The Disaster Cycle

The Disaster Cycle The disaster cycle or the disaster life cycle consists of the steps that emergency managers take in planning for and responding to disasters. Each step in the disaster cycle correlates to part of the ongoing cycle that is emergency management. This disaster cycle is used throughout the emergency management community, from the local to the national and international levels and it is: Mitigation: Minimizing the effectsPreparedness: Planning the responseResponse: Efforts to minimize hazards that were created by the disasterRecovery: Returning the community back to normal with relief Starting the Disaster Cycle Again Finally, using the lessons learned from the response, recovery, and mitigation phases of the disaster the emergency manager and government officials return to the preparedness phase and revise their plans and their understanding of the material and human resources needs for a particular disaster in their community.

capital punishment Essays (1266 words) - Human Rights, Free Essays

Capital Punishment The death penalty, also known as capital punishment, has been abolished in most modern first world societies, but not all. There is much debate as to whether it is right for countries like the United States to continue to use this type of justice, and if it is an efficient way to fight crime. However, there are many arguments as to why there is no place for the death penalty in a civilized society and that it is not an effective way of stopping crime. A justice system which is based on rehabilitation is far more effective in reducing violent crime than a strictly punishment system that includes a death penalty; this can be seen clearly when comparing Canada?s to the U.S.A?s crime rate. Not only is the death penalty ineffective at lowering crime rate, it also costs taxpayers more than imprisoning someone for life, contrary to popular belief. In addition to the previously stated problems with the death penalty is the fact innocent people are convicted every day; innocent people have an d will continue to be murdered because of wrongful convictions. The ineptitude, cost and chance of wrongfully condemning someone to death are all reasons as to why the death penalty is not the answer to crime and that there should be no place for capital punishment in a civilized society. Many people believe that the death penalty is not an effective solution to violent crime or even an efficient way of decreasing violent crimes. The fact that the death penalty does not deter crime is proven when comparing the homicide rates between Canada and the United States; although homicides are punishable by death in the U.S.A, the rate at which they occur is more than triple that of Canada?s (1.8 per 100,000 in Canada to 5.5 per 100,000in the U.S.A). These numbers reveal that not only does the death penalty not stop murders from happening, but in countries that focus on rehab rather than punishment the homicide rate is lower. Capital punishment makes little if any difference to homicide rates and has not helped countries like the U.S reduce violent crime, making it an obsolete and ineffective form of justice. The inability of the death penalty to prevent, rather than punish murder is just one of many reasons as to why it is the wrong answer for how to serve justice. The death penalty has been and will continue to be argued from a moral, ethical and legal perspective. However, some countries have abolished this practice for one simple reason: money. Although most people believe that it would cost less to execute convicts rather than give them a life sentence, it is actually the opposite; life in prison is in fact cheaper than sentencing someone to death. An audit into the cost of death penalties in Kansas counted death penalty case costs up to the execution and found that the median death penalty case costs $1.26 million. Non-death penalty cases were counted till the end of incarceration and were found to have a median cost of $740,000. For death penalty cases, the pre-trial and trial level expenses were the most expensive part, 49% of the total cost. The investigation costs for death-sentence cases were about 3 times greater than for non-death cases. The trial costs for death cases were about 16 times greater than for non-death cases with $508,0 00 for death case and $32,000 for non-death case. This audit of the Kansas justice system reveals that it not the actual execution but the trials leading up to the executions that cost the most. The extremely high cost of executions compared to a cheaper alternative that ensures the same result (crime cannot be committed while someone?s in prison) demonstrates why the death penalty should no longer be used. Some wrongful convictions are inevitable in all justice systems. In most cases when the victims are found to be innocent they are compensated somehow, but if someone is sentenced to death there is no way to make up for that. The fact that an innocent person could be murdered simply because he or she was wrongly convicted is wrong. An example of someone being wrongfully executed is Johnny Frank Garret of Texas who

International economics ( trade ) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

