Patient Billing Software System Information Technology Essay

Patient Billing Software System Information Technology Essay In todays world, the population in various countries is increasing speedily every year, the Medical Billing System has grown-up in importance. The reason for this is that there are far more individuals that have need of some variety of health care, regardless of whether it is physical or mental. In order to receive these services patients need to pay for the services rendered by the hospital. This task requires a billing system that can generate bills of services to patients. Medical professionals are facing problems regarding the billing issue. My project for BSc Computing is to develop a web based patient billing software that is of importance to a hospital. . PHP was selected as the language for implementation and PL/SQL server as the database. The patient information will be stored in the database. Any new patient information can be stored in the database via a patient information input screen. The screen will take as input all the details of the patient, the amount to be paid, etc. The system is designed with the intension of allowing for scalability, portability, and re-use. The design of the system is such that it would permit future integration with other systems like online insurance billing for a patient that has a medical insurance, or even a completely different application. This system is also expected to provide a maximum level of security and reliability. Aim This project is aimed at developing a patient billing software system that is of importance to a hospital. The patient billing system is a local software system. This system can be used to maintain the location and the bed number of each patient either in the ward or the Intensive Care Units (ICU). Information about the patient and the charges to be paid is also stored. OBJECTIVE Research objective To study the feasibility of implementing a practical billing system for a hospital mainly focusing on scalability issues. As the hospital is speedily getting bigger the system should be able support any future expansions such as dealing with patients with health insurance. To conduct series of interviews in order to understand the organisational structure and the existing infrastructure service in the hospital and its problems and develop an alternative scenario for the system. To understanding the advantages and disadvantages of the current infrastructure service and how does the new system will be a benefits to the hospital? To conduct research about how patients billing systems is used in other hospitals? To examine the necessary tools that will be needed for the implementation of the proposed system and also examine whether the proposed system will be compatible with the existing system within the budget. Eg: What type of programming language can be adopted? What type of database would be best suitable for the system? To conduct an interview with the hospital data entry operator and the account department in order to find out the difficulties they are facing when generating bills to their patients. Practical objective The system is developed using PHP as the front end and SQL Server / Oracle as the back end. The following steps will be helpful to start off the project. Study and be comfortable with technologies such as PHP, SQL server / Oracle, Apache and ODBC Connectivity. Decide on the number of wards and the number of beds in each ward. Make a database of all tables and fill some sample data in the tables which can prove helpful for running / testing of the project. Assign a hospital data entry operator who will enter all the patient details, make updating to the table entries via front-end screens as and when a patient is being admitted to the hospital, transferred from a general ward to the ICU and vice versa and discharged from the hospital. Since the real-time project needs to be tested in real-time, you can take hours as days for testing the system. However, the display will still be in days only. Create the front-page of the PBS system giving a brief description about the system and a login box Create the help-pages of the system in the form of QA. This will help you also when implementing the system. Create other sub-systems like screens for various functions (new patient entry, viewing existing patient details, transfer of a patient between ward and ICU, etc). Research about client side and server side programming languages HTML, XHTML, ASP.NET, JSP, PHP, ASP Research about web based data base applications like Oracle,Mysql Research about Unified Modelling Language, Activity diagram, Use case diagram, Class diagram, Sequence diagram, Collaboration diagram Rationale of the project: Outsource medical billing system service provider is doing great help in terms of rendering medical billing services that could be of help to the doctors in order to concentrate more on their patients. The idea of medical billing outsourcing initiated from the need to hire experts in order to perform a minor task related to the medical profession. However, the most concerned issues of hiring a third party to manage the medical billing services are because secrete information about the company can be leaked out by outsourcing employees, even to their competitor and also they do not provide good quality services as most of their staff have limited medical background and all these issues can cause serious damage to the medical practice and finance. However with the introduction of my proposed system, it will result in the overall improvement of the medical billing processes. Significance: The proposed project can have great significance on the finance of the hospital and also reduce the work load from the account department. This does not only limit on the users, but will also be of great help to my studies and my career as well, as it would give me exposure needed in order to develop my skill on PL/SQL, PHP, HTML and RDBMS. Overview: My proposed web based application is fully focused is being user friendly, simple, but highly accurate at the same time. My program consists of different stages (pages). These can be described as follows. The project will provide a web-based platform where the hospital data entry operator can Login to the system through the first page of the application Enter the ward number for the patient either in the general ward or the ICU. Settle all bills pending to be paid by a patient before the patients discharge. Keep a track of all beds occupied / free in both the ward and the ICU. View information of all patients details, their admit time and the amount to be paid. Update the table fields (patient details, the amount to be paid / any balance remaining, the ward number, the bed number, the registration number, case number, etc.) as soon as a new patient is being admitted into the hospital or being discharged from the hospital. REQUIREMENTS System requirement The system requirements gives more details and explain how the user requirements should be provided by the system and can be used as part of the contract for the implementation of the system and should therefore be a complete and consistent specification of the system.