Concepts of Disaster Myths in Disaster Research

Concepts of Disaster Myths in Disaster Research Disaster myth is one of the most component in disaster research. Disaster myth is a significant part of disaster research. It not only contains important characteristic of this field but also affects other element in disaster research. It merits the attention of many researcher. To have a deep understanding of disaster myth, a broad view of disaster research should be taken into account. Definition: The issue of devising a definition or assessing consensus on a definition plays an important role in not only theoretical but also empirical research. In Handbook of Disaster Research, Ronald W.Perry’s What is a disaster is a prominent research in dealing with this issue. He argued that in regard to definition, he tried to recount the efforts to define disasters by social scientist, instead of seeking a new definition. In this paper, he clarified the problem of definition by specifying its type, purpose, and audience. First of all, he set the type of definition as an area of study, not a concept, although these two dimension are not clearly separable. Therefore the definition that he proposed will address concerns of paradigm and do so by identifying critical features or characteristics of disaster (Perry, 2007) – which is categorized as real definition, more appropriate to define an area of study. Since disaster will always mean many things to many people, and the desc ription will serve many different purposes – thus there will be many definitions (Perry, 2007). He narrowed the scope of definition by following Quarantelli’s research to explain the definition under social scientist’s angle. Hence, the important aspects need to be concerned when defining disaster research is the social context and tradition. He divided disaster definition research into 3 main areas: the first is the classical approach, second is hazards-disaster tradition and the last is explicitly socially-focused tradition. In the first part, with the most prominent representative scholar as Fritz, who proposed a definition of disaster in 1961 and its impact has remained until recent time, the main characteristic of disaster definition is dealing with social order disruption (Fritz’s therapeutic community is a significant example) and the emergent norm thinking. The main image of disaster in these research is negative consequences. It was manifest on the definitions that were presented in the first three definition published (by Wallace, Killian and Moore) and also the following empirical researches. Until recent time, there are still many scholar follow Fritz’s premise, but they has added some variance to it. Through these researches, he claimed the evolution in classical approach of definition in contem porary disaster research. These research was inspired by Fritz’s definition, but they also focus more on the process, adaption and change in disaster, as a cycle of adjustment from the disruption of â€Å"non-routine event†. The second area of disaster research is captured from hazards perspective. As its name, despite the fact that they may be concern about social and other aspect, the main focus is still the target agent. In this perspective, disaster is viewed as an extreme event that arises when a hazard agent intersects with a social system (â€Å"the human use system†) (Perry, 2007). Although this approach is cticized as paying too much attention to the environmental aspect of disaster and neglecting or not giving enough attention to social aspect, it is still considered as an attempt to define disaster and provide a new angle to explore the field. The classic elaborations of this approach is Burton, Kates and White. From the basis of hazards-oriented studies, until now, research direction of hazards scholar slightly moved from what might be considered an â€Å"agent centered† approach to a greater focus on vulnerability (Perry, 2007). The scholar started to add the social nature as w ell as social consequences in their studies. It has gradually moved to vulnerability, the social side of research, in spite of hazard origins. As can be seen from the development of this approach, disaster research should be examined first at it social side. It led to the third approach: socially-focused approach. This third tradition see disasters as a social phenomenon. This definition has roots from classical approach and is developed as the changing focus of hazards approach from agent centered toward vulnerability. This premise focuses mainly on social origin of disaster. Some scholar must be mentioned is Barton, Quarantelli, and Dynes. They have published their typology of disaster. For example Barton used his typology to address the cross-classified dimensions of scope (national, regional, segmental, local) by concentration of time (Perry, 2007). He emphasized the focus of the studies is on social dimensions of events, not the events themselves. In Quarantellli’s typology, disaster (1) are sudden-onset occasions, (2) seriously disrupt the routines of collective units, (3) cause the adoption of unplanned courses of action to adjust to the disruption, (4) have unexpected life histories designated in social space and time, and (5) pose danger to valued social