The History Of Gender Equality Education Essay

Gender is the most basic and outstanding difference that exists among people, whether they are Latino, inkinesss, white, Asiatic, native or European. The heroic poem battle for gender equality in about all states of the universe is good recognized and acknowledged. For centuries, adult females were considered inferior to adult females or as second-class citizens until late. Queerly adequate, really immature misss ne'er attended public simple schools and even when they admitted, they were made to go to a unintegrated school installation. The transition of 19th Amendment to the US Constitution guaranteed voting rights to US adult females. The famed, 1973 instance of Roe v. Wade in the US Supreme Court finally resulted in the granting of right to reproductive freedom.Essential Differences between work forces and adult femalesPhysical differences between work forces and adult females are all good known. However, the most outstanding difference among work forces and adult females relates to the sensitive biological maps that are associated with childbearing, kid nursing, early oncoming of adulthood and the smaller physical size. If there are any other differences, they are due to differences and prejudices caused by the society. Anthropologically, immature male childs were ever considered as warriors, combatants and defenders of the society and household. A typical adult male was supposed to be full of energy and strength. He was besides supposed to be competitory and self-asserting. Work force were besides supposed to be passionless and reject empathy, understanding, fright and cargo. On the other manus, immature misss were supposed to be nurturing and inactive towards everyone in the household. Furthermore, they were expected to demo and exhibit emotions and sentiments. Development ensured that immature work forces and adult females adapted themselves to these typical and stereotyped sentiments and beliefs. They besides considered these beliefs to be the natural order of life. The consequences of these stereotypic beliefs were a deep unease of the society that finally resulted in gender prejudice and bitterness.Educational differencesEarly educational research conducted in the last century proposed that there are indispensable differences between male childs and misss, particularly in the sphere of math, verbal and spacial accomplishments. However, recent research findings suggest us that these perceived differences are false and at best biased. For illustration, there are non adequate differences on category trials between school traveling male childs and misss until the age of 10. Whatever the differences those exist is really infinitesimal. There was a perceptual experience that indicated that work forces do better in math trials in high school. However, those differences are get downing to vanish, as even adult females are making better in Math trials. In kernel, whatever the biological differences that exist between work forces and adult females, they are non wholly due to biological grounds.Methods to dispute female stereotypesStereotypic thought is really common in our society. Gender prejudice, inequality and contempt for adult females ‘s authorization are some of the negative thought that runs even today. A typical illustration of this is the sensed alteration in the attitude about a female jock ‘s power and ability in the field and path events. In the early parts of the last century, females were discouraged from take parting in athletic plans. Athletic plans were non even listed in the athleticss meets, while the supp ort for such plans was really light and rare. In fact, adult females seldom participated in athleticss activities. However, all these changed when the authorities proclaimed that adult females should have equal support under the Title IX of the educational amendment Acts of the Apostless of 1972. Due to the alterations in the jurisprudence, adult females could take part in athleticss and competitory activities conducted nationally and internationally.How should teacher act when there is gender pigeonholing?Struggle for gender equality is ongoing and every instructor is lending to guarantee gender equality. In the yesteryear, there were cases of instructors falling into trap of gender stereotypic believing inclinations that finally led them to believe that male childs were superior to girls in topics like math and scientific discipline. Such instructors used to name male childs to reply their inquiries in the category and they were encouraged to execute good in verbal and non-verbal trials. Similarly, girl pupils were either neglected or even ignored. As a dedicated instructor, you should non fall into the trap of gender stereotype ; instead, you should be a powerful instructor to deter such activities. This may advance and promote a typical schoolroom that provides encouragement for both male childs and misss to execute better in the category.More about Racial Prejudice and DiscriminationGender favoritism in our society ever depends on many factors like differences between work forces and adult females, presumed male high quality myth and the society ‘s general prejudice against weaker groups. Overall, the sensed bias against some groups in the society could be due to the construct of power relationship that arises as an indispensable portion of socialisation procedure. When immature people grow, they ever start seeking for their personal individuality. When you grow through your age, you may inquire these simple yet slippery inquiries: Who am I? Why am I here? However, it is really hard answer these inquiries by anyone. While it is really hard to reply these inquiries, you may be unconsciously larning about other intricate inquiries like ; Who are they? Who they are non To which race does he or she belong to What civilization does he or she belong to These simple inquiries may give rise to sense of ‘otherness † which may finally take to either domination by others or entry by ego. It may even ensue in the creative activity of pride or shame based on the prevailing stereotype and biass as projected by the society. To avoid all these unsavoury occurrences, you may necessitate to inform your kids about the rich cultural heritage of the state, all the piece emphasizing on the importance of different races, ethnicities and cultural groups of the state.The Great â€Å" Cycle of Poverty †Black to white relationship provides a really pertinent context for understanding how power relationships reinforce through legion social and cultural stereotypes and prejudice. Research findings suggest is that African American kids frequently accept the beliefs, patterns and built-in values of the dominant white social groups. This could be unsafe because kids may develop and propagate negative stereotype and sentiment about their a in race, civilization and beliefs. The 1944 authoritative written by Gunnar Myrdal ( An American Dilemma ) has provided us a great start to understand the practical theory of the now celebrated â€Å" The War on Poverty † . Focused specially on the racism in the US, the writer argued that African Americans frequently are trapped in a â€Å" rhythm of poorness † that may finally take to the development of unwanted stereotypes and prejudice. Harmonizing to the writer, a figure of African Americans have small entree to high quality instruction that may ensue in decreased employment options and eventual poorness and life of hopelessness. This general belief may hold led to the stereotypic thought that African Americans are lazy and that they can non work good for any occupations. This prejudice may besides ensue in a barbarous rhythm of poorness. Federal and province governmental plans like Head Start and Affirmative Action were successful in helping those people enrolled in public establishments.How to interrupt the barbarous cycle- Your FunctionWhite persons may reenforce the rhythm of poorness by believing in the usual stereotypic thought of Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and other cultural groups. Queerly, a figure of pupils are blissfully incognizant of their ain individuality as a portion of a racial group and this has led to the theory of â€Å" colour blind † . The consequence is that as they enter school, so get down believing that they are the portion of the â€Å" in group † that are wholly different from other pupils, who appear diverse in footings of their tegument colour, sunglassess, textures, linguistic communication, idiom and cultural upbringing. It could be a unsafe state of affairs for all kids. At this critical occasion, you may wish to work towards making a reciprocally contributing and across-the-board schoolroom. You may besides wish to develop a schoolroom that really believes in the rich civilization of America. It is your responsibility to work hard to make a democratic schoolroom by learning your pupils to esteem the cultural fortes of different groups. Nature helps kids to socialise and streamline their attitude to move in some specific manner towards others. Normally, they may ne'er seek to understand who they are, but they will decidedly get down specifying themselves by who they are non ; this attitude may take to incorrect self-perceptions. In life, all kids would wish to see themselves as either colored or non-colored, male or female, dark or just, immature or old or native English talkers or non. They may besides wish to acknowledge other differences between themselves and other people. These may include such things as caste, faith, civilization, ethnicity, regionalism or even sexual orientation. A multi-cultural schoolroom will assist you avoid developing such a negative inclination among your pupils. Supplying text editions that are positive in nature and that discuss about the benefits of life in a merely society may assist you plan and make a cultureless schoolroom. A good instructor will besides seek to make a schoolroom that exhibits tolerance, forbearance and credence of all cultural groups. It is possible to make a demographic schoolroom that is tolerant and sensitive towards all people.Classism – It is the Stain of Materialistic CultureAs a kid starts turning into an grownup phase, he or she will obser ve the presence of important differences in the social place of their schoolmates. Some kids may be treated as being low in the category ; this may intend that they are really hapless. Traditionally talking, people consider stuffs wealth to be above everything in this universe. It is besides really common to see rich know aparting against working category or even in-between category households. Because of their inability to flash material wealth in forepart of others, they are considered as person who can non hold a position in the society. The media and society play an of import function in propagating this category difference. Media advertizement and selling publicity are the two of the most powerful tools that guide little and immature kids in believing that utilizing branded and dearly-won merchandises will heighten their societal position among their schoolmates. Most of the trade names that are promoted by Television, cyberspace and wireless advertizements are premium and expe nsive.Happening of poorness in the United statesOn paper, the US is one of the wealthiest states in the universe. However, there are broad wrappings of population that are populating under poorness line ; most people populating under poorness line are frequently referred to as working hapless or working category. If you consider the authorities ‘s ain figure, the entire figure of people populating in poorness is a galvanizing 40 million or about 15 % of the full population. Harmonizing to the US Census Bureau ( U.S. Census Bureau, 2000a ) , approximately 30 % of all African Americans, 28 % of Hispanics and 31 % of Native Americans are populating below the poorness line. A state as rich and every bit affluent as the US has many traditional myths under its belly – myths refering the continuity of poorness and misery are common even today. One of the most important myths that exist today is that those people, who are populating below poorness line, do non really work. Most of the people, who are populating in poorness line do work for low paying and humble occupations that do non supply for the minimal amenitiess and populating necessities. Hence, these people are trapped in ageless poorness. Though they are willing to work, their low educational degree every bit good as dearth in accomplishments, impede them from acquiring better paying occupations. Recent research shows that about two million people, who are populating below the poorness line do work full clip. Another 7 million people, who are below the poorness line, really work portion clip. However, the most distressful fact about these set of statistics is the sensed Numberss of kids, who are populating under low poorness. They are the guiltless victims of a state of affairs that is non their mistake. With really few resources in their manus like books, computing machines, survey stuffs, you can non anticipate them to win in their category. Most of the parents, who live under the poorness line, are uneducated themselves and they may non be able to fix their kids for the schoolroom. As a instructor, you may necessitate to assist such parents and instructors to acquire an entree to liberate survey resources like books, computing machines, public libraries, in school plans and any other benevolent plans that can heighten their accomplishments and intelligence.Childs who live under poorness line – Comparison with other statesA old survey by a US magazine called U. S. News and World Report, demonstrated that the entire Numberss of kids populating in our state is far more than those that live in other industrialised states. Even after, you consider all those public assistances and societal security plans, every bit many as one kid in every five live in poorness, which is a really high figure of about 21.5 % ! Just compare this statistics from other states – 6.8 % for Germany and France, 9.9 % for Great Britain and a really low rate of 2.75 for Sverige! This important study besides provides a revealing narrative of why affluent United states kids are wealthier than the richest kids anyplace in the universe – â€Å" Poor kids have less to populate on- than those in all [ industrialised states ] but Ireland and Israel † ( U. S. News and World Report, 1995, p. 24 ) . The available informations on those kids, who are stateless, are even more startling! Estimated figures suggest us that the entire Numberss of stateless kids in the United States range from 65000 to 500,000. When you add the about 14 million kids, who live in some type of Foster attention installations, you can conceive of the humungous nature of the job ( Jencks, 1994 ; Sandham, 2001 ) . Classroom classism could be one of the most barbarous and worst signifiers of favoritism. As a instructor, you may wish to eliminate this perfidy from your schoolroom.What can you make?As a dedicated American instructor, you can make many things to minimise and eliminate classism in your schoolrooms. Two illustrations of actions are as follows: Choosing good course of study stuffs that plan to minimise classism Choosing your ain actions that are good and merely for the full schoolroom Teaching about the achievements of working category and hapless people in the state edifice could assist you in minimising classism. Historical mentions about labour battle and racism could besides be your potent tools in this way. You may besides learn how foolhardy disbursement on stuffs that we do non necessitate, will take to material geting compulsion and uneconomical outgo. You must be a positive function theoretical account, who believes in high value public presentation, cooperation and indifferent and above all with a head to eschew philistinism. Make certain that you send out a positive signal to your kids.Journal ActivityMake you hold with gender inequality? Why female stereotypic thought can harm the larger involvements of a society? Do you experience inordinate gender stereotyping will harm your learning? What is your sentiment on biass and favoritism practiced in a schoolroom?Pause and ReflectInvent a mechanism to contend the Great Cycle of Poverty. Write down notes on why this construct is so critical for guaranting learning success in a traditional schoolroom. If you want to win as a good instructor, how to you face assorted cases of gender race favoritism that are so common in a school.Internet ActivityCollect more information on the Great Cycle of Poverty and happening of poorness among schoolchildren in the US. What is your sentiment on the Great War on Poverty? By utilizing the information, devise you ain function that will help you in interrupting down the barbarous rhythm of poorness.

