Evaluation model for freeway incident management system

In order to evaluate the general situation and find special problems of the freeway incident management system, an evaluation model is proposed. First, the expert appraisal approach is used to select the primary evaluation index. As a result, 81 indices and the hierarchical structures of the index such as the object layer, the sub-object layer, the criterion layer and the index layer are determined. Then, based on the fuzzy characteristics of each index layer, the analytical hierarchy process（AHP）and the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation are applied to generate the weight and the satisfaction of the index and the criterion layers. When analyzing the relationship between the sub-object layer and the object layer, it is easy to find that the number of sub-objects is too large and sub-objects are significantly redundant. The partial least square （PLS） is proposed to solve the problems. Finally, an application example, whose result has already been accepted and employed as the indication of a new project in improving incident management, is introduced and the result verifies the feasibility and efficiency of the model.

Traffic Incident Management Performance Measures: Ranking Agencies on Roadway Clearance Time

This study develops a procedure to rank agencies based on their incident responses using roadway clearance times for crashes. This analysis is not intended to grade agencies but to assist in identifying agencies requiring more training or resources for incident management. Previous NCHRP reports discussed usage of different factors including incident severity, roadway characteristics, number of lanes involved and time of incident separately for estimating the performance. However, it does not tell us how to incorporate all the factors at the same time. Thus, this study aims to account for multiple factors to ensure fair comparisons. This study used 149,174 crashes from Iowa that occurred from 2018 to 2021. A Tobit regression model was used to find the effect of different variables on roadway clearance time. Variables that cannot be controlled directly by agencies such as crash severity, roadway type, weather conditions, lighting conditions, etc., were included in the analysis as it helps to reduce bias in the ranking procedure. Then clearance time of each crash is normalized into a base condition using the regression coefficients. The normalization makes the process more efficient as the effect of uncontrollable factors has already been mitigated. Finally, the agencies were ranked by their average normalized roadway clearance time. This ranking process allows agencies to track their performance of previous crashes, can be used in identifying low performing agencies that could use additional resources and training, and can be used to identify high performing agencies to recognize for their efforts and performance.

Methodology for Automatically Setting Camera View to Mile Marker for Traffic Incident Management

Traffic incident management (TIM) is a FHWA Every Day Counts initiative with the objective of reducing secondary crashes, improving travel reliability, and ensuring safety of responders. Agency roadside cameras play a critical role in TIM by helping dispatchers quickly identify the precise location of incidents when receiving reports from motorists with varying levels of spatial accuracy. Reconciling position reports that are often mile marker based, with cameras that operate in a Pan-Tilt-Zoom coordinate system relies on dispatchers having detailed knowledge for hundreds of cameras and perhaps some presets. During real-time incident dispatching, reducing the time it takes to identify the most relevant cameras and setting their view on the incident is an important opportunity to improve incident management dispatch times. This research develops a camera-to-mile marker mapping technique that automatically sets the camera view to a specified mile marker within the field-of-view of the camera. Over 350 traffic cameras along Indiana’s 2250 directional miles of interstate were mapped to approximately 5000 discrete locations that correspond to approximately 780 directional miles (~35% of interstate) of camera coverage. This newly developed technique will allow operators to quickly identify the nearest camera and set them to the reported location. This research also identifies segments on the interstate system with limited or no camera coverage for decision makers to prioritize future capital investments. This paper concludes with brief discussion on future research to automate the mapping using LiDAR data and to set the cameras after automatically detecting the events using connected vehicle trajectory data.

A Dynamic Road Incident Information Delivery Strategy to Reduce Urban Traffic Congestion

Advanced information and communication technolo-gies can be used to facilitate traffic incident management.If an incident is detected and blocks a road link,in order to reduce the incident-induced traffic congestion,a dynamic strategy to deliver incident information to selected drivers and help them make detours in urban areas is proposed by this work.Time-dependent shortest path algorithms are used to generate a subnetwork where vehicles should receive such information.A simulation approach based on an extended cell transmission model is used to describe traffic flow in urban networks where path information and traffic flow at downstream road links are well modeled.Simulation results reveal the influences of some major parameters of an incident-induced congestion dissipation process such as the ratio of route-changing vehicles to the total vehicles,operation time interval of the proposed strategy,traffic density in the traffic network,and the scope of the area where traffic incident information is delivered.The results can be used to improve the state of the art in preventing urban road traffic congestion caused by incidents.

