Friday, May 1, 2020

Climate Change and Public Health for Temperature- myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theClimate Change and Public Health forIrregular Temperature. Answer: Introduction: Climate change is becoming noticeable in India due to change in sea level, irregular precipitation and irregular temperature. Most of the developing countries like India share less percentage in the global greenhouse gas emissions. However, it has major impact on health of their own population. Along with health of the people, this climate change also affected agriculture because majority of the population of India is agriculture based (Wiley and Gostin, 2009). Hence, climate change imposed heavy economic burden on India because Indian Government need to invest in addressing climate change issues and there is loss of productivity due to effect on agriculture. It can also lead to global health disparities. High risk areas for climate change include shortage of resources, environmental deprivation, high rates of infectious disease, scarcity of infrastructure, and overpopulation. Tropical regions are most susceptible for the host-pathogen interaction due to the climate cha nge. Alterations in the temperature and precipitation patterns can alter ecology of vector-borne diseases (Dhiman et al., 2008). Most susceptible populations for these vector-borne diseases include older people, children, rural populations, and the poor. India is one of the most diverse countries in the world. India has geographical and climatic diverse regions. India is having 1/6 of worlds population, 1/50 of worlds land and 1/25 of world water (Singh et al., 2010). Hence, identifying relation between climate change and health issues in India would be helpful in developing warning alarms and prevention strategies that could be applicable all over the world. Climate change India: It has been warned that glaciers are receding with rate of 10 15 metres per year. With this increasing rate there can be flooding in the river valleys. It can lead to reduced flow and less availability of water for drinking and irrigation (Keqin et al., 2007). In 20th century, 0.5? C temperature rises was observed in India. It has been predicted that, same can continue upto 2030. More importantly this rise in temperature can reach upto 2-4 C by the end of this century. Northern part of India would be more affected by this rise in the temperature and it can lead to augmented levels of tropospheric ozone pollution. End of the 20th century in India was observed as warmer than previous 300 years. This increase in temperature is continuing and in future also this temperature would increase (Saran and Jones, 2016). It is evident from the studies that monsoon in the south part of India exhibited less rainfall in recent past. This lessened rainfall has been corelated with the increased monsoon winds over the western Arabian sea. It resulted in increased temperature in the southern part of the India. Since, 1970s, there is upward trend in the tropical storms and hurricanes in India. These storm were with longer duration and greater intensity and these occurred mainly due to increase in the tropical sea surface temperature (Ghosh, 2016). In last 50 years it has been observed that warm extremes are associated with more heat waves and cold extremes were warmed more as compared to the warm extremes. Hence, there were less frost days. This resulted in the increased frequency of heavy precipitation. Between 1900 to 1999, there was consistent warming in upper 100 m tropical and eastern subtropical Indian ocean. This warming was less during 1900 to 1970, however between 1971 to 1999, there was significant increase in temperature. In few of these decades, increase in temperature was more than 0.2? C. Between, 1900 to 2005, there was increase in precipitation by 20 % per century. However, there was dramatic decrease in the precipitation from 1979 to 2005 (Dubash, 2012). As India is geographically diverse country, in different states light variation in the temperate and rainfall were observed over the period of 1951-2010. In states like Punjab and Haryana there was decrease in temperature of 0.01?C per year, while in states like Himachal Pradesh there was increase in temperature by 0.06? C per year. Average increase in temperature in India between 1951-2010 was 0.01 C per year. It was observed that between 1951-2010, there was increase in rainfall in in state like West Bengal by +3.63 mm/year, while there was decrease in rainfall in states like Utter Pradesh and Andaman and Nicobar by 4.42 and 7.77 mm/year respectively. Average decrease in rainfall in India between 1951-2010 was 2.21 mm/year. Climate change varied in India based on the season. There was increase in temperature by 0.01C per year between 1951-210 in monsoon season. In winter season, this increase in temperature was by 0.02C per year from 1951-2010. Reverse trend was observed in terms o f rainfall in summer and monsoon season in India in last 50 years. There was increase in rainfall in summer season by 0.33 mm/year from 1951-2010, while there was decrease in rainfall in monsoon season by 0.70 mm/year from 1951-2010. It has been predicted that, there would be slight decrease in the precipitation in the initial decades. However, by 2100, there would be overall increase in rain in India. By 2050, there would be reduced rainy days in a year, however, there would be increase in days with extreme rainfall on a single day (Malone and and Brenkert, 2008; OBrien et al., 2004; Singh et al., 2011). Adaptation and mitigation strategies and policies: India implemented National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) for mitigation and adaptation of climate change. NAPCC runs several steps simultaneously to mitigate climate change and advance Indias development. It includes several missions like National Solar Mission, National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency, National Mission on Sustainable Habitat, National Water Mission, National Mission for Sustaining The Himalayan Ecosystem, Green India Mission and National and National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture. NAPCC has objective to promote production and utilization of solar energy for power generation. Hence, it can be competition for the fossil based energy options. National solar mission include activities like launch of solar research centre, collaborative work with international organisations for technology development and transfer, augmentation in the domestic solar production capacity and augmentation in Government f unding (Pandve, 2008). In National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency, NAPPC makes mandatory for large industries to use energy in controlled quantity with documentation of data for the utilisation of energy. Government is offering trade savings certificates to the industries and providing finance to the industries to establish public-private partnerships to reduce utilization of energy. In