Channel 1 Networks
Aaron is the webmaster of Channel 1 Networks and video editor/camera man for most all produced media content.
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Posts by Channel 1 Networks
Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks board to receive the (CCG) final proposals for land west of Boulder
Jan 15th
The Open Space Board of Trustees (OSBT) monthly meeting is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 19, at the New Vista High School auditorium, 700 20th St. in Boulder. The purpose of this meeting is for the OSBT to receive the final recommendations from the Community Collaborative Group on the management of the West Trail Study Area (West TSA). Time for public comment on the recommendations will be provided at the meeting. A group of local residents has been working with city staff since September 2009 to develop recommendations on practical and feasible ways to improve community services in the West TSA. The CCG includes representatives from recreation, conservation and cultural resource interests, as well as neighborhoods adjacent to the West TSA. After 14 months of meetings and field trips, the CCG is prepared to present its final recommendations to the board. The CCG’s recommendations will become an integral part of the West TSA Plan. The plan will provide management direction for OSMP lands north of Eldorado Springs Drive, south of Linden Avenue and west of Broadway/Colorado Highway 93, for the next ten years. Background documents, including the CCG’s recommendations, are available at the West TSA website, www.westtsa.org. “We are extremely grateful for the commitment to the collaborative process, time, and creativity contributed by CCG members. They deliberated and debated many difficult issues and are presenting an extensive and well‑balanced mix of recommendations,” said Steve Armstead, project manager for OSMP. “This community-based process has broadened everyone’s perspectives and provided a strong grassroots foundation for the West TSA plan.” For information on OSMP planning processes or to learn how to get involved, please visit www.westtsa.org or call 303-441-3440.
Social Media + Emergency Management: Talking with Tech Leaders on the West Coast boulder #boulder
Jan 14th
Posted by Craig Fugate, Administrator
Yesterday I had a very productive day in California talking about social media, technology, emergency management, and ways to assist the public in getting prepared, by using the tools they use on a daily basis. Check out this short video to see who I met with:
In addition to meeting with fellow “Craig”, Craig Newmark (the founder of Craigslist), I also met with editors from Wired Magazine, Twitter, Apple and Facebook.
Some of the things we discussed included:
- The need to provide information to the public as data feeds, because they are a key member of our emergency management team;
- The importance of referring to people impacted by a disaster as survivors and utilizing them as a resource;
- The importance of providing good customer service; and
- How we, as emergency managers, need to stop trying to have the public fit into our way of doing things and receiving information, but that we should fit the way the public gets, receives and seeks out information.
There are a lot of discussions and conversations taking place about social media, text messaging, etc, and how these tools can be used before, during, and after a disaster.
There’s no question that these tools have already changed the field of emergency management – and will continue to. As emergency managers, we will have to be flexible and agile and quickly adapt as new technologies and communications tools emerge. What’s exciting is that these new tools, if we embrace them and leverage them effectively, will continue to help us better serve our customers – the public.
As the conversation continues, and as you use these tools on a daily basis, there are things that you can today do to prepare yourself, your family members, and your colleagues at work.
Communicating during or after an emergency
How are you communicating with each other if a disaster or emergency occurs? Are you going to call each other, send an email, text message, or update each other via a social network site? The disaster or emergency could be something like a blackout in your city or a school closure; all disasters aren’t large earthquakes or hurricanes.
Receiving updates on your phone
How are you receiving updates from local officials? Have you signed up for text message or email alerts? If you’re on Facebook, did you know that you can signup to receive text message updates from Facebook pages you follow? If you are a fan of FEMA on Facebook or your local emergency management agency, you can receive our update as a text message right on your phone (and just like with any text message, standard rates apply).
Leverage Twitter without creating an account
And here’s another small tip: if you are thinking about using Twitter, did you know you can receive text messages updates from someone you’re following without having to create an account? For example, if you wanted to receive our updates as a text message to your phone, just text FOLLOW FEMA to 40404 (this is Twitter’s text message number and of course, standard text message rates apply — the lawyers require me to repeat this). You can do the same for your local emergency management agency.
Our meetings in California generated great discussions and ideas and I’m excited to explore how we can move forward on them. In the meantime, I’d like to hear how you use these and other social network sites to communicate with friends and family before or during an emergency, so we can all utilize these tools to fullest capability, so please leave a comment below, or visit our ongoing challenge at www.challenge.gov/fema and submit your ideas.
