Breast Implants :: essays research papers

Friday, 19 May, 2000, 10:13 GMT 11:13 UK Huge rupture rate in breast implants Many of the inplants had ruptured Almost seven out of ten silicone-gel breast implants scanned by researchers had developed a leak. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) study could reawaken the debate over the safety of breast implants. Many women claim that leaking silicone-gel has sparked serious illness, including chronic autoimmune disease. The FDA team used MRI scans too look at 344 women with implants. They found that 69% had a least one ruptured implant. And in 21%, the silicone gel contained within the implant had leaked beyond the breast into other parts of the body. In another part of the study, 907 women who had undergone breast enhancement surgery were interviewed. Removed implants Recently published studies have shown that women with silicone gel-filled breast implants do not have a greatly increased risk of some well-defined autoimmune diseases, which were among the serious health concerns surrounding the devices. These include potentially fatal connective tissue diseases such as scleroderma and lupus erythematosus. The new studies do not, however, rule out the possibility that a subset of women with implants may have a small increased risk of these conditions, or that some women might develop other immune-related symptoms that don't conform to "classic" disease descriptions. Nor did the studies address other important safety questions, including implant rupture rates and the incidence of capsular contracture (shrinking of scar tissue around the implant, which can cause painful hardening of the breast or distort its appearance). Answers to these and other questions await the results of new or ongoing studies. Widespread reports of adverse reactions to silicone gel-filled implants and a lack of evidence supporting their safety led the Food and Drug Administration to order the devices off the market in April 1992. They remained available only to women in clinical studies, mostly women seeking breast reconstruction after breast cancer surgery. Saline-filled implants were allowed to remain on the market for all uses. Reasons for New Studies Breast implants had been marketed since the early 1960s--several years before the first medical device law was enacted in 1976, charging FDA with regulation of medical devices. Every year, thousands of American women had implant surgery for augmentation (to enlarge or reshape their breasts) or for reconstruction following mastectomy (removal of the breast) to treat breast cancer. Most of the implants consisted of a rubber silicone envelope filled with silicone gel; about 10 percent were filled with saline (salt water).

An ideal teacher Essay

Teachers, as we all know some are strict, some are lenient, and some are funny. Every teacher wants to be a good teacher. An ideal teacher is the one who is loved and respected by every student. A student will remember such a teacher long. How can a teacher become an ideal teacher? For years in this field, I would be happy to say, that is not an easy job. Will the students remember me after they have become a successful person? To start with, an ideal teacher is someone who is willing to get up every morning with great excitement to teach. Students do not like a harsh teacher. A teacher who is always find fault with the work of his students in any task and scold them a lot, is an object of fear for them. Such a teacher is respected by the students from outwards only, he is not respected by the students from the bottom of their heart. An ideal teacher should, therefore, have a good personality and abundant knowledge. He should know the psychology of students and also their individual problems. Knowledge is ever growing and so an ideal teacher should always prepare his lessons before he enters the class. He should be able to make the students feel interested in their subject and know that their minds are growing under his teaching. An ideal teacher is confident in his class. His voice is clear. What he says should have clarity. If he has knowledge of allied subjects, it would also help him to teach better. He is punctual, neatly dressed and disciplined. His character is perfect and spotless.

