Examining the performance of responding to the Khoy earthquake 2022, challenges, strengths, and lessons learned: thematic analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Disasters in developing countries result in higher human and financial losses compared to global standards, with the death rate being 12 times higher than that of developed countries. Many experts attribute the failures in disaster management to the lack of a system for documenting and analyzing disaster management functions and not leveraging the experiences and lessons learned. This study employed a qualitative data collection approach, utilizing semi-structured interviews with managers, deputies, members of operational teams, and individuals affected by the disaster in the area. This research aims to explore the challenges, strengths, and lessons learned from the response to the Khoy earthquake in Iran. RESULTS: After conducting 40 interviews and achieving data saturation, we extracted experiences and lessons learned to investigate the performance of responsible organizations in the 2022 Khoy earthquake. The obtained data were categorized into 8 categories and 39 sub-categories. These categories encompassed warning and calling forces, disaster assessment, disaster commanding, emergency housing, supply and distribution of items, organization, and guidance of public participation and charities, psychological support, logistics operations, monitoring, evaluation, documentation, information dissemination, and media management. Planners and operational managers can use the findings to review and revise their action and prevention plans.

Earthquake diaries: Psychosocial difficulties and life experiences of nurses working in the disaster zone after the earthquake: A phenomenological study.

AIM AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychosocial difficulties and life experiences of nurses working in the disaster area following the earthquake on February 6, Kahramanmaras centered earthquake with a phenomenological approach. BACKGROUND: After natural disasters such as earthquakes, nurses play a significant role in providing both physical and psychosocial support. Therefore, the experiences of nurses in this field are necessary both to support them and to assist disaster survivors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, in which the phenomenological research method was used, semi-structured in-depth interviews with 18 nurses who provided health care services during the February 6 Kahramanmaras earthquake were conducted between January and February 2024 via Whatsapp mobile application. Snowball sampling method was used to reach the sample group. Interviews continued until data saturation was achieved. All interviews were audio recorded and then transcribed. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The study was conducted and reported according to the COREQ checklist. RESULTS: Data analysis revealed two themes (psychological and social difficulties caused by the earthquake, traumatic stress and coping experiences as a nurse) and five sub-themes (social difficulties, psychological difficulties, traumatic events, reactions and coping). CONCLUSION: As a result of the study, it was determined that nurses providing health care services were negatively affected psychosocially by the traumatic stress situations they experienced in the earthquake centered in Kahramanmaras on February 6. It was determined that nurses had great difficulty in coping with the traumatic stress situations they experienced. It was concluded that the February 6 earthquake caused secondary traumatization in nurses.

Posttraumatic stress disorder in the aftermath of the Turkey earthquake: exploring the role of demographics, level of exposure, and personality traits.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an important mental disorder that can develop after mass traumas such as earthquakes. In our study, we aimed to investigate the development of PTSD after the Turkey earthquake (6 February 2023) and its association with some demographic variables, personality traits, and psychological vulnerability. METHOD: 547 participants completed assessments of personality, disaster exposure, and PTSD symptoms. Multiple regression analyses were used to identify predictors of PTSD symptoms. RESULTS: PTSD scores were higher in women, single people, those with low educational level, those who witnessed someone else's injury or death, those who were injured, and those whose homes were destroyed. Physical injury, conscientiousness, marital status, income, and agreeableness predicted PTSD. Among these variables, physical injury was the strongest predictor of PTSD. CONCLUSIONS: Psychological vulnerability, conscientiousness, physical injury, employment, witnessing someone else's injury, gender, and emotional stability predicted PTSD score in a significant way. Physical injury, conscientiousness, marital status, income, agreeableness predicted PTSD in a significant way.

Living on with autism after a devastating earthquake: experiences of children and adolescents in Turkey.

