The Impact of Sea Level Rise on Roadway Design and Evacuation Routes in Delaware

As the global temperature continues to increase, the sea level continues to rise at a rapid rate that has never been seen before. This becomes an issue for many facets of life but one of the most impacted is the transportation infrastructure. Many people living in low elevation coastal areas can become trapped by flooding with no way in or out. With Delaware being a coastal state, this would affect a large portion of the population and will have detrimental effects over time if nothing is done to combat sea level rise. The issue with sea level rise in transportation is that once the roads become flooded, they become virtually unusable and detour routes would be needed. If all the roads in a coastal area were to be affected by sea level rise, the options for detours would become limited. This article looks at direct solutions to combat sea level rise and indirect solutions that would specifically help transportation infrastructure and evacuation routes in Delaware. There is not one solution that can fix every problem, so many solutions are laid out to see what is applicable to each affected area. Some solutions include defense structures that would be put close to the coast, raising the elevation of vulnerable roads throughout the state and including pumping stations to drain the water on the surface of the road. With an understanding of all these solutions around the world, the ultimate conclusion came in the form of a six-step plan that Delaware should take in order to best design against sea level rise in these coastal areas.

Fatal complication, rescue therapy;covered stent for coronary artery perforation

Introduction: Although coronary perforation is a rare complication observed during intervenetional procedures, it has a considerably high mortality rate. The prevelance of coronary perforation has been reported to be 0.20%-0.6%. Its sudden development, the patient’s agitation and development of rapid collapse render intervention difficult. Materials and Method: The presence of perfusion balloon and covered stent in clinics is life-saving. In the present study, we retrospectively reviewed 17 cases with coronary artery perforation that were treated between 2009 and 2012. Of these patients, 10 (58.8%) were men and 7 (41.2%) were women;the median age was 62.8 ± 8.3 years. The coronary artery perforation resulted from guide wire in 23.5%, balloon dilatation in 58.8% and stent implantation in 17.6%. All the lesions were either type B or C lesions. Results: The extensiveness of perforation was Ellis grade I in 23.5%, grade II in 47.1% and grade III in 29.4% of the cases. In the treatment of the perforation, polytetrafluoroethylene-covered stent graft was implemented in 9 (52.9%) patients, whilst conventional and emergency surgical therapy was performed in 8 (47.1%) patients. Grade I perforations occurred due to the guide wire and were managed with conventional therapy (p < 0.05). Grade II and III perforations resulted from balloon and stent. The majority of these patients were inserted Graft Stent (stent graft in 52.9% and conventional therapy in 23.5% of the cases (p < 0.05). Although all the stent grafts were successfully implanted, the complete control of bleeding was achieved only in 77.7% of the patients. Mortality was not observed in grade I perforation, whilst all cases resulted in mortality had grade III perforation. Conclusion: These data indicate that there is a need for further advanced technology in the coronary artery perforation despite of currently available therapeutic options.