(Sommerville, 2007pg.130) Therefore, Due to the nature of the project, the system is web base application that interacts with the user (hospital data entry operator and the account department) on client side and all the processing will be carried out on the server side. Therefore, both the client and the Server side have to meet the following minimum requirements. Software User is going to open the web page of the company that will contain the actual application form and then they have to fill it to make an application for the services. Internet Explorer or any web browser. Internet Connection. Data Base -MySQL server/Oracle (Optional) Client-side and Server-side scripting technologies PHP, ASP.NET, AJAX, Visual basic 6.0 WAMP. Security SSL, Hardware PC with Hard disk space more than 1 GB free always for database. (Optional) Minimum memory of 1GB (Optional) Back up running. Literature View: New technology creates new opportunities for forward-thinking companies. Higher level of automation, high-speed communications and improved access to information can provide significant benefits to a modern business organisation (Paul Boucij, Andrew Greasley, Simon Hickie 2008). Computer technology has highly transformed peoples lives tremendously. This innovation changes the way of our thinking and the way we perform our day by day activities. Computer-based information systems are now used to carry out all functions and activities of an organisation. Nowadays, improved innovations are being put in place in other to help a modern business organisation to make more efficient and automate business processes. Nevertheless, Medical practices are not left out of this great change. In order to run a medical practice appropriately, medical billing has to be automated. Lets imagine that there is no appropriate medical billing in place. What will happen to the issue of billing in medical pra ctices? Of course, the traditional way of billing will be adopted. Traditional way is doing all the medical billing like sending invoices and generating patients bills manually. This system is good if the medical practice wants to stay small. However, the issue of medical billing is sensitive in hospital management as the hospitals cannot afford losses because of careless billing generated from traditional way of billing. According to Charles Darwin, the prominent scientist of nature, said, It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change (Case, 2006 pg 27) The fact about nature is also true in today medical practice that works in a fast changing environment. The most efficient and successful hospitals run their finances with modern medical billing software. There is an urgent need to have a good way of managing the billing issue in a medical practice and this issue can only be managed with the help of good billing software. A good billing software is expected to make sure that the billing calculation are done efficiently and accurately. In addition, it is expected to be available to the users on internet so that medical practitioners can be able to have full access to their billing system anywhere in the world. Therefore, a web based medical billing is required. A Web application is a software application that is deployed on the web. It allows users to accomplish a task like obtaining information about the outstanding bills of a patient or any of the many activities possible on the web (Susan, Melanie, Solomon, Benjamin, 2003). The user can view, manipulate and control the software application through a Web browser connected to a web server through a network such as World Wide Web. In 1989, CERN (the European Laboratory for Particle Physics in Switzerland) proposed the development of the World Wide Web in order to enable high-energy physicists across the world to collaborate through the easy provision and accessibility of information (Graham Curtis and David Cobham, 2002 pg 128). Another important aspect of web application is that there is a real-time update of generated content/data and they can be universally accessed via internet/web by the user. However, The effectiveness of any computerised system is dependent on the soundness of its design and this is particularly true for the database application. The importance of database system cannot be overlooked in medical billing system. For most business organisations, information held in databases can often be more valuable than tangible forms of asset, which are accounted for in monetary terms. To work most effectively for the organisation or company, data stored electronically must be properly managed and protected. (Domanski, peter, Philip, 2000). Thus, a consistence database must be in place in order to avoid inaccurate analyses of stored information, poor cash flow for the hospital and Patient dissatisfaction with the hospital. A web based billing software component comprises the Database Management system and the application program Methodologies: Different methodologies can be used for a project. However the appropriate one can increase the chances of better results. I have chosen to use the Unified Process approach and the reasons are; It concentrates on detailed documentation It minimises back tracking It maintains a full constant control on each stage of development We have a clear idea of all the problems during each stage thereby eliminating chance of bigger problems after coding I will get to learn useful tools do design Used case diagrams Enhancing my knowledge of class diagrams Strategic Issues Strategic issue can be explained as the organisation planning options in addressing crucial business issue, engaging in collaborative decision making. The strategic issue that the school of Technology and Management will benefit from the new system are; For the organisation Reduce the amount of paper usage e.g. assignment submission forms Reduce the amount of storage usage cost Reduce the number of manpower usage cost It will reduce the stress levels of the staff It save time for staffs For Student It eliminate assignment printing costs It reduce the long queues at the college e.g. during registration or at the registry. It saves time as well for the student Manpower requirements The project can be completed within 3 4 months if i work fulltime on it. Milestones and Timelines Number Milestone Name Milestone Description Timeline Week no. from the start of the project Remarks 1 Requirements Specification Complete specification of the system (with appropriate assumptions) including the framing of transfer policy of the patient between the ward / IBU, the payment / balance to be made by the patient etc constitutes this milestone. A document detailing the same should be written and a presentation on that be made. 2-3 Attempt should be made to add some more relevant functionality other than those that are listed in this document. 3 Database creation A database of atleast 25 entries of patients with some patients admitted in wards and the remaining in IBU should be entered. 5-7 It is important to finalize on the database at this stage itself so that development and testing can proceed with the actual database itself. 4 High-level and Detailed Design Listing down all possible scenarios (like new patient, transfer of a patient between general ward and IBU, some balance remaining to be paid at the time of discharge etc) and then coming up with flow-charts or pseudocode to handle the scenario. 7-9 The scenarios should map to the requirement specification (i.e., for each requirement that is specified, a corresponding scenario should be there). 