scholarly journals Access Control Points: Reducing a Possible Blast Impact by Meandering

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Larcher ◽  
Georgios Valsamos ◽  
Vasilis Karlos
Keyword(s):  
Access Control ◽  
Numerical Simulations ◽  
Blast Wave ◽  
Injury Risk ◽  
Terrorist Attack ◽  
Control Points ◽  
The Public ◽  
Terrorist Groups ◽  
Risk Areas ◽  
Wall System

In response to the heightened terror threat in recent years, there is an increasing interest in the introduction of access control zones at sites that are characterized by an increased likelihood of being the target of a terrorist attack, as latest data reveal that unprotected areas of mass congregation of people have become attractive to terrorist groups. Such control zones could be located within the building that has to be protected or attached to it. The elevated security needs for these areas call for a design that will consider the risk of internal explosive events. The purpose of this article is to outline a strategy for limiting the consequences of an internal blast, while guaranteeing that the produced blast wave does not propagate into vulnerable areas. In particular, the focus is on the introduction of a protective wall system in the form of a meander that allows unobstructed access of the public and at the same time reduces the possible blast inflow to the building's interior. The performed numerical simulations show that the proposed strategy yields much smaller injury risk areas compared to a design without the addition of protective walls and is recommended for upgrading the security of buildings.

scholarly journals Media’s Role in Televised Media Coverage and Its Influence on Terrorist Attacks in Nairobi County, Kenya

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (6) ◽  
pp. 81-86
Author(s):  
Kenwilliams Nyakomitah ◽  
Panuel Mwaeke ◽  
Lydia Mareri
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Terrorist Attack ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Global Media ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
The Public ◽  
Terrorist Groups ◽  
The Media

With the turn of the century, Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, has had its share of terrorist activity. Due to their nature, global media houses have centred on these occurrences as they have formed the focal point during their immediacy. This has led to the rise of media; in all its variety, as a reliable ate truthful source of information: on the other hand, terrorists have used the media as a veritable and strong propaganda tool. This is in line with the main aim and intent of terrorism; the spread of fear and it also feeds to the belief by various terrorist groups that media is one of their biggest investments. This study sought to examine media’s role in televised media coverage and it’s influence on terrorist attacks in Nairobi County, Kenya. The sample size for the study was derived from 110 officers from the Anti-Terror Police Unit, a section of the Directorate if Criminal Investigations and informants numbering to 14 from television editors, freelance reporters, and across civil society. The data was collected through questionnaires and interview guides for the officers from ATPU and respondents from the media and civil society respectively. It was further analysed using SPSS and presented through the use of frequency distribution tables and bar graphs; other modes include inferential statistics of linear regression and Chi square. The study revealed that there was a significant effect on the security situation in Nairobi due to televised media coverage of terrorist attacks. The study revealed a significant relationship between media coverage of terrorist incidents and increased insecurity in Nairobi. (χ2 = 9.499a, p = 0.023). The recommendations include the development of proportionality in the reporting on terrorist attacks. This is because an overemphasis on terrorist threats has an inadvertent advancement of terrorism and terrorist activities. There is therefore a need for care by journalists lest they be used as vehicles of propaganda by terrorists. This is due to the power that is inherent in misinformation in denying the general public independent reporting and the resultant understanding that comes with it. It is recommended that there be a limit as to the amount and type of information released to the media and eventually to the public in the event of a terrorist attack; this helps in averting the spread of terrorist propaganda and the misinformation of the public.

scholarly journals Contrasting Perspectives on the Comfort and Safety of Pedestrians Interacting with Other Road Users

2021 ◽  
Vol 2675 (3) ◽  
pp. 33-43
Author(s):  
Alexander Bigazzi ◽  
Gurdiljot Gill ◽  
Meghan Winters
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Safety ◽  
Injury Risk ◽  
Road User ◽  
Motor Vehicles ◽  
Advisory Group ◽  
User Interactions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Road Users ◽  
Expert Assessments ◽  
Sample Representation