Discuss the role that grudges and rivalries play Essay

Discuss the role that grudges and rivalries play within â€Å"The Crucible† by Arthur Miller Arthur Miller’s play â€Å"The Crucible† is set in the 17th century in a village called Salem. It is written in the time of the McCarthy period in the 1950’s, when Joe McCarthy (senator of the USA) attacked people for communism. Joe McCarthy accused many people including Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for leaking information about the atomic bomb to the Russians; they were then executed on 19th June 1953. He even attacked Hollywood for communism; in one case he ordered Charlie Chaplain out of the USA for un-American activities. The trials carried out by Joe McCarthy were very flawed and there were numerous appeals. The McCarthy period started when the Russians joined the ‘nuclear club’ sooner than expected, and caused paranoia across the USA. This is reflected in the Salem society because the population of Salem started to blame people for witch-craft to get themselves more respect and to settle grudges. This was then named the witch hunt. It is a puritan society that believes they themselves were chosen by God. They also believe they could only work and pray; that the Universe was centred on God; and that man was sinful and corrupt but thankfully saved by God. Their society was ruled by religion and was very rigid. This is ironic because the lies and trickery performed by the girls of the council goes against the Salem society, and yet they believe what they say. Reverend Parris of Salem was a high-ranking individual who demands a lot of respect that he thinks he deserves. He is dogmatic and dominant and thinks himself to be the top man of Salem. His niece Abigail is soon to follow him by being a snob and constantly lying. Abigail is attracted to John Proctor, a man that in the Salem society is a dangerous man and is to be afraid of. Reverend Parris’ maid Tituba is a black slave in her forty’s from the Caribbean. She is an innocent women but trouble always seems to follow her. Betty Parris (Reverend Paris’ Daughter) is thought to have been consumed by the devil; she was involved in an act of ‘conjuring’ and was then left unconscious, this is when the witch-hunt began. The play is set in the 1962 witch trials of Salem . This is when people were blamed for witch craft to settle grudges and rivalries. The trials were flawed and even the jury was lying. This is linked to the McCarthy period because Joe McCarthy blamed others for communism to settle his grudges and rivalries against him. Abigail Williams is the niece of Reverend Parris. Abigail Williams is a young â€Å"strikingly beautiful† seventeen year old girl who is an orphan of low social status. She once had an affair with John Proctor when she was his maid; she was then ordered out of their house after John Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth Proctor, discovered this. Abigail Williams has a grudge against Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail is an aggressive woman, â€Å"I’ll beat you Betty! † From this, the audience can tell how far Abigail will go to get out of trouble. In addition to this, we recognise how cruel and selfish she is. Furthermore, it shows that she doesn’t care about anyone other than herself; not even her cousin. Arthur Miller portrays Abigail Williams in this manner to shock the audience by presenting Abigail Williams as an outcast compared to all the other women in the village. When women are addressed in the Salem society, they are usually referred to as â€Å"Goody†; this isolates Abigail Williams because her reputation is â€Å"blackened in the village†. Abigail Williams has strong feelings for John Proctor after the events which happened when Abigail Williams was John Proctor’s maid, â€Å"Gah! I’d almost forgot how strong you are, John Proctor! † From this quote the audience can connote the deep feelings that Abigail Williams has for John Proctor. Use of the word â€Å"forgot† shows the audience that Abigail Williams and John Proctor had a past life together. This also outlines Abigail Williams grudge against Elizabeth Proctor. In addition, the stage direction â€Å"she comes a little closer, with a confidential, wicked air† shows the deep temptation that Abigail Williams has for John Proctor. Abigail Williams has made a confliction for herself between John Proctor and herself, â€Å"My wife is innocent, except she knew a whore when she saw one! † By use of the word â€Å"whore†, John Procter immediately shows the audience the disgust he holds for Abigail Williams for ruining his love life with Elizabeth Proctor. In later acts, John Proctor further shows the audience that he hates her for what she has done when he says â€Å"A whore’s vengeance†. By saying this John Proctor shows the audience how much his life has been ruined due to his affair with Abigail Williams. Abigail Williams holds strong grudges against Elizabeth Proctor, â€Å"It’s a bitter woman, a lying, cold†¦ † This quotation shows the outright hatred she has for Elizabeth Proctor. By referring to Elizabeth Proctor as â€Å"it† shows a lack of respect because she talks about Elizabeth Proctor as if she was an object. Furthermore, Arthur Miller uses the rule of three to emphasise her pure hatred against Elizabeth Proctor. The words that Abigail William’s uses sound cold and dirty, this emphasises her rivalry against Elizabeth Proctor because Abigail William’s is trying to make Elizabeth Proctor sound like she has no heart. When Abigail Williams is introduced, Arthur Miller makes us question her character, â€Å"with an endless capacity for dissembling. † This stage direction shows the audience that Abigail Williams has a bad reputation. The use off the word â€Å"endless† shows that she will stop at nothing to get hew own way; it also puts the audience at the edge of their seats. Abigail Williams also has a reputation for doing anything to get herself out of trouble, â€Å"Not I, Sir- Tituba and Ruth. † The audience recognises that Abigail Williams will lie to get herself out of trouble. This is linked to the McCarthy period where people would blame other’s to climb higher in the social ladder. Arthur Miller also introduces the fact that Abigail Williams is ruthless, aggressive and selfish to the people that surround her. This is reflected in modern day life because Joe McCarthy was also very ruthless to his grudges and rivalries. The girls of Salem are scared by Abigail Williams because she is wicked and sly to them, â€Å"Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring you pointy reckoning that will shudder you. † From this speech by Abigail Williams the audience can see Abigail Williams controlling the other girls that danced with her in the forest. By use of the word â€Å"black†, Abigail Williams tries to remind the other girls of the devil and scare them. In addition, â€Å"pointy reckoning† is used to scare the girls because it reminds them of the devil and they are extremely religious. Even the â€Å"der† in â€Å"shudder† provokes the feeling of endless pain. Abigail Williams developed her violent lifestyle when she was young, â€Å"I saw Indians smash my dear parents’ heads on the pillow next to mine, and I have seen some reddish work done at night. † From this the audience can sympathise with Abigail Williams because she had a troubled child hood. However, Abigail Williams uses this speech to terrify the girls that danced with her in the forest. The phrase â€Å"next to mine† emphasises the close shave of death that Abigail Williams has had; she introduces to the girls that she has seen someone killed and she knows what its like. Abigail Williams enhances the fact that she has no problems to kill the girls of Salem by saying â€Å"I have seen some reddish work done at night. † In addition, the personal pronoun, â€Å"I† underlines to the girls that she will do it herself. â€Å"Reddish† also enhances the gory and graphical image that Abigail Williams is trying to create inside the other girls heads to scare them further. This imagery does not scare Abigail William’s because she has seen it happen and she is not afraid. Abigail Williams is very good at lying, â€Å"If the girls a saint now, I think it is not easy to prove she’s fraud. † From this dialogue by John Proctor, the audience can see that Abigail Williams has persuaded the court that she is a good citizen of Salem. Using the word â€Å"saint†, John Proctor evokes the feeling that Abigail Williams has got herself a good reputation in the court’s mind. Reverend Parris is the towns Reverend. He has worked very hard to get in his position and he wishes to keep it. However, from Reverend Parris’ high status, he has become very paranoid. This is reflected in the McCarthy period because Joe McCarthy became Senate of the USA and he also got very paranoid. Reverend Parris is obsessed with his reputation and strides for a high status within the Salem society,† he cut a villainous path. † This stage direction evokes the feeling that Reverend Parris is not entirely honest; the use of the word â€Å"cut† connotes that he some how cheated his way to this high ranking authority in the community. This reflects the time in which Arthur Miller was writing The Crucible because Joe McCarthy blamed people for communism to stay as the Senate of the USA. In Act One, Reverend Parris shows his concern for his high status and authority, â€Å"Abigail, I have fought here three years long to bend these stiff-necked people to me, and now, just now when some good respect is rising for me in the parish, you compromise my very character. † From this quote the audience can see how paranoid that Reverend Parris has become. â€Å"Stiff-necked people† enhances the corrupt view of Reverend Parris has on the people of the Salem society; it also puts emphasis on the amount of grudges and rivalries that Reverend Parris has. Reverend Parris is obsessed with his high social status, â€Å"I am not some preaching farmer with a book under my arm; I am a graduate of Harvard College. † From this quote the audience can see that Reverend Parris is trying to make himself look more important. The use of the word â€Å"some† show that Reverend Parris doesn’t think himself to be just anyone. Reverend Parris also uses the word â€Å"farmer† to emphasise on his high education at Harvard College; also he uses â€Å"farmer† to belittle John Proctors low education and simple life and job. Reverend Parris is so eager to rise in social status that he shows little care for his own daughter, â€Å"They will howl me out of Salem for such corruption in my house. † This quote connotes the fact that Reverend Parris does not care about Betty Parris, who is his own daughter. From the word â€Å"me† it is highlighted that he doesn’t care about his family; he just simply looks after himself and his authority. Furthermore, â€Å"howl† puts even more emphasis on how Reverend Parris thinks his grudges and rivalries will attack him if they think that he is corrupt. This is mirrored in the McCarthy period where Joe McCarthy blamed others for communism to make himself rise in the social ladder.

