How to Write Amazing Posts With This Awesome Blog Writing Checklist - CoSchedule Blog

How to Write Amazing Posts With This Awesome Blog Writing Checklist Blog If you didnt blog or write content you wouldnt be here, right? We all use to improve our content projects to blow our blogs up with traffic, conversion, and hundreds of grateful and loyal readers. No one remembers the brainiac who said this sacramental phrase Content is the king (rumors have it, it was Bill Gates); but we do our best to create content that helps us reach goals to appear on Googles top 10. Table of Contents: Check a Category Check Lifetime Check Keywords Check the Headline Check the Intro Check the Text Check the Conclusion Check Engagement Check the Language Choose a Featured Image Increase the Texts Value Check Visual Media Add Links Add Content Upgrades Check SEO Set Authorship Check Technical Aspects Synchronize It Test It Promote It Publish It is the perfect all-in-one marketing calendar platform to manage your entire blogging editorial calendar. And with Task Templates, you can create reusable checklists to make sure you never miss a step. Then, use Discussions to manage communication and collaboration between writers, designers, and project managers. Combined with a seamless WordPress integration for automated publishing, it's your go-to destination for creating and promoting every blog post.Start your free 14-day trial and manage your blog better than ever before. 21-Step Blog Writing Checklist doesn't let you miss any small but important detail for making your compelling content, while also winning your readers' hearts. So, here it goes. This blog writing checklist is great to go through every time you get ready to publish a new piece of content. Step 1. Check A Category It's as clear as day that your blog has many categories, and I know you know  how to choose them. Before publishing new content, make sure you choose a relevant category and tags for it. They'll increase traffic and engagement by improving the user's experience and helping search engines index it the right way. Things to check for: Is it relevant? Are tags present? Step 2. Check Lifetime You know what you'll be posting on your blog in the future. It's good to understand how this particular post will relate to your future content. Write every post, keeping in mind its role for your blog, your product, and your business. It's good to have timeless content on your blog. Things to check for: Does it lead to your next post? Is it timeless? Does it meet your objectives? Step 3. Check Keywords I'm not going to teach you how to choose keywords for your content or how to build a semantic core for your blog, but it's important to make sure your keywords are relevant to your content. Try using high volume keywords (for titles, headings, and subheadings) and long-tail (for body content) keywords in your posts. You know the benefits of including long-tail keywords  in your content. Don't ignore them. Things to check for: Are your keywords relevant? Do you have a high volume of keywords? How about long-tail keywords? Step 4. Check The Headline Two out of 10 people will read your post after reading the headline. A weak headline will ruin your chances of creating content that converts. That's why there are  so many guides, tutorials, and tools to help bloggers make their headlines resplendent. Here at , the free  headline analyzer scores quality and rates the SEO value of your headlines, making them clickable and shareable. Before publishing your content, make sure the headline is an appropriate length and that it has emotional words  to capture the attention of readers, bringing you traffic and conversion. Examples of emotional words  in headlines: how to, fast, easy, best, review, tips. These words will help visitors understand that the content will solve their problem and provide useful information. Things to check for: Do your headlines match the style? Is it short and meaningful? Does it reveal the topic? Will it attract and interest readers? Does it have keywords? Are emotional words  present? Step 5. Check The Intro Introductions help visitors decide whether they'll continue reading your content or not. Make your content intro attractive by writing a hook and using the APP method. The APP method in introductions: A – Agree:  Pitch an idea the reader will agree with. P – Promise:  Promise you'll show how to solve the problem. P – Preview: Make clear what you want your readers to learn. Things to check for: Is the APP method present? Is a hook present? Does it have keywords? Step 6. Check The Text Specialists still argue about the best blog length because there is no right answer. Just make sure the length of your post is enough to cover the topic and that it meets your objectives. When you use closely related words (synonyms) of your main keyword, you'll make it easier for Google to identify and it'll show as relevant in its search engine results pages. Google your main keyword and check the â€Å"related† terms to understand what synonyms to use. They drive a high volume of search traffic; otherwise, your post  might not be mentioned in suggestions. Things to check for: Is the length appropriate for this type of content? Are keywords in the subheadings and in bullet lists? Are there synonyms of your main keyword? Is it compelling for both readers and search engines? Did you add a call to action in the conclusion? Step 7. Check The Conclusion "Visitors who don’t click don’t convert."  - Neil Patel Let's face it: If you create content, your goal is conversion. It's cool that readers like your content. It'd be cooler if they did something with it, wouldn't it? Help them! Your content marketing will not survive without a  call  to action, so make sure it's present in your post before publishing it on your blog. Plus, your conclusion should synthesize the information you shared in your content. CTA variants: Question:  to increase comments. Invitation to click or check:  to increase conversion. Invitation to read related articles:  to increase a crawl rate. Things to check for: Does it have a strong CTA? Will it answer the question "So what?" Does it synthesize the points? Step 8. Check Engagement No comments needed, I suppose. We write for people, so we should try  to engage with them. Then they will know what to do next: comment, share, subscribe, or download. Make sure your blog post engages with your target audience. Things to check for: Is it written as if you wrote it for one specific person? Does it teach how to solve the problem? Will it provide your insight? Are comments enabled? Step 9. Check The Language Edit your content, make it sound natural and readable (1–2-sentence paragraphs work for online), add bucket brigades (aka â€Å"words and phrases that keep people on your page†), and speak the same language as your audience. A little practice: Can you find the bucket brigades in this article? While working with guest writers, be sure their stuff  is free of plagiarism. A tool like Grammarly's plagiarism checker can help you out quickly. Things to check for: Does the language sound natural? Are the paragraphs short? Do you have bucket brigades in it? Did you check for grammar mistakes, typos, and logical contradictions in arguments? Have you read the post out loud to catch weird wording? Does your voice fit the tone of the blog? Did you check for plagiarism? Step 10. Choose A Featured Image Okay, one more confession from me: I really like choosing featured images for my blog posts! It's a ritual. The featured image can both attract and frighten readers, and that's why many bloggers sometimes get stuck. To ease the task of choosing a brilliant image for your content, keep in mind that it should be part of your design. It should also keep to the tone of your post and show your personality. Creativity is what makes us who we are.  And, as Henri Matisse said, it takes courage. With no designer on board, you can try images licensed for commercial use (Creative Commons) or discover resources with free but professional looking pictures. Things to check for: Are the images high quality? Are they  eye-catching? How about relevant? Are they  properly credited? Step 11. Increase The Text's Value I've learned that we should use at least one image for every 350 words of content to make it more readable and attractive for visitors, as they often do not have time or patience to read lo-o-o-ong, though interesting, articles. Images, graphs, videos, photos, quotes, tables, and diagrams- they can all help you increase the text's value. Things to check for: Does it have visual media where appropriate? How about quotes and tweetable content? Step 12. Check Visual Media In the footsteps of the previous step (sorry for tautology), make sure your visual elements meet the above features. It's unacceptable to ignore quality, relevance, copyright, and optimization if you aim to write high-quality content. Things to check for: Are  the visual media high quality? Are they relevant to the content? Do they violate copyright? (If so, change it.) Do they fit the design of your blog? Are they optimized? Step 13. Add Links When powerful resources link to your content, it's a sign for Google to rate you higher. And when you link to cool websites, it helps your readers trust you more.  