.

Saturday, August 31, 2019

To What Extent Had the Ussr Recovered from the Impact of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) by the Time of Stalin’s Death in 1953

To what extent had the USSR recovered from the impact of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) by the time of Stalin’s death in 1953? Although VE celebrations started on 24th June 1945, peace was declared on the 9th May in Moscow. There are differing opinions on the amount of deaths that were caused by the Great Patriotic War (for example, Kenez estimates 26-27 million, many of whom were prisoners of war, whereas Hoskings estimated 20-25 million, many of whom were killed indirectly by the war, by means such as famines).It could be suggested that the USSR simply returned to where it had been previously in the 1930s after the war, for example primary focus for industry was put on â€Å"heavy† goods such as oil and coal. But to what extent did life for the Russian improve once the war was over? Social conditions after the war were anything but favourable. 1,170 towns, 70,000 villages and 7 million homes had been destroyed leaving 25 million Russians homeless. This issue was not addressed or rectified and no housing schemes of building projects were started, instead the money was redirected to other areas. So Soviets were left restless as they had nowhere to go.The peasants were essentially bound to their land as they had no access to funds or passports to travel. The two types of farms faced disadvantages, for example the Kolkhozy farms (collective state farms) had to meet state obligations which were 60-70% of their output and only received trivial rewards in return (such as sacks of potatoes). Even though the war had caused so many deaths, the Politburo remained to see the peasants as disposable after the war. Also Stalin did not trust the peasants as he said they were â€Å"too individualistic to make good socialists† and therefore increased the taxes on them.So this is not recovery as the lifestyle, especially for peasants, got worse. The agricultural output in 1945 was only 60% of what it had been before the war, and as a result food shorta ges that had occurred previously (due to the farm workers going to the front, and with them taking machinery and horses) simply continued. There was a famine in 1946-47 and this caused widespread starvation, for example in Moldova alone 70,000 Russians died. Due to the famine, food rations were restricted and the numbers eligible for these were educed (21 million reduced to 4. 1 million). To make this even worse Stalin did not acknowledge the famine and banned private farming in 1946 as it was seen as anti-communist. This meant that the small amount of food the peasants may have been able to grow to feed their families was now taken away from them. As a result of this, the USSR could not recover because they had less resources and food. Also Stalin was ignorant, and made the any chance of recovery harder because peasants were not able to feed themselves, so they in turn could not recover.It was not only in the country where the people suffered, workers in the towns faced inflated ta rgets and reduced wages (further than this they were expected to subscribe to state bonds which totalled several weeks’ wages). So the people were not able to provide for themselves, meaning that they could not recover, as they couldn’t afford to. Consumer goods were very scarce, for example, although there were 341 million knitted garments by 1953, televisions and refrigerators were very rare even though they were now commodities in the west at this time.Although after the Second World War, life was certainly looking very bleak for the Russians; some fixed prices were reduced in the towns to ensure that the poorest workers could afford food such as bread (which cost half the amount in 1950 as it did in 1947). So recovery had been initiated, however, in general, living conditions did not improve. The Great Patriotic War affected Stalin very negatively, despite the Russian victory. He perceived his personal position and security in a different way to the Russians and sa w himself to be very vulnerable. Understandably this was partly due to the success and support that Zhukov faced after the war.Although it is not clear whether or not Stalin’s health deterioration was a result of the war, he never fully recovered from this experience. Due to his constant paranoia, Stalinism was re-asserted after the war. This had previously been used in the 1930s (involved the state making extensive use of propaganda to establish a personality cult around Stalin to maintain control over the population and to maintain political control for the Communist Party). During the period of fighting, there had been relaxations in censorship and other areas such as the church (who were allowed to openly practice religion again).This was to ensure support for the leadership of the country and unite the Russian people against the Axis powers. However, after the war, regulations of the Church were once again tightened, to stop it becoming too powerful. The cult of personal ity reached its peak on Stalin’s 70th birthday in 1949 and this was accompanied by a new programme of censorship (for example newspapers were censored once before publishing and once after) and propaganda. Intellectual life in Russia also suffered shut in order to eradicate opposition, for example archives were shut in the 1930s and original research was discounted.All areas were affected, including literature where writers who were seen to be non- ideological were purged (by expelling them from the Union of soviet writers). Whether or not this is a sign of â€Å"recovery† after the war depends on whose perspective taken – for the Russian people it was a tightening in society that had a negative effect whereas members of the communist party or Stalin’s supporters would see this as â€Å"recovery† from the loosening in control and a sign that Stalin’s power was being re-asserted.The results of Stalin’s paranoia had a negative effect fo r the Russians, even if they had not been directly aware of it at the time. Due to Stalin’s over cautious approach he refused to research new technologies and exploited new industries and trade with the west. If he had done this; Russia’s economy would have expanded and the economic problems the country faced may well have been solved, or at least improved. Science in the Soviet Union was also under strict ideological control by Stalin and his government, along with art and literature.There was significant progress in â€Å"ideologically safe† domains, owing to the free Soviet education system and state-financed research. However, the most notable legacy during Stalin's time was his public endorsement of the agronomist Trofim Lysenko, who rejected Mendelian genetics as â€Å"bourgeois pseudoscience† and instead supported hybridization theories that caused widespread agricultural destruction and major setbacks in Soviet knowledge in biology. Although many scientists opposed his views, those who publicly came out were imprisoned and denounced.This also made the prospects of recovery for the USSR very low. The fourth Five Year Plan was launched in 1946 (until 1950) by Voznesensky which aimed to restore production to pre-war levels. During the Great Patriotic War the Russians had effectively produced arms to keep their front well supplied. This obviously involved a shift in production focus and this now needed to be switched back to previous production. New factories were built where they had been located previous to the war but the relocated factories remained in use in the Urals.This meant that production capacity increased and Soviet gross national product (GNP) grew annually by 8. 9% between 1946 -1950 which shows obvious signs of recovery and is very significant (as in 1939 it was 8. 5%). However, rather than shifting the focus to consumer goods as one might expect, the focus remained on heavy industry. This means that the standard of living did not improve for the Russian people. Further than this, Stalin also failed to solve the agricultural production problems caused by the war (for example the grain harvest in 1952 was less than that of 1940).The Russians were therefore unable to improve the way they lived, and to add insult to injury many Russian’s savings were wiped out when the country underwent a currency reform in December 1947. Hoskings says that â€Å"the shape of the recovery thus froze the soviet economy back into the shape it had assumed in the thirties† which is due to the USSR failing to exploit any new techniques, even though it had UN economic advisors available to it. Due to a lack of interest, no new innovations (such as chemicals and plastics) were investigated.Instead the money was put to use funding causes such as â€Å"Stalin’s grand projects of communism† which built striking new buildings such as the Metro and Moscow University. This was obviously a showca se of communism but did not contribute to the recovery from the Great Patriotic War. During the war the Communist Party had taken a backseat and the focus had been primarily on nationalism rather than communism in order to ensure that patriotism and the general war effort were kept active.However, after the war, Stalin wanted to re-assert himself as the undisputed leader of the USSR (this was partly due to his paranoia and illness). Instead of re-asserting the Communist party itself, Stalin ruled through a small group of influential magnates (such as Beria and Molotov). From the wider communist parties point of view Russia may not have recovered well â€Å"ideologically† after the war, whereas Stalin would have felt that this was an improvement from the leadership previous to the war (and certainly during the war when he was forced to accept suggestions from more experienced military men such as General Zhukov).Stalin did ensure however, that the soldiers that joined the Comm unist party during the war were educated in Communist values through the new Central Committee Higher Party School that was set up. Stalin also delegated some areas of control to other groups due to the huge workload he faced, for example the economy was given to the USSR Council of Ministers. However, he also put a strict hierarchy of decision making into practice to ensure that he still essentially made all the decisions.It still appears however that the improvements made after the war fail to outweigh the negatives both in number and significance. The Great Patriotic War had left Russia severely weakened and the Russia nation crushed. Although the economy did appear to improve slightly after the war (increase of 8. 9% in the GNP) and Stalin re-asserted his control, Russia remained how it had been run in the 1930s previous to the war (no improvements or innovations within industrial production and living conditions remained poor) and therefore Soviet Union had not recovered well b y 1953.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Hazards of Unsafe Driving Essay

