A severe hemorrhage can result in death within minutes, before professional first responders have time to arrive. Thus, intervention by bystanders, who may lack medical training, may be necessary to ...save a victim's life in situations with bleeding injuries. Proper intervention requires that bystanders accurately assess the severity of the injury and respond appropriately. As many bystanders lack tools and training, they are limited in terms of the information they can use in their evaluative process. In hemorrhage situations, visible blood loss may serve as a dominant cue to action. Therefore, understanding how medically untrained bystanders (i.e., laypeople) perceive hemorrhage is important. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the ability of laypeople to visually assess blood loss and to examine factors that may impact accuracy and the classification of injury severity. A total of 125 laypeople watched 78 short videos each of individuals experiencing a hemorrhage. Victim gender, volume of blood lost, and camera perspective were systematically manipulated in the videos. The results revealed that laypeople overestimated small volumes of blood loss (from 50 to 200 ml), and underestimated larger volumes (from 400 to 1900 ml). Larger volumes of blood loss were associated with larger estimation errors. Further, blood loss was underestimated more for female victims than male victims and their hemorrhages were less likely to be classified as life-threatening. These results have implications for training and intervention design.
Introduction:
Assessing disaster preparedness in a given region is a complex problem. Current methods are often resource-intensive and may lack generalizability beyond a specific scenario. ...Computer-based stochastic simulations may be an additional method but would require systems that are valid, flexible, and easy to use. Emergo Train System (ETS) is an analog simulation system used for disaster preparedness assessments.
Aim:
To digitalize the ETS model and develop stochastic simulation software for improved disaster preparedness assessments.
Methods:
A simulation software was developed in C#. The simulation model was based on ETS. Preliminary verification and validation (V&V) tests were performed, including unit and integration testing, trace validation, and a comparison to a prior analog ETS disaster preparedness assessment exercise.
Results:
The software contains medically validated patients from ETS and is capable of automatically running disaster scenarios with stochastic variations in the injury panorama, available resources, geographical location, and other variables. It consists of two main programs: an editor where scenarios can be constructed and a simulation system to evaluate the outcome. Initial V&V testing showed that the software is reliable and internally consistent. The comparison to the analog exercise showed a general high agreement in terms of patient outcome. The analog exercise featured a train derailment with 397 injured, of which 45 patients suffered preventable death. In comparison, the computer simulation ran 100 iterations of the same scenario and indicated that a median of 41 patients (IQR 31 to 44) would suffer a preventable death.
Discussion:
Stochastic simulation methods can be a powerful complement to traditional capability assessments methods. The developed simulation software can be used for both assessing emergency preparedness with some validity and as a complement to analog capability assessment exercises, both as input and to validate results. Future work includes comparing the simulation to real disaster outcomes.
To design interventions for teaching laypeople how to respond in hemorrhage situations, it is necessary to understand factors that influence their perception of blood loss. Although lab-based ...research offers more experimental control, it limits access to certain kinds of participants. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare results from an online administration of a web-based application (SABLE) to data collected using the same application in a lab. Participants viewed 78 5-second video clips of simulated bleeding injuries with a male or female victim and different volumes of blood loss. They estimated the volume of blood loss after each video. The results replicated the general findings from prior research and revealed no significant differences in estimations or estimation accuracy between the online and lab-based administration of SABLE. Results are discussed in terms of applicability to research practice.
Citizen science in radiation research Gustavsson, Cecilia; Andersson-Sundén, Erik; Barker, Abigail ...
EPJ Web of Conferences,
2020, Letnik:
239
Journal Article, Conference Proceeding
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
A growing trend in science is that research institutions reach out to members of the public for participating in research. The reasons for outreach are many, spanning from the desire to collect ...and/or analyse large sets of data efficiently, to the idea of including the general public on a very fundamental level in science-making and ultimately decision-making. The presented project is curriculum-based and carried out in 240 lower secondary school classes (pupils of age 13-16). The task, as designed by the participating universities, is to collect mushrooms, soil and animal droppings from different parts of Sweden, do preliminary sample preparation and analyses and send the samples to the university institutions for radioactivity measurement. Behind the project is a desire to compare today’s levels of
137
Cs with those deposited right after the Chernobyl accident in 1986, but also to study the exchange of caesium between organisms as well as the impacts of biological and geological processes on uptake and retention. The scientific outcome is a geodatabase with the
137
Cs activity (Bq/m
2
) present in the Swedish environment, where radioactivity data can be linked to the species (fungi, competing species, animals foraging), forest type, land type, land use and other environmental factors. The science question is of interest to the general public as foraging for mushrooms, as well as spending recreational time in forests is widely popular in Sweden. In this article, we will discuss the current status of the project and the observations we have made about how well the public can participate in scientific research. Focus will be on organization of the project, such as logistics, preparation of supportive material, feedback and communication between researchers and schools. We will present observations about the impact the project has had on the participants, based on quantitative and qualitative evaluations.
In a Swedish citizen science project, more than 200 elementary school classes participated in collecting fungi, soil samples, and droppings from deer and wild boar, from all over Sweden. The samples ...have been sent to a laboratory at Uppsala University where they are being analyzed through gamma spectroscopy with a shielded HPGe detector. The main objective is to scan the samples for
137
Cs from the Chernobyl accident and compare the data with measurements from 1986, but uptake of naturally occuring radionuclides like
40
K and radon daughters will also be determined. Together with the soil samples, transfer factors will be derived, and correlations for these factors will be sought for different species of fungi and soil types. The potential for correlating the results with different biological processes will also be investigated, in part through the collected animal droppings. This is a work in progress where the present status of the experimental setup and methodology are presented. Issues with the initial approach for corrections are discussed and preliminary results are presented.