Links build your online reputation, so make sure to add them to your blog writing checklist before you click publish. Don't forget about internal linking, too, since  it improves your SEO and guides readers to where they should click next. Things to check for: Are there internal links? How about external links? (Are they relevant and reputable?) Do they all work? Does it contain TOO many links? (If so take out some.) Do the links open in a new tab? (If so, good.) Are all required attributes added? (dofollow, nofollow, etc.) Step 14: Add Content Upgrades I bet you've noticed that cute block invite in this post or others that invited you to get a free download in exchange for your email. We call that a content upgrade. It's a consistent way to grow an email list. A tool as easy as LeadPages allows you to do that. Summarize key points from your post into a worksheet, template, infographic, or poster- it's up to you what type and format you choose for your upgrades. Things to check for: Is it appealing? Will it help your audience become better at what they do? Does the content upgrade link work? Step 15. Check SEO Try as you will, content marketers are not able to ignore SEO factors. This mortal combat leads to nothing, as content marketing + SEO = love forever: They complement each other, helping Internet marketers be friends with Google. So, check all SEO aspects of your content before publishing. Things to check for: Are the URLs short  with your slug containing the keyword? Are meta tags present? (Check title, description, alt-tag for images, and keywords.) How about sharing buttons that work and display content correctly? Step 16. Set Authorship It doesn't matter if you invite guest bloggers to create content for  your blog or if you have an in-house team of writers- make sure you always name the author of your content. Are you the author? Perfect!  Your name will sound much better than just "admin" or "webmaster", don't you think? Things to check for: Is the author named? Does the author have a bio? Is the author's image in Gravatar or do you have a way to manage their profile picture? Step 17. Check Technical Aspects Check your content in different browsers to see whether it looks good and works well. Big files can be hard to open or download. Things to check for: Does the content look good in all browsers and mobile devices? BrowserStack can  help you out with testing. Does it have oversized files? (If so, fix.) Is it easy to open and/or download? Are metrics for further analysis set? Are the semantic core and key phrases present? Step 18. Synchronize It Thinking in the logical sense, bloggers won't find it hard to determine the perfect day and time for publishing content. Holidays are a dead duck since user activity is low; so, it would be wise to set a schedule and use a marketing calendar to manage your blog and social media content. Things to check for: Don't publish and promote during holidays. Are you publishing posts during your users' highest activity? Are you setting a schedule of publishing to maximize the reach? Step 19. Test It You'll get a clearer picture of changes or improvements your content might need when you test it. Things to check for: Compare your content with competitors' to make sure it's more interesting and informative. Show it to several colleagues who didn't work on it. Share it with users inside your target audience to get feedback. Step 20. Promote It Start promoting your content before you publish by sending teasers and previews to chats, forums, and communities where your audience lives. Plus, you can send it to thought leaders, asking them to review and share it with their followers after you publish it. It would be wise to have a promotion plan in advance so you can start it once the content goes live on your blog. Things to check for: Share  teasers and previews to resources on platforms where your target audience meets. Organize a â€Å"premiere† for bloggers and thought leaders to get reviews. Make a promotion plan after publishing. Step 21. Publish It Phew! That's it. It seems your content is ready to see the light and hit the Internet. So, it's high time to click the â€Å"Publish† button to release your post into the world. There you have it. This blog writing checklist seems heavy, but guess what? You know ALL of the  steps. But you might just forget to tick them off the blog writing checklist. Let's try to repeat this checklist in short: Specify its place:  Check the topic, category, keywords, and tags. Write it right:  Draft an emotional headline, introduce it with a hook, use body with H2–H3 subheadlines, rock number and bulleted lists, edit for short paragraphs, check for plagiarism, and write a strong conclusion with a  call to action. Make it beautiful:  Use natural language, featured images, visual elements, and authorship. Make it engaging and compelling. Help them find it:  Use links, meta tags, synchronization, key phrases, and synonyms. Let them share it:  Make it browser and mobile friendly, test it, promote  it, and share it. Be sure to tick off all the points in the blog writing checklist before publishing your content. You'll get the results you want to achieve. You've got this! How to Write Amazing Posts With This Awesome Blog Writing Checklist Blog If you didnt blog or write content you wouldnt be here, right? We all use to improve our content projects to blow our blogs up with traffic, conversion, and hundreds of grateful and loyal readers. No one remembers the brainiac who said this sacramental phrase Content is the king (rumors have it, it was Bill Gates); but we do our best to create content that helps us reach goals to appear on Googles top 10. Table of Contents: Check a Category Check Lifetime Check Keywords Check the Headline Check the Intro Check the Text Check the Conclusion Check Engagement Check the Language Choose a Featured Image Increase the Texts Value Check Visual Media Add Links Add Content Upgrades Check SEO Set Authorship Check Technical Aspects Synchronize It Test It Promote It Publish It Get This Checklist in a PDF If youd prefer to keep this checklist on-hand, download this free PDF:How To Write Amazing Posts With This Blog Writing ChecklistCreate Your Own Checklists With Task Templates in is the perfect all-in-one marketing calendar platform to manage your entire blogging editorial calendar. And with Task Templates, you can create reusable checklists to make sure you never miss a step. Then, use Discussions to manage communication and collaboration between writers, designers, and project managers. Combined with a seamless WordPress integration for automated publishing, it's your go-to destination for creating and promoting every blog post.Start your free 14-day trial and manage your blog better than ever before. 21-Step Blog Writing Checklist doesn't let you miss any small but important detail for making your compelling content, while also winning your readers' hearts. So, here it goes. This blog writing checklist is great to go through every time you get ready to publish a new piece of content. Step 1. Check A Category It's as clear as day that your blog has many categories, and I know you know  how to choose them. Before publishing new content, make sure you choose a relevant category and tags for it. They'll increase traffic and engagement by improving the user's experience and helping search engines index it the right way. Things to check for: Is it relevant? Are tags present? Step 2. Check Lifetime You know what you'll be posting on your blog in the future. It's good to understand how this particular post will relate to your future content. Write every post, keeping in mind its role for your blog, your product, and your business. It's good to have timeless content on your blog. Things to check for: Does it lead to your next post? Is it timeless? Does it meet your objectives? Step 3. Check Keywords I'm not going to teach you how to choose keywords for your content or how to build a semantic core for your blog, but it's important to make sure your keywords are relevant to your content. Try using high volume keywords (for titles, headings, and subheadings) and long-tail (for body content) keywords in your posts. You know the benefits of including long-tail keywords  in your content. Don't ignore them. Things to check for: Are your keywords relevant? Do you have a high volume of keywords? How about long-tail keywords? Step 4. Check The Headline Two out of 10 people will read your post after reading the headline. A weak headline will ruin your chances of creating content that converts. That's why there are  so many guides, tutorials, and tools to help bloggers make their headlines resplendent. Here at , the free  headline analyzer scores quality and rates the SEO value of your headlines, making them clickable and shareable. Before publishing your content, make sure the headline is an appropriate length and that it has emotional words  to capture the attention of readers, bringing you traffic and conversion. Examples of emotional words  in headlines: how to, fast, easy, best, review, tips. These words will help visitors understand that the content will solve their problem and provide useful information. Things to check for: Do your headlines match the style? Is it short and meaningful? Does it reveal the topic? Will it attract and interest readers? Does it have keywords? Are emotional words  present? Step 5. Check The Intro Introductions help visitors decide whether they'll continue reading your content or not. Make your content intro attractive by writing a hook and using the APP method. The APP method in introductions: A – Agree:  Pitch an idea the reader will agree with. P – Promise:  Promise you'll show how to solve the problem. P – Preview: Make clear what you want your readers to learn. Things to check for: Is the APP method present? Is a hook present? Does it have keywords? Step 6. Check The Text Specialists still argue about the best blog length because there is no right answer. Just make sure the length of your post is enough to cover the topic and that it meets your objectives. When you use closely related words (synonyms) of your main keyword, you'll make it easier for Google to identify and it'll show as relevant in its search engine results pages. Google your main keyword and check the â€Å"related† terms to understand what synonyms to use. They drive a high volume of search traffic; otherwise, your post  might not be mentioned in suggestions. Things to check for: Is the length appropriate for this type of content? Are keywords in the subheadings and in bullet lists? Are there synonyms of your main keyword? Is it compelling for both readers and search engines? Did you add a call to action in the conclusion? Step 7. Check The Conclusion "Visitors who don’t click don’t convert."  - Neil Patel Let's face it: If you create content, your goal is conversion. It's cool that readers like your content. It'd be cooler if they did something with it, wouldn't it? Help them! Your content marketing will not survive without a  call  to action, so make sure it's present in your post before publishing it on your blog. Plus, your conclusion should synthesize the information you shared in your content. CTA variants: Question:  to increase comments. Invitation to click or check:  to increase conversion. Invitation to read related articles:  to increase a crawl rate. Things to check for: Does it have a strong CTA? Will it answer the question "So what?" Does it synthesize the points? Step 8. Check Engagement No comments needed, I suppose. We write for people, so we should try  to engage with them. Then they will know what to do next: comment, share, subscribe, or download. Make sure your blog post engages with your target audience. Things to check for: Is it written as if you wrote it for one specific person? Does it teach how to solve the problem? Will it provide your insight? Are comments enabled? Step 9. Check The Language Edit your content, make it sound natural and readable (1–2-sentence paragraphs work for online), add bucket brigades (aka â€Å"words and phrases that keep people on your page†), and speak the same language as your audience. A little practice: Can you find the bucket brigades in this article? While working with guest writers, be sure their stuff  is free of plagiarism. A tool like Grammarly's plagiarism checker can help you out quickly. Things to check for: Does the language sound natural? Are the paragraphs short? Do you have bucket brigades in it? Did you check for grammar mistakes, typos, and logical contradictions in arguments? Have you read the post out loud to catch weird wording? Does your voice fit the tone of the blog? Did you check for plagiarism? Step 10. Choose A Featured Image Okay, one more confession from me: I really like choosing featured images for my blog posts! It's a ritual. The featured image can both attract and frighten readers, and that's why many bloggers sometimes get stuck. To ease the task of choosing a brilliant image for your content, keep in mind that it should be part of your design. It should also keep to the tone of your post and show your personality. Creativity is what makes us who we are.  And, as Henri Matisse said, it takes courage. With no designer on board, you can try images licensed for commercial use (Creative Commons) or discover resources with free but professional looking pictures. Things to check for: Are the images high quality? Are they  eye-catching? How about relevant? Are they  properly credited? Step 11. Increase The Text's Value I've learned that we should use at least one image for every 350 words of content to make it more readable and attractive for visitors, as they often do not have time or patience to read lo-o-o-ong, though interesting, articles. Images, graphs, videos, photos, quotes, tables, and diagrams- they can all help you increase the text's value. Things to check for: Does it have visual media where appropriate? How about quotes and tweetable content? Step 12. Check Visual Media In the footsteps of the previous step (sorry for tautology), make sure your visual elements meet the above features. It's unacceptable to ignore quality, relevance, copyright, and optimization if you aim to write high-quality content. Things to check for: Are  the visual media high quality? Are they relevant to the content? Do they violate copyright? (If so, change it.) Do they fit the design of your blog? Are they optimized? Step 13. Add Links When powerful resources link to your content, it's a sign for Google to rate you higher. And when you link to cool websites, it helps your readers trust you more.  Links build your online reputation, so make sure to add them to your blog writing checklist before you click publish. Don't forget about internal linking, too, since  it improves your SEO and guides readers to where they should click next. Things to check for: Are there internal links? How about external links? (Are they relevant and reputable?) Do they all work? Does it contain TOO many links? (If so take out some.) Do the links open in a new tab? (If so, good.) Are all required attributes added? (dofollow, nofollow, etc.) Step 14: Add Content Upgrades I bet you've noticed that cute block invite in this post or others that invited you to get a free download in exchange for your email. We call that a content upgrade. It's a consistent way to grow an email list. A tool as easy as LeadPages allows you to do that. Summarize key points from your post into a worksheet, template, infographic, or poster- it's up to you what type and format you choose for your upgrades. Things to check for: Is it appealing? Will it help your audience become better at what they do? Does the content upgrade link work? Step 15. Check SEO Try as you will, content marketers are not able to ignore SEO factors. This mortal combat leads to nothing, as content marketing + SEO = love forever: They complement each other, helping Internet marketers be friends with Google. So, check all SEO aspects of your content before publishing. Things to check for: Are the URLs short  with your slug containing the keyword? Are meta tags present? (Check title, description, alt-tag for images, and keywords.) How about sharing buttons that work and display content correctly? Step 16. Set Authorship It doesn't matter if you invite guest bloggers to create content for  your blog or if you have an in-house team of writers- make sure you always name the author of your content. Are you the author? Perfect!  Your name will sound much better than just "admin" or "webmaster", don't you think? Things to check for: Is the author named? Does the author have a bio? Is the author's image in Gravatar or do you have a way to manage their profile picture? Step 17. Check Technical Aspects Check your content in different browsers to see whether it looks good and works well. Big files can be hard to open or download. Things to check for: Does the content look good in all browsers and mobile devices? BrowserStack can  help you out with testing. Does it have oversized files? (If so, fix.) Is it easy to open and/or download? Are metrics for further analysis set? Are the semantic core and key phrases present? Step 18. Synchronize It Thinking in the logical sense, bloggers won't find it hard to determine the perfect day and time for publishing content. Holidays are a dead duck since user activity is low; so, it would be wise to set a schedule and use a marketing calendar to manage your blog and social media content. Things to check for: Don't publish and promote during holidays. Are you publishing posts during your users' highest activity? Are you setting a schedule of publishing to maximize the reach? Step 19. Test It You'll get a clearer picture of changes or improvements your content might need when you test it. Things to check for: Compare your content with competitors' to make sure it's more interesting and informative. Show it to several colleagues who didn't work on it. Share it with users inside your target audience to get feedback. Step 20. Promote It Start promoting your content before you publish by sending teasers and previews to chats, forums, and communities where your audience lives. Plus, you can send it to thought leaders, asking them to review and share it with their followers after you publish it. It would be wise to have a promotion plan in advance so you can start it once the content goes live on your blog. Things to check for: Share  teasers and previews to resources on platforms where your target audience meets. Organize a â€Å"premiere† for bloggers and thought leaders to get reviews. Make a promotion plan after publishing. Step 21. Publish It Phew! That's it. It seems your content is ready to see the light and hit the Internet. So, it's high time to click the â€Å"Publish† button to release your post into the world. There you have it. This blog writing checklist seems heavy, but guess what? You know ALL of the  steps. But you might just forget to tick them off the blog writing checklist. Let's try to repeat this checklist in short: Specify its place:  Check the topic, category, keywords, and tags. Write it right:  Draft an emotional headline, introduce it with a hook, use body with H2–H3 subheadlines, rock number and bulleted lists, edit for short paragraphs, check for plagiarism, and write a strong conclusion with a  call to action. Make it beautiful:  Use natural language, featured images, visual elements, and authorship. Make it engaging and compelling. Help them find it:  Use links, meta tags, synchronization, key phrases, and synonyms. Let them share it:  Make it browser and mobile friendly, test it, promote  it, and share it. Be sure to tick off all the points in the blog writing checklist before publishing your content. You'll get the results you want to achieve. You've got this!

