John Dewey and early childhood education Essay

â€Å"Education is not preparation for life. Education is life itself. † – John Dewey (1859-1952) (Ministry of Education, Singapore, 2003) The set of Desired Outcomes of Pre-school Education that the Ministry of Education(MOE) had put together in 2003 highlighted the significant importance of pre-school education being the platform for lifelong learning. It’s intention were far beyond preparation of these children merely for Primary School curriculum (Wong,2000). Very much alike to John Dewey (Dewey)’s quote, MOE’s take on pre-school education exists similar context. I felt that it challenges the perceived notion that education is only about getting the necessary qualifications or securing a good job. However, with an open mind, education in fact occurs throughout life. This brings about a few educational principles of Dewey which had influenced me in my workings with children in a pre-school setting. I felt that the central concept of Dewey’s view of education was that there should be greater emphasis on allowing children develop problem solving skills, critical thinking skills, and being able to make decisions on their own, rather than simply on the memorization of lessons. Through real life experiences, instead of merely being on the receiving end of secondhand information, children were able to develop the required skills effectively (Seefeldt and Barbour, 1998). Active learning has been widely advocated in my child care centre. I often incorporate and encourage it too. Let’s say I will be teaching on the theme of occupation and doctors are the topic of the week. For the younger age group like pre-nursery and nursery, I would provide real materials like a doctor play set. Children would be encouraged to explore these materials at their own pace and interests. They would be able to experience how it feels like being a doctor and thereafter get an insight of what a doctor’s work scope is about. Concurrently, they would be exposed to the instruments that a doctor uses. I would also ask children open ended questions like â€Å"What does a doctor do? Which tool do you think a doctor uses to hear your heartbeat? If you are a doctor, how would you hear my heartbeat? †. I believe  that such open ended question encourages children to construct their own understanding of concepts. I would also drop hints and attempt to spur their interest when children become uninterested and seem clueless. On top of these activities, for the kindergarten classes, I would introduce a â€Å"Doctor of the day† where the child would, alongside the teacher, assist in the daily temperature taking of children. This way they would understand the concept of what is taken to be ill and what is not, and also who should they visit at times when they fall sick. I would also liaise with a nearby clinic and bring the children on a trip, getting the doctor to assist in giving the children a short demonstration of a regular consultation in the clinic. The children will not only be able to see how a clinic setting is like, they will also be able to pose questions to the doctor to find out more. Following which, I would plan for a clinic role play where children are free to express their own interpretation and ideas of a being a doctor. In tie with Dewey’s avocation of active learning, this concept of learning has been strongly supported by the local context too. In the Code of Ethics, professionals are obliged to promote and encourage children to be actively involved regardless of ability (Association for Early Childhood Educators, Singapore, 2005). Dewey also advocated that the school is a social institution (Flanagan, 1994). He believed that through social interaction with adults and peers, learning would be further reinforced (Henniger, 2002). Communication with peers or adults allows children to think, process their thoughts into verbal words and therefore encourages and stimulates a child’s thinking. Interactive learning is also vital to social development. Being able to develop a positive and satisfying relationship with peers and adults is crucial for effective social interaction and is often a focus of pre-school programs (Early Childhood Teachers’ Association, 2003). In my workings with children, I have realized the important role social interaction plays in a child’s development. Children across all pre-school levels enjoy talking and interacting with each other over their thoughts, opinions and experiences. One way I encourage this is by planning for problem solving in group discussions. For instance, the kindergarten children would be issued a problem at the start of the day: â€Å"What are the features of an insect? † They would then be divided into groups to explore the problem by going into the various learning centres I have set up toacquire the information. This can be followed up by bringing the children on a field trip to the Botanical Garden where children are able explore on the topic and make drawings and notes on their observations as a group. At the end of the day, they would discuss about their gatherings again in groups, and then present their findings. Other than learning how to function as a member of a group, children would also be able to learn cooperative skills and conflict resolution through the activity. Besides peer interaction, adult interaction plays an equally important role. In the Assessment of Licensing Standards in child care centre, staffs are to encourage interaction with children in order for children to be able to understand self and others (Ministry of Community Development and Sports, 2003). In the pre-nursery and nursery classes, I take time to listen, make eye contact and respond to children. This makes children feel comfortable and it motivates them to interact more with adults. I would also plan for activities like dough play and painting on large papers where children are able to proceed with the activity together. Through such activities, they are able to discuss, comment and communicate with each other too. I would also ask questions like, â€Å"What do you think Clarisse has molded? Does it look like a sandwich? † which allows for creative thoughts to be expressed and interaction to take place. Dewey’s philosophy perceived a teacher’s role as a guide and observer, rather than an instructor or a disciplinarian. The teacher is to provide and prepare the environment and curriculum to allow children to benefit and learn productively from it. Teachers were also expected to observe children and come up with activities designed to facilitate optimal learning (Feeney, Christensen and Moravcik, 2006). For the pre-nursery