The purpose of this article is to make it easier and more convenient for readers to compare different treatment methods on the ranking of cities / metropolitan areas / urban areas / agglomerations / conurbations / megalopoleis by population. Very often different rankings give different figures, as the limits and extends of the agglomerations are not clearly identified.
*List of cities by population
*Largest European metropolitan areas by population
*Largest urban areas of the European Union by population
*Largest cities of the European Union by population
*List of major cities in Brazil
*List of megalopoleis
*List of metropolitan areas by population
*
*Metropolitan areas in France
*List of United States cities by population
*List of United States urban areas by population
*List of cities in Canada
*Largest cities throughout history
*List of cities by population
*Largest European metropolitan areas by population
*Largest urban areas of the European Union by population
*Largest cities of the European Union by population
*List of major cities in Brazil
*List of megalopoleis
*List of metropolitan areas by population
*
*Metropolitan areas in France
*List of United States cities by population
*List of United States urban areas by population
*List of cities in Canada
*Largest cities throughout history
Rockland Paramedic Services, Inc. (RPS) is a non-profit organization formed through the joint efforts of Good Samaritan and Nyack Hospitals to provide state-of-the-art Advanced Life Support Emergency Medical Services to the residents of the Towns of Haverstraw, Stony Point, Clarkstown, Ramapo, and Orangetown in the County of Rockland, NY. In 1996 they began serving the Town of Tuxedo in Orange County. Currently RPS holds the 2008-2009 contract for supplying Paramedic services for, amongst other locations, Clarkstown, valued at 1,832,545.
About Rockland Paramedic Services
Rockland Paramedic Services was formed in 1991 with the merger of the Nyack Hospital and Good Samaritan Hospital paramedic programs . Until that point both hospitals provided paramedic "fly-car" services to the various towns in Rockland County. Nyack Hospital covered mostly the eastern half of the county, while Good Samaritan Hospital covered the western half. Patient transport was provided by the various local volunteer ambulance corps.
Facts about RPS
The RPS population served is 304,064 with a response area of 246 square miles.
Firsts for RPS
* First in Orange and Rockland Counties to be certified as an Advanced Life Support First Responder
* First to Develop a comprehensive 12-Lead EKG program in NY State
* First to use Cellular Telemetry in NY State
* First Bike Medic Program in NY State
* First to obtain EMT-D Certification for Volunteer Corps. in Rockland County
* First to conduct EMT-Intermediate programs in Rockland County
* First to establish a Fire Department Rehabilitation Program in Rockland County
Units and Area Served
RPS has seven "Medic" units which are stationed in the various communities.
* Medic 1 responds to 911 calls in the Towns of Haverstraw and Stony Point, including Bear Mountain State Park with the following Volunteer Ambulance Corps:
** Haverstraw Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
** Stony Point Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
* Medic 3 responds to 911 calls in the Town of Clarkstown with the following Volunteer Ambulance Corps:
** New City Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
** Congers-Valley Cottage Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
** Nanuet Ambulance Corps.
* Medic 5 responds to 911 calls in the Towns of Clarkstown and Orangetown with the following Ambulance Corps:
** Nanuet Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
** Nyack Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
** Congers-Valley Cottage Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
* Medic 21 responds to 911 calls in the Town of Orangetown with the following Ambulance Corps:
** Pearl River Alumni VAC
** South Orangetown Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
** Piermont FD
* Medic 23 responds to 911 calls in the Town of Ramapo with the following Ambulance Corps:
** Ramapo Valley Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
** William P. Faist Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
** Sloatsburg Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
** Hatzolah Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
* Medic 25 responds to 911 calls in the Town of Ramapo with the following Ambulance Corps:
** Spring Hill Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
** Hatzolah Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
* Medic 31 responds to calls in the Town of Tuxedo with the following Ambulance Corps:
** Tuxedo Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
Special Operations
The Rockland Paramedic Services Special Operations Division was entered into service in September 2002. They were created as an answer to the need in Rockland County for a specialized medical unit to assist regular 911 operations during extended emergency incidents .
Extended emergency incidents include fire stand-bys, Hazardous Materials Incidents, extrication of patients from remote areas and search and rescue incidents. The team is also used for non-emergency events or stand-bys. These type of events include parades, marathons, fireworks events, street fairs, cycling races and any other event where there are large numbers of people.