Global Warming: Fact or Fiction?

Global Warming: Fact or Fiction? Is global warming taking place? Are humans the cause of it? Lately these questions are being asked more and more by people who believe that the earth's climate is growing steadily warmer at an alarming rate. Our planet's ever-changing climate has captured the attention of those who would have us agree that without drastic modification of our behavior, we will ultimately destroy the world in which we live.However, these activists are using scare tactics based upon inadequate information acquired from unreliable sources to promote their agenda, and this theory of human-caused global warming is refuted by science and logic. The popular belief that global warming is the effect of human activity is erroneous and unsupported by scientific evidence. Environmental activists believe that our burning of fossil fuels and increased output of carbon dioxide or â€Å"greenhouse† gases have aided the apparently human-provoked global warming process.However, a ccording to the National Center for Policy Analysis, human-produced carbon dioxide could have only played a small role in this warming. H. Sterling Burnett states that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has only increased twenty-eight percent over the past 150 years, and most of this increase took place before the year 1940, which is prior to most human-emitted carbon dioxide. Burnett goes on to say that poll results show â€Å"only 17 percent of the members of the Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Society think that the warming of the 20th century has been a result of greenhouse gas emissions. Some U. S. climatologists believe that the apparent warming trend we have been experiencing over the past few years may be in part due to improper placements of weather surface stations. These stations, sited in various locations all over the United States, serve to collect data concerning our climate. Although strict guidelines govern where these stations shoul d be located, Surface Stations. org, a website dedicated to surveying the stations, shows that our nation's surface stations are not meeting these requirements.This website displays photographs of surface stations that are positioned beside airport runways, large industrial areas, and sewage treatment plants; all of which distort temperature readings. One station in Forest Grove, Oregon, is placed directly behind an air conditioning unit, which continually blows hot air onto the surface station meter. I think everyone would agree that this causes the station's temperature readings to increase. Laurie David, writer and global warming activist, argues that

Early Childhood Learning and Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Early Childhood Learning and Development - Essay Example France and Belgium adapt an organized childminding system because most parents admit their two-year-olds to nursery schools. In contrast, Britain's situation is a bit different. There are no parental leaves and an explicit rejection of any public responsibility to support working parents and their children. This can be attributed to the widespread view in Britain that early childhood care and education are treated as private matters. As a resolution, policies for early childhood services were passed and implemented. One of them was the Children Act 1989 which was implemented in 1991. The Children Act 1989 emphasizes that our actions support the best interests and welfare of the children and highlights the role of parental responsibility and the partnership between professionals and parents in child rearing (Pugh, 1992). It replaced parental rights with responsibility as it places paramount importance in the vital roles that the parents assume in the development and learning process of their children. Children since birth live with their parents. Their immediate environment is with their parents in a place they call home. Children have gained confidence, trust, and love for their parents and treat their family and home as their comfort zone. The biological and physiological needs of the children, as well as, their proximity with their parents allow the latter to share many experiences that influence and shape the development of the children. Because of this, parents are considered as the prime carers and educators of their children (Braun, 1992). Professionals in early childhood work, on the other hand, have gained formal education and training about children and their development. They have been exposed to caring for children with varying age, different behaviours and schemas or learning patterns, and different orientation, beliefs, culture, and social status. Parents' in-depth and intimate relationship and detailed knowledge of the experiences of their children and professionals' formal and technical know-how of child care and development should converge and be utilized at the optimum level in terms of children's learning. Working with parents has proven to be effective especially in ensuring that the child is given maximum opportunity to develop his/her schemas at home and in school, whether learning is structured or unstructured and setting is formal or informal. There are several ways to work with parents during early childhood care and education. Dorit Braun in Contemporary Issues in Early Years discussed that parents' room can be set up where parents can meet and chat with each other, parents can serve as helpers on trips and parenting groups to support parents can be established. Furthermore, Margy Whalley (2001) discussed how the Pen Green Centre encourages participation among the parents. The Pen Green Centre for below 5s in Corby, a multidisciplinary service financed by

Employment Problems in India Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Employment Problems in India - Assignment Example This is contrary to the country’s projection and its perceived international image of an intellectual force and companies such as 24/7 Customer are forced to hire and manage their labor force from outside India. The country’s experience is also contrary to objectives of its economic revolution that aimed at offering quality education for the job market. Such a level of quality has not been achieved and business professionals blame the government for the poor education system that is too bureaucratic and lacks resources. This has led to poor quality and a sharp increase in a number of graduates but most of them cannot find jobs. Engineering faculties, for example, trains more than four times their previous capacities the general literacy levels in schools are very poor with the trend indicating a threat to the country’s ability to sustain its achieved economic growth rate (Anand, 1). Many education stakeholders acknowledge the problem, and the government has attempted to pass a bill for remedy. Students particularly recognize the problem with irrelevant academic units, lack of commitment from both students and lecturers, and cheating as some of the factors to the poor quality. Students have also reported bribery as a strategy to acquiring good grades in cases where they had failed their examinations. Graduates poor analytical and communication skills that many managers have reported from their experience in interviewing recruits further identify weakness in the education system. The students may sometimes know answers to interview questions but are too nervous to formulate and communicate the correct answers, a fact that is also reported in their schools, as lecturers are not keen to facilitate interactive learning processes. This poor system has forced some organizations like Tata to establish parallel training for their employees (Anand, 1).

