Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Geography." Includes bibliographical references (p. 107-124).

Thesis (M.S.)--Marshall University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains 152 p. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 115-119).

Manufacturing today is no longer a single point of production activity but a chain of activities from the acquisition of raw materials to the delivery of products to customers. This chain is called supply chain. In this chain of activities, a generic pattern is: processing of goods (by manufacturers) and delivery of goods (to customers). This thesis concerns the scheduling operation for this generic supply chain. Two performance measures considered for evaluation of a particular schedule are: time and cost. Time refers to a span of the time that the manufacturer receives the request of goods from the customer to the time that the delivery tool (e.g. vehicle) is back to the manufacturer. Cost refers to the delivery cost only (as the production cost is considered as fi xed). A good schedule is thus with short time and low cost; yet the two may be in conflict. This thesis studies the algorithm for the supply chain scheduling problem to achieve a balanced short time and low cost. Three situations of the supply chain scheduling problem are considered in this thesis: (1) a single machine and multiple customers, (2) multiple machines and a single customer and (3) multiple machines and multiple customers. For each situation, di fferent vehicles characteristics and delivery patterns are considered. Properties of each problem are explored and algorithms are developed, analysed and tested (via simulation). Further, the robustness of the scheduling algorithms under uncertainty and the resilience of the scheduling algorithms under disruptions are also studied. At last a case study, about medical resources supply in an emergency situation, is conducted to illustrate how the developed algorithms can be applied to solve the practical problem. There are both technical merits and broader impacts with this thesis study. First, the problems studied are all new problems with the particular new attributes such as on-line, multiple-customers and multiple-machines, individual customer oriented, and limited capacity of delivery tools. Second, the notion of robustness and resilience to evaluate a scheduling algorithm are to the best of the author's knowledge new and may be open to a new avenue for the evaluation of any scheduling algorithm. In the domain of manufacturing and service provision in general, this thesis has provided an e ffective and effi cient tool for managing the operation of production and delivery in a situation where the demand is released without any prior knowledge (i.e., on-line demand). This situation appears in many manufacturing and service applications.

In recognition of the fact that communications commonly are considered to be essential to effective disaster preparedness and response, the present study addresses several related themes concerning the role of communications infrastructures--i.e., equipment facilities on the one hand, and established patterns of interpersonal relationships among government decision-makers and industry representatives on the other--in peacetime emergency communications planning and response processes. Its investigative tasks include the choice to apply the implicit guiding model in North American emergency management, namely, the "command-and-control" theoretical model, to a specific single-country peacetime disaster context: the Canadian case. That choice rests upon a recognition of the methodological difficulties and challenges in dealing with an emerging and highly dynamic configuration of multiple institutional players, new technologies and residual government policies respecting the telecommunications sector. / The study's findings suggest an appreciation of the complexity and nuanced context within which multiorganizational and especially multijurisdictional peacetime crisis management occurs, sometimes understood as the emergence of other frameworks. This investigation contributes to the disaster literature by providing the first exhaustive study of Canada's national emergency communications structure and capabilities. It therefore can perhaps best be seen as a prologue or preliminary discourse to a broader international comparative effort of addressing questions related to communications preparedness in regard to peacetime disasters.

