The objective of this paper is to investigate and to improve understanding of the causes and circumstances of flood disaster deaths. A standardised method of classifying flood deaths is proposed and the difficulties associated with comparing and assessing existing information on flood deaths are discussed. Thirteen flood cases from Europe and the United States, resulting in 247 flood disaster fatalities, were analysed and taken as indicative of flood disaster deaths. Approximately two-thirds of the deaths occurred through drowning. Thus, a substantial number of flood disaster fatalities are not related to drowning. Furthermore, males are highly vulnerable to dying in floods and unnecessary risk-taking behaviour contributes significantly to flood disaster deaths. Based on these results, recommendations are made to prevent loss of life in floods. To provide a more solid basis for the formulation of prevention strategies, better systematic recording of flood fatalities is suggested, especially those caused by different types of floods in all countries. 相似文献
Background: In 2011, about 30,000 people died in motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) in the United States. We sought to evaluate the causes of prehospital deaths related to MVCs and to assess whether these deaths were potentially preventable.
Methods: Miami–Dade Medical Examiner records for 2011 were reviewed for all prehospital deaths of occupants of 4-wheeled motor vehicle collisions. Injuries were categorized by affected organ and anatomic location of the body. Cases were reviewed by a panel of 2 trauma surgeons to determine cause of death and whether the death was potentially preventable. Time to death and hospital arrival times were determined using the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data from 2002 to 2012, which allowed comparison of our local data to national prevalence estimates.
Results: Local data revealed that 39% of the 98 deaths reviewed were potentially preventable (PPD). Significantly more patients with PPD had neurotrauma as a cause of death compared to those with a nonpreventable death (NPD) (44.7% vs. 25.0%, P =.049). NPDs were significantly more likely to have combined neurotrauma and hemorrhage as cause of death compared to PPDs (45.0% vs. 10.5%, P <.001). NPDs were significantly more likely to have injuries to the chest, pelvis, or spine. NPDs also had significantly more injuries to the following organ systems: lung, cardiac, and vascular chest (all P <.05). In the nationally representative FARS data from 2002 to 2012, 30% of deaths occurred on scene and another 32% occurred within 1 h of injury. When comparing the 2011 FARS data for Miami–Dade to the remainder of the United States in that year, percentage of deaths when reported on scene (25 vs. 23%, respectively) and within 1 h of injury (35 vs. 32%, respectively) were similar.
Conclusions: Nationally, FARS data demonstrated that two thirds of all MVC deaths occurred within 1 h of injury. Over a third of prehospital MVC deaths were potentially preventable in our local sample. By examining injury patterns in PPDs, targeted intervention may be initiated. 相似文献
Aquaculture can provide foraging habitat for birds, but it can also result in intentional and accidental mortality. We examined an overlooked conflict between razor clam (Sinonovacula spp.) aquaculture and declining shorebirds in southeastern China's Fujian and Zhejiang provinces. We surveyed 6 out of 11 internationally important stopover sites for these shorebirds and monitored shorebird mortality in 2 sites (Xinghua Bay, Yueqing Bay) with razor clam aquaculture. We visited an additional 32 sites in these 2 provinces to determine if there was netting in other razor clam farms. Approximately 8–9 km2 of intertidal foraging habitat was covered by horizontal nets to prevent birds from feeding on young razor clams at Xinghua Bay and Yueqing Bay. We conservatively estimated that 13,676 (2.5th–97.5th percentile 8,330–21,285) individual shorebirds were entangled in the nets at the 2 monitored sites in April and May 2021, including 2 endangered and 7 near-threatened species. Mortality of 5 species for which we had sufficient data accounted for 0.76% (black-tailed godwit [Limosa limosa]) to 4.27% (terek sandpiper [Xenus cinereus]) of their total flyway populations. This level of mortality could strongly affect their populations. We found netting at 17 additional razor clam farms, indicating a widespread threat to shorebirds. Although razor clams are typically harvested in late March to early April, nets are left on the mudflats throughout the spring and summer, including when the bulk of shorebird migration takes place. Immediately removing these nets after the clam harvest could prevent most of the spring mortality of shorebirds, although this is unlikely to happen without government regulations or economic incentives. To better assess and mitigate the impacts of this conflict, future research should quantify shorebird mortality at other razor clam farms, including during winter, explore less harmful deterrence methods, and assess the socioeconomic factors driving the conflict. 相似文献
