Thursday, December 19, 2019

Koloon Case Study - 1433 Words

Abstract This case study examines the decision making process of the Kowloon Development Company to the PrecisionTree decision tree software from Palisade. The Kowloon Development Company was faced with a major decision about their future investments. The General Manager of the Kowloon Development Company is usually involved in billion dollar investments, accurate decisions are needed. The company has to make a decision over the decision to purchase a new development project the total site area being 16,000 square feet. The objective is to use the use the Decision Tree software from Palisade, to determine the decision for the Kowloon Development Company whether or not to purchase the property. Decision trees provide a formal structure in†¦show more content†¦The discounting rates should accurately reflect the opportunity cost of capital and consequently the systematic risk of the project. Quite often, determination of the discounting rates, or the hurdle rates, has been based nothing more than intuition. However, hurdle rates lead to incorrect investment decisions because high return projects are by definition more favored than low return ones. The drawback is that the absolute expected return of a project is very high, but it is still not high enough to compensate for the high risk that has to be borne. Or conversely, a project may be expected to generate very modest return, but this return is already higher than its riskiness. In other words, the expected return of a project must be commensurate with its risk, or more precisely, it’s systematic or market risk. (HKUST/CEIBS, 1998). Observation The objective is to use the use the Decision Tree software from Palisade, to determine the decision for the Kowloon Development Company whether or not to purchase the property. Decision trees provide a formal structure in which decisions and chance events are linked in sequence from left to right. Decisions, chance events, and end results are represented by nodes and connected by branches. The result is a tree structure with the root on the

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Applying Doing Ethics Technique

Questions: 1. Whats going on? 2. What are the facts? 3. What are the ethical and non-ethical issues? 4. Who is affected? 5. What are the ethical issues and implications? 6. What can be done about it? 7. What are the options? 8. Which is the best option and why? Answer: 1. The selected article is San Francisco Transit Hit by Ransomware Attack and it has been written by Gibbs S.. The article has explained the ethical dilemma of hacking and extracting information about different individuals without prior permission. According to Andronio, Zanero and Maggi (2015), the professional hackers and cyber criminals have been using the ransomware attack for locking and extracting information from the computer devices. The hackers use the information for extorting money from the users. The hackers have targeted the municipal transportation agency of San Francisco for disrupting the internal computer system (Gibbs, 2016). The hacking of the computer system is done by using the ransomware for hacking and extracting the information from the devices. It had resulted in providing the free fares for all of the riders. 2. The technological advancement has ease all the operations and functioning in human life. The municipal transportation agency of San Francisco has been using the information system technology for easing their transportation data and information processing (Ryan Krotoski, 2012). The hackers and cyber criminals had used the technique of ransomware for getting into the system of the municipal transportation agency of San Francisco. It had resulted in providing all the customers with the free rides for a day. The hackers had messaged the transport agency with threatening messages. The message were on display in the computers of the agency during the weekend. 3. According to Wilcoxon, Remley Jr and Gladding, (2013), the ethical issues in this article include the hacking issue (resulted in unethical information infiltration) and misuse of technology (unethically using technology for personal gain). The cyber criminals and hackers have misused the development of technology for their benefit. They have got into the information of municipal transportation agency of San Francisco for providing free rides to all the customers. The article has shown the unethical issues of financial loss to the agency, illegal information leakage, and social issue (violation of moral values). They had to provide the customers with free rides for a day. Another issue with the hacking story is the legal issue (hackers have illegally entered the private information system of the agency). According to Kirda (2015), the social issue related with the article story is the infiltration of the information. 4. The list of affected personals in the story is the hackers, the company, customers whose information has been, and the owners of the company (Broadhead, 2015). The government law and security of the agency are the non-human stakeholders of that have been affected due to the hacking issue. The hackers have been benefited from the act of hacking as they could extort money from the agency or people whose information they have extracted from the information system. The customers and owners of the company have been negatively been harmed due to the hacking issue (Stone, 2015). The government law and security has been misused and violated due to the hacking issue of the story. 5. The ethical issues in this article include the hacking issue, illegal infiltration of the information, and violation of privacy of personal information (McGivern Walter, 2014). The hackers had primarily formed the ethical issue of hacking. It is a misuse of the technological system for personal gain. The hacking issue is the most prominent ethical issue that has been faced at various occasions of the hacking methods. The illegal infiltration of the personal information due to the hacking method has been the second ethical issue in the story (Broadhead, 2015). The violation of security of personal information is another major ethical issue in the story. 6. The ethical issue can be dealt by making people aware about the ethics and morality of the technology (Kirda, 2015). The people should be made aware about the ethical activities and moral values of the technological operations. The privacy and confidentiality of individuals personal operations must not be violated. The people should follow the ACS code of ethics for the combining the ethics with the technology. The technological operations must be kept in sync with the morality and ethics (McGivern Walter, 2014). Illegal and unethical practices must be boycotted and the technology must not be used for harming any other individual. 7. The solutions for solving the ethical issues shown in the story are: Developing strong security for the information system Following code of ethics Developing ethical thinking and logical reasoning among people The strong security system should be developed for easing the secured operations for the information system. The policies and procedures must be made for implementing for all the operations at all the company. The technological development would ease the privacy and confidentiality of the information and data by following the ethics and moral values. The morality and ethics would help in dealing with the illegal and unethical practices that might harm any other individual. 8. The hacking issue is the result of human greed and unethical thinking. Hence, building of strong ethical thinking and moral values among people is the best option for dealing with the hacking issue. The violation of ACS code of ethics and infiltrating the private information can be stopped when people would start being reasonable and ethical in their approach. The strong security system is useful for detecting and preventing intrusion in the network system. However, unless the ethical thinking and moral values is followed, humans would develop technology for breaking the string security system. The strong moral values and ethics would be more helpful for applying the code of ethics and secure system. References Andronio, N., Zanero, S., Maggi, F. (2015, November). HelDroid: dissecting and detecting mobile ransomware. InInternational Workshop on Recent Advances in Intrusion Detection(pp. 382-404). Springer International Publishing. Broadhead, R. (2015). Professional, Legal and Ethical Issues in Prescribing Practice.The Textbook of Non-Medical Prescribing, 35. Gibbs, S. (2016).Ransomware attack on San Francisco public transit gives everyone a free ride.the Guardian. Retrieved 29 November 2016, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/28/passengers-free-ride-san-francisco-muni-ransomeware Kirda, E. (2015, June). Cutting the Gordian Knot: A Look Under the Hood of Ransomware Attacks. InDetection of Intrusions and Malware, and Vulnerability Assessment: 12th International Conference, DIMVA 2015, Milan, Italy, July 9-10, 2015, Proceedings(Vol. 9148, p. 3). Springer. McGivern, J. E., Walter, M. J. (2014). Legal and ethical issues related to treatment integrity in psychology and education. Ryan, K. V., Krotoski, M. L. (2012). Caution Advised: Avoid Undermining the Legitimate Needs of Law Enforcement to Solve Crimes Involving the Internet in Amending the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.USFL Rev.,47, 291. Stone, S. D. (2015).Small organization vulnerability to Ransomware(Doctoral dissertation, UTICA COLLEGE). Wilcoxon, A., Remley Jr, T. P., Gladding, S. T. (2013).Ethical, legal, and professional issues in the practice of marriage and family therapy. Pearson Higher Ed.

