The Silk Road Essay - 1623 Words

The Silk Road was an intricate and evolving network of overland trade routes that linked China, India, and western Eurasia for centuries. The trade route was key to the diffusion and transportation of technology, goods, religions, and language throughout Asia, the Mediterranean, Africa and southern Europe. As the strongest link between major population centers in the largest landmass on earth, the Silk Road was one of the most important of all long-distance trade routes in human history. Study of the Silk Road has made it obvious that Eurasian history was more than isolated histories of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Europe, India, Southeast Asia, and China. In reality, for several thousand years, the Silk Road ensured that these regions were never†¦show more content†¦But it was difficult for them to grow and store crops, so most traded with farming communities at the edge of their grazing lands. The pastoralists would exchange livestock products for agricultural produce and manufactured goods. This way, pastoralists gradually created far-reaching systems of trade that from Siberia to India and from China to the Mediterranean. With the spread of pastoralism, Inner Eurasia now had channels of communication across Eurasia. Early evidence of trade along the Silk Roads comes from the so-called Oxus civilization, a group of fortified farming and trading cities built about 4,000 years ago on the borders between modern Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Archaeologists have found Chinese silks and goods from India and Mesopotamia, and pottery and ornaments from Inner Eurasia. The archaeological evidence leans toward the idea of cooperation between urban merchants and pastoralists. Over time, sophisticated systems of trade emerged that was organized in caravans sometimes with hundreds of individuals, often financed by urban merchants, and supplied with manufactured goods and the region’s specialties. At least by the first millennium BCE, caravans could stop at special rest stops known as caravansaries founded by local rulers or merchants. Caravansaries offered bunks, repair workshops, food, and informationShow MoreRelated The Silk Road Essay1198 Words   |  5 Pagestrains, ships and airplanes to transport goods from one place to another, there was the Silk Road. Beginning in the sixth century, this route was formed and thus began the first major trade system. Although the term â€Å"Silk Road† would lead one that it was on road, this term actually refers to a number of different routes that covered a vast amount of land and were traveled by many different people. Along with silk, large varieties of goods were traded and traveled along this route both going to andRead MoreThe Silk Road Essay1857 Words   |  8 PagesThe Silk Road was an elaborate and ever-changing network of overland trade routes that linked China, India, and western Eurasia for thousands of years. The trade route was key to the diffusion and transportation of technology, goods, religions, and language throughout Asia, the Mediterranean, Africa and southern Europe. As the most durable links between major population centers in the largest landmass on earth, the Silk Road was one of the most important of all long-distance trade routes in humanRead MoreSilk Road Patterns of Interactions Essay738 Words   |  3 PagesEssay Jack Walker The Silk Road from the period of 200bce to 1450ce had many patterns of interaction that change and stayed the same over time. The patterns of interaction that changed over 200bce to 1450ce were the safety of the roads due to expansion of government with protective borders. Items that were traded along the Silk Road changed during the years 200bce to 1450ce. Lastly religion exchange on the Silk Road changed during the years of 200bce to 140ce. The patternsRead MoreEssay about The Silk Road1186 Words   |  5 Pagesa person having key situations in life can also be applied to events or systems such as the Silk Road. The Silk Road was one of the largest international collaborations of its time as many countries worked to ensure that the silk coming from China was able to make its way west as gold and other items from places like Rome worked their way east. Because of its size, the were always issues with the Silk Road ranging from the nomadic steppe people raiding the caravans to the sheer length of such a trekRead MoreLife Along the Silk Road Essay1425 Words   |  6 PagesLife Along The Silk Road During the outward-looking rule of Chinas Tang dynasty (seventh-ninth century C. E. ), sophisticated people in northeastern Iran developed such a taste for expensive, imported Chinese pottery that they began to imitate it in great quantity for sale to people who could not afford the real thing. And in northern China there was a vogue for beautiful pottery figurines of camels laden with caravan goods or ridden by obviously non-Chinese merchants, musicians, or entertainersRead MoreEssay on Life Along the Silk Road1306 Words   |  6 PagesSusan Whitfield writes Life along the Silk Road based on character stories occurring between the eight and tenth century, all living at different times. She writes this history for several reasons. First, she writes it to change the negative perception of the history of Central Asia that we know through the annals of its neighbors. By explaining the history of the region through the eyes of its own occupants, it rids the history of any distorted view s from neighboring civilizations. She uses theRead MoreChanges Continuities of Silk Road Essay630 Words   |  3 PagesThe Silk Road which started in 200 BCE and ended it in 1450 CE has its own changes and continuities. Trade flourished between the Asian and Europe at the time and as time went on its sole purpose of trading expanded to many other purposes and affect not only the area it contacted. Although there were many continuities during the time but it has more significant changes that occurred and also impact the world. One significant changes of the Silk Road is when it was first started it mainly startedRead MoreHistory Of The Silk Road Essay example969 Words   |  4 Pages The Silk Road, a series of passageways connecting China with the Mediterranean completely changed the world. These series of trade routes allowed the advancement of technology and cultural diversity like never seen before. These routes connected many different civilizations allowing the exchange of goods and ideas. This variety of nationalities made it a â€Å"Cultural Bridge between Asia and Europe. † Before these pathways were established trade was nearly impossible due to extreme desert conditionsRead MoreBuddhism Artwork Along Silk Road Essay1949 Words   |  8 Pagesthings amongst countries. One of the most outstanding trade routes in the past was the Silk Road found in China. It was a route used by many people to travel and transport goods such as silk, paper, livestock, jewels, and much more, from East to West China. It consisted of land and sea routes, which made transportation and traveling convenient for man in that time period. There were many items traded along the Silk Road that had a profound impact on the development of the cultures, religions and otherRead MoreThe Silk Road: Connecting China with The Mediterranean Essay975 Words   |  4 PagesThe Silk Road, a series of passageways connecting China with the Mediterranean, completely changed the world. These trade routes allowed the advancement of technology and cultural diversity like never before seen. These routes connected many different civilizations allowing the exchange of goods and ideas. This variety of nationalities made it a â€Å"Cultural Bridge between Asia and Europe. † Before these pathways were established trade was nearly impossible, due to extreme desert conditions and high

Utility And Morals By John Stuart Mill - 1203 Words

Utility and Morals Imagine you are part of a plane crash, you and many other people, are trying to get on board of the only lifeboat that is available. Unfortunately it’s already carrying too much weight and you must decide who stays and who goes. Leaving the elderly people behind would be a wise decision since they have limited motor skills and in an environment of survival it might be a risk. If any of them happen to have a disability it will impact their rate of survival. In a situation as dire as the one presented it’s important to have the means necessary to secure the survival of many. â€Å"John Stuart Mill, by contrast, argued that the rules of right and wrong should above all else achieve the greatest good for the greatest number of†¦show more content†¦Elderly people can offer you many years of experience and wisdom, but at the same time they would have reached their limits with the aging of motor skills. In a harsh environment, it is necessary to be able to take care of oneself. Meaning that the group must obtain something of great importance from working with a group in question. Can I depend on this person to assist me when needed? Is this person beneficial to the group? You are doing this to improve the rate of survivability the group requires. Decisions are made for the benefits of both parties, not just your own. Hinman points out that â€Å"Basic insights of utilitarianism is that morality is about producing good consequences, not having good intentions†. Although Utilitarianism may seem like its intentions are set on how to solve the dilemma you encounter. It’s actually emphasized on the consequences that will arise from your decision. What will make the greatest amount of people happier in the long run? That is a key question Utility is used to answer. The highest number of people satisfied outweigh the number of those that will feel unsatisfied. Of course, this is only done by considering a large percent age. If you are given three options per say, sixty percent, seventy five percent or eighty five percent. Utility would want to use the option of eighty five because it has a higher number of people that will be satisfied for the greater good. It is imperative that you make any decision without personal interest.