Driving in and of itself is unsafe in its nature. The only thing keeping you connected to the ground is just four small patches of rubber. That is exactly why we should not take more risks while driving. Sure it may seem like you have layer of steel protecting you, but when you look at it, there is really not a lot between you and the ground when your going 50 miles an hour. The hazards of not following the rules of the road can be devastating. Not only can unsafe driving cause you to get a ticket and points against your license but it can also cause serious injury and sadly death in some cases. Must accidents are preventable by doing a few small things to insure your safety? I believe I read somewhere that some 95% of all accidents are driver error, which means nearly every single accident that occurs can be prevented by driving safely. One of the must common hazards of the roads is letting you get distracted by small things that you probably do nearly every time you sit behind the wheel of a car. In some cases, even more so with teenagers than any other group of people, other passengers in the car can distract you, you can get in a heated debate and begin to stop paying attention to the road and only to a passenger, fiddling with the radio is also another big one, I remember reading a story of a guy who reached in his backseat to change his tape and got in an accident and got killed because of it. Another big one is people see an accident and watch it instead of the road, sometimes almost causing them to become another accident. My mom once got in an accident by turning around for only just a second or so to see what my brother complaining about, the light was green when she looked back but quickly turned yellow, the car in front of her stopped and boomed, she hit it. It can only take a second or two of looking awa y to cause a dangerous situation that can be easily avoided. It can wait until the next red light or better yet when your off the road. Driving while tired is an enormous risk, I remember a few years back when a truck driver fell asleep at the wheel and caused an enormous crash on a freeway killing a few people, why you ask? Because he failed to take the  required 15 minute rest break that he was required by law to. Now you do not even have to worry about taking back movies late anymore, they have it to where you can just bring it in the next morning! There is really no reason to drive while tired, just have someone else drive, or if you are on a long road trip with no hotel in sight for a long time, just pull over to the road and take a little nap for 15-30 minutes to help you make it the rest of the way. Must people think turning up the music or opening a window helps them stay awake, but the fact is studies show that it does not matter a bit if you blast the music as loud as it will go or open a window on a freezing night. The best thing to do is to just not drive or have someone else drive for you who awake eno ugh to be able to drive responsible. A even bigger and probably the easiest risk to avoid while driving is wearing your seatbelt. Thousands of people die each year because they break the law and don’t do one of the easiest things possible, buckling up. Some people say they believe seatbelts can kill people. That is true seatbelts have killed and injured people. But they help way more than they hurt. Without them many people would be dead or seriously injured, they allow people who should have died in an accident to come out of it without a scratch. My grandfather died before I was even born, he died in a car accident and was thrown through his windshield, they say if he wore his seatbelt he would have lived. He died before I ever got to meet him. Why some people take that risk every day, I will never know, even my dad (on his side was the side of my family on which my grandfather died) hardly if ever buckles up, you would think of all people he would always buckle up because that’s how he lost his father. Some people think the air bag will save them but it’s simply not true if you want to make sure that you minimize your risks as much as possible you’ll buckle up. Road rage, is another very important unsafe driving hazard. Road rage has seemed too spurred to new levels in recent years as before it was very uncommon to hear of someone beating up another person for cutting them off. It is a fact of life when you drive you will be cut off, tailgated and whatnot. You just have to learn how to make sure that you can handle the situations to where you do not allow yourself to get angry enough to where you do something violent like that to harm another person or the property. Also a simple way to help make sure you’re not the victim of someone else road rage, if you know you did something wrong and cut someone off sometimes a simple wave of the hand in showing an apology is enough to cool someone off. Speeding, it seems like everyone does it right? Well the majority of people do, from what I can tell from people I’ve asked, driving with other people, and just looking out at the roads, it seems like everyone is in a hurry to get there, and get there now. Some people are not even in a hurry they just speed because there use to it, sure its normally only five over, but that still speeding, some people do it because they get a rush from going fast, others because they are in a hurry to get where they want to go, or there late. Some people do it just out of habit their use to going 30 in 25’s or 50 in 45’s because they normally won’t get pulled over for only going five over so they decide they’ll do it. While others do it but don’t mean to, sometimes when you drive for a long time you don’t release that your going 5-10 miles over. Speeding is probably the biggest hazard of driving that must people do, and it’s also one of the must dangerous people can do. Speeding can cause deadly accidents and can turn cars into something for the junkyard. Avoiding traffic signs or signals is another big one. My mom has been hit twice, one by someone who ran a red light and another by someone who ran a stop sign. In small neighborhoods where not too many cars come by, or late at night when it seems like you’re the only one on the road some people think there can’t possible be any other cars coming and decide to run it. Or they’ll see the yellow light from a distance and say to themself’s ‘I can make it’ when in fact they’ll actually be going through it because the time they get there it will be red. Must of the accidents I have seen in my life are at intersections where I can only assume it was because someone has run a red light. Many people don’t even slow down for yellows they speed up when they shouldn’t. Normally there’s that few seconds where the lights are changing and they can make it, but every now and than someone misjudges their timing and gets hit. Drinking and driving, easily avoidable by everyone, people like to drink, sometimes they don’t know when they should stop and become impaired. Some of them even try to get behind the wheel of a car. Sometimes a friend will take them home or let them stay at their house until they sober up but other times there not so luckily in keeping them off the road and the driver can’t even tell which side of the road there supposes to be on. I saw an accident on T.V. a few years back where a guy had been drinking during his entire day of fishing out at the lake and decided to go home. He swerved over into another guy’s lane at 70 miles an hour the other guy was forced off the road where he’s jeep flipped over. Luckily because the man was wearing a seatbelt he lived with no serious injury’s but his car was totaled. Sadly some people can’t even tell they’re drunk and think they’re fine. Sadly many people die a year because of this, I read so mewhere that in one summer more people die from drinking and driving accidents than the amount of people who died during the entire Vietnam war. Now that is a lot of death’s the can be prevented if people just don’t drive impaired. A lot of people drive the exact same when its raining or snowing. When in fact they should be giving themself’s a extra few seconds of room between them and the car in front of them and break sooner. When its raining and there’s even a little water on the ground when you go fast enough the car no longer even has contact with the ground but only the water, now that’s unsafe! A lot of people loose control of there cars and crash when there is icy or wet roads out. Its also very easily avoidable, giving yourself a few extra seconds going maybe 5-10 miles slower than one would normally go would almost eliminate any risk of driving in bad weather. Also if its raining to hard to where its making it nearly impossible to see through the windshield, pull over! Normally when it rains that hard it will only last for a few minutes or so. Pulling over for that time helps make sure that you don’t ram a person in front of you because you can’t see them. Driving to close behind someone, it takes you longer than you think to release something is wrong and than to move your foot to the break, in that crucial amount of time it could be to late, giving yourself distance from  the car in front of you is the easiest thing to do, just let off the gas and be at least 3 seconds in normal weather and a little longer in bad weather behind someone and you’ll be a lot safer. Not only is driving at a distance safer the driver in front will appreciate it greatly. We all know there’s nothing worse than thinking the guy behind us is about to ram the back of our car. Driving with faulty equipment, sometimes not the easiest thing to recognize but certainly a easy one to fix. You may not notice your light is burnt out or your single is not working right away as soon as it happens, but when you do you should have it repaired as soon as possible. Having your lights not working makes you incredibly less visible at night, nearly impossible to see at times depending on how dark outside it is. It helps a bunch to be able to tell where your going to other cars, not being able to single correctly with a turn single can make it really hard and frustrating the driver who didn’t know you were going to be moving into his or her lane. There’s really no reason to let a flat be a flat, now you can buy a can to fix small leaks and pay a quarter to have it filled up again. Maybe not the must dangerous hazard out there but certainly one to keep a eye on. Being prepared for situations is also a great idea to help minimize the risks of you getting into trouble out on the road, knowing where your hazard lights are in a panic can be invaluable. My mom in one of her accidents in a panic forgot where her hazard lights were, in the evening other cars could not tell she was stopped and not only was she hit once she was also hit again from behind because a car could not see her stopped in the middle of the road. Knowing not to panic in accidents insures your safety while driving and makes your odds for survival greater when in accidents. A large majority of people panic when involved in accidents and only cause greater damage to themself’s or others because they do not know how to properly respond to a situation. Knowing the driving laws where you live or are going! Its probably one of the must easiest things to miss, when I went to Arizona for the summer the speed limits in the city I was in was normally 35, I was not used to it, because  around here the speed limits on must main roads are 45! Watching for the signs can help you not become a hazard. Also when my dad came up here a few months ago for my sisters graduation he was unfamiliar with the ‘Michigan right’ as we like to call it, and had no idea he had to go right to go left. Sometimes it can be hard just to know the speed limits and other odds and ends in driving in your own area, becoming familiar with your own area is a good example to, must people miss the fact that Middlebelt is 40 and normally go much faster! Knowing your roads, the speed limits, and any other posted sign can be an enormous help in driving safely. Knowing where the cars around you are can also be a big help to, knowing where that motorcycle is so you don’t cut him off is invaluable, motorcyclists have virtually no protection from cars and if one gets hit that’s pretty much it for him or her that’s on it. Checking your blind spots, probably the #1 thing must people forgot to do is a huge thing, we all know there’s spaces you can not see if you just look straight ahead and only at your mirror . You do not want to just check your mirror and than smack right into someone because you were to lazy to glance in the direction you were going in. Its also a safe idea to not be right next to a car, they say if the car see’s a immediate danger to going to swerve into the closest lane, which normally in a two lane road would be where you are, they say to try and space yourself to where your not next to a car beside you, because if you don’t, and they see a danger odds are there coming for you and t he only other option you have is to go right into oncoming traffic. Not knowing what to do in certain situations is another huge one, a few months back when we had the power outage that took out many stop lights, must people did not know that a down traffic light is suppose to be treated as a four way stop unless a officer is there controlling the situation. Some people do not follow the directions of officers to go other directions and become a hazard to other responsible people who are following the directions giving to them by the officer. Others can get in the way of a fire truck or ambulance as there passing because they do not release there suppose to get over and out of the way so that they can pass quickly and not have to work there way through traffic. With every single example above there is several things in common, they can all be incredibly dangerous, sometimes even deadly, and they are all incredibly easy to avoid doing for the must part. Driving in and of itself is a very dangerous thing to do, Doing the things above only makes something that’s dangerous even more dangerous. Taking dangerous risks like those above can cost you more than just a few bucks from your wallet, a point or two against your drivers license, or a small insurance increase, it can cost you your life. Not only that but now a days its more important than ever to have a clean driving record. It helps show your responsible to employers and that you follow rules accordingly. If a job requires driving and you have a clean record compared to someone who has a few tickets, odds are there going to choose you instead. Health insurance, life insurance, some of there premiums are based off your driving record believe it or not! Driving safely won’t cost you anything but it can save you a ton of money. Not only that but the time you have to take off work to go to court, the fines you’ll pay, the insurance increase, its all just not worth it. Not only will you save your wallet, you might just save your life or someone with you, you do not want to be held responsible for the death of a friend who is in the car with you because you did not prevent it from happening when you could have, it would truly be a horrible thing to live with for the rest of someone’s life, knowing there responsible for the death of the friend or a family member. Driving safely is probably the easiest thing a person can do and driving safely far outweighs the benefits of driving carelessly.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Human Resource Management; Challenges and Changes Essay

Human Resource Management; Challenges and Changes - Essay Example This is an HR challenge that one perceives because it keeps him out of touch with his family and makes him feel alienated from his immediate social and family circles. Alan cannot be with his family whenever he needs to be, which is indeed something that does not go down well of his association to the organization (Werling 2005). One can be certain that other employees feel the same way but do not express such feelings as they are bound to remain tight-lipped on their feelings, emotions and sentiments within the realms of the workplace. One can believe that finding an immediate solution to this anomaly by the HR is something that will go down well with a number of employees. It will give all of them a room to feel relaxed, so that they can give their best as far as their work manifestations are concerned. HR challenges like these pose as serious threats for the new entrants within any

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Dont Kill the Rooster Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Dont Kill the Rooster - Essay Example The story gives an overview of two generations that have conflicting interests. The society expectations are kept under the test as the conversation between Sedaris and his brother. The writer uses a family set up to develop his comedy. Most people may consider his work as offensive due to the nature of language being used. The abusive words may limit the number of audiences willing to listen to the joke. It describes the manner in which a single vocabulary may mean differently across the age. The manner of presentation by the author may call for viewer discretion. On the other hand, those who are familiar with the terms may find the work funny taking less offense from the entire work. Nature provides room for divided opinions. A decision is made at different levels. The laughter that will be experienced after reading the piece may indicate the levels of acceptance. The target audience expects a unique characteristic of what the piece being presented with the delivery of the work bei ng left for them to judge whether it meets the desired standards. The offensive part of the comedy may be a temporary aspect as many may choose to adapt to the comedy. The title of the comedy makes the story to be comic. The title is ironic in nature hence the funny aspect appears in the title. The expectation of the reader may be lowered while reading the entire story where the structure changes to give room for a more complex approach the author. The storyline provides the writer to read along with his thought but differences may occur when a reader consider words used by his brother to be offensive. The writer’s choice to use offensive words is acceptable. Shannon describes the class of comedy to insult humor. The tool according to him plays part in gaining a larger number of audiences.

