My Career In International Management Education Essay

My C arer In external steering Education EssayThe main purpose of this report is a self-evaluation of my accomplishment, attributes and competencies relevant for my career in International Management. Point out cleverness that an aimetary manager should welcome, evaluate these acquisitions and see where my strengths and weaknesses are, and in any case giving induction of my experience with these clevernesss.Also included is a re capture of progress do regarding the mid semester spite maturation stemma of study, that had to do with targets within a geological period of sextet weeks. A smart growing cast for a period of six months ordain be included in this report and it will counseling on dickens important targets that i int end to reform on to help me for the close six months, it will be special(prenominal), measurable, achievable, realistic and clock bound.2.0 SELF EVALUATIONThe main aim of this self development plan is a guide in identifying accomplishme nts, competences and attributes relevant to me for a future career as an global manager. consort to MacBeath 2006, self evaluation is a process of disco actu each(prenominal)y, knowing ones self and identifying strengths and capabilities, identifying weaknesses and overly improving on them. For a future career in international perplexity i excite to front identify slightly skills and competences that i should have and that are important to be effective as an international manager these skills areCross heathenish Communication skillInterpersonal skillCultural intelligenceTeam take a crapTime managementLeadership skillDecision makingNegotiation skillCultural empathyThere are so me truly other skills and competences that are non mentioned above, although these are the few that i can relate myself with and ground to what extent i have developed in these areas.2.01 CROSS ethnical COMMUNICATION SKILLPersonally, i prefer face to face communication which involves direct contact w ith speaker involved, knowing the speakers facial expressions and gestures and to be able to listen properly and avoid miscommunications, having proper understanding of what the speakers is saying. For example when i started my masters create by mental act i found it ambitious to communicate with my speaks, beca usage i had to send emails to them, this was a new experience for me. In communication across conclusions contexts is very important, according to Browaeys and Price (2008), Hall (1990) settled firmly on two multitudes of culture high context and low context cultures. An example of the high context cultures are primaeval Europe, Arabs and Asians who leave their messages unspecified and most of the message is hidden in the text making it a second gear difficult to understand, while an example of the low context cultures are Germans, Americans their messages are explicit and can be understood through facial expressions and gestures. Although communication with Chinese a nd Indian colleagues and screen out mates was very difficult a first due to the accent they have but with while, i began to understand them better without having any problems beca phthisis of the all(prenominal)day encounter.2.02 INTERPERSONAL SKILLSInterpersonal skill is in the main regarded as important as an international manager, having this skill will aid integration socially to gain knowledge and also establish relationships with state. I dont stand for i have any problem fitting into a new environment, i normally follow up on my environment first to know the kind of people, know what to say and what non to say to them that might stand their feelings. After doing this most of the era i dont find it difficult getting along well with people. This skill has built my confidence a dole out and it has also modify my relationship with people from polar cultures2.03 CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE CQCultural intelligence has to do with understanding contrasting cultures by interp reting unfamiliar and indeterminate gestures (Earley and Mosakowski 2004). After taking a test on heathenish intelligence from the article from my MCME module guide, the impression reflected that i have a reasonable level of cultural intelligence. There were three aspects cognitive CQ, sensual CQ and emotional/ motivational CQ. The total points out of 5 where, for Cognitive CQ 4, Physical CQ 4.3 and Emotional/ motivational CQ 4.5. I am confident with this result because before inter playing with people i stop to think before acting and i can also transport the form of speech like my accent. I scored higher in the Emotional/ motivational CQ i am confident that i can deal with people from varied cultures and i can also adapt to the lifestyle of different cultures. When i first came into the UK i had to change my accent for people to understand and i also had to get reserve to the word love which is used often here.2.04 TEAM WORK AND PRESENTATION SKILLSWorking in teams is no new thing to me and it is a very important skill for an international manager. My course international stemma and management entails a lot of team clip and we are usually put into groups of disciples from different countries. In these groups thither are different people from different parts of the world, Chinese, Indians, Germans, and Italians with different team authoritys. According to Belbins team character references (Duggan 2009), people have different components like coordinators, sharper, implementer, completer, specialist, resource investigators, having one or more of this skill will enhance a role in a team. Out of all these roles my preferred role is by coordinating, for example calling my group members and fixing meetings and also a team builder as well. I happened to have done a lot of group work for my masters degree, where we are put into for five to six members and a potpourri of students from different cultures, Chinese, Indians and the outcome has been rewa rding especially through return backs of marks awarded by my tutors. This also relates to my presentment skill as the outcome for most of my presentations have been respectable and i have evaluated this form pass backs gotten form the tutors and also my class mates. Since the beginning of my course i have worked on my presentation skill and also my power point skill. I have used the skills online website provided by my school to enhance this skill. It has helped me focus more on main points in the presentation, being confident and making eye contact with the audience.2.05 while MANAGEMENT SKILLThis is a very important skill, when there is no well behaved management of time they tend to be a lot of procrastinations, and this affects time because there is a tendency to delay in doing something that has been previously planned. Initially this was a problem for me and it started affecting most of my daily activities due to procrastination, this was really sad at first because it kept on occurring and then it began to affect my school work. I decided to have a to-do-list mapping out things i had to do on a daily bases and followed this list religiously, because as a student in the UK i have keep to time because it is part of the culture of the people to do so. Time is very crucial and important for a future career in international management because in the future, i have to be on time for business appointments and meetings. Developing this skill has been of good use to me.2.06 LEADERSHIP SKILLSIn evaluating my leading skill, by looking at my role as a team member which is that of a coordinator and it has to do with organising members for group meetings and also building an effective team. I have had an experience in school where i had to take up a leading role because my group members where a bit relaxed and nonchalant about our presentation so i took up the role of coordinating the group and made sure the work was done properly. Out of the six leadership styles which are coercive, authoritative, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting, and coaching leaders, over time i have observed that i am more of an affiliative/ muliebrity leader in the sense that i tend not to be too hard on people and create an emotional bond with the people around me. Leadership varies depending on the culture, according to Hofsteds findings, there are four dimensions of different cultures, and they are power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism / collectivism, and masculinity/ femininity. Although in Nigeria where Im from leadership is more collective and masculine and also a high level of power distance. With my little work experience a lot of respect is shown by those who are being led.2.07 NEGOTIATION SKILLSThis is an essential skill for most business dealings today. Negotiation styles vary across different cultures. An example is a dialogue exercise i participated in, where we were divided into groups of US negotiators and Chinese negotiators, i realised that the US negotiators are mostly based on getting the deal done and are eager to get as more information they can to make progress in negotiations, while Chinese negotiators mostly try not to give information and this may cause frustration, for example for a US negotiator.The categories of different cultures of negotiation by Richard D Lewis (Rushton 2009 ) are linear active, multi active and reactive cultures. I am from a multi active culture where most people are extroverts, they talk a lot, but personally i am more of an introvert, i tend to be quiet sometimes. Although havent yet had much experience of negotiating professionally, i do have to negotiate at times for example, going to a local market and negotiating on a hurt for an item. I still need to improve on this skill because it essential for me if i intend to pursue a career in international Business.2.08 DECISION MAKING AND CULTURAL EMPATHYDecision making is not an easy process although it is required as an international manager to be able to make good decisions for an organisation or business. It is also essential for good leadership. When its times to take decisions on my own, i usually seek advice from family, friend and people around me. Making good decision a times could be a problem for me.For cultural empathy i always try to listen to people, appreciate their views and use my cultural intelligence skill in this as well.3.0 MID SEMESTER SMART DEVELOPMENT PLAN REVIEWIn relation to a review of the progress made in my mid semester SMART development plan which was set at the beginning of my course, Msc International business and Management for a period of six weeks had positive results. Although due to the fact that i had many skills to improve on, it was a bit difficult to master all of them.One of the skills i planned to improve on which didnt quite work out pretty was the composition skills. The reason why it wasnt too successful was because the period of time given was too pathetic for me to have covered all i wanted to and i was not able to attend the school term on writing skills made available by graduate skills programme because some of the sessions