INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS - Essay Example The notion of knowledge management views knowledge as tacit or something which is present in one’s mind. Human expression and practice compound to the making of knowledge. However, knowledge cannot be enhanced in an isolated state of mind; that is, for knowledge to flourish, information must be enhanced through interaction (Kalkan, 2008). Both explicit and implicit knowledge must be tapped by organizations in order to progress successfully in today’s globalised world. Knowledge management is, therefore, focused on the attainment of organizational goals and objectives by enhancing the productivity of organizational knowledge in all activities, tasks and programs pertaining to knowledge. The aim is to create and sustain competitive advantage for the firm in the global marketplace by helping organizations exploit untapped knowledge. Hence, knowledge management essentially involves learning through social experiences and interactions. Researchers have broken down knowledge management into four major constructs including the development, manifestation, diffusion and use of knowledge (Kalkan, 2008). It is rather simplistic to think of knowledge management as a linear process in today’s global village. ... Factors such as geographic dispersion, interaction across different time zones and cross-cultural differences result in increased challenges for the firm (Pawlowski & Bick, 2012). Thus, the global arena has opened a new window for viewing knowledge management which incorporates introductory level, implementation and process issues pertaining to knowledge management (Alavi & Leidner, 2005). Despite increased awareness of these issues, research indicates that most businesses fail to successfully implement global knowledge management (Pawlowski & Bick, 2012). Global knowledge management encompasses all knowledge related activities, tasks, policies and processes that are performed within or between organizations that are globally dispersed. Culture of both the organization and the nation/region plays a vital role here (Holden, 2001). The global environment, therefore, brings with it a host of challenges including those pertaining to humans, organization, management and technology. All hu man interaction and communication (including the dissemination of knowledge) is heavily influenced by culture (Holden, 2001). But perhaps, the greatest of these challenges is to define the very nature of knowledge management itself. Although there have been efforts to differentiate data and information from knowledge, a concrete working definition has not yet been developed in the context of global dynamics (Roberts, 2009). Despite increasing emphasis on knowledge-oriented markets, there has been criticism which calls into existence the very existence of such markets. The absence of a concrete definition questions whether or not these markets actually exist or whether they are â€Å"old wine in a new bottle† (Roberts, 2009). The term knowledge has become a metaphor rather than a term with

Increasing Rate of Minors Who Engage in Smoking Essay Example for Free

Increasing Rate of Minors Who Engage in Smoking Essay The purpose of this research is to identify the percentage of minors who does engage in smoking, to have this idea of how minors take this unhealthy activities that sabotage their life as well as their future, not only that, we also want to make people realize especially the teenagers that taking and engaging in these activities does not help them to be a better person as well as a healthy human being. The very purpose of our research is to stop minors in engaging into these activities by picturing to them that with these, their life would be nothing because this is not good in their physical body, but also mentally and emotionally. 1.2Context of the Study These minors usually live in a complicated life where they are facing a lot of problems and even things that makes their mind chaotic. Those things that are happening around them, those people who are engaged in smoking can also trigger them to be a smoker. 1.3Problem Statement 1.3.1Main problem Smoking is one of the means of people to channel their depression. It is 1.4Significance of the Study The study will provide guidance to minors for them to be aware of the possible negative effects of the vices that they are in. Especially college students who are always hanging out in clubs, always drinking alcoholic beverages, smoking and even using illegal drugs. This will enable minors to become more conscious about their health and stop engaging in these activities that will make their life miserable. 1.5Delimitation of the Study * College students of Central Philippine University 1.6Definition of Terms Vices – are bad habits that he/she is not aware of it. Smoking – is the act of burning a cigarette and inhaling its smoke to experience stress relief. Alcoholic beverages – are alcoholic drinks that are drunk by people for recreation purposes. Minors – are the respondents of the study. 1.7Assumptions It is assumed in the study that: * Respondents will answer the question honestly and accurately. * That attitudes of respondents are good. 2 CHAPTER 2: LIERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction The commercial vices are gambling, prostitutions, and drugs. The appeals of the commercial vices are so strong and widespread that attempts to prohibit them to western countries have always failed. (http://www.123HelpMe.com/view.asp?id=59394) Social vices are forms of evil, wicked and criminal actions or behaviours in the society. These are social problems and have been thought of as social situations that a large number of observers feel are inappropriate and need remedying. Social vices are those acts and conditions that violate societal norms and values. (http://www.termpaperwarehouse.com/essay-on/Social-Vices-In-Higher-Institutions-In/86198) People start smoking for a variety of different reasons. Some think it looks cool. Others start because their family members or friends smoke. Statistics show that about 9 out of 10 tobacco users’ start before theyre 18 years old. Most adults who started smoking in their teens never expected to become addicted. Thats why people say its just so much easier to not start smoking at all. (http://kidshealth.org/teen/drug_alcohol/tobacco/smoking.html) Alcohol or â€Å"booze is widely used by young people. Around 90% of Australian teenagers over the age of 14 years have tried alcohol at least once. Estimates suggest that around half of teenagers over 14 years drink alcohol at least weekly. Binge drinking, drink driving and unsafe sex can also result from the misuse of alcohol.†

Home sweet home Essay -- essays research papers

â€Å"Home Sweet Home†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are hundreds of people, young and old that live in my apartment complex and each of them have a different and unique story to share. My story is that I come from the typical middle-of -nowhere suburbia, where the grass is always green, and all of the houses look the same. In that community it is easy to become too comfortable, and forget that things aren’t so â€Å"perfect† in the rest of the world. When my step-dad past away, we sold the house and moved into town changing the way I lived my life. The city feels like a different community and it seems to have a different atmosphere than the one where I came from. While writing this paper, it is my objective to become comfortable with my surroundings, and accept this community as mine.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The typical stereotype for apartment complexes is the children are constantly running around causing trouble and the walls are so paper thin that everyone knows every aspect your life. Here at Village at Van Mall, that couldn’t be any further from the truth. The children are confined to one area and the only time you hear from your neighbors is if you happen to run into them on your way out. The quiet community is tucked away in a hollowed out forest just off of Van Mall Drive. The towering evergreen trees provide a pleasing shade and from time to time a () rejuvenating breeze sweeps through the complex. The individual apartments are stacked two high and two across...

Eye movements are a reflection of cognitive processes Essay -- Psychol

Introduction The mind is an intriguing element of the human life not only because of its complexity and capability but mostly because of its opacity. How does psychology begin to understand something so obscure and complex? Evidently, by observing and measuring the product of the cognitive processes that occurs through an interaction between the external and internal world. The term ‘cognitive processes’ is a rather collective term referring to a range of mental processes such as perceiving, thinking, speaking, acting, planning and imagining (Ward, 2006). The processes themselves are immensely difficult to measure directly, if possible at all. However, one may gain insight into these mental processes through observing the covert products, such as haemodynamic and electrophysiological changes and the overt products, such as behaviour, accuracy, response times and eye movements. The scope of this essay is to review the evidence that demonstrates exactly how eye movements reflect cognitive processes. Due to the vastness of the topic, this essay will focus on only one of the aforementioned cognitive processes. There has been much attention and extensive literature and reviews regarding eye movements as a tool for understanding the processes of reading, visual perception, visual search and attention (e.g., Rayner, 1998; Liversedge and Findlay, 2 000; Schutz, Braun and Gegenfurtner, 2011). All the mentioned research fields involve measuring eye movements while view some form of visual stimulus, this dissertation will explore a more aberrant field, evidence will be based on literature relating to eye movements when sensory visual input is absent, during visual mental imagery. While reviewing the literature basic themes relating eye m... ...nformation processing: 20 years of research. Psychological Bulletin, 124, 372-422. Schutz, A.C., Braun, D.I., & Gegenfurtner, K.R. (2011). Eye movements and perception: A selective review. Journal of Vision, 5, 1-30. Shallice,T. (1988). From neuropsychology to mental structure. New York: Cambridge University Press. Sima, J.F., Lindner, M., Schultheis, H., & Barkowsky, T. (2010). Eye movements reflect reasoning with mental images but not with mental models in orientation knowledge tasks. Spatial Cognition, 10, 248-261. Spivey, M.J., & Geng, J.J. (2001). Oculomotor mechanisms activated by imagery and memory: eye movements to absent objects. Psychological Research, 65, 235-241. Ward, J. (2006). The students guide to cognitive neuroscience. New York: Psychology Press. Watson, J.B. (1913). Psychology as the behaviourist views it. Psychological Review, 20, 158-177.

