Australian Car Manufacturing Industry Comes to an End

Introduction It is believed that the Australian car manufacturing industry has come to an end. The following essay will argue that the government should not provide finances to save the automotive manufacturing industry. There is a continuous debate between the shareholders of the automotive businesses and the Australian citizens on what should be done with this issue. In order to determine the strength of the argument, the following essay will completely analyze relevant information; examine the affects of moving production to overseas, why production is being moved? Take a look at who is to blame and what the media says should be done? The car manufacturing industry is a large enterprise and supplies employment for more than 45,000 people and indirectly employs nearly 200,000 (Cassin, 2013). However it is believed that the Australian government should not provide funds to the car manufactures, Australia cannot compete with the larger automotive manufacturing countries. The statistics of 2013 show that, 1.13 million cars were sold, out of that figure just over 100,000 were purchased locally made. This tells us that less than 10% of Australian’s actually bought an Australian manufactured car (Smith, 2014). If we aren’t going to buy them who will? Affects of moving production? It is assumed that the Australian car production industry employs more than 200,000 jobs indirectly (Cassin, 2013). Therefore moving production overseas will cut a massive hole in the employmentShow MoreRelatedCorporate Social Responsibility : An Examination Of The Performance Of Toyota Motoring Corporation Australia1383 Words   |  6 Pagescompany is the last major player in a dying industry? 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Then it presents the market-entry strategies and focuses on comparison on the advantages and disadvantages of Export-based entry and manufacturing-based entry. Through the comparison, the export-based entry is recommended to Holden. Finally

Nike and International Labor Practices - 1807 Words

Nike and International Labor Practices Nike has long been known as the only brand of shoes to wear. Since its inception in the early 1970s, teenagers have seen the brand’s â€Å"swoosh† as a mark of cool. With their celebrity endorsements with people like Tiger Woods, kids have wanted the shoes so that they could be like their sports star. Nike was headed to the top rung of the athletic shoe industry until it hit trouble in the 1990s with news leaking out about labor violations in its factories overseas. Executive Summary Nike’s company strategy is a clever one. One that founder Phil Knight thought of while still in school at Stanford. Instead of paying Americans to put together Nike’s shoes, Knight thought that it would be a better†¦show more content†¦Threat of New Entrants Up until 1997, Nike did not have to worry about new companies taking away much, if any, of its market share. With Nike’s clever marketing scheme to ingrain the brand name’s â€Å"swoosh† into every person in America with the use of huge sports stars, no company stood to make any dent in Nike’s market share. But when America found out that their beloved shoes were being made by 12-year-olds being paid $2.50 per day in Indonesia, many turned anti-Nike and no longer promoted the â€Å"swoosh† (Glenn). This is when new symbols like Adidas’s three stripes logo came into public view. These other brands started to take away some of Nike’s market sh are and these new logos began to be seen all over America in place of Nike’s. Buyer Power The nineties were a time where Nike’s potential customers showed how much power they have over Nike. When word got out about Nike’s use of underage workers and the bad conditions they are forced to work in, its customers decided to not buy Nike’s products and consequently, the company’s revenues fell sharply. People discovered that a typical Nike shoe costs only $22.50 for Nike to make and they sell it for close to $100 while paying the laborers who made the shoes not even enough to live on. Stories of people being killed in Nike’s overseas factories and working in conditionsShow MoreRelatedNike And International Labor Practices1207 Words   |  5 PagesHitting the Wall: Nike and International Labor Practices Nike is one of the most popular and successful footwear brands, and there are many manufacturing factories in different countries. In this case, it talks about Nike’s international labor practice between1980s to 1990s. 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My Grandparents and Unconditional Love Essay Example For Students

My Grandparents and Unconditional Love Essay Bigma and Grandpa were the ultimate parents; not just because they were my grandparents, but because they went above and beyond to make sure that their family was well taken care of. They were Godly people and tried to live their lives according to the Word. They were actually my great grandparents and raised three generations without one gripe or complaint and did it with love and joy. They were born and raised in SpartanburgSC but moved to Flint, MI many years ago when grandpa went to work at. Bigma really didn’t work but she was home raising kids and grand kids and once I and my older brother were born she than raised great grand kids. My parents were in the military when we born so we lived with them in flint til about the age of three when he retired and we moved back to Spartanburg. Bigma was the type of woman that accepted all children as her children, neighborhood kids, friend s at school, even kids from the church. She would cook enough dinner to feed the neighborhood because she k new they were coming. She showed me how a lady should be and carry myself as such. She taught me to always use proper English and expand my vocabulary, good posture, morals, respect for other and self-respect. Most of all she showed me self-worth and how to be humble. As a kid I thought they were old fashioned because they were older and I would always say this is a new generation. Once my parents were out the military we stayed a few more yrs. but later went home but we came to visit every summer and would spend the entire summer. I loved her and loved spending time with her we would wake up to Regis and Kathy lee and later the Soaps. She showed me how to straighten hair and braid hair. She got me my first sewing machine and showed me how to make dress and pillows and other things. She taught me how to cook and properly apply makeup. We would sit and play 500 and rummy for hours then watch WWF. She loved her some stone cold Steve Austin. Grandpa was a more serious man he hated my foolery and thought I was so rotten lol and it was my grandmother’s fault. I used to wake him up when he was napping, bother him while he was watching his westerns and Matlock then when he would get fed up he would chase me with his shoe and I would run straight to my grandmother and hide behind her. But he showed me what a man was supposed to be a provider my protector and most of all a leader. Grandpa was a well-respected trustworthy and honest man and was acknowledged everywhere he went by everyone. He was a man of his word and his word was his bond. He woke up about 4:30 -5 am every morning he went and got his breakfast and made us breakfast and never missed a day. But I remember he used to always forget to turn off alarm before opening door to get the paper and burn the toast and set off smoke detectors in the kitchen. He brought Bigma breakfast in bed every morning with her coffee. He always made sure we looked nice and presentable when we went out the door. He would go to his favorite store (JC Penny’s and get our school clothes and clothes for church. He woke up every morning and drove 20-30 mins to take us to school and pick us up from our after school functions. He never missed a program sporting event or graduation, well except for my high school because he was sick and he passed a couple weeks following. He went to church every Sunday and made sure we went and gave us a quarter 2 dimes and a nickel for offering. Looking back, I realized they did everything they did to prepare me for life and have a bright future. They always said we can be whatever we want to be. .u02dcc60da18a4ea9b76b9e36dff51e70 , .u02dcc60da18a4ea9b76b9e36dff51e70 .postImageUrl , .u02dcc60da18a4ea9b76b9e36dff51e70 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u02dcc60da18a4ea9b76b9e36dff51e70 , .u02dcc60da18a4ea9b76b9e36dff51e70:hover , .u02dcc60da18a4ea9b76b9e36dff51e70:visited , .u02dcc60da18a4ea9b76b9e36dff51e70:active { border:0!important; } .u02dcc60da18a4ea9b76b9e36dff51e70 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u02dcc60da18a4ea9b76b9e36dff51e70 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u02dcc60da18a4ea9b76b9e36dff51e70:active , .u02dcc60da18a4ea9b76b9e36dff51e70:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u02dcc60da18a4ea9b76b9e36dff51e70 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u02dcc60da18a4ea9b76b9e36dff51e70 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u02dcc60da18a4ea9b76b9e36dff51e70 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u02dcc60da18a4ea9b76b9e36dff51e70 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u02dcc60da18a4ea9b76b9e36dff51e70:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u02dcc60da18a4ea9b76b9e36dff51e70 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u02dcc60da18a4ea9b76b9e36dff51e70 .u02dcc60da18a4ea9b76b9e36dff51e70-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u02dcc60da18a4ea9b76b9e36dff51e70:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Being a Stay-at-Home Stepfather EssayShe always greeted me in the morning with good morning Miss America as she did all the girls and the guys as Mr. President of the US. Even though they’re gone now I still here there voices and see their facial expressions when I go to slouch or use incorrect grammar and in the way I carry myself. They lived long enough to make sure everyone would be okay once they were gone. And I will forever be thankful for everything and opportunities they allowed me to have. I push myself to be great every day because I know they’re looking down watching and smiling with their heads held high.

