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Copyright of Telecommunication Engineering is the property of Telecommunication Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

There has been controversy about the air pollutants emitted from sources closely related to people's daily life (such as cooking, fireworks burning, sacrificial incenses and joss paper burning, and barbecue, named as five missing sources, FMS) impacting the outdoor air quality to what extent. Till now, there is no emission estimation of air pollutants from FMS, as the missing of both activity dataset and emission factors. We attempted to combine the questionnaire data, various statistical data, and data of points of interest to obtain a relatively complete set of activity data. The emission factors (EFs) of carbonaceous aerosols were tested in our lab. Then, the emission inventories of carbonaceous aerosol with the high spatial-temporal resolution for FMS were established firstly, and the spatial-variation trend and driving forces were discussed. From 2000 to 2018, organic carbon (OC) increased from 4268 t to 4919 t. The OC emission from FMS was 1.48-2.18 - of its total emission in China. The emissions of black carbon, element carbon (EC), and brown carbon absorption cross-section (ACSBrC) emissions from FMS were in the ranges of 22.6-43.9 t, 213-324 t, and 14.7-35.6 Gm2, respectively. Their emissions tended to concentrate in special periods and areas. The OC emission intensities in central urban areas were 3.85-50.5 times that of rural areas due to the high density of human activities. While the ACSBrC emissions in rural regions accounted for 63.0-79.5% of the total emission result from uncontrolled fireworks burning. A mass of fireworks burning led to extremely higher ACSBrC and EC emissions on Chinese New Year's eve, as 1444 and 262 times their corresponding yearly average values. Interestingly, significant (p<0.01) correlations between human incomes and pollutant emissions were found, but they were positive (r = 0.94) and negative (r = -0.94) for urban and rural regions, indicating the necessity of regulating human lifestyle and increasing income for urban and rural peoples, respectively. This study provided the first-hand data for identifying the emissions, variation trends and impacting factors of FMS, which is helpful for modeling works on air quality, climate effect, and human health risks at specific periods or regions and for modifying their emission control policies. The data in this work could be found at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19999991.v1 (Cheng et al., 2022). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We hypothesize that firework events involving the combustion of charcoal fuel, organic binders, metal salts, and cellulose-based wrapping material could be significant transient sources of aerosol brown carbon (BrC). To test this, we couple high time-resolution (1 min) measurements of black carbon (BC) and BrC absorption from a 7-wavelength aethalometer with time-integrated (12–24 h) measurements of filter extracts, i.e., UV–visible, fluorescence, and Fourier-transformed infrared (FT-IR) signatures of BrC, total and water-soluble organic carbon (OC and WSOC), ionic species, and firework tracer metals during a sampling campaign covering the Diwali fireworks episode in India. In sharp contrast to BC, BrC absorption shows a distinct and considerable rise of 2–4 times during the Diwali period, especially during the hours of peak firework activity, as compared to the background. Fluorescence profiles suggest enrichment of humic-like substances (HULIS) in the firework plume, while the enhancement of BrC absorption in the 400–500 nm range suggests the presence of nitroaromatic compounds (NACs). Considerable contributions of WSOC and secondary organics to OC (44.1% and 31.2%, respectively) and of the water-soluble fraction of BrC to total BrC absorption (71.0%) during the Diwali period point toward an atmospherically processed, polar signature of firework-related BrC, which is further confirmed by FT-IR profiles. This aqueous BrC exerts a short-lived but strong effect on atmospheric forcing (12.0% vis-à-vis BC in the UV spectrum), which could affect tropospheric chemistry via UV attenuation and lead to a stabilization of the post-Diwali atmosphere, resulting in enhanced pollutant build-up and exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Chongqing University of Posts & Telecommunications (Natural Science Edition) is the property of Chongqing University of Posts & Telecommunications and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Although phosphate minerals are the only naturally occurring resources of the industrially important element phosphorus,[1,2] the industrial extraction of white phosphorous (P4) from metal phosphates relies on demineralization at high temperatures (ca. 1500 °C) in the presence of coke and it releases large amounts of CO and CO2.