and nursery classes, I would provide a large variety of materials where children would be given the choice to choose based on their preference. I would not interfere in their choice activity as long as it conforms safety standards. I would also plan for activities where children could explore and exercise trial and error. For instance in the dough making session, they would be able to explore how much water is needed to achieve the texture of dough they would like, and what should be added when the dough becomes too soft. However, I would be guiding children whenever they are stuck or faced with much difficulty. I would also put up children’s work like their art work at a prominent corner of the classroom to make them feel that their work is valued. For the kindergarten classes, I would plan the lesson together with the children and come up with activities that could tap on their interest. For instance, discussing with children about which occupations interests them the most by showing them a variety of it. After the children have made their choices, I would plan activities catered to their interest. Throughout the lesson, I would make observational notes about each child and provide experiences or materials catered to individual’s interest. For example if a child shows immense interest in the occupation teacher, I would plan for the child to have a go at teaching his fellow classmates a song. Or if a child is interested in being a policeman, he could patrol the corridors before nap time to ensure that children are not hiding in the toilets or up to mischief. Similarly, under the Framework for Kindergarten Curriculum, MOE recommend putting their principles into practice in a few ways. These includes, preparing the learning environment by encouraging learning at their own pace and choice, planning meaningful activities based on children’s interest and abilities, allowing resources and materials to be easily and readily available and observing and monitoring children’s development. (Ministry of Education, Singapore, 2003) Through Dewey, I become aware of various methods and principles which plays a vital role in children’s pre-school learning. Though there were also controversies in Dewey’s philosophy, I believe that each philosopher possesses their own virtues and Dewey was one which struck me the most. References Association for Early Childhood Educators, Singapore (2005). Code of ethics. Retrieved March 23, 2010 from http://www. aeces. org/code_of_ethics Early Childhood Teachers’ Association (2003). Educating young children. Journal of early childhood teachers’ association inc and school of early childhood university of technology, 9(1) Feeney, S. Christensen, D. Moravcik, E. (2006). Who am I in the lives of children? : an introduction to early childhood education (7th ed). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Pearson Education. Flanagan, F. M. (1994). John Dewey. Retrieved March 24, 2010 from http://www. admin. mfu. edu/ctlf/Ed%20Psych%20Readings/dewey. pdf Henniger, M. L. (2002) Teaching young children: An introduction (2nd ed). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Pearson Education.

Process Improvement Essay

ABSTRACT This document will be evaluating an existing process within Toyota during the time of their accelerator crisis. A problem statement will be defined around the process of internal communication of concerns and ideas between foreign-based Toyota employees and the authoritative management of Toyota based in Japan. PROBLEM ANALYSIS OF SELECTED PROCESS Problem framing is a very important, but easily overlooked, part of decision-making. Framing a problem can have a heavy influence on the decisions that are made. It isn’t enough to frame the problem; it should be framed with the solution in mind. This helps to keep the end goal of the decision-making process in mind so that the correct choices are made. In the case of Toyota, at the highest level, they had a major problem with some of their products involving unintended acceleration and their handling of  customer reports of the problem led to a whole mess of other problems. So from the outside looking in, it seems that many processes internal to Toyota had room for improvement. Although there are many different business sections of Toyota with their own respective problems such as customer service, public relations, manufacturing, the problem I would like analyze and offer improvement on is internal communication process between management and foreign employees and how the breakdown in this process affected some of the business decisions made by Toyota’s upper management. â€Å"As Toyota grew into a global powerhouse in the auto industry, the organizational structure that emerged was a centralized design †¦Ã¢â‚¬ that put key decision-making in the hands of executives in Japan†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Some believed that Toyota’s structure in the U.S. ultimately impaired its ability to prevent the safety problems before they reached the crisis† (Greto, Schotter & Teagarden, 2010, pg. 7-8). A quality tool or method used to help with the identification and prioritization of the potential causes of quality problems in a process is cause-and-effect analysis. In a way, this is a reverse engineering method used to identify the elements of a specific quality problem and to identify the causes so that it can be corrected. The problem wasn’t the unintended acceleration of certain vehicles; the problem was the internal management decision-making that impacted the engineering of those vehicles which created the engineering problem. For some background information, the defining and founding philosophy of Toyota, the Toyota Way, has been around for a long time but it wasn’t until the late 1980s in which they began production of their vehicles in the U.S. Specifically the problem of ideas from U.S.