An information assistant system for the prevention of tunnel vision in crisis management

In the crisis management environment, tunnel vision is a set of bias in decision makers’ cognitive process which often leads to incorrect understanding of the real crisis situation, biased perception of information, and improper decisions. The tunnel vision phenomenon is a consequence of both the challenges in the task and the natural limitation in a human being’s cognitive process. An information assistant system is proposed with the purpose of preventing tunnel vision. The system serves as a platform for monitoring the on-going crisis event. All information goes through the system before arrives at the user. The system enhances the data quality, reduces the data quantity and presents the crisis information in a manner that prevents or repairs the user’s cognitive overload. While working with such a system, the users (crisis managers) are expected to be more likely to stay aware of the actual situation, stay open minded to possibilities, and make proper decisions

NIOSH at 50 : a special report

Fifty years ago, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) was created to protect the health and safety of the U.S. workforce. NIOSH\u2019s incoming first director, Marcus M. Key, observed that 10 million injuries, 14 thousand worker deaths, $1.7 billion in lost wages,$9 billion in gross national product loss, and $2.3 billion in workers\u2019 compensation costs gave rise to the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH Act), which established NIOSH in 1971.The OSH Act charged NIOSH, a research agency, with recommending scientific criteria for standards for exposure to harmful work substances. NIOSH would present its recommendations to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a regulatory agency that finalized the standards and enforced them. NIOSH was also empowered to make on-site hazard evaluations and promote the training of safety and health professionals.20211060

East Germany: Transition with Unification ; Experiments and Experiences

--Economic transition,public finance

Disaster Risks Research and Assessment to Promote Risk Reduction and Management

Natural hazard events lead to disasters when the events interact with exposed and vulnerable physical and social systems. Despite significant progress in scientific understanding of physical phenomena leading to natural hazards as well as of vulnerability and exposure, disaster losses due to natural events do not show a tendency to decrease. This tendency is associated with many factors including increase in populations and assets at risk as well as in frequency and/or magnitude of natural events, especially those related to hydro-meteorological and climatic hazards. But essentially disaster losses increase because some of the elements of the multidimensional dynamic disaster risk system are not accounted for risk assessments. A comprehensive integrated system analysis and periodic assessment of disaster risks at any scale, from local to global, based on knowledge and data/information accumulated so far, are essential scientific tools that can assist in recognition and reduction of disaster risks. This paper reviews and synthesizes the knowledge of natural hazards, vulnerabilities, and disaster risks and aims to highlight potential contributions of science to disaster risk reduction (DRR) in order to provide policy-makers with the knowledge necessary to assist disaster risk mitigation and disaster risk management (DRM)

Social Policy

This United Nations Policy Note on Social Policy provides practical guidance on how to operationalize alternative equitable and employment-generating social policies in National Development Strategies. This Policy Note has been developed in cooperation with UN agencies, and has been officially reviewed by distinguished academics/ development specialists such as Jose Antonio Ocampo, Jomo K.S. and Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz.social policy, employment, welfare, development planning

The Winner´s Curse: Premature Monetary Integration in the NAFTA

During the 1990s the NAFTA has stimulated a process of financial integration which was not properly anticipated at the beginning of the decade or regulated under the treaty arrangement. The secular process of private sector currency substitution (‘dollarisation’) stimulated by successive financial shocks now poses serious challenges for the conduct of North American monetary policy. Although the monetary calculus for a potential dollar area yields a positive outcome for peripheral members, historical experience suggests that the asymmetric impact of external shocks will require specific arrangements to contain the economic and social results. Further, the consequences of currency unification for capital markets under the gold standard, the sterling area, currency boards and the euro-zone have all meant that inter-governmental agreements for liquidity provision and prudential regulation have become necessary. This is the ‘winner’s curse’: the success of North American market integration is necessarily leading to a degree of institutional co-operation that US legislators have desired to avoid.

Analysis of Several Productive Development Policies in Uruguay

This paper reviews and assesses some of the Productive Development Policies currently being implemented in Uruguay. Three horizontal and three vertical policies are considered in light of the market and public failures they attempt to address and minimize. Horizontal policies comprise Innovation, Industrial Promotion and Directives for Industrial and Technological Development. Vertical policies include the analysis of Forestry Law, Meat Traceability and the Sustainable Production Project in the agricultural sector.Public economics, Regulation and industrial policy, Industrial policy

BP2 / Finance, profit + infrastructure: Briefing on London 2012 Olympic Games, v5 2015

Games Monitor is a network of people with a desire to inform and monitor the Olympic process and the local impact. Final editions of Background papers 1, 2 & 3 were updated December 2015. Version 5 replaces previous versions of background papers and is an extensive revision

Is conflict sensitivity applicable to employment? Business in fragile and conflict-affected settings

"Conflict-sensitivity" is a catchword that addresses business practices in environments of armed conflict. The United Nations Global Compact and international finance institutions are devoting efforts into convincing companies to comply with principles aiming to provide the private sector with a role in peacebuilding. They portray employment creation as a key factor in attracting young people away from joining armed groups. This Working Paper introduces the term "conflict-sensitive employment" in order to shift the focus towards the job-related role of private business in conflict environments. A critical analysis of relevant documents and scholarly debates reveals major dilemmas. The almost complete absence of a regulatory state in the fragile and conflict-affected settings (FCAS) where protracted violence usually occurs contradicts the principle of the rule of law. The profit-orientation of investors and companies venturing into business in FCAS primarily tends to eclipse efforts towards decent employment. Workers may prefer offers provided by the war economy over civilian employment if it does not open up a long-term perspective. The Paper identifies two disparate narratives underlying the debate: The liberal peace ideal with its presumption of a harmonious society informs approaches to assign peacebuilding tasks to the private sector. A political economy perspective reveals that corrupt states and governments are an integral part of political marketplaces organized in the interest of businesspeople and competing powerholders. The tentative result of the analysis is that conflict-sensitive employment may be possible if it pays. Empirical research at the micro-level in FCAS is required to clarify if conflict- sensitivity is a viable approach