International economics ( trade ) - Essay Example This is so because they believed in a static international economic relations which means one can only gain if the other losses. Adam smith was the pioneer of classical economics who for the first time explained the term absolute advantage in the context of international economics in 1776. His theory of absolute advantage is based on a notion that the country should only manufacture and specialize in the goods which it can produce with the lower cost. Adam smith was a great proponent of free trade. His views of international trade are based on labor division and international specialization. Assume that there are two countries i.e. UK and USA which are trading two goods i.e. wheat and cloth internationally. UK produces wheat by hiring 10 labors whilst US has an advantage to produce the same amount of wheat by employing 6 labors. The above statistics reveal that US has labor specialization in the production of wheat and UK specialize in the production of cloth. This situation leads to trade between US and UK for wheat and cloth respectively. According to Smith’s theory of trade US should export wheat whilst UK should export cloth if they want to gain from the trade. Portugal has absolute advantage in wine and cloth production over UK. According to the theory UK will export cloth because its absolute disadvantage is less here as compared to the production of wine. Contrarily Portugal should export wine as its absolute advantage in case of wine is greater comparatively. Before trade production of wine requires 120 labors whilst cloth’s production involves 100 labors which means production of cloth is cheaper in UK. This is so because 1 unit of wine will cost 1.2 (120/100) units of cloths. More precisely, with a labor UK can either produce 1 unit of wine or 1.2 units of cloth. The situation is reverse in Portugal as it has absolute advantage in the production of both goods. However, the production of wine is cheaper

Envs 1000 research essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Envs 1000 research - Essay Example The field of agriculture accommodates many workers as compared with most other industries. In addition, agriculture helps in boosting international trade through imports and exports. Therefore, without productive agriculture, people and society as a whole would not be privileged to enjoy the same quality of life. This paper presents a discussion on the role of agriculture in Canada and its possible environmental implications, and it covers food, food production and loss of biodiversity. Agriculture plays a very significant role in society by improving life quality and in the production of marketable commodities for food, fuel, fiber among others (Holland, 2012). Agricultural activities facilitate the production of individuals’ basic needs such as food, shelter and clothing thereby improving the living standards and quality of life. Primarily, agriculture provides people with food from either crops or animals and agricultural food are full of nutrients and nourishes individuals ’ bodies. Agriculture provides the basis of subsistence by ensuring adequate production of food and safety (Holland, 2012). Food is very essential for individuals to survive; therefore, agricultural intervention is necessary to ensure that there is adequate food supply. Agriculture assures food security to the people and individuals work hard to increase agricultural productivity and secure enough food. Animal products such as milk, meat, or even eggs serve as a food source and are consumed by people. Similarly, plant products such as cabbages and other vegetable are also other food sources produced though agriculture. All food produced in Canada guaranteed high quality of production, environment as well as welfare standards. Secondly, agriculture provides us with fiber, cotton, flax among others and all these are necessary materials needed to manufacture natural cloth. Additionally, agriculture offers different job opportunities for many Canadians considering that some peopl e prefer working on the farms while others engage in agricultural based activities. According to studies, agriculture has been stated to be the main source of income to many people in Canada especially in the rural areas. More so, agricultural industries are one of the industries that employ many people; hence, agriculture is a major contributor of Canadian’s wealth (Britton, 1996). Mostly in rural areas, the main activity that people engage in is agriculture and they depend on various agricultural activities in order to earn a living. The increasing farm size and productivity have led to larger labor productivity gains in agriculture. Approximately 340,000 Canadians work on agricultural production sites (IICA-Canada, 2005); thus, agriculture is their occupation and so they dedicate their time to it and focus on how to increase agricultural products. In addition, one of the objectives of agriculture is to eradicate poverty in the society and this is possible through job creat ions especially working on the farms. However, working on the farms can sometimes be very demanding because it requires energy in that, those working on agricultural farms should be physically energetic and this leaves those who are physically weak disadvantaged. Moreover, agriculture plays a leading role in promoting both regional and international trade thereby boosting the country’