5 Implementation of the front-end of the system Implementation of the main screen giving the login, screen that follows the login giving various options, screens for each of the options (shifting of patients, usage of beds). 10-12 During this milestone period, it would be a good idea for the team (or one person from the team) to start working on a test-plan for the entire system. This test-plan can be updated as and when new scenarios come to mind. 6 Integrating the front-end with the database The front-end developed in the earlier milestone will now be able to update the database when a patient discharges. In short, the system should be ready for integration testing. 12-13 7 Integration Testing The system should be thoroughly tested by running all the testcases written for the system (from milestone 5). 14-15 Another 2 weeks should be there to handle any issues found during testing of the system. After that, the final demo can be arranged. 8 Final Review Issues found during the previous milestone are fixed and the system is ready for the final review. 16-18 During the final review of the project, it should be checked that all the requirements specified during milestone number 1 are fulfilled (or appropriate reasons given for not fulfilling the same) Project: Internet based admission finder http://www.buzzle.com/articles/medical-billing-outsourcing.html

Use and Application of Data Mining

Use and Application of Data Mining Data mining is the process of extracting patterns from data. Data mining is becoming an increasingly important tool to transform the data into information. It is commonly used in a wide range of profiling practices, such as marketing, surveillance, fraud detection and scientific discovery [1-3]. Data mining can be applied on a variety of data types. Data types include structured data (relational), multimedia data, free text, and hypertext as shown in Figure 1-1. We can strip hypertext from XML/XHTML tags to get free text[4, 5]. Nowadays, text is the most common and convenient way for information exchange. This due to the fact that much of the worlds data is contained in text documents (newspaper articles, emails, literature, web pages, etc.). The importance of this way has led many researchers to find out suitable methods to analyze natural language texts to extract the important and useful information. In comparison with data stored in structured format (databases), texts stored in documents is unstructured and to deal with such data, a preprocessing is required to transform textual data into a suitable format for automatic processing [6]. Text mining is a new and exciting area of computer science research that interested of solving the problem of information overload by using combination techniques from data mining, machine learning, natural language processing, information retrieval, and knowledge management. Text mining, also known as text data mining [7] or knowledge discovery from textual databases [8], refers generally to the automatic process of extracting interesting and high-quality information or knowledge from unstructured text documents by using a suite of analysis tools [9]. Definitely, text mining takes much of its inspiration and direction from core research on data mining. Therefore, text mining and data mining systems contain many high-level architectural similarities. For example, text mining and data mining systems depend on preprocessing routines, pattern-discovery algorithms, and presentation-layer elements [1]. Furthermore, text mining adopts many of the specific types of patterns in its core knowledge discovery operations that were first introduced and vetted in data mining research [9]. The difference between data mining and text mining lies in the specific stages of preparation of the data and the difficulty of finding the important patterns due to the semi-structured or unstructured nature of the textual documents being processed. Data mining systems assumes that data have already been stored in a structured format. Therefore, the preprocessing stage focus falls on two critical tasks: Scrubbing and normalizing data and creating extensive numbers of table joins. In contrast, for text mining systems, preprocessing tasks focus on the identification and extraction of representative features for natural language documents. These preprocessing tasks are responsible for transforming unstructured, original-format content in document collections into a more explicitly structured intermediate format, which is a concern that is not relevant for most data mining systems.   Text mining preprocessing tasks include a variety of different types of techniques culled and adapted from information retrieval, information extraction, and computational linguistics research (such as tokenization, stop word remover, normalization, and stemming, etc.)[9]. Typical text mining tasks involving Text extraction and representation, information retrieval, document summarization, document clustering, document classification. Text representation is concerned with the problem of how to represent text data in appropriate format for automatic processing. In general, documents can be represented in two ways, as a bag of words where the context and the word order are neglected and the other one is to find common phrases in text and deal with them as single terms [10]. In information retrieval, the information needed to be retrieved is represented as query and the task of the information retrieval systems is to find and return documents that contain the most relevant information to the given query. In order to achieve this purpose, text mining techniques are used to analyse text data and make a comparison between the extracted information and the given queries to find out documents that include answers [10, 11]. The idea of text summarization is an automatic detection of the most important phrases in a given text document and to create a condensed version of the input text for human use [10]. Text summarization can be done for a single document or a document collection (multi-document summarization). Most approaches in this area focus on extracting informative sentences from texts and building summaries based on the extracted information. Recently, many approaches have been tried to create summaries based on semantic information extracted from given text documents [10, 11]. Document clustering is a machine learning technique that is used to identify the similarity between text documents based on their content. Unlike document classification, document clustering is an unsupervised method in which there are no pre-defined categories. The idea of document clustering is to create links between similar documents in a document collection to allow them to be retrieved together [10-12]. Document classification is the assignment of text documents into one or more pre-defined categories based on their content [10, 13]. It is a supervised learning problem where the categories are known in advance [10]. For the document classification problem, many machine learning techniques including decision trees, K-nearest neighbour, SVM support vector machines and Naive Bayes algorithm have been used to build document classification models. more details about document classification in the next section.

