T&M -wk11 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

T&M -wk11 - Essay Example I would use Rorscharch’s Ink blot test which is an effective instrument for assessing personality in forensic settings. It is the best known projective test in which a series of ten irregular but proportioned inkblot designs are shown to the subject, who is then asked to explain their understanding of it (Cordon, 2005, pp. 201–204). Subjective interpretations of the ambiguous pictures, the response time taken and response to a picture by a subject relative to responses by other subjects would enable me to infer the thought structure and feelings. I might also use the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2 RF), which is the latest revision of the MPPI personality tests that was released in 2003. It is popularly applied in forensic psychology as a self-report assessment of psychopathology (Goldstein, 2007, pp 73.). It consists of 567 items with true or false questions arranged on a hierarchical set of scales (Tellegan, 2003). I prefer it because its objectivity saves time and is easier to administer. It addresses adolescent problems more effectively through well-researched clinical and substance abuse measures as well. Psychological tests should be appropriately selected for issues that are relevant to the plaintiff. Tests should account for plaintiff’s language, culture and its own appropriateness to legal decision-making. Failure to regard these issues may result in unreliable assessment (Goldstein, 2007, pp 272-273). I have chosen to respond to Sharon’s posting to industrial settings. I agree with her point that testing plays a significant role in assessing trainees and applicants, and test their knowledge and skills in this area. Her choice of Assembly and Matching test and Blueprint test are important accordingly. However, the tests chosen by my colleague are not useful in psychological assessment of the employees as they are an assessment of job-specific skills, and do not test their

