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In recent years, frequent global disasters such as Typhoon Morakot Republic of China 98 years with the 2011 earthquake in northeastern Japan, these disasters have caused the destruction of large-scale and large-scale, often the government or private relief organizations generally can not load capacity , to compensate for inadequate relief efficiency can be deployed quickly, efficiently support the government's disaster relief units and discipline, national army, police, the main consumer unit, and police units to maintain social order based, such as the main use for disaster relief, more not suitable, so the domestic disaster relief units, non-military, none other than the consumer unit, while the main army to fight, and its legitimacy in the context of this study, in the case of national disaster and emergency rescue shows that the military action in emergency relief and response play a very important role. Both discipline and efficiency not only for the organization, and disaster prevention and emergency response is to rescue the most important time, my country is satisfied that the military after the disaster since Typhoon Morakot one of the central task, while the military situation of disaster relief to the value created out of nothing. However, the national security and domestic disaster prevention organizations have not effectively integrated in the mechanism are also required to solve the problem, when disaster strikes, often severely affected by different levels of the efficiency of disaster relief. Therefore, this research study focused on the motive. The collate and analyze the U.S., Japan and the Chinese military system and the prevention of military, fire and victims of views, some suggestions are as follows: First, refer to the Japanese military relief and rescue regulations of the military situation for me complete relief laws; II to this new security and Taipei and Taichung million concentric drill, for example, development of military active duty, reserve and local governments have to develop mutual support of the relief plan with the annual military exercise, the norm of the exercise; Third, investment needs and national defense disaster training, raises the cost effectiveness of investment in national defense and disaster relief of the legitimacy of the military; Fourth, prevention must be added back to the mobilization and training facilities to meet the current social change. Need to continue to promote the future "sense of urgency of national defense establishment," "a complete disaster laws and regulations", "Construction of National Defense of the security system," the consensus. Basis should be established in future, committed to sophisticated, the forward-looking, overall, the reference approach the major advanced countries, to measure state conditions, a set of conditions for me really disaster prevention system in order to achieve "peace maintaining an army less military forces during the war and more "of the goal to meet the future needs of national defense, military disaster relief mission to reach.

Motivated by shortcomings in recent natural disaster responses; this paper reports on a computational approach that offers techniques for matching social demands of a disaster type with the strengths of cultural traits among rescue teams.

Search-and -rescue (SAR) teams spend days and sometimes weeks in the field following a disaster. After completing their assigned mission, handlers and canines return to base, potentially bringing contaminated material with them. There were 3 objectives for this study; (1) the effects of cleanser and equipment materials on the efficiency of decontamination protocols, (2) the effects of improved treatments on the efficiency of decontamination protocols and (3) the use of field kits and improved training on decontamination techniques in the field. In the first study, straps (n = 54) were cut from biothane, leather and nylon. Straps were washed with three kinds of cleansers; Dawn dishwashing detergent, Johnson and Johnson’s Head-to-toe baby wash and Simple Green. In addition, three different types of treatments: 5-minute soak (A), double 5-minute soak (B) and a 3-minute soak with a 2-minute agitation (C). In the second study, straps (n = 40) of leather and nylon were utilized. Unlike the previous study, only Dawn dishwashing detergent and Johnson and Johnson’s Head-To-Toe-Baby Wash were selected as cleansers for decontamination. In addition, improved treatments (PW or SK) were created and utilized to further decontaminant the straps. The finally part of the study utilized canine teams (n = 10), composed of canine and handlers and were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Groups were structured as follows: TRAINED (n = 5) received 30-minutes of interactive training (using the illustrated guide contained in the kit) on proper utilization of equipment provided; UNTRAINED (n = 5) received the same field kit and an illustrated guide with no interactive training. An oil-based pseudocontaminant (GloGerm®) was topically applied to the straps in the first two studies and then to four anatomic sites on the canine participants: cranial neck, between the shoulder blades, left medial hindlimb and hind left paw in the last study. Pre- and post-images were taken of the straps and at the four anatomical locations prior to and following decontamination. Images were analyzed via two methods 1) categorical scores; 2) measured fluorescent reduction. Categorical scores were assigned, using two blinded reviewers (Venable et. al., 2017). The categorical scores were allotted as follows: 0 = <24% contaminant reduction; 1 = 25-50% contaminant reduction; 2 = 51-75% contaminant reduction; and 3 = >76% contaminant reduction (Lee et al., 2014). No score discrepancies >1 were observed between reviewers. Score data were analyzed using SAS version 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC), as a Chi Square with PROC FREQ and measurement data were analyzed using PROC ANOVA. Results in the first study indicate that material (P = .2331), cleanser (P = .2156) and treatment (P = .9139) had no effect on contaminant reduction. However, when treatments were improved in the second study, power wash was more effective at contaminant reduction (P = .0004). In addition, material was also determined to have an effect on decontamination (P = .0135). Although, the kind of cleanser used had no effect (P = .3564). Additionally, in the last study, TRAINED handlers were more effective at contamination reduction (P = .0093) as compared to their UNTRAINED counterparts. The initial results indicate that no combination of material, cleanser or treatment had any effect on reducing the oil-based contaminants. Nevertheless, with improved treatments there is a potential to more thoroughly decontaminate the collars and leashes. In addition, study three indicates that handlers, when properly trained, can achieve reduction of oil-based contaminants with a basic field kit and a garden hose. These data have implications for management of canines in the field that may be exposed to unknown substances and require timely decontamination.