My Success

Neo once said â€Å"It is during out failures that we discover our true desire for In my life, this quote holds a lot of value. I attended High School, success. † graduating in 2003. While in high school, I was not the popular crowd, nor the succeeding student. I was merely getting by. To myself, I was a failure. After high school, I moved to a new town, new college, It was a new start! Wallace State College In Huntsville was going to be my Journey to success. After a year and a half, I was completing my internship for my desired major and It all fell to pieces.I was miserable. This was not what I thought I was getting myself Into. I could not see myself In that line of work every day for the rest of my working life. So what do you do? Failure struck once again, I quit. I moved back home to Alabama. I had no Idea what I was going to do. I thought college was no longer for me. I had no skills to get a decent Job. Then on August 28th 2006, someone saw different. I was accepted for a Job. After 2 short weeks on the job, I was transferred to a location to be the manager. This became my life for the next 6 years.Everything I did revolved around this store. Although I was not the owner of the store, I treated it like it was mine. In my six years there, the store was very successful. The company went through a buy-out in 2010 to a company based out of Ireland, This caused major downfalls in the Job. The owners no longer appreciated their employees; we were merely Just a number to them. When you have a small town store this makes a major difference. Then the financial aspects sat in, not knowing week to week if you were going to get a paycheck.These occurrences ere landing me right back to where I was 6 years ago. Although gaining experience. I am now majoring in Office Administration at West College and hope to graduate Spring 2014. Just eight more classes to go. As for my future, My goal is to obtain a Job at the collage as a program assistant. This may sound crazy, but it is my dream. I believe in the college and I know that if I can succeed others can too. I want to be a part that can help them on their road to success. For once in my life, I feel a sense of success.However, it has taken many allures to get me to where I am today. I know that I will continue to fail on a dally basis; However, I have learned how to pick myself up and move forward. This class has also given me the guidance and confidence that I am going to be able to succeed In getting a Job when I get out of school. By meanings success. † In my life, this quote holds a lot of value. I attended High School, school, I moved too new town, new college, it was a new start! Wallace State College in Huntsville was going to be my Journey to success.After a year and a half, I was implementing my internship for my desired major and it all fell to pieces. I was miserable. This was not what I thought I was getting myself into. I could not see myself in that line of work ever y day for the rest of my working life. So what do you I moved back home to Alabama. I had no idea what I was going to do. I thought the Job, I was transferred too location to be the manager. This became my life for failures to get me to where I am today. I know that I will continue to fail on a daily in getting a Job when I get out of school.

Using the Spanish Word Tamao

Using the Spanish Word Tamao Tamaà ±o is the most common Spanish word for size. Here are some examples of its use as a noun. Note that it is sometimes more natural to translate sentences containing tamaà ±o by referring to the sizes themselves rather than using the word size. No sà © el tamaà ±o de tu ropa. (I dont know your clothing size.)  ¿De quà © tamaà ±o debe ser el cuestionario? (How long should the questionnaire be?) El tamaà ±o del cerebro del bebà © es sà ³lo un 25 por ciento del que tendrà © cuando sea adulto. (The size of a babys brain is only 25 percent of what it will be when shes an adult.) Quiero enviar un archivo adjunto de gran tamaà ±o. (I want to send a large attached file.) Puedes obtener un descuento en un tatuaje de cualquier tamaà ±o. (You can get a discount on a tattoo of any size.) El artista italiano crea esculturas de madera a tamaà ±o natural. (The Italian artist creates life-size wood sculptures. Tamaà ±o real could have been used here with the same meaning.) Los mamà ­feros de tamaà ±o medio pueden ser los ms propensos a extinguirse. (Medium-sized mammals can be the ones with the greatest tendency to go extinct.) El tiempo de hornear depende del tamaà ±o del pan. (The baking time depends on the size of the bread loaf.) Con el tamaà ±o familiar, obtendrs 166 lavados para todo tipo de ropa. (With the family size, youll get 166 washer loads for every type of clothing.) Voy a comprar un servidor de impresià ³n de tamaà ±o de bolsillo. (Im going to buy a pocket-size print server.) Tamaà ±o can also function as an adjective to mean such a large, such a or something similar. Note that while tamaà ±o as a noun is masculine, tamaà ±o as a adjective must match the gender and number of the noun that follows. My madre dijo tamaà ±as palabras en una de esas ocasiones. (My mother said such big words on one of those occasions.)  ¿Cà ³mo es posible que un nià ±o de siete aà ±os sea capaz de tamaà ±a aventura? (How is it possible that a 7-year-old be capable of such an adventure?) Los libros hacen tamaà ±a diferencia en las vidas del nuestros hijos. (Books make such a big difference in the lives of our children.) Es tamaà ±o insulto para la inteligencia. (Its such an insult to the intelligence.) Etymology Tamaà ±o comes from the Latin tam magnos, meaning so large. Synonyms Although not as versatile as tamaà ±o, talla is frequently used for size, especially when talking about clothing or body size: Normalmente las tallas americanas son ms grandes que las europeas. (Normally the American sizes run larger than the European ones.) Other words that sometimes translate as size include altura (height), ancho (width), capacidad (capacity), dimensià ³n (dimension), medida (measurement) and volumen (volume). Sources Sample sentences were derived from sources that include ElOrigenDelHombre.com, Sabrosia.com Prezi.com, Cultura Inquieta, MuyInteresante.es, GroupOn.es, Jasnet de Barcelona and ElPlural.com.

