Construction Safety Essay Example

Construction Safety Essay Construction Safety Name: Institution: Date: We will write a custom essay sample on Construction Safety specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Construction Safety specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Construction Safety specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Construction Safety The science studies how man relates to his work and applies theory, principles, data and methods to design a favorable working condition. Ergonomics seeks to understand the needs of a worker in his work place by eliminating bottlenecks such as inefficient, unsafe, unhealthy, and uncomfortable work situations and basic practices. This is mainly done by taking into account the physical and psychological capabilities and the limitations of a worker. Ergonomics ensures that the employer maximizes on the capabilities rather than the limitations. Ergonomics takes into account factors such as body movement and body posture. It also considers environmental, operational and organizational aspects of the work place. All these factors play a central role in ensuring efficiency of employees at the work place. The main concern of managers at construction sites is to ensure the safety of the work environment for the workers. Construction safety considers how management of ergonomics integrates the safety management philosophy and technique in guaranteeing safety on the construction sites. Safety management philosophy outlines general necessities on how to prevent injury or loss of life and to protect a work environment from fire, explosion and procedural dangers (Sutton, 2011). Ergonomics of management should consider these issues in designing a safe work environment out of a construction site. Application of ergonomics should also consider the physical and psychological impact of the work to the employee. Construction companies should employ ergonomics to ensure that injuries that are usually because of error are non-existent at the place of work. Physical factors include the body posture and body movement while at work. In a construction site, many things have to be moved up and about a building under construction. In this process, the site worker is exposed to many dangers. Back injuries are the most frequent injuries in a construction site. These injuries usually result from applying oneself to much on the job. In any workstation, postural support is necessary for managing loads on the spinal and appendages (Proctor Vu, 2005). For example, a worker while hammering nails on to a roof may stay bent in the same position for a long time with out relieving or supporting himself. The prolonged position may cause a Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) that may negatively influence how he performs other tasks later and may involve errors. Ergonomics should explore options that would make employee mobility safer and less strenuous. Controlling human error is important to avoid any major injuries while working. The deteriorating health of employees costs money and business performance and reputation. If these issues continue to arise then one risks losing a business. A good business should promise heath and safety to achieve high value productivity. The finest working systems are centered on a well-trained staff, with appropriately designed work that is relevant to the person’s skills. The physical, organizational and mental effect on a person at the workplace can affect their well being and safety and affects their output. Consider a worker who needs to apply a huge amount of their strength in doing performing a task. Increased energy use, increases the chances of injury occurrence. People may see a challenge if the mental demands of a job is too high. If this is the case, then this can pose a health issue, but it can also affect the quality of the work produced. Similarly, if individuals have no clear-c ut idea of what their job entails, they may lack the drive to work and the job will suffer. The work of the safety manager is ensuring issues are handled to maximize the productivity of an individual at work. A company must undertake a risk assessment to determine the various issues that may negatively affect productivity. A company must assess the rates of injuries in their construction sites to determine their need of an ergonomics program. Even if there is none, it is important to employ this program for assurances that they will never arise. Several elements must be considered to guarantee that an ergonomics program is successful. To begin with, employer must commit time, employees and resources at their disposal to ensure the program succeeds. There has to be someone in charge with the ability to effect the changes made due to the program. Employees must be actively involved in identifying the problems and suggesting solutions to the problems. There also has to be a system that identifies risk factors in the site. There also has to be a system to research, acquire, and apply resolutions arrived at such as new equipment. Management also has to be trained on procedures being implemented. It will also be vital for management to