-based employees has been largely ignored for almost 20 years when it comes to key engineering or financial-based decisions. â€Å"Despite the global sales volume gain, Toyota reported revenues of US $211 billion for 2009, a decrease of 19% for the previous year† (Greto, Schotter & Teagarden, 2010, pg. 2). Even though Toyota has been making large profits throughout the past 20 years, they experienced a decrease in 2009 and part of this was related to the ambitious initiatives and business decisions made by Toyota’s upper management. â€Å"Japan is notoriously consensus oriented, and companies have a strong tendency to mediate differences among individuals rather than accentuate them† (Porter, 1996, pg. 63). Japanese culture and Toyota’s centralized decision-making structure made it difficult for U.S. based employees to offer ideas, suggestions for improvements, or to elevate critical problems to upper management in Japan. Toyota’s upper management, in their minds, let the U.S. employees do what they do best, which is supposedly marketing and selling. The process used by Toyota to communicate foreign employees’ ideas to upper management was heard, but not listened to. Even the process of internal communication between management had its breakdowns because of the perception by family-oriented managers of nonfamily managers in that nonfamily members didn’t have such thoughts as safety and quality in the forefront of their minds. Overall, the communication process seemed to be that ideas were submitted from employees, whether by Japanese or foreign employees, to management and ideas were reviewed and pushed up the management chain when it was appropriate. However, ideas that might have some bearing on engineering, manufacturing or financing were largely ignored when the source of the ideas were from U.S.-based employees and this violated the Toyota Way. To add to the complexity, the process for communicating ideas became more convoluted depending on the audience, nonfamily or family-based managers. To sum this up into a problem statement: â€Å"Toyota has violated their founding philosophy of employee empowerment, especially for non-Japanese employees, and continues to make important business decisions without any regard to concerns or ideas from foreign employees when appropriate. Employees may have ideas that could be used in the decision-making process to achieve better quality solutions. Toyota needs a better mechanism or improvement to this internal communication process to capture the knowledge and ideas of all employees and to share these ideas across the organization. All in all, it’s to improve the internal communicat ion process between employees and management in order to support the idea of continuous improvement and quality.† CONTEXT OF SELECTED PROCESS FOR IMPROVEMENT â€Å"The _Toyota Way_ mandates planning for the long term; highlighting problems  instead of hiding them; encouraging team work with colleagues and suppliers; and, perhaps most importantly, instilling a self-critical culture that fosters continuous and unrelenting improvement† (Greto, Schotter & Teagarden, 2010, pg. 3). Two cores ideas from the statement above are the idea of team work and most importantly employee empowerment. These two values are what made Toyota into a successful global corporation during their fast rise in the 1980s. Employees were encouraged to offer ideas for improvement for any process within the organization and this helped with continuing the idea of continuous improvement. An important part of making business decisions is having real-time and critical information. The selected process for improvement: improving the communication of ideas and concerns and the sharing of foreign employees’ ideas to Toyota’s Japanese management team needs to be addressed immediately. The process selected for improvement is the process used to capture the ideas of all employees, U.S.-based included, and to have these ideas be properly represented and presented to management for review in real-time. â€Å"You know the joke that every bank branch has a president – well, every Toyota facility has a president, and one can’t tell another what to do† (Greto, Schotter & Teagarden, 2010, pg. 8). This statement touches the surface of why the internal management communication process needs improvement at Toyota. The way the process is currently being represented in Toyota’s organization is a complete violation of their founding philosophy. During the 2000s, Toyota pushed for a lot of initiatives that in hindsight were either short-term profit driven or too ambitious. For example, â€Å"despite the savings of more than US $10 billion over the six years since CC21’s inception, Watanabe set out to achieve even more cost savings through the new â€Å"VI† (Value Innovation) strategy† (Greto, Schotter & Teagarden, 2010, pg. 5). This was a business decision made to further drive up profits despite the respectable amount of savings already made financially. If the knowledge, ideas and concerns of employees were properly captured and communicated to management, it could have prevented some of the poor business decision-making made and the impact of these decisions on engineering and manufacturing. Two impacts of the poor decision-making was the decision to become leaner with the manufacturing process and  overstretching existing resources in trying to supplant GM as number on in the automobile industry. Toyota’s has employees in many different markets who most likely had concerns regarding these decisions or ideas on how to improve the ideas and _communicated_ these ideas but these ideas weren’t being heard in time or heard at all by management. To put this all into context, the process for communicating ideas and concerns internally is impacted by the culture and internal structure of Toyota. These are both tough things to change but the process used to capture and represent ideas to management is something easy to improve. IMPLICATIONS OF THE PROCESS If the current internal communication process continues as is, there will continue to be a breakdown in the communication of potentially important ideas and concerns from employees to management. If employees feel as if their input isn’t listened to or even heard, they will become apathetic or not even bother trying to communicate important ideas or concerns. As a result, this can lead to the cycle of poor business decisions being made resulting in more damage to the company. Even worse, this will continue to cause Toyota to stray away from the core values of the Toyota Way that made them a successful global corporation. Already what has happened as a result of the ignoring of ideas and making business decisions with only the goal of short-term profits in mind is that Toyota during the oil sludge crisis had to pay millions of dollars as a result of class action lawsuits and took a hit to their business image. Fast forward to the accelerator crisis, Toyota experienced losing $2 billion dollars during the recall, had to pay a $16.4 million dollar civil penalty under U.S. law, experienced a customer relations nightmare and even had some of their car models dropped from Consumer Reports. The dollar amount lost due to the alienation of customers, lack of accountability at first by Toyota, and corporate reputation and image hit is immeasurable. Implementing some mechanism to improve the communication process between  employees