Conflict is the essence of drama Essay

The effect of conflicts in drama is profound, and conflicts contribute to a great extent in making drama attractive for audience to watch. Conflict basically forwards drama, while in the meantime it leads to changes that attract audiences as it progresses through time. Conflict shows character, their realizations, and also realizations of audiences, all of which make drama interesting to attract audiences. It projects meanings and gives vividness to drama, thus it makes drama interesting in order to attract audiences. Conflict forwards drama by introducing changes that keeps the audiences sited. Audiences find an unchanging play that follows routine to be boring and hopes to find differences. Thus, changes are necessary in drama for it to demand a reaction from the audiences that’s maintained, so that they can keep focused to the play. In Oedipus, changes occur from the beginning of the play to the end. Oedipus doesn’t go through a normal life as being a king or live a happy life with his wife, but experiences through a catastrophe that influences his life. Critical changes are brought out by conflict at certain moments and introduce newness to drama, for example when Jocasta discovers that Oedipus is the child she sent years ago. The conflict is within Jocasta herself, of sinfully being both a wife and mother of Oedipus. Also the conflict is between her and people of Thebes, including Oedipus, where the normal relationship has been destroyed. These two conflicts mean a dramatic change in Jocasta herself, and for the play, as it moves on acknowledging the effects of these changes. Similarly, in â€Å"Macbeth†, changes are brought out throughout the play, enriched by conflicts within characters, such as Macbeth, and conflicts between characters, such as between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. The two monologs of Macbeth shows his inner conflict between his consciences and his ambition, which slowly drives him towards murdering the king. The vast change in his inner mind based on the conflict sets the basis for the play and leads to the potential consequences that happen later. Conflict between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth occurs when Lady Macbeth accuses her husband of not being a man to have the courage murder. Changes are brought out as Macbeth becomes more firm and aggressive towards the murder, which then affects direction of the whole play by moving closer towards the murder and gives the audiences anticipation towards th e killing. This brings a sense of delight in the audiences to keep them focused to the play. By having conflicts which leads to changes, drama is forwarded along with the reactions from the audiences. At the same time conflict forwards a play, conflict also shows character of the characters. In â€Å"Oedipus†, conflict is presented between characters such as between the Terisias the priest and Oedipus. The technique of stichomythic dialogue is used when the two have a conflict in their conversation, to show the characters’ emotions, especially Oedipus’s pride. Short, fast sentences are used when Oedipus hears Teiresias’s accusation on him, he says â€Å"Shall I bear more of this†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and Teiresias answers â€Å"I will. The stichomythic dialogue shows Oedipus’s jealousy and his tyranny behavior. By being not able to see the warning language of Terisias, he’s also shown to be arrogant. His conversation with Creon further shows his arrogance and hubris. Again, stichomythic dialogue is used when Oedipus says â€Å"By no means. I would have you dead, not banished† and Creon answers â€Å"if you can show in what way I have wro nged you†. In â€Å"Macbeth†, conflict within Macbeth himself shows his character. In Shakespeare’s portrayal of Macbeth, there’s resolution and irresolution, there’s decision and indecision, all which describes his character. During the two long monologs, his relentless ambition fights with his conscience, showing the opposing two sides of his inner character. When Macbeth sees the dagger hanging in front of him, he mentions he thinks not of them and that â€Å"there’s no such thing†, but it is indeed ironic because he’s mind is actually focused on them. The irony shows his character, the fighting between trying to remain conscience by not thinking of them and murdering the king. He mentions the dagger as a â€Å"false creation†, but in his deep heart desires to use it. Along with showing character, conflict shows their realizations, and more, makes also the audiences to realize. With â€Å"Oedipus†, audiences realize the effect of hubris of people, after seeing how Oedipus experiences his downfall. Audiences realize how the dominating emotions of arrogance, jealousy, pride affect Oedipus in refusal to recognize his wrongness. The paradox of Terisias of being physically blind but sees things correctly in terms of morality further contrasts with Oedipus’s emotion, and further encourages the audiences to realize hubris. Although in â€Å"Oedipus†, realizations happen while the audiences have a certain outline, some knowledge on the play, audiences still experience the play differently, since it is live. However, this is not true with â€Å"Macbeth†, as history of the play is made up as going along. Audiences realize the consequences of Macbeth after murdering the king by seeing that, in the end, he dies in the battle. Characters themselves also have realizations in drama, usually at critical moments where conflict makes the play changes its plot dramatically. Oedipus’s realization of him being the son of Laius comes slowly, but also catastrophically. Again, the tension of the realization is built up using stichomythic dialogues. Oedipus realizes that he can never go back to where he was. His conflict lies in that he wishes to return to being the king as before, but the truth does not allow him to do so. Similarly, In â€Å"Macbeth†, realization of Macbeth comes with his action of murdering the king. There is clearly a feeling of being scared of others discovering their actions inside Macbeth and Lady Macbeth after murdering the king, as they rhetorically question the noise of the surroundings. Also, Macbeth mentions† I’ll go no more. I am afraid to think what I have done†, suggesting he realizes the dangers that would occur to him if his actions were discovered. Conflict in drama projects meaning, though it might not project a resolution to the problem at the end of the play. The end of one conflict in the play doesn’t necessary mean that there will be no future conflicts. In â€Å"Oedipus†, the fall of Oedipus doesn’t indicate the problem of the nation has been solved, but on the contrary, there might be other arrogant tyrants like Oedipus in the future. However, the story of â€Å"Oedipus† somehow teaches the audiences to be morally good, therefore it has a meaning. Similarly, in â€Å"Macbeth†, the tragedy of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth teaches audiences to realize that following a path similar to them will lead to destruction. Duncan’s speeches of gracefulness, loyalty, honor, honesty and integrity are meant to project moral rightness, therefore to teach morally. Still, there’s no final resolution at the end of the play and it may mean that there will be other tyrants like Macbeth in the future. However, the play itself has projected meanings which, attracts audiences to watch it because simply no one would be interested in a play with no meanings. In conclusion, conflict does not only perform the basic functions for drama, such as forwarding the play, but conflict’s main effect is that it makes drama more interesting, which is essential to attract audiences. Changes are brought out by conflict that introduces something different, and something new. Also, characters in drama are shown vividly through conflict. Conflict projects meaning, create realizations of the audiences and characters, with all of this, it makes drama fascinating and irregular.

