Operational Response Model for Physically Attacked Water Networks Using NSGA-II

Homeland security challenges civil engineers to develop solutions to protect critical infrastructure systems from intentional attacks. The water infrastructure system is one of eight critical infrastructures defined in the report by the President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection (PDD 1998). This paper offers a model for an operational response strategy to mitigate consequences of intentional physical attacks on the water infrastructure system. An intentional physical attack occurs when a water infrastructure facility is nonfunctional because of physical destruction of the facility by individuals or groups with malicious intentions. Three indices are presented in this paper to measure the consequences of intentional physical attacks: (a) the degree of the disruption of critical infrastructure services, (b) economic loss, and (c) the number of people affected. Then, a multiobjective genetic algorithm is used to find solutions to affect minimum consequences among these indicators. Evaluation of the model using two water infrastructure networks indicates that the genetic algorithms can successfully identify Pareto-optimal solutions to reduce the negative consequences of different attack scenarios. These solutions represent a pool of strategies to be incorporated in emergency plans. In addition, the modified nondominated sorting genetic algorithms (NSGA-II) developed in this study can significantly improve the quality of the solution early in the evolution process. This can be very critical when the time available to obtain mitigation plans is very limited.     

Critical Activities in the Front-End Planning Process

Previous research conducted by the Construction Industry Institute (CII) and others has demonstrated the value of front-end planning as it impacts project success. A recently completed research project funded by CII, described in this paper, examines ways to improve information flow through the front-end planning process. This paper focuses on one specific objective of this research project, namely to isolate and closely examine the information critical activities within the front-end planning process. The front-end planning process was carefully diagrammed as consisting of 33 distinct activities, each with its own information flow entities and interactions. Fifty-one questionnaire survey forms were analyzed to obtain data for the 33 activities that included activity duration, resources expended, and the extent to which information was available to perform the activity. The 51 projects were then grouped according to survey respondents’ perceptions as to whether the front-end planning process was executed more or less effectively. An analysis of the data concluded with a degree of statistical significance that seven of the 33 activities have some impact on achieving project success. In addition, statistically significant differences were uncovered with respect to the extent that information was available for selected activities, and survey respondent perceptions with respect to how efficiently the activity was performed. These seven activities are involved in planning the following areas: Public relations, start up, quality and safety, the project execution plan, and project scope definition. Other activities for which information was frequently not available and/or for which considerable resources were expended relate to preliminary cost estimating and the development of a funding plan. A second survey form was forwarded to the original survey participants to obtain more specific information with respect to the information categories and interfaces associated with the critical activities that were identified in the original survey. This survey indicated problem areas including inadequate scope definition, risk identification and mitigation, minimal resource allocation for task execution, unclear definitions of roles and responsibilities, and ineffective external communication mechanisms.     

Simulation As a Tool to Assess the Vulnerability of the Operation of a Health Care Facility

Health care systems are classified as critical infrastructure systems when responding to disaster events. Physical damage to health care facilities or disruption of their operations or supply chains could prevent an effective response and aggravate the outcome of an emergency situation. Even if a hospital or public health facility were not directly affected by the disaster event, these facilities are required to operate efficiently during an emergency in order to manage a surge of capacity. When infrastructure systems are damaged as a result of man-made or natural disaster events, insufficient supply of resources through these systems affects their performance. In this paper, a system dynamics simulation model will be used as a tool to represent the operation of a health care facility, including the interaction between the different service areas (emergency room, intensive care unit, wards, operating room), the flow of patients inside the facility, and the condition of the infrastructure systems that supply resources (i.e., water, power, transportation of medical supplies) to maintain the operation of the facility. The results of this study may assist hospital administrators in their disaster preparedness plans, providing information regarding the level of occupancy and patients waiting to enter the service areas.     

Modeling Blockage Failures in Sewer Systems to Support Maintenance Decision Making

The objective of this research is to develop and implement a stochastic method that can be applied to characterize random failures in critical infrastructure systems. We particularly focus on blockage failures in sewer systems that are nonmechanistic and result from combination of external factors, including deterioration in condition. The method was implemented using a data set consisting of sewer blockage failure records from a small municipality. Statistical tests were conducted to: (1) ensure that available data set is representative and (2) estimate parameters of distributions that appropriately characterize failure event arrival pattern. Failure trends were also analyzed to identify the influence of local factors and justify the choice of the distributions used to characterize interarrival times. Based on the analysis, we explored the challenges in developing a reliability model across the life cycle of a sewer system. In addition, specific examples were also presented to illustrate how the method can be applied to support system maintenance decisions. The results of this study illustrate how the memoryless property can be assumed in analyzing failure events, while explicitly considering context specific influences. Finally, the methods described in this paper are extensible and can be applied generally to analyzing random failures in other infrastructure systems as well.     

