Hydraulic Fracturing and the Need for Risk Assessment

This analysis examines the perceived lag in the policy process with respect to risk assessment and risk management in relationship to the development of new technologies that have the potential to create new threats to public health and safety. Hydraulic fracturing and the ongoing revolution in natural gas exploration make an excellent case study of the difficulties that inevitably arise, are difficult to resolve, and that expand threats to public health and safety when policy makers do not prioritize risk assessment and risk management until the negative impacts or potential harms of previous decisions are felt. The analysis begins with a description of the hydraulic fracturing revolution and a discussion of the potential risks associated with it. This will include some of the preliminary scientific work on the subject. The analysis will highlight concerns that timely assessment and management of these risks is often frustrated by the policy process itself. In essence, the conclusion reached is that significant improvements in the timely assessing and managing the risks associated with technological advances require policy makers to emulate the emergency management profession in elevating risk assessment and risk management to the level of a first priority in the policy process

Ethics and Oil: Preventing the Next Disaster

This analytical paper assesses the BP Deepwater Horizon 2010 oil well explosion in the Gulf of Mexico in the context of ethical theory in the field of emergency management. It reviews the relevant literature that pertains to the ethical dimensions of decision making in relation to industrial disasters. Once the theoretical framework is established, a descriptive presentation of features common to Deepwater Horizon and past oil disasters is presented. The analysis suggests that the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico was, as much as anything else, the product of a systemic ethical failure on the part of both the oil industry and public officials. In addressing this failure, principles consistent with the theory presented are identified along with some preliminary action steps to stimulate and guide ongoing discussion and evaluation pertaining to the application of ethical theory to the important tasks of risk reduction and safety

An Overview of the “New” Emergency Management

In the aftermath of 9/11 and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, it is tempting to suggest that emergency management (EM) has attained a new level of significance in the national consciousness. Indeed, the emergence of the profession and the creation of FEMA itself owe much to the national defense mania of the Cold War era. But, if the past is any indication, the national security concerns that periodically increase public awareness and political attentiveness to EM do not result in a broad commitment of new resources to the array of natural and manmade disasters that threaten communities. Aside from the increased attention on immediate security threats, often without new resources being made available to local governments, the commitment to comprehensive disaster planning is generally lacking. It could even be suggested that the current focus on national security holds as much potential to distract the EM profession as it does to increase its operational scope, but the current security crisis could also be an opportunity to recast EM as a more strategic component in the local communities it serves.National security concerns aside, the EM profession is presently confronting the challenge to manage new realities. This requires expanding the role of the EM function beyond its traditional scope. The emergency manager requires new skills, and the profession must be identified with the emergency manager as a proactive public actor as much as it is with institutions and technical functions. This suggests that political and organizational analysis, strategic thinking, and leadership—concepts that have already been applied to all other public management functions—may be increasingly important concepts of study for emergency managers. What follows is a new conceptual framework for the EM profession as well as a basic organizational theme for its implementation. The limitations of the “old EM” must be overcome for the profession to advance to the “new EM,” which requires a broader, strategic, and more proactive orientation

H5N1 Planning Concerns for Local Governments

The objectives of this essay are two-fold. First, it will review the very real threat an avian influenza pandemic poses to local communities. Second, it will identify several unaddressed but critical concerns that require the attention of local governments as they refine their pandemic preparedness planning. It is concluded that greater coordination with the private sector, improved public health surveillance efforts, planning for public education, and greater attention to ethical issues are essential concerns that should be on the agenda of local governments as they proceed with their preparations

Principles of Ethics for Emergency Managers

This article reviews several alternatives in ethical theory available as possible criteria for the development of ethical principles for the emergency management profession. It also examines the basic elements (core values) of existing codes of professional ethics for emergency managers in the context of these criteria. The developing emergency management profession, it is suggested, requires more scholarship directed to the establishment of a more complete ethical theory and a more clearly articulated set of ethical principles for emergency managers. The discussion concludes with a suggestion as to what a more comprehensive, informative, and functional statement of ethical principles for the emergency management profession might look like. But this proposed formulation, offered for discussion purposes, assumes the need for more effort at defining the moral criteria that will give these principles their ultimate meaning