guarantee that medical cover will be available for the injured workers. U ltimately, the system has to be regularly revisited to cater for new problems that may affect the work place. Ergonomic factors depend on the environment, work factors and the organizational factors. It also considers the human and personal attributes that manipulate conduct at work and can influence safety and health. Ergonomics ensures that all these factors are evaluated to determine the flaws in a system that might compromise health and safety in construction sites. In short, to apply ergonomics in a work place, there has to be a comprehensive risk assessment based on certain areas. In the workplace, errors are bound to occur. This is possible despite the level of training the workers may have. The costs arising from this error can be too much to bear. Errors are believed to be the number one cause for accidents. It should be a necessity to ensure that systems employed by the construction managers are error free. A risk assessment will therefore determine what causes the errors and now this could be solved. One of the factors that create room for error is fatigue. Strauch (2004) asserts that fatigue impairs performance. Fatigue also makes a person less aware of procedures that are supposed to be followed leading to accidents. The safety managers at constructions site have to develop a system that reduces fatigue. For example, they can make workers movements as minimal as possible by limiting their work areas. Another area to look at is the procedures put in place at the construction sites. Procedures are usually instructions that guide what a worker is supposed to do at the work place on specific tasks. If employees do not follow procedure, an error will likely occur. An error then means a possibility of an accident occurring. A risk assessment therefore determines the procedures put in place are appropriate enough to avoid error. If the guidelines are effective, then competency of the worker should be put into question and a decision should be made. Procedures need to be followed to the later. Human competence is therefore vital. For a worker to be competent, he must be trained. The safety manager has to ensure that the every employee has the necessary skill set to operate the machinery on sit. If not, the employee must be given adequate training. Competence must be associated with the responsibilities a worker has. Safety manager must always ensure that the worker remain competent in their areas of work. This will mean training of workers when needed to adapt to new industry standards. A competent worker should be able to adequately trained handle risky situations. If a site manager feels a team is not sufficiently competent, then it would be important for them to outsource services from elsewhere. Staffing means having the right people to handle a job assigned to them. These people must be in the right place and at the right time always. It is important t6o have staffing levels that will enable workers to work in an organized manner. Staffing organization ensures that people operate as directed. This reduces the frequency of accidents since everyone knows their roles. Through staffing, workers can be assigned a workload. It is important that the safety manager ensure that the staff is not over worked. Too much work may mean that the job will be hurriedly and the require quality will not be met. In the workplace, it is necessary to have effective communication patterns. The information in the site can either be written or spoken. Written signs can be put up in various locations that are considered dangerous. This will ensure that everyone on the work site is aware of the danger zones in the building. The safety manager should make sure that the relevant areas are marked appropriately. The safety manager should also consider who has to initiate communication about safety concerns. For example, the supervisor has to communicate the relevant safety measure a worker has to take everyday before work begins. Ergonomics must be introduced into the organizational culture of an organization. An organizational culture is the process of doing things in an organization. A consistent culture nurtures a productive and successful business entity (Schein, 2010). A safety manager at a site must ensure that safety measures are part of the organizational culture. Culture has a great influence on how workers perform on the job. Culture forms the basis through which and worker will gauge the acceptability of his behavior. If it is the organizations’ culture for workers uphold safety at all times then, everyone will insist on being on the safe side all the time. References Dul, J., Weerdmeester, B. A. (2008). Ergonomics for beginners: A quick reference guide. Boca Raton: Taylor Francis. In Proctor, R. W., Vu, K.-P. L. (2005). Handbook of human factors in Web design. Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Strauch, B. (2004). Investigating human error: Incidents, accidents, and complex systems. Aldershot, England ; Burlington, VT: Ashgate. Sutton, I. S. (2012). Offshore safety management: Implementing a SEMS program. Waltham, MA: William Andrew.