Infrastructure Management Information System Framework Requirements for Disasters

A three-tiered, enterprise, geographic information system architecture offers a robust, efficient, and secure platform to potentially revolutionize disaster management by enabling support of all of the phases of governmental activity that must occur before, during, and after a disaster. Presently, both publicly and privately initiated, computer-based systems designed for disaster management cannot meet the real-time data access and analysis needs at crucial stages, especially those occurring during an actual disaster. Impediments are reflective of the proprietary, stand alone, and segregated nature of current systems. This paper proposes an integrated, infrastructure management information system as a reliable and effective alternative. Issues related to sharing data, customizing applications, supporting multiple data formats, querying visually, facilitating ubiquitous computing, and upgrading are all addressed. Achieving maximum flexibility and capacity in a disaster management system relies upon recent advances in the following areas: (1) standardized data specifications; (2) middleware services; and (3) Web-enabled, distributed computing. Key resources in designing and implementing such an arrangement are prototyped in a system that was initially designed for addressing disaster management of urban explosions. The critical details of that system are presented herein.     

Barriers to social services for HIV-infected urban migrators

Anecdotal accounts suggest that residency requirements often lead to denial of services at a time when HIV positive migrators are most in need of these services. However, this suspicion has never been empirically tested. Using needs assessment data collected for Harris County, Texas, this article examines eligibility and knowledge barriers faced by HIV positive recent migrators into Harris County. Results indicated that migration into the county was a significant predictor of failure to receive government-administered basic services such as food services but was not a significant predictor of failure to receive community based organization (CBO)-administered "specialized" services targeted specifically to HIV positive individuals. Results also indicated that migration was associated with knowledge barriers for all types of services.     

Original research: enhancing power and educating: urban aboriginal family caregivers' perspectives of caring for a child who has chronic renal failure

The discovery of chronic renal failure in a child, and the meaning of this experience from the perspective of the child's family caregivers have previously not been described in the literature on aboriginal health. During the summer of 1995, a phenomenological approach was used to explore this phenomena with 10 urban aboriginal family caregivers. These caregivers were providing care for their children who were receiving health care services at the outpatient children's clinic or the transplant unit at one urban tertiary care hospital. The findings of this research have helped create the beginning of a nursing data base of knowledge about aboriginal family caregivers of children who have chronic renal failure. In this paper, three of the main themes: surviving; relocation; enhancing power; and five sub-themes: providing nutrition; getting involved; educating the caregivers; educating the community; and returning to traditional ways are described. Implications of the findings for health care providers of children who have renal failure and their family caregivers are discussed. Issues that need to be addressed to help meet the needs of aboriginal family caregivers are identified. These issues include communication strategies, culturally appropriate teaching methods, access to resources, and community development initiatives.     

Educating patients about congestive cardiac failure

This paper describes the knowledge nurses need to educate patients about congestive cardiac failure. Its definition is presented, along with careful examination of the process by which it occurs. This includes a presentation of the related physiologies of left and right heart failure and their causes. Diagnosis and prognosis are considered, followed by discussion regarding treatment and its aims. Finally the lifestyle changes for patients with congestive cardiac failure are summarised.     

"Logic and psychology": Erratum.

Reports an error in the article by Michael Polanyi (American Psychologist, 1968, 23[1], 27-43). The last sentence of the quotation from Whewell on page 28 should read as follows: "Before this, the facts are seen as detached, separate, lawless; afterwards, they are seen as connected, simple, regular; as parts of one general fact, and thereby possessing innumerable new relations before unseen." (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1990-55831-001). Surveys the nonstrict rules of inference, i.e., informal logic, on which science rests, and describes 3 nonstrict criteria: (1) all knowledge of reality is indeterminate, (2) knowledge of coherence is undefinable, and (3) many of the data on which knowledge rests are unspecifiable. This is termed tacit knowing or tacit inference. The latter is an integration which brings subsidiary elements to bear on the focus of our attention. Consciousness includes a tacit awareness of its subsidiaries. Tacit integration includes observation, discovery, and acquisition of skills. These are all irreducible to explicit processes of deduction. The knowledge of external objects, the body, and living beings are discussed in terms of tacit knowledge. It is felt that philosophy has been misguided by failing to recognize the process of tacit knowing. The process of visual perception and the pursuit of science are compared. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Model for the 3D Location of Buried Assets Based on RFID Technology

