Contents: what disaster response management can learn from chaos theory; disaster in aisle 13 revisited; nonlinear analysis of disaster response data; disaster responder's perception of time; fractals & path dependent processes: a theoretical approach for characterizing emergency medical responses to major disasters; self-organization in disaster response: global strategies to support local action; & chaos theory & disaster response management: lessons for managing periods of extreme instability. Bibliography.

Including contributions from sixty international authors, this book examines emergency responses to environmental dangers such as chemical fires, hazardous material and oil spills, nuclear reactor accidents, and earthquakes, and crises in the environment, global public service, and politics. It covers a wide range of international issues and topics, using various analyses, including critical, descriptive, empirical, quantitative, and normative methods. The book discusses approaches to natural disasters, resolutions to cultural, religious, and political tensions, terrorism and the potential use of biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons, the role of crisis public relations, and more.

More than 12 years have passed since the publication of the first edition of Crisis and Emergency Management. During that time numerous disasters—from 9/11 to massive earthquakes in Iran and China, to the giant Asian Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, and the Fukushima Tsunami and ensuing nuclear meltdown—have changed the way we manage catastrophic events. With contributions from leading experts, this second edition features 40 new chapters that address recent worldwide crises and what we have learned from emergency responses to them. See What’s New in the Second Edition: Up-to-date concepts, theories, and practices Analysis of recent disasters and their effect on emergency management Policy and managerial lessons Suggestions for capacity building in crisis and emergency management The book covers a wide range of international issues using critical, empirical, and quantitative analyses. It discusses various approaches to topics such as resolving political tension and terrorism issues, the potential use of biological weapons, and the role of public relations in crisis. The author offers insight into organizational and community resiliency development; a "surprise management" theory in practice for upgrading the knowledge and skills in managing crises and governing emergencies; and better and more effective organizational, political, social, and managerial coordination in the processes. He presents case studies that enhance and advance the future theory and practice of crisis and emergency management, while at the same time providing practical advice that can be put to use immediately. Managing crises and governing emergencies in such an age of challenges demands a different kind of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that were not available yesterday. This book gives you valuable information with applications at the macro, micro, organizational, and interorganizational levels, preparing you for emergency management in an increasingly globalized and uncertain world.

This volume is a collection of papers presented during the first International ACM-L Workshop, which was held in Tucson, Arizona, during the 25th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling, ER 2006. Included in this state-of-the-art survey are 11 revised full papers, carefully reviewed and selected from the workshop presentations. These are rounded off with four invited lectures and an introductory overview, and represent the current thinking in conceptual modeling research.

Chaos, catastrophe, self-organization, and complexity theories (nonlinear dynamics) now have practical and measurable roles in the functioning of work organizations. Managing Emergent Phenomena begins by describing how the concept of an organization has changed from a bureaucracy, to a humanistic and organic system, to a complex adaptive system. The dynamics concepts are then explained along with the most recent research methods for analyzing real data. Applications include: work motivation, personnel selection and turnover, creative thinking by individuals and groups, the development of social networks, coordination in work groups, the emergence of leaders, work performance in organizational hierarchies, economic problems that are relevant to organizations, techniques for predicting the future, and emergency management. Each application begins with a tight summary of standard thinking on a subject, followed by the new insights that are afforded by nonlinear dynamics and the empirical data supporting those ideas. Unusual concepts are also encountered, such as the organizational unconscious, collective intelligence, and the revolt of the slaved variables. The net results are a new perspective on what is really important in organizational life, original insights on familiar experiences, and some clear signposts for the next generation of nonlinear social scientists.

The global trend of increasingly ageing societies and long term illnesses has meant a growth in demand for intensive care resources. This book advises on leadership and organizational development of intensive care units, in order to give best practices for governance, performance, emergency response and safety. Written by international experts in the field, each chapter allows researchers, clinicians and service providers worldwide to be able to refer to this single reference book. In seven parts, the volume will tackle aspects of intensive care management in both global and local contexts, and interrogate the key concerns that service providers face. It works as an informative guide for the practical administration of intensive care, as well as being international in its design and information.

By now, it is commonly accepted that investments in information and communication technologies (ICTs) can facilitate macroeconomic growth in developed countries. Research standards in ICT for development (ICT4D) are high, and it is a basic expectation that a theoretically sound conceptual investigation should yield actionable results. An additional expectation is that an on-the-ground study conducted in each setting should add to the common body of knowledge based on theory. In other words, one is expected to make a connection between the world of concepts and the world of reality. Middle-range theories and frameworks could help connect the case studies with grand theories, by helping to create a theoretically sound and practically applicable research architecture of ICT4D. This book demonstrates how creative use of various data analysis methods (e.g., data mining [DM], data envelopment analysis [DEA], and structural equation modeling [SEM]) and conceptual frameworks (e.g., neoclassical growth accounting, chaos and complexity theories) may be utilized for inductive and deductive purposes to develop and to test, in step-by-step fashion, theoretically sound frameworks for a large subset of ICT4D research questions. Specifically, this book showcases the utilization of DM, DEA, and SEM for the following purposes: Identification of the relevant context-specific constructs (inductive application) Identification of the relationships between the constructs (inductive application) Development of a framework incorporating the constructs and relationships discovered (inductive application) Testing of the constructed framework (deductive application) The book takes a multi-theoretical perspective to economic development research. It starts with an overview of ICT4D. Next it covers such frameworks and theories as neoclassical growth accounting and the theory of complementarity, complex systems and chaos theories, and the product life cycle (PLC) theory. There are also nontechnical overviews of the DM and data analytic methods that can be used in this research. Also presented is evidence that human capital and investment capital are complementary and are reliable sources of economic growth. The book concludes with methodological frameworks to guide investment decisions and the formulation of strategic policy.