National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency, NAPCC recommends energy efficiency in urban areas by establishing Energy Conservation Building Code and promoting automotive fuel economy standards, use of energy efficiency vehicles and public transportation. It includes water management and recycling mainly through rain water harvesting. Importance has been given to the research and development of integrated Gasification Combined Cycle IGCC and supercritical technologies. According to Electricity Act 2003 and the National Tariff Policy 2006, Government should purchase specific amount of electricity from grid-based power from renewable sources. According to Energy Conservation Act 2001, should take energy audits and energy labelling programmes on regular basis. In National Water Mission, NAPCC aim to improve use of water by 20 % and to work upon water scarcity (Pandve, 2009). National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem incorporate measures to be taken to stop melting of the Himalayan glaciers. Hence, biodiversity in the Himalayan region can be protected. Green India Mission aims to re-establish 6 million hectares of degraded forests and to expand forest area from 23 to 33 %. National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture to produce climate resistant crops and agricultural practices and provision of weather insurance. National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change include improvement in the information about climate science, its impacts and challenges. It also includes plans to tackle these challenges through Climate Science Research Fund. NAPCC also incorporates provision of health care services and assessment of disease burden due to climate change. Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change monitor all the activities of NAPCC on regular basis (Pandve, 2007). Malaria: Alterations in the temperatures and precipitation can lead to change in ecology of vector-borne disease like malaria. Stagnant water can aid favourable place for breeding place for mosquitoes. Temperature alterations, air pollution, waterborne diseases are mainly responsible for malaria. Malaria parasite and mosquito both are susceptible to the alteration in temperature. At places with less temperature, even with small increase in temperature can increase rate of malaria transmission due to augmented number of mosquitos (ONeill and Ebi, 2009). Deforestation and irrigation act as open places for the multiplication of malaria vectors and increase its transmission. This multifactorial transmission of malaria is the main hindrance for predicting exact cases of malaria. Variability of rainfall in the different regions of India is responsible for approximately 45 % variability in the malaria transmission. High density population is also one of the prominent reasons for epidemic of malaria in India (Dhiman et al., 2010). Approximately 2 million cases of malaria are there in India. Prevalence of infectious disease varies according to the regions. According to WHO estimates, every year approximately 15000 people die due to malaria in India. However, in another study, it was estimated that approximately 200000 deaths occur due malaria before 70 years of age and approximately 55000 deaths occur as child (Dhingra et al., 2010). Accurate estimation of death in India is difficult because malaria is mistaken for life-threatening fever in India. Moreover, appropriate medical attention at the time of death is not evident in rural areas. Hence, in developing countries like India it would be difficult to estimate hospital-based deaths due to malaria because of cl imate change. Approximately 65 % cases of malaria are evident in states like Orissa, Jharkhand, Madya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, and the North East. Sub-Saharan Africa region is considered as most prevalent region malaria. However, it is evident that Orissa is more prevalent than Sub-Saharan Africa (Kumar et al., 2007; Narain, 2007). Cases of disability-adjusted life years are more due to vector-borne disease. Out of these, approximately half of the cases are due to malaria (Dash, 2008). Drug resistant strains of malaria parasites are mainly responsible for more prevalence of malaria in India. Plasmodium falciparum is the most virulent form of parasite in India. However, after 1973 chloroquine became resistant to P. falciparum. Resistance to insecticides also responsible for the epidemic of malaria. Malaria is more epidemic in the semiarid region of India. However, due to variability in rainfall in this region exhibited interannual variability of malaria. Variability in rainfall along with increase in temperature in the 20th century is mainly responsible for increase in number of malaria parasites (Laneri et al., 2010). Positive correlation between monthly increase in malaria parasites and increase temperature, precipitation and humidity has been established. Consequence of long term climate change with number of malaria parasites is yet to establish. Temperature at the high altitude plays significant role in preventing epidemic of malaria at high altitude (Pascual et al., 2009). However, prediction of future climate change at high altitude for epidemic of malaria is not evident. Scarcity of data is evident for the influence of climate change on malaria epidemic in the urban areas. It is important to address this issue because there is rapid expansion of population in urban area along with water shortage and increasing poverty (Das et al., 2010). Recommendations: Environmental monitoring and surveillance: Environment monitoring and surveillance is necessary in India. High quality research should be carried out to establish correlation between climate change and malaria. This research should give data about current conditions and future predictions. This data should give clear picture about total morbidity and mortality numbers for malaria. Investigation of extreme climate conditions and its risk indicators like mosquito abundance or parasite load is required. Health centres should implement health programmes for collection of such data. Infrastructure should be built to carry out research on effect of climate change on malaria. As India is diverse country, there should be network of repositories for the documentation of meteorological, air pollution, and health data. Geospatial technology: Geographic information systems and spatial analysis are necessary for carrying out vulnerability assessment, assessment of climate exposure, initiating research and distributing findings to the public and decision makers. Air pollution and heat exposure can be detected by remote sensing and environmental monitoring. Census data comprising of social data and geographic data comprising of exposure data should be aligned to get sensitivity and adaptive capacity at both individual and society levels. Spatial information infrastructure is useful in integrating data for human-environment interactions from varied sources. Social and environmental