VO2 Max and Aerobic Power

Oxygen is one of the vital elements of life because it acts as a fuel for aerobic respiration, which is the energy source in all organisms (the other fuel being glucose). Without energy from respiration, organisms simply die. As an organism (in this case me, a human) does work, it needs more energy. Thus it will need more fuel and particularly more oxygen since glucose can be stored in the body. The oxygen intake increases as the rate of work done increases, up to a limit known as your VO2 max. VO2 max is the maximum volume of oxygen uptake (hence the V in VO2) anyone can use. It is measured in millilitres per minute per kilogram of body mass (mlO2 min-1 kg-1). People who are more fit have higher VO2 max values and can exercise more intensely than those who are not very fit. Factors Affecting VO2 Max The physical limitations that restrict the rate at which energy can be released aerobically are dependent upon: > The chemical ability of the muscular cellular tissue system to use oxygen in breaking down fuels and, > The combined ability of cardiovascular and pulmonary systems to transport the oxygen to the muscular tissue system.1 The Aim VO2 max can be measured in a variety of ways1. The aim of this experiment is to find out the subjects VO2 max and then covert it to the total aerobic power output. The Method VO2 max can be measured fairly accurately by doing a â€Å"shuttle run† style test (known as â€Å"The Multistage Fitness Test† A.K.A. â€Å"The Beep Test†). Basically, someone has to run a 20 meter track at the starting speed of 8.5 kmh-1 for one minute. Once the person finishes the 20 meter track, they must run back at the same speed, and thus we get an oscillating pattern from one end of the track to the other until the minute is over. The speed is increased by 1 kmh-1 every minute (so after one minute of running at 8.5 kmh-1, the person must run the second minute at 9.5 kmh-1). The same pattern is repeated only this time, because the person (the subject) is running at a higher speed during the same amount of time (one minute), they are going to cover a larger distance and therefore more of the 20 meter laps (in theory anyway). This fact only works in theory because will most of the speeds, the subject can not run a set (integer) number of laps in exactly one minute. It turns out that if the subject runs at 8.5 kmh-1 for one minute, they will cover 7.08 laps. This is impractical (how can you tell that the subject ran 7.08 laps!) and so the number of laps must be rounded up or rounded down to an integer number of laps. Once a set number of integer laps are set, we work out the time taken to run the integer number of laps. (Refer to Columns [5] and [6]). The subject continues running until he or she can no longer keep up the pace. The speed that the subject sustains (i.e. the speed before the speed that the subject stops on) is known as the Maximum Aerobic Speed (MAS) and is measured in kmh-1. Once we have the MAS, we can work out the VO2 max in the following formula: VO2 max = 31 + 3.2 x (MAS – Subject's Age [years]) + 0.15 x MAS x Age The unit for VO2 max is: mlO2 min-1 kg-1. (Note: The above formula is a â€Å"conversion formula developed by researchers, to give an accurate measure of VO2 max†. See Activity Sheet 26) After calculating the VO2 max, we can convert it to maximum aerobic power output. Because the subject will be working with a high energy output, running requires a lot of energy; the only way to keep going is by aerobic respiration. Anaerobic respiration doesn't provide the high amounts of energy that are needed in such exercises, especially for longer periods of time e.g. ten minutes. For every litre of oxygen consumed, the subject's muscles use 20kJ of energy. The total amount of oxygen consumed in a minute is the VO2 max multiplied by the body mass of the subject. This gives us the total oxygen intake of the subject in ml per minute (mlO2 min-1), since VO2 max is millilitres of oxygen per kilogram of body mass per minute. Once we have the total oxygen intake in mlO2 min-1, we multiply it by 20 (if 1 litre gives 20,000 J, then 1 millilitre will give 20 J) to get the total amount of energy used (i.e. power) in Joules per minute, (J min-1). Power (J min-1) = VO2 max (mlO2 min-1 kg-1) x Body Mass (kg) x 20 J mlO2-1 Power (W, Js-1) = Power (J min-1) à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ 60 s min-1 Conventionally, the power output is measured in Watts per kilogram of body mass, W kg-1 (See Table 3 on Pg 37 of the text book, Salters Horners Advanced Physics), therefore we would need to divide the total power by the subject's mass. However the aim of the experiment is to find out the total aerobic power output. (At least that is what the Activity Sheet 26 says, under the last bullet point in the Analysis section) This means that there is no need to divide the total power output by the subject's mass. We just leave the total power output in Watts. (For Prepared Formulas and An Interactive VO2 max calculator, See File Formula Input Form.xls) Interestingly, the test given on the website1 for calculating VO2 max (look for The Multi-Stage Fitness Test) differs in some ways from the one suggested in Activity Sheet 26. One of the differences is the increase of the speed is 0.5 kmh-1 every minute, not 1 kmh-1. Also, if the subject doesn't complete a whole minute at the speed of 15.5 kmh-1, for example if the subject managed to complete 3 out of the 13 laps, then the subject would have a different (lower) VO2 max than if 10 laps were completed. Later on, I will discuss this issue and other differences in more detail (Under the Evaluation). The Table (Table 1) If you refer to Table 1 (File Table 1.xls) you will see all of the information needed and all of the calculations have been done beforehand. I compiled this table using Microsoft Excel(r). Below is a brief explanation of the table. Column [1] The speed of the subject, in kmh-1. Column [2] The speed of the subject given in ms-1. To convert speed from kmh-1 to ms-1, we multiply by 1,000 (converting km to m) and divide by 3600 (à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½[60 x 60] is converting hours to seconds). Simplified, converting kmh-1 to ms-1 we multiply by 10/36. Therefore: Column [2] = Column [1] x 10/36 Column [3] The time taken to complete one lap can be worked out by the below formula Velocity (ms-1)= Distance (m) à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Time (s), if we re-arrange the formula to make time the subject we get: Time (s) = Distance (m) à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Velocity (ms-1). The distance is of one lap is 20 m and the velocity has been calculated in Column [2]. Column [3] is just: Column [3] = 20m à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Column [2]. Column [4] This is the number of laps made in one minute (60 seconds). If I know that it takes 8.47 s to run one lap, I can calculate the total number of laps made in 60 seconds be dividing 60 seconds by the time taken to run one lap. So: ? of Laps in 60 seconds = 60 seconds à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Time Taken to Run One Lap Column [4] = 60 s à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Column [3] Column [5] This is just Column [4] rounded up or down to give us an integer number of laps. It means I don't have to deal with 7.08 laps and suchlike. Column [6] This is the time taken to run the integer number of laps. We calculate this by multiplying the time taken to run one lap (Column [3]) by the integer number of laps (Column [5]). Time to Run Integer ? of Laps = Time to Run One Lap x Integer ? of Laps Column [6] = Column [3] x Column [5] Column [7] Since we know that each lap is 20 meters and we know how many integer laps the subject will run, we can find out the total distance covered during a specific speed by multiplying 20 meters by the integer number of laps. Total Distance Covered During a Speed = 20 m x Integer ? of Laps Column [7] = 20 m x Column [5] Column [8] Column [8] is the cumulative distance ran. Here, the distances are added up (accumulated) so that we know the total distance ran through the whole activity. The cumulative distance is the total of the previous distances (previous speeds) plus the distance of the current speed. Column [9] Column [9] is the cumulative time taken for the activity. It is in seconds and works in pretty much way as Column [8], i.e. the times of the previous runs are added to the current run to give the total cumulative time. Column [10] This is the cumulative time presented in a more familiar and user friendly format, the minute : second style. This is just here to give a sense of how long 840 seconds are. The Tape (or The Slideshow) In order to make the subject run at the times listed on the Table, I will need to prepare a tape or some sort of timing device. After attempting to make a tape and failing miserably, I decided to use Microsoft PowerPoint(r) instead (making the tape proved to be a long winded, boring and fruitless exercise), because, with PowerPoint, I can set time intervals between slide transitions and add sounds on every slide transition, making it a visual as well as an aural aid and I can have a lot more fun making it! (i.e. I can have lots of â€Å"interesting† and slightly odd sounds on the slide show) I also realised that it would be more helpful (to the subject) if I had a sound in the middle of each lap and to have a marker on the middle of the lap (10 meters). In case the subject is going too slowly and doesn't reach the middle marker when the middle bleep sounds, they can speed up to reach the end of the lap in time. However there is a slight disadvantage with using PowerPoint because the transition periods can only be set to 0.1 of a second (1 d.p.) and the lap times are given to 0.01 of a second (2 d.p.) and some of the half laps are to 0.001 of a second (3 d.p.). Therefore I have had to alter the timing of the transitions slightly so that there isn't a cumulative error. For example, during the first speed (8.5 kmh-1), it takes 4.235 seconds to complete half a lap, but I can only have 4.2 and 4.3 as time intervals in PowerPoint, therefore I had to find a pattern that consisted of 4.2 and 4.3 time intervals to fit the 4.235 time interval as well as possible. This technique took quite some time, however, using Excel helped greatly. With Excel, I could input different patterns (using 4.2 and 4.3 seconds) and view the sum automatically. If it wasn't right (i.e. if the total time wasn't near the time in Column [6] in Table 1), I simply changed the pattern until I got the closest time. Also I decided that there wasn't a need to go beyond 13.5 kmh-1 because when we did a warm up to the test (a kind of preliminary), none of the subjects managed to run over a thousand meters. In order for any of the subjects to complete the 13.5 kmh-1 speed, they would need to run at least 1100 meters, therefore there was no point in extending the presentation beyond that speed. (See Files Timing.xls for the pattern generating, and Timing Presentation.ppt, listen out for a treat during the last few slides) The Safety (Issues) It is always important to consider safety in any situation, and it is especially important in this type of activity where there is a fairly high risk of an accident and or an injury occurring. Below is a set of guidelines that the subject and others present during the activity should follow. The subject should begin with a five to ten minute warm-up period, before the test is started. It should consist of stretches and short runs where the subject should rapidly accelerate and then decelerate. This helps the subject to run better in the test and also helps avoiding any muscle cramps during the test. In the (relatively) unlikely event of the subject falling, or hurting him/herself in any other way, the subject should stop running immediately. Also if the subject feels any pain or dizziness, they should stop. The subject should not continue with the test, even if they seem or appear to have recovered. The Results The results are in the Result Sheet (unsurprisingly). The results were gathered from the experiment, which was conducted with ten subjects, including myself. They are in order of VO2 max. (The Results Table can be found in Results.xls) The Evaluation After completing the experiment, I worked out the aerobic power of the subjects very easily, with the help of Excel. I personally found the experiment enjoyable and it my got the heart pumping! (A somewhat rarity in physics, consider electricity†¦ ok, maybe pacemakers, and the way they electrically shock people who have had heart attacks with two funny looking handle things, not much else though). However, there were many problems I encountered while conducting the experiment. To begin with, we couldn't find a 20 meter track anywhere in our school, considering the fact that there had to be a socket close by since my timing mechanism uses a computer (there are three sports halls in the school, but they were all busy). Therefore, I had to settle for a smaller 10 meter track. The fact that I had midpoint bleeps in the timing mechanism meant that each bleep (midpoint and full-length bleeps) was a signal for the subjects to reach the end of the 10 meter track. This meant the timing was not affected, however the experiment could have been affected greatly. (See the Miscellaneous Calculations section) Secondly, in the Activity Sheet, it says, â€Å"For every litre of oxygen consumed, 20kJ of energy are transferred to the subject's muscles†. However it fails to mention whether or not some of that energy is lost as heat and other ways of energy loss (e.g. fiction from the ground, the energy needed to stop at the end of every lap and even the energy needed to move the muscles themselves, i.e. contracting and relaxing of muscles). There are no suggestions or hints on how much of the energy is used to propel the subject. Although this can be calculated in the kinetic energy equation, EK = 1/2mv2, and the power equation P = ?E/?t . However, I suspect that these energy fluctuations are taken into account via the VO2 max formula. But even the formula itself isn't very accurate in my opinion. As I mentioned earlier, if two subjects managed to sustain the same MAS (Maximum Aerobic Speed) but one of the subjects ran more laps, then logically that subject has a higher VO2 max. This logicality is not, in any way, included in the formula. On the website (See Note 1 of Reference) the tables show that if one of the subjects ran more laps during the same speed, that subject would have a higher VO2 max that if he/she managed to run a smaller number of laps. Therefore, I do not believe that the formula for calculating VO2 max on the Activity Sheet 26 gives a correct quantitative value of the subject's VO2 max. Although the experiment has shown that some of the subjects are fitter that others (i.e. the experiment is correct qualitatively), it did not produce reliable figures with regard to the VO2 max of the subject. On the first of the Activity Sheets, Figure A26.2 shows a line graph of VO2 max for boys and girls at different ages. According to the graph, 16-year-old boys should have a VO2 max of 52-53 mlO2 min-1 kg-1. Ops! (My VO2 max is nowhere near that, or at least the formula tells me that it is nowhere near that). It shows that I am not as healthy as I should be, considering that my mass is 85 kg! Unlike Robert, who is a very healthy person and managed to run at a high enough speed to get a high VO2 max. (Although I should stress again my doubt about the numbers given by the formula) The Miscellaneous Calculations A velocity-time curve of the subject's motion. Note the area under both of the curves should be equal since the same distance, 10 meters, is travelled. The distance is the speed multiplied by the time i.e. the area under the graph. A As mentioned earlier, the energy needed to propel a subject can be calculated via the kinetic energy equation. EK = 1/2mv2 and P = ?E/?t My mass is 85 kg. If I ran one lap at 8.5 kmh-1 (which is 2.36 ms-1, Refer to Table 1), the energy needed is: EK = 1/2mv2 so, EK = 1/2 x 85kg x (2.36ms-1)2 EK = 236.7 J If the above amount of energy were delivered by my muscles in one lap (10 meters, since that was the length each subject had to run) at 8.5 kmh-1, it would have taken 8.47/2 seconds (only half a lap, 10 meters). So: P = ?E/?t P = 236.7/4.235 P = 55.9 Js-1, W However, if I ran 20 meters, then the power is: P = 236.7/8.47 P = 27.9 Js-1, W The amount of energy accumulated while running a lap is then dissipated towards the end (of each lap) as the subject must come to rest i.e. the velocity is zero. Notice also that because the subject has to accelerate at the beginning of every lap, some extra energy is needed for that acceleration. The subject must accelerate every 10 meters because he/she has stop and then run in the opposite direction. As the lap distance decreases, the power transfer increases. This shortage (of lap distance) will also cause the subject to accelerate and decelerate more often. Therefore, the smaller the lap distance, the larger the error could be (due to the fact that some of the energy is used up in accelerating). Using a 10 meter track instead of a 20 meter track could have affected the results because this meant more energy used in accelerating. It is therefore, justifiable to say that had the track been longer (i.e. 20 meters), myself and all of the other subjects could have been able to sustain a higher speed instead of the one that was achieved.