Critically evaluate piaget’s theory of cognitive development Essay

Piaget has been described as the father of cognitive psychology (Shaffer, 1988) and his stage theory as the foundation of developmental cognitive psychology (Lutz & Sternberg, 2002). It is not possible to describe Piaget’s empirical findings and theory in only 1,500 words. Instead, I will briefly review the theory’s scope, comprehensiveness, parsimony, applicability, heuristic value and methodological underpinning. I will then evaluate in more detail the theory’s utility in describing and explaining cognitive development. Historically, Piaget’s ontological approach was ground-breaking with its focus on the qualitative nature of cognition and its constructivist perspective. The theory itself is wide-scoped (universal), comprehensive (covering a broad spectrum of cognitive achievement) and elegantly coherent (from neonate to adult). It remains profoundly influential on cognitive psychology and continues to be widely applied in childcare and educational settings. Piaget’s theory is parsimonious in its commonality of approach to a broad range of complex phenomena with key interlinking concepts. Inevitably, such an ambitious theory has generated a wealth of research, some supporting, some supplementing, some extending and some disputing aspects of Piaget’s theory. Some of the weaker aspects of Piaget’s theory appear to arise from his ‘clinical method’ of using observational behavioural data to infer conclusions about children’s underlying cognitive competences. Longitudinal data, ideally suited to monitoring progression, was only recorded for his own three children. Certain of his techniques were insufficiently sensitive to identify the underlying causes of performance variations, especially with very young infants, where more recent habituation techniques have shown that Piaget considerably underestimated their understanding and ability (Bower, 1982, Baillargeon & DeVos, 1991). This may have led him to overlook other relevant explanations for varying levels of performance, eg limitations on memory capacity (Bryant & Trabasso, 1971, Kail, 1984, Diamond, 1985), motor-co-ordination (Mandler, 1990), availability of memory strategies (Siegler, 1991) and verbal understanding (Sternberg, 1985). However, Piaget’s clinical method, his flexible and ecologically valid approach did reveal original insights into children’s thinking, which a more standardised, ‘scientific’ approach may have overlooked entirely. Piaget’s theoretical framework describes the structure of cognitive development as a fixed sequence of four discontinuous and qualitatively different ‘periods’ (for ease of understanding, referred to as stages) of all children’s intelligence across domains, tasks and contexts. Invariance is a core feature of Piaget’s conceptual structure, in contrast with contemporary perspectives, which question rigid conceptual structures, eg post-modernism and chaos theory. Piaget emphasised the invariance of progression through stages, so that a child never regresses to thinking methods from an earlier stage of cognitive development. This is empirically unconvincing, eg, as an adult, I have easily switched from formal-operational to concrete-operational thinking when presented with flat-pack furniture and an incomprehensible set of instructions. Research (Beilin, 1971, Case, 1992) has also contradicted the assumption that within a given stage of development, children demonstrate only stage-appropriate levels of performance, eg 4-year-olds make the same mistakes as 1-year-olds on some hidden-object problems by looking at locations where they have found the object previously (Siegler, 1998). Structural, qualitative discontinuity between stages – a key feature in the theory’s description of cognitive development – is also questionable. Although much research has shown that children can do things at ages earlier than Piaget considered possible (Baillargeon, 1987, Mandler, 1998, Diamond, 1991), Piaget focussed on the sequence of progression from one stage to another rather than the respective ages of cognitive achievement. However, because cognitive achievements have often been shown to emerge earlier (and occasionally later if at all, eg certain formal operations) than Piaget’s stages indicate, exactly when these stages begin and end cannot be clearly established. This blurring of boundaries between stages, suggests a spiralling structure of gradual, continuous cognitive development rather  than a stepped structure of discontinuous stages. Piaget’s focus on competence as opposed to performance contributes to the difficulty of determining when one stage becomes qualitatively different from another. What we may be capable of doing optimally (competence) may often differ from what we do actually much of the time (performance) (Davidson & Sternberg, 1985). Even if we accept Piaget’s stages as distinguishing when competences are fully developed and functional not necessarily when they first appear (Lutz & Sternberg, 2002), there is still insufficient evidence that qualitative leaps in cognitive competence can be distinguished between one stage and another. Indeed, Piaget (1970) adjusted his position on the discontinuity of stages, acknowledging that transition from concrete-operational to formal-operational reasoning occurs gradually over a span of several years. Siegler (1998) suggests that catastrophe theory (a mathematical theory which examines sudden changes) explains both the continuous and discontinuous appearance of cognitive development. The forces that lead to the collapse of a bridge may build up over a period of years, however the bridge’s visible collapse appears as a sudden event. Analogously, a child may suddenly solve a problem that she could not solve the day