Participatory sensing services for smart phones The WritePass Journal

Participatory sensing services for smart phones   1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Motivation Participatory sensing services for smart phones   1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Motivation2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Background3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Methods4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Metrics for evaluation5.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Outputs6.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Workplan7.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   ReferencesRelated   1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Motivation In modern society, environmental pollution is usually a headache for citizens, especially those who live in the urban areas. Many researches have shown that there is a direct link between environmental pollution and health effects. In the last two decades, the overall environment quality has improved. However, there is still a concern about environmental pollution in the urban areas. Citizens, especially the elderly and children, are vulnerable to the effects of environmental pollution. Nowadays, the latest technologies in the wireless field provide an innovative approach for the citizens to access the information about environmental pollution. With over 3 billion subscriber lines active today, nearly half the world’s population uses mobile phones [1]. Given the right structure, the ubiquitous mobile devices could act as sensor nodes, capable of capturing, classifying, and transmitting environmental data, such as image, acoustic, and temperature. In the foreseeable future, other sensors may be embedded in or connect wirelessly to the mobile phones to gather information about air pollutants, like CO2, NO2 and SO2. Participatory sending can employ a variety of devices to collect data; however, some special characteristics of mobile phones enable them to be an unprecedented tool for engaging participants in sensing their local environment. The sheer ubiquity across the geographic and demographic spectrum and the broad proliferation of cellular infrastructure and mobile phone usage make it possible to collect data over large areas for little incremental cost. Participatory sensing will utilize current wireless network, which consists numerous mobile phones, to form a vast interactive participatory sensor network that enables professional users and lay public to gather, analyze and share environment information [2]. Citizens, especially the elderly, children, urban commuters, urban office workers and students, will benefit from such a revolutionary technology. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Background In virtue of the rosy prospect and importance of participatory sensing, there are more and more research institutes engaging in this field. The concept of PES has been proposed in recent years (Karatzas, 2005; Burke et al., 2006; Goldman et al., 2009), and related projects have been in development around the world, especially in the USA and Europe [3]. PEIR, one of the most successful participatory sensing projects, is research collaboration between CENS, UCLA and Nokia. It makes use of Internet to allow citizens to use their mobile phones to interact with PEIR, and explore and share the impact between environment and the citizens. PEIR senses pollution by  using existing infrastructure  without user intervention  and emphasizes how individual transportation choices simultaneously influence both environmental impact and exposure, which makes it different from other existing carbon footprint calculators [4]. Eye on Earth project of the European Environment Agency is a two-way communication platform on the environment. It has introduced the participation of millions of ordinary people to create the first environmental portal that includes citizens’ observations on air and bathing water quality at present. Eye on Earth aims to gradually include information on many other environmental topics and grow to a global observatory for environmental change [5]. MESSAGE is to provide data collecting through three sensor platforms for the planning, management and control of the environmental impacts of transport activity at urban, regional and national level. Mobile phones are investigated to support a sensing system, in which people play an important role [6]. In addition to the projects introduced above, other participatory sensing projects have also appeared, such as Living Environments, Citysense, Common Sense, Envitori and MIMAQ [3]. A lot of evidences have shown that new intuitive ways of interactions and user friendly context aware service can be introduced by various sensors in mobile phones. Therefore, mostly specialized sensors were applied in participatory sensing. Some projects also suggest that standard sensors already embedded in the mobile phones can be used for this. Overall, there are a variety of participatory sensing projects, and they can be divided into three categories according to the participation patterns [1]: Collective Design and Investigation. A group of individuals work together to decide where, what and why to sense. Then a data collection system is collectively designed, and an investigation is conducted. The group interprets the data and acts on the results. An evident feature of this participatory pattern is that the community of participants owns the entire process. Instead of serving merely research subjects, individuals play an active role in the investigative process. Public contribution. Individuals or organizations define inquiries and then other individuals collect data in respond to such inquiries. In this case, participants actively engage in the data collection and make contributions to an effort they find meaningful. For organizers, they can gather as many data as possible at a scale unachievable by professionals acting alone. Personal Use and Reflection. Individuals log information about themselves, like images, sounds and so on. Such recorded information may reveal hidden habits and patterns in one’s life after analyzed and visualized. Participants use the results for personal discovery to reflect on, evaluate, and perhaps change patterns that were previously overlooked.    3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Methods Data collection and interpretation are the heart of participatory sensing which places the emphasis on the involvement of citizens and community groups. In spite of participation patterns, the basic process for every participatory sensing project is similar, and it can be broken down into the following eight steps: coordination, capture, transfer, storage, access, analysis, feedback and visualization [1]. Coordination explains the sensing effort to the participants and provides necessary guidance to them. Capture is the collection of data on a mobile phone, which is the core step of participatory sensing. Data can be captured by the existing sensors already embedded in the mobile phones or by those specialized sensors connecting wirelessly to the mobile phones. In the course of data collection, the credibility of data must be guaranteed. More significantly, data about geographical position and time must be captured every time. Transfer is processed automatically by mobile phones via wireless network. Mobile phone software takes the responsibility of uploading data and makes it transparent to the participants. Furthermore, mobile phone software should be tolerant of inevitable network interruptions. Storage takes place on servers which are distributed remotely in the Internet. Access is under the control of project organizers and participants according to the privacy policy. Due to the possible disclosure of private information about the participants, it is of vital importance for the participants to determine what information to share and with whom. Analysis includes various data-processing methods, the calculation of group statistics and the integration of contributed data into statistical and spatial models that can be used to determine patterns in space and time. Feedback may be required in the event of a project triggering manual or automatic events. Visualization is closely related to the analysis. It is the step to present the contributed data after analysis. In some sense, well-designed visualization increases the applicability of a participatory sensing project. The project of Participatory sensing services for smart phones can be divided into two collaborative subprojects based on the Android platform, one focusing on data gathering and the other one dealing with the data processing and visualization. We take the responsibility for presenting data in some friendly and easy-understandable way. Thus the data analysis and visualization are the center of our work. For the subproject of data processing and visualization, we have to deal with data and services. In the assumption that the contributed data are already available and their credibility has been verified, we get data via a server-based application which acts as a data storage. This server-based application will provide web service interfaces for data access. Thus WSDL language for web services will be utilized to develop an Android-based application with the aid of development environments like Eclipse. There are a wide variety of available solutions to make use of web services via Android, and the solution to use ksoap2 will be suitable for our project. The data accessed via web services can be classified into two kinds: subjective data and objective data. Subjective data: a categorization of the quality of the environment. They are feedback commented and reported by the citizens on the air quality. We intend to make use of the EEA categorization for air pollution, which is applicable on eyeonearth.eu/. Objective data: in the form of numeric values. They are automatically captured by the sensors or reported manually by the users. Images, sound, location and time are objective data. All data processed in the frame of participatory sensing project will include the following three categories of information: Georeference. Geographical position and time is extremely important for participatory sensing, and forms the cornerstone of the follow-up work. User categories. At the initial stage, our project will serve the urban commuters, office workers, students and the elderly. Other categories of users are possibly added if necessary at the later stage. We allocate every user group a unique ID, which will be used to identify the category which the users belong to. Furthermore, category ID will be used to send a request to the server which involves user category. Thematic profiling. Our project is to process information about environment and we aim to deal with air pollution, odors, noise, traffic congestion and waste. In order to present the result of the contributed data to the participants in a user-friendly and easy-understandable way, GMap API may be utilized to map the georeference and thematic profiling, which will provide an interactive feature between our project and participants. Due to the distinct flexibility, Modest Maps API is an alternative to achieve the same goal. 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Metrics for evaluation To encourage the handset owners to participate in our project, privacy protection policy has to be taken into account to prevent privacy disclosure. One of the basic rules is that participants cannot access other people’s private information, and such an attempt should be denied. Furthermore, the data visualization should be easily and readily comprehended or understood not only by the professional users but also by the general public. In some sense, the degree of understandability of data presentation determines the scope of applicability of participatory sensing. Another metric related to the visualization is that the users are able to customize the configuration to present what they want. With regard to air quality, if the concentration of air pollutants detected does not fall into the scope which is safe and suitable for humankind, the participants should receive a warning, so that they can take actions to avoid being harmed. Due to regional differences, different air pollution standards are applied in different areas. 5.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Outputs The output of our project is an application running on the Android platform. Interested people can download it from the Internet and install it in their Android phones to access the information about environment surrounding them. 6.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Workplan The rough time schedule of our project is listed below, including the milestones and corresponding estimated completion dates. In table 1, some stages may overlap with others. In the course of project development, the time schedule may be changed according to specific situation. Milestone Anticipated completion date Analyze the project and do literary review February 28, 2011 Define the project scope February 28, 2011 Write the research proposal March 23, 2011 Study mobile phone programming techniques May 27, 2011 Make a plan for the project May 28, 2011 Implement the project July 28, 2011 Test the project August 3, 2011 Take field trials August 5, 2011 Deliver the project August 8, 2011 Complete the dissertation August 19, 2011    7.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   References [1] J. Goldman, K. Shilton, J. Burke, D. Estrin, M. Hansen, N. Ramanathan, S. Reddy, V. Samanta, M. Srivastava, R. West, â€Å"Participatory Sensing: A citizen-powered approach to illuminating the patterns that shape our world† [2] J. Burke, D. Estrin, M. Hansen, A. Parker, N. Ramanathan, S. Reddy, M. B. Srivastava, â€Å"Participatory Sensing† [3] https://projects.inf.ed.ac.uk/msc/project?number=P165 [4] http://urban.cens.ucla.edu/projects/peir [5] eyeonearth.eu/About.aspx?culture=en-GB [6] http://bioinf.ncl.ac.uk/message/?q=node/5 Participatory sensing services for smart phones 1. Motivation Participatory sensing services for smart phones 1. Motivation2. Background3. Methods4.Metrics for evaluation5. Outputs6. WorkplanReferencesRelated 1. Motivation In modern society, environmental pollution is usually a headache for citizens, especially those who live in the urban areas. Many researches have shown that there is a direct link between environmental pollution and health effects. In the last two decades, the overall environment quality has improved. However, there is still a concern about environmental pollution in the urban areas. Citizens, especially the elderly and children, are vulnerable to the effects of environmental pollution.   Nowadays, the latest technologies in the wireless field provide an innovative approach for the citizens to access the information about environmental pollution. With over 3 billion subscriber lines active today, nearly half the world’s population uses mobile phones [1]. Given the right structure, the ubiquitous mobile devices could act as sensor nodes, capable of capturing, classifying, and transmitting environmental data, such as image, acoustic, and temperature. In the foreseeable future, other sensors may be embedded in or connect wirelessly to the mobile phones to gather information about air pollutants, like CO2, NO2 and SO2. Participatory sending can employ a variety of devices to collect data; however, some special characteristics of mobile phones enable them to be an unprecedented tool for engaging participants in sensing their local environment. The sheer ubiquity across the geographic and demographic spectrum and the broad proliferation of cellular infrastructure and mobile phone usage make it possible to collect data over large areas for little incremental cost. Participatory sensing will utilize current wireless network, which consists numerous mobile phones, to form a vast interactive participatory sensor network that enables professional users and lay public to gather, analyze and share environment information [2]. Citizens, especially the elderly, children, urban commuters, urban office workers and students, will benefit from such a revolutionary technology. 2. Background In virtue of the rosy prospect and importance of participatory sensing, there are more and more research institutes engaging in this field. The concept of PES has been proposed in recent years (Karatzas, 2005; Burke et al., 2006; Goldman et al., 2009), and related projects have been in development around the world, especially in the USA and Europe [3]. PEIR, one of the most successful participatory sensing projects, is research collaboration between CENS, UCLA and Nokia. It makes use of Internet to allow citizens to use their mobile phones to interact with PEIR, and explore and share the impact between environment and the citizens. PEIR senses pollution by  using existing infrastructure  without user intervention  and emphasizes how individual transportation choices simultaneously influence both environmental impact and exposure, which makes it different from other existing carbon footprint calculators [4]. Eye on Earth project of the European Environment Agency is a two-way communication platform on the environment. It has introduced the participation of millions of ordinary people to create the first environmental portal that includes citizens’ observations on air and bathing water quality at present. Eye on Earth aims to gradually include information on many other environmental topics and grow to a global observatory for environmental change [5]. MESSAGE is to provide data collecting through three sensor platforms for the planning, management and control of the environmental impacts of transport activity at urban, regional and national level. Mobile phones are investigated to support a sensing system, in which people play an important role [6]. In addition to the projects introduced above, other participatory sensing projects have also appeared, such as Living Environments, Citysense, Common Sense, Envitori and MIMAQ [3]. A lot of evidences have shown that new intuitive ways of interactions and user friendly context aware service can be introduced by various sensors in mobile phones. Therefore, mostly specialized sensors were applied in participatory sensing. Some projects also suggest that standard sensors already embedded in the mobile phones can be used for this. Overall, there are a variety of participatory sensing projects, and they can be divided into three categories according to the participation patterns [1]: Collective Design and Investigation. A group of individuals work together to decide where, what and why to sense. Then a data collection system is collectively designed, and an investigation is conducted. The group interprets the data and acts on the results. An evident feature of this participatory pattern is that the community of participants owns the entire process. Instead of serving merely research subjects, individuals play an active role in the investigative process. Public contribution. Individuals or organizations define inquiries and then other individuals collect data in respond to such inquiries. In this case, participants actively engage in the data collection and make contributions to an effort they find meaningful. For organizers, they can gather as many data as possible at a scale unachievable by professionals acting alone. Personal Use and Reflection. Individuals log information about themselves, like images, sounds and so on. Such recorded information may reveal hidden habits and patterns in one’s life after analyzed and visualized. Participants use the results for personal discovery to reflect on, evaluate, and perhaps change patterns that were previously overlooked. 3. Methods Data collection and interpretation are the heart of participatory sensing which places the emphasis on the involvement of citizens and community groups. In spite of participation patterns, the basic process for every participatory sensing project is similar, and it can be broken down into the following eight steps: coordination, capture, transfer, storage, access, analysis, feedback and visualization [1]. Coordination explains the sensing effort to the participants and provides necessary guidance to them. Capture is the collection of data on a mobile phone, which is the core step of participatory sensing. Data can be captured by the existing sensors already embedded in the mobile phones or by those specialized sensors connecting wirelessly to the mobile phones. In the course of data collection, the credibility of data must be guaranteed. More significantly, data about geographical position and time must be captured every time. Transfer is processed automatically by mobile phones via wireless network. Mobile phone software takes the responsibility of uploading data and makes it transparent to the participants. Furthermore, mobile phone software should be tolerant of inevitable network interruptions. Storage takes place on servers which are distributed remotely in the Internet. Access is under the control of project organizers and participants according to the privacy policy. Due to the possible disclosure of private information about the participants, it is of vital importance for the participants to determine what information to share and with whom.   Ã‚   Analysis includes various data-processing methods, the calculation of group statistics and the integration of contributed data into statistical and spatial models that can be used to determine patterns in space and time. Feedback may be required in the event of a project triggering manual or automatic events. Visualization is closely related to the analysis. It is the step to present the contributed data after analysis. In some sense, well-designed visualization increases the applicability of a participatory sensing project. The project of Participatory sensing services for smart phones can be divided into two collaborative subprojects based on the Android platform, one focusing on data gathering and the other one dealing with the data processing and visualization. We take the responsibility for presenting data in some friendly and easy-understandable way. Thus the data analysis and visualization are the center of our work. For the subproject of data processing and visualization, we have to deal with data and services. In the assumption that the contributed data are already available and their credibility has been verified, we get data via a server-based application which acts as a data storage. This server-based application will provide web service interfaces for data access. Thus WSDL language for web services will be utilized to develop an Android-based application with the aid of development environments like Eclipse. There are a wide variety of available solutions to make use of web services via Android, and the solution to use ksoap2 will be suitable for our project. The data accessed via web services can be classified into two kinds: subjective data and objective data. Subjective data: a categorization of the quality of the environment. They are feedback commented and reported by the citizens on the air quality. We intend to make use of the EEA categorization for air pollution, which is applicable on eyeonearth.eu/. Objective data: in the form of numeric values. They are automatically captured by the sensors or reported manually by the users. Images, sound, location and time are objective data. All data processed in the frame of participatory sensing project will include the following three categories of information: Georeference. Geographical position and time is extremely important for participatory sensing, and forms the cornerstone of the follow-up work. User categories. At the initial stage, our project will serve the urban commuters, office workers, students and the elderly. Other categories of users are possibly added if necessary at the later stage. We allocate every user group a unique ID, which will be used to identify the category which the users belong to. Furthermore, category ID will be used to send a request to the server which involves user category. Thematic profiling. Our project is to process information about environment and we aim to deal with air pollution, odors, noise, traffic congestion and waste. In order to present the result of the contributed data to the participants in a user-friendly and easy-understandable way, GMap API may be utilized to map the georeference and thematic profiling, which will provide an interactive feature between our project and participants. Due to the distinct flexibility, Modest Maps API is an alternative to achieve the same goal. 4.Metrics for evaluation To encourage the handset owners to participate in our project, privacy protection policy has to be taken into account to prevent privacy disclosure. One of the basic rules is that participants cannot access other people’s private information, and such an attempt should be denied. Furthermore, the data visualization should be easily and readily comprehended or understood not only by the professional users but also by the general public. In some sense, the degree of understandability of data presentation determines the scope of applicability of participatory sensing. Another metric related to the visualization is that the users are able to customize the configuration to present what they want. With regard to air quality, if the concentration of air pollutants detected does not fall into the scope which is safe and suitable for humankind, the participants should receive a warning, so that they can take actions to avoid being harmed. Due to regional differences, different air pollution standards are applied in different areas. 5. Outputs The output of our project is an application running on the Android platform. Interested people can download it from the Internet and install it in their Android phones to access the information about environment surrounding them. 6. Workplan The rough time schedule of our project is listed below, including the milestones and corresponding estimated completion dates. In table 1, some stages may overlap with others. In the course of project development, the time schedule may be changed according to specific situation. Milestone Anticipated completion date Analyze the project and do literary review February 28, 2011 Define the project scope February 28, 2011 Write the research proposal March 23, 2011 Study mobile phone programming techniques May 27, 2011 Make a plan for the project May 28, 2011 Implement the project July 28, 2011 Test the project August 3, 2011 Take field trials August 5, 2011 Deliver the project August 8, 2011 Complete the dissertation August 19, 2011 References J. Goldman, K. Shilton, J. Burke, D. Estrin, M. Hansen, N. Ramanathan, S. Reddy, V. Samanta, M. Srivastava, R. West, â€Å"Participatory Sensing: A citizen-powered approach to illuminating the patterns that shape our world† J. Burke, D. Estrin, M. Hansen, A. Parker, N. Ramanathan, S. Reddy, M. B. Srivastava, â€Å"Participatory Sensing† https://projects.inf.ed.ac.uk/msc/project?number=P165 http://urban.cens.ucla.edu/projects/peir eyeonearth.eu/About.aspx?culture=en-GB http://bioinf.ncl.ac.uk/message/?q=node/5

