Since the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) released their Electronic Crime Needs Assessment for State and Local Law Enforcement study results in 2001, several critical strides have been made in improving the tools and training that state and local law enforcement organizations have access to. One area that has not received much attention is the computer crime first responder. This paper focu...

This paper discusses the application of distributed constraint optimization to coordination in disaster management situations under sub-optimal network conditions. It presents an example system for the problem of shelter assignment and outlines some of the challenges and future research directions that must be addressed before real-world deployment of distributed constraint optimization becomes...

This paper introduces a “Personal Dead-reckoning” (PDR) navigation system for walking persons. The system is useful for monitoring the position of emergency responders inside buildings, where GPS is unavailable. The PDR system uses a six-axes Inertial Measurement Unit attached to the user’s boot. The system’s strength lies in the use of a technique known as “Zero Velocity Update” (ZUPT) that vi...

BACKGROUND We evaluated a new noninvasive ventilation (NIV) protocol that allows the pursuit of NIV in the case of persistent severe respiratory acidosis despite a first NIV challenge in COPD patients with acute hypercapnic respiratory failure (AHRF). PATIENTS AND METHODS A prospective observational multicentric pilot study was conducted in three tertiary hospitals over a 12-month study perio...

INTRODUCTION This study intended to describe the types of organizations and communities in which Nationally Registered First Responders (NRFR) perform their duties. Also, it aimed to estimate the number of NRFR who received disaster preparedness training. It was hypothesized that NRFR participation in disaster preparedness training was related to the types of organizations and communities in wh...

In critical domains such as urban search and rescue (USAR), and bomb disposal, the deployment of teleoperated robots is essential to reduce the risk of first responder personnel. Teleoperation is a difficult task, particularly when controlling robots from an isolated safety zone. In general, the operator has to solve simultaneously the problems of mission planning, target identification, robot ...

Simulation-based training is a promising instructional approach for training military and civilian medical first responders such as EMTs. There is a need for first responder training in cognitively-based skills such as situation assessment and decision making. We are developing a training program for first responders that uses mannequin-based simulation technology effectively to fill this train...

INTRODUCTION Recent studies demonstrate that early, in-field, basic life support by paramedics improves trauma survival where prehospital transport times are long. So far, no case-control studies of the effect of layperson trauma first responders have been reported. It was hypothesized that trained layperson first responders improve trauma outcomes where prehospital transit times are long. ME...