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Critical reflection on waste management class project The WritePass Journal

Critical reflection on waste management class project Executive summary Critical reflection on waste management class project ), and the other is from the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s (HEFCE) requirements to reduce carbon emissions, which are derived from waste (HEFCE, 2010).   These two factors have meant that universities across the United Kingdom have had to seek to reduce the amount of waste that they dispose of to landfill sites. This project has been undertaken to seek to investigate the ways through which bio-waste, which is derived from food sources may be reduced.   To this end, my mission is to introduce a waste management system for food disposal, with the aim of lowering the Universitys carbon emissions. This essay focuses on the cost of composting in relation to landfill sites.   These shall be examined from three different perspectives, which are derived from environmental, social and economic considerations.   Each of these shall be discussed and examined to seek to critically evaluate the options, which may be available to seek to redress the aforementioned issues. 1.Introduction This project seeks to ascertain which options are most suitable to seek to reduce food waste, which is produced from a university site being sent to landfill. There are three main factors, which need to be considered in order to ensure that, this viable.   The first of these are the economic considerations, the second are the environmental benefits, which may be derived from this, and the third are the social advantages to disposing of food waste.   Each of these options shall be discussed and critically evaluated in turn.   However, before this analysis is undertaken, a brief background to the reasons why this is so important shall be presented. Food waste is an intrinsic part of the economy. It is, in effect, a result of economic activity produced by businesses, government and homes. The management of food waste has economic implications (DEFRA, 2012). A green economy is underpinned by maximal economic value and growth coupled with sustainable management of all natural assets (DEFRA, 2011). The Government’s ‘Review of Waste Policy 2011’ aimed to deliver a ‘zero waste economy’. Over the last decade, significant advances were made to reduce the quantity of food-waste transport to landfill sites and increase the rate of more environmentally friendly methods (DEFRA, 2012). Reducing bio-waste is an important target of the UK government. The ‘Waste Strategy 2007’ for England identifies food waste as a key aim, thereby reducing landfills for local authorities. The ‘Waste Emissions Trading Act’, ‘Landfill Allowance Schemes’ and the ‘EC Landfill Directive’ include key objectives that encourage local authorities to utilise environmentally friendly means of processing food waste or face financial penalties (WRAP, 2009). In line with each of these targets in April 2010, HEFCE announced that it expected all universities to have a carbon management plan in place by December 2010.   This was to include how universities would seek to reduce their carbon emissions from all sources (including Scope 3 emissions included all sources of waste, which may arise from universities).   Therefore, since this time many UK universities have sought to find ways through which they may reduce the waste, which they send to landfill sites (HEFCE, 2010). In line with each of the requirements which have been highlighted above, my mission is to introduce a waste management system for food disposal.   Therefore, the aim of this project is to seek to lower the Universitys carbon emissions, which may arse through the disposal of food waste to landfill sites (see the poster and learning log). The objectives of my project are to: Create an operation that allows us to process food waste into compost whilst maintaining green principles Increase the involvement of staff and students, creating an awareness of the importance of implementing a food waste system Implement a well maintained operation that manages food waste sustainably This essay will focus on the cost of composting in relation to landfill sites, which can be placed into three categories: environmental, social and economic. 2. Environmental costs Food waste provides a feeding ground for rodents and insects, harbouring diseases and parasites that are harmful to humans (Sharp, 2007). Food waste may contaminate surface water, soil, air and ecosystems (Rushton, 2003). Most notably, landfill, the most frequent method of disposal, produces significant GHGs (Bogner et al. 2008). The food degrades over a period of years, emitting methane, a CHG that is 21 times more powerful than carbon dioxide (Shin et al. 2005).   Therefore, from this we can start to ascertain that it is possible to reduce the amount of food waste that is sent to landfill sites as this waste is biodegradable. Twenty million tonnes of CO2e emissions are generated from food waste every year.   This equates to around 3% of the UK’s CHG emissions and 6% of its global water footprint (DEFRA, 2011b). Some food waste is not biodegradable such as teabags, bones and banana skins. However, it remains an essential principle to prevent this waste from being sent to landfill sites unnecessarily.   Food waste should be treated in the most sustainable way, minimising GHG emissions and other environmental harm (DEFRA, 2011b). Article 4 of ‘EU Waste Framework Directive’ outlines the five steps for dealing with waste, referred to as the ‘waste hierarchy’. Prevention, the best impact on the environment, is at the top of the hierarchy, then, in descending order, preparing for re-use, recycling, recovery and landfill (Directive 2008/98/EC) (see Figure 2.1). Figure 2.1: Waste hierarchy (based on the EU Directive 2008/98/EC) Segregated waste is the waste that has been removed from the normal waste stream for recycling, composting, anaerobic digestion or landfill. This waste includes both biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste (DEFRA, 2011b). Residual waste refers to the waste left following sorting or waste emanating from purely unsorted waste (such as black bag waste) (DEFRA, 2011b). There are a number of advantages to collecting food waste separately from the refuse stream (WRAP, 2009b): Improving recycling efficiency Reducing waste disposal costs Reducing the environmental harm linked with landfill Reducing CHGs However, despite each of these advantages implementing a food waste system within a university is a complex task.   One must consider a number of drivers for example, how will students and staff react to the introduction of a new waste management system under the guise that it is environmentally beneficial, how often are waste collections required from different areas and how will this be managed to ensure that odours or other factors which may cause different forms of environmental harm do not arise from these operations.   Of course, this does not mean that this is impossible, but a number of issues need to be considered, for example, does the cost of recycling this food waste out weigh the environmental benefits, which may be gained from diverting this from landfill.   One must consider that there are a number of options, which could cause more harm to the environment and be less cost efficient.   For example, if on site composting is to be used, how will this be managed, who will pay for the facilities required, where will the residual waste from the food disposed of be managed.   Or if one was to pay refuse collector to dispose of this waste, would the number of the collections by vehicles increase the overall environmental effects of composting this food waste or not? Therefore, implementing a food waste system, which is environmentally beneficial, is complex.   However, if this is undertaken properly a number of environmental advantages may be realised.   Each of the aforementioned factors need to be carefully considered and a number of calculations need to be performed to seek to ensure that emissions to air and water or land contamination do not arise through the implementation of a composting system.   Therefore, the university needs to consider each of these factors before they decide whether this is an environmentally friendly way, through which waste, which arises from food, may be managed rather than sending it to landfill sites.   In conjunction, with each of these considerations there are also a number of economic factors which need to be consider, these shall now be discussed and critically evaluated in more detail. 3. Economic costs Food waste is excessively high in the UK; each year households in the UK waste over 8 million tonnes of food, which equates to a cost of  £12 billion (costing the average household  £480/year). A further 5 million tonnes are lost in the supply chain, costing  £5 billion annually (Chapagain James, 2011). The National Health Service wasted  £26  million on food wastage alone (Ssentif, 2011). In a rare example, Cornwall primary care trust has implemented a sustainable food waste management program coupled with locally sourced food (Tudor et al. 2008). By adopting prevention, the UK would save combined manufacturing and distribution costs of  £1588/tonne of waste (Lee Willis, 2010) to its food supply chain. Based on that figure alone, it makes economic sense to avoid food wastage both for the private and public sectors.   However, there are a number of factors, which need to be considered before the university decides whether they will be changing the ways in which they dispose of their food waste.  Ã‚   The first of these is related to the potential means through which this new system will be implemented.   Here there are two options to be considered, the first is siting a composting facility on site.   The second of these is to pay a waste disposal contractor to dispose of the waste at their composting plant.   The economic considerations, which need to be considered in regards to both of these options, are how much do they cost?   For example, does the university dispose of enough food waste to justify the initial costs of setting up a composting plant on their site?   Alternatively, is the amount of food waste that they generate a smaller amount, which could be cost effectively, collected by a waste contractor?   Once these questions have been answered, the considerations for each of these two options start to differ considerably. In regards to the first of these options, one must consider whether it is economically viable to set up a composting facility on site, for example what are the potential savings that could be generated from not paying landfill tax and how soon will these be realised?   How much would it cost to set up a new waste management system in the universities halls and food outlets and around the campus?   How much will the plant cost to set up, manage and operate?   Do the costs of these enable a quick pay back, if for example this was done in conjunction with a biomass plant where waste could be used to generate electricity?   What would be the costs of siting this on the campus and how efficient would the plant need to be to achieve optimal savings.   Would the advantages of the cost savings outweigh the disadvantages?   Could this be achieved in other ways, such as working with suppliers to seek to reduce the amount of waste, which is generated? Each of these needs to be caref ully analysed before this option is chosen by the university. Further to this, if a waste contractor were going to be employed by the university to take the waste away, a number of other factors would need to be considered.   These are would the costs of sending this waste to a composting facility be cheaper than sending it to a landfill site.   Most waste contractors work on a pay per weight basis and if most of the food waste is wet, this is heavy.   Therefore, it may cost more per tonne of waste to send this to landfill than it would to a composting facility.   Furthermore, other saving also need to be considered, for example would the university save more money if these were sent to any energy from waste plant?   How many collections would be required per week to seek to ensure that the waste was appropriately managed?   What would the costs of extra collections be when the university hosts functions such as, conferences or graduation week?   Each of these factors needs to be carefully considered.   However, some have said t hat the costs linked with the implementation of food waste collection are negated by savings generated in the reduction of waste collection (ACR, 2009).   This may not be true of all university sites as the cost efficiencies also depend on the size, location or layout of a campus, the number of food outlets or student halls on the campus and the number of students and anticipated volumes of waste that may be derived from foodstuffs.   Therefore, one must carefully not only consider the environmental benefits, which are complex, but they must also seek to ensure that any new waste management system is economically sustainable in the longer term.   The final factor, which needs to be considered by the university in regards to implementing a new waste management system to dispose of food waste, is the socially based. 4. Social costs Food waste prevention is an area of waste prevention where there is little public resistance, with 90% of people being unopposed to the idea of reducing their food waste (WRAP, 2008).   However, this does not mean that they are happy or willing to segregate their waste in practice.   Encouraging both staff and students to properly segregate their food waste from other streams is a complex task.   This is because each individual has their own values and beliefs and often though they say they believe in something, it does not mean that they will act in accordance with these.   Therefore, one of the most important considerations that needs to be taken into account before changing over to a composting system is how are we going to get staff and students to segregate their waste?   How will we sell this idea to them?   Will we use economic, environmental or ethical arguments to seek to change their behaviours?   Each of these groups behaviours, values and attitudes need to b e aligned to seek to successfully implement a new waste management system with a university.   Therefore, this is one crucial factor, which needs to be carefully considered before any changes are implemented in practice and this costs money. Further to this, other considerations arise from the publics feelings of the health risks associated with waste management highlight differences in understanding, education and underlying social values (Vrijheid et al. 2002).   This is another challenge, which needs to be carefully considered before the new waste management system is implemented.   Factors such as, the siting of waste receptacles or plant, how the waste is stored ore how often it is collected also need to be considered.   This is because if they are not issues such as, complaints about odours, increased visits from pest e.g. foxes or rats, noise from the collection vehicles or the composting plant, the appearance of waste that has been insufficiently stored or left for too long could all cause serious social problems for the university or result in legal action being taken by the local authorities.   Therefore, each of these factors needs to be carefully considered to seek to ensure that the risks of each of these problems arising are mitigated as much as possible. Conclusion Food waste is an intrinsic part of the economy. It is, in effect, a result of economic activity produced by businesses, government and homes. The management of this waste has economic implication. Reducing bio-waste is an important target of the UK government. The ‘Waste Strategy 2007’ for England identifies food waste as a key aim, thereby reducing landfills for local authorities. The ‘Waste Emissions Trading Act’, ‘Landfill Allowance Schemes’ and the ‘EC Landfill Directive’ include key objectives that encourage local authorities to utilise environmentally friendly means of processing food waste or face financial penalties. Our strategy uses ‘price penetration’ strategy. Our service will be of good quality, but initially would not stand out as superior against competing compost services. However, our initial service charges will be low to undercut any rival competitors, thereby penetrating the marketplace. The evidence highlights the fact that a large percentage of local authorities in the UK are implementing food waste collections. Additionally, educating householders on their responsibility to the environment is critical in changing public attitudes to food waste. Half of all landfill site complaints relate to their odours. There is, additionally, conflicting evidence on the health effects of living within proximity to a landfill site. Evidence suggests that living within proximity it may also negatively impact on house prices. However, the public’s normally positive behaviour, even in those aware of the positive impact, may change should a compost plant be constructed in their neighbourhood. References ACR+ Municipal Waste in Europe Towards a European Recycling Society’. Victoires Editions. 2009. ISBN: 978-2-35113-049-0. Print Bogner J, Pipatti R Hashimoto S (2008). Mitigation of global greenhouse gas emissions from waste: conclusions and strategies from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report. Working Group III (Mitigation) Waste Manag Res; 26: 11–32 Chapagain A James K (2011). The Water and Carbon Footprint of Household Food and Drink Waste in the UK. Banbury, Oxon: Waste Resources Action Programme. Available at: wrap.org.uk/retail_supply_chain/research_tools/research/report_water_and.html. Available August 2013 DEFRA (2011a). Applying the Waste Hierarchy: evidence summary. London: DEFRA DEFRA (2011b). Government Review of Waste Policy in England 2011. London: DEFRA Department of Environment and Conservation (2004). Composting and related organics processing facilities. Sydney: Department of Environment and Conservation Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on waste and repealing certain Directives Elliott P, Briggs D, Morris S et al (2001). Risk of adverse outcomes in populations living near landfill sites; BMJ: 363–8 Environment Agency (2013). Composting and potential health effects from bioaerosols: our interim guidance for permit applicants. Available at: environment-agency.gov.uk/static/documents/Research/Composting__bioaerosols.pd. Accessed August 2013 Evans TD; Andersson P, Wievegg, A et al (2010). Surahammar – a case study of the impacts of installing food waste disposers in fifty percent of households. Water Environ. J; 241: 309–319 EN330 Measuring to Manage: How reducing waste can unlock increased profits, Envirowise. Available online at envirowise.gov.uk/page.aspx?o=117540 Accessed August 2013 HEFCE (2010) Carbon Management Plan.   Available from hefce.ac.uk/pubs/year/2010/201002/ Access 08/08/2013. HM Treasury. Budget 2010. Available at officialdocuments. gov.uk/document/hc1011/hc00/0061/0061.pdf. Accessed August 2013 HPA (2011). Impact on Health Emissions from landfill sites. London: HPA Hutchins, D and White, S (2009). Coming round to recycling. British Medical Journal; 338: 746-748 Lee P Willis P (2010). Waste arising in the supply of food and drink to households in the UK. WRAP, Branbury, UK. McCarthy EJ and Perreault WD Jr. Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach. Irwin, 1990 Noble R, Elphinstone JG, Sansford CE et al (2009) Management of plant health risks associated with processing of plant-based wastes: A review. Bioresource Technology; 10: 3431-3446. NHS. The NHS in England. Available at nhs.uk/NHSEngland/thenhs/about/Pages/overview.aspx. Accessed August 2013 Rà ¶sch C Kaltschmitt M (1999). Energy from biomass do non-technical barriers prevent an increased use? In: Biomass and Bioenergy; 16: 347-356. Rushton L (2003). Health hazards and waste management. British Medical Bulletin; 68: 183–197 Sharp D (2007). On Rats, Refuse, and Recycling. Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine; 84: 637–638 Shin H-C, Park J-W, Kim H-S, et al (2005). Environmental and economic assessment of landfill gas electricity generation in Korea using LEAP model. Energy Policy; 33: 1261–70. Ssentiff (2011). Protected mealtimes failing as nine million hospital meals go uneaten. Available at: ssentif.com/archive/4_oct2011.shtml. Accessed August 2013. Tudor T, Barr S Gilg A (2008). A novel conceptual framework for examining environmental behaviour in large organizations: a case study of the Cornwall National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom. Environment and Behaviour; 40: 426–50. Vrijheid M, Dolk H, Armstrong B et al (2002). Chromosomal congenital anomalies and residence near hazardous waste landfill sites. Lancet; 359: 320–2 WRAP (2008). The food we waste. Available at http://wrap.s3.amazonaws.com/the-food-wewaste.pdf. Accessed August 2013 WRAP (2009a). Food Waste Collection Guidance. Banbury: WRAP WRAP (2009b) Food Waste Collection Guidance. Available at: wrap.org.uk/downloads/food_waste_collection_guidance_-_amended_Mar_2010.451b7293.7749.pdf. Accessed August 2013 WRAP (2013). Information sheet – Courtauld Commitment. Available at wrap.org.uk/content/information-sheet-courtauld-commitment. Accessed August 2013 Yun H, David M and Elliott R (ud). The Valuation of Landfill Disamenities in Birmingham

