Clark County Fire & Rescue: Partnership Proposal

(HLS) has evolved to combat our nations threats. Emergency preparedness is one area that must remain in a continuous state of increasing improvement. Federal entities, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have developed hundreds of plans, policies, and procedures to mitigate a wide range of emergency situations from natural disasters to terrorism. This paper will address the collective approach our federal agencies want to see at the local level, and more specifically how first responders can combine efforts to deliver a more effective service. First Responders are the foundation to our nations stability and mitigating elements. Clark County Fire & Rescue (CCF&R) is a combination fire department in Clark County, Washington. They cover over 155 square miles, including the cities of La Center, Ridgefield, and Woodland, serving a population of approximately 40,000. CCF&R is staffed with full-time, part-time, resident, and volunteer firefighters, all who are trained to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1001 standard (Nohr, 2018). A significant portion of its district is residential, business, industrial, marine, and railroad responsibilities. They protect several areas of critical infrastructure including the main west coast rail line, several electrical substations, multiple government buildings, two-primary high pressure natural gas transmission lines that run from the Canadian border to the Midwest, nearly a fourteen-mile stretch of Interstate 5, and the main freeway from Mexico to the Canadian border. Clark County Fire and Rescue respond to approximately 3,600 fire and medical calls each year and are governed by a five-member board of elected Fire Commissioners (Nohr, 2018). This department’s mission involves operations that closely resemble elements of homeland security as their day to day function includes preparing, responding, mitigating, and recovering from various emergency situations

Bank of America: Is Bigger Always Better?

Bank of America is the largest bank in the world for now. The case is an attempt to see how the bank got to the point where it is today. It was interesting to follow the flow from two small banks through their histories and how they became one large institution. Now, acting as the one entity, Bank of America, there are many pressing issues facing it. The firm has many internal problems before even addressing the external environment. This is not only the competitors in the market but also the environment itself. The case addresses some of them and what strategies Bank of America uses to survive amidst the challenges before it. Five points that the case tried to address are: 1. What are some pressing key issues? What is the most critical general environmental dimension? What does the industry look like? 2. What are the firm’s strengths and weaknesses? What does the firm have a sustainable competitive advantage in? Who should the firm pursue a joint venture with? 3. What is the firm’s business-level strategy? Is the firm using a blue ocean strategy? 4. Is the firm diversified? What are its ethics and values? Is the firm optimally organized? 5. What about the additional areas? Is the firm led properly? Addressing these points will show how Bank of America arrived to its current position. It will also examine if it making the correct decisions to survive

Maximization of Non-Monotone Submodular Functions

A litany of questions from a wide variety of scientific disciplines can be cast as non-monotone submodular maximization problems. Since this class of problems includes max-cut, it is NP-hard. Thus, general purpose algorithms for the class tend to be approximation algorithms. For unconstrained problem instances, one recent innovation in this vein includes an algorithm of Buchbinder et al. (2012) that guarantees a ½ - approximation to the maximum. Building on this, for problems subject to cardinality constraints, Buchbinderet al. (2014) o_er guarantees in the range [0:356; ½ + o(1)]. Earlier work has the best approximation factors for more complex constraints and settings. For constraints that can be characterized as a solvable polytope, Chekuri et al. (2011) provide guarantees. For the online secretary setting, Gupta et al. (2010) provide guarantees. In sum, the current body of work on non-monotone submodular maximization lays strong foundations. However, there remains ample room for future algorithm development

The Mediterranean Diet: Could Obese America Eat its Way to a Longer Life?

The Mediterranean Diet (MD) is a long-standing form of nutrition that may be partially responsible for the long life-expectancy of European Mediterranean countries. If this diet is capable of increasing longevity, it may be worthy of integration into U.S. culture. This study uses literature to explore the effects of the MD on disease prevention, as avoidance of potentially lethal, non-communicable disease could increase longevity. Nationally prevalent diseases were studied, including obesity, type II diabetes, and COPD, among others. Results indicate that the diet has been linked to lower risk for development of a wide variety of diseases, thus indicating it could lengthen American life expectancy, making it a concern for the governmental, economic, and public health sectors. Some challenges of integration of the MD in U.S. culture were explored in literature. Major obstacles include financial limitations for economically distressed individuals, lack of accessibility, and clashing cultural barriers on diet style. Solutions were investigated and include SNAP reform to lessen financial stress, elimination of food deserts through the “Let’s Move!” campaign, and education of the public sector about the MD. Many challenges exist as barriers for the adoption of the diet in the U.S., and successful integration will require local and federal efforts. While integration will not be easy, significant changes in the future could allow the diet to become a part of U.S. culture. The MD could provide the increasingly obese United States with an opportunity to eat its way to a longer, healthier life.Kayla SiddellHonors DiplomHonors CollegeCunningham Memorial Library, Terre Haute, Indiana State UniversityUndergraduateTitle from document title page. Document formatted into pages: 23

Why Ireland: How Bank Failure Was Their Key To Success

Despite Ireland’s status as the first EU country to receive a bailout, Ireland appears to be bouncing back extremely well from the ongoing financial crisis in Europe and the EU. Looking at recent Irish economic statistics it begs the question whether the government’s complete guarantee of all Irish debts was the best response. Ireland’s financial crisis seemed quite similar to America’s: for both the root causes are freely lending for real estate and property. The responses however, were very different. While America let Lehman Brothers fail and only provided a partial guarantee to its banks, Ireland provided a complete guarantee to all debt-holders. Yet as of late, Ireland’s unemployment rate has fallen below the EU average, the growth rate of the economy in 2015 was a surprising 5.2% and may be the fastest growing economy in the EU at the moment. Using an analysis of the Irish government’s response to the crisis this paper investigates why Ireland’s complete guarantee, without traditional Emergency Liquidity Assistance funds, became the best move for the country

Why Are We Still Listening to this Dead British Guy: An Analysis of Emergency Liquidity Assistance in Germany During the Sovereign Debt Crisis

Germany’s position of power within the European Union disguises how impacted the German economy was by the 2008 Financial Crisis and Europe’s subsequent Sovereign Debt Crisis. Two of Germany’s major banks-Commerzbank and Bayerische Landesbank- suffered major losses and required emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) to survive. Walter Bagehot wrote the theory underpinning lenders of last resort (LLRs) in 1873 but how has the development of systemically important banks affected the usefulness of Bagehot’s theory? This paper aims to explain why Germany is in need of updated LLR recommendations through an analysis of the ELA Germany at large, Commerzbank and Bayerische Landesbank received. It also aims to empirically prove the stigma and public distrust of ELA through a regression of Commerzbank’s daily stock returns using an augmented Fama/French model. I find that Bagehot’s theory and recommendations are out of date for our current global financial sector. I cannot empirically prove any stigma or public distrust of Commerzbank, there is no relationship between Commerzbank stock returns and the augmented Fama/French factors