data can be used to assess vulnerability of malaria by spatial and temporal techniques. Risk maps can be incorporated to identify social and ecological risk factors for malaria (Ageep et al., 2010). It can also be useful to illustrate existing spatial heterogenicity. This can be useful for the forecasting prevalence, planning resource distribution and implementing management programmes for malaria (Jerrett et al., 2010). Human and technical capacity: For the prevention of malaria in the diverse countries like India, human and technical capacity should be improved. Improvement in the human and technical capacity can be helpful in the improving surveillance methods and analytical techniques. Public education programmes should be implemented to improve public awareness about climate change. Awareness of potential health impacts of climate should be improved to improve lifestyle, behaviour and selectivity of people to improve and protect health. Health promotion should be done using low-tech flyers, advertisements, web-based and mobile based alerts. All these strategies should be implemented in India in a region and city specific manner because of great variability in geographical aspects in India. Conclusion: In India, climate change is mainly observed in the form of change in sea level, precipitation level and rise in temperature. Hence, India is experiencing global warming issue and it can exaggerate in the future. It is evident that there is solid association between climate change and human health. In India, climate change has major impact on human health because due to great variability in climate based on geographical area, socioeconomic variability and time of the year. There is no evidence available for the extrapolation of results of one region to another region. Hence, it is mandatory to maintain separate and comprehensive data for climate change and related effects on human health. Hence, it is need of hour to conduct studies specific to climate and populations in India. NAPCC was developed to improve Indias ecological sustainability for development. India is also contributing to international discussions for climate change. Due to complexity of India, it has great opportunity to direct the World for sustainable development and climate change adaptation. Policy makers and scientist in the relevant field from all over the world should come together to address complex issues of climate change and health in India. Innovative and multidisciplinary research should be carried out by implementing environmental epidemiologic methods to address health risks related to climate change. It requires integrated work from different stakeholders like scientists, Government and communities. Approval and implementation of such studies would be helpful in identifying required tools and infrastructure to answers questions and to obtain solutions. References: Ageep, T.B., Cox, J., Hassan, M.M., Knols, B.G.J., Benedict, M.Q., Malcolm, C.A., et al. (2009). Spatial and temporal distribution of the malaria mosquito Anopheles arabiensis in northern Sudan: influence of environmental factors and implications for vector control. Malaria Journal, 8, 123.doi:10.1186/1475-2875-8-123. Das, A., Anvikar, A.R., Cator, L.J., Dhiman, R.C., Eapen, A., et al. (2012). Malaria in India: the center for the study of complex malaria in India. Acta Tropica, 121(3), 267-73. Dash, A.P., Valecha, N., Anvikar, A.R., and Kumar, A. (2008). Malaria in India: challenges and opportunities. Journal of Biosciences, 33, 583592. Dhiman, R.C., Pahwa, S., and Dash, A.P. (2008). Climate change and Malaria in India: interplay between temperature and mosquitoes. Regional Health Forum, 12, 2731. Dhiman, R.C., Pahwa, S., Dhillon, G.P.S., Dash, A.P. (2010). Climate change and threat of vector-borne disease in India: are we prepared? Parasitology Research, 106, 763773. Dhingra, N., Jha, P., Sharma, V.P., Cohen, A.A., Jotkar, R.M., Rodriguez, P.S., et al. (2010). Adult and child malaria mortality in India: a nationally representative mortality survey. Lancet, 376, 17681774. Dubash, N. (2012). Handbook of Climate Change and India: Development, Politics and Governance. Routledge. Ghosh, A. (2016). The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable. University of Chicago Press. Jerrett, M., Gale, S., and Kontgis, C. (2010). Spatial modeling in environmental and public health. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 7, 13021329. Duan, K., Thompson, L.G. and Yao, T. A. (2007). 1000 year history of atmospheric sulfate concentrations in southern Asia as recorded by a Himalayan ice core. Geophysical Research Letters, 34, (2007), L01810, doi:10.1029/2006GL027456. Kumar, A., Valecha, N., Jain, T., and Dash, A.P. (2007). Burden of malaria in India: retrospective and prospective view. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 77(6), l6978. Laneri, K., Bhadra, A., Ionides, E.L., Bouma, M., Dhiman, R.C., Yadav, R.S., et al. (2010). Forcing versus feedback: epidemic malaria and monsoon rains in northwest India. PLOS Computational Biology, 6(9).doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000898. Malone, E., and Brenkert, A.L. (2008). Uncertainty in resilience to climate change in India and Indian states. Climatic Change, 91, 451-476. Narain, J.P. (2008). Malaria in the South-East Asia region: myth and the reality. Indian Journal of Medical Research, 128, 13. OBrien, K., Leichenko, R., Kelkar, U., Venema, H., Aandahl, G., Tompkins, H., et al. (2004). Mapping vulnerability to multiple stressors: climate change and globalization in India. Global Environmental Change, 14, 303-313. ONeill, M.S., and Ebi, K.L. (2009). Temperature extremes and health: impacts of climate variability and change in the United States. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 51, 1325. Pandve, H.T. (2008). Global initiatives to prevent climate change.Indian Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 12, 967. Pandve, H.T. (2007). Global warming: Need to sensitize general population.Indian Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 11, 867. Pandve, H.T. (2009). India's National Action Plan on Climate Change. Indian Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 13(1), 1719. Pascual, M., Dobson, A.P., and Bouma, M.J. (2009). Underestimating malaria risk under variable temperatures. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106, 1364513646. Saran, S., and Jones, A. (2016). India's Climate Change Identity: Between Reality and Perception. Springer. Singh, M.R., Upadhyay, V., and Mittal, A.K. (2010). Addressing sustainability in benchmarking framework for Indian urban water utilities. Journal of Infrastructure Systems, 16, 8192. Singh, B.B., Sharma, R., Gill, J.P., Aulakh, R.S., and Banga, H.S. (2011). Climate change, zoonoses and India. Revue Scientifique Et Technique, 30(3), 779-88. Wiley, L.F., and Gostin, L.O. (2009). The international response to climate change: an agenda for global health. Journal of American Medical Association, 302, 12181220.