and management and even management can be improved with the use of something such as a knowledge management system. â€Å"Effective knowledge management tools can help firms reduce internal costs of maintaining electronic filing systems and reduce the administrative expense of locating documents. Second, just as efficiency can improve profitability, leverage can have the same effect where knowledge transfer enhances the quality of work performance, and therefore, its value. In this context, leverage is the ability to delegate work to the most cost-effective resource. The transfer of knowledge is, in fact, the essence of knowledge management† (Martin, 2002, pg. 1). Although it is a large internal expense, the benefits of a KM system would have a great effect on the general business results and business relationships of Toyota with its employees, management and even their supply chain. POTENTIAL OUTCOMES OF IMPROVING THE PROCESS Improving the current internal communication process of ideas and concern helps to improve employee relations between management and their reports. It helps to re-establish a culture of knowledge sharing and representing that captured knowledge in such a way that it can help to improve the business decision-making by upper management. Any important business decisions made by upper management have a direct impact on the shareholders. So any improvement in the process that results in better business decisions being made will have a direct positive impact for the shareholders. The current decision-making and straying away from the founding principles of the Toyota Way has damaged the company and continuing down this path will only make the future worse for Toyota. So having an internal mechanism to capture ideas and improve communication such as a KM system can only improve the situation. Employees would feel like their ideas are being heard and will continue to offer suggestions for continual improvement. An improvement in communication can help to break down the false perceptions that family-oriented managers have of nonfamily managers. For example, a family-based manager might come across an idea from an unexpected source, a nonfamily manager, and come to respect that person for their knowledge. In a  way, this could help to improve the Japanese culture way of making decisions internally. Toyota is almost in the top of their market, so they are their own worst enemy when it comes to being competitive. So an improvement in their internal decision-making around all important financial, engineering and manufacturing decisions will only help to sustain and further their current competitive edge. Sometimes an organization has to make a large internal expense in order to position themselves differently from their competitors. â€Å"Strategic positioning means performing _different_ activities from rivals’ or performing similar activities in _different_ ways† (Porter, 1996, pg. 62). So collecting ideas internally and using them to make better business decisions will help Toyota to strategically position themselves even further away from their competition. SUMMARY Overall, Toyota is its own worst enemy with the current decision-making process they have in place internally. Even though the centralized decision-making structure is what Toyota currently has in place, the decision-making needs to take into account employee input, whether foreign or not. Employee input has been a cornerstone of the Toyota Way and Toyota has strayed from this founding principle. The implications of continuing down this path will result in more crises which in turn results in loss business, damaged business reputation, lawsuits and losing the competitive edge. Improving this process will result in better employee relations; establish a knowledge sharing culture which is needed for an environment that is striving for continual improvement and better business decisions being made. REFERENCES Greto, M., Schotter, A., & Teagarden, M. (2010). Toyota: The accelerator crisis. Thunderbird School of Global Management. Martin, K. (2002). Features – â€Å"Show Me the Money† – Measuring the Return on Knowledge Management. LLRX. Retrieved from http://www.llrx.com/features/kmroi.htm Porter, M. E. (1996). What is strategy? _Harvard Business Review, 74_(6), 61-78. Russell, R.S., & Taylor, B.W. (2011). _Operations management: Creating value along the supply chain_ (7th ed.)_._ Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN: 9780470525906

Is Human Population Growth A Problem Environmental Sciences Essay

The universe population refers to the entire figure of life worlds on Earth at a given clip. For the past 10, 000 old ages, the universe has been sing a rapid addition in human population. Harmonizing to the most recent U.N. statistics, population has grown from several 1000000s back in the B.C. to over 6.6 billion in the twenty-first century. Even though the growing rate is bit by bit decelerating, the U.N. population Division still expect the world-wide population to really much hit 9.1 billion by 2050. With most of the addition in Asia and Africa, in peculiar, the poorer states that have no entree to proper family-planning programmes.Why wage attending to the lifting human population?We have all known for long that the human population is no uncertainty the main subscriber to environmental sufferings. However, what small know of is that the human population is merely one of the several factors that affect the environment. The extent to which population addition can be considered a job is still reliant on other factors. One widely used expression that could assist us understand what factors could really interplayed to do that important impact, would be the IPAT theoretical account that John Holdren from Harvard University came up with. This theoretical account represents how the entire impact on the enviroment consequences from the interaction among population, richness and technoloy. An Increased population intensifies impact on the environment as more persons take up infinite, usage resources, and generate waste. As the population gets older it gets more flush excessively, thereby demanding higher life criterions to fulfill their ‘wants ‘ . To run into the homo ‘s instatiable ‘wants ‘ , better engineering would hold to be developed to better mine fossil fuels, clear old-growth woods, or fish. Assuming that everybody has to be fed, clothed, housed and hopefully supported by paid employment. An increased population would really intend the intensification of the impact that the human population has on the Ecosystem. Hence, the job is non merely that the population is burgeoning. It is