Construction Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Construction Management - Essay Example 10) gave the industry a poor reputation. During the last decade, a number of improvements have been made in the industry, such as partnering that has led to more integration, productivity, and success in construction projects. Collaboration Philosophy Collaboration philosophy in the construction industry is also known as partnering philosophy or partnering. Despite the fact that there has always been partnering between private clients and contractors, the concept gained explicit significance in the mid-1980s (McGeorge and Zou, 2013). The employment of partnering by the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the efforts of the Construction Industry Institute of the United States are both acknowledged for introducing partnering as a drive in the construction industry at the end of the 1980s (McGeorge and Zou, 2013). Today, the United Kingdom strongly relies on partnering in order to promote productivity in the construction industry as encouraged by the Latham Report (McGeorge and Zo u, 2013). In Australia, the Gyles Royal Commission advocates for partnering in the construction industry for productivity. New Zealand also advocates for partnering in construction. ... e extent of the adoption of partnering by the construction industry at large is still difficult to quantify and in some quarters, there is some dubiety about its diffusion in the construction industry† (2013, p. 99). Australia falls after the United States as it has also relatively adopted partnering and run competitions on satisfactory instances of partnered projects through the Masters Building Association. McGeorge and Zou define partnering as â€Å"a process for improving relationships among those involved on a construction project to the benefit of all† (2013, p. 100). The philosophy is being applied as a management tool in the construction industry, to be applied from the start of a construction project. It is believed that partnering accentuates an environment of cooperation, trust, and teamwork among associations and groups of associations. Through the philosophy, functioning alliances that implement the systematic approaches of communication and commitment throu gh teamwork and trust to avoid disputes are created. This in turn forms a unified partnership that enables the successful completion of a construction project. Jones identifies trust, equity, commitment, implementation, development of mutual goals and objectives, timely responsiveness, and continuous evaluation as the principal elements of partnering (1998). Through the partnering process, the people mainly involved in a project get to analyse it, as well as their goals. From the execution stage to the end of the project a number of activities for the partnering process are carried out. These include instructing each party about commitment and the principles of partnering, the objective of the partnering is made clear at the beginning of the project, and commitment is obtained from the top management