before, but her progress may be due to experience and improved understanding acquired over preceding months. Thus cognitive development may be viewed both as a continuous process of small, imperceptible amendments or as a discontinuous shift from one state to another – depending on when and how closely viewpoints are taken. Bloom (2002) provides a similar argument in refutation of ‘spurts’ in word learning. Piaget initially argued that his stages are universal, ie that they apply to everyone irrespective of their individual experience. Recent research suggests that cultural practices are related to children’s proficiency on tasks (Rogoff, 1990). Piaget (1972) always acknowledged the impact of social and cultural contextual factors on cognitive development but came to revise his claim that his stages are universal, eg by recognising that achieving formal operations is dependent on exposure to the specific type of thinking  found in science classes and on individual motivation to undertake certain types of task. Piaget’s revised stance on universality and the discontinuity of stages also calls into question the theory’s implicit structural premise of cognitive development being domain-general. Piaget refers to stages as holistic structures, with coherent modes of thinking that apply across a broad range of tasks, ie are domain-general. However children do not appear to develop consistently and evenly across all cognitive tasks or even within specific types of cognitive functioning, eg conservation. Piaget explains unevenness of progression, eg, within the domain of conservation, mass is conserved much sooner than volume, by ‘horizontal decalage’, which occurs when problems that appear quite similar in the requirements of underlying knowledge actually differ in the complexity of schemata required. An alternative explanation for perceived unevenness in cognitive development is domain-specificity, ie that specific types of cognitive processing develop separately and a t differing rates from others. One example of domain-specificity for language vs number acquisition occurs in deaf infant’s symbolic-representational ability allowing them to learn American Sign Language as early as 6-7 months, while children’s symbolic-representational ability for number appears months later (Mandler, 1990, Meier & Newport, 1990). Subsequent research (Chomsky, 1986, Fodor, 1983, Chi, 1992 cited in Pine, 1999) has suggested domain-specificity for language, mathematics and logico-spatial reasoning involved in chess! Horizontal decalage is described, at best, as a peripheral element and, at worst, as undermining the theory’s holistic stage structure and domain-generality. To summarise the descriptive utility of Piaget’s theory, it certainly describes the general sequencing of children’s broad intellectual development, although stage-like discontinuity may be a reflection of perspective only. However, the theory appears less accurate in its description of cognitive development as universal, functionally invariant and domain-general. More recent research (Fischer, 1980, Flavell, 1985) suggests that cognitive development occurs gradually and sequentially within particular intellectual domains. Turning to the theory’s explanation of cognitive development, Piaget’s theory explains cognitive development as the result of physical maturation and two basic biological, invariant functions: organisation and adaptation (Lutz & Sternberg, 2002). Organisation is seen as the tendency to organise physical and psychological processes into purposeful, efficient systems. Adaptation occurs via equilibration, namely the seesaw-like balancing of (1) assimilation, ie how children transform incoming information to fit their existing modes of thinking (‘schemata’) and (2) accommodation, ie how children adapt their schemata in response to new experiences. Equilibration integrates physical maturation, experience with the environment and social influences (Miller, 2002). Whilst Piaget’s focus on the active constructivist mechanism of individual/environmental interaction has been highly influential, it does not provide a sufficient explanation of cognitive development. There is little explanation of the physical maturational aspects that are key to cognitive development, such as that provided by subsequent researchers on age-related neural processing improvements (Diamond,1991). More importantly, the processes of adaptation and organisation do not explain how a child’s logical ability is derived from interaction with the environment, eg there is no explanation of how sensorimotor activity is transformed into mental images which are in turn transformed into words. Crucially, Piaget’s theory does not provide any explanation of the mechanism of cognitive transition from one qualitative stage to another. Piaget’s explanation of cognitive development thus appears impoverished. It has been supplemented by social theory, which explicates the role of social interaction in the child’s development (Vygotsky, 1934/1978) and is supported by research into the innate social characteristics of young infants (Meltzoff & Moore, 1994 amongst others cited in Smith, Cowie & Blades, 1998). Information-processing theorists (Case, 1985,) have also explained the contribution of specific areas of cognitive development, such as memory and attention. Other theorists (Karmiloff-Smith, 1992) have  incorporated a combination of approaches into a more holistic explanation of cognitive development. In conclusion, Piaget’s theory appears only broadly accurate in its description of cognitive development. Its explanation of cognitive development is inadequate; only acknowledging but not fully examining the role of social, emotional and contextual factors, underestimating the existence of innate cognitive