Essays about Information.

CONTENTS
I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2

A. Purpose 2

B. Introduction 2
C. Problem Statement 5
D. Essential Research Questions 6
II. RESEARCH DESIGN AND DATA COLLECTION 7

A. Research Methodology 7

B. Statistical Tests 8
III. ANALYSIS 8
C. Test for the Correlation Coefficient of the Medium Sized Companies for Data Breaches and Associated Financial Impact. 10
D. Test for the Correlation Coefficient of the Large Sized Companies for Data Breaches and Associated Financial Impact 10
IV. CONCLUSION 11

Works Cited 12

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Purpose
This statistical research report has been completed to explore the validity of claims that the use of cloud computing technologies may potentially make the

Section 1: Enterprise Resource Planning Systems

With upwards of 20 stores and operations across multiple countries, Guaranteed Shoe Company should expectedly have supply chains that involve even more countries, staff, and business partners. This renders it necessarily difficult, resource-intensive and laborious to ensure the business runs effectively, especially given the automated online ordering. Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP) offer a backbone in the integration and automation of internal information systems and business processes across the logistics, manufacturing, distribution, accounting, human resources and finance functions of the organization.

It offers seamless support for internal processes and integration with external business partners to ensure that value is delivered to the customers. For instance if a client places an order for shoes that are unavailable at a store, the system can have the shoes shipped from other stores, and/or make an order from the supplier without the involvement of staff. Similarly, while the company, currently has to stock products in the stores, determine how fast they move before deciding on the pre-order amount and/or discontinue the product, this can now be done automatically. It is possible to determine how well individual products sell, and ERP systems’ automatic inventory management systems enable the company to automatically re-order more and/or make other decisions regarding the stocks. The system aggregates customers’ orders, handles purchasing and accounts payables, scheduling, order tracking, inventory control and warehousing, distribution/shipment and accounts receivables.
According to O'Brien & Marakas (2010), ERP systems create commerce platforms, backed up with additional support capabilities that include streamlined inventory management, warehouse management and flexible pricing, strengthened back office and core applications (e.g. finance and accounts receivables). Other benefits include increased visibility into the Guaranteed Shoe Company’s supply chain and ease operational scalability. Since the company is headquartered in the US and has 20 branch offices across the world, decision-making is heavily dependent on the ability for the senior managers to get excellent quality information on the company’s performance. With ERP systems, this information is readily available and continuously updated, which means that managers do not have wait for reports from the branch offices before they can a decision.

This way, the system ensures quality and efficiency in the internal processes, cost reduction, provision of real-time cross-functional information to support decision-making, and organizational agility in responding to varying consumer needs. These systems transform Guaranteed Shoe Company into one giant store, despite the geographical dispersion. However, while the company already has a website that allows automated ordering, order processing, and management, it does not have a proper ERP system, which does, however, offer it considerable value. However, the company needs to be alive to the issues associated with the implementation of ERP systems, which owing to their complexity present a considerable risk of implementation failure. Improper implementation may result in catastrophic disruptions. If the company chooses to implement the systems, it is critical to plan, customize the system to the firm’s functions, and manage the change process effectively. This frees up the staff to concentrate on other activities, such as customer service, while at once making the firm’s functional business practices easier for the company, which is critical given the company’s global operations.

Section 2: Customer Relationship Management Systems

Guaranteed Shoe Company thrives based on its great customer services, as perhaps best shown by its commitment to arrange for, and ship shoes that are unavailable at stores to the customers. Given the wide range of products, coupled with every client’s unique needs, it extremely difficult for the company to meet its obligations without the right technology. The CRM software will help the company’s sales, marketing and customer service practitioners to track relevant data about the past and future customers and prospects, as well as other life cycle and business events. Customer information may be captured from numerous contact points, including the website visits, email, fax, retail stores and personal contact with others. The data is then stored in databases that integrated and availed across the organization, effectively facilitating better customer service since all staff can access the clients’ information. Further, Guaranteed Shoe Company’s sales staff would be equipped with the tools and data necessary to support their marketing activities, o;optimizing cross- and up-selling. For instance, emails gathered through multiple contacts can be used to sent marketing information (offers, discounts and product recommendations).

It is easy to customize services to every customer because the company will have a wealth of information about them. For sales agents, decision support is easily the most important aspect of the CRM system, not least because it gives them important information about the customers’ past history, shoe sizes, type, regularity of purchases and responsiveness to marketing campaigns. With the multiple number of stores, it is important that Guaranteed Shoe Company’s retention and loyalty programs are effective by tapping into the pool of existing customers and making sure that they remain committed to the firm. Given the intense competition in the retail market, hanging onto the existing customers is critical, and if the company fully implements the CRM system, it will have the best chance of getting it right. With the help of these systems, the company can save up to 600% of the costs necessary to get new customers, achieve greater customer satisfaction, brand loyalty and equity.
Similarly, the gathered information is important in direct marketing campaigns, not least because allows the company to automate some of the marketing activities, including the planning, scheduling and tracking marketing campaigns. Manipulatable customer data is available to the Guaranteed Shoe Company’s staff, who can assess the performance of marketing campaigns, as a basis for further campaigns. For instance, the number of customers that respond to emails about new shoe lines at the company’s store can be targeted with further marketing messages (including discounts, free deliveries and other offers). Even most importantly, once orders have been placed by the customer, the system’s real-time order tracking and customer support capabilities schedule clients’ requests for service and assign them to staff where necessarily, ensuring that as many customer needs are served to the best possible extent. O'Brien & Marakas (2010) points to call center and help desk modules/software that can make the company’s sales support activities markedly easier.

