Human Resources Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Human Resources Development - Essay Example The oil spill proved to be a violation of the water act, migratory bird act and related acts on the conservation of natural resources (Graythen, 2013). The reader also gets an overview of the five-month oil disaster and a detailed background on how the leakage resulted. Moreover, the author narrates how the explosion occurred and outlines the government response to the incident. As expected, the spill affected the American energy policy something that the author also gave attention. In addition, the article mentions the efforts that taken to bring the exploded well back into control and the setbacks hindering rescue by the team charged with that responsibility. The article also mentions the probable recovery after the disaster. This article relates the saddening truth about the mine disaster in 2010 that left 29 dead in West Virginia. The author describes the desperation evident in the families of the victims concerning the loss. In addition, the author emphasizes on the long hours taken by the rescue teams in their effort to uncover the debris in the collapsed mine and unearths the bodies. Moreover, the moving story mentions that the tragedy resulted because of the mines negligence to abide by the stringent safety rules in place to protect the welfare of workers in the risky mines. It becomes clear from the story that the rescue task was difficult because of the state of the collapsed mine (Urbina, 2010). The West Virginia mine disaster highlights the surging problem in many mines and that concerns safety of the workers. Occupational safety in the mining industry deserves a priority in any mine because risk assessment reports have shown that the workers are always at a great risk. This explains the stringency of the rules and regulation that govern mining. However, the West Virginia case just highlights the reluctance with

Gathering Research Data Paper Essay Example for Free

Gathering Research Data Paper Essay Within the criminal justice system there are various types of data gathering research methods that can be utilized. The method chosen for this research paper is the email survey method. The proposed research for this paper is job satisfaction within the police field with emphasis on the patrol officers. With patrol officers being the backbone of the police departments the research should be pretty insightful. The main goal of this research is to pinpoint the patrol officers’ main dissatisfactions during their workdays. The specific interview structure that will be used is an email questionnaire survey. This type of survey will allow and hopefully enable every patrol officer to participate and it will also allow graphical results. Just about every criminal justice case begins and ends with a patrol officer. Beginning with the criminal offense report, to the arrest, and ending at the testifying in court. Although there are many various key players in most cases besides the patrol officer, it is highly unlikely that crime reduction would exist without the patrol officer. Understanding the needs of a patrol officer and what is pleasing and displeasing on the job is key to crime reduction. A happy employee does their job successfully and to the best of their ability. An unhappy patrol officer will definitely not complete tasks let alone risk their lives for another individual. The department has the responsibility to ensure that the majority of its patrol officers are satisfied with their working conditions to prevent silent strikes and to also prevent behavior manifestation. Using an email questionnaire survey would be the interview structure used to conduct the research regarding the employee satisfaction. This survey will involve the simple format of a YES or NO option only. Constructing a different variables list will enable determination of what issues the questions will be based on. This list will also ensure that main concerns and topics are covered along with not duplicating any issues. Configuring what type of  data and data analysis is needed will be the next venture followed by figuring out how to word the questionnaire. Taking into consideration patrol officer lingo and technical wording to avoid any biased or compounding variables to each question. Some examples of questions that would be asked are: 1. Do you intentionally avoid police functions when off duty? 2. Do you take a level of pride when wearing your uniform? 3. Do you take sick days when you are not ill? 4. Do you hide your profession when off duty? 5. Do you take extended training courses or classes to avoid fieldwork? 6. Do you use cellphones, tablets, or any other devices to entertain yourself while on duty? 7. Do you avoid public interaction while on duty? Using these initial questions will not only help me gather data on satisfaction but will also help me gather data on other issues as well. An example of other issues would be the topic of whether or not response time intertwines with officer satisfaction and how this affects crime statistics. This type of qualitative data gathering is a great advantage because it records attitudes, feelings, and behaviors. (Analyse This!!! Learning To Analyse Qualitative Data, (2008)). As mentioned also opens up new topic areas that were not initially considered. These initial questions are also structured or closed ended questions in which will involve the needed information. Which means the data collected from the answers won’t involve thorough answers that need to be explained. In completion of the questionnaire questions, a small group of similar respondents will take a pretest that will point out any confusion or misunderstanding of question formatting and wording. To have the best outcome of participants and to ensure the best results, compensation would be offered in the form of extra paid time. This will also ensure a more quantitative data analysis due to a larger number of people responding to the survey. Some researchers believe that rewards and/or incentives given to people who participate in surveys increases response and reliability A tailored design method or TDM will be used with this email survey question. According to Hagan ((2010)), â€Å"The â€Å"tailored design method† or TDM, â€Å"uses multiple contacts seeking response and endorsements to increase response rates† by â€Å"tailoring the survey to the  group being studied in order to foster trust, increase rewards, and decrease the cost of participation.† This phase would be to get endorsed by the patrol unions to ensure and response, respect, and acceptability of the survey in the patrol officer’s eyes. These unions were founded and organized to assist and defend patrol officers, with the backing of these unions the participation and legitimacy would be highly prosperous. In turn, the unions will be knowledgeable with the results of the survey. One of the main focuses of this survey will be that it is truly an anonymous survey, and that each individual who fills out a survey remains anonymous and has no ties or repercussions from their answers. A few approaches to this could be survey kiosks or ballet boxes. These would allow no log on requirements or have any tracks on keystrokes. It is detrimental that informed consent and confidentiality be withheld and not compromised. According to The Role Of Numeracy In Informed Consent For Surveys ((2009)), â€Å"Two key ethical issues for survey researchers are obtaining informed consent and maintaining the confidentiality of responses. Informed consent implies that two requirements have been met: (1) that research participants have been informed about the essential elements of the research, including the risks and benefits of participation, and have understood the information; and (2) that they have given their consent to participate†. If compromised the survey answers could potentially cause issues with employment or job environments. This type of outcome could cause the survey to become unreliable and null and void. References: Analyse This!!! Learning to analyse qualitative data. ((2008)). Retrieved from http://archive.learnhigher.ac.uk/analysethis/main/qualitative1.html Hagan, F. E. ((2010)). Research Methods in Criminal Justice and Criminology (8th ed.).Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database. The Role of Numeracy in Informed Consent for Surveys. ((2009)). Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2857726/