Business improvement tools †Lean and Six Sigma methodologies Free Essays

string(39) " and fixing the major causes of leaks\." Abstract Lean and Six Sigma methodologies are stand-alone tools and have been implemented in isolation by many businesses in the past. But there have been recent shift in the paradigm, as more and more businesses are implementing the integrated approach. The aim of this study is to understand the concept of lean and Six Sigma as a combined approach an also to investigate the advantages and the probable challenges in implementing lean Six Sigma in both manufacturing and service industry. We will write a custom essay sample on Business improvement tools – Lean and Six Sigma methodologies or any similar topic only for you Order Now Introduction Businesses are always looking out for the ways to improve their bottom line. Business improvement methodology has been constantly developing from the last century (Snee, 2004). While businesses have always ventured for improvement, but improvement as we think about it today, began with the seminal work of Taylor (1911) on scientific management. Among various process improvement methodologies, Six Sigma and lean are considered as the best methodologies widely used by various industries and are currently referred to as state of the art. But, there is a drawback in applying only one of the two methodologies alone, as the continuous improvement may have the deficiency of being slow. In the next section we would discuss the concepts of Six Sigma and lean. Concepts of Lean and Six Sigma The six sigma methodology is founded by Motorola and is a well disciplined and structured approach to enhance process performance and to obtain high levels of quality and low levels of variability. A six sigma process is expected to be statistically 99.99966% free of defects i.e, it aims for reduced defect rate of 3.4 per million opportunity (Brady and Allen, 2006). The Six Sigma approach starts with the identification of the need for an improvement initiative. The lean methodology founded by Toyota help organizations to achieve on time delivery of the right quality and quantity to satisfy customers (Salah et al. 2010). Lean helps in eliminating waste, variation and work imbalance. Waste not only includes unnecessarily long cycle times, or waiting times between value-added activities but also include rework or scrap, which are often the result of excess variability, so there is an apparent connection between Six Sigma and lean. Lean Six Sigma The phrase lean Six Sigma (LSS) is used to describe the integration of lean and Six Sigma philosophies (Sheridan, 2000). Figure 1 shows how lean and Six Sigma can be integrated for process efficiency and effectiveness. According to Bendell (2006), the concept of LSS as an approach to process improvement is yet to fully mature as an area of academic research. Smith (2003) has argued that the majority of the efforts to implement LSS comprehensively in organizations have not been realized to its full potential. Specifically, in case of fusing lean and Six Sigma, the two approaches are often been implemented in isolation (Smith, 2003). This has produced subcultures of lean and Six Sigma in an organization, which can cause a conflict of interest and drainage of resources (Bendell, 2006). Figure 1: Integrating the two improvement approaches (Source: Juran Institute) Arnheiter and Maleyeff (2005) have demonstrated through Figure 2, how each approach can gain when seen as a single framework and a certain balance can be reached when integrated effectively. The figure explains that equilibrium is needed to achieve between the two, moving from the blinkered approach in any one direction. Figure 2 indicates that an organization can run into risk by becoming too lean and therefore rigid in responses to the market and subsequently impacting on value creation. On the other hand, concentrating too much in reducing variation beyond the requirements of the customer would waste unnecessary resources in the pursuit of zero variation. To bring equilibrium, sufficient value should be created from customers’ viewpoint, so that market share is maintained, while at the same time variation should be reduced to an acceptable levels so that cost can be lowered by removing any over-engineering of the process. Figure 2: Competitive advantage of lean, Six Sigma and lean Six Sigma (Source: Arnheiter and Maleyeff, 2005) Six Sigma complements lean philosophies by providing tools and knowledge to deal with specific problems that are identified along the lean journey: â€Å"Lean eliminates ‘noise’ and establishes a standard† (Wheat et al., 2003). Arnheiter and Maleyeff (2005) have taken this discussion further in their work on the integration of lean and Six Sigma, and have outlined the benefits of such a consolidated approach. For example, Processes can be kept on target, effectively reducing waste incurred through faulty processing by incorporating lean with other scientific approaches like control charts for attaining quality. LSS is also widely recognized as leadership developmental tool. According to Welch and Welch (2005) the benefit of this principle lies on the capacity of developing a cadre of great leaders. Kiemele (2005) has suggested critical success factor for the deployment and implementation of LSS in the organization such as leadership alignment, proper selection of people and projects, training, motivation, accountability, information technology, marketing and supply chain management. Snee (2010) has supported the requirement of leadership aspect for implementing LSS by mentioning, â€Å"without the full support and involvement of top management the improvement effort is likely to wither on the vine†. Also George (2002) has signified that in order to influence the LSS learning in an organization, there is a need of strong curriculum, communication channel, technology exploitation and documentation of best practices. In the following section we would explore the advantages and the probable challenges of implementing LSS through case studies. Case 1: Application of Lean Six Sigma in Manufacturing [Source: Lean and Six Sigma – A One-Two Punch, Smith, 2003] The case study is about a manufacturing factory named Heatcraft that makes commercial refrigeration equipment. Though the factory had been following lean principles for a year but still, too many units were coming off the line leaking, creating costly rework loops, warranty claims and customer dissatisfaction. A lean Six Sigma Team led by Doug Bonner, a TMB senior consultant and Six Sigma BB was assigned with the objective of determining and fixing the major causes of leaks. You read "Business improvement tools – Lean and Six Sigma methodologies" in category "Essay examples" â€Å"Once we knew what to work on, we began to map out the process† said Bonner. The team started its first kaizen event by breaking down the transformation steps successively noting down each time the product changed. Analysis revealed that more than half of the leaks were in the return bend of the coil. The team even found multiple variations in the way the units were made, from how far the coils were from each other and to how much the tubes stuck out before brazing connected them to the return bend. They determined which variations contributed to the leakage after analyzing the process, more specifically the differences between the two lines. Also the team fixed the quality issues of each brazer brazed by the employees, resulting in better quality at the source. The efforts from that first Six Sigma kaizen week yielded a 75% reduction in quality issues and a 40% overall reduction in leak rates by just focusing on one defect. Discussion As in the literature, we have seen that Six Sigma complements Lean principles; here in this case study also, we have found that the organization was rolling out too many faulty units irrespective of the fact that they used lean philosophies. The combination of both the approaches has helped the organization to get rid of the leaks. Using the tools of LSS, the lean Six Sigma team mapped the process, which helped them to reveal that the plant made two types of units with same bend. For investigating the process further the team created cause and effect diagram for the process, listing the five M’s and E. As Bonner said â€Å"All you need is one defect to cause a lot of grief†, so the cause and effect diagram proved helpful in measuring each step carefully and more importantly, the effect on the final product could be examined carefully. Such a detailed scrutiny of the process actually revealed the prime cause of the problem and helped the team to fix it up. By Applying LSS principles, the team standardized brazer quality. This actually ensured the better quality of the source materials used to manufacture the end product. Such a standard has brought a change in culture of the organization as the workers started getting feedback from their co-workers regarding their work after it has been tested in the test tank. Among the ancillary benefits, lean Six Sigma team’s efforts and observations also corrected problems with the header. After carefully watching the mapping process, the team discovered the piece was not being seated properly in the joint. The piece was reduced by ? inch and a standard specification was institutionalized. This improvement reduced the defects to a significant extent and helped in achieving better flow and throughput. LSS principles help in yielding significant amount of process improvement by eliminating minute problems which remain undetected in normal production cycle. For example, we can understand that just focusing on the soldering aspect of the units, the organization has benefited to a substantial extent. Such a process improvement in an organization can be translated into various ways, be it financial benefit or customer satisfaction. The lean component helps in reducing waste from the process, whereas the Six Sigma component reduces the possibility of error. The integrated approach of the two principles helps the organization in attaining increased productivity or in broader way, financial gain as less rework need to be done on an end product. Simultaneously from the customer perspective, the improved quality of product creates a satisfaction among them. Also a decrease in operational cost due to process efficiency and increase in customer satisfaction would provide an opportunity for th e organization to serve more number of customers, hence resulting in revenue gain for the organization. Case 2: Application of Lean Six Sigma in a Service Industry [Source: Lean six sigma in a call centre: a case study, Laureani et al. 2009] This case study is focused on a large corporation in the service sector operating in the vehicle leasing and renting industry. Its European call centre was receiving an average of 1,200,000 calls annually from customers who had an issue with either the level of service received or the billing/invoicing process. Most of the time they failed to solve the problem at the first attempt, hence leading to customer dissatisfaction and unnecessary repetition of work in the Centre. The objective of the project was to increase the first-call resolution ratio. A cross functional project team was created led by black belt consultant with the intention of implementing DMAIC Six Sigma methodology integrated with lean principles in order to increase first-call resolution ratio. The project scope was laid down by the team, identifying which specific areas of the call centre and services they were going to focus on and also a high-level process map was created. The lean principles were used to identify and remove the four different types of wastes such as motion, waiting, over processing and defects that were hindering their first-call resolution ratio. The operational definition of first-time call resolution was developed and it was agreed by the major stakeholders involved in the whole process. The team sliced the measurement data into different dimensions and after analyzing they observed that two types of queries were accounted for 70% of unresolved first-time calls. The team provided tested improvement actions which resulted in reducing the percentage of unresolved calls from 11.82 percent to 8.45 percent. As this result seemed satisfactorily, the improvement actions were rolled out to the whole call centre. There was 3 per cent decrease of unresolved queries after first contact which resulted in 36,000 fewer calls to the call centre on an annual basis. Discussion The LSS methodology has not only helped the organization to reduce the waste by reducing the unnecessary movement of call centre operators who needed to move to perform some routine task such as sending/receiving fax but also helped to define first-time call resolution. This has actually helped to achieve the desired performance as the parameter to measure the success of first-time call resolution was apparent to all employees. Also the lean component of LSS has helped in reducing the waiting time for an operator to access necessary information from other department for catering the need of customers query. Hand in hand, as a part of the process, a consistent measurement system was followed that has assisted in measuring the performance of the process. In precise, the DMAIC process has helped in developing advanced statistical techniques and to become â€Å"technical† in the approach to problem solving, implementing Six Sigma. On the contrary, the lean approach developed a cu lture towards continuous improvement and elimination of non value added activities before Six Sigma implementation. Drawing on the principles of LSS, tools and philosophies of both methodologies has enabled them to produce breakthrough innovations such as the quick wins in the improve phase that resulted in profound business improvements. The improvement ideas were pre tested through the pilot group and data were collected from the pilot group to quantify the improvement actions followed by calculation of the sigma value. This strict procedure of deploying improvement actions has ensured the overall quality of the services and helped them to reduce unresolved queries to a significant extent. One of the critical success factors for continuous improvement efforts at an organization is the availability of a common set of problem solving tools (Chapman and Hyland, 1997). This has been effectively achieved through the toolkit that Six Sigma and lean has provided when integrated. A known type of query was solved by the customer service at the first place without any defects. Hence the customer didn’t need to call back, thus the unnecessary works were reduced and customer satisfaction was increased. Challenges of lean Six Sigma Reviewing the above two case studies we have found some problems common two both the case studies. In the first case study of Heatcraft, we have seen some standards were institutionalized, but for fostering a climate for continuous improvement, an organization must train their employees about LSS principles. This training of employees can be time consuming as it would require balance between routine work and the work involved in LSS training and projects. In the second case study of Call Centre, the Black Belt consultant left the organization by handing over the completed control plan to the process owner and there was no commitment of revisit from their end. So, the assurance that improvement actions are still in place and the process has not reverted to the pre-project status was not there. It is not known from both the case studies that, how much each organization spent for training employees about LSS principles and also the cost of implementing LSS solutions in their business as it has been indicated by Senapati (2004) that such training cost and cost of implementing LSS solutions can be expensive. Also, LSS sustainability in the process requires high skill and sufficient resources are required to ensure its sustainability. Conclusion Lean and Six Sigma paradigms can be considered as influential catalysts for change as stand-alone methods but more provokingly, when fused together represents an exceptionally powerful tool. When the cultural aspects of lean are aligned with data driven investigations of Six Sigma, the integrated approach can bring a genuine and sustainable approach to organizational change and process improvement. References Arnheiter, E.D. and Maleyeff, J. (2005), â€Å"The integration of lean management and six sigma†, The TQM Magazine, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 5-18. Bendell, T. (2006), â€Å"A review and comparison of six sigma and the lean organisations†, The TQM Magazine, Vol. 18 No. 3, pp. 255-62. Brady, J.E. and Allen, T.T. (2006), â€Å"Six sigma literature: a review and agenda for future research†, Quality and Reliability Engineering International, Vol. 22, pp. 335-67. Chapman, R.L. and Hyland, P.W. (1997), â€Å"Continuous improvement strategies across selected Australian manufacturing sectors†, Benchmarking for Quality Management Technology, Vol. 4 No. 3, pp. 175-88. George, M.L. (2002), â€Å"Lean Six Sigma, Combining Six Sigma Quality with Lean Speed†, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY. Kiemele, M.J. (2005), â€Å"Critical success factors for deploying and implementing lean Six Sigma†, USA Armor School Research Library (March 2006), available at: www.amc.army.mil/amc/pe/documents/sestrng/Kiemele.ppt/ (accessed 4 March 2008). Laureani, A., Antony, J., Douglas, A. (2010) â€Å"Lean six sigma in a call centre: a case study†, International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. 59 Iss: 8, pp.757 – 768 Senapati, N.R. (2004), â€Å"Six Sigma: myths and realities†, International Journal of Quality Reliability Management, Vol. 21 No. 6, pp. 683-90. Sheridan, J.H. (2000), â€Å"Lean Sigma’ synergy†, Industry Week, Vol. 249 No. 17, pp. 81-2. Smith, B. (2003), â€Å"Lean and Six Sigma – a one-two punch†, Quality Progress, Vol. 36 No. 4, pp. 37-41. Snee, R.D. (2004), â€Å"Six Sigma: the evolution of 100 years of business improvement methodology†, International Journal of Six Sigma and Competitive Advantage, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 4-20. Snee, R.D. (2010), â€Å"Lean Six Sigma – getting better all the time†, International Journal of Lean Six Sigma, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 9-29. Salah, S., Rahim, A., Carretero, J.A., (2010). â€Å"The integration of Six Sigma and lean management†. International Journal of Lean Six Sigma, 1(3), 249-274. Taylor, F. (1911), â€Å"The Principles of Scientific Management†, Norton, New York, NY. Welch, J. and Welch, S. (2005), â€Å"Winning†, Harper Business, New York, NY Wheat, B., Mills, C. and Carnell, M. (2003), â€Å"Leaning into Six Sigma: A Parable of the Journey to Six Sigma and a Lean Enterprise†, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY. How to cite Business improvement tools – Lean and Six Sigma methodologies, Essay examples