[3] Due to wide industrial applications of white phosphorus (P4) as a manufacturing precursor for the production of fertilizers, pesticides, fireworks, and detergents,[1] a rapid shrinking of natural reserves of this mineral is obvious and thereby demands an efficient recycling strategy. Moreover, organophosphines are versatile phosphine donor ligands in the development of transition metal catalysts for the bulk‐scale production of alkenes, functional alcohols, esters, and amines. However, the production of such industrially and commercially important organic compounds is associated with the generation of tons of phosphine oxide per year, a product whose further breakdown is highly energy demanding. This essentially amounts to the need for an economic recycling strategy. At present, lab‐ and/or industrial‐scale recycling of phosphine oxide purely relies on chemical routes using metal hydrides and/or harsh reductive conditions which lead to generation of further reagent wastes. Such harsh reaction conditions and further toxic waste generation demand the development of less energy intensive methods. For the past few years, electro‐reduction of phosphine oxides to phosphines remains a pioneering approach to bypass the energy intensive chemical routes. This review summarizes the fundamental studies on electrochemistry of phosphines and phosphine oxides in 1970–1980s and implementation of such knowledge in the development of successful electro‐deoxygenation of phosphine oxides in recent times. Research outlook and future scope of this newly developing research area have also been discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tantalum nitrides (TaN) have attracted much attention as a new material of energy exchangers in insensitive detonators, we mainly investigate its ignition law in this paper. Firstly, the paper utilizes numerical simulation to predict the influence of the substrate material, bridge zone thickness, bridge zone length and width on the ignition action. Then its reliability was verified by experiments, which provided technical support for the design of passivated pyrotechnics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To solve the problems of low identification accuracy and complex identification methods in the Bouc-Wen model of the magnetorheological (MR) damper, a new parameter identification method using the fireworks algorithm (FWA) is proposed. According to the experimental results of the dynamic characteristics of the MR damper and the simulation data of the Bouc-Wen model, the FWA is used to identify the seven parameters of the Bouc-Wen model. On the basis of the relationship between the identification results and the command current, the current-controlled Bouc-Wen model (I-Bouc-Wen model) is constructed and compared with the experimental results under different sinusoidal excitation frequencies. Compared with the genetic algorithm (GA), differential evolution (DE) algorithm, and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, the FWA has the advantage of faster convergence, shorter calculation time, and higher stability in solving the parameter identification problem of the highly nonlinear hysteretic model. Under three harmonic excitations, the average calculation accuracies of the I-Bouc-Wen model reache 88.64 %, 90.45 %, and 81.28 %, respectively, and the dynamic characteristic curve of the model is in basic agreement with the experimental results. It can be used for the subsequent controller design and simulation research and lay a foundation for applying the parameterized model of the MR damper in vibration reduction control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A metal spark generated by grinding carbon steel has been recognized proceeding multiple bursting events, akin to the luminous branching fireworks. The mechanism of successive fragmentation observed in carbon steel spark, however, has not been elucidated yet. In the present study, we develop a new comprehensive analytical framework for estimating the droplet size of carbon steel sparks, time of flight, and time-variant temperature, combined with high-speed images of the spreading sparks, for the quantitative discussion of the timescale of bursting metal sparks. We find that the flight time to burst for a mother droplet is independent of the content of carbon, corresponding to the Fourier number for the molecular diffusion of unity. The successive fragmentation of carbon steel sparks is rate-controlled by the molecular diffusion of ambient oxygen inside the droplet. Since the measured temperature indicates that the heat is produced by the oxidation of iron, the successive fragmentation stops when the iron in the spark is fully oxidized, immediately becoming a solid particle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In India, 9% of the production of fireworks is at Sivakasi alone. This business is a highly profitable one in Sivakasi 0 for the employers. Around 3000 crore worth of firecrackers were produced in 2020. But during this lockdown period, it was Rs. 1500 crore. The market for fireworks is likely to grow at the rate of 10 percent per annum. Nearly five hundred factories are running in Sivakasi. After the ban, the impact would be around 500 crore losses. It is the livelihood of Eight Lakhs Workers. This pandemic hits fireworks industries also. This article focuses that, how fireworks industries sustained during this pandemic situation and the Business model innovation of that in pre and post covid19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we attempt to further the study of the royal festivities held in Toledo in the 18th century by addressing