The Merchant Of Venice By William Shakespeare

The Merchant Of Venice By William Shakespeare The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare is a comic, revengeful and tragic play which is set in Venice and the nearby country estates of Belmont. Shakespeare wrote the play during times when England like much of the Europe had restricted the rights of the Jews and even escalated to extremes of banishing them from England in 1290 by King Edward I and were not officially allowed to return until1655 when Oliver Cromwell allowed them. This exile of Jews was still in effect when Shakespeare wrote this play and many scholars believe that some Jews still lived in England at the time of the Christian guise. At the time renaissance Christians disliked the Jews because they believed that their behaviour of charging interest on money they lend (usury) was against the societal morals. During the time of renaissance Christians had become heavily indebted to the Jews who had loaned money to them with interests rates hence their increased hatred for the Jewish counterparts who started terming them as inhuman by demanding usury on the monies they lend. This was a selfish and unfair reaction from the Christian community in Venice because they started treating Jews harshly by imposing hefty taxes on them failure from which their land was confiscated and defaulters imprisoned. Such heavy taxing was intended to boost the financial status of the government especially during adverse economic times (Mahon, 345). Merchant of Venice is a revenge tragedy play which its plot revolves around the quest of its main character shylock a Jew who is bitter on the way his neighbors supposedly Christians treat him and he is on a mission to avenge for such in human treatment. He plans and implements his revenge by engaging in money lending which offers him chance to avenge when a Christian defaults him after he lend the money. In Venice Bassanio borrows money from his merchant friend Antonio to help him woo a wealth noble woman Portia. Antonio does not have ready cash to lend to his friend but he gives him a permission or guarantee to borrow the money he needs on his credit. Antonio is expecting his ships to arrive at the harbor with a lot of merchandise that will enable him to settle the loan. Bassanio is given loan of 3000 ducats by the Jewish moneylender Shylock that is not in good terms with Antonio. Their dispute is a racial and religious one and shylock seizes the opportunity to offer a bizarre alternative to Antonio if he defaults and for sure Antonio chances of defaulting hits peak as the news that his ships had been wrecked. Shylock then takes the case to court demanding that he be given permission to cut one pound of flesh from the defaulters chest as agreed upon earlier. The case is solved amicably by the judge and the play ends in a good way when the main characters Bassanio and Portia marry ea ch other and the ships of the Antonio are found and arrives at the harbor. Shylock is a Jewish money lender who lives in Venice and he has been bittered for many years by the way Venetian Christians have been mistreating him especially by the merchant Antonio. The mistreatments by the Christians have shaped the religions and racial identity of shylock. The character of Shylock in the play merchant of Venice is portrayed as devilish and murderer whose dear intentions is to take away the life of the Christian Antonio believed by his fellow Christian to be the most kind mind to have ever lived in Venice. Shylock wants revenge on the Christian Antonio because he wants to avenge his revenge on the Christians who even call him a villain because nothing seems to stop him at getting the pound of flesh from Antonios chest even after Bassanio offers to pay him twice the agreed upon debt of six thousand ducats. He adamantly refuses to accept the money and demand for the pound of flesh which he claims he bought it hence he must have it because its legally his. Jews like shylock hate Christians at the time so dearly because Christians themselves had no liking for Jews because they believed they killed crucified Jesus Christ hence were on the side of the devil. Christian also hated Jews because they believed they were not human by charging usury on money they lend to Christians but the truth is that Christians had become heavily indebted to Jews who had lend money to them hence their intentional unfair reaction by being anti-Semitic. So the murderous character of Shylock is as result of the hatred and bitterness his arbors against Christians who constantly show hatred towards him and other Jews. He claims for what he believes is his rightfully and seizes the opportunity of Antonios defaulting to make himself to be recognized a as a just man by the Christians who always sees him as an unjust man. This newly earned character of shylock can mainly be attributed to Christians who forced him to hate them and even have a conspiration to kill Anton io, hence offering yet evidence why Christians are portrayed to have contributed to the construction of Shylocks character in the play. Shylock is forced to charges some interest on the money he lends and this becomes his obsession as he wants to acquire lot money to ensure his own security from the ungrateful Christians. With is addiction to getting more money he becomes a greedy person who is not his true self he only need the money as a reaction to the treatment he receives from the Christian community. Shylock sees that getting financial security is the only way to proof to the Christians like Antonio that he is also somebody worth respect and human dignity and not the way they always see him. He thinks that being wealth will make the Christian treat him well but that ends up not the truth as everything he has worked for ends up in the possession of his enemies when the court fines him for conspiring to kill Antonio and that costs half of his property and he later becomes broke and desolate forcing him to become a Christian hence making him loose his identity. Shylocks fate of losing his identity as a Jew is attr ibuted to his past greedy behavior of charging usury on the money he lends to Christians to get as much wealth as he could just to get at his Christian enemies hence it can be successfully argued that Christians can be held responsible for the final man that Shylock becomes as its their hatred and ill treatment that forced him to charge usury which converted him to a greedy person. Through out the play merchant of Venice Christians in Shylocks neighborhood show a consistent hatred and dislike for the Jewish shylock and even fail to call him by his given name but prefers calling him detestable alienating names like the Jew, cruel devil, harsh Jew, currish Jew, infidel, impenetrable cur, the villain and even the devil in the likenesses of the his Jewish identity. Such name calling alienated shylock from the Venetian Christians and make him diabolically foul which gradually constructs shylocks identity and makes him a bitter man who focuses in taking revenge against the Christian community who he beliefs are treating him in humanly. Shylock notices the habit of Christians to assess the worth of them and others according to faulty standards like using money value or grade ones status and value in the community. Christians belief is that the more money one has the greater value and status one belongs to and Shylock in his conspiration to unleash his monomaniacal lus t for revenge against his Christian enemies forced him into money lending ventures which he earns a living from the usury. Shylock sees this means as the only way for him as a Jew to compete with his fellow Venetian Christians. Shylock exhibits a monstrous behaviour especially against his Christian defaulters like Antonio as he sees it as the only achievable and fulfilling way of unleashing his revenge. This change in shylocks behaviour is as a result of the constant cold treatment he receive from his Christian neighbors and this has made him a different person which is not characteristic of the Jew he was at first hence an evident that Christians in Merchant of Venice greatly contributes to the construction of Shylocks racial and religious identity. Shylock in the play admits that he hates Antonio and even declines his invitation to dinner on the grounds that he is a Christian. Shylock hates Antonio even more because he himself is a usurer who lends money with high interest rates that has enabled him to acquire immense wealth. He accuses Antonio of lending money to people in distress without demanding for any interest charge and this escalates his hatred for Antonio because he sees him as a person who threatens his job since he causes his business to lose money as a result of reduced business. Shylock is therefore made to act harshly towards Christians because he accuses them of stealing his business and his run away daughter. This illustrates that the behaviour of Christians like Antonio being kind makes Shylock to change his character and become more harsh and unkind towards his perceived enemies Christians hence the construction of his character in the play. In the play Shylock has been portrayed an isolated, greedy, unreasonable and self-thinking individual who doesnt think of the needs of other people. He even loves money more than his daughter and doesnt want to eat, drink or even pray with anyone and he avoids making friendship making him cranky and steadfast and even rigid in his beliefs. He does a stereo-typical profession as a money-grabbing money lender; a job which makes him hard to let go off his greedy tendencies as he doesnt see any reason why he should do so event at the point where it warrants mercy and pity. He describes the idea of getting a pound of flesh from Antonios chest as a merry sport and finds it very pleasing when flesh is cut out of someones body and this is evident when he insist only for the pound of flesh even after being offered double the priced he is owed. Such unreasonable and weird secluded behaviour portrayed by Shylock is attributed to the racist treatment he receives from the Christians who have neve r seen anything in him other than his Jewishness. Shylock wonders why he is being treated that way by Christians yet he has eyes, has hands, and has organs, dimensions, feelings, senses and even passions just like them. The unreasonable and rigid character of shylock is as a result of the racial discrimination that he has received from the Christians hence the argument that Christians are the ones responsible for construction of his character. Christians are seen as the main modes through which the character of Shylock is shaped through out the play as Shylock constantly claims that he has done no wrong by treating Christians badly because he is simply following what his Christian neighbors has taught him which it eventually becomes an integral part of his character later in the play. His conspiracy to kill Antonio is borne of the insults and injuries which Antonio had inflicted upon him in their previous encounters. This means that by planning to kill Antonio he is does not consider himself as a murderer but rather as a mechanism of applying what his past relationship with Antonio has taught him. For instance Shylock when responding to Salarinos query on what good thing that having the pound of flesh will benefit him, he answers that it will offer him a chance to execute the villainy that Christians has taught him. This means that almost every action that Shylock does is attributed to some past experience that Christians have done to him hence the evidence of the role that Christians play in construction of Shylocks character in Shakespeares play the Merchant of Venice (Bradbrook, 126). During the court session, Shylocks proofs that he is a smart character who can defend himself in every adversary despite the great opposition from his Christian enemies who want to stop him from succeeding in demanding for the pound of flesh from his defaulter Antonio. Shylock guided by his keenness for revenge uses any wit within his disposal to ensure that he is granted the permission to finalize his revenge of killing Antonio. He has nobody on his side but he shows no sign of giving up until he satisfies his yearning for revenge; he argues to the judge that Christians refuses to set free their assess, dogs and mules simply because they bought them thus they own them and they are their slaves then why should he be denied the pound of flesh which he bought in accordance to the law and that why he beliefs that he is acting as per the law hence granting him the right to have the pound of flesh from Antonio as per the agreement they signed. This portrays that Shylock is stopping at not hing to ensuring that he succeeds in vending his hatred for Christians until he kills Antonio. Such courage enamates from his dearly anticipated revenge which he attributes to the cruelty he has gone through in the hands of the Christians hence its the way Christians treated him earlier that becomes the driving forms that makes Shylock a master of his own destiny. This shows that Christians therefore contributed o the construction of his Character in the play merchant of Venice. Christian merchant Antonio resulted to his own destruction when things fail to work according to his will. Shylock suffers a spiritual ruin when the clever Portia helps Antonio in solving the case in the court. Portia disguised as Bellario and Nerissa as a law clerk articulately influence the outcome of the court especially when Shylock adamantly refuses to show mercy for Antonio. Portia then allows him to get the pound of flesh as stipulated by the signed agreement and that was to be done without spilling of even a dot of blood. Shylock gives up and thus losing the case resulting to being fined for conspiring to murder Antonio and this forces him to lose have of his property and in addition is forced to convert to Christianity (Barton, 252).After Portia striping Shylock off his property he becomes broke and loses his Jewish religion and this is as result of the combined forces from the Christian community both outside and in the court. This twist of events therefore changed Shylocks religious identity for the rest of his life. During the time of Shakespeare Jews were treated harshly by the Venice Christians and nobody really cared whether they lived or died. As a way of showing their uncaring behaviour Christians became anti-Semitic and the government of the day taxed them heavily and striped off their money during times that the governments money became low or just for government financial boost. If Jews failed to pay the money taxed on them individually or collectively, then their property especially land was confiscated and defaulters imprisoned. Therefore the Jews population was treated harshly and with a lot of disrespect by Christians who lived in Venice during the renaissance period. This prompted Shakespeare to develop the character of Shylock in Merchant of Venice as to portray the bitterness that Jews felt as a reaction to the harsh treatment they were accorded to by the Christian community. During the time of renaissance Jews had to be portrayed and villain ands people never expected anyone of them to show any drop of compassion for his enemy because the Christians were the ones expected to show compassion towards others especially the Jews who were stereotypically viewed as the murderers of Jesus Christ thus forcing Shylock who is a Jew to behave like the devil. This construction of Shylocks character give Christians like Portia the chance to show their mercy when he corners him using the law which was his only weapon and strips him his property only to give half of it back after he loses his religion to become Christian. The behavior of Shylock charging usury gives Antonio the Christian another chance to show him mercy by refusing to collect part of his goods as a compensation for his conspiration to eliminate him. The outcome of the court forces Shylock to kneel and beg for mercy from the Christians judges which served the interests of the renaissance Christian popul ation in Venice (Shakespeare et al, 145). In conclusion, the discussions and argument made in the essay goes beyond any reasonable doubt that the character of the Shylock who is one of the main characters in the play Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare is heavily constructed by the presence, interactions ad behaviors of the Christian community who happened to be the neighbors of the character. Shylock undergoes a lot of transformations in his character throughout the play and almost everything he does claims that he was thought by his Christians neighbors and in fact he shows no remorse or mercy or even take responsibility for the outcome of his actions since her doesnt even see anything wrong with his weird character. Shylock becomes greedy, alienated, villain, infidel, unreasonable, rigid and even a murderer which all are linked to his dear intentions in trying to avenge for himself and the rest of the Jews for what he terms as inhuman, intolerable and ill treatment by the Christians in Venice and the neighborhood. He belief s that by taking a revenge by killing Antonio he will have succeeded in making the Christians pay for the past unacceptable behaviors against Jews.