The California Center for Land and Water Stewardship Article

The California Center for Land and Water Stewardship - Article Example The need for conservation and land planning is especially necessary for Southern California’s desert-like conditions. The first goal is â€Å"Seek out opportunities and grant funding for projects relating to land and water conservation, stewardship, planning, and design in California†. This goal makes sense. It is also essential this goal is first. Funding for CCLAWS is necessary for the project to work. CCLAWS finds funding from contracted projects, grants, consultant and consultation coordination of a CPP Clearinghouse, professional education, workshops and certifications, development and private support activities, database clearinghouse and community information resources, community workshops and education. These funding sources will help fund projects regarding land and water conservation, stewardship, planning, and design. This type of fundraising makes the outlook for this organization good. The second goal is â€Å"Support the work of, and increase collaboration between, academic departments and units, private organizations, and public agencies with goals similar to those of the Center without duplicating efforts†. This goal also makes sense. If goals and projects are doubled than resources will be wasted. Individual projects can receive enough funding without inefficient waste. There is too much waste today in funding projects. A lack of communication is one of the main reasons. If all parties will communicate, then unnecessary funding of projects already funded. The last goal states â€Å"Through education, outreach, and advocacy encourage respect for Southern California’s rivers, railways, open space, and nature from multiple perspectives and foster sustainability by balancing natural, social, and economic systems†. It is easier to fund campaigns that educate the public on the damage littering can do, then fund a project to clean up a polluted river or park.

General Patton leadership during war Research Paper

General Patton leadership during war - Research Paper Example Defeat in a war not only means political and also cultural loss of a nation but also massive loss of youth life with no purpose gained. A war commander’s purpose is to visualize enemy’s approach and accordingly formulate strategies to achieve victory on the battlefield. For this, he has to efficiently and effectively communicate his visions and missions to his subordinates. An able commander is largely responsible for a nation’s success or failure in a war (Sanderson, 1997, pp.1-2). This paper explores the leadership strategies and attitude of one of the most renowned American war commandant George S. Patton Jr. Considered as one of the most successful military men of all times, General George Smith Patton, Jr. was born on November 11, 1885 in San Gabriel, California. He is famous for his commanding power of any war and his strong leadership style. He used to carry pistols with ivory handles and was known for his temper. He showed immense persistence in driving his troops to acquire excellence in their wartime skills. Even during his childhood days, Patton nurtured the dream of becoming a military man, and he never indulged in any other career option. His passion for war and weapons was born from hearing stories of bravery and successful missions about his ancestors who were involved in various wars like the Revolutionary War, the Mexican War and the Civil War. After attending Virginia Military Institute for one year, he completed his graduation from the United States Military Academy at West Point on June 11, 1909. After that he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the 15th cavalry Regi ment. In the year 1912, George Patton participated in the Olympics that was held in Stockholm. As a representative of the United States, he competed with other rivals in the first Modern Pentathlon. This event initially was open only for military officers, and it was a stringent test to

International Trade & Institutions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

International Trade & Institutions - Essay Example Despite the massive decrease of global investment, China and the United Kingdom (UK) remained to be amongst the expected countries that would continue to deliver growth in their FDI investment (Ernst & Young, 2008). Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd, a Chinese-based company is one the successful foreign companies that entered the UK market. In fact, some of the leading telecom suppliers in UK has been exceeded by Hauwei in terms of market share and revenue growth, which made the company the â€Å"crouching tiger in the UK market† (Blackman, 2010). The main purpose of this paper is to study a certain firm that is involved in FDI and developed an international business opportunity encompassing: business opportunity analysis, environmental analysis, competitive analysis, and strategic analysis. Huawei Technologies (UK) Co., Ltd. Huawei Co. Ltd. is one of the leading telecommunication suppliers since 1988 founded by Ren Zhengfei. Huawei, a private company is currently serving 45 out of 50 leading telecoms operators worldwide and has operations in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. The company offers wide range of products and services such as radio access network, application and software, network solutions, broadband services, transport network facilities, storage and network security services, professional and traditional services, and devices (MarketLine, 2010a). Hauwei is in the special field of research and development (R&D) and they are highly dependent on their overseas markets that contributed 65% of their revenue growth (Griffin, 2007). Every year, the company allocated at least 10% of their annual sale in R&D for this bestowed them a competitive advantage. Huawei also â€Å"took the no. 2 position in the global mobile network gear market in the third quarter, almost doubling its market share from a year ago and surpassing Nokia Siemens† (Virki, 2009). In the global setting, the company’s success is very cruci al considering that the competition is severe; however, they still manage to transcend other telecom providers in areas of optical network (rank 4), DSL (rank 2), next generation network (NGN) (rank 2), and switching network (rank 1) (Wu & Zhao, 2007, p.188). The international market has been attractive to Huawei considering that their domestic sales have been surpassed by their overseas sales. Currently, the company’s revenue is 149,059 million (33%) with an operating profit of 21,052 million (33%), and 21,741 (40%) for cash flow from operating activities (see figure 1). Business Opportunity Analysis A. Advantages underlying the opportunity. According to Lim Chee Siong, Huawei South-Pacific Region Chief Marketing Officer (n.d.), â€Å"We foresee broad market development opportunities in mobile and home broadband networks, fixed mobile convergence, business operation support systems, and smart devices† (cited in Huawei, 2010). The development of broadband in UK for 201 0 is a big opportunity for the company in order to expand its market share and revenue by collaborating and cooperating with UK’s fastest growing operators for broadband access. Based on the company’s SWOT analysis (see figure 2), the growing demand and adoption of broadband (mobile and home) in UK is among the new international business venture that Huawei could undertake. Aside from the

