Static analysis-based rapid fire-following earthquake risk assessment method using simple building and GIS information.

After the occurrences of large-scale earthquakes, secondary damage (e.g., fire following earthquake) can result in tremendous losses of life, properties, and buildings.

Depressive symptoms, burnout, resilience, and psychosocial support in healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: A nationwide study in Japan.

Aim: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has significantly impacted the mental health of healthcare workers. This study aimed to assess the mental health of healthcare workers and identify risk and protective factors.

Methods: We surveyed 48,031 healthcare workers at 63 Japanese Red Cross hospitals from December 15, 2022 to January 15, 2023.

Effective Prediction of Concrete Constitutive Models for Reinforced Concrete Shear Walls under Cyclic Loading.

One of the most challenging elements of modeling the behaviour of reinforced concrete (RC) walls is combining realistic material models that can capture the observable behaviour of the physical system. Experiments with realistic loading rates and pressures reveal that steel and concrete display complicated nonlinear behaviour that is challenging to represent in a single constitutive model. To investigate the response of a reinforced concrete structure subjected to dynamic loads, this paper's study is based on many different material models to assess the advantages and disadvantages of the models on 2D and 3D RC walls using the LS-DYNA program.

Structural finite element model updating considering soil-structure interaction using ls-dyna in loop.

In this study, a finite element model updating method which can consider soil-structure interaction was developed to analyze the effect of soil properties on the structural response while considering interaction between the soil and the structure. Additionally, LS-DYNA, a commercial finite element program, was included in the loop of the proposed technique using MATLAB to conveniently utilize the complex structures updated by the model. To validate the performance of the proposed method, a large-scale shake table test was conducted.

Complex disaster response framework to reduce urban disaster vulnerability.

Cities are vulnerable to a range of disasters that can occur simultaneously due to their complexity. Therefore, an effective disaster response plan is needed to reduce the disaster vulnerability of cities. In particular, evacuation route management is important for reducing the losses from a disaster.

Impact of Government Intervention in Response to Coronavirus Disease 2019.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) led to the loss of lives and had serious social and economic effects. Countries implemented various quarantine policies to reduce the effects. The countries were divided into low- and high-risk groups based on the differences in quarantine policies and their levels of infection.

Long-term adaptation of two anammox granules with different ratios of Candidatus Brocadia and Candidatus Jettenia under increasing salinity and their application to treat saline wastewater.

Nitrogen removal in saline wastewater is a challenge of the anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) process, which is dominated by freshwater anammox bacteria (FAB). Candidatus Brocadia and Candidatus Jettenia, the most widely used FABs, have been separately applied and evaluated for their ability to treat saline wastewater. To understand the effect of salinity on nitrogen removal capability when they present together in an anammox granule, we compared two anammox granules: GRN1 was evenly dominated by Ca.

Feeding strategy for single-stage deammonification to treat moderate-strength ammonium under low free ammonia conditions.

Single-stage deammonification (SSD) processes have been successfully operated using the step-feeding strategy to treat high-strength NH (>300 mg/L), but often failed to treat moderate-strength NH (100-300 mg/L). Because it is hard to maintain the free ammonia (FA) above 1 mg/L, which is a concentration in which the activity of NO oxidizing bacteria (NOB) can be selectively suppressed. In this study, to evaluate the effectiveness of the step-feeding strategy on the long-term stability of treating moderate-strength NH, two SSD sequential-batch reactors (SBRs) were operated under one-step feeding and multi-step feeding strategies.

Forensic investigation of glass microfragments exposed to heat.

The comparative analysis of glasses based on refractive index (RI) is a widely used method in forensic examinations. However, it cannot be directly applied if the control sample has previously been altered by heat or fire, since RI can change significantly in this process. For this reason, the refractive index of the fragments recovered from the perpetrator's clothing can also differ from the control sample recovered after the fire, although they originate from the same source.

Earthquake Detection in a Static and Dynamic Environment Using Supervised Machine Learning and a Novel Feature Extraction Method.