Nursing Interventions To Prevent Elderly Abuse †Free Samples

Question: What Are The Nursing Interventions To Prevent Elderly Abuse? Answer: Significance of the study In the year 2000, the adults aging 65 and above resulted in 12.5% of the population of U.S. and by 2050, it will increase upto 25% of the population. 2 million of older people are the victims of the abuse in various countries. It was estimated that for each and every elder abuse cases that are reported are not correct but some of the cases are too violent but they are never been reported (Malmedal et al. 2015). In fact, 84% of the cases of elderly abuse are not reported to any protective service or the police. There is an increase in the cases of the elderly abuse. This study is done to provide important information about the ways of screening the patients for elderly abuse, to help them whenever they need it and to provide the older people with relevant resources which will help the older people from being abused (Westermann et al. 2014). In this way, a superior comprehension of causes and aversion of senior mishandle ought to be a noteworthy global need. Besides the criminal penalties, failing to report about elder abuse may result in immediate action for the suffering of older people. In addition to this, the healthcare professionals who wont report about the cases of abuse risk it will lead to a strict action, possibly including loss of their professional license to practice. Elderly abuse is related with crushing individual results and societal costs, justifying consideration as a genuine general medical problem (Johnstone 2015). There are many peoples who are unwilling to report against the abuse if they dont get a proof. But if the reporting against the abuse is strictly maintained then it will become easier for the elder people and they will not be abused in the near future. Our essential goal was to deliberately separate and orchestrate noteworthy and appropriate proposals for segments of a multidisciplinary intersectoral healing centre based on the elderly abuse intervention (Rowe, Fulmer, and Fried 2016). Search strategy An online search was done using the Medline, CINAHL, Pubmed and Cochrane library. The search strategy included the following key terms on the basis of the research question: elderly; abuse; intervention; prevent; nursing. These search terms were then used together with the BOOLEAN operators, e.g., [elderly OR abuse OR intervention AND prevent OR nursing]. The limitation of the study was only English language is used, year of publications of the journals were taken from 2013 to 2017, is peer reviewed, and only focused on the elderly abuse. Summary of the evidence: Pillemer et al., in 2016 published an article named Elder Abuse: Global Situation, Risk Factors, and Prevention Strategies. The authors in this article said that the elderly abuse is now-a-days had perceived throughout the world as a vulnerable issue, which critically requires the consideration of medical services, welfare organizations and the population. Du Mont et al., in 2015 composed an article Development of a Comprehensive Hospital-Based Elder Abuse Intervention: An Initial Systematic Scoping Review. In this their goal was to deliberately separate the appropriate proposals for segments of a multidisciplinary healing centre based elderly abuse intervention. Johannesen and LoGiudice in 2013 written an article Elder abuse: a systematic review of risk factors in community-dwelling elders. In this they had done a survey of factors of risk for abuse in the elderly peoples, as an initial move towards investigating the utilization of the clinical structure. Critical review of the evidence Elder Abuse: Global Situation, Risk Factors, and Prevention Strategies Senior abuse is presently perceived globally as an inescapable and developing issue, critically requiring the consideration of medicinal services frameworks, social welfare organizations, policymakers, and the overall population. Reports from the World Health Organization, United Nations, and other universal bodies have unmistakably included senior manhandle and featured the scope of destructive exercises subsumed under this rubric all through the world(Pillemer et al. 2016). With a worldwide blast in the more seasoned grown-up populace, senior manhandle is required to wind up noticeably a significantly all the more squeezing issue, influencing a great many people around the world. Elderly abuse is related with crushing individual results and societal costs, justifying consideration as a genuine general medical problem. In this article, we give an outline of worldwide issues in the field of senior mishandle, with an emphasis on counteractive action. This article gives a checking audi t of key issues in the field from a worldwide point of view (Baker et al. 2016). By drawing basically on populace based examinations, this checking audit gave a more legitimate and dependable blend of current information about predominance and hazard factors than has been accessible. This accentuation is suitable in light of the fact that senior manhandle is likely the most broad issue of more seasoned individuals that is to a great extent preventable (not at all like numerous infection states of maturity). In this way, a superior comprehension of causes and aversion of senior mishandle ought to be a noteworthy global need. Luckily, an enhancing worldwide logical writing has gone with this developing concern, incorporating pervasiveness examines in various nations and universal relative ventures (Pillemer et al. 2016). In spite of the absence of logically thorough intercession investigate on senior manhandle, the audit likewise recognized 5 promising methodologies for counteractive action. The discoveries feature a developing agreement crosswise over examinations with respect to the degree and reasons for senior abuse, and additionally the earnest requirement for endeavours to make senior abuse counteractive action programs more compelling and confirmation based. Development of a Comprehensive Hospital-Based Elder Abuse Intervention: An Initial Systematic Scoping Review Elderly abuse, a general human rights issue, is related with many negative outcomes. In many locales, be that as it may, there are no thorough healing centre based intercessions for senior manhandle that address the totality of requirements of mishandled more established grown-ups: mental, physical, legitimate, and social. As the initial move towards the advancement of such mediation, we attempted an orderly perusing audit. Our essential goal was to deliberately separate and orchestrate noteworthy and appropriate proposals for segments of a multidisciplinary intersectoral healing centre based senior manhandle mediation. An optional target was to compress the attributes of the reactions looked into, including techniques for advancement and approval (Du Mont et al. 2015). The dark and insightful literary works were deliberately looked, with two autonomous commentators directing the title, dynamic and full content screening. The extricated suggestions for mind were examined, coded, sort ed into subjects, and further evaluated for importance to a thorough doctor's facility based reaction. Qualities of the reactions were outlined utilizing enlightening insights. 649 suggestions were extricated from 68 particular senior manhandle reactions, 149 of which were regarded pertinent and were classified into 5 topics: Initial contact; Capacity and assent; Interview with more established grown-up, parental figure, insurance contacts, or potentially speculated abuser; Assessment: physical/legal, mental, psychosocial, and ecological/useful; and mind design. Just 6 reactions had been assessed, proposing a huge hole amongst advancement and execution of suggestions (Du Mont et al. 2015). To address the absence of confirmation to help the suggestions extricated in this audit, in a future report, a gathering of specialists will formally assess every proposal for its consideration in a far reaching clinic based reaction. Elder abuse: a systematic review of risk factors in community-dwelling elders Progressively, senior mishandle is rising as a need territory for governments and wellbeing specialist co-ops. Notwithstanding an assortment of definitions, two key ideas are that senior manhandle includes a demonstration or exclusion which brings about damage to the more established individual, and this happens inside a relationship of trust. General commonness examines show that 6% of more established people in the group are probably going to have encountered huge mishandle in the most recent month. Commonly, be that as it may, these examinations deliver generally dissimilar assessments, affected by the definition, methodological issues and culture. Hypothetical clarifications draw on the family brutality writing and underscore parental figure worry with regards to reliance, abuser psychopathology, between generational transmission of viciousness, outer anxiety and social confinement. Objective: to embrace an orderly writing survey of hazard factors for mishandle in group abiding s enior citizens, as an initial move towards investigating the clinical utility of a hazard factor structure (Dong, Chen and Simon 2014). The search was attempted utilizing the MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE and PsycINFO databases for articles written in English, from 2013-2017, to distinguish unique examinations with factually huge hazard factors for mishandle in group staying senior citizens. Studies concerning self-disregard and people matured under 55 were barred. The outcomes were acquired that 49 investigations met the incorporation criteria, with 13 components that were reproducible over a scope of settings in superb examinations. These concerned the senior individual, culprit, relationship and condition (Rosen 2014). It was inferred that present confirmation bolsters the multifactorial aetiology of senior mishandle including hazard factors inside the senior individual, culprit, relationship and condition. Elder abuse: an approach to identification, assessment and intervention Senior mishandle is progressively perceived as an essential issue related with altogether expanded rates of doctor's facility confirmation,nursing home situation and mortality. Assessments of pervasiveness fluctuate generally, yet late investigations, including a 2008 efficient survey, have proposed that 5% 10% of more seasoned grown-ups report encountering misuse. In December 2012, the Canadian Parliament passed Bill C-36, the Protecting Canada's Seniors Act, which plans to secure more seasoned grown-ups through changes to the Criminal Code (Glendennina and Kingston 2014). This bill makes senior manhandle a disturbing element for condemning purposes, with the end goal that criminal demonstrations of senior mishandle may be liable to maximal condemning. There is, nonetheless, a generous error between commonness evaluations of senior manhandle and the quantity of cases answered to police. In 2009, for instance, Canadian police detailed 7871 instances of fierce wrongdoing against indiv iduals 65 years old or more seasoned (with respect to an aggregate populace of more than 4 million in that age gathering). Equity Canada analysts have discovered that charges were laid in just 17% of instances of asserted senior misuse took care of by Ottawa police in the vicinity of 2005 and 2010. These information propose that many instances of senior mishandle don't achieve the criminal equity framework and that doctors might be among the primary who can mediate (Fortinash and Worret 2014). They sought MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL and PsycINFO from the soonest date accessible. Confirmation with respect to the hazard factors for, evaluation of and mediations to address senior manhandle is constrained. Despite the fact that multidisciplinary groups have existed for quite a few years, just a single report has exhibited a quantifiable impact of such groups, and it was constrained to budgetary misuse (Dong 2015). The best intercession technique right now gives off an impression of being in struction focused at expanding familiarity with senior manhandle among human services experts, undifferentiated from the consolidation of youngster mishandle preparing into the therapeutic school educational modules. Conclusion Thus from this study it can be concluded that in addition to the health care professionals, the social workers are also responsible for the detection of signs of the elderly abuse and to provide the interventions and care services (Ayalon et al. 2016). During this study, the use of data from a journals about the elderly people it has been tried to discuss the types of the elderly abuse, identification of the risk factors for various types of elderly abuse, and recommended the prevention strategies. Particularly, it had been compared that the elder those who are self neglecting the elders and the persons who are abused or been neglected by the others(Yan, Chan and Tiwari 2015). It was further been compared that the risk factors for both the physical and emotional abuse are associated with the risk factors mainly for the financial exploitation only. There are some risk factors that are analyzed includes the age, gender, health conditions status of the mental health, support of the soci ety or the family and drugs or abuse of alcohol. References Ayalon, L., Lev, S., Green, O. and Nevo, U., 2016. A systematic review and meta-analysis of interventions designed to prevent or stop elder maltreatment.Age and ageing,45(2), pp.216-227. Baker, P.R., Francis, D.P., Hairi, N.N., Othman, S. and Choo, W.Y., 2016. Interventions for preventing abuse in the elderly.The Cochrane Library. Dong, X., Chen, R. and Simon, M.A., 2014. Elder abuse and dementia: a review of the research and health policy.Health Affairs,33(4), pp.642-649. Dong, X.Q., 2015. Elder abuse: systematic review and implications for practice.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society,63(6), pp.1214-1238. Du Mont, J., Macdonald, S., Kosa, D., Elliot, S., Spencer, C. and Yaffe, M., 2015. Development of a comprehensive hospital-based elder abuse intervention: an initial systematic scoping review.PloS one,10(5), p.e0125105. Fortinash, K.M. and Worret, P.A.H., 2014.Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences. Glendennina, F. and Kingston, P., 2014.Elder Abuse and Neglect in Residential Settings: different national backgrounds and similar responses. Routledge. Johannesen, M. and LoGiudice, D., 2013. Elder abuse: a systematic review of risk factors in community-dwelling elders.Age and ageing,42(3), pp.292-298. Johnstone, M.J., 2015.Bioethics: a nursing perspective. Elsevier Health Sciences. Malmedal, W., Iversen, M.H. and Kilvik, A., 2015. Sexual abuse of older nursing home residents: A literature review.Nursing research and practice,2015. Pillemer, K., Burnes, D., Riffin, C. and Lachs, M.S., 2016. Elder abuse: global situation, risk factors, and prevention strategies.The Gerontologist,56(Suppl_2), pp.S194-S205. Rosen, A., 2014. Where mental health and elder abuse intersect.Generations,38(3), pp.75-79. Rowe, J.W., Fulmer, T. and Fried, L., 2016. Preparing for better health and health care for an aging population.Jama,316(16), pp.1643-1644. Wang, X.M., Brisbin, S., Loo, T. and Straus, S., 2015. Elder abuse: an approach to identification, assessment and intervention.Canadian Medical Association Journal,187(8), pp.575-581. Westermann, C., Kozak, A., Harling, M. and Nienhaus, A., 2014. Burnout intervention studies for inpatient elderly care nursing staff: Systematic literature review.International journal of nursing studies,51(1), pp.63-71. Yan, E., Chan, K.L. and Tiwari, A., 2015. A systematic review of prevalence and risk factors for elder abuse in Asia.Trauma, Violence, Abuse,16(2), pp.199-219.

Women Exploitation in Advertising

Free Essays on Employer Employee Relations

Employer-Employee Relations The employer employee relationship is one of the most common relationships in the legal system. There are many different important parts to this relationship, including how the relationship is started, laws protecting employees and employers, discrimination, and also how a relationship can be terminated. There are many different factors that play a role in the way employees and employers interact with each other, and in the next few chapters i will go into detail a little more and try to explain how this all takes place under our current legal system. A relationship between an employer and employee exists when one person, the employee, is hired to work under the direction and control of another person, the employer. The relationship usually starts with the employee filling out an application for employment. This is so the employer can get basic information such as, work history, education, name, address, activities, salary expected, and also personal references that can give the employer a little more background about you. In 1964 the Civil Rights Act was made which prohibits employers from discriminating against you because of sex, race, religion, or nationality. So questions involving those things are not allowed to be asked by the employer, whether it is in the application or verbally. The relationship is created by contract. It can either be in writing or oral, unless the contract is to last more then a year it has to be in writing to satisfy a state's statute of frauds. The contract can have any lawful terms that the e mployee or employer wish to include, such as time, pay, benefits, and also a description of the position which the employee will be assuming. Employers and employees alike have certain rights and can expect certain things from each other when a relationship is stared. Employers have the right to expect employees to have the skills that they state they have, They have the r... Free Essays on Employer Employee Relations Free Essays on Employer Employee Relations Employer-Employee Relations The employer employee relationship is one of the most common relationships in the legal system. There are many different important parts to this relationship, including how the relationship is started, laws protecting employees and employers, discrimination, and also how a relationship can be terminated. There are many different factors that play a role in the way employees and employers interact with each other, and in the next few chapters i will go into detail a little more and try to explain how this all takes place under our current legal system. A relationship between an employer and employee exists when one person, the employee, is hired to work under the direction and control of another person, the employer. The relationship usually starts with the employee filling out an application for employment. This is so the employer can get basic information such as, work history, education, name, address, activities, salary expected, and also personal references that can give the employer a little more background about you. In 1964 the Civil Rights Act was made which prohibits employers from discriminating against you because of sex, race, religion, or nationality. So questions involving those things are not allowed to be asked by the employer, whether it is in the application or verbally. The relationship is created by contract. It can either be in writing or oral, unless the contract is to last more then a year it has to be in writing to satisfy a state's statute of frauds. The contract can have any lawful terms that the e mployee or employer wish to include, such as time, pay, benefits, and also a description of the position which the employee will be assuming. Employers and employees alike have certain rights and can expect certain things from each other when a relationship is stared. Employers have the right to expect employees to have the skills that they state they have, They have the r...