Western philosophy Essay Example for Free

Western philosophy Essay Philosophy is the discipline concerned with questions of how one should live (ethics); what sorts of things exist and what are their essential natures (metaphysics); what counts as genuine knowledge (epistemology); and what are the correct principles of reasoning (logic). The word is of Ancient Greek origin (philosophia), meaning love of wisdom. Definition of philosophy: Every definition of philosophy is controversial. The field has historically expanded and changed depending upon what kinds of questions were interesting or relevant in a given era. It is generally agreed that philosophy is a method, rather than a set of claims, propositions, or theories. Its investigations are based upon rational thinking, striving to make no unexamined assumptions and no leaps based on faith or pure analogy. Different philosophers have had varied ideas about the nature of reason. There is also disagreement about the subject matter of philosophy. Some think that philosophy examines the process of inquiry itself. Others, that there are essentially philosophical propositions which it is the task of philosophy to answer. Although the word philosophy originates in Ancient Greece, many figures in the history of other cultures have addressed similar topics in similar ways. The philosophers of East and South Asia are discussed in Eastern philosophy, while the philosophers of North Africa and the Middle East, because of their strong interactions with Europe, are usually considered part of Western philosophy. Branches of philosophy: The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as to seem not worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it. To give an exhaustive list of the main divisions of philosophy is difficult, because various topics have been studied by philosophers at various times. Ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, and logic are usually included. Other topics include politics, aesthetics, and religion. In addition, most academic subjects have a philosophy, for example the philosophy of science, the philosophy of mathematics, and the philosophy of history. Metaphysics was first studied systematically by Aristotle. He did not use that term; the term emerged because in later editions of Aristotles works the book on what is now called metaphysics came after Aristotles study of physics. He calls the subject first philosophy (or sometimes just wisdom), and says it is the subject that deals with first causes and the principles of things. The modern meaning of the term is any inquiry dealing with the ultimate nature of what exists. Epistemology is concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge, and whether knowledge is possible. Ethics, or moral philosophy, is concerned with questions of how agents ought to act. Platos early dialogues constitute a search for definitions of virtue. Metaethics is the study of whether ethical value judgments can be objective at all. Ethics can also be conducted within a religious context. Logic has two broad divisions: mathematical logic (formal symbolic logic) and what is now called philosophical logic, the logic of language. Greek philosophy and Hellenistic philosophy: Ancient Greek philosophy may be divided into the pre-Socratic period, the Socratic period, and the post-Aristotelian period (or Hellenistic period). The pre-Socratic period was characterized by metaphysical speculation, often preserved in the form of grand, sweeping statements, such as All is fire or All changes. Important pre-Socratic philosophers include Pythagoras, Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Democritus, Parmenides, Heraclitus, and Empedocles. The Socratic period is named in honor of Socrates, who, along with his pupil Plato, revolutionized philosophy through the use of the Socratic method, which developed the very general philosophical methods of definition, analysis, and synthesis. While no writings of Socrates survive, his influence as a skeptic is transmitted through Platos works. Platos writings are often considered basic texts in philosophy as they defined the fundamental issues of philosophy for future generations. These issues and others were taken up by Aristotle, who studied at Platos school, the Academy, and who often disagreed with what Plato had written. The subsequent period ushered in such philosophers as Euclid, Epicurus, Chrysippus, Hipparchia the Cynic, Pyrrho, and Sextus Empiricus. Though many of these philosophers may seem irrelevant given current scientific knowledge, their systems of thought continue to influence both philosophy and science today. Medieval philosophy History: Medieval philosophy is the philosophy of Western Europe and the Middle East during what is now known as the medieval era or the Middle Ages, roughly extending from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance period. Medieval philosophy is defined partly by the rediscovery and further development of classical Greek philosophy and Hellenistic philosophy, and partly by the need to address theological problems and to integrate sacred doctrine (in Islam, Judaism and Christianity) and secular learning. Some problems discussed throughout this period are the relation of faith to reason, the existence and unity of God, the object of theology and metaphysics, the problems of knowledge, of universals, and of individuation. Philosophers from the Middle Ages include the Muslim philosophers Alkindus, Alfarabi, Alhacen, Avicenna, Algazel, Avempace, Abubacer and Averroes; the Jewish philosophers Maimonides and Gersonides; and the Christian philosophers Anselm, Peter Abelard, Roger Bacon, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, William of Ockham and Jean Buridan. Early modern philosophy History(c. 1600 c. 1800): Modern philosophy is usually considered to begin with the revival of skepticism and the genesis of modern physical science. Canonical figures include Montaigne, Descartes, Locke, Spinoza, Leibniz, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. Chronologically, this era spans the 17th and 18th centuries, and is generally considered to end with Kants systematic attempt to reconcile Newtonian physics with traditional metaphysical topics. Later modern philosophy History(c. 1800 c. 1960): Later modern philosophy is usually considered to begin after the philosophy of Immanuel Kant at the beginning of the 19th-century. German idealists, Fichte, Hegel, Hoelderlin, Schelling, expanded on the work of Kant by maintaining that the world is rational and it is knowable as rational. Rejecting idealism, other philosophers, many working from outside the university, initiated lines of thought that would occupy academic philosophy in the early and mid-20th century: Contemporary philosophy History(c. 1960 present): In the last hundred years, philosophy has increasingly become an activity practiced within the modern research university, and accordingly it has grown more specialized and more distinct from the natural sciences. Much of philosophy in this period concerns itself with explaining the relation between the theories of the natural sciences and the ideas of the humanities or common sense. It is arguable that later modern philosophy ended with contemporary philosophys shift of focus from 19th century philosophers to 20th century philosophers. Realism and nominalism in Philosophy: Realism sometimes means the position opposed to the 18th-century Idealism, namely that some things have real existence outside the mind. Classically, however, realism is the doctrine that abstract entities corresponding to universal terms like man have a real existence. It is opposed to nominalism, the view that abstract or universal terms are words only, or denote mental states such as ideas, beliefs, or intentions. The latter position, famously held by William of Ockham, is conceptualism. Rationalism and empiricism in Philosophy: Rationalism is any view emphasizing the role or importance of human reason. Extreme rationalism tries to base all knowledge on reason alone. Rationalism typically starts from premises that cannot coherently be denied, then attempts by logical steps to deduce every possible object of knowledge. The first rationalist, in this broad sense, is often held to be Parmenides (fl. 480 BCE), who argued that it is impossible to doubt that thinking actually occurs. But thinking must have an object, therefore something beyond thinking really exists. Parmenides deduced that what really exists must have certain properties for example, that it cannot come into existence or cease to exist, that it is a coherent whole, that it remains the same eternally (in fact, exists altogether outside time). Zeno of Elea (born c. 489 BCE) was a disciple of Parmenides, and argued that motion is impossible, since the assertion that it exists implies a contradiction. Plato (427-347 BCE) was also influenced by Parmenides, but combined rationalism with a form of realism. The philosophers work is to consider being, and the essence of things. But the characteristic of essences is that they are universal. The nature of a man, a triangle, a tree, applies to all men, all triangles, all trees. Plato argued that these essences are mind-independent forms, that humans (but particularly philosophers) can come to know by reason, and by ignoring the distractions of sense-perception. Modern rationalism begins with Descartes. Reflection on the nature of perceptual experience, as well as scientific discoveries in physiology and optics, led Descartes (and also Locke) to the view that we are directly aware of ideas, rather than objects. This view gave rise to three questions: Is an idea a true copy of the real thing that it represents? Sensation is not a direct interaction between bodily objects and our sense, but is a physiological process involving representation (for example, an image on the retina). Locke thought that a secondary quality such as a sensation of green could in no way resemble the arrangement of particles in matter that go to produce this sensation, although he thought that primary qualities such as shape, size, number, were really in objects. How can physical objects such as chairs and tables, or even physiological processes in the brain, give rise to mental items such as ideas? This is part of what became known as the mind-body problem. If all the contents of awareness are ideas, how can we know that anything exists apart from ideas? Descartes tried to address the last problem by reason. He began, echoing Parmenides, with a principle that he thought could not coherently be denied: I think, therefore I am (often given in his original Latin: Cogito ergo sum). From this principle, Descartes went on to construct a complete system of knowledge (which involves proving the existence of God, using, among other means, a version of the ontological argument). His view that reason alone could yield substantial truths about reality strongly influenced those philosophers usually considered modern rationalists (such as Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz, and Christian Wolff), while provoking criticism from other philosophers who have retrospectively come to be grouped together as empiricists. Empiricism, in contrast to rationalism, downplays or dismisses the ability of reason alone to yield knowledge of the world, preferring to base any knowledge we have on our senses. John Locke propounded the classic empiricist view in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding in 1689, developing a form of naturalism and empiricism on roughly scientific (and Newtonian) principles. During this era, religious ideas played a mixed role in the struggles that preoccupied secular philosophy. Bishop Berkeleys famous idealist refutation of key tenets of Isaac Newton is a case of an Enlightenment philosopher who drew substantially from religious ideas. Other influential religious thinkers of the time include Blaise Pascal, Joseph Butler, and Jonathan Edwards. Other major writers, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Edmund Burke, took a rather different path. The restricted interests of many of the philosophers of the time foreshadow the separation and specialization of different areas of philosophy that would occur in the 20th century. Skepticism in Philosophy: Skepticism is a philosophical attitude that questions the possibility of obtaining any sort of knowledge. It was first articulated by Pyrrho, who believed that everything could be doubted except appearances. Sextus Empiricus (2nd century CE) describes skepticism as an ability to place in antithesis, in any manner whatever, appearances and judgments, and thus to come first of all to a suspension of judgment and then to mental tranquility. Skepticism so conceived is not merely the use of doubt, but is the use of doubt for a particular end: a calmness of the soul, or ataraxia. Skepticism poses itself as a challenge to dogmatism, whose adherents think they have found the truth. Sextus noted that the reliability of perception may be questioned, because it is idiosyncratic to the perceiver. The appearance of individual things changes depending on whether they are in a group: for example, the shavings of a goats horn are white when taken alone, yet the intact horn is black. A pencil, when viewed lengthwise, looks like a stick; but when examined at the tip, it looks merely like a circle. Skepticism was revived in the early modern period by Michel de Montaigne and Blaise Pascal. Its most extreme exponent, however, was David Hume. Hume argued that there are only two kinds of reasoning: what he called probable and demonstrative (cf Humes fork). Neither of these two forms of reasoning can lead us to a reasonable belief in the continued existence of an external world. Demonstrative reasoning cannot do this, because demonstration (that is, deductive reasoning from well-founded premises) alone cannot establish the uniformity of nature (as captured by scientific laws and principles, for example). Such reason alone cannot establish that the future will resemble the past. We have certain beliefs about the world (that the sun will rise tomorrow, for example), but these beliefs are the product of habit and custom, and do not depend on any sort of logical inferences from what is already given certain. But probable reasoning (inductive reasoning), which aims to take us from the observed to the unobserved, cannot do this either: it also depends on the uniformity of nature, and this supposed uniformity cannot be proved, without circularity, by any appeal to uniformity. The best that either sort of reasoning can accomplish is conditional truth: if certain assumptions are true, then certain conclusions follow. So nothing about the world can be established with certainty. Hume concludes that there is no solution to the skeptical argument except, in effect, to ignore it. Even if these matters were resolved in every case, we would have in turn to justify our standard of justification, leading to an infinite regress (hence the term regress skepticism). Many philosophers have questioned the value of such skeptical arguments. The question of whether we can achieve knowledge of the external world is based on how high a standard we set for the justification of such knowledge. If our standard is absolute certainty, then we cannot progress beyond the existence of mental sensations. We cannot even deduce the existence of a coherent or continuing I that experiences these sensations, much less the existence of an external world. On the other hand, if our standard is too low, then we admit follies and illusions into our body of knowledge. This argument against absolute skepticism asserts that the practical philosopher must move beyond solipsism, and accept a standard for knowledge that is high but not absolute. Idealism in Philosophy: Idealism is the epistemological doctrine that nothing can be directly known outside of the minds of thinking beings. Or in an alternative stronger form, it is the metaphysical doctrine that nothing exists apart from minds and the contents of minds. In modern Western philosophy, the epistemological doctrine begins as a core tenet of Descartes that what is in the mind is known more reliably than what is known through the senses. The first prominent modern Western idealist