Ozone Depletion Essays -- essays research papers fc

Ozone Depletion A Case for â€Å"Ignoring the Facts†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Ozone forms a layer of the earth’s atmosphere that protects us from the sun’s deadly ultraviolet rays. During the last decade there has been a scare set forth by environmental enthusiasts that Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) destroy the ozone layer. Although there has been no evidence of any CFC destruction of the ozone layer there is an international stoppage on using CFCs, as well as an executive order set forth by Clinton to limit the sell and use of CFCs in the United States. These bans are unnecessary , since they are merely based on fear and politics. Basing the ban on evidence can not be possible, because there is no factual evidence.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This executive order is not only futile, but ridiculous. Facts are the ozone layer is not depleting due to CFCs or any other manmade chemical. Qualified scientists have proven the whole notion of the ozone layer is not something fixed and finite to be destroyed faster and slower rates. It is simply not a depletable resource like a fossil fuel. The process by which CFCs are supposed to deplete it is highly speculative and has never been observed to take place, and even if it did, the effect would be small compared to what happens naturally.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ozone is dynamic. It is constantly being created and destroyed, and as long as the sun emits rays the process will continue. Ozone is the Trioxide molecule (O3), which is created by photons radiated from the sun. A normal oxygen molecule (O2) consists of two oxygen atoms, in diatomic form. High energy ultraviolet radiation known as UV-C can split one of these molecules, through a process known as photodissociation, into two free oxygen atoms. These atoms then join with a third oxygen and form ozone. Some ozone is found at ground level, but most occurs in the â€Å"Ozone Layer,† a concentration of O3 approximately 30 miles above the Earth’s surface. Most ozone is produced in the tropics where ultraviolet flux is the strongest.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ozone is destroyed by chemical reactions that convert the O3 molecule into O2. The reaction that causes this is mostly nitrogen dioxide (produced in part by high altitude cosmic rays), through ultraviolet dissociation by the same UV-C that creates ozone, and also by a less energetic band know as UV-B, which... ...e negative effects of CFCs are in the tens of thousands, there are no grants to study the positive effects of ultraviolet flux. It is curious that all the grant proposals written by scientists concerning the other side of the CFC issue are being turned down. Is ozone depletion created by political/economical issues? It has not been proven by facts—just ignoring the facts. All this while the media plays on the fears of the general public. As Bob Holzknecht, a CFC engineer for twenty years observes, â€Å"Nobody’s interested in reality. Everyone who knows anything stands to gain. The public will end up paying through the nose, as always, but the public is unorganized and uniformed. Bibliography Begley, Shannon, â€Å"Is the Ozone Hole in Our Heads?† Newsweek, 122, October 11, 1993.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Bush, David A., â€Å" Ozone Anxiety: It’s a White Thing,† Harpers Magazine, 287, December 1993.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Kerr, Richard A., â€Å"Stratospheric Injection by Volcanic Eruptions,† Science, 260, May 21, 1993   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Zurer, Pamela S., â€Å"Researchers Lack Data on Trends in UV Radiation at Earth’s Surface,† Chemical and Engineering News, 71, July 26, 1993

Shoeless Joe Essay -- essays research papers

Imagine your fate and future resting in the hands of one man’s judgment. This was actually reality for Shoeless Joe Jackson. Many argue that he was one of the best ever to play the game of baseball and was the greatest natural hitter of all-time. Yet, surprisingly, you will not find him among the familiar faces at the Hall of Fame. He was permanently banned from baseball, as well as seven others, for allegedly helping to throw the 1919 World Series.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Joe Jackson was born on July 16, 1888 in Pickins County, South Carolina. He was the oldest of eight children and grew up the son of a cotton mill worker. He began working in the mill at age thirteen and never learned how to read or write. He played baseball in his spare time, and his exceptional skills landed him in the minor leagues by the age of eighteen. He first entered professional baseball in 1908 with Greenville in the Carolina Association. It was during this same year that he received the nickname â€Å"Shoeless† Joe after he had just bought a new pair of spikes. They wore blisters on his feet and they hurt so badly that he just played in his stocking feet. Although he played only one game without the spikes, he was known as â€Å"Shoeless Joe† from then on (McGee 1).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Shoeless Joe made his major league debut later that year, in 1908, with the Philadelphia Athletics. He only played there a short time before being transferred to the Cleveland Indians. Finally, in 1915 he was sold to Charles Comiskey and the Chicago White Sox. It was here that he played his last few years of professional baseball and his life would be forever changed.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  From the years 1917 to 1919 the Chicago White Sox were by far the dominant team in baseball. It is speculated that they could have â€Å"gone on to become one of the greatest teams in history† (Schwalbe 2). However, despite having the most talented team around, Charles Comiskey paid his players considerably less than any other winning team (Durst 2). Due to the oppression they were under, the player’s morale began to decrease as their need for money increased. They considered going on strike, but were talked out of it by their manager, â€Å"Kid† Gleason. They remained desperate until first baseman Chick Gandil met with a notorious gambler named â€Å"Sport† Sullivan. The White So... ...t up and protect his own reputation. Comiskey’s lawyer acted as Joe’s lawyer also, although he was really only trying to protect Comiskey. In modern day, Joe would have had his own lawyer from the beginning and Landis would have been convicted of contempt of court since he went against the court’s ruling and banished the eight players for life. Joe would not have had to prove his innocence. Instead, someone would have had to prove him guilty. Clearly, this could not have been achieved. There is no evidence that he did anything wrong, and his statistics clearly support the opposite. Alongside, his performance in the 1919 World Series, Joe’s career batting average of .356 is the third best of all-time (CMG 1). On top of this, he led the league in triples eight times and held the throwing record for distance. It is a shame he was never inducted into the Hall of Fame because of one man’s judgment to ban him from the game. Part of Joe’s last words were â€Å"I’m going to meet the greatest umpire of all – and he knows I’m innocent.† (McCroskey 1). He passed away on Decem ber 5, 1951, and will remain, although often disparaged and misunderstood, one of our national pastime’s greatest legends.