objects. This definition has been followed by many scholar, as can be seen from literature. Although it has root in classical period research, it has added it significant features and developed much more further. Another approach to define disaster in socially-focuses direction is focus on cross-national or cross-cultural aspects. It emphasized the social structure of the definiton. In brief, these scholars see the definition in social relations angle. The 2 things that make it different from classical period approach are it characterizes disaster as a social disruption that generated from social structure and might be remedied through social structural manipulation s (Perry, 2007); and social structure can be seen as social change â€Å"analytically frozen at one point in time† (Quarantellli, 2005a, p.340). By listing up the 3 main areas of disaster definition approaches, in the end, author tried to assess levels of consensus between them. He emphasized on Quarantelli’s paradigm of disaster research with two main ideas as follows: disaster are social phenomena, and disaster is rooted in social structure and reflects the processes of social change. This paradigm again reiterates that event itself is not yet a disaster, it have to based on social aspect. Furthermore, it lead to the vulnerability aspect. Beside this, another consensus is the magnitude of disaster should not be measured by the losses of people or property, but by the failure of the normative or cultural system. It also showed the consensus of issue of resilience. The consensus of social disruption and emergent norm thingking has still remained. Finally, effort on defining disaster also focus on its social time and space rather than physical time and space. Meanwhile, there are also disagreement about these definition, as what kinds of characteristics should be included, the problem of taxonomy, and other issues. In an efforts to solve the problem of categorizing, Quarantelli (2005a, p333) distinguished disasters, catastrophes and crises. Boin , Stallings, and Rosenthal differentiated disasters and crises. As Quarantelli aruged, attention should be paid for classification systems. The taxonomy is the significant issue that researchers need to deal with in order to effectively examine disaster phenomena. In the end of the paper, researcher proposed agenda for future research. Here again he reminded reader of how important the role that definition plays in the field. There are many of empirical work, but conceptualization still remains unsolved. Lacking of this important point, the field will be fulled of individual research but without a systematic view. He also mentioned the concern of taxonomy, as the classification systems still need to be examined carefully. In conclusion, author has fully synthesized the development and different approach when defining disaster – a basic and central part of disaster research. By providing 3 main traditions of research in disaster definition, the consensus in term of disaster’s characteristic has been explained thoroughly. Moreover, he also proposed the problem remains in the field, as further research should pay attention to conceptualization issue and classification systems. Only by doing this that research can solve the problem of definition, reach closer to the consensus in the field. This paper gave reader the insight into the field, since they can get the broader view of disaster research. The second paper we need to take a look at in order to have a general view of disaster research is The social science study of disasters and mass communications written by E.L. Quarantelli (1987). In this paper, the author has summarized the previous reseaches on social disaster research to depict the present overall state of knowledge. Therefore pointing out the focus of research field, analyzed significant themes of researches through the number and research orientation of studies. He also synthesized the studies related to mass communication in disaster research and finally proposed the way for future research Quarantelli (1987). Plagiarism As trying to provide a overall view of past and current research, he summarized the development of research field. Although the first systematic social science disaster study has ever been undertaken was started from 1920, until the end of World War II that social and behavioral research of disasterous events started to have any continuity and began to accumulate a body of data (Quarantelli, 1987). He chose it as a starting point to evaluate the pioneering efforts of research. At that time, there were 3 organizations that made great contribution to the establishment of fundamental basis. It was National Opinion Research Center (NORC), Disaster research group (DRG) and Disaster Research Center (DRC). Though there was a little discrepancy between research object of these organizations, caused by their differences in research orientation. For instance, NORC paid most attention to reactions of victims, while DRG focused more on group behavior. Despite of that fact, their shared the common feature at research entities that studied both natural and technological disaster and the reseearchers were mainly sociologists. Moreover, beside the victim, transmission of warnings message of