In French, Its Poser une Question Not Demander

In French, It's 'Poser une Question' Not 'Demander' Mistakes will always be made in French, and now you can learn from them. In English, one has  the option of saying either ask a question or pose a question. But in French, demander  cant be used with the word  question,  even though  demander  means to ask.  Poser une question  is the  best  way.  Ã‚     Ã‚  Il ma demandà © pourquoi.He asked me why.   Ã‚  Puis-je te poser une question  ?Can I ask you a question?   Ã‚  Vous pouvez poser des questions aprà ¨s la prà ©sentation.You can ask questions after the presentation. There are other, less frequently used ways, as well, to ask a question in French, including  adresser une question ( quelquun)  and  formuler une question. Its the way the language has evolved and how its been formalized. Thats how  to ask a question has been taught in French schools and how people normally express it.   Demander  is tricky in other ways, too. This regular French -er verb is also a  faux ami. It resembles the English word demand, but it has nothing to do with this rather strident action. Rather, it is the most common  French verb for the milder to ask, and it can be used to ask for something, like a favor.   Ã‚  Il ma demandà © de chercher son pull. He asked me to look for his sweater. Demander quelque chose quelquun  means to ask someone for something. Note that in French there is no for or other preposition in front of the thing being requested. But there is a preposition in front of the person being asked:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Je vais demander un stylo Michel.Im going to ask Michel for a pen. When you want to express that someone demand something, such as a new law, turn to the stronger French verb exiger.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Il a exigà © que je cherche son pull.  Ã‚  He demanded that I look for his pullover. As for the French verb poser,  in addition to being used for asking a question, it also means to put down.   Ã‚  Il a posà © son livre sur la table.He put his book on the table.

Observe a special needs childs activity (autistic child) when the Essay

Observe a special needs childs activity (autistic child) when the child tries to learn some information. Create a learning environment for this child - Essay Example One of the most common conditions in the category of developmental disorders is called autism. Autism is characterized by different kinds of improvement in the verbal and non-verbal communication mastery, social interaction, self help and playing skills as well as academic (intellectual) and cognitive skills. Other observable traits include limited repetitive and extreme patterns of behavior (Boyd, R.D. & Corley, M.J. 2001, 19). It is therefore imperative that the curriculum as well as other aspects of learning the designed in such a manner as to wholly meet the needs of these children. This section examines the learning needs of an autistic child and the theories that form the basis of select learning environments with the view of creating a most apt learning environment for specific special needs of a child. There are several groups of children with special learning interaction and communication needs. These conditions may include inherent conditions such as Autism, Aspergers syndrome, Down syndrome (Autism Spectrum disorders) and various physical impairments that include, hearing disorders, blindness and dumbness. Children who are born with or who develop these conditions are faced with a myriad of challenges in relationships as well interpreting, understanding the world around them. They lack the ability to communicate effectively. Autistic children seem to be in a world of their own and are not able to make out meanings of verbal and non-verbal communications such as gestures, facial expressions, physical contacts and even words spoken by people. (Anderson et al 1987, 352-366). Their semantic skills are disoriented and they seem to be indifferent about what is going on around them and even the people who are trying to interact with them. Their behavior does not match their feelings and interacting or relating with other people becomes very difficult

HOW DOES THE CONCEPT OF ORGANISATIONAL COMMUNICATION IMPACT THE MODERN Essay

HOW DOES THE CONCEPT OF ORGANISATIONAL COMMUNICATION IMPACT THE MODERN DAY TOURISM MANAGER IN TERMS OF ASSISTING COMMERCIAL SUCCESS - Essay Example Even organisations in today’s time appreciate the benefits of holidays on an employee’s mind and body and thus provide them with various travel allowances. Travel Genie is a world recognized travel and tourism management company that operates almost in all places around the world. Travel Genie is a cross border player and drive efficiency across the industry through proficient systems and service standards. Apart from quality service, the key to Travel genie’s success is its team of dedicated, and highly trained members. At Travel Genie to a certain extent the planning and the decision making process is centralised. However every individual in the hierarchy willfully comes up with suggestions to bring about increased productivity. Though every single member of the organization has an important role to play, it is the tourism managers who bear the maximum responsibility for turning the business into a commercial success. One of most important criteria for bringing about success in tourism is communication. Below is a part of the organisational structure that elaborates on the details of the managerial hierarchy at Travel Genie. Effective strategy building can take a business to the higher levels of success and the travel industry is no exception. The managers at Travel Genie have to do a lot of brainstorming and come up with extraordinary commercial marketing strategies and when it comes to marketing, communication plays a very significant role in the travel and tourism industry. The communications manager is the key to transferring information from one party to another. Many a times it happens that information is transferred however the recipient cannot appreciate the information. Thus such transfer of information or data is not communication. It is the responsibility of the communications manager to make sure that all information and data are transferred on the right, to the right person and the