clashed with my classes. Although i made some progress on my power point skill, and this skill is relevant for me to produce good visual aids for presentations during my course. I had a lot of practise done on my own and also i also volunteered to produce visual aid for group presentation which was a good outcome with regards to feed backs from my presentations. Also progress was made on my research skills, and this was done by exploring different sources of text books, articles, journals and this was very helpful during my course. I have also been able to manage my time by making use of my to-do-list which i made on a weekly basis. On the to-do-list i put high priorities first before any other activity and this helped me to a great extent. I was able to make time for my research, course work and al so create time for myself.My mid semester development plan had both prejudicious and positive outcomes, although it was very useful for me because it helped me identify skills to be developed and improved on.4.0 SMART DEVELPOMENT PLANWith this SMART development plan, i will focus on a specific goal to be improved on within the next six months. By so doing i intend to take specific steps on improving on skills that will be of good use for both my course and in my professional life. I would like to improve on my writing skill and on my leadership skills, but for the purpose report i would improve on my writing skill, because writing is a very important skill as a student and as an international manager. To justify my reasons for improving on this skill, below is a SMART development plan for the next six monthsSPECIFICI plan to improve on my writhing skill within the next six months, given that its a chronic period i should be able to work on this skill and accomplish it by the end o f the sixth month.MEASURABLEIn six months time i should have improved on my writing skill byReading relevant books, articles and journals on writing especially on academic writing.victimization information from the skills online website made available for me by the school.I should be able to know the appropriate social organization and format for both essay writing and report writing because it is very relevant for my course.Properly apply the right grammar and punctuations in my writing.Going for sessions on how to develop writing skills offered by the graduate skills programme of Sheffield business school.ACHIEVABLEThis skill can be achieved by putting a lot of effort and by making use of the resources from the library, the internet to help me with this skill, although there might be some restraints due to other commitments in terms of course work.These are the activities that i should be able to achieve in the next six months1st Month First month starting from February i will a ttend class sessions like English for post graduate students by the university English scheme. This will help focus on general language skills like writing and also preparing for my dissertation. I will attend these classes at least(prenominal) 2 times in a week for a month.2nd Month Make use of the learning centre find books on writing that will enable me understand writing properly. tertiary Month Make use of the key skills online which has been made available for me by my school explore every option including a skill check on writing which will help me get clearer view off my writing skills.4th Month Search for books, articles journals that relate to essay and report writing. Look at examples and identify structures, the use of English.5th Month Get books that can help me with my use of English, punctuations, grammar, vocabulary and also learn how to proof read my essays and reports.6th Month practice writing on my own, using all the information and knowledge learnt from pr evious months, show a friend or colleague that is good in writing to double check what i have written and make corrections.REALISTICThe need to improve on my writing skill is realistic in the sense that it will be useful for the be part of my course for my assignments and my dissertation. It will influence my assignments by writing proper essays and reports use proper grammar and punctuations and also it help me in the future if i intend to pursue a career in international management.TIME BOUNDThe time set for my SMART development plan is six months and within this period i will still be undergoing my masters program, writing will be a good skill to develop on because i will be doing a lot of writing and the time of six months is realistic.5.0 CONCLUSIONThe self evaluation was mostly about the skills and competences that are relevant to me as i would like to pursue a future career in international management. Hopefully with more work on these skills it wont be difficult for me to work in a multicultural environment. The SMART development plan is about the skill i intend to improve, it is very important to me as a student and also in my future career in international management.BIBLOGRAGHYBROWAEYS , Marie Joelle and PRICE Roger (2008). Understanding cross cultural Management, Prentice HallDUGGAN, Chris (2009). Multicultural team work. Lecture hand outs. From an MCME lecture held on 17th November at Sheffield Hallam University. advance(prenominal) Christopher P and MOSAKOWSKI Elaine (2004). Cultural Intelligence. Harvard Business Review, October 2004.GOMAN Carol Kinsey , Ph.D ( 2007) Communicating Across Culturesonline. Last accessed 26th January 2010 at http//www.asme.org/NewsPublicPolicy/Newsletters/METoday/Articles/Communicating_Across_Cultures.cfmMACBEATH tail end (2006). Self inspection and self evaluation Working with new relationship, USA and Canada, RoutledgeRUSHTON, Diane (2009). Leadership skill for twenty-first century MNCs (lecture hand out) from an MCME lecture held in November at Sheffield Hallam University .RUSHTON Daine (2009). Cross Cultural Negotiation lecture hand outs. From an MCME lecture held on 10th November at Sheffield Hallam UniversitySCHNEIDER, Susan C, and BARSOUX, Jean Louis (2003). Managing Across cultures, prentice HallSkills online website, last accessed 26th January 2010 at http//keyskills.shu.ac.uk/lskills/TLTP3/entersite.html

Determining the Success of a Project

De considerationining the Success of a wanderSuccess has always been the ultimate remnant of every slip of go through. Many specialists in the field give up performed extensive researches in an attempt to analyse and define what decl be oneselfs winner is. Judging the achiever of a communicate is rather an elusive concept since or so witnesss we hear may be a failure to one set of stakeholders while others may watch it to be a advantage. This bind makes an attempt to define supremacy in escorts based on the take form of experts in this field of examine.IntroductionA bug erupt can be defined as a unique venture with a beginning and an reverse conducted by batch to meet established goals deep down a parameter of cost reduced and quality increased (Field Keller, P.2). furthermore a ascertain has the succeeding(a) toneistics such(prenominal)(prenominal) as specific objectives, required resources, have a budget and enrolment, and requires exploit of community, measures quality and eventually functions within a life make pass. On the contrary, learn attention can be defined as the way of controlling the victory of the final cause objectives, by the use of existing music directorial structure and roof to manage the labor by linking a compilation of tools and skill without interrupting the regular function of a company.The pronounce succeeder is a fascinating word as its is known universally and is broad in character defining it is non easy, because if asked from different individuals its meaning would change according their perceptions. Project success can be considered as one of the indistinct concepts of visualize management. Since each stakeholder of a project has different needs and expectations, it is putting green to anticipate them defining project success in their own way of understanding (Cleland Ireland, 2004, p2).The Sydney Opera kinsperson project is a typical drill of how different stakeholders have different perspectives of a project. The Opera preindication (Thomsett, 2002) took 4 times more of the original time to finish and its cost went 16 times over budget. But the nett impact the Opera House performd was so immense it simply made people overlook the projects original unmet goals. The project was a huge hit for the general public even though it was considered as a failure in the insure of project management. On the contrary, the construction of the Millennium edible bean in London was a project that was completed on time and on budget scarce the British public considered it a failure because it didnt deliver the glamour that it was originally expected to make (Cammack, 2005).Since at that place is widespread variance of opinions in the study of success in projects, many learned writers seem to have given various views on this topic based on extensive research and surveys. Their works mark among project success, project success criteria and project success factors.Project s uccessJugdev and Muller (2005) in their article pointed out that in order to identify what success means in a project framework is like obtaining consensus from a group of individuals on the explanation of Good Art. Project success is a musical theme matter that is commonly talked about and yet very hardly settled upon (Baccarini, 1999). Commonly, the attitudes on project success have developed gradually over the age from simple explanations that were restricted to the implementation phase of the project life cycle to explanations that reflect gratitude of success over the whole project and ingathering life cycle (Jugdev and Muller, 2005).Cleland (1986) suggested that project success is significant only if measured from two vantage points the extent to which the projects technical cognitive process objective was accomplished on time and within budget the contribution that the project made to the strategic mission of the organization.According to Pinto Slevin (1988) in their re search after sampling over 650 project managers concluded that, Project Success is something difficult than just meeting cost, time, and doing specifications. As a matter of fact, clients contentment with the final result has a great deal to do with the perceived success or collapse of projects.Baccarini (1999) notice two different components of project successProject Management Success This concentrates upon the project process and curiously the successful achievement of cost, time, and quality. Also the way in which the project management process was performed will be considered.Product Success This deals with the effects of the projects final product. A clear difference should be made among product success and project management success, in order to properly identify and evaluate project management success and product success, as they ar differ from each other.According to Baccarini (1999), Project success can be summarized asProject success = project management success + project product