Organizational Risk Perception of Disasters: Do Risk Managers Matter?

Previous research on risk perception suggests that individual neglect of disasters is likely due to an inability to process information about low-probability, high-consequence threats and moral hazard. As a result, it is important to study the quality of organizational responses to disasters, since they may be crucial to compensating for the frailty of individual choice. Preliminary evidence suggests that an organizational risk manager is important in disaster planning, but there is no empirical evidence (to our knowledge) that having a designated risk manager leads to the adoption of risk-reducing measures in organizations. Additionally, there is limited research on the relationship between risk perception and the adoption of risk-reducing measures at the organizational level. The goal of this study is to empirically answer two questions. (1) “Does having a risk manager in an organization predict the adoption of risk-reducing measures?” (2) “What is the relationship between risk perception and the adoption of risk-reducing measures at the organizational level?” Using data collected from a sample of public, private, and non-profit organizations in the Memphis/Shelby County area, Tennessee in 2006, we find that organizations with risk managers adopted more risk-reducing measures than organizations without risk managers and that risk perception is a significant predictor of risk-reducing measures. This study builds on a small, but growing literature on how organizations perceive risks and respond to them.National Science Foundation and the Mid-America Earthquake Cente

FEMA versus local governments: Influence and reliance in disaster preparedness

This study uses an experimental approach to examine whether disaster information sourced to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) influences intentions to adopt hazard adjustments. Survey questions are also used to determine whether individuals rely more on FEMA or local governments when preparing for disasters. Using an online sample of 2008 US employees, the results indicate that information sourced to FEMA is no more influential than information sourced to local governments and that individuals rely less on FEMA than on local agencies during disaster preparedness. These results have significant implications for practice and future research on natural hazard preparedness

Effects of ozone-vegetation coupling on surface ozone air quality via biogeochemical and meteorological feedbacks

Tropospheric ozone is one of the most hazardous air pollutants as it harms both human health and plant productivity. Foliage uptake of ozone via dry deposition damages photosynthesis and causes stomatal closure. These foliage changes could lead to a cascade of biogeochemical and biogeophysical effects that not only modulate the carbon cycle, regional hydrometeorology and climate, but also cause feedbacks onto surface ozone concentration itself. In this study, we implement a semi-empirical parameterization of ozone damage on vegetation in the Community Earth System Model to enable online ozone-vegetation coupling, so that for the first time ecosystem structure and ozone concentration can coevolve in fully coupled land-Atmosphere simulations. With ozone-vegetation coupling, present-day surface ozone is simulated to be higher by up to 4-6ĝ€ppbv over Europe, North America and China. Reduced dry deposition velocity following ozone damage contributes to ĝ1/4 40-100ĝ€% of those increases, constituting a significant positive biogeochemical feedback on ozone air quality. Enhanced biogenic isoprene emission is found to contribute to most of the remaining increases, and is driven mainly by higher vegetation temperature that results from lower transpiration rate. This isoprene-driven pathway represents an indirect, positive meteorological feedback. The reduction in both dry deposition and transpiration is mostly associated with reduced stomatal conductance following ozone damage, whereas the modification of photosynthesis and further changes in ecosystem productivity are found to play a smaller role in contributing to the ozone-vegetation feedbacks. Our results highlight the need to consider two-way ozone-vegetation coupling in Earth system models to derive a more complete understanding and yield more reliable future predictions of ozone air quality

Exploring the Relationship between Hazard Adjustments and Risk Managers in Organizations

There is little empirical evidence on the relationship between organizational risk managers and the adoption of hazard adjustments (measures taken to reduce risks from extreme events). Similarly, the risk perception literature is mixed on the relationship between risk perception and the adoption of hazard adjustments in organizations. This study empirically addresses these two gaps using data collected from 227 public, private and non-profit organizations in the Memphis/Shelby County area, Tennessee, in 2006. This study finds a significant positive relationship between risk managers and the adoption of hazard adjustments. The results also indicate that organizational risk perception has a small positive influence on the adoption of hazard adjustments

Tensionless structure of glassy phase

We study a class of homogeneous finite-dimensional Ising models which were recently shown to exhibit glassy properties. Monte Carlo simulations of a particular three-dimensional model in this class show that the glassy phase obtained under slow cooling is dominated by large scale excitations whose energy $E_l$ scales with their size $l$ as $E_l\sim l^{\Theta}$ with $\Theta\sim 1.33(5)$. Simulations suggest that in another model of this class, namely the four-spin model, energy is concentrated mainly in linear defects making also in this case domain walls tensionless. Two-dimensinal variants of these models are trivial and energy of excitations scales with the exponent $\Theta=1.05(5)$.Comment: 5 page

High Prevalence of Antibiotic-Resistant Mycoplasma genitalium in Nongonococcal Urethritis: The Need for Routine Testing and the Inadequacy of Current Treatment Options.

