Search Results (228)

Background: Public perception of environmental (natural background) radiation represents an important challenge for public health communication, as risk perception is often influenced more by information quality and institutional trust than by objective exposure levels. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 481 respondents using a structured questionnaire assessing self-perceived knowledge, information sources, perceived radiation risk, institutional trust, and health-related attitudes. Results: Significant gender differences were observed in self-reported knowledge about radioactivity, with men more frequently reporting higher knowledge levels than women (p < 0.001), while no significant differences emerged between urban and rural respondents; logistic regression analysis showed that lower perceived risk was associated with lack of medical information (OR = 0.32, 95% CI: 0.14–0.71) and absence of avoidance behavior (OR = 0.23, 95% CI: 0.11–0.47), whereas low trust in medical institutions was associated with higher odds of perceiving natural background radiation as dangerous (OR = 1.84, 95% CI: 1.21–2.80). Conclusions: Effective radiation risk communication requires more than the dissemination of information; it must also address public concerns, enhance institutional trust, and provide clear, credible, and accessible health-related messages. Tailored communication strategies are essential to bridge the gap between expert knowledge and public perception. Full article

Background/Objectives: Epidemiological studies over the first decades of the 21st century have reported a decrease in cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Changes in coronary care for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) over these years, including the COVID-19 pandemic period, have been less studied in Eastern and Central Europe. The study aimed to assess changes in coronary care—the time of medical assistance and treatment—for AMI patients over 2000–2023 in urban Kaunas residents aged 25–64. Methods: The data source was study cases from the Kaunas Ischemic Heart Disease Registry (Registry)—Kaunas city residents aged 25–64 years included in the Registry according to MONICA project protocol evaluation methodologies. Data were analyzed by sex and age group (25–54 and 55–64 years). Descriptive statistics (chi-square and z-score values) were used to evaluate the data; the significance level was p < 0.05. A logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the odds ratios of death within 28 days across six time periods. Results: The proportion of AMI patients hospitalized up to 2 h from the onset of pain accounted for about one-fifth of all hospitalized patients in 2000–2016, while in 2017–2023, it significantly decreased. In 2017–2023, compared with 2000–2004 and 2009–2016, significantly fewer men who developed AMI were hospitalized within the first 2 h of emergency presentation (p < 0.05). Over the whole study period, fewer women with AMI were hospitalized within the first 2 h of pain as compared to men (p < 0.05). There were no significant differences in time from pain onset to hospitalization between the age groups. At the same time, from 2009 to 2012, more young AMI patients were hospitalized within the first 2 h (p < 0.05). Percutaneous coronary angioplasty (PTCA) with stenting (PCI) increased 30 times from 2000–2004 to 2020–2023. PCI has been the most available treatment for men with AMI since 2009 and stayed stable from 2013 (66.0%) until 2023 (72.1%). Women with AMI tended to get less PCI, PTCA, and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) than men. The pre-pandemic and COVID-19 periods did not differ in the proportions of reperfusion treatment methods used in both men and women. Thrombolysis was very rare, and since 2017, it has not been used in Kaunas because PCI has become more accessible. PCI (2000–2016) and CABG (2009–2016) were more prevalent among the 25–54-year-old AMI patients (p < 0.05). From 2017 to 2023, there were no differences between age groups in the reperfusion procedures used, nor were there differences in treatment between these groups during the pre-pandemic (2017–2019) and peri-COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2023) periods. Conclusions: In Kaunas, the treatment of patients with AMI has improved significantly over the past 20 years. The use of PCI has increased greatly, and the rate of CABG surgery stayed stable, while only every fifth patient has been admitted to the hospital in a timely manner. Men were more likely to receive PCI, and older patients were more likely to undergo CABG. Compared to the period of 2000–2004, the chance of dying within 28 days after AMI was significantly lower in 2017. Full article

Taking emergency logistics scenarios under urban public emergencies as the research background, this paper analyzes the current research status and existing problems of distribution center location methods. It constructs an emergency logistics distribution center location model based on ISG-IAGNES clustering and a symmetrical IDFS spatial decision tree algorithm. Firstly, the ISG spatial model is constructed to divide urban geographic space into cellular units and then topologically generate the cellular space. Secondly, the IAGNES algorithm is established to achieve cellular space clustering, realizing the dimensionality reduction operation of the urban emergency space. Thirdly, the symmetrical characteristic of the pathway is taken as the core condition to construct the DFS algorithm to build the graph global searching model, and then the logistics distribution center location model based on the symmetrical IDFS spatial decision tree algorithm is constructed. The experiment proves that the optimization rate of the distribution center selected by the proposed algorithm in terms of route distance cost and time cost is 9.82% compared to the centroid method and analytic hierarchy process, 14.41% compared to the Dijkstra algorithm, and 17.21% compared to the Prim algorithm. It proves that the proposed algorithm has advantages over traditional algorithms in reducing the distance cost and time cost of logistics routes. Full article

