The role of the United States Fire Administration (USFA) in promoting Essay

The role of the United States Fire Administration (USFA) in promoting electrical safety in the home, or at the workplace - Essay Example The USFA has been playing a vital role in promoting the electrical safety in homes and workplaces by conducting researches, spreading awareness about the causes of electrical fire and the safety precautions. According to the research data collected by USFA, the electrical home problems alone account for 67800 fires each year claiming 485 deaths and $868 millions in property loss.2 Providing the basic software to enable the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) to be executed at the state levels has been a major contribution of the USFA. 3The NFIRS is a three tiered information system working at three levels – local fire departments, state fire agencies and the federal government and aims at promoting the fire incident reporting and tracking fire fighter fatalities. The software provided by the USFA empowered the state level execution of the NFIRS which is faster, cost- effective and more accurate in detecting the cause of fire, which is primarily due to electrical malfunctioning. The organization funds the National Fire Information Council (NFIC) through a series of cooperative agreements to promote fire incident reporting. The United States Fire Administration along with National Fire Academy also sponsors NFIRS program management course. Using a hierarchical sorting based on Ignition factor, the USFA smartly investigates the cause of fire a nd states the electrical distribution and appliance misuse as the major causes of electrical fire. The curtailed number of electrical fire accidents in the recent times can be accredited to USFA for the widespread use and awareness of the NFPA 70, National Electric Code. The USFA has been a pioneer agency involved in encouraging people to safeguard against the electrical fire by maintaining and sharing data as well as setting standards for the appropriate electrical wiring and appliance specification systems. The organization has been proactively involved, in not just

SLP Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

SLP - Essay Example It is however the slowest in starting up of the three and it seems that the application has heavy files. The slowest of the three search engine to load a website is internet explorer. It requires twice as much time to load compare to chrome and even fails to load sometimes. There are only two utility of a website that I find useful for what I need which is for research work in school and recreation (social networking, interesting websites etch). So the important utility that I need is how fast does it load a certain website and how fast does it load videos and pictures. Of the three, google chrome loads the fastest which I find very useful to what I need. I have to be honest that I am quite impatient when I surf the net. Speed is very important for me that is why I was annoyed using internet explorer because it is very slow and has a lot of bugs evident with its constant failure to load. This experience made me realize that user experience is very important to make an application relevant and useful. So if I will create applications someday, I will bear in mind the need and experience of the users so that the application I created will become