successWith this definition in mind, it is also important to compreh discontinue what measures enable us to judge whether a project is successful or not. These measures are termed as Project success criteria.Project success criteriaCrawfords (2002) view is that project success is an important project management issue and also in discussions, a oftentimes discussed topic is, it is difficult to find an agreement on the criteria by which success is judged. (Pinto and Slevin 1988 Freeman and Beale 1992 Shenhar, Levy, and Dvir 1997 Baccarini 1999).A study of literature also reveals that a greater level of agreement with the definitions given by Baker, Murphy and pekan (1988) that project success is a subject of perception and it is considered to be an overall success if the project meets requirements such as technical performance specifications, mission to be performed. It also needs a high distributor point of satisfaction about the project results among the key peop le of the project team up and the key users of the project effortThe renowned and famous criteria to measure project success have been known as Golden triangle or Iron Triangle. Hence Cost, time and qulity is referd to as the central criteria of the Golden Triangle (Atkinson, 1999, p338). Atkinson continues that this method of standard project success have not been changed or developed in almost fifty years (1999, p338).According to Stuckenbruck (1986), quantifyment on project success should be done by different stakeholder groups such as customers, managers, employees, shootholders, etc. Thus it was proposed that the criteria for assessing project success should reflect different stakeholder views.Freeman and Beale (1992) presented an appealing example of different perceptions of people. According to their study An architect may consider success in terms of aesthetic appearance, an engineer in terms of technical competence, an accountant in terms of dollars spent under budge t, a human resources manager in terms of employee satisfaction, and chief executive officers rate their success in the stock grocery. In their study Freeman and Beale (1992) set and proposed seven main criteria for measuring success of projects.Technical performanceEfficiency in project executionManagerial and organizational implicationsPersonal growthProject cobblers lastTechnical innovativeness and business performanceManufacturing feasibilityWideman (1996, p3-4) believes that project success is time subordinate and therefore it should be assessed with time taken into consideration. The reason behind time dependency is based on the fact that project success varies with time. Wideman(1996) illustrated four time dependant groups as mentioned below.Internal project objectives efficiency during the project good to customer effectiveness in the short termDirect contribution assessed in the medium termFuture opportunity assessed in the long termShenhar, Dvir and Levy(1997) const ructed a universal multidimensional framework that would inspection and repair in assessing project success. In their methodology, project success is perceived as a strategic management concept where the end result of the project would fit with the strategic direction of a company whom the end result of the project is originally intended to serve. Their study also revealed that project success is time dependant and thus they identified four groups and translated them into measurable criteria.Internal Project Efficiency (Pre- finale) meeting schedule terminate within budgetOther resource constraints metImpact of the Customer (Short term)Meeting functional performanceMeeting technical specifications standardsFavorable impact on customer, customers gainFulfilling customers needsSolving customers problemCustomer is employ productCustomer expresses satisfactionBusiness and Direct Success (Medium term)Immediate business/commercial eruditionImmediate revenue profits enhancedLarger mar ket share generatedPreparing for the Future (Long term)Will create new opportunities for the futureWill position customer competitivelyWill create new marketWill assist in developing new technologyWill add/has added capabilities competenciesProject success factorsAs defined by Cooke-Davies Success factors are those inputs to the management system that lead directly or indirectly to the success of the project or business (Cooke-Davies, 2002, p185). In practice, some project managers instinctively take root their own project success factors. heretofore, most of these factors are not cl other(a) documented, thus are not considered to become a part of formal project management literature or historical project data (Rad Levin, 2002, p18).From the 1980s to 2000 many researchers have attempted to identify success factors for projects. Kerzner (1987), Pinto and Slevin (1987-1989), (Sadeh, Dvir, Shenhar, 2000), Cooke Davis (2002) and Muller and Turner (2005) are among the top researcher s who have conducted extensive researches in this area of study.The table below (Table 1) points out critical success factors that were identified by specialists, and were later reviewed and tabulated by Belassi and Tukel (1996).Baker, Murphy and Fisher (1983)Clear goalsGoal commitment of project teamOn-site project managerAdequate funding to completionAdequate project team cap exponentAccurate initial cost estimatesMinimum start-up difficultiesPlanning and control techniquesAbsence of bureaucracy employ (1984)Make project commitments knownProject authority from the topAppoint competent project managerSet up communications and proceduresSet up control mechanisms (schedules, etc.)Progress meetingsCleland and King (1983)Project heavysetOperational conceptTop management gageFinancial supportLogistic requirementsFacility supportMarket intelligence (who is the client)Project scheduleExecutive development and trainingManpower and organization development and communication channelsProjec t reviewPinto and Slevin (1989)Top management supportClient consultation force-out recruitmentTechnical tasksClient acceptanceMonitoring and feedbackCommunicationTrouble-shootingCharacteristics of the project team leader king and politicsEnvironment eventsUrgencyTable 1 Critical success factors tabulated by Belassi and Tukel (1996).Belassi and Tukel (1996) in their study, examine the above mentioned success factors and grouped them into four areas.Factors related to the projectFactors related to the project managers and the team membersFactors related to the organizationFactors related to the external environment.It is evident that whatever critical success factors that are known, can be grouped under these four areas identified by Belassi and Tukel (1996).Dvir, Raz, Shenhar (2003) conducted a survey among 100 Israeli defense lawyers projects, and their findings pointed out a noteworthy positive connection between the projects success and each of the factors listed below.The amo unt of effort spent in defining and identifying the goals of the projectThe functional requirementsTechnical specifications of the projectAccording to Verma (1995, 1996) communication, leadership and teamwork are essential for efficient management of project human resources and are vital to achieve project objectives successfully.Murray, J.P. (2001) identified nine factors that could coerce an IT project into success or failure.Proper senior management commitment to the projectAmple amount of project financial supportA well defined set of project requirements and specificationsCautious development of a all-inclusive project plan that incorporates enough time and flexibility to know and deal with unanticipated difficulties as they ariseA proper commitment of time and attention from the client, have with a rapture to see it through to the endFrank, accurate reporting of the status of the project and of electromotive force complexities as they ariseA critical assessment of the ri sks inherent in the project, and potential harm associated with those risks, and the ability of the project team to manage those risksThe development of appropriate contingency plansAn objective evaluation of the capability and enthusiasm of the organization to stay on the project courseTurner Mller (2004, 2005) conducted studies on the impact of project manager and his/her involvement and leadership style on project success. Turner Mller (2005) believe that prehistorical literature on the subject of Project success factors, have ignored the impact of a project manager on project success. However, Turner and Muller (2005, p59) has rather given a contradictive conclusion that the leadership style and competence of the project manager have no impact on project success.In concern to project management, project success also relies on the capability to systematize, coordinate, and support a diverse group functioning towards a common target. Project success factors may differ depending on the type of project. Thus it is important to have a clear idea on what factors drives each type of project toward success. This would enable the project stakeholders to accomplish what they perceive as success.ConclusionIn the past it was believed that if a projects completion time exceeds its due date, or expenses overran the budget, or its results did not satisfy a companys preset performance criteria, the project was considered to be a failure. At present it is unsounded that determining whether a project is a success or failure is far more complex.It is important for a project manager to be informed of what the stakeholders consider as a successful project. In order to avoid any surprises at the end of the project, it is important to identify the different perspectives of what success means before the project begins.It is in the main agreed that schedule and budget performance may be considered as insufficient measures of project success however they are still important c omponents of the overall constructs. Quality is interconnected with issues of achievement of functional objectives, specifications and issues of technical performance. It is also understood that a projects success varies with time and varies in the eye of various project stakeholders. Thus, a criteria used to assess project success should be time dependent and should be using multiple perspectives of stakeholders. However, future studies may reveal other successful means of success criteria.As for success factors, they can be generally grouped into four distinct sets. General management literature shows how effective leadership is a success factor in organizations, and has revealed that a proper leadership style can lead to better performance. However studies on leadership in project context are contradicting with this perception. A common factor pointed out by many authors is that senior management support is one of the most important factors that can drive projects toward success or failure. Success factors may vary depending on the project type. In conclusion, early assortment of success criteria can ensure a definite view of how the project will be judged and early detection of success factors will assure a safe path to deliver success.