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Framing Construction Techniques Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Framing Construction Techniques - Essay Example The frames are also reinforced by the use of diagonal braces as well as with the use of rigid panels. Framing construction allows the builders to cover up large areas at minimal expense while also achieving a number of different architectural styles. The construction industry has employed a number of standards in order to ensure that materials, dimensions and construction techniques are standardised. 2. Concrete Frame Construction 2.1. Typical Design and Construction Process Concrete frames are also known better as reinforced concrete frames and are composed of vertical elements known as columns and horizontal elements known as beams. These elements are connected together using rigid joints. The structures are often cast using monolithic methods which ensure that the structure acts in unison. These frames are known to be resistant to both gravitational loading as well as lateral loading such as through bending within both beams and columns. Reinforced concrete frames are constructed in a number of different ways. The major ones are: Non-ductile reinforced concrete frames with or without infill walls; Non-ductile reinforced concrete frames with reinforced infill walls; Ductile reinforced concrete frames with or without infill walls. 2.2. Material Properties Concrete displays a high compressive strength but relatively lower tensile strength. In order to augment concrete’s tensile strength it is reinforced with other materials such as steel bars because such materials have better tensile properties. Moreover concrete displays nearly constant elasticity at low levels of stress while the elasticity tends to decrease as stress levels are increased as matrix cracking begins to form. The coefficient of thermal expansion of concrete is also low and concrete tends to shrink as it ages. The phenomenon of shrinkage and tension ensure that nearly all concrete structures develop cracks to some extent. Creep is also observable in concrete that is subjected to continuou s long term loading. (Kosmatka & Panarese, 1988) 2.3. Advantages and Disadvantages Concrete frames provide an easy method of creating high rise structures that are able to respond to both gravitational and lateral loading with ease. Moreover concrete frames are rigid enough to resist earthquakes and other similar calamities with ease. The recent rise in the costs of reinforcement and steel prices has driven the costs of concrete frames up but on comparison to steel frames, the price of concrete frames and steel frames is close enough. Concrete frames cost marginally lower than steel frame construction for high rise buildings that need to bear massive loads. However the cost of timber frames is lower but timber frames cannot accommodate such massive loading. The foundation costs for concrete frames is significant but the use of post tensioned slabs helps to reduce these costs as these slabs are lighter. Moreover cladding costs represent a large area for spending so cladding area has to be minimised. The least height between

Monday, August 26, 2019

Literature review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 3

Literature review - Essay Example Geologic, fossil and ecological records have provided the evidence for the variable nature of the climate whose occurrence in the past has caused the evolution of various eco systems of the earth (Emmanuel, W.R, Stughart, H.H, Stevenson, M, 1985, p.29-43). The change caused in the precipitation rate which is one of the resultant effects of the climate change is expected to affect the interaction between the checker spot butterfly larvae and its host plant. This reason when coupled with the disturbance of the habitat of the butterfly would aggregate the problem when it is observed in relation with the dispersal ability of the species. The study was taken with the hypothesis that extinctions of two populations of the checkerspot butterfly, Euphydryas editha bayensis, were caused by a combination of habitat loss and regional climate change in the form of increasing variability in precipitation (McLaughlin et.al, 2002). Euphydryas editha bayensis is a beautiful and charismatic butterfly species which is a resident species of Western North America. (Dyke, F.V, 2008,p.128). Taylor, K. E. and Penner, J. E. (1994, pp. 734 – 737) has described the major cause of climate change as man made carbon and other Green House Gas emissions in addition to the natural changes in climate. Several detrimental effects like Sea-level rise, Hurricanes, Diseases, Famines, Desertification and Species loss has been pointed out as the impacts of climate change.(Morris, Julian 1997,p.5-17). Though this study had only general indications towards the impact of climate change on species loss, this indication has been reiterated by a number of literatures which state that climate change would affect the population of animal and plant species. Christina Figueres & Maria Ivanova (2002,p.205) has argued that climate change would affect the major components of our biosphere including air, the ocean, the range of animal and plant species and the climate system itself. A study by J. B. Hughes,

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Spss Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Spss - Essay Example The coefficient of correlation r is 0.004877, which shows a weak positive correlation between the total revenue and C.E.O’s annual salary. If total revenue increases the annual salary of the C.E.O’s also increases slightly. The U.S. Senate passed S. 1023, the "Travel Promotion Act of 2009" (TPA) in September, 2009. TPA calls for the establishment of the Corporation for Travel Promotion as an independent nonprofit corporation to promote leisure, business and scholarly visits to the U.S. In October, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Travel Promotion Act (H.R. 1035), sending this bill back to the Senate for one last vote. The U.S. Senate finally passed this Bill (78 to 10) on February 25, 2010 and President Obama signed the Travel Promotion Act of 2009 into law on March 4, 2010. This Act calls for the creation of the Corporation for Travel Promotion (now Brand USA) which will allocate financial resources to promote the U.S. as an international destination. The promotion is funded through a matching program featuring up to $100 million in private sector contributions and a $10 fee on foreign travelers who do not pay $131 for a visa to enter the United States. The fee will be collected once every two years in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security’s Electronic System for Travel Authorization. No money is provided by U.S. taxpayers.  It is estimated that international promotion will generate 1.6 million addition international visitors to the U.S. and create $1.6 billion in visitor spending annually. Japan is targeted as one of the major countries for aggressive promotion by the Tourism Industries Office in the Department of Commerce and Brand USA (the newly created public and private partnership responsible for marketing USA implemented by the Travel Promotion Act). As a tourism market analyst specialized in Japan inbound travel to the U.S., you

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 8

Project - Essay Example The first component of the theory segment in this experiment will entail the isolation of a container beyond the precints of heat or errors prone to affect the experimental outcome. Another important parameter for measurement will be the can’s and containers specific heat capacity. This is moreso because it aid in slow or steady increase or decrease of temperature. Evidently, transfer of thermal energy between two objects is only feasible when they are at different temperatures. The experiment herein will investigate the thermal energy of a solid (ice) to liquid (water) state. In this regard, thermal energy will be lost by the ice and gained by the water. The design and construction of the calorimeter entails a can and container. There is a space between the can and container that functions as a heat insulator. Consequently, minimal exchange of heat occurs between the can and container. Furthermore, a digital thermometer is used in determining the liquids temperature within the container. In the middle of the container, a can is placed with ice in it. To aid in the equal distribution of heat throughout the vessel, a stirrer will be used in stirring the liquid. Laces are equally useful holding up the inner vessel suspended within the center of the outer container. A plastic lid or cover with holes is used in attaching the thermometer and stirring rod. The device used in the experiment for taking measurements of the energy changes within a system that is either physical or chemical in nature is known as a calorimà ¨tre. During the experiment, temperature recordings of the water inside the calorimeter were taken as the ice was melting. In this regard, measurements were conducted at intervals of every 30 seconds. Two trails of the experiment were conducted. Prior to recording the water temperatures, the stirrer was used in stirring the water for

Navy Insurance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Navy Insurance - Essay Example The recent rise in costs of operating marine trade and business through losses suffered through piracy has necessitated players in the industry of marine business to invest in the piracy insurance policies. According to UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the law of the Sea), piracy is a multifaceted issue and takes cognition of all illegal act of detention violence as well as depredation that is directed towards ship or persons, or even cargo on board of the ship on the high seas. With the rise in piracy risks in the high seas, the emerging trend has been the insurance brokers offering marine insurance against piracy at very high premiums as compared to other risk premiums in the 21st century marine business. In particular, the premiums on offer depend on the routes of voyage, as the insurers are aware of the most affected regions by piracy such as the east African shores especially within the shoreline of Somali. Besides, the international community has invested notably in deployi ng military personnel to aid in restoring normalcy in the areas facing such challenges of piracy activity though this has had little effect in influencing the premiums concerning insurance against piracy. Nevertheless, an emerging trend reveals efforts by insurance companies to fund operations by specialized naval ships, which are specially designed and made to have the necessary equipments as well as machinery that would be used to escort cargo ships across the piracy risk prone areas at relatively minimal costs.