Child Recognition of Emotions

Child Recognition of Emotions CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Human emotions serve as a means of expression, often indicating an individuals internal conscious experience or physiological arousal. Emotions also serve as a form of communication, alerting individuals to important aspects of their environment and their relationships with other individuals. Emotions influence a persons actions, cognitions, and how they are perceived by others (Strayer, 2002). For example, emotions may influence how individuals respond to an environmental threat, as feelings of sadness may indicate a withdrawal of behavior or feelings of fear may engage the activity of flight (Strayer, 2002). The experience of emotions, in turn, provides individuals with meaning about both their internal and external environments and information about how they should respond to a social situation. The ability to develop an adequate understanding of emotions is known as emotional competence. More precisely, emotional competence is defined as a demonstration of self-efficacy in emotion-eliciting social transactions (Saarni, Campos, Camras Witherington, 2006, p. 250). For children, one way to gauge their emotional competence is to examine their ability to perceive their own emotions and the emotions of others (Saarni et al., 2006). This type of assessment allows researchers to determine an approximate measure as to childrens emotional development level. The first skill of emotional competence is for children to develop an understanding of self. Through an ability to be aware of their own personal emotional experience, children begin to develop self-conscious emotions. Feelings of shame, guilt, and embarrassment, for example, allow children to refer to themselves as having conscious awareness that they are distinct from others (Lewis, 1993, 1995; Mascolo Fischer, 1995). In addition, childrens emotional competence is developed through an ability to be aware of multiple emotions or to feel that their emotions are in conflict with their environment (e.g., ambivalence; Stein, Trabasso, Liwag, 2000). As children become aware of their own emotions, emotional development is strengthened and refined. A second important skill development to emotional competence is for children to make sense of others inner states (Saarni et al., 2006). Specifically, children learn to comprehend and interpret others behaviors and begin to realize that others are capable of forming their own beliefs and emotions (for a review see Dunn, 2000; Halberstadt, Denham, and Dunsmore, 2001). Understanding the distinction between ones own emotions and the emotions of others is crucial to emotional development in children. For instance, studies indicate that childrens ability to accurately identify emotions in self and in others may work as a gauge to assess social competence (Halberstadt et al., 2001). In these types of studies, childrens social competence is established by correlating their understanding of emotion terms, facial expressions, and elicitors of emotion terms (e.g., situational descriptions of a happy or sad event) with their social competence rating from teachers ratings or by peers sociometric choices (Saarni et al., 2006). Childrens ability to distinguish differences in emotional features in combination with how others view their ability provides a measure of their social competence. Monitoring childrens social competence allows one to identify socially disadvantaged children and implement effective coping strategies before any harmful, long-term effects manifest (Benford, 1998). Through childrens awareness of their own emotional state, in combination with the skill to discern others emotions, children begin to achieve more effective emotional processing skills. Understanding childrens emotional processing is important because it affects many social outcomes, such as childrens helping behavior (Chapman, Zahn-Waxler, Cooperman Iannotti, 1987, Miller Jansen op de Haar, 1997), aggressive responses (Harris Siebel, 1975), and self-control (Ceschi Scherer, 2003). Few studies, however, have examined how emotion affects childrens abilities to accurately identify the emotional state of others. Consequently, the present study sought to examine the effects of childrens own emotional states on their social/cognitive abilities to recognize emotional states in others. More specifically, this research sought to understand how positive, negative, and neutral emotional states of children affected performance on emotion recognition tasks that utilized different levels of cognitive complexity. By utilizing two types of emotion recognition tasks, the research examined the influence of differently valenced emotions on childrens social-cognitive abilities. Results may help to expand existing social information processing models by incorporating the influence cognitive complexity and affect may serve in childrens recognition of others emotions. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Understanding Others Emotions through Facial Expressions The ability for children to understand what others are experiencing emotionally develops through an interaction between the awareness of their own emotional experience and the ability to empathize and conceptualize the causes of emotions in others (Saarni et al., 2006). In addition, the more children learn about how and why others act the way they do, the more they can make inferences about the emotional state of others. Children typically rely on facial expressions to infer others emotional state (Ceschi Scherer, 2003; Holder Kirkpatrick, 1991). The face is considered the primary indicator of human emotion (Ekman, 1992). For example, body gestures are easily concealed (e.g., hiding a clenched fist behind ones back) or verbal communication can be eliminated by simply refusing to speak. Facial expressions, however, are more difficult to disguise (Ekman, 1993). Additionally, the diversity in an individuals face allows for a variety of emotional expressions, each associated with a distinct facial expression (Ekman, 1993). Facial expressions serve a dual purpose; facial emotions can indicate a persons internal emotional state or function as symbols referring to something else, such as a form of communication (e.g., deterring or placating someones actions; Lewis Michalson, 1985). Facial expressions are commonly used as a means for gauging emotion states in research. By 2 Â ½ years, children can distinguish a number of basic emotional states in the facial expressions of adults, but do not always label them accurately (Izard, 1971). At 5 years, children can accurately label 41% of the emotions depicted in a set of adult photographs (Odom Lemond, 1972). Overall, young children can recognize some of the more common emotional expressions as displayed by adults (e.g., MacDonald, Kirkpatrick Sullivan, 1996). By the ages of 11 or 12, most children recognize and verbalize that a persons expression may be both a social and an emotional response (e.g., Underwood Hurley, 1999). Consequently, children realize that a persons facial expression may indicate both the individuals internal state (e.g., I am feeling sad), as well as what the cues represent socially (e.g., I am expressing my feelings of sadness towards others). Each form of emotional expression is essential in order for children to interpret and comprehend anothers emotion (Underwood Hurley, 1999). Developmental Differences in Childrens Understanding of Others Emotional Experiences As children mature, they acquire greater abilities to make inferences about what others are feeling (Gross Ballif, 1991). Children, in an attempt to understand the emotions of others, begin to combine facial and situational cues. The ability to combine these cues, however, is strengthened and refined as children age. The easiest emotions for children to discern are positive ones (Saarni et al., 2006). Children can more readily identify happy reactions in a naturally occurring setting as compared to negative reactions (e.g. Fabes, Eisenberg, Nyman, Michealieu, 1991). Negative facial expressions, on the other hand, such as sadness, fear, and anger, are more difficult for children to decode. Negative emotions become easier to interpret, however, when they are paired with an emotion-eliciting situational context (Saarni et al. 2006). In addition, the causes of negative emotion are easier for children to decode than causes of positive emotion, an explanation that appears consistent with negative emotions eliciting a more intense response (Fabes et al., 1991). For example, children can easily determine the causes for their goal failures because it is an undesired consequence. Developmental differences are apparent when evaluating childrens understanding of the causes of emotions (Fabes et al., 1991). Younger children (i.e., 3 year-olds) are more prone to attribute causes of emotion to a persons wants or needs, whereas older children (i.e., 5 year-olds) make use of others personality traits to determine their future reactions to an emotional event (Fabes et al., 1991). Children aged 5 to 10 years can use a characters past experience to determine the characters reactions to a new situation (Gnepp Gould, 1985). For example, if a characters best friend harasses him, children aged 5 to 10 can infer how that character will later react to seeing the best friend on the playground. The developmental difference is evident in the quality of the response. Younger children are more likely to infer what the character is feeling solely through the current situational information (e.g., the character would be pleased to see the best friend), whereas older children are m ore likely to use the prior experience to evaluate how the character will react (e.g., the character will avoid the best friend on the playground; Gnepp Gould, 1985). Further support for this developmental difference is that younger children (i.e., preschoolers) are more likely to infer the emotional state of others when a characters emotional cues are presented explicitly (e.g., pictorial representation of the characters face) as compared to older children (i.e. school-aged) who can adeptly determine the characters response when less explicit cues are utilized (Lagattuta, Wellman, Flavell, 1997). These investigations demonstrate that by school age, children are well equipped to identify emotional expressions in others. Although there are developmental differences in childrens abilities to identify reasons for the emotional expression, by the age of 5, children generally distinguish differences in emotional cues and identify different types of emotional expressions in others. Integrating Cognition and Emotion There has been considerable interest in how children interpret, encode, and respond to social environments. One such model that attempts to explain the relationship is the social information processing model (Crick Dodge, 1994). The social information processing model assumes that the way in which children understand and interpret social situations directly influences how they respond behaviorally (Lemerise Arsenio, 2000). In turn, the social information processing model offers an explanation for how children process and interpret cues in a social situation and arrive at a decision that facilitates their understanding of the social environment (Crick Dodge, 1994; Dodge, 1986). For any social interaction, children utilize their past experiences and biologically determined capabilities (e.g., memory store capacity) in order to rapidly assess the situation (Crick Dodge, 1994). To illustrate the social information processing model, imagine a child who gets pushed on the playground by another child. First, the child must encode the social cues (both internal and external) to determine what happened (attention, encoding) and then determine why it happened (interpretation: an accident or on purpose?). In the third step of the model, the child begins to clarify his or her goal in the social situation (e.g., goal to show others he/she wont tolerate the behavior). In step four and five of the model, possible responses to the situation are generated in terms of anticipated outcomes and how those actions relate to the individuals goals (Lemerise Arsenio, 2000). The child may choose to retaliate in response to the other childs actions or the child may choose to not retaliate for fear of the situation escalating. Finally, the majority of children generally choose the most positively evaluated response with respect to goals and anticipated outcomes before the behavio r is enacted (e.g., the child ignores the push and walks away; Crick Dodge, 1994). The social information processing model has been useful in assessing how children encode and interpret social situations. The model, however, does not specify how emotion affects the processing strategy (Lemerise Arsenio, 2000). Lemerise and Arsenio (2000) argue that it is possible to expand Crick and Dodges models explanatory power by integrating emotion processing with social information processing. Before integrating emotion and social information processing, it is important to understand the relationship between the two. Emotions and cognitions may appear similar because both are types of information processing, but the way each influence human behavior makes them distinct (Lemerise Arsenio, 2000). Emotion is about motivation; cognition, on the other hand, concerns knowledge. This view is shared by many functionalist theorists, neurophysiologists, and some cognitive theorists (e.g., Campos, Mumme, Kermoian, Campos, 1994; Damasio, 1994; Oatley Jenkins, 1996). Because cognition and emotion are two distinct processes, an attempt to devise a model that integrates and utilizes the two is pragmatic. In Lemerise and Arsenios (2000) social information processing model, the researchers added and expanded to Crick and Dodges (1994) original concept. In particular, the researchers implemented other emotion processes that could influence accessing and evaluating responses. As an example of this approach, intense emotions can interfere with the steps of Crick and Dodges model where children assess possible responses to a situation (Steps 4 and 5). For example, children with intense emotions may react negatively to a social situation (e.g., becoming easily upset and running away), thereby reducing the probability that they will interpret and encode the situation from the perspective of all parties (Lemerise Arsenio, 2000). Intense emotions, in turn, can influence how a child responds in a social situation. In addition, the childs reaction to the soci al situation may be dependant on whether he/she cares about and wants that person to like him/her (Lemerise Arsenio, 2000). Emotions heavily influence this social decision making process. It is difficult to adhere to a social informational processing strategy without accounting for the influences emotion may serve. Support for the role emotions play in social information processing has been demonstrated in more recent research (e.g., Orobio de Castro, Merk, Koops, Veerman, Bosch, 2005). Specifically, researchers examined the relationship between emotional aspects of social information processing and aggressive boys. After hearing a series of vignettes that instilled provocation by their peers, participants answered questions concerning social information processing, including feeling of their own emotions, the emotions of others, and emotion regulation. Aggressive boys used less adaptive emotion-regulation strategies, attributed more hostile intent to others actions, and reported less guilt concerning their own actions (Orobio de Castro et al., 2005). For aggressive boys, anger attribution (i.e., encoding of emotions) significantly influenced the interpretation step of the social information processing model, a view that is consistent with Lemerise and Arsenios (2000) model. Clearly, emotions can influence childrens social information processing strategies. By combining emotional processing with social decision making processes, researchers can expand Crick Dodges models explanatory power, perhaps offering further insight into the influence emotion serves for childrens cognitive abilities (Lemerise Arsenio, 2000). Induction of Positive and Negative Affect Researchers examine emotional influences on social information processing and other social behaviors by experimentally inducing emotions and assessing the effects (Bryan, Mathur Sullivan, 1996; Bugental Moore, 1979; Burkitt Barnett, 2006; Carlson, Felleman Masters, 1983; Masters, Barden Ford, 1979; Stegge, Terwogt Koops, 2001). Inducing affect typically consists of an experimenter having subjects recall events that make them happy or sad before examining their responses to a variety of social and cognitive problems. These problems can range from measures of altruism, self-gratification, or delay of gratification (Bugental Moore, 1979). For this type of induction procedure, the researcher asks the child to recall and reflect upon a happy or sad past event for approximately 30 seconds to 2 minutes (Bryan et al., 1996). This type of procedure allows psychologists to examine how affective states influence individuals social and psychological behaviors (Bugental Moore, 1979). Pre-recorded videotapes or audiocassettes are another technique used to implement positive or negative affect in children (e.g., Carlson Masters, 1986; Rader Hughes, 2005). The recordings improve the reliability and standardization of the affect inductions. The recording typically follows the same procedural method as the other affect induction studies (e.g., Carlson et al., 1983; Masters et al., 1979; Moore, Underwood, Rosenhan, 1973)—the person reading the script (e.g., actor, puppet) asks the child to ruminate on a past experience that is positive, negative, or neutral for approximately 30 seconds. For any procedural method chosen, it is important to validate if the affect induction actually takes place. There are multiple methods for conducting manipulation checks. Procedures include: having two or more experimenters rate the childs mood and assessing interrater agreement (e.g., Carlson Maters, 1986); having participants use a word item check-list to indicate their current mood (e.g., Vosburg, 1998); or comparing if the performance of children in the positive or negative condition differs from those in the neutral condition (e.g., Bugental Moore, 1979; Stegge et al., 2001). As demonstrated in past research, the induction of positive and negative moods is experimentally possible. Positive and Negative Affect and Emotional Processing There are a number of experimental studies that demonstrate the influence of childrens emotional states on a variety of emotional processes and behaviors, such as altruism (Chapman et al., 1987, Miller Jansen op de Haar, 1997), aggression (Harris Siebel, 1975), and self-control (Ceschi Scherer, 2003). One study, in particular, induced positive emotional states in a group of 5-6-year-old children to examine their responses to social comparison situations where the participant was rewarded unfairly, sometimes in the participants favor, sometimes in anothers favor (Carlson Masters, 1986). Children were exposed to one of three emotion inducing conditions: self-focused happy, other-focused happy, or neutral. After the children focused on their own happy emotional experience (self-focused) or the emotional state of a friend (other-focused) or had no emotional focus (neutral), they and other players received a reward for participating in a game. Children received either more (positive inequality) or less (negative inequality) of an award as compared to the other players. Children in the self-focused happy condition did not demonstrate a reduction in generosity after receiving an inequality of rewards (Carlson Masters, 1986). The authors interpreted their results as supportive of the po sition that positive mood facilitates tolerance of aversive experiences (Carlson Masters, 1986). What these studies did not answer, however, is what influence emotion serves in other social information processes. Specifically, how do inductions of positive or negative affect influence childrens emotion recognition? One research experiment did attempt to investigate the influence childrens own emotional states has on their ability to recognize emotions in others (Carlson et al., 1983). Experimenters induced emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, or neutral affect in eighty 4 and 5 year-old children. The children were then provided with a label of an emotion (e.g. happy) and asked to identify the correct facial expression from a group of photographs of other children who were displaying various emotions. Significant differences in accuracy across the mood induction conditions were not found, but childrens own feelings of sadness did influence their perception of sadness in peers (Carlson et al., 1983). Sad participants were not more inaccurate than happy participants when identifying emotions, but when they were inaccurate they tended to confuse sadness with anger. The induction of positive and negative mood in children appears to have an influence on childrens emotional processing. Negative affective states appear to lead to inaccuracies in the perception of others sadness, whereas positive affective states appear to help children maintain positive emotional experiences, even in the presence of aversive social situations. Influence of Emotional States on Cognition for Adults Despite the number of studies assessing childrens emotion processing ability, only a few studies have investigated how emotion-directed information processes, such as perception, attention, judgment, and memory recognition and recall, are influenced by the childs own emotional state, whether enduring or temporary (Greene Noice, 1988; Masters et al., 1979; Rader Hughes, 2005). Because of this dearth in the literature, it is useful to review studies conducted with adults. One particularly important study, which examined the role affect plays in adults cognitive performance, induced positive and negative affect through the use of a role-playing technique while participants carried out three cognitive tasks (Izard, Wehmer, Livsey, Jennings, 1965). The cognitive tasks ranged from participants generating as many possible uses for a particular object (multiple-use task), recalling sets of numbers (digit span test), and giving verbalized responses for creativity problems. Positive affect increased performance for both the multiple-use task and the creativity problems as compared to those in the negative affect condition. Some literature supports the finding that positive affect results in higher productivity and creativity (Ashby, Isen, Turken, 1999). Specifically, induced positive affect improved cognitive processes such as memory, judgment, risk-preference, decision-making, creative problem solving, categorization, and logical problem solving (Ashby et al., 1999). Other research, however, does not support the claim that positive affect improves cognitive productivity and creativity. Positive affect may actually interfere with performance on some tasks (e.g., Kaufmann Vosburg, 1997). In an attempt to explain the discrepancy in these results, Forgas (2000, 2002) affect infusion model (AIM) suggests that affect results in inattentive processing for complex tasks. As participants experience positive affective, for example, substantive processing or systematic processing may be hindered, thereby interfering with their ability to solve elaborate and complex problems. Specifically, negative moods may facilitate differentiated, analytic processing whereas positive moods may facilitate global, synthetic processing (Forgas, 2000). Negative moods may be more adaptive for cognitive tasks that require one to reduce complex decisions to a series of one-on-one comparisons, thus simplifying the results (i.e., analytic processing). Positive moods, on the other hand, may be more adaptive for cognitive tasks that require one to generate a wide variety of responses, often seeking out all possibilities for a solution (i.e., global processing). Following Forgas (2000, 2002) AIM model, it is clear how research supports the notion that positive and negative affect are adaptive for different types of cognitive tasks. To clarify, some studies show that positive affect facilitates cognitive performance by increasing participants creativity (Ashby et al., 1999; Isen, Daubman Nowicki, 1987; Isen, 2002; Izard et al., 1965). Other research, however, shows that positive affect results in inattentive processing, thereby reducing participants creativity and problem-solving (Forgas, 2000; Kaufmann Vosburg, 1997). These seemingly contrasting findings are explained by differences in task specificity. In the research conducted by Kaufmann and Vosburg (1997), for example, positive affect significantly inhibited creative problem solving. After the researchers experimentally induced affect, participants responded to a series of tasks presented in a paper-and-pencil format, and received no outside feedback. Contrastingly, in research conduct ed by Isen et al. (1987), they used creativity measures such as the candle-problem, which required participants to physically manipulate objects and to come up with as many solutions to the problem as possible. In addition, the participants received feedback, which allowed them to instigate further solutions to the problem. Clearly, the tasks used in each of these studies are distinct. The notion that positive and negative affect are adaptive to different types of cognitive tasks is important because it points out the need to carefully consider the type of cognitive task being performed. Positive or negative moods may facilitate processing for different types of tasks in adults; therefore it is useful to examine how positive or negative moods affect childrens processing in different types of tasks. Influence of Emotional States on Cognition for Children There are indications that the influences of positive affect on childrens cognitive performance are similar to those in adults (Rader Hughes, 2005). For example, eighth-grade students who were experimentally induced with positive affect showed greater cognitive flexibility than students in the control condition and obtained higher scores on a verbal fluency test (Greene Noice, 1988). Likewise, researchers have examined the effects of emotional states on learning (Masters et al., 1979). After the induction of a positive, negative, or neutral emotional state, children completed a series of shape discrimination tasks. The dependent variable in the experiment was how many trials it took the children to achieve perfect mastery for the task (e.g. identifying 12 consecutive trials of shapes correctly). For children in the positive affect condition, positive affect enhanced performance. Contrastingly, for children in the negative condition, negative affect hindered performance dramatically (Masters et al., 1979). In addition, positive affect increased performance for children on a block design task, a challenging cognitive task that requires the use of spatial analysis (Rader Hughes, 2005). Research also suggests a relationship between affect and childrens thinking processes (Bryan et al., 1996). Specifically, negative affective states decrease participants efforts for processing cognitive information (Ellis, Thomas, Rodriquez, 1984). Positive affective states, on the other hand, improve participants memory on various tasks, which include: mastery of a discriminatory task (Masters et al., 1979); altruism (Chapman et al., 1987; Miller Jansen op de Haar, 1997); and child compliance (Lay, Waters Park, 1989). In sum, positive affective states increase complex cognitive functions when participants are required to synthesize information in new and useful ways (e.g., word association and memory tasks, creativity tasks, problem-solving tasks; Bryan et al., 1996). Social Information Processing and Cognitive Complexity Childrens awareness of their own emotional state, in combination with their skill to discern others emotions, allows them to develop more effective social information processing skills. As children become more aware of emotions they or others are experiencing, it facilitates problem-solving (Saarni et al., 2006). In turn, when children know how to respond emotionally to an encounter, it can aid in their decision making strategy, thus influencing behavioral or cognitive processing strategies. Task complexity can negatively influence accuracy in identifying emotional expressions in others (MacDonald et al., 1996). Specifically, research has shown how incorporating contextual information for an emotion recognition task results in lower levels of performance as compared to a task where children are given the label for the emotional expression (MacDonald et al., 1996). Labeling tasks involve an extremely easy stimulus (i.e. children are given a word), whereas contextual information tasks involve integrating and synthesizing implicit information (i.e. children must derive a word from the vignette)plexity. paragraph should be eliminated. This is more relevant to cognitive processing strategies rather than levels of task. Adding contextual information to an emotion recognition task, therefore, increases the difficulty of the task, resulting in lower performance, especially for younger children (MacDonald et al. 1996). Past research on childrens emotional recognition has not adequately addressed the influence of childrens own emotional states (positive or negative) on the accuracy of the perception of emotional states in others. Research addressing the topic is minimal; only a few studies have approached the issue (e.g., Carlson et al., 1983). In addition, past research has not directly demonstrated how emotion and cognitive task complexity influence childrens ability to recognize emotion in others. Based on the information regarding childrens ability to recognize emotions in others through their facial expressions; the developmental differences in childrens facial recognition abilities; the influence of emotion on childrens emotion processing; and the influence of emotion on adults cognitive processing, researchers can devise an appropriate social information processing model. The model, in effect, should integrate emotion and cognitive processes to determine the influence affect and task complexity have on childrens recognition of emotions in others. The component of the model the present study investigated is how childrens own emotion affects their interpretation of social cues, specifically the emotional expression of others. Inaccurate interpretations will provide potential consequences to childrens subsequent social decision making processes. The Present Study The study examined the influence positive and negative affect has on childrens emotion recognition. Children, aged 5-to 8-years, participated because of their ability to identify emotions in others (Fabes et al., 1991, Gnepp Gould, 1985, Saarni et al., 2006). Because emotion processing and cognition are considered an integral part of childrens social competence (Lemerise Arsenio, 2000), the study design combined and evaluated cognition and emotional processes. Specifically, the study investigated how the cognitive complexity of the task interacted with mood effects on emotion recognition performance. In the experiment, children were individually tested. They were first exposed to one of three mood induction conditions (positive, negative, or neutral) using a computer setup with a pre-recorded audio file, a method that is consistent with a brief mood induction procedure (Rader Hughes, 2005). For the testing procedure, the experimenter utilized two forms of emotion expressing questions: label-b

Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre - A Romantic Ending In An Anti-Romantic No

Jane Eyre - A Romantic Ending In An Anti-Romantic Novel This paper discusses the ending of Jane Eyre, discussing whether it is a â€Å"good† ending. The paper draws on three criticisms of both the novel and Romantic literature in general to conclude that, yes, it is indeed a good ending because it both fits the prevailing realism of the main character’s worldview, and conforms to the predominant literary trends of the period. The climate in which Charlotte Bronte wrote her magnum opus was one that had almost fully recovered from the rationalist excesses of the Enlightenment. The existing climate had replaced ‘scientific’ realism with Romanticism of the Byronic sort, drawing on the ancient ideals of chivalry and the new ideals of individual freedom to craft a literature in which suffering does not end with the last romantic sunset. Ultimately, concepts such as happiness cannot be guaranteed to skeptics like Jane Eyre and â€Å"hideous† men like Rochester -- only the divine union of passion can be guaranteed. Yet, for Bronte’s characters, this is sufficient reward and an appropriate closure for a love story about such atypical characters. Below, I will use characterizations of the Romantic literary school, as well as criticism of Jane Eyre, to explain how the ending of the novel fits perfectly with the rest of the landmark novel. Jane Eyre ends only after a succession of unlikely (and frankly hideous) circumstances come to pass, transforming the lives and psyches of Jane and Rochester beyond their stoic realism. However, because Jane and Rochester are such believable characters, the events that wrack their mortal lives are taken in stride by both the characters and the reader, although the grap... ...e that she could not write a novel that ended with man and woman being absolute equals in marriage, and Charlotte producing Jane Eyre to satisfy the bargain. However, in a more realistic vein, the novel’s ending is able to adhere to some prevailing Romantic conventions (melodrama most noticeably) while providing the reader with a thoroughly realistic ending. Bibliography Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: Norton, 1987. Mellor, Anne K. Romanticism and Gender. New York: Routledge, 1993. Oates, Joyce Carol, â€Å"Declaration of Independence: the biggest surprise in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre is its unromantic heroine,† Salon.com Classics Book Group, accessed November 17, 2001, http://www.salon.com/sept97/oates970929.html Penner, Louise, â€Å"Domesticity and Self-Possession in The Morgensons and Jane Eyre,† Studies in American Fiction 27:2, 131-146.

The Continual Emerging Threat and Use of Weapons of Mass Destruction By Terrorist Organizations to the United States of America