Review of Maintaining Reproductive Health

Review of Maintaining Reproductive Health Researchers almost nerve conduct a study in an intellectual vaccum. Literature reviews can serve a number of important functions in the research process. Researchers undertake a literature review to familiarize themselves with the knowledge base. A thorough literature review helps to lay the foundation for a study, and can inspires new research ideas. Review of literature is defined as a broad, comprehensive in depth, systemic and crucial review of scholarly publication, unpublished scholarly print materials, audio visual material and personal communication. Review of literature is arranged under the following headings. Review related to reproductive health. Review related to menstrual hygiene. Review related to sexual behavior and sex education. Review related to sexually transmitted disease and AIDS. Review related to usage of contraceptives. Review related to reproductive health Neelam mann., (2010) conducted a study to assess the effectiveness of a structured teaching programme on knowledge regarding puberty among pre adolescent girls in Vijaya English school at Hassan, In that study shows percentage of knowledge in each aspect puberty such as anatomy and physiology, characteristics of puberty, menstrual hygiene and sexually transmitted dieases, before planned teaching programme. Preadolescent girls are having below average knowledge on all aspects except menstrual hygiene. Over all knowledge score shows girls are having only 33.52% of knowledge before the administration of planned teaching programme. Post test knowledge on different aspects of puberty after the planned teaching program, on an average adolescent girls increased 80.71% regarding puberty. Jyoti vinod., (2008) conducted a study to assess the effect of planned teaching programme on knowledge, attitude and practice of adolescents in relation to the reproductive health in selected shelter homes in Mumbai, among a population of 60 adolescents in that 30 boys and 30 girls who were selected by convenient sampling technique and data were collected by self reporting technique. Findings shows that pretest knowledge score is 63% and post test score is 91% with regard to knowledge changed in the adolescence was markedly increase in boys and girls from 23% and 19% to 70% and 83% respectively. So it shows the effectiveness of the teaching programme on reproductive health. Jeyashri.G.Itti., (2007) conducted a study that to evaluate the effect of planned teaching programme on selected aspects of reproductive health among the rural adolescents girls. In the pre test 69.77% of the subjects had poor knowledge, where as post test scores showed that 96.5% of subjects had good knowledge. This result related to the post test knowledge (mean 34.35) scores showed that the adolescent girls had a significantly higher score on reproductive health than the pre test (mean 21.81). The t value of 31.30 was significant at 0.001 level of significance and the investigator concluded overall pre test knowledge about reproductive health was poor, there was need planned teaching programme, post test result showed significant improvement in knowledge of reproductive health. Zulkitli., (2000) conducted a study to assess the determinants of sexual intercourse among unmarried adolescents on sexual practices in Malaysia. Overall results shows that the propotion of unmarried adolescents who have sexual intercourse is about 13% boys, (18.8%) are more likely to be sexuality experienced than girls (7.11%) by religion, Buddhist reported last experienced (6%) followed by Muslims (12%) and others (21%) for the more, 72% of adolescent engages in sex without considering the use of contraceptives. So through this study the researcher concluded that adolescents need sex education during school period as early as possible. Corresponding Author InformationAddress reprint requests to Heather Becker, PhD, School of Nursing, The University of Texas at Austin, 1700 Red River Street, Austin, TX 78701. Review related to menstrual hygiene. Punitha., (2010) conducted study to assess the practice and problem in using pad or cloth during menstruation among the blind children. Research design used for the study was comparative-correlation survey. Sample size for the study was 50 blind children who used pad during menstruation and 50 blind children who used cloth during menstruation. Structure interview questionnaire used for validate the responses. In that there was a significant negative correlation between practice and problem of using cloth during menstruation r = -0.139 (p

Great Bear Rainforest Essay example -- British Columbia Nature Wildern

Great Bear Rainforest The controversy over logging, and more specifically clearcutting, is not a new issue in America. Ever since the 1920's and 1930's, when this nation started to become conscious of conservation, citizens have weighed the consequences of logging. Critics have questioned whether the increase in jobs, tax dollars, and economic growth was worth the destruction of forest lands. Regardless of what they believe today, the logging industry had become so efficient that by the late 1980's nearly 100,000 acres of federal land had been clearcut since the industry began. Logging technology has advanced rapidly in terms of speed, to meet the increasing demands for lumber, paper, and other products derived from trees. This in turn has greatly impacted the environment by severely degrading watersheds, leading to increased soil erosion, the diminution in the quality of drinking water, and the decline of fish stocks, among many other consequences. In this essay I will examine the progression of logging equipment throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and discuss how these changes in technology have not only changed the relationship of those who work in the industry, but also haw this has changed the wider relationship of society and nature. Before starting my research I thought there had been a progressive increase in the amount of land that had been clearcut. My reasoning for this was that logging machinery at the end of the 19th century was primitive compared to that of more recent times. As a result, it would have been difficult to compete with the output of today's industry. However, in the late 19th century there was a boom in the logging industry and thousands of acres of land across the nation were forested. Hist... ...the improvement in machinery. However, if they were just based on technological improvements, there would not be a continual rise and fall in the logging industry. These periods of increased logging have drastic affects on the environment, today, just like one hundred years ago. More importantly, the growth in technology has led to the reduction of workers. In my opinion, it seems that now we are dealing with the big capitalist pull. Individual companies are buying these forests just to log. For the most part, they are the ones that are reaping the benefits, while destroying habitats for people and animals alike. Thereby changing the relationship of those who work in the industry and that of environmentally conscience society. 1 According to Foster, "harvesting is sustainable if the stimulated growth rate is equal to or greater than that of the existing forest."