Section 3: Supply Chain Management Systems

Supply chains, especially for a company whose operations spans several countries are considerable. The most important difficulties for Guaranteed Shoe Company include high volatility in the clients’ demand, higher consumer expectations in regard to customer service, in part because of the intense competition and quality. The company already uses its intranet, extranet, and electronic commerce portals to ensure customer orders are managed efficiently. In addition, the company has to ensure that it meets these expectations at acceptably low costs, because the ability to pass on additional costs to the consumers is limited both by the competition as well as the customers’ unwillingness to accept such costs, which means that if the company has to be profitable, it faces an increasing logistical burden to deliver value. Other challenges include globalized competition, commodity prices’ volatility, complex consumer demand patterns, increased financial volatility (including exchange rate volatility and inflation), globalized labour markets (raising cross-cultural and employee compensation issues), increased exposure to varied regulatory requirements across different countries, supplier landscape complexity, and geopolitical instability. Navigating all these factors is difficult enough, but even worse, is the fact that these variables are characterized by considerable uncertainty.

These risks cannot simply be managed by buying larger insurance policies, and Guaranteed Shoe Company needs to explore a range od strategies to ensure The company should shift its focus towards better cost management (logistical support) and value chain management. Operating costs reduction is critical for survival in this business, and to achieve this,the company needs to cut back its overall inventories, bolster quality, improve customer service, increase the order turnaround time, reduce capital costs and ensure that the company adheres to the highest possible ethical standards. This is impossible to accomplish without a supply chain management system. These systems integrate planning ordering, production and delivery in the organization as well as across the company’s value chain. According to O'Brien & Marakas (2010), these systems use information technology to manage and support the firm’s value creation operations from the supplier to the customer.

This system will help the company to anticipate better the customers’ needs by forecasting, which in turn allows the company to anticipate demand and plan according. Effectively, this will make it possible reduce inventories considerably since the stores will only hold stocks that are likely to move fast. This also cuts back on the cost of holding too much stock (including warehousing) and reduces the probability of shoes being unavailable in the shops and forcing clients to place singular orders that are more expensive to fulfil compared to large orders. In addition, Guaranteed Shoe Company can integrate its supply chain management system with its suppliers, to ensure seamless cooperation in the planning and delivery of the customers’ needs. This eliminates any need to for the company’s staff to fill out orders in order to get more stock. Given the fact that the company’s suppliers are spread across the world, as well as its stores, the instantaneous communication and cooperation is extremely important in overcoming many of the challenges facing a multinational company such as ours. For instance, the changes in the supply chain can be automatically reflected in the product’s pricing, which makes it possible for the company to incur the risks of exchange rate and inflation fluctuations, etc.

Section 4: Business Intelligence

Business intelligence will prove to be a critical strategy for Guaranteed Shoe Company, especially if the company chooses to implement the enterprise resource planning system, the customer relationship management system, and the supply chain management system. These systems present considerable opportunities for the company to harvest consumer, supplier, and other data, process it, and use it to create real time and actionable strategic information that can be used to create competitive advantages. The company need to invest in technologies that would create value out of the wealth of data that it will collect from its customers, suppliers, and other business partners, to help in strategic decision-making.
According to Bradburry (2014), technology, including simple tools such as Microsoft Excel and Access can transform data into usable information that would make the difference between it and its competitors. This is even more important for organizations that have the infrastructure to collect data (including ERP and CRM systems). This goes to show that in order for Guaranteed Shoe company to reap the most benefits from the recommended technologies, it needs to create synergies from the implementation of multiple similar complementary technologies. With these technologies and the wealth of data that they can gather from differing contacts with customers and business partners, it is possible to develop business intelligence. Effectively, information technology will be rendered into a tool that does not only achieve efficiencies and improve customer satisfaction but perhaps most importantly, take a central role in strategy formation. Even most importantly, is the fact that business intelligence facilitates the innovation of products and services, which help achieve further client value. For instance, the company may decide to include clothing lines if it realizes that its customers desire to shop for both shoes and clothes. The fact that the information available to the firm may be unique to it means that the data can help it generate sustainable competitive advantages.