While drones play important roles in areas such as communication and logistics delivery, they have certain limitations in emergency rescue scenarios due to their inability to carry passengers. Building on mature drone technologies such as autonomous flight and environmental perception, unmanned passenger Electric Vertical Take-off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft are designed with a manned cabin, enabling them to operate without an onboard pilot while rapidly transporting injured people. Consequently, eVTOLs can play a significant role in emergency rescue that cargo-only drones cannot fulfill, as they are capable of rapidly reaching emergency scenes, effectively overcoming the delays caused by traditional ground traffic congestion. Despite their potential, eVTOLs still face several critical obstacles, including signal disruption, limited coverage of dispatching centers, mutual authentication among entities, and concerns related to security and privacy preservation. As a remedy, this paper presents a lightweight authentication protocol leveraging drone assistance to overcome these challenges for unmanned eVTOL emergency rescue. In scenarios where an unmanned eVTOL experiences signal blockage due to dense urban high-rise structures, neighboring drones can serve as a transmission relay to assist the unmanned eVTOL and the dispatch center (DC) in completing mutual authentication and session key negotiation, thereby enabling the unmanned eVTOL to safely complete its mission. To enhance security, physical unclonable functions (PUFs) are integrated into unmanned eVTOLs, drones, and the DC, safeguarding sensitive data against side-channel and physical capture attacks while preserving the confidentiality of unmanned eVTOL identities to mitigate privacy risks. Our protocol achieves provable security in the random oracle model while exhibiting strong resistance to various well-known attacks. Comparative analysis with the existing drone authentication and drone-assisted emergency rescue authentication protocols reveals that our protocol not only provides stronger security guarantees but also maintains a low computational overhead. Full article

Water utilities are increasingly expected to combine technical reliability with social inclusion, risk communication, and service continuity. This empirical paper reports a cross-sectional mixed-mode household survey conducted in Rzeszów, Poland, based on 384 complete questionnaire records. For a city of approximately 200,000 inhabitants, this sample size matched the conventional planning benchmark associated with a 95% confidence level and a 5% maximum error under simple-random-sampling assumptions; however, because recruitment was mixed-mode and non-probabilistic, the results are interpreted as evidence from the realized sample rather than as formally weighted population estimates. The questionnaire covered routine service evaluation, interruption experience, preparedness, communication preferences, vulnerability-related burden, and willingness to support reliability enhancement. The analytical workflow combined descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, Bartlett’s test of sphericity, the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure, principal component analysis, Mann–Whitney U tests, Kruskal–Wallis tests, chi-square tests, Spearman correlation, binary logistic regression, correspondence analysis, and CHAID-type segmentation. The highest ratings were recorded for continuity of supply (mean = 4.18) and pressure stability (mean = 4.15), whereas price fairness received the lowest mean score (3.17). Interruptions were reported by 40.1% of respondents and were associated with lower overall satisfaction. Logistic regression showed that continuity rating (OR = 4.029) and water quality rating (OR = 2.305) increased the odds of high satisfaction, whereas longer interruptions reduced them (OR = 0.354). Additional analyses showed that interruptions lasting 12 h or more markedly increased the odds of high nuisance among affected households (OR = 5.914), while respondents aged 51 years or more had lower odds of declaring emergency-information awareness (OR = 0.468). Internal bootstrap validation indicated only mild optimism (optimism-corrected AUC = 0.825). The findings indicate that customer satisfaction in urban water services is shaped primarily by continuity, perceived water quality, and disruption burden, while communication and preparedness needs remain socially differentiated. Full article