Taiwan Living Culture

There is an issue comes up when Taiwan talks about culture conservation, which is the conflict between social development and preservation of military dependents’ villages. Taiwan is a place that lived by Holo, Hakka and indigenous peoples. Besides indigenous people, there are many mainlanders who came from mainland China. Those mainlanders came with Kuomintang government for political affairs that happened in China since 1940s. Hence, compare to indigenous people, military dependents’ villages, the places mainlanders were living, is actually a minor culture in Taiwan.Therefore, there are some difficulties for the culture-based workshops when they are trying to protect military dependents’ villages. There is lesser population who insist to protect their culture. Moreover, a number of residents were basically moved out from the villages. In this issue, we could study the issue with our cultural communication knowledge, especially identify the culture element that the issue brought by. Refer to the article title, preserving military dependents’ villages, the article is discussing about how the workshops trying to preserve military dependents’ villages and what are the concerns they are having.Since military dependents’ villages are minority culture in Taiwan, as well as they are not Taiwan’s local culture, we can understand how difficult the workshops’ tasks are. Hence, preserving military dependents’ villages is an issue. This issue was discussed recently. It was being studied since 1990s. We noticed that it was a trend of cultural discussion, which has no certainty beginning and ending. It is generally happened in Taiwan. Those active workshops were operating much in Kaohsiung and New Taipei City. There are some people who involved in this issue.First of all, there is a workshop called Association of Mainlander Taiwanese (AMT). It is formed in 2004. Yang Tsung-rong is one of board of directors of AM T. He is an Associate Professor at National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei too. He said that the workshop recently focuses on conserving the unique villages. The second involved party is Ministry of National Defense (MND). The land of dependents’ villages belongs to MND. There is a law named Act for Rebuilding Old Quarters. It assures MND to have right of demolish the village after the military dependents moved out.They will rebuild new apartments for military dependents. Sometimes, they sold the apartments in accordance with National Property Act to fund the construction of apartments. The third party is Lin Fung-ching, who is a deputy chief executive of Kaohsiung Military Dependents’ Villages Culture Development Association. The workshop was formed in 2007 and operates the Kaohsiung Museum of Military Dependents’ Villages. She agreed that less-is-more strategy which means preserving a limited number of the housing areas is sufficient.She understood the gov ernment’s concern since preserving all 888 villages is a challenge of local development. Nevertheless, she stated that preserving old buildings in a village is not enough. The fourth person is Wang He-ping, who is another chief executive of the Kaohsiung workshop. He supports the preservation idea and aims to preserve Mingde New Village, Zuoying District as a â€Å"living museum† that would see villagers continue to live in the village. Visitors can move into vacant houses to feel their day life culture. He enhanced that preserving the villages is promoting â€Å"green belt† concept.It would add to Kaohsiung’s tourism resources. He said that dependents’ villages are a minority culture, but they are not a minor part of Taiwan’s culture. Wang Ji-xin is the fifth person who involved in this issue. He is a founding board member of the New Taipei City Military Dependents’ Villages Culture Association which formed by year 2007. The associat ion is to preserve approximately 60 houses of Sanchong First Village. He is a former resident of the village too. He mentioned that bulldozers will also remove an irretrievable piece of Taiwan’s pluralistic culture.Sanchong First Village’s residents had move out and into purpose-built apartment buildings in New Taipei City by 2006. They could only make oral histories instead of make a living museum as Mingde does. Basically, Taiwan is a place that highly appreciates traditional culture. At first, they believed and followed the Chinese culture. Since 1990s, Taiwan started to focus on local culture. They appreciate Holo, Hakka and indigenous groups. Even Ministry of Education introduced the program called â€Å"Knowing Taiwan† which focused Taiwan’s history, geography and society instead of centered on mainland China.As the article mentioned, mainlanders who came to Taiwan with Kuomintang government had been allocated in certain places. They thought that st aying in Taiwan was temporary plan. However, the dream of â€Å"retaking mainland† faded and the mainlanders had to stay in Taiwan. According to government’s arrangement in 1980s, 90% of 110,000 households recorded in 1984, the dependents of mainlanders, who were military’s families, have left the villages. Nevertheless, some workshops tried to request to preserve the villages for culture conservation.At last, we found that the workshops perform so well which fight for their culture yet do not ignore the social development. What we learnt in communication and culture, we have no problem to agree that living lifestyle is one of culture definition’s elements. There is a set of pattern preserved and shared human activities among a social group from generations to generations. In this article, the dependents’ villages are recognized culture of what we learnt in class. The military dependents’ villages were brought by mainlanders from mainland of China.They brought their families to Taiwan as well. Hence, they started practice their normal life in Taiwan generations by generations. Moreover, there are pictures of their culture proof. For the first page, we can see a big house built at Mingde New Village in Kaohsiung. It is for higher-ranking officers. The second page has 5 photos. The top one is the narrow alleys in the military dependents’ village. The photo below it shows the mandarin words which means â€Å"Be calm amid confusion†. It would be probably the residents’ value oriented.The other two photos that wrote mandarin words, â€Å"One year to get ready, two years to recapture, three years to clean up and five years to finish the job†. The military has the purpose on recapture the mainland of China when they came to Taiwan. On the following page, there is a photo of some apartments. They are the new apartment buildings for military families such as these in Kaohsiung’s Zuoying Distri ct. We noticed that the villages’ culture had been gone. The other photo in this page shows the military dependents villages’ cultural festival in New Taipei City.The fifth page showed the military uniforms and identity cards at the Kaohsiung Museum of military dependents’ villages. The last page showed the selection of dishes at a Kaohsiung military dependents villages’ food festival in 2011 and a well-preserved living room at Sanchong First Village in New Taipei City. All of them are significant culture. This issue is quite similar to Malaysia’s not to demolish Jalan Sultan case. We noticed that culture preservation is important, especially the historical buildings. We understand social development is important too yet there are some ways to avoid from demolishing cultural buildings.As the photo we saw in fourth page, the original outlook and environment was gone after the rebuilding. It will be happened in Jalan Sultan if we do not fight for the preservation of culture. It is sad if we lost our significant culture on our land. Therefore, we should appreciate our culture and think the other ways to avoid from demolishing our significant culture. For example, Melaka had preserved those culture buildings and items. They then become elements of tourism and improving our national incomes. Hence, we should think twice before we made the cruel decision of demolishing some precious and valuable cultures.

Organizational Structure Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Organizational Structure - Essay Example As mentioned in the case, Nissan Company is facing certain problems and due to these problems the productivity and efficiency is affected to a great extent. The company owner aims to make the company improve its operational efficiency and produce better results. Organizational structure as mentioned earlier is of three kinds centralized, decentralized and departmentalized structure (Clark & Fujimoto, 1991). These structures can be adopted in order to make a company powerful and successful one. Centralized structure is a structure with the help of which decisions can be taken as a whole. People will work together by sharing their thoughts, feelings, ideas and will generate better results. Whereas decentralized structure is a structure with the help of which problems can be resolved easily if there are any. And departmentalized structure is a structure with the help of which one can extend the department line in order to gain more profits in a particular market, geographic area etc. One of the well known companies, Nissan, when enters in its fiscal year 2009 tries to change its organizational structure as directed by its Chairman Carlos Tavares as mentioned in the case. ... The company should introduce new and innovative ideas in order to have a joy of everyday driving (Wickens, 1987). The company should also strategically consolidate its operations across other countries too in order to have a diverse economic zone. In addition to this, different operation committees should be established who should be responsible of making different decisions, the decisions should be performance based so that they can easily judge that what they should do in order to make their company perform better. One new and a different organizational design should be there in order to enhance the future growth of the company. Marketing, sales and the support system should be managed more locally because they are the one who are suppose to respond to the needs of the local markets. Similarly the supply chain management should work more logically and with different set of strategies in order to keep a check that whether the company is functioning properly or not. Various holistic approaches should be taken in order to do something different so that it will be very much easy for the company to compete with other companies. RECOMMENDATION 1 The company should adopt centralized structure. Centralized structure is a structure with the help of which all the decisions are made only at the level of the firm as a whole (Dalton et al., 1970). This structure will tend to increase the decision making level of the company too and with the help of this structure the company can generate better results. This organizational structure also allows the firm to avoid all the low performing activities and also to coordinate across its all divisions. Therefore, if there

Business1 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Business1 - Assignment Example In any of the two instances, you shall contact our customer care at the outlet in which you experience the inconvenience and a voucher shall be offered instantly. There shall be no need to proof the inconvenience, as the customer care agent will be able to verify the details. The service guarantee ensures that customers get time value for their money and that the company meets customer’s needs. These add value to the quality of products that we offer in differentiated packages. Tax and Brown authored the article, ‘Recovering and learning from service failure,’ which Sloan Management Review published in the year 1998. The authors, based on empirical study, explain the role of effective customer relationship management on profitability of organizations through establishing customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, and increasing revenues. The authors argue for significance of customer relationship management and recommend a shift from offensive marketing strategies for attracting new customers to defensive customer retention strategies. The article is important because of its informative content that is vital to organizations in perfect competition markets. High-level competition that technology facilitates has led to exploration and exhaustion of offensive marketing strategies that are common among competing organizations. Consequently, focus on offensive marketing strategy may be ineffective and therefore a waste of resources. The article howev er offers a solution to this problem through customer relationship management and is therefore important to organizations’ managements. The ideas of inevitability of customer dissatisfaction and the service recovery process are the most useful information from the article. Acknowledging that customers may be dissatisfied, at some points, forms a basis for willingness to resolve customers’ concerns while the process enlightens and empowers towards