Saturday, March 21, 2020

Aristotle Essays (859 words) - Natural Philosophers, Free Essays

Aristotle Essays (859 words) - Natural Philosophers, Free Essays Aristotle Aristotle, Galileo, and Pasteur can be said to have contributed significantly, each in his own way, to the development of The Scientific Method. Discuss. What is the scientific method? In general, this method has three parts, which we might call (1) gathering evidence, (2) making a hypothesis, and (3) testing the hypothesis. As scientific methodology is practiced, all three parts are used together at all stages, and therefore no theory, however rigorously tested, is ever final, but remains at all times tentative, subject to new observation and continued testing by such observation. Hellenic science was built upon the foundations laid by Thales and Pythagoras. It reached its zenith in the works of Aristotle and Archimedes. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) represents the first tradition, that of qualitative forms and teleology. He was, himself, a biologist whose observations of marine organisms were unsurpassed until the 19th century. Biology is essentially teleologicalthe parts of a living organism are understood in terms of what they do in and for the organismand Aristotle's biological works provided the framework for the science until the time of Charles Darwin. Aristotle was able to make a great deal of sense of observed nature by asking of any object or process: what is the material involved, what is its form and how did it get that form, and, most important of all, what is its purpose? What should be noted is that, for Aristotle, all activity that occurred spontaneously was natural. Hence, the proper means of investigation was observation. Experiment, that is, alte ring natural conditions in order to throw light on the hidden properties and activities of objects, was unnatural and could not, therefore, be expected to reveal the essence of things. However, the establishment of the importance of classifying knowledge and of observation as well as the introduction of the deductive method of reasoning can be taken as Aristotles most significant contributions to the scientific method. Even after the intellectual revolutions of centuries to follow, Aristotelian concepts and ideas remained embedded in Western thinking. The critical tradition of science began with Copernicus in the sixteenth century. It eventually led to the work of Galileo (1564-1642), which criticised the very roots of the Aristotelian world system. With the invention of the telescope Galileo, in quick succession, announced that there were mountains on the Moon, satellites circling Jupiter, and spots upon the Sun. Moreover, the Milky Way was composed of countless stars whose existence no one had suspected until Galileo saw them. Galileo attacked the problems of the Earth's rotation and its revolution by logical analysis. Bodies do not fly off the Earth because they are not really revolving rapidly, even though their speed is high. In revolutions per minute, any body on the Earth is going very slowly and, therefore, has little tendency to fly off. Bodies fall to the base of towers from which they are dropped because they share with the tower the rotation of the Earth. Hence, bodies already in motion preserve that motion when another motion is added. So, Galileo deduced, a ball dropped from the top of a mast of a moving ship would fall at the base of the mast. If the ball were allowed to move on a frictionless horizontal plane, it would continue to move forever. Hence, Galileo concluded, the planets, once set in circular motion, continue to move in circles forever. Therefore, Copernican orbits exist. Galileo never acknowledged Kepler's ellipses; to do so would have meant abandoning his solution to the Copernic an problem. Galileo's originality as a scientist lay in his method of inquiry. First he reduced problems to a simple set of terms on the basis of everyday experience and common-sense logic. Then he analyzed and resolved them according to simple mathematical descriptions. The success with which he applied this technique to the analysis of motion opened the way for modern mathematical and experimental physics. Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist. His discovery that most infectious diseases are caused by germs, known as the germ theory of disease, is one of the most important in medical history. Pasteur's phenomenal contributions to microbiology and medicine can be summarized as follows. First, he championed changes in hospital practices to minimize the spread of disease