Experience from the teacher student interaction in comparison with a Essay

Experience from the teacher student interaction in comparison with a case learning experience - Essay Example Regardless of their common goal of orienting us to the new academic environment, each of the lecturers had his own approach and sense of humor. Of particular memory is my Introductory Mathematics lecturer who always used his sarcasm over life to intrigue our intellectual capacity in what appeared as humorous experiences. The teacher, who was a specialist in Pure Mathematics, was also always abstract in his illustrations, something that we found funny because he always expressed himself out of incomprehensible reality. He similarly applied his abstract approach in illustrations, asking class questions and criticizing our lack of knowledge. While his positive criticism motivated me to learn more from him through personal consultations, it also developed my quest to research more in both his subject and other class subjects. The experience with my Introductory Mathematics teachers as well as my other first semester teachers was, therefore, a fruitfully mentoring one that molded me to th e new academic environment. It was therefore satisfactory and I wished that I could proceed with the same lecturers to my subsequent semesters. My Mathematics teacher was particularly classical and derived concepts from abstract examples before relating his examples to first principles, an approach. The lecturer’s approach was also always funny to keep the class in a jovial mood. The students’ experience in ‘We show what we have learnt’ portrays a number of differences from my learning experience.

Public Education Campaign on Water Conservation Research Paper

Public Education Campaign on Water Conservation - Research Paper Example Most of the efforts on water conservation have been conducted in the urban areas, particularly in the residential sector. According to Woodhouse (2009), the option of increasing the cost of water would not be viable in conserving water in these regions because the current cost is already considered high and demand for water tends to be inelastic. Hence, a voluntary approach has to be adopted through education. This paper analyzes some of the common practices of water conservation giving the benefits that result from these practices. Adopting the planning strategy suggested by United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, UNESCAP (2002), this paper suggests the planning process for a campaign aimed at educating the public on water conservation supported by arguments from other scholarly journals and books. Introduction The security of freshwater continues to be a critical issue globally due to the increase in usage of limited resources by the increasing popul ation with subsequent decrease in availability. The unavailability of freshwater has been largely attributed to increase in pollution, deforestation and inadequate management (Zobeck & Schillinger, 2010). Therefore, to secure a sustainable future with water, there would be the need to improve the efficiency in water supply and usage. According to the UNESCAP (2002), water conservation describes the action taken to ensure efficient usage of water. It could be accomplished either by conserving water resources through efficient storage, transfer and management of raw water or by conserving water supply, which includes consumption without wastage and minimal losses in distribution. From ancient days, various methods for water conservation have been adopted. Canals were constructed so as to convey water to farm lands to improve crop production. This would mostly be accompanied by construction of reservoirs to retain water for future usage, be it agricultural or domestic use. Construction of terraces reduced runoffs while plowed fallowing, deep plowing and contouring ensured retention of moisture particularly in farm lands. Recognizing water capture as â€Å"the first step in water conservation,† Zobeck and Schillinger (2010, p. 3) argue that frequent plowing would, however, make the land devoid of moisture. Practices such as stubble-mulch tillage that emphasized the importance of covering the surface were adopted as water conservation mechanisms. Modern conservation measures include use of water saving appliances and devices such as showers and faucets, toilets, dishwashers, pressure reducing valves and insulated hot water pipes (Green, 2010). Behavioral practices of water conservation include turning off the water when brushing teeth and reducing the amount of water used per person when showering. Other approaches include operational methods where leakages would be detected in time and repaired; financial methods that include deterrent pricing of water tari ffs; and socio-political methods that include public education and legislation. The benefits to be gained from water conservation campaigns are unlimited, with Green (2010) noting that with increased budget allocation to such campaigns, there would be quantitative demand reduction which would lead to documentation of the benefit of the program. These campaigns would make the saved water available to the less privileged that do not have sustainable access to services of water supply. Zobeck and Schillinger (2010) note that adoption of water conservation measures play a critical role in promoting agriculture by curbing erosion and controlling weeds. Nonetheless, scholars concur on water conservati

The Style of Writing in Consider the Lobster Essay - 5

The Style of Writing in Consider the Lobster - Essay Example This style was rather surprising for most of Wallace’s readers considering they anticipated a showy but also funny style of writing (Wallace 212). Each essay presents the features that follow from the author’s stance on the topic. For instance, some of the qualities of an informal and wide style of writing are transparency and ease. In Wallace’s essays, transparency and ease originate from a language that corresponds to views about the purpose of his core argument (Wallace 51). The Lobster in Wallace’s first essay serves as an exciting shortcut to his mind for his audience. The writer is complacent with the maltreatment of grammar rules and is glad to dedicate over 3,000 words to Kafka’s wit, which is evident through his mildly profane language. At some points, Wallace seems uncertain of the truth and even nervous about it, which Thomas and Turner consider crucial for writing. The essays clearly show inspired by an imposed duty obliged to attempt to convince an audience of an argument that Wallace is not very knowledgeable about or experienced in to comprehend (Thomas and Turner  Ã‚  27).

Public Education Campaign on Water Conservation Research Paper

Public Education Campaign on Water Conservation - Research Paper Example Most of the efforts on water conservation have been conducted in the urban areas, particularly in the residential sector. According to Woodhouse (2009), the option of increasing the cost of water would not be viable in conserving water in these regions because the current cost is already considered high and demand for water tends to be inelastic. Hence, a voluntary approach has to be adopted through education. This paper analyzes some of the common practices of water conservation giving the benefits that result from these practices. Adopting the planning strategy suggested by United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, UNESCAP (2002), this paper suggests the planning process for a campaign aimed at educating the public on water conservation supported by arguments from other scholarly journals and books. Introduction The security of freshwater continues to be a critical issue globally due to the increase in usage of limited resources by the increasing popul ation with subsequent decrease in availability. The unavailability of freshwater has been largely attributed to increase in pollution, deforestation and inadequate management (Zobeck & Schillinger, 2010). Therefore, to secure a sustainable future with water, there would be the need to improve the efficiency in water supply and usage. According to the UNESCAP (2002), water conservation describes the action taken to ensure efficient usage of water. It could be accomplished either by conserving water resources through efficient storage, transfer and management of raw water or by conserving water supply, which includes consumption without wastage and minimal losses in distribution. From ancient days, various methods for water conservation have been adopted. Canals were constructed so as to convey water to farm lands to improve crop production. This would mostly be accompanied by construction of reservoirs to retain water for future usage, be it agricultural or domestic use. Construction of terraces reduced runoffs while plowed fallowing, deep plowing and contouring ensured retention of moisture particularly in farm lands. Recognizing water capture as â€Å"the first step in water conservation,† Zobeck and Schillinger (2010, p. 3) argue that frequent plowing would, however, make the land devoid of moisture. Practices such as stubble-mulch tillage that emphasized the importance of covering the surface were adopted as water conservation mechanisms. Modern conservation measures include use of water saving appliances and devices such as showers and faucets, toilets, dishwashers, pressure reducing valves and insulated hot water pipes (Green, 2010). Behavioral practices of water conservation include turning off the water when brushing teeth and reducing the amount of water used per person when showering. Other approaches include operational methods where leakages would be detected in time and repaired; financial methods that include deterrent pricing of water tari ffs; and socio-political methods that include public education and legislation. The benefits to be gained from water conservation campaigns are unlimited, with Green (2010) noting that with increased budget allocation to such campaigns, there would be quantitative demand reduction which would lead to documentation of the benefit of the program. These campaigns would make the saved water available to the less privileged that do not have sustainable access to services of water supply. Zobeck and Schillinger (2010) note that adoption of water conservation measures play a critical role in promoting agriculture by curbing erosion and controlling weeds. Nonetheless, scholars concur on water conservati

Zha Reflection week 7 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Zha Reflection week 7 - Assignment Example e and the interest, the title, ‘a hidden genetic code,’ reminds me of the potential that gene arrangements have in understanding and managing disorders. This has motivated an interest and I am able to understand the concept that studying genetic arrangements can help in understanding relationships between diseases and genetic arrangements for better management strategies such as inducing genetic patterns that are more tolerant to disease strains or that can constrain effects of diseases on protein balance in the body. Perceiving possible solution to genetic complication motivated me to understand every aspect of the text (Reuell 1). My experience with academic knowledge on genetics has also shaped my understanding from the article on Exon skipping. Images of genetic strands composes a greater percentage of the article and even though I had never encountered the dystrophin gene strand, my background knowledge of DNA patterns has ensured my understanding of the strands, causes of Becker muscular dystrophy, and genetic approach to minimizing effects of the disorder (The New York Times 1). My experience and interest in genetics has also helped me to understand Daniel’s motivation to develop his DNA art. In addition, I have understood possible relationship between people’s preferences for DNA patterns and the people’s personality traits and preferences. These can be investigated and be applied in human behavior management (The Telegraph 1). The Telegraph. â€Å"DNA artwork created by German university student.† The Telegraph. September 7, 2008. Web. March 10, 2015.