References

Bowen, D. (2014). E-commerce: how to approach the next big thing in B2B marketing. Retrieved 2015
Bradburry, D. (2014, Apri 7). New weapon for small businesses: data mining. Retrieved 2015, from http://business.financialpost.com/entrepreneur/how-small-businesses-can-find-success-in-their-data
Brassington, F., & Pettitt, S. (2006). Principles of Marketing (4 th Ed ed.). New York: Financial Times/ Prentice Hall.
Kirby, S. L., & Richard, O. C. (2000). Impact of Marketing Work-Place Diversity on Employee Job Involvement and Organizational Commitment. Journal Of Social Psychology, 140(3), 367-377.
McKinsey & Company. (2010). The challenges ahead for supply chains: McKinsey Global Survey results. Retrieved July 25, 2015, from http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/operations/the_challenges_ahead_for_supply_chains_mckinsey_global_survey_results
O'Brien, J., & Marakas, G. (2010). Management Information Systems (10th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Companies,Incorporated.

1. Executive Summary
The use of advanced technologies in the restaurant industry is the topic chosen for this paper. The topic is researched in the light of increasing growing competition in the restaurant business sector. The details of the findings are furnished below.
1.1 Parameters of the report
The major purpose of this study is to identify whether or not the long term benefits of using advanced computer technologies in the restaurant industry would outweigh its potential costs. This study will consider the case of Pleasant Hill Kitchen and Bakery, which is an American style restaurant offering spaghetti, steak,

Introduction

The Meaning of Cyberbullying and the Purpose for This Report
Cyberbullying is a new way in which students, and sometimes adults, choose to harass or verbally assault another student or adult. It can take on many forms, like direct messaging on social media sites like “facebook,” “twitter,” or ever growingly more popular “snapchat.” Indirect messages about the victim can be posted on the assailants page without the victim even knowing about it until after the whole school is made aware. Far more rare, moreover far more disgusting, is when a physical attack on the victim occurs, is filmed, and then posted online, or shared via group messages on the phone. To make matters even scarier, the Supreme Court, earlier this year, ruled on a case, virtually making it impossible to make social media, other than email or text messages, to be admissible in any court for the purpose of proving that harassment has occurred.

How This Report Will Affect the Readers

This report will affect the readers in multiple ways. It will help to bring light on a growing problem. Provide students with the information they need to know about cyberbullying, and hopefully provide instructors with enough adequate information to know when cyberbullying may, in fact, be occurring, and arm these instructors with the tools needed to potentially sit down with a student when the signs are recognized to see what is needed to resolve the situation. The Supreme Court (wusa-9.com, 2014) may have ruled that social media is not admissible in courts, but that does not mean that there cannot be consequences in a school setting. Moreover, hopefully by showing the results of the surveys and research conducted, students who have participated on the negative end of cyberbullying can see the harm they have caused, and might want to rethink how they act in the future. Hopefully the victims will know that they are not being ignored.

The Background

It is no longer kids being stupid and knocking over a kids lunch tray, or the after-school fight in the playground. The days of good old-fashioned bullying and abusive hazing are over, and have been replaced by new forms of bullying, forms that completely dehumanize the victim, often times leading to severe injury, severe, self injury, lifelong mental and emotional instabilities, and even suicide.

According to the huge development in the internet in the 21st century, it leads the whole world to the next stage of development, changing everyone’s living habits. When the time that social media became more common to the world, people could contact others with more convenience and more effectively, which prevents the delay from distance, via social media. Moreover, social media allows people to share their thought to their friends and even strangers.

Unfortunately, the increased use of social media as the primary source of communication is directly related to the increased aggression and bullying of others. Based upon the statistics from National Center for Education Statistics, there has a huge increase in numbers of students reported being cyberbullied-from 6.2% in 2009 to 9% in 2011.
The fact that occurs increased in aggression and bullying is the account creating for accessing social media only require few information about the user. People leaving comments with rude and violent without responsibility caused a big wound to the objects. The worst case scenarios end up in suicide. Many of these are by the LGBTQ community. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (c 2015) and Stern (2014), 46 percent of trans men and 42 percent of trans women in the United States have attempted suicide. This is compared to the national average of 4.6%. One of the most notable cases of this was the suicide of Megan Meier, at the age of twelve, because she was being cyberbullied by the parent of a girl who felt Megan was ignoring (Meier Foundation, 2015)

The Way the Issue Will Be Presented

The issue of cyberbullying will be presented to the reader methodically and scientifically, with original methods and data introduced by myself, and I will include reports, statistics, and data from other sources that will substantiate what I have found.
The main objective of my research is to understand why people be more aggressive on the internet atmosphere. The next step is to find out what kind of platform people use most to share their thoughts, via random-order survey questions to analyze the reason why people are more aggressive, and do so with as much accuracy as possible.

With a better understanding of the reason of the aggressive comments in social media, the research will move to the next objective: finding out how many people have ever suffered from the comments on social media, and get a better idea of what kind of comments made them suffer the most in order to help with the last objective be more accurate.
The last objective is find out the possible way to reduce cyberbullying in the future as a result of the research; suggestions will conclude with experts’ professional viewpoints, and from data retrieved from several reliable sources and compared with the results of our testing. From there, we will hedge off a discussion of what can be done, and what absolutely needs to be done, both on this campus, and in a larger context.

