BACKGROUND Road traffic injury (RTI) is a global problem causing some 1,2 million deaths annually and another 20-50 million people sustain non-fatal injuries. Pre-hospital entrapment is a risk factor for complications and delays transport to the hospital. The Rapid Extrication (RE) method combines winching and cutting of both front poles and utilising two larger vehicles to pull car wreckage ap...

Airborne wind energy systems are capable of extracting energy from higher wind speeds at higher altitudes. The configuration considered in this paper is based on a tethered kite flown in a pumping orbit. This pumping cycle generates energy by winching out at high tether forces and driving a generator while flying figures-of-eight, or lemniscates, as crosswind pattern. Then, the tether is reeled...

A new type of self-rappelling search-and-rescue robot, dubbed SPIDAR, is being developed and tested by Automatika, Inc. (AI) for use by first-responders. The project is being funded by DARPA (Defense Advanced Projects Agency) with the intent to transfer technologies from the military domain to the civilian firstresponder application markets. SPIDAR is built around a set of articulating body-sec...

Cycas micronesica populations in Guam have been threatened by the invasion of the armored scale Aulacaspis yasumatsui. I integrate four factors that illuminate an acute need for intervention to reduce an unprecedented threat caused by the invasion. First, mechanical failure of healthy C. micronesica trees during catastrophic winds is rare because of the cycad tree's unique pachycaulis stem desi...

More than 280 trees were uprooted in winching tests monitored by high resolution inclinometers at the base of and a forcemeter mounted line. The dataset comprises growing on different urban forest sites Europe North America mainly consists fifteen widespread tree species. For first time, large number measured non-destructively prior to uprooting failure, as commonly practiced consulting arboris...

A new type of self-rappelling search-and-rescue robot with chassis articulation, dubbed SPIDAR, has been developed and tested for use by first-responders. SPIDAR is built around a set of articulating body-sections, running a modular running-gear configuration (wheels, legs, tracks, etc.) to allow for maximum terrainability in chaotic collapsed urban structures. The on-board tether-system allows...

Caucasian alder is a large tree and one of the commercial species in the Caspian forests. We investigated the wound healing rate (WHR) and compared the diameter growth (DG) of 66 wounded and 66 unwounded alder trees 15 years after selected logging in these forests. The conditions of the wounds after 15 years were as follows: 56.1% had closed, 25.7% were open, and 18.2% had decayed. The mean WHR...

Tree damage from a variety of types wind events is widespread and great ecological economic importance. In terms areas impacted, tropical storms have the most effects on temperate forests, with southeastern U.S. forests particularly prone to storm damage. This impact motivates attempts understand tree forest characteristics that influence levels study presents initial findings spatially explici...

Current theory in disturbance ecology predicts that extreme disturbances in rapid succession can lead to dramatic changes in species composition or ecosystem processes due to interactions among disturbances. However, the extent to which less catastrophic, yet chronic, disturbances such as wind damage and fire interact is not well studied. In this study, we simulated wind-caused gaps in a Pinus ...