Assessments of interactions between road users are crucial to understanding comfort and safety. However, observers may vary in their perceptions and ratings of road user interactions. The objective of this paper is to examine how perceptions of yielding, comfort, and safety for pedestrian interactions vary among observers, ranging from members of the public to road safety experts. Video clips of pedestrian interactions with motor vehicles and bicycles were collected from 11 crosswalks and shown to three groups of participants (traffic safety experts, an engaged citizen advisory group, and members of the general public) along with questions about yielding, comfort, and risk of injury. Experts had similar views of yielding and comfort to the other two groups, but a consistently lower assessment of injury risk for pedestrians in the study. Respondent socio-demographics did not relate to perceptions of yielding, comfort, or risk, but self-reported travel habits did. Respondents who reported walking more frequently rated pedestrian comfort as lower, and respondents who reported cycling more frequently rated risk as lower for pedestrian interactions with both motor vehicles and bicycles. Findings suggest small groups of engaged citizens can provide useful information about public perspectives on safety that likely diverge from expert assessments of risk, and that sample representation should be assessed in relation to travel habits rather than socio-demographics.

scholarly journals CFD Simulation and Experimental Measurements of Radon Distribution in a Traditional Hammam

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 963-968
Author(s):  
Rabi Rabi ◽  
Lhoucine Oufni ◽  
El-Hocine Youssoufi ◽  
Khamiss Cheikh ◽  
Hamza Badry ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lung Cancer ◽  
Numerical Simulations ◽  
Indoor Air ◽  
Meteorological Parameters ◽  
Rate Increase ◽  
Cfd Simulation ◽  
Ventilation Rate ◽  
Maximum Deviation ◽  
Experimental Measurements ◽  
The Public

Radon natural is the main cause of lung cancer in non-smokers. Therefore, the study of the behavior of radon and its descendants in indoor air is of the highest importance, in order to limit the risk of radiation dose due to inhalation of radon by members of the public. This article focuses to study the effects of meteorological parameters on the concentration and distribution of radon in a traditional hammam by both numerical simulations and experiments. The results of the numerical simulations are qualitative and show that the concentration and distribution of radon decrease when the ventilation rate increase, as well as, when the temperature increases, however, it increases with the increase in relative humidity. The results obtained by the numerical simulations were in agreement with those obtained experimentally with a maximum deviation of 7%. Numerical simulations allow a better estimate of the distribution of radon in indoor air.

Cries in the Dark: Reconstruction after Hurricane Mitch in Honduras

2006 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-38
Author(s):  
Kurt Rhyner
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Natural Phenomenon ◽  
Police Chief ◽  
Hurricane Mitch ◽  
The Public ◽  
Risk Areas ◽  
Mountainous River

Disasters are always caused by a combination of factors, and the natural phenomenon that brings them on is usually just a catalyst. The underlying cause of most disasters is poverty as mostly the poor segments of the population usually live in high risk areas where their shelter all too often cannot withstand even light winds, small inundations or medium earthquakes. When Hurricane Mitch hit Central America in October 1998, all countries were ill prepared. A few weeks earlier, the authorities of the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, had attempted to simulate an evacuation, but it had met with a great degree of resistance from the public. When Mitch hit, unprecedented masses of water raced down the mountainous river beds. People were taken by surprise, as no efficient organisation existed. Everybody ran for their lives. Houses slid down hillsides, rivers swept bridges, houses and people with them. Six years later, Tegucigalpa looks very similar to the days before Mitch. The steep hillsides are covered with a potpourri of dwellings, from miserable huts to solid upmarket houses. Regulations were passed in the year 2002 to prohibit construction in high risk areas; however, enforcement is difficult, especially when existing buildings are renovated and even enlarged. Theoretically it is possible to evacuate high risk areas. Nonetheless, such drastic measures are virtually impossible to implement, as no mayor or police chief would survive such an action in office. The paper presents a case study which shows that the underlying problems of poverty and the non-availability of suitable land for people to relocate from high risk areas can usually not be overcome by post-disaster reconstruction programmes. A mitigation strategy is thus to empower inhabitants of high risk areas to improve their own situation by affordable access to information, advice and suitable low cost construction materials through “Building Advisory Services” and Ecomaterials producers within the neighbourhoods.