besides that the use of the resources, and environmental amendss are besides increasing at a phenomenol velocity.Impacts and EffectssAll of us would hold known by now that a lifting planetary population have devasting impacts on the Earth. It non merely erodes the life criterions of the universe population, consequences in poorness in already hapless states, affect a state ‘s economic system, but most significantly has a negative impact on the Ecosystem. We will in the undermentioned paragraphs, expression in deepness the assorted effects it has on the Earth. There are many environmental jobs associated with it, nevertheless, we will merely look into the chief and the most serious menaces that are being posed by it. They are viz. , urbanization, deforestation, nutrient security, H2O, energy, clime alteration and biodiversity. ( alter some of them )UrbanizationUrbanization is being defined as the physical growing of urban countries as a consequence of planetary alteration. Furthermore, It can besides be interpreted as the motion of people from rural to urban countries with population growing comparing to urban migration. The United Nations ‘ undertaking suggested that 60 % of the universe ‘s population would populate in urban countries at the terminal of 2030. Sing the limited resources of an urban metropolis, an increased in the population residing at that place would take to more nutrient, more land, more energy, and more H2O being needed to better suit to them. And when that happened, jobs like nutrient security, H2O scarceness, land deficit, and energy deficit will necessitate to be answered.DeforestationTo work out these issues states have come up with assorted manner like land reclaimation, †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.However, many states have been sing the uncluttering up forest to do manner for the enlargement of their metropoliss as the most convenient and congst-effective manner. As they cant afford the cost of land reclaimation And this procedure of glade of of course happening woods by logging and combustion is being known as deforestaton. The expanded district were normally used to turn more harvests, raise more animate beings, every bit good as The lone manner to ease these ballooning demands, is to take between the nature and homo. Eithe r the nature or homo has to give manner, which, in many case, the nature does. Food deficit Water scarceness The lone manner to ease these ballooning demands, is to take between the nature and homo. Either the nature or homo has to give manner, which, in many case, the nature does. ( add in facts form research ) All of the jobs were attributed to the deficiency of land, people started killing woodCausesUrbanization occurs of course from single and corporate attempts to cut down clip and disbursal in transposing and transit while bettering chances for occupations, instruction, lodging, and transit. Populating in metropoliss licenses persons and households to take advantage of the chances of propinquity, diverseness, and market place competition.Peoples move into metropoliss to seek economic chances. In rural countries, frequently on little household farms, it is hard to better one ‘s criterion of life beyond basic nutriment. Farm life is dependent on unpredictable environmental conditions, and in times of drouth, inundation or plague, survival becomes highly debatable.Cities, in contrast, are known to be topographic points where money, services and wealth are centralized. Cities are where lucks are made and where societal mobility is possible. Businesss, which generate occupations and c apital, are normally located in urban countries. Whether the beginning is trade or touristry, it is besides through the metropoliss that foreign money flows into a state. It is easy to see why person life on a farm might wish to take their opportunity traveling to the metropolis and seeking to do adequate money to direct back place to their fighting household.There are better basic services every bit good as other specializer services that are n't found in rural countries. There are more occupation chances and a greater assortment of occupations. Health is another major factor. Peoples, particularly the aged are frequently forced to travel to metropoliss where there are physicians and infirmaries that can provide for their wellness demands. Other factors include a greater assortment of amusement ( eating houses, film theatres, subject Parkss, etc ) and a better quality of instruction, viz. universities. Due to their high populations, urban countries can besides hold much more divers e societal communities leting others to happen people like them when they might non be able to in rural countries.These conditions are heightened during times of alteration from a pre-industrial society to an industrial 1. It is at this clip that many new commercial endeavors are made possible, therefore making new occupations in metropoliss. It is besides a consequence of industrialisation that farms go more mechanised, seting many laborers out of work. This is presently happening fastest in India.Environmental effectsThe urban heat island has become a turning concern and is increasing over the old ages. The urban heat island is formed when industrial and urban countries are developed and heat becomes more abundant. In rural countries, a big portion of the entrance solar energy is used to vaporize H2O from flora and dirt. In metropoliss, where less flora and exposed dirt exists, the bulk of the Sun ‘s energy is absorbed by urban constructions and asphalt. Hence, during warm d aytime hours, less evaporative chilling in metropoliss allows surface temperatures to lift higher than in rural countries. Additional metropolis heat is given off by vehicles and mills, every bit good as by industrial and domestic warming and chilling units. [ 13 ] This consequence causes the metropolis to go 2 to 10o F ( 1 to 6o C ) warmer than environing landscapes. [ 14 ] . Impacts besides include cut downing dirt wet and intensification of C dioxide emanations. [ 15 ]In his book Whole Earth Discipline, Stewart Brand argues that the effects of urbanisation are on the overall positive for the environment. First, the birth rate of new urban inhabitants falls instantly to replacement rate, and keeps falling. This can forestall overpopulation in the hereafter. Second, it puts a halt to destructive subsistence farming techniques, like cut and burn agribusiness. Finally, it minimizes land usage by worlds, go forthing more for nature. [ 12 ]Food securityWill at that place be plenty nutr ient to travel around? In 64 of 105 developing states studied