in the metaphysical sense was George Berkeley. Berkeley argued that there is no deep distinction between mental states, such as feeling pain, and the ideas about so-called external things, that appear to us through the senses. There is no real distinction, in this view, between certain sensations of heat and light that we experience, which lead us to believe in the external existence of a fire, and the fire itself. Those sensations are all there is to fire. Berkeley expressed this with the Latin formula esse est percipi: to be is to be perceived. In this view the opinion, strangely prevailing upon men, that houses, mountains, and rivers have an existence independent of their perception by a thinking being is false. Forms of idealism were prevalent in philosophy from the 18th century to the early 20th century. Transcendental idealism, advocated by Immanuel Kant, is the view that there are limits on what can be understood, since there is much that cannot be brought under the conditions of objective judgment. Kant wrote his Critique of Pure Reason (1781-1787) in an attempt to reconcile the conflicting approaches of rationalism and empiricism, and to establish a new groundwork for studying metaphysics. Kants intention with this work was to look at what we know and then consider what must be true about it, as a logical consequence of, the way we know it. One major theme was that there are fundamental features of reality that escape our direct knowledge because of the natural limits of the human faculties. Although Kant held that objective knowledge of the world required the mind to impose a conceptual or categorical framework on the stream of pure sensory data a framework including space and time themselves he maintained that things-in-themselves existed independently of  our perceptions and judgments; he was therefore not an idealist in any simple sense. Indeed, Kants account of things-in-themselves is both controversial and highly complex. Continuing his work, Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Friedrich Schelling dispensed with belief in the independent existence of the world, and created a thoroughgoing idealist philosophy. The most notable work of this German idealism was G. W. F. Hegels Phenomenology of Spirit, of 1807. Hegel admitted his ideas werent new, but that all the previous philosophies had been incomplete. His goal was to correctly finish their job. Hegel asserts that the twin aims of philosophy are to account for the contradictions apparent in human experience (which arise, for instance, out of the supposed contradictions between being and not being ), and also simultaneously to resolve and preserve these contradictions by showing their compatibility at a higher level of examination (being and not being are resolved with becoming) . This program of acceptance and reconciliation of contradictions is known as the Hegelian dialectic. Philosophers in the Hegelian tradition include Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach, who coined the term projection as pertaining to our inability to recognize anything in the external world without projecting qualities of ourselves upon those things, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and the British idealists, notably T. H. Green, J. M. E. McTaggart, and F. H. Bradley. Few 20th century philosophers have embraced idealism. However, quite a few have embraced Hegelian dialectic. Immanuel Kants Copernican Turn also remains an important philosophical concept today. Pragmatism in Philosophy: Pragmatism was founded in the spirit of finding a scientific concept of truth, which is not dependent on either personal insight (or revelation) or reference to some metaphysical realm. The truth of a statement should be judged by the effect it has on our actions and truth should be seen as that which the whole of scientific enquiry will ultimately agree on. This should probably be seen as a guiding principle more than a definition of what it means for something to be true, though the details of how this principle should be interpreted have been subject to discussion since Peirce first conceived it. Like Rorty many seem convinced that Pragmatism holds that the truth of beliefs does not consist in their correspondence with reality, but in their usefulness and efficacy. The late 19th-century American philosophers Charles Peirce and William James were its co-founders, and it was later developed by John Dewey as instrumentalism. Since the usefulness of any belief at any time might be contingent on circumstance, Peirce and James conceptualised final truth as that which would be established only by the future, final settlement of all opinion. Critics have accused pragmatism of falling victim to a simple fallacy: because something that is true proves useful, that usefulness is the basis for its truth. Thinkers in the pragmatist tradition have included John Dewey, George Santayana,W. V. O. Quine and C. I. Lewis. Phenomenology in Philosophy: Edmund Husserls phenomenology was an ambitious attempt to lay the foundations for an account of the structure of conscious experience in general. An important part of Husserls phenomenological project was to show that all conscious acts are directed at or about objective content, a feature that Husserl called intentionality. In the first part of his two-volume work, the Logical Investigations (1901), he launched an extended attack on psychologism. In the second part, he began to develop the technique of descriptive phenomenology, with the aim of showing how objective judgments are indeed grounded in conscious experience not, however, in the first-person experience of particular individuals, but in the properties essential to any experiences of the kind in question. He also attempted to identify the essential properties of any act of meaning. He developed the method further in Ideas (1913) as transcendental phenomenology, proposing to ground actual experience, and thus all fields of human knowledge, in the structure of consciousness of an ideal, or transcendental, ego. Later, he attempted to reconcile his transcendental standpoint with an acknowledgement of the intersubjective life-world in which real individual subjects interact. Husserl published only a few works in his lifetime, which treat phenomenology mainly in abstract methodological terms; but he left an enormous quantity of unpublished concrete analyses. Husserls work was immediately influential in Germany, with the foundation of phenomenological schools in Munich and Gottingen. Phenomenology later achieved international fame through the work of such philosophers as Martin Heidegger (formerly Husserls research assistant), Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Indeed, through the work of Heidegger and Sartre, Husserls focus on subjective experience influenced aspects of existentialism. Existentialism in Philosophy: Although they didnt use the term, the nineteenth century philosophers Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche are widely regarded as the fathers of existentialism. Their influence, however, has extended beyond existentialist thought. The main target of Kierkegaards writings was the idealist philosophical system of Hegel which, he thought, ignored or excluded the inner subjective life of living human beings. Kierkegaard, conversely, held that truth is subjectivity, arguing that what is most important to an actual human being are questions dealing with an individuals inner relationship to existence. In particular, Kierkegaard, a Christian, believed that the truth of religious faith was a subjective question, and one to be wrestled with passionately. Although Kierkegaard and Nietzsche were among his influences, the extent to which the German philosopher Martin Heidegger should be considered an existentialist is debatable. In Being and Time he presented a method of rooting philosophical explanations in human existence (Dasein) to be analysed in terms of existential categories (existentiale); and this has led many commentators to treat him as an important figure in the existentialist movement. However, in The Letter on Humanism, Heidegger explicitly rejected the existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre. Sartre became the best-known proponent of existentialism, exploring it not only in theoretical works such as Being and Nothingness , but also in plays and novels. Sartre, along with Albert Camus and Simone de Beauvoir, all represented an avowedly atheistic branch of existentialism, which is now more closely associated with their ideas of nausea, contingency, bad faith, and the absurd than with Kierkegaards spiritual angst. Nevertheless, the focus on the individual human being, responsible before the universe for the authenticity of his or her existence, is common to all these thinkers. Structuralism and post-structuralism in Philosophy: Inaugurated by the linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, structuralism sought to ferret out the underlying systems through analysing the discourses they both limit and make possible. Saussure conceived of the sign as being delimited by all the other signs in the system, and ideas as being incapable of existence prior to linguistic structure, which articulates thought. This led continental thought away from humanism, and toward what was termed the decentering of man: language is no longer spoken by man to express a true inner self, but language speaks man. Structuralism sought the province of a hard science, but its positivism soon came under fire by poststructuralism, a wide field of thinkers, some of whom were once themselves structuralists, but later came to criticize it. Structuralists believed they could analyse systems from an external, objective standing, for example, but the poststructuralists argued that this is incorrect, that one cannot transcend structures and thus analysis is itself determined by what it examines, that systems are ultimately self-referential. Furthermore, while the distinction between the signifier and signified was treated as crystalline by structuralists, poststructuralists asserted that every attempt to grasp the signified would simply result in the proliferation of more signifiers, so meaning is always in a state of being deferred, making an ultimate interpretation impossible. Structuralism came to dominate continental philosophy from the 1960s onward, encompassing thinkers as diverse as Michel Foucault and Jacques Lacan. The analytic tradition in Philosophy: The term analytic philosophy roughly designates a group of philosophical methods that stress clarity of meaning above all other criteria. The philosophy developed as a critique of Hegel and his followers in particular, and of speculative philosophy in general. Some schools in the group include 20th-century realism, logical atomism, logical positivism, and ordinary language. The motivation is to have philosophical studies go beyond personal opinion and begin to have the cogency of mathematical proofs. In 1921, Ludwig Wittgenstein published his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, which gave a rigidly logical account of linguistic and philosophical issues. At the time, he understood most of the problems of philosophy as mere puzzles of language, which could be solved by clear thought. Years later he would reverse a number of the positions he had set out in the Tractatus, in for example his second major work, Philosophical Investigations (1953). Investigations encouraged the development of ordinary language philosophy, which was promoted by Gilbert Ryle, J.L. Austin, and a few others. The ordinary language philosophy thinkers shared a common outlook with many older philosophers (Jeremy Bentham, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and John Stuart Mill), and it was this style of philosophical inquiry that characterized English-language philosophy for the second half of the 20th century. Ethics and political in Philosophy: From ancient times, and well beyond them, the roots of justification for political authority were inescapably tied to outlooks on human nature. In The Republic, Plato declared that the ideal society would be run by a council of philosopher-kings, since those best at philosophy are best able to realize the good. Even Plato, however, required philosophers to make their way in the world for many years before beginning their rule at the age of fifty. For Aristotle, humans are political animals (i. e. social animals), and governments are set up in order to pursue good for the community. Aristotle reasoned that, since the state (polis) was the highest form of community, it has the purpose of pursuing the highest good. Aristotle viewed political power as the result of natural inequalities in skill and virtue. Because of these differences, he favored an aristocracy of the able and virtuous. For Aristotle, the person cannot be complete unless he or she lives in a community. His The Nicomachean Ethics and The Politics are meant to be read in that order. The first book addresses virtues (or excellences) in the person as a citizen; the second addresses the proper form of government to ensure that citizens will be virtuous, and therefore complete. Both books deal with the essential role of justice in civic life. Nicolas of Cusa rekindled Platonic thought in the early 15th century. He promoted democracy in Medieval Europe, both in his writings and in his organization of the Council of Florence. Unlike Aristotle and the Hobbesian tradition to follow, Cusa saw human beings as equal and divine (that is, made in Gods image), so democracy would be the only just form of government. Cusas views are credited by some as sparking the Italian Renaissance, which gave rise to the notion of Nation-States. Later, Niccolo Machiavelli rejected the views of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas as unrealistic. The ideal sovereign is not the embodiment of the moral virtues; rather the sovereign does whatever is successful and necessary, rather than what is morally praiseworthy. Thomas Hobbes also contested many elements of Aristotles views. For Hobbes, human nature is essentially anti-social: people are essentially egoistic, and this egoism makes life difficult in the natural state of things. Moreover, Hobbes argued, though people may have natural inequalities, these are trivial, since no particular talents or virtues that people may have will make them safe from harm inflicted by others. For these reasons, Hobbes concluded that the state arises from a common agreement to raise the community out of the state of nature. This can only be done by the establishment of a sovereign, in which (or whom) is vested complete control over the community, and which is able to inspire awe and terror in its subjects. Many in the Enlightenment were unsatisfied with existing doctrines in political philosophy, which seemed to marginalize or neglect the possibility of a democratic state. David Hume was among the first philosophers to question the existence of God, circa 1700. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was among those who attempted to overturn these doctrines: he responded to Hobbes by claiming that a human is by nature a kind of noble savage, and that society and social contracts corrupt this nature. Another critic was John Locke. In Second Treatise on Government he agreed with Hobbes that the nation-state was an efficient tool for raising humanity out of a deplorable state, but he argued that the sovereign might become an abominable institution compared to the relatively benign unmodulated state of nature. Following the doctrine of the fact-value distinction, due in part to the influence of David Hume and his student Adam Smith, appeals to human nature for political justification were weakened. Nevertheless, many political philosophers, especially moral realists, still make use of some essential human nature as a basis for their arguments. Consequentialism, Deontological ethics, and Virtue ethics in Philosophy: One debate that has commanded the attention of ethicists in the modern era has been between consequentialism (actions are to be morally evaluated solely by their consequences) and deontology (actions are to be morally evaluated solely by consideration of agents duties, the rights of those whom the action concerns, or both).