Introduction: The current study aimed to investigate the psychological impact of the Turkey 2023 earthquakes on children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their parents residing in Hatay, Sanliurfa, and Ankara provinces, encompassing the periods both before and after the Turkey 2023 earthquakes. Method: This cross-sectional, multicenter study included 103 children and adolescents with ASD aged between 6 and 18. Participants were evaluated based on their residence in Ankara, Hatay, and Sanliurfa, three cities affected differently by the earthquake. Parent-report questionnaires were utilized to assess the children's autism symptoms and behavioural problems. The Childhood Autism Rating Scale was used to determine autism severity. The psychiatric problems of mothers were also assessed with self-report scales. Results: Significantly increased levels of core autism symptoms, irritability, and hyperactivity were found in Hatay and Sanliurfa participants after the earthquakes compared to before, while no differences were detected in children from the Ankara group. Scale score increases in the Hatay group, which had to take a more extended break from special education, were higher than in the Sanliurfa group. Participants with late-diagnosed ASD exhibited a more significant increase in their scale scores after the earthquake. Depression, stress and hopelessness scores were the highest, and the life satisfaction levels were the lowest in mothers of the Hatay and Sanliurfa groups. More pronounced increases were observed in aberrant behaviours among children of mothers with low educational levels following the earthquake. Discussion: Our findings demonstrate that the exacerbation of core ASD symptoms and behavioural deterioration after the earthquakes are associated with disruptions in specialized education services, exposure to earthquake-related trauma, and the educational level of mothers.

Exploring the disaster experiences and psychosocial support needs of children affected by the Kahramanmaras earthquake in Turkey through drawing narratives.

BACKGROUND: On February 6, 2023, a catastrophic earthquake struck the Kahramanmaras region in Turkey. Among the most vulnerable demographic groups in the wake of such disasters are children. To provide effective psychosocial support to these young individuals, it is crucial to gain a comprehensive understanding of their specific needs resulting from the earthquake experience. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to determine the disaster experiences and psychosocial support needs of children between the ages of 7 and 12 who were affected by the Kahramanmaras earthquake in Turkey with drawings. METHODS: This research used a descriptive qualitative design, employing purposive and snowball sampling approaches to select 32 children aged 7-12 for the study. Thematic analysis approach was used to analyze the data, revealing six distinct themes as expressed through the drawings of school-aged children. The reporting in this study followed the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ). RESULTS: These six themes are associating precipitation with earthquakes, security and relocation, emotional chaos, expressing the earthquake symbolically, death and physical damage and longing for normalcy. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the importance of acknowledging and attending to children's requirements through psychosocial interventions tailored to their age. IMPLICATION TO PRACTICE: It underscores the complex nature of the psychosocial needs of children impacted by earthquakes and promotes collaborative efforts among healthcare professionals and nurses to provide more effective support to these children during challenging circumstances.

Comparison of Negative-Pressure Wound Therapy and Gradual Wound Approximation Treatments for Infected Fasciotomy Wounds.

Negative-pressure wound therapy (NPWT) and gradual wound approximation (GWA) are effective and reliable methods of treating fasciotomy wounds. However, the effectiveness of these 2 methods in treating infected wounds remains unclear. The aim of our study was to compare these 2 delayed primary closure methods of treating infected fasciotomy wounds on the limbs. Patients who underwent fasciotomy surgery on the extremities after sustaining crushing injuries in the 2023 Kahramanmaras-centered earthquakes and who were referred owing to infected open wounds during follow-up were included in the study. Patients who completed the wound closure process at our clinic were divided into 2 groups: the NPWT and GWA groups. Using retrospectively collected data, the groups were compared in terms of demographic characteristics, time until wound closure, number of surgeries, skin graft requirements, and complications. Laboratory parameters were also examined. Thirteen patients, (with 21 wounds) who underwent NPWT and 14 (with 22 wounds) who underwent GWA, were examined. The average age of the NPWT group was 32.85 ± 18.37 years, whereas that of the GWA group was 25.21 ± 16.31 years. The number of surgeries in the NPWT and GWA groups were 5.38 ± 2.11 and 4.23 ± 1.27, respectively, and the difference was statistically significant (P = .040). The average wound closure times of the NPWT and GWA groups (P = .0210) (11.00 ± 4.86 days and 8.27 ± 2.41 days, respectively) also differed significantly. Skin grafting was performed in 5 patients in the NPWT group and 2 in the GWA group. There were no significant differences between the 2 groups in terms of skin graft requirements or complication rates. NPWT and GWA are effective and reliable methods of closing infected fasciotomy wounds. Closure of these wounds can be achieved in a shorter time and with fewer surgeries using GWA than using NPWT.