Detecting earthquakes using smartphones or IoT devices in real-time is an arduous and challenging task, not only because it is constrained with the hard real-time issue but also due to the similarity of earthquake signals and the non-earthquake signals (i.e., noise or other activities).

Characteristics of Heat Waves From a Disaster Perspective.

In September 2018, heat waves were declared to be a type of natural disaster by the Framework Act on the Management of Disasters and Safety. The present study examined the characteristics of heat waves from the perspectives of meteorological phenomena and health damage. The government's efforts to minimize the damages incurred by heat waves are summarized chronologically.

Estimation of heat-related deaths during heat wave episodes in South Korea (2006-2017).

In 2016, South Korea experienced extremely high temperatures and the Korea Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 17 heat-caused deaths during these heat waves, most due to heat stroke. Because the reported number of heat-caused deaths is only part of the total deaths associated with heat waves, we aimed to estimate attributable deaths during heat wave episodes. We linked mortality to meteorological data in 16 regions in South Korea and estimated relative risk at or above threshold of maximum temperature during summer using generalized linear regression models after controlling for confounders.

Analyses of Time Series InSAR Signatures for Land Cover Classification: Case Studies over Dense Forestry Areas with L-Band SAR Images.

As demonstrated in prior studies, InSAR holds great potential for land cover classification, especially considering its wide coverage and transparency to climatic conditions. In addition to features such as backscattering coefficient and phase coherence, the temporal migration in InSAR signatures provides information that is capable of discriminating types of land cover in target area. The exploitation of InSAR signatures was expected to provide merits to trace land cover change in extensive areas; however, the extraction of suitable features from InSAR signatures was a challenging task.

Textile Display with AMOLED Using a Stacked-Pixel Structure on a Polyethylene Terephthalate Fabric Substrate.

An active-mode organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) display on a fabric substrate is expected to be a prominent textile display for e-textile applications. However, the large surface roughness of the fabric substrate limits the aperture ratio-the area ratio of the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) to the total pixel area. In this study, the aperture ratio of the AMOLED panel fabricated on the polyethylene terephthalate fabric substrate was enhanced by applying a stacked-pixel structure, in which the OLED was deposited above the organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) pixel circuit layer.

Seasonal control of spatial distribution of soil moisture on a steep hillslope.

Spatio-temporal variation in soil moisture plays an important role in hydrological and ecological processes. In the present study, we investigated the effect of environmental factors on variation in soil moisture at a hillslope scale. The relationships among various environmental factors, including soil properties, topographic indices, and vegetation of a humid forest hillslope, and soil moisture distributions were evaluated based on soil moisture data collected at 18 sampling locations over three seasons (spring, rainy, and autumn) at depths of 10, 30, and 60 cm.

Development of urban runoff model FFC-QUAL for first-flush water-quality analysis in urban drainage basins.

An urban runoff model that is able to compute the runoff, the pollutant loadings, and the concentrations of water-quality constituents in urban drainages during the first flush was developed. This model, which is referred to as FFC-QUAL, was modified from the existing ILLUDAS model and added for use during the water-quality analysis process for dry and rainy periods. For the dry period, the specifications of the coefficients for the discharge and water quality were used.

Safety Climate and Occupational Stress According to Occupational Accidents Experience and Employment Type in Shipbuilding Industry of Korea.

Background: Safety climate and occupational stress are related with occupational accident. The present study tried to identify the differences in safety climate and occupational stress according to occupational accidents experience and employment type (e.g.

A comparative study on generating simulated Landsat NDVI images using data fusion and regression method-the case of the Korean Peninsula.

Landsat optical images have enough spatial and spectral resolution to analyze vegetation growth characteristics. But, the clouds and water vapor degrade the image quality quite often, which limits the availability of usable images for the time series vegetation vitality measurement. To overcome this shortcoming, simulated images are used as an alternative.

Watershed-scale modeling on the fate and transport of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

PAHs are potentially carcinogenic substances that are persistent in the environment. Increasing concentrations of PAHs were observed due to rapid urbanization, thus; monitoring PAHs concentrations is necessary. However, it is expensive to conduct intensive monitoring activities of a large number of PAHs.