Logistics Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Logistics - Research Paper Example Large organizations such as Wal-Mart owe their success from effective product distribution path design that has enabled them to make autonomous sales and to maintain loyalty from its esteemed customers. An effective distribution path ensures that products are available to the customers and that they are easy to access at any given time. Wal-Mart has put a great emphasis on supply chain management to beat the competition that exists within the global markets to maintain its dominance in the business environment. This article seeks to evaluate how Wal-Mart has managed to utilize supply chain management to maintain its relevance in the competitive business market. Wal-Mart is one of the famous retail multinational organizations based in America that has maintained high profits through effective product management and supply. The company has maintained an upward growth its entry into the business market in the year 1969, when it was locally based in America (Stentoft, 2010). Today it has managed to hit the international market and has remained one of the dominant sellers of grocery and food products. Today, this company owns 8500 stores in 15 different countries where it is known by different business names. As Traub (2012) points out, Wal-Mart success emanates from its ability to maintain a smooth path for the flow of its goods and today the company enjoys the privilege of being associated with the most effective channel design strategies in the global market. In essence, Wal-Mart has remained swift and dynamic in adjusting to the changes in market environment as a strategy to infiltrate into the competitive market environment. At its foundation, Wal-Mart started with the objective of providing the public with the goods they need, at the specific time they need them and at the most convenient form for utilization. In this regard, the company had to study the market environment to establish the demand of the people before arriving to the idea of purchasing, process ing and supplying food and grocery products in various forms. Their primary goal was to control its entire operations by maintaining efficient production, transportation, product storage and its distribution, and selling in its product outlets (Bonacich & Wilson, 2005). Consequently, the management applied an integrative approach to coordinate all the processes from the time the raw products were obtained to the time they were sold to the user in the market environment. Apart from cost strategies, management of this company has employed numerous business strategies to coordinate the supply chain to their advantage. One of the strategies that Wal-Mart management has employed to remain competitive in its dominant countries is the use of pricing strategies to ensure that it is capable of supplying its products to distant markets at lower prices than its competitors. Often, the cost of moving products from the point of production to the point of consumption places cost overheads on the final product cost resulting to high priced goods (Stentoft, 2010). The ability of an organization to reduce the transport cost overheads makes it possible for it to reduce the selling cost without having to sacrifice the quality of the product. Wal-Mart maintained low supply cost by eliminating the role of middlemen in the product path. Although middle men play a key role in supplying raw materials and supplying ready products to the customer, they impose a large overhead cost that often

Adaptive Change in Law Enforcement Supervision Essay

Adaptive Change in Law Enforcement Supervision - Essay Example Adaptive change involves altering attitudes, behaviors, or long-standing values in order to be responsive to changing conditions within the organization. This theory runs under the assumption that there will be resistance to change, and this makes adaptive responses more challenging, since adapting will require changing mindsets and sometimes even principles to ensure an effective change plan and implementation. Heifetz’ principles of adaptive change are highly relevant in the contemporary police organization, requiring multiple competencies of supervision in order to create a cohesive and flexible policing organization. The supervisor, according to Heifetz, must be able to recognize when individual or organizational values will be a risk to a change and determine when the specific challenge will require adaption to determine a problem resolution. According to Stephens (2005, p.53), policing has historically maintained a system of values and attitudes that represent a â€Å"s low-to-change subculture†. In the modern police organization, it is becoming a common practice to be more interactive with local citizens and local government as part of cooperative, community-minded policing activities.

Knowledgement Management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Knowledgement Management - Research Paper Example 1). The meaning of the term knowledge was qualified by Baker, Baker, Thorne, & Dutnell (1997), â€Å"knowledge is present in ideas, judgments, talents, root causes, relationships, perspectives and concepts. Knowledge can be related to customers, products, processes, culture, skills, experiences and know-how† (cited in Kalpic & Bernus, 2006, p. 44). KM is therefore important to the success of the organization because through the collective shared efforts of various stakeholders, the potentials and resources of the organizations are maximized. Core competencies and strengths are capitalized to enable the organization to address risks, threats and changes in external environmental factors that would impinge on the firm’s operations. Accordingly, not only are the organizational objectives achieved; but more so, the relevant contribution of the organization’s stakeholders are thereby percieved as instrumental for the firm’s success and therefore, make each cont ributor better motivated to share their inputs towards a greater good. As noted from Kalpic & Bernus’ (2006) discourse, â€Å"Rouggles (1998), for example, found that the four most common KM projects conducted by organizations were creating/implementing an intranet, knowledge repositories, decision support tools, or groupware to support collaboration† (p. 49). The creation and implementation of an intranet is deemed crucial for organizations to access and connect volumes and diverse information through different departments and functions within the organization. This is an example of KM due to the interplay of inputs, processes and systems that need to be identified, analyzed and connected, as required. Decision-support tools are also examples of KM programs were organizational policies and procedures identify and authorize authorities to decide on significant aspects, alternatives, and options that each personnel, department, or group makes on a daily basis. The design and implementation of

Model for Integrating Physical and Virtual Identity Management Systems Thesis

Model for Integrating Physical and Virtual Identity Management Systems - Thesis Example This research will begin with the presentation of theories in the field of security and identity. Secure authentication protocol for the multi-server environment using dynamic ID. This theory relies on the nonce-based (a value or counter) mechanism rather than timestamp. The authentication key of the user is based on two factors such that the theft of one cannot be used to recreate the other, thereby improving the level of security. The theft of the past session key cannot serve to provide access to any individual twice since the key is nonce-based and unique every time. User anonymity is protected with the dynamicity of the variables of the login session. The user Ui sends the following login message to the desired server Sj: (CIDi, Pij, Qi, Ni) where CIDi is the dynamic and ID of Ui, Pij and Qij are nonce-based variables and Ni is the nonce value. The above-mentioned variables are computed by hash functions in accordance with the uniquely generated nounce. This technique not only p rovides a unique session but also hides the identity of the user.   Its attributes: Two-factor authentication; Single registration for multi-server access; User anonymity; Avoidance of time-synchronization problem. These authors have not implemented their approach in the physical environments; however, the attributes of their theory seem effective enough to facilitate a secure service in multi-server environments.... Several laws and security measures are deployed to protect the identity of individuals in the physical world but minimal efforts have been witnessed for the provision of such laws in online spaces. Control of personal information Clear mapping between physical and virtual identity Conceal information This theory is relevant since it provides an individual certain rights to control the exposure of his personal information. This enhances the level of privacy and security of the data. The authors explain the implementation of the concept of e-ID federation which provides access across multiple platforms [21]. e-ID federation implements a security token service (STS) that is based on the Windows Identity Framework. The authentication mechanism is based on security certificates, login forms, Windows Authentication and OpenID credentials [22]. A common platform is established by the STS that can be accessed by different sources to authenticate the individuals. The interoperability takes pl ace on an intermediate layer that serves as an abstraction of the authentication mechanism. The federated authentication mechanism of STS can be seen in Appendix A.2 Security certificates OpenID credentials WS Federation Specification The STS authentication mechanism has been explained in a comprehensive manner with the aid of a diagram. Windows Identity framework can serve as the basis of the authentication mechanism for the chosen research study. Perspectives Theory name Definition of the theory The reason for selecting this theory Its attributes If the theory and attributes can be applied in virtual or physical environments Acceptability and

Death in the laboratory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Death in the laboratory - Essay Example Due to the nature of the evidence, it is most likely that the Count who was discovered dead in a laboratory on 21 September died as a result of the injury caused to his body through the assault of his disease. Upon entering the scene, the body of the Count was displayed in such a way to suggest that he had fallen at the point of his death. One leg was at an awkward angle and his arm was thrown behind his back. Initial point of view suggested that he his death had been caused in such a way that he was surprised and not prepared for the fall. Since there was no evidence of bodily injury, the initial overview of the laboratory suggested that perhaps he had suffered from some sort of poisoning, either through the still open food that sat near his body or the cigarette that still had some length to it, but was no longer burning as if it had been snubbed out previous to consuming the meal. In addition, a video on safety and health was in the DVD player, along with research on the effects of the drug therapy cisplatin for use in ovarian and blood cancers. Chloroform and liquid nitrogen were also found on the scene. Further investigation into the meaning of the research revealed that it was cente red on the manipulation of DNA towards the goal of creating a successful type of gene therapy. The initial investigation into the Count’s financial life revealed that he had become near to bankruptcy, his bank account drained of what had originally been a significant savings only a short time ago, now overdrawn. Near his body was found a series of pharmaceuticals that have a specific purpose that was identified. Cisplatin, oxaliplatin, fluorouracil, and folinic acid were all found arranged on a surface near the body. Oxaliplatin is used in combination with cisplatin when innate or acquired resistance to the cisplatin therapy exists (International Symposium on Platinum Coordination Compounds in Cancer Chemotherapy, and