This study analyzes the closure, decommissioning, and abandonment (CDA) of a fuel storage and distribution facility in southern Quito, Ecuador, conceptualizing the process as a socio-technical urban transition embedded within territorial governance dynamics. While infrastructure decommissioning is commonly addressed from a predominantly technical perspective, limited research integrates reverse logistics design, stakeholder influence structures, and territorial development into a unified analytical framework, particularly in Latin American metropolitan contexts. Using a mixed-methods case study approach, the research combines documentary analysis, operational data, and 34 semi-structured interviews with public authorities, engineers, fuel marketers, business owners, and community representatives. A thematic analysis was applied to reconstruct the decommissioning logistics chain and to develop a stakeholder mapping and influence matrix assessing actor positions, economic interdependencies, and legitimacy claims. The findings show that decommissioning operates as a structured reverse logistics system embedded within asymmetric governance configurations, where economic dependency, risk perception, and urban redevelopment expectations generate competing territorial imaginaries. Technical feasibility alone proves insufficient to guide decision-making; instead, legitimacy emerges through the alignment of engineering planning, institutional coordination, and community-level expectations. The study advances an integrated socio-technical framework that articulates Engineering Management, Social Management, and Territorial Development, positioning decommissioning as a governance-driven transition rather than a purely technical operation. The results contribute to sustainability and infrastructure transition scholarship while offering practical guidance for managing urban hydrocarbon infrastructure closure in socially vulnerable territories. Full article

Drone-based Urban Air Mobility (UAM) shows immense potential in urban logistics and emergency response; however, evidence regarding its systemic sustainability remains fragmented. In a systematic review using the PRISMA methodology, this study analyzes 301 core articles to construct an evaluation framework spanning environmental, economic, social, and systemic effectiveness dimensions. Given technical similarities, electric Vertical Take-off and Landing (eVTOL) findings are integrated to anticipate operational challenges. Results highlight a clear consensus: drone delivery is time-efficient in high-sensitivity scenarios, though noise, equity, and safety remain critical bottlenecks. Meanwhile, deep controversies persist across some dimensions. Environmental benefits are highly context-dependent, contingent on operating models, battery life cycles, and clean energy proportions from a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) perspective. Economically, a mismatch between high costs and low willingness to pay (WTP) necessitates optimized pricing strategies. Socially, public acceptance is sensitive to the balance between perceived benefits and risks. Furthermore, systemic effectiveness depends on the coupling between vertiports and ground infrastructure. Concluding that sustainable drone-based UAM is a multistakeholder systemic endeavor, we urge future research to prioritize LCA, pricing strategies, public acceptance surveys, and integrated air-ground coordination to resolve controversies and foster sustainable systems. Full article

Background: To address the critical challenges of hazardous material (HAZMAT) incidents in dense urban areas, this study develops a hybrid framework for spatial emergency response optimization tailored for Intelligent Transport Systems (ITSs). Methods: Our approach integrates the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) with a rigorous technical benchmarking of multiple navigation APIs to improve routing decisions under volatile Bangkok traffic. By employing a normalized cost function (scale 0–1), we evaluated the performance of localized (Longdo Map) versus global (Google Maps and OpenStreetMap) platforms across day and night scenarios. Results: Experimental results, yielding normalized costs between 0.464 and 0.748, identified Bon Kai as the optimal response node, whereas Chan Road showed the lowest efficiency. Interestingly, OpenStreetMap provided the highest temporal consistency for emergency logistics. Conclusions: These findings offer a practical decision-support tool for authorities, proving that integrated API assessment is essential for building resilient and responsive urban mobility infrastructures. Full article

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic triggered unprecedented mobility disruptions worldwide as governments imposed strict lockdowns to contain the spread of the virus. In India, prolonged restrictions severely affected economic activity, particularly for migrant workers, leading to a large-scale and unplanned exodus from urban employment centres to native places. This sudden population movement undermined containment efforts and contributed to the spatial diffusion of infections. Understanding evacuees’ behavioural responses during such crises is therefore critical for effective emergency logistics and evacuation planning. Methods: This study examines the determinants of transport mode and shelter choice decisions made by migrants during the COVID-19-induced evacuation in India. Using primary survey data, a multinomial logistic regression model is developed to analyze how socio-economic characteristics influence evacuees’ choices of travel mode and shelter type. Results: The results reveal significant heterogeneity in decision-making, highlighting the role of economic vulnerability and accessibility constraints in shaping evacuation behaviour. Conclusions: The findings offer actionable insights for policymakers and emergency planners to design inclusive evacuation strategies, improve crisis-responsive transportation planning, and enhance shelter provisioning in future pandemics or large-scale disruptions. The study contributes to the logistics and humanitarian operations literature by providing empirical evidence on evacuation behaviour under public health emergencies. Full article