The utilization of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) by terrorist groups and states alike will continue to threaten the U. S. Homeland and its interests abroad. The National Intelligence Council (NIC) provided the following estimate of this emerging threat in its December 2000 analysis of global trends through the year 2015 (Cordesman, 2002).Strategic WMD threats, including nuclear missile threats in which (barring significant political or economic changes) Russia, China, most likely North Korea, probably Iran, and possibly Iraq have the capability to strike the United States, and the potential for unconventional delivery of WMD by both state or non-state actors also will grow (p. 3).The NIC report additionally goes on to discuss the accessibility and advancement of technology for WMD will increase, saying: Prospects will grow that more sophisticated weaponry, including weapons of mass destruction–indigenously produced or externally acquired–will get into the hands of s tate and non-state belligerents, some hostile to the United States. The likelihood will increase over this period that WMD will be used either against the United States or is forces, facilities, and interests overseas (p. ). For these and other reasons, individuals in the security and law enforcement profession need to continue to maintain their focus on the capabilities and the potentiality of WMD use by a variety of interests. I use this paper as an opportunity to further educate myself on the use of WMD by terrorist organizations. I do this by giving an overview of the many types of threats that fall into the category of WMD, to include chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear.I then continue my education by looking at the countries involved with WMD. I'll conclude the paper with looking specifically at some of Iraq's capabilities and programs. Chemical weapons pose significant threats to both the civilian populace and military organization. One of the biggest reason chemi cal weapons pose such a threat to both of these groups is the psychological effect caused by their use. Although chemical weapons are no more lethal then conventional weaponry, they cause great fear when even someone thinks of them being used.The most common example would be the exploitations of the media and the footage seen of the Kurds in Iraq when Saddam Hussein used blister and nerve agents. Not only were there dead civilians laying in the streets, but gruesome pictures of the effect that these agents have on the body, both to those killed and survivors. â€Å"Chemical weapons are weapons of terror and intimidation as well as a means of producing casualties and physical destruction† (Cordesman, 2002, p. 101). In 2003 the Department of Defense (DoD) stated that most forms of CW are employed in the liquid form, called droplets.Droplets make the substance more stable and easy for use in weaponry. The DoD also put chemical weapons into two categories, persistent and nonpersi stent–persistent lasting for days, and nonpersistent only lasting from minutes to hours (Defenselink, 2003). The U. S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) put CWs into a few distinct categories, these being; nerve agents such as VX, blood agents like hydrogen cyanide, blister agents like sulfur mustards, and pulmonary agents like chlorine. The latter are the more commonly used and known, but there are also many more†¦ specially the ones that fall into the commercial category, such as metals, pesticides, etc†¦ (Kahn & Levitt, 2000). Most organizations wishing to use some type of WMD tend not to turn to chemicals as their primary weapon. There are many challenges facing someone that wants to effectively employing CWs. The DoD (Defenselink, 2003) lists a variety of issues concerning the factors that must be considered. These factors include; agent type, how it will be disseminated, amount available to be disseminated (droplet size), meteorological conditions, including t emperature, wind speed and direction.Without the right combination of all of these factors, the desired outcome will be greatly reduced. An additional challenge is that of actually acquiring and/or producing a chemical to be used as a weapon. The Gilmore Commission (1999) gives the following example for explaining just how difficult it would be. It has sometimes been claimed that producing sarin and other nerve agents is a relatively easy process, to the extent, according to one authority, that â€Å"ball-point pen ink is only one chemical step removed†.While sarin may be less complicated to synthesize than other nerve agents, the expertise required to produce it should not, however, be underestimated. The safety challenges involved would, at a minimum, require skill, training, and special equipment to overcome. For this reason, the level of competency required for producing sophisticated chemical nerve agents, including sarin, will likely be on the order of a graduate degree in organic chemistry and/or actual experience as a organic chemist–not simply a knowledge of college-level chemistry, as is sometimes alleges (p. 91).Although the Gilmore Commission points the necessity to have the required level of expertise for composing chemicals into weapons grade, there are many countries that already posses a vast array of CWs. Terrorist organizations without access to CWs or the expertise to produce them, resort to using resources they do have (normally money, but sometimes services) to exchange with countries that do have CWs. According to Cordesman (2002) the following countries are potential national threats because of their chemical weapons program: China, India, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Pakistan, and Russia.Russia has the largest stockpile, 40,000 metric tons of chemical agents. Even more frightening is that reportedly some of this stockpile is comprised of â€Å"new agents†. These new agents are designed to circumvent Western detec tion methods and can be hidden within commercial chemical plants. The employment challenges of CWs are far out-weighed by the vast capability to acquire them, and the terror effect they have. Biological Weapons (BW) pose a significant risk to U. S. interests for many reasons. There are a wide range of agents with many different effects and they offer a wide range of ways to attack American citizens, crops, and livestock† (Cordesman, 2002, p. 135). The World Health Organization (2000) explained the significance of BW and diseases by recounting history, pointing out Napoleon's devastating retreat from Moscow. This wasn't caused by the great Russian Army or even the cold temperatures of the Russian winter, but because of typhus, a louse-borne infection that reduced his army from 655,000 to 93,000.Cordesman (2002) states that there are five categories: bacterial agents such as anthrax, rickettsial agents like the Rocky Mountain spotted fever, viral agents like small pox, toxins in cluding botulinum, and fungal agents. The above agents are the major ones that would be used to pose a threat to humans, there are many others that would affect plant and animal life. The Center for Disease Control (Kahn & Levitt, 2000) further categorizes agents that are a threat to national security, labeling them â€Å"high priority†. These high priority agents: â€Å"- can be disseminated or transmitted person-to-person cause high mortality, with potential for major public health impact – might cause public panic and social disruption; and – require special action for public health. † As with chemical weapons, biological weapons offer a psychological threat, but additionally the BWs bring a great deal of physiological issues. Much of the challenge with biological weapons occurs when trying to detect that one (or many) have been used. There are many ways that BWs could be used covertly, and the medical symptoms becoming visible long after the terrorist has departed.The CDC (Kahn & Levitt, 2000) outlines this fact and emphasizing the importance of early detection by the public health infrastructure by giving this scenario: Only a short window of opportunity will exist between the time the first cases are identified and a second wave of the population becomes ill. During that brief period, public health officials will need to determine that an attack has occurred, identify the organism, and prevent more casualties through prevention strategies (e. g. , mass vaccination or prophylactic treatment).As person-to-person contact continues, successive waves of transmission could carry infection to other worldwide localities. Another twist that a terrorist might use to inhibit the effective detection is to employ a variety of different BWs at the same time. Health care workers would potentially read the symptoms of only one of them used, while the other continues to grow, infect further, and kill. In addition to BWs being very opportunisti c for covert use, the DoD (Defenselink, 2003) says that BWs are preferable to chemical or nuclear WMD because of being very compact and low in weight.The DoD additionally went on to say that the â€Å"dissemination of infectious agents through aerosols, either as droplets from liquid suspensions or by small particles from dry powders, is by far the most efficient method† (Defenselink, 2003, p. 5). A Russian assessment of microbiological agents mostly likely to be used identified eleven. The top four were smallpox, plague, anthrax, and botulism. These were at the top because of the ability to be used as an aerosol, and their theoretical lethality rates being 30 percent to 80 percent and because of their capability to be massed produced (Henderson, 1999).There are two countries besides the United States that are well know for their pursuit of weaponizing biological weapons, Iraq and the Soviet Union. In 1975 the Soviet Union used the biotechnology industry as a front for its we apons program, called Bioprepart†. The program had the capability to mass thousands of tons of agents and distribute and store them strategically throughout the Soviet Union. The program also included the ability to rapidly produce these stored agents to weapons grade levels (Alibek, 1999).According to some intelligence analysis this program involved 60,000 to 70,000 personnel (Roberts, 2000). Even more alarming was that a vast amount of these were â€Å"infectious agents designed to follow up a strategic nuclear attack on the United States with contagious diseases designed to decimate the population (Alibek, 1999). Although the looming threat to the United States from the former Soviet Union isn't as prevalent with the ending of the Cold War, the possibility of these technologies and actual agents falling into the hands of rogue states or terrorists, is a very good possibility.The General Accounting Office (GAO) (2000) states that in addition to the large collections of dang erous pathogens, there are also as many as 15,000 underpaid scientists and researchers, and an additional vast amount of specialized equipment and facilities just waiting to be exploited. This concern, in addition to the many outlined above concretely justify the continued efforts by the United States to counter attacks to its interests through the use of biological weapons. The likelihood of a conventional explosive vehicle bomb like the one used in the Oklahoma City bombing by Timothy McVeigh still posses a serious risk.Recently there has been a concern of these conventional vehicle bombs also including radioactive material. â€Å"Radiological weapons are generally felt to be suitable largely for terror, political, and area denial purposes, rather than mass killings† (Cordesman, 2002, p. 194). Cordesman (2002) further goes on to explain that as opposed to nuclear weapons, radioactive material posses such a great threat because of its contamination capability. Therefore, rad ioactive weapons are best suited for use when wanting to deny accessibility of a specific area or building/s.A Gilmore Commission Report (1999) explained that, A combination fertilizer truck bomb, if used together with radioactive material, for example, could not only have destroyed one of the New York World Trade Center's towers but might have rendered a considerable chunk of prime real estate in one of the world's financial nerve centers indefinitely unusable because of radioactive contamination. Radioactive weapons are designated into two categories, â€Å"radiological dispersal devices† (RDD) and â€Å"simple radiological dispersal devices† (simple RDD).As Cordesman (2002) points out, the main difference between the two being that a RDD is designed to â€Å"include any explosive device utilized to spread radioactive material upon detonation†, and the simple RDD â€Å"spreads the radioactive material without an explosion†. There are a couple of differe nt types of radioactive material that could be used as RDD or as simple RDDs. The list includes hospital radiation therapy, radiopharmaceuticals, nuclear power plant fuel rods, and universities, laboratories, radiography and gauging (Cordesman 2002).The Gilmore Commission Report (1999) explains the harmful effects caused by radioactive material by saying, â€Å"Radiological weapons kill or injure by exposing people to radioactive materials, such as cesium-137, iridium-192, or cobalt-60. † The harm is caused by a variety of different ways including in-haling it, or ingesting it (contaminated food or water supply). The level of the harm caused is of course determinate of the amount of exposure to the radioactive material, long periods or short periods. The difficult thing to assess initially is the level of exposure.The U. S. Army (2002) explains that lethal and serious doses are very difficult to determine, even within the same geographical area. Additionally the U. S. Army (2 002) points out that symptoms and effects are largely changed if someone has burns on their body or their body has been through physical trauma, which is almost certainly the case if most scenarios (except for maybe covertly) that would involve radiological contamination. For these reasons, early detection of decontamination is imperative.The U. S. Army's USACHPPM report (2002) goes on to explain that once prompt detection has occurred, â€Å"about 95 percent of external agents can be removed by simple removing outer clothing and shoes†. So where would a terrorist group mostly likely acquire radioactive material to be used as a WMD, and furthermore, what is the likelihood that they would chose radioactive material as their weapon as opposed to, lets say nuclear? The former Soviet Union posses a threat regarding the lack of control over its any radiological materials, especially the â€Å"accumulation of large quantities of plutonium from reactors that is intended for reproce ssing and/or storage. † (Defenselink, 2002, p. 2). The DoD (Defenselink, 2002) also points out that Iraq and Chechnya have furthered their knowledge of radioactive weapons that could be used to contaminate water, food crops, and livestock. It further concludes that with many countries (Korea, etc†¦ ) advancing their nuclear power interests, radiological material will be tougher to monitor and control, and thus easier to acquire.One of our biggest threats may not be from a conventional weapon with radioactive material, or even the contamination of water or food, but direct contamination through the exploitation of a nuclear power plant right here in the United States. Even though an attack on a nuclear power plant would have to take a great deal of timing during the planning phase, it could produce very effective results. â€Å"The possible venting or overload of a reactor could then act as a radiological weapon, and cover hundreds of square kilometers as well as have a m ajor potential affect on regional power supplies (Cordesman, 2002, p. 97). † Some theorize that the method of using an existing nuclear power plant would elevate the hazards that go alone acquiring radioactive material. The Gilmore Commission Report (1999) points out that spent fuel rods are very hot, heavy and thus hard to handle. Cordesman (2002, p. 197) concurs with the Gilmore Commission stating, † A seizure of spent fuel would be particularly dangerous during the first 150 days after the downloading because iodine-131, and iodine-123 are present, which are extremely volatile, and affect the thyroid†.There is still a great deal to be learned about the potential loss and employment of radiological materials, and ultimately the use of it by a terrorist or state would have on a population or army. When it comes to the use of nuclear weapons of mass destruction, the retaliatory consequences of their use would probably discourage the would be state or terrorist to u se them. There are many other reasons that would prohibit a terrorist group from having the capability to do so, but as some experts have argued, when it comes to the homeland defense, security planners must look at a time-frame twenty five years from now (Cordesman, 2002).The DoD (Defenselink, 2002) makes the point by explaining that no one foresaw the Cold War ending so quickly, or that twenty five years ago the Persian Gulf War would have happened†¦ thus the need for such long range planning, and more importantly looking at what the capabilities could be out there, and the United States vulnerabilities to them. A great deal of the threat would come from countries that currently have nuclear programs, whether directly, or indirectly through the proliferation of technical expertise and equipment.Thus, we must look at these countries, and gain a firm understanding of their current programs. The DoD (OSD, 2001) gave the following overview in explaining the states with a potentia l nuclear threat to the United States. -Iran: Iran is currently actively pursuing the acquiring of fissile material and technology for nuclear weapons development. They are doing this by an elaborate system of military and civilian organizations. Iran's claim is that these elaborate systems are for the development of a civilian energy program–the DoD thinks otherwise. Much of the success of Iran's attempts will depend on Russia and China.Russia is currently in a mutual partnership with Iran to build a 1,000 megawatt power reactor. Iran is using this product to both acquire sensitive nuclear technologies, along with weapons-usable fissile material. China on the other hand ended its nuclear projects with Iran in 1997. Additionally, in 1998 China created new export controls over dual-use nuclear equipment†¦ it seems they're living up to their 1997 commitment. – North Korea: In 1994 an agreement between the United States and North Korea ended nuclear weapons material production at two of its facilities.In question, is whether North Korea was able to divert enough plutonium to make a nuclear weapon, the United States thinks it did. Also in question is the spent fuel from one of these reactors that was also removed in 1994. If this fuel was reprocessed it could've produced several nuclear weapons. – Pakistan: In response to India's testing, Pakistan tested six devices in 1998. Pakistan has a very good infrastructure to support a nuclear weapons program, especially facilities that allow for uranium conversion and enrichment.Much of the foreign assistance received by Pakistan was from China. The Pakistan's military government has been and will be for the foreseeable future be in control of its countries nuclear resources, to include research, and wartime command and control. Much of Pakistan's program is designed to deter the threat from India. Pakistan has publicly stated that it will not assemble or deploy its nuclear warheads, nor will it resume testing unless India does so first. – Syria: Syria has no current capability, but does have a small (China supplied) research reactor.Additionally, in 1999 Syria signed an agreement with Russian to build another research reactor. Although it has an interest in nuclear technology, it just doesn't have enough expertise and infrastructure to develop nuclear weapons, and therefore they are not pursuing it. Even though most believe that the retaliatory consequences of using a nuclear weapon would prohibit their use, there are still too many vulnerabilities to the United States which warrant careful consideration and homeland defense planning. One of these vulnerabilities is our communications and intelligence satellites.A nuclear weapon launched to a very high altitude would destroy the DoD's communications and intelligence satellites from the Electromagnet Pulse. We all know the significance of these satellites for the United States' war-fighting capability. Another vulner ability is the contamination of primary facilities, like ports and airfields. Both airfields and ports played an integral part of the success during Operation Desert Storm. The U. S. Air Forces' superiority over Iraq during the Gulf War would not have been as quick and extensive if it had to deal with contaminated and/or destroyed airfields. Defenselink, 2002). With Iraq being the major threat to the United States, both directly and indirectly (support of terrorist groups), Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction capabilities are addressed completely separate from the rest of this research. Laqueur (1999) noted that a great deal of Iraq's WMD program was unknown to the United States and world prior to the Gulf War, even though they had used in during the war with Iran and on the Kurds in their own country. Prior to the Gulf War, Iraq admitted to having 2,850 tons of ustard gas, 790 tons of sarin. Additionally, when the Gulf War began, Iraq had fifty missile warheads with chemical weapons . These figures were from Iraq, so the actual extent of their program was unknown (Laqueur, 1999). In October, 2002 the Central Intelligence Agency issued a report outlining its concerns for Iraq's continued development of WMD. Some of the conclusions made by the CIA (2002) include; – Iraq acquiring it's first nuclear weapon will depend mostly on its ability to acquire fissile-material.Once this is done it could have a nuclear weapon within one year. Additionally, Iraq has made an effort to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes that could be use for conventional weapons, but most conclude that it is for the nuclear centrifuge enrichment process. – It is believed that Iraq has stocked a few hundred metric tons of chemical agents, mostly consisting of mustard, sarin, and VX. – Efforts in the biological weapon program are very active and larger than prior to the Gulf War. Iraq still has a small missile force to include Short Range Ballistic Missiles with ranges of 650-900 km. Additionally, extensive research and tests have been done with unmanned arial vehicles, most likely to be used for delivery biological warfare agents. Concluding this review of Weapons of Mass Destruction, as the information provided above points out, there is an obvious threat to the United States' homeland and interests abroad from the use of WMD. Significant differences between nuclear and chemical or biological WMD exist.All three types of weapons can kill or injure personnel and spread contamination over broad areas, only nuclear weapons can destroy equipment and facilities. † (Defenselink, 2002) This of course has a cost factor. Many civilian chemical and biological production facilities can easily be turned into a weapons program, where a nuclear program would cost a great deal more. Henderson (2001, p. 29) makes the point about the attitude of 21st century terrorists by stating, â€Å"Weapons of mass destruction are becoming more accessible to terrorists.T hey appeal most to â€Å"new terrorist† who seek total destruction for symbolic reasons. † From a military standpoint, a great deal more emphasis must be placed on the policy makers and planners for DoD doctrine that applies to chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats. As technology and capable means of proliferation of these threats, so will the use of them against us. Much of this planning as been done in the past, but we have only begun to prepare ourselves for the terrorist or state that is likely to use Weapons of Mass Destruction.Further emphasizing the importance of this issue, the Center for Strategic and International Studies in May of 2001 concluded, â€Å"There is no way to predict the nature of the WMD threat to the U. S. homeland in the near or long term. The U. S. military superiority in itself is no longer sufficient to ensure the safety of the United States. National security planning must be broadened to encompass WMD counterterrorism. à ¢â‚¬  (Cilluffo, Cardash, & Lederman, 2001, p. 9). Only a few months later on September 11, 2001 there point was further made.