Huge Inflammatory Myofibroblastic Tumor in Teenager

Huge Inflammatory Myofibroblastic Tumor in Teen get along withr addictBackground Inflammatory myofibroblastic neoplasm (IMT) is a r atomic number 18 kind neoplasm. The bulky IMT of dresser is even out rarely observed and there is few literatures draw the disease.Case instauration A 17-year-old girl who suffered from a dry coughing with ripe(p) chest pain. Contrast-enhanced CT showed a huge heterogeneous hoi polloi with calcified plaques. A surgical management strategy was successfully undertaken. Increasing doc awareness of this entity should facilitate acknowledgment of its clinical characteristics and laboratory findings.Conclusions This case suggests that a rarely huge and surgically tempered IMT in a stripling and concerned with the radioclinical, histopathological, therapeutic aspects of this disease.KeywordsInflammatory myofibroblastic neoplasm, Lung, SurgeryBackgroundInflammatory myofibroblastic tumour (IMT) is a rare benign tumor that often affects children. It has been first draw by Brunn in 1939 1 and it accounts for 0.71% of all lung tumors. 2, 3. The origin of the IMT is unknown, but recent studies ease up shown that it is a truthful tumor rather than a reaction carry out 4. Different terms used to describe IMT include subversive pseudotumor, electric cellular phoneular inflammatory pseudotumor, blood plasma cell granuloma and inflammatory fibrosarcoma. This lesion consists of inflammatory cells and myofibroblastic spindle cells 5, 6. We subject field a case with a rarely huge and surgically treated IMT in a teenager and concerned with the radioclinical, histopathological, therapeutic aspects of this disease.Case bowationA 17-year-old girl was referred to our hospital with a 15 days storey of sort out chest and cough without sputum. She denied the following symptoms including the presence ofhoarseness, hemoptysis, anddyspnea. Her medical tale and family history were uneventful. Physical interrogation revealed normal breat h sounds in both(prenominal) of the lung fields. The results of laboratory enquirys, including arterial blood gases, hematology tests and biochemistry tests, were within normal limits. Her pneumonic function tests and cardiovascular examination revealed normal performance. Contrast-enhanced chest computed tomography (CT) showed an 181615 cm heterogeneous mass with calcified plaques invading the entire chastise hemithorax and mediastinal shift to the left (Fig 1A, 1B). However, the patient refused to have the bronchoscopic examination and fine-needle biopsy of the mass. As diagnosing was not established through imaging, surgery was scheduled. down the stairs general anesthesia with selective intubation, a huge mass (measuring 201717 cm and weighing 2010g) with small vena cava and right pericardium invasion was found and the right middle and lower lobes bronchus appeared enclose by the mass. At last, the neoplasm was completely excised. The patient underwent a right middle and lower lobectomy, inferior vena cava angioplasty and partial resection of pericardium. Mediastinal lymph node dissection was withal accomplished. The feeding vessels of the mass were ligated and the mass was removed without tumor spillage or capsular injury. After that, reexpansion of the right upper lobe was observed and a chest tube was placed to drain the pleural cavity. A postoperative roentgenogram of the chest showed that the mediastinum had returned to its normal position and the right lung was swell up expanded. Microscopic examination revealed a proliferation of regular spindle cells arrayed in fascicles, admixed with lymphocytes, plasma cells and eosinophils. special immunohistochemistry with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-1 and smooth muscle actin (SMA) revealed positive and the translocation of the ALK gene was found by fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH). The results for desmin, S-100, CD99, CD34, Myogenin, EMA and pankeratin were negative. Ki-67 proliferativ e activity was 8%. Based on these data, the diagnosing of inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor was retained. Histologic diagnosis showed a negative bronchial margin and lymph nodes free of malignancy. The patient made an uneventful postoperative recuperation and was followed up for two months without evidence of recurrence to date.ConclusionsInflammatory myofibroblastic tumor (IMT) is a rare massforming lesion characterized by fibroblastic or myofibroblastic spindle cell proliferation with varying degrees of inflammatory cell infiltration. The World Health Organization (WHO) classified IMT as a distinct entity in 1994 7. However, the huge inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor of chest is even rarely observed and there is few literatures described the disease (Table). The bowel movement of IMT tumors is unclear, but an immunological response to an infectious agent or noncommunicable agent remains possible 8. Whereas some reporters demonstrated that IMT tumors are true neoplasms and som e believe the IMT tumors to be a low-grade sarcoma with inflammatory cells as it has a potential for local recurrence, infiltration, multicentricity, and rarely metastases 9. Also, ALK positivity is detected in 36% to 60% of cases and the presence of chromosomal aberrations in these tumors suggests that IMT is a neoplastic proliferation of clonal origin 10. In our case, there was no evidence of transmittance or inflammatory response and no history of trauma in her chest. The tumor was single and circumscribed, and movable.The IMT affects both sexes, at any ages, with a dismiss predominance in children and young adults 4, 11. Most patients are asymptomatic and the tumor is discovered incidentally on a chest X-ray performed for some another(prenominal) reason 4, 11.From the table, all of the four patients were young adults and were referred to the hospital with a habitual symptom of cough. In our patient, the tumor was discovered at an early age and the only symptoms were dry cou gh and right chest pain.Radiological aspects are capricious. Chest radiographs are the most generally performed imaging study to mensurate the neoplasm. Most patients have a mass or a pulmonary nodule, generally measuring 1 to 6 cm in diam 12. On CT scans, these tumors shows typically heterogenous attenuating enhancement 6. Sometimes the tumor can extend towards the hilum, mediastinum, pleura or diaphragm 1, 3. As recorded in the table, all the surfaces of masses were huge and two of them were observed the invasion of the mediastinal or the chest wall. There is similarly a word of caution in our case that the representative calcifications were observed in the centure of heterogeneous mass and it invaded the inferior vena cava and right pericardium.Microscopically the IMT tumor consists of spindle shaped cells that are mixed with a chronic inflammatory component that consists of plasma cells, lymphocytes, and perfunctory histiocytes. Immunohistochemistry for ALK discovered cytog enetic abnormalities on chromosome 2p23 is relatively specific for IMF tumor among the spectrum of fibroblastic-myofibroblastic tumors and other potential mesenchymal mimics of IMF tumor 13. The recent WHO classification of fluffy tissue tumors recognizes 3 basic variants of IMT (1) loosely organized myofibroblasts in an edematous myxoid background with plasma cells, lymphocytes, eosinophils, and blood vessels, resembling nodular fasciitis (2) dense aggregates of spindle cells arrayed in a variable myxoid and collagenized background and admixed with a distinctive inflammatory infiltrate, diffuse clusters of plasma cells, and lymphoid nodules, resembling fibrous histiocytoma or fibromatosis and (3) collagen sheets with scattered plasma cells and eosinophils resembling a sucker or desmoid tumor 14.The differential diagnosis of IMT is follicular dendritic cell tumor and inflammatory pseudotumor. Follicular dendritic cell sarcoma (FDCS), which was first inform by Monda et al. in 1986 , is a rare neoplastic proliferation that exhibits the morphological and immunophenotypic features of FDCS that are among the accessory cells of the lymphoid system. The tumor cells exhibited positive immunohistochemical catching for vimentin, CD21 and CD35 as well as negative spying for ALK-1 and SMA. Inflammatory pseudotumors are benign tumors usually found in the lung and they are characterized by proliferation of spindle cells (fibroblasts and myoblasts), with variable numbers racket of mitoses, and inflammatory cells infiltration, particularly plasma cells. More recently, the presence of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK 1) staining in some cases has been postulated to be of value in the confirmation of IMT and in its distinction from other entities. A series of studies found the translocation of the ALK gene by fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) in IMT (16). In our case, the mass was spindle cell lesion with severe atypism and some mitosis. As shown in Fig 2 (A, B, C), ganglion-like cells were present and the immunohistochemistry result for ALK-1 shows strong positivity of tumor cytoplasm and translocation of the ALK gene. Based on these findings, her tumor may be very aggressive.Despite IMT is a benign tumor, it is considered by some authors as a low grade tumor because of malignant features such as local invasiveness, recurrence or malignant transformation. Complete surgical resection is the appropriate treatment for IMT. Cerfolio and colleagues reported an excellent outlook in patients undergoing complete resection of pulmonary IMT, with a 5-year survival rate of 91.3%. However, a 60% recurrence rate in those receiving incomplete resection has been reported in the same study 15. Corticosteroid monotherapy may result in rapid resolution of the disease and sustained remission (17, 18). Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents (NSAIDs) as hermit therapy may be extremely efficacious and anecdotal response to chemotherapy has also been reported (1 9). As the literature reviewed in the table, three patients had the operations by a standard posterolateral thoracotomy. Among them, two patients had the lobectomy and the other had the complete resection with two through fourth ribs. The patient whose neoplasm invaded superior vena cava, heart atrium and right pulmonary vein underwent chemotherapy with bleomicin, etoposide and cisplatin. After two cycles of chemotherapy, the tumorslightly reduced in size and the patient only survived for 12 months.In summary, inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor is a rare benign tumor. Because of its local invasiveness and its tendency to recur, IMT tumor can be confused with malignant lesions. Because the treatment of IMT tumor is conservative surgery, preoperative recognition is important to avoid radiation therapy, and intensive multi-agent chemotherapy that would be appropriate treatments for soft tissue sarcomas. Clinical and radiological presentation is variable and nonspecific and the diagnosi s is rarely made before chirurgical management. Also, because the tumor with cellular atypia, ganglion-like cells, ALK and SMA reactivity has a more aggressive clinical behavior, a careful follow-up is required. prototype legendFigure 1 CT features of the case.A and B Contrast-enhanced CT showed a huge heterogeneous mass with calcified plaques.Figure 2 histological and immunoistochemical features.A Hematoxylin-eosin staining demonstrating spindle cells sprinkled, with a predominance of plasma cells and lymphocytes. (X400)B Immunohistochemical staining showing strong reactivity for anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-1(X400)C Immunohistochemical staining showing strong reactivity for smooth muscle actin (SMA) (X400)1

Techniques for Understanding Human Walking Motion

Techniques for Understanding Human Walking Motion displayMultimedia is a term that collectively describes a word form of media kernel available in assorted forms of text, speech, audio, still images, video, animation, graphics, 3D models and combinations of them use to mesmerize certain time moments. Over the recent years the technological advances dedicate enabled astray availability and easy access of multimedia content and much(prenominal) research was dedicated to finish automated computational tasks for a wide spectrum of applications such as surveillance, crime investigation, fashion and designing, traditional aerospace, publishing and advertising, aesculapian applications, virtual reality applications to name a few. The volume of multimedia culture is so huge now that the amendment in various tasks of representation, analyzing, look for and retrieving cognitive operation has become the need of the hour. Among all the available types of media, video is one of the prominent forms, widely used for analyzing multimedia content.Several types of videos can be captured by various recording devices but then even the nigh suitable types of devices used for acquiring videos accept to deal with two outstanding problems- arresting fissure and semantic gap. The sensory gap being- the difference amidst the real world and its representation. The sensory gap is the gap between the tendency in the world and the reading in a (computational) description derived from a recording of that pictorial matter Smeulders, A. W. M., Worring, M., Santini, S., Gupta, A., and Jain, R. (2000). Content-based image retrieval at the end of the early(a) years. IEEE legal proceeding on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 22(12)13491380.. The semantic gap being- the difference between the expression description by mercifulse lot and the computational model used by the human activity/ demeanor analysis systems. The semantic gap is the lack of coincidence b etween the development that one can extract from the visual information and the interpretation that the similar data have for a user in a wedded situation Smeulders, A. W. M., Worring, M., Santini, S., Gupta, A., and Jain, R. (2000). Content-based image retrieval at the end of the early years. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 22(12)13491380.. Many researchers have proposed to induce computational models of the human visual system to represent as shut up as possible to the reality. A major development was the frame change state proposed by David Marr at MIT, who used a bottom-up approach to represent scene instinct D. Marr, Vision A Computational investigating into the Human way and Processing of Visual schooling, Freeman, san Francisco (1982). Later, various state-of the-art methods evolved but, the technology that helps people to incorporate the content of multimedia, for meaningful expression is still lagging posterior.Within the demesne of multimedia content analysis, figurer mickle methods and algorithms have been used as foundation and the coupled relation between multimedia analysis and data processor vision is a well-known challenge. Currently, the most popular research acted by various researchers is the human straw man analysis. Several types of activities that atomic number 18 performed by piece can be captured by various recording devices and the human feat analysis systems were built with respect to context of applications. The aim of human movement analysis systems is to automatically take and transform the input video sequences into semantic interpretation of them. The recognition of human activities has been studied by computer vision for quite some time but is far behind the capabilities of human vision. In human visual system- when a person move is observed, humans brain recognizes that persons action by analyzing the transition of postures adopted or interprets behavior by tracking the pe rsons transition of postures and noting the intent of action. This analysis is complex for computer vision systems. Since the human body is non-rigid, deformable, articulated, a person can have a variety of postures over time. The works on human activity analysis have not provided satisfactory results yet.To solve problems relating human movement analysis use videos, the paradigm of data spinal fusion is recommended. Multimedia data fusion is a way to integrate septuple media, their associated features or integrate intermediate decisions to perform an analysis task. According to B.V Dasarathy, Combining Multimedia data fusion is a formal cloth in which are expressed means and tools for union of data originating from different sources for the exploitation of their synergy in order to adjudge information whose quality cannot be achieved otherwise. Dasarathy, B.V. (2001) information fusion- what, where, why, when, and how? Information fusion, 2, 75-76. In the existent literature several contributions are made to research on data fusion techniques used in multisensory environments and multimodal fusion with the aim of fusing and aggregating data obtained from multiple sources. Video data has a significant characteristic of multimodal content. Combining the information gathered from multiple modalities is valid approach to increase accuracy. P.K Atrey, M. a Hossain, A.E Saddik and M.S Kankahalli. Multimodal fusion for multimedia analysis A Survey. Multimedia systems 16(6) 345-379, 2010 Multimedia fusion is expedient for several tasks such as sleuthing, recognition, identification, tracking and a wide couch of applications.This research work presents multimedia analysis in combination with computer vision and data fusion perspectives to understand human walk doubtfulness in video sequences. This kind of research is challenging.MotivationFrom the view luff of data fusion this research work is motivated by the reflectivity that all living organisms have the capability to use multiple senses to rent about the environment and then the brain fuses all the information to perform a decision task. Human observer can easily and instantly recognize action. But, the main limitations with the visual sensory of universe are, limited crease of visual perception, limitations and compromises of human brain. Whereas, automatic systems can work 24 hours a day and 7 days a week allowing accurate type detection and their cost is lower to maintain.On the other hand, from the view detail of computer vision, algorithms and techniques are yet to improve operation for analyzing humans go found in videos. Computer vision systems are far behind the capabilities of human vision and have to deal with two important problems- sensory gap and semantic gap. The sensory gap being- the difference between the real world and its representation and the semantic gap being- the difference between the behavior description by human vision and the computational mo del used by the human activity/behavior analysis systems.A assure strategy consists in integrating different techniques of data fusion and computer vision in a merge framework to enhance the performance of the tasks associated with analyzing human walking motion and overcoming the drawbacks.1.3 The GoalThe aim of this research work is to conduct a detailed investigation of currently available tools and techniques for understanding human walking motion and develop a generic framework where data fusion and computer vision perspectives are used to analyze human walking actions in context to real life applications. During the process of fusing, correlation of activities and patterns of activities can be detected to predict intent. Finally, performance pull up stakes be evaluated for true positives, false positives and misclassifications.Summary of contributionsOur work in the thesis is focused on the following significant contributionsDesign of a unified framework, for combining dat a fusion and computer vision methodology to improve the performance of automatic analysis of human movements in videos.Tasks of detecting moving humans and related sub-problems in video frames using unsupervised techniques. businesslike technique to handle occlusion in the task of tracking walking humans.New strategy for accomplishing the task of correlation and predictions during detection and tracking of humans.Noticing and interpretation perspectives change in walking movements.1.5 OutlineThe thesis is organized as followsChapter 2 presents background and related literature review on various existing strategies and approaches of data fusion and computer vision while providing pauperism for the proposed approaches used for the work in this thesis.Chapter 3 Provides detailed explanation on the unified framework. Show how the frame work helps in accomplishing the tasks of analysis in multimedia content for correlation and prediction along with a similarity of proposed frame work to JDL, Dasarthy data fusion model.Chapter 4 Presents an overview of state-of-the art methods for detection of humans in videos, the proposed novel work, experiments and the evaluations.Chapter 5 Presents an overview of state-of-the art methods for tracking of humans in videos, the proposed novel work, experiments and the evaluations.Chapter 6 Automatic interpretation of changes in stance changes in human walking.Chapter 7 Conclusions, future directions and related open issues are discussed.ReferencesSmeulders, A. W. M., Worring, M., Santini, S., Gupta, A., and Jain, R. (2000).Content-based image retrieval at the end of the early years. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 22(12)13491380D. Marr, Vision A Computational Investigation into the Human Representation and Processing of Visual Information, Freeman, san Francisco (1982)Dasarathy, B.V. (2001) information fusion- what, where, why, when, and how? Information fusion, 2, 75-76P.K Atrey, M. a Hossain, A .E Saddik and M.S Kankahalli. Multimodal fusion for multimedia analysis A Survey. Multimedia systems 16(6) 345-379, 2010

How Globalization and International Business Are Related

How Globalization and multinational Business Are RelatedGlobalization with new-fashioned value migration ( more than economically rough-and-ready furrow flesh) has opens up more doors to opportunities. The literature review is embarrassed into 5 parts Firstly out-of-pocket to globalisation, in that location will be restructuring in income resulting in more customer conjunctives/segments restructure. With come apart segmenting capability and new business models, new opportunities can be ride on and unparalleled requirements be met. Secondly, expansion of segment requires customization for each new market and effective management involves balancing between custom ratio and business design segment to get right combination of response rate/ woo structure. Thirdly, increasing growth at base segment leads to entrepreneurs supply inexpensive design, entirely eventually high profitability will attract them to insurance premium segment. Premium players will counter attack by also catering new gloomy cost business design. Organization moldiness underpin against market takeover which earns lead increased competition/luck. Fourthly, redefining innovation is chief(prenominal) to piss high impact success activities. There must be balance in investment in innovation beyond growth/processes that create values for investors/customers like alliance and global talent sourcing. Lastly, remarkable information chain that connects customer to innovation is important for shaping to create copyrighted information to gain head start by deploying its preposterous information/application system. To end off, there must be risk management system to respond to new waves of trend/risk.Rational for natural selectionGlobalization is inevitable, ever-changing, shape competition and waits for no one. In this technology-fueled global environment, businesses must stay ahead these trends to remain competitive. I want to have smash understanding of Globalization as it is t he stepping stone for International Business by giving rise to supranational commercial legal proceeding.Analysis and ViewpointsPositive Aspects of the obligate Slywotzky et al (2006) identifies the significance of having appropriate business models due to consumer pressure and income restructuring induce by globalization. I agree that when operating abroad, global competitive scheme must be adopted for different foreign conditions. Daniels et al (2011) corroborate this and evaluates that organization must have different market responses in install to be global to compete, response to foreign opportunities and learn from each other. Hence, modify business models by investing on RD, source worldwide to fail more efficiently in innovation/ results is essential to meet the contain of global customers. moral To gain global focus, two Brazilian firms fudge business model and merge to form BRF-Brazil. Slywotzky et al (2006) also gave resolve that globalization will drive organ ization to be innovative in creating its own proprietary information for success. Daniels et al (2011) and Davis et al (2007) concur by stating that foreign companies are the source for domestic companies to stay innovative and create own unique business models. Globalization provides the stepping stone for multinational transactions because of technology expansion, liberalization of cross-trade, increase demand in foreign product and opportunity for global cooperation. Example Foreign firm will commence in new technology and better experienced workers. Also, increasing international competition will induce local firms to add skilled workers to negociate new technology. This will help companies to explore innovative means of more efficient production which cut cost and increase production. Pursing international gross revenue usually increase potential markets, helps acquire resources at lower cost, better/new products and additional operating knowledge to gain competitive advanta ge. These helps to fig better global branding resulting in more profit due to higher exports demanded.Negative Aspects of the Article Slywotzky et al (2006) comment that globalization has induce more effective low-cost business design, more customer connections and segments which organization can exploit. But I feel that this article fails to cover legion(predicate) negative pitfalls like social and environmental problems. Kumenit (2008) and Daniels et al (2011) argue that low cost strategy brings about negative effects and profit/income disproportionate. fresh shift in manufacturing job from US to mainland China has help China to grow faster and reduced US real wage growth. We promise that in USs garment industry, where it is cheaper to produce in China. This would mean a lot migration of work and many US citizens would be jobless. Globalization in this sensation is good for organization as they can capitalize on cheaper labor, but bad for US citizens especially if they are l owly skilled. Those lowly skilled will be stuck in underground economy leading to policy-making instability which undermine international trade/investment. In ontogeny countries, globalization/multinational investment leads to environmental degradation and generates pressure for cheaper labour to agree competitiveness. Hence, it erodes values of social justice and increase inequalities. Small enterprises in developing areas will face complexity in taking advantage of globalization and poverty persists. Global restructuring also dramatically affects rights of workers in developing countries. Example Development of China as a world factory due to its cheap labour is causing worker suicides problem. Due to poor on the job(p) condition/low salary, emotional health of Chinas migrant workers is on the land toll. Nine employee deaths at global electronics manufacturer Foxconn, Apples main supplier of iPhones revealed nigh harsh social aspects (The Straits Times, 2010).ConclusionIn or der to make whoopie the full benefits of globalization, organization must have the right global business design, global operation strategy, global focus, customization, organizational structure, customer connection activities, innovation, proprietary information and risk management system in place. Though there are viewpoints on optimizing its benefits, the article failed to explore issues in relation to adult male rights, environmental matters, political instability and inequalities. These are common global concerns which have to be respected and since international business transactions have connection to these concerns, it is crucial for laws of international business transactions have to be in a position to promote guidelines to regulate global concerns which will in turn benefit businesses.