Tuesday, December 3, 2019

The Incident At Bhopal Essays - Bhopal Disaster, Methyl Isocyanate

The Incident At Bhopal PURPOSE: To examine the events contributing to the tragedy at Bhopal, India and their repercussions and to draw conclusions based on these events. INTRODUCTION: What Happened at Bhopal? Reading newspaper and magazine articles written immediately following the events at Bhopal, it is apparent that it took some time for authorities to determine the causes of the industrial accident. Speculation seems to have run wild for a time following the accident. Drawing from later statistics and information seems to be a more reliable method of determining the most likely scenario. Where various alternate feasible possibilities have been presented, we will try to include the most likely. At approximately midnight on December 3, 1984, an unexpected chemical reaction took place in a Union Carbide of India Limited storage tank. The storage tank contained methyl isocyanate, (hereafter referred to as MIC) a toxic gas used in the process of a pesticide called Sevin.(1) As part of the distilling process there was an extremely high concentration of chloroform present. This caused corrosion of the tank. The tank being made of iron provided a catalyst for the reaction. A large amount of water was also introduced, approximately 120-240 gallons, which in combination with the chemical, generated enough heat to start the reaction. The runaway reaction released an uncontrollable amount of heat and this resulted in 30-40 tons of the gas being vaporized and spread over approximately 30 square miles, killing thousands of people and injuring hundreds of thousands.(2) The lack of information on MIC in 1984 made it a very toxic and difficult to control substance, according to Meryl H. Karol of the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health. He says, ?Although nominally a liquid at room temperature, methyl isocyanate evaporates so quickly from an open container that it easily turns into a colorless, odorless highly flammable and reactive gas... I would hesitate having it in a laboratory.? He also quotes the OHSA standard for exposure to MIC during an eight-hour day as 0.02 parts per million, ?far lower than what many Bhopal residents were exposed to.?(3) THE HEALTH AFFECTS of exposure to MIC is disastrous. At low levels, MIC causes eyes to water and results in damage to the cornea. At higher concentrations, muscles constrict, and the bronchial passages have the equivalent of a severe asthma attack.(3) Most of the deaths in India were due to this. Dr. Jeffrey P. Koplan, Assistant Director of Public Health Practice at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, who went to Bhopal to render assistance, said, ?There was edema, substantial destruction...of alveolar walls, ... a ulcerative bronchiolus...? among patients at the severely crowded hospitals.(4) Serious damage to the central nervous system after three to four weeks, including paralysis, and psychological problems have also been a result.(3) The long-term affects of MIC exposure are equally disastrous. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, at least 50,000 people are still suffering and new chronic cases of asthma keep showing up as the population ages and 39% of the surrounding population have some form of severe respiratory impairment.(5) Most of them will suffer for the rest of their lives.(6) It is a conservative estimate that 5 people die every week as a result of the Bhopal accident.(7) Another consideration is that in a social class that maintains a living through physical labor, inability to perform results in starvation.(8) Affects on women were profound. Out of 198 women living within 10 miles of the facility, 100 had abnormal uterine bleeding.(1,5) Of the local women who were pregnant before the accident, 43% miscarried and 14% of the babies carried to term died within a month. Socially, these women are considered unwanted by potential husbands because reproductive disorders are so commonplace that they are seen as sterile.(5) It is unknown whether chromosomal damage will affect future generations.(8) TOTAL EFFECTS ON THE ENVIRONMENT are not yet known. Approximately 1,600 animals died on the first and second days after the incident. This was a terrible environmental health risk. Eventually this problem was solved by digging a giant one-acre mass grave. There was also damage to some vegetation, animal and fish species, but not to others. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research is studying this.(1) A VARIETY OF FAILURES were contributing factors in this lethal cloud of chemicals descending on the helpless, uninformed public. These failures include design failures, maintenance failures, operations failures, emergency response failures, communications failures, governmental failures and last but not least management failures. In 1982, a safety audit by the