The 1993 Storm of the Century

The 1993 Storm of the Century The blizzard of March 12 to 14, 1993 remains one of the worst U.S. snowstorms since the Great Blizzard of 1888, and its no surprise, considering that the storm stretched from Cuba to Nova Scotia, Canada, affected 100 million people across 26 states, and caused $6.65 billion in damage. By the storms end, 310 fatalities had been reported, more than three times the number of lives lost during Hurricanes Andrew and Hugo combined. Storm Origin and Track On the morning of March 11, a strong ridge of high pressure sat just offshore the U.S. west coast. Its position oriented the jet stream so that it plunged south out of the Arctic, allowing unseasonably cold air to flow into the U.S. east of the Rocky Mountains. Meanwhile, a low-pressure system was developing near Brownsville, TX. Fed by a number of upper air disturbances, energy from jet stream winds, and moisture from the north-central Gulf of Mexico, the low began to rapidly strengthen. The storms center traveled near Tallahassee, FL, in the pre-dawn hours of March 13. It continued north-northeastward, centering over southern Georgia near mid-day and over New England that evening. Near midnight, the storm deepened to a central pressure of 960 mb while over the Chesapeake Bay area. Thats the equivalent pressure of a Category 3 hurricane! Storm Impacts As a result of heavy snow and high winds, most cities across the Eastern Seaboard shut down or were completely inaccessible for days. Because of such societal impacts, this storm has been assigned the highest rank of extreme on the Northeast Snowfall Impact Scale (NESIS). Along the Gulf of Mexico: The Florida panhandle received up to 4 inches (10.2 cm) of snowA squall line out ahead of the cold front caused a powerful derecho (straight-line windstorm) with gusts in excess of 100 mph (160 km/h) felt down to Havana, CubaA Supercell spawned 11 tornadoes across the Sunshine State, ranging from F0 to F2 in intensityA 12-foot (3.7 m) storm surge caused flooding along the coasts of western Florida and northern Cuba In the South: Accumulations ranged from 3-5 feet (0.9 to 1.5 m)Snow drifts of up to 15 feet (4.6 m) were reported at Mount Mitchell, NCRare convective elements such as lightning, thundersnow, and snowfall rates of 2 to 4 inches (5.1 to 10.2 cm) per hour were experiencedHundreds of thousands of residents were left without electricity for up to a week In the Northeast Canada: Accumulations ranged from 15 to 45 inches (38.1 cm to 1.1m)Syracuse, NY, broke five of its snowfall records, including 24-hr snowfall, maximum daily snowfalls for March 13 and 14, snowiest March, and snowiest seasonWith the storms passage, New Brunswick, Canada, reported a 45 F (7 C) temperature drop within 18 hours Forecasting Success National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologists first noticed signs that a fierce winter storm was brewing during the preceding week. Due to recent advances in computer forecast models (including the use of ensemble forecasts), they were able to accurately forecast and issue storm warnings two days in advance of the storms arrival. This was the first time the NWS forecasted a storm of this magnitude and did so with several days lead time. But despite warnings that a big one was on the way, public response was one of disbelief. The weather preceding the blizzard was unseasonably mild and didnt support the news that a winter storm of historic proportions was imminent. Record Numbers The Blizzard of 1993 broke dozens of records of its time, including over 60 record lows. The top fives for U.S. snowfall, temperature, and wind gusts are listed here: Snow Totals: 56 inches (142.2 cm) on Mount LeConte, TN50 inches (127 cm) on Mount Mitchell, NC44 inches (111.8 cm) at Snowshoe, WV43 inches (109.2 cm) at Syracuse, NY36 inches (91.4 cm) at Latrobe, PA Minimum Temperatures: -12 F (-24.4 Â °C) in Burlington, VT and Caribou, ME-11 F (-23.9 Â °C) in Syracuse, NY-10 F (-23.3 Â °C) on Mount LeConte, TN-5 F (-20.6 Â °C) in Elkins, WV-4 F (-20 Â °C) in Waynesville, NC and Rochester, NY Wind Gusts: 144 mph (231.7 km/h) on Mount Washington, NH109 mph (175.4 km/h) at Dry Tortugas, FL (Key West)101 mph (162.5 km/h) on Flattop Mountain, NC98 mph (157.7 km/h) at South Timbalier, LA92 mph (148.1 km/h) on South Marsh Island, LA

Customer relationship marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Customer relationship marketing - Essay Example Practitioners and strategists both believe that in the current scenario of stiff competition and rivalry the only practical way of reaching and convincing the customer is through CRM. Customer confidence in the companies can be regained by this method which is more personal and certainly more intimate than promotions. Products have become similar and homogenous and even the services provided are becoming standard practice as any new move is easily substituted or copied by competition and effectively it looses its edge. In saturated and matured markets the problem is even more acute and schemes and loyalty programmes are so similar that customers find no novelty in them. Indeed Palmer (1998) is of the opinion that promotions are no more than an encouragement to customers to switch their loyalties. The foundation of Strategic Behavior Theory is that firms take specific actions, like developing objectives, implementing goals, formulating strategies and using tactics, to augment their competitive position against rivals and thereby capitalize on firm performance (Kogut 1998). Strategic Behavior Theory is also consistent with the strategic choice perspective (Child, 1972) in that it accepts that while a firms choice of strategies and tactics are guided by the external environment, they are not completely determined by it. Strategic Behaviour theory also explains that a firm’s choice of behaviour is related more to its strategies and goals and not so much to transaction costs. As a consequence firms try to build competitive advantage against their rivals by developing those strategies that put them in favourable positions (Porter 1996). One such strategy is to build a more enduring relationship through Participatory Collaboration between stakeholders. Satisfaction is another human trait that will bring harmony in relations. Participatory collaborations will benefit in

Joy luck club Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Joy luck club - Essay Example The inception of the prologue in the film and the presentation of the film along with its large scaled and detailed camerawork have made the film appear like a river dancing to the tune of wind or fall of words from poetic imagination. This essay intends to focus on the thematic aspect of the film, along with its myriad technical dimensions which provided it a strong and unique perception altogether. THE JOY LUCK CLUB: THE TRAJECTORY Life has different twists and turns, crest and fall and people amid all the complexities and hustle and bustle of life forget to retaliate upon the lost moments of profanity. The film Joy Luck Club captures and upholds different subtle and intimate moments between families and life where subtle and intricate human relations and values operating upon the matrix of myriad social and economic aspects find its profound expression. The film depicts a development of a club formed by four women; it can be seen as a strong discourse of women empowerment depicted within the societal change and structure of contemporary America. The club had a different objective, the members of the club indulged themselves in playing, ‘mahjong’ and over the span of years they have involved themselves in telling and sharing the stories of their lives with each other. Their life trajectory speaks particularly about a societal transition in America. And, various dimensions of Chinese immigrants to America surface out with full force into the plot of the film. The women discuss their passage to America from China, their pursuit and dream, their desire and disappointment. The way they remarried in America for a better life and gave birth to their children on this land itself are very much contextual. Another theme of the film is the space or vacuum that evolves due to generation gap and a space which forms due to the transition of culture and inter-cultural exchanges against the cosmopolitan backdrop. One can find highly ambitious mothers setting hi gh hopes and keeping high faiths upon their daughters who are about to replace them. The daughters face a lot of troubles treading down the paths of success full of anxieties and a stark feeling of inappropriateness that haunts them. Moreover, through the course of understanding and empathizing with each other, the mothers and daughters at the Joy Luck Club are able to bridge their differences (Johnston, â€Å"FILM / The tears of living dangerously: Wayne Wang called Oliver Stone's films evil; Stone called Wang's boring. The novelist Amy Tan brought them together. By Sheila Johnston†). The film is initiated with a short prologue by June; a narrative which is very poetic in appeal and followed by June’s farewell party at San Francisco and her plunge to reunite with her long forgotten twin sisters at China indicate a sense of unification with one’s forgotten root that build the essence of the theme operating within the film. There are also guests at Joy Luck Club, mainly constituted by the mothers, their daughters and the friends and relatives. Each of the members narrate their story of conflict, dream and struggle in the alien land of the United States of America which builds a strong discourse upon the nature of immigration and life of the immigrants in America. The most fascinating technical aspect of the film ‘The Joy Luck Club’ is its cinematography and tight-lipped editing apart from