Voluntary Active Euthanasia Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Voluntary Active Euthanasia - Research Paper Example 2). Which elements would proposed legislation need to possess in order to safely permit and suitably regulate VAE? It is clear to observe that the reluctance to legalize VAE is based primarily on fears of abuse (Keown, 2002, p. 74) combined with fears that terminally ill patients would â€Å"feel under pressure to agree to an assisted death† (Smartt, 2009, p. 100). However, such apprehensions can be eased and overcome by properly drafted and implemented legislation which would precisely prevent abuse and strike an appropriate balance between the right to life and the right to die. The public perception of VAE is clear: studies suggest that a huge majority of the public stands in favor of legalizing VAE, and those who were against it expressed the very aforementioned fears of abuse (Chapple et al, 2006). The legalization of euthanasia would have a difficult task ahead of it, but such legalization would not be impossible, and would also be beneficial to society as a whole. The l aw generally protects the autonomy of individuals in several areas of life, yet the ability to choose between autonomy and life when the two conflict is an issue that the law has been rather reluctant to delve into (Callahan and Keown, 1995, p. 208). Some question the point of the assessment of whether some have a more ‘worthy’ life than others, thus rendering them with a greater right to life: the issues rather turns on the fact that â€Å"doctors have never been under a duty to preserve life at all costs† (Keown, 2002, p. 58). There is an obvious stigma which is closely linked to allowing others to enact VAE, however. It is arguable that there can safely exist a social duty to end the pain of a person who expressly declares a wish to end their life, and that this duty can override the fears and apprehensions of society as a whole (Hooker, 2002, p. 26). Very little evidence exists to provide foundations for the argument that legalization of VAE would gradually b e interpreted as a positive duty to end the life of suffering individuals in all cases; its very restriction to ‘voluntariness’ would overcome such fears. Some argue that the value of human life cannot be overridden by any conflicting theory, thus rendering VAE morally incorrect because the sanctity of life should never be actively legislated against (Keown, 1997, pp. 482-484). Such arguments approach the issue of VAE on simplistic notions of good versus bad, and this is not a realistic approach; it is suggested that ethics should be approached as a science allowing notions of good and bad to be balanced against one another in specific situations. This would enable the argument surrounding VAE to escape irrelevant and frustratingly complex analyses of morality and enable legal drafters to approach the issue on an objective level. The most potent arguments against VAE are based on the assumption that such a law would be applied equally to all individuals, resulting in th e requirement that terminally ill individuals have their life prematurely taken. This is described by Laing as a situation in which â€Å"disability may be ruthlessly eliminated and some perceived form of perfection imposed’ (1997, p. 4). This argument is however unrealistic. It would be extremely easy to draft the law in a manner that would expressly forbid the extension of VAE to involuntary euthanasia. Careful drafting could safely ensure that it would not be mandatory for every terminally

The Gathering by Isobelle Carmody Essay Example for Free

The Gathering by Isobelle Carmody Essay The Gathering by Isobelle Carmody portrays the dark side of human nature. It shows that mans behaviour does not vary over long periods of time and across different cultures. It shows that each and every single person has an evil or dark side to them and it is whether they succumb to this evil or follow the paths of light and goodness that decide what kind of person they are. Cheshunt, where the story is set appears to be a fairly normal town. When Nathanial and his mother arrive, Nathanial instinctively knows that something is not quite right. Nathanial is there for a reason. He and the other members of The Chain must learn the power of friendship to defeat the evil Kraken. The dark side of human nature is seen in many characters: Cheshunts headmaster Mr Karle is a truly evil person. Although Mr Karles only role in the community is Deputy Principal of Three North, he has manipulated those who do have a major role in the community into making himself the main power over all Cheshunt. His goal is to become the ruler of the world, starting with Cheshunt. To make sure that The Chain does not defeat him, Mr Karle defeats one member at a time. Mr Karle portrays the dark side of human nature he has attained power that he then uses to control all those around him. He has become corrupted by this power and with it he is able to manipulate the other characters to perform vicious acts. Mr Karle taunts and mocks in an attempt to emotionally destroy those around him he takes pleasure in others emotional pain. He causes distress in Nathanial when he tells him of his cold hearted father who was Insanely jealous. Unstable. Violent (page 263) and how Nathanials mother learnt not to speak to anyone or smile in fear of what his father would do to her. When Mr Karle reminds Indian that his sister is brain damaged because of Indians own mistakes he does this knowing the heartache this will cause. He mocks Nissa calling her unfeminine and unattractive and how no one could love such a creature except out of pity (page 246). Mr Karle defeats one character at a time. He is physically cruel and used force to hurt them. Mr Karle embodies all that is the dark side of human nature, he is cruel both  emotionally and physically Then the Kraken stepped forward and slapped her across the face. A trickle of dark blood ran from the corner of her mouth (page 249). He is corrupted by po wer, he is manipulative and in all this he takes pleasure. He is a true sadist. The dark side in human nature is also portrayed in many of the other characters, this is evidenced in Buddha Isobelle Carmody has used the name Buddha that represents peace and harmony and made him a killer. He burns Nathanials dog, The Tod, who is Nathanials only true friend and Nathanial loves. The match landed in his tail and flames swept forward up over him. Devoured him. He arched and coiled, yelping in pain and fright, and then he screamed, a long inhuman howl of agony and terror.(page 214). When Buddha burns The Tod it is a vicious, cowardly act and is evidence of how dark mans nature can be, that he can murder a poor, defenseless creature that is incapable of fighting back, also that the act was carried out in front of Nathanial to cause him immense grief and feelings of powerlessness. What is even more disturbing is that this is such a real act that could happen in our everyday life. How the people who are in a position to protect us and how they use this authority in a destructive way is also shown. The police, who are supposed to be good and honest are corrupt and evil. They protect the evil leaders and enforce their law, The pamphlet stuck under the door the day we arrived had welcomed us to the neighbourhood and urged my mother to join the Community Committee. It had a lot of by law information and the bit about the curfew was last. It said no one was to be out in the streets after ten at night without a specific reason. (page 20). The police either stood aside and let the people of Cheshunt be intimidated and bullied or were doing the intimidating and bullying themselves. Seth is a part of the chain that is needed to defeat the evil but Seth has given in to his dark side. He has a very weak character. Despite Seth being a brain (page 10), looking like one of those perfect guys off Coke ads (page 10) and coming from a good family, His father is a policeman (page 55) he is pathetic. He is sneaky and drinks alcohol to escape facing  reality. He cant deal with his own problems (his parents are divorced and he cant deal with being in the Chain and the effort it takes to defy Mr Karle) and uses his weaknesses as an excuse to attempt to commit suicide, Seth lay on his back between them, his face dead white. (page 142) He breaks promises You promised, Nissa said icily. (page 138). He also betrays those around him Mr Karle gave Nissa a radiant smile. Got him? But you misunderstand, Nissa. I didnt get Seth. He came to us.' (page 250). Nathanials father is a character who shows that mans dark side does not vary over long periods of time. Nathanials father was a violent jealous man who liked to have complete control over everything. He was jealous of Nathanial and the attention he got from his mother, especially when Nathanial was a baby I had to sometimes hold your mouth to stop the crying (page 264). Mans darkest nature was shown when his father attempted to kill Nathanial, Children should be seen and not heard, he said, and his big hands closed around my neck. And squeezed. (page 247). This is absolute evidence of innate evil that a father could try to murder his own son. In conclusion, The Gathering shows us the dark side of human nature and it is vividly portrayed. It has a realness that shows that evil is present in the past and in the future and is occurring right now, in all parts of our life. It shows that power can corrupt you and consume you absolutely. It also shows us that cruelty, deceit, jealousy and manipulation are just some of the many ways evil can be shown.