Global Warming: Technical Solutions

global Warming Technical SolutionsEvaluate the Technological Solutions open to Ameliorate world(a) WarmingIntroduction orbicular melt has been turn up to be the send ensue of anthropogenic ca dos or man-made interventions with nature. scratch line with the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th Century, technologies gather in been actual that resulted in the accumulation of glasshouse sploshes in the atmosphere which trap the suns radiant expertness. This enhanced babys room effect gradually raises the earths surface temperatures and is projected to create irregular purlieual conditions, namely the melt down of polar ice caps, rising of sea level, profound agricultural changes resulting from clime change, extinction of species, abnormal weather conditions, increased incidence of tropical diseases, disappearance of ecological niches and disruption of drinking water supply, ( planetary Warming, 2004).Since global warming finishers a great potential to create catastrop hic effectuate on the environment as a whole, it be ascends a global issue, requiring the involvement of the whole worldwide community in finding ways to ameliorate its adverse effects, (B disseminated, 2006). Global greenhouse gas emissions that atomic number 18 ca utilize global warming come from different sectors. Figure I below shows the global greenhouse gas emissions by sector information drop off use change and forestry chip in the highest greenhouse gas emission rate (19%) followed by electricity (16%) gardening (14%) transport (13%) other fuel burning at the stake (11%) manufacturing and construction (10%) godforsaken (4%) and industrial (3%) and combine heat and reason (3%). The pew Center on Global temper vary (Undated, p. 1) asserts that be give birth thither atomic number 18 so many sources of these gases, there ar also many options for decrease emission.This paper evaluates the accessible practiced solutions to ameliorate global warming by presentin g the advantages and disadvantages of each option. Moreover, much(prenominal) solutions impart be presented on a sectoral basis, starting with land use, forestry and agriculture followed by electricity, and finally by the transportation sector.Land Use, Forestry and Agriculture Sector engineeringLand use and forestry engine room includes blow copy accountancy, requisition, and biofuel takings.1. Carbon Accounting and requisitionAccording to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or IPCC (2000), nose stoogedy stock enhancement from land use, land use change and forestry activities ar reversible and therefore require c arful accounting. Carbon accounting engineering science, which involves land- ground accounting and activity based accounting, issues accurate and transparent data on carbon stocks and/or changes in greenhouse gas emissions by sources and removals by sink. These data are required to assess compliance with the commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. Moreover, carbon accounting will help determine relevant carbon pools that suffer be used in the production of an alternative source of fuel, such(prenominal) as biofuels. Changes in carbon stocks can be technically determined with the use of activity data, remote-sensing techniques, models derived from statistical analysis, flux measurement, soil sampling and ecological surveys. However, the greet of carbon accounting increases as precision and landscape heterogeneity increases, (IPCC, 2000). As a result of careful carbon accounting, excess carbon can then be captured or sequestered in order to be utilized as fuel source. An example of carbon sequestration applied science is the Integrated Gasification and bring in Cycle Process or IGCC, which allows for easy sequestration of carbon for yen term memory in underground geological formations. However, the Pew Center on Global Climate Change (Undated), cautions that shape up research is needed to test the viability of braggart (a) scale underground storage of carbon in a long term scale.2. Biofuel TechnologyBiofuel production or biomass gasification ensures lower greenhouse gas emission levels by converting waste wood and biomass into biofuels that could supercede fossil fuels. The report of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change (Undated, p. 4), maintains that agricultural lands can be of late-rooted with carbon-dioxide fixing trees that can be used for fuel production. This will result to land use changes that whitethorn have multiple indirect benefits such as improvement of soil, air and water quality and increase in wildlife habitat. However, study findings suggest that the cultivation of corn and soybeans for biofuel production produces adverse environmental impacts, such as the leaching of pesticides and newton and phosphorus from fertilizers into water options, (Manuel, 2007). Moreover, biofuels are from two to four times more expensive than fossil fuels and are not believed to compete well i n the marketplace. For example, a fuel address comparison indicates that while natural gas could be refined for 15 to 16 cents per lambert (in the late 1980s), the terms of biofuels ranged from an average of about 30 cents per liter (for m neutral spirits derived from biomass) to 63 cents per liter (for ethanol derived from beets in the United Kingdom), (Barbier et al. 1991, p. 142 cited in Johansen, 2002, p. 266).Electricity Sector TechnologyAccording to the Pew Center on Global Climate Change Report (Undated), office plants and coal combustion that supply electric agent account for the greenhouse gas emissions on the electricity sector. Technological solutions available for this sector to address global warming include1. Integrated Gasification and feature Cycle ProcessThe Integrated Gasification and Combined Cycle Process or IGCC, is a authority generation technology that improves the efficacy of electric power and heat generation with the use of a combination of fossil fuels and renewable talent. It enables clean gas production and the decline in carbon dioxide emissions with the use of high performance gas turbines, (Abela, et al., 2007). Moreover, air pollutants such as particulate matter, sulphur, nitrogen and mercury are removed from the gasified coal before combustion, (Abela, et al., 2007). However, the major disadvantage of using this technology is its high cost of operation, which is about 20% more than the operating cost of a traditional coal plant, (Wikipedia, undated).2. Renewable Energy SourcesRenewable energy sources such as the wind, solar and water can produce electricity without releasing greenhouse gases and are thus important in the improvement of global warming.a. Wind PowerWind power technology harnesses the power of the wind which is an indirect form of solar power, to supply energy. Some have propeller type devices, while others have vertical axis designs, which occupy the ability to accept wind from any direction. Accor ding to Elliott (2003), wind power is already an essential source of energy and that in 2002, the total generating capacitor has reached 24,000 megawatts, with costs decreasing significantly with technology development. However, this technology often has large space requirements, due to the need of the wind turbines to be grouped unitedly in wind farms, in order to facilitate sharing of connections to the power grid. Moreover, there should be a separation of about 5 to 15 blade diameters between individual wind turbines, in order to keep back turbulent interactions in wind farm arrays , (Elliott, 2003, p. 135).b. Solar Power effulgent energy can be captured and utilized to generate electricity which may be used to operate solar batteries or may be transmitted along normal transmission lines. Radiant energy is quiet in a photovoltaic cell, which is a bimetallic unit that allows direct conversion of sunlight to electricity. The only drawback of utilizing photovoltaic cells is its high cost. However, recent developments in the semiconductor industry have significantly brought down prices, (Elliott, 2003, p.132). Electric power generation has also been accomplished with the use of big solar heat-concentrating mirrors and parabolical troughs and dishes that track the sun across the sky and focus its rays so as to raise steam, (Elliott, 2003, p130), and consequently produce electricity. One major disadvantage of using solar power technology is that it works only during the day and requires galvanic storage mechanisms at night. Additionally, radiant heat is insufficient in mothy regions and in areas with extensive cloudy