Thursday, March 5, 2020

Why is it Important to Write Essays

Why is it Important to Write Essays Writing essays is like studying your soul. Have you ever wondered why do teachers and professors give you this bunch of written assignments? Why can’t they ask you all that in an oral form? The answer is quite simple. When you write an essay – you learn to express yourself in a more logical way, and also you develop your writing skills, your vocabulary and your own writing style. And all that is not an oral activity. By writing simple essays you can grow to be a very talented and creative writer or speaker, or logical thinker or whatever. Writing develops you in many ways. If we look further in your education we will see, that except essays – there’s a lot of written assignments, which later on will need to be written. A short list of examples is: Term papers, research papers, course works, home works, dissertations, thesis papers etc. All these activities require outstanding writing skills, which can be developed only by writing essays, and practicing. Another important aspect of writing essays – is referencing and citation. Do you know what is APA and MLA citation/referencing? If not – than you haven’t written 1 essay in your whole life. APA (American Psychological association) and MLA (Modern language association) are 2 guidebooks, which will help you put citation and referencing in your essay. Plagiarism is a very serious academic offense, and if you do not cite all the used sources properly – you will be accused of plagiarism which can harm and damage your reputation. Citation and referencing plays a very big role in your custom essay. You will have to learn to cite all the sources properly. They will definitely be useful for you in future, as in every written assignment you are supposed to use a certain style of referencing and citation. It can be either MLA or APA, Harvard, Chicago, Turabian etc. When you write an essay – you develop your logical thinking in a written form. After you have developed your own style of writing – you certainly have developed a certain style of thinking and talking. In this particular way – essay writing helps you.

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Zara - Fast Fashion from Savvy Systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Zara - Fast Fashion from Savvy Systems - Essay Example The essay "Zara - Fast Fashion from Savvy Systems" talks about fast fashion of Zara. The businesses today operate in real-time in the global market place and they have to leverage comparative advantage. Thus, tapping into the foreign markets and the process of market entry, in addition to the innovative practices and technology can give a firm comparative advantage. Zara needs to ascertain the strategy for the way forward. The organization has a customer-focused vision since the beginning and this continues to be the defining feature. Their challenge is to live up to customer expectations. The group philosophy can be summed up as â€Å"good designs and good quality at affordable prices† (Business Week, 2004). They have total control over the fashion process right from designing to manufacturing and distribution. The company aims to differentiate itself because of its fast fashion approach but intense competition has diluted this advantage. To alter the strategy an organization needs to evaluate its position compared to its competitors. This requires a review of its internal and external business environment. The external environment is being evaluated based on the PESTILE and the industry analysis is based on Porter’s Five Forces.The Political condition of the nations were Zara enters is fairly stable and its mode of entry depends upon the local/regional situation. Accession of Spain into the EU benefitted Spain as the export policies were revised and tariff deregulation took place.