Concepts in Disaster Management

Concepts in Disaster Management CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Broader Views on Disaster Management 2.1.1 Definition of Disaster Disaster has been defined in some different ways. Indeed, there is no precise definition for a disaster (Eshghi Larson, 2008). In complete form, Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) defines disasters as â€Å"A situation or event which overwhelms local capacity, necessitating a request to the national or international level for external assistance, or is recognized as such by a multilateral agency or by at least two sources, such as national, regional or international assistance groups and the media† (Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), 2004). Below et al. (2007) propose â€Å"an accumulation of widespread losses over multiple economic sectors, associated with a natural hazard event, that overwhelms the ability of the affected population to cope† as a definition of a disaster. International Federation on Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) defines a disaster as â€Å"a sudden, calamitous event that seriously disrupts the functioning of a community or society and causes human, material, and economic or environmental losses that exceed the communitys or societys ability to c ope using its own resources†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (IFRC, 2008). van Wassenhove (2006) proposes â€Å"a disruption that physically affects a system as a whole and threatens its priorities and goals† as a definition of disaster, while Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC, 2008) defines disaster as â€Å"a serious disruption of the functioning of society, causing widespread human, material or environmental losses which exceed the ability of affected society to cope using only its own resources†, which is similar with Reliefwebs (2008) definition. Emergency Management Australia (EMA, 2008) defines disaster as â€Å"a serious disruption to community life which threatens or causes death or injury in that community and/or damage to property which is beyond the day-today capacity of the prescribed statutory authorities and which requires special mobilization and organization of resources other than those normally available to those authorities†, while emergency is defined as à ¢â‚¬ËœAn event, actual or imminent, which endangers or threatens to endanger life, property or the environment, and which requires a significant and coordinated response. (EMA, 2008). 2.1.2 Disaster Types With a wide variability of disaster definition, it is understandable to have different initial classifications for disasters (Eshghi Larson, 2008; Shaluf 2007a, b). Canadian Disaster Database (2008) categorises disasters into five different types as summarized in Table 1. Table 1. Disaster types (Source: Canadian Disaster Database, 2008) Disaster types Encompasses Biological Epidemic, infestation Geological Earthquake, landslide, tsunami Meteorological and hydrological Cold wave, drought, flood, hail/ thunderstorm, heat wave, hurricane/ typhoon, snow avalanche, storm surges, storm-freezing rain, storm-unspecified/ other, storm-winter, tornado, wildfire Conflict Terrorism, civil unrest Technological Accident-industrial, accident-other, accident-transport, fire, hazardous chemicals van Wassenhove (2006) proposes a metrics (see Table 2) to understand disasters. Table 2. Categorization of disasters based on van Wassenhove (2006) Natural Man-made Sudden-onset Earthquake, hurricane, tornado Terrorist attack, coup detat, chemical leak Slow-onset Famine, drought, poverty Political crisis, refugee crisis In general, Shaluf (2007a, b) categorises disasters into three types: Natural disasters, which are catastrophic events resulting from natural causes such as volcanic eruptions, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc. Man made disasters, which are those catastrophic events that result from human decisions. Hybrid disasters are those disasters that result from both human error and natural forces. In further detail, Shaluf (2007b) breaks down each type of disasters and gives examples and characteristics, as can be seen in Table 3. Table 3. Disaster types, taken from Shaluf (2007b) Disaster type Characteristics Sub-disaster Name of disasters Natural A natural disaster is a natural phenomenon; A natural disaster is an unplanned and socially disruptive event with a sudden and severe disruptive effect; A natural disaster is single event over which no human has control; The impact of natural disaster is localized to a geographical region and specific time period; The consequences of a natural disaster are felt at the place and time of its occurrence; The disaster can be a high-impact disaster (e.g. a flood) that has a greater direct effect on the community over a longer period; Rapid onset disasters include earthquakes, flash floods, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, tsunamis, slow onset disasters, droughts, floods, and epidemics Natural phenomena beneath the earths surface Earthquakes Tsunamis Volcanic eruptions Topographical phenomena Landslides Avalanches Meteorological/ hydrological phenomena Windstorms (Cyclones, typhoons, hurricanes) Tornadoes Hailstorms and snowstorms Sea surges Floods Droughts Heat waves/ could waves Biological phenomena Infestations (locust swarms, mealy bug) Epidemics (cholera, dengue, ebola, malaria, measles, meningitis, yellow fever, HIV/ AIDS, tuberculosis) Man-made Characteristics of socio-technical disasters: A socio-technical disaster is a man-made event; A socio-technical disaster occurs in an organisation due to the interaction between internal factors and external factors; It arises suddenly: when the disaster occurs it does so as a shock; A socio-technical disaster is a complex system of interdependence; The impact of a socio-technical disaster sometimes transcends geographical boundaries and can even have trans-generational effects (e.g. Three Mile Island, Bhopal, Chernobyl); Socio-technical disasters do not always have their worst consequences at the point of occurrence; the worst effects can occur long after the event; Socio-technical disasters are characterized by a low probability/ high consequences event; Sudden-impact disasters (e.g. air/road/rail accident) are usually of short duration and have a limited direct effect on the local community; Socio-technical disasters arise not because of a single factor but of accumulated unnoticed events; Disaster involves management procedures which must be maintained, and management problems must be coped with under the conditions of a major technical emergency involving threats of injury and loss of life; Rapid onset disasters include fires, technological disasters, industrial accidents, and transportation accidents; An inquiry report is required Socio-technical Technological disasters Fire Explotions (munitions explosions, chemical explosions, nuclear explosions, mine explosions) Leakage Toxic release Pollutions (pollution, acid rain, chemical pollution, atmospheric pollution) Structural collapse of physical assets Transportation disasters Air disasters Land disasters Sea disasters Stadia or other public places failures Fire Structural collapse Crowd stampede Production failure Computer system breakdown Distribution of defective products Warfare National Civil war between armed groups in the same country Civil strikes Civil disorder Bomb threats/ terrorist attack Inter-national Conventional war War between two armies from different countries Sieges Blockades Non-conventional war Nuclear Chemical Biological Hybrid The characteristics of a hybrid disaster can be the characteristics of both man-made and natural disasters Natural and man-made events Floods ravage community built on known floodplain Location of residential premises, factories, etc., at the foot of an active volcano, or in an avalanche area Landslides Slightly different from those, EM-DAT (2008a) classifies disasters into three groups: Natural disasters Technological disasters Complex emergencies Regarding its scope in terms of sufferer number and/ or geographic areas affected, Gad-el-Hak (2008) distinguishes disasters into five categories as can be seen in Table 4. Table 4. Disaster scope in terms of number of victims and/ or geographic area affected (Source: Gad-el-Hak, 2008) Scope Category