Informative Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Informative - Research Paper Example (Darby 50). The amendment came as part of the bill of rights of 1791. There amendment relates to the provision of the bill of rights of English of 1689. The amendment got its inspiration from the Titus Oates of England case. This was after King Henry II took up power in 1685, where Titus was under trial for cases involving the execution of people who were under accusation by Oates. Titus was under a prison sentence, including ordeals involving pillory and whipping while pulling a cart as part of the punishment. There was taking up of the case by the United State Supreme Court jurisprudence on the eighth amendment. Oates punishment was inclusive of penalties that were random and excessive; they were also manner that does not follow the law of precedence. There was a death sentence evasion for Titus because if dead, honest witnesses would not testify against the accusations. Before the eighth amendment took effect in the USA, England had given a declaration that was against cruel and p unishment that were unusual and had gotten approval by the parliament in 1689 and had taken effect as a law the same year. The judges were to adhere to the rule, for the bill of right had an illustration that excessive fines were not to be given to individuals, unusual and cruel punishment were also under abolishment as seen in the case of Furman v. ... Until its implementation, people of Virginia including Patrick Henry and George Mason made their efforts in ensuring that the restriction was under application by the congress. There is a warning that if the implementation is not underway, the congress would give severe and unusual punishment to the people. The Virginians said that the congress should adopt practices of civil laws rather than using common law. At the time, common law was in use, in France, Germany and Spain, through the consistent pressure by the two Virginians the congress was in agreement that adoption of the provision was necessary. The final solution was the changing of ought to shall by James Madison in 1789 (William 67). In accordance to the Supreme Court, The eighth amendment does not allow entire punishment as well as punishment that over boards the crime and considers the perpetrators competence. Regarding the Robinson court opinion, Justice Peter Stewarts held that cruel inflictions and unusual punishment w ould be a violation of the eighth amendment. The Supreme Court has been implementing the law by indicating that a punishment must not be severe enough to degrade the dignity of human beings. It states that a punishment is unusual and cruel if the punishment is unacceptable by; the whole society and its infliction are wholly a fashion of arbitration. Punishment is cruel and unusual if the punishment is not in accordance to patent. There is implementation through the case of Wilkerson v. Utah, where there was public desertion and burning alive of Wilkerson taken by Justice Brennan, where he said that, no state would allow a law that violates any

The Holocaust History Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Holocaust History - Research Paper Example Holocaust is the term that comes under exercise for several million people incorporating Jews, Gypsies and several others who have come under the systematic, bureaucratic, and state-sponsored persecution or brutal act that is murder or assassination by the Nazis government along with its associates or crime partners for the duration of World War II (Social Studies School Service  & Dyke, 2005). The teachings and learning of racism and racist values have come under practice since generations, thus, resulted in the extensive abhorrence or enmity towards the Jews, which then emerged into the Holocaust. In other words, it was simply a created misapprehension or confusion and not accepting the different due to the lack of awareness that may even initiate from one racist as well. The Holocaust has come under derivation from the Greek language origin that means, â€Å"Sacrifice by fire†. The era of Holocaust began when Hitler came into governance and his period of dictatorship star ted and ended with the defeat of Nazis that calculates to slightly more than ten years (Social Studies School Service  & Dyke, 2005). ... uch as Roma or Gypsies, the disabled people, few people of Slavic community Poles, Russians, homosexuals and many more also came under their assassination due to their alleged racial inferiority. Political, ideological, and behavioral factors were the widespread reasons of justification for their persecution (Social Studies School Service  & Dyke, 2005). The Final Solution was one of the Nazis policies that killed much more than five million European Jews that included men, women and children as they resided in the countries that Nazi took over or conquered during the World War II. These Jews came under the consideration as the principal target of Nazis racism, although they came under vicious killing with a perception of being threat and risk to Germany. Other people that embrace Gypsies and disabled patients came under assassination according to their Euthanasia program (Social Studies School Service  & Dyke, 2005). The hunger of Nazis and his collaborators did not go away as t hey continued their inhuman acts of killing while the dictatorship of Nazis extended across Europe. They murdered and persecuted few millions of Soviet prisoners of war. Moreover, several thousand Polish people came under deportation to Germany, where they came under compelling to live under dreadful conditions like a forced labor. Homosexuals were also the victims of Nazis government who came under maltreatment if their behaviors were not according to the social norms. Political rivals and religious protesters were also in their list of victims who came under either imprisonment or persecution (Social Studies School Service  & Dyke, 2005). The Holocaust left an indelible imprint on to the entire populace of the world, which still when comes under remembrance, people comes under shock and

How does the shareholder model of corporate governance impact in the Essay

How does the shareholder model of corporate governance impact in the management of labour - Essay Example According to Peterson (2005), transparency, from the shareholder perspective, allows for an opportunity to judge performance of a corporation (p. 59). Because there are measurable differences between the goals of managers and shareholders, corporate governance structures are put into place to ensure that appropriate needs are met. Because the shareholder model of corporate governance is restricted towards the goals of only the investors, most businesses will eventually evolve into a stakeholder form of governance. In this model, all parties that have an interest in the business are taken into consideration. This would identify investors, managers, suppliers, customers, employees, the government and the community all as partners within the goals of the corporation. This type of structure acknowledges that the function of a corporation extends beyond the boundaries of the interests of the investors. Without this acknowledgement and governance that takes the needs of all parties into consideration, a company will not always have the mechanisms in place to sufficiently satisfy the needs of all the interested parties, thus ultimately impacting the needs of the investors. The shareholder model of corporate governance, therefore, impacts the way in which labour is managed because it does not have the interests of employees as stakeholders as part of the structure. According to Hoffman (2007), the shareholder model is a predominate corporate structure in both the U.S. and U.K., where the stakeholder model is more predominant in the rest of Europe and Japan (p. 29). Companies that are designed with the shareholder model of corporate governance are more oriented towards short-term goals. Achieving short term goals and increasing immediate profits dominate the structure of the businesses. Short term oriented decisions and market strategies that involve higher yields in a shorter time frame are more prevalent than long term

Microorganisms in Waste Water Treatment Process

Microorganisms in Waste Water Treatment Process When people think of microorganisms, they tend to think of unsafe pathogens. While this may be of concern there are beneficial microorganisms living ubiquitously around us as well. Microorganisms that live in air, soil, and groundwater live in a symbiotic cycle, consuming harmful chemicals and masses of organic materials. Therefore, it is only natural that scientists would harness the natural biodegradation of these in the field of Wastewater Management. Biotechnologists prefer to call this process bioremediation. They have been using bioremediation on wastewater for many years and have discovered a plethora of usable microorganisms. Due to the vast amounts of microorganisms capable of bioremediation, this paper is focusing on bacterium capable of breaking down organic material useful in treating wastewater. Wastewater treatment is performed on a variety of waste sources such as agricultural, residential, and industrial waste. Many bacteria such as Nitrsomonas, nitrobacter and paracoccus are important players in the treatment of industrial and sewage waste. The use of microbes in wastewater treatment plants is an integral piece of the wastewater treatment process due to the fact that microbial population in a facility can become depleted resulting in system back-ups, organic material build-up and overall reduction in system efficiency. It is at this point when supplementation of a microbial product becomes necessary. There are three stages of wastewater treatment: primary, secondary, and tertiary where microorganisms can be added or encouraged to grow in wastewater . The first two stages are concerned with large debris and organic matter removal by the use of a variety of filtration and sedimentation processes. Microbial organisms are stimulated in the second and third stages and the goa l is to degrade excessive amounts of contaminants such as nitrogen, phosphates, oils, chemicals and heavy metals by the third stage. One common practice used in residential wastewater in the second stage, is using activated sludge techniques, which aerates the waste to stimulate denitrifying and nitrifying microorganisms to biodegrade the waste. Most large sewage treatment plants use a two-phase digestion system in which organics are metabolized by  bacteria,  anaerobically. In the first stage, the sludge is heated and mixed in a closed tank for about 15 days, while digestion takes place. The sludge then flows into a second tank, which serves primarily for storage and settling. Sludge digestion is a biological process in which organic solids are decomposed into stable substances. Nitrifying and denitrifying organisms, both aerobic and anaerobic are added to convert about half of the organic sludge solids to liquids and gases (Siezen Galardini, 2008). Nitrosomonas europae was isolated in 1892 by Russian microbiologist Sergio Winogradsky. It has been a useful bacterium in wastewater treatment, usually added in the secondary treatment process due to its ability to breakdown organic material. If given an aerobic environment, ammonia is oxidized first to nitrite by ammonia-oxidizing bacteria, then nitrite is oxidized to nitrate by nitrite-oxidizing bacteria which makes N. europaea primarily important in the nitrification cycle (Arp and Bottomley, 2006). Nitrosomonas. europaea  is a bacillus shaped, gram-negative obligate chemolithoautotroph; which is an autotroph that gets its energy from oxidation of inorganic substances in the absence of light. It is a mobile bacteria with flagella located in its polar region. It commonly inhabits places rich in ammonia and inorganic salt, such as in soils, freshwaters, stone monuments, and sewage. It obtains most of its energy from its ammonia-oxidizing capabilites, an unusual process for most ba cteria.  Cell division may take several days due to its need for large amounts of ammonia consuming about 25 moles of ammonia per mole of carbon dioxide assimilated into cellular biomass (Arp and Bottomley, 2006).   Due to its long delay in cell division, scientists tend to avoid studying Nitrosomona. N. eurpoaea gains carbon from the atmosphere by converting carbon in a gaseous form into carbon bound up in organic molecules. Its genome consists of a single circular chromosome with 2,812,094 bases. Its gene structure denotes that it must take in Fe and suggests it can take in other metals such as Cu, Cd, Zn, and Co as well (Chain, Lamerdin, Larimer, Ragala, Lao, 2003). N. europea functions best at a basic ph but can tolerate a ph between 6.0-9.0 and it prefers temperatures between 20-30 degrees Celsius. Nitrobacter hamburgensis got its name because it was isolated in soil of the Old Botanic Garden in Hamburg. It is a gram-negative bacteria that lives mainly in soil, building sandstone, and sewage sludge. It is pear-shaped and has one sub-polar flagellum. There is one circular DNA chromosome and three circular DNA plasmids with 4,406,967 base pairs on the chromosome. (Kaipa, et al, 2010). N. hamburgensis  gains energy from oxidation of nitrite to nitrate and has the ability of metabolizing nitrogen in nitrite from its environment. It is found mainly in soil and freshwater. (Arp Bottomley, 2006). The bacteria has provided a solution to removing high levels of nitrogen from municipal effluents of wastewater treatment plants. Biofilms with different nitrifying bacteria including  N. hamburgensis  have been constructed. Before the invention of these biofilms very large and expensive reactors were used for this purpose. Paracoccus denitrificans, an organism that removes high levels of nitrogen in wastewater when paired with Nitrosomonas europaea, a nitrifying organism which reduces ammonia to nitrate. P. denitrifican  is a spherical coccus shaped gram-negative bacteria having a double membrane cell wall. It inhabit soils in either aerobic or anaerobic environments. First isolated in 1910 by Martinus Beijerinck, a Dutch microbiologist gave the organism the name  Micrococcus denitrificans, only later to be changed by Diana.H. Davis in 1969 to the current name Paracoccus denitrificans after the discovery that the bacteria contained many features known to be in mitochondria, possibly an ancestor to the eukaryotic mitochondria. (Davis, et al, 1969). The genome of  P. denitrificans  consists of two circular chromosomes and one plasmid. The first chromosome has 2,852,282 base pairs and the second chromosome has 1,730,097 base pairs. The plasmid has 653,815 base pairs (Swiss Inst., 2007). Many of th e proteins transcribed and translated from the plasmid is what gives  P. denitrificans  its unique features of the ability to metabolize ammonium to nitrogen gas. Due to P. denitrificans  ability to produce more than 5000 proteins it is useful in biotechnological applications (Uemoto Saiki, 2007). Another process commonly used in wastewater treatment is the use of biofilms, various trickling rock filters that encourage biofilms. (Sillankorva, Neubauer, Azeredo, 2008) These biofilms build microorganism communites enclosed in a matrix of extracellular polymeric substances separated by water channels. Within these colonies are a variety of bacteria, fungi and algae which biodegrade waste. Psuedomonas fluorescens, P. syringae and P. putida are a few of the bacterias found in biofilms. As well as fungus like Mycelium and algaes. The biofilm community is an optimal environment for cell-cell interactions, including the cellular exchange of genetic material, and nutrient exchange within the community. The matrix protects the microorganisms from UV exposure, metal toxicity, acid exposure, dehydration and salinity, phagocytosis, antibiotics, and antimicrobial agents (Hall-Stoodley, et al 2004). Pseudomonas fluorescens makes a great contribution to the turnover of organic matter and while present in soil, is abundant on the surfaces of plant roots and leaves. P. fluorescens grows at an optimum temperature of 25 ° Celsius but can also survive in temperatures as low as 0 ° degrees Celsius make it a rare pathogenic in humans. The bacterias degrading ability has been applied to pollutants such as styrene, TNT and, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (Sillankorva, Neubauer, Azeredo, 2008). Notable is P. putida possessing a high biodegrading metabolism. It can breakdown styrene which is a highly polluting synthetic chemical, used to make plastics (Park, et al, 2005)). Pseudomonas putida is a gram-negative shaped bacteria, similar to  Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an known pathogen to humans, however it is missing key gene segments that P. aeruginosa possess making it nonpathogenic. The biochemistry of P. putida makes it an aerobic, gram negative, flourescent colored, rod-shaped bacteria. It a motile organism with one or more polar flagella. They are usually found in moist soil and water environments and grow optimally at room temperature. Certain strains have the ability to grow on and break down many dangerous pollutants and aromatic  hydrocarbons  such as toluene,  benzene, and ethylbenzene.  P. putida  can also be used in petroleum plants to purify fuel. P. putida  is also closely related to  Pseudomonas syringae, an abundant plant pathogen, but again it la cks the gene that causes such disease (DOE, 1998). The first isolation of Psuedomonas syringae occurred in 1902 by van Hall from a diseased lilac. Psuedomonas syringae are aerobic rod-shaped gram negative bacteria that are motile with the use of several polar flagella. Psuedomonas syringae secretes a plant toxin making it a known plant pathogen. Therefore, it is easy to see its use in the biodegradation of organic waste. Each strain of this bacteria has a specific plant it targets and is often found on plant leaves. Any interesting quality is its ability to form ice crystals, P. syringae  is responsible for causing frost injury to frost-sensitive plants. (Feil, et al, 2005) This discovery led to its production of artificial snow.