OLDER ADULTS TAKING POPULAR SLEEP MEDICINE AT RISK FOR FALLS AND COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT, STUDY FINDS
Jan 13th
Adults who take one of the world’s most commonly prescribed sleep medications are significantly more at risk for nighttime falls and potential injury, according to a new study by the University of Colorado at Boulder.
The study, which involved 25 healthy adults, showed 58 percent of the older adults and 27 percent of the young adults who took a hypnotic, sleep-inducing drug called zolpidem showed a significant loss of balance when awakened two hours after sleep. The findings are important because falls are the leading cause of injury in older adults, and 30 percent of adults 65 and older who fall require hospitalization each year, said CU-Boulder Associate Professor Kenneth Wright, lead study author.
To measure balance, the research team used a technique known as a “tandem walk” in which subjects place one foot in front of the other with a normal step length on a 16-foot-long, six-inch-wide beam on the floor. In 10 previous practice trials with no medication, none of the 25 participants stepped off the beam, indicating no loss of balance. All participants were provided with stabilizing assistance to prevent falls during the trials, he said.
“The balance impairments of older adults taking zolpidem were clinically significant and the cognitive impairments were more than twice as large compared to the same older adults taking placebos,” said Wright, a faculty member in the integrative physiology department. “This suggests to us that sleep medication produces significant safety risks.”
The new CU-Boulder study is the first to measure both the walking stability and cognition of subjects taking hypnotic sleep medicines or placebos. In addition to the balance problems caused by zolpidem, the study also showed that waking up after two hours of sleep after taking zolpidem enhances sleep inertia, or grogginess, a state that temporarily impairs working memory. The study participants were given computerized performance tests that involved adding randomly generated numbers.
A paper on the subject was published Jan. 13 in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society. Co-authors included CU-Boulder’s Daniel Frey, Justus Ortega, Courtney Wiseman and Claire Farley. The study was funded primarily by the National Institutes of Health.
The effects of sleep inertia even without sleep medication has previously been shown to cause cognitive impairment, said Wright. But when the CU-Boulder study subjects took zolpidem rather than a placebo, the cognitive impairments essentially doubled.
One unexpected study finding was that young people taking placebos appear to be more cognitively impacted by sleep inertia than older adults taking placebos, he said.
A 2006 study led by Wright showed that study subjects who took no sleep medicine and were awakened after eight hours of sleep were more cognitively impaired, for a short period of time, than a totally sleep deprived person.
Several billion doses of zolpidem have been prescribed worldwide, said Wright, who also directs CU-Boulder’s Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory. Zolpidem is a generic drug that is marketed under a number of different brand names, including Ambien, Zolpimist, Edluar, Hypogen, Somidem and Ivedal.
The CU-Boulder team also measured balance and cognition in older adults who took no sleep medication and were kept awake for two hours past their normal bedtime. They found that 25 percent of these older adults failed the tandem walking balance test, which is consistent with what is seen in people who have insomnia. “Just having insomnia itself increases your risk of falls, even without sleep medication,” he said.
The finding that zolpidem affected older adults more than younger adults in balance tests may be explained in part by the fact that both groups were given five milligram doses on study nights. While the normal dose for older adults is five milligrams, the standard dosage for younger adults being treated for insomnia is 10 milligrams. “This is an area that needs more study,” he said.
The study results showing that both hypnotic sleep medications and sleep inertia cause significant impairment have important public health implications, said Wright. In older adults, falls have caused millions of nonfatal injuries annually and more than 300,000 fatalities worldwide. “Falls can be very debilitating, especially when older people break their hips and require hospitalization, causing their quality of life to go down,” said Wright.
In addition, the cognitive impairments caused by both zolpidem and sleep inertia may impact decision-making, including responding to situations like fire alarms and medical emergencies as well as caring for sick children or driving to a clinic or hospital, said Wright.
“One of the goals of this study was to understand the risk of this sleep medication and of sleep inertia on human safety and cognition and to educate adults and health care workers about potential problems,” said Wright. “We are not suggesting that sleep medications should not be used, because they have their place in terms of the treatment of insomnia.”
One possible solution to reducing falls of older people due to zolpidem, other sleep medications or sleep inertia would be to install bedside commodes for those who frequently wake up in the night to void themselves, said Wright. Additional research is needed on this important public health and safety topic, he said.
Source: CU-Boulder news release