Friday, August 23, 2019

Managine Project teams Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Managine Project teams - Essay Example is more focused in the use of contingent reward, active management or passive management style (Judge and Piccolo, 2004; Gill, Levine and Pitt, 1998). As explained by Judge and Piccolo (2004), active leaders tend to focus more on the need to monitor the subordinates’ ability to anticipate organizational problems, their work-related behavior, and ensure that the subordinates would observe correction actions when necessary whereas passive leaders tend to wait until their subordinates would make errors before making actions. Unlike transformational or transactional leadership, Laissez-faire is all about no leadership at all. It means that under the Laissez-faire leadership, the leader tend to avoid making necessary actions or decisions on behalf of the management team (Judge and Piccolo, 2004). Basically, the main purpose of completing the multifactor leadership questionnaire (MLQ) is to assess the three (3) different types of leadership style known as: transformational, transactional and Laissez-faire. A score of 3.2 for management by exception and 3.5 for contingent reward (3.5) puts me in the 100th percentile for these two (2) leadership factors. It means that I scored the highest in UK as compared to other people. Upon analyzing the MLQ result, this score strongly suggest that I have a strong transactional leadership style. In the study of Rowold and Schlotz (2009), the authors found out that excessive use of transactional leadership style is positively linked with the development of chronic stress. For this reason, I should learn to minimize the use of transactional leadership style. Instead, I should put extra effort in improving my ability to use transformational leadership style. Leadership factors such as individualised consideration, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, and idealised influence are all characteristics of transformational leadership. A score of 3.2 in inspirational motivation puts me in the 100th percentile making this

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Drug and Crime Prevention Essay Example for Free

Drug and Crime Prevention Essay The purpose of the Final Project is for you to demonstrate your understanding of crime prevention programs and the role crime prevention plays in the overall criminal justice system. You may select a crime prevention program that addresses law enforcement, the courts, or corrections; or it may be a comprehensive program that addresses all three. The program may address the adult justice system, juvenile justice systems, or both. For the purposes of this assignment assume, you are preparing a proposal to a city, county, or state governmental body to recommend the implementation of a crime prevention program within their jurisdiction. You need to demonstrate the value of the crime prevention program and its effectiveness in reducing crime thus reducing the overall costs to the jurisdiction or building value that improves the effectiveness of crime prevention to the community justifying the additional expenditures. Your proposal will include: 1. A summary of the jurisdiction (i.e., city, county, or state) and the portion of the criminal justice System your proposal is designed to address. 2. An analysis of the current trends from three comparable cities in population size, utilizing the SARA Model and the Crime Analysis Triangle. (Note: Crime Analysis for Problem Solvers in 60 Small Steps , Steps 7 and 8). You will compare the data from three comparable jurisdictions and compare it to national data. 3. A determination of the appropriate crime prevention strategy for the jurisdiction based on this analysis. 4. A review of academic literature and studies on the various crime prevention programs to address the needs of the community. How does the crime prevention program address social justice issues To download this material Click this link https://bitly.com/1wyPezy There is no one to clean up after you and cook healthy meals at college. Some indulgences are okay, but still maintain a nutritious diet, get proper sleep, and take care of yourself and your possessions. Take care of yourself well, study appropriately, attend all your classes and follow a regular schedule. You can get ill from being too stressed or not eating healthy enough.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Examples of Social Responsibility in Business

Examples of Social Responsibility in Business Ethical reasoning is a peoples thinking about right or wrong on human behavior or act. The author gave an example to understand human different approaches on situation under the concepts of duties, rights, and commitment. Morality is determined by the consequences of action. A consequences theory focusses on consequences of human action. Egoism cannot resolve conflicts of interest. The utilitarianism is the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number. The author gave an example of firm that produced pollution as byproduct to its manufacturing process with both side of argument with government against business people to understand concept of ethics has nothing to do with business, nor business with ethics. The author gave Kantian (a business person) view of breaking a contract is not a moral act. All stakeholders be treated as persons, with respect for their individual dignity. A trust is the correct starting point for the derivation of ethical behavior enables the construction of practical ethics in business and other contexts. The H.B.Fuller is a company that manufacture sniffing glue. In Honduras, the children drugging themselves by sniffing glue. It was easy to get glue through H.B.Fuller company. Honduras faced some economic problems in effort to industrialize. The company has some option to reduce this problem. One was add mustard oil into glue or close the product. The government of Honduras must concentrate on children education to overcome this issue. The H.B.Fuller company was very reputable company and now they have to rebuild their image, moral and philosophy of company. The Milton Friedman gave his view on social responsibility of business is to increase its profit. In a free-enterprise, private-property system, a corporate management is an employee of the owners of the business. He argue that, executive a different social responsibility, rather than serving as an agent of the stockholders or the customers or the employees, only if he spends the money in a different way than they would have spent it. He described political principle under two different mechanism, which are market and political. The Friedman said that executive is exercising a distinct social responsibility, rather than serving as an agent of the stockholders or the customers or the employees, only if he spends the money in a different way than they would have spent it. The Freeman described basic idea of stakeholder that business and executive who manage them, actually do and create value for customers, employees and financiers. The Freeman said about stake is an interest or a share in an undertaking and can be categorized as interest, right and ownership. There are two types of business stakeholders. Primary stakeholders and secondary stakeholders. Primary stakeholders are those that have a direct stake in the organization and its success. Secondary stakeholders re those that have a public or special interest stake in the organization. The Freeman explained responsibility of the executive in managing for stakeholders with a different example. He also described some argument to manage stakeholders. One of the strongest arguments for managing for stakeholders is that it asks executives and entrepreneurs to consider the question of what kind of company they want to create and build. Italian federal corporate tax system has a legal tax structure and tax rates as U.S. system does. The Italian tax authorities believe that no any firms submit tax return. All firms lies about their income and fraud to Italian tax authorities. The Italian corporation is represented by its commercialista, a function which exists in Italian society for the primary purpose of negotiating corporate (and individual) tax payments with the Italian tax authorities. The Italian service did lying and fraud. The negotiation of corporate tax by Italian tax authority managed with commercialista and bustarella, it is wrong action to earned money. The author Bowie described three formulation of fundamental of ethics. Act only on that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law. The Bowie said that if everyone made lying promises, the consequences would be bad although they would. Rather, Kant is saying that the very concept of lying promises, when assumed as a principle by everyone, is confused. The Bowie gave two example to illustrate Kants view. If a maxim for an action when universalized is self-defeating, then the contemplated action is not ethical. That is Kants conceptual point.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Emotional Overwhelm in Relationships

Emotional Overwhelm in Relationships SAN0088 Confronting Overwhelm as a Couple In your life with your spouse or partner, you will experience problems ranging from daily difficulties to major challenges. Though job- or family-related issues are normal, there is no question that they can overwhelm you or your spouse/partner, affecting your emotional health and relationships. This is why such matters can be considered issues for a couple to confront and resolve together. The support of a spouse or partner is very powerful to stay strong in the face of an emotional crisis. If you and your spouse arent getting support from each other, it can ruin your relationship. Challenges are inevitable, but there are ways to recognize and manage them so that your health and relationships dont have to suffer. Finding a way to talk is important. If you have difficulty talking without hurting each other, consider counseling. Emotional Overwhelm: What Is It? Emotional overwhelm or flooding is something that you or your spouse/partner may feel when you are swamped by too many events going on at one time. Though negative changes and situations are likely to trigger the surging of overwhelm, it isnt unusual for positive life events to trigger it as well. If there is one person whom you expect to be there for you at this time, it would be your partner. Unfortunately, emotional overwhelm can hijack your (or your spouses or partners) brain, so that you cant seem to recognize what is reasonable or common sense. According to In Focus, Any person who is engaged in and experiencing emotional flooding cannot hear without distortion or respond with clarity in a dispassionate way. The brain gets too wrapped up in intense emotions that distort your perceptions, so you can hardly organize your thoughts or respond to life situations with clarity, logic, and decisiveness. Are You/Your Spouse Experiencing Overwhelm? Emotional overwhelm can make you feel irritable, anxious, helpless, and hopeless. These feelings can make you behave in such a way that others find you difficult to relate/interact with. If the symptoms are severe, it may even hinder your functionality. If you or your spouse/partner is overwhelmed, you should stay on top of the situation. What are the symptoms of emotional overwhelm? Aside from noticeable irritability, crying, and lashing out without justifiable reason, other signs include depressive and anxiety symptoms, such as extreme sadness, constant anger, and excessive worry over things that arent that important. In serious cases, overwhelm can persist for months and affect you or your partners functioning. What Overwhelm Can Do to Your Marriage/Relationship Overwhelm can happen to you. It can happen to your spouse or partner. It can also happen to your marriage or relationship. When it does happen, you may have difficulty organizing your thoughts, feelings, and responses, and tend to fall back on primitive reactions, which can be to stop, to escape, or to strike back. In other words, you may just react without thinking or relating the different interconnected issues. If you experience these symptoms and dont understand whats going on, meeting your needs can be extremely challenging. If the other spouse thinks that the overwhelmed one is just overreacting, it can breed misunderstanding and conflict. With this line of thinking, the unaffected one isnt likely to be supportive, while the affected one suffers without support. Finding the Balance Nobody is immune from getting overwhelmed when too many changes and challenges pour into your life. If one spouse feels swamped, the other spouse/partner can be overwhelmed too. When this happens, both of you can become oversensitive and hyper-aroused to fight. Everything can be easily misconstrued as an insult, a grievance, or an opposition-then conflict ensues. Overwhelm can take your relationship to a dangerous point if you fail to recognize the signs. To avoid such a catastrophic shift in your relationship, dont just rely on personal effort to fix matters between you. At a time like this, you need to balance your life with the assistance of a capable counselor. Breaking Overwhelm with Counseling When you are overwhelmed, you can get caught in a cycle of scorn and criticism, distressing thoughts and confusing feelings, defensiveness, and the desire to hurt or bottle everything up. It can harm your self-control, empathy, and emotional self-awareness. To survive overwhelm and avoid burnout and eventual meltdown, couples need to be able to establish strong emotional connection with each other and listen to each others heart. Rebuilding and reinforcing your emotional connection is possible with the help of an independently contracted counselor with Carolina Counseling Services in Sanford, NC. Dont wait for emotional overwhelm to sabotage your marriage. Dont sit back and watch as your most valued relationship takes a plunge into the abyss of marital issues or divorce. If you want overwhelm to end, you have to act now. Meet overwhelm head-on as a couple-call Carolina Counseling Services in Sanford, NC.