Bartleby the Scrivener: Lawyer Double Essay -- Literary Analysis, Bart

Bartleby the Scrivener, by Herman Melville is a novella about a nameless lawyer who has in his employ a scrivener named Bartleby. Bartleby, throughout the novella, has different periods of work. In the beginning, he does his scrivening without reprimand or without hesitation, but as the novella progresses his attitude toward work changes drastically. Mordecai Marcus’ critical essay on the novella makes some good points, such that Bartleby is a psychological double for the lawyer, he represents a subliminal death drive within himself, and the conflict between absolutism and free will. All three of these points are attributed to Bartleby because he represents each respectively. In Mordecai Marcus’ critical essay on Bartleby the Scrivener, he takes the stand that Bartleby is a psychological double for the nameless lawyer. While progressing through the novella, Bartleby begins to slow down and eventually stops working altogether. The Lawyer doesn’t know what to do mainly because, â€Å"Bartleby’s power over the lawyer quickly grows as the story progresses.† (Marcus 1) When the lawyer first hired Bartleby, he was a tenacious young worker, â€Å"There was no pause for digestion. He ran a day and night line, copying by sunlight and by candlelight.† (Melville 16) This is in the beginning of the novella right after the lawyer had hired him. Bartleby, to the lawyer, doesn’t seem to have any other ambitions rather than scrivening for him. But all of that begins to change when Bartleby begins to not want to do some of the tasks the lawyer asks him to do. The first instance of this is when he is asked to proofread one of the copies he just completed, â€Å"†¦rapidly stating what it was I wanted him to do – namely, to examine a small paper with me†¦Bartleb... ...ast. But again obeying that wondrous ascendancy which the inscrutable scrivener had over me†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Melville 44) Again, the lawyer is amazed at the amount of â€Å"power† Bartleby has over him. Bartleby, without actually doing anything, has taken away most of the lawyers’ free will and in turn feed his own absolutism. The novella is set in New York City in a Wall Street law office; both Bartleby and the lawyer represent characters of New York. Bartleby represents a type of person who is excited to come to a new city but then gets ground down into the daily routine of the city and begins to loose the will to work. The lawyer, on the other hand, represents the quintessential New Yorker, owning his own business and trying to succeed in a city that is famous for crushing spirits. Both Bartleby and the lawyer represent true characters within the fabric of the city of New York.

Compare the State and National government Essay

In many ways, the structure of state governments and the national government mirror each other. In this forum section, each student is to research one state government and compare it to the national government. Next, explain to the class if you think that the state you researched has a good form of democratic government. Hint: an encyclopedia at home, at a library or an internet search would help. Lastly, please remember to cite your research source. Each state has its own constitution based on its distinctive history and needs. A state’s constitution is similar to that of the national Constitution; nevertheless, the laws made in individual states cannot conflict with the national Constitution or national laws. Ive decided to research the New Jersey State government and compare it to the national government. The government of the State of New Jersey, like that of the United States, is divided into three branches. Those three branches are the legislative, the executive, and judicial. The chief function of the Legislature is to enact laws. The Legislature consists of two Houses. Those 2 houses are a 40-member Senate and an 80-member General Assembly. The Senate and Assembly chambers are located in the State House in Trenton. The Executive Branch carries out programs established by law. The chief of the executive branch is the governor. The governor’s office is located in the State House in Trenton. The governor signs bills into law or vetoes them. He can also recommend laws and call the legislature into special session. The governor has the power to grant pardons and is the only person with the authority to call in the National Guard. The Judiciary Branch punishes violators, settles controversies and disputes, and is the final authority on the meaning and constitutionality of laws. The Judicial Branch decides how state laws should be applied. The governor appoints judges to the Supreme and Superior courts with the Senate’s approval. I believe that NJ has a good democratic government. I can appreciate the way each branch of government keeps and eye on the other branch through checks and balances. I think its great that we have the power to elect people into office and that there are several types of offices where the people all work together. Works cited Usinfo.state.govNj.gov

Vitamins and Minerals essays

Vitamins and Minerals essays We see every cereal commercial that says how certain cereals are "packed with essential vitamins and minerals", but do we ever stop and think about what vitamins and minerals do for our bodies. Probably not! However, human bodies are unable to function without proteins, carbohydrates, and fats-or the nutrients that we call vitamins and minerals. They help protect our health. Vitamins are organic substances that must be provided in small quantities by the environment (usually the diet) and are classified in two categories. Vitamins are classified into water-soluble and fat-soluble vitamins. These organic molecules are required in order for a human to have a normal metabolism. Minerals are essential parts of all cells. They form the major parts of the hard tissues of the body, and are necessary to muscle contraction, thinking, and nervous conduction. They are integral parts of the organismal and cellular respiration systems, are essential to enzyme function and are also necessary to the maintenance of water and acid base balance in the body. Vitamins and minerals must be taken daily because they are lost in sweat, tears, urine, and feces. Young children, and pregnant women require higher amounts of vitamins and minerals, however every person should take vitamins everyday. When you drink milk, or eat a carrot, you probably do not realize the good you are doing for your body because they taste good. However, there are essential foods everyone should eat in order to obtain the right amount of vitamins per day. Fortified milk, and tuna fish have Vitamin D, which helps give your body strong, healthy bones. Carrots have Vitamin A, which helps your eyesight and skin. Vitamin A can also be found in various fruits and vegetables such as, apricots, nectarines, spinach, pumpkin, and cantaloupe. Green vegetables provide Vitamin B, which makes energy and protein within your body. Minerals come from differe ...

Physics investigation Essay Example

Physics investigation Essay Example Physics investigation Essay Physics investigation Essay For this investigation I will be testing various materials to determine how much force is required for them to snap. Figure 1 below shows the forces that will be acting upon the test material. The set-up above will increase the force applied to the test material until a crack, started in the surface in tension, propagates to cause the material to break. To experimentally determine the level of stress that is required to break an object, I need to be-able to exert a force onto an object and be able to quantitatively measure and record that force. This, I found, is not as simple as it sounds due not only to the limited equipment available to me, but also to what I could use practically and safely. I came up with many methods of measuring the force exerted as well as many ways of creating that force. A summary of the major methods and their associated problems is included below. Method 1: Creating force using my own strength. This has several obvious advantages including ease of use. My own strength requires no preparation to use, is easy to store when Im not using it and can create a very broad range of force i.e. up to 800N. Unfortunately for all the benefits, there are several disadvantages that make this method untenable. The greatest concern is safety, namely my own safety. To apply the force needed to break the objects, I would have to lean heavily on the object. This placed me in danger of being impaled on the device I was using to concentrated force onto the object. As well as this, there was the problem of splinters from the object damaging my hand or eyes. Method 2: Measuring the force using bathroom scales. The main advantage of this method is that a large range of forces can be measured i.e. over 1,000N. Also, they are easy to set up and use, difficult to break and can be stored easily ready for repeating experiments. The disadvantages are fewer but still prevail over the advantages. The greatest downfall is the fact that the max force reached and therefore the point at which the material broke is difficult to determine accurately. This means that my results could be out by an unacceptably large margin of error. Method 3: Creating the force using a vice. On the surface, this method seemed pretty ideal. A large, steady force could be created safely. With the help of a metal tip attached to the vice, the force exerted could be carefully increased by turned the handle on the vice until the material broke. The force generated could be very powerful due to the lever effect of the handle on the vice. This makes it many times more powerful than any force I could create on my own. This time, the problem with the method lies not with the method itself but with the accompanying method of measuring the force created. Bathroom scales cannot be used because they are made inaccurate by concentrating force onto a small area of them. Smaller scales cannot be used because the ones available to me couldnt be used to measure a large enough force i.e. 20N maximum. This method would have been used were it not for the failings of measure methods. Method 4: Measuring the force using piezo electric crystals. This was a bit of a non-starter really. Although they seemed like a good solution due to the quantitative data that could be produced and recorded; I didnt realise that the crystals couldnt be used to measure the magnitude of force that I required. They would have been crushed instantly. Method 5: Creating the force using pneumatics. The advantages of this system are similar to that of the vice. A large, steady and easily controlled force can be produced with safety. The disadvantage of the vice is also overcome; there is no need to measure the force directly as it can be inferred from the amount of power used by the pneumatic rams them selves. Unfortunately there was one insurmountable stumbling block. The equipment available to me was not strong enough or powerful enough. This method seemed ideal and is the one used in professional laboratory tests, unfortunately the facilities and equipment were not available to me to utilise it effectively. Method 6: Creating the force using weights. This method of producing force has the added benefit of measuring the force as it is produced. The force produced is quantitative, steady and the maximum level reached is easily found. There are disadvantages however; the maximum force that can be produced is dependant on the maximum strength of the string that attaches the masses to the test medium. The larger the area of contact, the less pressure is produced. This means that for the test to be fair, the string used has to be the same in each instance. This method is the one that I finally decided to use. My choice of method means that a small alteration is required to my original force diagram; see figure 2. Fair Test In order to perform this experiment fairly I will need a means of supporting the material and ensuring the struts stay in the correct place because the force I exert will be laterally transferred to them. I considered several ways of supporting the material and how to prevent the supports shifting during testing. Figure 3 shows the forces involved. Vertical force applied to material, causing it to flex and become compressed and under tension. The flex of the material means that the edges of the material are closer the centre of the material and that the material is therefore shorter horizontally despite being slightly longer in length. Because the material is trying to shorten its horizontal length, the supports are pulled inwards. The only thing stopping this from happening is the frictional force between the base and the tabletop. I have outlined below some of the methods I used to prevent movement of the stand; they all work on the principle of increasing the friction force by means of altering the parameters of à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ or F from the equation: R = à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ F (see figure 4) Where: R = resultant force i.e. the level of friction. à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ = the co-efficient of friction i.e. the stickiness of the surface. F = the vertical force produced by the mass of the clamp stand. The material under stress will increase in flex and slightly in length until the elastic limit or yield point of the material is reached. At this limit, the material will start to crack on the side under tension. These cracks will propagate until the material finally snaps. The amount of force required for this to happen is known as the breaking stress. The higher the breaking stress the more tensile strength the material possesses. This is what I shall be measuring in my experiment. Problems Using Clamp Stands This was the first method that I thought of using because of their ease of storage and being the most ubiquitous support available to me. The disadvantages became very clear as soon as I tested them. The main problem I discovered was that of movement of the supports. I tried many ways of securing them to a surface so as to limit movement but most were unsuccessful or unsatisfactory. Firstly I tried placing masses on the footplates of the stands but could not place enough mass on them to prevent movement. This method works by increasing the parameter F in the above equation. I also tried using sticky paper to increase the co-efficient of friction of the surface the stand was placed on but couldnt increase it enough to change the outcome by any great amount. After that I placed stoppers on the base to stop it moving. This did stop it moving but instead caused the stand to topple over instead; obviously not ideal. The last method and by far the most successful I tried should have been more obvious. I attached a large G-clamp on the footplate of each stand and tightened them as far as I could. Due to the size and power of the clamps I used, movement was completely eliminated. This method works in the same manner as placing masses on the bases; it increases the F parameter. With the clamp I used I was able to generate huge vertical forces onto the footplate that created a resultant frictional force more than enough for my requirements. The second problem I only discovered after solving the first. The bosses I used to attach the clamp arms to the stand were not strong enough to hold themselves up and not rotate towards each other as the material flexed. Figure 5 below shows the set-up and how it changed when masses were added. To solve this problem I had to find a way of holding apart the arms. I tried tying them together with string but found it flexed too much when used in the length required. To solve the problem I needed a material that produced a low strain and could be applied in the way required. After a quick search of the materials that were on offer I decided on carpet tape. I chose it because it is reinforced with many fibres that give it extra strength and it is sticky so it can hold together the clamp arms. Safety Through out the planning process I have been looking at my experiment and constantly analysing it for sources of potential danger I might encounter whilst performing it. I met with the following issues and adjusted the experiment thus. The first thing that I thought would be a safety concern in the experiment was the force involved in breaking the materials. Creating large forces would mean large amounts of mass being used and this is a hazard. To minimise any risk involved; I selected materials that would not require huge forces to break and I used only small samples of them so as to further reduce the force required e.g. the wood samples I used were cut to a thickness of 2mm. Another concern was that of what the material would do when the stress point was reached. Some of the materials I used could shatter or splinter e.g. plastic and wood. To cut the risk of personal injury to myself and those around I erected Perspex safety screens, wore protective goggles and performed the experiment in a closed classroom. I also used shatterproof plastic in tests instead to normal plastic as I considered this too dangerous. Due to the method used in generating the force i.e. using suspended masses, I had to consider where the masses were going to land once the material gave way. I placed a carpet tile where the masses were going to fall so as to prevent damage to the floor and furthermore I suspended the masses as close to the floor as possible so as to reduce the velocity at which the impacted the floor. With the preparation of the experiment sorted and a few preliminary test runs completed, I decided to start collating results from the various materials I had collected.