Determining Attributes to Maximize Visibility of Objects

Determining Attributes to Maximize Visibility of Objects A Critique on  Determining Attributes to  Maximize Visibility of Objects Muhammed Miah Gautam Das Vagelis Hristidis Heikki Mannila Vidisha H. Shah 1. Summary of the published work Das, Hristidis, and Mannila (2009, p. 959) discussed about the ranking function and top k retrieval algorithms that helps user (potential buyers to search for the required product from the available catalog. The problem is how a user (potential seller) should select attributes of new tuple that the product stands out from the other available products. So there are several formulation that were developed by the author and few that are already in practice. According to authors, to run a query(search) keywords are entered on basis of which search is conducted (p. 959). The query anserwing system may return all the values that fulfill the condition it is also called as unranked retrieval or Boolean retrieval, or can rank the answers and return top k values known as ranked retrieval or Top-k retrieval. The example given by the author is objects can be ranked on the attribute based on price or based on relevance. The example and a problem related to it is described by the author. A user wants to classify an ad to rent an apartment in an online newspaper (p. 959). The given ad (tuple) has various attributes like number of bedrooms, location and so on. The cost factor is also involved in any ad so accordingly attribute that will provide better visibility should be selected. To understand which attributes provide better visibility we can built it on basis of previous sellers recommendation (tradition technique) or an argument by which we can view the ranking function buy which we can understand which attribute will lead to high ranking score. Example adding an attribute swimming pool can increase the visibility, or a catchy title or indexing keywords (for an article). Let D be the database of some product that has been advertised already (competitor). Author is considering that the database can be a relational table or a text document (p. 960). If database is a relational table then each tuple i n the table is a product and every column is an attribute related to the product. If database is a collection of text document then each document contains data regarding a specific product (ad). The set of queries or search conditions that have been executed in past by the user is stated as Q. therefore Q is the â€Å"query log† or â€Å"workload†. The query log is the record of the queries that have been used buy the potential buyers in the past. So the query could be like SQL query or query based on key word that will return a tuple from D(database). The problem given by the author is when a D(database), Q(query log), new tuple t and integer m are given determine best m attributes for tuple t such that when the shortened version of the tuple t with m attributes is inserted in d then the number of queries from Q retrieving tuple t is maximized (p. 960). In this paper variant of m is also considered that is when m is given by the user or when m is not mentioned. In this paper author has consider several variants like Boolean (unranked retrieval) (P 960), categorical variant, text and numeric data variant and conjunctive and disjunctive query semantics. Budget variant is also considered where in if m is not given the objective of maximizing the visibility is achieved keeping m minimum. No- budget variant is also considered where value of m is not given and the only aim is to gain maximum visibility of the object and for that all possible attributes can be added. In the preliminaries section author describes that for the given database D it contains tuples {t1, t2,†¦.tm}. Each tuple t has various attributes { a1, a2,†¦. an}. Tuple t will have either value 1 or 0. 0 implies that the attribute is absent and 1 implies that the feature is available. Tuple Domination means that if a tuple has all attributes value 1 that that tuple dominates. Tuple compression of t which has m attributes. It retains all 1’s in m and converts rest all attributes to 0 (p. 961). In Conjunctive Boolean with query log(CB-QL) variant the problem definition stated by the author is when a Q with Conjunctive Boolean retrieval semantics, tuple t, and integer m are given then have to compute compressed tuple with m attribute with maximum visibility(p. 961). For this problem author uses NP-Completeness Results and derives the Theorem that the decision version of CB-QL problem is NP-hard. Author explains various algorithms for Conjunctive Boolean with query log (p. 961). First is Optimal Brute Force Algorithm. As stated earlier that CB-QL is NP-hard so during worst case optional algorithm will run in polynomial time. The problem can be solved by a simple. This problem can be solved by simple brute force algorithm. So can be called as Brute Force-CB-QL which will consider all the combination of all m attributes of the tuple t such that the combination will satisfy to achieve maximum visibility among Q. In Optimal Algorithm Based on Integer Linear programming an ILP framework CB-QL can be described as follows, new tuple t be a Boolean vector has various attributes {a1,a2,†¦an}. Q be the query log and S be the total number of queries in query log. So the task is to This integer linear formulation is attractive unlike other general IP solvers, ILP solvers and are also usually more efficient(p. 962). According to author in Optimal Algorithm that is Based on Maximal Frequent Item Sets according to the author this algorithm is based on Integer Linear Programming, but this has certain limitation so author says it is impractical if there are more than few hundred of queries in the Q query log. The author has develop an alternate approach for the same which scales large query logs very well (p. 963). This algorithm is called MaxFreqItemSets-CB-QL, for this author has defined the frequent item set problem, Complementing the Query Log, Setting of the Threshold Parameter, Random Walk to Compute Maximal Frequent Item Sets, Complexity Analysis of a Random Walk Sequence, Number of Iterations, Frequent Item Sets at Level M _ m, Preprocessing Opportunities, The Per-Attribute Variant. Author says in Greedy Heuristics algorithm becomes slow for large query logs when maximal frequent item set based algorithm has better scalability then the IPL based algorithm (p. 964). So author has developed suboptimal greedy heuristic for solving CB-QL. The algorithm consist of ConsumeAttr-CB-QL computes the number of times each attribute appears in Q. Using this top m attributes that have highest frequency is computed. The algorithm ConsumeAttrCumul-CB-QL first selects the attributes from the query log Q that has occurred maximum times and then finds the attribute that occurs second highest in the Q, and so on. The algorithm ConsumeQueries-CB-QL picks the query with minimum number of attributes first, and then selects all attributes specified in the query. In next section author explains problem variant for text data. In the text database there is a collection of documents, and each document consist a data of a particular ad (p. 965). The problem definition for text data is that query is a set of keywords and have to retrieve top-k documents via query specific scoring functions and make the document maximum visible. According to author text database can be directly mapped into Boolean database (p. 965). So the algorithm and the working can be made similar to that of Boolean Data but author says that there is a problem with attribute selection for text data is NP-complete. It can convert it into Boolean considering each key word as a Boolean attribute. So according to author since text database can be converted to Boolean database in the algorithm for text data the are two issues firstly to view each text keyword as a Boolean attribute in query log Q, and none of the optimal algorithms are feasible for text data (p. 965) . Second issue is that in text data the scoring functions that are used takes account of the document length and leads to decrease the score if keyword has low frequency. In the next section author has described about the experiments that were conducted and there results. For this experiments system that was used had following configuration P4, 1 GB RAM, 3.2- GHZ processor, 100 GB HDD, Microsoft SQL Server 2,000 RDBMS. Algorithms were implemented in C# Language, for backend RDBMS and connectivity was done using ADO. 2 data sets were used for Boolean data and publication titles were used for text data experiments. 185 queries in query log were created for the experiments, 205 distinct keywords were created by other students. The experiment worked well for Boolean data CB-QL where top m attributes were given and had maximum visibility for 185 queries. Individual experiments were done to calculate the execution time of each algorithms of CB-QL. Various statistical data is given by the author that gives how individual algorithm runs under various workload. Various similar experiments were done for text data also and its algorithm and similar statistical d ata is given by the author (p. 965). In the next section various other problem variants for Boolean data, categorical and numeric data are considered. In that author has first explain Conjunctive Boolean-Data (CB-D) in which author describes its problem definition for maximum visibility given D(database), Q(query log), t (new tuple) and m(integer). For the given problem definition complexity results for CB-D and its algorithm are given by the author (p. 967). Then next variant considered is Top-k – Global Ranking (Tk-GR) and Top-k – Query-Specific Ranking (Tk-QR) and in that author considers Top-k retrieval using Global and Query-Specific Scoring Function. Then problem definition for Tk-GR and Tk-QR is stated by the author and then its complexity and algorithm for the same are given(P.968). Next variant considered by the author is Skyline Boolean (SB) where skyline retrieval semantics are considered then problem definition for SB then its complexity and algorithms are discussed. In the similar way remainin g variants Conjunctive Boolean—Query Log—Negation (CB-QL-Negation), Maximize Query Coverage (MQC), Categorical and Numeric Data are discussed by the author(P. 969). In conclusion author describes that how the best attributes for the problem can be selected from the data set given query log. Author has presented variants for many cases like Boolean data or categorical or text data and numeric data (p. 972). And has showed that even though the problem is NP complete the optimal algorithms are feasible for small inputs. Author has also presented greedy algorithms that can produce good approximation ratio. 2. My Opinion on published work The use of internet and network has increased tremendously and with that the data available on network has increased but the main problem is information to knowledge conversion that is finding data that is useful to the user, over spam. The algorithm discussed by the author can be used to improve the visibility of the document. In the paper author has not just given algorithm for Boolean type data but also text data and other variant that is the algorithm can be used for real time data that is in various forms. The main focus of the author is on potential seller and what all attributes should be added to maximize the visibility of the advisement or the document on the web so that the potential buyers can view that document in first few options, but this can be used other way round to and using this spam can be created, a document that is a fake document that has various attributes which are not true but are added added to gain maximum visibility, which should not be even displayed in the given category. The author makes assumption about the competitors or say other advertise, and assumptions about the users preferences are made as well. The queries in the query log where written by random students and not according to what actual users want, so there is no guarantee that this will work equally well in real time environment and will actually maximize the visibility with real time users and on real network. As given by the author in every problem definition of every variant that given D database and given Q query log but in real time for many application neither D(database) nor Q(query log) is available for analysis so user have to make assumptions about the competitors and users (potential buyers) need and there after have to decide the Top-k attributes from the subset of all the attributes that will help the user to achieve maximum visibility with minimum number of attributes. In the paper the author has given various variant by which the visibility of the object can be maximized in various cases and has various optimal algorithms and greedy algorithm. Optimal algorithm gives optimal outputs but works well for small inputs only as and when the size of input increases the algorithm does not work well. Greedy algorithm produces approximate results that can be seen from the experiments done by the author with various variants. According to Ao-Jan Su, Y. Charlie Hu, Aleksandar Kuzmanovic, and Cheng-Kok Koh Page rank of any document or advertisement is not only depended on the attributes but also on key words in host name, the key words in the URL, HTML header so with the selection of proper attributes in the document user also needs to keep a check on above mentioned factors also to maximize the visibility of the object.(2010, P. 55) Angelica Caro has given a table of Data quality and visibility rankings for Spanish university portals. In which author has given DQ* ranking, Visibility ranking, Partial visibility rankings in terms of Site, Links and Popularity, Distance* where *DQ means data quality and *Distance between the data quality and visibility rankings. Teal numbers indicate the portals that are relatively close in both rankings. So from the result given by the author it is seen that there is not a precise order that is the data quality of a site can be ranked 1 but visibility is 19 because it is based on other factors also like its popularity, links, sites and distance. So even if the DQ is not very good but it is popular or it has many incoming links can lead to improve the overall ranking of the page and thereby maximizes the visibility of the page. The statistic of the site that has ranks first in visibility is data quality is 5 visibility is 1 site 1 links 1 popularity 3 distance 4 so it can be seen that to gain maximum visibility we cannot just depend on attributes of the data that is not just data quality but there are various other factors that is required to be considered to improve visibility of the object, that is not considered in the paper by the author.(2011, p. 46). References Ao-Jan Su, Hu, Y.C., Kuzmanovic, A., Cheng-Kok Koh (2010). How to Improve Your Google Ranking: Myths and Reality.2010 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference onWeb Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology (WI-IAT),1, 50-57.doi: 10.1109/WI-IAT.2010.195 Caro, A., Calero, C., Moraga, M.A.(2011). Are Web Visibility and Data Quality Related Concepts?.Internet Computing, IEEE, 15(2), 43-49.doi: 10.1109/MIC.2010.126 Miah, M., Das, G., Hristidis, V., Mannila, H. (2009). Determining Attributes to Maximize Visibility of Objects.Knowledge and Data Engineering, IEEE Transactions on,21(7), 959-973.doi: 10.1109/TKDE.2009.72

