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The present thesis concerns methods and knowledge that are useful when analysing the risks and vulnerabilities of complex systems in a societal emergency management context. Operational definitions of vulnerability and emergency response capabilities are suggested and two methods for analysing the vulnerability of critical infrastructure networks, based on the suggested definition, are presented.
An operational definition of vulnerability is proposed. The definition is used to describe and analyse different methods for risk and vulnerability analysis. Several problems related to analysing the vulnerability of a complex sociotechnical system to a specific perturbation are identified and discussed. Suggestions of how risk- and vulnerability analyses can be performed for such systems are pres
Psychosocial stress in adulthood is associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes, possibly mediated by behavioural and physiological factors. However, it is unknown whether low stress resilience earlier in life is related to subsequent development of type 2 diabetes. We examined whether low stress resilience in late adolescence is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes in adultho
Migration exposes people to a number of risks that threaten their health, including those related to psychosocial health. Self-perceived health is usually the main indicator used to assess psychosocial health. Electronic databases were used to examine the literature on the psychosocial health of immigrants in Europe and of North Africans living in their own countries. Immigrants of various ethnic
BACKGROUND: The objective was to analyze whether there is an association between country of birth in first-generation immigrants and first hospitalization for an inflammatory bowel disease, and to study whether any such association remains in second-generation immigrants. METHODS: In this follow-up study a nationwide research database at Lund University was used to identify all primary hospital d
Incidence of cancer of unknown primary (CUP) varies globally, and environmental factors are suspected to be related to its development. Immigrant studies offer insights into disease etiology, but no studies have been published on CUP. We investigated CUP risk in immigrants to Sweden to search for etiological clues. The nationwide Swedish Family Cancer Database was used to calculate standardized in
Recent contributions to the field of Resilience Engineering (RE) have added to the continuous development of new concepts and methodologies to improve resilience at different organisational levels. Part of these contributions has focused on training for adaptive capacity of individuals and teams to cope with changes and disturbances of work, since literature recognise that working tasks (at least
Values and opinions about what is valuable, are of centralimportance in risk and vulnerability analyses. Yet what is considered valuableis seldom explicitly established. The aim of this study is to explore what groupsof civil servants express as valuable and worth protecting when performing riskand vulnerability analyses in their organisations and to discuss the underlyingreasons for their stipula
There has been an increased focus in society on preparedness for emergency response in recent years. Today there is legislation that requires all Swedish authorities at the local, regional and national levels to prepare for emergency management and response. Since the task is rather new, most authorities are just beginning to address it. How the preparedness process should be designed and integrat
This paper presents a case study of decision-making at the design stage of a socio-technical system where resilience at the global level of the system was constrained by the local perspectives adopted by the different stakeholders. The study is based on interviews with key decision-makers involved in the design stage of six railway tunnel projects in Sweden. The results show that differences in ro
The technical infrastructures of the society are becoming more and more interconnected and in-terdependent, i.e. the function of an infrastructure influences the function of other infrastructures. Distur-bances in one infrastructure therefore often traverse to other dependent infrastructures and possibly even back to the infrastructure where the failure originated. It is becoming increasingly impo
The role of quantitative risk analysis as a foundation for decision making, regarding hazardous activities and establishments, has gained increased importance during the last decades. When performing a quantitative risk analysis, a wide range of uncertainties will inevitably be introduced during the process. The impact of these uncertainties must somehow be addressed if the analysis is to serve as
Aims: Familial risks for coronary heart disease (CHD) in families with multiple affected siblings have not been thoroughly studied. This nationwide cohort study aimed to determine familial risks for hospitalization or death due to CHD in families with multiple affected siblings. Methods and results: The study is a nationwide follow-up study. The Swedish Multigeneration Register data on 0-76-year-
Arterial cardiovascular disease and neighborhood deprivation are associated. However, no study has determined whether neighborhood deprivation is associated with venous thromboembolism (VTE). We aimed to determine whether there is an association between neighborhood deprivation and hospitalization for VTE, and whether effects vary across sociodemographic groups. The entire Swedish population aged
This report presents the research concerned with vulnerability analysis of technical infrastructure networks conducted in the research framework programme called FRIVA. The report reviews how network analysis has been used to analyse the vulnerability of systems that are possible to model as networks, such as technical infrastructure systems. In addition, it proposes how these methods can be devel