The Apaches :: Native American Indians

The Apaches were American Indians who moved from Canada to Arizona, parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and North America between AD850 and 1400. The Apache were a wandering tribe, so they had two homes. One in the mountains and one in the desert. They lived in their houses for only a short period of time. The women built their houses which were called Wickiups. These were straw domed shaped houses. The Wickiup was only five or six feet high. Outside the Wickiup was covered with bundles of grass and branches. The early Apaches wore deer hide. They soaked the hide in water to make it soft. The men wore breechcloths and moccasins. The women wore skirts in the warm weather and simple dresses in the cold weather. The woman sometimes decorated their clothes with dried porcupine quills. The environment was important for them as they lived off the land a great deal. They lived on lots of wild plants and hunted deer, antelope, elk and buffalo. They also ate prairie dogs, squirrel and rabbits. They would not touch fish or any animals that lived in the water. As they moved around, they had to change how they lived. They picked up the ways of other cultures. For example, some of them rode horses that they discovered through the Spanish. They became fierce horse warriors from the 18th Century. They raided farming villages for food and goods. Environment was important to them because wherever they were they had to get food somehow which they hunted for. As they were on the move they had to adapt how they lived. They picked up the ways of different cultures. e.g. they learnt how to ride horses that they discovered through the spanish. The Chippewa tribe were living around Lakes Superior and Huron (now Quebec, Ontario, Michigan and Minnesota) by the 18th Century. They hunted, fished and gathered plants. They made birch-bark canoes and used the lakes and rivers to travel, so they made use of the environment by using the lakes and rivers as a use of transportation and sometimes food as they fished a lot. Did you know? Did you know there were thirty five thousand people in the Chippewa tribe!? They wore buck skin clothes and moccasins. In the winter they made fur lined shawls and wove turkey down robes. The Apaches :: Native American Indians The Apaches were American Indians who moved from Canada to Arizona, parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and North America between AD850 and 1400. The Apache were a wandering tribe, so they had two homes. One in the mountains and one in the desert. They lived in their houses for only a short period of time. The women built their houses which were called Wickiups. These were straw domed shaped houses. The Wickiup was only five or six feet high. Outside the Wickiup was covered with bundles of grass and branches. The early Apaches wore deer hide. They soaked the hide in water to make it soft. The men wore breechcloths and moccasins. The women wore skirts in the warm weather and simple dresses in the cold weather. The woman sometimes decorated their clothes with dried porcupine quills. The environment was important for them as they lived off the land a great deal. They lived on lots of wild plants and hunted deer, antelope, elk and buffalo. They also ate prairie dogs, squirrel and rabbits. They would not touch fish or any animals that lived in the water. As they moved around, they had to change how they lived. They picked up the ways of other cultures. For example, some of them rode horses that they discovered through the Spanish. They became fierce horse warriors from the 18th Century. They raided farming villages for food and goods. Environment was important to them because wherever they were they had to get food somehow which they hunted for. As they were on the move they had to adapt how they lived. They picked up the ways of different cultures. e.g. they learnt how to ride horses that they discovered through the spanish. The Chippewa tribe were living around Lakes Superior and Huron (now Quebec, Ontario, Michigan and Minnesota) by the 18th Century. They hunted, fished and gathered plants. They made birch-bark canoes and used the lakes and rivers to travel, so they made use of the environment by using the lakes and rivers as a use of transportation and sometimes food as they fished a lot. Did you know? Did you know there were thirty five thousand people in the Chippewa tribe!? They wore buck skin clothes and moccasins. In the winter they made fur lined shawls and wove turkey down robes.