How Is Peak Load Staffing, Unit Hour Utilization and System Status Management Used in the Fire Service and Ambulance.

The majority of non EMS/Fire related people believe that the EMS and Fire calls are sporadic. In reality there is a predictable trend where the call volumes are higher and lower. There are 3 concepts that I will discuss further, first, System Status Management. SSM is simply what its name implies, the management of a EMS/Fire system’s resources before and between calls. It is the process of preparing the system for the best possible response to the next EMS or Fire call. Second, the concept is of Unit-Hour Utilization. UHU is an equation to find out what percent of the time a specific unit is being used on a specific day.Third, Peak Load Staffing will be discussed. PLS is a pretty simple topic to understand, For instance, Industrial areas and commercial office building usually have the highest call volume during the 9am-5pm business day when residential areas have a higher call volume after 5pm, lessen at night and start again around 6am the next day. The concept of PLS is to have more resources in the higher call volume times and areas. I work as a Paramedic for the Medical Express Ambulance Service (Medex) where both SSM and PLS are used. First, the concept of System Status Management.Our 2 most northern posts at Medex are Swedish Covenant Hospital (northeastern chicago) and Resurrection Medical Center (northwest chicago). The dispatchers attempt to keep 2 ALS and 3 BLS ambulances around the hospital. However if all of our ambulances out of Swedish Cov. Hospital get dispatched, Our dispatchers will move a few ambulances from Resurrection over to Swedish Cov. to cover the area and decrease overall response times. There have been times where we have not been relocated to either hospital and had to travel more than 30-45 minutes lights and sirens to get to a patient.If SSM had been implemented appropriately, that response time could have been greatly decreased. â€Å"UHU, or unit hour utilization, itself is fairly straightforward. It's calculated by divi ding the number of transports by the number of â€Å"unit hours,† with one unit hour defined as a fully equipped and staffed vehicle in your EMS system. If your system has 10 ambulances around the clock, there are 240 unit hours in a 24-hour period. If those 10 ambulances do 120 transports in 24 hours, you would calculate your system's UHU as follows:120 transports/240 unit hours = . 5 UHU† (http://www. ems1. om/ems-management/articles/1365144-How-to-explain-UHU-from- UFOs-to-your-city-manager/) Back to personal experience at Medex for the implementation of PLS. On average, our Medical calls on the week days are nearly double that of which we get on the weekend. In addition, the number of calls during the day is cut in half at night. On average, I run 6 medical calls per 12 hour shift on a week day, 3 at night and 3 on the weekend. If you look at those numbers, if you were to staff the same amount of ALS and BLS ambulances on the weekend or at night as you did during th e day, the UHU ratio would be extremely low.On average, Medex has around 12 ALS and 24 BLS ambulances on the street during the week. For the weekend, they only have 6 ALS and 10 BLS ambulances on the street. This effectively reduces the running cost for the company but does not strain the line staff. The EMS and Ambulance companies utilize these three concepts quite effectively, however they can also be applied to municipal Fire/Rescue departments. Most people see the Fire Departments as a rigid system, The stations are where you sit. However this does not always cover the most amount of area.For instance, town ABC has 2 fire stations both on the main road in town 5 miles apart. Both have 2 ambulances at each station, If both ambulances at one of the stations go our on a call. One of the towns regions around the station would experience a long ETA for an ambulance. However if one of the 2 ambulances sitting at the other station would go and cover the empty station until a unit clear ed from a call, the ETAs would be greatly reduced. This system is partially implemented with the station coverage neighboring departments participate in.The concept of UHU would be implemented in the Fire service more for evaluation purposes. This can help identify if addition resources are required, which units are near operational limits and which units are not utilized to their potential. Finally PLS is a topic which is not often used in the Fire service. This if properly implemented can reduce line staff strain, more adequately cover the areas required and save money. For instance, a town like Rosemont is primarily commercial business that are open 9-5 with very little residence on off hours and weekends. The majority of their Fires are 9-5 weekdays.To have more staff on duty during those hours would simply make more sense and save the town money. The Ambulance services have less complications than the Fire services does implementing the above concepts. The Fire service provides a larger spectrum of services and has many different apparatus for different uses. In the ambulance service they only have ALS and BLS ambulances which can sometimes work for eachother. For instance, a ALS ambulance can run a BLS call easily. However in the Fire service, a ALS ambulance cannot have the firefighting capabilities of a Truck or Engine crew.In addition, Ambulance companies have a plethora of resources that they can call on, to get another ambulance on the street is easy as calling a few people in since they have many spare ambulance that can be deployed if needed. The largest problem with the Firefighting side of this concept being implemented is that fires, sizes and resources needed truly is a sporadic event. Yes you can predict in the winter there will be more fires but the resources needed to combat a fire cannot be predicted as accurately.The UHU is extremely variable as is the ability to effectively implement PLS on Fire Apparatus. For the 4th of july scenario sh ows the utilization of Peak Load Staffing by having more resources on duty for events and days shown to require more resources. City XYZ FD is using System Status Management to cover the high call volume areas between the hours required. The final example uses Unit Hour Utilization to most effectively distribute the resources. The three above concepts of properly applied to the fire service can greatly reduce strain on the staff and running costs.