No. of sufferers Geographic areas affected Scope I Small disaster Or Scope II Medium disaster 10-100 persons or 1-10 km2 Scope III Large disaster 100-1,000 persons Or 10-100 km2 Scope IV Enormous disaster 1,000-104 persons Or 100-1,000 km2 Scope V Gargantuan disaster > 104 persons Or > 1,000 km2 While the definition of natural disasters and technological disasters are principally the same as those proposed by Shaluf (2007a, b), complex emergencies need a further exploration. Alballa-Bertrand (see Alballa-Bertrand, 2000) proposes the following definition for a complex humanitarian emergency or, in short, complex emergency: ‘A purposeful and unlikely neutral response, intended mostly to counteract the worse effects of the massive human destitution that derive from an overt political phenomenon, which takes the form of a violent, entrenched and long-lasting factionalist conflict or imposition with ultimate institutional aims. On the other hand, ReliefWeb (2008) defines a complex emergency as â€Å"A multifaceted humanitarian crisis in a country, region or society where there is a total or considerable breakdown of authority resulting from internal or external conflict and which requires a multi-sectoral, international response that goes beyond the mandate or capacity of any single agency and/or the ongoing UN country program. Such emergencies have, in particular, a devastating effect on children and women, and call for a complex range of responses.† While Complex Emergency Database (CE-DAT) (2008) defines complex emergency as all crises characterized by extreme vulnerability that display the following features: There exist the unwillingness or incapability of the government to give effective response, leading call for external assistance; Political oppression or armed conflict; Displacement; Increased mortality. 2.1.3 The Increasing Trend of Disaster Occurrences Lichterman (1999) predicts that the frequency of disasters and their effects seem to be increasing. By reviewing various related published sources from 1900-2005, Eshghi and Larson (2008) confirm Lichtermans prediction. A disaster leads to a severe trouble of society, including extensive human misery and physical loss or damage (Davis Lambert, 2002). Both natural and man-made disasters are likely to raise another five-fold over the next fifty years (from the year 2005) due to environmental degradation, rapid urbanization and the spread of HIV/AIDS in less developed world (Thomas Kopczak, 2005). More than 250 million people in the world are affected by disasters every year (IFRC, 2008). In the sense of natural disasters which are then divided into biological, geophysical, climatological, hydrological, and meteorological disasters -, CRED (see Scheuren et al., 2008) reports that there were 414 natural disaster occurrences (excluding biological disasters) in year 2007 which killed 16 847 persons, affected more than 211 million others and caused over 74.9 US$ billion in economic damages. Until year 2004, over 90 percent of natural disasters occurred in developing countries (United Nations ISDR, 2004). By including biological disasters and regrouping natural disasters into three different categories, as follows: Hydro-meteorological disasters: comprising floods and wave surges, storms, droughts and related disasters (extreme temperatures and forest/scrub fires), and landslides avalanches; Geophysical disasters: earthquakes tsunamis and volcanic eruptions fall into this category; Biological disasters: consisting of epidemics and insect infestations; International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) (2008) provides data which shows that there is an increasing trend on the occurrences of natural disasters from 1900 to 2005, as can be seen in Table 5. Table 5. Distribution of natural disasters: by origin (1900-2005, by decades*) *) 2000-2005, six year period The increasing trends of the occurrences of natural disasters between 1900-June 2008 is also documented in EM-DAT (2008b). Regarding the victims, there were 3,470,162,961 people affected by natural disasters for the period of 1991-2005 with a total of 960,502 deaths. Most of the victims (98.1% of people affected and 92.1% of people killed) were located in developing countries and least-developed countries (IFRC, 2008). 2.1.4 Disaster Management Disaster management also known as emergency management (Reliefweb, 2008) is defined as comprehensive approach and activities to reduce the adverse impacts of disasters (Reliefweb, 2008), while disaster operations could be considered as the set of activities that are performed before, during, and after a disaster which are aimed at preventing loss of human life, reducing its impact on the economy, and returning to a normal situation (Altay Green III, 2006). Using the terminology of disaster relief operations (DRO) as substitute to disaster operations, Pujawan et al. (2009) state that DRO consists of a variety of activities such as assessing demands, acquiring commodities, finding out priorities as well as receiving, classifying, storing, tracing and tracking deliveries. Regarding its phases, disaster management could be divided into four phases (Altay Green III, 2006): disaster mitigation, disaster preparedness, disaster response, and disaster recovery. 2.1.5 The Importance of Logistics in Disaster Management Logistics could be defined as follows (see Sheu, 2007a: 655): â€Å"Logistics is the process of planning, implementing, and controlling the efficient, effective flow and storage of goods, services and related information from the point of origin to the point of consumption for the purpose of conforming to customers[] requirements at the lowest total cost.† Its system operation consists of network design, information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging (see Wu Huang, 2007: 429). There are several Operational Research (OR) techniques utilised in logistics context, including the use of transportation model to determine the location of warehouses and the use of assignment/ allocation model to locate production facilities (Slats et al., 1995: 12), to name a few. In particular, humanitarian logistics could be defined as â€Å"the process of planning, implementing and control ­ling the efficient, cost-effective flow and storage of goods and materials, as well as related information, from point of origin to point of consump ­tion for the purpose of meeting the end beneficiarys requirements† (Thomas Mizushima, January 2005). Similarly, Thomas and Kopczak (2005) define it as â€Å"the process of planning, implementing and controlling the efficient, cost-effective flow and storage of goods and materials, as well as related information, from the point of origin to the point of consumption for the purpose of alleviating the suffering of vulnerable people†. Whereas Sheu (2007a) proposes ‘‘a process of planning, managing and controlling the efficient flows of relief, information, and services from the points of origin to the points of destination to meet the urgent needs of the affected people under emergency conditions as a definition of emergency logistics. Moreover, disaster relief is usually put aside for sudden upheavals such as natural disasters (earthquakes, avalanches, hurricanes, floods, fires, volcano eruptions, etc.) and very few man-made disasters such as terrorist acts or nuclear disasters (Kovà ¡cs Spens, 2007). Relief itself could be understood as â€Å"assistance and/or intervention during or after disaster to meet the life preservation and basic subsistence needs. It can be of emergency or protracted duration† (Reliefweb, 2008). It has been already generally well-known that logistics play a vital role in emergency management. Sheu (2007a) declares that, due to the possibility of disasters occurrences anytime around the world with huge effects, emergency logistics management had appeared as a worldwide-noticeable subject matter. People which are affected by disasters and are uprooted from their rights for food, housing, livelihood and other means of supporting themselves need the delivery of food, medicine, tents, sanitation equipment, tools and other necessities (Whybark, 2007). The science of logistics and supply chain management is becoming more vital for humanitarians (van Wassenhove, 2006), and â€Å"the subject of disaster management is an absolutely fascinating one that is growing in importance† (van Wassenhove, 2003: 19). Oloruntoba (2005) states that, regarding the Indian Ocean tsunami context, the scale of damage and subsequent response lead to problems of coordination, transportation and dis tribution among responding groups. In other affected areas of the Indian Ocean tsunami, Thomas (summer/fall 2006) reports that, at the 60-day point, regardless of the enormous relief efforts, only 60% of the families reported receiving well-timed and sufficient aid. It is therefore acceptable to conclude that good logistics planning plays an important role to the success of an emergency program (Davis Lambert, 2002: 109). Humanitarian logistics is essential to disaster relief for some reasons (Thomas