Enterprise Architecture Proposal Essay Example for Free

Enterprise Architecture Proposal Essay Submitted December 4, 2011 Description The organization I have selected is the company I work for, CMH Systems. The core functions of this business are Therapy, Counseling, Placement, and Job skills to name a few. This is a Mental Health Organization that compiles and disburses many services, including Doctors, Prescriptions, Hospitalization, and Housing of Mentally or emotionally challenged individuals. Protecting client information is essential. The integrity of such information is critical. We are currently in an affiliation with other CMH agencies and service providers across the state. I chose this agency because it is evolving so fast. IT is involved in every aspect of this organization and keeping abreast of changes are a challenge. Just over three years ago, we went from paper records to electronic. This alone was challenging enough, and then we implemented electronic record keeping software. Though this was well thought out and planned we continue to experience growth that is hard to keep up with. With an 80% business as usual attitude, the change is difficult. Getting input from other departments and or providers was essential. The problem arises when the stakeholders request changes on a daily basis. The information gleaned from the stakeholders up front was not what they expected. Their input was not specific enough to allow for advancement. Although the stakeholders were involved with the implementation of the new system, we struggle with staff that resists changes. operating model in terms of business process integration. CMH has a couple of operating models. First, there is the core agency, with several outlaying units. Within the core units, there is high integration. Everything except the daily activities are centrally controlled. The data is managed centrally. Tthis would be the coordination model. With our affiliates where the units are their management, data is kept locally, and records and data are transmitted to central for submission to state, would be the Replication model. operating model in terms of business process standardization. With both models, I mentioned the data and record keeping are standardized. On the core units, they enter data into the system using standardized software and data entry forms. The affiliate model runs the same standardized record keeping software and their data is kept on their servers and transmitted to us on a monthly basis. the chosen operating model in terms of business process integration. In comparison to the Happy Health organization, CMH has made strides in the areas of process integration. Although our affiliate has its own CEO and IT staff, we are the parent company. We have the same electronic record keeping software and it works in unison with theirs. We often share placement facilities and placement of clients with them. Compare the selected organization to the sample organizations using the chosen operating model in terms of business process standardization. In terms of process standardization, we are using the same methods of providing services and data collection. They have their own Doctors, therapists, and outreach workers on staff. The data collected there for the services, are input into their own system and the information is extracted each month and sent to us for import into our own systems. We then process the information and create the necessary claims for submission to the state. Describe the chosen operating model in terms of the financial benefits available to the organization as a result of the selection. In terms of the affiliation, the business model would be replication. Although as the primary provider and their affiliation with us we would like to have a more in depth model like coordination. †¢Explain your rationale for the selected operating model. With the coordination model we would have additional control over the record keeping, services provided and the ability to obtain needed information in a more timely manner. IT would also be able to work together, in a unified manner. In essence, this model would provide a much better way of record keeping and the ability to access the data and provide necessary claims to the state. The way we are currently conducting business is that we are completely different entities, and we have no direct recourse over what goes on there. The reason for the change in design is vital to the way we conduct business now and has a definite impact on the future. I propose the agencies come together in one coordinated model.

Theory of human motivation

Theory of human motivation Abraham Maslow Abraham Maslow is considered one of the most influential psychologists of 19th century, and one of the leading authorities in humanistic psychology. Humanistic Psychology is a branch of psychology with focus on human behavior. Besides the Theory of Human Motivation work that put him in limelight, he had authored other famous work in the field of psychology. Some of his other writings are, Eupsychian Management, psychology of science and Motivation and Personality (Hoffman, 1990). In 1967 due to the influence that his work on theory of human motivation had in the field of psychology he was awarded the title Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association (Hoffman, 1990). At the height of his career Abraham Maslow served in various professional capacities. He was a senior lecturer at Brooklyn College in the faculty of psychology. He was a professor and the chairman at Brandeis University in the department of psychology for almost two decades since 1951. At the time of his death in 1970 he was a fellow at the Laughlin Institute (Hoffman, 1990). But the legacy that Abraham Maslow left behind will certainly outlive him. Today his work on Hierarchy of Needs as contained in theory of human motivation is taught worldwide in classrooms and his name is synonymous with Hierarchy of Needs. Indeed the concepts on Theory of Human Motivation and hierarchy of needs as he defined them are no longer limited to the field of psychology but are increasingly being included in many other varied disciplines. During the time that he was a lecturer at Brooklyn College Abraham Maslow ideas on human behaviors were influenced by fellow psychologist in the same college (Hoffman, 1990). But it was not until when he become the professor at Brandeis University that Abraham Maslow finally was able to draft the idea behind theory of human motivation. It was while at Brandeis University that Abraham Maslow met Kurt Goldstein. Kurt Goldstein had advanced the concept of self actualization which he had earlier published in a book called Organism (Hoffman, 1990). It is this concept that had formed the framework of theory of motivation that Abraham Maslow was researching on (Hoffman, 1990). In 1943 Theory of Human Motivation was first published in the Psychological review journal. Later he would write several other books based on the theory such as, Towards a Psychological of Being and the Further Reaches of Human Nature (Hoffman, 1990).. Abraham Maslows Theory of Motivation provided a valuable insight to human needs requirement level that had previously not been studied. More importantly his research work was on psychology field of human behavior that over the years had not generated new ideas. The Theory of Human Motivation presented a fresh approach on which human behavior was studied. The power of Maslows Theory of Human Motivation was its simplicity and relevance. Maslow used a diagram to demonstrate the various levels of human needs that was explained in his theory which he referred as hierarchy of needs (Hoffman, 1990). The result was a concise framework that outlined a persons need and importance at each stage of life. These needs are defined as, Physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs and self-actualization (Hoffman, 1990). Physiological needs are the first and the most important that a person requires such as food, shelter and clothes but are not limited to this. They are those needs that must be met for life to be bearable. Safety needs are those that come after physiological needs. They include such requirements such as job satisfaction, security and financial freedom. The safety needs are in two parts that which satisfy the physical and which satisfy emotional needs (Hoffman, 1990). After safety needs comes social needs which are entirely emotional. In this category a person needs are friendships, love among others, and for some reason at this level these needs are important to a person. Then esteem needs comes thereafter, they are the likes of social status, self respect, recognition, and accomplishment, this category too serves to fulfill the emotional requirements. The last level in hierarchy of need is self-actualization which comes after all the other needs have been met. In this level a person seeks to have wisdom instead of knowledge, questions the meaning of life and values such as truth and justice are central to his life. This is the highest and the last category of emotional needs (Hoffman, 1990). That is all there is to it to the theory of motivation as researched and advanced by Abraham Maslow in summary. However the impact and implications of Maslows theory of human motivation were far and wide. Today theory of Human motivations is applied in so many sectors and disciplines worldwide to influence human behavior (Deckers, 2009). Not to mention that it is now a major discipline and an area of study used by teachers to impart skills to future professionals so that they can use the same theory in order to better manage people. The beauty behind theory of human motivation is in its ability to clearly articulate the various level of human need with key specific needs at each level. This way the ability to influence behavior, through motivation for instance has been simplified to a great deal Motivational speakers use this concept to change organizational behavior in a work place. A motivational talk is a profession that has recently come up to address the challenges faced by modern day organizations. The purpose of a motivation speaker in an organization is to motivate positive behavior change among the employees. The need to motivate and positively change employee behavior has increasingly becoming an issue of interest to the organizational leaders for two important reasons. Foremost employee motivation will increase work productivity and therefore overall organization productivity, besides a motivated employee achieves job satisfaction and is likely to stay on the job for long time. This is important for the organization since it reduces the recruitment and training costs that are usually associated with high rate of employee turnover. Number two, motivation talks is important in changing the organization culture. In order to change organizational culture employee behavior must be influenced positively. Maslow theory of motivation has enabled these requirements to be met in a work place (Deckers, 2009). This is because a motivational speaker is able to use the hierarchy of needs to determine which needs are key to influencing positive behavior change. Since motivation is rooted to a person requirement change in personal needs will also result in change of motivation levels. Therefore an organization is able to achieve it needs and the need of employee at the same time. Another area that Maslows theory of human motivation is applied is in leadership management. An organizational leader needs to be able to effectively motivate employees at work place beside directing and managing the employee. Indeed employee motivation is now central to organization success and leadership roles. The need of having motivated employee at work place is one of paramount importance. In modern day organization setup employee motivation is an achievement that organization actively supports for it to remain competitive and productive. Managers are aware of this and use the Maslow theory of human motivation, indeed numerous management books has been written on motivation at workplace. The organizational motivation publications authors interpret Maslows human motivation theory in context of work place environment (Deckers, 2009). But Maslows theory for human motivation is not only limited in organizations employees motivation. In psychology the idea of human motivation has been advanced by several other psychologists using the theory as a baseline to their studies. One such study was done by Carl Rogers, a psychologist who developed a therapeutic psychological process of treating mentally disturbed persons. The ideology behind the Client-centered Therapy was borrowed from the human motivation concept (Hoffman, 1990). Treatment is enabled through a process that guides the patients to identify important personal requirement by removing mental obstacles that prevent this achievement. Hierarchy of needs is an important tool that a person can use to assess the point at which a persons life has reached. This is important in guiding an individual to the path of happiness and satisfaction since a person will be able to assess the needs that are most important at each level (Valdez, 1998). Maslows other works on field of humanistic psychology actually touches on personal happiness. In his description of Peak Experiences Maslow explains that for this to occur a person must achieve the self-actualization stage of life (Valdez, 1998). Peak Experiences refers to particular moments of time when a person experiences extraordinary sense of happiness, peace, fulfillment and satisfaction in life. For years basic needs have been defined in three levels only but now after Maslows hierarchy of needs the correct context in which a person needs occurs have finally been discovered. Other new publications and research on human motivations have improved upon the concepts on which Maslow based his publications. As years go by Maslow theory of human Motivation will continue to be widely read and adopted in a range of other new upcoming disciplines. Maslow theory of human motivations like other scientific research inventions did not escape criticism from fellow scholars. Indeed it is more likely that theory of human motivations had it limitations, as Abraham Maslow once concurred that the theory was only meant to form a framework for which other studies should be done to improve upon it (Hoffman, 1990). Among the criticism that is had been directed to this theory is its inability to explain and define hierarchy of needs for particular religious believers. They have no material wealth, no sense of security and esteem needs, or social needs yet they are able to attain the self-conceptualization level (Hoffman, 1990). Maslows theory is certainly not able to address this concern. Another criticism also directed towards the theory is one that concerned the research procedure that Maslow used to arrive at the ideology. Most scientists agree that Maslow used a proportionally small case numbers to generate the research model that he later applied to a whole race of people worldwide. Having said that for the most part Maslows theory is effective and certainly relates to most people and there are very few instances that are exceptional References Deckers, L. (2009). Motivation. Washington, DC: Lambert Deckers Publishers. Hoffman, E. (1990). The Right to be Human: a Biography of Abraham Maslow. Florida: John Wiley Sons Inc Valdez, J. (1998). Self Actualization Through Humanistic Theories. Virginia: Penguin Publishers.