Onderwerp de doodstraf

Onderwerp de doodstraf Ik kies voor het onderwerp de doodstraf omdat het vrij actueel is en het mij interesseert omdat het een veelbesproken onderwerp is. Ik heb dit onderwerp gekozen omdat bijna alle mensen hier een mening over hebben en omdat er in de Bijbel over gesproken wordt. Ikzelf ben van mening dat de doodstraf iets is wat niet mag en dus afgeschaft moet worden. Ik vindt het ook een heel erg interessant onderwerp omdat het niet duidelijk in de Bijbel staat. Het is voor mij dus ook een klein beetje een zoektocht naar antwoorden Toch delen de mensen die de Bijbel hebben gelezen niet dezelfde mening, dat komt omdat er in de Bijbel niet heel duidelijk staat of het wel of niet mag. Zo staat er: Jullie hebben gehoord dat tot de ouden gezegd is: U zult niet doden. Wie doodt, zal uitgeleverd worden aan het gerecht. Maar Ik zeg jullie: ieder die zijn broeder een kwaad hart toedraagt, zal uitgeleverd worden aan het gerecht. (Matteà ¼s 5, 21-22) Hier staat dus dat je niet mag doden en dus niet mag oordelen of iemand moet blijven leven of ter dood veroordeeld moet worden. Nog bekender is de uitspraak: Oog om oog, tand om tand.( Exodus 21 ). Dat zou dus betekenen dat als je iemand dood, zelf ook gedood moet worden. Dus in moderne tijd vertaald; iemand die heeft gedood, moet door de rechter ter dood worden veroordeeld. Maar in de Bijbel staat ook: Wie iemand zo treft, dat hij sterft, zal zeker ter dood gebracht worden. Wie zijn vader of moeder slaat, zal zeker ter dood gebracht worden. Wie een mens rooft, hetzij hij hem reeds verkocht heeft, hetzij deze nog in zijn bezit wordt aangetroffen, zal zeker ter dood veroordeeld worden. Wie zijn vader of moeder vervloekt, zal zeker ter dood gebracht worden. Het staat dus niet duidelijk in de Bijbel of het wel of niet mag. Daarom is ook niet iedereen het erover eens. Er zijn verschillende ideeà «n en theorieà «n over de doodstraf. Dit is ook een van de redenen dat ik me hierin wil verdiepen, het is een veelbesproken onderwerp maar nog te onduidelijk voor mij om te beoordelen of het wel of niet mag volgens de Bijbel. Het is een onderwerp die naar mijn mening ook te maken heeft met abortus omdat je met abortus een levend kind wegneemt. Je kiest er dus voor om dat kind te doden. Dit is iets wat volgens de Bijbel verboden is. Voor mij is dit abortus nog erger dan de doodstraf. Maar omdat het ik het over het onderwerp de doodstraf doe ga ik daar niet te veel op in. Ook is het vaak de vraag of dat de veroordeelde wel echt schuldig is. Want hoe vaak is het wel niet voorgekomen dat iemand onterecht vast zat? Ook is dit een paar keer met mensen gebeurd die achteraf onschuldig bleken te zijn. Zoals hierboven staat zijn er veel verschillende standpunten. Ook onder mensen met dezelfde religies zijn de meningen verdeeld. Zo is mijn oom dominee en tegen de doodstraf terwijl mijn andere oom ook christelijk is maar wel voor de doodstraf is. Er is dus nog veel om te doen en juist daarom zijn er veel verschillende argumenten en standpunten.. Ik heb de standpunten en argumenten in 4 groepen verdeeld. Voor de doodstraf Voor de doodstraf volgens Bijbels perspectief Tegen de doodstraf Tegen de doodstraf volgens Bijbels perspectief Voor de doodstraf. Het is veel goedkoper om de doodstraf toe te passen dan iemand een aantal jaar in de gevangenis te houden. De familieleden van het slachtoffer of het slachtoffer zelf hebben veel leed moeten doorstaan door de dader, terwijl ze dit niet hebben verkozen. De doodstraf maakt dit iets dragelijker. Het kan ook meteen voorkomen dat mensen het recht in eigen handen gaan nemen en het slachtoffer gaan wreken. De doodstraf kan werken als een afschrikkend middel. Een crimineel zal nu zich eerder bedenken om een zwaar misdrijf te plegen vanwege de zware straf die erop staat. Een moordenaar zou niet meer de maatschappij in mogen want hij zou misschien weer kunnen herhalen wat hij al eerder heeft gedaan. De doodstraf is de zwaarste straf die je kunt geven en de enige vergelding voor. Voor de doodstraf vanuit Bijbels perspectief. Wie iemand zo treft, dat hij sterft, zal zeker ter dood gebracht worden Wie zijn vader of moeder slaat, zal zeker ter dood gebracht worden. Wie een mens rooft, hetzij hij hem reeds verkocht heeft, hetzij deze nog zijn bezit wordt aangetroffen, zal zeker ter dood veroordeeld worden. Wie zijn vader of moeder vervloekt, zal zeker ter dood gebracht worden. Als een man overspel pleegt met de vrouw van een ander, moeten beiden ter dood worden gebracht. Tegen de doodstraf. Het is tegen de rechten van de mens (artikel 3 en 5) De doodstraf is onherroepelijk Het wordt gebruikt als vergelding niet als straf De doodstraf schrikt niet af, terwijl dat wel de bedoeling is. Het is vooral een straf voor de nabestaanden De doodstraf heeft discriminerende effecten De dader heeft geen kans om zijn leven te beteren Het is kwaad met kwaad vergelden, je doet zelf wat je tegen een ander zegt dat Hij/zij dat niet mag doen. Tegen de doodstraf vanuit Bijbels perspectief. De doodstrafdruist in tegen andere bijbelse opdrachten, zoals Gij zult niet doden. Maar we mogen volgensPaulusook geen kwaad met kwaad vergelden(Romeinen 12:17) Jullie hebben gehoord dat tot de ouden gezegd is: U zult niet doden. Wie doodt, zal uitgeleverd worden aan het gerecht. Maar Ik zeg jullie: ieder die zijn broeder een kwaad hart toedraagt, zal uitgeleverd worden aan het gerecht. (Matteà ¼s 5, 21-22) Jullie hebben gehoord dat er gezegd is: Oog om oog en tand om tand. Maar Ik zeg jullie een zaak niet uit te vechten met iemand die je kwaad heeft gedaan. Maar als iemand jou een klap op je rechterwang geeft, houd hem dan ook de andere voor. (Matteà ¼s 5, 38-39) Jullie hebben gehoord dat er gezegd is: U zult uw naaste liefhebben en uw vijand haten. Maar Ik zeg jullie: heb je vijanden lief en bid voor wie je vervolgen, dan zullen jullie kinderen worden van je Vader in de hemel, want die laat zijn zon opgaan over slechten en goeden, en Hij laat het regenen over rechtvaardigen en onrechtvaardigen. Wees volmaakt, zoals ook uw hemelse Vader volmaakt is. (Matteà ¼s 5,43-45, 48) Uiteraard zijn er nog meer standpunten en argumenten maar ik kan ze niet allemaal gebruiken dus heb ik een selectie gemaakt. Mijn standpunt over de doodstraf of het wel of niet mag is heel makkelijk. Het mag NIET!! Ik vind dat de mens niet mag oordelen of iemand dood moet of moet blijven leven, er staat ook in de bijbel dat de mens niet mag oordelen dus laten we dat dan ook niet doen. Ook hebben we niet de capaciteit, ik neem als voorbeeld Amerika waar nog met regelmaat de doodstraf wordt opgelegd. Het hele land en in sommige gevallen bemoeit de hele wereld zich ermee, iedereen heeft een mening en de media zit er bovenop. Dan lijkt het mij niet dat een rechter onder deze druk een goed besluit kan nemen. Ik heb ook altijd geleerd van mijn ouders dat als ik boos was niet boos mocht blijven en hem of haar ook niet iets toe mocht wensen. Als ik dat wel deed dan zou ik over iemand oordelen en er was maar 1 iemand die dat mocht doen; God ! Dus, als je er niet over mag oordelen, waarom zou je het dan wel in werkelijkheid mogen brengen? Het klopt dat de Bijbel vol staat over moorden, en mijn bovengenoemde argumenten staan ook allemaal in de Bijbel. Toch denk ik dat het volgens de Bijbel niet mag. Alle argumenten die hierboven zijn opgenoemd staan in het OUDE Testament. Jezus is in het NIEUWE Testament gekomen en heeft dus een aantal dingen gezegd waaruit ik kan opleiden dat moorden(doodstraf) niet mag. Hij haalde het Oude Testament aan om de Oude wet te voltooien omdat Hij de Nieuwe wet was en is. Veel mensen gebruiken dan het argument: Ja maar in de Bijbel staat oog om oog, tand om tand. Deze mensen hebben het stuk dan niet gelezen. Want er staat namelijk ook : Oog om oog en tand om tand. Maar Ik zeg jullie een zaak niet uit te vechten met iemand die je kwaad heeft gedaan. Maar als iemand jou een klap op je rechterwang geeft, houd hem dan ook de andere voor. (Matteà ¼s 5, 38-39) Tegenwoordig zijn er verschillende manieren om de doodstraf uit te voeren. De meeste manieren zijn de galg, de kogel, de elektrische stoel, de gaskamer en de dodelijke injectie. De meningen zijn verdeeld over wat nu het meest humaan is. Veel mensen vinden de dodelijke injectie het meest humaan maar ze realiseren zich niet dat ook een hele lijdensweg is. Misschien heb je geen pijn maar stel je voor dat je daar ligt (terecht of onterecht) je zit vastgebonden en er is niks meer wat je kan doen. De lichten in de kamer gaan aan en het doek gaat open, ze ziet nog de blikken van je eigen familie, de jury en de familie van de gedupeerde. Dan krijg je opeens een paar spuiten in je arm, de doeken gaan dicht en je bent alleen in een dichte kamer. je wilt nog dingen zeggen en je wilt bewegen maar niemand die jou hoort en ziet. Alles wordt langzaam minder, je zicht, je ademhaling, je hartslag. En