Bad Breath - Cause, Cure and Social Impact :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Bad Breath - Cause, Cure and Social Impact Just admit it. We all know we have done it one time or another. It’s your big first date and you’re ready to walk out the door, but just before you can go you give yourself a quick breath test. It is the age-old practice of the cupping of the hands over the mouth followed by a quick sniff to ensure your breath doesn’t stink. Society today has boosted the business of having fresher breath. Stores are full of products offering a variety of scented mouthwashes, mints, chewing gums, and strips. With all these products out there it is hard to believe that bad breath can still have the potential of sabotaging your date. Bad breath is medically known as halitosis, and can be the result of a combination of factors. One factor is poor hygiene habits such as not brushing and flossing daily, which can cause food particles to collect in the mouth and develop into bacteria known as plaque. The bacteria can then coat the teeth and cause tooth decay and irritation to the gums (gingivitis) (Grayson, 2004, para.4). A buildup of plaque on the teeth can cause toxins to form in the mouth, and then what you thought was a persistent bad taste or a continual case of bad breath could be a warning sign of gum disease. If the disease continues without any treatment, it will lead to further damage to the gums and jawbone (Grayson). What once was just a case of bad breath could then lead to periodontal disease, so be sure to see your dentist regularly and prevent gum disease by flossing daily and brushing two to three times a day. It’s early in the morning and the first thing you do before you can come in close contact with anyone is get rid of that horrible taste in your mouth known as â€Å"morning breath.† Morning breath is caused by the lack of saliva and moisture in the mouth as you sleep and can be more of a problem for those who sleep with their mouths open. Dry mouth is a medical condition called xerostomia that can occur at anytime, not just in the mornings (Mayo Clinic, 2004, para.3). The production of salvia is crucial to help cleanse and moisten the mouth by washing away dead cells and neutralizing acids formed by plaque.

antitrust :: essays research papers

Antitrust laws protect competition, which is said to benefit consumers with better products at lower prices. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and attorney generals from 20 states has filed antitrust lawsuits against Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft), the world's largest supplier of computer software for personal computers (PCs) in the United States. Microsoft is accused of allegedly violating sections 1 and 2 of The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. Section 1 of the Sherman Act outlaws â€Å"every contract, combination†¦, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade." The Supreme Court has since then decided that the Sherman Act prohibits only those contracts or agreements that restrain trade unreasonably. What kinds of agreements are unreasonable is up to the courts. Section 2 of the Sherman Act makes it unlawful for a company to "monopolize, or attempt to monopolize," trade or commerce. As that law has been interpreted, it is not necessarily illegal for a company to have a monopoly or to try to achieve a monopoly position. The law is violated only if the company tries to maintain or acquire a monopoly position through tactics that either unreasonably exclude firms from the market or significantly impair their ability to compete. The DOJ feels that Microsoft has a monopoly in the field of personal computer operating systems (OSs) and that they are engaging in anticompetitive conduct. Microsoft's "Windows" operating systems are used in over 80% of PCs. More than 90% of new PCs are shipped with a version of Windows pre-installed. According to the DOJ," PC manufacturers have no commercially reasonable alternative to Microsoft operating systems for the PCs that they distribute." Other firms do exist in the operating system market for example, IBM, Oracle, Sun Apple, AT&T, Hewlett Packard, Wang, Be, Linux, Dec, Gem, and others. These firms may only have 10-20% of the market share for PC's operating systems but they do have some share of the market. This proves that Microsoft is not the only seller of operating systems as the DOJ claims. The DOJ's complaint states that, "To protect its valuable Windows monopoly against potential competitive threats, and to extend its operating system monopoly into other software markets, Microsoft has engaged in a series of anticompetitive activities. Microsoft's conduct includes agreements tying other Microsoft software products to Microsoft's Windows operating system; exclusionary agreements precluding companies from distributing, promoting, buying, or using products of Microsoft's software competitors or potential competitor; and exclusionary agreements restricting the right of companies to provide services or resources to Microsoft's software competitors or potential competitors.

