Preparation of Filtration Sorptive Materials from Nanofibers, Bicofibers, and Textile Adsorbents without Binders Employment

Assessment of military preparedness for naturogenic threat: the COVID-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic

This article deals with the provision of cooperation of the Army of the Czech Republic with other units of rescue teams in the implementation of rescue and liquidation work in the regions of the Czech Republic in non-military crisis situations. At the present time of the global pandemic of covid-19 and the associated mass deployment of forces and resources of the primary and secondary units of the rescue system, the required effective cooperation in practice has proved necessary. The paper deals with the analysis of emergency management in a state of emergency in order to contribute to the improvement of civil-military cooperation. Based on the results of the research survey, the authors proposed evaluation criteria for determining the level of emergency preparedness of the forces and resources of the Army of the Czech Republic.

Emergency Management in Resolving an Emergency Situation

Experience gained from NATO operations shows that the basis for an effective solution to a crisis is a combination of a comprehensive political, civilian and military approach. The cooperation of all stakeholders is thus a basic prerequisite for the effective resolution of crisis situations. These aspects and stakeholders include emergency management. This paper deals with civil-military cooperation in times of emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic. It qualitatively evaluates the findings resulting from the questionnaire survey focused on the state of crisis preparedness of the Army of the Czech Republic and the functionality of emergency management in cooperation with rescue work with other teams of the rescue system. The questionnaire was carried out at military units in all regions of the Czech Republic; organizational units of the Ministry of Defence with nationwide competence, which were directly involved in securing measures related to the declaration of a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March—May, 2020; Operations Command, which currently manages operations in the Czech Republic designed to manage the consequences of a pandemic; and members of the Ministry of Defence participating in the activities of the Strategic Command and Control Group. A total of 21 stakeholders took part. The experience in managing the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have shown that armed forces around the world have an irreplaceable position in dealing with nonmilitary crises. The conclusions and recommendations obtained from the research survey are the content of this paper.

Hybrid Algorithm Based on Ant Colony Optimization and Simulated Annealing Applied to the Dynamic Traveling Salesman Problem

The dynamic traveling salesman problem (DTSP) falls under the category of combinatorial dynamic optimization problems. The DTSP is composed of a primary TSP sub-problem and a series of TSP iterations; each iteration is created by changing the previous iteration. In this article, a novel hybrid metaheuristic algorithm is proposed for the DTSP. This algorithm combines two metaheuristic principles, specifically ant colony optimization (ACO) and simulated annealing (SA). Moreover, the algorithm exploits knowledge about the dynamic changes by transferring the information gathered in previous iterations in the form of a pheromone matrix. The significance of the hybridization, as well as the use of knowledge about the dynamic environment, is examined and validated on benchmark instances including small, medium, and large DTSP problems. The results are compared to the four other state-of-the-art metaheuristic approaches with the conclusion that they are significantly outperformed by the proposed algorithm. Furthermore, the behavior of the algorithm is analyzed from various points of view (including, for example, convergence speed to local optimum, progress of population diversity during optimization, and time dependence and computational complexity).

Barrier properties of anti-gas military garments, considering exposure to gas organic compounds

The problems of determining the protective properties of barrier materials used for the production of body surface protection products of an isolative type are very actual. These garments are expected to have long-term resistance against permeation of toxic substances. The paper deals with the study of the effect of organic solvent vapours on the changes in protective properties of selected anti-gas protective garments commonly used by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization armed forces. Permeation measurements of selected gases with integral permeameter were performed to verify their barrier properties, surface changes after exposure to selected solvents by using a 3D optical profilometer, permeation measurements for vapours of these solvents with differential permeameter, and experimental simulating the possible influence of barrier properties of garments within permeation of air. It has been shown that in the case of gases, the permeability of the studied materials increases with decreasing kinetic diameter of the penetrant molecule used. In the case of acetonitrile and isooctane vapours, permeability increased with increasing vapour concentration due to interactions between polymeric materials and molecules of organic compounds. The permeation measurements of pure vapours and air/vapour mixtures indicate that the level of interactions between the molecules of the penetrant and the material of the protective garment is not strong enough to degrade the material of the garment in such a way as to allow a greater penetration of the pollutants through it. The results of permeation experiments for gases and organic vapours showed very good barrier properties of studied chemical isolated garments.

Method of Selecting a Decontamination Site Deployment for Chemical Accident Consequences Elimination: Application of Multi-Criterial Analysis

Multi-criterial analysis under the current use of digital geographic data is a quite common method used to evaluate the influence of the geographic environment on a planned or ongoing activity. The advantage of this method is a possibility of complex evaluation of all influences as well as a possibility to observe how the individual influences manifest in the final result. Its critical moment is establishing the structure of individual factors that influence the given activity, setting their weights and, subsequently, a choice of a suitable user function. The article provides guidelines how to set the individual decision-making criteria including setting their weights, and the application of the resulting user function in GIS environment with regards to the problem solved. Furthermore, the influence of change in weights of criteria on the complete result of the analysis is discussed. This article documents detailed studies that show how the results of solutions can differ in the same analytical task based on change in the weights of individual criteria. These studies are documented on a model example of a chosen suitable place for the deployment of decontamination center. Finally, the article describes possibilities of further development of the model solution, with the aim to make it a verified tool that may be implemented in the systems of command in Fire Rescue Service units and Chemical Troops units of the Czech Army.