Sound essays

Sound essays In the movies Jaws (Directed by Steven Speilberg) and Forest Gump (Directed by Robert Zemeckis) there are many great example of great uses of sound and how it can set you up for something that is going to happen. In the movie Jaws there are many great examples of this. One of them is the opening act where the girl is going skinny-dipping and there is a low angle shot of her feet under the water. Speilberg uses a dramatic effect in his choice of sounds here. When this under water shot takes place the music is low pitch, somewhat quiet and slower. When the camera comes out of the water the music becomes extremely loud, high pitch and faster. Then the attack happens. This sequence of events happens through out the movie. Another time it happens is when the shark gets into the bay thing and is coming at the kids in their boat. The music is slower and lower pitch when the shot is from far away. When they get to the close up shot on the kids in the bay talking to some other guy in the boat. When the camera goes under the water in this shot the music gets a little softer. A great example of how this all works is when the camera is right on the edge of the water, half in the water and half out of t he water. When the camera goes a little below the water the music get duller and softer, and when the camera goes a little above the water the music becomes louder and higher pitched. Speilberg even uses music to set up the tone and feeling of this movie. The music in the opening scene is very dark and mysterious. In this film they really set you up to scare you by the music. You always no when something scary is going to happen just by the music. There is always music that starts slow and low and when the scary thing happens the music becomes instantly loud and high pitched and just scares the living crap out of you even if you have seen it a million times. The technique that Speilberg uses is starting at low frequency sounds and then ...

Paraphrasing 5 answers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Paraphrasing 5 answers - Essay Example The main role is played by central IT and network management functions in this direction. These functions advise the recovery planning groups towards finding the cost of potential alternatives, which can be applied for disaster recovery planning. However, the major role of these functions remains helping the disaster recovery group in facing and overcoming the technological challenges on urgent basis. Some IT tools can help the recovery groups in permanent recovery measures. The functions also provide the necessary support towards documentation and technical support related to disaster recovery tasks. Part time recovery coordinators have other responsibilities also, apart from working for disaster recovery planning. Hence, they may have their own office and telephone, computer facilities to carryout these jobs. Since their obligations are limited towards the disaster recovery-planning group, the budget for their working is different from the full time employees of the group. In addition, there are fewer overheads involved, when employing part time coordinators. One or more recovery coordinators will be required to manage the day-to-day affairs of the team, while coordinating for various tasks being conducted by the recovery group. These coordinators must have the requisite facilities for smooth working towards accomplishing the plan development

Spirituality in health care Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Spirituality in health care - Essay Example The role of the healthcare provider is one that is not often understood to be related, either directly or tangentially, to spirituality. However, as it is the responsibility of the healthcare provider to reach out to the patient as means of addressing their needs, identifying with them, and providing counsel as needed, the means by which spirituality should be understood and engaged is something that is of great importance. As such, promoting both physical and psychological health is a primary expectation that the healthcare provider has in terms of fulfilling their responsibilities. Oftentimes, this cannot be done without adequately understanding and identifying with the way in which different patients engage with and value spirituality as a very important part of the way that healing and health are understood. As a means of describing and understanding this to a more effective degree, the following analysis will seek to analyze the role that spirituality plays in helping to address the primary tasks that have thus far been defined. Furthermore, the student will provide a specific level of focus as to the way in which belief systems and â€Å"absolutes†, as well as the potential for prosthletization should be discouraged; as they are unhelpful towards representing understanding and/or potential benefits to those that reflect different spiritual paradigms as compared to those that the healthcare practitioner might reflect.

Monetary Policy, Fiscal Policy, Business Cycles, and Economic Growth Assignment

Monetary Policy, Fiscal Policy, Business Cycles, and Economic Growth - Assignment Example Owners of multinational companies in Malawi will receive reduced dividends. Some multinational corporations’ employees in Malawi will either be laid-off or receive lower salaries (Hansen, 2013). 6.b). If the president of Malawi imposes a mandatory minimum wage of $5.00 per hour, workers in multinational companies will receive better pay. Consequently, the level of poverty will reduce in the country. Multinational corporations will incur more cost especially salary expenses. Due to higher costs profits for the companies will reduce thus shareholders will receive lower dividends. Multinational corporations might lessen the number of employees to reduce the salaries expenses they incur (Hansen, 2013). 7. Western states like the United States and United Kingdom resort to deficit spending by borrowing money to stimulate economic growth or recovery in times of economic recessions. The main disadvantage with deficit spending is that it leads to interest rates. High-interest rates reduce the ability to borrow. High-interest rates discourage entrepreneurs to invest. Consequently, low investment rates mean that the production capacity of a country is reduced the general output of the country decreases hence. Reduction in the output of a country reduces the rate of economic growth in a country. Deficit spending means that the government spends more than the private sector. States tend to utilize resources inefficiently. So these actions might lead to wasted resources. Deficit spending and increased borrowing increases an economy’s inflation rate. Increasing inflation rate reduces the value of a currency and adversely affects its competitiveness with other currencies. Inflation wi ll also lessen the amount of savings (Hansen, 2013). 8. Listening to Laurence Kotlikoff of Boston University, I was interested in the argument he brought forward regarding the government’s concealment of its debt obligations. Kotlikoff pointed out that United