the ludic dimension inherent to these celebrations. To this end, we rely on data from various documentary sources conserved in the Municipal Archives of the city and written accounts of these festive events, where it is evident that the festivities dedicated to the Bourbons provided moments of leisure and recreation for the toledans, who participated, as actors or spectators, in the magnificent parades, masquerades, and luminary and firework displays. These elements played an important role in the Imperial City's tributes to the monarchs and are described in extraordinary detail in the literary chronicles, providing us a glimpse into a festive world that maintained the sumptuousness and sensorial and rhetorical opulence of the Baroque for a good part of the century, and which, as we shall see, only began to wane in the last years of the century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Burning of fireworks at the Chinese New Year (CNY) is a traditional culture in China, but it may adversely deteriorate air quality, cause fire accident and damage residential health. Numeral studies had proved into this environmental problem on the city scale, it is also important to quantify the spatio-temporal effects of fireworks emissions on air quality and their associations with residential customs during the CNY. Based on the monitored data, we analyzed the characteristics of primary air pollutants caused by fireworks burning, as well as the temporal and spatial variations in the concentrations of particulate matters during the periods of fireworks burning and non-fireworks (one day before CNY's Eve and two days after CNY's Eve). The results indicated that the main air pollutants were particles released from fireworks burning over the whole China, with showing an obvious peak during the CNY of 2015 and 2016. The highest concentrations of particulate matters with size less than 10 μm (PM10) and 2.5 μm (PM2.5) were occurred during the early morning at 1:00–3:00 on 19th (2015), reaching 408 μg/m3 and 112 μg/m3in Northeast China (NEC), respectively. And the highest values in 2016 were 358 μg/m3 and 126 μg/m3, but occurred in North China (NC), respectively. It revealed that the residential customs had significant effects on the temporal distribution of fireworks pollution on the regional scale. The patterns of temporal variations in SO2, NO2 and CO were similar to those of PM10 and PM2.5, but CO was opposite to that of other pollutants. The spatial distributions of particulate pollutants concentrations showed that the most severely polluted regions were located at NEC, East China (EC) and Central China(CC), where had higher population density and gross domestic product (GDP) and local conservative customs. Otherwise, although stricter regulations were implemented in 2016, the concentrations of pollutants were still greater than them in 2015, revealing that meteorological conditions can have a significant effect on mass concentrations of particles. The governments should make control strategies of fireworks burning with comprehensive considering the balance between environmental protection and traditional culture heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sparklers offer a variety of topics for chemistry education. Redox chemistry and oxidizing agents can be found in nearly all chemistry curricula worldwide. Furthermore, environmental aspects can be shown and an insight into current research topics of pyrotechnics can be provided. The focus of the unit is the production of sparklers as a school student experiment. In addition, the effects of sparklers products on living organisms are tested in a model experiment. Finally, the conditions of producing sparklers as a school student experiment are discussed. The sparkler mixtures passed several sensitivity tests. For this reason, school students can produce the sparklers according to the current German safety guidelines in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid advancements in processing and storage technology along with the popularity of the internet, computing capabilities have become more affordable, efficient, and widely accessible than ever before. This advancement has resulted in the emergence of a modern computing environment known as fog computing. Due to the latency-sensitiveness feature, computation of these services in fog computing is advantageous than cloud. Task scheduling is a significant issue in fog systems and substantially impacts resource utilization, task computation, and latency time. Many heuristic and meta-heuristic techniques have been applied to solve the scheduling issue. For the success of any meta-heuristic algorithm, an appropriate composition of exploration and exploitation of solution space is required to improve convergence and avoid local optima. To meet these requirements, a modified fireworks algorithm with the combination of opposition-based learning and differential evolution techniques is presented. Differential evolution operator has been utilized to avoid local optima and opposition-based learning technique has been applied for creating a diversified solution set of population. The proposed method works on the minimization of makespan and cost and improves resource utilization. The experiments have been carried out on a variety of