Monday, August 19, 2019

How Can Students be Moviated to Stay in High-school Essay -- Teaching

How Can Students be Moviated to Stay in High-school First of all, I think the students should be motivated mainly by their parents and then by their teachers. Parents should motivate their children by telling them how being a high-school graduate High-School Drop-Outs How can students be motivated to stay in school? First of all, I think the students should be motivated mainly by their parents and then by their teachers. Parents should motivate their children by telling them how being a high-school graduate will help them in life. The parent may mention how being a high-school graduate helped them or how they were hurt by being a high-school drop-out. Teachers can help motivate students by making school fun along with the teaching of the regular lessons. Teachers could also invite various people that graduated from high-school and some that were drop-outs to tell their own personal story. This may help students see the reality of being a high-school graduate or that being a high school drop-out can seriously affect that persons' life. Another thing that should be taken into consideration is that when a parent or teacher is talking to their child or student, the parent or teacher should not focus all on negative ideas. If they focus on negative ideas, and say such things as, â€Å"If you don't finish school then......,† then the child could be demotivated instead of being motivated. Parents and teachers should focus mainly on the positive ideas when motiv...

Sunday, August 18, 2019

The links between social class and educational achievement Essay

The links between social class and educational achievement There have been many theories about social class and educational achievement and this essay will concentrate on the conflict theory and the functionalist theory. This essay will examine the links between class and achievement. It will describe and critically analyse the different sociological theories on education relating to class, and apply these theories to educational experiences, structure and practices. The different perspectives will be used to analyse inequality in relation to different social classes in the UK. This essay will also provide evidence of inequality in British education and identify and evaluate key policy developments in education provision in relation to social class Functionalist theory focuses on the ways the education system as a whole meets the needs of society. It emphasises the interdependence of the social system and stresses the process and behaviours that maintain it. Durkheim (cited in Haralambos et al: 2000:777) ‘saw the major function of education as the transmission of society’s norms and values’. Functionalist theory believes that schools should serve intellectual, political and social purposes (Sadovnik et al: 2001). Functionalists believe that schools ‘foster the value of equality of opportunity’ by placing pupils in the same situation in the classroom (Haralambos et al: 779). They maintain that education sorts students based on their ability, as argued by Parsons: †¦[students] conduct is assessed against the yardstick of the school rules; their achievement is measured by their performance in examinations†¦the same standards are applied to all students regardless of ascribed characteristics such as sex, race, family... ...will have long term positive results’ (Haralambos et al 2004: p621). Sure start was criticised that its impact on children and their parents was unsatisfactory. ‘However it is too early to assess its impact on children’s formal education’ (ibid). These policies have been created because there is a LINK between class and achievement for example working class pupils do less well in school. Summary This essay has discussed and critically analysed the different social theories of education relating to class, it has applied these theories to educational experiences, structures and practices. It has addressed different social theories of inequality in relation to social classes. This essay has also provided evidence of inequality in British education and finally identified and evaluated key policy developments in education provision in relation to social class.

Essay --

Escaping the confinements of a gallery wall, we leave the formalistic ideals of limitations that art set by the existing parameters. Thinking beyond the white walls allows a bridge between humanity and art enabling them to have a direct relationship and become one. They become a harmony of two voices, clarity; a marriage. â€Å"The form, material and even the birth process of the work takes the location into account. The surrounding space in itself may act as an artistic element†(Jokela). The locale of a work of art is not just a particular setting but something that completely becomes involved within the work. Their direct relationship is unifying, feeding off each other while not allowing the characteristics of one becoming more important than the characteristics of the other. The significance is what the viewer sees and the artist’s purpose for the work. The gaps are blurred. Art in the natural environment captivates one’s attention as to the way that the elem ents of true reality play a role in it. The idea of art moving to the outdoor world leaves no restrictions to a certain style, and it abandons formal and traditional artistic ideas and values. Works of art escaping simplistic white walls of a gallery was a branch off of minimalism in the 1960s and 1970s, taking concepts such as experiencing space around a form to the next level (Nisbet.) This particular movement of art converging into daily life linked spacial and environmental awareness on a physicality and conceptual level. When art is experienced outdoors, it is not sequestered but brought together with physical existence. The work becomes a mental and bodily experience for the viewers to really observe. Conversely, in a gallery, the walls already exist in the peripheral vis... ... the wind and light creating dialogue between each other. This art closely pays attention to the â€Å"living beauty† and in transitioning from one of the structures to the other (Castro). â€Å"The artist’s connection to nature is respectful, almost sacral. It is as if the work refers to nature’s own beauty or significance. The work of art opens one’s eyes to see something ordinary and everyday in a new way†(Jokela). Central park was of major importance to this piece in being made, and it became a part of others lives who lived there and saw Central Park on a daily basis. According to the couple, art is meant to be a life experience for themselves and for the viewers, which is something that can’t completely be fulfilled within a gallery system. When the work is completed, it incorporates itself into something that perpetuates into nature and all its environmental effects.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Daniel Bernoulli

