This paper discusses the development and implementation of an evacuation demand forecasting module that was incorporated into a comprehensive decision support system for the planning and management of contraflow operations in the Gulf of Mexico. Contraflow implies the reversing of one direction of a highway in order to permit a substantially increased travel demand exiting away from an area imp...

BACKGROUND Search and rescue (SAR) is a component of emergency and disaster response. SAR teams are limited in number; thus, collecting information on their characteristics may facilitate the establishment of mutual agreement protocols between countries. The objective of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of the Turkish Civil Defense SAR Units. METHODS This descriptive study was c...

In the context of workforce scheduling, there are many scenarios in which personnel must carry out tasks at different locations hence requiring some form of transportation. Examples of these type of scenarios include nurses visiting patients at home, technicians carrying out repairs at customers’ locations, security guards performing rounds at different premises, etc. We refer to these scenario...

Due to the modern advent of near ubiquitous accessibility to rapid international transportation the epidemiologic trends of highly communicable diseases can be devastating. With the recent emergence of diseases matching this pattern, such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), an area of overt concern has been the transmission of infection through respiratory droplets. Approved facemasks ...

AIM The aim of the present study is to investigate the perceived inhibiting and facilitating factors concerning breast cancer early diagnosis behavior in women over age 40. METHOD A qualitative focus group interview method was applied with 43 participating women, in the period between March-April 2010, using a semi-structured interview questionnaire based on the Health Belief Model and the He...

Privatization has increasingly become a policy option for government agencies struggling to meet rising demands for services but with fewer resources. In the transportation arena, many state departments of transportation (DOTs) have privatized by outsourcing highway functions to the private sector. But the outsourcing of technical and expert services such as those related to the design and cons...

Middle and older age group relative share in the community permanently grows. Those are commonly burdened with several chronic health conditions or elevated incidence of acute ones and in more frequent need for consulting health services. In the era of modern technical medicine, it is important to increase quality of services particularly patients orientated. Department of Internal Medicine dev...

Prior to the attack on the USS Cole and the events of 11 September 2001, the U.S. Navy was developing antiterrorism programs to address potential terrorist attacks in a resource-constrained environment. Amid unprecedented tragedy associated with these and other terrorist strikes against U.S. interests, both domestic and abroad, government agencies, the Armed Forces, and private companies have r...

NATO war medical doctrine was applied in the war in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, due to rather specific martial and organizational circumstances, the doctrine had to be modified. sometimes substantially. A medical team from the war hospital in Livno, Bosnia and Herzegovina describes their work with respect to the four-echelon NATO doctrine. The team covered a relatively large and a...

The direct and indirect costs of suspected human rabies exposure were estimated for San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, California, USA. Clinic, hospital, and county public health records (1998-2002) were examined to determine direct costs for postexposure prophylaxis (PEP), and 55 (41%) former patients were contacted to voluntarily provide estimates of their indirect costs associated w...