The Fight for and Evolution of Same Sex Marriage in America Essay

The Fight for and Evolution of Same Sex Marriage in America - Essay Example The validity of the volume is incontestable because of its thorough application of qualitative methodologies, specifically in-depth interviews and observations. The volume also considers other important legal issues such as inheritance rights and health privileges. All over the discussion, arguments from all parties of the debate come out, thus creating a balanced discourse. (2) Alderson, K. & Lahey, K. (2004) Same-Sex Marriage: The Personal and the Political. New York: Insomniac Press. This volume summarizes the historic court decisions in Canada to recognize the marriage of homosexuals; the statutes in Belgium and Netherlands which have granted the permission to homosexual couples to marry; and the legal issues of same-sex marriage in the courts of California, Massachusetts, Hawaii, and other states (Alderson & Lahey, 2004). The volume is relevant to the thesis because of its elaboration discussion on the evolution of same-sex marriage typified by heightened personal happiness on t he one hand and by landmark legal interpretation and traditional social movement on the other. Although the volume is largely exploratory and descriptive, the authors’ thorough analysis of earlier literature and current empirical findings on the legal status of same-sex marriage builds it credibility. (3) Attorney, F.H. & Attorney, E.D. (2011) Making it Legal: A Guide to Same-Sex Marriage, Domestic Partnership & Civil Unions. Berkeley, CA: NOLO. The volume sums up the past, current, and potential status of same-sex marriage statutes in the United States. The volume is relevant to the thesis because the authors present a thorough evaluation of the factors that affect the choice to marry, explains the complicated and constantly changing directives of statutes on same-sex relationship, and offers realistic recommendations on the institution of marriage (Attorney & Attorney, 2011). The trustworthiness of the volume is unquestionable since the authors have personal experience with and professional knowledge of the past, present, and future legal status of same-sex marriage. Aside from their own perspectives, the authors involved other legal scholars and practitioners to contribute to the same-sex marriage discourse. (4) Barclay, S. & Fisher, S. (2003) â€Å"The States and the Differing Impetus for Divergent Paths on Same-Sex Marriage, 1990-2001,† Policy Studies Journal, 31(3), 331+ This article is related to the thesis because it puts emphasis on the motivations for the implementation of state legislations that prohibit the recognition of same-sex marriages. The article is adequate in terms of validity and reliability due to its use of a ‘regression model of pooled time series data from the 50 states in the period 1990 to 2001’ (Barclay & Fisher, 2003, 331). The authors take into account the validity of current social, demographic, and political movement variables (p. 331) that have been connected in the past to the passing of statutes re garding sexual perception of the local and central government. (5) Cahill, S. (2004) Same Sex Marriage in the United States: Focus on the Facts. Oxford, UK: The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. The book systematically compares between civil marriage, domestic partnership, and civil union prior to discussing the empirical findings concerning both the anti- and pro-same-sex marriage campaigns (Cahill, 2004). The author also discloses findings

Compare the cultural revolution called for in the Futurist Manifesto Essay

Compare the cultural revolution called for in the Futurist Manifesto with the political revolution of the Plan of Potosi - Essay Example The Plan of San Luis Potosi, on the other hand, is a statement made by Francisco Madero, a leader of the political opposition in Mexico when the country was under the grip of a dictator, Porfirio Diaz. In the statement, Madero explicitly expressed the necessity of a revolution that would oust the dictator and establish a truly democratic government. Although both authors apparently wrote their respective pieces to promote revolutions, they do have significant differences in terms social analysis, objectives, methods, and perspectives. The fact that one is essentially cultural, while the other is political, is already a major factor in the difference between the two. Before Marinetti explained the concepts he is promoting in the Manifesto, he made an effort to first express his sentiments regarding the realities in Italian society then. It is apparent that he had nothing but harsh criticisms for the people’s continuing reverence of items of antiquity. He believes that people sh ould no longer adulate anything that is a remnant of a bygone era because this only tends to obstruct the rapid pace of development. He writes: â€Å"what is the use of looking behind at the moment when we must open the mysterious shutters of the impossible?† (Marinetti) However, Marinetti clearly goes to the extreme, when he considers that humane concepts are also outmoded. Clearly, this cultural revolution that he proposes is radical in a sense that it essentially seeks the eradication of what has been considered characteristically human: compassion. In place of love and compassion, which Marinetti believes are traits that can only be attributed to the weaknesses of humans, are hatred and violence. In explaining his agenda, Marinetti points out that all things that symbolize so-called glories of the past, including cemeteries and museums, should be destroyed so that futurism can be advanced. He asserts that â€Å"daily visits to museums, libraries and academies (those ceme teries of wasted effort, calvaries of crucified dreams, registers of false starts) is for artists what prolonged supervision by the parents is for intelligent young men, drunk with their own talent and ambition.† (Marinetti) In order to achieve what he envisions, Marinetti endorses the use of violence or war. For him, total destruction of the old through the use of violent force is the prerequisite to the realization of futurism. Madero, on the other hand, puts forward the idea of launching a political revolution against the Diaz dictatorship in his country, Mexico. Madero expounds the bases of the revolution in the article Plan of San Luis Potosi. The Mexican people have suffered much under the undemocratic rule of the current regime. Their basic civil and political rights have been violated many times, the most glaring example of which is the anomalous election results that led to the failed attempt of Madero to take the presidency. Madero denounces the Diaz promise of achie ving peace without democracy. He writes that it is â€Å"a peace full of shame for the Mexican nation, because its basis is not law, but force; because its object is not the aggrandizement and prosperity of the country, but to enrich a small group who, abusing their influence, have converted the public charges into fountains of exclusively personal benefit, unscrupulously

Unit 5 discussion Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Unit 5 discussion - Research Paper Example In the case of Bedford Mountain parenting program one could debate that there might have been preconceived thoughts about the program’s success. In Maritza’s case, it is important for the funding agency to understand the purpose of the program. The findings in this case should be presented and explained clearly to the founder. According to Royse et al. (2010) this evaluation’s findings are intended for knowledge development. They are exempted from scrutiny by IRB (p.49). Despite this; it is good for the evaluator to share her plans with the nearest IRB for guidance. It is also crucial for the evaluator to review how others addressed this problem and apply ethical principles to the situation. Maritza should consult with her supervisor on the evaluation and objectively discuss the way forward as the program collides with politics of funding and the need to be addressed. Maritza should not compromise on the findings but should present her findings in such a way that they capture the pros and cons of the program and give recommendations for it. This type of data ought to be shared with the funding agency and her immediate supervisor. Evaluators are urged not to be complacent even in the midst of political, financial or personal interest but maintain neutrality and exercise their ability to report accurate

Effect Of University ID In Design And Technology Research Paper

Effect Of University ID In Design And Technology - Research Paper Example The Islamic architectural styles emerged during Muhammad time that initially had principal Islamic architectural styles such as the palace, the fort and the mosque. As a way of preserving and revitalization of the rich national heritage, the architects of Saudi Arabia are using traditional design in new structures. King Saud and King Khalid international airport are examples of Saudi Arabian architecture that has combined modernity and tradition. The key ingredients in the construction are palm tree leaves and tree trunks while in ornamentation of the buildings stone and wood are used. Unlike the western architecture, that uses processed cement and concrete (King 123). Many architects in Saudi Arabia have not totally embraced the use of modernity in architecture. They have continually used traditional methods of construction. In as much as there is availability of modern building materials such as concrete and steel which are international materials that are devoid of regional charac teristics, the Arab architects have developed striking effects in design and construction by using native brick, stucco, stone, ceramic and tiles. In buildings where the personal, human elements are important, the architects may include modern architectural designs and techniques. Architecture of Saudi Arabia The architecture of Saudi Arabia is greatly characterized by its deep history and culture and it encompasses a greater variety of architectural styles. It is ancient and renowned. The architecture of Saudi Arabia speaks a lot about the natural artistry of its people. Saudi Arabia is predominately an Islamic country and enjoys the history of one of the best Islamic architects of all time. Thus, it is not rare to see elements of Islamic architecture being used in abundance throughout Saudi Arabia. Traditional as well as modern buildings both have such elements including domes minarets etc. The architecture of the Islamic Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is unique and diverse, this being b rought about by its own rich and uniquely different cultural past that has developed over many years. The architecture, traditional in this case, is categorized by both and abundant use of vibrant colors and the presence of intricate patterns. Initially, this architecture was influenced mainly by the climatic conditions, geography and availability of resources to be used for the construction works from nearby areas. In its initial stages, the architecture in the central areas of the Kingdom was comprised of houses/structures made of sun-dried bricks that were readily available; these being malleable, thus their insulating qualities. Parts of western Saudi Arabia used red bricks with stone housed being the most popular; while in the city of Jeddah, due to the closeness of the Red sea, the houses were build using coral items from the sea. Modern day architecture in the Kingdom entails the creation of a unique blend of both modern and traditional architectural patterns with the King Sa ud University and the King Khalid International Airport being between the two most remarkable architectural designs; them combining both tradition and modernity in their structural makeup and design. Greatly influenced by both Western culture and Post-modernism, in the past few decades due to the rapid modernization of the Kingdom, aspects of traditional Islamic architect

Report of recent financial crisis and writing a report Essay

Report of recent financial crisis and writing a report - Essay Example The Big Short significantly explains the banking crisis of crisis of 2007–2008 by unfolding the events preceding the crisis, the actual crisis, and the characters involved (Lewis 1-5). Michael Lewis derives that a crazy, fabricated money machine, built on flawed mathematical models that most financial executives did not really understand the caused the crisis leading to loses of several trillion dollars through government bailouts. He establishes that in the late 1980s, Wall Street imagined that it could generate â€Å"bond-like† financial products from other debt-based income streams like home mortgages and credit cards. In this context, a bond represented an income stream based on borrowed money. As such, Wall Street designed mortgage bonds in form of stacked layers to enable everybody to access them. As a result, investors craving for higher returns on their money invested in the lower â€Å"tranches† while investors seeking lower returns invested in the highe r tranches. Indeed, we can trace the 2008 financial crisis from the development of the mortgage derivatives (Lewis 21-27). With the help of ratings agencies, Wall Street turned subprime mortgages into exotic, toxic financial products that attracted huge turnovers through laundering and reselling. The subprime mortgages had higher risks attached to them but equally paid much higher interest rates designed for borrowers with lower credit worthiness. As a result, the demand for the subprime mortgages from Wall Street increased leading to increased motivation on the lender for additional subprime mortgages. In addition, marketing for the subprime mortgages increased considerably and more people took up the loans. Indeed, Michael Lewis argues that these financial instruments became opaque and complex everyday overshadowing the fact that their foundation lay on suspect loans that kept rising (Lewis 112-117). With more people willing to buy the subprime mortgages, the quality of the mortga gees decreased, the risk for Wall Street’s mortgage bonds increased, and it became harder to sell the bonds to investors. Unfortunately, as the unstable foundation of subprime mortgages became weaker and posed a greeter danger to the world economy, the chief executives of America’s premier banks did not foresee it. Indeed, government regulators and treasury officials also failed to identify the eminent danger. Nevertheless, some investors saw it and used the opportunity to make huge financial benefits from the financial crisis. However, Michael Lewis notes that Wall Street firms had the ability to hide the risk by making the idea complex and using the rating agencies. Actually, the rating agencies that included Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s   helped in giving risky ratings that equaled the US treasuries thus opening the financial market to many of CDO buyers. At this period, Americans bought the mortgages in large numbers without knowing that the mortga ge demand emanated from their actions. Michael Lewis introduces one of the investors who sought to benefit from this financial crisis as Darwinian world of the bond market. He also introduces Michael Burry, who became obsessed with investing and started a fund with the family money. Lewis states that after studying the bond market in 2004, Dr. Burry became convinced