Daniel Bernoulli  (Groningen, 8 February 1700 –  Basel, 8 March 1782) was aDutch-Swiss  mathematician  and was one of the many prominent mathematicians in theBernoulli family. He is particularly remembered for his applications of mathematics to mechanics, especially  fluid mechanics, and for his pioneering work in  probability  andstatistics. Bernoulli's work is still studied at length by many schools of science throughout the world. In Physics :- He is the earliest writer who attempted to formulate a  kinetic theory of gases, and he applied the idea to explain  Boyle's law. 2] He worked with Euler on  elasticity  and the development of the  Euler-Bernoulli beam equation. [9]  Bernoulli's principle  is of critical use inaerodynamics. [4] Daniel Bernoulli, an eighteenth-century Swiss scientist, discovered that as the velocity of a fluid increases, its pressure decreases The relationship between the velocity and pressure exerted by a moving liquid is described by the  Bernoulli's principle:  as the velocity of a fluid increases, the pressure exerted by that fluid decreases. Airplanes get a part of their lift by taking advantage of Bernoulli's principle. Race cars employ Bernoulli's principle to keep their rear wheels on the ground while traveling at high speeds. The Continuity Equation relates the speed of a fluid moving through a pipe to the cross sectional area of the pipe. It says that as a radius of the pipe decreases the speed of fluid flow must increase and visa-versa. This interactive tool lets you explore this principle of fluids. You can change the diameter of the red section of the pipe by dragging the top red edge up or down. Principle In  fluid dynamics,  Bernoulli's principle  states that for an  inviscid flow, an increase in the speed of the fluid occurs simultaneously with a decrease in  pressure  or a decrease in the  fluid's  potential energy. [1][2]  Bernoulli's principle is named after the  Dutch-Swiss  mathematician  Daniel Bernoulliwho published his principle in his book  Hydrodynamica  in 1738. 3] Bernoulli's principle can be applied to various types of fluid flow, resulting in what is loosely denoted as  Bernoulli's equation. In fact, there are different forms of the Bernoulli equation for different types of flow. The simple form of Bernoulli's principle is valid for  incompressible flows  (e. g. most  liquid  flows) and also for  compressible flows  (e. g. gases) moving at low  Mach numbers. More advanced forms may in some cases be applied to compress ible flows at higher  Mach numbers(see  the derivations of the Bernoulli equation). Bernoulli's principle can be derived from the principle of  conservation of energy. This states that, in a steady flow, the sum of all forms of mechanical energy in a fluid along a  streamline  is the same at all points on that streamline. This requires that the sum of kinetic energy and potential energy remain constant. Thus an increase in the speed of the fluid occurs proportionately with an increase in both its  dynamic pressure  and  kinetic energy, and a decrease in its  static pressure  andpotential energy. If the fluid is flowing out of a reservoir the sum of all forms of energy is the same on all streamlines because in a reservoir the energy per unit mass (the sum of pressure and gravitational potential  ? g  h) is the same everywhere. [4] Bernoulli's principle can also be derived directly from Newton's 2nd law. If a small volume of fluid is flowing horizontally from a region of high pressure to a region of low pressure, then there is more pressure behind than in front. This gives a net force on the volume, accelerating it along the streamline. [5][6] Fluid particles are subject only to pressure and their own weight. If a fluid is flowing horizontally and along a section of a streamline, where the speed increases it can only be because the fluid on that section has moved from a region of higher pressure to a region of lower pressure; and if its speed decreases, it can only be because it has moved from a region of lower pressure to a region of higher pressure. Consequently, within a fluid flowing horizontally, the highest speed occurs where the pressure is lowest, and the lowest speed occurs where the pressure is highest. ————————————————- Incompressible flow equation In most flows of liquids, and of gases at low  Mach number, the mass density of a fluid parcel can be considered to be constant, regardless of pressure variations in the flow. For this reason the fluid in such flows can be considered to be incompressible and these flows can be described as incompressible flow. Bernoulli performed his experiments on liquids and his equation in its original form is valid only for incompressible flow. A common form of Bernoulli's equation, valid at any  arbitrary  point along a  streamline  where gravity is constant, is: |   | |   |   | | | | | | | where: is the fluid flow  speed  at a point on a streamline, is the  acceleration due to gravity, is the  elevation  of the point above a reference plane, with the positive  z-direction pointing upward – so in the direction opposite to the gravitational acceleration,   is the  pressure  at the chosen point, and is the  density  of the fluid at all points in the flu id. For  conservative force  fields, Bernoulli's equation can be generalized as:[7] where  ? is the  force potential  at the point considered on the streamline. E. g. for the Earth's gravity  ?   gz. The following two assumptions must be met for this Bernoulli equation to apply:[7] * the fluid must be incompressible – even though pressure varies, the density must remain constant along a streamline; * friction by viscous forces has to be negligible. By multiplying with the fluid density  ? , equation (A) can be rewritten as: or: where: is  dynamic pressure, is the  piezometric head  or  hydraulic head  (the sum of the elevation  z  and the  pressure head)[8][9]  and   is the  total pressure  (the sum of the static pressure  p  and dynamic pressure  q). 10] The constant in the Bernoulli equation can be normalised. A common approach is in terms of  total head  or  energy head  H: The above equations suggest there is a flow sp eed at which pressure is zero, and at even higher speeds the pressure is negative. Most often, gases and liquids are not capable of negative absolute pressure, or even zero pressure, so clearly Bernoulli's equation ceases to be valid before zero pressure is reached. In liquids – when the pressure becomes too low –  cavitation  occurs. The above equations use a linear relationship between flow speed squared and pressure. At higher flow speeds in gases, or for  sound  waves in liquid, the changes in mass density become significant so that the assumption of constant density is invalid Simplified form In many applications of Bernoulli's equation, the change in the  ? g  z  term along the streamline is so small compared with the other terms it can be ignored. For example, in the case of aircraft in flight, the change in height  z  along a streamline is so small the  ? g  z  term can be omitted. This allows the above equation to be presented in the following simplified form: where  p0  is called total pressure, and  q  is  dynamic pressure. 11]  Many authors refer to the  pressure  p  as  static pressure  to distinguish it from total pressure  p0  and  dynamic pressure  q. In  Aerodynamics, L. J. Clancy writes: â€Å"To distinguish it from the total and dynamic pressures, the actual pressure of the fluid, which is associated not with its motion but with its state, is often referred to as the static pressure, but where the term pressure alone is used it refers to this static pressure. â€Å"[12] The simplified form of Bernoulli's equation can be summarized in the following memorable word equation: static pressure + dynamic pressure = total pressure[12] Every point in a steadily flowing fluid, regardless of the fluid speed at that point, has its own unique static pressure  p  and dynamic pressure  q. Their sum  p  +  q  is defined to be the total pressure  p0. The significance of Bernoulli's principle can now be summarized as  total pressure is constant along a streamline. If the fluid flow is  irrotational, the total pressure on every streamline is the same and Bernoulli's principle can be summarized as  total pressure is constant everywhere in the fluid flow. 13]  It is reasonable to assume that irrotational flow exists in any situation where a large body of fluid is flowing past a solid body. Examples are aircraft in flight, and ships moving in open bodies of water. However, it is important to remember that Bernoulli's principle does not apply in the  boundary layer  or in fluid flow through long  pipes. If the fluid flow at some point along a stream line is brought to rest, this point is called a st agnation point, and at this point the total pressure is equal to the  stagnation pressure. Applicability of incompressible flow equation to flow of gases Bernoulli's equation is sometimes valid for the flow of gases: provided that there is no transfer of kinetic or potential energy from the gas flow to the compression or expansion of the gas. If both the gas pressure and volume change simultaneously, then work will be done on or by the gas. In this case, Bernoulli's equation – in its incompressible flow form – can not be assumed to be valid. However if the gas process is entirely  isobaric, or  isochoric, then no work is done on or by the gas, (so the simple energy balance is not upset). According to the gas law, an isobaric or isochoric process is ordinarily the only way to ensure constant density in a gas. Also the gas density will be proportional to the ratio of pressure and absolute  temperature, however this ratio will vary upon compression or expansion, no matter what non-zero quantity of heat is added or removed. The only exception is if the net heat transfer is zero, as in a complete thermodynamic cycle, or in an individualisentropic  (frictionless  adiabatic) process, and even then this reversible process must be reversed, to restore the gas to the original pressure and specific volume, and thus density. Only then is the original, unmodified Bernoulli equation applicable. In this case the equation can be used if the flow speed of the gas is sufficiently below the  speed of sound, such that the variation in density of the gas (due to this effect) along each  streamline  can be ignored. Adiabatic flow at less than Mach 0. 3 is generally considered to be slow enough. [edit]Unsteady potential flow The Bernoulli equation for unsteady potential flow is used in the theory of  ocean surface waves  and  acoustics. For an  irrotational flow, the  flow velocity  can be described as the  gradient   f a  velocity potential  ?. In that case, and for a constant  density? , the  momentum  equations of the  Euler equations  can be integrated to:[14] which is a Bernoulli equation valid also for unsteady – or time dependent – flows. Here /? t  denotes the  partial derivative  of the velocity potential  ? with respect to time  t, and  v  =   | | is the flow speed. The function  f(t) depends only on time and not on position in the fluid. As a result, the Bernoulli equation at some moment  t  does not only apply along a certain streamline, but in the whole fluid domain. This is also true for the special case of a steady irrotational flow, in which case  f  is a constant. [14] Further  f(t) can be made equal to zero by incorporating it into the velocity potential using the transformation Note that the relation of the potential to the flow velocity is unaffected by this transformation: =  . The Bernoulli equation for unsteady potential flow also appears to play a central role in  Luke's variational principle, a variational description of free-surface flows using the  Lagrangian  (not to be confused with  Lagrangian coordinates). ————————————————- edit]Compressible flow equation Bernoulli developed his principle from his observations on liquids, and his equation is applicable only to incompressible fluids, and compressible fluids at very low speeds (perhaps up to 1/3 of the sound speed in the fluid). It is possible to use the fundamental principles of physics to develop similar equations applicable to compressible fluids. There are numerous equations, each tailored for a particular application, but all are analogous to Bernoulli's equation and all rely on nothing more than the fundamental principles of physics such as Newton's laws of motion or the  first law of thermodynamics. Compressible flow in fluid dynamics For a compressible fluid, with a  barotropic  equation of state, and under the action of  conservative forces, [15]  Ã‚  Ã‚  (constant along a streamline) where: p  is the  pressure ?  is the  density v  is the  flow speed ?  is the potential associated with the conservative force field, often the  gravitational potential In engineering situations, elevations are generally small compared to the size of the Earth, and the time scales of fluid flow are small enough to consider the equation of state as  adiabatic. In this case, the above equation becomes [16]  Ã‚  Ã‚  (constant along a streamline) here, in addition to the terms listed above: ?  is the  ratio of the specific heats  of the fluid g  is the acceleration due to gravity z  is the elevation of the point above a reference plane In many applications of compressible flow, changes in elevation are negligible compared to the other terms, so the term  gz   can be omitted. A very useful form of the equation is then: where: p0  is the  total pressure ?0  is the total density [edit]Compressible flow in thermodynamics Another useful form of the equation, suitable for use in thermodynamics, is: [17] Here  w  is the  enthalpy  per unit mass, which is also often written as  h  (not to be confused with â€Å"head† or â€Å"height†). Note that  Ã‚  where  ? is the  thermodynamic  energy per unit mass, also known as the  specific  internal energy. The constant on the right hand side is often called the Bernoulli constant and denoted  b. For steady inviscid  adiabatic  flow with no additional sources or sinks of energy,  b  is constant along any given streamline. More generally, when  b  may vary along streamlines, it still proves a useful parameter, related to the â€Å"head† of the fluid (see below). When the change in  ? can be ignored, a very useful form of this equation is: where  w0  is total enthalpy. For a calorically perfect gas such as an ideal gas, the enthalpy is directly proportional to the temperature, and this leads to the concept of the total (or stagnation) temperature. When  shock waves  are present, in a  reference frame  in which the shock is stationary and the flow is steady, many of the parameters in the Bernoulli equation suffer abrupt changes in passing through the shock. The Bernoulli parameter itself, however, remains unaffected. An exception to this rule is radiative shocks, which violate the assumptions leading to the Bernoulli equation, namely the lack of additional sinks or sources of energy. ————————————————- Real-world application Condensation visible over the upper surface of a wing caused by the fall in temperature  accompanying  the fall in pressure, both due to acceleration of the air. In modern everyday life there are many observations that can be successfully explained by application of Bernoulli's principle, even though no real fluid is entirely inviscid  [21]  and a small viscosity often has a large effect on the flow. Bernoulli's principle can be used to calculate the lift force on an airfoil if the behaviour of the fluid flow in the vicinity of the foil is known. For example, if the air flowing past the top surface of an aircraft wing is moving faster than the air flowing pas t the bottom surface, then Bernoulli's principle implies that the  pressure  on the surfaces of the wing will be lower above than below. This pressure difference results in an upwards  lift force. nb 1][22]  Whenever the distribution of speed past the top and bottom surfaces of a wing is known, the lift forces can be calculated (to a good approximation) using Bernoulli's equations[23]  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ established by Bernoulli over a century before the first man-made wings were used for the purpose of flight. Bernoulli's principle does not explain why the air flows faster past the top of the wing and slower past the underside. To understand why, it is helpful to understand  circulation, the  Kutta condition, and the  Kutta–Joukowski theorem. The  carburetor  used in many reciprocating engines contains a  venturi  to create a region of low pressure to draw fuel into the carburetor and mix it thoroughly with the incoming air. The low pressure in the throat of a venturi can be explained by Bernoulli's principle; in the narrow throat, the air is moving at its fastest speed and therefore it is at its lowest pressure. * The  Pitot tube  and  static port  on an aircraft are used to determine the  airspeed  of the aircraft. These two devices are connected to theairspeed indicator  which determines the  dynamic pressure  of the airflow past the aircraft. Dynamic pressure is the difference betweenstagnation pressure  and  static pressure. Bernoulli's principle is used to calibrate the airspeed indicator so that it displays the  indicated airspeed  appropriate to the dynamic pressure. [24] * The flow speed of a fluid can be measured using a device such as a  Venturi meter  or an  orifice plate, which can be placed into a pipeline to reduce the diameter of the flow. For a horizontal device, the  continuity equation  shows that for an incompressible fluid, the reduction in diameter will cause an increase in the fluid flow speed. Subsequently Bernoulli's principle then shows that there must be a decrease in the pressure in the reduced diameter region. This phenomenon is known as the  Venturi effect. * The maximum possible drain rate for a tank with a hole or tap at the base can be calculated directly from Bernoulli's equation, and is found to be proportional to the square root of the height of the fluid in the tank. This is  Torricelli's law, showing that Torricelli's law is compatible with Bernoulli's principle. Viscosity  lowers this drain rate. This is reflected in the discharge coefficient, which is a function of the Reynolds number and the shape of the orifice. 25] * In open-channel hydraulics, a detailed analysis of the Bernoulli theorem and its extension were recently (2009) developed. [26]  It was proved that the depth-averaged specific energy reaches a minimum in converging accelerating free-surface flow over weirs and flumes (also[27][28]). Further, in general, a channel control with minimum specific energy in curvilinear flow is not isolated from water waves, as customary state in open-channel hydraulics. * The  Bernoulli grip  relies on this principle to create a non-contact adhesive force between a surface and the gripper. [edit]