This research explored the extent to which two hospitals in the City of Victoria are prepared for a future earthquake event. The goal is to examine the level of emergency preparedness of two tertiary care hospitals in Victoria for dealing with the potential damage caused by an earthquake in the region. The research objectives are aimed at highlighting current strengths regarding health sector emergency preparedness, reducing the vulnerability of the health sector by identifying key areas of improvement, and ultimately, increasing the capacity of the health sector to respond to the damages sustained by earthquakes. A small-scale mixed-methods approach was taken to assess hospital preparedness. A structured survey was administered to 26 key informants who were selected specifically based on their prior knowledge, experience and current roles and responsibilities pertaining to Disaster and Emergency Management in the province. A concerted effort was made to include a sample of participants from each of five target populations at the Provincial, Health Authority, and Local Health Authority levels. Data analysis included quantitative and qualitative techniques to generate simple statistics and thematic coding of the interview transcripts to identify main themes and patterns. Both quantitative and qualitative insights were used to provide a clearer picture of hospital preparedness and to foster credibility and dependability of key results. The findings and results confirm that there are excellent levels of engagement and integration between the Local Government, BC Ambulance Service and Fire Departments. There is room for improvement in regards to engaging and integrating NGOs with Hospital planning. Robust plans and protocols were found to be in place for Communication Systems, Emergency Operations Centres and Public Information and Media Relations. Hospital level respondents reported having less Emergency Management education and Training and had participated in fewer disaster exercises compared to Provincial and Local Emergency Managers. Although 76% of respondents had participated in a disaster exercise, only 5 % had responded to an earthquake. Only 23% of respondents had activated their planning in response to an earthquake. The results emphasize the immediate need for increased engagement and integration of earthquake response planning between health system stakeholders, communities and all levels of government. At the hospital level, increased attention needs to be directed to the following operational areas: Mass Casualty Planning, Resource Stockpiling, Department Level Contingency Plans, Evacuation and Relocation Protocols and Procedures, Volunteer Coordination Protocols, and Internal and External Traffic flow. Lastly, the results highlight the need for increased disaster education and training for front line acute care employees, hospital administrators and management staff. In addition to training and education, multi-jurisdictional and multi-agency exercises should be undertaken to engage all key community stakeholders and to promote a more integrated and optimal response in the event of an earthquake. / Graduate

Drinking water distribution systems (WDSs) hold a particularly critical and strategic position in preserving public health and industrial growth. Despite the ubiquity of this infrastructure, its importance for public health, and increased risk of terrorism, several aspects of emergency management for WDSs remain at an undeveloped stage. A set of methods is developed to analyze the risk and consequences of WDS contamination events and develop emergency response support tools. Monte Carlo and optimization schemes are developed to evaluate contamination risk of WDSs for generation of critical contamination scenarios. A multicriteria optimization approach is proposed that treats likelihood and consequences as independent risk measures to find an ensemble of uniformly-distributed critical scenarios. This approach provides insight into system risk and potential mitigation options not available under maximum risk or maximum consequences analyses. Static multiobjective simulation-optimization schemes are developed for generation of optimal response mechanisms for contamination incidents with twoconflicting objectives of minimization of health consequences and impacts on non-consumptive water uses. Performance of contaminant flushing and containment are investigated. Pressure-driven hydraulic analysis is performed to simulate the complicated system hydraulics under pressure-deficit conditions. Performance of a novel preventive response action ? injection of food-grade dye directly into drinking water ? for mitigation of health impacts as a contamination threat unfolds is explored. The emergency response is formulated as a multiobjective optimization problem for the minimization of risks to life with minimum false warning and cost. A multiobjective optimization scheme is used for the management of contamination events for diverse contaminant agents without interruption of firefighting. A dynamic modeling scheme is developed that accounts for the time-varying behavior of the system during an emergency. Effects of actions taken by the managers and consumers as well as the changing perceived contaminant source attributes are included in the simulation model to provide a realistic picture of the dynamic environment. A dynamic optimization scheme is coupled with the simulation model to identify and update the optimal response recommendations during the emergency. Machine learning approaches are employed for real-time characterization of contaminant sources and identification of effective response strategies for a timely and effective response to contamination incidents and threats. In contrast to traditional approaches that perform whole analysis after a contamination event occurs, proposed machine learning methods gain system knowledge in advance and use this extracted information to identify contamination attributes after an incident occurs.

Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Waikato, 2007. / Title from PDF cover (viewed April 8, 2008) Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-119)

Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Technology, Sydney, 1996. / Includes a bibliography.

Thesis (M. P. A.)--Texas State University-San Marcos, 2006. / "Spring 2006." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-84).

Thesis (M.C.R.P.)--University of Oregon, 2008. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-78). Also available online.