je weet dat je binnen enkele minuten dood gaat. Ook dit is geen fijne dood. Dus het maakt mij niet uit hoe de doodstraf wordt uitgevoerd ik ben gewoon tegen de doodstraf omdat het een onmenselijke en onomkeerbare straf is. Ook zonder de bijbel te hebben gelezen. Zou ik tegen deze straf zijn. Ik vind het ook hypocriet, je mag niet moorden maar omdat de verdachte/dader heeft gemoord, vermoord je hem of haar ook maar. Ook voor de nabestaanden levert dit niks op. Als de dader de doodstraf krijgt opgelegd dan is de dader wel dood maar daar krijgen ze niet hun verloren persoon mee terug. Deze persoon krijgen ze natuurlijk nooit meer terug maar als de dader levenslang krijgt dan kan hij wel na gaan denken in zijn cel over zijn zonden en misdaden. Naar mijn mening is dit dus ook een veel betere straf en kan de dader ook spijt betuigen voor zover hij/zij dat nog niet heeft gedaan. Hij leert er dus iets van en kan in die cel misschien wel tot bekering komen. De doodstraf is dus een nutteloze straf waarbij geen winnaars vallen, eigenlijk al leen maar verliezer. De doodstraf is een heel terechte straf voor zware misdrijven. Als je de doodstraf invoer weten de mensen wat de gevolgen kunnen zijn dus is het gelijk een stok achter de deur. Het schrikt dus af en dan bedenken de criminelen zich wel een tweede keer voor ze een poging doen tot een zwaar misdrijf. Het is ook heel terecht want als jij een leven van iemand neem dan heb je zelf natuurlijk ook het recht niet meer om te leven. In de mensenrechten staat wel dat iedereen recht heeft op een leven. Maar als iemand andere mensen heeft vermoord, heeft hij zelf dan nog wel het recht op leven? Ik vind van niet!! Ieder mens heeft recht op een bestaan maar op het moment dat jij dat leven afpak van iemand heb je dat recht gewoon verspeelt. Bovendien is iemand die een moord heeft gepleegd een moordenaar en dus ook een bedreiging voor de samenleving. Is het dan wel verstandig om zo iemand op te sluiten en hem verder te laten leven tussen vier muren? Nee, iemand kan altijd ontsnappen of wegens goed gedrag vrij komen (als de dader geen levenslang heeft gehad). Daarom is het beter om deze dader de doodstraf op te leggen. Ook voorkom je hiermee wraakacties. Vaak is een familielid of vriend van de gedupeerde uit op wraak, als iemand dood is kan hij/zij geen wraak meer nemen. Ook kan de doodstraf in sommige gevallen humaner zijn dan een (levenslange) gevangenisstraf. In Nederland is dit misschien niet het geval maar denk aan landen in Azià « of in het Oostblok, daar is de gevangenis echt geen pretje. Daar zijn de voorzieningen zeer slecht, je zit met veel mensen in à ©Ãƒ ©n cel en heb dus geen privacy. Je krijgt daar lichamelijke straffen, je wordt verkracht. Ook dat is geen pretje. Daarom willen sommige daders liever de do odstraf dan levenslang. Ook in financieel oogpunt is de doodstraf beter. Het is een goedkopere manier om de daders te straffen. In Nederland kost het ongeveer 300 euro per dag voor à ©Ãƒ ©n gevangene ! Kun je nagaan hoeveel het kost als iemand 25 jaar lang in een gevangenis zit! Dat is 2,8 miljoen euro ! Nou is de vraag of diegene het wel waard is nadat hij/zij zon erge misdaad heeft gepleegd. Ook in de bijbel staan er veel voorbeelden waarin staat wanneer de doodstraf toegestaan is, zoals: Als een man overspel pleegt met de vrouw van een ander, moeten beiden ter dood worden gebracht. Hier staat dus dat als een man overspel pleegt hij ter dood gebracht moet worden. In andere woorden: vreemdgaan = doodstraf. Dus ook in de Bijbel is het toegestaan dat de doodstraf wordt uitgevoerd, waarom zouden we die nu dan niet toepassen. Als je iemand veroordeelt tot een paar jaar gevangenisstraf terwijl hij een hele familie vermoordt schrikt dat natuurlijk niet af, daarom is het juist goed om zware misdrijven hard aan te pakken. Vaak kan dat alleen met de doodstraf. En waarom zouden we de doodstraf niet invoeren als dat toch geen negatieve gevolgen heeft voor het gewone volk. Het is immers de bedoeling dat alleen de misdadigers worden aangepakt. Het volk dat zich normaal gedraagt zal hier niks van merken. Daarom moet de doodstraf weer worden ingevoerd. Het gaat alleen op voor mensen die zich niet aan de wet houden, als jij je aan de wet houdt is er niks aan de hand. En vaak zijn de mensen die moorden, mensen waarbij een steekje los zit. Kranten VS in actie tegen de doodstraf OPENING, Van onze correspondent Bert Lanting op11 augustus 00, 00:00, bijgewerkt20 januari 09, 12:31 Ook al is er binnen de Verenigde Staten kritiek op de doodstraf, de belangstelling voor de ultieme straf is gering. Amerikaanse kranten hopen de discussie een nieuwe wending te geven door een DNA-test te laten uitvoeren in een oude zaak. Een aantal Amerikaanse kranten wil de discussie over de doodstraf in de VS een nieuwe wending geven door een DNA-test te laten doen om na te gaan of een gevangene die vier jaar geleden werd geà «xecuteerd, werkelijk schuldig was. De kranten kregen daarvoor deze week toestemming van een rechter in Georgia. Het gaat om de zaak van Ellis Felker, die in 1996 in Georgia ter dood werd gebracht wegens het verkrachten en vermoorden van een meisje. Felker heeft altijd volgehouden dat hij onschuldig was. Via een DNA-onderzoek van zijn haar en stukjes huid die onder de nagels van het meisje werden gevonden, hopen de kranten waaronder The Boston Globe en The Atlanta Journal-Constitution er achter te komen of Felker gelijk had. De afgelopen jaren zijn al tientallen gevangenen vrijgekomen, nadat uit DNA-onderzoek was gebleken dat zij onschuldig waren. Bij terdoodveroordeelden gebeurde dat zelfs op het moment dat zij op hun executie zaten te wachten. Als ooit kan worden aangetoond dat iemand ten onrechte is geà «xecuteerd, krijgt het debat over de doodstraf een heel andere wending, voorspelt Ben Bradlee jr. van de Boston Globe. Dat zou vooral pijnlijk zijn voor de gouverneur van Texas, George Bush, die er steeds op hamert dat onder zijn bewind nooit een onschuldige is geà «xecuteerd. Een paar jaar geleden probeerde de rooms-katholieke kerk in Virginia een DNA-test te laten doen om zekerheid te krijgen over de schuld of onschuld van een andere gevangene die wegens moord en verkrachting ter dood was gebracht. Maar een rechtbank weigerde dat omdat het bewijsmateriaal besmet was. Volgens openbaar aanklager Kelly Burke uit het district waar het vonnis tegen Felker werd voltrokken, zegt het DNA-onderzoek niets. Ook als de stukjes huid onder de nagels van het slachtoffer van iemand anders blijken, zijn er volgens hem voldoende andere bewijzen die aantonen dat Felker de dader was. Gouverneur George Bush, de Republikeinse presidentskandidaat, is vanuit het buitenland onder vuur komen te liggen wegens de executie van een zwakzinnige gevangene. Mensenrechtenorganisaties en de EU hadden er tegen geprotesteerd, maar Bush legde de kritiek naast zich neer. Texas executeerde gisteren twee gevangenen, maar de protesten richtten zich vooral tegen de executie van Oliver Cruz. De 33-jarige Cruz kreeg de doodstraf wegens het verkrachten en vermoorden van een vrouw die op een luchtmachtbasis in San Antonio werkte. Maar volgens zijn advocaat verdiende hij die straf niet, omdat hij zwakzinnig is. Het besluit de executie door te laten gaan werd genomen door vice-gouverneur Rick Perry, maar gouverneur Bush, die op campagne is, liet weten dat hij het met diens besluit eens was. De jury heeft uitgebreid bewijsmateriaal gehoord over de geestelijke vermogens van Cruz, maar is tot de conclusie gekomen dat zijn gruwelijke en berekende misdaad een doodvonnis rechtvaardigde, zei Bush. Een half uur voordat Cruz een dodelijk spuitje kreeg , was een andere gevangene in de executiekamer terechtgesteld. Hij was veroordeeld wegens de moord op een bejaard echtpaar. Met de voltrekking van de twee vonnissen kwam het aantal gevangenen dat onder gouverneur Bush ter dood is gebracht op 140, een record. De executie van Cruz heeft in de Amerikaanse pers tot een discussie geleid over het executeren van misdadigers met uiterst beperkte geestelijke vermogens. Dertien van de 38 staten die de doodstraf kennen, hebben wetten die de executie van zwakzinnigen verbieden. De meeste van die staten leggen de drempel bij een IQ van 65. Cruz kwam bij intelligentietests uit op een IQ van 63. De openbaar aanklager bestreed dat niet, maar betoogde dat het hem alleen maar gevaarlijker maakte. Hoewel er vanuit het buitenland veel kritiek was op de executie van Cruz, trok zijn zaak in de Verenigde Staten echter veel minder aandacht dan de executie van Gary Graham, eerder deze zomer. De kritiek was dat Graham ter dood was veroordeeld op basis van de verklaring van slechts à ©Ãƒ ©n ooggetuige. Graham zelf hield tot het eind vol dat hij de moord niet had gepleegd. Ondanks alle kritiek liet George Bush de executie doorgaan. Sindsdien lijkt de belangstelling voor het onderwerp te zijn weggeà «bd.

