Individual Preparedness and Response to Chemical, Radiological, Nuclear, and Biological Terrorist Attacks [PDF]

 This Quick Guide presents a strategy that individuals can adopt to prepare for and respond to terrorist attacks involving chemical, radiological, nuclear, and biological weapons. The strategy is designed to provide simple and clear guidance for individuals to help protect themselves in the event of an actual terrorist attack, which may involve extremely hazardous and unfamiliar conditions. Steps that individuals are now taking or might take to avoid such attacks are not part of this strategy.

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Research In The Arts [PDF]

This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law as indicated in a notice appearing later in this work. This electronic representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for non-commercial use only. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of our research documents. This product is part of the RAND Corporation monograph series. RAND monographs present major research findings that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors. All RAND monographs undergo rigorous peer review to ensure high standards for research quality and objectivity.  

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Project Air Force [PDF]

 In the not too distant future, there may be a second global spacebased positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) capability similar to the Global Positioning System (GPS). The European Union plans to begin initial operations of the Galileo PNT system in 2008. What effect this additional and highly capable information utility will have on global economic and security conditions is uncertain. Policy leaders and technical experts have been in discussion since 2000 to find cooperative means of providing users the benefit of both systems. However, some U.S. policymakers are concerned that Galileo will be a threat to U.S. economic and security interests. In March 2002, when its initial funding was made available, Galileo took one step closer to becoming a reality. In August 2002, in response to a National Security Council request, principals of the Interagency GPS Executive Board (IGEB), a policymaking body established in 1996 by Presidential directive to manage GPS and its U.S. government augmentations, developed recommendations for continued discussions between the United States and the European Union. One month later, the Senior Steering Group–International Space Cooperation (SSG-ISC) commissioned a study on the business case and economic impact to the global user community of two systems, GPS and Galileo. The SSG-ISC is the key forum through which the U.S. Air Force/XO dealt with Galileo issues, and AF/XO asked the RAND Corporation to conduct this study. The study was incorporated into the 2002–2003 RAND Project AIR FORCE research agenda.

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Institute For Civil Justice [PDF]

 Government Programs

The government response went far beyond that seen in most disasters. While the amount of resources expended was unprecedented, performance of the various government agencies was uneven. Most interviewees positively assessed the response of the VCF, unemployment insurance, Medicaid, and Social Security programs to the crisis. On the other hand, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was roundly criticized by our interviewees, and by the media and other analysts, for their slow response, inflexibility in adapting programs to the particular circumstances of the attack on the World Trade Center, and its poor coordination with charities. Because FEMA’s programs for responding to the broader economic impacts of a disaster are limited, FEMA was poorly suited to responding to a disaster with such large economic ripple effects on workers and businesses. Criticism has also been levied against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state and local environmental protection groups. Both our review of published material and perspectives obtained from interviewees indicate that these groups handled the pollution threats poorly.

Charity

Charities were commended by many of those we interviewed for responding quickly and for distributing substantial amounts of money in short order. In many cases, charities were able to mobilize staff and provide assistance more quickly than FEMA or other government programs were able to do. Charities also identified needs that were missed by government and insurance programs. In particular, they provided assistance to undocumented workers, others who did not qualify for unemployment insurance, and small businesses. Charities also drew attention to and provided important resources for mental health needs, an area that prior to 9/11 had not been emphasized in federal disaster relief programs. Although charities were praised for identifying unmet needs, the largest charities were criticized by some observers for focusing too much of their resources on Lower Manhattan and paying too little attention to other parts of the New York City metropolitan region.

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Education and Rand Labor and Population [PDF]

This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law as indicated in a notice appearing later in this work. This electronic representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of our research documents. This product is part of the RAND Corporation monograph series. RAND monographs present major research findings that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors. All RAND monographs undergo rigorous peer review to ensure high standards for research quality and objectivity.  