As construction and renovation equipment excavate in the vicinity of utility lines, the buried infrastructure is likely to suffer some form of “attack,” be that simple mechanical abrasion or a major rupture. Damage to underground services can lead to widespread disruption and significant upstream (service provider) and downstream (end user) losses, often resulting in whole communities being isolated from emergency services and losing essential utilities such as water, gas, and electricity. The ability to physically determine on site the location of underground utilities is critical to reduce risk and consequence during excavation. For these reasons, the location and efficient maintenance of buried assets are a high priority, especially for utility companies. This paper presents the development of a model for the three-dimensional (3D) location of buried assets based on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and findings from laboratory and field experiments. Passive, low frequency RFID devices were used during the research. Two approaches of this model, “Method A” and “Method B,” along with major experimental findings are discussed within the paper. In order to validate the applicability of each method, “real-world” field experiments were performed. The findings from this research demonstrated that applying RFID technology to locate buried assets has a great potential for facilitating the accurate 3D data of underground infrastructure.     

Critical Success Factors for Public–Private Partnerships in Infrastructure Development

Different types of public–private partnerships (PPPs) have been practiced in worldwide infrastructure development with diverse results and a variety of problems have been encountered. A number of factors combine to determine the success or failure of an infrastructure project in terms of its objectives. There is an urgent need for a workable and efficient procurement protocol for improved practices in future PPP projects. As an important step toward the development of such a protocol, this study identifies, analyzes, and categorizes various critical success factors (CSFs) for PPPs in general based on a public–private win–win principle and a systematic research approach that includes case studies, literature review, and interviews/correspondence with international experts. A CSF package is developed that contains five main CSFs, each including a number of success subfactors (SSFs). Relative significances of these CSFs and SSFs are examined based on the results of a questionnaire survey of international expert opinions. Agreement analysis shows that there is a good agreement in the ranking of these CSFs and SSFs between respondents from the industrial sector and those from the academic sector.     

Multiculturalism and transcultural nursing in Australia

The author looks at Australia's multicultural society and identifies the failure of the nursing profession to provide nursing services that meet the commitment of Australia to preserve the cultural backgrounds and meet the needs of the people nurses serve. The author suggests ways in which this problem can be addressed. It is argued that there is a need to ensure that transcultural nursing services are recognized and made accessible to people from diverse cultural backgrounds. Nurses need educational preparation to provide them with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes essential to work with people from different cultures. Moreover, the cultural profile of the nursing profession should approximate those served. Nurses today must recognize these critical needs and be committed to provide transcultural nursing care that is so essential in Australia's multicultural society.     

Disaster preparedness: institutional capacity building in the Americas

Latin American and Caribbean countries are prone to natural, technological and "complex" disasters. This vulnerability to catastrophic events led the region to undertake the long journey away from an ad hoc response towards institutional preparedness and, more recently, to disaster prevention and mitigation. This article attempts to outline the definitions and basic principles of institutional emergency preparedness, including reliance on the more effective use of existing resources, rather than establishment of special stockpiles and equipment; the critical importance of general participation and awareness; and the interrelationship of the health sector with others and the potential for leadership. How to assess the level of preparedness is discussed. Stress is placed on the fact that preparedness is traditionally confused with the existence of a written disaster plan. Preparedness should be seen as a never-ending, complex process that can only be assessed through an in-depth review of coordination, planning, training and logistic elements. There is also a fundamental distinction between preparedness, i.e., "getting ready to respond" and disaster prevention/mitigation, which aims to reduce the health impact. The latter calls for the collaboration of engineers, architects, planners and economists with the health sector. It is illustrated by the regional initiative in the Americas to reduce the physical vulnerability of hospitals to earthquakes and hurricanes. In spite of the encouraging achievements, much remains to be done. Weak areas include preparedness for technological disasters, and a true inter-country preventive approach to common disasters across borders. Electronic communications through the Internet will also help to suppress borders and boundaries, contributing to a truly collective approach to emergency preparedness and disaster relief coordination.     