Friday, August 16, 2019

Money and Academics

Different schools and learning institutions perform differently in terms of providing better academic services. The output is measured using the student output both in the academic and the professional field. However, the underpinnings that characterize all these learning institutions that offer outstanding performances seem to boil down to finances. All schools world wide that display outstanding performance hugely rely on research activities. On the other hand, schools that have no enough funds to support research projects are left confined to pure classroom academics. Research activities expand the scope of the learner’s understanding in a practical manner, thus not only helping to deeply inculcate a concept in the student’s mind, but also equips the same with the capacity to apply knowledge practically. To underscore this fact, all governments in the developed economies disburse funds to learning institutions to boost research activities. In Ohio State University alone, a big fraction of its 750 American Dollars, which has been partially sourced by the Federal government, has been slotted for research activities which will take the shape of field work and internet connectivity. Moreover, the top nine American benchmarks of the research universities are rated highly in academic performance in America. Within this rubric are the Arizona University, Illinois University, Minnesota University, Michigan University, Texas University, the Pennstate University, Wisconsin University, the Washington University and the UCLA (National Science Foundation, 1979). Money playing a pivotal role in eliciting sound academic performance is always concomitant with qualified and well trained teaching and non teaching staff. A qualified teaching staff is always instrumental in explaining both simple and complex concepts in the most effective way, while on the other hand, a qualified non teaching staff ensures effective and efficient coordination and administration of the school. A school that is well administered has all the strategies for success to follow through and does so efficiently. All the intellectual and academic resources that are brought into a common pool ensure success. Learning institutions that are short of finance cannot afford the payment of such personnel. Schools with efficient teaching facilities have better accruals compared to those that lack these. Primary learning facilities such as lecture halls, and writing boards are much needed for effective learning. Schools with dilapidated lecture halls, writing boards, seats and light will definitely produce stunted academic results. Conversely, secondary learning facilities such as laboratories, libraries and computers are also very important if there is to be academic success. Libraries ensure accessibility of information and also shields away distraction while the computer enhances and maintains quick access of knowledge. All top leading learning institutions have adapted the computers which have been installed with the fiber optic cables. Apart from this, their libraries are well supplied with computers which are serviced with the internet. Even the Ohio state university’s one of the smallest branches in the Sillicon Valley has connection with research universities. Almost all researches that aim at ranking universities peg their judgments on internet connectivity in relation to accessibility of information and research output. All these facilities call for money. The schools’ ability to create and sustain departments that provide aids to learning such as counseling centers, centers for linkages and exchange programs is not automatic since their maintenance call for huge capital to maintain the workforce and other running expenses. Centers for linkages apart from establishing direct links between the students and potential employers, also feeds the student fraternity with information on internship opportunities and advise the student on the courses to take in relation to the dynamics of the employment market as well. Exchange programs on the other hand oversee the interschool transfers to help willing students acquire a wider global perspective both on the scope of life and in the field of study. To underscore the importance of counseling in academic excellence, the UCLA University for instance, has the Academic Advantage Program, a counseling center at the UCLA campus to ensure academic based counseling and mentoring program for the 6,000 undergraduates with a dominant aim of bolstering academic excellence. The need for academic based counseling is so rife that centers such as Costello Center which has no affiliation to any school whatsoever, have emerged to offer these services to students who are concerned with the need to realize personal growth in terms of personal, academic, career and social goals. In addition to this, mental health services are offered by the same institutions (Clarke, 2003). Learning institutions that have enough money to support these arrangements have higher propensity to produce more intellectuals than institutions that are financially challenged. Educational institutions that are endowed with enough resources have the capability to sustain continuous spates of free public lectures, talks from professionals, and forums. These programs are of untold values since they do not only allow open dissemination of information or knowledge due to open attendance, but also through the questioning and answering methodology, the student fraternity is challenged to seek more information by further reading. Besides, these schools that are privileged enough to support debates and quiz competitions boost academic dexterity among students. The concept of rewards and punishment are well known and has been recommended by psychologists, educationists and sociologists to be a very effective methodology in teaching and learning. This concept involves rewarding desirable traits and punishing bad ones. Since it is innate in man the desire to have one’s efforts appreciated, it has been the practice of many to use the concept of rewards to motivate hard work so as to elicit good performance. Having known the impact of this methodology, the federal government through the Boston Police Athletic League recently stepped in to congratulate over 100 students for their outstanding performance records. A similar case to this is that one of Charlotte Hand, a Bachelor of Education student in English language, linguistic studies and literature. The above student had given up on pursuing her educational programs due to inability to service her school fees until when she heard of the UCLA’ s incentives that come in the form of rewards of raw academic excellence. Many institutions such as the Ede and Ravenscroft which issue academic gowns in each graduating ceremony and also give 1,000 pounds to the Combined Honors Department to reward non finalists who have an excellent academic track record have increased in number. All these are but few illustrations that stress the importance of issuing of rewards to increase the zest in academic excellence. Schools with large pools of resources are able to achieve this feat and even to stretch it to a broader extent while the financially distressed learning institutions can do this but only in a much constrained condition (Dirks, Elley and Oriner, 1994). Whenever money and resource are scarce, there is a direct effect on school’s examining program by limiting it to the traditional method of examining which is solely exam based. This conventional method of testing is limited in its scope since it does not delve on all the topics and is always occasional. One of the demerits of this procedure is that it places labels on students with low marks as weak, or poor. This stigmatization in turn plummets the student’s ability to learn. In the same wavelength, these financially challenged educational institutions on the backdrop of financial challenges are not able to obtain external exams that would capture well the expected standards of the rest of the students within the learning fraternity. However, other learning institutions are able to embrace more comprehensive methods of examining the students so that their other talents are discovered and nourished as the weak areas are worked on. This has a cathartic effect on the stigma, and therefore accords the student with the chance to improve on feeble areas. Conversely, learning institutions that are bedeviled by financial problems are not able to procure the services of the external markers, making the students vulnerable to subjectivity. This problem is not familiar in developed economies but is very rampart in the developing economies where the latter problem was being exploited by unscrupulous college and university lecturers to award marks to students in exchange of sexual favors. The African continent is rife with such cases. Ameliorations are however being seen in pockets of Africa such as Kenya which has adopted the methodology of using external markers in the end of semester exams since the dawn of the 21 century. Schools and learning institutions that have the financial capability to accord student with learning incentives such as bursaries and educational loans also boost the students’ academic output compared to those that do not. This is because the anxiety that sets in resulting from lack and the fear that occurs out of the anticipation of being dismissed or being suspended from learning always have a reducing effect on one’s the academic output. Just as a government that does not offer learning incentives should not anticipate an intellectually rich population, so should a school that does not issue bursaries and scholarship services to its students expect academic results that only maintain the status quo. It is true that there are cases where students excel in financially challenged schools but this fact must be taken into consideration with the ratio that do not make it in the same schools. The fact that only one student manages decent grades from an institution that is financially challenged is a pointer to the truth that there are many pupils with vast untapped potential from the disadvantaged schools due to the adverse socio-economic conditions. References. Clarke, C. H. (2003). Growth of Canadian universities. US: UBC. Press. Dirks, B. N., Elley, G., Ortner, B. S. (1994). A reader in contemporary social theory. US: Princeton University Press. National Science Foundation (1979).Importance of maintaining Research excellence.US: NAS Â   Â   Â   Â   Â   Â   Â  

Thursday, August 15, 2019

Pr to “My Left Foot”

Personal Response to Text â€Å"My Left Foot† By Isis Horne â€Å"It would be difficult to exaggerate the degree to which we are influenced by those we influence. † ~ Eric Hoffer. Parents greatly influence their children; most often people forget that children also greatly influence their parents. Children and everything they do have such a colossal impact on a parents life, and we as children are so caught up in ourselves that we often forget that even the most insignificant act in our minds changes everything a parent does or goes about handling it.A wonderful example of how children and parents influence each other is the memoir â€Å"my left foot† by Christy Brown. Children are always watching their parents, how they do things, how they act, and their beliefs. In the text â€Å"My Left Foot† It is suggested that parents influence their children to succeed by believing in them and encouraging them. Mrs. Brown’s actions influenced Christy tremendo usly, she showed that parents effect the way their children turn out. Mrs. Brown showed loyalty to her son when family and doctors said he was an imbecile, and should be put into an asylum.She did not put Christy into an asylum, instead she let him live normally with his parents in a loving home. This Gave Christy the chance to live like any other child would. Her Patience, and compassion for Christy is shown when she sat with Christy for hours trying to communicate with him, and she never gave up trying, and encouraging him. Her patience paid off when Christy was trying to write the letter â€Å"A† on the chalkboard with his foot, she kept encouraging him to keep trying until he succeeded to write the letter, and she was so proud, she cried tears of joy.Through Mrs. Browns Persistence of not letting Christy give up, or allowing others to look down on Christy, he became a published writer, and successful in his life. I have been suffering from Bipolar 1 and psychosis since I was an infant, later on while I was still a very young child I started suffering from post –traumatic stress as well. My mother was always there encouraging me no matter how hard it was going to make things for her. Every time I broke from reality, and the demons where scaring me she comforts me, and encourages me hat they’re not real, and nothing is going to hurt me with her around. Sometimes that worked, but then the demons started saying and threatening to eat her, to dismember her and the like; that made me very scared and so I tried to kill myself for the first time so that the demons would die with me, I was only 7 years old. My crazy mood swings where literally throwing my mothers life out of wack. One moment I would be ecstatic, then not a few minutes later I would be a weeping willow in the pitiful land of depression. It was very hard for my mother to find help for me, but she was persistent.In the Winter of 2010, I faced the worst depression faze I had ever e xperienced. My Mother put me into a hospital because knew I was not safe and she couldn’t protect me. I was kept 4 weeks at that hospital when the discharge limit is two weeks; the doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. I was diagnosed with bipolar 1, with sever psychosis there, and was discharged. Though I was safe enough to be let back into the world, my depression was still at a high peek, my mom found various psychiatrists, but none knew how to help me.My mom kept looking, until she found a treatment program in Calgary call Adolescent Day Treatment Program. They took me in almost immidiatly, and for 8 months I started my slow recovery. Because of my mothers persistence in finding help for me, driving me in from Cochrane to Calgary every morning and back, I was able to overcome my depression, control my demons, I am not in the constant terror that was holding me back from living a normal life anymore.My Mother is a very smart woman, and she always is pu shing me to do my best. She provides such a wonderful life for me, if it weren’t for her influences, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I know that I will succeed in my life, she taught me that. I know that I am smart, and am capable of doing all the same things and more as anyone else. The confidence I gained from my mother and at ADTP had such a positive impact on my life, it’s hard not to see that with confidence there is next to nothing you can’t accomplish in this world.