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Labor and Population [PDF]

In labor as in other policy domains, government action plays out in a context of powerful trends, some strongly affected by other government activities and some not. Understanding this context is a prerequisite to sound policy formation. To aid understanding of the forces impinging on the workforce and workplace of the twenty-first century, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) asked RAND to conduct a study of the future of work. Specifically, we seek to answer two sets of questions about work in the twenty-first century:

• What are the major factors that will shape the future of work in the current century and how are those factors likely to evolve over the next 10 to 15 years?

• What are the implications of these future trends for key aspects of the future workforce and workplace, including the size, composition, and skills of the workforce; the nature of work and workplace arrangements; and worker compensation?

To address these questions, we take a closer look at three major factors that are expected to shape the world of work in the coming decades: shifting demographic patterns, the pace of technological change, and the path of economic globalization. In doing so, our objective is not so much to predict the future but rather to understand key structural forces under way in the economy today, the factors associated with those trends, and whether we can expect such trends to continue or to deviate from their present course. We also aim to identify the implications of those trends and the challenges they pose for decisionmakers in the public and private sectors.  

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Rand-Initiated Research_02 [PDF]

The number of people in danger of malnutrition worldwide has decreased significantly in the past 30 years, thanks in part to the Green Revolution of the 20th century. However, an estimated 800 million people still lack adequate access to food. The world now sits at the cusp of a second potential agricultural revolution, the “Gene Revolution” in which modern biotechnology enables the production of genetically modified (GM) crops that may be tailored to address ongoing agricultural problems in specific regions of the world. The GM crop movement has the potential to do enormous good, but also presents novel risks and has significant challenges to overcome before it can truly be considered revolutionary. This monograph seeks to answer these questions: Can the Gene Revolution become in fact a global revolution, and, if so, how should it best proceed? This report draws on lessons from the Green Revolution to inform stakeholders who are concerned with the current GM crop movement. We hope that this analysis can illuminate opportunities for GM crops to increase farm production, rural income, and food security in developing countries, while controlling potential risks to health and the environment. The analysis and findings in this report are intended for all individuals and institutions interested in improving agricultural production and food quality in the developing world, and particularly those who have a stake in the worldwide debate over genetically modified crops.

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Terrorism Risk Insurance Act Effective at Sharing Financial Risk [PDF]

The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) creates an effective mechanism for sharing the financial risk that businesses face from terrorism. Still, less than half of all businesses have terrorism insurance; the U.S. government should consider encouraging these businesses to buy coverage.

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Design for Success: Design Tools for Effective VOADs  [PDF]

The Design for Success matrix, narratives, and appendices are meant to serve as a developmental roadmap for VOADs. The narrative descriptions supporting each section of the matrix are largely drawn from existing documents, including the VOAD Organizing Manual, and other resources available in their entirety on the NVOAD website.

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Emotional and Spiritual Care, An Introduction on Basic Concepts [PDF]

This document seeks to define, in broad terms, emotional care in disaster response and recovery; spiritual care (broadly, again) in disaster response and recovery, share how emotional and spiritual care overlap, share additional ideas and thoughts on emotional care and spiritual care respectively and to offer some basic resources to promote discussion on planning and to hand out these materials as appropriate.

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Long-Term Recovery Manual [PDF]

The Spring 2004 update of the NVOAD Long-Term Recovery Manual is a comprehensive document, including the latest and newest information, designed to assist communities to respond appropriately in long-term recovery. The manual offers an understandable overview of successful models for organizing Long-Term Recovery structures, along with considerable assistance in functional areas in the form of samples, tools and informative appendices.

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National Leaderhip Forum on Disaster Volunteerism [PDF]

This summary document emerged from the National Leadership Forum on Disaster Volunteerism held on April 16-17, 2002, in Washington, DC.

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Disaster Relief  [PDF]

Providing assistance through charitable organizations

…is for people interested in using a charitable organization to provide help to victims of disasters or other emergency hardship situations. These disasters may be caused by floods, fires, riots, storms, or similar large-scale events. Emergency hardship may be caused by illness, death, accident, violent crime, or other personal events.