periods, resulting in low amount of energy collection.c. Water PowerHydropower is the worlds biggest renewable source of energy. It is deemed as one of the most acceptable and cleanest technologies whereby a unit of water produces hydropower cumulatively by passing through the turbines of many dams along the descent of a river, (Gibbons, 1986, p. 86). According to Elliott (2003, p. 151), there is around 650 GW of installed capacity in place, mostly in 300 large projects. However, in recent years, there have been accessible and environmental concerns about large hydros, and some new projects have met with rivalry. Its adverse environmental impacts include the destruction of large areas of natural plant life and agricultural land for water storage biodiversity loss, flooding and displacement of population, (Elliott, 2003).3. geothermic PowerGeothermal power is not considered a renewable resource when used at rates of extraction greater than their natural replenishment. With sustainable use, however, geothermal power can be effectively harnessed to provide electricity. Geothermal energy comes from the heat of the earth and can be categorize into geopressured, magma, hydrothermal and hot dry rock, (Wright, 2002, p. 362). According to Hobbs (1995, cited in Wright, 2002, p. 362), commercial operations are mostly in the fo rm of hydrothermal systems where wells are about 2000 metres deep with reservoir temperatures of 180 to 270C. Although geothermal systems produce less than 0.2 percent of the carbon dioxide produced by coal or oil-fired plant, they also emit non-condensable gases such as small quantities of sulphur dioxide, methane, heat content sulphide, nitrogen and heat content. Additionally, such systems cause induced seismicity and ground subsidence. They are also capital-intensive investments that require financial and technical assistance, (Wright, 2002, p. 362).Transport System TechnologyThe transportation sector has one of the highest greenhouse gas emissions rate, after land use and forestry, electricity and agriculture sectors. The Pew Center on Global Climate Change (Undated), recommends the use of off the shell technologies that are currently available in the market, which significantly deoxidize greenhouse gas emissions of customary cars and trucks. These off the shell technologies focus on increasing energy efficiency, fuel blending and the use of advanced diesels and hybrids. Additionally, long term technological options to precipitate greenhouse gas emissions are straight gradually being developed which include the use of biofuels, electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cells.a. Fuel BlendingFuel blending involves the mixing of ethanol and other biofuels with gasoline to produce more-environment friendly fuels. The Pew Center on Global Climate Change (Undated, p. 4), asserts that corn-based ethanol can reduce greenhouse emissions to at least 30% for each gallon of regular gasoline that it replaces.b. Diesels and HybridsDiesel and hybrid engines offer subtle fuel economy and overall fuel efficiency. However, they also emit air pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and particulates. unseasoneder diesel engine models, however, use very sophisticated fuel-injection systems, which result in vehicles that have better acceleration with reduced emissions, vibration , and noise, (Doyle, 2000, p. 383). Moreover, because diesels and hybrids afford excellent fuel economy, they use less gas on a per nautical mile basis, thereby producing less greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional cars and trucks. When both technologies are feature in a diesel hybrid vehicle, it can afford a 65-percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions per mile, (Green and Schafer, 2003 cited in The Pew Center on Global Climate Change Undated, p.6).c. BiofuelsAs previously mentioned, biofuels offer cleaner emissions than regular gasoline. Agricultural and forest products can be processed to produce ethanol that may be combined with gasoline and enable significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Corn-based, cellulosic and sugar-cane-based ethanols have been proven to significantly reduce emissions, (The Pew Center on Global Climate Change, Undated).d. Electric VehiclesElectric vehicles offer cleaner emissions by reducing the amount of pollutant and greenhou se gas release in the air. They release 30 percent less hydrocarbons and 15 percent less nitrogen oxides than conventional vehicles, (Doyle, 2000, p. 289). In the past, electric cars needed advances in battery storage. Thus, the plug-in hybrid was developed in order to solve the battery storage problem. The plug-in hybrid is a gas- electric vehicle that can be charged at home base overnight, (The Pew Center on Global Climate Change, Undated).e. atomic number 1 Fuel CellsHydrogen fuel cells produce power by cartel oxygen with hydrogen to create water, (The Pew Center on Global Climate Change, Undated, p.6). Hydrogen is obtained from natural gas by reforming and is combined with oxygen that is readily available in the air, which generates electricity continuously. The fuel cells replace combustion turbines in integrated cycles, resulting in increased fuel efficiency of 46-55 percent. However, there is a need to find ways to produce hydrogen with minimal emissions, (The Pew Center o n Global Climate Change, Undated). cultivationA careful analysis of the global greenhouse gas emissions by sector is essential in identifying the needed technological solutions to help check out or reduce gas emissions. By focusing the effort to reduce emissions of the higher contributing sectors, the overall efforts to address global warming effects can be effectively channeled. Thus, it is imperative to focus on the available technologies that address the adverse effects of global warming on the pursual sectors land use and forestry, electricity, agriculture and transport. In its comprehensive report on technological solutions for mood change amelioration, the Pew Center on Global Climate Change (Undated, p.2), claims that there is no single, silver bullet technology that will deliver the reductions in emissions that are needed to protect the mood. It further recommends the integration of a portfolio of solutions wherein the identification of useful technologies should be based on the analysis of key economic sectors. Moreover, it suggests that policy makers should prioritize the universe of discourse of incentives that will release the power of the marketplace in developing solutions. In the final analysis, further research and development of more exact and cost-effective portfolio of technologies that ameliorate global warming effects must be advocated.ReferencesAbela, M., Bonavita, N., Martini, R., 2007. advanced(a) process control at an integrated gasification combined cycle plant. procurable from http//library.abb.com/GLOBAL/SCOT/scot267.nsf/VerityDisplay/62CF14177B1A39D2852572FB004B4EB3/$File/AC2%20ISAB_ABB.pdf. Accessed 11 August 2007.Baird, S. L., 2006. Climate Change A Runaway Train? The Human Species Has Reshaped Earths Landscapes on an Ever-Larger and Lasting Scale. The Technology Teacher, 66(4), 14+Doyle, J. 2000. Taken for a Ride Detroits Big Three and the Politics of Pollution. New York Four Walls Eight Windows.Elliott, D., 2003. Energy, S ociety Environment. New York Routledge.Gibbons, D. C., 1986. The Economic Value of Water. Washington, DC Resources for the Future.Global Warming. 2004. In the Columbia Encyclopedia (6th Ed.). New York Columbia University fight backIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2000. IPCC Special Report Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry. Summary for Policy Makers. Available from http//www.grida.no/climate/ipcc/spmpdf/srl-e.pdf. Accessed 10 August 2007.Johansen, B. E., 2002. The Global Warming Desk Reference. Westport, CT Greenwood Press.Manuel, J., 2007. Battle of the Biofuels. environmental Health Perspectives, 115(2), 92+.The Pew Center on Global Climate Change. Undated. Climate Data A Sect oral Perspective. Climate Change 101 Understanding and Responding to Global Climate Change. Available from http//www.pewtrusts.org/pdf/pew_climate_101_techsolutions.pdf. Accessed 10 August, 2007.Wikipedia. Undated. Combined Cycle. Available from http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_cyc le_note-0. Accessed 11 August 2007.Wright, R. M., 2002. Energy and Sustainable Development. In earthy Resource Management for Sustainable Development in the Caribbean, Goodbody, I. Thomas-Hope, E. (Eds.) (pp. 307-385). Barbados Canoe Press.

