Fire Alarms are widely used and have become a standard household safety device in many countries. There are various different types of fire alarms and each of them has their own pros and cons. In order for the fire alarms to work efficiently, their placement becomes very important. While this is good, it still left with a potential problem. In a big house or building, when one of the alarms is ...

The growing interest in using Serious Games in education has also reached the field of fire brigade training. By the use of simulations, firefighters can train in virtual worlds on the computer and learn about processes and prepare real fire drills. It is for example possible to extinguish a virtual fire or to set up a water supply in such simulations. Played on a common computer and with input...

SIL's (Safety Integrity Levels) are used by IEC 61508:1998 [1] to characterise the required functional safety of computer control systems. For example, SIL 4, the highest rating is for fly by wire aircraft and weapons systems and track circuited train signalling systems while SIL 2 is typical of certain Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC). Fire control panels have not been SIL rated to date ev...

OBJECTIVE To identify ants other than Solenopsis invicta and Solenopsis richteri reported to cause adverse reactions in humans. DATA SOURCES We conducted a literature review to identify reports of medical reactions to ants other than S. invicta and S. richteri. Our review of medical and entomological literature on stinging ants was generated from MEDLINE and FORMIS, respectively, using the ke...

Wildfires and their associated destruction have highlighted the need for real-time simulation systems for accurately predicting fire spread. Such systems would assist fire managers in their efforts to effectively contain potentially catastrophic fires. Modeling and simulation of forest fire spread using the cellular discrete event approach is based on dividing the forest into small areas called...

This study used field data and modeling to examine how coarse woody debris (CWD) differs between two areas that experienced different fire regimes (120to 300-year mean fire return intervals) in the 1500-1850 period. Although fire frequency and severity established the overall pattern of CWD succession, the interaction of fire regime with other controlling factors caused the differences in CWD m...

Eight different fire datasets for Indonesia were compared with each other and to fine spatial resolution burnscar maps. Results show that each dataset detects different fires. More than two-thirds of the fires detected by one dataset are not detected by any other dataset. None of the datasets detect fires in all test areas. Fire regime, satellite sensor characteristics and fire detection algori...

Maintenance of vegetation is a central goal of watershed management. When prescribed burning of chaparral is included in management practice, then it is important for managers to understand and use the natural chaparral fire regime to maximize vegetation response. Variations from the natural fire regime in intensity, frequency, season, and environmental conditions at the time of burning can all...