China, India, and Wal-Mart: Issues of Price and Sourcing

Case 3: China, India, and Wal-Mart: Issues of Price, Quality, and Sourcing Introduction: Wal-Mart was the largest retailer in the United States and the largest corporation in the world because of the crusade, which meant all US products on the shelves by its creator, Sam Walton (Weiss, 2009, pp. 471). However, after he died in 1992, crusade evaporated, instead of US products, 98% of all of shelves throughout Wal-Mart (Weiss, 2009, pp. 471) are manufactured in China, Vietnam, South Korea, Taiwan and India. Too-cheap-to-beat Chinese products are killing the US manufactories, which cannot afford to make products anymore and still make a profit.Someone said that the Wal-Mart’s goal is only get the lowest price without regarding the quality which means Wal-Mart’s products from global markets are taking an increasingly vigorous public trashing because of product safety and quality concerns. Nonetheless, Wal-Mart still expands its purchases of Chinese goods (Weiss, 2009, pp. 4 72). Ethical Issues: According to this case, Wal-Mart’s ethical business management is related to the global environment, which consists of financial markets, cultures, technologies and government policies (Weiss, 2009, pp. 18). As the case indicates, the market also consists of hypercompetition from different countries such as China and India and regional players in the global environment. China has low cost offshore labor in the â€Å"flat world†, so that Chinese imports are so inexpensive to enter in U. S. So many factors lead most US manufactories to close the doors and eventually jobs are lost accelerate. The United States’ economic outlooks vary with regard to the global economy (Weiss, 2009, pp. 420).In my opinion, the labor force is one of technologies in a developing country and it supports the globalization process. China as a global manufacturer and U. S. partner is a great source of world-class offshore technology services. Wal-Mart has its own exter nal and internal stakeholders. The largest benefit able external stakeholder is a customer. As Wal-Mart, it sacrifices product quality in order to offer customers low prices. It is hard to justify that Wal-Mart is unethical without further investigation of overall impacts that brings to the customers.As its internal stakeholders, the employees have more job opportunities because of expending its business scope and shareholders can benefit more in the global trade. In my opinion, moreover, the government as its external stakeholder, it can control the quality when the products import to the U. S. The technological environment comprises factors related to the materials and machines used in manufacturing goods and services. Wal-Mart has no control over its international suppliers, which should be controlled by the U. S. overnments, although it has ability to control its threats in the global environment. In conclusion, globalization makes hypercompetition and challenges to new and cont inuing leaders and professionals in organizations (Weiss, 2009, pp. 423). As the case indicated, the critic asserts that U. S. must stop Wal-Mart to continue to grow. However, I think it is not practical in a â€Å"flat world†, it provides the lowest price of the products for the customers after all. References Weiss W. Joseph. Business Ethics: A Stakeholder & Issues Management Approach. 5e