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Food Inflations-the Real Problem of Common Man in India

In simple terms inflation, or price rise is caused by too much money chasing too few goods, or, demand being more than supply. The free play of the twin market forces of demand and supply determine the price of any commodity or service. In a mixed economy like India, Government is also an important player in the market. Hence to search for the causes of inflation, becomes somewhat complex. The last couple of months witnessed a sudden and almost a run-away type of food inflation. The way the price of vegetables and other food items soared, it created doubts in the minds of the common people and the economists alike. Winter is generally the time when fruits & vegetables are at the lowest prices. This was not so this year. The prices were way above the expected normal. This happened in spite of the normal monsoon and average inflation in other sectors. It was the other way round this time. Inflation in the food sector spilled to other sectors causing the rise in overall inflation. The government and RBI are working on the lines of monetary regulations like change in the interest rates, CRR etc. But looking at the way the food prices are stuck at the higher side, don’t these monetary measures appear just temporary remedies? There are certain deeper, grass root causes which have to be actually tackled. India has come a long way in case of food grain productivity. There was a time when our Balance of payments, account was always weighed down by food grain imports and the debts incurred for these essential imports. It is not so anymore. We are self reliant now. In case of sugar, global prices are determined by the amount of India’s sugar production! States like Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat are doing well in the field of agriculture. Production may be slightly short of demand considering the huge population. Such inflation can be checked by importing. But our problem is actually the middlemen. There is a huge difference between the cost of production and the price the final consumer pays. The farmer gets a very small amount of this profit/difference of cost and final price. For example – If we are buying a vegetable for Rs. 40 per kg. , the dealer at the wholesale market gets Rs. 10 per Kg. , and the poor farmer gets a meager Rs. 3. Again this Rs. 40 too will differ depending on the locality it is being sold. Then there is always the problem of black marketing & illegal stocking of goods to get a higher price. So we actually need checks on the middlemen and the retailers. Secondly, the system of direct farm to shops has to be developed, so that the farmers are the real beneficiaries. This will also motivate the farmers to increase production. Wastage is another important avoidable problem, leading to shortage. Production we have raised. But so much is wasted because we still are a laggard when it comes to state of the art storage facilities. Even the government’s huge food buffer stock lies unused till it gets finally rotten. Why doesn’t the government release its buffer stock on time to check shortage and food inflation? Is the buffer stock merely for psychological security? The government has raised the support prices of some food items. This along with the rural employment schemes and high urban salaries has also infused excess money in the market causing the inflation. Lastly, does the government know or sincerely follow, what is happening to the prices which are subsidized or fixed by the government? There are cases where the inflation will not show in the Government statistics, but will certainly affect our household budget. As usual when the Union Budget is presented, all eyes will be on the Finance Minister and his speech will be thoroughly scanned for all the implications on the economy. But this time, there is one particular reason why ordinary citizens will be specially focused on the Budget: the hope that the Government is finally going to act decisively to contain food price inflation. It is not surprising that questions of food security and the right to food have become such urgent political and social issues in India today. Rapid aggregate income growth over the past two decades has not addressed the basic issue of ensuring the food security of the population. Instead, nutrition indicators have stagnated and per capita calorie consumption has actually declined, suggesting that the problem of hunger may have got worse rather than better. So, despite apparent material progress in the last decade, India is one of the worst countries in the world in terms of hunger among the population, and the number of hungry people in India is reported by the UN to have increased between the early 1990s and the mid-2000s. These very depressing indicators were calculated even before the recent rise in food prices in India, which is likely to have made matters much worse. Indeed, the rise in food prices in the past two years has been higher than any period since the mid-1970s, when such inflation sparked widespread social unrest and political instability. What is especially remarkable is that food prices have been rising even when the general price index (for wholesale prices) has been almost flat; thus, when the overall inflation rate was only 1-2 per cent in the past year, food prices increased by nearly 20 per cent. Sharp rise in prices It is evident that the price increase has been so rapid as to be alarming especially over the past two years, with rice prices increasing by nearly half in Northern cities and more than half in Southern cities. Atta prices have on average increased by around one-fifth from their level of two years ago. The most shocking increase has been in sugar prices, which have more than doubled across the country. Other food items, ranging from pulses and dal to milk and vegetables, have also shown dramatic increase especially in the past year. There are many reasons why food prices have risen at such a rapid rate, and all of them point to major failures of state policy. Domestic food production has been adversely affected by neoliberal economic policies that have opened up trade and exposed farmers to volatile international prices even as internal support systems have been dismantled and input prices have been rising continuously. Inadequate agricultural research, poor extension services, overuse of groundwater, and incentives for unsuitable cropping patterns have caused degeneration of soil quality and reduced the productivity of land and other inputs. Women farmers, who constitute a large (and growing) proportion of those tilling the land, have been deprived of many of the rights of cultivators, ranging from land titles to access to institutional credit, knowledge and inputs, and this too has affected the productivity and viability of cultivation. Poor distribution But in addition to production, poor distribution, growing concentration in the market and inadequate public involvement, have all been crucial in allowing food prices to rise in this appalling manner. Successive governments at the Centre have been reducing the scope of the public food distribution system, and even now, in the face of the massive increase in prices, the Central Government is delaying the allocation of food grains for the Above Poverty Line population to the States. This has prevented the public system from becoming a viable alternative for consumers and preventing private speculation and hoarding. In addition, allowing corporates (both domestic and foreign companies) to enter the market for grains and other food items has led to some increase in concentration of distribution. This has not been adequately studied, but it has many adverse implications, including the fact that farmers will benefit less from period of high prices even as consumers suffer, because the benefit will be garnered by middlemen. Sugar is slightly more complicated, as marketing margins appear to show different trends in different regions and also tend to be significantly lower than the other major crops. The dramatic increase in sugar prices is more a reflection of massive policy errors over the past two years, in terms of supply and domestic price management and exports and imports. Marketing margins So what exactly is happening? It appears that there are forces that are allowing marketing margins — at both wholesale and retail levels — to increase. This means that the direct producers, the farmers, do not get the benefit of the rising prices which consumers in both rural and urban areas are forced to pay. The factors behind these increasing retail margins need to be studied in much more detail. In addition to this, there is also initial evidence that there has been a process of concentration of crop distribution, as more and more corporate entities get involved in this activity. Such companies are both national and multinational. On the basis of international experience, their involvement in food distribution initially tends to bring down marketing margins and then leads to their increase as concentration grows. This may have been the case in certain Indian markets, but this is an area that clearly merits further examination. Many people have argued, convincingly, that increased and more stable food production is the key to food security in the country. This is certainly true, and it calls for concerted public action for agriculture, on the basis of many recommendations that have already been made by the Farmers' Commission and others. But another very important element cannot be ignored: food distribution. Here too, the recent trends make it evident that an efficiently functioning and widespread public system for distributing essential food items is important to prevent retail margins from rising. Food security A universal system of public food distribution provides economies of scale; it reduces the transaction costs and administrative hassles involved in ascertaining the target group and making sure it reaches them; it allows for better public provision because even the better-off groups with more political voice have a stake in making sure it works well; it generates greater stability in government plans for ensuring food production and procurement. It is clear that emergency measures are required to strengthen public food distribution, in addition to medium-term policies to improve domestic food supply. A properly funded, efficiently functioning and accountable system of public delivery of food items through a network of fair price shops and co-operatives is the best and most cost-effective way of limiting increases in food prices and ensuring that every citizen has access to enough food. In a context in which the inflation is concentrated on food prices, measures such as raising the interest rate are counterproductive because they affect all producers without striking at the heart of the problem. Instead, if he is serious about curtailing food inflation, the Finance Minister must provide substantially more funds to enable a proper and effect to public food distribution system. Inflation Statistics. Snapping the five week rising trend, food inflation softened to 16. 91 per cent for the week ended January 1, 2011, although vegetables, onions and protein-based items continued to remained costly. Food inflation fell by 1. 41 percentage points from 18. 32 per cent recorded in the previous reporting week. Even as the index of food inflation showed a meagre decline, vegetable prices soared by 70. 3 per cent on an annual basis in the wholesale market, official data showed. Also onions continued to pinch the pocket of the common man as the prices went up by 70. 70 per cent on a year on year basis. Among the individual items in the food inflation index, egg, meat and fish became costly by 16. 70 per cent, milk by 13. 20 per cent and fruits by 17. 71 per cent annually. However, prices of pulses declined by 14. 84 per cent, wheat by 4. 87 per cent, potatoes by 1. 67 per cent and cereals by 0. 12 per cent on an annual basis. Meanwhile, in the non-food category, the prices of fibers and minerals have climbed up by 36. 1 per cent and 16. 70 per cent, respectively. India’s food inflation rose marginally to 15. 57 percent for the week ended January 15 from previous week’s 15. 52 percent. According to official figures from country’s Commerce ministry, the primary articles price index was up 17. 26 per cent in the latest week, compared with an annual rise of 17. 03 per cent a week earlier. India has the highest food inflation of any major Asian economy, but other emerging markets such as China and Brazil are also battling double-digit food price rises.