Medieval Castles :: essays research papers

Medieval Castles Medieval Castles were huge protection camps made to protect the king. They had every kind of defense known to medieval man. From murder holes, to arrow-loops, a castle had it. Medieval castles were usually built on a high rocky cliff located by water. Castle locations were very hard to find and sometimes months were spent looking for one. A moat was built around the castle and was usually filled with sewage and bathroom â€Å"goodies.† All these things played an important part in keeping the castle strong and ready to fight. A couple other defenses the castle had were murder holes; soldiers would dump many things on the sieging warriors. Another tactic was the arrow-loops; a small slender cut in the castle wall that arrows could be shot out from but not in to. See Diagram. Castles also had huge 20-foot walls to be protected from. Only two-ways in or out from the wall were present. One in the front of the castle where two iron gates had to be broken. Another gate was located somewhere towards the back of the castle. It was a secret gate that was very hard to find, and only the king knew where the gate had been hidden. The gate was used during an attack to escape from the siege. In the middle of the castle there was a huge building called the keep. This is where the king and queen slept, the kitchen and armory was also located inside. The dinning quarters (the largest room inside) was used very frequent and many employees were assigned to it. The castle was the heart and soul of the country. The king and queen and all of their loyal servants were inside, running the

Acoustic Signal Based Traffic Density Engineering Essay

Traffic monitoring and parametric quantities estimation from urban to battlefield environment traffic is fast-emerging field based on acoustic signals. This paper considers the job of vehicular traffic denseness appraisal, based on the information nowadays in cumulative acoustic signal acquired from a roadside-installed individual mike. The happening and mixture weightings of traffic noise signals ( Tyre, Engine, Air Turbulence, Exhaust, and Honks etc ) are determined by the prevalent traffic denseness conditions on the route section. In this work, we extract the short-run spectral envelope characteristics of the cumulative acoustic signals utilizing MFCC ( Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients ) . The ( Scaly Conjugate Gradient ) SCG algorithm, which is a supervised acquisition algorithm for network-based methods, is used to calculate the second-order information from the two first-order gradients of the parametric quantities by utilizing all the preparation datasets. Adaptive Neuro-F uzzy classifier is used to pattern the traffic denseness province as Low ( 40 Km/h and supra ) , Medium ( 20-40 Km/h ) , and Heavy ( 0-20 Km/h ) . For the development geographicss where the traffic is non-lane driven and helter-skelter, other techniques ( magnetic cringle sensors ) are unsuitable. Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy classifier is used to sort the acoustic signal sections crossing continuance of 20-40 s, which consequences in a categorization truth of?95 % for 13-D MFCC coefficients, ~95 % for first order derived functions and ~95 % for 2nd order derived functions of cepstral coefficients. Keywords: Acoustic signal, Noise, Traffic, Density, Neuro-Fuzzy. Introduction As the figure of vehicle in urban countries is of all time increasing, it has been a major concern of metropolis governments to ease effectual control of traffic flows in urban countries [ 1 ] . Particularly in first-come-first-serve hours, even a hapless control at traffic signals may ensue in a long clip traffic jam doing a concatenation of holds in traffic flows and besides CO2 emanation [ 2 ] . Density of traffic on roads and main roads has been increasing invariably in recent old ages due to motorisation, urbanisation, and population growing. Intelligent traffic direction systems are needed to avoid traffic congestions or accidents and to guarantee safety of route users. Traffic in developed states is characterized by lane driven. Use of magnetic cringle sensors, picture cameras, and velocity guns proved to be efficient attack for traffic monitoring and parameter extraction but the installing, operational and care cost of these detectors significantly adds to the high operational disbursal of these devices during their life rhythms. Therefore research workers have been developing several Numberss of detectors, which have a figure of important advantages and disadvantages relative to each other. Nonintrusive traffic-monitoring engineerings based on ultrasound, radio detection and ranging ( Radio, Laser, and Photo ) , picture and audio signals. All above present different features in footings of hardiness to alterations in environmental conditions ; industry, installing, and fix costs ; safety ordinance conformity, and so forth [ 3 ] . Traffic surveillance systems based on picture cameras cover a wide scope of different undertakings, such as vehicle count, lane tenancy, velocity measurings and categorization, but they besides detect critical events as fire and fume, traffic jams or lost lading. The job of traffic monitoring and parametric quantity appraisal is most normally solved by deploying inductive cringles. These cringles are really intrusive to the route paving and, hence cost associated with these is really high. Most video analytics systems on main roads focus on numeration and categorization [ 4 ] , [ 5 ] , [ 6 ] , [ 7 ] , [ 8 ] . Using general intent surveillance cameras for traffic analysis is demanding occupation. The quality of surveillance informations is by and large hapless, and the scope of operational conditions ( e.g. , dark clip, inclement, and mutable conditions ) requires robust techniques. The usage of route side acoustic signal seems to be good attack for traffic monitoring and parametric q uantity appraisal intent holding really low installing, operation and care cost ; low-power demand ; operate in twenty-four hours and dark status. Conventional pattern categorization involves constellating developing samples and tie ining bunchs to given classs with restrictions of lacking of an effectual manner of specifying the boundaries among bunchs. On the contrary, fuzzed categorization assumes the boundary between two neighbouring categories as a uninterrupted, overlapping country within which an object has partial rank in each category [ 9 ] . In brief, we use fuzzed IF-THEN regulations to depict a classifier. Assume that K forms, p= 1, .. K are given from two categories, where is an n-dimensional chip vector. Typical fuzzed categorization regulations for n = 2 are like If is little and is really big so = ( ) belongs to C1 If is big and is really little so = ( ) belongs to C2 Where are the characteristics of form ( or object ) P, little and really big are lingual footings characterized by appropriate rank maps. The firing strength or the grade of rightness of this regulation with regard to a given object is the grade of belonging of this object to the category C. Most of the categorization jobs consist of medium and large-scale datasets, illustration: familial research, character or face acknowledgment. For this different methods, such as nervous webs ( NNs ) , support vector machines, and Bayes classifier, have been implemented to work out these jobs. The network-based methods can be trained with gradient based methods, and the computations of new points of the web parametric quantities by and large depend on the size of the datasets. One of the network-based classifiers is the Neuro-Fuzzy Classifier ( NFC ) , which combines the powerful description of fuzzed categorization techniques with the larning capablenesss of NNs. The Scaled Conjugate Gradient ( SCG ) algorithm is based on the second-order gradient supervised learning process [ 10 ] . The SCG executes a trust part measure alternatively of the line hunt measure to scale the measure size. The line hunt attack requires more parametric quantities to find the measure size, which consequences in increasing preparation clip for any learning method. In a trust part method, the distance for which the theoretical account map will be trusted is updated at each measure. The trust part methods are more robust than line-search methods. The disadvantage associated with line-search method is eliminated in the SCG by utilizing the trust part method [ 10 ] . We start with a word picture of the route side cumulative acoustic signal which consisting several noise signals ( tyre noise, engine noise, air turbulency noise, and honks ) , the mixture weightings in the cumulative signal varies, depending on the traffic denseness conditions [ 11 ] . For low traffic conditions, vehicles tend to travel with medium to high velocities, and therefore, their cumulative acoustic signal is dominated by tyre noise and air turbulency noise [ 11 ] , [ 12 ] . On the other manus, for a to a great extent congested traffic, the acoustic signal is dominated by engine-idling noise and the honks. Therefore, in this work, we extract the spectral characteristics of the wayside acoustic signal utilizing Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients ( MFCC ) , and so Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Classifier is used to find the traffic denseness province ( low, Medium and Heavy ) . This consequences in 95 % truth when 20-30 s of audio signal grounds is presented. We begin with description of the assorted noise signals in the cumulative acoustic signal in Section II. Overview of past work based on acoustic signal for traffic monitoring is provided in Section III, followed by characteristic extraction utilizing Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients in IV. Finally, the experimental apparatus and the categorization consequences by SCG-NFC are provided in Section V, and the decision is summarized in Section VI. VEHICULAR ACOUSTIC SIGNAL A vehicular acoustic signal is mixture of assorted noise signals such as tyre noise, engine tick overing noise, noise due to wash up, engine block noise, noise due to aerodynamic effects, noise due to mechanical effects ( e.g. , axle rotary motion, brake, and suspension ) , air-turbulence noise and the honks. The mixture weighting of spectral constituents at any location is depends upon the traffic denseness status and vehicle velocity. In former instance if we consider traffic denseness as freely fluxing so acoustic signal is chiefly due to tyre noise and air turbulency noise. For medium flow traffic acoustic signal is chiefly due to broad set thrust by noise, some honks. For heavy traffic status the acoustic signal is chiefly due to engine tick overing noise and several honks. A typical vehicle produces assorted noise depends on its speed, burden and mechanical status. In general, estimate can be done as vehicular acoustic signal is categorized as, Tyre noise Tyre noise refers to resound produced by turn overing Sur as an interaction of turn overing Sur with route surface. The tyre noise is besides considered as chief beginning of vehicle ‘s entire noise at a velocity higher than 50 kilometers per hours [ 12 ] , [ 13 ] . Tyre noise has two constituents: air noise and vibrational noise [ 13 ] , [ 14 ] . Air noise dominant in the frequence ranges between 1 KHz to 3 KHz. On the other manus vibrational noise is dominant in the frequence scope 100 Hz to 1000 Hz. Effect is generated by route and Sur, which forms a geometrical construction that amplifies the noise ( elaboration consequences in tyre noise constituent in the frequence scope 600 Hz to 2000 Hz ) , produced due to tyre-road interaction [ 14 ] , [ 15 ] , [ 16 ] . The directionality of horn depends upon tyre geometry, tyre yarn geometry, weight and torsion of Sur. The entire Sur noise power along with horn consequence lies in the frequence scope 700-1300 Hz. Fig. 1. Relationship between the noise of the Sur and the noise of the vehicle harmonizing to its velocity. The Sur noise is caused by three different factors: The Sur hitting the land ( Fig 2 ) The quiver of the air through the tread form ( Fig 3 ) The quivers go throughing through the Sur ( Fig 4 ) ( B ) ( degree Celsius ) Fig. 2. ( a ) Tyre hitting the land, ( B ) Vibration of the air through the pace form, ( degree Celsius ) Vibrations go throughing through the Sur Engine noise Engine noise is produced due to internal burning of engine. Engine noise contains a deterministic harmonic train and stochastic constituent due to aerate intake [ 11 ] . The fuel burning in engine cylinder leads to deterministic harmonic train where lowest harmonic tone refers to cylinder fire rate. On the other manus stochastic constituent is mostly due to the turbulent air flow in the air consumption, the engine chilling systems, and the alternator fans. The engine noise varies with velocity and the acceleration of vehicle [ 11 ] , [ 17 ] . A stationary vehicle produces distinguishable engine tick overing noise whereas traveling vehicle produces different engine noise in correspondence with cylinder fire rate. In the recent old ages, makers designs quieter engine to stamp down the noise degree. So engine noise might be strong on front side of auto compared to other waies. Exhaust noise The exhaust noise is produced due to full fumes system. The system goes from the engine burning compartment through exhaust tubings to the exhaust silencer nowadays at the dorsum of the vehicle bring forthing exhaust noise. The exhaust noise is straight relative to burden of the vehicle [ 18 ] . The exhaust noise is characterised by holding power spectrum around lower frequences. Exhaust noise is affected by turbo coursers and after ice chest [ 18 ] , [ 19 ] . Air Turbulence noise Air turbulency noise is produced due to the air flow generated by the boundary bed of the vehicle. It is outstanding instantly after the vehicle base on ballss by the detector ( e.g. mike ) . It produces typical drive-by-noise or whoosh sound. The Air turbulency noise depends on the aeromechanicss of the vehicle, wind velocity and its orientation [ 20 ] , [ 21 ] . ACOUSTIC SIGNALS FOR TRAFFIC MONITORING Today ‘s urban environment is supported by applications of computing machine vision techniques and pattern acknowledgment techniques including sensing of traffic misdemeanor, vehicular denseness appraisal, vehicular velocity estimate, and the designation of route users. Currently magnetic cringle sensor is most widely used detector for traffic monitoring in developing states [ 22 ] . However traffic monitoring by utilizing these detectors still have really high installing and care cost. This non merely includes the direct cost of labour intensive Earth work but besides, possibly more significantly, the indirect cost associated with the break of traffic flow. Besides these techniques require traffic to be orderly flow, traffic to be lane driven and in most instances it should be homogenous. Mentioning to the developing parts such India and Asia the traffic is non lane driven and extremely helter-skelter. Highly heterogenous traffic is present due to many two Wheelers, three Wheelers, four Wheelers, auto-rickshaws, multi-wheeled coachs and trucks, which does non follow lane. So it is the major concern of metropolis authorization to supervise such helter-skelter traffic. In such environment the cringle sensors and computer-vision-based trailing techniques are uneffective. The usage of route side acoustic signal seems to be good option for traffic monitoring intent holding really low installing, operation and care cost. Vehicular Speed Appraisal Doppler frequence displacement is used to supply a theoretical description of individual vehicle velocity. Premise made that distance to the closest point of attack is known the solution can suit any line of reaching of the vehicle with regard to the mike. [ 23 ] , [ 24 ] . Feeling techniques based on inactive sound sensing are reported in [ 25 ] , [ 26 ] . These techniques utilizes microphone array to observe the sound moving ridges generated by route side vehicles and are capable of capable of supervising traffic conditions on lane-by-lane and vehicle-by-vehicle footing in a multilane carriageway. S. Chen et Al develops multilane traffic feeling construct based inactive sound which is digitized and