abilities (Flavell, Miller & Miller, 1993), and ignoring the complex role of language in cognitive development. Nonetheless, Siegler (1998) describes Piaget’s work as ‘a testimony to how much one person can do’. The theory’s heuristic power is undeniable: recent studies of cognitive development have focussed on previously unsuspected cognitive strengths in children and on a broader range of children’s thinking than that investigated by Piaget (Kohlberg, 1984). The theory’s longevity is certainly warranted for its originality and inspiration to others. According to Piaget â€Å"the principal goal of education is to create adults who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done – who are creative, inventive, discoverers† (Piaget, 1977 cited in Shaffer, 1998). By this standard, Piaget and his theory of cognitive development must be judged a success for current cognitive psychology. References Baillargeon, R. (1987). Object permanence in 31/2- and 41/2-month old infants. Developmental Psychology, 23, 655-664 Baillargeon, R. & DeVos, J. (1991). Object permanence in young infants: Further evidence. Child Development, 62, 1227-1246 Beilin, H. (1971). Developmental stages and developmental processes. In D.R. Green, M.P. Ford & G.B. Flamer (Eds.) Measurement and Piaget. (pp 172-196) New York:McGraw-Hill Bloom, P. (2002). How children learn the meaning of words. New York: Oxford University Press Bower, T.G.R. (1982 ). Development in Infancy 2nd Ed. San Francisco: WH Freeman Bryant, P.E. & Trabasso, T. (1971). Transitive inferences and memory in young children. Nature, 232, 456-458 Case, R. (1985). Intellectual Development: Birth to adulthood. Orlando, Fl: Academic Press. Case, R. (1992). The mind’s staircase: Exploring the conceptual underpinnings of children’s thought and knowledge. Hillsdale, NJ:Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Chi, M.T.H. (1992). Conceptual change within and across ontological categories: Examples from learning and discovery in science. In R.Giere (Ed.) Cognitive Models of Science: Minnesota studies in the philosophy of science. Minneapolis:University of Minnesota Press Chomsky, N. (1986). Knowledge of language: Its nature, origins and use. New York: Praeger Cole, M. & Cole, S.R. (2001). The Development of Children (4th Ed.). New York : Worth Publishers Davidson, J.E. & Sternberg, R. J. (1985). Competence and performance in intellectual development. In E. Neimark, R deLisi & J.H. Newman (Eds.), Moderators of competence (pp 43-76) Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Diamond, A. (1985). Development of the ability to use recall to guide action, as indicated by infants; performance on AB. Child Development, 56, 868-883 Diamond, A. (1991). Frontal lobe involvement in cognitive changes during the first year of life. In K.R. Gibson & A.C. Petersen (Eds.) Brain maturation and cognitive development: comparative and cross-cultural perspectives. New York:Aldine de Gruyter Fischer, K.W. (1980). A theory of cognitive development: the control and construction of hierarchies of skills. Psychological Review, 87, 477-531 Flavell, J.H. (1985). Cognitive Development (2nd Ed.) Englewood Cliffs, NJ:Prentice-Hall Flavell, J.H., Miller, P.H. & Miller, S.A. (1993). Cognitive Development (3rd Ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ:Prentice-Hall Kail, R. (1984). The development of memory in children (2nd Ed.). New York:Freeman Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1992). Beyond Modulatiry: A developmental perspective on cognitive science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Precis accessed at http://bbsonline.org/Preprints/OldArchive/bbs.karmsmith.html Kohlberg, L. (1984). The psychology of moral development: The nature and validity of moral stages (Vol 2). New York: Harper & Row Lutz, D.J & Sternberg, R.J. (2002). Cognitive Development. In M.H. Bornstein & M.E. Lamb (Eds.) Developmental Psychology: An advanced textbook (4th Ed.). Mahuah, NJ:Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Mandler, J.M. (1990). Recall of events by preverbal children. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 608, 485-516 Mandler, J.M. (1998). Representation . In D. Kuhn & R.S. Siegler (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology (5th Ed.): Vol 2: Cognition, perception and language. New York: Wiley Meier, R.P. & Newport, E.L. (1990). Out of the hands of babes: on a possible sign advantage in language acquisition. Language, 66, 1-23 Meltzoff, A.N. & Moore, M.K. (1994). Imitation, memory and the representation of persons. Infant Behaviour and development, 17, 83-99 Miller, P.H. (2002). Theories of Developmental Psychology (4th Ed.). New York:Worth Publishers Piaget, J. (1972). Intellectual evolution from adolescence to adulthood. Human Development, 15, 1-12 Piaget, J. (1970). Piaget’s theory. In P.H. Mussen (Ed.) Carmichaels’ manual of child psychology (Vol 1). New York:Wiley Piaget, J. (1977). The role of action in the development of thinking. In W.F. Overton & J.M. Gallagher (Eds.) Knowledge and development (Vol 1). New York:Plenum Pine, K. (1999). Theories of Cognitive Development. In D. Meuer & S.W. Millar (Eds.) Exploring Developmental Psychology: From infancy to adolescence. London:Arnold Rogoff, B. (1990). Apprenticeship in thinking. New York:Oxford University Press Shaffer, D.R. (1988). Developmental Psychology: Childhood & Adolescence. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole Siegler, R.S. (1991). Childrens’ thinking (2nd Ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ:Prentice-Hall Siegler, R.S, (1998). Children’s thinking (3rd Ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ:Prentice-Hall Smith, P.K., Cowie, H. & Blades, M. (1998). Understanding children’s development. Blackwell: Oxford Sternberg, R.J. (1985). Beyond IQ: A triarchic theory of intelligence. New York: Cambridge University Press Vygotsky, L.S. (1934/1978). Thinking and speech. In T.N. Minick (Ed.) The collected works of L.S. Vygotsky (Vol 1). Problems of general psychology. New York:Plenum Press