Analysis of wound infections among pediatric patients following the 2023 Türkiye-Syria earthquakes.

PURPOSE: On February 6, 2023, two earthquakes of magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 occurred consecutively in Turkey and Syria. This study aimed to investigate the predisposing factors for wound infection (WI) and the microbiological characteristics of wounds after earthquake-related injuries. METHODS: This descriptive study evaluated pediatric patients' frequency of WI, and the clinical and laboratory parameters associated with the development of WI were investigated. RESULTS: The study included 180 patients (91 female). The mean age of the patients was 123.9 ± 64.9 months and 81.7% (n = 147) of them had been trapped under rubble. Antibiotic treatment to prevent WI had been administered to 58.8% (n = 106) of all patients. WI was observed in 12.2% (n = 22) of the cases. In patients who developed WI, the incidence of exposure to a collapse, crush syndrome, compartment syndrome, multiple extremity injury, fasciotomy, amputation, peripheral nerve injury, thoracic compression, blood product use, intubation, and the use of central venous catheters, urinary catheters, and thoracic tubes were more frequent (p < 0.05). The need for blood product transfusion was associated with the development of WI (OR = 9.878 [95% CI: 2.504-38.960], p = 0.001). The negative predictive values of not developing WI at values of white blood cell count of < 11,630/mm3, creatine kinase < 810 U/L, potassium < 4.1 mEq/L, ALT < 29 U/L, AST < 32 U/L, and CRP < 45.8 mg/L were 93.7%, 96.8%, 90.8%, 93.3%, 100%, and 93.5%, respectively. Gram-negative pathogens (81%) were detected most frequently in cases of WI. Seventy-five percent of patients were multidrug- and extensively drug-resistant. CONCLUSION: This study leans empirical approach of our disaster circumstances. In cases with risk factors predisposing to the development of WI, it may be rational to start broad-spectrum antibiotics while considering the causative microorganisms and resistance profile to prevent morbidity.

Geomagnetic Disturbances and Pulse Amplitude Anomalies Preceding M > 6 Earthquakes from 2021 to 2022 in Sichuan-Yunnan, China.

Compelling evidence has shown that geomagnetic disturbances in vertical intensity polarization before great earthquakes are promising precursors across diverse rupture conditions. However, the geomagnetic vertical intensity polarization method uses the spectrum of smooth signals, and the anomalous waveforms of seismic electromagnetic radiation, which are basically nonstationary, have not been adequately considered. By combining pulse amplitude analysis and an experimental study of the cumulative frequency of anomalies, we found that the pulse amplitudes before the 2022 Luding M6.8 earthquake show characteristics of multiple synchronous anomalies, with the highest (or higher) values occurring during the analyzed period. Similar synchronous anomalies were observed before the 2021 Yangbi M6.4 earthquake, the 2022 Lushan M6.1 earthquake and the 2022 Malcolm M6.0 earthquake, and these anomalies indicate migration from the periphery toward the epicenters over time. The synchronous changes are in line with the recognition of previous geomagnetic anomalies with characteristics of high values before an earthquake and gradual recovery after the earthquake. Our study suggests that the pulse amplitude is effective for extracting anomalies in geomagnetic vertical intensity polarization, especially in the presence of nonstationary signals when utilizing observations from multiple station arrays. Our findings highlight the importance of incorporating pulse amplitude analysis into earthquake prediction research on geomagnetic disturbances.

An Improved Instance Segmentation Method for Fast Assessment of Damaged Buildings Based on Post-Earthquake UAV Images.