Wind Power - Harnessing the Power of Nature Essay -- Exploratory Essay

  Abstract:   Wind power is an up and coming form of energy production in the United States and on the world stage.   Wind energy production is the process of harnessing the power of the natural world for the benefit of humans.   It has developed from incipient stages in tenth century Persia to highly sophisticated systems which take advantage of modern knowledge of physics and environmental science to maximize energy potential.   Many challenges to its success exist, including public apathy, governmental disinterest, and environmental hazards, but on the whole it is among the cleanest and most promising means of producing electricity.   Without understanding wind power, one cannot hope to adequately comprehend the future of energy.       Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Wind power is among the fastest growing and least polluting forms of energy available today.   The recent rise of public interest in renewable energy over the past few years has inspired an explosive twenty-five percent growth per year in the wind industry.   Though wind power currently provides just one percent of the world’s energy, it is for the most part an untapped resource.   Estimates place its potential for energy production at twenty percent of the world’s total needs.   In short, wind power is going places, and it is important that scientists and citizens keep up.   (Botkin and Keller, 357)    History   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Wind power originated under the most practical of circumstances:   the need to crush grain for flour.   Originally a labor-intensive process of hand pressing between stones, the challenge to find a better way to mill flour soon engaged the human imagination.   This led to hand cranks, horse- drawn axles, and eventually watermill... ... Wind Power and Other Energy Options.   Ann Arbor, Michigan:   The University  of Michigan Press, 1978.    National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).   â€Å"Clean Energy Basics:   Introduction to Wind Energy.†Ã‚   2003.   27 April 2003.   clean_energy/wind.html>    Righter, Robert.   Wind Energy in America.   Norman, Oklahoma:   University of Oklahoma Press, 1996.    Tse, Lawrence, and Duane Bong.   â€Å"Environmental Impact of Wind Turbines.†Ã‚   Vision Engineer.com.   2003.   29 April 2003.   www.visionengineer.com/env/wind environmental_impact.shtml>    United States Department of Energy.   â€Å"Wind Energy Program.†Ã‚   2001.   28 April 2003.  Ã‚      Union of Concerned Scientists.   â€Å"Bush Budget Slashes Funds for Renewable Energy Sources.†Ã‚   News.   2003.   29 April 2003.   www.ucsusa.org/news.cfm?newsID=328>