British decolonization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

British decolonization - Essay Example The cartoon is striking in that it reduces the geopolitical tension of the Cuban Missile Crisis, where the United States and Soviet Union reached the brink of nuclear war over the stationing of Russian missiles in Cuba, to a bar game or crude, male ego-driven sport. From the Soviet perspective, the Americans had previously stationed nuclear missiles positioned at Russia from similar strategic locations in Europe and Asia. The two countries, in less than 20 years, had built nuclear arsenals hundreds of thousands of times greater than the weapons used to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki. By many scientific estimates, the two countries possessed sufficient nuclear weapon power to destroy the entire earth many times over. Few were completely certain of the effects of nuclear war on a mass scale, but both sides had built the largest, most powerful war machines the world had ever seen, and Khrushchev and Kennedy pursued a policy of brinksmanship to bring the entire global civilization to the th reat of destruction through their two nuclear arsenals. That the two political leaders are reduced to the caricature of a bar-room arm wrestling match represents the anxiety felt by the general populace who were restrained from truly participating in the decision making of the match, but were rather forced into the role of spectators to watch how events unfolded in mass-media and television. The public could only wonder if two human beings, with human emotions and weaknesses, could be trusted to manage the behavior of nations and armies with such a great destructive firepower. The policy of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) was based in the brinksmanship of the political rulers in the cartoon, highlighting the tension of the day in a manner that also illuminates the risk of the human emotions in a centralized leadership command structure. This activity was also depicted in Stanley Kubrick’s classic movie Dr. Strangelove. The brinksmanship ended with the Soviets withdrawing t he nuclear missiles from Cuba in the end to a standoff that had captivated the world as the first and possibly most serious escalation of conflict between superpowers in the Cold War. This cartoon is useful to understand the public opinion of the times, but could be further verified through relations to other news media such as editorials and journalism of the events. Historians Craft Assignment Question 2 Source 2 of 2: An Excerpt from a Political Diary Sunday, November 26, 1967 So this is the end of the second devaluation week and we’re still completely without any central control or decision-taking in this Labour Government. And the chances of getting this as a result of the devaluation are very small indeed. .... the lower the Government plummets the stronger my position grows in my own little corner. Suppose the impossible happened and as a result of the crisis Jim [Callaghan] replaced Harold [Wilson]. That’s not inconceivable when you remember Macmillan replacing Eden after Suez. But it’s something I wouldn’t tolerate because I know the qualities of Mr Callaghan. He’s not an adventurous bold forward-looking Macmillan who could rejuvenate the Party. Right inside he’s a coward with a wonderful outside image and a very likeable personality. ... however, I don’t see the remotest chance of Harold going. It’

Predatory Practices in financial borrowing and lending contracts Research Paper

Predatory Practices in financial borrowing and lending contracts - Research Paper Example Predatory Practices in financial borrowing and lending contracts The following are some of the characteristics of predatory practices in money lending. First, those targeted are chiefly the low income people and the elderly in society. Second, the loans’ costs and terms often change at the closing and differ greatly from what they were at the beginning or what was agreed. Predatory practices are also often accompanied by aggressive sale approaches. There are also repeated re-financing options after a short time lapse so that lenders end up collecting addition fee or penalties, consequently denying borrowers such as home owners the equities from their security. Notably, in most of predatory lending practices, the lending is not often in line with the borrower’s capacity to repay since the lender’s center of attention is often the foreclosure. In addition, the vulnerable borrower is always unaware of the underlying truths of the truth, terms, conditions, and consequences of the deal (â€Å"Predatory Lending† 4). That is, there is always quite a lot of misunderstanding about the nature of loan and the amount to be repaid since such transactions has high but hidden fees that could be hidden from the borrower’s eyes. The borrowers are often tricked by the aggressive sales. Most affected in this regard are uninformed groups, which end up borrowing under unfair loan terms. Due to the harmful effects of such loans to society, the government has numerous remedies in form of laws and regulations. These remedies include the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act (HOEPA), and the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). Others are the Fair Housing Act, and the Federal Trade Commission Act, and Special State Anti-predatory Lending Statutes, in State Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Acts, and common law fraud and unconscionability. This paper explores some of the predatory practices in lending, pointing out and explaini ng the parties’ responsibilities. Predatory Practices Predatory lending practices are not only unfair but also fraudulent and deceptive. In other terms, predatory lending entails the imposition of abusive and unfair terms on loans for borrowers. In fact, the phrase ‘predatory lending† generally refers to many specific illegal activities in the loan sector. Nonetheless, different states have various laws against each specific type of illegal loan activity. Notice should be taken about the distinction between predatory lending and predatory mortgage servicing. The latter refers to the deceptive, fraudulent, and unjust practices of lenders and servicing agents in loan or mortgage servicing processes. Unlike predatory lending, this latter activity takes place post loan origination. An example of a predatory practice is that of a lender deceptively convincing a potential borrower to accept an unfair and abusive loan term (Nasiripour 122). Second, a lender may methodica lly breach the terms so that the borrower finds it hard to defend against it (Aleo and Svirsky 119). These predatory practices may be done through certain types of  credit cards, largely  subprime, payday loans, and overdraft loans. In all these cases, the lender may set the interest rates at considerably and unreasonably high levels. Mostly targeted by predatory loan lenders are borrowers with some collateral to back their loan requests. This collateral could be a car or a house, which the

How SMEs Differ From Their Larger Counterparts Essay - 1

How SMEs Differ From Their Larger Counterparts - Essay Example Some of the main factors that distinguish SMEs from their larger counterparts include layers of management, individual responsibility, communication, speed of decision-making, attitude towards risk, allocation of resources, formal practices, organizational structure, flexibility, marketing and advertising, environment, and politics. Let us discuss each of them in some detail in order to know how these factors create differences between SMEs and large corporations. 2.1 Layers of Management One of the main differences between SMEs and large companies is the layers of management. SMEs generally have very few layers of management as compared to large companies. They have less number of managers and employees because of simple and short organizational structure. The organizational chart of SMEs also looks flat because of fewer layers of management. â€Å"Small business organizational charts are often flat; they look like two or three stacked rows of bricks with one or two bricks on top† (Ingram n.d., p.1).

British decolonization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

British decolonization - Essay Example The cartoon is striking in that it reduces the geopolitical tension of the Cuban Missile Crisis, where the United States and Soviet Union reached the brink of nuclear war over the stationing of Russian missiles in Cuba, to a bar game or crude, male ego-driven sport. From the Soviet perspective, the Americans had previously stationed nuclear missiles positioned at Russia from similar strategic locations in Europe and Asia. The two countries, in less than 20 years, had built nuclear arsenals hundreds of thousands of times greater than the weapons used to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki. By many scientific estimates, the two countries possessed sufficient nuclear weapon power to destroy the entire earth many times over. Few were completely certain of the effects of nuclear war on a mass scale, but both sides had built the largest, most powerful war machines the world had ever seen, and Khrushchev and Kennedy pursued a policy of brinksmanship to bring the entire global civilization to the th reat of destruction through their two nuclear arsenals. That the two political leaders are reduced to the caricature of a bar-room arm wrestling match represents the anxiety felt by the general populace who were restrained from truly participating in the decision making of the match, but were rather forced into the role of spectators to watch how events unfolded in mass-media and television. The public could only wonder if two human beings, with human emotions and weaknesses, could be trusted to manage the behavior of nations and armies with such a great destructive firepower. The policy of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) was based in the brinksmanship of the political rulers in the cartoon, highlighting the tension of the day in a manner that also illuminates the risk of the human emotions in a centralized leadership command structure. This activity was also depicted in Stanley Kubrick’s classic movie Dr. Strangelove. The brinksmanship ended with the Soviets withdrawing t he nuclear missiles from Cuba in the end to a standoff that had captivated the world as the first and possibly most serious escalation of conflict between superpowers in the Cold War. This cartoon is useful to understand the public opinion of the times, but could be further verified through relations to other news media such as editorials and journalism of the events. Historians Craft Assignment Question 2 Source 2 of 2: An Excerpt from a Political Diary Sunday, November 26, 1967 So this is the end of the second devaluation week and we’re still completely without any central control or decision-taking in this Labour Government. And the chances of getting this as a result of the devaluation are very small indeed. .... the lower the Government plummets the stronger my position grows in my own little corner. Suppose the impossible happened and as a result of the crisis Jim [Callaghan] replaced Harold [Wilson]. That’s not inconceivable when you remember Macmillan replacing Eden after Suez. But it’s something I wouldn’t tolerate because I know the qualities of Mr Callaghan. He’s not an adventurous bold forward-looking Macmillan who could rejuvenate the Party. Right inside he’s a coward with a wonderful outside image and a very likeable personality. ... however, I don’t see the remotest chance of Harold going. It’

How SMEs Differ From Their Larger Counterparts Essay - 1

How SMEs Differ From Their Larger Counterparts - Essay Example Some of the main factors that distinguish SMEs from their larger counterparts include layers of management, individual responsibility, communication, speed of decision-making, attitude towards risk, allocation of resources, formal practices, organizational structure, flexibility, marketing and advertising, environment, and politics. Let us discuss each of them in some detail in order to know how these factors create differences between SMEs and large corporations. 2.1 Layers of Management One of the main differences between SMEs and large companies is the layers of management. SMEs generally have very few layers of management as compared to large companies. They have less number of managers and employees because of simple and short organizational structure. The organizational chart of SMEs also looks flat because of fewer layers of management. â€Å"Small business organizational charts are often flat; they look like two or three stacked rows of bricks with one or two bricks on top† (Ingram n.d., p.1).

