Developing an incident command system framework for natural hazards in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

It is beyond dispute that natural hazards cause significant damage to physical and human ‎domains, with more disasters occurring in the last 25 years are increasingly linked to climate ‎change. Therefore, there is a growing need to minimise the dangers and threats faced by ‎individual countries. Due to its geographical location and environmental conditions, the ‎United Arab Emirates (UAE) is particularly exposed to various natural hazards, resulting in ‎both the infrastructure and urbanisation being at risk. The uncertainty and complexity of ‎emergencies requires particular arrangement responses from emergency agencies, such as the ‎civil defence, and police services to share in minimising the impact of the emerging threats. ‎The reoccurrence of hazards and their impact suggest that the implementation of the ‎emergency response system and the incident command are wrong, or that there is a gap found ‎between the theory and practice in emergency response. Consequently, the UAE has realised ‎the necessity for implementing an appropriate hazard response system to avert and mitigate ‎the potential consequences of the hazards and to deal with future emergencies. This has ‎proven beneficial in the identification and evaluation of the primary vital factors and gaps in ‎the implementation of the incident command system, in particular, the Civil Defence General ‎Command (CDGC) agency used as a case study for this research. Thus, this research aims to ‎develop an incident command system framework based on a feasibility assessment to ‎facilitate emergency response, increase capacity, and enhance resilience of the CDGC in ‎dealing with hazards in the UAE.‎ To achieve this aim the research employed exploratory sequential mixed method approach to ‎collect and analyse the required data. In the first stage, qualitative semi-structured interviews ‎were conducted with Gold and Silver commanders (n=15). These commanders were selected ‎due to their high positions in their departments, with the Gold commander in the role of a ‎general director, and the Silver commander as a deputy director at the CDGC agency. In ‎addition, thematic analysis was used to identify key critical factors of the incident command ‎system, which were; implementation, organisational, individual, barriers and driver factors in ‎the current deployment of the incident command structure. The second stage of the ‎investigation employed questionnaires survey to measure and examine the perceptions and ‎values of the Bronze commanders (n=153). These commanders were selected due to their job ‎roles in the operational field as they being first responders to incidents. A Kruskal -Wallis test ‎‎(KWt) was used to examine whether there were any significant relationships ‎between the ‎independent variables (CD departments, job position and academic qualification) and the ‎dependent variables (the incident command system factors) at level (p <0.05). Thereafter, ‎further questionnaires were collected from experts (n=11), which helped in achieving the ‎UAE incident command framework validation. A sample size of experts was selected to ‎reduce bias associated with a decrease in the possibility of data response. Generally, the ‎higher commander ranks tended to reveal excellent judgment regarding the research results, in ‎accordance with their years of experience, which was more than 11 years and above.‎ The realisation of key contributions to awareness and understanding completed the ‎knowledge gap by presenting a developed incident command system framework that ‎addressed the key factors associated with the successful implementation of the incident ‎command system adaptable to the UAE’s environmental conditions. This research identified ‎and evaluated the critical factors of implementation, organisational, individual, barrier and ‎driver of the incident command system ‎in the CDGC agency in the UAE. The barrier factors ‎were treated statistically to build an improvement strategy for an effective emergency ‎response. This research has practical implications for the incident commanders as it actively ‎assures improved operation of the incident command system currently in place, so that it ‎enhances the capabilities within the CDGC agency during emergency response operations. By ‎doing so, emergency agencies in the UAE can be more effective and efficient. As a result, the ‎proposal of a new framework contributed to a more detailed and less confusing system that ‎overcome the identified barriers and aided successful emergency management.

Dynamic condylar screws versus 95º angle blade plate fixation of subtrochantric fractures of femur

Background: The purpose of this prospective randomized study was to evaluate the results of dynamic condylar screw (DCS) system and 95º angle blade plate fixation in the management of sub-trochanteric femoral fractures, regarding stability, union time, complication rate and functional out come.Methods: Total 30 consecutive patients with sub-trochanteric fracture were studied. The inclusion criteria were closed sub-trochanteric fractures in adults of both gender aged 18 years or above. Pathological fractures and open fractures were excluded from the study. After fixation of fractures with dynamic condylar screw system and 95º angle blade plate patients were followed up in OPD at an interval of 2 weeks till full weight bearing was started and then after at an interval of 4 weeks. Results of treatment were assessed by the Harris hip score for clinical and radiological assessment at the end of 6 months.Results: Among 30 studied cases, males were 22 (73.30%) and female 8 (26.70%). Most common mode of injury was road traffic accidents that occurred in 17 patients (56.70%) and the rest 13 patients had a history of fall. Patients were divided into two random groups (A &B) of 15 cases each. Group A was treated with DCS and Group B was treated with Angle Blade Plate 95º implants. Radiological union in most of the patients (13 out of 15 cases) treated with 95°angle blade plate occurred between 14-18 weeks, while in cases treated with dynamic condylar screw radiological union in most of the patients (14 out of 15) occurred between 12-16 weeks. According to Harris hip score, good to excellent results were achieved in 10 cases (66.66%) of 95°angle blade plate group and 14 cases (93.33%) of dynamic condylar screw group.Conclusions: Patients with sub-trochanteric fractures treated with dynamic condylar screw had earlier radiological union, better functional outcome, less complications and earlier weight bearing