potential disaster was also attracted attention from researchers, while little attention was paid to mass communication organization, both from theoretical and empirical studies. When conducting the research about warning message transmssion of media, warning process was the main purpose, not the operation of mass communication. The author emphasized on the unequal coverage of research, since it paid very little attention on institutional area. The reasons provided for this kinhd of dispropotionate research were the problem of methodology because it is hard to apply audiences quantitative method towards mass communication systems and the funding agencies. Another dominant feature of research at the pioneer studies was they did not recognize the â€Å"dual role† that mass communication plays in disasters. They just focused on the reporter role, furthermore, emphasized on the doubt of its validity when reporting disasters, known as disaster mythology. By doing this, they neglected another role that mass communication plays – the role of major organizational actors in preparing for and responding to disasters. Depart from the pioneering efforts, after 1960s, it marked a next stage of disaster research. It has been a remarkable development of both number and scope of research in compare with the earlier period. The author highlight some major themes found in research findings and observation to synthesize the knowlege gained by social science researchers in term of individual and groups’ behavior that mass media reports in emergency time. Therefore, pointing out the part remains little or unexplored, to suggest recommendations for further research. There are two main themes, covers individual and organiztional behavior. Individual behaviors are described as showing the strong ability to adapt to extreme situation of survivor, their actively behavior in rescure efforts, their stable mental health condition, their choice when choosing friend, family’s place rather than public shelters. Scholars (Fritz, Barton, Dynes, Drabek, Quarantelli and Kreps) concluded that victims absolute ly have ability to deal well with disaster. There is a very high consensus that these behaviors are very different from what media report about victim during emergency time. The image of victim behaviors depicted by media is panic, passive, go crazy, lose control, searching for public help. The discrepancy between reality and media report and audience belief is characterized as the â€Å"myths† of disasters (Quarantellli and Dynes, 1972). The second theme is also related to disaster myths, it is description of organizational behavior in disaster time. As conveyed from media report, organizational behavior can be seen as effective, almost indispensable, there is a strong emphasis on the critical role it plays in disaster situation. However, the actual behavior of organizations which was examined by the researchers shows a sharp contrast. In reality, orginizational behavior is ineffective, and even have negative effect in rescue process, as weak ability of managing effort and poor decisions made by public and private bureaucracies (Quarantelli, 1985a). In brief, these two research themes of individual and organizational behavior which relate to disaster myths show the discrepancy between actual behavior and image conveyed by media report. Hence, mass media is responsible for not framing the false image of behavior in emergency time. In searching for explanation, some researchers have stated that mass media personnel ten d to take a â€Å"command post† view of disaster (Quarantelli, 1987). Through looking closer to a series of specific studies, the author reiterated the limited number of researches about mass communication in disaster research. Although research in Japanese, French have a slightly higher focus on mass communication, in comparison with research in English langague, the quantity of research regard to mass communication remains small. He also listed some unexplored questions and research areas, such as research relates to operation of naitonal systems in disaster, functioning of cable system, disaster-relevant aspects of magazine productions (Quarantelli, 1987). The disproportion of focus between print media and electronic media is also a problem need to be examined. After listing the specific studies, he concluded that there is a prominent increase in number of empricial research on mass communications and theoretical formualtions efforts in term of mass media operations in the filed. The researcher also proposed the factors that contributes to this acce leration. (Perry, 2007) References Perry, R. W. (2007). What is a disaster? Handbook of disaster research (pp. 1-15): Springer. Quarantelli, E. L. (1987). The social science study of disasters and mass communications. Quarantelli, E.L. (2005a). A social science research agenda for the disasters of the 21st century. In R.W. Perry E.L. Quarantelli (Eds.),What is a disaster? New answers to old questions(pp.325–396).Philadelphia: Xlibris. Quarantelli, E.L. and Russell Dynes (1972) When disaster strikes. Psychology Today 5: 66-70. Quarantelli, E.L (1985a) An assessment of conflicting views on mental health; in C. Figley (ed) Trauma and Its wake (pp. 173-215). New York: Brunner Mazel.