Holiday Blues Essay Example for Free

Holiday Blues Essay Holidays filled with fun, family outings, shopping, Christmas Trees, and bringing in the New Year. It is not always like this for others. Holidays can be a very depressing time for others. When families get together you might want to pay attention to that loved one that maybe still grieving or going through lifes blows. It is hard to get into the grove of things when you look around and see that their is someone missing this year. Life is not the same without that person or persons. You are not so happy about another year going by and you havent made any significant progress in your life. It seems that nothing anyone can do to get you over this silent pain you are going through. Counseling could be one way of coping with this loss and trying to fill this void in ones life. Anti-depressants is another alternative. The best way I have found to beat the blues in combination of the above,if that is needed, is to bring yourself back to something you love to do. Be it listening to music, writing memoirs, singing, going out to a comedy. Just get yourself involved and loose yourself in your favorite past time to help alleviate the pressure. Remember not everyone is happy during the holidays. Try and look out for one another. You never know; all that person really needs to know is that someone has noticed them and had shown them that they really care. It is not only the teenagers we need to watch. We also need to watch the people that fall within the middle age group. So during the holiday fun and cheer look around to notice others that are not so happy. Cheer them up and show them that you care.

Quality Enhancement Policy Essay Example for Free

Quality Enhancement Policy Essay 1.1 Introduction and Background The Government of Pakistan established Higher Education Commission (HEC) in 2002 to facilitate growth of indigenous universities of Pakistan to become centers of quality of education and research and development. Though this process, HEC aims to play its role in building of knowledge-based economy in Pakistan. In order to achieve this goal, HEC has undertaken a systematic plan of implementation that is 5year Medium Term Development Framework (MTDF). The main aim of HEC was to focus on quality and relevance (HEC, 2010). The core strategic areas of MTDF are: 1- Faculty development 2- Improving enrollment 3- Quality in learning and research 4- Importance to national plan These plans are supported by well-integrated crosscutting themes for developing leadership, governance and management, enhancing quality assessment and accreditation, and physical and technological infrastructure development, (Batool, 2010). HEC introduces quality enhancement cell in universities for maintaining and improving the academic quality in the country by establishing that criteria are being met and educational activities are also in an agreement with the plans of the commission. According to international practices and development, HEC improves plans in order to more improve the standards. HEC intends to achieve excellence in the higher education and by taking major initiatives to develop the performance of universities and started up with the primary step of outlining the performance evaluation standards for the universities. For this, numbers of documents are defined, every document of these articulates a detailed element of the institutional quality. Therefor these documents are equally important for achieving the desired certifications to quality enhancement in higher education (Batool, 2010). Self-Assessment is an essential element in completing the HEC recognition. The recommendations for Self-Assessment are published as â€Å"The Manual for Self-Assessment† for the purpose of implementation at department / programed level in the universities. The complete practices of Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) are controlled by the QECs established under the umbrella of the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) of HEC at the universities and consequently develop an integral part of the universities concerned. Furthermore the QECs also work in management with authorization bodies to make the process of program level accreditation. However, the institutional act of evaluation has many more measurements with greater complexity, (HEC, 2006).This thesis defines the Institutional performance evaluation standards and to make sure that quality establishment is certified by the HEC for the universities. The institutional act assessment comes under the Purview of the HEC whereas this process is dated by the results of IQA Exercise done by the universities through implementation of the â€Å"Self-Assessment Model†. The effects of Self-Assessment will agree to the process of Performance Evaluation Standards for the HEIs to be directed by the HEC in line with best performs of External Quality Assurance (Raouf,2010). The Higher Education Commission is working for continuous improvement of these standards and their effectiveness. The HEC through QAA will assess individual institutions periodically established on the performance evaluation standards defined here. These periodic reviews will be shown from side to side an arrangement of On-Site Assessment by Performance Assessment Teams under the direction of QAA. The quality standards observed by a university will be documented only as a result of successful performance assessment reviews through evaluation of institutional successes against pre-defined principles (HEC, 2011). To sustain academic quality and standards in higher education the institutions need to be professional, creative and innovative. The vision, mission and objectives are the essential values when applied in its principle, examined and measured are likely to be fruitful. The motivation of assigning all these movements and applying them under the authority of QEC is not only to emphasize on maintaining the best faculty, administrative staff and students but to be best in research, emerging interdisciplinary courses, academic performance, strategic and integrated academic planning (GCU, 2011) Quality in academic development means agreement of all the stakeholders where the challenge is to deliver education which is continuously improving and is at the same level with the international standards. In recent years it has become a requirement that institutions of higher education demonstrate the success of their academic programs in providing high quality education that impacts the concerned stakeholders. The Higher Education Commission develops methods for evaluating the quality of academic programs (Kanwal, 2007). Moreover with the establishment of Quality Assurance Agencies at Higher Education Commission, it was decided in the National Quality Assurance Committee (NQAC) meeting that Quality Enhancement Cells will be established at all universities to make stronger the internal quality assurance procedure with a special emphasis on the quality of higher education to fill the gap between the fundamental and the desired status of quality education, (HEC,2011). The matter of quality is being known as the major issue confronting the higher education sector in the Medium Term Development Framework (MTDF). Therefore, to enhance the quality of output and efficiency of the higher education learning systems, a mechanism for the establishment of QECs has been developed by the Quality Assurance Committee to improve the standards of quality of higher education in a systematic way with uniformity across the country. The Higher Education Commission (HEC) established Quality Enhancement Cells (QECs) at ten public sector universities in 2006-07 whereas in 2007-08 more twenty QECs were established in the remaining public sector universities for enhancement of their academic, teaching and learning standards. The QEC family is being extended to additional fifteen public sectors and fifteen private sector universities in 2009-10 and twenty four in public sector universities in 2010-11 (Zafar, 2006). At the moment, the HEC has given incentives to encourage research, appoint foreign faculty, funds for workshops and conferences, and granting scholarship to go overseas to present research or do postgraduate research. It shows the deep concern of HEC regarding QA. The quality of research is a special focus and HEC has developed a zero-tolerance policy for plagiarism, (kanwal, 2007) It has established a QA Cell that states the necessity to improve a culture of assessment is always together with the concept of quality. Both internal self-evaluation and external reviews are dynamic components of any well-developed quality assurance system. It is entirely critical to monitor and control growth of sub-standard institutions of higher learning. A comprehensive multi-level mechanism of accreditation is to be developed to make sure establishment of quality education. Qualification needs to occur at the department or program level, as well as the Institutional level. (HEC, 2011) 1.2FUNCTIONS OF THE QUALITY ENHANCEMENT CELLS 1. The Quality Enhancement Cell (QEC) is to be supervised by a Dean reporting directly to Vice Chancellor/Rector. 2. QEC is responsible for maintaining public confidence that the quality and standards of the reward of degrees are improved and secured. 3. QEC is responsible for the review of quality standards and the quality of teaching and learning in each subject area. 4. QEC is responsible for the assessment of academic affiliations with other institutions in terms of effective management of standards and quality of programs. 5. QEC is responsible for essential clear and explicit standards as points of reference to the evaluations to be carried out. It should also help the employees to know as to what they could expect from candidates. 6. QEC is responsible to improve qualifications framework by setting out the qualities and skills that can be expected from the holder of a qualification, i.e. Bachelors, Bachelor with Honors, Master’s, M. Phil., and Doctoral. 7. QEC is respon sible to improve program qualifications. These are standard set of information clarifying what knowledge, understanding, skills and other qualities a student will have developed on successfully completing a Degree. 8. QEC is responsible to improve quality assurance processes and methods of assessment to affirm that the quality of provision and the standard of awards are being maintained and to foster a program of study, subject and staff development, together with research and other academic activities. 9. QEC is responsible to make sure that the universitys quality assurance techniques are designed to fit in with the arrangements in place nationally for maintaining and improving the quality of Higher Education. 10. QEC is responsible to develop procedures for the following: a). New programs approval b). Annual monitoring and evaluation including program, faculty, and students monitoring perception. c). Departmental assessment e). Student comment f). Comments of Employer g). Quality assurance of Masters, M.Phil and Ph.D. degree Programs h). Review of Subjects i). Institutional assessment j). Program specifications k). Qualification framework Universities play a significant role in the overall development of a country, their significance lies not only in providing degrees, but also in producing quality human resources for various zones of the economy (GIKI, 2011).To succeed this goal, Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) has designed some guiding principle to evaluate the quality of education in Pakistan to the ever changing conditions and global needs (HEC, 2011). It is state that Higher Education’s unique and symbolic phase is Quality Enhancement in Pakistan by IMscience that Importance of Quality can be understood from the fact that rapid development in higher education requires Quality Assurance in order to put up with current levels of academic standards and improve modern learning processes (IMScience, 2011).

