Resilience of ground transportation networks: a case study on Melbourne

A city with a transportation system so well designed that failure of any arbitrary waypoint triggers no major event, is the major goal for every single urban planning and management board. However, city planning comes with inherent design constraints. Research is needed to understand the interaction between these constraints and city resilience. This understanding is useful for those planning for a new city and more importantly, when evaluating and designing cost-effective ways to improve the resilience of existing cities.In this paper, we promote a proactive attitude for prevention. We use network analysis to estimate the resilience of ground transportation system in Melbourne. Real data extracted from GPS navigation maps of Melbourne is used and resilience is computed for train, tram and street networks. The interdependency and interaction of these networks is then used to risk assess Melbourne’s transportation system. The system-level risk identification process paints a risk picture for Melbourne City ground transport system.The approach can be generalised to any piece of ground covered by a GPS navigation map, being a promising cost-effective, systemic and structured approach to quantify and manage risk of virtually any city in the world

Prenatal Lead Exposure Risk Assessment by Vermont Maternity Care Providers

Introduction. One percent of women of childbearing age in the U.S. have blood lead levels ≥ 5 ug/dL, which are associated with maternal hypertension during pregnancy, neural tube and cardiac defects in infants, low birth weight, prematurity, and spontaneous abortion. It is unknown whether obstetrics providers in Vermont are screening their pregnant patients for lead levels and educating them on lead exposure risks. Objective. To gain an understanding of current lead screening practices in Vermont and issue recommendations for disseminating lead screening information. Methods. We developed and e-mailed a survey to practicing OB/GYN physicians, maternity care focused family medicine physicians, nurse midwives, and professional midwives. The survey assessed current screening practices for lead exposure in their pregnant patients, interest in receiving statewide guidelines, and guideline dissemination preferences. Results. Of the 41 respondents, 12% currently conduct risk assessments for lead exposure with all of their pregnant patients. Fifty four percent of maternity providers give all of their patients educational materials about lead exposure and risk of toxicity. Seventy one percent of maternity providers think that having guidelines provided by the Vermont Department of Health would encourage them to begin or continue lead exposure screening. The two preferred methods of communicating guidelines to physicians were grand rounds and email whereas non-physician providers preferred email and webinar. Discussion. The majority of pregnant patients in Vermont are not properly assessed or educated about lead risks. However, there is interest in having statewide standardized lead risk assessment guidelines, with dissemination preferences differing by provider type.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1248/thumbnail.jp