Sound and Space

Importance of sound Life is made meaningful through the five senses present in human beings. The experiences that people go through are facilitated through the senses that enable people to decipher the messages contained in the sounds that they hear. Seeing and hearing are touted as the most fundamental and can only be compared to food and water, the most basic human need.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Sound and Space specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The sonic impressions created by hearing do to a greater extent help in determining visual impressions that are created by sight. Sounds, together with images have been developed and they form the basis of the creative arts sector in many countries1. Just as hearing comes top among the senses, music is ranked above all other arts. Art uses both visual and sound impressions. However, sound has proven to be more powerful over visual images in the world of art. From b irth, human beings use sound qualities and later on during gradual maturity use the expressive qualities found in speech and music to familiarize themselves with the qualities of life. The invaluable experiences offered by music and other sound qualities help in human development and self-discovery through communication2. In the long history of human development, one of the most important factors that have characterized that development is the concept of sound. Is has been one of the crucial deciding factors in the development and advancement of society as well as its sustenance in the dynamic world. Many cultures including Indian and Vedic have myths that seek to explain the mysterious nature of sound. These myths explore the existence of the soul before the existence of the earth and how sound developed after the universe came to exists. In Indian culture, for instance sound was regarded highly that it is classified as one of the characteristics of ether, one of the elements of na ture. They ancient Indians believed that sound pervaded everything3. The existence of sound in the world is crucial to the creation of perception and presence that determine the shape of the world. Sound according to Thompson creates perception, emotional, spiritual, and psychological spaces (50). Through the above elements, understanding within ourselves, the environment and between human beings is enhanced. Communication too is enhanced through sound and space.Advertising Looking for essay on art and design? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More On the same note, the importance of sonic space and the experience that it creates in everyday human life comes to the fore. In the middle of the sonic experience is the space and human beings. This presents a complicated relationship that intensely involves the audible domain and the visceral involvement with architects of sonics that work on structures to transform space to a sonic exper ience4. There is a unique articulation of space and place in the interactive sound environment that are helpful to human brings in their efforts in engaging with the immediate environment. In the experiment for instance, a subtly performative medium done in an immersive environment will help transform the space to a sonic experience effectively casting the listener as a creator and performative agent5. An important point to note is the characterization of interactive environments like walled rooms by an interface that aids in triggering sonic material from the axial coordinate location of an interactive agent within an architectural space. The triggering may be done by direct triggers like objects including wall boxes, floor pads and light beams. The sound is generated and recorded and plays itself out regardless of the morphology of the person interacting with them6. This is possible because the sonic content of objects installed with fixed morphological structures that are acquire d when samples of the sound are generated and recorded. There is a variance on interactive input because of the collage of objects that are used in the experiment and they provide a direct relationship between the qualities of the interactive gestures and the sonic outcomes. Perhaps the most important role that sound plays in the development of human beings as well as the day-to-day lives is the nurturing of emotion. Through sound, human beings are able to learn and feel emotions while attaching meaning to them.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Sound and Space specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Emotions help transform human beings to social beings capable of feeling. After learning emotions, human beings use the sonic arts to communicate the emotions to fellow human beings in their quest to have corresponding real life experiences7. An emotional being through socialization is transformed to a social being. The pres ervation of quality sounds reinforces sound integrity to ensure human beings get the best of the sounds that we use and those that we get through music and other sonic arts. The social being is developed through the sounds he/ she hears. It’s important to note that there exists a wide variety of sounds that help human beings to develop full social beings. It’s also important to add that it helps when human beings are exposed to various sounds because it helps the above said development. To ensure that quality sound is made and is available for human social development, recording was introduced. Recording was a big step in the development and storage of music and quality sounds that help human beings develop. Through recording relationship between sound and space and there are numerous sonic transformations that can be achieved8. There is more to the projection of sound into space than meets the eye. Space is more than a container for sound. Sound has the ability to def ine space through the creation of metaphorical walls. When sound happens in space, there is a regular process that helps waves traverse the distance between the source and the ear. An important element in this relationship between sound and space is the existence of a common structural design that can be referred to as architectonics9. This experiment will address the behavior of sonic qualities of space as well as the spatial characteristics of sound. It’s helped that through the experiment, the important role that sound and/ or silence plays in giving space its sonic qualities will be brought out. Throughout time, there have been sonic and spatial constructions that have been useful in defining places in time. They will also be looked at albeit briefly to underscore the importance they played in the transformation of space to a sonic experience. The literature and experiment will be dedicated to the explanation of sound and space applications that include architectural crea tion of sonic spaces, landscapes and sculptures.Advertising Looking for essay on art and design? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Sonic space The acoustic coloration can be described as the sonic space. The sonic space is crucial in how people hear and perceive interact with sound in their environment. Particularly important especially in the experiment is the human interaction aspect with sonic space. Human interaction with space can be primitive or cultural and emotional. Human beings primitively gather raw sonic data for instance reverberation and echo. Additionally, cultural and emotional sonic interaction with space evokes higher cognitive processes in human beings10. It’s important to recognize the importance of sonic space in the virtual worlds. In games, for instance there is realistic sound simulation that brings the foley effects, atmospheric sound and sound effects. Additionally, sonic space enhances the emotional aspects of a scene through narration and music. Sonic space in games brings out the realistic sound simulation that includes dialogue. The experiment’s main objective of tran sforming space to a sonic experience can be used to enhance information communication and education. According to Wade, the interaction between human beings and sonic space is more than just a primitive reaction to the environment. The process involves the use of raw data gathering abilities which are largely primitive, perception which are also primitive characteristics of higher cognition and high impact listening that are also part of higher cognition. The illustrations that follow will demonstrate this in a room environment that will form the wider context of the experiment (46). Source: Landy, Leigh. What’s the Matter with Today’s Experimental Music?: Organized Sound too Rarely Heard. Chur, Reading: Harwood Academic Press, 1991. Print. This is primitive raw data gathering in a room environment. There is also perception which is primitive raw data gathering and higher cognition in a room environment as illustrated below. Source: Landy, Leigh. What’s the Ma tter with Today’s Experimental Music?: Organized Sound too Rarely Heard. Chur, Reading: Harwood Academic Press, 1991. Print. Finally there is high impact listening that involves higher cognition in a room environment. Sonification mainly deals with the use of non-speech sound. It’s important to look at some of the difficulties that are experienced in the use of non-speech sound to convey information. Interference between different dimensions of sonic space and the cognitive overload are some of them. Some of these problems can be alleviated incorporating some of the background functions into sonic space11. For instance, the problem may be solved through association of data size with sonic space instead of dimensions like pitch or loudness12. A particular importance of the experiment will be a demonstration of the potential that exists in using sonic space to help in the learning processes in visually impaired learners13. Sound and space According to LaBelle and Roden s ound cannot exists on its own without space (34). Additionally for sound to exist, it needs architecture and sight. The examination of the relationship between sound and space was first mooted by the ancient Greeks. The experiments conducted by the Greeks sought to investigate the behaviors of sound in different space settings. The unique behaviors that sound exhibited in these different space settings was the main content of the investigations they carried. These early researchers came up with the premise that the relationship between sound and space was utterly dependent on architecture. This relationship was vividly captured in the ideas and works of Vitruvius when he sought to control sound in theatres. A concrete conclusion that was reached by these researchers was that sound and music had an explicit linkage to architecture underlain through the harmony of the universe. Of special importance however was the relationship that exists between sound space and place and their linka ge to transforming space to a sonic experience. Presence of bodies and movement aids in the realization of the existence of space14. In the experiment, one will discover that sound is a temporary medium that needs careful analysis to uncover its properties. Through the use of psychoacoustics, reverberation is analyzed to bring out the information on size of the sonic environment15. The presence and active participation of the human mind in this experiment brings to the fore the ability to envision and discover the source of excitation while determining the fine qualities of the materials used in case boxes. The above is possible when one considers reverberation together with timbre and attack. The concept of morphology is brought back through its entrenchment in the sonic recording of the audio sample. It’s important to note that the recording that will be involved in the sonic transformation of a space is interactive in nature and does little to condition the response hence the exact nature of the interaction is produced at the external reference16. It therefore does not reflect the participants’ experience and cognition rather that of natural rules of sonics. The need to mould the environment therefore through the use of architecture in order to condition the interactive experience arises17. Sound and space could not be understood without the use of architecture that was crucial in developing harmonic properties of sound as well as the mathematical impressions of sound and music. The ancient researchers also did conclude that site and sound existed simultaneously and that the relationship could be examined through the listening experience. Their joint existence can fall within the social presence context or private experience context. In terms of acoustics and resonance, site and sound do determine their development where one of them is characterized as a receiver while the other is characterized as a transmitter18. The above explanation by the Greek researchers of sound and space concluded that space is crucial in the controlling, deadening, reflection, and destruction of sound. There is a lot of architecture that goes to designing and developing areas where people live for instance in cities and quiet parks. That therefore means there can be a deliberate generation of sound to alter space. Similarly, one can shape space to manipulate sound to a negative or positive effect instead of reducing or deadening or eliminating it19. Besides the perception capabilities that human beings display toward sound, they can also create and destroy both sound and space. When designing space, architects are mostly concerned about the acoustic factors that will affect the spaces they design. Acoustics One of the concepts that come out prominently in the relationship between sound and space and sonic is acoustics. According to Ripley et al, every room has a sound. In any room, sound waves experience reflection, absorption, and dispersion ( 45). This is done by the boundaries the physical contents like furniture and the people present. It’s important to note that different rooms have different sounding formats. The sounding is determined by the size, geometry and the materials that are used. More importantly, their acoustic behavior is more critical to the sounding of the room. A connection between acoustics and sonic transformation will be necessary in the experiment in its quest to transform space to a sonic experience. No doubt there is a lot of architecture and other fine details that go into transforming space to fit acoustics. While this experiment has little to do with acoustics, the sonic gestalt that is involved considers sound as a unique media that is an internal artifact. According to Thompson sound penetrates the body and it’s very difficult for anyone to use it in a concrete way to come up with anything far from appeasing emotional experiences20. According to Smalley, this â€Å"slipperyâ⠂¬  nature of sound is referred to as surrogacy. The sonic transformation of space in this experiment is will operate on the principle of remote surrogacy with the assumption that when the listeners will be hearing the sound from the materials on the wall, they will involve their cultural and environmental experiences to find meaning. In other words the experiment will mainly concentrate on the production of sound in a room space with different materials. The materials in a room or space will be crucial in the transformation of space to a sonic experience and a good understanding of the dynamics involved in acoustics will help shed some light on the concept and help in explaining the effect of space and sound21. Size, geometry, diffusion, and absorption describe acoustics in the most basic terms. Acoustics is all about eliminating resonances by ensuring reflections of sound disappear through absorption and diffusion. In their quest to improve sound quality, acousticians try to modi fy rooms through architectural designs that greatly alter sound in rooms especially theatres to fit the purpose. However, it is imperative to highlight that the sound source is also a factor in determining the quality of the sound experiences in a room22. More often than not, acoustic engineers and architects try to dampen the rooms in order to improve the sound of the reflection. Sometimes it is successful while at times it flops badly. Sound quality in a room is mainly determined by the material used. Every material possesses a vibration character. This is more critical in the reflection of sound waves, perhaps more critical than the absorption and dispersion coefficients. To achieve the best reflection, engineers struggle to match the mother of tone to the character of the reflecting material. The mother of tone is ideal because it is the same benchmark that is used by the human body in its regulation of vibration of ears and generally, bodies. It’s against these that all sounds that are meant for any human beings are evaluated. Size Resonant frequencies are mainly affected by the size of the room. These cavity models of the room signify that a few of frequencies will be higher or louder than all other frequencies available. For instance a sub hoofer that normally has low frequencies is designed to activate and excite the cavity modes present in rooms. The cavity modes or frequencies of a room can only be changed through alteration of the size or its volume that is more or less the size23. The objects that will be used in the experiment will be of different sizes to fulfill the intentional purpose of producing several sounds. Geometry Direction of sound reflections in a room is determined by the geometry of the room. On the other hand, the geometry of the room is determined by the angles and the positioning of the walls as well as the floor, ceiling, furniture and any other physical object in the room. Any new entry into a room changes the acoustics of that particular room. It is important to note that the commonest reflection happens between parallel rather