Quickly and accurately assessing the damage level of buildings is a challenging task for post-disaster emergency response. Most of the existing research mainly adopts semantic segmentation and object detection methods, which have yielded good results. However, for high-resolution Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) imagery, these methods may result in the problem of various damage categories within a building and fail to accurately extract building edges, thus hindering post-disaster rescue and fine-grained assessment. To address this issue, we proposed an improved instance segmentation model that enhances classification accuracy by incorporating a Mixed Local Channel Attention (MLCA) mechanism in the backbone and improving small object segmentation accuracy by refining the Neck part. The method was tested on the Yangbi earthquake UVA images. The experimental results indicated that the modified model outperformed the original model by 1.07% and 1.11% in the two mean Average Precision (mAP) evaluation metrics, mAPbbox50 and mAPseg50, respectively. Importantly, the classification accuracy of the intact category was improved by 2.73% and 2.73%, respectively, while the collapse category saw an improvement of 2.58% and 2.14%. In addition, the proposed method was also compared with state-of-the-art instance segmentation models, e.g., Mask-R-CNN and YOLO V9-Seg. The results demonstrated that the proposed model exhibits advantages in both accuracy and efficiency. Specifically, the efficiency of the proposed model is three times faster than other models with similar accuracy. The proposed method can provide a valuable solution for fine-grained building damage evaluation.

Experiences of adolescents affected by earthquakes: A qualitative study.

PURPOSE: The aim of the study is to explore the experiences of adolescents affected by the earthquake. DESIGN AND METHODS: This study was carried out in a descriptive phenomenological design, which is a qualitative research method. This research was conducted as a qualitative investigation utilizing a phenomenological approach to explore the experiences of 12 adolescents through the purposeful snowball sampling method. The interviews were conducted with adolescents who affected by the Kahramanmaras earthquakes in a city located in the west of the country, between March 18, 2023 and June 30, 2023. Semistructured interviews were employed, and the data underwent inductive content analysis. COREQ reporting guidelines were used. RESULTS: The participants in this study vividly recounted experiencing intense fear and panic during the earthquake. Subsequent challenges emerged from the lack of coordination in aid efforts, struggles to secure shelter and necessities, and the profound loss of relatives. These adversities posed considerable physical and psychological challenges. Notably, the adolescents' ability to reflect on their past lives and reshape their perspectives proved instrumental in facilitating their adaptation to a new life. However, witnessing the demise of loved ones, grappling with the fear of death and loss, and incessantly discussing the earthquake hindered their adjustment. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: We found that adolescents experienced the quakes in three phases: in the moment, postquake, and adaptation to new life. The first theme underscores the limitations of current effectiveness of quake training. This finding has important implications for policy to better prepare the adolescent population for quake disasters. The second theme reveals that the communication and coordination problems experienced after the earthquake enable the weaknesses of the system to be noticed and political steps should be taken in this direction. The third theme focuses on the factors that increase or decrease the psychosocial adaptation of adolescents who have experienced this traumatic experience to the new life. This provides important clues to improve and support adolescent health.

Detection of Electromagnetic Seismic Precursors from Swarm Data by Enhanced Martingale Analytics.

The detection of seismic activity precursors as part of an alarm system will provide opportunities for minimization of the social and economic impact caused by earthquakes. It has long been envisaged, and a growing body of empirical evidence suggests that the Earth's electromagnetic field could contain precursors to seismic events. The ability to capture and monitor electromagnetic field activity has increased in the past years as more sensors and methodologies emerge. Missions such as Swarm have enabled researchers to access near-continuous observations of electromagnetic activity at second intervals, allowing for more detailed studies on weather and earthquakes. In this paper, we present an approach designed to detect anomalies in electromagnetic field data from Swarm satellites. This works towards developing a continuous and effective monitoring system of seismic activities based on SWARM measurements. We develop an enhanced form of a probabilistic model based on the Martingale theories that allow for testing the null hypothesis to indicate abnormal changes in electromagnetic field activity. We evaluate this enhanced approach in two experiments. Firstly, we perform a quantitative comparison on well-understood and popular benchmark datasets alongside the conventional approach. We find that the enhanced version produces more accurate anomaly detection overall. Secondly, we use three case studies of seismic activity (namely, earthquakes in Mexico, Greece, and Croatia) to assess our approach and the results show that our method can detect anomalous phenomena in the electromagnetic data.

The relationship between media exposure and mental health in children following Kahramanmaras earthquakes in Turkey.