TerrorWatch

2019 ◽  
pp. 373-398
Author(s):  
Solomon Sunday Oyelere ◽  
Donald Douglas Atsa'am ◽  
Hope Micah Ayuba ◽  
Olayemi Olawumi ◽  
Jarkko Suhonen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Devices ◽  
Cell Phones ◽  
Terrorist Attack ◽  
Unified Modeling Language ◽  
Developing Nations ◽  
Modeling Language ◽  
Boko Haram ◽  
Unified Modeling ◽  
Terrorist Groups ◽  
High Level

Activities of prominent terrorist groups like Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab, Ansaru, and Ansar Dine have left thousands of people dead and properties destroyed for a number of decades in some developing nations. The high level of insecurity occasioned by operations of terror groups has impacted negatively on the socio-economic development of these nations. On the other hand, the use of mobile devices, such as cell phones, has gained prominence in developing nations over the past two decades. Putting side-by-side these two facts, namely, that the menace of terrorism among some developing nations is alarming and that the use of mobile devices is common among citizens of developing countries, this chapter develops a mobile application prototype called TerrorWatch. TerrorWatch is equipped with relevant menus, buttons, and interfaces that will guide a user on what to do when confronted with a terrorist attack or threat. The unified modeling language (UML) was deployed to design the architecture of the application, while the object-oriented paradigm served in the implementation.

scholarly journals Did It Really Happen? How the Public Interprets Journalistic Disclaimers

2020 ◽  
Vol 97 (4) ◽  
pp. 936-957
Author(s):  
Jacob Sohlberg ◽  
Bengt Johansson ◽  
Peter Esaiasson
Keyword(s):  
Terrorist Attack ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
News Reporting ◽  
The Public

Immediately following dramatic events, news reporting must be both fast and accurate. In an attempt to reconcile the inherent conflict between these two ambitions, journalists often use disclaimers, for example, “unconfirmed” or “reports of.” These disclaimers allow for the rapid publication of less than reliable content. The results from our survey experiment suggest that strong disclaimers, as intended, do lower the perceived reliability of stories among news consumers. Furthermore, the results indicate that the context influences the effectiveness of disclaimers. It appears that in a crisis environment, such as after a large terrorist attack, individuals are less sensitive to disclaimers.

E-Commerce and Digital Libraries

2011 ◽  
pp. 278-291
Author(s):  
Suliman Al-Hawamdeh ◽  
Shubert Foo
Keyword(s):  
Access Control ◽  
Digital Libraries ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Content Management ◽  
Copyright Owner ◽  
Information Organization ◽  
Free Access ◽  
The Public ◽  
Computing Machinery ◽  
Charging Mechanism

Until recently, digital libraries have provided free access to either limited resources owned by an organization or information available in the public domain. For digital libraries to provide access to copyrighted material, an access control and charging mechanism needs to be put in place. Electronic commerce provides digital libraries with the mechanism to provide access to copyrighted material in a way that will protect the interest of both the copyright owner and the digital library. In fact, many organizations, such as the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), have already started to make their collections available online. The subscription model seems to be the favourable option at this point of time. However, for many ad hoc users, the subscription model can be expensive and not an option. In order to cater to a wider range of users, digital libraries need to go beyond the subscription models and explore other possibilities, such as the use of micro payments, that appear to be an alternative logical solution. But, even before that can happen, digital libraries will need to foremost address a number of outstanding issues, among which including access control, content management, information organization, and so on. This chapter discusses these issues and challenges confronting digital libraries in their adoption of e-commerce, including e-commerce charging models.