Growth And Development In Babies Essay -- essays research papers

Babies grow and develop at a very rapid rate during the first year of life. They grow physically, mentally, emotionally and socially. However, through this portfolio, I intend to discuss the physical growth and development patterns of the infant through their first year.To begin with, development refers to the baby's increased skill in using various body parts. When dealing with the development of a child there are three basic developmental rules.First Developmental Rule:This rule states that babies develop in the head region first, then the trunk, and lastly in the legs and feet. Therefore, it is said that babies develop in a head-to-toe direction or cephalocaudally. For example, a baby can hold up their head before they can grasp an object with their hand. Also, they can feed themself before they can walk.Second Developmental Rule:The second rule explains that children develop from the midline, or centre of the body, outward toward the fingers and toes. This stage or rule is the one which affects the development of motor skills. Motor skills are the child's ability to control movement. There are two basic classifications of motor skills, gross motor skills and fine motor skills. Gross motor skills are those which involve the large muscles. Whereas, fine motor skills are those involving the smaller muscle groups. For example, a child can grasp a big ball in their arms before they can catch a baseball in their hands. The fine skills of hands and feet are the last to develop.Third Developmental Rule:Finally, this rule reveals that, as the brain develops, a child responds to more and more sights and sounds in their environment. Furthermore, they learn to respond to much finer details.The Baby's BodyIn this section, you will find specific break-downs of the baby's body parts. I decided to do this to show how the baby grows and develops in each area of their body. Also, you will see how these developing body parts affect the developing motor skills of the child. The following areas will be discussed, their size and weight, the head, brain, eyes, ears, arms and hands and finally, the legs and feet and the trunk.Size and WeightThe average baby is 20 inches long at birth, or 50.8cm. However, not all babies are born the same length, generally, lengths vary from 18-21.5 inches or 45.7-54.6 centimetres.The average baby weighs 7.5 pounds at birth, or 3.4 kilogra... ...eveloping control over her body.She can sit with support and may sit alone for short periods of time. She can roll over She will hold out her arms to be lifted up or reach and grab an object. She can hold her own bottle and toys. She laughs out loud, babbles, "calls" for help and screams when annoyed. Height-26 inches *Weight-16 poundsWhat can a 9-month-old baby do?At 9 months, she is exploring her environment.She can sit unassisted, crawl, pull to a stand and side-step along furniture. She can use her fingers to point, poke, and grasp small objects. She feeds herself finger foods She knows her name and responds to simple commands She uses "jargon"-babbling a pattern as if she were speaking a foreign language. Height-27.5 inches *Weight-19 poundsWhat can a 12-month-old baby do?At 1 year, she is striving for independence.She stands and may walk by herself. She climbs up and down stairs and out of the crib or play-pen. She prefers using one hand over the other and can drop and throw toys. She fears strange people and places. She remembers events, expresses affection, shows emotions, uses trial and error to solve a problem. Height-29.5 inches *Weight-22 pounds

Modern Gadgets Have Made Us Slaves

Disaster Mitigation of Debris Flows, Slope Failures and Landslides 727 Development of Earthquake- and Landslide-Proof Public Buildings and their Transformation into Shelters in Case of Emergency Emmerich Simoncsics Institute for Architecture and Design, Vienna University of Technology, Karlsplatz 13, 1040 Vienna, Austria ([email  protected] ac. at) Abstract Due to the occurrences of the Niigata-Chuetsu earthquake 2004, last October the Vienna University of Technology already delivered proposals concerning the reconstruction and future disaster mitigation for the protection of the people in the Niigata prefecture.Humane accommodation for the victims should be provided in public buildings, which are earthquake- and landslide-resistant, as well. Last year a selection of earthquake and landslide resistant public buildings have been designed in interdisciplinary cooperation between students of architecture and experts for structural engineers, dealing with projects of tourist facilities , schools, sports and health centers, buildings for research, congress and administration centers with exhibition areas.The buildings have a regular function in â€Å"normal case†, but each of them can be converted within 6 (six) hours into a shelter for 2,000 victims in case of emergency, providing humane accommodation and board for several months. Integrated are emergency hospitals, storages, water reservoir and energy supply. So-called â€Å"familystands† (3 ? 