Technical and communication failures that caused disasters Assignment

Technical and communication failures that caused disasters - Assignment Example The technical failure that caused the disaster was the release of methyl isocyanate (MIC) which was due to water that leaked into one of the storage tanks of Union Carbide pesticide factory (Long, 2008). The problem was aggravated by another technical failure when the main warning siren did not go off for another two hours. Apparently, the tank alarms have not functioned for almost four years already. Other technical problems were revealed upon investigation. These include failure to address safety violations, backup system were either not functioning or inexistent, plant was equipped with only one backup system, which was not the norm, over capacity of the tank which held the MIC, water sprays were ineffective and the pipes and valves have not been repaired or replaced (Long, 2008). The technical failure that caused this disaster was the flawed Soviet reactor design which was operated by plant operators who were not properly trained. According to the World Nuclear Association, there was over pressure which was caused by the interaction of very hot fuel with the cooling water (2011). They went on further to say that the over pressure then resulted in the partial detachment of the cover plate of the reactor. The fuel channels were then ruptured and the control rods jammed (World Nuclear Association, 2011). At least 5% of the radioactive reactor core was released through steam and fires, into the atmosphere and downwind (World Nuclear Association, 2011). The reason for the earthquake is due to the abrupt slipping of the crystal rocks comprising the Pacific and North American Plates by as much as 2 meters (7 ft) along their common boundary-the San Andreas fault system (Nakata & Meyer, 2009). There was technical failure in terms of the construction of the buildings. Most of them were extensively damaged because it was built with unreinforced masonry and they were erected on flood plain sediments

Finance and accounts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5250 words

Finance and accounts - Essay Example Stock markets are very volatile and investors need to learn through various important concepts before proceeding to invest their money to ensure satisfactory returns.Many at times there may be possibilities that investors suffer on the back drop of decreased prices after they invest. These situations should at least be reduced if they cannot be reduced as a whole. The process of loss reduction involves a complex understanding about the following terminologies:1.CAPM and Arbitrage Pricing Theory 2.Efficient markets hypothesis and Pecking order theory 3.Modigilani and Miller approach and Residual theory 4.Symbolic interactionism, ethnography and phenomenology 5.Conceptual framework of accounting and 6.Conceptual framework of management accounting.These abovementioned theories explain the basics of share trading and knowledge of them is a must to avoid risk in the stock market. 1.CAPM and Arbitrage Pricing TheoryCapital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM): It was developed to predict the future value of shares based on the previous trends in market equilibrium. It establishes the underlying relationship between the returns expected in the light of unavoidable risk. Any investment can be classified into risk free or portfolio categories. It analyzes the return which a portfolio is expected to deliver in the form of a characteristic line which comprises of three primary measures – the alpha (ÃŽ ±), Beta (ÃŽ ²) and unavoidable risk. ÃŽ ± is the simple intercept of the line and is bound to be zero and any value below that would avert the investor to participate in that particular stock. Unavoidable risk is the risk relating to a particular stock or industry which can be avoided or reduced comprehensively in a portfolio. Hence, the main determinant of the stock price is the ? which defines the sensitivity of a stock in relation to market changes. If it is more than 1, the stock is supposed to be more volatile than the market and vice versa. The formula for evaluating ? i s: Rj = Rf + (Rm-Rf)?j where Rj refers to the return expected of the security, Rm is the market return and Rf is the risk free return (treasury bond interest rate). ? is the unavoidable risk. The values of ? for many active stocks can be obtained through data published by various financial concerns. Thus, the expected return can be calculated. The same ? can also be interpreted as the discounted rate of the dividends to ascertain the value of the stock and thus by equating both the values, one can conclude whether a particular stock is over or undervalued. The underlying assumptions are: 1. Existence of efficient capital markets 2. Zero costs for transactions 3. No restrictions 4. Investors cannot influence the markets 5. Non-incurrence of taxes Specific situation: Let us evaluate a situation comprising of 7% Treasury bill rate and portfolio market returns of 12% to estimate the share value of pro-fli Corporation which contains a ? of 1.3. According to the formula, the share value w ould be: .07+(.12-.07) *1.3 which gives a result of 13.5%. This shows that when ? is more, the returns tend to be more rewarding. In the same case, if ? is estimated to