Proceedings of Healthy Buildings 2000, Vol 1

Proceedings of Healthy Buildings 2000, Vol 1 629 PRODUCTIVITY AND INDOOR ENVIRONMENT Derek Clements-Croome1 and Li Baizhan2 University of Reading, Department of Construction Management and Engineering, UK Jukes Associates, UK ABSTRACT Surveys in several office buildings have shown that crowded work places, job dissatisfaction and physical environment are the main factors affecting productivity. the data was produced and analyzed using occupational stress indicator in conjunction with the analytical hierarchical process. hermal problems, stuffiness, sick building syndrome factors and crowded work places were most frequent complaints. the results suggest that the productivity could be improved by 4 to 10% by improving the office environmental conditions. KEYWORDS: SBS, productivity, thermal comfort, perceived air quality, stress INTRODUCTION It is much higher cost to employ people then it is to maintain and operate a building, hence spending money on improving the work environment is t he most cost effective way of improving productivity because of small percentage increase in productivity of 0. % to 2% can have dramatic effects on the profitability of the company. The current state of knowledge on this subject is described by Clements-Croome [1]. Practical applications of some of this knowledge is described by Oseland and Barlett [2] METHODS This research focuses on the relationship between productivity and the indoor environment in the offices and takes into account the fact that productivity depends on other factors by using an Occupational Stress Indicator (OSI) which has been developed to include an environmental dimension [3,4].OSI is a job satisfaction scale involving question or statements, asking respondent to state what they think or feel about their job as whole or specific aspects of it. Likeret scaling using five, seven or nine point scales is usually used. The OSI has been demonstrated by Arnold [5]. The occupational stress indicator is designed to g ather information about groups as well as individuals and it attempts to measure the major sources of occupational pressure; occupational stress; coping mechanisms and individual differences which may moderate the impact of stress.An environmental dimension has been built into this indicator covering temperature, ventilation, humidity, indoor air quality, lighting, noise, crowded work space and is referred to as EPOSI which has been used to gather information about the occupants in the buildings that have been surveyed. This method of self assessment provides valuable information on individual as well as group responses. The data from the questionnaire is analyzed using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) originated by Saaty[6]. AHP uses nine point judgement scales for use with detailed questionnaires aided by semi-structured interviews.The method is based on the theory of 630 Exposure, human responses and building investigations hierarchies and is a way of structuring complex mu lti-dimensional systems, by analyzing the interaction between elements in each stratum of the hierarchy in terms of their impact on elements in the stratum immediately above. It is possible to have several levels of hierarchies, but in this case five have been selected beginning with productivity followed by human factors; system factors; health factors; environmental factors. The questionnaires were answered by occupants across various work grades and tasks and were designed to elicit: background information about the organization and the workplace †¢ how much the environment and the job cause dissatisfaction †¢ the feelings of the subject about their current working situation †¢ the principle causal factors influencing health symptoms of occupants †¢ which factors influence job satisfaction and productivity Semi-structured interviews were carried out to establish more details about attitudes and reasons behind responses. Office survey A detailed environmental s urvey was carried out at an office in Reading in 1996. he questionnaire was in five sections: Section A The Questionnaire asks the occupants to judge the physical factors in the environment covering temperature, stuffiness and draughts, dryness, indoor air quality, sunlight, lightning, noise and vibration, and crowded workplaces. Questions were also asked about personal health; job stress; job satisfaction; an overall opinion about the indoor environment; including questions about five categories of sick building syndrome covering sensory irritation; skin irritations; nervous problems; nasal and odor complaints. Section BThe questionnaire concerned subjects views on how they liked the office layout and decoration as well as questions about their job in relation to productivity. They are also asked to rate how much personal control they felt had over temperature and lighting. Four questions were asked to determine self assessed productivity covering the amount of work accomplished; q uality of work; feeling of creativity; and degree of responsibility. Section C The questionnaire was concerning information which describes the characteristics of the organization, workplace and some personal information.Occupants were then asked about human factors such as well-being; ability to perform; motivation; job satisfaction and technical competence. Finally there was a group of questions concerned with indoor environment; weather; outdoor view; organizational factors; occupational factors; facilities and service; and personal factors. Proceedings of Healthy Buildings 2000, Vol 1 631 Section D The questionnaire was based on information gathered using EPOSI and five major human factors were identified which influence productivity ( well-being, ability to perform, motivation, job satisfaction, technical competence).Six system factors ( indoor environment, weather and outdoor views, organizational aspects, occupational issues, facilities and services, personal aspects) were ex amined to see how they influenced the human factors. Section E The questionnaire covered interactions between sick building sickness symptoms and an array of personal, occupational and environmental factors. RESULTS Analysis of the data shows that the level of productivity by self assessment reduces as the workspace becomes more crowded, as job dissatisfaction increases and as overall dissatisfaction of the indoor environment increases. he results lead to the overall conclusion that an average the self assessed productivity could be improved by about 10% by improving the office environmental conditions. The Spearman rank-correlation coefficient, rs, was used to assess measure of association between any two variables. The statistical analyzes of the results is given in detail by Li [7]. It was shown that a significant rank-correlation exists between self-assessed productivity and environment, job dissatisfaction and job stress, as shown in Table 1. Table 1. The association between se lf assessed productivity, environment and job factors.Factor Associated Factor Spearman RankCorrelation Coefficient Self-assessed productivity Unsatisfactory indoor -0. 