than perpendicular walls24. Materials The materials that make up the walls, ceiling, and floor of the room as well as the materials of the furniture and any other physical objects greatly determine the acoustics. Understanding into these individual material properties will need a macro understanding of the individual materials on the physical features of a room. Concisely, the acoustic properties of a material in a room are determined through the amount of sound that is reflected by that particular object. The amount of sound is determined by the absorption coefficient. Also determining the acoustic properties of a material is the direction the reflection takes which is determined by the dispersion or diffusion coefficient25. The physical objects that are capable of creating and sometimes destroying sound and the acoustic energy that fills the air are some of the major aspe cts of sound. Both scientific and aesthetic ways, the relationship with the environment and the circumstances that surround someone determine who gets to hear what. Perhaps the relationship between space and sound is better captured through the demonstration of an empty house and that is already furnished26. An empty house demonstrates acoustic harshness that is not pleasant to the ear at all. Sound in occupied houses is more soft and accommodating than the former. The different surfaces from different objects that are present in the house help in the refraction and softening of the sound giving a soothing acoustic. According to Pallasmaa, different spaces and buildings display varied characteristics of attractiveness, feelings, intimacy, monumentality, harshness, invitation, or rejection (58). The above characteristics signify either hospitality The features described above come in hand in the achievement of acoustics of a room. They are also important in the transformation of spac e to a sonic experience. The different objects that will be used in the experiment will spot various measurements of the features that will directly impact on the sound they will produce. Of importance is the morphology and timbre of the objects that will be placed to act as the sources of the sounds that will aid in the transformation of the space to a sonic experience. Sound and space Given the importance of space in this transformation, it’s only important to understand how the human element through architecture influences electro-acoustics that are directly linked to the space-sonic transformation experience. The human effect on sound and space is mainly captured through the architectural element that is directly related to sound and space. People have come up with designs that manipulate sound to achieve the sound qualities that they want. The creation of Symphony Hall marked the beginning of an acoustic era dominated by technology. This technology enabled architects and acousticians to have greater control of over sound. The Symphony hall is still regarded as the first ever, modern science inspired creation that clearly captured the effect of human beings and space on sound. It’s important to note that there are many symphony halls and their workings are basically the same. One critical factor that comes up in the human effect on sound on space and the incorporation of architecture into the study and understanding of sound is the materiality of the objects used. Reverberation is determined by the frequency dependency of the powers of sound absorbing by the materials used in architecture. Within the materiality concept, the barriers that aid in minimizing noise pollution in building and construction came up27. According to Wade, human beings have largely been responsible for the manipulation of architecture and space in the cities to introduce a completely new concept of soundscape (56). The use of space has ensured the resonation of the cit ies, echoing, muffling, and the isolation of all the urban sounds creating a new dimension of soundscape. Urban designers and planners have responded by planning every building in the cities in specialized and differentiated ways. Determination of the openness of the streets, planting of trees and the specification of materials for different surfaces has been carefully considered in the use of space to control sound. Due to the relative easiness through which architects can make predictions on the reverberations, the acoustics of the inside of buildings have been easily controlled and their spaces only reflect the acoustic qualities that their owners prefer28. Wade says that human beings are perceptive creatures as well as active creators of sound and space. The acoustic space that is designed by architects is the primary concern when designing structures. Human beings are increasingly capable of manipulating the soundscapes of buildings through advanced architectural designs. In th is advanced manipulation of sound contexts, architects have sought to understand the effect of spatial sound. With the advancement in technology brought about by the industrial revolution, people started modifying and measuring sound. Scientific study of sound enabled acoustic engineers and acousticians to manipulate microphones and amplifiers and loudspeakers together with the electrical signals that sound devices used. The discovery of sound production through electronics redefined acoustical phenomena using electronics rather than architecture. Acousticians could easily study and understand the behaviors of sound thanks to the advanced technology29. According to Labelle and Roden, the sounds that are present today are because of technological mediation that is as a direct result of the manipulation by engineers and architects. Control of the behaviors of sound is no longer the mystery it used to be (132). Many more materials used in the generation of sound have been developed tog ether with numerous electro-acoustic devices that have helped greatly in the understanding of acoustics. The development of the electro-acoustic and other techniques of manipulating sound have led to the production of both intended and unintended consequences. These noises include radio broadcasts, music concepts, and motion pictures with soundtracks that have become popular with people30. It’s important to note that it is the need to control sound behavior and a culture for listening that have driven both the architectural and technological developments in acoustics. New worries about noise that is as a direct result of human being manipulation of the sound space led to the desire by acousticians to control the sound in specific rooms where performances were held and that were important in producing acoustically correct music. Furthermore, the desire to eliminate all unnecessary sound was informed by the need to achieve efficiency in acoustics. According to Ripley et al cont rol of acoustics by architects and engineers was seen as a way of enabling these musicians exercise choice in a world filled with all kind of aural commodities (89). This developments helped producers and other acoustically interested people to determine what constitutes good and acceptable sound and to determine how and what it took to achieve it. The gradual development of the relationship between sound and space led to the reformation of the principles that define it. There was gradual dissociation of sound from space to an extent that the relationship became non-existent31. The development of sound absorbing structures and the instruments that produced their own authentic acoustic sounds diminished the relationship between sound and space. It is safe to conclude that the architectural bit has became a little differentiated and now concentrated on the development of either good structures or instruments that produce acoustic sounds according to the preference of the listeners. Re verberation was a direct creation of architecture that necessitated its creation. It was always a function of the room size, geometry and the materials of the surfaces of the objects in the room. These factors together controlled the production of acoustic sound for long periods. It is therefore with relief that products that can produce acoustic sounds can be made and reverberation is just a form of noise that does not need to be controlled to produce acoustic sound32. Directly related to architecture and human effect is the phenomenon of the sound transformation. The experiment on the transformation of space to a sonic experience can be said to be a miniature of electro acoustics that has been necessitated through architecture. Through the objects in a room is the creation of timbre development from basic one basic sound texture to another. The fundamental concept here is the timbral metamorphosis which is more or less the transformation that space goes through to become a sonic e xperience. Though there may be numerous transformations that take place to form one sonorous gesture, an analysis of one is enough to illustrate the point since the process is repetitive. Its important to note that there is considerable manipulation of the sound source which in this case will be the objects placed in the room to generate the morphology of the source to create a sound transformation to a sonic experience33. Conclusion Throughout the paper both direct and indirect literature and details of transforming space to a sonic experience have been dealt with. The explanations have sought to explain the settings that this particular experiment will use to transform space to a sonic experience and how concepts like acoustics relate to the sonic concept. In so doing the paper has in significant proportions concentrated on architecture and the role it plays in acoustics and sonic transformation. Additionally, there is substantial information relating to the projection of sound in to a space and the cognitive characteristics of human beings that are necessary for a sonic transformation to be complete. In so doing, a number of scholars and their works on sonic transformation and the metamorphic process involved in the process have been used and cited. The process and the finer aspects involving transformation of space to a sonic experience have been explicitly examined. It’s therefore hoped that the information presented in the paper adequately explains the experiment that seeks to transform space to a sonic experience. Works Cited Alec, Nisbett. The Sound Studio: Audio Techniques for Radio, Television, Film and Recording. Focal Press, 2003. pp. 50 Bregman. Auditory Scene Analysis. The perceptual organization of sound. London: MIT Press, 1994. Campbell, Murray. The Musicians Guide To Acoustics. London: Sage Publications, 1987. Print. Cox and D’Antonio. Acoustic Absorbers and Diffusors – Theory, Design and Application. London: Spon press. P rint. Emmerson, Simon. The Language of Electro acoustic Music. London: Macmillan Press, 1986. Print. Erickson, Robert. Sound Structure in Music. Berkeley: University of California Press 1975. Print. Hayles, Katherine. Embodied Virtuality: Or How To Put Bodies Back Into The Picture. In Immersed In Technology: Art and Virtual Environments, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1996, Print. Kahn, Douglas. Noise Water Meat — A History Of Sound In The Arts. Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1999. LaBelle, Brandon and Roden, Steve. Site of sound: of architecture and the ear, Volume 1. London: Errant Bodies Press, 1999. Print. Landy, Leigh. What’s the Matter with Today’s Experimental Music?: Organized Sound too Rarely Heard. Chur, Reading: Harwood Academic Press, 1991. Print. Moravec, Hans. Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1988. Print. Paine, Garth. Gesture and Musical Interaction: Interactive Engagement through Dynamic Mo rphology. Paper presented at NIME, at Hamamatsu, Japan, 2004. Print. Pallasmaa, Juhani. The eyes of the skin: architecture and the senses. New York: Wiley- Academy, 2005. Print. Paynter, John,et al. A Companion to Contemporary Musical Thought. London: Routledge Publishers, 1992. Print. Ripley et al. In the place of sound: architecture, music, and acoustics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Print. Sallie, Westwood; John, Williams. Imagining Cities: Scripts, Signs, Memory. Routledge, 1997. Print. Scott, Jill. The Body as Interface. In Reframing Consciousness, UK: Intellect, 1999. Print. Schiphorst, Thecla. Body, Interface, Navigation Sense and the State Space. Paper presented at: The Art of programming: Sonic Acts, at Amsterdam, 2001. Print. Smalley, Spectro-morphology and Structuring Processes. In The Language of Electroacoustic Music. New York: Macmillan, 1986. Print. Smalley, Dennis. Spectromorphology: Explaining sound-shapes. Organized Sound 2 (2):107-26. Wiener, N. 19 48. Cybernetics: MIT Press, 1997. Thompson, Emily. The Soundscape of Modernity. Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2004. Print. Taylor, Charles. Reflections, Reverberations, and Recitals†. Exploring Music: The Science and Technology of Tones and Tunes. CRC Press, 1999. pp. 232–4 Wishart. On Sonic Art. Ed. Simon Emmerson. UK: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1996. Print. Wishart. Audible Design. A Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Sound Composition. York, UK: Orpheus the Pantomime Ltd, 1994. Wade, Bonnie. Imaging sound: an ethno musicological study of music, art. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Print. Yost, William. Fundamentals Of Hearing. NY: Academic Press, Inc., USA, 1994 Footnotes 1 LaBelle, Brandon and Roden, Steve. Site of sound: of architecture and the ear, Volume 1. London: Errant Bodies Press, 1999. Print. P.67 2 Hayles, Katherine. 1996. Embodied Virtuality: Or How To Put Bodies Back Into The Picture. In Immersed In Technology: Art and Virtual Environment s, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1996, Print. P.88 3 Paine, Garth. Gesture and Musical Interaction: Interactive Engagement Through Dynamic Morphology. Paper presented at NIME, at Hamamatsu, Japan, 2004. Print. Pp 23-30. 4 Moravec, Hans. Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1988. Print. pp 90 5 Schiphorst, Thecla. Body, Interface, Navigation Sense and the State Space. Paper presented at The Art of programming : Sonic Acts, at Amsterdam, 2001. Print. Pp 21-26 6 Smalley. Spectro-morphology and Structuring Processes. In The Language of Electroacoustic  Music. New York: Macmillan, 1986. Print. P.78 7 Pallasmaa, Juhani. The eyes of the skin: architecture and the senses. New York: Wiley-Academy, 2005. Print. p.65 8 Thompson, Emily. The Soundscape of Modernity. Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2004. Print. P.54 9 Wade, Bonnie. Imaging sound: an ethno musicological study of music, art. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Print. P. 45-46 10 Pallasmaa, Juhani. The eyes of the skin: architecture and the senses. New York: Wiley-Academy, 2005. Print. P. 66 11 Taylor, Charles. Reflections, Reverberations, and Recitals†. Exploring Music: The Science and Technology of Tones and Tunes. CRC Press, 1999. pp. 232–4 12 Scott, Jill. The Body as Interface. In Reframing Consciousness, UK: Intellect, 1999. Print. P. 23. 13 Smalley, Dennis. Spectromorphology: Explaining sound-shapes. Organised Sound 2 (2):107-26. Wiener, N. 1948. Cybernetics: MIT Press, 1997. Pp107-126 14 Sallie, Westwood; John, Williams. Imagining Cities: Scripts, Signs, Memory. Routledge, 1997. Print. 15 Paynter, John,et al. A Companion to Contemporary Musical Thought. London: Routledge Publishers, 1992. Print. Pp.89 16 Kahn, Douglas. Noise Water Meat — A History Of Sound In The Arts. Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1999.pp.78 17 Alec, Nisbett. The Sound Studio: Audio Techniques for Radio, Television, Film and Recording. Focal Press, 2003. pp. 50 18 Thompson, Emily. The Soundscape of Modernity. Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2004. Print.pp.48 19 Yost, William. Fundamentals Of Hearing. NY: Academic Press, Inc., USA, 1994.pp. 190 20 Thompson, Emily. The Soundscape of Modernity. Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2004. Print. Pp 58-60 21 Smalley, Dennis. Spectromorphology: Explaining sound-shapes. Organised Sound 2 (2):107-26. Wiener, N. 1948. Cybernetics: MIT Press, 1997. Pp107-126 22 Campbell, Murray. The Musicians Guide to Acoustics. London: Sage Publications, 1987. Print. pp. 123-125. 23 Emmerson, Simon. The Language of Electroacoustic Music. London: Macmillan Press, 1986. Print. pp.98-105 24 Cox and D’Antonio. Acoustic Absorbers and Diffusors – Theory, Design and Application. London: Spon press.Print. pp. 48-54. 25 Ripley et al. In the place of sound: architecture, music, and acoustics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Print. Pp108-110. 26 Erickson, Robert. Sound Structure in Music. Berkeley: University of California Press 1975. Print. pp. 154 27 Bregman. Auditory Scene Analysis. The perceptual organisation of sound. London: MIT Press, 1994.pp. 78-79. 28 Wade, Bonnie. Imaging sound: an ethno musicological study of music, art. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Print.p.56 29 Wishart. Audible Design. A Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Sound Composition. York, UK: Orpheus the Pantomime Ltd, 1994. 30 LaBelle, Brandon and Roden, Steve. Site of sound: of architecture and the ear, Volume 1. London: Errant Bodies Press, 1999. Print. Pp132-134. 31 Wishart. On Sonic Art. Ed. Simon Emmerson. UK: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1996. Print. pp 90-101. 32 Ripley et al. In the place of sound: architecture, music, and acoustics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Print.p.89 33 Thompson, Emily. The Soundscape of Modernity. Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2004. Print.p.79. This essay on Sound and Space was written and submitted by user Viviana Hess to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Guatemala Strikes Back essays