The Language Of Ethics And Preventing Ethical Problems Philosophy Essay

The Language Of Ethics And Preventing Ethical Problems Philosophy Essay What is ethics, and what does it mean to put business and ethics together? What would it mean for a company to do this well? Ethics is a foundation of principles of moral conduct that is based on the philosophies of those involved in a life situation. Therefore, the melding of business and ethics is following these moral guidelines in a business life situation. This can be a slippery slope, as there needs to be an agreement between the moral behavior and the mission of the business, which at times seem to be at odds. It is important to recognize that ethics has a mission it is attempting to accomplish. That mission is not to create the perfect business world but to limit the harm on all stakeholders in their business life situations. What the discipline of business ethics can and must do is to provide an approach for improving the lives of the stakeholders who, with business, live in an imperfect, and sometimes harmful, world. (D. Robin, 2010). So the answer to doing business ethics well requires understanding the possibilities of the harms that could occur for the stakeholders. In order to do that it is vital to understand the stakeholders and their needs through a stakeholder analysis. This is a helpful way for managers to identify the relevant purposes and consequences in a given case (Freeman, Martin, Werhane Wicks, 2010). In determining what ethical or moral code of conduct will be employed to eliminate or minimize a harm it is a waste of time to establish a code that does not resolve an issue that for any of the stakeholders. If this arbitrary moral code that has no positive or negative effect on any stakeholders is employed it is meaningless. However, if an issue is identified that applies to one or more stakeholders a meaningful moral code can be establish that is useful to all. So an organization that starts first by understanding their stakeholders through a stakeholder analysis and what their needs are will be able to employ meaningful and useful et hics that will allow them limit the harm and do business ethics well. What are the three traditions of ethics, and how do they provide guidance to help inform your managerial decision-making? The three traditions of ethics according to Business Ethics: A Managerial Approach (Freeman, Martin, Werhane Wicks, 2010) are; Actions or means people use to achieve their goals; Agent or persons who are acting in the situation; and Ends or goals that are outcomes of actions. At first glance some comparisons between the traditions would seem to suggest that they are opposites. However, they are really a view of situations from different angles or approaches. They each provide a value in their own right. An actions based approach focuses on the standards that we are using in the decision making process. Is the decision maker following the rules of decency in coming to his moral decision? In an actions based approach it is believed that the means is paramount in the ethical decision that is being made. An actions based approach may be the most useful when stakeholders are going to see the entire process and expect things to be done in a certain way. An Agents based approach does not d eal with how its done nor does it deal with what the the outcome is. Instead it centers on what the decision says about the person making the decision. Does this decision prop up his or her character or does it undermine it? This approach would likely be used when the decision creates a lasting impression that will cause a long term affect of the decision maker or the organization. Finally, an Ends based approach does not look back. It does not concern itself with how it was done or what the decision says about the individual or organization. Instead it looks to the end and assesses the result. Did it yield the positive result that was desired? Focusing on the Ends would be desired when there is little to no harm in how things are done or what the process means but instead what the bottom line becomes. Each of these traditions has its place and its value in providing the guidance to conclude what ethical decision is needed. Before this class discussion in module 1, what was your sense of why organizational ethics like Enron, Arthur Anderson, and Worldcom, happen? I dont like to cast full judgment on people or an organization without completely understanding the entire story. However, I did have a very dim view based on the details of which I was aware. My perspective was that a very large company was taking advantage of the federal government. To mount more trouble on top of it, in the case of Enron, Arthur Anderson who should have held them to a higher standard as an auditor allowed the corruption to continue. The irony of all of this is of course the largest more corrupt offender of all, the federal government, was holding both of these organizations to a standard that they themselves cannot follow in terms of accountability, which is evidenced based on their balance sheet. I certainly did not have an understanding that the 3 traditions of ethics could be applied in this situation. It would seem at some very cloudy level they were applying the Ends tradition. I say this is cloudy in that it brought with it the baggage of corruption to get t o the ends that should have almost obscured the view of it. I would suggest that it would have been more prudent for them to employ the Action, Agent or a combination of these traditions of ethics as it would have likely caused a different outcome. The long term result of this is much more than the harm these organizations caused themselves and their stakeholders. The constraints that often come from harmful situations such as saddling all companies with Sarbanes-Oxley will unnecessarily felt by the business community for years to come. Which factors seem to be most important in diagnosing why bad things happen? What role does the individual, and individual conscience, play in making sure good things happen organizations? To determine within an organization what is the cause of bad ethical decisions it is important to understand the morality and conscience of individuals within the organization and what is driving the decisions that they are making. This includes not only the leadership of an organization but all members from the top down. It can be valuable to look at not only the moral development of the individual but what forces that affect decision making are in play (Freeman, Martin, Werhane Wicks, 2010). First moral development, which is postulated by Kohlberg to be progressive, should be looked at and considered. While not all theorists agree with this approach it can be used as a good model for understanding causation of ethical problems. What is the tendency of individuals in terms of moral development? Is there a tendency to make ethical decisions based on the earlier stages of fear or are they at a point of maturity in this process? Knowing where individuals are in this spectrum can help us understand if it is part of the problem (Forsyth, Donelson R, 1992). Also, if the leadership of the organization is at the early point of the moral spectrum they are going to feed this type of decision making down through the rest of the organization. Understanding not only the individuals moral development but also the leaderships moral development all the way through the organization will help in the diagnosis of the problems. Second, we need to look at the forces in play for decision making. In considering each of the forces discussed in the text it can be assumed that it can be applied at the individual level if we want to understand the problems and want to see good decisions within the organization. Attempting to apply these forces at an organizational level becomes abstract and makes it very difficult to see or directly affect individuals. For example, to see how authority is properly communicated in an organization it is necessary to look at specific examples of this. That is, how a particular individual in authority communicates to other individuals in the organization is important in the making of good ethical decisions. Likewise, how an individual responds to that authority will play into it as well. This can be done with each of the other forces, Distance from Responsibility, Tunnel Vision, Rationalization, External Pressure and Communication Breakdowns. Applying individual notions to each of the se will help in both the diagnosis and resolving to better decision making. Therefore the consideration of the individual conscience both in the diagnosis and the resolution of good decisions is a key element. Read the case, Marge Norman and Miniscribe Corporation, pages 58 67 of your textbook. Provide a summary of this case including the ethical dilemmas and how they were handled in this case. Draw on what you learned in chapters 1 2 as part of your response. The case of Marge Norman and Miniscribe Corporation is a good example of some of the central forces that affect the decision making process, chief of which is the authority force (Freeman, Martin, Werhane Wicks, 2010). In addition, the findings and results suggest the rationalization played a major role in the decisions that were made within the company that caused the downfall of the corporation. Chronologically, the case begins with a company in a difficult position financially. Initially it appeared as if things were moving in a good direction with new leadership, Q. T. Wiles, being very decisive and with a solid influx of investors. One of the dilemmas that initially showed it head was in the area of communication breakdown, as all information was required to be communicated from the very top. In doing this it can be completely controlled as to what is being communicated. This created a fertile ground to allow the story to become whatever the leader wanted it to be. This also ti es into the central force of authority, which played a major role. With Q.T. Wiles being a strong personality with his 13 disciplines it would appear that the company was being lead in the right direction with strong accountability. From the outside this might give the appearance of a solid ethical foundation ensuring those doing the work are being held accountable. As the case continues and we see in the end that cooking of the books had occurred, this suggests that the authority force did indeed play a major role. In addition, the case states that there were many employees involved in the cover up. To have a large number involved it would require an authority figure guiding them and providing rationalizations in the process. There was also the external pressure force placed on the leadership by the accountability structure to come up with the correct numbers, which has the possibility of causing bad decision making. For the scandal to be this successful it had to cause dilemmas fo r all areas of the company. The accountants had to decide if the numbers forced to them should be used. The sales department always watches the numbers closely and would have had to wonder about the inflated numbers. Even the shipping department, who day to day knew what would be going into the boxes, must have faced a moral dilemma. As lies or deceptions occur within a company there is a need for consistency in the store and an escalation tends to occur (Kidwell Martin, 2005). As deceptive dilemmas began to mount with each bad decision more bad decisions were made until it was impossible to conceal as indicated by MiniScribes 13 successful quarters. Looking back had any of the employees overcome the central forces and employed even one of the rationalization tests earlier in the process, the scandal could have been less severe. Far too late, Marge Norman applied the publicity test in a small way by communicating her findings to her supervisor. Had this been done earlier the story would have been different. Had the leadership put themselves in the place of the stockholders, using the reversibility test, it would have brought to the surface the lack of ethics in the decisions. And certainly, using the generalizability test and comparing the situation even to ones personal finances it would be clear that this situation would eventually be found out. The mounting power of the authority force and rationalization along with a failure to apply any of the rationalization tests to the situation proved to be the down fall of MiniScribe. Sadly, this affected not only the company itself but many others in the process.

Gender Segregation and Discrimination in CTE :: Females Women Discrimination Essays

Gender Segregation and Discrimination in CTE The Traditional Reality The CTE system before Title IX has been characterized as traditionally dominated by gender segregation and discrimination (National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education 2002). In many cases, females were denied entry into training programs for higher-wage, traditionally male, industry and technical occupations. Gender stereotyping in guidance and counseling practices and materials, bias in teacher practices, and harassment by other students discouraged nontraditional enrollment by females and in practice restricted CTE opportunities for females to lower-wage, traditionally female, health and cosmetology occupations. In short, systematic practices and expectations steered females into home economics and away from shop or auto mechanics. In the long run, the most damaging consequence of such gender bias was to limit females' access to the benefits of CTE—the living wage that provides females the same economic self-sufficiency that males have long enjoyed. The Continuing Reality Unfortunately, CTE is still characterized by pervasive gender segregation and discrimination (National Women's Law Center 2002). Thirty years later, there are still striking gender disparities in guidance and counseling practices, in CTE program enrollment, in the level and quality of classes available in traditionally male and traditionally female CTE programs, and in the wages earned by female and male CTE graduates. An interesting comparison of two surveys (reported in Gloeckner and Knowlton 1995-96), one in Montana in 1980 and another in Virginia in 1995, illustrates a large, enduring gender gap in a critical CTE program area: . In Montana in 1980, females accounted for half of enrollment in only one high school technical education course—51 percent of Graphic Arts students were female. Female enrollment was less than 10 percent in all other high school technical education courses. . In Virginia in 1995, only one high school technical education course, Communications Technology, had about 50 percent female enrollment. In the 32 remaining high school technical education courses, female enrollment was less than 15 percent in 27 course and less than 10 percent in 17 courses. . In 1995, Virginia students explained gender differences in terms that could be considered classic for CTE. Females and males both perceived technology education classes as "guy" classes; females perceived technology education classrooms are dirty, hence unfeminine.

Voltaires Candide Essay -- Voltaire Candide Essays

Voltaire's Candide Throughout the novel, Candide, Voltaire repeatedly exploits the nature of humans to consider other's situations and lifestyles to be better than that of their own. Voltaire uses Candide's journeys to portray the human assumption that the grass is always greener on the other side. This theme is shown in Candide's strife for companionship, his experience with wealth, and his interaction with other characters. The situations that develop the theme do so in such a way that the reader is able to understand and relate to the aspirations of Candide. The first element used to convey the fact that Candide looks at others situations sees what he would like to have is in his journey to find the ideal companion. Throughout his adventures, Candide comes upon many different men with many different companionship situations. For example, during Candide's time with Count Pococurant, Voltaire indicates to the reader that Candide is impressed with the count's two women. (118) The amazement and awe by Candide is answered with an explanation from Count Pococurant that shows that he is happy with them, but is becoming tired of their presence. (118) Voltaire strongly appeals to the reader with this scene because mankind places male/female companionship as a top priority of life. Psychologists have classified human companionship as one of the most essential sociological needs of mankind. This is confusing to Candide's because Count Pococurant is unsatisfie...