Caste Discrimination Essay

Caste systems are a form of social and economic governance that is based on principles and customary rules: Caste systems involve the division of people into social groups (castes) where assignments of rights aredetermined by birth, are fixed and hereditary. The assignment of basic rights among various castes is both unequal and hierarchical, with those at the top enjoying most rights coupled with least duties and those at the bottom performing most duties coupled with no rights. The system is maintained through the rigid enforcement of social ostracism (a system of social and economic penalties) in case of any deviations. Inequality is at the core of the caste system.  Those who fall outside the caste system are considered â€Å"lesser human beings†, â€Å"impure† and thus â€Å"polluting† to other caste groups. They are known to be â€Å"untouchable† and subjected to so-called â€Å"untouchability practices† in both public and private spheres. â€Å"Untouchables† are often forcibly assigned the most dirty, menial and hazardous jobs, such as cleaning human waste. The work they do adds to the stigmatisation they face from the surrounding society. The exclusion of ‘caste-affected communities’ by other groups in society and the inherent structural inequality in these social relationships lead to high levels of poverty among affected population groups and exclusion from, or reduced benefits from developmen t processes, and generally precludes their involvement in decision making and meaningful participation in public and civil life. The division of a society into castes is a global phenomenon not exclusively practised within any particular religion or belief system. In South Asia, caste discrimination is traditionally rooted in the Hindu caste system. Supported by philosophical elements, the caste system constructs the moral, social and legal foundations of Hindu society. Dalits are ‘outcastes’ or people who fall outside the four-fold caste system consisting of theBrahmin, Kshatriya, Vysya and Sudra. Dalits are also referred to as Panchamas or people of the fifth order. However caste systems and the ensuing caste discrimination have spread into Christian, Buddhist, Muslim and Sikh communities. Caste systems  are also found in Africa, other parts of Asia, the Middle East, the Pacific and in Diaspora communities around the world. In Japan association is made with Shinto beliefs concerning purity and impurity, and in marginalized African groups the justification is based on myths. Caste discrimination affects approximately 260 million people worldwide, the vast majority living in South Asia. Caste discrimination involves massive violations of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. It is often outlawed in countries affected by it, but a lack of implementation of legislation and caste-bias within the justice systems largely leave Dalits without protection. Videos – Cases of Caste Discrimination Click here to see a Playlist from IDSNs YouTube Channel with a selection of videos dealing with cases of caste discrimination and the consequences of this. Understanding ‘Untouchability’  A comprehensive Study of practices and conditions in 1589 Villages Caste-based discrimination is the most complex human rights issue facing India today. To date, the tools used to assess its status have been divided by discipline—human rights, legal and social science. Although significant contributions toward understanding untouchability have been made in each of these areas, it is difficult to comprehend the scope and pervasiveness of the problem without combining the tools of all three. We have spent the last four years compiling quantitative, comprehensive and reliable data exposing the current state of untouchability (caste-based discrimination) against Dalitsi (â€Å"untouchables†) in Gujarat, India. This report presents data on untouchability practices in 1,589 villages from 5,462 respondents in Gujarat on the issue of untouchability. In 2000, Martin Macwan of Navsarjan received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, initiating a long-term partnership between Navsarjan and the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights. In response to Navsarjan’s identified need for an extensive study on caste discrimination, members of the RFK Global Advocacy Team from the University of Maryland/Kroc Institute at the University of Notre Dame, and Dartmouth College/University of Michigan joined the team. The objective was to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the topic in order to better drive Navsarjan’s advocacy and intervention work. In its efforts across Gujarat and India, Navsarjan has experienced first-hand that a deeper  understanding gained by intensive data collection leads to the development of more effective strategies to address the contin ued practice of untouchability. Indeed, interactions with individuals across age, caste, gender and social sectors during the implementation of this study reveal that the potential for ending untouchability may exist within two large groups of people that can be seen as sources of hope. First, a large segment of Indian society, primarily of younger generation Indians, though largely ignorant about its scope and practice, appears ready and willing to learn about untouchability and work towards its true abolition. Second, another group of people across caste, nationality and religious affiliations have become deeply concerned about the prevalence of untouchability practices viewed from the perspective of human rights. This group of activists, advocates, donors, lawyers, students, academics, politicians and ordinary citizens has developed an awareness of untouchability as an issue of civil and human rights law. The report presents both a general and multi-disciplinary view of current untouchability practices across rural areas in Gujarat (bringing together political science, sociology, law, public policy and community organizing) and provides evidence to refute the belief that untouchability is limited to remote and economically underdeveloped corners of India. The broad picture of untouchability can be used to educate Indian society about these practices and to initiate an informed national and international debate on how to address the problem. Equally important, this report presents a picture of untouchability that promotes global visibility on the continued human rights violations suffered by Dalits and provides an example to other countries on methods for identifying, understanding and eliminating discriminatory activity. We believe that a systematic approach to understanding untouchability shatters the myth that the problem is intractable. Instead, we hope that the data presented here and the understanding it generates will spark new energy and commitment to the movement to end the injustice and indignity of untouchability. (to view the full report hit the link below) Caste-based discrimination is a form of discrimination prohibited by  international human rights law. Although it may not be equated with racism, it is quite clear from several references made by several UN treaty and charter-bodies that this issue warrants due recognition as an example of gross human rights violation that needs to be taken into consideration by all human rights mechanisms available in the UN system. ICERD definintions and CERD practice on descent-based discrimination The ‘descent’ limb of the definition of ‘racial discrimination’ Article 1(1) of ICERD defines ‘racial discrimination’ as follows: Any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life (emphasis added) The term ‘descent’ as a prohibited ground of discrimination springs unheralded and unexplained into the basic framework of ICERD. It is one of only two terms in this list that isn’t borrowed directly from the UDHR formulation (the other being ‘ethnic origin’, in lieu of ‘social origin’). It does not appear in any of the key pre-ICERD texts on racial discrimination. It is also noteworthy that, although included in the definition in article 1(1), the term ‘descent’ was omitted from the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination in article 5 of ICERD. CERD General Recommendation No. 29 on descent CERD has confirmed its interpretation of ‘descent’, in the form of its General Recommendation No. 29 on ‘descent-based discrimination’, adopted on 22 August 2002. This General Recommendation: Confirms â€Å"the consistent view of the Committee that the term ‘descent’ in Article 1, paragraph 1 of the Convention does not solely refer to ‘race’ and has a meaning and application which complements the other prohibited grounds of discrimination†; and Reaffirms that â€Å"discrimination based on ‘descent’ includes discrimination against members of communities based on forms of social stratification such as caste and analogous systems of inherited status which nullify or impair their equal enjoyment of human rights†. From this review of CERD’s practice, it is apparent that the Committee has consciously and consistently adopted an interpretation of the ‘descent’ limb of article 1 of ICERD that e ncompasses situations of caste-based discrimination and analogous forms of  inherited social exclusion. Read CERD General Recommendation No. 29 on descent CERD General Recommendation No. 32 on special measures This CERD General Recommendation on the meaning and scope of special measures in the ICERD, adopted at its 75th session in August 2009, affirms General Recommendation 29 on Article 1, paragraph 1, of the Convention (Descent), which makes specific reference to special measures. The Committee also states that special measures should be ‘carried out on the basis of accurate data, disaggregated by race, colour, descent and ethnic or national origin and incorporating a gender perspective, on the socio-economic and cultural status and conditions of the various groups in the population and their participation in the social and economic development of the country.’ Subsequent CERD practice Any â€Å"subsequent practice in the application of the treaty which establishes the agreement of the parties regarding its interpretation† may also, in such circumstances, be taken into account. In the course of reviewing state party reports, CERD has expressed explicit reliance on the ‘descent’ limb of article 1 in order to address the situation of Dalits in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the UK, as well as the analogous situations of the Burakumin in Japan. CERD has also addressed situation of ‘descent-based discrimination’ in a number of other instances, even though in some of these additional cases the reliance upon the ‘descent’ limb of the article 1 of the Convention has been implicit. Concluding observations have been made by the Committee in respect of Yemen, Nigeria, Chad, Mali, Senegal, Madagascar, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, and Mauritius. Conflicts in Somalia had also been viewed by CERD as being based on descent, thus bringing them within the purview of ICERD. As CERD expert member Patrick Thornberry has argued, â€Å"whatever the argument on the relation between the specific reference to ‘race’ in Article 1 and the caste issue, there is a suggestion here that in the context of the Convention as a whole, and in particular in the context of special measures, the redress of caste disabilities finds a place.† Response by affected countries In early August 1996, CERD considered India’s consolidated tenth to fourteenth periodic reports. In this context, India sought to establish that discrimination related to caste did not fall within the scope of ICERD or within the jurisdiction of the Committee. â€Å"The term ‘caste’†, the Indian report declared, â€Å"denotes a ‘social’ and ‘class’ distinction and is not based on race.†The report expressly acknowledges that â€Å"Article 1 of the Convention includes in the definition of racial discrimination the term ‘descent’†, and that â€Å"oth castes and tribes are systems based on ‘descent’†. However, the Indian position concerning the interpretation of this term was that: †¦ the use of the term ‘descent’ in the Convention clearly refers to ‘race’. Communities which fall under the definition of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are unique to Indian society and its historical process. †¦ it is, therefore, submitted that the policies of the Indian Government relating to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes do not come under the purview of Article 1 of the Convention. In the course of discussion of the report in the Committee, the Indian delegation said that India’s report â€Å"had focused on matters relating to race as distinct from other categorizations referred to in the Constitution. †¦ Constitutionally, the concept of race was distinct from caste. †¦ To confer a racial character on the caste system would create considerable political problems which could not be the Committee’s intention. In the spirit of dialogue, however, India was prepared to provide more information on matters other than race, without prejudice to its understanding of the term ‘race’ in the Convention.† A number of CERD members challenged the Indian Government’s interpretation of the term ‘descent’, and in its concluding observations CERD insisted that â€Å"the term ‘descent’ mentioned in article 1 of the Convention does not solely refer to ‘race’†. Moreover, the Committee affirmed that â€Å"the situation of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes falls within the scope of the Convention†, and went on to specifically recommend that â€Å"special measures be taken by the authorities to prevent acts of discrimination towards persons belonging to the scheduled castes and sc heduled tribes, and, in cases where such acts have been committed, to conduct thorough investigations, to punish those found to be responsible and to provide just and adequate reparation to the victims.† The Committee specifically stressed â€Å"the importance of the equal enjoyment by members of these groups of the rights to access health  care, education, work and public places and services, including wells, cafà ©s or restaurants.† CERD also recommended a public education campaign on human rights, â€Å"aimed at eliminating the institutionalized thinking of the high-caste and low-caste mentality.† Nepal has also appears to have acquiesced to CERD’s interpretation and practice in this regard. CERD has now taken up the issue of caste-based discrimination in Nepal on three successive occasions without demur from the Nepalese Government. Indeed, Nepal has volunteered substantial amounts of information concerning caste-based discrimination in its periodic reports. When Pakistan was examined by CERD in February 2009, the Government took a principled decision by engaging constructively in a dialogue with the Committee on how to tackle the challenges faced by the Government in addressing the issue of caste-based discrimination in contemporary Pakistan. CESCR General Comment No. 20 on non-discrimination General Comment No. 20 on Non-Discrimination in Economic, Social and Cultural Rights was adopted by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) at its 42nd session in May 2009. In this General Comment, the Committee reaffirms CERD GR No. 29 that â€Å"the prohibited ground of birth also includes descent, especially on the basis of caste and analogous systems of inherited status.† The Committee recommends States parties to â€Å"take steps, for instance, to prevent, prohibit and eliminate discriminatory practices directed against members of descent-based communities and act against dissemination of ideas of superiority and inferiority on the basis of descent.† Caste in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights In none of the human rights instruments does the term ‘caste’ appear. Nevertheless, an examination of the travaux preparatoires of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights shows that caste was explicitly contemplated by the drafters as being encompassed in some of the more general terminology in the UDHR’s foundational non-discrimination provision. In 1948, the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly was in debate over the inclusion of the word ‘birth’ in the list of prohibited grounds of distinction in what was to become article 2 of the Declaration. Mr Habib, representing India, said that he ‘favoured the use of the word ‘caste’ rather than ‘birth’, as the latter  was already implied in the article.’ Mrs Roosevelt for the United States of America, and a member of the informal drafting group, demurred to both this intervention. In her opinion, ‘the words â€Å"property or other status† took in to consideration the various new suggestions that had been made.’ Mr Appadorai of the Indian delegation in effect accepted the US and Chinese caste-inclusive interpretations of some of the more general language in the draft article. He said ‘his delegation had only proposed the word â€Å"caste† because it objected to the word â€Å"birth†. The words â€Å"other status† and â€Å"social origin† were sufficiently broad to cover the whole field; the delegation of India would not, therefore, insist on its proposal.’ It is apparent therefore that caste was acknowledged in the drafting process as being encompassed in the terms ‘other status’ and/or ‘social origin’, if not also in ‘birth’ (the specific grounds of the Indian objection to this term not being entirely clear from the travaux). To that extent, a special meaning may be regarded as having been attributed to those terms. As well as appearing in the non-discrimination provisions of most subsequent international human rights instruments, the terms ‘social origin’ and/or ‘other status’ (either or both of them) have been incorporated in the non-discrimination provisions of the significant number of national constitutions that have borrowed these formulations from the UDHR. At the same time, it is noteworthy that a number of national constitutions have put the matter beyond question so far as their domestic legal regimes are concerned by explicitly referring to caste in their non-discrimination provisions. This applies to the constitutions of India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Burkina Faso. Caste discrimination: More than 165 million people in India continue to be subject to discrimination, exploitation and violence simply because of their caste. In India’s â€Å"hidden apartheid,† untouchability relegates Dalits throughout the country to a lifetime of segregation and abuse. Caste-based divisions continue to dominate in housing, marriage, employment and general social interaction—divisions that are reinforced through economic boycotts and physical violence. Working in partnership with the International Dalit  Solidarity Network, India’s National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights, and the Gujarat-based Dalit grassroots organizationNavsarjan, IHRC works to hold the Indian government accountable for its systematic failure to respect, protect, and ensure Dalits’ fundamental human rights. In 2007, for instance, the IHRC issued a series of statements and a report based on its analysis of India’s failure to uphold its international legal obligations to ensure Dalit rights, despite the existence of laws and policies against caste discrimination. The report Hidden Apartheid—which was produced in collaboration with Human Rights Watch—was released as a â€Å"shadow report† in response to India’s submission to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which monitors implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. IHRC also participated in proceedings related to the Committee’s review of India’s compliance with the Convention and presented the report’s findings.