Building Energy Model Generation Using a Digital Photogrammetry-Based 3D Model

Buildings consume a large amount of energy and environmental resources. At the same time, current practices for whole-building energy simulation are costly and require skilled labor. As Building Energy Modeling (BEM) and simulations are becoming increasingly important, there is a growing need to make environmental assessments of buildings more efficient and accessible. A building energy model is based on collecting input data from the real, physical world and representing them as a digital energy model. Real-world data is also collected in the field of 3D reconstruction and image analysis, where major developments have been happening in recent years. Current digital photogrammetry software can automatically match photographs taken with a simple smartphone camera and generate a 3D model. This thesis presents methods and techniques that can be used to generate a building energy model from a digital photogrammetry-based 3D model. To accomplish this, a prototype program was developed that uses 3D reconstructed data as geometric modeling inputs for BEM. To validate the prototype, an experiment was conducted where a case-study building was selected. Photographs of the building were taken using a small remotelycontrolled Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) drone. Then, using photogrammetry software, the photographs were used to automatically generate a textured 3D model. The texture map, which is an image that represents the color information in the 3D model, was semantically annotated to extract building elements. The window annotations were iii used as inputs for the BEM process. In addition, a number of algorithms were applied to automatically convert both the 3D model and the annotated texture map into geometry that is compatible for a building energy model. Through the prototype, pre-defined templates were used with the geometric inputs to generate an EnergyPlus model (as an example building energy model). The feasibility of this experiment was verified by running a successful energy simulation. The results of this thesis contribute towards creating an automated and user-friendly photo-to-BEM method

Investigating Calotropis Procera natural dye extracts and PDOT:PSS hole transport material for dye-sensitized solar cells

Received: February 24th, 2021 ; Accepted: May 2nd, 2021 ; Published: May 4th, 2021 ; Correspondence: [email protected] this work, natural dye extracts from Calotropis Procera are used as the main dyesensitizer in solar cells. The Calotropis plant is a non-food item capable of surviving the harsh climate of the United Arab Emirates. Its incorporation into dye-sensitized solar cells is tested by constructing various cells, whose performance was also compared to that of more common chlorophyll-based dye extracts (i.e. spinach) as well as compared against a baseline cell sensitized with a synthetic ruthenium dye. The performance of the Calotropis-based cells was in general better than those with other natural sensitizers, but of course scored lower efficiency results when compared to cells built with synthetic dyes (0.075% compared to 5.11%). The advantage in using a natural sensitizer include facile extraction and preparation, low cost and abundance, since the Calotropis source has no competing applications in terms of food, livestock feed, etc. The figureof-merit of cell output vs. cost for such cells makes them a good contender for further research and development effort to overcome the obvious drawbacks of stability and service longevity. Adding a hole-transport material to the cells in the form of PEDOT:PSS was also attempted to assess the enhancement it could provide to the cells. This did not yield the desired results and more experiments have to be done to better understand the interaction of each added layer to the original cell design

Isotopic-mass dependence of the A, B, and C excitonic band gaps in ZnO at low temperatures

Low temperature wavelength-modulated reflectivity measurements of isotopically engineered ZnO samples have yielded the dependence of their A, B, and C excitonic band gaps on the isotopic masses of Zn and O. The observed dependence is analyzed in terms of the band gap renormalization by zero-point vibrations via electron-phonon interaction and the volume dependence on isotopic mass. A simplified, two-oscillator model, employed in the analysis, yields zero-point renormalizations of the band gaps, -154 +/- 14 meV (A), -145 +/- 12 meV (B), and -169 +/- 14 meV (C), for ZnO with natural isotopic composition

Evaluating the Paradox of Strength and Ductility in Ultrafine-Grained Oxygen-free Copper Processed by ECAP at Room Temperature

Oxygen-free copper of >99.95% purity was processed by equal-channel angular pressing at room temperature (RT) for up to 24 passes and then pulled to failure at RT using strain rates from 10-4 to 10-2 s-1. The results show that the microstrain increases with strain at the lower numbers of passes but decreases between 16 and 24 passes. Similar trends were found also for the dislocation density, the Vickers microhardness and the values of the measured yield stresses in tensile testing. X-ray diffraction measurements showed a minor increase in the crystallite size at the high strain imposed by processing through 24 passes. These results demonstrate the occurrence of dynamic recovery at the highest strain. In tensile testing at a strain rate of 10-3 s-1 the results gave a yield stress of ~391 MPa and an elongation to failure of 52% which is consistent with an earlier report using Cu of much higher purity but not consistent with an earlier report using Cu of the same purity

The stability of oxygen-free copper processed by high-pressure torsion after room temperature storage for 12 months.

Ultrafine-grained copper samples produced by high-pressure torsion were stored at room temperature for 12 months to investigate microstructural stability and the self-annealing phenomena. The results show that samples processed by low numbers of turns exhibit less thermal stability after storage for 12 months by comparison with samples processed by high numbers of turns. A significant decrease in the hardness was recorded near the edges of the discs processed by 1/4, 1/2 and 1 turn due to recrystallization and grain growth whereas a minor drop in hardness values was observed in the samples processed by 3, 5 and 10 turns. This drop in hardness was related to a recovery mechanism

Electron-phonon renormalization of electronic band gaps of semiconductors: Isotopically enriched silicon

Photoluminescence and wavelength-modulated transmission spectra displaying phonon-assisted indirect excitonic transitions in isotopically enriched Si-28, Si-29, Si-30, as well as in natural Si, have yielded the isotopic mass (M) dependence of the indirect excitonic gap (E-gx) and the relevant phonon frequencies. Interpreting these measurements on the basis of a phenomenological theory for (partial derivativeE(gx)/partial derivativeM), we deduce E-gx(M=infinity)=(1213.8+/-1.2) meV, the purely electronic value in the absence of electron-phonon interaction and volume changes associated with anharmonicity