IT and Voting essays

IT and Voting essays Information technology what is information technology or IT and can IT be used in the voting system of today. First lets define IT to get a better understanding of the word. Information technology is hardware, software, telecommunications, database management, and information processing technologies used in computer-based information systems. An example of IT is the input, output, and storage devices that support them. This is the same system used at the voting polls on Election Day. You have input (human), output (the machine used to cast a vote), and storage device (the data stored on the ballot). This is the conventional way to vote but since was in the 21st century (the age of the computer) why dont we just use a form of IT with the voting system so it would be more accurate. The problem with using IT in the voting system today is that if we use a form of IT, say the internet, and internet voting system would not be good in a election where the stakes are high (say the president of the U.S.) there would be a strong motivation for someone to commit fraud. Also with the internet there could be a series of vote buying and selling and privacy violations that could reverse the outcome of the election. Another problem with using IT in the voting polls is that with a computer styled voting system it would lack an audit trail. This would mean that in a close election there could be no recount of votes. The computer styled voting system might not always count the votes correctly. In computers, Hackers would be a main concern with this type of system. All in all there is enough information to develop computer based voting system but we just havent thought of a way to keep people from tampering with the votes. ...

Design a pay structure Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Design a pay structure - Essay Example The three main compensable factors that are identified are responsibility, Skill, and effort with each compensable factor having two sub-factors or degrees (Burke, 2008). For instance, the skill factor is made up of educational and technical know-how. Responsibility is made up of impact of the job and scope of control. Effort is made up of the degree of solving problems and how complex tasks are. Outliers ought to be done away with since the will not offer representativeness for the sample (Armstrong, 2002). This implies that the will be extreme data points that need to be taken consideration of in a separate manner. Therefore, in the present data set, there is no extreme outliers that need to be taken concern of. The base bay weighted means will be computed for every benchmarked job. Weighted means will be computed to represent the market data well (Milkovich & Newman, 2008. The simple mean will be computed by summing up the base pay rates and then subsequently dividing them by the total number of organizations, which are a total of six in the present case. The large and small companies in this case will be given the same weights since we are using a simple mean. The weighted mean is good since it offers equal weight for every incumbents wage, job and hence it qualifies as a representative (Burke, 2008). To establish the weighted average base the following is used to come up with the weighted average pay for front desk receptionist job where there are nine job in office in all the six companies. (1/9 X2100) + (2/9 X 2200) + (1/9 X 1800) + ()2/9 X 18500) + (1/9 X 17500)=$19944.44 To come up with the given pay rates provide a three percent pay tactic across the families of jobs. Excel was used to multiply the pay rates that were predicted for every benchmark job (Burke, 2008). The benchmark jobs were multiplied by 1.03. The computations came up with pay rates that were

Restoration & Recovery Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Restoration & Recovery Plan - Essay Example These directives and orders are part of Continuity of Operations (COOP) planning is required for Federal Government Agencies. PDD 63 or the Critical Infrastructure Protection directive and FPC 65 summarize the requirements for COOP information system infrastructure and emergency measures. FPC 65 stipulates that federal agencies are required to get back into operations within 12 hours from any kind of service collapse. OMB CircularA-130 prescribes continuity of operations planning which includes emergency procedures and policies for immediate operations recovery and restoration as well as long-term mitigation of potential services interruption of critical operations (EMC Corporation, 2006). In any kind or emergency, police and emergency services are the most essential. Therefore, the integrity, restoration and recovery of information systems in these branches of government should be the utmost priority. Florida is one of the states that have had to be vigilant regarding these concerns since the 1990's (Mittler, 1995). The Palm Beach Sheriff's Office is no exception to these circumstances. Palm Beach's experience with Hurricane Katrina emphasized not only the need to be prepared for the disasters and the essential role that police and emergency services have to play in recovery (Kam & Gomez, 2005). Restoration and Recovery of Information Systems and Data Breakdowns of information systems and data loss are not limited to the event of disasters. Natural disasters may impact systems extremely and can impair critical functions when they are needed the most but system attacks, hacking and other related crimes that is becoming the most urgent. Restoration of Information System Operations According to the National Security Agency (NSA), through the Information Assurance Directorate (IAD), information assurance refers to procedures designed to safeguard and secure information and information systems against failure, collapse or attacks. Part of this program is the re-establishment of information systems by the development of security, response and resolution competencies into the system (2006). These standards govern feral information systems and have been adopted by industry as well. These measures include providing for restoration of information systems by incorporating protection, detection, and reaction capabilities. Public sector agencies and departments must comply within the prescribed recovery period and point service levels depending on the significance of their operations and information. They have to take into account considerable quantities of paper and electronic data, data storage distribution, necessity for nonstop operations and high data security and integrity measures (EMC Corporation, 2006) Recovery of Data Data backup and replication are the underlying concern in restoration and recovery. The primary factors considered are cost, management, reliability and security Effective back up strategies limit the need to reinstall programs and regenerate data in the events of data loss. However, data loss over a long period of time either by malicious acts or because of inadequate systems is more difficult to salvage and may go unnoticed (Ginty, 2005).

Business Model Canvas Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Business Model Canvas - Assignment Example More so, the Organisation believes in commitment, honour and courage in every aspect of their work (Jamison, 2004). Business model can create an enormous difference between dismissal failure and global leading success. For instance in 1959, the first plain paper copier was a prospective game changer but it was six times more expensive compared to the alternative copiers. As a result, the Company Xerox 914 decided to come up with a new business model. Instead of selling the machine, the Company hired it for ninety five dollars per month and charged a small amount of cents per copy for the number of copies that exceeded 2000 per month. As a result, customers made a large number of copies in the same era, thus the Company generated a large amount of money from the machine. Osterwalder Alexander was so pleased about the idea, thus came up with a Business Model Canvas, which was a simple graphical template that described the nine important components in a business. They include; value propositions, resources, customer segments, customer relationships, business activities, revenue streams, costs, channels and partnerships (Osterwalder, Pigneur & Smith, 2010). In this regard, the Business Model Canvas is a tactical management template that is essential in creating new or documenting the already existing business models (Greenwald, 2012). Business Model Canvas is as very essential aspect in every organisation. In this regard, much emphasis should be placed on its utilisation so as to enhance the efficiency of the organisation, thus attain the stated goals. The United States Marine Corps cannot predict the uncertain event that may be faced by people. Thus, if such occurrences occur, the organisation has the duty to protect the citizen and its interests. In order to achieve the stipulated goals, the organisation ought to put into consideration a number of essential aspects. In this case, the United States Marine Corps