Essay --

That  was  my  Intermediate  classroom  and  the  physics  session  on  Electrical  potential  was  going  on, when  we  were  shown  the  photo  that  depicts  the  effects  of  Equi ­potential  points  of  electricity.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"THE  SEQUOIA  NATIONAL  PARK’S  LIGHTENING  INCIDENT.† As  teenagers,  we  found  the  woman’s  hair ­rising  photo  humorous.  All  the  giggling  stopped  once when  we  were  shown  what  followed  next.  The  horrific  incident  of  lightning  has  killed  people  and these  incidents  still  keep  happening  now  at  the  same  place  in  the  same  way.  When  my  peeps  were all   having   the   shocked   faces   worn   on,   I   for   once   acted   like   a   science   geek    ­Ã‚   â€Å"Thinking   of possibilities  for   every   cause   and   effect.†Ã‚  The   virtual   lightning   bolt  stuck  me   immediately   and  I started  thinking,  if  this  is  a  regular  phenomenon,  why  can’t  we  use  the  lightning  strikes  to  power ­ up  the  surrounding  places?  And  what  if  we  can  synthesize  them  artificially? And  my  obsession  with  this  effect  started  then  and  is  continued  till  this  date.  While  growing  up, this   obsession   of   mine   took   a   matured   form   and   is   acting   as   a   driving   force   to   pursue   my graduation  in  Electronics. I   have   always   had   an   open   mind   and   enjoyed   learning.   Fortunately,   I   grew   up   in   an environment   which   stimulated   this   sense   of   constant   discovery.   My   parents   and   teachers encouraged  my  inquisitive  nature  and  helped  me  find  my  feet.  My  father,  who  is  the  backbone  of my  education,  has  helped  me  improve  my  English  language  by  joining  me  in  the  Communication skills   and  Personality   development   course   at  Osmania   university's  Centre  for  English  Language Training   institute.   This   program   has   improved   my   English ­speaking   ability   and   developed   my People... ...your   university  will  support   and   bolster  the   novel  ideas  I  intend  to  implement  in  my   area   of interest.  I  find   the   work   being   carried   out   by   Prof.  Jan  Bialasiewicz  on   Communication   and Signal  Processing  a  visionary  extension  to  the  project  work  I  had  done  during  my  undergraduate career.  The  Parallel  Distributed  Systems  Research  Laboratory  and  Radio  Frequency  Center provide  an  excellent  environment  for  research.  Prof  Yiming  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Jerry†Ã‚  Deng’s  ongoing  projects  in Modeling  and  Detection  of  Cyber  Exploits  in  Communication  Networks  have  motivated  me  to apply   to   your   university.   Prof.   Hamid   Fardi   having   published   several   papers   on   Magnetic Sensors  (AMR)  can  be  an  able  guide  for  my  research  activity.  Advanced  courses  offered  such  as Computer  Communication  Networks  and  Random  Processes  for  Engineers  would  deepen  my understanding  of  the  subject.

De Beers Jewellery

Case Introduction De Beers, the so-called cartel in the jewelry industry, is a company that dominates diamond industry. The core operational of De Beers includes diamond mining, diamond shops, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. De Beers is active in every category of industrial diamond mining: open-pit, underground, large-scale alluvial, coastal and deep sea. The company's headquarter located in Johannesburg, South Africa. As the vertically integrated diamonds producer, De Beers also controls the power f supply to its ‘sight holders'.The group owns and operates mines in Canada has gained 26% Interest In South African mines through Its partners, operates In more than 20 countries across six continents. Areas of focus are In Botswana, Angola, India, Canada and RASA (South Africa). As the year 2000, the company remained the world's leading diamond producer and distributor with extensive activities in the value chain of exploration, mining and distributio n of rough stones as well as significant influence in processing, manufacturing and marketing. History of De Beers: Cecil Rhodes EraFounder of De Bees, Cecil Rhodes started the company by renting water pumps to diggers with flooded claims during the diamond rush In 1871. He seized opportunities to purchase and consolidate claims and later enter mines. Among the rights he purchased was the right to mine the De Beers brothers farm, whose name became the name if his company. Rhodes used his market position and access to credit to engineer a merger with Barney Barton (who managed to obtain a large stake in Kimberley biggest mine), in 1888 to form De Beers Consolidated Mines.De beers controlled close to 100% of South African diamond output and 90% of oral diamond output. Its position was so formidable that when the company reduced production in 1888, rough-stone process quickly rose by 50%. By 1893, Rhodes had established a single buyer, the Diamond Syndicate. It was also Rhodes, who nev er married, who conceived of the Idea of diamonds as a symbol of committed romance. Rhodes became the prime minister of Cape Colony In 1890, ad enacted laws benefiting mine owners. The Glen Grey Act effectively relocated native Africans from their lands to make way for industrial development.Rhodes was responsible for laws During his reign, he named the country as ‘Rhodesia' (Zombie since 1980), and by the ruling time, commissioned railways, bridges, schools and public buildings has emerged efficiently. Rhodes died in 1902. De Beers' share of rough diamonds had fallen to due to a large discovery at Premier, a competing local mine, though De Beers owned a stake in its production. De Beers stepped up its focus on buying and consolidating mines as opposite arose. While the company would remain without a forceful new leader until the sass, the system put in place by Rhodes endured.Ernest Oppenheim Era Ernest Oppenheim, came to South Africa as a diamond buyer. He would become mayor of Kimberly in 1908 and a member of the South African Parliament in 1924. Oppenheim builds up diamond interest and founded the Anglo-American Corporation in 1924. He then set out to link gold and diamonds, and began purchasing every known diamond mine in the early sass including new fields in Iambi. Oppenheim not only purchased mines, but also established a distribution system independent of dominant De Beers syndicate.Oppenheim began raising the issue of racial problems in Johannesburg, where e lived, and lobbied for creation of modern native villages and social progress for black Africans. As a member of the United Party and a member of parliament, Ernest opposed the Afrikaner nationalist. Unfortunately, the Nationalist Party came into power in 1942. And the era of apartheid, or institutionalized racial discrimination began. Harry Oppenheim Era Harry, son of late Ernest became the CEO of De Beers in 1957 until 1984.Harry was born to an assimilated Jewish family of German origins in Kimberly, the original center for diamond mining in South Africa, and lived most of his life in Johannesburg. Harry Oppenheim was also known for his philanthropy. From 1967, the social investment activities of De Beers were merged with those of Anglo American in the Group Chairman's Fund. The fund initiated and finances numerous projects that contributed to community development on a large scale in South Africa, particularly in the arenas if education and heals.De Beers was instrumental in establishing a number of schools and technical colleges for black students. Following the Sweet riots in 1976, Harry established the Urban Foundation to improve, directly and wrought legislative reform, the social and industrial environment of urban native Africans. The slogan on ‘Diamond is forever' was created during his time with De Beers. Nicholas Oppenheim Era In 1985, Harry son Nicholas succeeded him as a Chairman. In addition to diamond trading business and other related profit mak ing activities.Through the sass and sass, De Beers geologist explored in Angola, Australia, Brazil, Bolivia, Canada, China, DRY, Lesotho, Iambi, Russia, Venezuela and Zombie. Through this period, De Beers also expanded its advertising program worldwide; n 1972 in Spain and Brazil; in 1977 in Holland, Belgium, Austria, and Switzerland; in 1979 in Mexico; in 1982 in Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Taiwan; and 1984 in India and Korea. In the mid-sass, De Beers has implemented plans to ensure that its mines in Africa met 3rd party certified environmental management standards.De Beers also set aside nature reserves around mining areas in South Africa, Botswana and Iambi and commenced programs to protect rare biodiversity. Problem Statements The end of apartheid era in 1994, has written down several changes in the policies dad in South Africa. The situation become different for the native people where high priority then given to them instead of the Afrikaners. While rec ognizing that diamond mining had made economic contributions, a growing proportion of policymakers in Africa believed that the diamond industry had not generated sufficient contribution by way of value-added processing activities.Therefore the Minerals Development Bill was drafted by the South African Department of Minds and Energy (DEEM) which would become the county's new mining law by year 2000 and gibe the state exclusive custodianship of all mineral rights. Then a new policy called ‘Black Economic Empowerment' (BEE) came into the scene in 2000 with a goal of creating opportunities for previously disadvantaged communities and individuals, including black Africans, women and people with disabilities.In addition to the changes in policies as one of the biggest challenges, a potential threat came into the gem market by the advancing technologies, for synthetic production. Thus, De Beers needed a new strategy to override with both rapidly changing industry environment and new expectations of society. SOOT Analysts Strengths Weaknesses Its reputation of monopoly Strong investment in marketing and advertisement. Good – strong reputation with the ruling government.High operating cost (exploration, mining, sorting and distribution) Issue with mines that are offset with civilization areas. Strong competitors from other brands Opportunities Threat Technology advancement. Backed by government policies to support the health of the industry. Apartheid issue Strong competitors from other brands. Racial issue could cause angry mobs to destroy the mining equipment (loss) De Beers' 4-legged Strategy First Legged: To improve efficiency and margins from De Beers own operations Second Legged: To stimulate demand of diamond by at least 5% per year.Third Legged: To establish De Beer's own brand that directly meets the end customer. Forth Legged: Suppliers of Choice (SOC) – to improve efficiency and productivity sight holders. Recommendation Despite having sh ares in the major mining area since late sass, De Beers should expand/ to make effort to penetrate to new ventures of exploration areas. This is due to demand of synthetic industrial diamonds which is largely used in lots of fields: deiced, drilling tools for oil & gas, entertainment industry especially in acoustic devices and others.As a analyses, I couldn't see any issues of expansion, since De Beers has been the market leader for almost half of the century. In order to manage the societal crisis, De Beers can improve its labor policies by giving more benefits such as insurance, incentives, and other related compensation. Apart from that, the company should determine a minimum wage for its labor, and the company should keep on protecting the rights against child labor which happens to be a serious problem is African continents. To maintain a good CARS, De Beers should implements ways to give back to the community.Prevention campaign such as Hips, poverty and starving which are qui te popular in the African countries should be carried out efficiently to ensure that De Beers is the organization that cares, for what it's worth to public images. It is also important to sustain the efficiently of providing good diamonds to the world, Just for the company to stay relevant in the industry. In order to achieve that, De Beers must focus its core business as the producer of pure diamonds, not only focusing much on synthetic quality.