PURPOSE: We aimed to explore the relationship between media exposure to the Kahramanmaras earthquakes and its impact on children's mental health difficulties. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted with 409 parents between March and July 2023. Parents were invited to participate in an online survey through social media platforms. The data was collected using the 'Descriptive Characteristics Form', the 'Media Exposure Form Related to the Earthquake', and the 'Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire'. RESULTS: The results indicated that exposure to images of earthquake-related events on the first day after the earthquake (p < 0.001), people rescued alive from the rubble on television (p < 0.001), earthquake victims staying on the streets/in tents on television (p = 0.006), and earthquake-related events while alone on the Internet (p = 0.02) were significantly associated with the impact of children's mental difficulties. Furthermore, exposure to images of people pulled deceased from the rubble (p < 0.001), exposure to images of demolished houses on the Internet (p = 0.007), and exposure to images of destroyed roads on the Internet (p = 0.01) were found to significantly predict the impact of children's mental difficulties (r2 = 0.29; p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This study has shown that children who are exposed to screen media may experience difficulties in coping mentally, leading to emotional and behavioral problems. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Children who have experienced natural disasters may be exposed to distressing images on screen, which can lead to difficulties and stress. To reduce the risk of mental health problems related to disasters, nurses may suggest that victims limit their exposure to television footage.

Goodbyes without farewells under the rubble: A phenomenological study of earthquake victim's methods of coping with ambiguous loss.

INTRODUCTION: Ambiguous loss refers to the lack of clear information about the fate of a missing person or object. AIM: This study aims to examine in-depth the experiences of earthquake victims regarding the methods of coping with the uncertain losses they experienced after the Kahramanmaras-based earthquake disaster on February 6, 2023. METHODS: In this qualitative study conducted using phenomenological research design, the snowball sampling method, one of the purposive sampling methods, was used. Face-to-face, in-depth interviews of approximately 30 to 40 minutes were conducted with 20 earthquake victims reached by this method. Colaizzi's phenomenological analysis method was used to analyze the data obtained. Data were collected by COREQ criteria. RESULTS: According to the results of the analysis, three main categories (inner journey and emotional transformation, bridges of solidarity built on destruction, and change and growth in life perspectives) and nine themes (whispers coming from under the rubble, the reaction of facing ambiguity, mental labyrinths in the search for meaning, hearts united amid destruction, the search for meaning in ambiguity and ways out of spiritual wreckage, growth among the rubble, and the value of transience and new horizons rising from the ruins) emerged. DISCUSSION: The research reveals that the coping methods adopted by earthquake victims in the face of personal and objective ambiguous losses range from spirituality to social support mechanisms. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: In line with the results obtained from the findings, it is suggested that the coping strategies of earthquake victims should be strengthened, and new methods should be developed.

Mortality predictors in earthquake victims admitted to intensive care unit in Kahramanmaras earthquakes.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to report the data for patients followed-up in our intensive care unit due to the 6th February 2023, earthquake in Kahramanmaras, Türkiye, and to investigate parameters affecting mortality. METHODS: The demographic characteristics of patients followed-up in intensive care due to trauma following the earthquake, the treatments administered, developing complications, lengths of stay in the hospital and intensive care, and laboratory data were scanned retrospectively and recorded. These data were then compared between the surviving and non-surviving patients. RESULTS: Twenty-six patients, 13 (50 %) male, were followed-up in our intensive care, 24 (92 %) due to being buried under earthquake debris, and 2 (8 %) due to falling from heights. Increased Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) (p = 0.027), higher initial serum potassium (p = 0.043), higher initial serum phosphorus (p = 0.035), higher initial and peak serum magnesium (p = 0.004 and p = 0.001), lower initial and peak bicarbonate (p = 0.021 and p = 0.012) and higher initial and peak serum base deficit values (p = 0.012 and p = 0.009) were associated with mortality. In the subgroup with crush injuries, higher initial and peak serum potassium (p = 0.001 and p = 0.025), higher initial and peak serum magnesium (p = 0.005 and p = 0.004), lower initial and peak bicarbonate (p = 0.019 and p = 0.021) and higher initial and peak serum base deficit values (p = 0.017 and p = 0.025) were associated with mortality. Multiorgan dysfunction failure developed in nine patients, sepsis in seven, dissemine intravascular coagulation in four, and acute respiratory distress syndrome in two. Fasciotomy was performed on 2 (8 %) patients and amputation on 8 (31 %). Extremity injuries were most frequently observed. 10 (38.5 %) of the 12 (46 %) patients developing acute kidney injury required renal replacement therapy. 7 (27 %) patients died during follow-up. In logistic regression analysis, higher SOFA scores, lower initial bicarbonate and BE levels, higher serum initial potassium and magnesium levels were a risk factor for mortality. Higher SOFA scores, lower initial bicarbonate and base deficit and higher initial phosphorus values affected mortality in patients with crush syndrome. CONCLUSION: Not only increased SOFA, serum potassium, serum phosphorus, and serum magnesium, but also decreased bicarbonate, and base deficit were associated with mortality in earthquake victims with crush syndrome in ICU.