Emerging crises of natural hazards management Essay

Procedure of large-scale urbanization is intricate and changing. So too are the study and management of natural hazards and disasters. Although the US experience is highlighted, the changes noted apply to many other countries. US also initiated International Association of Emergency Managers that certified emergency manager. Through this certification, new ways of thinking about hazards and disasters are emerging, whose long-run allegations are hard to foresee (Mitchell, 1993b). The competence of existing means for managing natural hazards and other types of environmental hazards is ever more being called into question in the United States and the global community. This is exemplified by a sampling of the issues that have lately emerged in professional and lay forums. formerly are problems that are posed by new kinds of hazard. These come in numerous varieties. several are amalgams of natural and technological hazards (Showalter and Myers, 1994). while a storm or a tsunami affects a chemicals manufacturing or storage provision it is not just the threat of high water and strong winds that is of concern; it is also the prospect that toxic materials might be disseminated all through surrounding areas. If an earthquake affects a nuclear reactor site, radioactive materials might be released. The flooding of old mines can root surface collapses . Given the escalating variety of technological hazards, the potential for new or atypical combinations of natural and technological hazards are escalation upwards. Three classes of technological hazard pose fairly diverse sets of problems when combined with natural hazards: a. Unsuspected hazards entail substances or activities that were considered as harmless or benign until scientific proof or human experience showed otherwise (e. g. DDT, asbestos). b. indecently managed hazards entail failures of diverse kinds of hazard-control systems (e. g. nuclear facilities such as Wind scale, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl; chemical plants such as Seveso, Basle,Bhopal; transportation systems such as the US space shuttle Challenger and super tankers such as the Exxon Valdez; storage and discarding sites for toxic materials such as Kyshtym, Times Beach, Love Canal, Minamata). C. Instrumental hazards are planned to cause harm and are intentionally employed towards that end; they comprise sabotage, arson, and warfare. Military industrial technologies fit in to this group (e. g. nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons such as defoliants and nerve agents; premeditated oil-spills and oilfield conflagrations). The UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs, formed in 1992, has begun to examine a diverse but related set of problems that they call intricate emergencies. These consign to events such as those happening in the former Yugoslavia, Kurdistan, southern Sudan, Mozambique, and Somalia, where political conflicts, drought, famine, and other troubles are intertwined. Hazards of global environmental change comprise a separate but correlated class of events that are now making their approach onto the public policy agenda (Mitchell and Ericksen, 1992). It is extensively accepted that a build-up of greenhouse gases in the environment might set off climate changes and other consequences such as sea-level rise. Several of the industrial hazards are adequately well known to be classifiable as â€Å"routine† hazards, but others including most of the hazards connected with global ecological change are completely unprecedented in the human experience. They are best considered â€Å"surprises† (Mitchell, 1996). A next way in which natural hazards are varying grows out of the first. It is that there are now strong pressures to inflate the legal definition of natural disasters. In the history, only the victims or potential victims of measures activated by natural phenomena (somewhat erroneously labelled â€Å"acts of God†) were believed eligible for public support to upgrade awareness or provide relief. However, in current years there has been an instantly recognizable trend towards broadening the range of technological and social phenomenon that are entitled for aid. In the United States this began with natural gas shortages in the cold and snowy winter of 1977 and later integrated the community of Times Beach, Missouri – a disreputable case of contamination by the toxic chemical dioxin. More lately, the collapse of an old, disused, and dwindling Underground Railroad system was treated as a â€Å"natural† disaster while water from an adjacent canal inundated the basements of high-rise buildings in downtown Chicago. In the early nineties, civil unrest in Los Angeles also qualified for disaster status, as did the 9/11 in New York city. These events suggest that peculiarities between different kinds of disasters are waning in the public policy arena. Perhaps they imitate the growing impact of socio-technical hazards and the decline of natural phenomena in the extremely human-made environments of a rich country. Maybe they are correlated to further politicization of public decisions concerning disasters, or to the political influence of explicit interest groups that place a high premium on predictability and permanence (e. g. business corporations)? It is also probable that they are products of a broad shift in public attitudes towards risks of all kinds. Further type of change is distension of public dissatisfaction with hazard management agencies. Condemnation of disaster management in developing countries such as Bangladesh or the states of the African Sahel is not new. Mass media reports concerning the poor performance of national government organizations and international agencies are squad. Natural hazards and disasters can be unstable political issues in developed countries and a certain sum of controversy about governmental responses is the norm as anyone who has experiential the aftermath of Italian earthquakes, or Australian wildfires, or American hurricanes can attest to. But lately there has been a sharp acceleration of complaints concerning the effectiveness of hazard-management agencies in main developed countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, and Russia. The US International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been a particular target. It has been indicted of providing insufficient and inappropriate relief to disaster victims. It has as well been criticized for supporting the occupation of hazardous lands by proffering low-cost insurance to rich investors; and it has drawn fire for offering too much effort to cleaning up after past disasters and too little attempt to reducing the prospects of future disasters. IAEM’s mishandling of relief in the wake of hurricane Andrew triggered a major investigation by the US Congress. Critics called for the nation’s armed forces to replace IAEM, and large numbers of military personnel have, actually, been deployed after recent disasters. The military is usually in charge of disaster management in third world nations because it is often the simply institution competent of providing aid during disasters and one of the few organizations that can be counted on to inflict government policies at other times. Although in the United States and other Western nations proposals for a larger military role in civilian affairs are