HEC-HMS Evaluation

HEC-HMS Evaluation HEC-HMS is a hydrological model that can be used to check the effect of a storm based event on a watershed or a continuous simulation. HEC-HMS is distributed model but it deals with a watershed as a conceptual model which consist of sub-basin and reach. HEC-HMS is very powerful as it has many options for hydrological calculations and a user-defined is one of the options. One of the uses of the HEC-HMS is to predict the future urbanization that can happen in a watershed and the corresponding flood that could happen. HEC-HMS alone cannot get the places of the flooded area but the hydrograph extracted from the HEC-HMS can be used in HEC-RAS and RAS-mapper to get the inundated map of the city due to a certain storm event. In this lab, a simple simulation will be used to simulate the hydrograph of Tifton watershed.   In order to build a HEC-HMS project, there are components should be added first. The main components that the HEC-HMS require is the basin component which contains the basin properties such as sub-basins, reaches and junctions, the metrological component which contains the rain gages that will be used for precipitation, the control component which contains the simulation time period and the time series component which contains any time series data such as the hyetograph or hydrograph. HEC-HMS has four main windows which are the component window, view window, editor window and message log window. The component window contains all the created components so that we can toggle between them. In order to edit any of the components chosen from the component window, the editor window is used and it contains tab but for global data entry or edit the component menu is used. The view window shows the selected basin, result or table. The log message shows if there is error or the model has found no problem as for example as shown in Figure 1 the log message says, Note 10008: Finish opening projectà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Which means that the project was opened successfully with no errors found. Figure 1 Log message of HEC-HMS Basin component As mention before that the HEC-HMS is conceptualizing the watershed, so we will import the watershed image as a background as shown in Figure 2 and draw on it the corresponding component. This is a simple watershed that contains only one sub-basin and one outlet. the sub-basin is named 74006 and the outlet is junction in HEC-HMS and there is no reach used for flow channel routing. Figure 2 HEC-HMS desktop view The sub-basin properties should be entered for HEC-HMS to use in calculations. The main property is the catchment area as the HEC-HMS is using all the catchment symbolled in one point (sub-basin 74006). The other properties that should be entered are the hydrological calculations that the HEC-HMS will use to calculate the hydrograph at the outlet of the sub-basin as shown in Figure 3. Figure 3 Sub-Basin hydrological calculation methods Canopy is the method used to calculate the water intercepted on the tree that avoid the water to reach the ground. The percentage of vegetation obtained from remote sensing is used to determine the canopy. In this lab, simple canopy method is used which need only the initial water storage in the tree and the maximum storage that the plant can hold. In order to indicate the surface storage that can happen in the watershed there are different methods, in this lab a simple surface is used. The simple surface method is mainly saying how much is the initial storage and the maximum storage. The maximum storage provide in this lab is zero which is useless as the surface method can be selected as none instead. To get the parameters of the initial storage and maximum storage a site investigation can be done or throughout satellite maps and DEM the surface depletions and storage area can be calculated roughly. Infiltration losses is indicated here as the loss method. The loss method that is widely used is the Horton equation but in this lab the soil moisture loss is used. The soil moisture loss method mainly works as the soil moisture content and the maximum infiltration rate of the vadous zone of the soil as well as the groundwater beneath the vadous zone depth and the percolation rate from vadous zone to the groundwater and if the groundwater is into two different soil type provide the data to each soil type. In order to get the data for this method a soil surveying is required or from a previous defined data as the FAO maps or Canada CIRUS maps. The unit hydrograph for the basin is not known so a synthetic hydrograph will be used. There are different synthetic hydrograph methods in HEC-HMS, in this lab Clark (1945) Hydrograph is used. The Clark Unit Hydrograph is divided into translation based on synthetic time area curve and time of concentration as well as a reduction of discharge as excess rainfall is stored in watershed. Clark Unit Hydrograph is modeled with linear reservoir for baseflow. The parameters for the Clark Unit Hydrograph is the time of concentration and the storage