Codes for the calculation of fission observables are frequently used to describe experimentally observed phenomena as well as provide predictions in cases where measurements are missing. Assumptions ...in the models, and tuning of parameters within the codes, often result in a good reproduction of experimental data. In this work we propose a methodology, coded in the newly developed program DELFIN (De-Excitation of FIssion fragmeNts), that can be used to compare some of the assumptions of the various models. Our code makes use of the fission fragments information after scission and processes them in an independent and consistent fashion to obtain measurable fission observables (such as ν(A) distributions and Isomeric Fission Yield ratios). All the available information from the models, such as fragments' excitation energies, spin distributions and yields are provided as input to DELFIN that uses the nuclear reaction code TALYS to handle the de-excitation of the fission fragments. In this way we decouple the fragments relaxation from the actual fission models. We report here the first results of a comparison carried out on the GEF, Point-by-Point and FREYA models for thermal fission of 235U and 239Pu and spontaneous fission of 252Cf.
Data on fission yields and isomeric yield ratios (IYR) are tools to study the fission process, in particular the generation of angular momentum. We use the IGISOL facility with the Penning trap ...JYFLTRAP in Jyväskylä, Finland, for such measurements on
232
Th and
nat
U targets. Previously published fission yield data from IGISOL concern the
232
Th(p,f) and
238
U(p,f) reactions at 25 and 50 MeV. Recently, a neutron source, using the Be(p,n) reaction, has been developed, installed and tested. We summarize the results for (p,f) focusing on the first measurement of IYR by direct ion counting. We also present first results for IYR and relative yields for Sn and Sb isotopes in the 128-133 mass range from
nat
U(n,f) based on γ-spectrometry. We find a staggering behaviour in the cumulative yields for Sn and a shift in the independent fission yields for Sb as compared to current evaluations. Plans for the future experimental program on fission yields and IYR measurements are discussed.
Studying fission neutrons with 2E-2v and 2E Al-Adili, Ali; Jansson, Kaj; Tarrío, Diego ...
EPJ Web of Conferences,
01/2018, Letnik:
169
Journal Article, Conference Proceeding
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
This work aims at measuring prompt-fission neutrons at different excitation energies of the nucleus. Two independent techniques, the 2E-2v and the 2E techniques, are used to map the characteristics ...of the mass-dependent prompt fission neutron multiplicity,
v
(A), when the excitation energy is increased.
The VERDI 2E-2v spectrometer is being developed at JRC-GEEL. The Fission Fragment (FF) energies are measured using two arrays of 16 silicon (Si) detectors each. The FFs velocities are obtained by time-of-flight, measured between micro-channel plates (MCP) and Si detectors. With MCPs placed on both sides of the fission source, VERDI allows for independent timing measurements for both fragments.
252
Cf(sf) was measured and the present results revealed particular features of the 2E-2v technique. Dedicated simulations were also performed using the GEF code to study important aspects of the 2E-2v technique. Our simulations show that prompt neutron emission has a non-negligible impact on the deduced fragment data and affects also the shape of
v
(A). Geometrical constraints lead to a total-kinetic energy-dependent detection efficiency.
The 2E technique utilizes an ionization chamber together with two liquid scintillator detectors. Two measurements have been performed, one of
252
Cf(sf) and another one of thermal-neutron induced fission in
235
U(n,f). Results from
252
Cf(sf) are reported here.
Independent isomeric yield ratios (IYR) of 81Ge, 96Y, 97Y, 97Nb, 128Sn and 130Sn have been determined in the 25 MeV proton-induced fission of natU and 232Th. The measurements were performed at the ...Ion Guide Isotope Separator On-Line (IGISOL) facility at the University of Jyväskylä. A direct ion counting measurement of the isomeric fission yield ratios was accomplished for the first time, registering the fission products in less than a second after their production. In addition, the IYRs of natU were measured by means of γ-spectroscopy in order to verify the consistency of the recently upgraded experimental setup. From the obtained results, indications of a dependence of the production rate on the fissioning system can be noticed. These data were compared with data available in the literature, whenever possible. Using the TALYS code and the experimentally obtained IYRs, we also deduced the average angular momentum of the fission fragments after scission.
The nuclear de-excitation process of fission fragments (FF) provides fundamental information for the understanding of nuclear fission and nuclear structure in neutron-rich isotopes. The variation of ...the prompt-neutron multiplicity, ν(A), as a function of the incident neutron energy (En) is one of many open questions. It leads to significantly different treatments in various fission models and implies that experimental data are analyzed based on contradicting assumptions. One critical question is whether the additional excitation energy (Eexc) is manifested through an increase of ν(A) for all fragments or for the heavy ones only. A systematic investigation of ν(A) as a function of En has been initiated. Correlations between prompt-fission neutrons and fission fragments are obtained by using liquid scintillators in conjunction with a Frisch-grid ionization chamber. The proof-of-principle has been achieved on the reaction 235U(nth,f) at the Van De Graff (VdG) accelerator of the JRC-Geel using a fully digital data acquisition system. Neutrons from 252Cf(sf) were measured separately to quantify the neutron-scattering component due to surrounding shielding material and to determine the intrinsic detector efficiency. Prelimenary results on ν(A) and spectrum in correlation with FF properties are presented.