A mathematical interaction model, validated by experimental results, was developed to modeling the metal uptake by plants and induced growth decrease, by knowing metal in soils. The model relates the dynamics of the uptake of metals from soil to plants. Also, two types of relationships are tested: total and available metal content. The model successfully fitted the experimental data and made it possible to predict the threshold values of total mortality with a satisfactory approach. Data are taken from soils treated with Cd and Ni for ryegrass (Lolium perenne, L.) and oats (Avena sativa L.), respectively. Concentrations are measured in the aboveground biomass of plants. In the latter case, the concentration of metals in different parts of the plants (tillering, shooting and earing) is also modeled. At low concentrations, the effects of metals are moderate, and the dynamics appear to be linear. However, increasing concentrations show nonlinear behaviors. 相似文献
Coral reefs provide shoreline protection, biological diversity, fishery harvests, and tourism, all values that stem from the
physically-complex coral infrastructure. Stony corals (scleractinians) construct and maintain the reef through deposition
of calcium carbonate. Therefore, assessment of coral reefs requires at least some measurement endpoints that reflect the biological
and physical condition of stony corals. Most monitoring programs portray coral quantity as live coral cover, which is the
two-dimensional proportion of coral surface to sea floor viewed from above (planar view). The absence of the third dimension,
however, limits our ability to characterize coral reef value, physiology, health and sustainability. A three-dimensional (3D)
approach more realistically characterizes coral structure available as community habitat and, when combined with estimates
of live coral tissue, quantifies the amount of living coral available for photosynthesis, growth and reproduction. A rapid
coral survey procedure that coupled 3D coral quantification with more traditional survey measurements was developed and tested
in the field. The survey procedure relied on only three underwater observations – species identification, colony size, and
proportion of live tissue – made on each colony in the transect. These observations generated a variety of metrics, including
several based on 3D colony surface area, that are relevant to reef management. 相似文献
A good estimate of the design effect is critical for calculating the most efficient sample size for cluster surveys. We reviewed the design effects for seven nutrition and health outcomes from nine population-based cluster surveys conducted in emergency settings. Most of the design effects for outcomes in children, and one-half of the design effects for crude mortality, were below two. A reassessment of mortality data from Kosovo and Badghis, Afghanistan revealed that, given the same number of clusters, changing sample size had a relatively small impact on the precision of the estimate of mortality. We concluded that, in most surveys, assuming a design effect of 1.5 for acute malnutrition in children and two or less for crude mortality would produce a more efficient sample size. In addition, enhancing the sample size in cluster surveys without increasing the number of clusters may not result in substantial improvements in precision. 相似文献
This paper assesses the cost-effectiveness of, and the return on the investment in, the 2002 catch-up and the 2003 follow-up measles campaigns in Afghanistan from the perspective of the donor. The catch-up campaign targeted nearly 12 million children aged between six months and 12 years, while the follow-up campaign targeted over five million children aged between 9 and 59 months. Both campaigns successfully vaccinated approximately 96 per cent of the respective target populations, and are expected to avert an estimated 301,000 measles deaths over the next 10 years. The average cost per dose of measles vaccine delivered was USD 0.40. The cost per death prevented is USD 23.6, assuming a case fatality rate of 10 per cent and a discount rate of three per cent. With more than 42,000 measles deaths avoided for every one million US dollars spent, the campaigns are an excellent public health investment for precluding childhood mortality in a country affected by a complex emergency. 相似文献
ABSTRACT: Cyto-embryological analyses of fish eggs collected in nature can be a more sensitive indicator of environmental pollution than more typical assays conducted on artificially-spawned eggs. This is because uncertainties associated with artificial spawning and rearing are dispensed with, as well as because of the sensitivity of some cellular and subcellular analyses. At the same time, such measures can provide information on interannual differences in egg viability of importance in elucidating great, unexplained variability in fisheries recruitment. Extensive experience with fish embryos from ocean plankton has led to the choice of a particularly useful, practical suite of observations for different developmental stages. This includes measures of embryo mortality, mutagenicity, teratogenicity, abnormal cell differentiation, and development rate. Atlantic mackerel egg mortality has been determined to be greater in the surface waters of the New York Bight apex and along the New Jersey coast than in less polluted portions of the Bight. Chromosome abnormality of mid-stage embryos was also greater in more impacted areas of the same water mass, as well as in the somatic cells of adult mackerel and winter flounder, and in juvenile and adult windowpane flounder caught in more impacted areas. Mortality and abnormality of the mackerel embryos showed statistical associations with toxic hydrocarbons as measured in plankton, and with heavy metals as measured in sea surface waters. The sensitivity, practicality, and relevance of the cytoembryological studies to population dynamics of resource species make this an important means of monitoring environmental quality. 相似文献