The urban trade in non-timber forest products (NTFPs) plays a key role in sustaining livelihoods in the Global South, while also suggesting potential pressure on resource supply systems. This study provides an integrated analysis of NTFP diversity, market structure, economic importance, and perceived drivers of resource decline in Kolwezi, a rapidly expanding mining city where such dynamics remain poorly documented. Data were collected through surveys conducted with 35 sellers across two major urban markets and 384 consumers from different neighbourhoods and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics to examine patterns, associations, and socio-demographic influences. A total of 65 NTFP species were recorded, including 49 plant, 14 animal, and 2 fungal species, reflecting strong dependence on Miombo ecosystems. Medicinal (59.3%) and food uses dominate, with multifunctional species such as Bobgunnia madagascariensis (Desv.) J.H.Kirkbr. & Wiersama, Canarium schweinfurthii Engl., Terminalia mollis M.A.Lawson, Gardenia ternifolia subsp. jovis-tonantis (Welw.) Verdc., and Albizia antunesiana Harms, playing a central role in both household use and market supply. The trade is largely female-dominated (79.1%) and constitutes a major component of the informal urban economy, with monthly incomes ranging from USD 9 to 429.3, primarily driven by sales volume rather than unit price. However, the sector is constrained by structural and logistical limitations, including remoteness of supply areas, seasonality, and limited value addition. The perceived declining availability of high-use-value species, attributed by respondents to deforestation, mining expansion, and overexploitation, highlights perceived sustainability concerns. These pressures are perceived differently across socio-demographic groups, indicating heterogeneous understandings of environmental change. Overall, the results indicate a perceived mismatch between rising urban demand and declining resource availability, which may reflect an emerging socio-ecological imbalance between urban demand and perceived resource availability. Addressing these challenges requires integrated strategies that combine the domestication of priority species, the development of processing chains, improved infrastructure, and strengthened governance mechanisms. Such approaches are essential to reconcile livelihood support with the sustainable management of NTFPs in rapidly transforming urban landscapes. Full article

Drone logistics is emerging as a key trend in future delivery systems due to its efficiency. However, current benefit assessments are often one-dimensional, focusing on single-node modes and overlooking load variations and charging processes in continuous multi-node delivery. To address this gap, this paper develops an integrated assessment framework across three dimensions: environment, economy, and time. Based on lifecycle emissions and total cost of ownership, a structured time-performance indicator, time value, is introduced. By incorporating an energy consumption model that accounts for dynamic loads and a charging model that considers charging behavior, an improved genetic algorithm is designed to optimize large-scale urban drone dispatch. Furthermore, a comparative sensitivity analysis with electric trucks quantifies the effects of market demand, charging strategy and technological progress. Results show that, under the modeled scenarios and parameter assumptions, electric trucks remain preferable in the short term, while drones demonstrate stronger long-term potential. Enterprises should align drone and truck deployment with demand and manage charging dynamically, while governments should combine initial subsidies with long-term guidance and systemic support to enable large-scale drone logistics adoption. Full article

This study proposes a heterogeneous fusion path planning framework for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operating in complex emergency rescue and civil environments. Existing single-mechanism metaheuristics—including Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), and Genetic Algorithms (GAs)—suffer from fundamental limitations in three-dimensional kinematic path planning: PSO converges rapidly but stagnates at local optima due to population variance collapse; ACO offers robust local exploitation but incurs prohibitive cold-start overhead; GAs maintain diversity at the cost of expensive crossover operations. To address these complementary deficiencies simultaneously, the proposed framework introduces a spherical coordinate representation that reduces computational complexity and naturally enforces UAV kinematic constraints, combined with adaptive weight factors and a serial PSO-ACO fusion strategy, and subsequently incorporates adaptive weight factors. A serial fusion strategy is then introduced, wherein the sub-optimal trajectory generated by the Spherical PSO phase is mapped into the ACO pheromone field via a Gaussian Kernel Density Mapping (GKDM) mechanism, enabling the ACO phase to perform fine-grained local exploitation within a kinematically feasible corridor. Various constraints along the flight path are formulated into distinct cost functions, which cover aircraft track length, pitch angle variation, altitude difference variation, obstacle avoidance, and smoothness; the core task of the algorithm is to find the flight path with the minimum total cost. The proposed algorithm is dedicated to UAV path planning in complex emergency rescue environments (disaster-stricken areas, hazardous zones) and is further applicable to civil low-altitude logistics delivery, industrial facility inspection, ecological environment monitoring and urban air mobility (UAM) scenarios with complex obstacle constraints. It can effectively improve the safety and efficiency of UAVs in reaching rescue points, delivering emergency supplies, conducting disaster surveys, and completing various civil low-altitude operation tasks. Full article