This publication includes:

. advice about helping to provide relief through an existing charitable organization
. information about establishing a new charitable organization
. guidance about how charitable organizations can help victims
. requirements for documentation
. a special statutory rule that applies only to disaster relief assistance for victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States
. guidance about employer-sponsored assistance programs
. information about gifts and charitable contribution rules
. reference publications and sources of assistance  

By using this publication at an early stage to help plan your relief efforts, your program will be able to help victims in ways that are consistent with the federal tax rules that apply to charities.  

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 NEW  
>>>  Upload 09. 04. 2006. <<<

Improving Management of Urban Earthquake Disaster Risks [PDF]

China Building Technology Development Center, Beijing, China
Norio Okada
Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
ABSTRACT: The paper begins with a discussion of the facts of disasters, expanding the facts to include disasters and losses in the last five decades around the world and then shifting the focus from the lessons learned from recent earthquake disasters and reasons for increasing losses to urban disaster risk management requirements. A data matching earthquake loss estimation model is presented by linking together the input data, output data and the methodology of the earthquake loss estimation to address the challenge of creating urban disaster risk management tools to mitigate earthquake disasters. The paper concludes with some recommendations for improvement of earthquake loss estimation and earthquake risk management.

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OCHA Geneva Natural Disasters Highlights [PDF]

UNITED NATIONS OFFICE FOR THE COORDINATION OF HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS

“This year has been a year like no other for humanitarian action, bracketed by devastating disasters, --the Indian Ocean Tsunami in the final days of 2004 and the South Asia earthquake of October 2005, on top of the worst hurricane season in living memory--and stretching all humanitarian agencies to their maximum capacity and beyond." (Introduction of Humanitarian Appeals 2006-30 November 2005)

On Saturday 8 October 2005, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake occurred in Northern Pakistan, its epicenter situated just 95 km. of Islamabad. The initial earthquake and the over 300 aftershocks caused massive destruction in the area and more than 73,000 dead and 69,000 seriously injured. It also affected India and Afghanistan.

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Health Forging the Link Between Alcohol... [PDF]

This product is part of the RAND Corporation research brief series. RAND research briefs present policy-oriented summaries of individual published, peerreviewed documents or of a body of published work.

The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research organization providing objective analysis and effective solutions that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world.

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Response Operations Following the Chichi Taiwan Earthquake [PDF]

Introduction

Rapid mobilization of response personnel, equipment, supplies and assistance following a major earthquake represents a set of complex, interorganizational tasks that tests the existing policies and capacity of public institutions. Such mobilization requires lateral coordination of actions simultaneously among responsible agencies within each level of jurisdiction: city, county, national, and international. It also requires vertical coordination among agencies across multiple jurisdictional levels as the event escalates in impact and danger. This process is further complicated by the urgent stress of operating under disaster conditions, where time is the crucial factor in saving lives. Yet, the organizational requirements for mobilizing a rapid response system following a major earthquake run counter to the typical pattern of hierarchical organization of administrative activities in public organizations (March and Simon, 1993; Simon, 1981; Kaufman, 1985; Fesler and Kettl, 1991).

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China ASEAN Workshop on Earthquake Generated Tsunami Warning [PDF]

“Action Plan to Formulate a Technology Platform for Earthquake-
Generated Tsunami Warning System”
Beijing, China 25-26 January 2005
As a follow-up action to the announcement of H. E. Mr. Wen Jiabao, Premier of China at the Special ASEAN Leaders’ Meeting on Aftermath of Earthquake and Tsunami in Jakarta, Indonesiaon 6 January 2005 to help ASEAN countries to establish Strong Earthquake and Tsunami Warning Network, the China-ASEAN Workshop on Earthquake-Generated Tsunami Warning was held in Beijing on 25-26 January 2005

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