Physiological Ecology Essay Example for Free

Physiological Ecology Essay ABSTRACT   Ã‚   Mytilus edulis or the common mussels, very commonly found around the British Isles coast, with large commercial beds in the Wash, Morecambe Bay, Conway bay the estuaries of south- west England, north Wales west Scotland; belongs to the phylum Mollusca e.g. snails, slugs, mussels cockles clams class Pelecypoda e.g. clams, cockles, mussels, oysters scallops. The Mytilus is an extremely widely studies specie, mainly because of its widespread distribution, abundance, ecological commercial importance. It is also used as a bio – indicator. The objective of the study conducted was to find out the effects of respiration, water pumping activity environmental stresses on the mussel’s growth. The environmental stress includes prolonged air exposure, low salinity its action combined with elevated temperature. The main focus was regarding the age growth of the Mytilus. The mussels were challenged to a number of tests to determine their behaviour to record their response to different environments.   The tests prove that Mytilus species that live in an uncontaminated area grow faster than ones that live in polluted areas. This can be deduced effectively by the research conducted along with the experiments. INTRODUCTION   Ã‚   Mytilus are usually present on the rocky shores of open coasts attached to the rock surfaces in crevices, on rocks piers in sheltered harbours estuaries, often occurring as dense masses in cooler waters of the world; usually extending from the Arctic to the Mediterranean in the North east Atlantic. Two important factors that play an important part in the growth life of Mytilus are: TEMPERATURE: it is a vital factor responsible for the growth limitation of mussels. Extreme low temperature causes damage in Mytilus but is minimised due to nucleating agents in the haemo- lymph. The Mytilus is prone to perilous freezing conditions sporadically in even moderate temperatures; large adults can endure lab conditions of -16 degree C. easily for 24 hours are capable of surviving even if the tissue temperature falls below -10 degree C. In Sweden, mussels actively ingested seston at -10 degree C., suggesting that they can utilise spring phytoplankton blooms in boreal waters even at low temperatures. M.edulis can tolerate high temperature desiccation as well, for example the British M.edulis has an upper sustained thermal tolerance limit of about 29 degree C. (Mytilus edulis) SALINITY: in contrast with other biogenic reef species, M.edulis can bear a wide range of salinity. But it is noted that it stops the feeding process when exposed to low salinities. The M. edulis adapts well to low salinities as low as 4-5 %. Exposure to 16% salinity for a month resulted in reduced shell growth as much as 26% to 32%, while in 22% exposure caused a minute drop in growth rate. When exposed to 13% the growth rate recovered from zero to more than 80% in 32% in a month. MATERIALS AND METHODS Materials: Incubation tubes, incubator, cotton, knob, benzoic acid, All samples were divided into four groups. Two groups of prestine A and prestine B were compared with polluted A and polluted B. Pristine A Pristine B Polluted A Polluted B Curves were drawn to compare Pristine A with Polluted A and Pristine B with Polluted B. With change of temperature change in mass was observed. Mytilus were cultured in flat trays measuring 20-40 cm. Two trays had pristine while remaining two were for polluted growth. Affect of temperature change was observed in all the four trays with consequently change in mass. Mytilus was put over the trays to be cultured. Tests conducted in five different labs are being analyzed to prove that the Mytilus favor a pristine environment as compared to a polluted one. LAB #1    This particular lab deals with the energy content in a food substrate or in animal tissue which is considered as the most important component for growth of any organism. The method used to determine the energy content of biological materials is the micro- bomb calorimetry method; by using susceptible microelectrodes to assess the heat produced by igniting a pellet of dry tissue within a stainless steel bomb. The calibration is obtained through a chemical having fixed energy content; the temperature change can be transformed into energy content for the tissue. In order to deal with a small sample, a micro- bomb calorimeter is used, filled with oxygen a small wire, that works like a light bulb filament is used to ignite the tissue    Using the oxygen supplied by potassium dichromate; a strong oxidizing reagent, contained with concentrated sulfuric acid, the tissue is burnt chemically. The orange Cr is reduced to green Cr, while burning; this change can be quantified using a spectrophotometer. LAB #5:    By determining the effects of geometric constraints biological processes, the allometric isometric relationships of organism are studied. The lab deals with the examination of gill area, shell volume foot weight scale with the size of mussels; observing how the size of the mussel effects the different biological processes. The allometric scaling is explained by equations of the form Y= Ax B; the A as a constant, B an exponent, X is mass Y is a biological process. Allometric relationships are represented as curves on linear axes, but when plotted on log/log axes they become straight. The scaling exponent of the function is determined by the slope of the line. LAB #6:    This lab’s research aims to calculate the following at ambient temperature using a meticulous mode: The respiration rate of one mussel from polluted area The respiration rate of one mussel from a pristine area control respiration    The materials employed in this test are a fiber optic oxygen electrode indicating vestiges on the quenching of light emissions from a Ruthenium compound due to oxygen presence, so as to calculate the flux of oxygen in due course.   To measure the respiration rates, the mussels will be enclosed in individual restrained Respirometers, filled with seawater connected to an oxygen electrode located with a slow flow of water from a peristaltic pump, in a separate chamber. Set up the oxygen system to record data every minute for an hour. Place a cleaned mussel, attach the lid submerge the chamber. Place the electrode in the holder attach hoses to pump chamber, so that the water is flowing past them, turning on the pump to slow. The data logging will go on for an hour start a mark for a downward slop in the recorded readings. Measure the volume of chambers the water level in hoses length of the mussel to estimate the tissue weight Mussel volume to ascertain the exact volume of water in the chamber.   LAB # 7:   Ã‚   The labs main concern was to calculate the protein content in mussel tissues, by using the Lowry chemical assay, which comprises of combining a dye reagent with soluble protein to produce coloration that is directly proportional to the amount of protein present. Protein is often used in physiological ecology as it plays a functional structural role by normalizing the data, through its direct association with functional components within the cells. Often in this experiment, the Bradford assay has been used since it is an alternate method for protein determination. Dilute copper tartar- ate solution is added to the protein that forms a complex. To develop the coloration, the Folin reagent is added to the protein – copper complex, within 15 minutes it results in a blue color. This has a peak absorbance at 750nm can be quantified at this wavelength using a spectrophotometer. A calibration must be done with a known construction of known concentration of protein a calibrated line constructed.   Ã‚   The reagents in the assay when reacted with a series of known protein solution (0.2- 1.5 mg/ml) dissolved in a sodium oxide buffer to remove buffer effects in the calibration. Prepare a series of clean 2ml snap cap tubes. The likely concentration series will be made by diluting the stock Bovine Serum Albumin from concentrations stock: –x x/10 x/2 x/4 3x/4   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Into the 1.7 ml soap cal tubes, transfer 25ul of the standards then add 125ul of reagent A. swirl warily. In each tube add 1.0 ml of reagent B vortex carefully. Leave for 15 minutes then measure the absorbance against 750nm distilled water. Plot the protein content along the X axis the absorption along the Y axis to obtain the calibration line. The calculation of the calibrated line can be done to estimate the protein content X from an unknown absorption Y; in the form Y= A – BX LAB # 9:   Ã‚  Ã‚   This lab research is to study the functional attributes of living enzymes, employing a quantitative approach to their measurement. By using a simple spectrophotometric assay to quantify the enzyme citrate synthase in two populations of Mytilus, any possible consequences of this variation will be identified by its functional value. The enzyme Citrate Synthase limits the rate mediating the transfer of pyruvate into the TCA cycle as citric acid. The process determines: Quantification of CS activity Quantification of the protein content to allow the CS content to be normalized. The extraction of the living tissue in a way that the enzymes remain operative is the base, on which the reaction is dependant on. The DTNB is reduced by the CoASH which is a stiochiometric by product of the reaction. The DTNB changes color, as is reduced with a peak absorbance of 412um. The procedure relies on the extraction of the CS in a cold buffer. A small portion is diluted with an Acetyl-CoA solution, the reaction begins when the Oxalo- acetate solution is added, as a result the color changes which can be monitored in a spectrophotometer. RESULTS      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Results clearly show that mytilus grow more in pristine as compared to polluted areas. There are several factors that affect mytilus growth in polluted areas. Graph polluted A (obtained from polluted A readings) Lab 6 The threshold salinity levels were recorded for the individual age groups consisting of a variation of behavioural response to salinity fluctuations. Low levels of water salinity below the critical values caused the isolating responses like closing the mantle cavity, withdrawal of siphons closing the shell valves in Mytilus. Another factor noticed was that the age did not influence the sensitivity of mussels to low salinity elevated temperature. However the older mussels exhibited a slightly lower critical salinity value after going through the fluctuations.   Ã‚   The scope for mussel growth except under treatments of no algae high silt; remained positive when carbon assimilation true, the rates of respiration excretion were balanced against energy intake. In estuarine systems, where the seston quality quantity is variable, makes the mussels living there evolve a feeding strategy involving minimal metabolic cost, at the same time maximizes energy assimilation while acquiring food from the environment. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A number of factors can hinder growth of mytilus in polluted areas. In polluted areas the change in mass of mytilus was much greater with slight variations of temperature. However, contrary to this the change in mass was negligible in pristine area. Several factors can hinder growth of mytilus on polluted surface. Pollutant in water and air can hinder their growth. Pollutants also destroy the food stuff and nutrients, hence, the mytilus species may find difficulty in getting well nourishment. Environmental variations have also deep affect on their growth. The blue mussels can subsist in air for 10 14 days at a varying temperature from 10 -20 degree C. even longer at lower temperatures. Like many other intertidal mollusc, M. edulis uses a complex behavioural physiological bio chemical mechanism to tolerate prolonged periods of air exposure extreme salinity changes or other un- favourable environmental conditions. Mussels that are smaller medium in size are not as predisposed to air exposure unlike large mussels, mainly because of higher absolute values of metabolic rate in the large mussels. In our experimental research, the size did not play a role in survival in air. The factors change from specie to specie, for example in some species of mussels the resistance increases the developmental age of the animal, and once it reaches the maximum level it may be possible that the process reverses.   Ã‚   When blue mussels M. edulis were exposed to high concentrations of copper Antarctic scallop Adamussium colbecki to high concentrations of cadmium, the age factor did not influence the survival; however the capacity to convalesce deteriorates with age.   Ã‚  The physiological traits of food ingestion rate, carbon assimilation efficiency, and respiration excretion rates are integrated by the energy accessible for growth, by supplying a prompt quantitative estimation of the energy status of the mussels. Conducting researched on this fact can provide insight into the growth process the influence of physiological activities. The Geukensia demissa or commonly known as the ribbed mussels can exert a profound influence on ecological processes of salt marshes on the Atlantic coast of North America. These mussel species are quite vulnerable to predators in the sub tidal area, since they have relatively thin shells; however they are very much physiologically adapted to the extreme environment where they are exposed to 70% air of the tidal cycle, this exposure draws the mussels against some severe stress since they are unable to perform feeding, defecation other essential physiological functions due to limitation of time. The mussels favour a pristine environment over REFERENCES â€Å"Mytilus edulis† Environmental Requirements: (n.d.) UK marine special areas of conservation [Accessed 4 December 2007] http://www.ukmarinesac.org.uk/communities/biogenic-reefs/br3_4.htm Tyler-Walters, H., 2007. Mytilus edulis. Common mussel. Marine Life Information Network: Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Sub-program [14 September 2007] Plymouth: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. [Accessed 4 December 2007] http://www.marlin.ac.uk/species/Mytilusedulis.htm Sukhotin, A.A. Lajus, D.L. Lesin P.A. (28 October 2002) Influence of age and size on pumping activity and stress resistance in the marine bivalve Mytilus edulis L: Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology [Accessed 4 December 2007] 284: 129– 144 http//:www.elsevier.com/locate/jembe Huang, S. C. Newell, R.I.E. (5 February 2002) Seasonal variations in the rates of aquatic and aerial respiration and ammonium excretion of the ribbed mussel, Geukensia demissa (Dillwyn) Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology [Accessed 4 December 2007]270: 241– 255 http//:www.elsevier.com/locate/jembe Eder1, E. B. Lewis, M. N. (28 April 2005) Proximate composition and energetic value of demersal and pelagic prey species from the SW Atlantic Ocean: MARINE ECOLOGY PROGRESS SERIES [Accessed 4 December 2007]Vol. 291: 43–52, Arifin, Zainal. Leah I. Bendell-Young (27 March 2001) Cost of selective feeding by the blue mussel / Mytilus trossulus as measured by respiration and ammonia excretion rates: Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology [Accessed 4 December 2007] 260 259–269 http//:www.elsevier.nlrlocaterjembe