processed by an on-site computing machine utilizing a correlativity based algorithm. The system holding low cost, safe inactive sensing, unsusceptibility to adverse conditions conditions, and competitory fabrication cost. The system performs good for free flow traffic nevertheless for congested traffic public presentation is hard to accomplish [ 27 ] . Valcarce et Al. work the differential clip holds to gauge the velocity. Pair of omnidirectional mikes was used and technique is based on maximal likeliness rule [ 3 ] . Lo and Ferguson develop a nonlinear least squares method for vehicle velocity appraisal utilizing multiple mikes. Quasi-Newton method for computational efficiency was used. The estimated velocity is obtained utilizing generalized cross correlativity method based on time-delay-of-arrival estimations [ 28 ] . Cevher et Al. uses individual acoustic detector to gauge vehicle ‘s velocity, breadth and length by jointly gauging acoustic moving ridge forms. Wave forms are approximated utilizing three envelop form constituents. Consequences obtained from experimental apparatus shows the vehicle velocities are estimated as ( 18.68, 4.14 ) m/s by the picture camera and ( 18.60, 4.49 ) m/s by the acoustic method [ 29 ] . They besides had estimated a individual vehicle ‘s velocity, engine ‘s unit of ammunitions per minute ( RPM ) , the figure of cylinders, and its length and breadth based on its acoustical moving ridge forms [ 17 ] . Traffic Density Estimation Time appraisal for making from beginning to finish utilizing existent clip traffic denseness information is major concern of metropolis governments. J. Kato proposed method for traffic denseness appraisal based on acknowledgment of temporal fluctuations that appear on the power signals in conformity with vehicle base on ballss through mention point [ 30 ] . HMM is used for observation of local temporal fluctuations over little periods of clip, extracted by ripple transmutation. Experimental consequences show good truth for sensing of transition of vehicles Vehicular Categorization Classification larning strategies normally use one of the undermentioned attacks: Statistical classifiers based on Bayes determination theory, assume an implicit in chance distribution for unknown forms, e.g. maximal likelihood appraisal, maximal posterior chance appraisal, Gaussian mixture theoretical accounts, concealed Markov theoretical accounts or k-nearest neighbour method. Syntactic or structural classifiers based on additive or nonlinear interrelatednesss of characteristics in the characteristic vector lead to linear/non-linear classifier. Acoustic characteristic coevals are chiefly based on three spheres: clip, frequence, and both time-frequency sphere. Time sphere characteristic coevals offers really low computational demand, but characteristics are frequently hampered by environmental noise or air current effects. Frequency sphere characteristic coevals see a stationary spectrum in a given clip frame. As traveling vehicles are non-stationary signals, the influence of Doppler effects and signal energy alterations either have to be neglected or the investigated clip frame must be chosen short plenty to afford quasi stationary signal behaviour. Time-frequency sphere characteristic coevals see the non-stationary signal behaviour of go throughing vehicles and it lead to accurate steps of signal energies in clip and frequence sphere at the same time, these attacks are holding a high computational complexness. TABLE I. Vehicular acoustic characteristic extractors and classifiers Sphere Ref. Feature Extractor Classifier used Accuracy Time [ 31 ] TE, PCA Fuzzy Logic, MLNN 73-79 % 95-97.5 % [ 32 ] Correlation based algorithm Frequency [ 33 ] HLA NN Vehicle: 88 % Cylinder: 95 % [ 34 ] HLA, DWT, STFT, PCA k-NNS, MPP kNN: 85 % MPP: 88 % [ 35 ] AR mod. MLNN up to 84 % Time-Frequency [ 36 ] DWT MPP 98.25 % [ 34 ] HLA, DWT, STFT, PCA k-NNS, MPP kNN: 85 % MPP: 88 % TABLE II. Acronyms from subdivision III and IV TE Time Energy Distribution MLNN Multi Layer Neural Network. PCA Principal Components Analysis NN Artificial Neural Network HLA Harmonic Line Association k-NNS K – Nearest Neighbor Search DWT Discrete Wavelet Transform MPP Maximum Distance Approach STFT Short Time Fourier Analysis AR mod. Autoregressive Mold CWT Continuous Wavelet Transform FEATURE EXTRACTION USING MFCC An omnidirectional mike was placed on the prosaic pavement at approximately 1 to 1.5 m tallness, and it recorded the cumulative signal at 16000 Hz trying frequence. Samples were collected for clip continuances of around 30s for different traffic denseness province conditions ( low, medium and heavy ) . The assorted traffic denseness states induce different cumulative acoustic signals. To turn out the above statement, we have examined the spectrograph of the different traffic province ‘s cumulative acoustic signals. Fig. 3. Spectrogram of the low denseness traffic ( above 40 kilometers per hour ) . Fig. 4. Spectrogram of the Medium denseness traffic ( 20 to 40 kilometers per hour ) . Fig. 5. Spectrogram of the Heavy denseness traffic ( 0 to 20 kilometers per hour ) . For the low denseness traffic status in Fig. 3, we merely see the wideband drive-by noise and the air turbulency noise of the vehicles. No honks or really few honks are observed for low denseness traffic status. For the medium denseness traffic status in Fig. 4, we can see some wideband drive-by noise, some honk signals, and some concentration of the spectral energy in the low-frequency ranges ( 0, 0.1 ) of the normalized frequence or equivalently ( 0, 800 ) Hz. For the heavy denseness traffic status in Fig. 5, we notice about no wideband drive-by engine noise or air turbulency noise and are dominated by several honk signals. We note the several harmonics of the honk signals, and they are runing from ( 2, 6 ) kilohertz. The end of characteristic extraction is to give a good representation of the vocal piece of land from its response features at any peculiar clip. Mel-Frequency cepstral coefficients ( MFCC ) , which are the Discrete Cosine Transform ( DCT ) coefficients of a Mel-filter smoothed logarithmic power spectrum. First 13-20 cepstral coefficients of a signal ‘s short clip spectrum compactly capture the smooth spectral envelope information. We have decided to utilize first 13 cepstral coefficients to stand for acoustic signal for matching traffic denseness province. These coefficients have been really successfully applied as the acoustic characteristics in address acknowledgment, talker acknowledgment, and music acknowledgment and to vast assortment of job spheres. Features extraction utilizing MFCC is as follows, Pre-emphasis Pre-emphasis stage emphasizes higher frequences. The pre-emphasis is a procedure of go throughing the signal through a filter. It is designed to increase, within a set of frequences, the magnitude of some ( normally higher ) frequences with regard to the magnitude of the others ( normally lower ) frequences in order to better the overall SNR. Y [ n ] = x [ n ] -?x [ n-1 ] , ? ˆ ( 0.9, 1 ) ( 1 ) Where ten [ n ] denotes input signal, y [ n ] denotes end product signal and the coefficient ? is in between 0.9 to 1.0, ?= 0.97 normally. The end of pre-emphasis is to counterbalance the high-frequency portion that was suppressed during the sound aggregation. Framing and Windowing Typically, address is a non-stationary signal ; therefore its statistical belongingss are non changeless across clip. The acquired signal is assumed to be stationary within a short clip interval. The input acoustic signal is segmented into frames of 20~40 MS with optional convergence of 1/3~1/2 of the frame size. Typically each frame has to be multiplied with a overacting window in order to maintain the continuity of the first and the last points in the frame. Its equation is as follows, W [ n ] = ( 2 ) Where N is frame size Y [ n ] = X [ n ] * W [ n ] ( 3 ) Where Y [ n ] = Output signal Ten [ n ] = Input signal W [ n ] = Hamming Window Due to the physical restraints, the traffic denseness province could alter from one to another ( low to medium flow to heavy ) over at least 5-30 min continuance. Therefore, we decided to utilize comparatively longer primary analysis Windowss of the typical size 500 MS and displacement size of 100 MSs to obtain the spectral envelope. Fig. 6. Primary Windowss of size=500 MS and shifted by 100 MSs to obtain a sequence of MFCC characteristic vectors. DFT Normally, Fast Fourier Transform ( FFT ) is used to calculate the DFT. It converts each frame of N samples from clip sphere into frequence sphere. The calculation of the FFT-based spectrum as follow, Ten [ k ] = ( 4 ) Where N is the frame size in samples, x [ n ] is the input acoustic signal, and. X [ k ] is the corresponding FFT-based spectrum. Triangular bandpass filtering The frequences range in FFT spectrum is really broad and acoustic signal does non follow the additive graduated table. Each filter ‘s magnitude frequence response is triangular in form and equal to integrity at the Centre frequence and diminish linearly to zero at centre frequence of two next filters. We so multiply the absolute magnitude of the DFT samples by the triangular frequence responses of the 24 Mel-filters that have logarithmically increasing bandwidth and cover a frequence scope of 0-8 kilohertz in our experiments. Each filter end product is the amount of its filtered spectral constituents. Following equation is used to calculate the Mel for given frequence degree Fahrenheit in HZ: F ( Mel ) = 2595 * log 10 [ 1+f/700 ] ( 5 ) The ith Mel-filter bank energy ( is obtained as ( = ( * , thousand ˆ ( 0, N/2 ) ( 6 ) Where ( is the triangular frequence response of the ith Mel-filter. These 24 Mel-filter bank energies are so transformed into 13 MFCC utilizing DCT. DCT This is the procedure to change over the log Mel spectrum into clip sphere utilizing DCT. The consequence of the transition is called Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficient. The set of coefficient is called acoustic vectors. = cos ( ?j ) , j ˆ ( 0, 12 ) ( 7 ) Data energy and Spectrum The acoustic signal and the frames alterations, such as the incline of a formant at its passages. Therefore, there is demand to add characteristics related to the alteration in cepstral characteristics over clip. 13 characteristic ( 12 cepstral characteristics plus energy ) . Energy=? X2 [ T ] ( 8 ) Where X [ t ] = signal Fig. 7. Input Acoustic signal, matching log filterbank energies and Mel frequence cepstrum for low traffic denseness province Fig. 8. Input Acoustic signal, matching log filterbank energies and Mel frequence cepstrum for Medium traffic denseness province Fig. 9. Input Acoustic signal, matching log filterbank energies and Mel frequence cepstrum for Heavy traffic denseness province ADAPTIVE NEURO FUZZY CLASSIFIER An adaptative web is a multi-layer feed-forward web where each node performs a peculiar map based on incoming signals and a set of parametric quantities refering to node. Fuzzy categorization systems, which are founded on the footing on fuzzy regulations, have been successfully applied to assorted categorization undertakings [ 37 ] . The fuzzed systems can be constituted with nervous webs, and attendant systems are called as Neuro-fuzzy systems [ 37 ] . The Neuro-fuzzy classifiers define the category distributions and demo the input-output dealingss, whereas the fuzzed systems describe the systems utilizing natural linguistic communication. Nervous webs are employed for developing the system parametric quantities in neuro-fuzzy applications. An ANFC consist of input, rank map, fuzzification, defuzzification, standardization and end product beds [ 37, 38, 39 ] . Fig. 10. An Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Classifier Figure 10 demonstrates generalized classifier architecture with two input variables x1and x2. The preparation informations are categorized by three categories C1 and C2. Each input is represented by two lingual footings, therefore we have four regulations. Membership bed: The end product of the node is the grade to which the given input satisfies the lingual label associated to this node. Normally, bell-shaped rank maps are chosen to stand for the lingual footings. ( U ) = exp [ – ( ) 2 ] ( 9 ) Where [ ai1, ai2, bi1, bi2 ] is the parametric quantity set. The bell-shaped maps vary harmonizing to alterations in the values of these parametric quantities, therefore exhibiting assorted signifiers of rank maps on lingual labels Ai and Bi. In fact, any uninterrupted, such as trapezoidal and triangular-shaped rank maps are besides campaigners for node maps in this bed. The initial values of the parametric quantities are set in such a manner that the rank maps along each axis satisfy ˆ-completeness, normalcy and convexness. The parametric quantities are so tuned or trained with a descent-type method. Fuzzification bed: Each node generates a signal corresponding to the conjunctive combination of single grades of lucifer. All nodes in this bed are labelled by T, because we can take any t-norm for patterning the logical and operator. The nodes of this bed are called regulation nodes. In order to cipher the grade of belongingness to certain category label the additive combination of the firing strengths of the regulations at Layer 3 and use a sigmoid map at Layer 4. If we are given the preparation set { ( ) , k = 1, .. .. , K } where refers to the k-th input form and = Experimental Consequences We have collected the route side cumulative acoustic signal samples from chhatrapati square to T-point of Nagpur metropolis. Datas were collected with 16 KHz trying frequence. These informations covered three wide traffic denseness categories ( low, medium and heavy ) . Feature extraction is done utilizing MFCC where primary window size is 500 MS and displacement size is of 100 MS. Case 1: First 13 cepstral coefficients were considered. TABLE III. Classification truths of assorted traffic denseness categories based on individual frame. Traffic Density Class Accuracy ( % ) Low 74 Medium 64 Heavy 72 Case 2: The full characteristic vectors consisted of the first 13 MFCC coefficients and their first and 2nd order clip derived functions computed. This led to a 39-D characteristic vector per frame. TABLE IV. Classification truths of assorted traffic denseness categories based on first and 2nd order derived functions of first frame. Traffic Density Class First order derived function Second order derived function Low 75 74 Medium 66 64 Heavy 78 72 Case 3: MFCC coefficients correspond to full frames are considered ( i.e. T= sample signal length in clip, ex. T=30s ) . Decision This paper describes a simple technique which uses MFCC characteristics of route side cumulative acoustic signal to sort traffic denseness province as Low, Medium and Heavy utilizing Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Classifier. As this technique uses simple mike ( cost: 500 Rs ) so its installing, operational and care cost is really low. This technique work good under non lane driven and helter-skelter traffic status, and is independent of illuming status. Classification truth achieved utilizing Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy classifier is of ~95 % for 13-D MFCC coefficients, ~95 % for first order derived functions and ~95 % for 2nd order derived functions of cepstral coefficients. The research on vehicular acoustic signal which is mixture of engine noise, tyre noise, noise due to mechanical effects etc. expands from vehicular velocity appraisal to denseness appraisal. The usage of route side acoustic signal seems to be an alternate, research shows acceptable truth for acoustic signal. Vehicular categorization with Acoustic signals proved to be first-class attack peculiarly for battleground vehicles, and besides for metropolis vehicles. Clearer definitions of scenarios and applications are required to bring forth a more consistent organic structure of work. New application countries are likely to emerge for traffic signal timings optimisation utilizing cumulative acoustic signals and besides categorization of bikes proved to be emerging country for research. Finally the categorization systems can be extended in a manner that extracted characteristics are utilised as characteristic fingerprints, which affords trailing of vehicles over multiple detector nodes.