Guatemala Strikes Back essays Comparing and contrasting countries can really give you a good sense of knowledge on where a country stands in terms of economics and population. Guatemala is a country that is hard to make assumptions about when you really do not hear very much about it. In this paper I will be comparing and contrasting Guatemala to Kenya and the United States, in terms of site/situation, agriculture, economics, population characteristics, social indicators, and population pyramids. Site is the absolute location of a place, while situation is the relative location of a place. These terms will help us to better understand whether or not Guatemala is dependant on its bordering countries. I will be providing tables to use a visual approach at explaining these topics that I mentioned. While Kenya is a less developed country, and the United States is much more of a developed country, you will be soon to learn that Guatemala settles somewhere in between these two countries. Using the United States and Kenya to make comparisons to Guatemala can really help you understand what this country is all about. Guatemala is a country that is strengthened by its site and situation. Being just south and to the east of Mexico, there is a strong dependency on that country. Guatemala and Mexico have a free trade agreement that goes to show that they need each other to thrive economically. The table below will give show you the bordering countries of Guatemala, Kenya and the United States. Bordering Countries Honduras Canada Somalia Rand McNally, Goodes World Atlas The United States does not really rely on Canada or Mexico for economic support. Kenya on the other hand, is strongly dependant on all of its bordering countries. Guatemala sits right between the United States and Kenya, statistically speaking. When it comes down to agriculture, the United States puts Guatemala and Kenya to sham...