The Role of Climate Change on Our Nation’s Infrastructure System

The Role of Climate Change on Our Nation’s Infrastructure SystemIntroduction: Infrastructure plays a critical function in everybody’s day-to-day life, but most people don’t recognize merely how extended that function truly is. Whether it’s going from one topographic point to another, utilizing power, imbibing tap H2O, or blushing a lavatory substructure helps us populate our lives to the criterion that we have become used to and maintain our economic system traveling. There are many factors that need to be considered when measuring the current and future province of substructure wellness. One factor is the consequence of a altering clime, but it is hard to gauge merely how it will impact our substructure system since its hereafter impacts can merely be loosely anticipated. In this paper I will look into the function substructure plays in the aiding and deterring of clime alteration, the current and future province of our substructure and how climate alteration can impact it, and possible solutions through invention in policy and support to assist minimise the effects. History of Support: Ever since President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal-Aid Road Act in 1916, the nature and extent of the federal authorities in the edifice, maintaining, and support of the corporate states surface substructure system has been broad ranging. The 1916 act launched the Federal-Aid Highway Program, every bit good as presenting the States with grants to assist in the building of roads that would be used in mail bringing. The mandate of the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways and the creative activity of the Federal Highway Trust Fund in 1956 marked a dramatic heightening of the Federal governments’ impact in the creative activity of the nation’s roadways by making the model for a national route system and a support system for roads to be created [ 1 ] . The basic construction for federal support of substructure was set up so that federal financess could be granted to the States by undertakings submitted for blessing, and so if the programs were approved for the financess they would have a part of cost, and the remainder of the support is required by the State and local authoritiess that need the undertaking completed [ 2 ] . Since so most federal support has been granted though extensions of old Acts of the Apostless and the procedure of how assistance is given has remained largely unchanged over this clip. A cardinal ground for the age of many substructure systems is due to the aggressive disbursement on substructure that was initialized in the late 1930’s through the early 1940’s by President Roosevelt, normally referred to as the New Deal Programs, which used big sums of federal financess to make the footing of many of our roadway and electrical systems. Much of the substructure built during this clip has non been undated since it was originally built. The sum of support for substructure has varied over clip but it has been at a degree under what it needed to be at to supply a strong and efficient system. Through history there has been a spread between what was needed for substructure and what was really spent. On mean merely about 2.4 % of our GDP is spent on substructure in America. To compare, Europe spends about 5 % and China spends about 9 % of their GPD on their substructure. This deficiency of disbursement and development in substructure has led to our current ranking of 15Thursday, out of the 32 OECD states, in footings of our overall satisfaction of our roads and main roads [ 2 ] . Current province of Infrastructure: The systems of substructure in America are presently in one of the poorest provinces in the country’s history. The American Society of Civil Engineers ( ASCE ) release a study card rating at least 12 of the country’s substructure systems every four old ages traveling back to 1998, in that clip they have released 5 study cards with the most recent being in 2013. The overall GPA of our country’s substructure has been given a class of D three times and a D+ two times, with the 2013 study card giving a D+ . A hapless and inefficient substructure system is non merely insecure, but it besides exacerbates fuel and energy ingestion, creates extra injury to the environment through pollution and taint, and besides wastes people’s clip and money. ASCE estimates that the sum of support needed to increase each class to a class of a B, considered to be in a ‘good’ province, by 2020 is $ 3.6 trillion. However, the estimated support by 2020 for all the classs is estimated to be merely about $ 2 trillion, go forthing a $ 1.6 trillion support spread which will surly take to an substructure province that is at a comparable degree that we see now [ 3 ] . With an expected substructure province to stay in hapless conditions, an added challenge in the appraisal of future impacts by clime alteration on substructure arise when finding how pieces and parts that are already stressed and aged will react to climate alteration. We can analyze how new parts will respond by preforming trial in labs to imitate clime alteration effects on them to see how the rates of impairment could perchance play out over clip, but seeking to detect how fast the altering rates of parts that have been used over the past decennaries is difficult to precisely quantify. Infrastructure and Climate Change: Infrastructure plays a big function in our nursery gas emanations and depending on the conditions of the system it can either assist us in the chase of diminishing emanations or it can be an added releaser of emanations. Many of the solutions to the jobs in our substructure system besides have the potency to assist out other jobs in the system every bit good as to assist diminish our usage of fossil fuels. An efficient transit substructure system is critical to assist swerve our oil use, co2 emanations, and increase productiveness. Traffic congestion on roads consequences in 1.9 billion gallons of gasolene to be burned per twelvemonth, and the costs to drivers is over $ 100 billion in wasted fuel and lost clip. A new and efficient air traffic control systems we would salvage around 3 billion gallons of jet fuel a twelvemonth from being wasted [ 1 ] . On the other manus if we increase people’s ability to use public transit and mass transit services the positive effects could ru ffle through many countries of transit and public wellness. Increased usage of public and aggregate transit would assist to maintain autos off the route, particularly during peak transposing times. This would hold the consequence of non merely cut downing traffic conditions, which would assist to relieve some of the otiose gasolene that’s burned while waiting in traffic, but to besides halt the combustion of gasolene by all the people who normally drive a auto. With less people really on the roads, the conditions of the roadways will be maintained for a longer clip, which once more has the consequence of cut downing traffic and wasted gas burned while waiting in traffic. Plus, taking more autos off the route during the early hours should assist to cut down the sum of smog formation in some high-dense metropoliss. Most of the effects of clime alteration will hold some impacts on different countries of the substructure system. A big factor to the substructure system is the addition in big precipitation events, an addition in planetary sea degrees, and the addition in utmost conditions events [ 4 ] . With increasing events of big precipitation our dikes, imbibing and waste H2O systems, and levees will all be subjected to new stressors that can worsen the procedure of early weakness and pre-mature impairment [ 5 ] . Sing the mean age of all the states dams to be 52 old ages old, and that approximately 17 % of them are considered high risky, the emphasis from the addition of flows coming in from affiliated H2O ways added to the addition of heavy deposits that big precipitation events bring into the H2O system which hurt the overall wellness of a dike, their length of service is expected to diminish. The imbibing and waste H2O systems is expected to endure from many of the same emphasis as dike wil l, except the excess H2O will besides be coming from our sewerage system so that big urban countries will see big impacts from the high sum of paving that helps funnel excess sums of H2O into the system. Large sums of precipitation and the addition of the sea degree will stretch our levee system with added stressors that can give a possible harmful failure that could be every bit annihilating as a dam failure. Both dikes and levees hold back H2O that could potentially deluge most of the coastal and low lying countries. Extreme conditions events are the chief causes for many of the energy grid power breaks. Breaks can be caused from knocked over tree limbs on power lines, implosion therapy of transmittal Stationss, to the devastation of grapevine subdivisions [ 3 ] . In America, our substructure is presently in an abysmal province, and with support for the hereafter projected to hardly cover half of what it will take to convey it into a good province it is safe to state that it will go on to let down. Decision and How to Continue: The chief stressors associated with substructure development are from the continual lacking of support and an overall absence of a big scale leading function in footings of establishing when and what undertakings are taken on so to most expeditiously finish staying undertakings so that their benefits will assist other unfinished undertakings or won’t be negated because of unfinished undertakings. All of the systems of substructure are connected ; the quality of H2O downstream of a river is effected by the quality that has been put out upstream and if a main road outside a metropolis has awful route conditions people and concern are less likely to go and devour in that metropolis even if the city’s roads have all merely been repaved. With this in head, the manner we choose the following set of undertakings to undergo demand to be picked with careful consideration to how its betterments will impact other undertakings still necessitating completed. The ability to implement this sort of planning is presently really hard though, because support is progressively being moved from big supervising body’s to smaller and smaller 1s. Federal support for substructure investings have been continuously shriveling over the past twosome decennaries which has led to the States, and progressively even more so the local and municipality authoritiess that are forced to come up with the support spread. With a lessening in centralisation of undertaking planning, along with an addition of undertakings that have to be delayed due to miss of financess that need to come from the fighting provinces budgets or till adequate financess can be raised by a local or municipality authorities, the ability now to integrate a program for phasing in different undertakings is acquiring progressively harder. When be aftering the range and particulars of a given undertaking factors such as sustainability, resilience, and the continual care and up-keep demand to be primary for any planning of substructure. The transit systems, H2O intervention systems, and flood control systems being built today must be able to account for both current and future challenges that are likely to be confronting them. Infrastructure needs to be built with future population motion in head as good, so when new systems are built or betterments are made to the bing substructure it needs to be able to manage tonss much greater than what it presently needed or a design for a system needs to be scaled so it’s merely responsible for a smaller population denseness. In add-on, funding for research and development at all degrees need to be implemented so the development of new and of all time more efficient methods and stuffs for the edifice and maintaining of substructure can go on. Future development besides needs to let for easier and cheaper betterments and ascents over the clip of its usage. Future care can be done more easy if they are built to let replacing over different clip intervals so that when it comes clip for the necessary betterments to be made it doesn’t demand to be all at the same clip. While funding demands to be increased from both private and public sectors, the users of the substructure demand to larn and besides pay the appropriate monetary value for them to utilize it. Mentions [ 1 ] ( 2012 ) â€Å"Highway Funding.† Congressional Digest. Volume 91, Issue 7, pp. 194, 195, 224. [ 2 ] ( 2012 ) â€Å"Surface Transportation Policy.† Congressional Digest. Volume 91, Issue 7, pp. 196-199. [ 3 ] ( 2013 ) â€Å"2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure.† [ 4 ] IPCC, 2007: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working. Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, M.L. Parry, O.F. Canziani, J.P. Palutikof, P.J. new wave der Linden and C.E. Hanson, Eds. , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 7-22. [ 5 ] Hall, David. â€Å" Corps of Engineers ‘ Studies Will Inform Response to Climate Change. †Civil EngineeringJuly-Aug. 2013: 20-23. Print [ 6 ] IPCC, 2007: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2007: Extenuation. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment. Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [ B. Metz, O.R. Davidson, P.R. Bosch, R. Dave, L.A. Meyer ( explosive detection systems ) ] , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA. [ 7 ] IPCC, 2013: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [ Stocker, T.F. , D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S. K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex and P.M. Midgley ( eds. ) ] . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA. [ 8 ] ( 2011 ) â€Å"Failure to Act: The Impact of Current Infrastructure Investment On America’s Economic Future.†