How To Create A Website Using WordPress - EssaySupply.com

How To Create A Website Using WordPress How to Create a Website Using WordPress Not very long ago, the process of creating a website was quite complex. If you wanted a nice looking website where visitors would actually enjoy spending time, you had to master HTML, JavaScript, or other languages in order to build and launch a decent site. Your other option was to use an online website template. Unfortunately, the web sites generated using those were clunky and hard to navigate. Now, there is another option. WordPress is a utility that allows people to create professional looking blogs and websites without having to master any technical skills. In fact, creating a WordPress website is quite simple. If you are willing to learn a few tips and techniques, you could potentially have your own website up and running in just a few hours. First Things First: Get Signed Up To start, go to the WordPress website and get signed up. You’ll be able to set up a user account and choose password. You’ll also be able to choose the name of your website. WordPress gives you two options. The first is free, and will look like this: www.yourwebsitename.wordpress.com. The other costs a nominal amount of money and looks like this: www.yourwebsitename.com. There are other more costly options if you want to set your website up as an e-commerce store. Now, Take a Look Around WordPress Once your profile has been created and you have selected your website name and title, take a look around your dashboard. This is where you will do all of the work required to keep your website   up to date and running smoothly. If you cannot figure everything out, don’t worry. WordPress has plenty of tutorials.   You can also submit questions to a customer service agent, or use their forums to find answers. Picking Your Theme Your theme is the thing that will give your website personality. If you are launching a personal or business website and you care about branding, it is very important to choose a theme that works for you. Remember though, you can customize themes by adding your own images and making other changes.   These include custom images, fonts, adding your own titles and headers, and colors. Start Writing With WordPress, you either write posts or you write pages. A post is like a blog post. When you publish a new post, that is what your visitors see, and your previous posts are pushed down the page. When you publish a page, that is appears in the same way a new page appears on a website. Remember that your website can have both posts and pages. For example, you may have a contact page, a home page, and a products page, but you may also have a blog page where you publish new posts. You can set up menus and navigation links to help your visitors find their way around your website. Check Out Some PlugIns PlugIns are nifty little utilities that you can use to make your WordPress website even better. PlugIns can be used to make your site load faster for visitors, help you manage user comments, publish your logo onto all of your pages, stream content from news feeds, and a variety of other helpful things. There are even plugins that will verify all of the links on your WordPress site so that you can fix any dead links and make sure the content that you link is still appropriate. If you can set up a WordPress website, you can use it for many things. You could launch that small business, or you could simply set up a website to launch your personal brand or discuss your interests. As always, if you need help with web content (remember you can count on us for more than helping you buy college essays online), our writers will be happy to assist.