workloads, and the findings have been compared with some recent popular metaheuristic techniques. The comparison has verified the importance of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On July 3, 2020, a sequence of explosions occurred in the Hendek fireworks factory in Sakarya, Turkey. The explosion caused great material damage and loss of life. In this study, seismic and acoustic waves related to the explosion are investigated in the time and frequency domain. Two explosions are identified in the seismic record of the explosion. The origin time for the first explosion was determined as 08:15:16.25 (UTC) and the second explosion 08:16:51.49 (UTC). The local magnitude for both explosions was measured as 1.7 and 1.3, respectively. The Fourier spectra are dominated by frequencies between 6 and 8 Hz for seismic waves and about 40 Hz for acoustic waves. By examining the seismograms in both time and frequency domains, it was determined that at least five more explosions occurred apart from two big explosions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Objectives The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the number of patients reported to a hospital with injuries from consumer fireworks in the months December–January in the past 10 years, and to describe the association between the type of fireworks, injury pattern, treatment, and permanent impairment. Methods A multicenter, retrospective, observational case series. Patients were selected from two hospitals in the Southwest Netherlands: a level 1 trauma center and a specialized burn center. All patients with any fireworks-related injuries treated between December 1 and January 31, during 2007 (December) to 2017 (January), were eligible for participation. The primary outcome was the number of patients with any type of injury caused by fireworks. The secondary outcome measures were patient and injury characteristics, treatment details, and whole person impairment (WPI). The percentage WPI expresses a patient’s degree of permanent impairments as a result of fireworks-related injuries. Results Of the 297 eligible patients, 272 patients were included. From 2007 to 2017, between 21 and 40 patients were treated, and no clear increase or decrease was observed in the number of patients and in the number of patients per type of fireworks. Explosive fireworks mainly caused upper extremity (N = 65; 68%) injuries, while rockets (N = 24; 41%) and aerials (N = 7; 41%) mainly affected the head/neck. Decorative fireworks predominantly resulted in burns (N = 82; 68%), and explosive fireworks in soft tissue lacerations (N = 24; 25%), fractures (N = 16; 17%), and amputations (N = 14; 15%). Patients injured by explosive and homemade fireworks were most often admitted to a hospital (respectively N = 24; 36% and N = 12; 80%), and resulted in the highest proportion undergoing surgical procedures (respectively N = 22; 33% and N = 7; 47%). WPI found in this study was between 0 to 95%, with a median of 0%. In 34 (14%) patients, the injuries resulted in a WPI of ≥1%, mostly as a result of explosive fireworks (N = 18; 53%). Conclusion This study found no increase or decrease in the number of patients treated in two specialized hospitals. Explosive and homemade fireworks could be considered as most dangerous, as they result into the most hospital admissions, surgical procedures, and into the most injuries with permanent impairment as a result.

Purpose: Ocular trauma is one of the major preventable causes of ocular morbidity and blindness in children and young adults. Firework injuries account for 20% of ocular trauma. The purpose of this study was to describe the clinical profile and assess the severity of the ocular injuries sustained from fireworks in Eastern India mainly during the festive season. Methods: This was a retrospective, hospital-based case study of patients with ocular injuries sustained from fireworks during the year 2017–2020. The study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital in Eastern India. Demographic details, type of injury, duration of injury, visual status, diagnostic tests, and management were recorded. Results: Sixty-five patients were reported to suffer from firework-related ocular injuries. The majority of cases were male (51/78.5%). The mean age was 21.78 ± 16.82 years (range: 0–90 years). Children and young adult males were mostly affected (n = 40, 61.5%). Most common offending agent was the bottle rockets (n = 23, 35.4%), followed by bomb and crackers in (n = 18, 27.7%). Majority of the injuries occurred at home environment (n = 37, 56.9%), followed by street (n = 15, 23.1%). About (n = 39, 60%) of the injuries occurred among bystanders. About 40 cases (61.5%) hailed from rural areas. The majority of the cases (n = 46, 70.8%) suffered from closed globe injuries and surgical intervention was required in (n = 40, 61.5%) of the cases. The mean length of hospital stay of fewer than 5 days was required in (n = 42, 64.6%). The final visual acuity of 6/18 or better was achieved in 41 cases (63.1%). Conclusion: Ocular injuries from fireworks remain a public health problem. Awareness among the masses, preventive measures, and strict implementation of government legislation may help in bringing down the incidence of firework-related ocular morbidity and blindness.