Team members undergo extensive training in Incident Command Systems, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Hazardous Materials Operations and Public Safety Rehabilitation. Specialized equipment used includes VHF, UHF and low band base radios, cellular telephones, cellular facsimile, special misters for cooling crowds, chemical agent antidotes, portable stretchers, tents, and large amounts of bulk supplies that our crews would need. They also have a portable generator, portable lights, and oxygen administration equipment capable of administering oxygen to 25 patients at a time .
The team's first actual deployment was very successful. The team was utilized at the Hazardous Materials incident at the Rockland County Health Complex in the fall of 2002 . Over 100 patients were triaged, evaluated and treated by the team members working side by side with local EMS volunteers and representatives from the Rockland County Health Department, as well as Fire Services and other emergency management officials.
Rockland MobileCare / Regional EMS
RPS also manages Rockland MobileCare/Regional EMS, which provides ambulance transportation and Advanced Life Support EMS for Orange and Rockland Counties in New York, and in Pike County, Pennsylvania.
In Pike County, PA, Regional EMS is dispatched as Medic 403. Medic 403 is the primary ALS provider for Westfall Township and Matamoras Borough and the secondary provider for Milford Township, Milford Borough, and when requested Dingman Towship. Regional EMS also operates Hemlock Farms Advanced Life Support known as Medic 403-H, a non-transporting fly-car contracted 24/7/365 to the Hemlock Farms Community Association covering parts of Blooming Grove, Dingman, and Porter Townships.
About Rockland Paramedic Services
Rockland Paramedic Services was formed in 1991 with the merger of the Nyack Hospital and Good Samaritan Hospital paramedic programs . Until that point both hospitals provided paramedic "fly-car" services to the various towns in Rockland County. Nyack Hospital covered mostly the eastern half of the county, while Good Samaritan Hospital covered the western half. Patient transport was provided by the various local volunteer ambulance corps.
Facts about RPS
The RPS population served is 304,064 with a response area of 246 square miles.
Firsts for RPS
* First in Orange and Rockland Counties to be certified as an Advanced Life Support First Responder
* First to Develop a comprehensive 12-Lead EKG program in NY State
* First to use Cellular Telemetry in NY State
* First Bike Medic Program in NY State
* First to obtain EMT-D Certification for Volunteer Corps. in Rockland County
* First to conduct EMT-Intermediate programs in Rockland County
* First to establish a Fire Department Rehabilitation Program in Rockland County
Units and Area Served
RPS has seven "Medic" units which are stationed in the various communities.
* Medic 1 responds to 911 calls in the Towns of Haverstraw and Stony Point, including Bear Mountain State Park with the following Volunteer Ambulance Corps:
** Haverstraw Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
** Stony Point Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
* Medic 3 responds to 911 calls in the Town of Clarkstown with the following Volunteer Ambulance Corps:
** New City Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
** Congers-Valley Cottage Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
** Nanuet Ambulance Corps.
* Medic 5 responds to 911 calls in the Towns of Clarkstown and Orangetown with the following Ambulance Corps:
** Nanuet Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
** Nyack Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
** Congers-Valley Cottage Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
* Medic 21 responds to 911 calls in the Town of Orangetown with the following Ambulance Corps:
** Pearl River Alumni VAC
** South Orangetown Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
** Piermont FD
* Medic 23 responds to 911 calls in the Town of Ramapo with the following Ambulance Corps:
** Ramapo Valley Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
** William P. Faist Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
** Sloatsburg Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
** Hatzolah Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
* Medic 25 responds to 911 calls in the Town of Ramapo with the following Ambulance Corps:
** Spring Hill Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
** Hatzolah Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
* Medic 31 responds to calls in the Town of Tuxedo with the following Ambulance Corps:
** Tuxedo Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
Special Operations
The Rockland Paramedic Services Special Operations Division was entered into service in September 2002. They were created as an answer to the need in Rockland County for a specialized medical unit to assist regular 911 operations during extended emergency incidents .
Extended emergency incidents include fire stand-bys, Hazardous Materials Incidents, extrication of patients from remote areas and search and rescue incidents. The team is also used for non-emergency events or stand-bys. These type of events include parades, marathons, fireworks events, street fairs, cycling races and any other event where there are large numbers of people.