Blast Wave Mitigation from the Straight Tube by Using Water Part II - Numerical Simulation

2018 ◽  
Vol 910 ◽  
pp. 78-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuta Sugiyama ◽  
Tomotaka Homae ◽  
Kunihiko Wakabayashi ◽  
Tomoharu Matsumura ◽  
Yoshio Nakayama
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Numerical Simulation ◽  
Energy Transfer ◽  
Numerical Simulations ◽  
Blast Wave ◽  
Blast Waves ◽  
Straight Tube ◽  
Water Interface ◽  
Effect Of Water ◽  
Air Water Interface

This paper investigates explosions in a straight square tube in order to understand the mitigation effect of water on blast waves that emerge outside. Numerical simulations are used to assess the effect of water that is put inside the tube. The water reduces the peak overpressure outside, which agrees well with the experimental data. The increases in the kinetic and internal energies of the water are estimated, and the internal energy transfer at the air/water interface is shown to be an important factor in mitigating the blast wave in the present numerical method.

Response of a Subgroup of the PCAOB's Investor Advisory Group to the PCAOB's Concept Release Concerning Reports on Audited Financial Statements and Related Amendments to PCAOB Standards

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. C21-C50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelvin Blake ◽  
Joseph V. Carcello ◽  
Norman J. Harrison ◽  
Michael J. Head ◽  
Barbara E. Roper ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Financial Statements ◽  
Capital Allocation ◽  
Financial Statement ◽  
Advisory Group ◽  
Audit Report ◽  
Audit Risk ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Company ◽  
Risk Areas

SUMMARY Recently, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) released a concept release concerning possible revisions to PCAOB standards related to reports on audited financial statements and related amendments to PCAOB standards. The comment letter below, written by a subgroup of the PCAOB's Investor Advisory Group, was recently submitted to the PCAOB in response to the Board's concept release. The subgroup believes that the four most important changes to the audit report would require the auditor to: (1) discuss the auditor's assessment of the estimates and judgments made by management in preparing the financial statements and how the auditor arrived at that assessment, (2) disclose areas of high financial statement and audit risk and how the auditor addressed these risk areas, (3) discuss unusual transactions, restatements, and other significant changes in the financial statements (including the notes), and (4) discuss the quality, not just the acceptability, of the issuer's accounting practices and policies. They further assert that the disclosure of this information will improve investors' ability to make informed buy/sell decisions, which should result in higher returns to investors and improved capital allocation within society.

scholarly journals “Do You Tweet When Your Friends Are Getting Shot?” Victims’ Experience With, and Perspectives on, the Use of Social Media During a Terror Attack

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 205630511775071 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elsebeth Frey
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Terrorist Attack ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Emergency Situation ◽  
Terror Attack ◽  
Lone Wolf ◽  
The Public ◽  
Research Gap ◽  
Use Of Social Media

On 22 July 2011, a lone wolf terrorist attacked Norway. At the island of Utøya, he killed 69 people. This article asks how the youth at the camp on the island used social media (SoMe) in the emergency situation caused by the terrorist. Answers could give significant contribution to the growing research on SoMe and crisis, especially since there is a research gap when it comes to examine terror victims’ use of SoMe. This study is based on qualitative interviews with eight survivors. Based on the campers’experiences, how do they evaluate the opportunities and challenges of SoMe during a terrorist attack? What were the reasons for not using SoMe? What was the purpose of using SoMe during the attack? SoMe play an essential role in crisis communication strategies as well as being an increasingly important tool for the public. Although verification of SoMe content is difficult, SoMe have become important sources for journalists. This study offers best practices for journalists from victims. Moreover, it sheds light on how SoMe played a role for the victims in alerting, giving and receiving information, as well as building hope and resilience.

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