Browsing by Subject "countermeasures"
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Item Disaster relief: Fatugue and countermeasures(2007-09-04) Sean Andrew Hollonbeck; Sheryl Bishop; Richard Jennings; C. Joan RichardsonThe emphasis of this paper has been to educate disaster leaders on fatigue and fatigue management. The need for sleep is real, inescapable and often misunderstood. The impact of fatigue on performance is greatly magnified when individuals have to operate under conditions of high emotional, psychological or physiological stress – all inherent conditions for disaster response teams. Fatigue can clearly increase the risk of fatalities and injuries. Fatigue in disaster relief workers is an unstudied and critical safety issue in the complex process of disaster management and relief. This paper is designed for leaders in disaster agencies and management as guide to understanding the problem of fatigue in the austere uncontrolled chaos of a disaster event and to be able to implement effective scientific countermeasures to ensure mission success. \r\nThe National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has found that the incidence of fatigue is underestimated in virtually every transportation mode, because it is so hard to quantify and measure. Many accident investigations do not obtain the information necessary to determine the contribution of fatigue; namely, the condition of the workers, the extent to which they have been deprived of sleep, and their state of alertness. \r\nThis report will show through studied “best practices” in areas of industry (the military, medicine, the transportation industry and aviation) that the un-researched hazard of fatigue during disasters exists and more importantly by comparing and review these other areas the reader will be prepared address the challenge of severe decrements in cognitive and physical performance caused by fatigue. The outcome is to educate disaster relief leaders about fatigue, human fatigue physiology, the risks and hazards of fatigue as well as countermeasures to fatigue. Then armed with this new knowledge disaster leaders will be empowered to make effective decisions and establish policy and doctrine with a resulting positive impact on disaster relief safety.Item Sensorimotor disturbances in astronauts following space flight: Causes, evaluation, and countermeasures(2010-08-15) Ronak Vinod Shah; James Vanderploeg; Sharmila Watkins; John FraserSpaceflight induces a myriad of changes on the physiology of the human body. A cumulative result of many of these changes is sensorimotor dysfunction whereby small movements at the head level may lead to an exaggerated sense of movement. An astronaut’s activities of daily living are directly affected until that time when his/her functional performance has returned to near-baseline, a process that may take up to 15 days post-return. These physiological changes can also affect performance in the foreseeable future during exploration class missions.\r\n\r\nThis project reviews current areas of research that are investigating possible countermeasures to reduce the time needed to return to baseline functional performance with regards to posture and gait instability. It will also review other strategies that are currently being utilized in the non-astronaut, outpatient rehabilitation setting and present evidence suggesting their potential ability to mitigate postflight sensorimotor dysfunction.\r\n