coefficient. Time of concentration can be calculated using watershed properties or from previous observations but the storage coefficient most likely will be calibrated. The linear reservoir is used for baseflow separation. Baseflow is linearly related to average storage of each time interval similar to the Clark unit Hydrograph. The linear reservoir also is used with the soil moisture content as it depends of the water in the groundwater and how it returns back to be a contributed to the hydrograph as a baseflow. The parameters of the baseflow is hard to measure so it will be most likely calibrated. Time series component In the time series component, a rainfall hyetograph is entered in the rain gages using the Tifton DSS file provided with the project. After entering the hyetograph, the graph can be shown as shown in Figure 4. The hyetograph will then be assigned to the basin in the metrological compenent. Figure 4 Tifton Hyetograph In the time series component, also the observed outflow hydrograph of the catchment is entered using the Tifton DSS file. After entering the DSS file the hydrograph is shown as in Figure 5. The hydrograph should be used for model calibration of the unknown parameters. Figure 5 Tifton observed hydrograph Meteorological component In the meteorological component, the hyetograph is assigned to the sub-basin and if there are more than one rain fall gage a weighted average can be assigned to each sub-basin. Also in the meteorological component, the evapotranspiration is entered. In this lab, monthly average is used which gives a constant value for each month and corresponding coefficient. Control component Finally, the control component is used to define the simulation period and time interval. In the lab, according to my group number which is 15 the corresponding simulation time is used which is from the first of January 1970 to the thirties of June 1970. After finishing all the data entry, a simulation manager is used to create a simulation which is defined by selecting the basin, meteorological and control data to be computed. After creating the simulation, compute is chosen and a message of successful appear in the message log -if there is any error or warning will appear in the message log too-. From the results tab, a global summary can be viewed as shown in Figure 6. The global summary gives the drainage area contributing to each sub-basin and each junction and the time to peak and the corresponding peak discharge as well as the total volume of excess rainfall. In this lab, there is only one sub-basin so the sub-basin and junction will have the same properties. The peak discharge is 873 CFS and happened in the thirty-first of March 1970 at 1:00 PM. The total excess volume is 16.36 in. Figure 6 Global Summary The graph of the sub-basin 74006 shown in Figure 7 show the hyetograph in the top part which consists of red and blue. The red part shows the infiltrated depth while the blue line shows the excess rainfall depth. The bottom part of the graph shows the hydrograph which consists of the baseflow and the excess hydrograph. The blue solid line shows the hydrograph while the dotted red line shows the baseflow. As we can see that in January all the rainfall is almost infiltrated and there is no excess and that is reflected in the hydrograph as there is no excess hydrograph only baseflow. The peak rainfall events happened at the end of March and May and as we can see that there is a lag time between the peak of the hyetograph and the hydrograph which represent the time of the water to route though the watershed to the outlet of the catchment. Even both event in March and May has the same rainfall but the peak was higher in March due to the infiltration difference. The infiltiration that happ ened in May was larger than March as the soil moisture content in March was high due to event happened just before the peak event while before May peak event it was dry for almost two months. Figure 7 Hyetograph/Hydrograph of Sub-basin 74006 The hydrograph of the junction shown in Figure 7 shows the hydrograph coming from each sub-basin the blue dashed line and the total summation of all the hydrographs at the junction the blue line and the observed data the black dotted line. The dashed blue line and the solid blue line are coinciding because there is only on sub-basin that contribute to the junction. As shown in Figure 7, the observation and the hydrograph at the junction as almost the same which means that the parameters and methods used in the HEC-HMS are representing the reality quite well. Figure 8 Hydrograph of Junction HEC-HMS can simulate storm event to get the flow hydrograph of the catchment. It is important to use the adequate method based on the data availability. The model should be calibrated using the observed data. HEC-HMS can gives how each sub-basin can contribute to the basin outflow and what changes will happen if any of the sub-basin changes. Hydrologic Engineering Center (2010). Hydrologic Modeling System HEC-HMS, Quick Start Guide, US Army Corps of Engineers, Davis, USA