Writing and Publishing Resources

Writing and Publishing Resources Roundup of Writing and Publishing Resources Here at Reedsy, we’re fortunate that we get to work with some of the finest talent in the publishing industry - and these experts have shared their experiences and knowledge with us in the form of interviews and how-to guides. In fact, we’ve published articles on so many topics that it’s hard to keep track of them all.In this post, we want to share some of the best Reedsy articles so far, sorted in a way that mirrors the publishing journey taken by most authors. Check out Reedsy's roundup of writing and publishing resources! #amwriting To make this information even easier to digest, we've compiled it into our beautiful Book Launch Checklist! You can simply download it for free below, then follow the steps to publication! How Do You Write Your Book?If you have any questions or topics you’d like to see covered on the Reedsy Blog, post them in the comments below.

The construct lifestyle in market segmentation Essay

The construct lifestyle in market segmentation - Essay Example One outcome of the search for marketing innovations is market segmentation. Market segmentation basically deals with allocating the right consumer with the right product. The Investopedia (2011) explains market segmentation as â€Å"aggregating of prospective buyers into groups (segments) that have common needs and will respond similarly to a marketing action.† Closely related to this explanation, Tatum (2011) posits that market segmentation â€Å"is a strategy that involves dividing a larger market into subsets of consumers who have common needs and applications for the goods and services offered in the market.† Because market segmentation tries to limit the division of the market base, it allows for the fullest understanding of basic rudiments of a particular market segment. Out of this benefit, Gonzalez and Bello (2002) came up with a coiled concentration of market segmentation on the tourism market where he writes about â€Å"The construct "lifestyle" in market seg mentation: The behavior of tourist consumers†. This paper seeks to assess the thesis of the author in regard to the construct lifestyle and examine other innovations presented in the article. Assessment of the thesis of the authors in regards to the construct lifestyle The authors make a number of theses as far as the construct lifestyle in market segmentation for tourist consumers are concerned. One of these theses has to do with the inclusion of lifestyle to help segment the tourism market more adequately. The writers are of the view that lifestyle of consumers is very imminent if the tourist market can properly be segmented. In view of this, they define â€Å"the construct lifestyle based on the activities, interest and opinion approach.† The authors therefore believe that for any effect market segmentation that will target specific tourist consumers, players in the industry must not loss sight of the very activities that tourist would want to engage in when they are out there on tourism. As far as tourism is concerned the World Tourism Organization recognizes three groups of consumers who are visitors, overnight tourists and excursionist (Gonzalez& Bello, 2002, pp. 53). Each of these three categories of consumers undertake the type of tourism they do for different purposes. In doing this, they participate in different pre-intended activities based on their interest and opinion of tourism. For example one group of people on tourism would opt for animal related destinations because they have a natural love for animals. Another would opt for plant related destinations because their work has to do with plants. In the view of the authors, when such interests and activities of consumers are well harnessed in the construct lifestyle, tourism operators will be in an excellent position to attract the right consumers at the right time because they will put in place the right segmentation to meet the needs of the consumers. Another thesis outlined by the authors is the need to base the construct lifestyle on the total needs of travelers. Simply out, people’s needs reflect their lifestyle. To this effect, they assert that â€Å"good theory of tourist motivation must consider the total needs of travelers and not limit its focus to one need† (Gonzalez& Bello, 2002, pp. 53). Continuing research in tourism show that there is a lot of relation between tourist motivation

The Analysis of Strategy from movie Moneyball Essay

The Analysis of Strategy from movie Moneyball - Essay Example This approach involves the scouting and analysis of players followed by their acquisition. Through this strategy, they acquire Chad Bradford, a pitcher, and Scott Hatteberg, a catcher. They go on to win an American league record 20 games in a row. This team did not qualify into the World Series in 2002, and they have not made in back into the series ten years down the line. These years remained impressive ones, not only in the history of the game, but also in the franchise. The need to get this team back into World Series, and win more titles called for the team’s top management to adopt and implement new strategies, which will ensure the future success of this team. This paper, therefore, seeks to describe how new strategies, especially technology and innovation, can create a competitive advantage for an organization with reference to the movie â€Å"Money ball’s Strategy†. The Oakland A’s vision was to find young players who had little ability for pay ne gotiations (Rosner & Kenneth). In 1995, new management broke up the roster of the team in order to trim costs and this caused performances to nose dive. At this same period, they designed the new strategy based on a low budget, concentrating on on-base percentage. By 1999, performances had begun to improve, with their revenue responding to this performance. Attendance spiked dramatically, while ticket prices also rose. This showed that their strategy for getting victory in games was successful at exploiting the opportunity at profit. During the period spanning 2000-2004, the average position player’s wage went up from $2.6 million to $3 million (Rosner & Kenneth 358). Home run hitters earned approximately $3.5 million more than the rest of the players. This was difficult for the Oakland A’s team to follow, since they were not in a position to challenge well-established and financially sound teams. However, the Oakland A’s discovered that there was gross underval uation of on-base percentage in the market. The most significant method of measuring skill at batting had been batting average, which weighted home runs and singles the same. The slugging percentage was also in use where home runs counted four times as much as singles. These two, however, ignored walks and sacrifices. There was undervaluation of the ability to get on base. Lack of hitters possessing superior skill at market premiums, who master the patient art of touching base via walks, validated the A’s approach in identifying these players. This translated into winning more games at a discount compared to their competition. At first, however, the team’s scouts were hostile and dismissive to the sabermetrics approach that was non-traditional for scouting players. The manager began to select players based on base percentage, therefore, assembling a team with more potential than their finances would have allowed. The Oakland A’s used an integrated low-cost and d ifferentiation strategy (Rosner & Kenneth 358). This allowed them to adapt to the changing financial environment, which was going beyond them, allowing them to learn and integrate new technologies and skills, while improving their ability to leverage core competencies more effectively across their business model, and enabling them to purchase hitters with improved features at much lower costs. Using this strategy, they managed to exploit the low market demand that was there for those kinds of hitters