Aircraft Maintenance Hanger Construction Bid

Aircraft Maintenance Hanger Construction Bid Introduction Many hangar projects are erroneously started in what should be the fourth step project execution. Bypassing the first three planning steps usually leads to frustration and project failure. There is no way to shorten the process by skipping any particular step. Planning the development of any construction site ultimately saves time, effort, and money. All of the project pre-planning and preparation to this point begins to pay off. During the project execution phase project manager completes the project design and funding, solicit bids, award the construction contract, build the hangars, and move in tenants. There will be changes that must be incorporated into the project plan (change in funding sources, regulations, stakeholders, size of project scope), and using the principles of project management can ensure the best possible outcome. This case is about the construction bid for an Aircraft maintenance hanger. ABC Construction Company is in the business of the Aircraft hanger construction. The company has bid for the construction of Aircraft hanger at one of the client site. The Project Manager of the ABC Construction Company has been entrusted with the responsibility of coming up with the project management plan for the entire construction. The following sections provide the baseline plan, progress of the activities against the plan on a given date (15/12/2010) and the efforts by the project manager to bring the plan to the original schedule. The second part of the task is to develop a project cost plan for the main contractors preliminaries associated with the construction of the aircraft hanger. When calculating the preliminary costs, following information is referred: NRM Group element 10 guidance Drawings of the Aircraft hanger Contractors master program The cost plan also discusses the implications of earned value techniques on the project as part of the project control process. The discussion also includes examples to illustrate the application of the earned value techniques in the management of the preliminaries costs. Finally, the value engineering process is conducted to the project, and a better deal is offered the client, which has a better value but at a lower price. The value engineering report prepared as part of this process demonstrates each step of the value engineering process. Time and resource planning and control Project scheduling Assuming the project starting date is of 06/09/2010, and 5 working days a week with Saturday and Sunday as holidays. Based on the tasks lists provided to you, Input activity information into Microsoft Project and schedule the hanger. Based on the schedule that you have generated using Microsoft Project, provide the following outputs: project schedule information (activity ID, activity description, activity duration, predecessors, skilled labor, unskilled labor, early start, early finish, late start, late finish, and total float); CPM network diagram; Bar charts; and Project resource profiles (skilled labor and unskilled labor). Program control By now, you should have developed your baseline schedule for the office building. As an exercise in monitoring and control, you will be required to monitor and control your project based on certain deviations from your initial project plan. Save your initial schedule plan as a baseline schedule and identify all the critical activities; Assume the current date to be 15/12/10 and induce delays into your project based on the following considerations: Due to the problem for the selection of the color of bricks, the hanger starts on 15/10/10 instead of 06/09/10; all activities in progress on 22/10/2010 are delayed by 3 days each; all activities in progress on 01/11/2010 are delayed by 5 days each; all activities in progress on 20/11/2010 are delayed by 2 days each; Update the project and save this as actual project information. After updating, please provide the following information Project schedule information (activity ID, activity description, activity duration, predecessors, skilled labour, unskilled labour, early start, early finish, late start, late finish and total float); Barcharts; Project resources profiles (skilled labour, unskilled labour); and Critical activity list. Do a comparison between both baseline and actual schedules. For comparison, you may compare activity start and finish dates under both situations. Since your project should have been delayed, it is your duty as a project manager to bring the project back on schedule with the least cost. Using 15/12/10 as a current date, try compressing some activities (these activities should not have started yet) and bring the project back on schedule. Compression should be logical and at a minimum cost. This may require several trials. Assume that the extra cost incurred as a result of activity compression is  £50/worker/day. After bringing back your project on schedule, please provide the following information: Project schedule information (activity ID, activity description, activity duration, predecessors, skilled labor, unskilled labor, early start, early finish, late start, late finish and total float); Bar charts; Project resource profiles (skilled labor, unskilled labor); and Critical activity list. Do a comparison between baseline, actual and updated schedules. For comparison purposes, you may compare activity start and finish dates under all situations. All the above details related to above questions have been entered into MS-Project and the three mpps are enclosed with the assignment. Cost Plan Develop a project cost plan for the main contractors preliminaries associated with the construction of the aircraft hanger. The Project cost plan includes the schedule of costs to be incurred during the project and the associated estimates. These are the costs which are expected to be incurred as a result of the completion of project activities. The schedule of activities and the resource plan feeds into the Cost plan and hence it is prepared subsequent to them. As a result of the project planning activities, the project manager is aware of the details regarding the project and hence the refinement of project budget can take place. This activity is particularly important when the project in full or part is expected to be executed under a contract. This is not to undermine the importance of accurate cost planning for the in-house projects as accurate and realistic cost plan helps in effective monitoring and of costs during the execution of the project. The monitoring of the cost helps the project manager to execute the project within the budget. Following three activities are important to develop the cost plan The expected cost identification and estimation Estimation of schedule when these costs would be incurred Cost per activity/task estimation The development of the cost plan for simple projects may only involve the consideration of the overall cost vis-à  -vis the project activities on the schedule of activities. Nevertheless, the situation is different for the complex projects, where, a detailed cost plan needs to be drawn in order to effectively monitor the overall expenditure. The NRM is also known as New Rules of Measurement. It provides a structured basis for preparing order of cost estimates and elemental cost plans including all the costs and allowances forming part of the cost of the building to the client but which are not reflected in the measurable building work. NRM covers the non-physical aspects of a project that the client may require as part of his overall budget for the project. NRM rules for order of cost estimating Information required Constituents Measurement rules Floor area Functional units Elements floor area, Element unit quantities Updating historic costs Preliminaries Contractors overheads and profit Discuss how earned value techniques could be employed on the project as part of the project control process including examples to illustrate their application to the management of the preliminaries costs. Earned Value Analysis (EVA) was developed by the US Department of Defence to determine the performance of large military procurement contracts. Its techniques can still be applied to the smaller projects currently in use today. Indeed, as Microsoft Project allows drilling down through and across a project, specific variances and general trends can be easily found. EVA looks at three basic parameters: What value of work SHOULD have been accomplished to date? How much value has been realized to date? How much has actually been spent to date? By comparing these parameters, an objective assessment of cost AND schedule performance can be gained. Instead of simply concentrating on how much time has been taken to achieve progress, earned value looks at how much value has been achieved so far. For example, take the following project summary task: This project started on time, but it is currently expected to finish 5 days late. This project is expected to overspend by $1,280 approximately 13% greater than its baseline cost. So far (as of the projects status date), the project is behind schedule to the value of $1,600 worth of work. In addition the current best estimates indicate that it will (if things continue as planned) overspend by $2,004, which is $725 more than forecast in the topmost example. Whilst these figures may not indicate large overspend or overrun, these figures are from a sample project containing ONLY seven tasks. If there were 70 tasks (or even several hundred tasks), the potential for error becomes much larger. Value Engineering Efforts to reduce the Cost Value Engineering is defined as an organized effort directed at analyzing the functions of systems, equipment, facilities, services and supplies for the purpose of achieving the essential functions at the lowest life cycle cost consistent with the required performance, reliability, quality and safety. Numerous other terms (value management, value analysis, etc.) are also used when referring to VE. While there are subtle differences among these terms they all refer to-generally the same process. There types of benefits associated with the VE exercise in the current case are First Cost Reduction: These reductions are attributed to the VE program only when required project functions or features can be delivered at the reduced cost. Simple cost cutting e.g. reducing cost at the expense of required features or functions is not VE. VE first cost reductions are counted as VE savings to the extent that dollars are withdrawn from approved budgets based on the results of VE studies. Life Cycle Cost Reduction: LCC reductions are based on the aggregate of first cost and anticipated future cost in maintenance and operations. When additional first cost is required to implement a specific VE suggestion, this can be offset by other VE suggestions which reduce initial cost. If the project budget must be increased to accommodate the additional investment, first cost savings derived from other projects may be used for this purpose after appropriate approvals. As long as they do not entail first-cost project budget increases, VE suggestions based on apparent life-cycle cost reductions may be adopted without formal LCC analysis. However, LCC reductions will be counted as VE LCC savings only when supported by sufficient economic analysis. Value Improvement: Value improvement is a subjective expression referring to a projected or apparent favorable shift in cost/worth ratio. The objective of all VE suggestions is value improvement, whether or not cost reductions are involved. VE suggestions maybe to reduce life cycle cost with no reduction or a lesser reduction in worth, to increase worth with no increase or a lesser increase in life-cycle cost, or (ideally) to increase worth and reduce cost. All VE suggestions which involve adjustments in worth should be related to specific forms of such adjustment (e.g., productivity, flexibility, expandability, aesthetics, etc.), whether or not they also involve cost adjustments. Following two studies were conducted as part of the VE exercise: The completion of Concept Design The completion of Tentative Design As it is a new construction projects, the first study at Concept Design is intended to review basic design decisions that pertain to areas such as: Siting and building orientation Building form, shape and massing Layout Occupiable to gross area relationships Design criteria Building systems selection options Space program options Building space/volume parameters Vertical and horizontal circulation Major Mechanical-Electrical-Plumbing (MEP) considerations Overall energy considerations Site access/egress Overall phasing/scheduling plans (as appropriate) Sub-soil conditions and geological data Utility availability The second study at Tentative Design will focus on more detailed design decisions including (as applicable): Specific building system design Specification and performance requirements Proposed design details Layout options within overall building geometry Specific MEP system selections Site paving, grading and utilities Phasing and scheduling plans Major constructability issues The basic approach is intended to consider macro level issues at Concept Design and more micro level issues at Tentative Design. In general, decisions made as a result of the first study will not be reconsidered in the second study unless significant new information is available. Furthermore, design changes implemented as a result of the studies will generally be considered to be within the bounds of the normal design process. VE Job Plan The recommended VE methodology (Job Plan) used by the VE team during the Workshop had five distinct phases. Briefly, these phases are: Information Phase: During this phase, the VE team gains as much information as possible about the project design, background, constraints, and projected costs. The team performs a function analysis and relative cost ranking of systems and sub-systems to identify potential high cost areas. Speculative/Creative Phase: The VE team uses a creative group interaction process to identify alternative ideas for accomplishing the function of a system or sub-system. Evaluation/Analytical Phase: The ideas generated during the Speculative/Creative Phase are screened and evaluated by the team. The ideas showing the greatest potential for cost savings and project improvement are selected for further study. Development/Recommendation Phase: The VE team researches the selected ideas and prepares descriptions, sketches and life cycle cost estimates to support the recommendations as formal VE proposals. Report Phase: The VE consultant will work in concert with the A-E and the PBS representative to produce a preliminary written VE Report which is intended to represent the results of the VE workshop activities, and meet the VE Program objectives. Finally, post workshop, all the suggestions were collated and classified into three categories of high, medium and low complexity. The suggestions associated with the current projects were as follows Modification of architectural designs: The hangar roof was designed to be an opaque structure. This roof can be made transparent through the ample use of the transparent glass which would allow more volume of sunlight. The high amount of sunlight during the day would result in the low usage of electricity and hence reduction in the variable cost of the running the hangar. Substitution of building wall material: Building wall material is designed to be made up of steel which can be replaced with high grade brick. The brick would also keep the temperature under control within the hangar. Reuse of existing materials such as fencing: The material used in fencing can be reused in the construction activity as the fence would not be required eventually. Use of Solar power: The Solar power can be effectively used to heat the water as well as to provide the night time lighting. This would reduce the variable cost of running the hanger. References Cooks, Sarah (2002), A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, PMI, 3rd Edition (PMBOK Guides) Public Procurement Directorate (2007), [Internet], Public Procurement best practices guide, Available at :< http://www.publicprocurementguides.treasury.gov.cy/OHS-EN/HTML/index.html?7_4_3_cost_of_project_development.htm>, accessed on: 25 May 2010 Homepage (2007), [Internet], Aircraft Hanger development guide, Available at :< http://www.aopa.org/asn/hangar-execution.pdf>, accessed on: 25 May 2010 Jack J. Champlain, Auditing Information Systems, Second Edition (2003), Pages 277, 278, 279 280, John Wiley Sons Publication. Mulcahy, Rita (2003), Risk Management, Tricks of the Trade ® for Project Managers, 4th edition, RMC Publications. Mulcahy, Rita (2003), PMP Exams Prep, RMC Publications. Rich, Jason R, Design and Launch an Online E-Commerce Business in a Week, Entrepreneur Press, 2008, ISBN: 1599181835, 9781599181837. Schwalbe, Kathy (2009), PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) reference and Information Technology Project Management, 6edition.