Sleep Disturbance Caused by Step Changes in Railway Noise Exposure and Earthquakes.

Kyushu Shinkansen and conventional railway lines run parallel in the areas 5 km north of Kumamoto Station (northern area) and 12 km south of the station (southern area). Following the operation of the Kyushu Shinkansen Line in 2011, the adjacent conventional railway line in the north was elevated, a new station was operated in the south, and large earthquakes struck the Kumamoto area from March to April 2016. Sleep disturbances were compared before and after the interventions and earthquakes based on noise source (Shinkansen and conventional railways), area (northern and southern), and house type (detached and apartment) through socio-acoustic surveys from 2011 to 2017. The Shinkansen railway caused significantly less sleep disturbances in detached houses in the north after compared to before the earthquakes, presumably due to more frequent closures of bedroom windows in northern detached houses following the earthquakes. The Shinkansen railway caused significantly more sleep disturbances in apartments in the south after compared to before the earthquakes, presumably because the Shinkansen slowed down immediately after the earthquakes and returned to normal speed during the survey, suddenly increasing the noise exposure. There was no significant difference in the other six cases investigated. Overall, the interventions may not have caused significant differences in sleep disturbances. This article expands on the congress paper by Morihara et al. presented in the "Community Response to Noise" session at the 52nd International Congress and Exhibition on Noise Control Engineering in Makuhari, Japan, organized by the International Institute of Noise Control Engineering.

Electromagnetic Short-Term to Imminent Forecast Indices for M ≥ 5.5 Earthquakes in the Gansu-Qinghai-Sichuan Region of China.

Electromagnetic indices play a potential role in the forecast of short-term to imminent M ≥ 5.5 earthquakes and have good application prospects. However, despite possible progress in earthquake forecasting, concerns remain because it is difficult to obtain accurate epicenter forecasts based on different forecast indices, and the forecast time span is as large as months in areas with multiple earthquakes. In this study, based on the actual demand for short-term earthquake forecasts in the Gansu-Qinghai-Sichuan region of western China, we refined the construction of earthquake forecast indicators in view of the abundant electromagnetic anomalies before moderate and strong earthquakes. We revealed the advantageous forecast indicators of each method for the three primary earthquake elements (time, epicenter, magnitude) and the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of the anomalies. The correlations between the magnitude, time, intensity, and electromagnetic anomalies of different M ≥ 5.5 earthquakes indicate that the combination of short-term electromagnetic indices is pivotal in earthquake forecasting.

The moderating effect of resilience in the association between insomnia severity and PTSD symptoms in Lebanese adolescents in the aftermath of the 2023 earthquake.

The interplay between insomnia and PTSD symptoms remains misunderstood, and seems to be influenced by other factors like individual resilience. Our study examined the moderating role of resilience in the relationship between insomnia and PTSD symptoms among a sample of Lebanese adolescents, in the aftermath of the 2023 earthquake. This cross sectional study, conducted in April, 2 months after the earthquake, enrolled 546 Lebanese adolescents. We used the Sleep Self Report, the Resilience Scale for Adolescents and the 13-item Children's Impact of Event Scale. The interaction insomnia severity by resilience was significantly associated with PTSD scores. At low, moderate and high resilience levels, higher insomnia severity was significantly associated with lower PTSD. Resilience moderated the relationship between insomnia and PTSD, mitigating the detrimental impact of disrupted sleep on PTSD symptoms. This data can guide healthcare administrators and psychiatric caregivers in classifying risk factors and implementing interventions to predict PTSD development.