Loyalty to Family in Barn Burning by William Faulkner Essay example --

Loyalty to Family in Barn Burning by William Faulkner The short story "Barn Burning" by William Faulkner is a stark look at the struggle of a boy to try to do what is right, or do what is best for his family during the post Civil War era. The main character, Sartoris Snopes is a poor son of a migrant tenant farmer who, in the opening scene is being questioned about the burning of a farmers barn by his father, Abner Snopes. The boy is torn between choosing what is right, telling the truth, or lying to protect his father. The boy is not forced to tell to judge about his father burning the barn, but is certain he would have told if asked. The father is a soldier from the Civil War and has a knack for burning down the barns of those who cross his path. Faulkner uses the symbol of blood to illustrate the theme of loyalty to the family.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Faulkner illustrates the theme of blood when he is to testify, and is pressured by his father to lie. In the makeshift courtroom, when the boy is put on the stand he is pressured because he knows that his father will do something rash if his son tells the truth. He also is told that some things are more important than the truth, that family is the most important thing. When Abner states, "You would have told them." This shows how the boy feels toward his blood father, and how even though it would have been a lie he should have testified in his fathers favor. This scene also reveals how the father feels about family. The father belie...

No life in outer space

For centuries, man has always wondered if he is alone in the entire universe, questions like who built the pyramids in Egypt or the Stonehenge in England have always been in a question in the minds. The term extra terrestrial has always fascinated us, and there have been many movies and book made and written simultaneously, and there have been claims of people who saw U.F.O (Unidentified Flying Object), and strange sized people, but till date no government in the entire world has not approved to these claims, and moreover most of them have been always declared as hoaxes or a misunderstanding with the high powered stealth planes.But the fact of the matter is that whatever technology and scientific research we have, it shows that is impossible to have a life existence apart from Earth for various scientific reasons, as whole scenario of existence of aliens and life in outer space is just based on hoaxes, stories and assumptions.The whole theory of existence of an alien life form exist on the cynical question, that if humans and other living creatures were born in this planet, then it is also possible for other life organism to take origin on other planets. The whole episode of existence was well supported, which led to the formation of the famous SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence), but this organization which has a basis on scientific evidences on the basis of radio and optic frequencies have failed for more than four decades to establish even a single contact, or even to prove the slightest amount proof of living organism existing on other planets.Even after their failure in detecting any life forms, the staff of SETI is still hopeful; this can be evident from the following:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"If we are alone, then that’s extraordinarily remarkable in such a vast universe. Personally I don’t think we’re that special†(Courtesy: Prof Seth Shostak, SETI institute)On the basis of the amount of technology we have, if we have to assess the planets in our own galaxy, existence of life seems to be a very distance vision, as scientifically it cannot be proved that our solar system has any existence of an alien life form. If we take the instance of Mercury, being so close to the sun, it is impossible to have any possibility of having life, because of the intense heat. Moon which is supposed to be our satellite has no atmosphere, thus it is again impossible for life to exist without atmosphere.The gassy planets in our solar system, provides inhabitable conditions, as there is no solid land for life to exist, critics have removed theories of possibility of life existence in Jupiter’s moon, but still no evidence has been proven. Pluto is very far away from the sun, making it a very cold planet, thus eliminating the chances of existence of life in it. Mars is the only planet that can be considered, because of a percentage of its nature like earth, but Mars has a very harsh atmosphere compared to earth, and it doesn ’t have Ozone, theories are implicated about life in mars, but the â€Å"Viking† which was send 26 years ago and the â€Å"rover†, which was send now hasn’t given any substantial proof to it.In fact SETI itself admits that the sightings done on earth were hoaxes or illusions which is confirmed by the followingâ€Å"Most of the sightings can be explained as natural phenomena or aircraft or balloons or other mundane stuff. I still haven't seen any evidence that any of these sightings involve alien spacecraft†.(Courtesy: Prof Seth Shostak, SETI institute)The truth is since we have can only base the theories of existence of life on other planets, is by look at our habitable conditions, and if we look for planets for conditions like ours, then it is next to impossible, to find the same amount of habitable conditions, as earth’s life was created by a no. of permuted combinations, which is further substantiated by the following:â€Å"Intelligent l ife on earth – product of series of extremely fortunate accidents†(Courtesy: â€Å"Life in the universe, are we alone†, Retrieved on February 10th 2008 by site http://physics.uoregon.edu/~jimbrau/astr121/Notes/Chapter28.html#solsys)If theories still have to be raised then it would be of life existing beyond our solar system, but our technology hasn’t reached so far that we can actually scan the entire universe for life and with the amount of high technology we seem to have, it seems till date, life on other planet is not possible, as all the planets that have come under the scrutiny of possible existence of life do not match earth’s habitable condition, and thus are discarded from any possibility.Aliens and extra terrestrial’s life forms have always and will continue to be a subject of awe and belief for many, and when it comes to science, it only asks for proofs and subjective evidence to accept any theory that would bring light to any evide nce of life in outer space.Reference:1)         http://physics.uoregon.edu/~jimbrau/astr121/Notes/Chapter28.html#solsys2)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Nicholas backman,†Life in outer space?†, http://www.virtualsciencefair.org/2007/back7n2/Report.pdf.3)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   SETI: Search For Extra-Terrestial Intelligence, http://www.faqs.org/docs/air/taseti.html4)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   www.astobiology.arc.nasa.gov/roadmap/g1.html No life in outer space For centuries, man has always wondered if he is alone in the entire universe, questions like who built the pyramids in Egypt or the Stonehenge in England have always been in a question in the minds. The term extra terrestrial has always fascinated us, and there have been many movies and book made and written simultaneously, and there have been claims of people who saw U.F.O (Unidentified Flying Object), and strange sized people, but till date no government in the entire world has not approved to these claims, and moreover most of them have been always declared as hoaxes or a misunderstanding with the high powered stealth planes. But the fact of the matter is that whatever technology and scientific research we have, it shows that is impossible to have a life existence apart from Earth for various scientific reasons, as whole scenario of existence of aliens and life in outer space is just based on hoaxes, stories and assumptions.The whole theory of existence of an alien life form exist on the cynical question, that if humans and other living creatures were born in this planet, then it is also possible for other life organism to take origin on other planets. The whole episode of existence was well supported, which led to the formation of the famous SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence), but this organization which has a basis on scientific evidences on the basis of radio and optic frequencies have failed for more than four decades to establish even a single contact, or even to prove the slightest amount proof of living organism existing on other planets.Even after their failure in detecting any life forms, the staff of SETI is still hopeful; this can be evident from the following:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"If we are alone, then that’s extraordinarily remarkable in such a vast universe. Personally I don’t think we’re that special†Ã‚  (Courtesy: Prof Seth Shostak, SETI institute)On the basis of the amount of technology we have, if we have to as sess the planets in our own galaxy, existence of life seems to be a very distance vision, as scientifically it cannot be proved that our solar system has any existence of an alien life form. If we take the instance of Mercury, being so close to the sun, it is impossible to have any possibility of having life, because of the intense heat. Moon which is supposed to be our satellite has no atmosphere, thus it is again impossible for life to exist without atmosphere. The gassy planets in our solar system, provides inhabitable conditions, as there is no solid land for life to exist, critics have removed theories of possibility of life existence in Jupiter’s moon, but still no evidence has been proven. Pluto is very far away from the sun, making it a very cold planet, thus eliminating the chances of existence of life in it. Mars is the only planet that can be considered, because of a percentage of its nature like earth, but Mars has a very harsh atmosphere compared to earth, and it doesn’t have Ozone, theories are implicated about life in mars, but the â€Å"Viking† which was send 26 years ago and the â€Å"rover†, which was send now hasn’t given any substantial proof to it.In fact SETI itself admits that the sightings done on earth were hoaxes or illusions which is confirmed by the followingâ€Å"Most of the sightings can be explained as natural phenomena or aircraft or balloons or other mundane stuff. I still haven't seen any evidence that any of these sightings involve alien spacecraft†.(Courtesy: Prof Seth Shostak, SETI institute)The truth is since we have can only base the theories of existence of life on other planets, is by look at our habitable conditions, and if we look for planets for conditions like ours, then it is next to impossible, to find the same amount of habitable conditions, as earth’s life was created by a no. of permuted combinations, which is further substantiated by the following:â€Å"Intelli gent life on earth – product of series of extremely fortunate accidents†(Courtesy: â€Å"Life in the universe, are we alone†, Retrieved on February 10th 2008 by site http://physics.uoregon.edu/~jimbrau/astr121/Notes/Chapter28.html#solsys)If theories still have to be raised then it would be of life existing beyond our solar system, but our technology hasn’t reached so far that we can actually scan the entire universe for life and with the amount of high technology we seem to have, it seems till date, life on other planet is not possible, as all the planets that have come under the scrutiny of possible existence of life do not match earth’s habitable condition, and thus are discarded from any possibility.Aliens and extra terrestrial’s life forms have always and will continue to be a subject of awe and belief for many, and when it comes to science, it only asks for proofs and subjective evidence to accept any theory that would bring light to any evidence of life in outer space.Reference:1)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/life/looking/index.shtml2)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://physics.uoregon.edu/~jimbrau/astr121/Notes/Chapter28.html#solsys3)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Nicholas backman,†Life in outer space?†, http://www.virtualsciencefair.org/2007/back7n2/Report.pdf.4)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   SETI: Search For Extra-Terrestial Intelligence, http://www.faqs.org/docs/air/taseti.html5)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   www.astobiology.arc.nasa.gov/roadmap/g1.html

grapes of wrath essays

grapes of wrath essays In literature as in life, people often find that they must make difficult choices in order to survive. The reasons behind their decisions and the results of their subsequent actions affect our opinion of them. In the Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, the author portrayed situations where two main characters became involved. The nature of their choices, the reasons behind their decisions, and the results that followed affected them greatly. However, the choices that they made were surmounted successfully. Ma Joad and Tom Joad are two strong characters who overcame laborious predicaments. Their powerful characteristics helped to encourage those that were struggling. In fact, one principal character who was involved in a difficult situation was Ma Joad. She was a wife and mother whose only occupation in life was a housewife. She lived in an unfair time period; women were forced to do almost everything that the man commanded. However, Ma Joad was different. Ever since the family traveled to California, she slowly began to take charge. This was first seen when Tom, Mas son, suggested that the family continue driving while he and Casy, the preacher, stayed behind to fix the Wilsons (a family the Joads met on their way to California) automobile. Ma Joad was furious with this idea. She brought out a jack handle and said, You done this thout thinkin much. What we got lef in the world? Nothin but us. Nothin but the folks...An now, right off, you wanna bust up the folks (Steinbeck 218). Ma Joad was the power. She had taken control (Steinbeck 218). She did not want the family to separate at such a crucial time. They needed to stick together no matter what the consequences were. Another example of her leadership was w...