Team members undergo extensive training in Incident Command Systems, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Hazardous Materials Operations and Public Safety Rehabilitation. Specialized equipment used includes VHF, UHF and low band base radios, cellular telephones, cellular facsimile, special misters for cooling crowds, chemical agent antidotes, portable stretchers, tents, and large amounts of bulk supplies that our crews would need. They also have a portable generator, portable lights, and oxygen administration equipment capable of administering oxygen to 25 patients at a time .
The team's first actual deployment was very successful. The team was utilized at the Hazardous Materials incident at the Rockland County Health Complex in the fall of 2002 . Over 100 patients were triaged, evaluated and treated by the team members working side by side with local EMS volunteers and representatives from the Rockland County Health Department, as well as Fire Services and other emergency management officials.
Rockland MobileCare / Regional EMS
RPS also manages Rockland MobileCare/Regional EMS, which provides ambulance transportation and Advanced Life Support EMS for Orange and Rockland Counties in New York, and in Pike County, Pennsylvania.
In Pike County, PA, Regional EMS is dispatched as Medic 403. Medic 403 is the primary ALS provider for Westfall Township and Matamoras Borough and the secondary provider for Milford Township, Milford Borough, and when requested Dingman Towship. Regional EMS also operates Hemlock Farms Advanced Life Support known as Medic 403-H, a non-transporting fly-car contracted 24/7/365 to the Hemlock Farms Community Association covering parts of Blooming Grove, Dingman, and Porter Townships.
ICE-NINE FUSION
Ice-nine fusion is the name coined in a July, 1999 Scientific American Letter by Nobelist Frank Wilczek for the runaway fusion of a strangelet, a theoretical particle that experimentalists have attempted to create at the AGS and the RHIC without success. Under some theories of strange matter, the great stability of the strangelet nucleon, which consists of approximately equal numbers of up, down and strange quarks, could allow for a runaway fusion reaction with normal nucleons, which consist solely of up and down quarks. This would require either a neutral strangelet so that the Coulomb barrier to fusion is not present, a negative strangelet so that it is attracted to a positive nucleus, or under some speculative theories, even a positive strangelet which could come within one Angstrom of the abundant Helium and Hydrogen nuclei and engage in spontaneous fusion.
The barrier to creation of a strangelet is the energy required to create a strange quark. Prior to the RHIC, the AGS could only create Lambda particles with only a single strange quark. The RHIC might create quite a few more. The Large Hadron Collider is projected to collide Lead nuclei at energies some 30-fold greater than the RHIC, and might create enough strange quarks to create a strangelet. Searches are planned upon commencement of collisions at the ALICE detector. Since strangelet theory predicts that they are highly radioactive at low mass, but become increasingly more stable as they become more massive, it would require creation of more than a few strange quarks to create a stable strangelet that could engage in runaway fusion.
STRANGELET THEORY WHICH ALLOWS FOR RUNAWAY "ICE-NINE" FUSION
Nucleons with only a few strange quarks are highly unstable. The known particles with strange quarks are unstable because the strange quark is heavier than the up and down quarks, so strange particles, such as the Lambda particle, which contains single up, down, and strange quarks, always lose their strangeness, radioactively decaying, via the weak interaction to lighter particles containing only up and down quarks. However this instability of strangelets might cease to be true for states with a sufficiently large number of quarks. This is the "strange matter hypothesis" of Bodmer and Witten. According to this hypothesis, when you collect a large enough number of quarks together, the lowest energy state is one that has roughly equal numbers of up, down, and strange quarks, namely a strangelet. The theories show that with increasing mass, the stability of a strangelet increases, increasing the radioactive half-life until with sufficiently large mass, they are fully stable. Various theories predict either positive, neutral or negative strangelets.
FUSION REQUIREMENTS
In order to engage in fusion, any newly created strangelet would be required to come into close contact with normal matter, allowing the strong force to bind the quarks from both nucleons, with a release of fusion energy. The newer, larger strangelet, following fusion, would have an excess positive charge , which would require subsequent emission of a positron as a radioactive decay mode. The time delay for this radioactive decay would slow down the spontaneous fusion that might otherwise take place, as the larger positive charge of the strangelet would keep it further away from the positively charged normal nuclei in the vicinity. This time delay might be sufficient to allow the spontaneous decay of the strangelet, ending the fusion reaction.