3m), which can be easily assembled, can accommodate six persons each (in three levels, like in a train for overnight trip). The experiences show that emergency accommodations should be made possible in all kinds of public buildings in hazard-prone countries like Japan.Regarding the â€Å"Reconstruction Activities†, according to the future demands, the economical development of the Niigata prefecture shall be enhanced by the above proposed buildings. This year, therefore, covering the topic of â€Å"Str ategy for Disaster Mitigation†, additional public facilities with various functions will be developed and concerning the theme of â€Å"Risk Management† the organization of immediate medical aid (emergency hospitals) and the procedure of quick ccommodation (transformation of the buildings and transportation of victims) will be treated. It is intended to show the research results in the framework of a poster exhibition. Keywords: Niigata, earthquake, landslide, reconstruction, disaster mitigation, Introduction The engineer has the task to do research in the ? eld of natural sciences and to ? nd the truth about the violating forces of Nature. He has to detect the danger for human beings and call the society’s attention to the risks.Moreover, the engineer (including the architect) is supposed to propose practice oriented solutions in order to reduce the hazards and the politicians together with the engineers are responsible to realize the relevant countermeasures in order to protect the population from catastrophes. However, close cooperation with the public is necessary, as well. The truth is that no engineer can stop earthquake and they will occur also in the future. Therefore, necessary preparations have to be done. Expectancy of life may increase in the future. After forty years it might be even 90 years.The last repeat of an earthquake in Niigata was after 40 years (1964–2004). It is not impossible, that an earthquake may happen after 40 years again. Considering the life expectancy, people of even 50 years old today, living in Niigata, may once more experience an earthquake. Based on this awareness, â€Å"middle-aged† and younger engineers and politicians are responsible for the protection of human life and property. In the framework of this symposium we exchange our experiences and thoughts about possible improvements of the present situation.How does future look like? â€Å"Future† is a very important concept in thi s connection. We cannot create improvements for the future with our present attitude toward our present situation. With our present attitude no change into a more safe life in future can be achieved. We cannot in? uence the laws of Nature: violating forces will always threaten our population. In order to protect our lives against hazards, we have to detect the truth and change our mind accordingly. In order to be able to work e? iently and in a practice-oriented way, in 2002 (after a severe disaster in Austria caused by ? ood) the â€Å"VUT (Vienna University of Technology) Cooperation Center for pp. 727–732 c 2006 by Universal Academy Press, Inc. / Tokyo, Japan 728 Disaster Mitigation and Security in Buildings† was founded. It is a platform and network to foster meetings of several institutes, in order to exchange and coordinate their research activities and form groups to continue their research topics in interdisciplinary cooperation.The most important events are th e yearly arranged public exhibitions, in which the research results are presented. Basically it consists of two sections — the â€Å"Section for Fundamental Research† and the â€Å"Section for Objectoriented Research†. Whereas the â€Å"Section of Fundamental Research† elaborates the basic theories by means of the data and facts about natural hazards (case studies), the â€Å"Section for Object-oriented Research† aims at the practical application of this knowledge to buildings, in order to mitigate or even prevent structural damages and the loss of human life.The proposals are developed by means of â€Å"Research Driven Education Programs†, involving interested and talented students in the design procedure of buildings for concretely de? ned hazard-prone areas, under the constant surveillance of consulting engineers and experts. The Vienna University of Technology has been conducting research activities on the topic of â€Å"Disaster Mitiga tion† already since the year 2000 in cooperation with the University of Tokyo and other related institutes and universities.The method of interdisciplinary cooperation became the basis for the research principles of the above described â€Å"VUT (Vienna University of Technology) Cooperation Center for Disaster Mitigation and Security in Buildings†. As most of the damages caused by natural hazards concern buildings and consequently the people within them, the main focus is placed on the development of hazard-proof construction techniques for public and residential buildings, as well. Method The subject of investigation is ? exibility in public buildings. There are di? erent types of buildings with di? erent functions. There are buildings with several functions (e. . o? ce building mixed with hotel and exhibition hall) and others with one main function (school, exhibition hall, theater, sports facilities, congress center, museum, library, cultural center, hotel, hospital, health center, etc. ). These buildings are very di? erent in their operation, as well. A comparative method helps to investigate the degree of ?exibility in each type of building, which shows the e? ciency of these buildings as a shelter for the accommodation of victims in case of emergency. The ? rst target is to develop some public building types and investigate the possibilities of ? exibility.Within a building there are spaces, which 1) fully can be evacuated to give place for another function (e. g. seminary rooms, exhibition hall, gym, stadium, etc. ) provided there are su? cient storages available, 2) can be rearranged, e. g. : a) hotel rooms, by additional bunk beds in order to increase the capacity of accommodation or b) a banquet hall, in order to enlarge the capacity of a restaurant also for victims, or c) a foyer / lobby to provide space for organization and discussions between the victims and the crisis managers or d) a wellness center / swimming pool, to use them for sanitary purposes, etc.Function of crisis management 1) Public buildings usually lack some special facilities for the case of emergency (e. g. ?rst aid, smaller scale medical center or clinic, su? cient storage area for food, drinking water, clothes and family stands, water reservoir also for cleaning, sanitary and catering facilities, energy supply, etc. ) These facilities are supposed to be planned in addition, in order to achieve a humane environment for the victims. 