Brenda C. Seggerman Essay

hemoperitoneum was noted, and approximately 500 mL of blood was rapidly evacuated from the pelvic cavity, as were large clots. Following this, the bowel was packed away from the pelvic area with packing laps. A retaining retractor was introduced. The left fallopian tube was noted. A large tubal ectopic pregnancy was noted, affecting approximately the distal half of the fallopian tube. Following this, a Heaney clamp was placed in the mesosalpinx and another curved Heaney clamp was placed in the proximal aspect of the left fallopian tube beyond the area of the ectopic pregnancy. A partial salpingectomy was then performed, removing the portion of the left fallopian tube containing the ectopic pregnancy. Heaney clamps were then replaced with sutures of No. 1 Vicryl. Hemostasis was checked again, and no bleeding was detected. Further evacuation of blood and blood clots was then performed. The right fallopian tube was noted to be covered with adhesions, both tubo-ovarian and tubo-uterine adhesions. The adhesions were then sharply lysed, freeing the right fallopian tube. Hemostasis was checked again. No bleeding was detected. Mild serosal abrasion was noted from the area where the ectopic pregnancy was apparently attached to the bowel. This was not bleeding and was very superficial. Hemostasis was checked, and no bleeding was detected. The peritoneum was then closed continuously with 0 chromic suture. The fascia was approximated with interrupted figure-of-8 stitches of 0 Vicryl, and the skin was approximated with the staple gun. OPERATIVE REPORT Patient Name: Brenda C. Seggerman Patient ID: 903321 Date of Surgery: 03/27/—- Page 3 The patient tolerated the procedure well and left the operating room in satisfactory condition. All counts were correct. Blood loss was estimated at 1000 mL, which was replaced with 2 units of whole blood while in recovery. ________________________ Rosemary Bumbak, MD Obstetrics & Gynecology RB:xx(your initials in lower case) D:03/27/—- T:03/27/—-

Columbine High School massacre, Essay

A video game is an electronic game that involves human interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. Video games typically use additional means of providing interactivity and information to the player. Audio is almost universal, using sound reproduction devices, such as speakers and headphones. Other feedback may come via haptic peripherals, such as vibration or force feedback, with vibration sometimes used to simulate force feedback. In the early days of cartridge consoles; they were sometimes called TV games. It has been shown that action video game players have better hand-eye coordination and visuo-motor skills, such as their resistance to distraction, their sensitivity to information in the peripheral vision and their ability to count briefly presented objects, than nonplayers. Researchers found that such enhanced abilities could be acquired by training with action games, involving challenges that switch attention between different locations, but not with games requiring concentration on single objects. It has been suggested by a few studies that online/offline video gaming can be used as a therapeutic tool in the treatment of different mental health concerns. In Steven Johnson’s book, Everything Bad Is Good for You, he argues that video games in fact demand far more from a player than traditional games like Monopoly. To experience the game, the player must first determine the objectives, as well as how to complete them. They must then learn the game controls and how the human-machine interface works, including menus and HUDs. Beyond such skills, which after some time become quite fundamental and are taken for granted by many gamers, video games are based upon the player navigating a highly complex system with many variables. Learning principles found in video games have been identified as possible techniques with which to reform the U. S. education system. It has been noticed that gamers adopt an attitude while playing that is of such high concentration, they do not realize they are learning, and that if the same attitude could be adopted at school, education would enjoy significant benefits. Students are found to be â€Å"learning by doing† while playing video games while fostering creative thinking. Video game development and authorship, much like any other form of entertainment, is frequently a cross-disciplinary field. Video game developers, as employees within this industry are commonly referred, primarily include programmers and graphic designers. Over the years this has expanded to include almost every type of skill that one might see prevalent in the creation of any movie or television program, including sound designers, musicians, and other technicians; as well as skills that are specific to video games, such as the game. All of these are managed by producers. 97% of 12-17 year olds in the US played video games in 2008, thus fueling an $11. 7 billion domestic video game industry. In 2008, 10 of the top 20 best-selling video games in the US contained violence. Violent video games have been blamed for school shootings, increases in bullying, and violence towards women. Critics argue that these games desensitize players to violence, reward players for simulating violence, and teach children that violence is an acceptable way to resolve conflicts. Video game advocates contend that a majority of the research on the topic is deeply flawed and that no causal relationship has been found between video games and social violence. They argue that violent video games may reduce violence by serving as a substitute for rough and tumble play and by providing a safe outlet for aggressive and angry feelings. The controversy over violent video games resurfaced following the massacre of 13 people at Columbine High School in Jefferson County, CO on Apr. 20, 1999. The two teenage shooters were revealed to be avid players of weapon-based combat games Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. Following the shooting, 176 newspaper articles across the country focused on the allegation that video games were the cause of the tragedy. On Oct. 7, 2005, California passed a law that required violent video games to include an â€Å"18† label and criminalized the sale of these games to minors. The law was blocked by the US District Court for the Northern District of California and was struck down in Feb. 2009 by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals citing First Amendment protections and the inability of the state to demonstrate a link between violence in video games and real-world violence. As of Dec. 2008, six other state statutes and two city ordinances concerning the sale of violent video games to minors have been stricken down on similar grounds. On June 27, 2011, the US Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in Brown vs. Entertainment Merchants Association that the California law banning the sale of violent video games to minors violated free speech rights. In the majority opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, â€Å"A state possesses legitimate power to protect children from harm†¦ but that does not include a free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed. † Several games have garnered significant media attention, including 2004’s JFK assassination reenactment JFK Reloaded, 2005’s Columbine shooting reenactment Super Columbine Massacre RPG! , and 2006’s Rape Lay, a Japanese video game where the player stalks and rapes a mother and her two daughters. Prior to the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which went on to gross $550 million in the first five days after its Nov. 10, 2009 release, leaked footage of the game stirred enough controversy that publisher Activision issued a response defending the game’s violent imagery. Some cons to the question â€Å"Does Video Games promote violence are the following: Violent juvenile crime in the United States has been declining as violent video game popularity has increased. The arrest rate for juvenile murders has fallen 71. 9% between 1995 and 2008. The arrest rate for all juvenile violent crimes has declined 49. 3%. In this same period, video game sales have more than quadrupled. Another con would be violent video games provide healthy and safe opportunities for children to virtually explore rules and consequences of violent actions. Violent games also allow youth to experiment with issues such as war, violence and death without real world consequences. In conclusion I have learned throughout this research that video games in fact do have a major impact on young adolescents in today’s time whether it’s positive or negative. I’ve also realized that for one some kids may act out because of theses sometime violent games and that for two they may improve in their behavior by these games as well. There isn’t really a yes or no answer to this research topic ,but maybe parents should just get games more appropriate for their child’s age . Work Cited â€Å"Video Games ProCon. org. † ProConorg Headlines. N. p. , n. d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. â€Å"Video Game. † Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Dec. 2013. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. â€Å"Children and Video Games: Playing with Violence. † Children and Video Games: Playing with Violence. N. p. , n. d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.