METHODS

How the research and Survey Were Conducted
First of all, I will ask the marketing department of Washington State University to help with my surveys since the department has a mature system to provide surveys.
Second, I will collect the data from surveys randomly, on the campus of Washington State University, targeting included students, employees and professors.
Third, I will look at other studies and surveys conducted throughout the country, and inspect to see if anything has been done by the government to control this issue. In addition, I will explore the various mechanisms that sees social media sites have in terms of recourse for abusive conversations.
Fourth, I will contact administrators of difference social media via email, social media and phone call to collect as much as possible about the numbers of people have experienced cyberbullying. The data collected from those social media admins could help with the analysis of my second and last objective mentioned above.
In order to be accurate in the data collection from surveys, it is necessary to get help from the experienced department in the surveys area. Washington State University’s (WSU) marketing department provided a perfect place to students at WSU for getting help on survey constructing.
Constructing an effective survey is always the most important part of work, so that the very first thing I did is arranging a meeting with WSU’s marketing department in order to complete the survey as soon as possible. Fortunately, it took only a short time waiting for the responses from the marketing department. We had the first meeting the day afterward, although the survey completion took extra time because not many people were working in the department. During the meeting with them, I have noticed that the survey I brought was far from perfect, so I rewrote my surveys under their professional suggestion. In addition, the surveys became clearer and shorter which allowed people doing surveys with more enjoyment.

I started the survey collection immediately right after the completion of surveys. Since then, I have gathered data from given out surveys to random people in campus as the plan. So far I have already gathered 753 people’s surveys, yet it was falling behind my plan. However, people in campus was enjoying to do the survey for me since the survey is well written under the recommendation from the meeting with WSU marketing department.
Besides the work on survey construction and data collection via surveys, one of the main progress I presented at the proposal is gathering information about cyberbullying from the administrators from different social media platform. When the time I was arranging meeting with WSU marketing department, I researched the top social media online at the same time. The top social media included Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Google Plus, Tumblr, Snapchat, Meetup, etc I tried to contact them with the administrator through the contact they left at the sites. There were a few administrators replied my message. I will definitely look for a new approach.

How Was Data Collected

Random Question Survey:
The Survey contained the following closed ended questions:
What is your status here at WSU?: Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior, Graduate, Post-Graduate, Faculty, Staff
What social media venues are you aware of?: Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Snapchat, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn
Have you ever felt bullied over any of these social media outlets? yes, no
What site(s) were you most likely to encounter bullying? (same choices as question 2)
Have you participated in actions that may have been perceived as hurtful via social media (remember this survey is anonymous): yes or no
do you identify as a minority racially? yes or no
do you identify as a member of the LGBT community? yes or no
has any abuse you may have encountered caused you to feel depressed? yes or no
Other:
Approximately twenty hours of online research to see what studies have been done regarding the issue at hand, whether or not there are solid data collection points, and whether there are viable solutions to the problem, such as in-school consequences, grade detriments, etc.

RESULTS

The first problem I met with was efficiency. On campus in the summer session is a lot slower than other times. I planned to complete writing the survey within two days, yet it ended up taking three days because the people working for the marketing department are fewer than the fall and spring semester.
The second issue was also time related and similar as the first problem. As I was already two weeks past my funding permission granted, only 753 surveys were gathered, far behind my expectation when I was writing my proposal. On the basis that the summer session in WSU has a lot fewer students taking classes in campus, I found it difficult to ask people to do surveys for me when the population in Pullman is low, unlike the fall and spring semesters. It absolutely slowed my step in moving to the next stage of my project.
The last problem I encountered is the difficulty of contacting the administrators of different social media. Based upon the platform of social media mostly contained their own mature system of message, it creates a complicated environment for me to contact them via e-mail or phone call. It took a lot more time to find out how to contact those administrators through their platform; in addition, a few social medias required extra time to register accounts in order to send private message to the administrators.

