CONTEXT Afghanistan is one of the countries most affected by injuries due to landmines and unexploded ordnance. OBJECTIVE To understand the epidemiological patterns and risk factors for injury due to landmines and unexploded ordnance. DESIGN AND SETTING Analysis of surveillance data on landmine and unexploded ordnance injuries in Afghanistan collected by the International Committee of the R...

Research and development of the advanced anti-personnel landmine detection system by using a compact discharge-type D-D fusion neutron source called IECF (Inertial-Electrostatic Confinement Fusion) are described. Landmines are to be identified through increased backscattering of neutrons by the hydrogen atoms, and specific-energy capture γ-ray emission by hydrogen and nitrogen atoms with therma...

STUDY OBJECTIVE To determine commonalities of landmine victim risk factors in two very different countries. DESIGN AND SETTING Data on 249 communities in Chad and 530 in Thailand were collected during 2000-2001 as part of the Global Landmine Survey. Community level variables were analysed in a series of Poisson mixture models with number of landmine victims as the dependent variable. Models d...

Image Processing Methods Applied to Landmine Detection in Ground Penetrating Radar

This paper presents a new approach to the detection of anti-personnel landmines which is based on the physical detection of landmines using a sharpened probe in a fashion similar to that employed by human deminers. The axial force applied to the probe is sensed as the probe is driven into the ground (at 30 degrees to the horizontal in order to avoid initiating the landmine), and the force infor...

It is well known that a huge number of buried landmines in the post-war countries are still active, and that many civilians are killed or injured by landmine related accidents every year. Therefore, detection and clearance of buried landmines is a very important issue. Metal detectors are the almost universally available fielded devices for landmine detection, but they have great difficulty in ...

Penetrating landmine injuries are the unavoidable consequences of military conflicts. They are potentially life-threatening. The mortality rates in the literature range from 23% to 92% and are considerably higher in patients admitted with poor neurologic state. Penetrating craniocerebral injuries require early surgical management designated to prevent infection and remove foreign objects, necro...

Each year landmines kill and maim an estimated 26 000 people worldwide. About 10%–40% of these victims are children, most of whom are affected long after the cessation of hostilities. 3 These deaths and injuries are potentially preventable but planning measures are hampered by the lack of data on determinants of landmine injuries in children; consequently mine awareness programmes for children ...