Life Cycle Assessment of a Computer Mouse

Life Cycle Assessment of a Computer Mouse TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT This project Life Cycle assessment aims at learning about how to conduct a life cycle assessment of a given product ( in this project computer mouse is the product) using Cambridge Engineering Selector (CES) software. In this document History of the mouse as of when it was invented and what are the developments that took place in years, composition of mouse, raw materials used in the mouse, the manufacturing process and the by products and waste during the manufacturing and extraction of the computer mouse will be discussed. Later on with the help of Cambridge Engineering selector we use the application of Eco audit tool and provide it necessary input into it to achieve the necessary output. The output is the outcome or the result of the project. In addition to that each and every component of the computer mouse will be discussed in detail and the environmental hazards related to the production of each of them will be discussed. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deep appreciation to my supervisor Mr. N.HART, for his guidance, review, suggestions, kindness, valuable time, criticisms and comments throughout my M.sc Project. I am most grateful and thankful to university technical staff Michael Britton for his encouragement from the very beginning of the study and guiding me throughout my M.sc course. I remain indebted and my love goes to my family for helping me accomplish this thesis. My parents have been a constant source of support-emotional, moral and financial during my post graduate years and this thesis would certainly not have existed without them. 1. INTRODUCTION History of computer mouse: Dr. Douglas Engelbart has invented the first device that came out as mouse in the year 1964. During this time the only way the cursor scrolling position in the computer screen was by using the arrow keys on the keyboard and it was really inefficient and awkward to use. It incorporates mechanism which is in the form of small brick with one button on top and underneath two wheels and was made by Douglas. The purpose of these wheels is to detect horizontal and vertical movement and on the whole the unit was little bit difficult to use. For viewing the cursor on the monitor The connection to the computer was established by means of a cable so that the motion signals could be sent out electrically. A long cable tail featured like device like a mouse so the name â€Å"mouse† came into picture.NASA team tried different methods which enables the cursor to move on the computer screen like the devices Light pens, knee switches and steering wheels, albeit, in testing of these devices Eng el arts mouse gained popularity. Engineers thought that the mouse was ideal for drafting and illustration purposes And could build up computer aided designs on the same desk. Slowly mouse began to be called as input/output device. To make the scrolling easier the mouse began to multiply rapidly. The wire coming out from the mouse reminded a tail which is one end and the other end is used for connecting to the central processing unit. 2. BODY AND COMPOSITION OF THE MOUSE: Body of the mouse: The outer surface of the mouse is Hard plastic body which the user guides across a flat surface The tail of a mouse is an electrical cable that leads out from one end and finishes at the connection at the Central Processing Unit It posses one to three buttons at the extremity which are external contacts to tiny electrical switches With a click on the button the electrical circuit is forced to close and the computer receives a command Below the mouse theres an plastic hatch that fits over a rubberized ball which exposes a small part of the ball A support wheel and two shafts hold the ball in place inside the Mouse Rotation of the spokes causes IR light signals from light emitting diode to flick through the spoke which are then captured by a light detector Phototransistors help to translate these light signals into electrical pulses which reach the integrated circuit interface in the mouse These pulses then confirms the IC whether the ball has followed an up down or left right movement The IC commands the cursor to scroll on to the screen consequently. The interface IC is then ascended onto a printed circuit board. This forms the skeleton to which each and every Internal mechanism in the mouse are joined The information from the signals and switches coming out from the phototransistors is collected by a computer chip or IC These are then sent to the computer by means of a data stream The Brain of the Mouse: Every mouse design consists of an individual software known as driver These driver are The external brain which enables the PC to comprehend the mouse signals. The driver commands the PC how to understand the mouses IC data stream including speed, direction, and clicked commands The mouses IC data stream which includes clicked commands, direction and speed. Few mouse drivers permit the user to specify performance to the buttons and vary the mouses resolution ( distance relative to cursor and mouse travel). The Mouse which are purchased as a part of computer packages have built in drivers or is programmed initially in the computers RAW MATERIALS IN THE MOUSE The outer shell of the mouse and the majority of its internal parts, which includes spoked wheels and shafts are usually made up of Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) plastic which is usually injection moulded. The ball is basically made of metal which is rubber coated and is usually supplied by a speciality supplier The electrical micro switches which is produced from metal and plastic are of shelf items which are supplied by subcontractors even though the designers of the mouse can specify force requirements for switches to make it easier of harder to click. The chips or IC could be standard items even though individual manufacturer might have proprietary chips which can be utilised in its complete products line. The outside source also supplies electrical cables and over moulds To suit the design of mouse the printed circuit board (PCB) over Which the mechanical and electrical components are accumulated is tradition made Oscillators, integrated circuits, capacitors, electrical resistors and various other components are made of different types of plastic, metal and silicon The raw materials which are used in manufacturing of a computer mouse are as follows: Mouse Design: The basic design of a computer mouse was conceived and prototyped in early 1960s and steriolithography concept is employed efficiently within the concurrent engineering. The concurrent engineering development takes place in two design teams , the electrical team emphasizing on control circuitry and the mechanical team working on casing layout and button geometry. For operating the mouse, the users posture, finger extension needed to reach the buttons, use by both right and left handed individuals, no prolonged static electricity and lastly the requirements safety and comfort They alter widely depending on whether the use of mouse is in home or office computers The brief design of mouse for the proposed mouse is written to explain Which the mechanical and electrical components are accumulated is tradition made an appearance is also proposed in staying along with the probable market. The design team comes back to the table along with foam models; for a single mouse design scores of var ious shapes are made and the user testing on the models are performed whereas the preliminary tests are performed by engineers or the focus may be turned onto groups as typical users or observes one to one testing with user samples. When a suitable selection is chosen, wooden models which are more refined and painted are produced from the winning design. The input of the model is acquired based on the feel, shape and looks and then ergonomist reviews the probable designs and confirms the goal of human factors guidelines to be achieved. After an optimal design is chosen the engineering team starts modelling the internal components. A 3D performance is generated by the computer and same information is used to machine-cut the postures of the exterior shell with every details. Inside the structure the mechanical and electronic engineers fit the printed circuit board and the encoder mechanism. The phenomena of fitting the workings on to the shell are iterative, the changes are then made and then the design and fit process are conducted so long as the mouse achieves the design objectives and the design team is happy. The custom chips are then designed and produced on a trial basis and then tested; for the design to meet the performance objectives and provide it unique, competitive and marketable characteristics the help of custom electronics is required. The fully completed design figures are handed over to the project tooled who then starts the process of modifying machines to manufacture the mouse. To generate the injection moulding of the shell tooling diagrams are made into use. The factors like shape and size, volume of the cavity, the number of gates through which the plastic will be injected into the mould, and the plastic flow in the mould are all diagrammed and studied after analyzing the final plans of tooling the tools are fabricated using computer aided data. Prototype plastic shells are made as try shots to find out the actual flow lines and to make sure that voids are not included. the process is precise. Texture is applied to the external outlook of the shell by sand blasting or by acid etching. The Manufacturing Process: To manufacture a computer mouse several processes are used to make different pieces of the unit. The processes that are used in manufacturing are as follows. First the Printed Circuit board (PCB) is prepared in the journey of manufacturing and assembling steps. This board is a flat, resin coated sheet that can be of surface-mount design or through hole design. The assembly of surface mount version is entirely done by the machine. The other electrical components are placed on to the board in prescribed pattern by a computer controlled automatic sequencer. The connecting wires of the electronic components are induced in the holes of the PCB assembly. Then all the components are placed on the board, the bottom surface is passed through molten lead solder in a soldering machine. This machine removes contaminants by passing the board with flux. The board is gently heated by the machine and the component it induces with infrared heat is to lessen the possibility of thermal shock. The solder raises each line by hair-like activity, seals the perforations and repairs the components in the correct placeAfter this process is done the PCB is cooled a nd is visually inspected before the mechanism is attached. A separate unit is assembled for the encoder mechanism. Injection moulding process is used to manufacture the plastic parts (computer mouse case housing) with proper specifications and the left over scrap plastic material is trimmed off. The whole unit is fastened to the PC Board using screws keeping in view after the encoder mechanism is completely assembled. With set of wires, rubber and shielding cover the mouses tail and its electrical cable attached are manufactured. Overmolds are the additional pieces of the cable to obstruct the cable from separating away from the mouse. We can make our own shapes of design for overmolds, the near mouse overmold is hooked to the At the other end of the tail the connector is then soldered to the wires and the connector over mold is exploded into place. The outer shell pieces are then examined visually after moulding, Trimming and surface finish treatment and before the assembly. The external housing is assembled in four steps. To the bottom of the shell the completed PCB and encoder assembly are inserted. Onto the housing top part, the cable is joined; the bottom and top are joined together using automated screwdrivers. The last electronics and the achievement quality inspection are accomplished, if assembly is complete in the substantial one. Rubber or neoprene feet with the adhesive covering in front-turned at a side is added the lower surface of the mouse. A programming team has been developing; testing, reproducing the mouse driver firm ware, while the tooling designs and physical assembly are in progress. As above said â€Å"firmware† is the combination of software and hardware codes which has the unity of integrated circuit, translated mouse directional movements and micro switch signals which are understood when the mouse is attached. By-products and waste: Computer mice makers do not generate by-products from the manufacturers of mouse, albeit most of them suggest a variety of alike devices for altered applications. In order to avoid the design, tooling, assembly modification costs the new and multiple designs are in corporate when possible. Waste is minimal. The mouses ABS plastic skin is highly recyclable and can be ground, moulded, and reground many times. Small quantities can be recycled using metal scrap and other plastics. 3. LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT: LCA is a holistic tool used to identify the environmental consequences of a product, process or activity through its entire life cycle and to identify opportunities for achieving environmental improvements. Life cycle stages include: Raw materials acquisition, Manufacturing, Use/reuse. Maintenance. And recycling/waste management. For epitome, in the case of computer mouse an LCA involves making detailed measurements during the manufacture of the device. In the design stage of new products LCA information is very useful LCA gives the whole assessment of the point of origin to the end of a product or process, i.e from processing of natural resources to shipping, mining, and also how the material be recycled or reused and till it is disposed permanently. As a system, LCA identifies the whole process and possible environmental effects throughout a products life cycle. The term life cycle refers to the holistic assessment which assess all the operations in the supply chain ,i.e raw material production , production, fabricating, distribution, modes of transport, end product, use and disposal of all the materials or products involved . .LCA method is one of the executive methods for evaluating the environment. It identifies that each and every product has certain influence on the environment during its life cycle, where each product is standardized and is temporarily assigned an environmental annex. For in this regard life cycle assessment is a central tool. The LCA method can be classified into three steps :- Inventory analysis Goal and scope definition Impact assessment The technique which allows the comparison of the environmental impacts of materials and products is Life Cycle Assessment. This assessment allows us to modify the quantitative data and to identify the potential environmental impacts of the material or product on the environment. LCA is common for assessments to be made of more limited periods eg. Cradle-to-gate and cover the entire life cycle life cycle of a material. The entire analysis is referred to as cradle-to-cradle which refers to production from extraction of raw materials, production and delivery and is often broken down into phases of lesser ambition. Goal and scope definition :- Scoping is the most critical component of LCA because it provides a frame of reference for the entire study and helps define interrelationships among the other three LCA components; inventory analysis, impact assessment, and improvement assessment. The goal definition identifies the overall purpose for the LCA and its intended applications. Goal definition and scoping initiates the LCA and then drives the scope, boundary settings, data categories and data needs. This process is continuously revisited during an LCA. Scoping defines the boundaries, assumptions and limitations and should be done before an LCA is conducted to ensure that the breadth and depth of analysis are consistent with the defined goal of the LCA. Inventory Analysis: It is the well-developed component of LCA. A completed inventory analysis provides an overview of the life-cycle inputs and outputs associated with a particular system. The results of an inventory analysis may be used to identify areas to achieve improvement, as baseline information for conducting an impact assessment or some combination of the two. This analysis gives the boundaries of the system to be studied and develop a data questionnaire to collect the appropriate data. Develops, stand alone subsystem data and conducts a peer review to validate the results. This analysis may be used to identify areas to achieve improvement as baseline information for conducting an impact assessment. Impact Assessment: In this phase of LCA, the inputs and outputs of the system identified in the inventory analysis are translated into quantitative and or qualitative descriptions of environmental impacts by using models. A very few LCAs have attempted to include impacts because of the inherent complexities and data requirements of impact assessment. We do impact assessment because it provides the LCA user information that is more useful for decision making. Some of the LCA impact categories: Impacts of land use Climate change Stratospheric ozone depletion Human toxicity Ecotoxicity Photo-oxidant formation Impacts of ionizing radiation Acidification Eutrophication Depletion of abiotic resources Depletion of biotic resources Improvement Assessment: It is the least developed component of LCA. The main purpose of improvement assessment is to identify and evaluate specific actions that target priority impacts within the life-cycle frame work. Identification and estimation of opportunities to achieve improvements in processes that result in reduced environmental impacts, is based on the results of an inventory study or impact assessment. LCA may be utilised for several purposes To develop the environmental aspects of a product and to find out the frail systems in the product chain. For product improvement for environmentally enhanced products. For making executive decisions in governmental organisations. Helps to select and compare among the available products. For mixture of relevant indicator of environmental presentation. 4. ECO AUDIT TOOL Eco audit tool enables the product designers to quickly evaluate the environmental impact of a product, and it helps to reduce the environmental measures. By making use of CES software, this can be achieved by focussing on two environmental stressors To minimize the environmental footprint of a product, identification of the dominant phase is very important and it enables a designer to establish which aspect of the design to target The result of the eco audit forms the objective for the product design. This objective is dependent on both the dominant phase and the product application. Life Cycle Analysis: The Life cycle analysis of the product life cycle is split into three main sections in the eco audit tool: Material, manufacture, and end of life Transport Use 1. Material, manufacture, and end of life This the first section of the product definition which allows us to enter the Bill of Materials'(BOM) for the product, with each line representing an individual component. There is no limit on the number of components that can be added. Reading across the input dialog box, the entries are as follows Quantity This column tells us about the different number of individual components that are used in making of the product. This quantity column enables the specification of duplicate components in a hierarchal order. . The default value is one because there is no product with zero quantity. Component name It is the dialogue box for entering the name of each individual component of the product. Material The material drop-down menu displays the full Material Universe tree of the active database. Materials are selected by browsing the tree and clicking on the record for the material of our interest. Once we have done this, the eco audit tool extracts data from the material record to determine what options to display in the Primary process and End of life menus. Certain products include components that do not contribute to all life phases. For example, the water in a drinks bottle contributes to the transportation phase but not the material and manufacturing phases. This contribution is handled by creating a dummy component with no material, or process, assigned to it. Recycle content We have three recycle contents which can be specified as 0%, 100%, and typical %. As the names suggest, 0% represents the use of virgin material, where all the feedstock is produced from raw materials. 100% represents the other intense, where the material is manufactured entirely from feedstock reclaimed from end of life components. Typical %, lies between these two extremes and accounts for the level of recycled material incorporated back into the supply chain as standard practice. This applies to materials, such as metals and glasses, where end of life recycling has become integrated into the supply chain. This practice leads to standard grades containing significant levels of recycled material. For example, lead alloys generally contain 50-60% recycled material. Although many materials can be recycled, and have recycle fraction in current supply values quoted in the Material universe database, they are not routinely reintroduced into the standard supply. As a result, the typical recycle content option is only displayed for grades of metal and glass that are flagged as recyclable. Primary process The primary process dropdown menu displays the processes that are applicable to the material selected from the tree. This information, and associated data, is extracted from the materials datasheet. The available primary processes in the database are shown in the below table. Table: Available primary processes (Level 1 and 2 database) As electrical components are finished sub-assemblies, the material and process energies (and CO2) have been incorporated into one value [Embodied energy, primary production]. As a consequence, no processing options are available for these components. Mass (kg) Numeric field for specifying the mass of the component. This value is multiplied by the quantity (Qty) field value to determine the total mass for the component. End of Life This drop-down menu displays all possible ends of life options for the selected material. There are seven ends of life options and their applicable materials. Out of these seven, the first four are directly displayed on the datasheet depending on the type of material. The remaining life options are not specified and are added as other possible options for all materials. The end of life option generally defaults to Landfill. The main exception is for toxic materials, which default to the next viable option (usually in down cycle order). Table: describes the possible end life options and their Summaryrelated to the materials 2. Transport Transportation phase is the second part of the product definition. This phase relates to the transport of the finished product from the source of manufacture to the customer Each line in the table relates to one stage of the process journey. There is no limit on the number of stages that can be added. For each stage, three parameters are defined: stage name, transport efficiency (transport type), and distance. The transport efficiency is specified through the transport type dropdown menu, which lists the main methods for transporting goods. Table: transport options and associated environmental burden To determine the environmental impact of each stage the energy usage and the carbon foot print values are combined with the product mass and distance. i.e. Energy usage is given by Transport Energy =Transport energy per unit mass * distance * product mass. And carbon foot print by Transport co2=Transport energy per unit mass*Distance*product mass*carbon foot print. 3. Use The final stage of the product definition is the use phase. Product life Numeric field for specifying the product life, in years. The value for the year is considered to be default (1). Country electricity mix The Country electricity mix drop-down menu enables the particular mix of fossil and non-fossil fuel of the country of use to be specified. This is split into three main groups: global regions, individual countries, and fossil fuel percentage. The default option is World. Compared to the other sources, such as nuclear, hydroelectric and wind power, the environmental burden of electricity generated from fossil fuels is significantly higher. So this specification of country of use is very important phase of the eco audit tool. This is due to the relatively low efficiency in converting fossil fuels to electricity (1MJ of electricity requires about 3MJ of fossil fuel). The impact of a countrys energy mix on the energy equivalence and carbon footprint of its electricity supply is summarized in Figure. The final grouping in the country electricity mix menu specifies the electricity mix based on the proportion derived from fossil fuels (0% to 100% at 5% intervals). The environmental impact of these has been calculated using the following assumptions: The carbon footprint of electricity is dominated by the contribution from fossil fuels, with the proportion derived from other sources having no, or negligible, contribution. And the conversion process for generating electricity from fossil fuels is taken to be 33% efficient. In this use phase we have two modes namely static mode and mobile mode which describes the product energy usage. In static mode the available options are energy input and output which describes the conversion of one form of energy into another, power rating and usage. In the mobile mode, we have fuel and mobility type and its usage. Modes of use The use phase is divided into two modes of operation static mobile. Static relates to products that are (normally) stationary but require energy to function. For example: electrically powered products like electric kettles, refrig