Jurisdictions along the Gulf Coast are threatened by hurricanes. The effects of hurricanes are devastating, and the response and recovery efforts are crucial for saving lives and property. Geospatial technologies have been implemented in the response and recovery phases. However, the potential of geospatial technologies were not utilized due to data and capability issues. This study was implemented to design and develop a tool that would help a jurisdiction determine if it can apply geospatial technologies effectively in the response and recovery phases. This tool enables a jurisdiction to complete an assessment regarding GIS data, hardware, software, and personnel capabilities. Assessment results are scored using a weighted linear model, and scores are shown to the user. A rules-based system was built to show the jurisdiction methods for improving its score to the optimum level. This tool enables jurisdictions to diagnose geospatial readiness and make modifications that enhance response and recovery.

While people all over the world are vulnerable to natural disasters, the available data clearly demonstrate a great deal of cross-country variance in the impact of catastrophic events. For example, while Hurricane Mitch took an estimated 13,000 lives when it struck Honduras and Nicaragua, the stronger Hurricane Andrew took only 26 lives when it impacted the United States. What factors explain this difference? Thus far, disaster researchers have emphasized economic and social vulnerability as determinants of disaster impact; the conventional wisdom accepts that poor and underdeveloped countries are more vulnerable than wealthy, developed countries. I argue that the political institutions of a country also matter and then examine the relative importance of political vulnerability as a determinant of disaster impact. I present evidence from case studies and large-N statistical analysis that demonstrates that, like social and economic vulnerability, political vulnerability is an important determinant of the impact of a natural disaster.

Disasters occur all over the world, and affect a rising number of people. The health effects of natural disasters depend on several factors present before, during, and after a disaster event. However, there is only limited knowledge of survivors experiences, needs, and health after natural disasters. Disaster radio means a temporary radio station that broadcasts information, music, and support to the affected population. Disaster radio has the potential to function even in a severely affected area, but its effects need to be further evaluated from a health perspective. The context of this thesis was the Haiyan supertyphoon that hit parts of the Philippines in November 2013. The overall aim was to describe survivors’ and health professionals’ experiences during and in the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster, the health effects from such a disaster, and how disaster radio as a disaster response intervention can be used and evaluated from a health perspective. The thesis includes four studies using qualitative research methods, including content analysis and a phenomenological hermeneutic method, and quantitative methods with statistical analysis. The results show that the Haiyan typhoon affected physical, psychological, and social dimensions of health. Disaster radio was used to broadcast health-related information and psychosocial support, and made a positive contribution to recovery from the perspective of the survivors. Being a health professional deployed during the disaster was an experience of being both a helper and a victim. The use of a self-selected internetbased sample recruited via Facebook for a web-based survey mitigated several practical challenges related to disaster research, but also raised questions about the generalizability of the results. Based on the findings, the importance of an integrated physical, psychological, and social health response to natural disasters is emphazized. Also, the health care system should prepare to use disaster radio as disaster response. In addition, the results suggest that disaster training for health professionals should include personal preparation and coping strategies. Internet-based methods in disaster research need to be further evaluated.