frequently controversial. Advocates of civil authority and legal due procedure are concerned that increased military concern in disasters may signal an corrosion of citizen rights and responsibilities, while others point to the reduction in international tensions and the require for more cost-effective national institutions as grounds for making ingenious use of military expertise in new roles. Devoid of going into detail, it is useful to note that there is a widespread loss of faith in the capacity of national public agencies to combat natural and technological hazards in numerous other countries. The failures of Soviet agencies in connection with the Armenian earthquake (1988) as well as the Chernobyl nuclear power station fire (1986) have been well documented and they are supposed to have contributed to the crumple of the Soviet government. British civil defence agencies have also been forcefully criticized for insufficient preparedness and lack of attention to hazard improvement (Mitchell, 1989; Parker and Handmer, 1992). Partly as government agencies have come under attack, there has been a dogged effort to shift the burden of disaster management on private individuals and institutions. In countries such as the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom, this began with a conformist revolution in politics led by people such as Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and Helmut Kohl. In the perspective of hazard management, policy reforms usually took the form of insurance systems (flood insurance, earthquake insurance, crop insurance, etc. ), limitations on central government expenditure for disaster relief and recovery, an end to public funding for building in hazardous areas, and penalties for people who rebelliously build or rebuild in such places. Now there is an emerging body of evidence that such policies might not work as intended. For instance, insurance is not the panacea it was once announced to be. Many potential victims are uninsured or underinsured and those who have sufficient insurance often experience serious trouble securing reimbursements. Not all threats are covered by insurance, and major problems take place when hazards involve several perils (e. g. hurricanes bring floods, erosion, wind damage, landslides, and other events). Cut-backs in government financial support of social services have become common all through the developed world in current years, and spending on disasters is no exception. Consequently, policies that underline private responsibilities for hazard management may assist to widen the gap between richer and better-educated victims specifically; those who can afford to make supplies for their own security and the poor or disadvantaged groups that lack such a competence. Briefly, a hazard-protection system that relies mostly on market mechanisms might well be detrimental to broader public interests. British experience with the great storm of 15 October 1987 demonstrates several of these problems (Mitchell, James K. , Neal Devine, and Kathleen Jagger. 1989). Before the storm, local governments and private individuals in England had been expectant to be self-reliant and not to expect the national government to give recovery funds in the event of a disaster. But the storm, which recorded the highest wind speeds in 250 years, blew down some fifteen million trees and inflicted economic losses greater than any natural disaster in Britain since the end of the Second World War. In the course it exposed the limitations of local resources for managing with disasters and it obliged a major reversal of national policies that would have left local governments to ensure of natural disasters. If there is concern regarding the general efficiency of disaster management by the private sector, there is deep concern about the future of hazard insurance systems. Lack of insurance coverage and insufficient reimbursements are continuing problems, but the fundamental issue is that very large disasters might bankrupt the entire international insurance system. Insurance and reinsurance companies in Germany, Japan, and the United States are all extremely troubled by this prospect.

Human Resources JDT2 Essay

out spend a penny line Based on recent tone testing on the playthings manu itemured for wide-eyed school aged children, it has been noned that the every last(predicate)oy whistles contain an amount of lead that is entirely everyplace the get together States legitimately acceptable jell for children age 7 and on a lower floor. A hulking shipment is packaged and scheduled to belong at the end of the week. The whistles were manufactured under our comp both name and at our take in w behouse facility. end substitute(a)s replace moldIn creating the following workable finale scenarios, the well-being of this high society is a big concern to everyone when a office staff more(prenominal) as this arises. The out get along with from any stopping points make non only effect the consumer of the harvest-tide, scarcely also the toy dog Company, its employees, stakeholders, and in store(predicate) customers base on the personality of the lodge. In order to de termine the best determination, without favoritism, a end model (7 step decision making process) has been used to guide only(prenominal) deciding deliberation. Therefore, understand that every last(predicate) potential alternatives take in been researched and only the best troika feasible solutions come been included for review.Decision alternatives Alternate Advantages and DisadvantagesExplain Decision pretending or Process Used for each(prenominal)AdvantagesDisadvantagesFinancial fillationsLegal friendshipsEthical considerations connection the southwest Ameri gage Ministry of cultivation7 step decision model, sh aver above. eachow ware receiver to make decision defilement of company reputation.50/50 witness of increased re harvestion make up.Release of level-headed provinces once South American Ministry accepts reaping. The possible subjection of revile to innocent children is only un estimable. Reproduce Contaminated Toy7 step decision model, armyn above .Maintain higher(prenominal) level of satisfaction.Increased salutes of re outpution, harvesting delivery late.Approximate toll of $100,000 forget be incurred.Maintained federal requirements flat outside of geographical requirements. Providing safe produces to all children.Ship intersection point As Is7 step decision model, shown above.Lowered costs. probable harm to innocent childrenPossible judicial proceeding cost if families choose to enact a severalise action. Possible litigation and phase action suitThe subjection of harm to innocent children is simply un respectable. Decision Alternatives Alternate Considerations1. Contact the South American Ministry of EducationThis decision go forth allow for the receiver of the product to determine for themselves if in fact the shipment is not acceptable and demand replaced. Each goernment has developed their own criteria of quality control aspects, and should be esteem in their own research and limitations of product quality . at heart this decision the possibility of the cost of reproduction has a weighing ascertain of a 50/50 share based on the request of the South American Ministry of Education. Also, the informing of and accepting of the product as is go away place no further legal obligations on the toy company.2. Reproduce