Monday, February 3, 2020

A Training Program for Persons with Mental Retardation Program Assignment

A Training Program for Persons with Mental Retardation Program - Assignment Example The test development can be traced back to the 1980s. In 1986, there was a trial version of it created by a student pursuing Masters Degree under one of the authors. The test operates on samples of the elderly population. In its first test, normative data was provided differently in groups of respondent ages, (50-69 and 70+ years) and the National Adult Reading Test Estimated IQ (NART-IQ) group (85-89,100-114,115 and above). This test was conducted on 186 men and women (50 to 96) inhabiting England, and the majority of those tested came from Bristol Area. Unfortunately, there is little validity evidence to underscore conclusions made from the LLT experimentation on the elderly people. As said before, the exam is purely conducted on the elderly people though not in groups but as solo individuals. The exam, however, faces criticism due to its minimal levels of validity in evidence purported to have been gathered and therefore not appropriate for clinical applications. (Coughlan. A Holl ows, S.p.22) 2 The Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory (SASSI) is developed with the aim to identify people who are most probable to have substance dependence malady (is). The test can be of use in a forensic setting if one wants to know whether an individual’s behavior is dependent on substance dependence. It has been noted that behavioral traits of people dependent on substances vary a lot.     The test was authored by Miller, Glenn. A and published by The SASSI Institute. It has been reviewed in the book ‘’the fifteenth mental measurements yearbook’’ by Plake, Impara, and Spies (2003). The test includes face valid and items that are considered subtle that have no relationship with substance abuse. Materials used for the test includes guides that have instructions for administering, filling in the scores, interpreting and manuals providing information on validity, reliability and development. Examples of professionals’ inferences that may be extracted on the premise of scale scores include awareness of the negative effects of substance abuse, evidence of emotional pain, and risk of being in touch with the legal or judicial institutions and people. The test is applicable to adults and Adolescents between 12 and 18years.The SASSI’s room for easy administration, scoring and analysis and the availability of computer styles for relia ble storage of data and analysis makes the test instrument highly useful in producing valid results in research ventures. For example, the Adult SASSI-3 has helped identify persons who have high chances of substance dependence problem with a total objectively-tested accuracy of 93%.The Adolescent SASSI-A2 has a 94% overall tested accuracy. 3 The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, 4th ed. (WAIS-IV) is used to examine IQ or Cognitive functioning and is designed to target adults who fall in the 16 to 90 years age bracket. The exam looks into cognitive ability using a basic group of 10 subtests that aim at four specific areas of intelligence: perceptual reasoning, verbal comprehension, working memory and speed of processing.