Trade Deficit

Trade Deficit and Current Account Deficit [Name of the Writer] [Name of the Institution] Trade Deficit and Current Account Deficit Critically examine this statement, â€Å"Current Account Deficits do not seem to matter anymore – the US$ appears to remain unaffected by escalating US trade deficits†, by reference to the â€Å"Balance of Payments Approach† to exchange rate determination The trade deficit of the US is at exorbitantly high levels. Many economists suggest that depreciating the US dollar would help put a squeeze on United States enthusiasm for globally produced goods.Since this move of depreciation would inherently curb the exaggerated import costs that the US so loves to incur. Furthermore, these three critical factors essentially would help limit the import prices incurred by US due to the trend of rising demands that has permeated in the societal culture: * The practice of using USD for US trade invoicing; * Exporters concerns on market share dynamic s, and; * The outrageous US distribution costs. $759 billion is the aggregated US trade deficit in 2006. This is six percent of the actual nominal GDP of the country.One of the biggest contributory factors is the impasse of plethora of imported goods from foreign lands. In the perspective of numerous investigators and policymakers, dollar depreciation remains a crux system for tending to this export-import imbalance and restoring the worldwide competitiveness of American producers. Indeed in principle, a weaker dollar might as well raise the expense of different merchandise for U. S. consumers, in this manner diminishing U. S. mandate for imports in the meantime that it helps gather interest by foreign nations for U. S. products by making the country's exports increasingly cost-focused abroad.My investigation uncovers that dollar depreciation is unrealistic to shut the exchange crevice courageously. To make sure, remote request for U. S. exports may as well develop, as speculation p redicts. Since basically all U. S. exports to different nations are invoiced in dollars, remote buyers will determine an instantaneous profit from dollar depreciation as the expense of their buys decreases in varying foreign currencies. Notwithstanding, the value of outside imports for U. S. consumers will be impressively increasingly versatile to conversion standard updates.Exchange invoicing practices, it is contended, donate altogether to the lack of care of import costs to trade rates. Since very nearly the sum of the products that the United States imports, for instance those it exports, are invoiced in dollars, the costs of foreign made merchandise remain settled for a period when trade rates change. Also, even in the longer term—over, state, the year emulating dollar depreciation—the craving of outside makers to remain focused in the huge U. S. business sector might lead them to oppose expanding the dollar value of their products.Beyond any doubt, the atypically towering showcasing and appropriation takes added to imports once they drop in the United States—fetches designated in dollars—further isolate the last utilization value of foreign made merchandise from conversion scale updates. The American President stated that: â€Å"The best way to, deal with the trade deficit is to make sure that America is the best place in the world to do business†¦ † Examine this view that promoting growth is more effective than direct targeting of the trade deficit USA is a diverse country with numerous of its regions continuously producing high growth, innovative companies.These companies have risen above the economic downturn that hit the global economy in the start of the 21st century. Rather with surprise, the diverse US states boast such companies not only distributed in the locales of Silicon Valley and Boston but rather in most of its states. End of 2012; saw a sharp decline in the trade deficit of the US. In this period, o il imports drastically reduced whereas exports increase sharply. This essentially iterates that the shrinking trade gap, has improved on the government’s estimated growth and trade deficit levels.Furthermore, the levels reached in the closing months of 2012 indicate towards levels that have not been observed in the last three years. This is a positive inducement. Exportation of US products saw rise in oil exports and other petroleum based-product exports. Further, aircraft sales and agricultural good sales also demonstrated positive increment. Various economists believe that this is a very encouraging sign. Though, economists have stated that the essential focus of the US treasury should be to enhance growth in the country, and secondary considerations should be given to the trade deficit.This assertion is based on the belief that reinvigorating the business systems of the country would deplete the rising gap between the socio economic classes of the country. Furthermore, ind ividual families would be given financial stability and long term sustainability. It also has to state that the narrowed gap between imports and exports, i. e. the trade deficit, essentially iterate that US corporations earn extra then their foreign counterparts. Furthermore, domestic consumption of foreign goods is also less in comparison.It is expected that the companies are not piling up their inventories; this indirectly suggests that curbing expenses including cuts in defence spending would help in keeping a positively skewed growth rate in the future months. These events would see an additional negative pressure on the trade deficit that has started to show signs of decrease. As such economists are of the view that trade will be favourably impacted in 2013. These forecasts are dependent on premises that iterate that the EU debt crisis will finally show some features of stabilizing.This would further give a positive boost to the US exports. Moreover, economic growth witnessed i n Asia would also positively impact the growth potential of the US. One of the biggest negatives for US is the rising trade deficit between China and the US. This trade deficit climbed to a spectacular 300 billion mark in 2012. This would be the biggest pressure point on the growth prospects of the US economy. Economists have confronted this issue by attacking the economic policies of China, specifically the country’s practices to artificially peg their currency at far lower levels, than is required.This assertion is made with the logic that such an economic move by China would essentially lower the costs of its exports in the US. UK trade statistics show similar trends to the US situation. Review the suggestion of b) above for the UK situation UK trade statistics show similar trends of that of US i. e. ever-increasing trade deficits and curbing growth prospects. Given these circumstances and the global economic turmoil that hit the global economies in the early years of the millennia, it is disappointing to even follow the growth prospects of the World, let alone the UK.Britain’s trade deficit also demonstrates a serious picture of disappointment. Economic chiefs of the country suggest that the super competitive currency i. e. the British Pound Sterling can be the glimmer of hope in this dismal economic prospect. This is because the currency is almost a quarter below the pre financial crisis levels. In 2008, December reports indicated that the nation’s deficit consumed after trade sharply rose to 14 billion pounds. One of the biggest factors of this deficit jump is attributed to magnified increase in aircraft import costs.Given these factors, it juxtaposes a truly saddening prospect for the country. Economists who eagerly made plans to rebalance the economic prospects of the economy, by cashing on the decline in pounds value to feed increases through export based growth. BoE has thus decided to restrict any particular changes to the inter est rates. This was due to suggestions that raising the rates would cause pound to appreciate, thus thwarting the trade prospects, negatively. Nonetheless, declining GBP has not appeased the concerns of above targeted and persistent economic inflation, as well as higher than necessary import prices.Current UK growth prospects and outlook suggests that the region would see improvements, although the road to recovery would be filled with bumps and slowness. Outlook prospects also indicate that consumer spending would be positively impacted. Furthermore, squeezes on real incomes would also subside, slowly. These are thoughts that do not cross the normal household. As such they remain scared, and cautious towards excessive spending. This is keeping a tap on growth. UK economy does not have the support of infrastructure of commerce that is established in the US.As such the economy is overfilled, without vacuum, and without much chances of astronomical growth. Additionally, close associat ions with a debt ridden EU has also kept pressures on growth. Though, it is accepted that growth in the nation is the biggest policy to be looked for, economic wise. Moreover, trade deficit should be given a secondary consideration. References Smith, David (2011) Trade Deficit Sunday Times The Balance of Payments and Macroeconomic Policy in an Open Economy Book Chapter

Risk Factors Present in Offender Risk Assessments

Risk Factors Present in Offender Risk Assessments Risk Factors Present in Offender Risk Assessments. Community correction agencies are increasingly becoming dependent on risk assessments in calculating the likelihood that an offender may re-offend. This trend is evident because of the increased cases of offences that necessitate the urgency in the development of quick risk assessment methods.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Risk Factors Present in Offender Risk Assessments specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More These risk factors are categorised into static and dynamic factors. The latter category refers to historical factors that do not frequently fluctuate such as gender, marital status, and the number of previous arrests. On the other hand, the former category refers to risk factors that can easily fluctuate in a short time and include substance abuse, mental health and criminal peers. In this section, risk factors that are severally present in offender risk a ssessments are discussed and include; the number of previous arrests, substance abuse, and mental health (Murray, 1998). Previous arrests/ Criminal Past According to relevant sources, the criminal past of an offender is the best indicator that the offender may re-offend (Murray, 1998). For instance, an offender with a single past criminal offense is approximately 39% more likely to commit another offense in the future. On the other hand, an individual with five past offenses is approximately 59% more likely to commit another offense (Lind, 2009). When an offender enters a correctional facility, the likelihood to re-offend increases; thus, the need to implement rehabilitation programs becomes inevitable. Substance abuse Approximately 80% of state and federal inmates are incarcerated for drug-related crimes, or have a past associated with alcohol or drug abuse. When offenders linked with substance abuse are sent to community supervision, the cycle tends to repeat itself (Murray, 1998) . For instance, 30% of offenders show evidence of drug abuse within the first four weeks of release from correctional facilities, (Physicians and Lawyers for National Drug Policy, 2008). Mental health Another risk factor that is included in most offender risk assessments is the mental health of the offender (Murray, 1998). Relevant sources show that several offenders commit offences as a result of some form of mental illness. In June 2008, for example, 31% of all incarcerated adult offenders were discovered to be suffering from mental disorders.Advertising Looking for research paper on criminology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More It has been established that offenders suffering from serious mental disorders have a rate of recidivism of 46% (Lind, 2009). As such, the risk factor is introduced to help in determining the offender sentencing process. How Community Correction Agencies use Risk Assessments. Depending on th e nature of the offence, prior convictions, drug abuse, and other risk factors, community correction agencies apply various risk assessment procedures. The methods used are classified into actuarial instruments and clinical guides. They were designed to assist supervision staff in correctional facilities to address need factors, for example, high-risk offenders are put under more supervision than low-risk offenders. In this section, the methods by which community correction agencies use risk assessments are described below. Pre-sentence Reports. Community correction agencies (CCA) use offender risk assessments to prepare pre-sentence reports (PSR) used by the courts in sentencing. As such, PSR reports give the offender risk information that aids courts in establishing the appropriate sentences (Bonta, Bourgon, Jesseman, Yessine, 2005). For instance, probation officers prepare PSR’s for high-risk offenders including their appropriate treatment recommendations. As compared to high-risk offenders, low-risk offenders may have less severe PSR with better treatment recommendations that would result in less severe sentences by the courts of law. Inmate Classification. By the aid of a Classification Officer, inmates are interviewed and assessed in order to determine the housing assignments and custody status. The final assessment is reached at through critical scrutiny of past criminal records, inmates file and the initial interview session. â€Å"Out of the assessment, inmates can be assigned to any of the custody levels that include: Maximum Pretrial or Sentenced, Medium Pretrial or Sentenced, or Minimum Pretrial or Sentenced† (Baltimore County, 2011). This defines the level of prison security at which the inmate will be put under which are; maximum security, medium-security and minimum-security respectively. Maximum-security prisons consist of closely monitored single cells while medium-security prisons consist of secure hostels supporting a maximum of 50 inmates each. Lastly, minimum-security prisons consist of unsecured hostels that correctional officers make planned visits to check for safety. Identification of Appropriate Programs/Supervision Community correction agencies conduct needs assessments on offenders to enable easier identification of the best programs that would effect change of behavior. Some of the items that are addressed during these assessments include; offender’s substance abuse, mental stability, and physical health.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Risk Factors Present in Offender Risk Assessments specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Therefore, rehabilitation programs are scheduled for the offenders depending on the level of risk and their classifications in the above list. For instance, mentally ill offenders may be introduced to psychiatric programs; while, substance abusers put in drug rehabilitation programs (American Psych iatric Association, 2000). Strengths and Weaknesses of most Risk Assessments. Risk Assessment Tools have constantly been in use on account of their ability to identify risk of harm and offender recidivism. Most of these tools are gauged according to ease of use, applicability and accuracy of their results. On the contrary, different tools are believed to have weaknesses in terms of their complexity, lack of objectivity, and the inability to measure the risks associated with offenses (Webster, Rudiger,  Ã‚  Goran, 2002). All assessment tools are categorized under two broad sections namely; actuarial assessment and clinical decision tools as describe in the following paragraphs. Actuarial Assessment In this assessment, specialized actuarial instruments are used to assess the offender’s likelihood to re-offend through explicit rules for weighing each variable. In sexual offenses, for example, RRASOR assessment instrument is widely used (Hanson, 1997). This instrument comprises of four variables that include; prior sexual offenses, gender (male), age (25) and extra-familial victims. In accordance to the rating scale, a close correlation to these variables meant a high-risk of re-offense. Clinical Assessment Unlike actuarial assessments, a clinical assessment helps the assessor to select from a range of risk elements that have been established empirically. The evaluator uses the information to provide a general estimate of the risk posed by the offender. The Sexual Violence Rating Scale (SVR-20) is an example of a clinical decision tool for use in sexual offences (Webster, Rudiger,  Ã‚  Goran, 2002). Comparison and Conclusions According to relevant sources, actuarial assessments present the most accurate results in the prediction of recidivism (Webster, Rudiger,  Ã‚  Goran, 2002). Furthermore, the assessment instruments present an easy way of accessing and analyzing offender information for faster solutions. However, there are critics that the actuaria l rating scales used for assessment are one-dimensional and may not reflect the actual level of offender risks. Furthermore, the level of superiority in the assessment method depends on the formulation of assessment questions. For instance, questions in different stages may result in different scores for the same assessment instrument used. As such, it is not true that a certain instrument will always provide the most accurate results for all scenarios.Advertising Looking for research paper on criminology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More References American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental  Disorders. Washington, DC. Baltimore County. (2011). Inmate Classification. Web. Bonta, J., Bourgon, G., Jesseman, R., Yessine, A. K. (2005). Pre-sentence reports in Canada. User Report 2005. Ottawa: Public Safety Canada. Hanson, R. (1997). Rapid Risk Assessment for Sex Offence Recidivism. Senior Research Officer. Ottawa: Ontario. Lind, K. (2009). Stopping the Revolving Door: Reform of Community Corrections in  Wisconsin. Web. Murray, C. (1998). Community Facilities for Juvenile Offenders in Washington State. Retrieved from the Washington State Institute for Public Policy Website: wsipp.wa.gov/ReportFile/1299 Physicians and Lawyers for National Drug Policy. (2008). Alcohol and Other Drug  Problems: A Public Health and Public Safety Priority. Web. Webster, D., Rudiger, M.,  Ã‚  Goran, F.  (2002). Violence Risk Assessment: Using Structured Clinical Guides Professionally.  Int ernational Journal of Reonsic Mental Health Services,  1(2),  44-49.