Iran-Contra affair Essay Example for Free

Iran-Contra affair Essay The Iran-Contra affair was a US scandal that occurred in the mid 1980s under the leadership of President Ronald Reagan and vice president George bush. The scandal majorly involved two events. First, there was the sale of US arms to one of its main enemies, Iran and then the millions of dollars in profits derived from the arms deal were used to finance a clandestine operation rejected by congress, the financing of Nicaraguan guerrillas named the Contra. The Contra guerillas were opponents of the Nicaraguan’s Sandinista rebels who came to power after overthrowing Anastasio Somoza, the then leader of Nicaragua in the year 1979. The idea was to secure the release of American hostages held by the Hezbollah terrorists. This scandal prompted numerous investigations that led the indictment of US government officials. Indeed, many questions still linger on the minds of many concerning the role played by top US White House officials including President Reagan and the then vice president George Bush (TheFreeDictionary, 2009). This paper will discuss some of the dealings in the arms trade, stating their historical background, reasons behind the trade, the parties involved and its eventual outcome. The Contra Affair first received public attention in November 1986 after al-sharia, a Lebanese publication reported that the American government was involved in arms trade with Iran. Worse still, a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) supply plane was shot down by the Nicaraguan forces. The only survivor was the pilot and he was captured. The plane was carrying, over 50 000 rounds of ammunition, Russian rifles and boots (Tristam, 2009). The confession of the pilot shocked the public indicating that the US government was involved in arming the contra rebels and also confirmed the earlier reports in the Lebanese publication. The irony was that President Ronald Reagan was on record as having numerously associated the Iran government with terrorism (TheFreeDictionary, 2009). Why Reagan supported the Sandinistas To Reagan, the victory of the Sandinista in Nicaragua was a major US security threat since he thought that it had the potential of sparking off a revolution in Central America (BBC News Channel, 2004). The fear could be traced back to 1954 when Jacobo Arbenz won the elections to become president of Guatemala. What alarmed the US government was his oratory which indicated that the US government was on the verge of losing its control in Central America. In 1979, the Sandinistas overthrew the Arbenz government and initiated communist reforms. This was in spite of the fact that in actual sense they never really defined themselves as communists but as pluralists. They began to reallocate estates and to redistribute wealth and this was enough to alarm the United States which became uncomfortable with having a communist state right in its backyard. Violence also erupted spreading to other countries and this was seen as an indication that communism could end up spreading to other countries in Central America (BBC News Channel, 2004). Reagan was alarmed by these developments and felt that he had to do whatever it took to stop this. Fortunately for him, other groups within Nicaragua began arming themselves against the policies initiated by the Sandinistas. Reagan’s hope then lay in equipping the rebels in an attempt to overthrow the Sandinistas government. At first he allocated the funds openly and even gave additional funds to the CIA to carry out his mission. However, the allocation of funds to the contras was opposed within the United States throwing his plans to the gutter. Ronald Reagan involvement with Iran Ronald Reagan was known to have publicly referred to Iran as one of the nations that both supported and financed terrorism in the world. It therefore seemed to be a stab in the back for US citizens when the world heard reports that the US was trading arms with its worst enemy. The entire situation could be traced back to the 1980 US presidential elections. These pitted the then president Jimmy Carter against the implicated Ronald Reagan. The period between the 1970s and 1980 was one characterized by numerous incidences of hostage taking. In the year 1979, fifty two workers of the US embassy in Iran were captured by Iranian students and held hostage. The US at the time proclaimed a ‘no- negotiation’ policy when dealing with terrorists. The then president Jimmy Carter failed to secure the release of these hostages (Absolute astronomy, 2009). During the elections, Jimmy Carter was slightly taking the lead and if only the US hostages held by the Hezbollah group had been released, it could have been a sure win for Carter. The release of the hostages then became the decisive factor on who would win the elections. This prompted the Reagan team to negotiate a release deal with Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran. This team met with the then prime minister of Iran Bani-sadr in Paris. The agreement reached was that the US hostages would remain captives until after the election and in extension of this favor, Iran would be supplied with weapons. At that time, Iran was at war with Iraq and the supply of weapons was absolutely welcomed. It therefore came to be that immediately after Reagan won the elections, the hostages were released (Angel Force, n. d). Arms transactions The US received special assistance from Israel to carry out the sale of arms to moderate Iranians opposed to Ayatollah Khomeni. Michael Ledeen and Robert McFarlane the then National Security Adviser managed to convince the Israeli government to ship arms to these politically influential Iranians in return for the same kind of weapons along with monetary benefits. Israel agreed but in the mean time Reagan was hospitalized for a colon cancer surgery. Later on, Israel tried to convince the United States to allow Israel to sell a few antitank missiles as an indication that the Iranian group had strong US ties. This offer was initially rejected but eventually Israel managed to convince Reagan that the group was an antiterrorist group. The group in return had promised to talk to the captor to release seven hostages, a proposal that Reagan readily consented to. The plan was later readjusted such that the arms were now to be sold directly to the Iranians at a marked up price of about 715 million dollars as suggested by North. This price was rejected but eventually over one thousand anti-tank missiles were shipped. The adjustments also included the financing of the contras contrary to the Boland Amendments that restricted the US administration and the CIA from financing the contras. (Absolute astronomy, 2009). The scandal blew up after Mehdi Hashemi a cleric with the Islamic revolutionary guards leaked information concerning the trade to Ash-Shiraa, a renowned Lebanese magazine. This together with the crashing of a CIA plane led to Reagan’s confession in the national television that the arms deal transactions had indeed taken place. His argument was that the trade had taken place in an attempt to forge better ties with Iran and to also to make Iran reconsider a negotiation for the release of held hostages (Absolute astronomy, 2009). Conclusion The Iran-Contra Scandal led to the sacking of numerous government officials including Oliver North who was sacked and also tried for the shredding of evidence (some say that the evidence was bulky enough to jam the government’s shredding machine. In his defense, North tried to link the case with the Vietnam War by arguing that the main issue in the affair was the actual financing of the contras (Isaacs, (1997). He also attempted to justify his action by saying that it fell within his powers. The president’s popularity ratings also dropped from a high of 67% to a low of 46%. Internationally, the scandal sent harmful signal to terror indicating that hostage taking could be used as a powerful means of coaxing political influence with the west (Absolute astronomy, 2009). References Absolute astronomy. (2009). Iran-Contra Affair. Retrieved on 28th March, 2009, from: http://www. absoluteastronomy. com/topics/Iran-Contra_Affair BBC News Channel. (2004). Reagan and the Iran-Contra affair. Retrieved on 30th March, 2009, from: http://news. bbc. co. uk/1/hi/world/americas/269619. stm Isaacs, A. (1997) Vietnam Shadows. Baltimore London: John Hopkins University Press. TheFreeDictionary. (2009). Iran-Contra Affair . Retrieved on 30th March, 2009, from: http://www. acc. af. mil/news/story. asp? id=123080422 Tristam, P. (2009). What Was the Arms-for-Hostages Iran-Contra Affair? Retrieved on 30th March, 2009, from: http://middleeast. about. com/od/usmideastpolicy/f/me081109f. htm Angel Force. (n. d). Iran-Contra. Retrieved on 30th March, 2009, from: http://www. angelfire. com/ca3/jphuck/BOOK3Ch7. html

The Bedroom inThe Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman :: Yellow Wallpaper essays

The Yellow Wallpaper - The Bedroom As the story progresses in, The Yellow Wallpaper, it is as if the space of the bedroom turns in on itself, folding in on the body as the walls take hold of it, epitomizing the narrator's growing intimacy with control. Because the narrator experiences the bedroom in terms of John's draconian organization, she relies on her prior experiences of home in an attempt to allay the alienation and isolation the bedroom creates. Recalling her childhood bedroom, she writes, "I remember what a kindly wink the knobs of our big, old bureau used to have, and there was one chair that always seemed like a strong friend . . . I could always hop into that chair and feel safe" (Gilman 17). Ironically, Gilman's narrator cannot retire to the otherwise "personal haven" of the bedroom because she is always already there, enclosed within the attic room of John's desires, bereft of her own voice and personal history. The narrator's imagination is altogether problematic for John, who would prohibit his wife fr om further fancifulness: "[John] says that with my imaginative power and habit of story-making, a nervous weakness like mine is sure to lead to all manner of excited fancies, and that I ought to use my will and good sense to check the tendency. So I try" (Gilman 15-16). For Gaston Bachelard, who devotes himself to a phenomenological exploration of the home in The Poetics of Space, "imaginative power" is the nucleus of the home, if not the home itself. Memories of prior dwellings are for Bachelard a fundamental aspect of creating new homes based on a continuity with the past and past spaces. "[B]y approaching the house images with care not to break up the solidarity of memory and imagination," writes Bachelard, "we may hope to make others feel all the psychological elasticity of an image that moves us at an unimaginable depth" (6). Bachelard's "elasticity" infers that spatial depth and expansion are contingent upon a psychological flexibility of imagination. Gilman's narrator is nota bly denied this elasticity when her physician/husband attempts to prevent her from writing. "I did write for a while in spite of them," the narrator explains, "but it does exhaust me a good deal--having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition" (Gilman 10).

12 Angry Men and To Kill A Mockingbird

Brain Storming†¦ Compare and contrast the two trials of Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird and Twelve Angry Men. * Similarities: * In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus defends Tom Robinson even though there was little chance he could win the trial. He did all he could to help Tom, and put 100% effort into the trial. In Twelve Angry Men, juror number 8 defends the boy, even though everyone else believes he’s guilty. They both did not give up and in it till the end. * They are dealing with prejudice in both.In To Kill a Mockingbird, the prejudice is seen because Tom is a black man going against a white man’s word, and the jury is all white and prejudice. In Twelve Angry Men, prejudice is seen because the boy in trial is from the slums; he is criticized because of where he lives. * Juror # 8 and Atticus both use evidence and facts to prove their point. They use logos. * In both the book and the play, a life is at stake. The defendant would be put in the chair if prove n guilty. * You never find out if the defendant is truly innocent or guilty. You only find out what the jury decides. The words of witnesses are doubtful. * Differences: * Atticus lost the trial, but juror # 8 convinced the rest of the jury to vote â€Å"not guilty†. * Atticus is a lawyer, so he was defending Tom in court. Juror # 8 was part of the jury and was defending the boy against the rest of the jury, trying to get them to vote â€Å"not guilty† * Tom is accused of rape; the boy is accused of murder. * In Twelve Angry Men, there is more physical evidence of the crime then in To Kill a Mockingbird. In To Kill a Mockingbird there is mostly just the word of witnesses for evidence.

Participation

There are many reasons supporting me to participate In JENNETS 2. 0. First of all, this opens me a great opportunity to exchange my linguistic capacity as well as soft skills (communication skill, team work skill†¦ ) to engage In my future Job. Moreover, as working in international environment, I might gain more practical experiences from differences In culture, working styles From that, my thinking will develop In positive and comprehensive way.Secondly, Japan Is one of my favorite countries and also the promising land for future career. Therefore, Joggling this program enables me to understand more about Japan In many aspects (economy, culture, society†¦ ). Traveling to a new country, getting to know new friends†¦ Are the most precious things for youth particularly for me. Another reason Is the meaningful alma of the journey: maintain long term friendship between two countries through exciting activities.Thanks to this, Vietnamese and Japanese youth can easily explo re the good values of both countries then discuss helpful ideas for national improvement. Personally, I will contribute a small part for Vietnam development by participating in JENNETS 2. 0. 2. What will you be able to contribute to it ? During the program, I will attempt to introduce about Vietnam – a country is overcoming the war tragedy to integrate with the world.Furthermore, joining all activities enthusiastically is another way to make Vietnamese impression on Japanese friends. In addition, I shall take advantage opportunities studying wonderful innovations of Japanese so that we could apply to Vietnamese situation. Hopefully, I might have more Japanese and also Vietnamese friend because there is nothing to strengthen solidarity but friendship. In conclusion, if I have chance to become a participant, I will try my best to perfect the Jounce.