Air pollution has a negative impact on the ecological environment as well as on the health of people. Setting off fireworks and firecrackers lead to a significant deterioration in air quality in a short period of time. The firework prohibition policy of 2016 in Zhengzhou City provides an opportunity to investigate the effect of banning fireworks on air quality during the Spring Festival. The Air Quality Index and the concentrations of PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, CO and O3 during the Spring Festival between 2014 and 2019 in Zhengzhou City were analyzed. The results show that: There were small fluctuations in precipitation, air pressure, wind speed, temperature and relative humidity during the Spring Festival from 2014 to 2019. The air quality index in the Spring Festival in 2016 was significantly lower than that in 2014 and 2015, and the air quality in 2018 and 2019 showed greater improvements. The sudden increases in pollutants concentrations has been weakened, showing an obvious “peak-shaving” effect during the traditional heavy pollution period, New Year’s Eve to the first day of the first lunar month. In 2014 and 2015 years, the concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 reached their peaks at 1:00 a.m. on the first day of the new year, and fluctuated in the ranges of 259–271 μg/m³ and 380–384 μg/m³, respectively. The concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 were 44 and 100 μg/m³, respectively in 2016, 40 and 80 μg/m³ in 2018 during the same period. In addition, the ban implemented has the most obvious impact on PM2.5 and PM10. Compared with the Spring Festival in 2014, the concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 increased by 19.15 and 18.64% in 2015, decreased by 18.38% and 15.90% in 2016, and decreased by 16.83% and 26.05% in 2018. Therefore, banning fireworks and firecrackers will help to improve the air quality during the Spring Festival in Zhengzhou City to a certain extent.

I The New Fire i can be recommended to those who are looking for an introduction to artificial intelligence and who want to understand why AI has such a high priority for key players in international and national governance. Then, it needs, I fuel i , something which makes people interested in AI and leads some to invest insane amounts of money developing AI technology further. Fireworks of AI: Ben Buchanan and Andrew Imbrie: The new fire: war, peace, and democracy in the age of AI. [Extracted from the article]

The fireworks algorithm (FWA) has achieved significant global optimization ability by organizing multiple simultaneous local searches. By dynamically decomposing the target problem and handling each one with a sub-population, it has presented distinct property and applicability compared with traditional evolutionary algorithms. In this paper, we extend the theoretical model of fireworks algorithm based on search space partition to obtain a hierarchical collaboration model. It maintains both multiple local fireworks for local exploitation and one global firework for overall population distribution control. The implemented hierarchical collaborated fireworks algorithm is able to combine the advantages of both classic evolutionary algorithms and fireworks algorithms. Several experiments are provided for in-depth analysis and discussion on the proposed algorithm. The effectiveness of proposed strategy is demonstrated on the benchmark test suite from CEC 2020. Experimental results validate that the hierarchical collaborated fireworks algorithm outperforms former fireworks algorithms significantly and achieves similar results compared with state-of-the-art evolutionary algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is very difficult to produce an intense blue colored flame using traditional fuels and blue colorants in fireworks. A new formulation of firework composition for producing an intense blue colored flame was designed in the research. In the composition, an organocopper compound was used not only as a fuel, but also as a blue colorant. Four organocopper compounds, such as copper(II) acetylacetonate, copper(II) gluconate, copper(II) benzoate, and copper(II) citrate, were chosen and tested as the candidates for fuel or blue colorant. Visible spectra of flames formed by burning the composition containing organocopper compound were measured and the hue of the flame was evaluated using the spectra. The experimental results show that the new composition consisted of the organocopper compound used as a fuel and ammonium perchlorate used as an oxidizer can produce intense blue colored flame. Especially an intense blue colored flame with approximately 60 % chromatic purity can be produced by using copper(II) acetylacetonate. The color purity is higher than that of traditional composition. The relationship between the flame behaviors and the emission spectra of the flame from burning of the new composition are examined in the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: In fireworks industries, mixing and filling of chemicals are being done manually and hence, dust formation is inevitable. Due to inherent nature of ingredients like aluminium metal powder, which has more