The Findings

What is your status here at WSU?:
Freshman: 38 (5%); Sophomores: 37 (5%); Juniors: 151 (20%) Seniors: 188 (25%);
Graduate: 105 (14%); Postgraduate 151 (20%); Faculty: 75 (10%) Staff: 8 (1%)
What social media venues are you aware of?:
Facebook - 100%, Twitter - 100%, Google Plus - 58%, Snapchat - 47%, Pinterest - 73%, Instagram - 70%, LinkedIn - 20%
Have you ever felt bullied over any of these social media outlets? yes, no
yes - 512 (68%); no - 241, (32%)
What site(s) were you most likely to encounter bullying? (same choices as question 2, only for people who answered yes)
Facebook - 100%, Twitter - 90%, Google Plus - 84%, SnapChat - 70%, Pinterest - 0%,
Instagram - 10%, LinkedIn - 0%
Have you participated in actions that may have been perceived as hurtful via social media (remember this survey is anonymous):
yes - 48%; no - 52%
do you identify as a minority racially?
yes - 32%; no - 63%; no answer - 5%
do you identify as a member of the LGBT community?
yes - 8% no - 79%; no answer - 12%
has any abuse you may have encountered caused you to feel depressed? (for those who answered yes)
yes - 73%; no- 25%; no answer - 2%
Outside Findings:
According to nobullying.com (2015), the main reasons for cyberbullying are as follows:
1- People with weight problems
2- People with Disabilities
3- People who belong to racial or religious minorities
4- People who are LGBTQ or perceived as LGBTQ
This is a great chart indicating what types of bullying take place across a plane of ages, socio-ecomonic classes etc, by Docstoc.com:
What Was Learned
I learned that although there is extensive research done on suicide and its prevention, outside of this study, and probably other university studies/surveys done, not much is really known about the true impact of cyberbullying.
I found that though many people were honest on this very private and quick survey, under other circumstances, cyberbullying goes underreported. I wish that in a broader scope, I could find ways to measure the reasons for why this is so; will add more subjectiveness in discussion.
I learned that cyberbullying is a huge problem here on campus, but questions were not asked regarding whether the bullying took place before or after coming here, and whether the assailants were also people that went to go to school here, though, the the survey indicates, assuming honesty, that at least a good portion of the cyberbullying that may be occurring here.

Conclusion and Discussion of Results

Perhaps the most shocking part of this research is how little concreteness there is regarding cyberbullying. I was saddened that the survey conducted was the most finite we could find, and even then, it was largely inconclusive for the reasons discussed above. I have been a victim of cyberbullying myself before coming to WSU, and when I reported it, I was met with doubt and a feeling of uncertainty on the part of faculty and parents on how to handle what happened. It is very clear that with easier access to other people in a much more personal way, bullying has become easier than ever for the bullies, and it seems to be out of control. Without consequences of some kind, it will continue to be just as big of an issue.

Recommendations

More studies need to be conducted throughout universities, high schools, and even grade schools, so we can come up with more concrete results of how big of a problem cyberbullying is, why is it such a problem.
Psychologists and Sociologists need to be invited into this battle more, to get behind why the targets (those being bullied) are being bullied. Considering the demographics that get bullied, we need to look into the minds of those doing the bullying. Perhaps rehabilitative steps, and harsher consequences will allow for these students to really consider the potential harm they are causing their fellow students.

Not mentioned in the survey results for the sake of this paper already being way too long, is the breakdown of age groups. Those who were in the graduate - faculty and staff range, although making up about half of the survey numbers, also accounted for the least amount of cyber-abuse (and thus were excluded from answering a lot of the more important survey questions), suggesting a gap between educational level and such abuse. Some of the postgraduate students and faculty appeared to be members of my generation, however age was not a question in the survey.

Furthermore, more conclusive results, we can make more suggestions to faculty about how to respond to clear incidents of bullying on college campuses, high schools and grade schools. Having more concrete evidence of the damage done to the individuals who are victims of cyberbullying can lead us to knowing how to better give the support that these victims need, both as fellow students, and as faculty.

Works Cited

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. www.afsp.org. Our effectiveness in preventing
suicide ultimately depends on more fully understanding how and why suicide occurs. 2015. Web. 2015.
Contributors. www.nobullying.com. The Complicated Web Of Teen Lives. 2015 Bullying
Report. June 2015. Web. 2015.
Bohanna I. & Wang X. Media guidelines for the responsible reporting of suicide: a
review of effectiveness. Crisis: Journal of Crisis Intervention & Suicide, 33(4): 190–8. 2012. Print. 2015.
Burdine, N. www.wusa9.com/. Supreme Court hears social media and free speech case.
TEGNA Company (Washington D.C.). Dec. 2014. Web. 2015
Megan Meier Foundation. MEGAN TAYLOR MEIER. Meganmeierfoundation.org. 2015
web. 2015.
Public Domain. www.docstoc.com. Bullying Behavior chart. June 2010. Web. 2015
Stern, M. www.slate.com. What Drives So Many Trans* People to Suicide?. Jan 2014.
Web. 2015.

Method

This study employed the focus group interview as a method of data collection. Focus group interviews have been found effective in the supplying of information about how people act and feel about a certain topic. Focus group interviews are a qualitative method of research and are very effective in answering questions regarding how people consider an idea, event or experience.

Setting

Five focus group studies were conducted across University of California, Irvine Campus, on the 29th June, 2015 between 1:05pm and 1:32pm. UCI was well suited to the study of off-campus living on student educational engagements because the proximity to

Disasters most commonly elicit the response of city, local, state, and federal aid agencies to meet the mitigation of destruction during various phases of an emergency event. Public health legal authority, during a hazardous substance discharge, may call for both public and private agency involvement. Thrusting personnel and materials in the area must operate under the auspices of inter-jurisdictional protocol and legal authority. The objectives in this written exercise are to alert the learner, in anticipation of future professional behavior, about gaining an understanding for legal protocols in public health/hazardous emergencies while maintaining the highest levels of public safety during a disastrous event – involving dangerous substance discharges. In an effort to explore questions pertaining to the assigned case study, this essay seeks to posit descriptions, and explanations for procedural legal authorities in an emergency response situation.