“Why We Crave Horror Movies” by Stephen King Essays

â€Å"Why We Crave Horror Movies† by Stephen King Essays â€Å"Why We Crave Horror Movies† by Stephen King Paper â€Å"Why We Crave Horror Movies† by Stephen King Paper In the essay â€Å"Why We Crave Horror Movies†, Stephen King provided reasons why people want to watch horror movies. He said that some people go to horror movies to re-establish some sense of normality; some people watch them because they like to have fun and some just simply to prove to others that they can (1). I agree with his view that going to movies re-establishes some sense of normality in some people. In everyday living, people encounter certain problems and situations which would lead them to believe that they are separated from the norms of reality and that they needed to reconnect, they needed some sense of validation that they are still normal. Horror movies provide that validation. Clearly, everybody knows that horror movies are nothing but a figment of one’s imagination which came to life in the screen. Upon seeing the bizarre scenes which wreck havoc to the actors, the viewers may think and feel that the particular story is so ‘abnormal’ and by feeling so they themselves feel normal. King, on the other hand, finds it somewhat unusual for other people to crave horror movies because they think that it is fun. He finds it odd that a person can have fun by seeing someone being killed by a serial killer or a monster, even if it is inside the screen. I disagree with the author. Fun is relative. What may be fun and exciting to one person might not be to another and besides, wanting to see horror movies does not make the person as twisted as the onscreen killer. Some people are just looking for ways to satisfy a certain monstrous feeling inside and some are merely craving for excitement in their lives; they might just be looking for a reason to scream from the top of their lungs and that does not make them odd, if anything it even makes them even more normal, they are humans. It is King’s position that all people are mentally ill and that those people outside the asylum only hide it much better and maybe not much better after all (1). I also agree with the author in this statement. The standards of what normal is have been defined by numerous people claiming that they are normal. In a topsy-turvy world, if countless of people from mental institutions say that they are normal would that reverse the standards of normality? Insanity and sanity is just a hairline way, anybody can crossover anytime. In some ways people are mentally ill and those who are not are exposed to the danger of being a mentally-ill person himself. Horror movies allow people to release that insanity in people because by watching, they experience certain things beyond the norms that can only be experienced in horror movies and they can feel what they want to feel without any repercussions reflecting in their real life.   In order to release certain amount of inhibitions and maybe perhaps that little bit of insanity in people, the gators must always be fed otherwise it is going to get out. King in his essay compared feeding the gators to watching horror movies. People watch horror movies to maintain the norms of reality outside the screen thus leaving the insanity inside together with the movie. The author said that horror movies, like the sick joke, appeals to all that is worst in us and I agree to that as well (2). A horror movie in a way releases our fears and allows us to experience the extreme. I think that one of the reasons why some individuals want to watch horror movies is that no matter what danger, fear and excitement they experience, they have the element of control unlike the poor victim dumped inside the alley. They can stop whenever they want and that is the beauty of it. Horror movies will not bother them outside the screen. The horror stops when they want it to stop. King, Stephen. â€Å"Why We Crave Horror Movies†. 10 April 2009. http://iws.ccccd.edu/jdoleh/English%201301/Why%20We%20Crave%20Horror%20Movies.pdf

Using Replacement Behavior to Lessen Problem Behaviors

Using Replacement Behavior to Lessen Problem Behaviors A replacement behavior is a behavior you want to replace an unwanted target behavior. Focusing on the problem behavior may just reinforce the behavior, especially if the consequence (reinforcer) is attention. It also helps you teach the behavior that you want to see in the target behaviors place. Target behaviors might be aggression, destructive behavior, self-injury, or tantrums. Functions It is important to identify the function of the behavior, in other words, Why does Johnny smack himself in the head? If Johnny is smacking himself in the head in order to deal with tooth pain, obviously the replacement behavior is to help Johnny learn how to tell you his mouth hurts, so you can deal with the tooth pain. If Johnny hits the teacher when its time to leave a preferred activity,  the replacement behavior will be to transition within a certain time to the next activity. Reinforcing approximations of those new behaviors is replacing the target or undesirable behavior to help Johnny be more successful in an academic setting.   Effectiveness An effective replacement behavior will also have a similar  consequence that provides the same function. If you determine that the consequence is attention, you need to find an appropriate way to give the attention the child needs, while at the same time reinforcing a behavior that is acceptable. It is especially helpful if the replacement behavior is incompatible with the target behavior. In other words, if a child engages in the replacement behavior, he or she is unable to engage in the problem behavior at the same time. If the target behavior is the student leaving his seat during instruction, the replacement behavior might be keeping his knees under his desk. Besides praise (attention) the teacher might also put tally marks on a desktop â€Å"ticket† which the student can exchange for a preferred activity. Extinction, ignoring a behavior rather than reinforcing it, has proven to be the most effective way to get rid of problem behavior, but it may be unsafe or incompatible with supporting student success. At the same time punishment often reinforces the problem behavior by focusing on the problem behavior. When choosing and reinforcing a replacement behavior, you draw attention to the behavior you want, rather than the behavior you dont want.   Examples Target Behavior: Albert does not like to wear a dirty shirt. He will rip his shirt if he doesnt get a clean shirt after lunch or a messy art project.Replacement Behavior: Albert will ask for a clean shirt, or he will ask for a paint shirt to put over his shirt.Target Behavior: Maggie will hit herself in the head when she wants the teachers attention since she suffers from aphasia and cannot use her voice to get the teacher or aides attention.Replacement Behavior: Maggie has a red flag that she can fix on the tray of her wheelchair if she needs the teachers attention. The teacher and classroom aides give Maggie lots of positive reinforcement for asking for their attention with her flag.

System Safety Engineering in the aviation industry Essay

System Safety Engineering in the aviation industry - Essay Example Nevertheless, it is arguably true that the modern forms of transport are more expensive and definitely more risky than the traditional forms of transport. The aviation industry falls under the modern transport systems and its contribution to the creation of a global economy is unquestionable. Statistically, over 2000 airlines in the world operate about 23,000 aircrafts in over 3700 airports. The US aviation industry registers about 11 million flight departures per year via its 100 plus certified passenger airlines thus becoming the most dominant airline industry in the world (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012). The aviation industry facilitates the movement of goods, people, and information across the globe. In fact, its impact ranges from its own operations and its influence on aircraft manufacturing and other fields. At the same time, the aviation industry is more significant in ensuring world security where almost all nations use airplanes and helicopters to enhance secu rity and attack enemies. More so, the aviation industry is significant in world surveillance and tourism where it ensures the safe and fast movement of tourists from one site to another. In addition, the aviation industry has been relevant in many rescue operations as well as staging different entertainment extravaganzas. As such, the importance of the aviation industry is evident in many aspects. Nevertheless, for the aviation industry to prosper, abject security measures must be in place. Security in the aviation industry may relate to safety of goods and people from accidents, hijackings, criminal attacks, engine failure, and possible natural calamities. Indeed, a lapse of security in the aviation industry is fatal, can cause serious injuries, attracts distractions of operations and accruals of huge costs, affects tourism, and destruction of properties. On the other hand, security in the aviation industry guarantees fewer accidents and injuries, improved maintenance scheduling an d productivity, reduced material losses, a marketable safety record, high employee morale, resource utilization, and smooth running of the industry (Bayuk, 2012). This being the case, security in the aviation industry is very essential and the world through individual governments and organizations has initiated different mechanisms to ensure safety in the aviation industry. This paper will look into the system safety engineering in the aviation industry through various topics that include safety analysis in engineering, safety management, hazard analysis, process safety analysis, fault tree analysis, FMECA, human factors, and software safety, data sources and training, accident reporting and investigation, and risk evaluation. System safety refers to engineering and management principles, criteria that guarantee security. However, to ensure overall safety in the aviation industry, the need for a systems approach to safety management is inevitable. Nevertheless, the success of the ad option and effectiveness of a given safety management system highly depends on the organization’s safety culture and other related factors. As such, safety in the aviation industry will require the input of every department and all parties involved with an aim of engaging in measures and practices that reduces safety risk. Ideally, the more the number of people handling safety issues, the less the

Domestic and Foreign Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Domestic and Foreign Policy - Essay Example According to the paper after the Spanish American war, the Americans wanted peace and stability of mind. Undoubtedly, the US could remain as an isolationist as it continued to expand outward. Even looking back at history, the country’s attempt to remain an isolationist during both World War II was not susceptible. The US verily had to enter both World Wars since it became a leader in the Western frontier. The United States returned to isolationist foreign policy since domestic problems plagued the country. Furthermore, Europe was in chaos itself and the US could not afford to indulge itself in such petty issues. However, one can argue that the isolationist policy did have some ramifications towards American diplomacy. The United States embodied the foreign policy of isolationism into an international role because it wanted to strengthen its capitalistic economy, address reform, acknowledge immigration and continue to pursue its beautiful American dream even though it lost thre shold in foreign affairs. The roots of isolationism were well established years before independence. A brilliant testament towards this theory can be clearly seen through the decision of the Continental Congress to reject help from France during the War of 1812. The notion of America to remain independent was because of the exerted influence by the forefathers and Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. During the 1800s, the United States expanded its horizon in North America and commenced to build an empire in the Caribbean and the Pacific with its traditional isolationistic policy. It fought the  Mexican War and the  Spanish-American War  without assistance from any other nations. Thus, the isolationism theory that oozed out of American diplomacy can be traced as far as the colonial era. The Monroe doctrine was one of the most pivotal documents that embodied the non- interventionist policy that dominated American affairs.