combustible and the possibilities of dust explosion are merely high. Nowadays, the use of boron as a replacement of aluminium in firecracker mixtures is being researched upon. Hence, this paper aims at measuring the minimum ignition temperature (MIT) of existing and boron blended firework composition by using Godbert Greenwald furnace. Nowadays, many firework industries are employing automation. In such places, by limiting the level of oxygen supply with Nitrogen gas, the accidents can be avoided. Hence, the limiting oxygen concentration (LOC) is also measured. It has been concluded that the probability of ignition is higher when the replacement level of aluminium with boron is less than 70% at a concentration of 1456 g/m3 with less than 75% inert gas level. The safe margin has been found which will be useful for risk assessment study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Systems Engineering & Electronics is the property of Journal of Systems Engineering & Electronics Editorial Department and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Pyrotechnic strobes have been known for over 100 years and have a wide range of uses, from the fireworks industry to military applications. On combustion, they emit bright flashes of white or colored light at regular intervals. A wide variety of fuels and oxidants can be used to create strobe compositions, but all known variants were discovered by trial and error and the mechanisms involved remain unclear. This review presents and discusses the range of known pyrotechnic strobes, together with some historical facts associated with their discovery, and comments on the current state of knowledge of the strobe mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid increase in the functionality of IoT applications, the services provided by edge/IoT devices have surged in the recent past. Fog computing is gaining momentum as a contemporary computational framework for IoT-enabled smart applications that offers a latency sensitivity advantage over cloud computing. Effective task scheduling reduces application computation and latency durations while improves QoS. Many researchers have proposed a variety of heuristic and metaheuristic approaches for effective scheduling; however, there is still scope for improvement. The present work proposes a hybrid of heuristic and metaheuristic techniques for the scheduling of tasks. fireworks algorithm (FWA) is a metaheuristic algorithm, and Heterogeneous Earliest Finish Time (HEFT) is a heuristic algorithm. The bi-objective optimization approach is presented to minimize the makespan and cost factors. To compare the performance of the algorithm, the experiments have been conducted on distinct and independent scientific workflows. The results of exhaustive simulations have established the significance of the presented BH-FWA algorithm over other comparative approaches. To validate the relevance of the technique for fog computing networks, the metrics utilized for comparisons are makespan, cost, and throughput. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Workers in fireworks production are mainly at risk for explosion injury. However, there are few reports on the consequences of methanol poisoning in fireworks laborers. Case Presentation: We report on three patients with visual loss caused by inhalation exposure to high concentrations of methanol, who were engaged in the granulation process of the fireworks manufacturing industry. They presented with severe metabolic acidosis and visual impairments, accompanied by headache, chest tightness, shortness of breath, dizziness, and vomiting. All were diagnosed with acute methanol poisoning. One patient developed bilateral blindness and two patients improved after timely hemodialysis treatment. Conclusions: These case reports emphasize the risk of methanol poisoning in the fireworks industry or other factories using commercial alcohol with high methanol content. Early hemodialysis intervention and metabolic acidosis correction are crucial for rescuing visual impairment caused by methanol exposure. Awareness and supervision of commercial alcohol use are indispensable for similar industrial processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To report on the factors associated with severe vision loss from fireworks-related ocular trauma during celebrations, including festivals. Methods: Tertiary eye care hospitals in 5 countries and private ophthalmology practices in the Netherlands. Patients included received treatment for fireworks-related ocular trauma during celebrations. Demographic and clinical data for patients affected were analyzed and associations with severe vision loss reported. Results: Of 388 patients, 71 (18.3 %) had severe vision loss (worse than 6/60) at 4-week follow-up due to fireworks-related ocular trauma. Mean age overall was 20.6 years (range 2 to 83 years), and there was a male predominance of 4:1. Clinical factors associated with severe vision loss included penetrating injury (OR 4.874 [95% CI 1.298–18.304; p = 0.02]) and lens injury (OR 7.023 [95% CI 2.378–20.736; p = 0.0004]). More patients with closed-globe injuries (CGIs) had improved vision after 4 weeks (OR 3.667, 