Sunday, January 26, 2020

Roy Bhaskars Theory of Critical Realism

Roy Bhaskars Theory of Critical Realism How to Change Reality: Story vs. Structure Debate between Rom Harre and Roy Bhaskar Roy Bhaskar (15 May 1944 19 November 2014) was a British philosopher, renowned as the initiator of the philosophical movement of Critical Realism. He was a World Scholar at the Institute of Education, University College London. Critical Realism (CR) is an integrative metatheory founded in the 1970s by Roy Bhaskar with the publication of seminal works in the philosophy of science and social science, such as A Realist Theory of Science, The Plausibility of Naturalism, and Scientific Realism and Human Emancipation. Bhaskars consideration of the philosophies of science and social science resulted in the development of Critical Realism. The term Critical Realism was not initially used by Bhaskar. The philosophy began life as what Bhaskar called Transcendental Realism in A Realist Theory of Science (1975), which he extended into the social sciences as Critical Naturalism in The Possibility of Naturalism (1978). The term Critical Realism is an elision of Transcendental Realism and Critical Naturalism, that has been subsequently accepted by Bhaskar after being proposed by others, partly because of its appropriate connotations; Critical Realism shares certain dimensions with German Critical Theory. In this essay Roy Bhaskar distinguish post modernism, social constructionism, Critical Realism and Dialectical Critical Realism. He has discussed Rom and Charlies point of view on Social Constructionism and Critical Realism in a dialectical context. The first thing Bhaskar discussed, is how Rom and Charlie defended post modernization and social constructionism. Further, Bhaskar gave a dialectical context on Roms work, stating that his all works ends in some kind of reductionism, but before giving dialect on Roms point. Bhaskar gives a prolonged explanation to postmodernists saying that reality is a social construct. Bhaskar started elucidating postmodernism. According to Bhaskar, Reality is a construct of discourse, the text, the conversation, or if you like, people or even power relations. Bhaskar further criticized Roms dual aspect philosophy of social reality. In which he stated how Rom gives two different statements in different modes. According to Bhaskar, when Rom is in Vygotskian mode he says that social reality is a construct of conversation. That is because Roms ideas are closest as to Lev Vygotsky. Bhaskar further added that when Rom is in humanist mode, he says it is a construct of people. Both postmodernist and Rom a greed that social reality is conceptual, to which Bhaskar also agreed and proclaimed further that is it not exhaustive of anything, whether its people, powerful particulars, discourse or text. According to Bhaskar, interesting thing about dialectical critical realism is that it takes the dialectic a stage further. Bhaskars dialectical critical realism rejects any sort of reductionism. He asserted that there is no equation between social and the conceptual or social and the humans. He then gave prolonged description about conceptual moment in human life. He then discussed the connection to human freedom and they have a dialectical universalisabilty of forming a judgement. According to Bhaskar, humans have a vision of good society in which the free development of one is the condition for free development of all, by this statement free development (- -), he is asserting that human wants a classless society, the free development of each, the individual liberty and freedom to work of each individual allows for the building of a better society. He further asserted that being humans, we are more concerned about the factors that affects our freedom and we should get rid of those factors such as Nazism (The ideology and practice of the Nazis, especially the policy of racist nationalism, national expansion, and state control of the economy), bureaucracy and capitalism. He said that we should rescue our situation by considering our being and existence in a more serious manner and it is because we want to save the situation and have to take ontological (nature of being, becoming, existence, or reality, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations) question significantly of whether structures, whether unconscious or social, are real. Bhaskar describes from a critical realist standpoint that how postmodernist deny existence of direct object to being. Bhaskar asserted that postmodernist normally says that they are not denying that things exist but they merely assert and says that they cant say anything about these things. But Critical Realism has shown philosophical position, or scientific position, or social position, all require a certain general shape of the world. He added that if we are restricted human knowledge to that which can be perceived by the senses, we will believe that social forms and social structures are immutable but if we are like Habermas (German sociologist and philosopher in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism.) in his account of nature that we will set up false resistance between nature and society. Bhaskar asserted nature is a very special thing, which is not governed by laws, mechanism or structures and he agreed with Roms words on nature that we are free to reinvent it very mo rning.Bhaskar added that Rom and Charles are not postmodernist; they do not believe reality, as such, is a social construct. But in their Social Constructivism , their views on social existence reduces to conversation or people. They have given example that one thing can be dependent on multiple factors i.e. Does the food depend just on cook? No. It depends on various factors like utensils, ingredients, resources that he/she is given by the authorities, to which Bhaskar added that the cook must have made more tastier food if there would have been more budget. Here, Bhaskar wanted to prove a point that we are constrained by various factor and we can do better without constraints. Bhaskar then dialect Rom and Charles idea of reinventing society. He criticized that why Rom and Charles do not reinvent a better kind of society if its so easy? He then further explained with an example of Oxford College, that how fellows can decide how much wine they can drink and how much to store for the next year. By this he means how fellows can change rules time to time. But then an Oxford college is subject to government finance, if privately endowed, to stock market fluctuations. By this example Bhaskar describes how things can be controlled using constraints and how things would act as a very powerful constraint. Bhaskar further explains social structure and causal powers. He explains how agent, factor or vehicle, anything that influences the course of events in some way, is the criteria for causality. He added the people are very special but what people can do in a particular social context must be examined scientifically. He says we should accept the constraining structures if we want human freedom and we should not deny it. To this, Bhaskar dialect Roms statement that social structures cannot be reproduced except by human activity. He further asserted what Rom has said is a fundamental principal and is common to both his(Bhaskars) transformational model of social activity and Giddens theory of structuration. But there is an important difference between the two models in morality of which cannot be equated, which Maggie Archer in particular has pointed out. Bhaskar, regarding his transformational model asserts how we, humans are shackled of doing anything new and are beset by the preexistin g structures, that restrain us. He asserted that fundamental Aristotelian model of society is correct. Efficient causality presupposes material causality; it presupposes a pre-existing material cause. And how we are heavily burdened by cruel presence of the past in this social world. He then talks about the one which validates Rom and Charless model, is, the birth of a baby, coming out of the womb, but that too, pre-existing life in the womb and out of the womb as well, pre-exiting thing are ready, fixed, pre-given. Bhaskars statement that at any moment of time we are heavily constrained by preexisting structures is a right theory From Bhaskars point of view, Charles account of relationship between people and organism lacks the concept of emergence. He stated, people are organism, but there is one thing that differentiate people from being an organism only, emergent powers. In Bhaskars word People are organism, but they are organism with emergent powers. He added that our society too, have emergent powers of human behavior to understand the society better but then everything eventually ends up with his former notion, everything is pre-existing human behavior. In this para, Bhaskar explains how humans are emergent from the animal world and human power are the ingredients in the animal world, thats what make us human, thats why we are humans. Bhaskar describes that there is a plausibility of good society, we have to strive and fight for making one. Bhaskar concluded that they might come to agree upon in terms of substantive proposals. But Rom and Charlie thinks that we have already achieved social construct but they do not know how we did it. Whereas Bhaskar thinks that there is a lot more hard work to do. And it is something humanity may or may not obtain contingently. But it is there as a task and moral imperative.

