The order and harmony of the universe could be much more easily reconciled with the iniquity of nature (incomprehensible natural calamities) if we were to accept without thought that the universe is accidental and not something responding to a deliberate creative project. The exercise of free will, however, is possible only in the presence of a certain measure of indeterminacy, and this necessa...

As the human civilization is growing day by day, the nations are making huge investments in infrastructure and its provision or service ability. Now a days, it becomes very important to monitor the conditions or serviceability of these civil infrastructure in time due to everyday abrasion caused by nature calamities, physical or chemical actions. For this purpose structural health monitoring ha...

One of the most important statutory mandates that guides the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) serves to designate the agency as protector of the American people against commercial introduction of new drugs that are either unsafe or ineffective.1 Over the past sixty years, this mandate has often placed the FDA at the center of controversy as a series of medication-induced calamities led to rep...

Law No. 225/1992 established a National Service of Civil Protection, with the important role of 'safeguarding life, goods, settlements and the environment from damage deriving from natural disasters, catastrophes and calamities' (art. 1). This law arranges civil protection as a co-ordinated system of responsibilities administrated by the state, local and public authorities, the world of science...

The paper develops a contracting model where the principal frames the contract when the agent is unaware of some contingencies, yet is aware that she may be unaware. We call the contract vague if the agent is still unaware of some contingencies after understanding the contract. We show that the optimal contract is vague if and only if the principal exploits the agent. Applying the model to an i...

International efforts to provide global public goods often face the challenges of coordinating national contributions and distributing costs equitably in the face of uncertainty, inequality, and free-riding incentives. In an experimental setting, we distribute endowments unequally among a group of people who can reach a fixed target sum through successive money contributions, knowing that if th...

To the longstanding cycle of poverty, disease, and despair that has afflicted several generations of Harlem residents have now been added epidemics of crack abuse, AIDS, syphilis, and pervasive violence. The community's children have been especially vulnerable to these calamities. Harlem's traditional institutions of strength, aid, and comfort--its extended families, churches, the hospital, and...

Internet of Things (IoTs) based prototype is used for disaster risk analysis and effective pre and post management of disaster stricken areas. Data mining techniques along with IoT are used to facilitate information sharing as early as possible and to ensure participation of as many as private and public service providers for major disaster prediction and recovery processes. The main challenge ...

In order to be more efficient, firms have adopted strategies such as outsourcing, global partnerships and lean practices. Although such strategies have tremendous abilities to improve the efficiencies but simultaneously they make the firms vulnerable to market uncertainties, dependencies and disruptions. Moreover, natural calamities and manmade crises have also put negative impact on strategic,...