1.096–12.27) compared to those with open-globe injuries (OGI) (p = 0.035). Eye protection use was reported by 7 patients, and 39.4% patients < 18 years were unsupervised by an adult at the time of injury. Conclusions: Severe vision loss from fireworks-related ocular trauma occurred during celebrations in a variety of countries and was associated with penetrating and/or lens injury and poor presenting vision. New initiatives are needed to prevent severe vision loss associated with these injuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current paper deals with the effectiveness of the decisions of the Interamerican Human Rights Court in Brazil through the paradigm of the case of the employees of the fireworks factory in Santo Antônio de Jesus and expectations towards the compliance of the Court´s decision. The Interamerican System of Human Rights was described from the historical point of view, coupled to the role of the organs involved and the insertion of Brazil in the Organization of American States. Further, the relativization of national sovereignty is discussed within the legal force of decisions by the Interamerican Human Rights Court. The case of employees of the fireworks factory in Santo Antônio de Jesus is forwarded as from the sentence given by the Court and other developments. Results show that attendance to the Court´s decisions is slow, mainly when one analyzes previous condemnations. On the other hand, recent initiatives have shown that, if properly implemented, it may bring new stances with regard to the effectiveness of the decisions. The descriptive method, bibliographic review and analysis of decisions were employed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Millars: Espai i Història is the property of Millars: Espai i Historia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Fireworks became an important part of festival culture in the sixteenth century, both celebrations at court and festivals connected to religious holidays. This essay considers the forms and uses of fireworks as well as how audiences perceived them. What may today be seen as mere explosions of fire and light tended to be understood allegorically in sixteenth-century Europe. Fireworks contributed to a wider, complex production of meaning at festivals, typical of the visual culture of the period and grounded in reigning concepts of nature and its materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay focuses on the journey of a sacred portable Shinto shrine, Ôtori Mikoshi, from Osaka Tenmangu Shrine to a river procession in Osaka and back during Tenjin Matsuri, one of Japan's three great festivals. Tenjin Matsuri, taking place on July 25, is known as a fire and water extravaganza that attracts over a million visitors each year, among them many professional and amateur photographers. We are here presenting results of fieldwork that extended over four years in an attempt to create a visual ethnography, to illustrate how ancient ritual practices are performed in contemporary Japanese society, and to explain how the festival becomes a temporary stage for the manifestation of the sacred, and for a display of traditional masculinity meant to appease the gods as well as ensure the welfare of the community. Matsuri, the Japanese festivals, are organized in order to provide entertainment both for the deities and the communities that celebrate and worship them, creating an extra-ordinary escape from the ordinary world we live in. Our work addresses the two entwined aspects of a Japanese festival: on one hand, the divine elements embodied by the rituals performed by priests and shamanesses at the main Shinto shrine, and the temporary one on the boat; on the other, the interaction of the participants with the sacred seen in their efforts to carry the mikoshi for four exhausting kilometers, and in their admiration of the fireworks offered to the deities. Unlike most matsuri photography, the photos presented here focus less on aesthetics and more on the meaning of their objects, the gestures, and the implied sounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes celebrations of Russian military victories over the Ottoman Turks during Catherine II's reign on the examples of pictures (tableaux) featured in fireworks, illuminations, triumphal arches, processions, and instances of live theater. Performing the Crimean conquest via these artistic displays, from the early 1770s--the time when Crimea first begins to appear in them--and until Catherine's final years, served as a way of incorporating the peninsula as a part of the imperial design and of announcing the Crimean Tatar as the latest member of the Russian Empire's supporting cast. This paper argues that Crimea's changing status in the ceremonial culture of Catherine's court is reflected in these tableaux with their focus on the territory (Crimea) as opposed to its people (Crimean Tatars). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The effects of magnesium/polytetrafluoroethylene (Mg/PTFE) pyrotechnic compositions on the coupled flow field and reignition mechanism are important aspects governing the performance and range of base bleed projectiles (BBPs). Owing to a decrease in pressure and temperature when the BBP leaves the muzzle, rapid depressurization occurs, which extinguishes the base bleed propellant. The Mg/PTFE pyrotechnic composition pressed in the igniter of the base bleed unit (BBU) provides additional energy to the BBU via a chemical reaction. Thus, the extinguished base bleed propellant is reignited under the effect of high-temperature combustion gas jets from the igniter. In this study, a numerical analysis is conducted to evaluate the effects of PTFE and Mg granularity as well as Mg/PTFE pyrotechnic compositions. Owing to the rapid depressurization, the temperature and pressure was found to decrease for different Mg/PTFE pyrotechnic compositions. However, the depressurization time increased as the PTFE granularity increased, the Mg granularity decreased, and the Mg content increased. When the pressure in the combustion chamber of the BBU decreased to the atmospheric pressure, the combustion gas jets from the igniter expand upstream (rather than downstream). However, these combustion gas jets exhibit different axial and radial expansion characteristics depending on the pyrotechnic compositions used. The results show that the reignition delay time, td, of the base bleed propellant was 377.608, 94.27, 387.243, 523.966, and 221.094 ms for cases AeE, respectively. Therefore, it was concluded that the Mg/PTFE pyrotechnic composition of case B was the most beneficial for the reignition of the base bleed propellant, with the earliest addition of energy and mass to the BBP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines firework-associated head and neck injuries in the United States from 2008 to 2017 obtained from a single epidemiology source. The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) was used to collect epidemiologic data and retrospectively analyze firework-associated injuries from 2008 to 2017. Injury types included burns, concussions, contusions, foreign bodies, hematomas, internal organ injury, lacerations, and puncture wounds. Four hundred and thirty-one individuals were originally included; however, 14 participants were excluded due to inadequate injury information. Chi-squared analyses were performed between the following categorical variables: gender vs body part injured, patient age vs injury type, and patient age vs body part injured. About 417 injuries to the head and neck (67.4% male, 32.6% female) were treated in NEISS-reporting emergency departments during the 10-year period. Sixty-nine percent of the injuries occurred in July. Body parts injured included the ear (10.6%), face (61.6%), head (13.0%), mouth (4.8%), and neck (10.0%). Chi-squared analysis demonstrated an association between gender and body part injured (P = .0001). Patient age (P = .066) was independent of injury type. Children aged 0 to 12 years had the highest probability of being injured (40.2%), then adults 22 and older (33.1%) and adolescents 13 to 21 years (26.9%). Given that the preponderance of injuries caused by fireworks occurred primarily in minors, pediatricians should screen for any household firework use during the anticipatory guidance portion of well-child checks, which we believe would improve patient safety and decrease injury rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Particle matter (PM) has been associated with increased morbidity and mortality rates across the world. This study was designed to test the hypotheses that pyrotechnic firework displays introduce significant amounts of toxic metals into the atmosphere and are hazardous to human health. Size-selective emissions from 10 different fireworks displays were collected during particle generation in a dynamic, stainless steel chamber and tested for toxicity in cells. A subset of 2 particle types were tested in vivo in mice. At doses that did not produce cytotoxicity in an LDH assay, in vitro reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation was measured in bronchial epithelial airway (BEAS-2B) and human pulmonary microvascular endothelial (HPMEC-ST1.6R) cell lines treated with size-fractionated particles from the emissions of fireworks. Results Significant increases in ROS, in both cell types, were dependent upon the type of firework but not particle size. The in vitro ROS activity was correlated with lung inflammation produced in groups of mice treated by oropharyngeal aspiration with 0, 50, or 100 μg fireworks PM10/mouse. Trace metal analyses of the PM10 samples showed significant differences in metal content among fireworks type. Interestingly, the PM10 sample for the fireworks type producing the greatest in vitro ROS response in BEAS-2B cells contained ~ 40,000 and ~ 12,000 ppm of lead and copper, respectively. This sample also produced the greatest inflammatory response (i.e., increased neutrophils in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid) in mice. Conclusions These findings demonstrate that pyrotechnic display particles can produce adverse effects in mammalian cells and lungs, thus suggesting that further research is needed to expand our understanding of the contribution of metal content to the adverse health effects of fireworks particles. This information will lead to the manufacture of safer fireworks.