Shermans March to the Sea as an example of modern warfare essays

Shermans March to the Sea as an example of modern warfare essays General William T. Shermans March to the Sea was the first example of modern warfare. Both the destruction that Sherman instigated and his reasoning for doing it were seen before the Civil War. The tactics that Sherman used in his March to the Sea have been used in more recent wars as well as his ideas, truly making his March the beginning of modern warfare. In past wars throughout the world, armies would throw themselves at each other, leaving the families at home to support them. Napoleon brought about the idea of total destruction of the enemys army, which in turn would result in great losses of their own army. Even General Grant believed in this total destruction of the army. Grant was notorious for sending men into die, just to destroy the other army because, although he rejected the Napoleonic glorification of the battle, he accepted a Napoleonic strategy of annihilation. (The American Way of War, Weigley, 141) Grants attacks against the north were different in that he was not afraid to lose hundreds of men simply to beat the enemy because he saw that the Union greatly outnumbered the Confederacy army. Because the Confederacy army was so greatly outnumbered, General Grant simply had to throw his men at the other army with victory almost inevitable. Also in past wars, the idea of total annihilation, as used by General Sherma n, was not a totally new idea. In Europe the other countries depended on one another for certain supplies that were not avaliable in their own country so it would have made no logical sense to destroy the land of the enemy because it would essentially ruin their own economy as well. (Weigley, 149) Therefore, the old ways of fighting at the armies of the enemy was not enough to end wars quickly and effectively, and thats where General Sherman came in. During Shermans March to the Sea, Sherman had with him 62,000 men (A Short History of Warf...

Technology and the Future of the Hotel Industry Research Paper

Technology and the Future of the Hotel Industry - Research Paper Example In the last decade, Information Technology did change the lodging industrys plans, controls, and manages operations. The growing demands in the hotel industry are very many the demands are largely brought about by globalization, increased security threats and needed for controls in business (Solomon, 2008). The hotel industry is starting to use kiosks and self-service technologies to change the hotel industry (Solomon, 2008). Through globalization, technology has had great impacts on the hospitality industry several ways: organizational culture, management styles and organizational structure. These three ways shape up how an organization is set up from its decision-making offices to the operations department (Solomon, 2008). This paper, therefore, seeks to draw important regions upon which technology influences the hotel industry. Proper insight will focus mainly on operations, and customer experiences and relations in the hotel environment. It is a report and not a research paper as it may seem to appear. Hotel industry is affected by various issues regarding security from a global to a local perspective respectively. The ability to assure a tourist that, they are safe in a given destination can mean a lot to the proprietors of a given hotel business line (Solomon, 2008). Security threats have made the industry suffer several setbacks that can only translate into losses worth billions of dollars (Kasavana and Cahill, 2003). Travel bans are offered to countries with such security issues, and they incur up to millions of dollars in losses, which can only mean that even the internal operations of such a countrys hotel is affected. Back at home, when the hotel is prone to high instances of theft, and robbery consumers of their products feel more paranoid to visit such establishment (Kasavana and Cahill, 2003). It can only mean that such organizations are closed, and jobs

How is sexual identity explored in Twefth Night Essay

How is sexual identity explored in Twefth Night - Essay Example espeare not only has exhibited equal mastery in his treatment of both tragedy and comedy but also he has exposed the true facts of life through his respective treatment of both genres of Tragedy and Comedy. Due to the cultural evolution during the time of Renaissance, people’s understanding of the society as well as relationship between genders received a different angle of interpretation. Shakespearean dramas, sonnets and Metaphysical poetry are best evidences that reflect such realization of people. This aspect is quite clear among Shakespeare’s sonnet composition, where he has provided a great deal of emphasis over friendship between two males. It is through his verse that the poet has attempted to preserve the physical beauty of his male friend. Sonnet no. 18-126 are excellent examples of such attempt from the poet and in the later sonnets (127-152) Shakespeare has attempted to describe the beauty of a dark lady and the poet has also provided highest importance to m emorize such beauty through his verse. Thus, it is clear from Shakespeare’s treatment of sexuality that love and appreciative mentality of beauty are such virtues that are never dependent over the any kind of gender biasness or sexual identity. His realization has also been reflected in his comedies of which As You Like It and Twelfth Night are classic examples. Unexplored sexual identity, in both these dramas, has played very important role in orienting the action, theme as well as pace but at the same time both the dramas have clearly expressed the fact that love does not depend over sexual identity. It is the most important of all humane virtues and a person, who has fallen in love with his/her partner, does not change the expression of love according to his/her sexual identity. Themes of deception and disguise have occupied a special place among the major Shakespearean comedies, such as Taming of the Shrew, As You like It or Twelfth Night. Looking at the renaissance society, a critical

Coporate finace Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Coporate finace - Essay Example Macquarie group limited 2014 financial report, the share price as at 30 December 2014 was $57.93. The company’s last ten years average total dividends, the return on equity and the payout ratios were $3.76, 11.1% and 66.8%. Dividend in the next period = dividend in the current period * (1+ the growth rate) = $3.76* (1+3.69%) = $3.89. now the three fundamental inputs are available and we can now punch into the equation below to get the return on equity: It is assumed that all investor do aim at maximizing the economic utilities and the asset quantities are fixed. The investors are risk- averse and rational. The investors are price takers and there is no way they can influence market prices. The investors have the same expectations that are related to the market. From the finance point of view, the cost of debt is calculated by using the following formula Kd= where I is the annual interest while P is the current market value of a debenture. The Macquarie group limited had an annual interest of $359m4. However, the market price of the debenture was $3507m. The cost of debt can, therefore, be computed by punching in the above inputs into the formula (359/3507) = 0.1023 hence 10.24%. This is where Re= cost of equity, Rd= cost of debt, E= the market value of the company’s equity, D= the market value of the firms debt, V= total value of debt and equity (E+D). Percentage of financing equity = E/V while the percentage of finance by debt = D/V and Tc = corporate tax rate6. The corporate tax for the company is 30%. From Modigliani miller irrelevant theory, the tax deductibility increases the value of the firm. This is by increasing the cash flows to respective equity shareholders. The tax deductibility of the debt down scales the weighted average cost of capital hence increasing the value of the firm. The cost of equity, Re, is higher than the cost of debt, Rd, but the saving in the cost of debt Rd is more hence making up for it