However, in the presence of large quantities of low-Z material such as Hydrogen and Helium, this difficulty might be overcome, as they have only 1 or 2 positivbe charges, respectively. One of the objections to the proposed Lead-Lead collisions at the LHC is that they will be done in conditions of high concentrations of Helium and Hydrogen , not normally present on the moon in large concentrations where high energy cosmic rays tend to mimic LHC collisions. However, even this mimicry is not identical, as the LHC collides high-Z nuclei, and cosmic rays involve protons colliding with medium-Z nuclei. Thus, the LHC might provide an excellent growing ground for strangelet fusion, which would not take place in nature in similar conditions.
SEARCHES FOR STRANGELETS
Numerous searches for strangelets have been undertaken since their theoretical prediction of existence, without success. These include searches for positive, neutral or negative strangelets at the AGS in the 1990s, searches for strangelets at the RHIC when the AGS became the RHIC injector, and searches for strangelets generated by cosmic rays. These extensive searches have all yielded negative results, with no detection of a strangelet.
The probable reason is that strangelets require conditions for creation that do not exist either in nature, or at the RHIC/AGS. Those probable conditions by theory are creation of a large number of strange quarks, something even high-energy proton cosmic ray impacts might not create when striking our atmosphere . All such searches have presupposed the benign nature of strangelets, i.e. that they are not capable of engaging in ice-nine fusion.
"AT REST" STRANGELETS AT COLLIDERS COMPARED TO RELATIVISTIC STRANGELETS IN NATURE
There are two primary distinctions between colliders and nature for strangelet production. The LHC collider creates conditions somewhat different in nature, by colliding Lead on Lead, whereas in nature, even if the center-of-momentum energy of collision is equal to or greater than in a collider, the cosmic ray impacts are almost entirely high energy protons striking medium-Z nuclei such as Iron, Silicon or Nitrogen, which have far fewer up and down quarks initially than for Lead-Lead collisions. Whether this distinction will allow for production of strangelets at the LHC, when none have been found in nature, is still the subject of intense debate in 2008.
The other distinction is that if strangelets are exclusively neutral, then any produced in nature would be relativistic in speed relative to earth. If they have charge, as most theories suggest, then they would rapidly decelerate as they ionized their surroundings, and come to rest. However, if they have no electric charge, they would zip through earth in about 1/4 second at 99.99+% c. At such speeds, they would be relatively inert due to their time delay for fusion, and should be harmless. Conversely, if neutral strangelets are produced in a collider, they would be relatively "at rest" near to a good growing ground of low-Z material , and would endlessly orbit through earth, giving repeated opportunity to interact and grow.
Ice-nine fusion is the name coined in a July, 1999 Scientific American Letter by Nobelist Frank Wilczek for the runaway fusion of a strangelet, a theoretical particle that experimentalists have attempted to create at the AGS and the RHIC without success. Under some theories of strange matter, the great stability of the strangelet nucleon, which consists of approximately equal numbers of up, down and strange quarks, could allow for a runaway fusion reaction with normal nucleons, which consist solely of up and down quarks. This would require either a neutral strangelet so that the Coulomb barrier to fusion is not present, a negative strangelet so that it is attracted to a positive nucleus, or under some speculative theories, even a positive strangelet which could come within one Angstrom of the abundant Helium and Hydrogen nuclei and engage in spontaneous fusion.
The barrier to creation of a strangelet is the energy required to create a strange quark. Prior to the RHIC, the AGS could only create Lambda particles with only a single strange quark. The RHIC might create quite a few more. The Large Hadron Collider is projected to collide Lead nuclei at energies some 30-fold greater than the RHIC, and might create enough strange quarks to create a strangelet. Searches are planned upon commencement of collisions at the ALICE detector. Since strangelet theory predicts that they are highly radioactive at low mass, but become increasingly more stable as they become more massive, it would require creation of more than a few strange quarks to create a stable strangelet that could engage in runaway fusion.