Saturday, January 18, 2020

Discrimination and Stereotyping

Prejudice, stereotype and discrimination are merely against for anyone for any reasons as they were defined(Rand, Sowell, & Epstein, 2007). Prejudice, a feeling based not a belief based, is referred to as unconstructive judgment or opinion figured out lacking familiarity and knowledge on facts. It is only a feeling based on assumptions without considering any prior facts about the group being prejudge. Prejudice is often based on stereotype. One great cause of prejudice is the differences on skills, talents, beliefs and experience even though sometimes these differences benefit us.For an instance, on social classes, we feel wealthy classes are said to be superior to any other classes in society. Stereotype is referred to conventional opinion as any mental image of social group regardless of individual differences. At some point, stereotype can also be seen in positive outlook, for an instance the stereotype for Asian Americans being good in the field of Mathematics. Stereotype is som etimes the foundation of prejudice. Discrimination being known to as prejudice in action, it referred to as the unlikely treatment for other people in terms of race, culture or religion.An example is the discrimination on African Americans due to their color, treating them unequally from the White Americans(Educators, 2006). Prejudice, stereotype and discriminations have some negative impacts on the society as they may are said to be harmful behaviors. It may lead to limitations of opportunities for people who said to be of lesser standard than others (Phone, 2007). The limitations may be of many cases like in popularity, achieving no equal rights to gain popularity. In employment and promotion, only those think and believe to be capable of the job were brought in to employment and get promoted.In having rights and power, like the black who does not have equal privileges as white ones. The Scenerio Prejudice, stereotype and discrimination on the scenario or case of Elizabeth who is a second-grade school teacher is exemplified. There exists discrimination when he only praises Walt than Ricky, just because Ricky comes from a lower class society and on the other hand Walt from middle class, Elizabeth provides not equal treatment as should praise both of them when answers correctly and should giving a helping hand for both of the students whenever they commit mistake which was merely opposite to the scenario.The action done by Elizabeth is the harmful behavior of discrimination. She shows no favorable response for Ricky being in the lower class. Stereotypically speaking, the scenario shows stereotype behavior because Elizabeth believes that Walt has greater knowledge the Ricky. Elizabeth may be in doubt of Ricky’s intelligence that is why she does have not significant time praising him and helping him and not giving equal chances for both students to show what they have got..And also the prejudice behavior relates with stereotype, while Elizabeth believes n ot for Ricky’s capabilities, she does a pre judgment that maybe Ricky will took hard time to cope up even though it is only his opinion. And that opinion may lead to hasty generalization or wrong generalization. The scenario or case being tackled is only one of those situations that involve prejudice, stereotype and discrimination. The case may affect both students, Walt and Ricky, but in opposite and much different manner. For Walt, it may be a positive effect on him for instance that he may live a world with praises which can help him develop self esteem.On the other hand, Ricky might suffer fear of interacting with other people of different class with him. He may become a victim of limitations from opportunities as one of the main result of prejudice, stereotype and discrimination. He might also lose his privilege and freedom to learn and also his right as a child to new more about his world and surroundings. Implicit Association Test In connection with prejudice, stereoty pe and discrimination, I took the Implicit Association Test. This test shows whether I had hidden biases towards different people. In the IAT, I took the Weapons (‘Weapons – Harmless Objects' IAT) .An IAT which require the ability to recognize White and Black faces and associate them with images of weapons or harmless objects. The result of my test was your data suggest a slight association of Black Americans with Weapons compared to White Americans (corp. , 2007). The result dictates that I slightly relate harmful objects with Black Americans which I think not necessary true to myself. Maybe the pressure of doing the test with time limit also affects the result because of my eagerness to finish the test. I don’t consider Black Americans as harmful people and so I assume that the research tool was not accurate.The Implicit Association test is I can say a not reliable or accurate tool to be used. Many things could affect the result, it can be affected by being rig ht handed or left handed either. The key we are able to press most likely just conform to our most used hand or finger. Another one was the pressure on time, where it is also stated there that we just need to press the right key in a short time. Even though as I have said not accurate tool to used, It is only matters for the reason the it is an interesting and enjoying tool for us to know about our hidden biases on different races, culture or religion. Reference: corp., I. (2007). You have completed the Race – Weapons IAT. [Electronic Version]. Retrieved June 29, 2007 from https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/Study?tid=-1. Educators. (2006). Dealing with Stereotyping, Prejudice, Discrimination, and Scapegoating [Electronic Version]. Retrieved June 29, 2007 from http://www.esrnational.org/antidiscriminationlesson.htm. Phone, K. H. (2007). Violence/Abuse [Electronic Version]. Retrieved June 29, 2007 from http://kidshelp.sympatico.ca/en/informed/sub_prejudices.asp?sec=3&sb=2. Rand, A., Sowell, T., & Epstein, R. (2007). Ethnic Prejudice, Stereotypes, Discrimination, and the Free Market [Electronic Version]. Retrieved June 29, 2007 from http://www.friesian.com/discrim.htm. Â