Rationality, Educated Opinion and Peace Essay Example for Free

Rationality, Educated Opinion and Peace Essay Abstract: This paper addresses the relevance of interwar thought to the building of peace through examining the ideas of three important writers of the period: Edward Hallett Carr, Norman Angell and Alfred Zimmern. The role of public opinion was under much query in the politics of the period they wrote in, and crucial to this issue are the questions as to whether the public mind is rational and capable of reason. These writers are concerned with the influence of public opinion and believe that through educating the public mind, the possibility of peace can be increased. Drawing from their ideas, this paper thus postulates that peace is a product of rationality and there is possibility of progress through education. The birth of international relations as a separate discipline was founded against the context of the interwar years, which brought about important consequences for the subsequent development of the interwar years. The tensions prior to and the subsequent devastation of the Great War forced intellectuals of the early twentieth century to seek explanations for the causes of war and to postulate measures by which another catastrophe could be prevented. The general psyche of the people exerted an influence on the direction of international studies. As David Long points out, the academic study of international affairs during this period of time possessed a normative though not necessarily utopian interest in the avoidance of war1. Such a trend is manifested in the trust deed of the Wilson Chair of International Politics (one of the first few schools of the discipline), which states that international politics is the political science in its application to international relations with special reference to the best means of promoting peace between nations.2 Woodrow Wilson, being a leading statesman at the time, presents one of the possible avenues for peace. He consciously and deliberately tied issues of foreign policy to domestic politics, giving rise to what will come to be known as the democratic peace thesis. Wilson advocates the belief that popular participation, public life and opportunity for all [will be] the guarantee of peace. Wilson believed that diplomacy and foreign policy must be taken with regard to public opinion and the public being rational would prefer peace to war.3 The crucial premise here is that public opinion matters in a democratic political system. The assumption further made is that the political leaders are sensitive to public opinion and will be susceptible to their demands. The issue of public opinion gives rise to another set of issues, and one of the foremost in this period, is the skepticism that the basic assumption of a rational public rejecting war is true. Is the public rational? Is war a rational choice? The political definition of rationality is the ability of the public to discern the options open to them, and to adopt the best option to achieve their prioritized goals. The Great War cast doubts as to whether public is necessarily aware of what their options and goals are, much less their ability to choose the best option to fit their preferred purpose. As historian A. J. P. Taylor argues that the intellectual backlash against the dehumanizing war made the interwar years an age of intellectual and artistic activity, where intellectuals from various fields of study question the power of man to reason.4 The devastation of war brings queries, particularly from the idealists, as to whether war can be a rational choice. Even if the assumption holds true, there is still the question as to whether public opinion has any weight on policy formulation. Given this particular context, this paper questions the foundations of Wilsonian politics. This paper will thus postulate on the influence of public opinion and the impact of rationality on the maintenance of peace by drawing from the ideas of three important writers of this period: Edward Hallett Carr, Norman Angell and Alfred Zimmern. This paper will first introduce the positions of all three writers. It will then examine the fundamental assumption shared by all three writers with respect to public opinion, before expounding on their arguments on the rationality of the public and why the issue matters. The paper will then look into the possibilities of peace, and how the three concur on the issue of education. Due to source constraints, this paper will draw on secondary references to the works of the three writers, where the primary sources are not available. Carr, Angell and Zimmern Peter Wilson in Thinkers of the Twenty Years Crisis introduces Carrs book as a work which not only set the tone for subsequent discussion of inter-war thought, but also substantially shaped postwar attitudes towards it.5 The premise for The Twenty Years Crisis is the critique of inter-war idealism, which Carr terms utopian6. Carr dismisses the utopians as being unable to understand political reality and sets up a dichotomy that supposes utopia: reality= free will: determinism= theory: practice= morality: power =universal: relative= intellectual: bureaucrat= Left: Right 7 The dichotomy presented by Carr undermines interwar idealism, and leads, in part, to the rejection of the practical value of these theories. This dichotomy shapes subsequent debate and is consequentially identified as the polarity of realism and idealism, which will dominate international studies for the next few decades. In order to posit queries of the dichotomy, it is first necessary to expound on the assumptions that are conventionally made of either school. Brian C. Schmidt summarises the assumptions of idealism as follows : a pervasive faith in reason and rationalism, a belief in the infallibility of public opinion, the view that war was irrational, that the best way to end conflict was through education, international law, and world government, and, finally, a belief that the essential harmony of interests existed, which translated into the international doctrine of war-does-not-pay8. Superficially, both Norman Angell and Alfred Zimmern adopt such assumptions in their writings. Significantly, both Angell and Zimmern share the same devotion to one key tenet: the possibility of progress through educating public opinion and conditioning human behaviour. Their devotion to the tenet became stronger later into their careers, especially after the Second World War. The realist school of thought as represented by Carr, refutes the idealist assumptions. In particular, the realists argue that the concept of power is central to international affairs. Carr adopts Thomas Hobbes argument on human nature and advances the argument that the state as a rational actor will choose to maximize its capacity for power in order to secure its survival. He argues that public opinion, even when informed, is not necessarily pacifist and that thought can be mould by political purposes. Through defining his position by rejecting and critiquing the idealists assumptions, Carrs realist position is thus seen as the diametric opposite of the idealists. It is then necessary to redress both the ideas of Carr and the much-maligned interwar idealists, among whom are Zimmern and Angell. The choice of juxtaposing Angell and Zimmern with Carr in this paper is conscious. Both Zimmern and Angell are among the few utopians whom Carr explicitly criticizes in The Twenty Years Crisis. Andreas Osiander points out that Zimmern is still widely regarded as what Oslon and Groom have called the consummate idealist9, and is thus identifiable with the idealist school of thought. Yet Zimmern, as Paul Rich and Peter Wilson suggest, is considerably less adverse to Carrs ideas than his idealist colleagues.10 Angell, on the other hand, is one of the fiercest adversaries to The Twenty Years Crisis, but J. D. Miller raises the argument that Angell should be regarded less as an idealist than a far sighted realist because of his acute awareness of the issues of political reality11. The interplay of their ideas then calls to question the validity of a clear dich otomy. In essence then, this paper seek to question if the positions of these writers on the assumptions raised by Schmidt are as concrete as they appear to be. In other words, this paper examines the complexities of Carr, Angell and Zimmerns ideas on the applicability of public opinion, rationality and possibilities of peace. On closer examination, this paper argues that despite the differences, the three share a fundamental similarity: the belief in progress. The dichotomy between the realists and idealists is permeable, and in their postulation of the long term, the arguments of Carr, Angell and Zimmern coincide. Public Opinion First and foremost, the underlying assumption that Carr, Angell and Zimmern adopt is that public opinion matters, even though their understanding of public opinion differs. Zimmern argues that [p]ublic opinion is the lifeblood of a civilized community but unfortunately, the majority of the peoples is guided by caprice of ignorance, passion or greed, and the other devils if unreason.12 The title of Carrs inaugural speech at the University College of Wales, Public Opinion as a Safeguard of Peace says much. Carr argues that public opinion can exert tremendous influence over a foreign policy issue that it feels sufficiently strongly about, using the case of the public rejection of the Hoare-Laval plan to build his case. He states that, No nation, and least of all a democracy, can wage war unless it has the support of an overwhelming majority of its people13. The implication of such a statement in light of guarding the peace is that insofar as the public is not in favour of war, a state and particularly a democratic state will not and cannot adopt war as a policy instrument. Angells Nobel Lecture, Peace and the Public Mind, adopts the same position, except that he argues public opinion, being misinformed and disastrously erroneous can lead to war. 14 Interestingly both Angell and Carr argue that public opinion is easily manipulated. Carr devotes a section to Power over opinion in The Twenty Years Crisis, suggesting that the greater proportion of public becoming conscious or involved in politics relates to the importance that the ruling elite place on propaganda as an instrument of power. The influence of propaganda rests on the premise he sets earlier in the book that the crucial contribution of realism is the idea that thought is relative to purpose. 15 For instance, nationalism, as a form of ideology, could be seen as a means by which the public can be persuaded to go to war. Similarly, Angell contends that a small militant minority is capable of appealing to the majority towards a policy that may not be in the majoritys best interests.16 Rationality Having established that public opinion has a role to play, we then move on to the crucial questions: is the public rational, and is war a rational choice? On both issues, there are significant differences between Carr and the idealists, arising from the difference in the way they interpret and infer from past and current events. Reason and rationality give rise to different outcomes for Carr and the idealists. An important observation is that Carr places more faith in reason and rationality than do the others, contrary to our earlier presupposition that it is the idealists who have a pervasive faith in reason and rationalism. A proper definition of what is meant by rational behaviour has yet to be provided as a premise for argument. To proceed, we adopt James Mills argument for the rational public opinion quoted in Carr as a guide to what rational behaviour entails: Every man possessed of reason is accustomed to weigh evidence and to be guided and determined by its preponderance. When various conclusions are, with their evidence presented with equal care and with equal skill, there is a moral certainty, though some few maybe misguided, that greatest number will judge right, and the greatest force of evidence, whatever it is, will produce the greatest impression. 17 Whereas Carr believes that the public, being self-interested, is capable of defining their goals and seeking the best possible means to achieve toward that end, he rejects Mills definition of rational behaviour. Mills definition is in turn based on the ideas espoused by Jeremy Betham who assumes that the ideal option is the greatest good to the greatest number. Carr argues that public opinion comes from the masses, who are for large part, neither enlightened nor educated and thus the greatest number need not necessarily judge right. He argues that Betham and Mills assumption that self-interest can be sacrificed for the sake of the greatest good to the collective is based on some kind of intuition of what is right and cannot be demonstrated by rational argument.18 Carr suggests, instead, that rational necessarily demands a consciousness and the ability to adjust to the balance of power existing in international affairs, which serves as a constraint on the options available. The discerning public thus does not only take into account what is right, but also what is most practical in catering to self-interest. Carr then adopts an argument that is parallel to Thomas Hobbes. Hobbes, in Leviathan, states the fundamental law of nature as: it is a precept, or general rule of reason that every man, ought to endeavour peace, as far as he has hope of obtaining it; and when he cannot obtain it, that he may seek, and use all helps, and advantages of war Carr comments, to the same effect, that although war is undesirable, it is not possible to impose an absolute judgement that war is always and unconditionally wrong. The implication of Hobbes and Carrs argument is that the public being rational favours peace. However, when the public believes that they have more to gain from war, or more to lose from not going to war, war becomes a rational and logical solution. Historically, Carrs argument seems to find sufficient basis in the outbreak of World War I. One of the reasons contributing to the war was the increase in bellicosity, arising from rationalization of cost and benefit or cooperation and non-cooperation. Prior to the Great War, the perceived cost of non-cooperation19 had decreased. The perception was influenced by beliefs that any war would be short, a consequence of a highly exaggerated faith in the efficacy of offensive military strategies and tactics20 and by the system of alliances. The perception was further coloured by nationalism. Secondly the perceived gains of non-cooperation had increased. The general belief was that expansionism and offensive foreign policy was perceived to be too high, due to the general suspicion of the intentions of the other states. Given these perceptions then prevalent, European states saw it to their advantage to go to war, and in fact to initiate the war so as to reap the greatest advantage of the gr ound. This international game theory exemplifies in part the rational process that Carr espoused. The idealists depart greatly from Carr. Angell and Zimmern accept that Mills definition is greatly desired but finds it incongruent with political reality. Reus-Smit, in his essay The Strange Death of Liberal Theory, argues that the conflict between morality and political reality is seen by Angell as a divide between reason and unreason. He argues that, If the former prevailed, there was some hope of a reconciliation between morality, defined as the well-being of all and reality, which in [Angells] favoured area was the incompatibility of warfare and such well-being.21 However, within the historical context, Angell believes that unreason prevailed. Angell believes that the public mind is often irrational, because it is too easily persuaded; it does not possess sufficient information, nor the ability to process vast amounts of information when it is available and it lacks the skill to seek evidence for the various conclusions, as Mill points out, i.e., it cannot see the likely results of actions. 