2) In those buildings, which serve as a shelter, transportation of persons (victims) and necessary objects (blankets, food, etc. temporarily increases. Heliports near to these buildings are required because the access roads might be destroyed after a disaster. Family stands 1) are equipments, which in normal case are mainly used in exhibition buildings / halls or international fairs. However, nowadays, many other public buildings (schools, universities, museums, o? ce buildings, hotels, department stores, etc. ) also o? er exhibition areas and use stands to display the relevant exhibits. 729 2) By means of a very simple additional device these stands can be equipped with attachable â€Å"beds† (max. ix in each family stand of 3 ? 3 m). The goal of these stands is to achieve privacy for each family and to increase the capacity of a ? oor for accommodation purposes. In order to reach an economical arrangement of the family stands, the newly designed buildings have to take the size and layout of the family stands into consideration. Projects, Examples Some architectural projects carried out in the last years shall demonstrate the methods and aims of our interdisciplinary research cooperation. â€Å"Sports hotel and Bull? ght Arena†, Design: R.Malinov This project considers a local attraction — the bull? ght — for the design of a hotel building in combination with sports- and training-facilities. Additionally, the structure provides a medical center and can be transforme d into a shelter for up to 2000 victims within 6 hours. â€Å"Theatre in landslide-prone Area† in Niigata, Design: I. Mach This project takes the risks of a landslide-prone area into consideration. The structure is ? xed in the ? rm ground by anchor-foundations and the access way protected by a wall. â€Å"High-rise building in Tokyo†, Design: A.Gr? nanger u In cooperation with Dr. M. Hochrainer (Assistant, Institute for Structural Engineering and Technology) the application of a so called â€Å"Tuned Liquid Column Damper† was tested on a high-rise building. By means of an experiment on the shaking table the functionality of the proposed construction was proved. The facility is very economical and can be installed even on the top of existing buildings. Tuned liquid column dampers (TLCDs) are passive energy absorbing substructures to control vibrations of buildings when e. g. exposed to earthquake or wind loads.They can be used to prevent structural Fig. 1. Earth quake-proof Sports Hotel and Bull? ght Arena, model and section Fig. 2. Sports Hotel and Bull? ght Arena — ? oor plans: equipment with family stands in case of emergency 730 Fig. 3. Landslide-proof Theatre and Exhibition Hall for Niigata Fig. 4. Increase of the capacity of hotel rooms in case of emergency by bunk beds and family stands Fig. 5. Earthquake-proof high rise building: model+shaking-table-experiment with tuned liquid column damper 731 Fig. 6. Detail: TLCD — Tuned Liquid Column Damper lements from damage (earthquake load) or increase human comfort due to reduced ? oor accelerations (strong wind load). The actual implementation of a TLCD is uncomplicated, since it only consists of a rigid piping system, partially ?lled with water, allowing the water column to move inside the piping system. A movement of the TLCD housing induces a motion of the water column, and vibrational energy is transferred to the TLCD in a desired way. The energy dissipation of a TLCD is caused by viscous and turbulent ? uid damping, which can be regulated by the insertion of hydraulic resistances (ori? e plates) to obtain a required damping characteristics. In addition to the plane TLCD already established in literature, an entirely new arrangement, called the torsional TLCD (TTLCD) has been proposed. Plane TLCDs are very promising in mitigating ? exural vibrations whereas TTLCDs are used to reduce torsional or coupled ? exural torsional vibrations. Although the construction of a tuned liquid column damper is quite di? erent from the well known tuned mass damper (TMD), a TMD-TLCD analogy has been found, which allows to use design guidelines of the extensively researched TMD.The conventional TLCD is a purely passive energy absorbing device, and its application reduces the steady state dynamic response of vibrating structures substantially. However, especially during the strong motion phase of earthquakes several response peaks remain, which can be eliminated by the application of an actively controlled air-spring setup integrated into the TLCD. This extended hybrid TLCD concept combined with an energy saving control design preserves the salient features of TLCDs: cheap and easy implementation into civil engineering structures, little maintenance costs and a performance comparable to TMD.Considerable vibration reduction has been shown in extended numerical simulations for both, wind and ground excitation. Existing buildings 1) In 2004 around 100. 