Surrogacy and How it Affects Families

Surrogacy and How it Affects Families Background Information The modern breakthrough in the medical field and specifically in the area of assisted reproduction has resulted in the emergence of new types of families in the contemporary society whereby genetic parenthood does not necessarily guarantee social parenthood (Golombok et al., 2004).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Surrogacy and How it Affects Families specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Surrogacy, one of the forms of assisted reproduction refers to an arrangement where one woman offers to bear a child on behalf of another person. There are two types of surrogacy arrangements; traditional surrogacy which involves situations where the surrogate mother donates her womb as well as her egg in order to provide a baby and this consequently renders the surrogate mother biologically connected to the child since they share genetic material (Ziegler, 2004). This method is widely preferred since it is consider ably less expensive than gestational surrogacy. In gestational surrogacy, the surrogate mother lacks genetic connection whatsoever with the child since and her role is to donate only her womb to carry the child. Both the egg and the sperm are produced by the commissioning parents and the embryo is then created in the lab after which after which it is then transferred into the surrogate’s uterus (Ziegler, 2004). Although surrogacy has an ancient history dating back to the biblical times, the issue began to raise controversy in the contemporary society in the 80s with major concerns being raised regarding children welfare and women rights (Golombok et al, 2004). Surrogacy has been executed through artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization which has received a lot of opposition from the institution of family, religion and the society at large. In fact, of all the assisted reproduction procedures that are being utilized in the modern society, surrogacy remains the most c ontentious method prompting most legal systems in the world to formulate regulations to govern the practice (Golombok et al, 2004).Advertising Looking for essay on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Reasons for Prevalence Of Surrogacy in the Modern Society Some couples opt for surrogacy to provide a solution in case one of the partners is incapable of having a child either due to infertility or other factors (Jonsen, 1998). The female partner may e experiencing medical complications with her uterus, ovaries or other complications that may inhibit her ability to conceive children and use of a surrogate mother provides the couple with a means through which the couple can acquire a child who is related to one of the partners. In addition, the use of surrogate mothers provides an easier opportunity for the infertile mother to have a child while avoiding the bureaucratic and cumbersome procedures associated with traditional adoption and also provides her with an opportunity to raise a child who is genetically related to her partner (Jonsen, Veatch., Walters, 1998). Surrogacy also benefits the fertile partner by providing an opportunity for him to conceive and raise a child who is biologically tied to him and this further avoids ugly situations in marriages such as divorce, polygamy, and adulterous unions among others (Jonsen, Veatch., Walters, 1998). Further, the use of a medical practitioner in the entire process of surrogacy considerably reduces the above events and other factors that may promote destruction of the institution of the family. Proponents of surrogacy have argued that through surrogate motherhood, a child is given a chance to live and this would otherwise have not have been possible in absence of such arrangements and the child also benefits from being reared by parents who wanted the child so much that they were willing to withstand financial, legal and other hardshi ps to have this child. Further, One preliminary study revealed that about one third of the surrogate mothers may use the process to help them deal with past experiences that have negatively affected them psychologically. Women that may have undergone abortions or voluntarily given up their children for adoption may utilize this arrangement to derive psychologically satisfaction (Jonsen, Veatch., Walters, 1998).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Surrogacy and How it Affects Families specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Although there exists numerous potential risks associated with surrogacy arrangements, those risks can be understood by the prospective participants to weigh the effectiveness and drawbacks of using this method of assisted reproduction (Josen 1998). Surrogate motherhood has received extensive media attention in the recent past and has raised a lot of emotional reactions and ethical concerns in the modern so ciety. The issues raised range from inclusion of third party in the process of procreation and in the basic family set up to the psychological consequences of the arrangement to the parties involved especially the child. Unfortunately scholars lack adequate information to assess the impacts of these issues on the parties involved since the activities surrounding surrogacy such as sperm donation and infertility are still treated with utmost secrecy consequently limiting the scope of the study (Jonsen, Veatch., Walters, 1998). Effects of Surrogacy Arrangement on the Family There lacks a systematic controlled investigation on the consequences of surrogacy in family relationships but some studies conducted on assisted reproduction show no adverse effects of these methods on parenting (Golombok et al, 2004). Parents of genetically related children conceived through In Vitro fertilization have been found to display good relationships with their children and when differences have been fou nd to exist between IVF parents and natural conception parents, the differences have tended to reflect higher levels of anxiety among IVF parents of infants and preschool children (Golombok et al, 2004). These mothers who had their children conceived through IVF tended to be more protective of their children and they allowed their children less autonomy relative to natural mothers. Further these parents viewed their children as more vulnerable and special and also demonstrated less maternal efficacy than natural conception mothers (Golombok et al, 2004). Surrogacy arrangements are characterized by anxiety and uncertainties generated throughout the period of pregnancy until the commissioning couple receives the child. This results from lack of a guarantee that the surrogate mother will relinquish the child upon birth since in some past cases surrogate mothers have refused to give up the child to the intended parents (Golombok et al, 2004).Advertising Looking for essay on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Consequently the commissioning parents must ensure that there exists a mutually acceptable relationship between them and the surrogate and they may negatively impact on the couple’s relationship. Greater difficulties may be further experienced by the commissioning mother who may be neither the genetic nor the gestational mother and may feel insecure and excluded in their mothering role (Golombok et al, 2004). Moral Aspects of Surrogacy One of the dangers inherent surrogacy arrangements is that it may amount to commodification of children (Hendrick, 2010). The arrangement may serve to promote the perception that children complete a family like any other consumer goods. Some scholars have warned about the emergence of ‘capitalist baby industry’ which may result in commodification of children as well as the personal attributes such as sex, color height etc. However, the argument that surrogacy turns babies into a market commodity seems a little far fetched with some scholars acknowledging that the argument is to some extent exaggerated and the child exchange is valid only to the extent that the surrogacy is regarded as objectionable (Hendrick, 2010). Various arguments have been put forward to explain the psychological effects of surrogacy on children on the knowledge of their true identity. Negative impacts are especially likely to arise in situations where the children share a strenuous relationship with the commissioning parents and the knowledge that they had come to this world as a result of a commercial arrangement may cause further damage to the relationship and may also interfere with the child’s development and self esteem (Hendrick, 2010). However, due to lack of adequate and clear empirical evidence on the long term psychological effects of surrogacy, we can only make predictions about its long term impacts on children and the institution of the family. It is clear that even though surrogacy is problematic, it is just as probl ematic as any other conventional family and the dangers involved are neither inevitable nor insurmountable. Therefore, the society should focus more on regulation of the practice rather than involving themselves in pessimistic speculations of its outcome (Hendrick, 2010). Legal Aspects of Surrogacy Universal laws pertaining surrogacy are dynamic (Ziegler, 2004). It is therefore vital for the parties involved in the arrangement opt consult an experienced attorney in drawing and implementation of the contract. In the United States back in 2004, only two states were considered ‘surrogate friendly’; California and Arkansas, with California having the case law on how to handle such arrangements consequently making it the most favorable state for surrogacy arrangements (Ziegler, 2004). A considerable number of states lacked outlined laws governing surrogacy and most of them treated it like adoption while in other states such as Washington and New York criminalized paid surrog acy. Most surrogacy legislation fails to give a clear cut distinction in terms of provisions for gestational and traditional surrogacy (Sauer, 1998). As the traditional method continues to be the most preferred method due to its cost efficiency, most states requires stepparent adoption by the intended mother before a final adoption order is permitted and in some states it is subject to the surrogate’s change of heart. One of the most important components of an egg donor agreement is that it involves relinquishment of parental rights by the donor upon the birth of the child and under the agreement the child is considered to belong to the intended parents (Sauer, 1998). Where the contract for surrogate parenting is unenforceable, there are remedies provided for the parties involved (Freedman, 1991). The genetic father involved in the surrogacy is readily acknowledged as the biological father of the child and consequently expected to support the child and the surrogate if she ke eps the child. However, the burden of proof lies on the surrogate who should prove that the said person is the biological father of the child and may use the human leucocytes antigen test to resolve the paternity issue. In addition, she is needed to prove that the state statute that renders the sperm donor free of any responsibility to a child conceived through artificial conception does not apply in her case (Freedman, 1991). Reference List Freedman, W. (1991). Legal issues in biotechnology and human reproduction: artificial conception and modern genetics, UK: Greenwood publishing. Golombok, S., Murray, C., Jadva, V., MacCallu, F., and Lycett, E. (2004). Families created through surrogacy arrangements: parent-child relationship in the first year of life. Web. Hendrick, J. (2010). Laws and ethics in children’s nursing, UK: John Wiley and sons. Jonsen, R. A., Veatch, M. R., and Walters, L. (1998). Source book in bioethics, Washington DC: Georgetown University press. Sauer, V. M. (1998). Principles of oocyte and embryo donation. NY: Springer. Ziegler, S. (2004). Pathways to parenthood: the ultimate guide to surrogacy. London: universal publishers.

A comparison argument (or contrast, but not both) between a limited Research Paper

A comparison argument (or contrast, but not both) between a limited aspect of the Viet Nam Conflict and our Conflict in Afghanistan - Research Paper Example This is supported by looking at the strategies that were employed in the two conflicts; they were totally different, even the military deployment in the two wars is totally different. The willingness to use violence to change politics is known as terrorism. The history of terrorism goes back to the 13th- century. In the early 1990s, religious groups came up with motivated terrorism. These groups based their violence on the Islamic beliefs. Some of the groups are Al Qaeda and Hamas, political terrorist groups in the Middle East. This is a sign of their departure from the religious perceptions. The mastermind of the 9/11 attacks was drinking alcohol just before he boarded the plane that he hijacked and as it is known, alcohol is off limits to the Muslim community. Observers belief that the 9/11 mastermind are among the people who had violent behaviors and they had manipulated their religious beliefs to suit their own needs (Levy 12). The Afghanistan war started as a result of the September 2001 attacks in America. These were caused by Al Qaeda group based in Afghanistan. Taliban is a Muslim radical group that was also ruling Afghanistan by 2001. This radical group had denied the American government entry into Afghanistan and capture the Al Qaeda; this prompted the then American president George Bush to declare war on Afghanistan. After only three weeks of invasion, the American troops had toppled the Taliban troops and they had nearly crushed the Al Qaeda troops who were using guerrilla tactics to fight while the American troops were sophisticated and learned (Edmonds 33). The American government has been in Afghanistan since 2001 till date. This has prompted observers to relate this war to the war in Vietnam that also lasted for ten years without success. I will try to give comparisons of the two wars since observers and historians have suggested that these two conflicts are nearly similar. However, observers suggest that there may be more

The impact of medical issues in psychaitric patients Research Proposal

The impact of medical issues in psychaitric patients - Research Proposal Example High percentage of emergency department cases by psychiatric patients indicates a higher-level vulnerability of the patients to critical health conditions. The population is further vulnerable to physical illnesses that that induce higher mortality rate than in normal people and the statistics suggest that preventive and treatment measures against physical illnesses among psychiatric patients lack. A problem therefore exist for identification of a suitable measure that can help in protecting the population from physical illnesses, with the aim of reducing the number of psychiatric patients who are admitted for emergency care and reducing the mortality rate of the population segment (Hert, et. al. 52, 53). The evidence based practice problem aims at effectiveness of a highly structured treatment unit in protecting psychiatric patients from illnesses and in treating the patients in case of occurrence of physical diseases. While psychiatric patients form a significant percentage of patients in emergency care units, nurses and physicians in the units lacks expertise for dealing with the patients’ conditions. Even though the personnel may have adequate nursing skills, the patients require additional competence that can overcome stigma and fear to offer satisfactory care to the patients. Emergency Nurses Association explains that measures such as better arrangement of care space together with availability of psychiatric nurse and wider training can help improve quality of care to the patients (Emergency Nurses Aassociation 3, 4). The statistics are consistent with reports that the population records higher mortality rates and suggests that better care initiatives can resolve the problem (Hert, et. al. 52, 53). A â€Å"highly structured treatment environment† for treatment of psychiatric patients is the recommended intervention (Bos, et. al. 528). Research on effects of such as strict environment, for psychiatric patients who fail to