by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the population has been turning faster than nutrient supplies. Population force per unit areas have degraded some 2 billion hectares of cultivable land – an country the size of Canada and the U.S. Massive population growing, lifting incomes and turning ingestion of meat are driving the demand for nutrient. Food production has increased well over the past century sustained by increasing outputs due to irrigation, fertilizer usage and enlargement into new lands. But there has been small consideration of nutrient energy efficiency or the ability to understate the loss of energy from nutrient during the harvest home, processing, devouring and recycling phases ( UNEP, 2009 ) . Over the past 10 old ages, nevertheless, the production of cereals has stabilised and the constitution of piscaries declined, due to miss of investing. This is despite the demand for an estimated 50 per centum addition in current nutrient production degrees by 2013 to maintain up with demand ( Millennium Project, 2008a ) . The effects of population growing, clime alteration, land debasement, harvest and cropland losingss to non-food production, H2O scarceness, desertification, resource-depleting subsistence schemes and urban enlargement agencies nutrient production could be every bit much as 25 per centum less than demand by 2050 ( UNEP, 2009 ) . Subsequently, universe nutrient monetary values, which late reached crisis degree, are expected to increase by a farther 30 to 50 per centum. Agribusiness histories for 70 per centum of human usage of fresh H2O. However, less than half of the universe ‘s land is suited for irrigation and the sum of irrigated land country is falling because of dirt eroding, salination, acidification, and alimentary depletion. By 2020, 30 per centum of cultivable land may be salinated and every bit much as 50 per centum by 2050 ( Foresight, 2009a ) . Genetic and scientific alteration of nutrient is likely to be necessary, for human and carnal ingestion, and for biofuel production ( DCDC, 2007 ) . New agricultural methods such as better rain-fed agribusiness and irrigation direction, familial technology for higher-yielding harvests, and preciseness agribusiness and aquaculture should be considered. To cut down the strain on fresh water agribusiness and set down the viability of saltwater agribusiness on coastlines should besides be assessed ( Millennium Project, 2008a ) . WaterWaterWater is progressively scarce. If current tendencies continue, 90 per centum of fresh water supplies will vanish by 2030 ( OECD, 2003 ) . Already, 700 million people face H2O scarceness. By 2025, this figure could turn to 3 billion, with two-thirds of the universe ‘s population confronting water-shortages ( Millennium Project, 2008a ; OECD, 2003 ) . EnergyEnergyWorld energy demands could duplicate in 20 old ages. Oil demand is projected to turn about 40 per centum from 2006 to 2030 ( Millennium Project, 2008a ) .BiodiversityChanges in land-use are impacting biodiversity. Activities include run outing wetlands, uncluttering woods and substructure enlargement ( OECD, 2003 ; Millennium Project, 2008b ) . Climate alteration is besides holding an consequence. The loss of biodiversity and renewable natural resources reduces stableness and resiliency, and leads to atomization, species loss, and the loss of ecosystem quality. All are critical for economic growing and human wellbeing.Climate ChangeGreenhouse gas emanations are expected to turn by 52 per centum by 2050 ( Millennium Project, 2008a ) . Progressive clime alteration will cut down land for habitation, as some parts experience desertification and others lasting implosion therapy from lifting sea degrees ( DCDC, 2007 ) . Regional conditions forms will be capable to alter, with i ncreased frequence and strength of utmost conditions events, such as heat moving ridges, drouths, storms and inundations ( OECD, 2003 ; Millennium Project, 2008b ) . These alterations will impact projected nutrient production as some parts will be unable to turn current nutrient basics. Furthermore, fish stocks will decrease or migrate ; and there will be increased force per unit area on H2O supplies and associated industries ( DCDC, 2007 ) .In the past decennary in every environmental sector, conditions have either failed to better, or they are declining:Public wellness:Dirty H2O, along with hapless sanitation, kills over 12 million people each twelvemonth, most in developing states. Air pollution putting to deaths about 3 million more. Heavy metals and other contaminations besides cause widespread wellness jobs.Sum of land lost to farming by debasement peers 2/3 of North America.Food supply:Will at that place be plenty nutrient to travel around? In 64 of 105 developing states studied by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the population has been turning faster than nutrient supplies. Population force per unit areas have degraded some 2 bi llion hectares of cultivable land – an country the size of Canada and the U.S.Fresh water:The supply of fresh water is finite, but demand is surging as population grows and usage per capita rises. By 2025, when universe population is projected to be 8 billion, 48 states incorporating 3 billion people will confront deficits.Coastlines and oceans:One-half of all coastal ecosystems are pressured by high population densenesss and urban development. A tide of pollution is lifting in the universe ‘s seas. Ocean piscaries are being overexploited, and fish gimmicks are down.The demand for forest merchandises exceeds sustainable ingestion by 25 % .Forests:About half of the universe ‘s original wood screen has been lost, and each twelvemonth another 16 million hectares are cut, bulldozed, or burned. Forests provide over US $ 400 billion to the universe economic system yearly and are critical to keeping healthy ecosystems. Yet, current demand for forest merchandises may tran scend the bound of sustainable ingestion by 25 % .2/3 of the universe ‘s species are in diminution.Biodiversity:The Earth ‘s biological diverseness is important to the continued verve of agribusiness and medicate – and possibly even to life on Earth itself. Yet human activities are forcing many 1000s of works and carnal species into extinction. Two of every three species is estimated to be in diminution.Global clime alteration:The Earth ‘s surface is warming due to greenhouse gas emanations, mostly from firing fossil fuels. If the planetary temperature rises as projected, sea degrees would lift by several metres, doing widespread implosion therapy. Global heating besides could do drouths and disrupt agribusiness.