Climate Change - Global warming Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Climate Change - Global warming - Research Paper Example So speaking about climate change we don`t mean the present day changes but we look them through in the comparison with many years` data. Climate includes such features as the average temperature, amount of the rainfalls, number of sunny days and other changeable parameters which are different in the different places of the Earth. At the same time there are some processes that can influence not only conditions of the particular region but large territories on the planet. So we can speak about climate change. There are some definitions of this term that is widely used today. The Oxford dictionary (2014) gives us the definition â€Å"A change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.† and the NOAA (2014) defined it as â€Å"A non-random change in climate that is measured over several decades or l onger. The change may be due to natural or human-induced causes.† For determination of climate change such indexes as changes of the average weather parameters and changes in the frequency of extreme weather phenomena are used. The reasons cause climate changes are dynamic processes on the Earth, external influences such as changes in the sun emanations and in the recent years - human activities. Modern climate change towards the warming is called â€Å"Global warming†. There are a lot of investigations that indicate changes of meteorological indexes and their influence on global climate changes and also the human life. The work of Sippel & Otto (2014) is focuses on a recent hot and dry summer with exceptional multi-day heat waves. Their own results and analyses of the literature demonstrate that intensity and frequency of monthly and 5-day warm temperature extremes in summer have increased

Water is an essential component in our life

Water is an essential component in our life CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background Water is an essential component in our life and it can be found in a very large quantity on the earth. Without water, there would be no living plant and animal. The water consumed by human originated in various forms and from various sources (Baba >et al., 2008). Lately, the popularity of bottled mineral water with consumers has increased due to the increasing contamination of water resources. According to the International Bottled Water Association (2000), natural mineral water is water that clearly comes from underground sources. It is distinguished from ordinary drinking water because it is characterized by its content of certain mineral salts and their relative proportion and the presence of trace elements of other constituents. Besides that, natural mineral water is also defined as groundwater that obtained directly for human consumption from drilled or natural sources from underground water (Malaysias Food Regulation, 1985). Nowadays lifestyles have moved most of the population towards the portable and convenient bottled mineral water. With a lot of bottled mineral water brands available in the market ranging from high end names like Evian to local brands like Spritzer and Mesra, todays consumer has lots of choices thereby making it necessary for the manufacturer of bottled mineral water to come out with unique strategies to stay up to date in this highly competitive market. Bottled mineral water has become an importance habit in peoples everyday lives. Bottled mineral water may even be needful, in case of temporary tap water contamination. Whatever be the reason, the trend towards consuming bottled water is predicted to increase in the coming years. Bottled water has been steadily growing over the past three decades due the dynamic sectors of the food and beverage industry. Water has endurances and sales appeal in any food service segment. It also free of sugar, calories and alcohol, and outruns juice, coffee and soda as a beverage for all day parts. Bottled mineral water consumption in the world is increasing by an average 7% each year, inspite of the fact that bottled mineral water has a higher price. The convenience of bottled water that can be easily purchased at retail outlets and easy to get rid of is the major factor leading many to purchase bottled mineral water. These factors have led to the increasing global production of bottled water, from estimated 142 billion liters in 2002 to over 173 billion liters in 2006. Danone, Nestle, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are the worlds top four bottled mineral water companies. Although Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are known as the big carbonated soft drinks manufacturers, they have also noted the potential in the bottled mineral water market and have been developing their brands and capabilities in this market. Although major consumers of bottled water are in Europe and North America, the most promising markets are in Asia Pacific with an annual growth rate of 15% (Frost and Sullivan, 2007). The increase in consumption in global with a high income is mainly due to the increasing awareness of the health preserving properties of water, both in its basic, hydrating function as well as a source of precious minerals. Table 1.1 shows how the world market of bottled water in the 2008, with Mexico being the highest consumption. Table 1.1: Per capita consumption of bottled water in leading countries (Beverage Marketing Corporation, 2008). Country Gallons Per Capita 2003 2008 Mexico 41.5 59.1 Italy 47.1 54.0 United Arab Emirates 25.4 39.7 Belgium 35.1 39.0 Germany 31.9 34.8 France 39.1 34.6 Spain 33.5 31.9 Lebanon 25.4 30.5 Hungary 16.2 29.2 United States 21.6 28.5 Switzerland 25.4 26.3 Austria 22.7 26.1 Thailand 20.3 26.0 Bottled mineral water is a profitable market in Malaysia. The market is set to undergo greater product differentiation with participants expected to expand into functional and to improve on packaging in order to obtain a higher share of the market. Competition is also predicted to increase with more private labels appearing in the market. Positive growth in this market has increased the interest of other manufacturers and distributors and the increasing competition is likely to support the growth in the coming years. In Malaysia, there are differences between Natural Mineral Water (NWM) and Packaged Drinking Water (PDW). Natural mineral water is defined as groundwater obtained for human consumption from underground water resources. It contains various minerals such as Sodium, Magnesium, Potassium and Calcium. Therefore, all NMW must comply with the standards as prescribed in Schedule 26 (Regulation 360A (7)), Food Regulations 1985. Packaged drinking water shall be potable water or treated potable water other than natural mineral water that is sealed in bottles or other types of packaging and is for human consumption. The source for this PDW can be from public water supply, surface water or underground water. The simplest way to differentiate between these two types of bottled water is by the colour of the bottle cap. Multicoloured bottle caps are given for natural mineral water while white bottle caps are only for packaged drinking water Competition from water dispensed by vending machines, the price of bottled mineral water, and growing consumer awareness of the environmental impact of bottled mineral water are found to be restraining bottled mineral water growth in Malaysia. Furthermore, the increasing of consumers concern for the environment, both in terms of the wastes resulting from the polyethyleneterepthalate (PET) bottles and the effect on the ecological system from wide scale water extraction, is also one of the reason for some consumers to prevent from purchasing bottled mineral water. 1.2 Statement of problem Based on Latinopolous >et al. (1997), a serious health effect that may cause by groundwater contamination is the reason for the increasing of public concern about the quality of groundwater resource in recent years. In present, the public is getting more concerned about their health whereby they are more interested to know about the water they consume. The most severe contamination of groundwater was recently discovered, where millions of people are at risk and consumption of these heavy metals contaminated water has caused widespread death and disease (Nickson >et al., 1998). Heavy metals are critical in this regard because of their easy uptake into the food chain and because of bioaccumulation processes (Diagomanolin >et al., 2004). It means that concentration of a chemical will increase in our bodies over time. Our body absorbed these heavy metals from the environment and they are stored at a rate that is faster than they are metabolized or excreted from the body. In traces concentration, some heavy metals like copper and zinc are essential to maintaining good health and metabolism within the human body. But if the concentration level is higher enough, even beneficial metals can be toxic and poison us. 1.3 Objectives of the study This study tends to highlight the specific element of heavy metals present in each bottled mineral water. More specifically, the aims are: To measure the level of heavy metals in selected bottled mineral water. To compare and compile the selected analyzed water parameters with World Health Organization (WHO) and Ministry of Health (MOH) water quality guidelines. 1.4 Significant of the study This study focus on generating data that will provide information on the concentration of the elements found in selected mineral water for public purpose. The data will help us to know whether the mineral water content present is in the amount claimed by the manufacturers or not. This is important for human consumption purpose where the public have the right to know the exact content in bottled mineral water they consume and is the bottled mineral water is safe for drinking, relatively pure from heavy metals. Humans nowadays also depend on bottled mineral water rather than tap water due to lack of contamination and it has a better taste. The concentration of these metals in the mineral water may vary depends on the location of the source and the companys manufacturer. 1.5 Thesis outline Overall, this thesis consist of five chapters which purposely to assist in understanding and easy to organize though writing process. The chapters in this thesis have been organized as follows: Chapter 1 of this thesis discusses the background of the study, the statement of problem, the need for the study and lists of objectives. Chapter 2 generally discusses on the literature review which are the theory and argumentation of the previous researcher about the topic. In this chapter, there are explanations and details about the mineral water, classification and its characteristic, groundwater, groundwater contamination, drinking water quality, trace elements, human health effect, health related guideline, bottled mineral water and lastly indication of bottled mineral water. This chapter will help us in further understanding the concept and why this topic is significant to be studied. Chapter 3 more focuses on research methodology. In this chapter research methodology is more on the way to analyze the concentration of trace element by using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS Perkin Elmer Series 200). It is divided into several parts which were sample collection and preparation, elemental analysis, quality assurance and control and also statistical analysis. Chapter 4 is focusing on the result and discussion. It also include the statistical tools to analyze the precision of the data obtain in order to have a good data. It also states the results and the data interpretation between the samples. Chapter 5 as the last chapter functions as a conclusion to the whole chapter in this thesis. It also consists of suggestion and recommendation for future study in improving the way of conducting the project. This is followed by references. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Water distribution Water is necessary for life due to its natural elements which play a central role and it is important in human nutrition (Naddeo >et al., 2008). Water is the fundamental constituent of animal organisms and it is the medium through which all metabolic reactions happen. Water is the medium for all biological processes and a basic and essential dietary constituent. In other words, water is essential for life and, therefore, must be available to all, adequate, safe, accessible wholesome and, above all, should not cause appreciable health hazards, as it is needed for all other types of food (Sciacca and Conti, 2009). Malaysia which is located in the humid tropics is generally endowed with fairly abundant rainfall of 3000 mm annually (about 990 million cu/m), of which surface run-off is around 57%. However, seasonal distribution and variation, both temporally and spatially, provide some regions to be occasionally water-stressed. 60% of rain falls between November and January annually. Fast flowing of economic growth in Malaysia in the recent years, combined with periodic occurrence of lengthy drought has brought the problems of water imbalance into sharper focus, especially where development is concentrated in water stress regions. There are more people than what a river basin and groundwater can support in some regions (JPS, 2008). From data compiled by the Department of Environment (2005), the overall trend points to a slow but steady becoming worse in the water quality of rivers around the country. River systems as a whole, with or without confining reservoirs, 97% are estimated to contribute to the raw water supply source. The increasing population growth, coupled with rapid agricultural and industrial development, the availability of small numbers of water resources to meet increasing water demand is fast becoming a pressing issue. Due to lack access to clean water resources, consumption of bottled mineral water increased (Al Fraij >et al., 1999). 2.2 Groundwater It is estimated that more than 50% of the worlds population depends on groundwater for drinking (Fry 2005). Groundwater is the only source of drinking water for many rural and small communities (Hani 1990). Groundwater naturally results from waters that infiltrate from the land surface and percolate to the underlying strata. Groundwater must be free from organisms that are capable of causing disease and also from minerals and organic substances that could produce adverse physiological effects to make it safe for human consumption. Drinking water should be aesthetically acceptable that it should be free from apparent turbidity, colour and odour and from any objectionable taste. Drinking water should also be at a relatively sensible temperature. Water meeting these conditions is described potable, meaning that it may be consumed in any desired amount without giving any adverse effects to humans health (Cotruvo and Vogt, 1990). There is high interest on the quality of groundwater all over the world due to severe problems of water stress and deterioration of water quality. The quality of groundwater highly depends on the composition o, the mineralogy, recharging water and reactivity of the geological formations in aquifers, the impact of human and industrial activities and the environmental parameters that can bring effects to the geochemical mobility of certain substances (Kouras >et al., 2007). 2.2.1 Occurrence of groundwater Groundwater forms by part of the natural water cycle and constitutes a major portion of the cycle. Voids, spaces and cracks between particles of soil, sand, gravel, rock or other materials can be a stored place for groundwater (William >et al., 1993). Groundwater is occurred in various types of geological formation and exists in permeable geologic formation called aquifers which can store and transmit water. In many areas of the world, water does not flow in and is not stored in large underground lakes or rivers. It is stored in and moves slowly through the aquifer. Groundwater resources are underutilized in most parts of Malaysia (Jasni >et al., 2006). The hydrogeology of Peninsular Malaysia could be simplified and divided into 4 major aquifers that represent in Table 2.1. Table 2.1: Types of aquifers found in Malaysia (Minerals and Geoscience Department Malaysia, 2004) Types Description Aquifers in Alluvial Deposits Limestone/Carbonate Rock Aquifers Aquifers in Sedimentary and Volcanic Rocks Aquifers in Crystalline Igneous Rocks Aquifers in the alluvial deposits occur along the coastal zones of Malaysia and are made up of Quaternary deposits consisting of gravel, sand, silt and clay. The extent, nature and composition of the alluvium vary at different localities. This type of aquifer is made up of carbonate rocks (limestone and marble). The quality of the groundwater is generally good but has moderate to high total dissolved solids due to soluble bicarbonates. These aquifers are represented by fractures within sandstone, quartzite, conglomerate and volcanic rocks. The water from these aquifers is generally of medium to good quality. Fractures within crystalline rocks and associated rocks, form this type of aquifer. The quality of water is generally good to excellent with low total dissolved solids. Based on Wilson >et al. (1983), groundwater comprises water from springs or from wells and boreholes used to catch water from the aquifers by means of pumps. Deep wells or boreholes provide usually water of excellent bacteriological quality. Groundwater is therefore often used without any treatment, except physicochemical ones to reduce hardness or eliminate off flavors and odors. The water pumped from boreholes or shallow wells, however, is easily exposed to pollution and contamination. Depending on the type of aquifer, the type of soil and its protective effect against pollution, the physicochemical characteristics of the water, and the levels of the microbial flora may be very low (Bischofberger >et al., 1990). 105-107 cfu/mL of microbial flora have been reported. In such cases, microbial and chemical contaminants may reach groundwater sources through wells, due to infiltration, leakage of solids at the surface, leaks in pipelines, effects of agricultural treatments, cross contam ination between aquifers, water fluxes due to rainfalls, etc (Wilson >et al., 1983). According to Aastrup and Thunholm (2000), groundwater can be considered both as storage of metals, as the movement in the groundwater zone generally is quite slow, and as a transporting agent for metals. In natural ecosystems it is the only agent for horizontal transport within recharge areas. 2.3 Groundwater consumption in Malaysia As surface water is readily available throughout the year, it is abstracted mainly for irrigation and domestic uses. Some pockets of the coastal region and is generally exploited by rural people to supplement their piped water supply can limiting the groundwater potential. Surface water represents 97% of the total water use, while groundwater represents 3%. About 60-65% of groundwater utilization is for domestic and municipal purposes, 5% for irrigation and 30-35% for industry (FAO, 2007). 2.4 Groundwater contamination Since the beginning of this century, we have been living in a sophisticated chemical world (Goodarzi and Mukhopadhyay, 2000). Groundwater contamination can gives major implications to humans health and the environment in urban areas (Dechesne >et al., 2004). The groundwater beneath polluted urban areas may be contaminated by heavy metals and trace elements and may contain a wide variety of organic compounds, all of which have a major effect on the water supply and the environment (Vidal >et al., 2000). In this chemical world, the pollutants that occur in our environment can be classified into two categories that are natural and synthetic. The natural pollutants are derived from the decay of plant substances, flow of water through rocks that contain fossil fuel and transportation as air or water borne components derived from volcanic eruptions or forest fires. Similar compounds, as those released naturally, may also be derived as a synthetic by product from anthropogenic sources. Ther efore, pollutants can be derived from a number of two sources in a natural ecosystem especially in the aquatic regime. The sources of some of the pollutants are often difficult to predict and (Goodarzi and Mukhopadhyay, 2000). Goodarzi and Mukhopadhyay (2000) also claimed that the distribution of inorganic elements in the groundwater is universal. They occur as suspended particulates or dissolved as elements, ions, or complex molecules. Some of them are toxic and carcinogenic to humans and other biohabitats. Based on Zhang (1993), rapid industrial development in the last few years has added huge loads of pollutants to our groundwater aquifer. Diagomanolin >et al. (2004) also postulated that the progress of industries has led to increased emission of pollutants into ecosystems. Contaminants can differentiate as inorganic or organic chemicals, radionuclides, and microorganisms. Mineral based and do not contain carbon are called the inorganic mineral. They may occur naturally or enter the watershed from farming or industrial discharge. Examples of inorganic contaminants are lead, nitrates, and arsenic. Organic chemicals contain carbon and access the watershed from agricultural and industrial run off. Volatile organic chemicals are persistent in the environment and have been associated with cancer and neurological and reproductive health effects. Examples include gasoline and degreasing and dry cleaning solvents. There are over 30 standards for synthetic organic chemicals, many of which are pesticides (Afzal, 2006) Based on Leeuwen (2000), there are many sources of contamination of drinking water. Widely they can be categorized into two categories that are contaminants in ground and surface water. The sources for drinking water production and contaminants used or formed during the treatment and distribution of drinking water. Contaminants in ground and surface water will range from natural substances leaching from soil, run-off from agricultural activities, controlled discharge from sewage treatment works and industrial plants, and uncontrolled discharges or leakage from landfill sites and from chemical accidents or disasters. Contaminants that occurred naturally are predominantly formed by inorganic compounds such as arsenic and manganese, which are derived from natural mineral formations. Organic compounds, pesticides, disinfectants and disinfectant by products are usually introduced by anthropogenic activity. Out of these pollutants, heavy metals are of major concern because of their persistent and bioaccumulative nature. Heavy metal is one of the most serious inorganic contaminants in drinking water on a worldwide region (Smedley and Kinniburgh, 2002). These heavy metals can enter into the groundwater system by weathering and erosion or anthropogenic due to industrial processing, agricultural run off and sewage disposal (Kaushik >et al., 2009). Heavy metals concentration can increase due to the industrial effluents, non-point pollution sources, as well as atmospheric precipitation (Klavins >et al., 2000). The presence of toxic pollutants in groundwater has to be avoided in order to preserve the environmental quality because it can bring about significant changes in the properties of water resources (Natale >et al., 2008). Anthropogenic activity has often been the reason for the mobilization of natural heavy metal deposits (Vidal >et al., 2000). Heavy metal contamination in drinking water sources is known widely and has give effects to the population for many generations. Volcanic, geothermal and mining activities, in conjunction with evapoconcentration in the arid climate, are the well known causes for the increasing levels of heavy metal concentrations in groundwater (Karcher >et al., 1999). Heavy metals can be mobilized from initially inert minerals through mining activity. Acid drainage waters from mining areas can be highly enriched with toxic levels of heavy metals (Nordstrom >et al., 2000). 2.5 Mineral water Mineral water may represent a good source of nutrition which is necessary for the needs of human body (Ekmekcioglu, 2000). Mineral water always contains various minerals and trace elements (Saleh >et al., 2001), and can be defined as water containing minerals which are natural compounds formed through geological processes or other dissolved substances that alter its taste or give it therapeutic properties which gives good healing to any disease (Warburton >et al., 1992). Human beings required minerals for nutrition, growth, sustaining body functions and well being (Baba >et al., 2008). These minerals have various effects on the humans health (WHO, 2008). The demand for natural mineral waters is increasing due to the increasing of pollution in drinking water. The quality of drinking water is significant for health in both developing and developed countries worldwide (Cemek >et al., 2007). According to Wilson >et al. (1983), mineral water is drawn from underground sources such as a bor e holes or a springs. Mineral waters are different regarding to their composition and content in minerals. Natural mineral water that comes from the groundwater is the most valuable freshwater resource on the earth (Madan >et al., 1999) and it plays an important role in drinking water supply all over the world and is often preferred for drinking water supply and it deemed to be the best water for the consumption of human (Soltan, 1999). Natural mineral waters have long been used for medical purposes (Albu >et al., 1997). The term natural mineral water is defined as it originates in an underground water table or deposit, it differs from treated water in its original purity that is bacteriologically healthy and its content of minerals, trace minerals and other constituents, which must remain constant. Only natural mineral water has the characteristics that can benefits human health. Natural mineral water can be sparkling or still. During bottling, the carbon dioxide that causes carbonation also can be natural or added. Bottling is done at the source and treatments to make partial changes to the composition of or purify natural mineral water bacteriologically are prohibited (Cemek >et al., 2007). Mineral water run across highly mineralised rocks. The geological sources of natural mineral water are known as aquifers, which can be from different types, and they differ greatly in terms of their depth, horizontal extent, composition, and permeability. Water filtering underground flows slowly through deep permeable rocks and sediments and diffuses into the empty interstitial space of the rocks. Water picks up minerals and other elements depending on the chemical make-up of the strata while passing through the underground strata. This is why they have higher concentrations of minerals and trace minerals than other kinds of water (Botezatu >et al., 2005). According to Misund >et al. (1999), natural mineral water is characterized by its mineral content, trace elements or other constituents and, where appropriate, by certain effects, also by being in its original state, both conditions having been preserved intact because of the underground origin of the water which has been protected from all risk of pollution. The composition, temperature and other essential characteristics of natural mineral water must remain stable at source within the limits of natural fluctuation. In particular, they must not be affected by possible variations in the rate of flow. Mineral waters may be gaseous or non gaseous. Disinfections are not allowed in terms of treatment. The only treatment authorized is filtration or decanting and the addition or removal of carbon dioxide. Based on Petraccia >et al. (2006), mineral waters are of underground origin, protected from contamination, and microbiologically wholesome, present a peculiar and constant chemical composition, and have favorable effects on health. To ensure it is safe, they must be bottled at source and checked containers. Mineral water does not simply mean containing minerals in fact waters that run underground and are enriched with minerals by contact with rocks cannot be considered mineral waters unless they do not possess therapeutic properties. 2.6 Classification and characteristics of mineral waters Based on Petraccia >et al. (2006), natural mineral waters can be classified into potable waters, dietetic waters, and healing waters. Bottled dietetic waters showed that it can be used to restore salts and hydrate through experimental evidence and are useful in low sodium diets and provide the right calcium intake in particular conditions. Healing waters possess pharmacological and clinical properties related to prevention and treatment of specific pathologies. They are used in thermal establishments, under medical control, for drinking, irrigations, inhalations, and baths. The main classification parameters for mineral waters are rate of flow, temperature, freezing point, dry residues at 180oC, predominant ion composition, and predominant biological activity. The rate of flow of the spring must be stable, and ground water table must be deep, with a sufficiently large basin. Waters can be cold waters based on its temperature that is temperature at source up to 20oC and thermal water s that is temperature higher than 20oC. Based on the freezing point mineral waters are categorized into isotonic, hypotonic, and hypertonic. Freezing point is influenced by osmotic pressure and mineral concentration. Based on dry residues at 180oC that is total salts in grams after evaporation of 1 L mineral water at 180oC, waters can be divided based on their mineral contents. Table 2.2 shows the classification of mineral content in water whereas Table 2.3 shows the current Italian classification that is based on the predominant chemical elements resulting in the biological and healing effects of the mineral water. Table 2.2: Classification of mineral content in water (Petraccia >et al., 2006) Mineral content Dry residue (mg/l) Low >50 and Medium >500 and High >1500 Table 2.3: Current Italian classification (Petraccia >et al., 2006) Types Description Bicarbonate water bicarbonate content greater than 600mg/l Sulfate water sulfate content greater than 200mg/l Chlorinated water chloride content greater than 200mg/l Calcium water calcium content greater than 150mg/l Magnesium water magnesium content greater than 50mg/l