Biases

Person-positivity bias is the tendency to evaluate an object more favorably the more the object resembles an individual human being. Generally, the more a comparison target resembles a specific person, the more familiar it will be. However, groups of people are considered to be more abstract concepts, which leads to less favorable judgments.With regards to the optimistic bias, when people compare themselves to an average person, whether someone of the same sex or age, the target continues to e viewed as less human and less personified, which will result in less favorable comparisons between the self and others. false-consensus effect or false-consensus bias is a cognitive bias whereby a person tends to overestimate how many people agree with him or her.There is a tendency for people to assume that their own opinions, beliefs, preferences, values and habits are ‘normal' and that others also think the same way that they do. [l] This cognitive bias tends to lead to the perception of a consensus that does not exist, a ‘false consensus'. This false consensus is significant because it increases self-esteem. The need to be â€Å"normal† and fit in with other people is underlined by a desire to conform and be liked by others in a social environment.Counterfactual thinking is a term of psychology that describes the tendency people have to imagine alternatives to reality. Humansare predisposed to think about how things could have turned out differently if only†¦ , and also to imagine what if?. Counterfactuals are conditional propositions, containing an antecedent and a consequence (e. g. , If Matt had run, he would have caught the bus. )

Tracking the Vanishing Frogs essays

Tracking the Vanishing Frogs essays Tracking the Vanishing Frogs: An Ecological Mystery by Kathryn Phillips is the compilation of Kathryn Phillips journeys and stories told to her by those who she observed. The book chronicles the fieldwork, lab work, and amphibian research of several dozen scientists. However, I feel that the book mainly focuses on five scientists. Those five scientists are Mark Jennings, a native Californian, whos main work focuses on the California red-legged frog and other native amphibian species of California. His partner, and long time fieldwork partner is Marc Hayes. Long time associates, Mark and Marc now both worked together in an attempt to get the California red-legged frog listed as an endangered species. The other pair of herpetologists have worked mainly on finding reasons behind the disappearance of the Golden toad of Costa Rica as well as the Harlequin Frog. These two scientists are Alan Pounds and Martha Crump. The fifth scientist, and the only one that manages to accomplish his goals alone is Sam Sweet. Sams main goal in life is to protect the two streams in California that are still home Arroyo toad. The two streams are in a National Reserve and they are completely unaffected by non-indigenous species. They are the only two streams in California that can claim this. The main purpose of this book is clear just from reading the title of the book. The purpose is to inform and forewarn people of the vanishing frogs. The frogs are disappearing for just about every reason from pollution, global warming, habitat destruction, weather variations, and every other possible reason down to cattle grazing. The author feels that the disappearing amphibians, having the potential to be a keystone or warning species, could be a possible warning for the future that other animals could be in danger, even possibly humans. Declining amphibians, they said, are like miners canaries, early warnings,...