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney :: essays research papers

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was born on February 25th, 1746 at Charleston, the eldest son of a politically prominent planter and a remarkable mother who introduced and promoted indigo culture in South Carolina. 7 years later, he accompanied his father, who had been appointed colonial agent for South Carolina, to England. As a result, the young Charles enjoyed a European education. Pinckney received tutoring in London, attended several preparatory schools, and went on to Christ Church College, Oxford, where he heard the lectures of the legal authority Sir William Blackstone and graduated in 1764. Pinckney next pursued legal training at London's. Middle Temple and was accepted for admission into the English bar in 1769. He then spent part of a year touring Europe and studying chemistry, military science, and botany under leading authorities. Late in 1769, Pinckney sailed home and the next year entered practice in South Carolina. His political career began in 1769, when he was elected to the provincial assembly. When South Carolina organized its forces in 1775 to battle the British, Pinckney joined the First South Carolina Regiment as a captain. He soon rose to the rank of colonel and fought in the South in defence of Charleston and in the North at the Battles of Brandywine, PA, and Germantown, PA. When Charleston fell in 1780, he was taken prisoner and held until 1782. The following year, he was discharged as a brevet brigadier general.Pinckney was one of the leaders at the Constitutional Convention. Present at all the sessions, he strongly advocated a powerful national government. His proposal that senators should serve without pay was not adopted, but he exerted influence in such matters as the power of the Senate to ratify treaties and the compromise that was reached concerning abolition of the international slave trade. After the convention, he defended the Constitution in South Carolina. In 1796, however, he accepted the post of Minister to France, but the revolutionary regime there refused to receive him and he was forced to proceed to the Netherlands. The next year, though, he returned to France when he was appointed to a special mission to restore relations with that country. During the ensuing XYZ affair, refusing to pay a bribe suggested by a French agent to facilitate negotiations, he was said to have replied "No! No! Not a sixpence!"When Pinckney arrived back in the United States in 1798, he found the country preparing for war with France.

Can Computer Think? :: essays research papers

Can Computers Think? The Case For and Against Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence has been the subject of many bad "80's" movies and countless science fiction novels. But what happens when we seriously consider the question of computers that think. Is it possible for computers to have complex thoughts, and even emotions, like homo sapien? This paper will seek to answer that question and also look at what attempts are being made to make artificial intelligence (hereafter called AI) a reality. Before we can investigate whether or not computers can think, it is necessary to establish what exactly thinking is. Examining the three main theories is sort of like examining three religions. None offers enough support so as to effectively eliminate the possibility of the others being true. The three main theories are: 1. Thought doesn't exist; enough said. 2. Thought does exist, but is contained wholly in the brain. In other words, the actual material of the brain is cap able of what we identify as thought. 3. Thought is the result of some sort of mystical phenomena involving the soul and a whole slew of other unprovable ideas. Since neither reader nor writer is a scientist, for all intents and purposes, we will say only that thought is what we (as homo sapien) experience. So what are we to consider intelligence? The most compelling argument is that intelligence is the ability to adapt to an environment. Desktop computers can, say, go to a specific WWW address. But, if the address were changed, it wouldn't know how to go about finding the new one (or even that it should). So intelligence is the ability to perform a task taking into consideration the circumstances of completing the task. So now that we have all of that out of that way, can computers think? The issue is contested as hotly among scientists as the advantages of Superman over Batman is among pre-pubescent boys. On the one hand are the scientists who say, as philosopher John Searle does, that â€Å"Programs are all syntax and no semantics.† (Discover, 106) Put another way, a computer can actually achieve thought because it â€Å"merely follows rules that tell it how to shift symbols without ever understanding the meaning of those symbols.† (Discover, 106) On the other side of the debate are the advocates of pandemonium, explained by Robert Wright in Time thus: â€Å"[O]ur brain subconsciously generates competing theories about the world, and only the ‘winning' theory becomes part of consciousness.