000 people needed temporary accommodation. As newly built buildings will not cover the required space completely, it will be necessary to investigate the possibilities in existing buildings (gyms, exhibition areas, sports stadiums, etc. ) as well, whether appropriate areas can be converted into a shelter in case of emergency. 2) In this connection the students’ help is absolutely necessary.In the framework of the general education program, students could carry out analyses on the above theme, as king for the cooperation of the managers of some existing buildings. Future development 1) A part of the public buildings may serve in the most attractive mountainous areas of the Niigata Prefecture to enhance the interest of tourists and last but not least of the young generation to ? nd a job in the ? eld of tourism and resort facilities. This could become also a countermeasure against the aging society in the mountainous areas.Also for this purpose the investigation of the geological quality of possible sites is necessary. 2) In this connection the feasibility of this idea has to be investigated. However, simultaneously a realistic project has to be developed and announced among the population (questionnaire). 732 Conclusions 1) According to the experiences of the Chuetsu Earthquake the value of the lost property (including private houses) should be compared with the possible sum of future investments. The horrible amount of the lost value should make us conscious that investment s are worth making before a disaster ccurs again. 2) In the framework of this symposium we exchange our experiences and thoughts about possible improvements. Therefore, I suggest ? nishing this symposium with a RESOLUTION on immediate measures to be proposed to the government. 3) In order to achieve an e? cient international cooperation, based on the experiences of the â€Å"VUT (Vienna University of Technology) Cooperation Center for Disaster Mitigation and Security in Buildings† the principles should be extended also in other universities.It is not enough to meet every 4th year, the research and realization activities must be done uninterruptedly.References Catalogues of the exhibitions — 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005: Vienna University of Technology (2001), Disaster Mitigation — Catalogue Exhibition 2001 Vienna University of Technology (2002), Architecture and Disaster Vienna University of Technology (2003), Innovations for Disaster Mitigation and Security in Buildings Vienna University of Technology (2004), Disaster Prevention and Security in Buildings Vienna University of Technology (2005), The Niigata Project

Impact of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill on USA’s...

Depleting reserves, high oil prices and spectacular offshore discoveries concentrated a global attention to deep water (National Geographic, p.3). Joel and Bourne (2010) claim â€Å"the Gulf of Mexico now accounts for 30 percent of U.S. production, with half of that coming from deep water (1,000 to 4,999 feet)†. The U.S. government roughly calculated that the deep Gulf might contain 45 billion barrels of oil (NG, p.44). Hence, this fact gave new reasons for oil companies to drill oil wells in that region. The Minerals Management Service (MMS), the national agency that administrated offshore drilling, used to claim that the possibilities of blowout were less than one percent, and that if one did happen, it would not release much oil (National†¦show more content†¦After two months Macondo well began gushing crude oil, President Barack Obama addressed to the nation from the Oval Office, he said: â€Å"Already, this oil spill is the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced. And unlike an earthquake or a hurricane, it is not a single event that does its damage in a matter of minutes or days. The millions of gallons of oil that have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico are more like an epidemic, one that we will be fighting for months and even years.† Through January 25, 2011, there were collected 8,209 birds, 1,143 sea turtles, and 109 marine mammals affected by the spill—alive or dead, visibly oiled or not (Unified Area Command). It is quite apparent that the Deepwater Horizon blowout is both terrible environmental and human catastrophe and it will probably demand not months but decades of nationwide effort to address and recover (Deep water).The specific goal of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework for identifying and understanding the economic and environmental consequences of Deepwater Horizon oil spill and to determine appropriate approaches to avoid future disasters. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill seriously enda ngered a rich, productive marine microfauna and ecosystem. Since tens of millions of gallons of oil gushed into the ocean directly affecting rich marine fauna. Moreover the disaster occurred at peak spawning and nesting season for many species of fish, birds, turtles and marineShow MoreRelatedStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 PagesImproving Customer Service 18 †¢ Improving People Skills 19 †¢ Stimulating Innovation and Change 20 †¢ Coping with â€Å"Temporariness† 20 †¢ Working in Networked Organizations 20 †¢ Helping Employees Balance Work–Life Conflicts 21 †¢ Creating a Positive Work Environment 22 †¢ Improving Ethical Behavior 22 Coming Attractions: Developing an OB Model 23 An Overview 23 †¢ Inputs 24 †¢ Processes 25 †¢ Outcomes 25 Summary and Implications for Managers 30 S A L Self-Assessment Library How Much Do I Know About Organizational