Top 7 College Majors - Lauren Gartner

Top 7 College Majors Top 7 College Majors Which college majors are the best? How do you measure that? The most popular college majors can reflect many things. Obviously the popularity of the major is one of those things, but what about other factors. Surely, popularity alone does not mean that a major is a good choice. After all, you also have to consider the quality of the schools that offer the major, the likelihood of somebody majoring in a particular subject getting a job, the potential salary a graduate can earn, the level of job satisfaction, and the future employment outlook of somebody entering a specific career field. We are not going to attempt to tell somebody how to choose a college major. Instead, what we have done is compile a list of great college majors that fit into one of the following criteria: It is one of the most top paying college majors Students majoring in these fields are getting new jobs These majors give students the chance to work with great technology The future is bright for these majors Students who graduate with degrees in these majors report being exceptionally healthy and happy Top College Majors Biomedical Engineer Students majoring in this field learn to design, improve, and maintain medical equipment. This can be an especially exciting field for those who wish to work with artificial organs, medical analysis equipment, and devices that provide equal accessibility. Nursing High demand, tuition forgiveness, great salaries, and job placement opportunities are just a few of the reasons that this major makes the tops of these list in so many polls. Many students are drawn to this major because they simply want to help others to gain better health Engineering All disciplines of engineering are extremely popular. Career prospects for engineering students are great as are projected salaries. The future looks great for engineers, because there will  always be openings for engineers as long as new designs and technologies are being worked on. Business Administration or Business Management Business majors have always been popular among students who wish to begin careers in the corporate world, retail, or small to medium sized businesses. Many students pursuing business degrees have the desire to go to graduate school and complete their MBA. Computer Science Students who study Computer Science are qualified to enter many fields where job demand is high. They become security specialists, database administrators, software engineers, network technicians and help desk professionals. Social Worker The pay for a social worker is not the highest on this list. However, the work can be extraordinarily rewarding. Graduates work hard to make sure that people are healthy, safe, and that people have access to counseling and other sources of help. Education Students pursue majors in education or related fields in order to become teachers, school administrators, or guidance counselors. This can be extremely fulfilling work, and job prospects are excellent depending on area of specialty and geographical location.

Earth Tides

A Complete Explanation of Land/Earth Tides Land tides, also called Earth tides, are very small deformations or movements in the Earths lithosphere (surface) caused by the gravitational fields of the sun and moon as the Earth rotates within their fields. Land tides are similar to ocean tides in how they are formed but they have very different impacts on the physical environment. Unlike ocean tides, land tides only change the Earths surface by around 12 inches (30 cm) or so twice a day. The movements caused by land tides are so small that most people are not even aware that they exist. They are very important to scientists like volcanologists and geologists however because it is believed that these small movements may be able to trigger volcanic eruptions. Causes of Land Tides Like ocean tides, the moon has the greatest effect on land tides because it is closer to the Earth than the sun. The sun does have an effect on land tides as well because of its very large size and strong gravitational field. As the Earth rotates around the sun and the moon each of their gravitational fields pull on the Earth. Because of this pull there are small deformations or bulges on the Earths surface or land tides. These bulges face the moon and the sun as the Earth rotates. Like ocean tides where water rises in some areas and it is also forced down in others, the same is true of land tides. Land tides are small though and the actual movement of the Earths surface is usually no greater than 12 inches (30 cm). Monitoring Land Tides Due to these cycles, it is relatively easy for scientists to monitor land tides. Geologists monitor the tides with seismometers, tiltmeters, and strainmeters. All of these instruments are tools that measure the motion of the ground but tiltmeters and strainmeters are capable of measuring slow ground movements. The measurements taken by these instruments are then transferred to a graph where scientists can view the distortion of the Earth. These graphs often look like undulating curves or bulges indicating the upward and downward movement of land tides. The Oklahoma Geological Surveys website provides an example of graphs created with measurements from a seismometer for an area near Leonard, Oklahoma. The graphs show smooth undulations indicating small distortions in the Earths surface. Like ocean tides, the largest distortions for land tides appears to be when there is a new or full moon because this is when the sun and moon are aligned and the lunar and solar distortions combine. Importance of Land Tides In addition to using land tides to test their equipment, scientists are interested in studying their effect on volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. They have found that although the forces causing land tides and the deformations in the Earths surface are very small they do have the power to trigger geologic events because they are causing changes in the Earths surface. Scientists have not yet found any correlations between land tides and earthquakes but they have found a relationship between the tides and volcanic eruptions because of the movement of magma or molten rock inside volcanoes (USGS). To view an in-depth discussion about land tides, read D.C. Agnews 2007 article, Earth Tides.

Mix design report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Mix design report - Essay Example The education at the high school level is a strength that can translate to economic boost since there is about 90% of the populations aged 25years and above with this basic education. This is a true since when majority of natives have basic education they are keen and understands the work they do hence quality services Another strength that the city of London enjoys is that few people (8%) leave below poverty index. There is promise that this figure could go down due to the presence of royal opera house which creates job to many young people. The figure is also smaller nationally. The poverty index used here was an index of 1.5. Another weakness is seen in marginalization and gender disparity. Although the ratio between women to men is almost 1:1, women are restricted in owning farms and occupying leadership positions. The data under London county was suppressed implying that there were confidentially with the data for public access which is a weakness The increase in population is a weakness to the government .This is because the government should put up measures to curb the ever rising rate of population. The more the population the more burdensome and budgetary constraints to the government. The priority for the government is to create more resources for development and infrastructural alignment. Comparatively, the population keeps rising from 2000 upto 2003 projection. The manufacturer’s shipment stands at about $300Million. This although still below the expected level of industrialization, it offers the opportunity for more shipments and revenue generation for the states. This is also seen as a pointer towards creation of jobs for the young people. It is also seen as an opportunity to increase the bilateral trades and ties with the regional and counterparts countries The number of retail sales also offers the opportunity for business and trade. It can be seen that the number of retails sales significantly

Drosophila Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Drosophila - Research Paper Example The chromosomes are also organized in an orderly manner. In this regard, the sections of darkness and light have high levels of DNA and protein especially in the chromatin. This enables researchers to observe them by use of a light microscope. According to Carter and Jennifer, the appropriate magnification for this observation customarily is 450X (34). Incidentally, the salivary glands of Drosophila are crucial. This partly owes to the fact that these glands help in producing materials in the pupa stage of the life cycle of the Drosophila. Moreover, each dark and light band has a unique number for identification. This enhances the research work of the biological researchers. In addition, the Drosophila has some chromosomes, which have similar fundamental structures, which aids scientists to make informed deductions pertaining to the phenomenon of research. The Drosophila also is not subject to hibernation in the event of a cold climate. Researchers can then easily access this species for studies, as opposed to other similar organisms. In this regard, they are easily found especially near ripe fruits. The other attribute that qualifies the Drosophila as the best model for laboratory experiments is that adults and larva of drosophila usually feed on yeast. Researchers are able to feed the larva on the laboratory yeast cells to make the required scientific studies within the laboratory. The life cycle of the drosophila depends on the environment, which the Drosophila occupies. According to Smeitink, the life cycle period of the drosophila is 26 days for the Drosophila (44). This period is valid for the female, but the cycle for the male Drosophila is 33 days. The Drosophila has only four of its life cycle. This includes egg and three other larval stages. After mating, the sperm from the male is conveyed to the uterus of the female. This is

Management Accounting Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Management Accounting - Case Study Example Management accounting is â€Å"the process of identification, measurement, accumulation, analysis, preparation, interpretation and communication of information used by management to plan, evaluate and control the activities of an organization†. As this definition suggests our management accounting department has a wide scope of responsibilities that involves the presentation of information to all levels of management within our company. This information is further used by management to assist in planning and decision-making activities. Our Management Accounting department is also heavily involved in budgeting process along with establishing procedures and culminating subsidiary budgets into an overall master budget. This report aims to acquaint you with how the Management Accounting department uses variance analysis within the management processes of the company. As variance analysis has become an integral tool in decision-making within the organization, it is important that a ll everyone grasps this important concept. In relation to this, this report will compare traditional variance analysis and operational and planning variance. A major source of data for our department is the costing records and accounts. Cost accounting is the essential aspect of every business organization. In the simplest sense, cost accounting can be defined as â€Å"process of tracking, recording and analyzing costs associated with the activity of an organization, where cost is defined as 'required time or resources' (Cost Accounting 2006).† In essence, cost accounting is a field in management accounting which is tasked to give numerical values or figures to each activity in a company's supply chain. The method which is

Equity and Trusts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

Equity and Trusts - Essay Example As anyone who has read Dickens, Bleak house will know, by the 18th century, equity had itself become rigid. The origins of the jurisdiction have been prevailed and the principles of equity can now be applied in every civil court in the land. One of equity’s greatest inventions has been the ‘trust’. The trust is a form of ownership that developed in England through the courts of Chancery. Trust can be defined as the written instruments that give title to or an interest in real estate. A trustee holds title on behalf of the lender, known as the beneficiary who is the legal owner. Trust law applies whenever one person has placed trust and confidence in another person to manage his or her affairs. The full force of the law of equity governs such relationships and the trust now provides a mechanism for a number of situations, family relationships, charities, pension funds, to name but a few. The common benefits that a trust offer includes are: (i) Providing financial a nd personal safeguard for family and other beneficiaries, (ii) Establishing a means of controlling or administering property, taxes, (iii) Meeting other social or commercial goals, and (iv) Postponing or avoiding unnecessary.

Riyadh City Council, Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Riyadh City Council, - Essay Example For instance, they have experienced problems with improving the methods for keeping up with rapid changes such as civilizational shifts or new lifestyles among community members (Al-Nuaim 2001). To consider services for health, safety, and security, housing plans, and preservation of the environment and historical sites has become a challenge for Riyadh’s local administrators. Moreover, most often, the public’s opinion on the policies implemented by the City Council as well as on the implementation of projects and activities, and the performance of the governing body, has created difficulties for mayors and the rest of the administration in developing their community (Al Riyadh 2004). Because of these, the Riyadh City Council has aimed to boost their performance by focusing on the capability of their workforce, enhancing their projects by being consistent with the community’s needs, and providing their administration with the necessary procedural and managerial s pecialisations. One weak point that the local city councils in Riyadh has demonstrated is that they are not very capable of integrating various departments for planning and implementation, hence, reducing their likelihood for accomplishing main goals. The Royal Decree No. 5 in Riyadh has mandated the division of municipalities and villages along with the regulations and functions that go with them. Although municipalities have been given administrative and financial autonomy with which authorities and obligations are extended, regional decentralization has not been fully achieved through the administrations’ actual performance. Moreover, mayors and deputy directors lack the proper guidance and follow-up measures in securing the coordination of administrative practices and activities, and maintaining a good level of performance and usage of performance management approaches. The current study, thus, aims to answer the question: What are the strengths and weaknesses of the perf ormance management system of Riyadh City Council? In relation, it aims to address the following objective: 1. Identify the strengths and weaknesses with regards to the performance management system in the Riyadh City Council. 2. Provide recommendations on the areas that need further improvement in the performance management system of the Riyadh City Council. Review of Related Literature Introduction The local and municipal government of Riyadh has aimed to improve and develop their local community by reaching out to the public as well as understanding and finding solutions to various problems. This ability occurs by allowing the local administration to interact with the community which brings about the effective involvement of citizens in relevant activities, thereby increasing the likelihood for national participation in the development process. In order to allow such circumstances to occur, there is a need to look into how the Riyadh City Council sets their standards for performan ce management as well as the actions that they take to generate favorable outcomes. Performance Management: An Overview The important need for implementing an effective and well-organized performance management system has significantly increased over the years. This has occurred due to the fact that performance management can not only enhance performance but the quality of a company as well (Lawson, Stratton, and Hatch 2003). Without the necessary regarding the implementation of systems for performance management, organizations can experience inefficiency and decreased productivity, thus the need to further look into the components of successful performance management. The concept of performance management can be applied on the performance of either the organization as a whole or the individual