Philo T. Farnsworth the father of television essays

Philo T. Farnsworth the father of television essays Philo T. Farnsworth II was born on august 19,1906 in Indian Creek, Utah. Philo was the oldest of five children. His parents were Serena Bastain and Lewis Edwin Farnsworth. Philo received his name from his grandfather Philo T. Farnsworth I. Although early in his childhood he lived with no electricity he was entertained bye having conversations with his father about inventions his father read about on a magazine. Later on he and his family moved to a farm in Idaho, this farm had its own power plant. Eventually Philo mastered the lighting system and was put in charge of it. It is said that it never ran smoother In 1920 Philo Farnsworth read in a magazine that inventors were attempting to transmit visual images bye mechanical means. It was then that young Farnsworth proposed that visual images could be transmitted electronically. He work for the next to years on developing a method of transmitting visual images electronically. Philo was convinced that this would be much better than mechanical means. In 1922 he came up with the basic design for the apparatus. Philo shared these designs with his high school chemistry teacher Justin Tolman. While working as a canvasser Philo became friends with a businessman bye the name of George Everson. George Everson and Leslie Gorrell invested 6,000 dollars. With additional backing from group of bankers Farnsworth was given a research lab in San Francisco and a year to prove his concepts. Philo married his wife Elma Pem Gardner on May 27,1926 the next day he left for San Francisco. On September 7,1927 Farnsworth gathered his friends and engineering colleagues and show them the first ever transmitted visual image. The image was of Philo Farnsworths wife and assistant. After his success went public RCA became aggressively competitive with Philo for control over the television market and challenged the patent for Philo television invention. It was ...

Strangles Prevention essays

Strangles Prevention essays Strangles is a highly contagious infection that plagues horses, and it needs to be controlled. The transmission of strangles is very easy, and its effects on horses are very serious. Vaccines should be required for all horses. Measures need to be taken to control the spread of strangles immediately. Strangles is the common term for streptococcus equi bacterium (Small). The name strangles comes from the effects of the bacteria. The streptococcus bacteria cause abscesses in the throat of a horse(Kunz). These abscesses grow so large they cut off the trachea and strangle the horse(Kunz 1). Infection in one to five percent of cases may spread to other organs of the body(Kunz 1). The infection of other organs is called Bastard Strangles (Prescott 2). This type of strangles can create a brain abscess that has the potential to rupture, which would cause immediate death in a horse. The Animal Health Trust states, The disease (strangles) can be severe and prolonged with up to ten percent of cases dying of complications,(Chanter 1). A horse may build up immunities to strangles, but first it has to contract the bacteria. Of the horses that do contract the strangles bacteria 25 percent do not develop the immunity to the bacteria (Equivac 1). Horses can contract strangles a number of ways. Foals are especially high at risk. The main distribution of the bacteria is by nose discharges and burst abscesses, therefore anything an infected horse is in contact with has the bacteria (Small 1). The Streptococcus Equi bacteria is hardy and can live in straw for months and on any other object for periods of time (Horses in the News 4). This leaves farms with horses traveling in and out and any other horse recreation susceptible to a strangles outbreak. The complications of strangles causes a serious problem in the horse world. Poor horse management is to blame. There is a vaccine available to ...

Analytical paper base on reading Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Analytical paper base on reading - Essay Example These texts show that globalization is not entirely positive or a monolithic empowering process for all, but something that the West, particularly the United States, direct and control, while disempowering specific nations, cultures, classes, and genders. New national and international social, political, and environmental movements are arising from different sectors and nations because of the continuation of colonialism and slavery in the global political economy through American capitalism, although these issues cannot be resolved without finding common interests and agreeing on win-win solutions. Anti-globalization is a not a new movement, but started alongside economic, political, and cultural globalization. Heather Gautney describes the various protests that aimed to stop the implementation of world trade policies that undermine national sectors because of unfair trade changes. The roots of the anti-globalization movement are not from the Seattle protests to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1999, but much earlier, with anti-International-Monetary-Fund (IMF) protests sparking during the 1970s in Peru, Liberia, Ghana, Jamaica, and Egypt.1 In Egypt, the bread riots happened because of the rapid increase in bread prices due to IMF trade policy effects.2 These are examples of movements that opposed the negative effects of globalizing trade policies on national economies. Feminist internationalism is another anti-globalization movement that seeks to elaborate transnational values and standards that will promote the position of women in society.3 Its primary goal is to free women who are trapped in various disadvantaged positions brought about by globalization’s gender-oppressive values, policies, and practices.4 Elizabeth Bernstein discusses a different feminist uprising through the new abolitionism movement. The new abolitionism is against the modern slavery of women that happens through human trafficking and commercialized sexual

Amniocentesis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Amniocentesis - Essay Example The risks and benefits of amniocentesis should be considered before opting for this prenatal test. Amniocentesis is mostly recommended after false positive or false negative triple screen test which is a simple blood tests used for the same purposes. Amniocentesis is performed with the aid of ultrasound and the amniotic fluid is collected through a needle and takes about 45 minutes. The collected fluid is used for laboratory analysis. 14 and 20 weeks of pregnancy are the most suitable time for the procedure to be performed. However, the amniocentesis can be delayed till the third trimester (America Pregnancy Association 2006). The procedure is indicated mostly in pregnant women above the age of 35, a couple who has a history of previous children with Down’s Syndrome or any other chromosomal abnormality, history of genetic disease in the family and detection of any chromosomal abnormality in any of the parents (Sloane 2002). The most common chromosomal abnormality looked for in amniocentesis is Down’s syndrome or Trisomy 21. Neural tube defects like spina bifida and genetic disorders like cystic fibrosis are also looked for in the amniotic fluid. More than 70 inborn errors of metabolism can be detected through amniocentesis for instance Tay’ Sachs disease, Fabry’s disease, galactosemia and Gaucher’s disease. The increasing age of the mother is a high risk factor for development of chromosomal abnormalities specifically Down’s syndrome. Hence, the importance of amniocentesis in older age mothers increases. With early detection of the disorders, an abortion can be performed to prevent the birth of a baby suffering from a lifetime of deformity and suffering. However, those who disagree with the notion of abortion, this procedure is mostly useless for them (Sloane 2002; American Pregnancy Association 2006). Since

Raising Children in the Digital Age Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Raising Children in the Digital Age - Essay Example This essay describes the issue when television and the internet is being used in the schools, in social networking, and in the entertainment, cultural, as well as political arenas. Many children have become so engaged in using these media to the exclusion of others, and to the point where their dexterity in using these media have surpassed that of their parents. The researcher states that many concerns on the appropriate use of these media have been raised based on issues which relate to representations of sex and violence in the television as well as concerns on pornography and child endangerment. These concerns have prompted considerations on the implementation of age bans on the use of the television and the internet. Despite these concerns, the current age of globalization and information technology clearly manifest the benefits of television and internet use among children. With these benefits, children should be exposed to television and the internet and not be banned from usin g them until a certain age. Children should in fact be exposed to media and not be banned until a certain age. The researcher then concluds that although the internet and the television have inherent dangers, these dangers reflect more on the insufficient guidance which parents and teachers have on the children. It is also concluded that with adequate guidance and supervision, these children will be able to gain the information and the full benefits of these media without falling into the dangers or risks of internet and television use.