Inca Empire Demise essays

Inca Empire Demise essays At its height, the Inca empire stretched from modern day Colombia to central Chile, and had about nine to ten million inhabitants, yet in 1532 Francisco Pizarro and a meager 62 horsemen and 102 foot soldiers conquered the empire. Pizarro was able to conquer the Incas not only because of his cunning and ruthlessness, but also because their kingdom was in disarray, therefore, I will discuss what I believe are the three main reasons why the empire fell, and none of them will have anything to do with Francisco Pizarro. My first explanation for the demise of the Incas is their rapid and recent expansion they had gone through only a few decades before Pizarro arrived. Circa 1438 AD Inca Yupanqui (Pachacutec) defeated the Chancas and expanded his empire out of the Cuzco valley. Around 1463 AD, while Inca Yupanqui was busy organizing his conquests and remaking Cuzco, the capital of his empire, his son, Topa Inca, was allowed to take control of the Inca army and continue the task of conquest. During that time, Topa Inca conquered the Northern Highlands of Peru, the Southern and Central Highlands of Ecuador, and then the Northern and Central Coastal areas of Peru. When Inca Yupanqui died around 1471 AD, and Topa Inca became Sapa Inca and took over the empire. During Sapa Incas rule, the empire virtually doubled in size, with the conquest of the lands of the Southern Coast of Peru, the northern half of Chile, Northwest Argentina, and Eastern Bolivia. This was done less than sixty years before Piz arro marched into Cajamarca (Davies 125-129). The successor to Sapa Inca was his son Huayna Capac in 1493 AD. When Topa Inca died ca. 1493 AD, he was succeeded by his son Huayna Capac. The empire had expanded rapidly to absorb millions of people spread over thousands of miles of land, and Huayna Capac had to concentrate much of his effort on quelling various rebellions in the north and defending the large border. Thus, when Huay...

Tribal Lands essays

Tribal Lands essays The legacy of Native Americans is one of the most important heritages of American history and culture. Native Americans have traditionally had a land-based culture. Their land is their prime resource and fulfills a further objective of promoting their heritage and culture. Therefore, the importance of conserving the sites of traditional value for these tribes is of utmost importance. By protecting these sites, one can conserve the cultural, spiritual as well as the economical status of the Native However, though the importance of land conservation cannot be denied, it is ironic that the history of the American Indian shows massive loss of The Dawes Act, implemented in 1887 resulted in a loss of more than 90 million acres of tribal land which in itself is no small figure accounting for a large percentage of the total tribal land. Even now, there is consistent looting of Indian land be it in the form of privately owned sites, graveyards, fishing grounds or wildlife habitat. The constant occupation of native tribal land is a persistent problem being faced by the Native American tribes like the Nez Perce, Umatilla, Warm Springs, Yakama and Klamath have all lost some part of their original land. They have however fought for it, with the help of land conservation organizations and other non-governmental workers. Their logic behind the fight against illegal occupation of tribal land is to save the land and build native economies which are socially, culturally and economically strong and devoted to strengthening the Native American status as well as preserving their traditional heritage. May our Creator send the spirits of those who have traveled these valleys and ridges, those who were laid to rest at the Big Hole, the Bears Paw and other places on the route of the Nez Perce W ...