Reading Fluency Assessment: The Role of Word-Level Automaticity

This study examined the use of an isolated word recognition assessment, the Appalachian State Word Reading Inventory (ASUWRI), to assess students’ automatic word recognition. Grade-leveled lists of isolated words were flashed individually, one word at a time, on a computer for a pre-determined amount of time, and students were scored on the percentage of words that were correctly identified. Multiple linear regressions (stepwise) were used to determine the predictability of students’ scores on the ASUWRI at three different presentation speeds (400 ms, 1000ms, 2000ms) and their scores on other reading assessments. Results from this study show that the 400 ms exposure time was significant in predicting scores on each of the reading assessments and was a better predictor in every analysis. Results are interpreted as evidence that flash rates for the ASUWRI should be set at a maximum speed of 400 ms to best predict reading performance

False-memory construction : the effect of memory confidence

According to Roediger and McDermott (1995), a false memory is a memory of an event that never occurred. A large body of research has explored the false memory effect and the factors that influence false memory production. The purpose of the present study was twofold. The first aim was to examine the extent to which a participant’s confidence in their overall memory ability influences the production of false memories. The second aim was to explore the extent to which fluctuations in memory confidence potentially influence fluctuations in the false memory phenomenon. To these aims, participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: high-confidence group, low-confidence group, or neutral group. Participants received positive, negative, or neutral feedback about their memory performance on three different memory tests in an attempt to experimentally manipulate participants’ confidence in their memory. Using the Roediger and McDermott (1995) paradigm, participants were administered a total of 32 word lists and were administered a recall test after each list was presented. Each list contained 15 words associated with one non-presented word (critical lure). After all 32 lists were presented, participants completed a recognition test in which they were asked to identify the words presented on each list and to make remember, know, and guess judgments (Tulving, 1985). The analysis on the recall and the recognition test revealed a false memory effect: studied items were recalled and recognized at a higher rate than critical lures which in turn were recalled and recognized at a higher rate than non-critical intrusions or new words. No significant differences between the three memory manipulation conditions were observed, indicating that the memory manipulation did not affect false memory production

Creation of identity as a bridge between cultures in Cristina Garcia's Dreaming in Cuban

The members of the “1.5” generation of Cuban immigrants often face a daunting task. Being neither Cuban nor American, but at the same time being both Cuban and American, they have strong attachments to the island of their birth as well as their adopted country. Pulled in two different directions by politically and culturally divergent nations, they often experience a sense of marginalization and identity loss. Cristina Garcia’s groundbreaking novel Dreaming in Cuban beautifully depicts the struggles faced by members of this forgotten group of immigrants through her semi-autobiographical character of Pilar Puente. In this thesis I will explore the formation of identity through an examination of Pilar Puente’s character development. By thoroughly examining issues such as family relationships, religion, language, politics, art and history through the lenses of the literary theories such as new historicism, feminist theory, and postcolonial theory, I intend to provide a better understanding of the many struggles faced by those immigrating to the United States. The United States is currently involved in a politically sensitive debate about this country’s current and future immigration policies. Hispanics/Latinos are currently the fastest growing minority group in this country. I believe that understanding the struggles faced by new immigrants can lead to acceptance and appreciation of these bicultural members of society

Multi-modal hydrogel-based platform to deliver and monitor cardiac progenitor/stem cell engraftment

Retention and survival of transplanted cells are major limitations to the efficacy of regenerative medicine, with short-term paracrine signals being the principal mechanism underlying current cell therapies for heart repair. Consequently, even improvements in short-term durability may have a potential impact on cardiac cell grafting. We have developed a multimodal hydrogel-based platform comprised of a poly(ethylene glycol) network cross-linked with bioactive peptides functionalized with Gd(III) in order to monitor the localization and retention of the hydrogel in vivo by magnetic resonance imaging. In this study, we have tailored the material for cardiac applications through the inclusion of a heparin-binding peptide (HBP) sequence in the cross-linker design and formulated the gel to display mechanical properties resembling those of cardiac tissue. Luciferase-expressing cardiac stem cells (CSC-Luc2) encapsulated within these gels maintained their metabolic activity for up to 14 days in vitro. Encapsulation in the HBP hydrogels improved CSC-Luc2 retention in the mouse myocardium and hind limbs at 3 days by 6.5- and 12- fold, respectively. Thus, this novel heparin-binding based, Gd(III)-tagged hydrogel and CSC-Luc2 platform system demonstrates a tailored, in vivo detectable theranostic cell delivery system that can be implemented to monitor and assess the transplanted material and cell retention