EVALUATING A WEBSITE AS A SOURCE FOR LEARNING HISTORY Essay - 1

EVALUATING A WEBSITE AS A SOURCE FOR LEARNING HISTORY - Essay Example However, as treasures increased, so did the desire to capture more areas to gain control over the Americans. The reason for choosing this website for analysis is because it provides information on America’s history and recommends other resources rich in America’s history. Therefore, this website serves as a good source of learning history due its diverse information, including artifacts and paintings and also other suggested literatures on America’s history. This website is owned by the library of Congress, the world largest library. Through this site, the library provides diverse books, photographs, recordings, maps and many other academic resources for both teachers and students. The information provided in this website gives insights on America’s history, and it is adequately supported by finding of great historians such as Jay Kislak, who amassed a comprehensive collection of materials on ancient America. In the process of his exploration, Jay acquired rare collection of manuscripts and books that pertained to early America. In this vein, the objective of library of Congress was to avail diverse learning resources to the American people. Therefore, this site seeks to reveal America’s history, creativity and knowledge through both primary and secondary sources to both teachers and learners. Notably, the site has a selection of more than 3,000 rare maps, paintings, documents, prints and artifacts among others. The audience can access information on the early America, including pre-contact America, exploration and encounters and finally aftermath of the encounter through this website. In addition, the site provides more than 3,000 collections of documents, paintings, prints among others. All information accessible through this site is equally useful for a historian, but for this particular paper information on pre-contact, America is of paramount importance. In this regard, the website provides insights on America’s

Nicaragua Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Nicaragua - Essay Example Of the remainder, 17% are white and 9% are black The coastal plains rise to form a mountainous interior. The weather is warm and tropical, though it may be cooler in the mountainous areas. Nicaragua was settled by the Spanish in the 16th century and gained its independence in 1821. US Troops were sent to Nicaragua beginning in 1909 to quell uprisings and political unrest. The Samoza family ruled Nicaragua from 1936 until they were overthrown in 1979 by the Sandanistas. The religion is mostly Catholic which about three fourths of the people follow. Most of the rest are Evangelicals and less than 9% say they practice no religion. Nicaragua has a 68% literacy rate and Spanish is the official language. The government is formed as a republic with an executive, legislative, and judicial branch and they hold free elections on a regular basis. In 1978, due to corruption and government manipulation the people elected Daniel Ortega, a Marxist candidate. He ruled until 1990 when he was voted out when business was opposed to the slow pace of reforms. He was returned to power in 2006 in a free election. Nicaragua is one of the poorest nations in the hemisphere. It has a $2,900 per capita income and experiences high unemployment. It exports agricultural products such as bananas, coffee, rice, and tobacco. It has industries in chemicals, machinery and metal products and tourism is becoming more important. In 2004, they had a $4.5 billion dollar international debt forgiven. Though Nicaragua is poor, elementary education is free for all Nicaraguans. Elementary education is mandatory and many tribal areas have access to education in their native language. Nicaragua treasures academic freedom and Universities have autonomy in regards to the subjects taught. This respect extends to freedom of speech and ideas are openly welcome, as are diverse viewpoints. 30% of the

EVALUATING A WEBSITE AS A SOURCE FOR LEARNING HISTORY Essay - 1

EVALUATING A WEBSITE AS A SOURCE FOR LEARNING HISTORY - Essay Example However, as treasures increased, so did the desire to capture more areas to gain control over the Americans. The reason for choosing this website for analysis is because it provides information on America’s history and recommends other resources rich in America’s history. Therefore, this website serves as a good source of learning history due its diverse information, including artifacts and paintings and also other suggested literatures on America’s history. This website is owned by the library of Congress, the world largest library. Through this site, the library provides diverse books, photographs, recordings, maps and many other academic resources for both teachers and students. The information provided in this website gives insights on America’s history, and it is adequately supported by finding of great historians such as Jay Kislak, who amassed a comprehensive collection of materials on ancient America. In the process of his exploration, Jay acquired rare collection of manuscripts and books that pertained to early America. In this vein, the objective of library of Congress was to avail diverse learning resources to the American people. Therefore, this site seeks to reveal America’s history, creativity and knowledge through both primary and secondary sources to both teachers and learners. Notably, the site has a selection of more than 3,000 rare maps, paintings, documents, prints and artifacts among others. The audience can access information on the early America, including pre-contact America, exploration and encounters and finally aftermath of the encounter through this website. In addition, the site provides more than 3,000 collections of documents, paintings, prints among others. All information accessible through this site is equally useful for a historian, but for this particular paper information on pre-contact, America is of paramount importance. In this regard, the website provides insights on America’s

Sir Isaac Newton as the Father of Modern Science in Scientific History Research Paper

Sir Isaac Newton as the Father of Modern Science in Scientific History - Research Paper Example Though in the field of physical science his predecessors have excelled in theoretical explanations of the behavior of the physical world, Newton provided theories a solid mathematical ground. He is mostly remembered because of his book â€Å"Philosophia Principia Mathematica† in which he explains the behaviors of moving bodies. Indeed the later development of Einsteinium Physics was greatly contributed to by the Newton’s the ideas and theories that he discussed in â€Å"Principia†. The book â€Å"Principia† brought him the fame and made him a public figure because of its importance to change the commoners’ view of the universe. Obviously Newton’s idea of the universe dominated the knowledge of the physics till Albert Einstein came up with a relative view of the universe in his theory of Relativity. Indeed even after the publishing of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, Newton concept of the universe continued to teach people about the sys tem and functionality of the universe. Newton’s Contribution to Mathematics Newton’s career began with his study on calculus. Though he invented calculus solely, the credit of inventing calculus fell upon the part of German scientist Leibniz. Anyway, in 1669 on the subject of infinite series Newton’s study paper "De analysi per aequationes numero terminorum infinitas" was greatly appreciated by his contemporaries. Regarding Newton’s genius Isaac Barrow’s comment was as following: "Mr Newton, a fellow of our College, and very young ... but of an extraordinary genius and proficiency in these things." ... Indeed Newton’s Principia was not written in the language of Calculus, though he comprehensively used infinitesimal calculus in geometric forms. In Principia, Newton effectively employed â€Å"limiting values of the ratios of vanishing small quantities† naming it â€Å"the method of first and last ratios.† (Newton, 1727, p. 46) The use of â€Å"limiting values of the ratios of vanishing small quantities† through the method of indivisibles was the first step to employ calculus in explaining the universe. As a result modern scholars often called Principia â€Å"a book dense with the theory and application of the infinitesimal calculus.† (Truesdell, 1968, p. 99) Indeed Newton was â€Å"distinctly advanced every branch of mathematics then studied† (Ball, 1908, p. 67). During his lifetime Newton significantly contributed to the development and a number of fields of mathematics such as â€Å"generalized binomial theorem†, â€Å"Newton's ide ntities†, â€Å"Newton's method†, â€Å"classified cubic plane curves†, â€Å"theory of finite differences†, and â€Å"use of fractional indices and coordinate geometry to obtain solutions to Diophantine equations† (Truesdell, 1968, p. 68). Newton’s Contribution to Physics One of Newton’s most remarkable contributions to science of his age was â€Å"the invention, design and construction of a reflecting telescope† (Gjertsen, 1986, p. 122) . This telescope had been considered as a significant advancement in the field of telescope technology. But his contributions to Optics were of greater importance. Newton spent several years investigating the refraction of light and invented that white light passed through a prism would decompose into a spectrum

A look into Wide Sargasso Sea Essay Example for Free

A look into Wide Sargasso Sea Essay In what appears to be a recreation of the novel Jane Eyre and the main protagonist deeply etched in its lines, Wide Sargasso Sea has given its author, Jean Rhys, quite a number of literary distinctions such as the Heinemann Award as well as the coveted W. H. Smith Award, thus securing her a well-deserved spot in the world of the written arts. Although one may be able to observe that, to some interesting degree, Rhys’ novel strongly echoes Jane Eyre in a number of ways and that, hence, her work cannot stand by itself as a lone and solid literary work without depending too much on what has already been written, Wide Sargasso Sea delivers by tempting the mind to look deeper into the context of the story. Not only is one prompted to internalize on the lives of the characters involved and the situations that have kept them both together in a single place and romantically miles apart while living together. The reader is all the more prompted to juxtapose the literary content into the context of the social developments that have shaped the course of the novel. A look into the main characters, Rochester and Antoinette, provides us with a fitting yet succulent glance of the underlying precepts behind the length of the novel. One cannot simply deny and shy away from the fact that, after reading Wide Sargasso Sea, much is to be discerned and contemplated on the behaviors of the characters and the very societal setting that has molded them to what and who they are. Rochester and Antoinette: similarities and differences The characters of both Rochester and Antoinette bear the same characteristic of madness, illustrated to some degree in the former character’s attempt to ditch-off Antoinette by turning towards infidelity and intentionally letting her hear all about his conceited deeds. The fact that Rochester verified the instance when she slept with another woman further illustrate the point that he does not yearn for Antoinette as much as his coldness and arrogance would bitterly consume his outward feelings toward her. Madness has consumed Rochester and his treatment of Antoinette, devouring and distorting his perception of the place where they lived, choosing his England more than anything else whilst staying in a seeming paradise. The madness that has dissolved the humanly precepts of Rochester does not necessarily amount to that of a madman exiled in a sanitarium somewhere in a desolate region. Rather, the context of the madness that have seemed to corrupt his thoughts can all the more me concretized with Rochester’s efforts to keep Antoinette away from him as much as possible, with the very idea that she has turned into a lunatic. Rochester appears to have countered or met the madness in Antoinette by employing actions that can be interpreted as way beyond normal thinking, one that is not commonly done by the normal individual. His deliberate intent of letting Antoinette understand that he has purposely committed infidelity is what a normal person will not usually do, is beyond the point of tolerance, and is exceedingly beyond the limits of a married man. Madness has indeed taken its course in the veins of Rochester as his treatment and attitude towards Antoinette plummet to an unceasingly growing emptiness. Antoinette, on the other hand, has been depicted almost throughout the stretch of the novel as the mad woman that she is, as the Creole taken down by the sheer weight of madness and by the mounting confusion that creases her understanding of her personality and, far more importantly, of her understanding of who she really is. It is not difficult to ascertain from the descriptions of both the personality and actuations of Antoinette that she has been slurred down by the very idea of â€Å"madness† that the people surrounding her have casted upon Rochester’s wife.