22 The public mind cannot compute cost-benefit-analysis, which is central to rationalization. Angell accounts for this irrationality of the public mind, stating that it arises from the failure to apply to our international relationships knowledge which is of practically universal possession23 In Angells opinion then, it is not for the lack of intellectual capacity on the part of the public that lead to the irrational behaviour, but the inability to apply knowledge. Resting on his idea of the irrational public, Angell expounds on the war and why the publics choice to go to war is actually irrational. In his aptly named book, The Great Illusion, he puts forth a convincing argument on the futility of war on grounds of rationality and economic considerations. Angell argues that the perceived benefits of war under modern circumstances, are reduced, as victors can no longer expect to benefit as much from the spoils of war. The change is largely because goods and spoils are no longer portable (such as gold, silver, slaves, precious stones) as they had before. Goods and services are non-physical such as currency, shares, and fixed assets, and are thus not transferable wealth. As such, if states act purely in their self-interest, given the expectation not to gain from war, states would be unlikely to pursue war.24 Angell considers this line of reasoning to be simplistic and easily applicable to the conduct of international relations. Yet as the advent of World War I proves, the public is incapable of applying such rationale to political practice. Angell argues that the pervading reasons behind war, then, are irrational. Not only does war not serve to the benefit of the state concerned, better alternatives of action could be sought such as building economic relations, social interaction. Such connections can be used in persuading, as opposed to coercing, other states into behaving in the manner that is beneficial to the state concerned. Thus the argument adopted is that war is irrational, i.e. not the best-laid option, and man being irrational and susceptible to external influences, chooses to use war as a policy instrument. Andreas Osiander points out that unlike what Carr implies, Zimmern, like Angell, was very far from seeing public opinion as necessarily a force for peace.25 Like Angell, he believes that the conflicts in the international arena, giving rise to war are resultant of intellectual, and not political failure.26 However, if Carr is to be believed, Zimmern can, in fact, be seen as being more extreme than Angell. Carr states in The Twenty Years Crisis that Zimmern is inclined towards the hypothesis that If mankind in its international relations has signally failed to achieve the rational good, it must have been too stupid to understand that good. Carrs statement is not altogether justified. Although Zimmern does point out that the impediment to overcoming the obstacle towards peace is that man are beings of conservative temper and limited intelligence27, what he implies is that man is reluctant to adjust to present realities brought by modernity. As a result of the inherent resistance towar ds change, mans mental capacity does not adapt to the fact that previous ways of managing international relations are no longer applicable. Consequentially, public opinion cannot be trusted to be rational. Zimmern subscribes to John Stuart Mills argument of the tyranny of the majority. He argues that the ruling elite, that is, the politicians in positions of power tend to be capable of rationalization. However this intellectual minority in government is consumed by the irrational public: for statesmen, however wise and far sighted, are limited in their policies by the public opinion and parliaments to which they are responsible.28 Angell concurs on this issue. J. D. Miller, drawing from Angells comments, argues that Angell too feared the impact upon politicians of an unreasoning crowd mind, and doubted the capacity of politicians to resist it. Both Angell and Zimmern, then, prefer that the intellectual minority be given the ability and power to lead the rest of the populace, so as to govern rational foreign policies. In this regard, Carr again differs. Whereas Carr does agree that the intellectual minority has a role to play in leading public opinion,29 he believes that the intellectual minority is however, sadly, out of touch with reality. He argues his case by drawing on the difference between intellectuals perceptions of the League of Nations with those of the man on the street. The intellectuals, who tend to be idealists by his definition, strive to secure and maintain peace via means of treaties, covenants and legal codifications. The general public, however, is more concerned with the practice of international affairs (as opposed to the theory.) Going by Carrs understanding of rational behaviour to be taking into account what is right and also what is most practical in application, the intellectual minority is in pra ctice less rational than the public. Change and the possibility of progress As it is, there seems to be a great divide between Carr and his two contemporaries with regards to whether man is rational. However, central to their arguments is the shared belief that history is a directional process, that is, there is the idea of constant change. Carr argues that war occurs because of the conservative reluctance to allow change to the status quo and the way to peace is to provide means of peaceful change.30 Angell and Zimmern suggest that war occurs because man has yet to come to terms with change, and that the mentality and psyche of the populace has not kept in line with international developments. As Zimmern states, the statesmen and the peoples have not adjusted their minds to the new realities31. The central concern with the issue of change harkens to a broader issue on which the three writers concur: the possibility of progress. The interwar context is one of pessimism. The first decade had been one of recovery and rehabilitation from the shock of the Great War and the second decade of mounting tensions and escalation to an even more disastrous war. The context in which these writers write in, therefore, begets the question of whether man can move away from destruction of war, and by what means. The three writers agree that the current situation calls for change, as present movements and measures to maintain peace are insufficient and inadequate, and are reasonably optimistic that such change can be effected. Carr notes even in 1936 that, the cause of peace has made tremendous stride during the past fifteen years and shows his preference towards progressive history, arguing that a sense of change as a progressive factor in history, and belief in reason as our guide for the understanding of its complexities are crucial to the current world. Angell is of the same mind when he questions the unchangeability of human nature and argues that just as cannibalism and slavery can be systematically reduced in our society, so too can the warlike nature of man and states32. Zimmern, even when decrying the decline of international standards (which he defined as rules of behaviour) at a meeting at Chatham House in 1937 argues that the process of change allowing for peaceful coexistence was already taking place.33 The ultimate aim of change is the maintenance of peace, which is assumed to be the preferred good, through the avoidance of war. The question that is then posited is, by what means? Carr, Angell and Zimmern propose different measures but the one pertinent to the prior argument on public opinion and rationality is their faith in education. Due to their fundamental belief that public opinion matters, it is logical to argue that if the public mind, as Angell would call it, could be trained and conditioned to favour peaceful change, then the chances of states going to war would be minimized. Angell quotes in his The Great Illusion that Not the facts, but mens opinions about the facts is what matters, and making a parallel with the abolishment of witch hunts, he comments that just as in the matter of burning witches a change of behaviour was the outcome of a change of opinion in a same way a change in the political conduct of can only come about as a result of a change of thought34. The w ay to peace then is to shape mans perceptions about war. Given this understanding, the most basic and possibly most efficient way of bringing about this conditioned public is through education. However in his address given to Chatham House in 1931, Angell claims that the current education system does not adequately prepare the individual to make intelligent and informed inferences from the facts presented to him. He believes that the reason behind this lack in the system is that education tends to follow a tradition whereby an older generation influences and instruct the younger through a process of socialization.35 Unfortunately this tradition means that values and ideas that are taught are often unable to catch up with present realities. The educational system had also focused on provision of information, without equipping the individual with means to discern the motivations, the causation analysis, the implications et cetera behind the piece of information. According to him, We have thought too much of the facts and too little of their meaning. 36 Thus the socialization/education of an individual does not adequately provide him with the skill to make rational choices. Given his premise that war is irrational under any circumstances lest in defence and a rational public will therefore reject war, the skill deficiency means that man may choose to go to war due to their lack of understanding, unless the educational system can be changed. Beyond the suggestion that education shifts its focus from its informational purpose towards equipping successive generations with the skill to possess information, Angell does not however provide for how education can be otherwise structured. Zimmern elaborates on his ideal educational system in his book Learning and Leadership, which is not only designed to impart the skill of discerning information but also specifically equipped to teach students about international life. Particularly, he believes that practical experience through interaction with people from other nations will allow students to imbibe the habit of cooperation and harmonious living37. Zimmern believes that once people are given more exposure to the international arena, they will be able to understand foreigners and foreign influences better and become more acutely aware of the idea of universal brotherhood. This basic premise being established, man will be more able to understand the actions of others, less inclined to take preemptive action and to go to war. The assumption of such an argument is that people are less inclined to advocate war against a party that they share an understanding with. Education is thus seen as an instrument which can build commonality among peoples, as well as a means by which the public can be trained to be rational. In The Twenty Years Crisis, Carr argues for the application of reason to understanding current situations and political reality; in his later work What is History he extends the role of reason to the capacity to reform: The primary function of reason, as applied to man in society, is no longer merely to investigate, but to transform; and this heightened consciousness of the power of men to improve the management of his social, economic and political affairs by the application of rational processes seems to me one of the major aspects of the twentieth century. 38 The core assumptions here are that reason leads to progress and progress is necessarily an improvement. Remembering the key concern of the study of international relations in the interwar period, a foremost improvement of the human condition is the eradication of war. As do Angell and Zimmern, Carr believes that education was to be the tool by which such improvement can come about. However, unlike Zimmern and Angell who believe that the public has to be thought how to make rational choices in the first place, Carr believes that education can be used to shape the way the public thinks about their choices. Carr notes then that education policy must be shaped: Educators at all levels are nowadays more and more consciously concerned to make their contribution to the shaping of society in a particular mould, and to inculcate in the rising generation the attitudes, loyalties and opinions appropriate to that type of society: educational policy is an integral part of any rationally planned social policy.39 It is then assumed, that rationally, a society will be prefer not to resort to war in a conflict of interest, and a means by which this can be ensured is to design an educational system which, in the context of the interwar years, should imbue in them the moral norm that peaceful change is the preferred means of achieving policy objectives. To put it more plainly, Carrs ideal is using education to persuade man against the doctrine of power, providing a basis whereby a compromise between morality and power can be reached and peaceful change achieved. In his contention that thought is relative to purpose, Carr postulates that mass opinion can directed and in fact mass-produced via universal popular education. It is imperative to note that by popular education, Carr has included the mass media.( Carr does not, however differentiate between education and propaganda in The Twenty Years Crisis though in What is History, he associates education with rationality and the growing consciousness from below as well as from above of the role which reason can play40). The application of reason and rationality therefore means that education can be used to persuade mankind against war. Instead of making an argument that war is irrational, educators can influence the public into making a conscious choice not to use war as a policy instrument. As Carr states, I regard as of immense importance and promise the gradual extension of the area of the worlds surface within which war has been effectively been placed under the ban, such that war is actually unthinkable41. What becomes interesting is how closely Carr mirrors the utopians he derides. Peter Wilson, in his attempt to understand what Carr means by utopian, lists the various characteristics that Carr associates with the term. According to his analysis, all of these characteristics are progressive ideas; and it might be therefore be concluded that the core characteristic of interwar idealism is belief in conscious, progressive change. On this basis, Carr does not seem to be any much different, which recalls Reus-Smits observation quoted earlier in this paper that Carr is himself not a consummate realist. It is also possible to put forth an argument that Carrs argument against utopianism was never meant to be an outright and unconditional rejection of the interwar theories. Conclusion Whether or not these three writers think the public mind is rational depends largely on whether they believe war can be a rational choice, and yet regardless of their perspectives on these two issues, they believe that progress towards avoidance of war can be ensured through changing human behaviour. Education policies thus become important, as they can shape the perceptions of the public and thus affect their choices, which is in turn reflected in the chosen foreign policy. However there is a point to note based on this argument set. All three writers are writing within a democratic framework and tradition, where by definition, requires that public opinion matters. Yet, public opinion is less likely to make an impact in an authoritarian state, and even in democratic states, there is the consideration of public apathy, the leaders gambling and taking risks by not going according to public opinion, et cetera. These complications bring us back to the consideration of Wilsonian politics. Woodrow Wilson professes that his aim is to make the world safe for democracy, and that democracy will bring peace. His tendency has been to look at the building and maintenance of peace from a top down approach, where the political structure and political ideological apparatus are enforced. In other words, he looks to providing a mechanism which will allow the rational public to prevent the tendencies of the militant minority from dragging the state to war. However, from the ideas of Carr, Angell and Zimmern, such a mechanism would not function effectively against war unless the public mind can be first conditioned through a fitting educational system emphasizing co-operation and peace. 1 David Long, Conclusion: Interwar idealism, liberal internationalism and contemporary international theory. Thinkers of the Twenty Years Crisis: Inter-war idealism reassessed. p. 303, pp. 306-307. 2 Quoted in E. H. Carrs inaugural speech in the University College of Wales. Public Opinion as a Safeguard of Peace International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1931-1939). Vol. 15. No. 6. (Nov- Dec 1936), p. 846. 3 Mortimer Chambers, et al. The Western Experience Vol C: The Modern Era. pp. 892-893 4 A. J. P. Taylor, From Sarajevo to Potsdam. London: Thames Hudson: 1966 pp. 103-106 5 Peter Wilson. Introduction: The Twenty Years Crisis and the Category of Idealism in International Relations. David Long Peter Wilson. (ed.) Thinkers of the Twenty Years Crisis: Inter-war idealism reassessed. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 1995. p.1 6 Carrs term utopians is generally taken to refer to the idealists, though he does not clearly define who he considers to be utopians. 7 Wilson, Introduction, p. 12. Wilson adapted the equation from Hedley Bull, The Twenty Crisis Thirty Years On, International Journal, Issue 24, Vol. 4 (1969), p. 627-8. E. H. Carr, The Twenty Years Crisis: 1919-1939. New York: Harper: (1946) 1964. pp. 11-21. 8 Brian C. Schmidt. Lessons from the Past: reassessing the Interwar Disciplinary History of International Relations. International Studies Quarterly (1998) 42. p 452 9 Andreas Osiander, Rereading Early Twentieth Century IR theory: Idealism Revisited, International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 42, No. 3 (Sep.,1998). p. 417 10 Paul Rich, Alfred Zimmerns Catious Idealism: the League of Nations, International Education, and the Commonwealth. Thinkers of the Twenty Years Crisis: Inter-war idealism reassessed. p.88; Peter Wilson, Carr and his Early Crtics: responses to the Twenty Years Crisis. Michael Cox (ed). E. H. Carr: A critical appraisal. New York: Palgrave: 2000. p. 167. 11 J. D. Miller. Norman Angell and Rationality in International Relations. Thinkers of the Twenty Years Crisis: Inter-war idealism reassessed. pp. 116, 119. 12 Alfred Zimmern, Learning and Leadership: a study of the needs and possibilities of international intellectual co-operation. London: Oxford University Press: 1928. p. 10; p. 82. 13 Carr, Public Opinion as a Safeguard of Peace pp. 857-858. 14 Norman Angell, Peace and the Public Mind. June 12, 1935. http://www.nobel.se/cgi-bin/print. March 24, 2004. 15 E. H. Carr, The Twenty Years Crisis. pp. 132-133; pp. 67-75 16 Norman Angell Peace and the Public Mind. para. 19 17 quoted in E. H. Carr, The Twenty Years Crisis. p 24. 18 Ibid. p. 26; p. 41 19 The line of reasoning here is tied to the idea of an international game theory, which due to practical constraints cannot be covered here. The argument is made in line with Robert Jervis theory on international behaviour in his Cooperation Under Security Dilemma World Politics. Vol. 30, No. 2 (Jan, 1978), pp.167-214. 20 Stephen van Evera, Why co-operation failed in 1914. World Politics, Vol. 38. No. 1 (Oct, 1985). p. 81 21 Christian Reus-Smit, The Strange Death of Liberal International Theory. European Journal of International Law. Vol. 12. No. 3. pp. 578-9. 22 J. D. Miller. Norman Angell and the Futility of War: Peace and the public mind. London: Macmillian: 1986. pp/ 124-125. 23 Norman Angell. Peace and the Public mind. para. 17 24 Norman Angell. Europes Optical Illusion. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent , 1909(?)24-40; The Great Illusion:A study of the relation of military power to national advantage. London: William Heinemann 1913. pp. 26-40. 25 Andreas Osiander, Rereading Early Twentieth Century IR theory p. 417 26 Alfred Zimmern, Learning and Leadership. p. 11. 27 Alfred Zimmern, The Problem with Collective Security (ed) Q. Wright. Neutrality and Collective Security. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 1936. p. 8. 28 Ibid. 29 E. H. Carr, Public Opinion as a Safeguard of Peace. p. 854. 30 E. H. Carr. The Twenty Years Crisis. pp. 208-223 31 Alfred Zimmern Learning and Leadership. p. 22 32 Norman Angell, The Great Illusion. 1913. pp. 200-221. 33 Alfred Zimmern, The Decline of International StandardsInternational Affiars (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1931-1939). Vol 17. No. 1 (Jan.-Feb. 1938), p. 21. 34 Norman Angell, The Great Illusion. P. 327 35 Norman Angell, Popular Education and International Affairs International Affairs (Royal Institute of International affairs 1931-1939) Vol. 11, No. 3 (May 1932), p. 323 36 Ibid, p 335-338, 338 37 Alfred Zimmern Learning and Leadership. p. 26-60 38 E. H. Carr. What is History? New York , St. Martins Press , 1961 p 190 39 Ibid. 40 Ibid p. 195. Propaganda is associated with the emotive and not with reason. 41 E. H. Carr. Public Opinion as a Safeguard of Peace. p. 861.