STRANGELET THEORY WHICH ALLOWS FOR RUNAWAY "ICE-NINE" FUSION
Nucleons with only a few strange quarks are highly unstable. The known particles with strange quarks are unstable because the strange quark is heavier than the up and down quarks, so strange particles, such as the Lambda particle, which contains single up, down, and strange quarks, always lose their strangeness, radioactively decaying, via the weak interaction to lighter particles containing only up and down quarks. However this instability of strangelets might cease to be true for states with a sufficiently large number of quarks. This is the "strange matter hypothesis" of Bodmer and Witten. According to this hypothesis, when you collect a large enough number of quarks together, the lowest energy state is one that has roughly equal numbers of up, down, and strange quarks, namely a strangelet. The theories show that with increasing mass, the stability of a strangelet increases, increasing the radioactive half-life until with sufficiently large mass, they are fully stable. Various theories predict either positive, neutral or negative strangelets.
FUSION REQUIREMENTS
In order to engage in fusion, any newly created strangelet would be required to come into close contact with normal matter, allowing the strong force to bind the quarks from both nucleons, with a release of fusion energy. The newer, larger strangelet, following fusion, would have an excess positive charge , which would require subsequent emission of a positron as a radioactive decay mode. The time delay for this radioactive decay would slow down the spontaneous fusion that might otherwise take place, as the larger positive charge of the strangelet would keep it further away from the positively charged normal nuclei in the vicinity. This time delay might be sufficient to allow the spontaneous decay of the strangelet, ending the fusion reaction.
However, in the presence of large quantities of low-Z material such as Hydrogen and Helium, this difficulty might be overcome, as they have only 1 or 2 positivbe charges, respectively. One of the objections to the proposed Lead-Lead collisions at the LHC is that they will be done in conditions of high concentrations of Helium and Hydrogen , not normally present on the moon in large concentrations where high energy cosmic rays tend to mimic LHC collisions. However, even this mimicry is not identical, as the LHC collides high-Z nuclei, and cosmic rays involve protons colliding with medium-Z nuclei. Thus, the LHC might provide an excellent growing ground for strangelet fusion, which would not take place in nature in similar conditions.
SEARCHES FOR STRANGELETS
Numerous searches for strangelets have been undertaken since their theoretical prediction of existence, without success. These include searches for positive, neutral or negative strangelets at the AGS in the 1990s, searches for strangelets at the RHIC when the AGS became the RHIC injector, and searches for strangelets generated by cosmic rays. These extensive searches have all yielded negative results, with no detection of a strangelet.
The probable reason is that strangelets require conditions for creation that do not exist either in nature, or at the RHIC/AGS. Those probable conditions by theory are creation of a large number of strange quarks, something even high-energy proton cosmic ray impacts might not create when striking our atmosphere . All such searches have presupposed the benign nature of strangelets, i.e. that they are not capable of engaging in ice-nine fusion.
"AT REST" STRANGELETS AT COLLIDERS COMPARED TO RELATIVISTIC STRANGELETS IN NATURE
There are two primary distinctions between colliders and nature for strangelet production. The LHC collider creates conditions somewhat different in nature, by colliding Lead on Lead, whereas in nature, even if the center-of-momentum energy of collision is equal to or greater than in a collider, the cosmic ray impacts are almost entirely high energy protons striking medium-Z nuclei such as Iron, Silicon or Nitrogen, which have far fewer up and down quarks initially than for Lead-Lead collisions. Whether this distinction will allow for production of strangelets at the LHC, when none have been found in nature, is still the subject of intense debate in 2008.
The other distinction is that if strangelets are exclusively neutral, then any produced in nature would be relativistic in speed relative to earth. If they have charge, as most theories suggest, then they would rapidly decelerate as they ionized their surroundings, and come to rest. However, if they have no electric charge, they would zip through earth in about 1/4 second at 99.99+% c. At such speeds, they would be relatively inert due to their time delay for fusion, and should be harmless. Conversely, if neutral strangelets are produced in a collider, they would be relatively "at rest" near to a good growing ground of low-Z material , and would endlessly orbit through earth, giving repeated opportunity to interact and grow.
Hippo.com.au is an employment website. It won the SmartCompany's 2007 Top Website of the Year award in 2007 and was nominated for the Deloitte Tech Fast 50. Hippo targets the youth market in Australia. It was founded by James Masini while pursuing an undergraduate degree in Business Management Entrepreneurship at RMIT in Melbourne, Australia.