Background. Empirical antibiotic therapy for nongonococcal urethritis (NGU) and cervicitis is aimed at Chlamydia trachomatis, but Mycoplasma genitalium, which also commonly causes undiagnosed NGU, necessitates treatment with macrolides or fluoroquinolones rather than doxycycline, the preferred chlamydia treatment. Prevalence of M. genitalium and associated genotypic markers of macrolide and fluoroquinolone resistance among men symptomatic of urethritis were investigated. Genetic diversity of M. genitalium populations was determined to infer whether findings were applicable beyond our setting. Methods. Mycoplasma genitalium and other NGU pathogens were detected using nucleic acid amplification methods, and DNA sequencing was used to detect genotypic resistance markers of macrolide and fluoroquinolone antibiotics in 23S ribosomal RNA, gyrA, gyrB, and parC genes. MG191 single-nucleotide polymorphism typing and MG309 variable number tandem analysis were combined to assign a dual locus sequence type (DLST) to each positive sample. Results. Among 217 men, M. genitalium prevalence was 16.7% (95% confidence interval [CI], 9.5%-24.0%) and C. trachomatis prevalence was 14.7% (95% CI, 7.8%-21.6%) in NGU cases. Nine of 22 (41%; 95% CI, 20%-62%) patients with M. genitalium were infected with DLSTs possessing genotypic macrolide resistance and 1 patient was infected with a DLST having genotypic fluoroquinolone resistance. Typing assigned M. genitalium DLSTs to 2 major clusters, broadly distributed among previously typed international strains. Genotypic macrolide resistance was spread within these 2 clusters. Conclusions. Mycoplasma genitalium is a frequent undiagnosed cause of NGU in this population with rates of macrolide resistance higher than those previously documented. Current guidelines for routine testing and empirical treatment of NGU should be modified to reduce treatment failure of NGU and the development of further resistance

Coherent states for polynomial su(1,1) algebra and a conditionally solvable system

In a previous paper [{\it J. Phys. A: Math. Theor.} {\bf 40} (2007) 11105], we constructed a class of coherent states for a polynomially deformed $su(2)$ algebra. In this paper, we first prepare the discrete representations of the nonlinearly deformed $su(1,1)$ algebra. Then we extend the previous procedure to construct a discrete class of coherent states for a polynomial su(1,1) algebra which contains the Barut-Girardello set and the Perelomov set of the SU(1,1) coherent states as special cases. We also construct coherent states for the cubic algebra related to the conditionally solvable radial oscillator problem.Comment: 2 figure

The Need for Compliance Verification in Collaborative Business Processes

Compliance constrains processes to adhere to rules, standards, laws and regulations. Non-compliance subjects enterprises to litigation and financial fines. Collaborative business processes cross organizational and regional borders implying that internal and cross regional regulations must be complied with. To protect customs’ data, European enterprises must comply with the EU data privacy regulation (general data protection regulation - GDPR) and each member state’s data protection laws. An example of non-compliance with GDPR is Facebook, it is accused for breaching subscriber trust. Compliance verification is thus essential to deploy and implement collaborative business process systems. It ensures that processes are checked for conformance to compliance requirements throughout their life cycle. In this paper we take a proactive approach aiming to discuss the need for design time preventative compliance verification as opposed to after effect runtime detective approach. We use a real-world case to show how compliance needs to be analyzed and show the benefits of applying compliance check at the process design stag

Equilibrium Properties of A Monomer-Monomer Catalytic Reaction on A One-Dimensional Chain

We study the equilibrium properties of a lattice-gas model of an $A + B \to 0$ catalytic reaction on a one-dimensional chain in contact with a reservoir for the particles. The particles of species $A$ and $B$ are in thermal contact with their vapor phases acting as reservoirs, i.e., they may adsorb onto empty lattice sites and may desorb from the lattice. If adsorbed $A$ and $B$ particles appear at neighboring lattice sites they instantaneously react and both desorb. For this model of a catalytic reaction in the adsorption-controlled limit, we derive analytically the expression of the pressure and present exact results for the mean densities of particles and for the compressibilities of the adsorbate as function of the chemical potentials of the two species.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Anisotropic dynamical scaling in a spin model with competing interactions

Results are presented for the kinetics of domain growth of a two-dimensional Ising spin model with competing interactions quenched from a disordered to a striped phase. The domain growth exponent are $\beta=1/2$ and $\beta=1/3$ for single-spin-flip and spin-exchange dynamics, as found in previous simulations. However the correlation functions measured in the direction parallel and transversal to the stripes are different as suggested by the existence of different interface energies between the ground states of the model. In the case of single-spin-flip dynamics an anisotropic version of the Ohta-Jasnow-Kawasaki theory for the pair scaling function can be used to fit our data.Comment: 4 pages, REVTeX fil