appears that many social and humanitarian problems exists in most of the resettlement programmes (Menoni and Pesaro, 2008). It has been often found that the social, economic and humanitarian problems faced by resettlement communities are linked with the spatial aspects of the resettlement area (Dikmen, 2002; Corsellis and Vitale, 2005; Muggah, 2008). In order to mitigate the severity of those issues in conducting a potential resettlement programme, the information of vulnerable hazard communities must be prepared for the resettlement plan. However, the limitation of the data, i.e. spatial and non-spatial data, of the vulnerable hazard communities plays an important role to delay the post-disaster reduction tasks. An attempt to obtain and develop the dataset potential for post-disaster risk reduction proceed with the resettlement programme requires a comprehensive statement of situations during the disaster occurrence in the hazard community. Therefore, this paper presents a technique identifying the relationships between spatial and nonspatial data essential to the post-disaster risk reduction at the local scale. The obtain information derives from the deep insight interviews of affected people regarding issues associated with spatial aspects in a disaster event. The explored issues regarding the interrelationship between socioeconomic issues and spatial conditions were presented in cognitive maps showing the complexity of those issues in a resettlement programme. As the outcome of the paper, it presents the developed spatail database for resettlement programmes in local communities vulnerable to debris-flow disasters. The explored result of this paper is expected to apply with the resettlement programme in order to prevent the misleading resettlement programmes and also accelerate the post-disaster risk reduction for vulnerable hazard communities effectively

Using Thai Native Moss as Bio-Adsorbent for Contaminated Heavy Metal in Air

AbstractAtmospheric particulate matter contaminated with heavy metal is harmful to the respiratory and cardiovascular system. Biomonitoring is a novel technique of using organisms or biomaterials to examine air quality. Moss was developed for using as a bioindicator to assess the concentration of heavy metal in atmosphere in many countries because of its ability to adsorb heavy metals. However; there had never been a study on native mosses in Thailand. Therefore; this research was aimed at studying the adsorption of heavy metal in polluted air by using Thai native mosses. Thai native mosses weretransplanted on a tray and placed on Ratchawithi Road, SuanSunandhaRajabhat university, Bangkok, Thailand which has heavy traffic that cause polluted air..The results showed that Fe, Zn, Cu and Cd were found in Thai native mosses. Therefore; it could be verified that Thai mosses can adsorb heavy metal and could be used as a bio-adsorbent

SCCmec Type IX Element in Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus spa Type t337 (CC9) Isolated from Pigs and Pork in Thailand

Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have emerged among livestock in several countries. In this study, we describe the results of a screening performed in pigs and raw pork samples in Thailand. Ten pork samples and 15 nasal swabs from pigs were collected from 2 markets and 1 pig farm in the Samuth Songkhram province in Thailand. MRSA were isolated using selective isolation procedures and confirmed by mecA PCR. The MRSA were characterized by antimicrobial susceptibility testing, pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), spa typing, SCCmec typing, and MLST. Resistance and virulence markers were screened using a microarray. Five of the pork samples and six pig nasal swabs were positive for MRSA. All 11 isolates belonged to spa type t337 but showed diversity in antimicrobial resistance patterns and PFGE profiles. Additionally, the isolates were sequence-typed; ST9, ST2136, ST2278 belonging to the clonal complex; CC9. All isolates harbored SCCmec IX and were resistant to 7 out of 14 tested antimicrobials; additional resistances to all antimicrobials tested were found in some of the pork and pig isolates and 1 pork isolate was resistant to 13 antimicrobials tested. Microarray analysis identified blaZ, aac-aphD, vga(A), tetM, and a tet efflux marker, in all strains and additionally ermB and aadD, cat and fex(A) in the pork isolates. None of the isolates were found PVL-positive, but enterotoxins were identified in all isolates. To our knowledge, only a few descriptions of MRSA in livestock and food products in Thailand have been observed but this is the first observation of MRSA CC9 associated with SCCmec IX in pork. This study indicates a likely widespread distribution of MRSA in pig and pork in Thailand and further investigation on the prevalence and importance of livestock associated MRSA in Thailand is needed