A global map of species at risk of extinction due to natural hazards.

An often-overlooked question of the biodiversity crisis is how natural hazards contribute to species extinction risk. To address this issue, we explored how four natural hazards, earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, and volcanoes, overlapped with the distribution ranges of amphibians, birds, mammals, and reptiles that have either narrow distributions or populations with few mature individuals. To assess which species are at risk from these natural hazards, we combined the frequency and magnitude of each natural hazard to estimate their impact. We considered species at risk if they overlapped with regions where any of the four natural hazards historically occurred (n = 3,722). Those species with at least a quarter of their range subjected to a high relative impact were considered at high risk (n = 2,001) of extinction due to natural hazards. In total, 834 reptiles, 617 amphibians, 302 birds, and 248 mammals were at high risk and they were mainly distributed on islands and in the tropics. Hurricanes (n = 983) and earthquakes (n = 868) affected most species, while tsunamis (n = 272), and volcanoes (n = 171) affected considerably fewer. The region with the highest number of species at high risk was the Pacific Ring of Fire, especially due to volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis, while hurricane-related high-risk species were concentrated in the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and northwestern Pacific Ocean. Our study provides important information regarding the species at risk due to natural hazards and can help guide conservation attention and efforts to safeguard their survival.

Long term impact of Wenchuan earthquake on population mental and behavioral disorders in heavily-stricken areas: An ecological study based on big data.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to explore and evaluate the development trends and differential changes in the prevalence of mental and behavioral disorders among the earthquake survivors in exposure groups (highly hard-hit areas) and control groups (general disaster areas) from 2015 to 2019, as well as to investigate the potential influencing factors. METHODS: Data was obtained from the Sichuan Health Information System and the Sichuan Health Yearbook, the prevalence of the exposure group and the control group were calculated, the difference between the two groups was evaluated using the prevalence rate ratio, and a fixed effect model was developed to investigate the potential influencing factors of the prevalence. RESULTS: The prevalence by gender and age in the exposure group was always greater than those in the control group (RR>1), although the disparity between the two proceeded to diminish with time. The urbanization rate (ß = 0.0448, P < 0.05) and disaster area levels (ß = 0.0104, P < 0.05) were risk factors for the prevalence of mental and behavioral disorders. LIMITATIONS: The study only collected data at the group level following the Wenchuan earthquake. Consequently, the findings are only applicable at the group level. Furthermore, diagnostic criteria for various types of mental and behavioral disorders diseases were not provided. CONCLUSIONS: The earthquake has a significant long-term impact on mental health. It is necessary to continuously monitor the mental health of Wenchuan earthquake survivors and take appropriate post-disaster intervention measures.

Growth and stabilization of induced seismicity rates during long-term, low-pressure fluid injection.

We examine the temporal evolution of sequences of induced seismicity caused by long-term fluid injection using a compilation of over 20 case studies where moderate magnitude (M > 3.0) induced events have been recorded. We compare rates of seismicity with injection rates via the seismogenic index and seismic efficiency parameters, computing both cumulative and time-windowed values. We find that cumulative values tend to accelerate steeply as each seismicity sequence initiates-most cases reach a value that is within 0.5 units of their maximum value within 1-3 years. Time-windowed values tend to increase to maximum values within 25%-35% of the overall sequence, before decreasing as levels of seismicity stabilize. We interpret these observations with respect to the pore pressure changes that will be generated in highly porous, high permeability reservoirs. In such situations, the rate of pore pressure change is highest during the early phases of injection and decreases with time. If induced seismicity scales with the rate of deformation, which in turn is controlled by the rate of pore pressure change, then it is to be expected that induced seismicity is highest during the early phases of injection, and then decreases with time. This article is part of the theme issue 'Induced seismicity in coupled subsurface systems'.