Background: Question 1 & 2

At the outset it is important to present a brief overview of the definition of law, in matters of public health authorizations and preparedness. Kamoie et al. (2008) states that law can be defined “as a rule of conduct derived from federal or state constitutions, statutes, local laws, judicial opinions, administrative rules and regulations, international codes, or other pronouncements by entities authorized to prescribe conduct in a legally binding manner” (p. 23). In the event of a mass-casualty bio-chemical event a Governor can declare an emergency under the legal authority of health agency directives, for types comprising “natural disaster,” or those associated with public health disease/emergencies, according to a document Fact Sheet published by The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (Emergency Declarations, Authorities”). Since according to Kamoie et al. (2008) law is a key component of the legal public health core.

So as the situation warrants, the Governor may declare such given an assessment of the dire urgency in bio-chemical type of disaster. Although, under the Public Health Service (PHS) Act the Feds may establish such declaration. The criteria and procedures for requesting emergency response aid from state/local jurisdictions obviously varies from region to region. However, the general process allows the Governor to: (a) declare the status of emergency for a specific period of time, (b) act within state rules/regulations, and (c) coordinate/request help from neighboring states usually under authority of federal agencies gathering logistical, financial, and “technical assistance” (“Emergency Declarations, Authorities”). The extent of help and exact funding from federal government, must be coordinated.

October 1, Train Derailment: Questions 3 & 4

When multiple jurisdictions are affected by a disaster of the burgeoning greenish-yellow toxic chem-cloud formations (from the train wreck), communications are the key to releasing authorities. Inevitably, the CDC will be involved at the federal level. But as Kamoie et al. (2008) note, “at the state level, the primary legal authority to respond to emergencies has been the police power,” to act as arms of the state to regulate protections for “the health, safety, and welfare of citizens” (p. 24). This might be viewed as a first-line of immediate security. Of course, common sense dictates that some of the key legal concerns regarding first responders and volunteers, would be their safety and legal qualifications. But, just as the case of 9/11 demonstrated, first responders at the local level are on the scene initially. In critical ways, they are the key link to administrating crucial communications to multi-jurisdictional authorities and federal agencies.

The local sheriff’s office will most likely coordinate the police powers and localized actions of authority to secure the area from onlookers, and interested panicked people from further clogging up the access pathways to the areas immediately affected. In coordination of HAZMAT teams, in consideration of the gas plumes quickly proliferating and spreading, a series of communications systems will be implemented, with local Fire Department and local Public Works Department. As demonstrated in a real-life case as documented by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), in a similar train accident, fire, “heat, smoke, and fumes had restricted access to the tunnel for several days” (“Railroad Accident Brief, 2004, p. 1). The conditions involved a similar flooding, with multiple millions of gallons of water having burst from a water main. As in the case pertaining to our case study question, the situation cited in this Railroad Accident Brief which occurred in Baltimore, Maryland, the train of course was in motion at the time of derailment, having had “eight fully loaded tank cars containing hazardous materials” – all of which were “regulated by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)” (“Railroad Accident Brief, 2004, p. 1). As indicated in the initial paragraph of this Question-Section, communications in these types of public health emergencies are critical. Chief dispatchers and communication centers necessitate a variety of coordinated responses including: site evaluations, assessment of toxins, analysis of potential for explosions, prevention of further damage/injuries, and charting clear legal permissions for authorizations to act.

October 1, Health Consequences at Valley High School: Questions 5 & 6

Competencies and responses are at urgency levels when students begin to experience symptoms of toxic poisoning, especially with maximal exposure to chemical contamination from the nearby train derailment. Given the factor that deaths have already ensued, with a plethora of 9-11 calls to the local hospital, obviously the situation calls for immediate action. The Governor must proceed along the proper criteria for declaration of a state of emergency in the area specifically constituting a public health emergency. The actual local procedures for the Governor may demonstrate an urgent approval by the legislative body and/or State executive officers (“Emergency Declarations, Authorities”). Also, within the rubric of the situation it may additionally be necessary to declare an emergency of several types, in the areas of both public health and disaster depending upon how that particular State jurisdiction is established to respond.
What constitutes a public health emergency? According to federal authorities, a public health emergency is defined by the statute under portion 319 of the Public Health Service (PHS) Act as aforementioned. The situation is described as involving disease or any type of urgent public health disorder, which may also include “significant outbreaks of infectious disease or bioterrorist attacks” (“Public Health Emergency Declaration,” 2015). The federal government extensively lists all such examples which may include, but not be limited to, tornadoes, floods, flu outbreaks, hurricanes, or anything threatening to spread contaminants of disease or toxins.