Kopczak, 2005): It is crucial to the effectiveness and speed of response for main humanitarian programs, such as health, food, shelter, water, and sanitation; It can be one of the most expensive elements of a relief effort as it includes procurement and transportation; Since the logistics department handles tracking of commodities through the supply chain, it is often the repository of data that can be analyzed to offer post-event knowledge. In his paper, McEntire (1999) states that the disaster studies must discover ways to improve the provision of relief after certain catastrophe hits. This statement is in line with Perrys (2007) finding which accentuates the availability of logistician cadres as a key element of disaster response, as part of needs assessment and for procuring, transporting, and distributing the relief provisions. Regarding the relief of the Indian Ocean tsunami, the humanitarian organizations providing those relieves acknowledged that relief can and needs to be faster and more efficient (Thomas, 2005). Together with hurricane â€Å"Katrina† disaster, the Indian Ocean tsunami lead to the gap of â€Å"the inability to connect the aid provided with the aid received† (Thomas, 2005) in spite of the unprecedented giving during those two misfortunes. It is also pointed out by Tolentino Jr. (2007) that the Indian Ocean tsunami has provided the will to radically improve disaster management and pl anning, an issue Trims (2004: 224) research agrees with, in a broader disaster relief context. Furthermore, the development of new technology for track/trace and disaster relief supply chains is proposed as one of ways to improve the delivery of humanitarian relief (Baluch, 2007). In the context of the participation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in worldwide emergencies (e.g. volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods, war), Beamon and Kotleba (2006) point out that the capability of an NGOs supply chain and logistics operations directly influences the success of a relief effort. Whereas Pujawan et al. (2009) propose information visibility, coordination, accountability, and professionalism as successful requirements of logistics for DRO. 2.2 Some Previous Works in Logistics Management The following paragraphs will give a short overview on several aspects in logistics management, especially those which are perceived as having relevance with the current research. They include distribution network design problem, location-allocation problem (LAP), vehicle routing problem (VRP), and location-routing problem (LRP), respectively. 2.2.1 Distribution Network Design Problem Citing Chopra (2003), distribution can be seen as â€Å"the steps taken to move and store a product from the supplier stage to a customer stage in the supply chain†. While distribution networks can be defined as â€Å"networks that carry the flow of some commodity or entity, using a routing rule that is intended to be effective and even optimal† (Whittle, 2007), and distribution network itself could be viewed as similar with the terminology producer network (Ambrosino Scutellà  , 2005: 611). Distribution network design problem tackles the issues of optimizing the flows of commodities through an existing distribution network as well as improving the performance of the existing network by selecting the most appropriate setting of the facilities in the network aimed at satisfying the companys goal at one hand and minimising the overall costs at the other hand (Ambrosino Scutellà  , 2005: 611). It involves facility location, transportation and inventory decisions (Ambrosino Scutellà  , 2005: 611). In other words, the aim of distribution network design problem is on deciding the best way of moving goods or products from resource/ supply points to destination/ demand points which is performed by determining the structure of the network, in a such a way that the customer demands are satisfied and the total distribution costs are minimized (Ambrosino et al., 2009: 442). In Amiris (2006: 567-568) paper, distribution network design is stated as involving the simultaneous decis ions on the best settings of both plants and warehouses and on the best strategy in the sense of product distribution from the plants to the warehouses and from the warehouses to the customers, respectively. Meanwhile, the term â€Å"distribution system design† refers to â€Å"the strategic design of the logistics infrastructure and logistics strategy to deliver products from one or more sources to the customers† (Goetschalckx, 2008: 13-1) and similar to Ambrosino et al.s (2009) statement on distribution network design problem focuses on five phases of interconnected decisions, as follows (Goetschalckx, 2008: 13-2): Establishing the appropriate quantity of distribution centers (DCs); Setting up the location of each DC; Allocating customers to each DC; Allocating appropriate commodities to each DC; and Determining the throughput and storage capacity of each DC. Various models and approaches that have been built for designing distribution system or distribution network, to name a few, are (Goetschalckx, 2008: 13-8-13-15; Lapierre et al., 2004): K-median model, location-allocation model, warehouse location model, Geoffrion and Graves distribution system design model, models that focus on mathematical description of cost functions on each route in order to incorporate returns to scale, models of which concentration are in shipments on hub-to-hub routes regarding discounts, and models that aim at solving the freight transportation problem precisely. 2.2.2 Location-Allocation Problem (LAP) As previously stated in Goetschalckx (2008), LAP could be seen as part of distribution network design problems. Given the place of a set of customers with different demands, LAP is concerned with the selection of supply centres positions dedicated for serving the customers as well as the decision of the allocation of the customers to supply centres, with both of them are aimed at optimizing a given criterion (Hsieh Tien, 2004: 1017). It is also assumed that there is no interaction among supply centres. The criterion could be single such as transportation costs (see, for example, Goetschalckx, 2008; Zhou Liu, 2003; Manzini Gebennini, 2008) or it may comprises several aspects (see, for example, Mitropoulos et al., 2006). The following paragraphs provide some previous researches on LAP. The un-capacitated-type LAP with rectilinear distances could be found in Hsieh and Tien (2004). In this paper, the authors propose a heuristic method which is based on Kohonen self-organising feature maps (SOFMs). Sometimes distribution networks are built in hierarchies, where high-level distribution channels are constructed in straight lines from which low-level channels stem. Furthermore, destinations are allocated to branching facilities in high-level channels through low-level channels. Due to cost considerations, the number and locations of branching facilities as well as the allocation of the destinations to the aforementioned branching facilities need to be determined correctly. Eben-Chaime et al.s (2002) paper addresses this type of problem by formulating appropriate mathematical optimisation models and subsequently proposing heuristic solution methods. Capacitated LAP with stochastic demands is addressed by Zhou and Liu (2003). More specifically, they propose three types of stochastic programming models: (1) expected value model (EVM), (2) chance-constrained programming (CCP), and (3) dependent-chance programming (DCP). To solve these models efficiently, the authors develop a hybrid intelligent algorithm within which three type stochastic simulations are used. The proposed algorithm integrates the network simplex algorithm, stochastic simulation and genetic algorithm. In more recent paper, Zhou and Liu (2007) address the LAP with fuzzy demands by developing three types of fuzzy programming models fuzzy expected cost minimisation model, fuzzy -cost minimisation model, and credibility maximisation model with respect to different decision criterion. To solve these models, the authors apply a hybrid intelligent algorithm developed previously (see Zhou and Liu, 2003). Nonetheless, instead of using stochastic simulations, they are developing and employing fuzzy simulations. Similar with the abovementioned paper, Wen and Imamura (2008) also address LAP with fuzzy demands. For this type of problem, they build a fuzzy -cost model under the Hurwicz criterion. The problem is subsequently solved using the same algorithm as in Zhou and Liu (2007). The establishment of mixed integer programming optimisation models for multi-period, multi-stage LAPs could be found in Manzini and Gebennini (2008). In their paper, the authors develop optimisation models each for the following classes of multi-period, multi-stage LAPs: (1) single-commodity, multi-period, two-stage LAPs, (2) multi-commodity, multi-period, two-stage LAPs, (3) single-commodity, multi-period, two-stage open/ closed LAPs, and single-commodity, multi-period, three-stage LAPs. The application of various search methods to a generalised class of LAPs known as multi-facility location problem with generalised objects (MFLPO) is presented by Bischoff and Dà ¤chert (2009). The end of the paper gives comparison of the involved search methods for various sizes of test problem. Research on LAP in health service context could be found in Harper et al. (2005) and Mitropoulos et al. (2006). The former addresses the need to plan health services which takes geographical aspects into consideration. The problem is formulated as a stochastic LAP. The latter paper, on the other hand, develops a bi-objective model to solve the LAP arise in determining the location of hospitals and health centres and the allocation of the patients to those facilities. 