Suchergebnisse

Crowd density is a key factor that influences the moving characteristics of a large group of people during a large‐scale evacuation. In this article, the macro features of crowd flow and subsequent rescue strategies were considered, and a series of characteristic crowd densities that affect large‐scale people movement, as well as the maximum bearing density when the crowd is extremely congested, were analyzed. On the basis of characteristic crowd densities, the queuing theory was applied to simulate crowd movement. Accordingly, the moving characteristics of the crowd and the effects of typical crowd density—which is viewed as the representation of the crowd's arrival intensity in front of the evacuation passageways—on rescue strategies was studied. Furthermore, a "risk axle of crowd density" is proposed to determine the efficiency of rescue strategies in a large‐scale evacuation, i.e., whether the rescue strategies are able to effectively maintain or improve evacuation efficiency. Finally, through some rational hypotheses for the value of evacuation risk, a three‐dimensional distribution of the evacuation risk is established to illustrate the risk axle of crowd density. This work aims to make some macro, but original, analysis on the risk of large‐scale crowd evacuation from the perspective of the efficiency of rescue strategies.

In this study the Chinese version of the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF; Cattell, Eber, & Tatsuoka, 1970; Dai & Zhu, 1988) was used to investigate the personality traits of 59 Chinese medical peacekeepers in Lebanon. Survey data were compared among 59 peacekeepers,
62 military personnel (control group 1), and 58 medical workers (control group 2). The social boldness, and abstractedness scores of peacekeepers were significantly lower than those of the military and medical worker groups. A secondary factor analysis of the 16PF revealed that the cowardice/decision
scores of the peacekeeper group were between the scores of the other 2 groups. The peacekeepers showed lower warmth, social boldness, and abstractedness and higher self-reliance in personality traits. The results suggest that for future peacekeeping missions psychological personality selection
should be conducted to recruit military personnel with higher scores of warmth and lower scores for self-reliance.

Municipal solid waste (MSW) is posing great challenge for most countries in the world, which can cause severe negative impacts to the environment and human health. Waste-to-energy has great potential in China because of its technological maturity and policy support at the national level. However, there are significant conflicts between the huge market demand and strong public opposition. It is imperative to examine the public perception of waste-to-energy, especially for developing countries where a large number of projects are under construction or have been approved. The public perception of waste-to-energy was carried out by a questionnaire survey in this research. A total of 650 questionnaires were distributed and 629 questionnaires were returned, with a response rate of 96.8%. The results show that the public showed general concern in regard to environmental issues. Respondents had an overall positive attitude towards waste-to-energy, but it varied according to the demographic details of residents, such as age, education, and income. Recognition level of the benefits was higher than the concern of associated risks. Multiple linear regression shows that awareness of environmental issues had no impact on public attitude towards waste-to-energy, while public awareness and perceived benefits had notable positive impacts. Perceived risks had a positive correlation with public attitude. In order to promote the development of MSW incinerators, the government should make more publicity efforts. Rural residents, people over 50 years old, and people with low education and low income are the major groups which should be focused on to enhance the public perception. The findings provide a theoretical and practical reference for enhancing the social acceptance of waste-to-energy development.