Huge natural disaster events can be so devastating that they often overwhelm human rescuers and yet, they seem to occur more often. The TRADR (Long-Term Human-Robot Teaming for Robot Assisted Disaster Response) research project aims at developing methodology for heterogeneous teams composed of human rescuers as well as ground and aerial robots. While the robots swarm the disaster sites, equipped with advanced sensors, they collect a huge amount row-data that cannot be processed efficiently by humans. Therefore, in the frame of the here presented work, a semantic interpreter has been developed that crawls through the raw data, using state of the art object detection algorithms to identify victim targets and extracts all kinds of information that is relevant for rescuers to plan their missions. Subsequently, this information is restructured by a reasoning process and then stored into a high-level database that can be queried accordingly and ensures data constancy.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has grown rapidly during the past 50 years both in academia and industry. Corporate social responsibilities initiatives are composed of economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities, such as producing quality products, treating employees fairly, and involving in local community. Corporate philanthropic disaster response is a common form of CSR practice and its communication to the public is normally achieved by public relations function. This study focused on how local Chinese and multinational companies in China communicated their disaster relief initiatives after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Quantitative and qualitative content analysis was conducted of sampled press releases regarding the Sichuan earthquake on corporate websites in terms of their communication techniques and corporate philanthropic disaster response presented. Comparisons were made between local Chinese and multinational companies operating in China and it was concluded that local Chinese and multinational companies presented more differences than similarities in the purpose of press releases, type of disaster relief efforts, partnership with outside organizations, multimedia elements, and supplementary information. By understanding these differences in corporate philanthropic disaster response presented online, this study had implications for governments and non-profit organizations to better motivate businesses to participate in the disaster relief efforts. Limitations of the study and recommendations for future research were included.

Summary 21st century is a turmoil world as a result of worldwide migration¡Bchange of life style¡Btransformation of environment¡Bglobal warming and racial conflicts, simultaneously push forward unceasing head-on disaster invasion. The SARS attack of Taiwan in 2003 had brought a serious impact to our society. During the battle against SARS, several pitfalls were found including command system¡Broles division¡Bunited information and temporary team manpower, all showed lacking of training and coordination. So our country desperately needs to set up a commanding/coordination system in response to disaster event. When disaster strikes, we are facing the deficiency of training for command/ coordinating and shortage of individual respond personnel. Especially due to disaster possesses wide spectrum and is unpredictable, we need to train professional personnel for surge capacity and surge capability, and to reserve multi-skills responder in order to coping with disaster. Although there are varies training activities in our country, we still lack of a proper unified and coordinating training system. The primary goal of the study is to establish a disaster medical education training facility. First is to construct the¡uDisaster training model¡vto integrate spectrum of disaster¡Bdisaster responsiveness¡Bdisaster training outline and learning method into one conceptual module. Besides, when an emerging epidemic occur, the past experiences and rules are not capable to handle such event. We also cannot take advantages of every rare incident to accumulate our knowledge/skills and to examine the standard operating procedures. In stead, we should practicing our preparedness at the mitigation period and to set up a training platform for exercise/drills. Through exercise we may test and challenge the existing system, explore pitfalls in order to make up the gaps, improve more accurate contingency and finally set up a systemic training program. The theory of the training module is base upon double loop learning, a proper way for adult learning process. However, most individuals or organization response to the learning process through instinct and reflexive defensive mechanism, a so-called single learning loop process. During a disaster event, there will be collision between multiple single loops and result in a devastated conflict and outcome. Therefore, through the concept of double loop learning and by using ¡§learning from history and experiences¡¨ as a methodology, we can set up the structure of disaster responsive plan and unify the training program. Another weakness of Taiwan¡¦s adult learning process was the current teaching method only focused on cram school, this is common situation of our culture. We combine e-learning technology and teaching organization concept as an entity, so we could concrete the educational effect and have a chance to regain a full-scale disaster responsive training system. Through the aforementioned conceptual framework, our study initially set up the e-learning website as a platform and create communities for learning and teaching subgroups¡A through e-learning to join together education¡Btraining and exercise activities¡A collaborate with evaluation and managing system. The final goal is to develop a module for adult learning organization, and take a further step to built up the systematic nationwide health crisis training framework.