2.2.3 Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) In its most basic form (e.g. Bulbul et al., 2008; Laporte, 2007), VRP is concerned with the optimal delivery or collection routes for a limited number of identical vehicles with limited capacities from a central depot/ warehouse to a set of geographically scattered customers. It assumes that the vehicles are at the central depot/ warehouse initially. It also requires the existence of the routes that connect the central depot/ warehouse to customers and customers to customers as well. In this type of VRP, a route must start and finish at the depot and a customer is visited by exactly one vehicle. The total demand of customers served by one vehicle could not exceed the vehicles capacity, and the ultimate goal is to minimise the total routing costs. Since its introduction by Dantzig and Ramser in 1959 (Bulbul et al., 2008), it has given rise to a rich body of works (Laporte, 2007). In 2008, searching the words vehicle routing problem by using Google scholar search results more than 21,700 entries (Golden et al. (eds), 2008). Laportes (1992) paper provides various exact methods and heuristics developed to solve the VRP. Several meta-heuristics intended to solve the classical VRP could be traced from his more recent paper (2007), while Toth and Vigos (2002) paper presents various existing exact algorithms for the solution of classical VRP. The comparison of descent heuristics, simulated annealing, and tabu search in solving VRP is addressed by Van Breedam (2001). Jozefowiez et al. (2008), on the other hand, give a survey on works that have been carried out on multi-objective VRP. A range of VRP variants can be seen in Crainic and Laporte (eds., 1998), Bulbul et al. (2008), and Golden et al. (eds., 2008). Other variants also exist: VRP with stochastic demands and VRP with backhaul. Different classification of VRP could be found in Pisinger and Ropkes (2007) paper. The following sub-sections mention examples of works on some of them, while new directions in modelling and algorithms for various types of LRP could be found in Part II of Golden et al.s (eds., 2008) edited book. 2.2.3.1 VRP with Time Windows In this type of VRP, customer i may only be visited within a time window [ai, bi] (see, e.g., Kontoravdis Bard, 1995; Badeau et al., 1997; Bouthillier Crainic, 2005; Fà ¼genschuh, 2006; Hsu et al., 2007; Kim, et al., 2006; Dondo Cerdà ¡, 2007; Kallehauge et al., 2007). 2.2.3.2 VRP with Pickup and Delivery When the vehicles need to deliver commodities to customers and collect items for example, defective products from them as well, then this is called a VRP with pickup and deliveries. Research papers by Nagy Salhi (2005), Wassan et al. (2008), Wassan et al. (2008), Gribkovskaia et al. (2008), Hoff et al. (2009), and Ai Kachitvichyanukul (2009) are several examples on it. 2.2.3.3 VRP with Backhaul In this type of VRP, the customers are separated into two mutually exclusive subsets so that the first subset of customers receives commodities whereas the second one sends back the products. Additionally, the second subset of customers are only served after the first one. The first subset is called line-haul customers and the second one is named backhaul customers. The f

Transformational leader vs. transactional leader

In order to accept or reject the statement â€Å"Do you see your choice as transformational leader vs. transactional leader in line with the above statements by William and Susan Bridges?†, one has to study in details. Transformational leaders encourage others to perform better than they originally planned and frequently even better than they considered potential. Such leaders set more demanding expectations and classically attain higher performances. According to Bridges (2000) transformational leadership is an opening out of transactional leadership while transactional leadership highlights the transaction or exchange that takes place among leaders, colleagues, and followers. This exchange is founded on the leader conversing with others what is essential and identifying the conditions and rewards these others will obtain if they accomplish the necessities. Proper transformational leaders lift the level of moral development of those whom they lead. They convert their followers into leaders. They expand and enlarge the wellbeing of those whom they lead. They encourage their associates, colleagues, followers, customers, and even their bosses to go further than their personal self-interests for the good of the group, organization, or society. Transformational leaders concentrate on each follower's intellect of self-worth in order to engage the follower in true dedication and contribution in the endeavor at hand. This is one of the things that transformational leadership inserts to the transactional exchange. Transformational leadership is more effectual than transactional leadership in producing the additional attempt, pledge, and contentment of those led. Transformational leaders perform better with colleagues and followers than set up effortless exchanges. They act in manners to attain higher outcomes by employing one or more of the four components of transformational leadership. First, leadership is viewed through rose-tinted glasses when followers search to recognize with their leaders and imitate them. Second, the leadership motivates the followers with confront and influence that present connotation and understanding. Third, the leadership is rationally inspiring, expanding the followers’ use of their capabilities. Lastly, the leadership is independently caring, providing the followers with facilitation, mentoring, and coaching. Transactional leadership takes place when the leader rewards a follower based on the competence of the follower's recital. Transactional leadership depends on dependent underpinning, either optimistic reliant reward or the more unenthusiastic active or passive shapes of management-by-exception. (Bridges, 2000) It is concluded that transformational leadership supports to transactional leadership in its effects on follower contentment and recital. Transformational leadership does not substitute transactional leadership. That is, productive and in particular remedial connections may have only minor impact on followers unless accompanied by one or more components of transformational leadership for getting the most out of transactions. Hence the statement is accepted. References Bridges, William, and Susan Mitchell Bridges â€Å"Leading Transition: A New Model for C

Ethical Dilemmas Of Human Services And Research - 959 Words

Ethical Dilemmas as it pertains to Professionalism in Human Services and Research A psychology professor working for a university, who is also a psychologist with a private practice offering his students therapy sessions can contribute to problems, as well as violate several ethical codes, which will be discussed. It is not abnormal a college professor in psychology would offer his students therapy sessions, since therapy and psychology coincide and are both the professor’s specialties, however the ethical aspect of it is a different problem. The violation of these codes will take into consideration location, timing, competence, business interest, improper termination, harm, multiple relationships, and so forth. The location of the university where the professor works is in a large metropolitan area. According to code 2.02, psychologist who are not assigned to specific work should only provide services in the case of emergencies, this also includes if there are no other services available at the moment an incident occur (American Psychological Association, 2002). In this particular situation the professor violated the code because there were no emergencies and the professor did not mention any other services available to the students. Considering the university is located in a large metropolitan area typically, there should be numerous mental health services nearby. Lastly, the situation at hand also plays a role in the professor’s competence. Competent psychologists knowShow MoreRelatedEthical Dilemm Ethical And Ethical Dilemmas1610 Words   |  7 PagesEthical dilemma is an issue that has no satisfactory resolution. A conflict between two ethical standards and situations can result in ethical dilemma. 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