Distributed Ontology Architecture for Knowledge Management in Highway Construction

The ongoing plethora of rehabilitation in the infrastructure domain requires more planning and integration during design and construction. To achieve this, there is a need for developing and using semantic (ontology-based) mechanisms for the exchange of development knowledge among all project stakeholders. This paper presents a distributed ontology architecture for knowledge management in highway construction. With every other utility tied to the highway geometry, the architecture is intended to be the base for a cross-discipline knowledge exchange in the infrastructure domain. The architecture presents highway knowledge on three levels: domain knowledge (an umbrella for infrastructure shared knowledge), application knowledge (representation of highway-specific knowledge), and user knowledge (an enterprise-specific representation of highway knowledge). The proposed architecture models highway concepts using six major root concepts: project, process, product, actor, resources, and technical topics (attributes and constraints). The architecture was developed using rigorous knowledge acquisition and ontology development techniques. It was developed as an extension for the e-COGNOS ontology. The architecture was validated through input from domain experts.     

Opening the Window of Sustainable Development to Future Civil Engineers

A recent survey by ASCE showed a major need for rebuilding the critical components of the nation’s aging infrastructure, such as roads and water-supply systems. To accomplish this major task, in addition to knowledge of basic civil engineering principles and techniques, future civil engineers need to be aware of the effects of planning, design, and construction on our environment. Specifically, a course needs to be developed for educating future civil engineers on concepts and techniques of protecting our natural resources, and planning for sustainable development and construction in an environmentally friendly manner. Specific topics can include modules on water resources and recycling in construction. The focus should be on teaching applications of new environmentally friendly concepts and techniques through case histories and real-world problems. Continuous evaluation of course content and methods of presentation should be made. The course should instill environmental awareness in the students’ minds such that in the future, the environment is considered as much a part of any decision-making process in the practice of civil engineering, as are mathematics or the physical sciences.     

Frequency encoding is not inevitable and is not automatic: A reply to Hasher and Zacks.

Replies to the suggestion by L. Hasher and R. T. Zacks (see record 1985-27168-001) that frequency of occurrence (fundamental information) is automatically processed. A discussion of (a) instructional effects, (b) substantial disruption from reduction in capacity, and (c) the need for substantial methodological care includes data that indicate patterns of instruction or strategy effect in the estimation of frequency. Data further show the disruption of frequency encoding when resources are withdrawn from the frequency estimation task. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Method of Up-Slope Mitigation Priority for Alishan Mountain Road in Taiwan

Rainfall-induced up-slope failure has been a major issue for the mountain road mitigation. To determine the mitigation priority of the roadside slopes, a model to evaluate the stability of the up-slopes is proposed in this paper. This model is developed using Bayesian classification theorem, historical rainfall and landslide data, and an artificial intelligence skill—Gaussian process. The parameters needed for this model include the up-slope features, catchment area, lithology, vegetation coverage, and rainfall data. Among these parameters, rainfall is considered to be the triggering factor of landslide in this study. In addition, each slope has also demonstrated a unique failure probability relationship with the 72-h accumulated rainfalls. Such a relationship is adopted to define a threshold rainfall factor which is used as an index to estimate the likelihood of landslide occurrence under a rainfall event. Using the threshold rainfall factor of each slope, a priority list is proposed for the mitigation of roadside up-slopes along the Alishan mountain road in Taiwan.     

On the ability to inhibit thought and action: A theory of an act of control.

Presents a theory of the inhibition of thought and action to account for people's performance in situations that require them to stop or change their current thoughts and actions. The theory proposes that a control signal, such as an external stop signal or an error during performance, starts a stopping process that races against the processes underlying ongoing thought and action. If the stopping process wins, thought and action are inhibited; if the ongoing process wins, thought and action run on to completion. The theory is formally developed to account for many aspects of performance in situations with explicit stop signals, and it is applied to data obtained from 3 adult observers in a series of RT tasks. The relation between response inhibition and other acts of control in motor performance and in cognition is discussed, and the implications of the theory are considered in terms of current thinking about attentional control and automaticity. (69 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Issues in Infrastructure Health Monitoring for Management

The most critical issues that have been identified as being needed to implement meaningful and beneficial applications of health monitoring for infrastructure management are discussed. Issues related to infrastructure health monitoring for management can be defined in three overlapping categories. In this context, engineering tools, methods, and knowledge should be developed and utilized to answer societal and educational aspects of the problem while taking advantage of the information tools and methodologies available today. The need for integrated research, education, and practice for infrastructure management is emphasized. The challenges in the integration of intelligent transportation and structural systems concepts within an optimum integrated asset management framework are described and illustrated. Examples from ongoing research on the health monitoring of short-span bridge families and long-span bridges are presented to illustrate the issues.