This article distills from available data descriptions of typical human symptoms in reaction to prompt total-body ionizing radiation in the dose range 0.5 to 30 Gy midline body tissue. The symptoms are correlated with dose and time over the acute postexposure period of 6 wk. The purpose is to provide a symptomatology basis for assessing early functional impairment of individuals who may be involved in civil defense, emergency medical care and various military activities in the event of a nuclear attack. The dose range is divided into eight subranges associated with important pathophysiological events. For each subrange, signs and symptoms are designated including estimates of symptom onset, severity, duration and incidence.

A review and analysis of the dose response relationship for the probability of acute lethality from prompt or short-term exposure to ionizing radiation is presented. The purpose of this analysis is to provide recommendations concerning estimates of casualties expected from radiation accidents, the use of nuclear weapons, or possible terrorist activities. Previous work on acute ionizing radiation-induced lethality risk together with a collection of dose response relationships are analyzed and presented based on historical case data and expert opinion that have evolved from whole-body radiation therapy experience, radiation exposure accidents, nuclear weapon detonations, and animal experimentation. The nature of the data reviewed ranges from direct individual events to those offered according to collective expert opinion and consensus published as journal articles and in various technical documents and reports. The dose response relationships are expressed as two-parameter (median exposure level and slope) probability distribution models as a function of radiation exposure in terms of a free-in-air dose. Twelve different dose response relationships are presented and discussed, including the impact of some medical care.

The Task-Taxon-Task method (Anno et al. DNA-TR-95-115, 1996) is a statistical modeling approach to predict performance decrements on behavioral tasks in response to various stressors. We describe the basics of the T3 method and our approach to adapting it to handle more acute stressors, which can require decomposition into task networks via logical or empirical analysis. We provide an illustrative example showing how the method can be used to account for performance decrements in manual tasks associated with wearing protective gloves. This illustration provides a substantive application in which the current T3 method can be augmented to account for performance decrements in a new sub-domain, while additionally providing lessons for extending the method to new stressors, performance domains, and behavior modeling systems.

Sources of burnable material within U.S. cities are analyzed. Based on a detailed evaluation of construction practices, storage of burnable contents, building function and layout, and density of buildings in city districts, we derive urban fuel load densities in terms of land use type and geographic location. Residential building fuel loads vary regionally from 123 to 150 kg m-2; nonresidential building classes have loads from 39 to 273 kg m-2. The results indicate that average U.S. urban area fuel loads range from 14 to 21 kg m-2.

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