Contaminated ToyWithin the borders of the United States of America, this is the onlyacceptable decision to be made. The lead amounts found are above the legal limits and should by all considerations be destroyed and reproduced under the decent legal lead limit guidelines produced by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission. The cost of this reproduction pull up stakes fall unaccompanied on the shoulders of the company. The approximate cost to be incurred is $100,000. Also, in the making of this decision the Toy Company give be inevitable to contact and inform the consumer of the production ply and the steps being taken to renovate the final payment. The c onsumer may in turn be upset at the delay and stamp out their trade from our company or may find our honesty in the situation to be respectable and assist in promoting our company due to highly ethical character display.3. Ship Product As IsThe guidelines for lead contamination are much more detailed within the United States than that of most regions. The product could easily be shipped and arrive on time for the gap of school in the South American region expected to receive the whistles. The product information would be included in the packaging, leaving the decision for a issuing of the product to be determined on the demote someone will invoice the lead limits information. This choice could possibly absolve the company of any further expenses.However, this leaves to chance the harming of many children, the legal allegations that can be brought up by the South American Ministry of Education, and the extreme tarnish of the companys reputation within the United States and a s a worldwide supplier of childrens products. During the narrowing of possible decisions to be established, a system of steps was utilized to alter a criterion for selecting the best possible outcomes. Each of the previous actions stated posse a decision between respect, ethical behavior, or financial consideration. As a whole each of these three actions must(prenominal) be care in full considered as a possible benefit to the company, as well as a possible subscribe a chance uponst the reputation that has been so carefully created through with(predicate) producing top quality products for children all over the world. Alternative Recommendation Recommendation apologyOf the three best available choices the transcendent choice would be the Reproduction of the Product. The cerebrate in this decision is Legal prognosis Although as a company legal retaliation could be avoided if theconsumer accepted the product as is after being fully informed, the families of the children involve d will still have the legal right to produce a class action claiming Product obligation on the recess of the company for allowing the bankers acceptance of the product by the South American Ministry of Education. Under Product Liability when individuals are harmed by an unsafe product, they may have a Cause of Action against the persons who designed, manufactured, sold, or furnished that product. Wests encyclopedia of American Law, edition 2. (2008)Financial scenery The reproducing of the product will initially cost the company approximately $100,000. This by all considerations is a financial blow to any company however, if you consider the alternative cost of ongoing litigation and a class action pay-out, $100,000 seems rather insufficient. Also consider the possible benefit from this loss of monies not only will the children involved not be affected negatively by a product produce in the land of the free, still the word will supplely spread about the companies quick action plan to resolve an issue for the safety of their consumer, before being strained to do so by the courts. In addition to the consideration of time, effort, and the expense of retrieval, an strong plan to recover from the loss incurred on the reproduction of the product there are a few majors concerns that will be on the front line of significance Brand Protection The immensity of brand hold dearion is only outweighed by the health and safety concerns of the consumer. Cost recovery is a secondary concern. (Belcastro & Alfonso, 2011) supplier relationships. Supplier issues that may make cost recovery difficult include difficulties in trailing supplier contracts or supplier insurance policy documentation and preservation of supplier moving in relationships. (Belcastro & Alfonso, 2011)Ethical Aspect For a minute of arc let us look at this situation from the consumers side. Would we as parents deprivation the toy company we trust to for the first time consider our children befor e their personal gain? I would assume anyone would agree that a child should never be subjected to the unmercifulness of mass production oversight in the products that will be utilized to larn them, care for them, feed them, or protect them. As a company the media would pose any action less than replacement of the product as a atrociousdisplay of unethical and malice behavior. All businesses, small and large, have an ethical obligation to their consumers, first of all to exit the product purchased and then to not harm anyone-including the consumer. (Gray, 2011) Product safety is an ethical obligation to the consummation that companies have a duty to provide consumers with whatever it is they pay for and products are pretended to be safe for ordinary use. (Gray, 2011) Alternative Recommendation Recommendation AnalysisOverall, the conception behind any decision that focuses on an issue that requires action on the part of the company is the ethical obligation the company has, not only to the consumer of the product but also to the employee that we search on to produce the product, the children for which the product is purchased, and the Board of decision makers for the company and the general public that will remember our product or company to new(prenominal)s based on previous experiences. By providing a less than optimal product, we as a company, say that it is acceptable to fall our quantify when the product is for children outside of the United States this is not an acceptable way of thinking, nor an acceptable reputation of the company and its stakeholders.Moving forward on the remanufacturing of the whistle-even though it is a costly choice-will show for the value the company holds in their customers and the general population of consumers. Displaying a behavior of ethical decision practices will develop a stronger relationship between consumer and producer. This behavior can also produce a chemical chain reaction of ethical revisions in othe r company actions. In current business the dollar comes before the consumer-making a lead to be above the competition will place the company above others in their guarantee to produce only the best. Alternative Recommendation Social ResponsibilityThe remanufacturing of the product will display this company as being of the utmost ethical level in protecting its consumers even though the consumer is not on the American soil. Placing consideration in the safety and well-being of children of all aspects of geographical location, financial status, and nationality shows American and hostile manufacturing companies that the dollars involved do not come before that of the safety of the race that depend on our moral stature as a producer of childrens toys.By maintaining the same standards internationally as we would within the American borders, with our products we can inevitably lessen the boundaries between product and consumer all over the world. The ground floor for a decision has bee n laid for all involved in the determination of an appropriate action in this case. Based on the information provided here, it is desired that a decision based on the good of all mankind-both producer and consumer will be in consideration in the deciding of the steps to follow. The American people base much of their perception of a company on its viewpoint to the great good to humanity this should what is seen in the products we supply.ReferencesBelcastro, Denny and Alfonso, Bert, October 2011, Capturing ring Costs Measuring and Recovering the losings Retrieved on December 27, 2013, http//www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/Capturing_Recall_Costs/$ agitate/Capturing_recall_costs.pdf.Gray, JW, May 16, 2011, Moral Issues Related to Consumers, retrieved from http//ethicalrealism.