Financial Markets & Risks Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Financial Markets & Risks - Essay Example Then we’ll make an assessment of the impact on the banking system if short-term interest rates were to rise. And at last let’s provide an explanation of the actions the ECB might take if the rumours of liquidity problems in other institutions prove to be correct. Over the last few years, the euro area has witnessed a gradual recovery in economic activity. The recovery started in the second half of 2003 and has now led to ongoing trend growth rates that seem to be close to our present estimates of the potential growth rate of the euro area economy. Several factors are behind the relatively gradual pace of this recovery, including oil price increases, the restructuring and reshaping of the productive sector triggered by global competition, and a possible decline in potential output growth. First, taking a longer-term perspective, there is some evidence that, underlying the moderate growth rates over the last few years, there may have been a decline in trend potential output growth in the euro area, particularly when comparisons are drawn with most of the 1980s and 1990s. The trend potential output growth rate seems to have moved closer to the lower bound of the previously estimated range of 2.0-2.5%. The sustained decline in euro area labour productivity growth has been identified as the main factor explaining lower potential output growth. Euro area labour productivity growth (measured per hour worked) was 2.4% in the euro area from 1981 to 1990. However, during the period 1996-2004, productivity fell to 1.3%. Decomposing trend labour productivity growth, in turn, shows that this decline reflects both lower growths in total factor productivity and less capital deepening. There is a wide consensus that the still significant structural rigidities in the euro area factor and product markets are likely to explain the lacklustre

The title of the paper is TTYL LOL Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The title of the is TTYL LOL - Research Paper Example appear to be more and more devoured as a result of technology advancement, which continues to sprout everyday, particularly when it comes to social media. Numerous researchers have noticed that technology and social media has become a huge diversion for students and has affected them negatively especially deteriorating their grammar. Social Media can indisputably have unconstructive effects on grammar, depending schema of grammar and the personality of a student. If a student has ideal prior acquaintance of grammar, then technology and social media may strengthen the grammar skills since it can be utilized as an instrument to correct and analyze poor grammatical skills. Conversely, if a scholar has poor grammatical skills, it asserts that social media may perpetuate poor grammatical skills, as well as, grammar usage. This paper demonstrates the bad effects posed by technology and social media. With the improvement in technology, everything that students do seems quicker. Contemporary phone companies center on having power over communication which may be based on efficiency and speed (McLeod & Lehmann, 2011). The continuous usage of cell phones has drastically changed social media networking in that technology has allowed the access of social media sites anyplace, at whichever time. In 2004, Facebook was initiated as a Harvard solitary social network by a computer geek in his early twenties. Facebook had conquered each and every other social network by 2008 and it went from university students using it to small kids and foreign students it. In the present day, you can barely run into somebody who has never had or who does not have a Facebook profile. Facebook may be just one of the numerous forms of social media and technology that has altered our grammar totally. â€Å"At the moment, Facebook more than any other corporation, delineates social networking and has more than one billion users and still growing to unprecedented levels† (Potter, 2012), and with the

Interview with James Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Interview with James - Article Example Based on quantitative investment, James values the following; It is indispensable that for any investor to do stock evaluation before investing in business. Empirically stock sometimes may be favorable or unfavorable but it is essential to note that as much as you pay less you gain more in the end. However, the contrary of paying more and getting less in the end may discourage within the stock market. In performing any stock evaluation an individual need to have an exceptional and competent foundation in mathematics. For instance, James learnt econ-metric that advantaged him within the profession (OShaughnessy and Ritholtz 11:20). As much as Asset management may seem easy with the use of models, it is important to note that they do not often work. What any individual need is to understand the concept to successful manage the asset successfully (OShaughnessy and Ritholtz 14:01). It is clear that the society survives in a typically economical challenging period. Everyone wants to have high dividend returns. This may be an over value thus it is vital to examine overseas markets beyond U.S. This will ensure better returns. Other markets such as Europe and Asia may provide the better returns compared to the local big U.S stock firms. Other low rated stocks can be a good investment if an investor look a horizon of let say 10 years and beyond as they can be more stable thus more returns (OShaughnessy and Ritholtz 21:00). Many will try to shy off the emerging markets due to its uncertainty in their stock returns. The fact is that they are the powerhouse of GDP as they contribute about 50 percent of the U.S GDP. However, it is advisable to note that with a long run venture such as 10 years emerging markets are the best for investment. Many investors may forego this fact but the truth is with the correct mathematics before investing

Nationality and international judicial process Essay

Nationality and international judicial process - Essay Example There should be no limitation into individual efforts in acquiring nationality or properly too while changing it. It is designed to be an easy task when a person applies for nationality in a country more so by law. Equally, when one intends to forfeit/forego accorded nationality, then simple procedures should be followed. On the other hand, international law confines are configured around the individual state supremacy and thus the judicial administration is designed to serve the international community. It is therefore formulated for and by the cooperation of individual states that consent onto alike ideals of governance and justice procedures. However, for the interest of the common good of all humanity, there are obligations to the international community to oversee justice and lawful governance even to the countries that are non partisans to the international treaties that bind member countries to the common international justice. This is because human beings have been â€Å"soc ialized† in conflict resolution through amicable manners. Nevertheless, supremacy of the state often holds the mandate to establish solution giving mechanisms to cases requiring legal arbitration. In