EGT3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

EGT3 - Essay Example This type of economic regulation may prevent competition in the market. Industrial Regulation has an impact on various entities. For national firms which operate in a monopolistic or oligopolistic market, regulation is a boon. Regulation helps in the development and growth of these industries. An example could be companies working in oil and power sector. Regulation is also beneficial for small and mid size industries which would find it tough to survive in the absence of regulations because of intense global competition and the realization of economies of scale by big international firms. An example is small and mid-size firms in Textile manufacturing. Industrial Regulation has negative impacts on multi-national firms who want to expand their businesses internationally but are constrained due to regulation. An example is regulation on FDI in retail in several sectors. Regulation is also harmful for consumer as a whole in certain sectors where competition would actually reduce prices. However, in sectors mentioned above such as drugs and ammunition, regulation is useful for society as a whole. (Joskow,Rose). Social Regulation implies the restrictions imposed by the government in order to prevent or prohibit harmful corporate behaviour such as environmental pollution and occupational health hazards or to promote desirable behavioral patterns. Social regulation has an impact on almost everybody. This includes the corporate, end-consumers, shareholders and the environment. The corporate have to adhere to certain standards to be in business which have attached costs in the short run. The end-consumers are positively affected as social regulation leads to a better holistic environment. A monopoly is a form of market in which almost all the sales in the market go to a single firm. A natural monopoly is a situation constrained by technology or costs in which it is optimal for the entire production to be done by a single firm.

Riyadh City Council, Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Riyadh City Council, - Essay Example For instance, they have experienced problems with improving the methods for keeping up with rapid changes such as civilizational shifts or new lifestyles among community members (Al-Nuaim 2001). To consider services for health, safety, and security, housing plans, and preservation of the environment and historical sites has become a challenge for Riyadh’s local administrators. Moreover, most often, the public’s opinion on the policies implemented by the City Council as well as on the implementation of projects and activities, and the performance of the governing body, has created difficulties for mayors and the rest of the administration in developing their community (Al Riyadh 2004). Because of these, the Riyadh City Council has aimed to boost their performance by focusing on the capability of their workforce, enhancing their projects by being consistent with the community’s needs, and providing their administration with the necessary procedural and managerial s pecialisations. One weak point that the local city councils in Riyadh has demonstrated is that they are not very capable of integrating various departments for planning and implementation, hence, reducing their likelihood for accomplishing main goals. The Royal Decree No. 5 in Riyadh has mandated the division of municipalities and villages along with the regulations and functions that go with them. Although municipalities have been given administrative and financial autonomy with which authorities and obligations are extended, regional decentralization has not been fully achieved through the administrations’ actual performance. Moreover, mayors and deputy directors lack the proper guidance and follow-up measures in securing the coordination of administrative practices and activities, and maintaining a good level of performance and usage of performance management approaches. The current study, thus, aims to answer the question: What are the strengths and weaknesses of the perf ormance management system of Riyadh City Council? In relation, it aims to address the following objective: 1. Identify the strengths and weaknesses with regards to the performance management system in the Riyadh City Council. 2. Provide recommendations on the areas that need further improvement in the performance management system of the Riyadh City Council. Review of Related Literature Introduction The local and municipal government of Riyadh has aimed to improve and develop their local community by reaching out to the public as well as understanding and finding solutions to various problems. This ability occurs by allowing the local administration to interact with the community which brings about the effective involvement of citizens in relevant activities, thereby increasing the likelihood for national participation in the development process. In order to allow such circumstances to occur, there is a need to look into how the Riyadh City Council sets their standards for performan ce management as well as the actions that they take to generate favorable outcomes. Performance Management: An Overview The important need for implementing an effective and well-organized performance management system has significantly increased over the years. This has occurred due to the fact that performance management can not only enhance performance but the quality of a company as well (Lawson, Stratton, and Hatch 2003). Without the necessary regarding the implementation of systems for performance management, organizations can experience inefficiency and decreased productivity, thus the need to further look into the components of successful performance management. The concept of performance management can be applied on the performance of either the organization as a whole or the individual

Classical culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Classical culture - Essay Example Thus, this paper considers even further if Christian influence positively affected European history as it is expected or if it did more harm to the nation than good. Christianity speaks about love, justice and humanity. These are important considerations not only socially but also politically. Therefore, for people in the past and today, this is expected to have a good influence in individuals and in groups of people as well. Quite profoundly, Europe’s history shows the actualization of this Roman Catholic doctrine as the patriarch did his best in making warring nations come to friendly terms. At a time when the nations were at war, it has been a good thing that the Roman Catholic Church was there to advocate peace and brotherly love, an act which cooled down arguments and put some sense in the heads of hot-tempered leaders. The rise of Christian power also opened the way to the arguments about equality which nearly led to the abolishment of slavery in Medieval Europe. Such liberal thoughts consequently resulted to scholars and studies which has become the foundations of modern researches. This means that Christianity did not only affect the political realms of Europe but it also influenced its economic and educational advancements. Nevertheless, despite the positive changes Christianity brought along to the nation, it has affected it negatively as well. The world has become familiar about the information on European Christians who used their membership to the church to exploit non-Christians. There were several deaths that occurred in the name of Christianity, considering the victims as evils who were doomed with their religion and cultural backgrounds. Once again, they re-lived the lives of ancient Biblical accounts of wars and claimed that it is but right for them to kill non-Christians as popular characters in the Bible have done. This is also perhaps the reason why