Procurement Cost Plan for Heating Installation

Procurement Cost Plan for Heating Installation Q) Establish some contractual and procurement difficulties if your Organisation were to be main contractor for installation of a district heating scheme serving 100 pensioners bungalows. Produce a basic procurement cost plan for contractors to price against. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION District heating is a system where the heat for an area is produced centrally, and hot water or steam is transported to the buildings through a network of pipes. Heat is transferred into individual properties through a heat exchanger, and then used in conventional heating systems (in flats, for example, there may just be one heat exchanger for the whole block). District heating networks vary widely in scale from individual developments or apartment blocks to whole cities. In Denmark, where district heating accounts for about 60% of the heat supplied, cities such as Copenhagen receive heat from large-scale power stations and energy from waste plants situated up to 40km away. Modern district heating can be cost effective and reduce CO2 emissions compared to conventional heating systems. This is because generating heat centrally at large scale can reduce costs compared to generating heat in boilers in individual properties, particularly when combined heat and power (CHP) plants are used. Heat transported through the network can also be converted into cooling using absorption chillers, again improving the efficiency of the system and also providing an option to use heat produced in the summer.   District heating is more environmentally friendly than conventional heating, the potential to reduce emissions will depend greatly on the fuel used and the type of central plant that is generating the heat. Modern district heating offers the potential to use a variety of low carbon and renewable heat generation technologies, such as CHP using fossil fuels, biomass or waste, biomass boilers or surplus heat from industrial processes. As an experienced and tested technology, employed effectively in many countries, district heating has evolved significantly from the days when it was first installed. Networks are now highly efficient, with sophisticated heating controls that allow suppliers to maintain the network and consumers to easily manage their heat use. Underground sensors are able to quickly locate any leaks, and back-up generating plant, is used to limit the effect of possible problems with the central generating plant. CHAPTER 2: AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THIS STUDY The main aim is to establish the contractual and procurement difficulties of the main contractor for installation of the district heating scheme serving 100 pensioners bungalows. The aims and objectives can be summarized as follows; To install a district heating scheme to serve 100 pensioners bungalows. To conduct the feasibility study of CHP/CH for district heating. To establish contractual and procurement issues that may occur in this project scheme. To study life cycle costing of the district heating scheme. CHAPTER 3:   FEASIBILITY STUDY OF CHP/CH FOR DISTRICT HEATING SCHEMES Any CH development, whether new or refurbished, large or small, should start with a feasibility study, during which the technical and economic viability of community heating, compared with other possible options, will clearly emerge. The application of CHP enhances the combined heat option by providing heat and power with a very high overall efficiency. So this section deals primarily with the feasibility of CHP/CH schemes. Options should be compared using sound economic principles, always ensuring that full life-cycle costing is used. The content of the feasibility study will be far reaching and, in the course of the work, many fundamental decisions will be made as to the technical approach and the most attractive option to be pursued. Once the project development stage is reached it is much more difficult to change course. Consequently the feasibility study needs to be carefully procured, managed and fully discussed before proceeding further. 3.1:   Defining the brief Whether the study is being carried out in-house or using external resources, it is necessary to define a brief. This must state the objectives clearly, and provide information on existing buildings and their heating systems, the general aspirations of the organisation commissioning the study, and the time-scale for the study. Any particular issues of concern should be mentioned, but otherwise the brief should not constrain the scope of the study.   If external consultants are to be appointed, their selection should be primarily on the basis of the capability, qualifications and experience of the study team and their approach and methodology. The study should include engineering, economics, environmental and commercial issues, together with related health and safety matters, for which a comprehensive team of experts needs to be assembled, often with external consultants working closely with in-house lead personnel.   An indication of the economic parameters to be used in assessing options should be provided in the brief, e.g. the test discount rate and the period of analysis to be assumed in a discounted cash flow analysis. Such information will be needed during the study, and early discussion and agreement on these parameters is advisable. It is important to insist that the correct basis of full life-cycle costing is applied to each of the options under consideration.   Once the main options have been established, capital costs will need to be estimated, as well as operating and maintenance costs where these are the responsibility of the CHP/CH developer. 3.2:   Heat and electricity demand assessment The starting point of a study is the determination of the market for heat, cooling and power. Initially, this involves enlisting support for a scheme from organisations such as the local authority, large hospitals or a university, all of which can help to provide essential core load for a proposed scheme. It is also important to consider the concentration of heat demand which can accure from such potential customers. Cooling by means of absorption chillers offers a further use for heat, particularly at times when heating is not required. The heating, cooling and power requirement for buildings can be obtained from previous data, provided the existing building use is to be remain unchanged, or by energy modelling techniques. It is important that all cost-effective energy-saving measures for the building either be implemented, or at least considered, before determining heat demand. The fundamental minimum requirements of the heat demand assessments are: †¢ the temperature requirements of the heating system †¢ the determination of peak heat demands †¢ annual energy consumption. These data’s will enable some approximate economic work to commence. However, the revenues from the production of electricity vary with time of day and time of year, and hence the cost of heat production from a CHP plant will also vary over the years. It will, therefore, be necessary to determine a heat demand profile over the year, at least on a monthly basis and preferably weekly.   Monthly heat demand profiles can be estimated using weather data, together with establishing a hot water energy demand profile. In addition, the variation of heat demands over a 24-hour period will be useful, but these data are likely to be available only if a high level of instrumentation has already been installed within the buildings. The hourly heat demand profile is required so that simultaneous heat and power production can be simulated. For electricity, half-hourly data will normally be available for larger users, and monthly data from bills. Consideration needs to be given to the effect of the following on demand profiles for heat and power:    †¢ metering and charging tariffs — if historical data are based on un-metered heat, a change to metered supply normally leads to significant reductions in heat use. †¢ there may be cost-effective opportunities to reduce heat demand by adding insulation to the building fabric. †¢ liberalisation of the electricity market makes it easier to sell electricity directly to residents on community heating schemes. †¢ use of surplus heat for cooling, particularly in summer, when residential heating requirements are low or zero. At the feasibility stage these decisions will not have been finalised and it may therefore be necessary to proceed with a range of possible heat and power demands. 3.3:   Heating systems within buildings It is necessary to establish details of existing heating systems within the buildings. Some of these may be unsuitable for connection to CH systems, in which an outline engineering design will be needed for their replacement. Where systems are more compatible, their operating temperatures and pressures need to be established together with an assessment of their effectiveness in meeting current and future needs. If there is some extra capacity available then it may be possible to reduce operating temperatures and flow rates in heating circuits, which will generally be of benefit to the CH scheme. It is also important to establish the method of control used for both time and temperature in order to predict accurately effects on the CH systems. When details of existing systems are available it will be possible to propose a programme of works that will enhance existing systems and yet still be compatible with the proposed CH system. However, several options may have to be considered and cost estimates are prepared for use, in an overall option appraisal. In some buildings, the provision of domestic hot water may represent a significant part of the demand, and there are a number of ways of generating domestic hot water from a CH system. The most energy-efficient schemes will involve taking advantage of the low temperature of the cold water feed so as to cool the community heating return as close as possible to this temperature. This leads to the use of non-storage calorifiers or additional coil surface in cylinders. In larger buildings, two-stage heating, utilising the return water from a space-heating circuit to carry out pre-heating of the cold water feed, is the best solution, provided it should be economical. 3.4:   Central Plant Once the heat demand assessment has been made, work can commence on examining the central plant options. The aspects to be covered are: †¢ prime mover choice †¢ fuel choice, contract flexibility, and security †¢ site location and topography, and interfaces with fuel, electricity and CH  Ã‚  Ã‚      infrastructure †¢ balance between CHP heat and boiler heat †¢ provision of standby capacity †¢ building to house the plant.    It is likely that a number of options will present themselves and each will need to be analysed under similar assumptions to determine the optimum selection. Capital, operating and maintenance costs will need to be assessed for each combination of plant. The CHP operating strategy needs to be developed to establish the most economical method of operation in relation to varying heat and power demand profiles and varying selling prices, e.g. following the heat demand at full output and dumping heat. A spreadsheet-based operating model is essential to ensure that the correct operating strategy has been made and to calculate the annual energy flows, and to permit rapid sensitivity analysis. The optimum CHP plant capacity needs to be determined by considering a range of plant sizes and by carrying out an economic assessment of each.   For single-site CHP projects it is important to have a reasonable match between the generated output and the electricity demand. For a CHP/CH system, electricity is often sold in bulk and the site demand must also be taken into account. However, there may be good opportunities for selling electricity to customers who are more directly linked to the scheme, by use of system arrangements. In this case, modelling the CHP plant in relation to electricity demand may need to be considered. The use of thermal storage and heat dumping may be of greater assistance in allowing the CHP plant a higher flexibility in matching demand profiles. There may also be opportunities for tri-generation (heat, chilling and electricity). Some CH schemes are initially established without CHP, due to the large capital outlay involved. Even without CHP, there may still be environmental and economic advantages from load diversification, and further economic benefits from purchasing fuel in bulk. The use of pre-insulated pipes and low NO2, high-efficiency or condensing boilers have helped to make modern combined heat systems robust, environmentally friendly, and economically advantageous. It should be stressed, however, that CHP offers immediate environmental benefits, and long-term economic advantages.    3.5:   Heat Distribution systems After the building demands and the central plant location have been determined it is then possible to examine the heat distribution system. In order to analyse the network rapidly and to calculate costs, computer software is essential. For large schemes, only the primary mains, together with sample areas of sub-distribution mains, will need to be analysed at this stage. The more difficult aspect is to determine which routes for CH pipe work are technically feasible and cost-effective. Considerable assistance may be obtained by consulting ordnance Survey maps. These are now available on CAD format but at a significant cost. However, there is no substitute for an informed site survey, and a detailed examination of other utility services drawings. Within the feasibility study it will be necessary at least to identify any major constraints to routes, e.g. road and rail crossings, the presence of underground sewers, railway tunnels, etc. In selecting routes the use of open, grassed areas will lead to significant cost savings, as with the avoidance of major roads. Consultation with the Local Authority Planning and Highways Department is essential. 3.6: Optimisation This is the most complex phase of a feasibility study, where the various options available for CHP plant, heat distribution and building heating systems need to be assembled into a number of scheme options — all with their individual sets of cost and revenue streams. Some cases may be simplified by a process of logical comparison, but normally it will be necessary to compare the options using discounted cash flow analysis, and hence to determine the preferred option on the basis of maximising net present value or internal rate of return. Some of the system optimisation issues that are likely to need evaluation are given below. 3.6.1: Operating temperatures A high flow temperature will result in a larger temperature drop, lower flow rates and hence smaller pipe diameters can be used. This capital cost advantage will be offset by the need for more expensive building connections and possibly higher heat production costs, depending on the CHP plant selected. 3.6.2: Operating pressures The option exists to run the system at a lower operating pressure by over-sizing the network; the extra cost incurred should be compared with savings from using the cheaper direct connection method to link building heating systems to the community heating network. Pumping costs also need to be considered, particularly for larger systems, where higher design pressure reduces the amount of booster pumping required. The topographic variation will also need to be considered when deciding upon operation pressure. 3.6.3: Size of scheme A smaller scheme may be more compact and have a relatively inexpensive network, but larger schemes may result in economies of scale for the CHP plant arising from higher efficiency and lower capital cost per kW. The phased expansion of the scheme also needs to be considered, as does ways in which this might affect the plant and the network design. 3.6.3: Heat meters The installation of heat meters will result in lower buildings energy use and reduced operating costs. If the individual dwellings are equipped with heat meters, energy savings should be compared with the additional capital cost and consumer administration charges. It is also possible that the provision of heat meters for each dwelling may be the only way to achieve market acceptability by residents and energy developers. In addition, the inclusion of heat meters will have a positive effect on Standard Assessment Procedure rating (SAP). 3.6.4: Building heating systems The conversion of a heating system to more compatible operating conditions will involve additional capital cost, but if it results in better plant selection or increased heat sales it may be justified. One example is converting steam heating at a hospital to low temperature hot water heating suitable for connection to a community heating network. 3.6.5: Improvements to building fabric Some buildings, fabric insulation improvements will be cost-effective in energy terms. The economic advantage is not as great when the building is supplied by CHP/CH as it would be for small conventional boilers or electric space heating, because the marginal cost of heat is lower. There is, however, a financial advantage in reducing peak heat demands as the capacity of the CHP plant and the heat distribution network can be reduced. The resultant saving in capital cost needs to be included in the economic assessment of insulation measures. Once the main options have been established, capital costs will need to be estimated as well as operating and maintenance costs where these are the responsibility of the CHP/CH developer 3.7:   Revenues from heat and electricity sales 3.7.1:   Heat sales A good understanding of a customer’s current and likely future costs for conventional heating is required in order to judge the maximum heat sales income available. These costs will include fuel, operating and maintenance and provision for future boiler replacement. It will be necessary to structure a heat sales package so that the advantages can clearly be seen. At feasibility level there will need to be a sufficiently large discount to be confident that this level of income can be obtained for the period of analysis. A long-term commitment is unlikely to be obtained at this stage and information on existing costs may be limited, so a cautious approach may be needed. The situation is clearer in the residential sector where the costs of the conventional individual boiler systems are generally well established. The main options available in the residential sector are: †¢ sales to individual residents by means of a fixed charge related to size of dwelling †¢ sales to individual residents based on measuring the heat energy actually used (dwelling heat meters) †¢ sales to individual residents based on the measurement of actual energy used by a block of flats and an apportionment based on size of dwelling/occupancy.    Pre-payment systems can be used to collect either fixed or variable charges or a combination of both. Some consideration should be given to assessing the likely levels of bad debt where prepayment systems are not installed, and bad debt costs may need to be incorporated in the economic analysis. 3.7.2:   Electricity sales Where CHP plant is installed, it is vital to obtain the maximum income from the electricity produced. Typically, a 10% increase in electricity sales will improve the internal rate of return (IRR) of a project (see section 1.10) by 2%, whereas a 10% increase in heat sales will improve the IRR by 1%. The CHP/CH company may opt to sell electricity in bulk to the host public electricity supplier (PES), which will normally offer terms on a p/kWh basis for electricity generated at different times of the day and year seasonal time of day (STOD) tariff. However, if the CHP/CH company can supply electricity users directly (this may include residents themselves) a much better return can be obtained. Among the more favourable options that exist, (following the liberalisation of the electricity market in 1998) is the sale of electricity direct to residents and other customers. A summary of the options is as follows: †¢ sale to the host PES †¢ sale to a second tier supplier, i.e. othe r PES’s and other suppliers of electricity †¢ direct sale to customers as a second tier supplier. This implies pool membership for    an aggregate supply of more than 500 kW †¢ sale under the non fossil-fuel obligation (NFFO) (only for energy-from-waste       projects which have bid for this arrangement in advance). †¢ sale through the pool (this entails having pool membership and is more appropriate    for projects in the range 30 MWe-50 MWe) †¢ sale as an on-site generator to other customers on the same site. It will normally be helpful to use the conventional route of sale to the host PES for the base case analysis, with the other options considered as possible improvements that can be investigated, depending on the scale of the project and the resources of the study. An element of negotiation will be needed in most of these options. As a result, definite figures are not likely to be available at the feasibility stage and a range of results may be presented as a sensitivity analysis. The sale of electricity as a second tier supplier may be of particular interest to CHP/CH schemes because there will be the opportunity to market heat and electricity together to customers on the community heating scheme. Selling two utility services may also bring benefits in metering and charging arrangements. This option is therefore discussed further below.   If a CHP/CH scheme is to undertake to sell electricity direct to customers, additional arrangements will be required, for example: †¢ a top-up and standby purchase arrangement for times when the generation is less than customer demand (including times of CHP plant outage); as a pool member a second tier supplier can purchase this power direct from the pool †¢ a contract for selling spill power for times when more power is generated than customers demand †¢ either the payment of use-of-system charges, the purchase of existing electricity infrastructure or the installation of new cables in order to transfer power to the customers. In the domestic sector, the creditworthiness of customers should be considered and the possible need for a form of prepayment. The management of debt collection is a customer care issue, and disconnection policies need to be fully developed if customers are to be retained in the long term. 3.8:   Development Programme An important output from the feasibility study is a development programme. This is required first to permit the construction of cash flows for capital expenditure, and second to enable advance planning of subsequent stages. A separate, more detailed programme may be produced covering the period of development from the conclusion of the feasibility study to the start of construction, if the route to achieve this is sufficiently clear. It is also worth establishing a watching brief on all work involving renewal of underground services, so that opportunities may be taken to coordinate projects, thus reducing costs and disruption. Issues to consider when drawing up the programme are: †¢ the need for a further project definition stage †¢ the need for further site surveys and investigations    †¢ consultation with customers and adjacent building owners and residents †¢ planning applications (and associated environmental statements) †¢ Building Regulations applications †¢ energy rating and emission improvements †¢ preparation of invitations to tender †¢ tender period †¢ short-listing construction companies †¢ short-listing energy developer companies †¢ short-listing operating companies †¢ assessment of tenders and final negotiations of contracts †¢ mobilisation †¢ site clearance †¢ construction †¢ commissioning and testing †¢ operation and maintenance. Supervision during construction is of paramount importance in order to secure the necessary quality of system. 3.9: Economic Appraisals At the heart of any economic appraisal are the cash flows, a set of annual capital, operating and maintenance expenditures, and annual revenues from the sale of heat and electricity. These cash flows are normally evaluated in real terms.   To compare scheme options, and determine whether the project is economically feasible, there are a number of arithmetical calculations based on the cash flows. It is essential that, when conducting an economic appraisal, full life-cycle costs are used to compare the various options. Simple payback period Defined as the period in which the initial investment is recovered by the annual saving. Generally this approach is too simplistic where the capital expenditure may be spread over a number of years, and where the income may vary from year to year. It is therefore not recommended. Net Present Value (NPV) To calculate the NPV it is necessary to define the cost of borrowing capital (or lost income from capital which could have been invested elsewhere) and the period for the analysis of the project. Internal Rate of Return (IRR) This can be defined as the test discount rate that results in a net present value of zero. IRR is less robust than NPV as it can lead to the selection of a smaller-scale project which, although generating a higher return, involves less capital so that the total value of the income stream is lower than the maximum potential. Both NPV and IRR calculations are available within most spreadsheet software packages. The above parameters are normally sufficient to compare options and present the results to the client organisation for a decision to proceed further. An appraisal by a financier is also likely to involve the calculation of tax implications and debt cover ratios. As an illustration of an economic appraisal, two approaches are outlined below. †¢ From the perspective of a building owner who wants to examine the cheapest method of supplying heat and power to the building or groups of buildings. The economic analysis would assemble cash flows for capital and operating costs for both the CHP scheme and the alternative approach of conventional boilers. The CHP scheme would involve significant initial capital and have an income stream for surplus electricity sales. The conventional approach will have investments in future boiler plant scheduled for future years. The NPV approach enables these varying cash flows to be summed to give a single figure; the NPV in this case being the net present cost for supplying the site with heat and power over a defined period. If the CHP/CH option gives a lower cost then it is the more economical option. †¢ From the perspective of an energy developer company, cash flows will be established for capital investments and income from both heat and electricity sales. The heat and electricity selling prices will be related to the market for these energy products. An IRR can be calculated for the project investment and the NPV for a given discount rate. The CHP/CH option with the highest NPV will be selected and the IRR must be greater than the minimum required by the energy developer company, taking account of the risks in the project.   It is worthwhile investigating whether any local major consumer, such as a local authority, is willing to connect all their buildings to a scheme. This can reduce the investment risk significantly and improve cash flow. The question of economic viability cannot be separated from an analysis of risk, particularly where project finance is the route employed. It will be necessary to carry out an analysis in which as many of the costs and performance figures as possible can be contractually underwritten before presenting the results to a financial institution for a view on financial viability. A sensitivity analysis is of assistance in identifying which of the many parameters are the most important when considering the risk to the economic performance of the scheme, and also for indicating the range of likely outcomes. From this analysis the advantages of obtaining longer-term fuel purchase contracts or heat and power sales contracts can be judged.   Some community heating schemes are initially established without CHP, due to the large capital outlay involved. It may, however, be instructive to consider the economics of a boiler-only community heating option so that the benefits of the CHP plant itself can be separately demonstrated. 3.10:   Environmental Assessments A preliminary environmental assessment should form a part of the feasibility study, identifying both the advantages and disadvantages of CHP.    3.11:   Health and safety Any construction project is covered by the Construction Design and Management (CDM) regulations. The aim of these regulations is to ensure that safety issues are considered from the start of the project, and this may include the feasibility stage. It will be necessary to appoint a planning supervisor and to carry out an outline design risk assessment. CHAPTER 4: Contractual Issues   4.1:   Works contracts The EU Directive is implemented in the main by the Public Works Contracts Regulations 1991 (SI 1991:2680). The basic qualifying threshold is currently set at special drawing rights (SDR). The rules apply principally to building and civil engineering works together with associated activities such as installation work. Public work concessions are subject to a more relaxed regime under the rules.    Following the adoption of Council Directive 97/52/EC on 13 October 1997, amending the EU public sector directives to align with the new Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), all thresholds for the public sector should now be expressed in SDR.   Where the value of the contract exceeds the threshold, contracting bodies are required to publish a prior information notice giving the essential characteristics of qualifying works contracts following decisions to approve the planning of works. A contract notice should be published in the Official Journal when offers are sought in relation to a works contract. When inviting tenders, negotiated procedures may be used only in exceptional circumstances. The choice is mainly between open and restricted procedures under which all tenderer’s must bid against the same specification and terms and conditions of contract. The negotiated procedure allows a preferred bidder to be chosen before the final terms of the contract are agreed. There are strict provisions on technical standards requiring the use of European standards in tender documentation in preference to national ones.   The award of the contract must be either on the basis of the lowest price or the most economically advantageous te