Mutual aid agreements can be used both during an absent an emergency declaration, but smartly responding to the situation within common-sense legal awareness. In the clear absence of an officially authorized emergency declaration, there are options for improvement of legal competencies. In a scholarly journal article on this aspect, Gebbie et al. (2008) that four key issues may outline a framework. Authors Gebbie et al. (2008) explain that the first such area considers an expansion of sectors requiring “competency in public health law and public health legal preparedness” (p. 53). In other words, since legal ramifications can be complex, as well as the involvement of professionals in critical public health roles, each sector of stakeholders should have identifiable competencies. For example, in the case of the people actually dying within four hours of the train accident, the National Guard may need to exercise evacuation at some point, and the CDC and Red Cross may need to exercise their organizational responses. Therefore, mutual aid agreements can be used and applied in the absence of a declared state of emergency, by adhering to local laws so deemed enforceable on the local or State level on the basis and scope of best practices under the locally deemed jurisdictional statutes. Use of all readily available assessment tools, diagnoses, legal/police protections, and quarantines so available must be coordinated by such mutual aid agreements.

October 1, Further Information: Question 7a, 7b, & 7c

At this point, it is understood that the Fire Chief himself has been nearly overwhelmed by the fumes after arrival on the scene. It is also clear at this juncture that communications have been impaired. The legal and operational considerations which influence the decision to call for an evacuation is due to the ‘Red-Alert’ situation. In the case of the nursing home facility being unable to move their elderly for 24 hours, demands that communications seek another immediate route. Since the disaster has, thus far, rendered contamination covering two states an emergency outreach utilizing the communications system (temporarily) of the third adjacent state – which has not, up to this point been affected. The legal and competencies factors should be considered when deciding upon a shelter-in-place for evacuation. For example, reliance upon the professional expertise of the nursing home director who insists that the elderly dwellers cannot be moved before 24 hours, demonstrates his practical certified competency in his field. Another key factor to be considered, is whether the third state (which has not been affected) can lend help with communications while possibly creating an emergency horizontal community of responders. Gebbie et al. (2008) suggest this method to “stimulate the development of best legal practices in public health emergency preparedness for specific communities and specific types of emergency events” (p. 55). Granted, it would have been wise to have formed the coalition before disaster struck, but an urgent cooperative effort is actually beneficial to the entire hinterland, so as to retard the spread of disaster.
The requirements of the elderly and other special-needs populations must be addressed in terms of speed, safety hazards in moving them, and the quality of evacuation location shelters once there. The requirements are addressed by assessing their numbers, and the availability of suitable evacuation locations, and competent medical or care teams, in addition to police protections – until the National Guard may be authorized and deployed. Choosing between mandatory or voluntary evacuation orders is a common-sense call. For example, in the case of Valley High School students, they need to be evacuated immediately – due to the severe and present implications of illness and because of their dangerous proximity in terms of exposure to fumes. Also, they are young and able-bodied enough to more quickly respond to evacuation than the elderly. An alternative measure may need to seal off the nursing home, and administer oxygen masks temporarily until they can be moved.

October 1, Review of Legal Authorities for Evacuation: Question 8

According to FEMA, on the federal level the agencies so designated enforce or authorize an evaluation or actual shelter-in-place order are as follows. FEMA, DHS, and the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Energy, Health & Human Services, Justice, Transportation, Veterans Affairs, GSA (General Service Administration), American Red Cross, and two others (“Mass Evacuation Index”). Obviously, if no emergency has been declared yet by the Governor in a dire situation the Red Cross may be the best road for immediate action.

October 1, Governor Requests Plan Review & Coordination: Questions 9 & 10

Continuity of the courts and justice system must infallibly and meticulously maintained, despite any emergency disaster situation of the most hazardous nature. The way such legal system of courts and jurisprudence are ensured is to follow the step-by-step guide plan which include typical goals of reducing disruptions to operations, continue court essential function, preserve rule of law, minimize loss of life, help secure preservation of equipment/facilities, and designate specified personnel so that clarity of who is in charge is maintained (“Continuity of Court”). State and national coalitions are in place.
In terms of supplying medical services on the spot, and preservation of an orderly atmosphere at medical care facilities in proximity of the disaster, team members of planning work together with the agency (such as The Red Cross, or FEMA). According to the same aforementioned report, they proceed to “identify possible service providers,” which for example may be the local Department of Health & Human Services division (p. 25). In this way, the logistics can be sufficiently ironed out and kept orderly, by assignment of obtaining additional staff, properly communication channels, and assurance of staff roles and competencies. Competencies are very important in this type of case. When one considers the seriousness of a train and multiple-vehicle derailment over water with leakage of dangerously toxic chemicals, that are airborne, timely coordination and competencies are key.
In fact, in the literature, one journal article breaks down the importance of improving competencies in a public health emergency situation while maintaining focus on legal protocols. Gebbie et al. (2008) indicate that “disseminating competency information to key target audiences,” and “improving measurement and evaluation of practice impact” are two vital areas which must be adamantly addressed in terms of framework for the agenda at hand during such emergency (p. 52). Obviously, when the communications were experiencing trouble in the immediate area of the emergency disaster outbreak in our case study, it was learned that to act quickly with flexibility by using the communication infrastructure of the unaffected state. Once that gap had been closed and control of the situation ensures a smooth recovery of communications, rescue and legal stakeholders may proceed. In this context, the law can function better and decide if isolation or quarantine stipulations must be implemented, in accordance with the right professionals and those authorized to play critical roles in the situation.