Incidental gallbladder cancer during laparoscopic cholecystectomy:Managing an unexpected finding

AIM:To evaluate the impact of incidental gallbladder cancer on surgical experience.METHODS:Between 1998 and 2008 all cases of cholecystectomy at two divisions of general surgery,one university based and one at a public hospital,were retrospectively reviewed.Gallbladder pathology was diagnosed by history,physical examination,and laboratory and imaging studies [ultrasonography and computed tomography(CT)].Patients with gallbladder cancer(GBC) were further analyzed for demographic data,and type of operation,surgical morbidity and mortality,histopathological classification,and survival.Incidental GBC was compared with suspected or preoperatively diagnosed GBC.The primary endpoint was diseasefree survival(DFS).The secondary endpoint was the difference in DFS between patients previously treated with laparoscopic cholecystectomy and those who had oncological resection as first intervention.RESULTS:Nineteen patients(11 women and eight men) were found to have GBC.The male to female ratio was 1:1.4 and the mean age was 68 years(range:45-82 years).Preoperative diagnosis was made in 10 cases,and eight were diagnosed postoperatively.One was suspected intraoperatively and confirmed by frozen sections.The ratio between incidental and nonincidental cases was 9/19.The tumor node metastasis stage was:pTis(1),pT1a(2),pT1b(4),pT2(6),pT3(4),pT4(2);five cases with stageⅠa(T1 a-b);two with stageⅠb(T2 N0);one with stage Ⅱa(T3 N0);six with stage Ⅱb(T1-T3 N1);two with stage Ⅲ(T4 Nx Nx);and one with stage Ⅳ(Tx Nx Mx).Eighty-eight percent of the incidental cases were discovered at an early stage(≤Ⅱ).Preoperative diagnosis of the 19 patients with GBC was:GBC with liver invasion diagnosed by preoperative CT(nine cases),gallbladder abscess perforated into hepatic parenchyma and involving the transversal mesocolon and hepatic hilum(one case),porcelain gallbladder(one case),gallbladder adenoma(one case),and chronic cholelithiasis(eight cases).Every case,except one,with a T1b or more advanced invasion underwent Ⅳb + Ⅴ wedge liver resection and pericholedochic/hepatoduodenal lymphadenectomy.One patient with stage T1b GBC refused further surgery.Cases with Tis and T1a involvement were treated with cholecystectomy alone.One incidental case was diagnosed by intraoperative frozen section and treated with cholecystectomy alone.Six of the nine patients with incidental diagnosis reached 5-year DFS.One patient reached 38 mo survival despite a port-site recurrence 2 years after original surgery.Cases with non incidental diagnosis were more locally advanced and only two patients experienced 5-year DFS.CONCLUSION:Laparoscopic cholecystectomy does not affect survival if implemented properly.Reoperation should have two objectives:R0 resection and clearance of the lymph nodes.

Enhancing Coordination for Effective Management of Oil Spill Pollution in South Africa

Although multi-sectoral coordination in disaster risk management has been progressing in South Africa for over two decades,there has been limited commitment to an integrated regime in managing marine oil spill incidents.Poor incident management persists despite the availability of data,protocols,legislation,and resources housed in different government and private sector entities.This study identified practices that enhance a coordination process for the effective management of oil spill pollution.A grounded theory approach is applied to the coordination issue,which is characterized by an interactive process of simultaneously considering theoretical grounding during our empirical research.Empirical evidence includes observations of 47meetings and three oil spill exercises with 79 delegates from 32 different organizations,which supports the coordination process of instituting a national Incident Management System for marine oil spills in South Africa.An additional 44 individual open-ended questionnaires supplement this earlier body of evidence for data triangulation and validation.Analysis of development of the Incident Management System process revealed that,when designing a novel long-term project that is reliant on a shared vision from multiple organizations,enhanced coordination and collaboration for successful implementation is dependent on the following practices:(1)obtaining political commitment,(2)bridging knowledge gaps,and(3)sharing resources.

A Study on Current Situation of Psychological Crisis Intervention in Public Emergencies

Public emergencies exert a significant impact on the mental health of the people,while psychological crisis intervention can efficiently improve the level of the mental health. The existing psychological crisis intervention in China has weakness in organization system,budget input,human resources,social cognition,and other aspects. The psychological crisis intervention work in the future can be performed by actively perfecting the organization management system of psychological crisis intervention,increasing the budget input,strengthening the construction of psychological intervention teams,improving the level of social cognition,and so on.