the event of arbitrations that are beyond a state scope, especially those involving other states, arbitration is done centrally by a central tribunal under the watch of international community. Certain basics hold as pertains to these procedures. The tribunals are formed by consent of many states who also give guidelines on the operations. The associates of the states are by default linked to the tribunal. All the procedures are well monitored under commonly accepted codes of operations. This essay therefore intends to evaluate the ways in which nationality aspect is relevant into the confines of international law. We intend to show how nationality holds when it comes to the judicial field beyond the borders of supreme state. Are there provisions that explain the levels of soverei gnty of nationals of particular states as opposed to others? What is the jurisdiction provision on the matter that pertains to statelessness or refugees? What are the relationship spheres of a sovereign state and her nationals when it comes to crime against humanity or any other international crime committed either within the respective country’s borders or the international scene? Discussion We start by evaluating nationality and its meaning. It started with the states forming the basic blocks of the international law but later on a relationship between the states and individual persons led to reconsideration of nationals as regards to the international law. Through this then, international law encompassed an individual and state. Sloane, say that inclusion of nationality in â€Å"international law† mediated accompanying obligations and persona rights. The initial intention was towards offering diplomatic protection, state responsibility, war, extradition and jurisdic tion (2009, 1-2). Therefore, the best way to understand nationality is in terms of the legal bundles of protection or individual duties and rights to an individual person accustomed to at state or at international level. Though an individual has a formal entitlement of sense of belonging to either one or more states through the single or dual nationality procedures, everyone is bound to the terms espoused to by the country’s legal framework. However, the basic significance legal consequence of nationality remains in individual state to which a

International perspective on childhood and childrens health Essay - 1

International perspective on childhood and childrens health - Essay Example This concept in education system is involved with the child’s rights to education and good living standards (Tony & Mel 1998). These rights encompass their social life, civil liberty and education. It also aims at taking off the notion or establishment of special schools that cater for students with specials needs or disabilities. Therefore, inclusion is a proponent policy that ensures that students with special needs spend a great deal of their time with the rest of the students in the school or education setting. However, this practice varies from place to place as the extent of the special needs at times dictate the extent to which the policy is adopted. Inclusion is taken to be different for mainstreaming and integration (Norwich 2008). These latter concepts concentrate more on the disability aspect of the student’s needs and the way the student should be ready to be adopted in the mainstream leaning facilities. In inclusion the schools have the obligation to incorp orate these students as well as take into consideration their rights to education, social wellbeing and civil liberty. In these schools the curriculum is a general one i.e. not specific to special needs students or the others but rather the content is summative and they learn it together (Margret & Kas 2000). In this system the students achieve equal benefits from education irrespective of the nature of their problems. Education institutions are also obligated to have their facilities in accommodating condition in that all students regardless of their challenges, they are able to derive satisfaction from them. The schools as well as the education policy formulators are required to come up with a curriculum that is all inclusive in the sense that the content in not at all discriminative and the students can learn together. The curriculum developed should put in consideration that students are from different cultural

Case study 2 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Case study 2 - Assignment Example During the midmorning snack, Jim will be offered one cup of plain yogurt, Mona will take one half cup of cooked pastas while Kora will be offered  ¼ cup of cottage cheese. During the mid afternoon snack Jim will take 1  ½ ounces of cheddar cheese, Mona will take 1  ½ cup of cooked rice, while Kora will have 1 egg (Marotz, 2011). Mona who is allergic to wheat is likely to have a shortage of carbohydrates and fiber; he will lack nutrients such as calcium, iron, riboflavin, and thiamin. Jim who does do take milk will lack enough proteins and nutrients such as calcium, while Kara will have a deficiency of vitamins especially vitamin B. Peanuts is also a good source of proteins. In order to meet their nutritional needs they are supposed to be given food such as puddings, cheese, yogurt for Jim, pastas, rice for Mola, and legumes, meat, beans or eggs for Kola. As a teacher, one should also ensure that we have the approval of the child’s physician before giving any treatment to any child with allergy symptoms. We should ensure that children do not use their allergies as a way of getting attention or seeking special privileges (Marotz,

Pseudocode Standards Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Pseudocode Standards - Essay Example Every ‘Store’ object would comprise of the store id, name, its location, phone number, distance from the current station.   The ‘Stores’ array at each station would already be sorted according to the lowest distance. Every ‘Store’ object would comprise of the store id, name, its location, phone number, distance from the current station.   The ‘Stores’ array at each station would already be sorted according to the lowest distance. In order to avoid invalid entry by a customer, the station would present the customer with a fixed list of categories to choose the item from. When the customer selects an item from the list, a local search is conducted within the array ‘Items’ of the local database. In case of a match and if the available quantity is greater than 0, the information is presented to the customer. In case no match is found, the item is searched in the ‘Items’ array of the nearest remote store loc ation i.e. on the server of the first store in the ‘Stores’ array. The search continues for all the stores in the array. Information is presented only if the item exists in a particular store. A while loop is used to traverse through all records of items and stores, while the matching conditions are checked through the if-statements. Step 1: Display MenuStep 2: Get Item Name from CustomerStep 3: Match Item name with Items in Local StoreStep 4: In case Item available  Step 5: Print Message â€Å"Available†Step 6: Print Quantity of Item AvailableStep 7: In case Item unavailable at Local Store Step 8: Match Item Name with Items in Nearest Store Step 9: In case Item Available Step 10: Print Message â€Å"Available†.