October 1, Mass Evacuation Order & Concern for Displaced Persons: Questions 11 & 12

At this point, the Emergency Operations Center along with the Governor has decided to order a mass evacuation. Given assistance by local law enforcement agencies, a house-to-house will be conducted. It is important to know the local legal requirements in the jurisdiction to apply public health emergency management care like food, water, shelter, and medical care. The CDC has mandates for the handling of such. Accordingly, the local government and personnel must abide by the Federal Code of Health and Safety Code Section 34070-34072. This mandates contractual provision for “recognized community organizations” to step up to the plate with provisional shelter, care, and food (“Guide for Local”). The coalition partnership works and functions cooperatively with the Red Cross to help citizens, until (or if) national disaster responders may be mobilized.
Local businesses need safety protections as well. Each local jurisdiction may have slightly differing guidelines in place, in terms of the minute details. But the CDC outlines in its guide the general procedures for ensuring that homes and businesses are safe particularly before allowance that people return home. Local law enforcement agencies and the Fire Department play key roles in assessing the situation, while the probability of federal troop intervention may be deployed to help, depending on governmental agreements in planning.

References

Association of State and Territorial Health Officials – ASTHO. (2015). Emergency Declarations and Authorities [Data file]. Retrieved from http://www.astho.org/Programs/Preparedness/Public-Health-Emergency-Law/Emergency-Authority-and-Immunity-Toolkit/Emergency-Declarations-and-Authorities-Fact-Sheet/
CDC.gov. (2015). A guide for local jurisdictions in care and shelter planning [Data file]. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/ehs/Docs/Guide_for_Local_Jurisdictions_Care_and_Shelter_Planning.pdf
FEMA. (2015). Mass Evacuation Incident Index [Data file]. Retrieved from http://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/nrf/nrf_massevacuationincidentannex.pdf
Gebbie, K.M., Hodge, J.G., Meier, B.M., Barrett, D.H., Keith, P., Koo, D., & Winget, P. (2008). Improving Competencies for Public Health Emergency Legal Preparedness. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 3652-56. doi:10.1111/j.1748- 720X.2008.00261.x
Kamoie, B. Pestronk, R.M., Baldridge, P., Fidler, D., Devlin, L., Mensah, G.A., & Doney, M. (2008). Assessing Laws and Legal Authorities for Public Health Emergency Legal Preparedness. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 3623-27. doi:10.1111/j.1748- 720X.2008.00256.x
NCSC – National Center for State Courts. (2015). Continuity of Court Operations [Data file]. Retrieved from http://www.ncsc.org/~/media/Files/PDF/Services%20and%20Experts/Areas%20of%20expertise/Emergency%20Preparedness/toolkit.ashx
National Transportation Safety Board. (2004). Railroad Accident Brief [Data file]. Retrieved from http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/RAB0408.pdf
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2015). Public Health Emergency Declaration [Data file]. Retrieved from http://www.phe.gov/Preparedness/legal/Pages/phedeclaration.aspx

Introduction

Capital structure management is a crucial aspect of effective cost control. That is because the structure determines a company’s cost, hence determining its performance and ability to create wealth for its shareholders. In that view, this analysis seeks to demonstrate how the structures influence companies’ performance as well as decision making. To achieve that, the analysis evaluates three companies in Hospitality industry. In that respect, this report begins with an overview of the companies’ debt structure and how it influences the companies’ cost of capital. That is followed by overview of how the companies’ long term financing polices

Introduction:

Stakeholders are the pillars of any project. The analysis of this important aspect of a project helps the organization to identify information for evaluation and assess stakeholder information in order to create relevant policies or design the inherent activities of the institution. There may be two implications of the results thus generated; a general implication because of the broad understanding of required change or specific information on prospective concrete steps that may be suitable for the present scenario (Case.edu, 2015). Stakeholder analysis thus facilitates the planning, implementing, evaluating and managing functions of an organizational and a project.
In the

1. How does Google’s mission drive strategy at the company?
Google’s mission focuses on organization information around the world and making it useful and acceptable. This mission has helped Google to drive its strategy by coming up with a search engine through which people are able to get all the information they require in the web. In so doing, Google is able to get profits especially when advertisers use the search engine as they pay per click.
2. Is Google’s stance towards internet search in China consistent with its mission?
Yes, I believe that the stance

The awareness to the semantic knowledge is informed by the ability to control, understand and manipulate particular strategies in writing. My ability to revise the documents The Psychology of Writing, Ways of Knowing and Upcoming Visit to Sunny San Diego were informed by the knowledge around the process of narrative writing. The declarative, conditional and procedural principles in the Upcoming Visit to Sunny San Diego reflects a revision reflecting the communicative context that stresses on the functional task of communication. This is succinctly illustrated in the quote that was edited to address the role, imagery and designs of the