Biological Positivism and Crime | Dissertation Proposal

Biological Positivism and plague Dissertation ProposalIntroductionOur society has contumacious that man is a creature born(p) of free whollyow. At the same time, our system recognises that attitudes whitethorn be influenced by environ psychic factors. (Taylor, 1984 9) Adults who engage in vile point be seen as having values which ar distorted by unfavorable environmental conditions. Guilt therefore is premised upon the concept that everyone who commits an act does so taboo of an exercise of free go out. A mortal is fully capable of non committing the act, should he or she so desire. (Taylor, 1984 10) This glide slope is referred to as the classicist progress.Classicists pro retentive achieved near-total victory in the recent years resulting in our condemnable jurist system beingness founded upon the concept that sad behaviour is the carry it off result of environmental influences, that it is nurture that word forms conduct. This has acquired our social instit utions to attempt to correct deviate behaviour by means of and through modification to environmental influences through prison and renewal programmes.The number of offences recorded by the police in the UK between June 2012 and June 2013 is 3.7 trillion (Office for National Statistics, 2013). It needs to be questioned whether this crime level is the result of a troubled society or the result of a breakdown in the illegal legal expert system? Recidivism is still occurring with to a greater extent than one in quatern turns reoffending within a year of release (Ministry of Justice, 2013). A affirmable moderateness for this could be that the whole premise on which we base our criminal justice is defective.If this classicist premise is wrong then it is no venerate that recidivism is continuing to happen and that as a society we are weakness to eradicate crime. If the actual cause of crime is identified then in that respect is the potential of eliminating crime, easing pain, and instilling common trust and security.Stephen Mobley had all the attributes of a natural born killer. At the age of 25, he walked into a pizza pie store and shot the manager in the neck aft(prenominal) robbing the till. goose egg could blame his upbringing he came from a white, middle-class Ameri bay window family and had not been abused as a child. In 1995 he was waiting on death row in Georgia to hear whether his appointment with the electric chair was confirmed. His lawyer tried to plea that his murder was not the brutal result of free will but the tragic consequence of a genetic predisposition. His aunt, a witness for the defence, testified that various members of their family over the past four generations sire been very violent, aggressive and criminal. She told the court how the Mobley family had had murder, rape, robbery, and suicide. His lawyer in that respectfore argued that there is no legal defence to Mobleys crime. Mobleys family history is an manifest mitig ating factor and his actions whitethorn not make believe been a product entirely of free will (Connor, 1995).To date, there has been little agreement that a persons biology has an influence on crime. Early biologic theorists much(prenominal) as Lombroso have been widely discredited mainly on the can of a flawed methodology however the recent and more coetaneous biologic explanations of crime have been shown to more credible.This speech will seek contemporaneous biologic ideas on crime the role of genetics. What if there are people that are genetically predisposed to commit crimes? Should they be held to composition for their actions that may have been completely beyond their control? In depress of the apparent failures of our occurrent criminal justice system, it is becoming increasingly tight to ignore the real causes of crime. Can we afford to ignore the possibility that criminal behaviour could be due to genetics?There is likewise the depicted object of how soci ety should pull off with the wrongdoer whose crime was genetically influenced? Society has decided that no man-to-man should be held rateable for acts performed when he or she is mentally incapacitated. We have the defence of insanity when people who have a sickness of the mind commit crimes. It needs to be considered whether genetic aberration should be considered in mitigation of, or as a defence to, a criminal charge.Some would say that to accept the notion that criminals are born rather than make would be opening a gateway to a moral minefield causing former(a) factors including society, unemployment, and upbringing to be ignored (Connor, 1995).general Research AimIt is the purpose of this disquisition to assess the relevance of biological profitableness in the modern society through way of literature analysis. I will briefly explore early biological theories much(prenominal) as those of Lombroso and his idea of a criminal man, moving on to discuss contemporary biologi cal ideas the influence of a persons genetics on criminal behaviour. The research will explore the durability of penalty and how biological ideas may have influenced punishment by placing wildness on the discourse of wrongdoers. Finally, the good implications surrounding the interposition get will be considered.Aims and ObjectivesIn order to successfully answer my research aim, a number of sub-questions mustiness be consideredHow does society view crime?This dissertation begins by explaining why further research into the topic is essential. The main organic structure of this dissertation will be introduced with a discussion of how our society soon views crime is it a product of a persons biological influences, environmental influences, or a combination of the two?What is biological positivism?In order to assess the relevance of biological positivism in the modern society, I must first clarify what biological positivism actually is. I will explore early biological theori es steer on to a discussion of contemporary biological ideas. Relevant reason studies will be looked at to inspect the usefulness of these present daytime theories in explaining crime and criminal behaviour.How has biological positivism affected punishment?The dissertation will then move on to assess how these theories, antecedently discussed, have affected punishment. In order to do this I will first look to why we punish and what forms of punishment are presently used in the UK. Using reoffending statistics I will critically contemplate the fixiveness of these current forms of punishment, leading on to a discussion around an alternative to punishment suggested by biological positivists The role of treatment.Is the treatment model effective?The effectiveness of the treatment model will then be evaluated. Consequently, emphasis on treatment over punishment carries huge estimable implications. These respectable implications will be discussed with an in depth exploration on t he incorporation of the European Convention of Human Rights into domestic law through the Human Rights Act 1998.Are there each proposals for change to the current criminal justice system which suggests a move towards the treatment of wrongdoers?Finally, any proposals for change in the criminal justice system put in advance by the Government will be discussed if they are of relevance to happen upon points highlighted in this dissertation. Suggestions for future changes in the criminal justice system made by biological theorists will in like manner be argued.Conclusion in spite of the in-depth research there is still much debate on the legitimate causes of crime. The central importance of sending the causes of crime has been discussed through this dissertation. With both crime rates, and reoffending rates, being considerably high (Office for National Statistics, 2013 Ministry of Justice, 2013) it is vital that the causes of crime are identified, and individuals are therefore dealt with accordingly, in order for these figures to decrease.After researching into biological positivism, the use of biological theories in the current criminal justice system are identifiably lacking with more emphasis on environmental factors being seen as the causes of crime. A biosocial, multi-factor, approach has been formed over the recent years incorporating environmental, social, and biological factors (Hopkins Burke, 2009) nevertheless there depends to be an ignorance of biological factors.The aim of this dissertation was to identify the relevance of biological positivism in the modern society through an analysis of existing literature. The main focus of the research was to identify contemporary biological ideas, and then examine how they influenced punishment in the criminal justice system in England and Wales. Theses influences were then analysed in terms of effectiveness, with ethical coming backs later being questioned.Biological positivism is relevant in todays s ociety. The research does not suggest that biological factors are the sole cause of criminal behaviour for every individual offender, but that it can have an influence on an individuals susceptibility to commit a crime (Hopkins Burke, 2009). Environmental and social factors also later contribute to shape the offender.Early biological theories stemmed from the work of Lombroso. Although his work is largely discredited, he laid the foundation on which much more plausible explanations could be formed. Research into contemporary biological explanations, including twins studies and hormones, has led to the conclusion that criminalism in a minority of offenders is solely caused by biological factors (Hopkins Burke, 2009).Although these more contemporary biological ideas have been shown to be credible, this credibility does not seem to be reflected in the current criminal justice system. Biological positivists have favoured treatment over punishment as way of dealing with offenders (Cavad ino and Dignan, 2007). This dissertation has recognised that emphasis is currently placed on punishment, and primarily, imprisonment. There have been many attempts over the years to adopt a treatment approach however, due to both financial and time-related restrictions, these attempts have been limited considerably.This limitation implies that charge offences are the solely offences seen as a result of a biological defect in the offender. The rationale behind treatment being offered only to sex offenders however, is quite noticeably the result of some other reason sex offenders are the most despised group of offenders, even among other offenders and therefore there is an increased pressure on the criminal justice system to ensure that these offenders do not re-offend. Specialised treatment techniques much(prenominal) as chemical castration have therefore been developed to deal with them (Miller, 1998).An implication of these findings, that a persons biology does have an effect on their susceptibility to commit crime, is that biological defects should be taken into account for all offenders and in turn, treatment should be offered to every individual offender despite costs. Although prison is used most commonly to punish offenders, and is arguably cheaper than treatment, long term costs are substantial. This suggests that it is more beneficial for the criminal justice system to invest in something that works to rehabilitate the offender and continue them from reoffending, than to incarcerate them preventing them from offending only on a bypass term basis. It is important that the cause of crime in each individual offender is identified and then dealt with accordingly.There have been numerous analyses of the treatment model in terms of ethical issues however authors of these analyses have both concluded that treatment violates all of the offenders fundamental rights, or none of them (Miller, 1998). The analysis of these ethical issues through this dissertat ion has led to the conclusion that the current forms of treatment, offered on a voluntary basis, are not in breach of offenders rights below the European Convention on Human Rights. There is an underlying issue of discrimination however, under article 14 ECHR, as it can be argued that treatment offered only to sex offenders is discriminating it is discriminating for sex offenders, and also discriminating for those offenders that are not offered treatment.By offering treatment to all offenders it will ensure that any biological influences to crime in offenders can be addressed, and then treated. It has been earlier identified that not all offenders have a biological predisposition, but for those offenders that do, it may rehabilitate the individual and prevent reoffending. In response to this, article 14 ECHR and the prohibition of discrimination may not be as much of a concern. To offer treatment to all offenders would be a step towards removing this cause of discrimination. Other ethical issues surrounding treatment, including informed and valid consent, and off-label drugs, have also been addressed in this dissertation, and have been seen to be justified.RecommendationsIt has been identified that research into twin studies, in particular proposition monozygotic twins, is the most credible in terms of ascertaining the influence of genetics on criminal behaviour. It is therefore recommended that if it were possible to locate a voice sample of monozygotic twins who satisfied experimental conditions, being uncaring at birth and growing up in different environments, then the true extent of how much influence our genes have on criminal behaviour can be determined.The criminal justice system must recognise that other offences, not only sex offences, can be the result of a genetic defect and consequently treatment should be offered to all offenders.Treatment given should be appropriate for the offender, and offered on a voluntary basis in order to avoid potentia l ethical issues. To ensure consent is free, informed and valid, offenders should be assessed to ensure they have the mental capacity to give consent, and to ensure they are aware of all risks involved. Although long term effects are unknown, as long as the offender is aware of the uncertainty then informed consent is not an issue. Drugs should also be licensed for the purpose of treating offenders. More rigorous testing is postulate using double-blind randomised trials along with full medical tests prior to, during and after treatment (Harrison, 2008).Genetic aberrations should be considered as a mitigating factor with reflection given to biological influences on the offender when sentencing.