Determining Ethanol in Fermented Glutinous Rice

Determining Ethanol in Fermented Glutinous Rice 1.0 Introduction Fermented glutinous rice is a popular dessert among Malaysian consumers. It consist of carbohydrate such as rice and it need to be fermented for a few days until the glucose have been converted into the ethanol, carbon dioxide and energy whereas it signs is when the taste is sweet flavor. Cassava also can be fermented. Both of dishes served mostly in Southeast Asia. When the processes are completed, commonly the fermented glutinous rice will be wrapped in banana leaves. During the fermentation process, it most often done by a product called ‘ragi’. However, the consumption of fermented glutinous rice had rise the halal issue among the Muslim community. It is because the ethanol content that is produced during the fermentation is 5% which is similar to the concentration of ethanol in alcoholic beverages such as beers. As we know, the value of alcohol can be contained in the food that had been stated by JAKIM is 0.01% only. As we know, when a lot of alcohol are consumed, i t can affect our health and can caused death. There are many analytical methods that had been studied by researchers to determine the alcohol contained in food. Thus, FTIR spectroscopic had been chosen based on the easiest, low time consuming and low cost for determination of alcohol in fermented glutinous rice. Thus, it can give a contribution by providing the alcohol content for the sake of Muslim. 2.0 Rice The staple food for nearly two-thirds of the world’s population is rice (Oriza sativa L.). According to Arendt (2013), in 2010, China, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Myanmar alone provided more than 75% of the world’s total rice production. As we know, the lowest protein content of all the cereals is rice but it also highly nutritious among others. It is rich in carbohydrates. There are many ways that it can be consumed by the consumers. For instance, in the form of puffed rice, noodles, snack foods and fermented sweet rice. To make bakery products, sauces, infant foods, breakfast cereals, alcoholic beverages and vinegar, it also can be used. 2.1 Fermentation Fermentation is one of the natural processes. According to Theresa (2014), when organisms convert nutrients for example carbohydrate such as starch and sugar into an acid (lactic acid and acetic acid) or an alcohol, it is called as energy-yielding anaerobic metabolic process which is occurs in fermentation. For instances, to obtain energy, yeast will perform fermentation by converting the sugar into the alcohol. Many people all around the world use fermentation to produce products such as wines, cheese and beers. It is also known as one of the historical biotechnological processes. 2.2 Fermented Glutinous Rice Tapai or also known as fermented glutinous rice is one of the Malaysian favorite dessert. It is come from Indonesia and Malaysia. Actually it is sour and sweet alcoholic paste, have a very pleasant aroma and it also can be used directly as a food or in traditional recipe. Normally, it is wrapped with rubber tree leaves or banana leaves. It can be made from carbohydrate sources such as cassava, glutinous rice or white rice. It have to undergo fermentation process which is performed by many types of moulds including Rhizopus oryzae, Aspergillus oryzae, Rhizopus oryzae or Mucor species, and including yeast for example Saccharomycopsis fibuliger, Endomycopsis burtonii and others,along with the bacteria. Besides, tapai also can be used to produce alcoholic beverages. Figure 1: example of fermented glutinous rice 2.3 Preparation Of Fermented Glutinous Rice To produce fermented glutinous rice, the ingredient needed is glutinous rice, yeast and sugar. The procedures are as follow: The glutinous rice was washed and soaked it overnight Glutinous rice will be cooked . After it had been cooked well, we need to cool it. After it has cooled, the yeast was pounded and then sprinkled it on the top of cooked rice. sugar was mixed with water and sprinkle each layer of rice with water to start the fermentation The rice was packed in layers into a tight container. Each of the layer was sprinkled with some sugar water to allow the fermentation proces. It will take about 2 days for fermentation occurred. After 2 days, there will be a bit liquid in the bottom of the container. At this time, the fermentation is complete. The liquid which collects at the bottom of container is called brem (rice wine). Originally it have a low alcohol content after fermentation in a few days but if it continued fermented, the alcohol content will increase. Yeast will carried out both anaerobic respiration and aerobic respiration. In the fermentation in of yeast, anaerobic respiration is occurred which is the yeast will secrete the enzyme zymase (Ali et al, 2012). According to Ali et al (2012), this enzyme will hydrolyse glucose to form the ethanol, energy and carbon dioxide in the absence of the oxygen Glucose → Ethanol + Carbon Dioxide + Energy The enzyme can speed up the fermentatation process and only a small amount of enegy used. Therefore, in ethanol there is a large amount of energy stored as chemical energy due to the incomplete broken down of glucose in anerobic respiration. 3.0 The Importance of Determination of Alcohol In western countries, there are a lot of alcoholic beverages for example beers, wines and distilled spirit drinks. A drink that typically containing below 60% v/v of ethyl alcohol is known as an alcoholic beverage (Gallignani et al,2005). There are three main classes of alcoholic beverages which are wines, beers and distilled spirit. Ryan (2014) stated that the alcoholic beverages which are made from germinated barley (malt), water, yeast and hops are known as beers while alcoholic beverages that produced by the fermentation of fresh grapes and grains for example rice are called as wines. The distilled spirituous beverages that contained 15% of alcohol or above and made from tubers, grain, fruit or sugar cane are known as spirit. But it is clearly that it is forbidden for Muslims to consume it as we know the alcohol content that exist in the beverages. On the other hand, in Malaysia we are not consuming the alcohol in the alcoholic beverages but we are consuming alcohol in the food product without realized about it. As stated above, alcohol can be produced naturally in some product that we consumed in our daily life such as soy sauce, fermented cassava and fermented glutinous rice that also become the Malaysian favorite food especially during the celebrations. Besides, there are also laboratories or specialized factory that produced ethanol artificially for the processing of various consumer products. Generally, the issue of the existence of alcohol in food is still been debated until today in Malaysia. The confusion is not only faced by the society but it also faced by the academicians and scholars. Glutinous fermented rice seems to have ethanol content higher than had been stated by JAKIM. Compared to the others natural product like soy sauce, the alcohol content in the fermented glutinous rice is about 5% of ethanol. Table 1: Alcohol content (ethanol) in fermented glutinous rice and fermented cassava. (The Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) , 1983) Alcohol content (ethanol) % Day Fermented glutinous rice Fermented cassava 0 3.0 3.4 1 3.4 2.8 2 5.2 3.3 Based on the table 1, the ethanol content on the day 3 of the fermentation showed that the ethanol content in the fermented glutinous rice is 5.2% which is higher than the fermented cassava which is 3.3%. The alcohol content in fermented glutinous rice is similar to the alcohol content in beers which is 5%. Thus it had raised the halal issues to the Muslim community in Malaysia. Apart from that, consuming too much alcohol can lead to the bad consequences to the consumers especially for the acute chronic consumer. It is the main reason why we need to study the alcohol contents in fermented glutinous rice. The information about the content of alcohol can be such a contribution to the people and for the sake of Muslims all around the world. It also can make them more aware about what they had consumed. The ethanol content in fermented glutinous rice can increase when we continuing kept it for a longer time. At the certain time, the liquid produced can be categorized as alcohol as it can make us drunk if over consumed. As we know, when we consumed alcohol in a large amount, it can give a bad consequence effect to the consumer. Besides having pervasive psychosocial and economic consequences, alcohol is one of the main contributors to morbidity and mortality (Acharjee et al, 2015). All around the world, the number of deaths and substantial disability from medical and psychiatric consequences of alcohol misuse is increases day by day. Clearly in term of health, it is not good for us to consume alcohol in our life. Alcohol has an adverse impact on human. It has been proven in science, psychology and sociology. Acharjee et al (2015) also stated that large amount of alcohol has harmful effects on our health. For instance, alcohol can effects our cardiovascular such as hypertension, sudden cardiac death, stroke, cardiomyopathy and cardiac arrhythmias. In term of psychology, some crime and immorality in society happened due to the intake of alcohol. Often, drunks do not have a good attitude because when they get drunk, they were not aware of their behavior, which can cause discomfort to the community. This group also can apply chaos in a country because when alcohol addicts exist in a government or private sector, it can lead to abuse of power, property, embezzlement of state funds and breach of trust. 4.0 ANALYTICAL METHODS IN DETERMINATION OF ETHANOL A number of analytical methods have been employed with the aim of determination of alcohol. Commonly, there are combination of methods in order to achieved better result while analyze the sample. In western countries, various type of analytical method were developed to determine alcohol in alcoholic beverages. For example, Vonach et al (1998) had presented the coupling of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with Fourier –transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). It can be used to determine the main component of wine such as glucose, fructose, citric, lactic, tartaric acid, glycerol, ethanol and so on. When it was about the sample preparation, it seems that the process was a little bit tedious because when using the internal standard, it need to be dissolved in distilled water and many more process need to carry out. The stationary phase and mobile phase that used in this study is ion-exchange resin based column and sulfuric acid. From the external reference data, an average deviation can be resulted which is 0.16mg/ml (Vonach et al, 1998). Yarita et al (2002) had proposed HPLC-FID to determine the ethanol content. Pure water had been chosen as a mobile phase in this study. When liquid water was introduced in FOD system, it changes into vapor. Due to limited flow rate of the HPLC eluent that introduced in FID system, capillary tube act as an alternative ways to control the flow rate of the HPLC eluent. Triacontylsylyl (C-30) silica gel is preferred because it show less decrease in the retention time compared with other. The ethanol concentration in the six sample can be detected around 10.2%-40.8% v/v at temperature 150C (Yarita et al, 2002). Gas chromatography also can be used as analytical tool to determine the alcohol in sample. Wang et al (2004) had proposed direct injection capillary gas chromatography that can be used to detect the methanol in beverages. Megapore capillary column with high polarity had been choosing to get the optimum condition for this study. It is because of it can used to separate the methanol in alcoholic beverages from the other components. At the stable baseline region, according to Wang et al (2004) when using acetonitrile as internal standard, it can perform clear separation from other constituents of sample. The samples studied were wine and whisky. Based on the obtained result, chromatogram give 3.06 min retention time for methanol while for the internal standard, it consumed about 4.21 min. Gas chromatography coupling with capillary column also has been proposed by Wang et al (2004). The aim was to determine both concentration of methanol and ethanol by using two internal standards which are acetonitrial for ethanol and 2- pentanol for methanol. Wang et al (2004) stated that for methanol, the retention time that revealed by this method was 2.87min while for ethanol, the retention time was 3.41 min. The analysis of both alcohol by using this method is 12 min. Apart from that, the limit of quantitation (LOQ) for methanol was 5 ÃŽ ¼g/mL and ethanol was 5 mg/mL (Wang, 2004). These methods are assumed to give contribution in order to determine the methanol content in industries due to high accuracy and precision. However, this method is time consuming and tedious. Vapour-phase FT-IR also can be used as analytical tool in determination of alcohol in beverages. In this experiment, there are aqueous solution of ethanol and methanol in the sample (Garrigues et al., 1997). The alcohol that contained in the sample had determined by using liquid-phase FTIR and vapour-phase FTIR. According to the Garrigues et al (1997), the result that obtained by the liquid-phase FTIR spectra, when pure water is used as a blank, there are a series of overlapping positive and negative peak (Garrigues et al., 1997). On the other hand, when discussing about FTIR spectra obtained by using vapour-phase FTIR after the injection of sample in heated plate, Garrigues et al (1997) stated that both ethanol and methanol provided a well-defined peak in the range of 1500 to 900 cm-1.The absorbance value for liquid-phase and vapour-phase are same but the spectrum for vapour-phase is clearer than spectrum for liquid-phase. Besides, the sensitivity and resolution of the alcohol band also high for vapour-phase FTIR (Garrigues et al., 1997). For the screening analysis of beverages, NIR can be used as a spectroscopic technique ( Barboza, 2003). The applications range was limited when using NIR because it has low sensitivity (Lanchemier, 2007). According to Chandley (1993), between NIR bitterness value and spectral data, the observation is it has a poor correlations and it needs the evaporation of water (dry extract spectroscopy) to make the determination of bitterness become possible. When mid-infrared combination with FTIR spectroscopy was used, it becomes such a development in the spectroscopic analysis compared with the using of NIR. Compared to the NIR, when using FTIR, we can get better result when analyzing the minor component such as lactic acid (Lanchenmier , 2007). Furhermore,it also can produce high resolution peak and the spectra also clearer when using FTIR ( Gallignani et al, 2003). Liquid Fourier transform-middle infrared spectrometry can be used to analyze wine in a 90 s (Patz et al., 2004). FTIR/PLS have b een developed for the multicomponent screening to analyze the alcohol in beverages (Neuwoudt et al, 2004).A lot of information can be obtained when using NMR rather than NIR and FTIR. According to Lanchenmier et al (2005), the distinct signals of the spectra can be produced if NMR was applied. In the calculation of cost-benefit for both NMR and FTIR, Lanchenmier (2007) also mentioned that in contrast with NMR, FTIR can give more advantage for screening method due to the less investment and operational costs. In this study, we want to determine the concentration of the ethanol in fermented glutinous rice with the use of FTIR and combination with Partial Least Square in the context of official food control. FTIR can give us advantages in order to determine and analyse the alcohol in alcoholic beverages because it can help us to reduce the time cost, and at the same time, it is also contribute for a good precision and accuracy when dealing with the parameters (Moreira et al., 2004). Fu rthermore, according to Lachenmeier (2007), a simple sample preparation is needed when dealing with FTIR spectroscopy compared to the other analytical methods. Problem Statement Recently the consumption of the fermented glutinous rice had rise the halal issue to the Muslim community since its alcohol content is similar to beer which is 5%. In order to determine the alcohol contained in the fermented glutinous rice, the government and private sector need the easiest, cheapest and low in cost analytical method for determination of alcohol. So we have come out with FTIR spectroscopy technique as this technique did not require the sample preparation like the other analytical method. Besides, it is not time consuming method and it has low cost compared to the other method. We also combine the FTIR with combination of Partial Least Square (PLS) in order to achieve better result. Objectives This study was conducted based on the objectives stated below: To develop method with the best accuracy To determine the lowest of detection limit To identified the ethanol contained in the sample