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/moral-issues-related-to-consumers/Product Liability. (n.d.) Wests cyclopedia of American Law, edition 2. (2008). Retrieved December 27 2013 from http//legal-dictionary.thefreedictionar y.com/Product+Liability

Discuss and research theories/ studies relating to the formation of relationships

at that place ar macrocosmy theories relating to dramatis psycheaeation of kinds. These acknowledge the filter opening, the matching hypotheses, social-biological conjecture and the reinforcework forcet-affect theory.Kerckhoff and Davis came up with the filter nonplus of attachment. They believed that we rely on social and somebodyal factors to filter effectiveness kinds from the field of eligibles. There are quintette criteria proximity, similarity, fleshly showyness, complementarity of needs and competence. We narrow follow f in all let go forth the raft whom we whitethorn lay bundle a relationship with, by a serial publication of selection filters. The criteria tend to be apply a different stages.In initial magnet, proximity is the obvious filter we form relationships with those who live close by, this is how we may give way aware of the somebody. Similarity is important because the heap who we share the similar ethnicity, background and telephone l ine we are more seeming to verbalise and come in contact with. once this stage of filtering has taken place, people past consider weather we share the same attitudes as the new(prenominal) person. Duck and Gillmor believed if we do share similar attitudes then the relationship is more analogously to be pursued. Caspi and Herbener carried out a survey which found that get hitched with couples who were more similar were more quelled with their marriage.People may wealthy person been initially drawn together because of their similarity, exclusively it may become apparent that one person has characteristics that the other lacks, for example someone who is peremptory may be attracted to someone who is submissive. natural attraction plays an important role when forming relationships. some studies apply supported this, for example in Walters computer dance get word couples where promiscuously selected and assigned to each other for an flush dance, Walster found that physic al attractiveness was the mavin best predictor of how much person liked their assigned date. except this study has been criticised as it lacks relevance to real lifetime relationships.In Initial attraction, physical attraction has been state to be important. However people are not attracted by the most(prenominal) attractive person. The Matching hypothesis said that we are more likely to form a relationship with some who has a similar level of attractiveness a possible reason for this is a business organization of rejection.The matching hypothesis has been supported by Murstien. In his study people were asked to post photos of couples and rate them in considerations of physical attractiveness. Murstien summarized his examineings individuals with equal market value for physical attractiveness are more likely to associate in an intimate relationship such as engagement, than individuals with disparate values.However this is not constantly the case as some couples may be seen t o be physically miss matched. It is argued though that those who are miss matched balance out in other areas problems crumb occur in miss matched couples, the less attractive person might feel insecure or jealous of the attention given to their partner, this could as well effect the less attractive person self-esteem which could threaten the long term success of the relationship.another(prenominal) theory in formation of relationships is the socio-biological theory. Wilson argued that human familiar attraction and behaviour may be explained through an understanding of survival efficiency. The theory suggests that men like to impregnate many women as it increases there outlooks of there genes to be carried down to generations. However a womans best chance of her genes surviving is to ensure that her offspring is water-loving and caring for them.There are problems with this theory, it overemphasis on reproduction, not all couples want children and it similarly excludes homosexua l couples. The theory raises an ethical continue as it can be seen to be supporting gender stereotypes, allowing men sexual privileges and freedoms which woman are denied. Another review of this theory is it lacks revalance in the modern world, the socio-biological theory may once have been germane(predicate) but not suit those today.The reinforcement-affect model suggest that we like people because we find them rewarding, we associate them with some benignant. May and Hamilton carried out a study to support this theory female student were asked to look at photographs of males, some looked at the photos while pleasant medicament was played while other looked at the same photos while hellish music was played. A comparison in any case looked at the photos but no music was play. They found that students who looked at the photos while hearing to the pleasant music rated and liked the males in the photos best. This study and many others have shown collateral feeling can lead to attraction.A lot of the theories and studies in formation of relationships have been criticised. Much of the research is seen as unreal and leaves out most of the things people do in everyday life Duck 1999.Another reason they have been criticised is research focuses on romantic relationships and leaves platonic friendships.Theories and studies also have not taken into count the learn of others such as family and friends as they can have an affect on relationships we form. as well as in polygynous cultures, a man may have several wives at the same time.No characteristics are absolute, all are relative. We may like a characteristic in someone attractive at some point in relationship but find it electronegative at another time, for example as fall in love someone we may like someones unpredictability but as well fall out of love with them we may see it as irresponsibility.Other questions have also been increase does familiarity always lead to liking? Do we like people more because we go by time with them? Or do we lapse we spend more time with them because we like them? Frequency of interaction does not always result to greater liking. It was demonstrated by Warr that it can produce more disliking.