Gaonic Society and Culture Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5500 words

Gaonic Society and Culture - Research Paper Example The first â€Å"Gaon of Sura† was Mar Rab who took the charge in 609 and the last was Samuel ben Hofni who died in 1034. The last â€Å"Gaon of Pumbedita† was Hezekiah Gaon who was agonized and he died in 10401. During the â€Å"Golden Age† of Arabs Jews were prominent in the society and their religious and cultural practices and economic living flourished. After 681, the Jews were severely victimized by â€Å"Christian Visigoths† and therefore they invited the Muslim Arabs mainly the â€Å"Berber† conquerors. These conquerors successfully removed the â€Å"Christian Visigoths† and brought an end to their tyranny, providing the Jews their religious autonomy2. Thereafter a period of tolerance began as Jews devoted themselves in studying the sciences, commerce and industry to augment the prosperity of the country. They engaged themselves in translating Arabic texts into Roman and Greek and Hebrew texts into Arabic. The involvement of the Jews w as also found in several other disciplines such as â€Å"botany, geography, medicine, mathematics, poetry and philosophy.3† During this time Jewish ideas blossomed leading to partial Jewish autonomy. Again insecurity of the Jews developed around 976 and the situation further deteriorated in 1090 with the attack of â€Å"Almoravids†, a Muslim protestant sect from Morocco. Under their rule Islamic belief was imposed on the Jews. The famous educational bodies of the Jews were closed. Then by 1085 there was invasion by the Christian forces. Jewish community was still prominent. Some scholars such as Maimonides, born in 1135, were well-known figures in Judaism. Jewish existence still continued until they were powerfully debarred or converted by the â€Å"Christian Monarchs†4 The purpose of this paper is to show that the uniqueness of the gaons could be attributed to their piety and practices apart from their scholarly talents and achievements which reflect discipline , integrity and wisdom. The Gaons, their practice and religion During the Islamic period, due to the absence of corporate groups, the commercialized and crafted guild of the European variety was not restricted to those members having majority belief in Islamic culture. There was significant resemblance among the Muslim and Jewish practices. This encouraged flexible interactions between the Jews and Muslims in economic activities and led the Jewish to adopt liberal attitude towards the Muslims. They preferred to in developing business contracts and settling disputes in the Muslim religious courts as opposed to early Talmudic prohibition. According to one of the Babylonian Geonim this practice was implicitly recognized by the Jewish judiciary on account of mutual faith. â€Å"Ashkenazic rabbis† persisted on stringent observance of Talmudic controls. Therefore the Geonim and later halakhic authorities in the â€Å"medieval Arab world† objected on Jews relevance to Muslim courts and emphasized on continual Talmudic ban. The Gaon after considering many contradictory biblical verses exhibits that they do not include abrogation. Islamic religious expressions were used in â€Å"Judaeo- Arabic† writing of the Jewish scholars. Saadya Gaon, the first great â€Å"rabbinic† who wrote in Arabic referred deliberately to the â€Å"Torah†. His Arabic translation of the Bible reflected an integration of â€Å"Arabic-Islamic† culture. The considerable resemblance between the Jewish and Islamic law, the corresponding operation of both of their legal systems and their sharing of linguistic discourse across

Independent Creative Writing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Independent Creative Writing - Essay Example I have created my time capsule keeping this fact in mind. It would be difficult to write about the culturally diverse American society and for this reason, a DVD should be made that would record the different aspects of the American society. These different aspects would be personal, business and recreational society. For this purpose, the video recorder will have to visit different homes, business centers including the White House and popular recreational spots including fast food joints such as McDonald’s. This DVD would be the main object of the time capsule. To ensure that the DVD is playable, a DVD player would also be included in the time capsule. Along with the DVD, an album of pictures will also be put in the time capsule. This album will have pictures of popular spots that are idolized by the society including Hollywood, fast food joints, stadiums, and theaters etc. The composition of the pictures would be such that the essence of the place is captured, that is, stadium during a football match. I would also include a recent newspaper. This newspaper will cover most aspects of the contemporary American society including the most recent headlines and the opinions of leading journalists on the pressing problems of today’s society.