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The Concrete Coalition is a network of individuals, governments, institutions, and agencies with a shared interest in assessing the risk associated with dangerous nonductile concrete buildings and developing strategies for fixing them. It is a program of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), co-sponsored by the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER), and the Applied Technology Council (ATC). The Concrete Coalition received funding support from the U.S. Geological Survey to build a database of photographs from past earthquakes that illustrate deficiencies contributing to collapse of concrete buildings. In addition to photographs, the database has been populated with information from particular buildings, including sketches, drawings, and information on retrofit. The result is an online database of concrete buildings damaged in earthquakes with information drawn from a wide variety of published sources compiled by summer interns with the guidance of mentors from structural engineering firms around the world. As this database is further populated, it will be able to help analysts understand the relative importance of deficiencies with respect to collapse and performance more generally. Data were collected in coordination with the ATC 95 project, Development of a Collapse Indicator Methodology for Existing Reinforced Concrete Buildings, where experts assembled information on buildings that have collapsed in past earthquakes. While the ATC-95 project focused exclusively on collapsed buildings, the EERI interns and mentors worked with buildings that suffered varying levels of damage from many countries. The interns identified the wide range of building characteristics in such a way that future analysis will be possible. Information was drawn from reports, drawings, photographs, and meetings with mentors and reviewers in an effort to provide insight into the important aspects of the performance of these concrete buildings. Four engineering students were selected as interns for the summer of 2012. An exciting innovation was the interaction of industry mentors and reviewers. Mentors met with the interns and discussed particular buildings with them, as well as various reconnaissance observations more generally. In addition, mentors reviewed the individual building reports prepared by the interns. The interns worked from an interactive PDF form, gathering information from various reports and published articles on the earthquakes, as well as from interviews with the mentors. Each of these reports was then reviewed and revised, based on reviewer comments. An important feature of this form is the list of design and construction characteristics. For each of the 130 characteristics, interns scoured source materials for discussions of the role of the characteristics in the building’s performance. For each characteristic, they indicated its contribution to observed damage as unlikely; possible; likely; unknown (no discussion in the sources), or not applicable (meaning that the particular characteristic was not present or otherwise not relevant for the particular building). The database will be functional by September 2013, and EERI members will be invited to browse through the reports and/or contribute their own reports. A tool kit is under development to guide users in the preparation of their own reports on particular damaged buildings in past earthquakes.

The California Clearinghouse is a consortium that facilitates coordination of post-earthquake field investigations and shares observations and knowledge among the scientific, engineering and emergency response communities after a damaging California earthquake. The Clearinghouse is managed by representatives from five core groups: the California Geological Survey (CGS), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), the California Emergency Management Agency (Cal EMA; Formerly Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (OES)) and the California Seismic Safety Commission. Since the Clearinghouse was established in 1972, there have been more than 10 Clearinghouse activations. The last major clearinghouse activation was after the Northridge earthquake in 1994. Since that time, technology has advanced greatly. The static map and pins has been upgraded to a dynamic GIS map with markers, geospatial overlays, and zoom capabilities. The large datasets associated with these maps require a new way of thinking about data after a disaster. Having protocols for collecting and sharing data, before the next earthquake, is essential. As the contact point for researchers and scientists after a California earthquake, the California Clearinghouse is taking the lead in California to develop these protocols through a series of technological demonstration exercises. Using the California Golden Guardian and Shakeout exercises over three years as the backdrop for the Clearinghouse exercises has given the Clearinghouse the opportunity to explore what does and doesn’t work for data collection and sharing. For collecting data, participants have had the opportunity to test a suite of field tools to submit observations to the Clearinghouse. These tools export data in a variety of formats—all of which must be accommodated by the Clearinghouse. Once the data is collected, the information is shared through the Unified Incident Command and Decision Support (UICDS) middleware developed by the U.S. Dept. Of Homeland Security, Science and Technology Directorate, and displayed on the Clearinghouse website through SpotOnResponse, the Clearinghouse’s situational awareness tool. During the May 2013 Golden Guardian Exercise, data submitted included Bay Area liquefaction, fault and landslide zones from the California Geological Survey, permitted hazardous materials facilities from the Department of Toxic Substance Control, Licensed Healthcare Facilities from the California Department of Public Health, and hundreds of simulated field observations. This type of data from researchers and scientists is not only important for learning from earthquakes, but with hundreds of people in the field, it is also a valuable resource that can be used to update emergency responders. During the exercise, all of the collected data was visible to the public on the Clearinghouse website and after an actual earthquake, the Clearinghouse liaison in the State Operations Center (SOC) would be monitoring this map and relaying relevant information to Cal EMA. By establishing dynamic protocols for data collection and sharing that can be adapted as technology continues to evolve, the California Clearinghouse is setting the stage for researchers and scientists to contribute to the response and recovery of the state after the next major California earthquake.

Table S1. Basis of diagnosis for all cancer cases recorded in the National Cancer Registry of TT, 1995â 2009. (DOCX 14 kb)

Table S1. Basis of diagnosis for all cancer cases recorded in the National Cancer Registry of TT, 1995â 2009. (DOCX 14 kb)

Table S2. Age-standardized incidence and mortality rates for two of the ten leading cancer sites by sex, and ancestry, for persons less than 24Â years old, Trinidad and Tobago, 1995â 2009. (DOCX 15 kb)

Table S2. Age-standardized incidence and mortality rates for two of the ten leading cancer sites by sex, and ancestry, for persons less than 24Â years old, Trinidad and Tobago, 1995â 2009. (DOCX 15 kb)