This study investigates the multi-criteria route optimization problem within complex urban expressway networks. The primary objective is to develop and evaluate a novel pathfinding approach by integrating a cost function weighted by the Delphi-Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) into the A* algorithm, thereby dynamically balancing operational efficiency and public safety. By employing the Delphi Technique with a panel of 17 experts, a specialized cost function was derived that incorporates twelve critical parameters, including traffic fluidity, population density, and chemical dispersion metrics modeled via Areal Location of Hazardous Atmosphere (ALOHA) This research applied the proposed model to a high-stakes Hazardous Material (HAZMAT) emergency response scenario to benchmark its performance against established baselines, specifically Dijkstra’s algorithm and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO). Simulation results demonstrate that the Delphi-weighted A* algorithm achieves an approximately 3.8% reduction in travel time relative to Dijkstra’s algorithm while enhancing expert-validated safety scores (a weighted metric of risk factors including population density and chemical dispersion) by approximately 8.6%. These findings provide a robust framework for algorithmic decision-support in time-critical logistics and infrastructure management. While numerically modest, these improvements are critical in HAZMAT scenarios, where even marginal time savings directly support the ‘Golden Hour’ principle and minor route adjustments can prevent catastrophic secondary exposure. Full article

Background: Smart urban logistics has emerged as a key element of sustainable city development, with direct effects on economic performance, environmental quality, and urban livability. Issues with traffic, pollutants, infrastructure strain, and last-mile delivery efficiency have become more pressing due to rapid urbanization and the expansion of e-commerce. In this regard, underground or enclosed corridor-based tube-based freight transit systems have surfaced as a viable smart infrastructure option for automated and low-impact commodities delivery. Methods: This study adopts an analytical literature review complemented by a structured case study analysis to examine the potential role of tube-based freight transport systems in future urban logistics. Key technological concepts, including pneumatic tubes, automated capsule transport, and integration with digital platforms, the Physical Internet, and smart city management systems, are examined through a structured analytical review of the literature. Results: The outcome of the reviewed studies indicates that tube-based systems can contribute to congestion alleviation, emission reduction, and improved delivery reliability by shifting selected freight flows away from surface transport networks. However, governance frameworks, infrastructure integration, and institutional coordination mechanisms continue to have a significant impact on claimed performance outcomes. Conclusions: Tube-based freight systems represent a promising but conditional pathway toward smarter and more sustainable urban logistics. Their large-scale deployment is forced by high capital costs, standardization challenges, regulatory uncertainty, and social acceptance issues. Coordinated investment plans, encouraging legal frameworks, and integrated urban planning techniques in line with smart city goals are needed to overcome these obstacles. Full article

Background: The effectiveness of prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-based early detection of prostate cancer remains controversial and implementation-dependent. Screening policy changes have substantially altered PSA testing behavior in the United States, yet longitudinal evidence from non-organized European settings is limited. We assessed 12-year changes in awareness and utilization of PSA-based early detection and identified subgroups requiring targeted counseling. Methods: Two cross-sectional survey waves were conducted in 2009 (Study Phase 1) and 2021 (Study Phase 2) among men recruited via general practitioner practices in urban and rural regions of Germany. The survey was developed and reported according to the Consensus-Based Checklist for Reporting of Survey Studies (CROSS). Identical questionnaires were used across phases. Endpoints were awareness of PSA-based early detection and prior PSA testing. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression evaluated independent associations with sociodemographic and behavioral factors. To assess sensitivity to compositional differences between survey waves, post-stratified weighted analyses re-aligning Study Phase 2 to the Study Phase 1 distribution of age category, educational attainment, and smoking status were conducted. Results: The analytic cohort comprised 890 men (Study Phase 1, n = 755; Study Phase 2, n = 135). Compared with Study Phase 1, Study Phase 2 participants more frequently were non-smokers (63.0% vs. 48.5%, p < 0.001) and had a university degree (38.5% vs. 30.5%, p = 0.002). In primary multivariable analyses, higher educational attainment (OR 1.71, 95% CI 1.24–2.36) and paternity (OR 1.94, 95% CI 1.25–3.01) were independently associated with greater awareness, whereas increasing age (OR 1.39, 95% CI 1.29–1.50) and higher educational attainment (OR 1.63, 95% CI 1.19–2.24) were independently associated with utilization. Study phase was not independently associated with either endpoint in primary models. In post-stratified sensitivity analyses, study phase was positively associated with utilization, indicating sensitivity of temporal contrasts to population composition. Conclusions: In primary multivariable analyses, we did not detect statistically significant temporal differences in awareness or utilization of PSA-based early detection within this German non-organized setting. The emergence of a study phase effect in weighted sensitivity analyses suggests that apparent time trends may be influenced by compositional differences between survey waves. Persistent social gradients, particularly related to educational attainment, underscore the importance of targeted, evidence-based counseling in opportunistic early detection systems. Larger, prospectively designed studies are needed to distinguish true temporal change from sampling-related effects. Full article