Moral competence in nursing practice

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/88187/1/ketefian-moral_competence_nursing_practice.pd

Swine wastewater treatment using vertical subsurface flow constructed wetland planted with Napier grass

This research aims to investigate the pollutant removal efficiencies in swine wastewater using a vertical subsurface flow constructed wetland (VSF CW) planted with two species of Napier grass. The grass productivities were also cultivated and compared in order to provide information for species selection. Twelve treatment units were set up with the VSF CWs planted with Giant Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum cv. King grass) and Dwarf Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum cv. Mott.) with 2 and 5 cm d−1 of hydraulic loading rates (HLR). Comparisons of removal efficiency and grass productivity were analyzed using Duncan's Multiple Range Test and t-test at the significant level 0.05. Both species of Napier grass performed more than 70% of removal efficiency of BOD and TKN. The VSF CW planted with Giant Napier grass at 5 cm d−1 HLR performed the highest BOD removal efficiency of 94 ± 1%, while the 2 cm d−1 HLR removed COD with efficiency of 64 ± 6%. The results also showed the effluent from all treatment units contained averages of BOD, COD, TSS, TKN and pH that followed Thailand's swine wastewater quality standard. Average fresh yields and dry yields were between 4.6 ± 0.4 to 15.2 ± 1.2 and 0.5 ± 0.1 to 2.2 ± 0.1 kg m−2, respectively. The dry yields obtained from four cutting cycles in five months of CW system operation were higher than the ones planted with a traditional method, but declined continuously after each cutting cycle. Both species of Napier grass indicated their suitability to be used in the VSF CW for swine wastewater treatment

Determination of Oxidation Mechanisms of Ferritic-Martensitic Alloys in Supercritical Water.

Objective of this thesis is to understand the oxidation mechanisms of ferritic-martensitic alloys in supercritical water (SCW). The approaches included; i) determine the effects of SCW temperature on the oxidation rate, ii) determine the diffusion processes in oxide in terms of diffusion species and mechanisms and iii) understand the structure of the various oxide phases and their formation. Microstructure of oxide formed on four F-M alloys; T91, HCM12A, HT-9 and 9Cr-ODS, exposed in 400 – 600°C SCW consisted of two oxide layers and a transition layer. The outer oxide consisted of dense columnar grains of magnetite (Fe3O4). The inner oxide consisted of small equiaxed grains of Fe-Cr spinel oxide Fe3-xCrxO4, where x ~ 0.7-1 depends on alloy type. The transition layer consisted of grain boundary oxides of chromia and chromite, and fine spinel oxide grains precipitated inside laths. SCW temperature has an influence on oxidation. The oxidation rate increased exponentially as a function of temperature. The oxidation rate followed trend of Cr content in alloy in which HCM12A and HT-9 with high Cr exhibited lower oxidation rate than T91. The 9Cr-ODS exhibited relatively good oxidation resistance compare to T91 with a similar Cr content. This reflects an effect of Y2O3 nano particles. Interpretation of the oxidation rate reveals that; i) the power relation of the oxidation shows that the oxidation occurred by a diffusion controlled mechanism, ii) the activation energy of oxidation suggests the occurrence of short circuit diffusion along grain boundaries and defects in the oxide, and iii) the rate limiting mechanism is Fe diffusion. Original alloy surface is at the outer – inner oxide interface. Formation of the outer oxide occurs by outward diffusion of Fe ions and transport of Fe ions dominates by vacancy diffusion. The inner oxide occurs by inward diffusion of oxygen, and micropores occur as a result of outward diffusion of Fe ions to the outer oxide. Transport of Fe ions through the inner layer occurs by cation vacancies in most of the layer, and interstitial diffusion dominates near the transition layer – inner oxide interface. Oxygen transport occurred primarily by the short-circuit diffusion.Ph.D.Nuclear Engineering & Radiological SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/84521/1/pantipam_1.pd