49 environment Job dissatisfaction -0. 36 Job stress -0. 21 Unsatisfactory indoor Job stress +0. 31 environment Job dissatisfaction +0. 43 Job stress Job dissatisfaction +0. 36 There is unique relationship between the individual, the environment and the building they inhabit. Satisfaction with the environment. satisfaction with the environment arises from a number of issues apart from personal health (r=0. 34), sick building syndrome symptoms (r=0. 5), visual and aural problems (r=0. 36), thermal problems (r=0. 49), and crowded work space (r=0. 50). The correlation coefficients were statistically significant for p F? = 0,01 [3, 152] = 3. 92 ) (1) This indicates that subjects who suffer from physical environmental factors will suffer an increase in overall unsatisfactory environment which is positively related to ther mal problems, crowded workspace and sick building syndrome symptoms. The multiple regression equation for job satisfaction was found to be: JD = 1. 2055 + 0. 3157* JS + 0. 2572 * En + 0. 1023 * CS r = 0. 5367, F=19. 56> F? = 0,01 [3,149] = 3. 92 ) (2) This shows that high job dissatisfaction results from job stress, crowded workspace and an overall unsatisfactory environment. For self assessed productivity, the regression equation was developed using a step wise regression procedure: P=6. 8510-0. 3625*En-0. 1542*JD-0. 1329*CS (r = 0. 5083, F= 14. 86 > F? = 0,01 [3, 132] = 3. 94 (3) The principal factors which affect self assessed productivity in the offices surveyed were an overall unsatisfactory environment, crowded workspace and job dissatisfaction.A distinction was made between direct effects (i. e. those effects that do not result from any other variable in the model) and – secondary or indirect effects which arise from the interaction between one or more variables in the model. (Cohen 1983). For example an overall unsatisfactory environment has a direct effect on self assessed productivity, but there is also an indirect effect because it also affects job satisfaction which in turn also affects self assessed productivity.The total indirect effect is estimated by the product of the effects of an overall unsatisfactory environment on job satisfaction, and job satisfaction on self assessed productivity. The total effect of environment on self assessed productivity is then the result of combining the direct and indirect effects. Further analyzes showed that the most common complaints about unsatisfactory environments were those connected with high or low temperature variations; stale and stuffy air; dry or humid air. Proceedings of Healthy Buildings 2000, Vol 1 633 CONCLUSIONSThe principal conclusions were: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Individual responses illustrate that the majority of respondents believed that the o ffice environment had a direct influence on their well-being and self assessed productivity. When dissatisfaction with the environment and job were high there was a low level of self assessed productivity. Results showed that there were more occupants suffering from an overall unsatisfactory environment than from job stress and job dissatisfaction. People may be wholly satisfied with their job, but could also be quite unhappy about their work environment.In general however people reporting negative attitudes towards the environment were also the people with high job stress and job dissatisfaction. Crowded workspaces, thermal problems, and sick building symptoms due to whatever cause were the principal complaints about unsatisfactory environments. Nearly two thirds of the occupants thought that a 10% or more increase in their productivity was possible by improving the office environment. Results of the analysis also indicated that self assessed productivity could be improved by about 10%.Further analysis using the AHP model illustrated that the ability to perform, and wellbeing, were the two most important human factors that influenced the productivity of occupants in the offices surveyed. These factors together with job satisfaction and indoor environment form a virtuous cluster which is highly important in designing creative workplaces. In this study there was a small effect of the outdoor environment on productivity but this was insignificant compared to the effect of the indoor environment.Indoor air quality and pollution were the most important environmental factors influencing sick building syndrome. Compared with other personal factors (e. g. gender and type A behavior) and occupational factors, job stress was the next most significant factor which gave rise to sick building syndrome symptoms.. Results showed that the primary factors influencing productivity varied between organizations, and also between buildings or offices within the same building. Thi s research has established a reliable methodology for evaluating self assessed productivity. SymbolsCS En F JD JS p P r rs SBS Th ———— Crowded working space (7 score) An overall unsatisfactory indoor environment (7 score) For statistical F-test Job dissatisfaction (7 score) Job stress (7 score) The level of statistical significance Self assessed productivity (9 score) The correlation coefficient Spearman rank-correlation coefficient Suffer from SBS symptoms (7 score) Suffer from thermal conditions (7 score) 634 Exposure, human responses and building investigations REFERENCES: 1. Clements-Croome, D. J. , 2000, Creating the Productive Workplace, Spon Routledge. 2.Oseland, N. , Bartlett, P. , 1999, Improving Office Productivity, Longman. 3. Cooper, C. L. , 1998, Occupational Stress Indicator Management Guide, NFERNelson, Windsor. 4. Clements-Croome, D. J. , Li B. , 1995, Impact of Indoor Environment on Productivity, Workplace Comfort Forum, Royal Institute o f British Architects, London. 5. Arnold, J. , Cooper, C. L. , Robertson, I. , (1998), Work Psychology: Understanding Human Behaviour in the Workplace, 3ra Edition, Financial Times-Pitman Publishing. 6. Saaty, T. L. , 1972, Analytic Hierarchy Process, McGraw-Hill, New York. 7. Li, B. 1998, Assessing the Influence of Indoor Environment on Self Reported Productivity in Offices, Doctor of Philosophy Thesis, Department of Construction Management and Engineering, University of Reading. 8. Raw, G. J. , et al. , 1989, Further Findings From the Office Environment Survey, Part I: Productivity, Building Research Establishment, Note No. N79/89. 9. Anderson, D. , et al. , 1990, Statistics for Business and Economics, 4th Edition, West Publishing Company, USA. 10. Cohen, J. , Cohen, P. , 1983, Applied Multiple Regression – Correlation Analysis for Behaviourial Sciences, 2†³d Edition, Lawrence Earle Baum Associates, New Jersey/London.

IEP Fraction Goals for Emerging Mathematicians