Marginal Revenue and Profit

?In order for a company to be able to reach its full potential financial management must be in place. This management needs to be aware of at least the basics of financial plans which are revenue, cost and profit. These three things can make or break a company. Each of these things must be understood and considered before plans can be laid to create or better a company. Revenue is the amount a company receives (Marginal Revenue, 2009). If a company is in the business of sales, revenue is the amount of money the company receives per unit sold. Marginal revenue is the amount of money a company receives for the last unit sold. This is found by dividing the change in revenue by the change in quantity sold. For companies that compete with one another marginal revenue is not very important. This is because in a competitive environment most products are sold at a set price so that marginal revenue is equal to the set sales price of the product. For a monopoly on the other hand, marginal revenue is very important. Monopolies have a decreasing marginal revenue curve (marginal Revenue, 2009); for a monopoly the marginal revenue is less than the sales price. This is because a monopoly must have a lower sales price in order to increase the amount of product sold. Total cost is the amount of money it costs to operate at a particular rate of production (Baker, 2000). There are two types of cost: variable and fixed. Fixed costs are those that remain the same regardless of production and variable costs are those that change with production. Marginal cost is the addition either to total cost or total variable cost resulting from one more unit of output (McConnall & Brue, 2008). Usually this is found by dividing the change in total cost by the change in quantity. Profit is the positive gain from an investment or business operation after subtracting expenses (Profit, 2009). Profit maximization is the idea that people will try to create as high a profit as possible given the circumstances. Since marginal revenue is the amount of revenue an additional unit will bring in and marginal cost is the amount the additional unit will cost to produce, then profit maximization is the point where marginal cost and marginal revenue are equal (Profit Maximization, 2009). So as long as marginal cost is lower than marginal revenue there is profit, but if marginal cost ever exceeds marginal revenue the last unit should not be produced. If the marginal revenue is higher than the marginal cost, the company can produce more units. Business owners and managers need to be able to make a profit. Whenever people think of profit, they are aware that profit is the amount of money left after the expenses are paid and most people know the greater the profit the better off they will be. Most people do not know that profit maximization requires the knowledge of marginal cost and marginal revenue. In order to determine when a company is no longer profiting from production of extra units, one must know that profit maximization is the point where marginal revenue equals marginal cost. Refernces (2009). Marginal revenue: Fundamental finance. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from fundamentalfinance. com Web site: http://economics. fundamentalfinance. com/micro_revenue. php Baker, S. (2000). Cost concepts. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from Economics interactive tutorial Web site: http://hspm. sph. sc. edu/COURSES/ECON/Cost/Cost. html (2009). Profit. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from investorwords. com Web site: http://www. investorwords. com/3880/profit. html Profit Maximization. Retrieved July 16, 2009, Web site: http://www. econ. ilstu. edu/ntskaggs/eco105/readings/profit-max. htm McConnell, C. , & Brue, S. (2008). Microeconomics 17th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Local Law Enforcement’s Role in Anti-terrorism and Home Land Security

The intensity of the September 11 attacks on American soil led to massive destruction of property, besides leaving thousands of innocent civilians dead. To many, the attacks revealed just how vulnerable the United States was to the cruel hand of global terrorism. The lessons learnt from the tragic incidences prompted immediate action on the part of the federal authorities, culminating in what became known as the war on terror whose overall objective was to completely eliminate, or at least minimize the potential danger posed by terrorists and terrorist organizations spread all over the globe. Beginning then, the fight against terrorism has become a shared responsibility, with various security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies involved in checking terrorist activity. Some of the major responsibilities include have included training on technologies such as airborne insertion equipment, rescuing hostages and using anti-terrorist weaponry. Although most of these have been assigned to specialized task forces such as the military and the Delta force, a critical evaluation also depicts the local enforcement agencies as instrumental in fighting terrorism and enhancing national security. Indeed, the attacks led to a significant redefinition of the role that federal, state, as well as local law enforcement authorities ought to play in as far as the prevention and interdiction of terrorist activity in the U. S. is concerned (Middlemiss and Gupta, 2007). Besides the traditional role of acting as critical incident managers and first responders, these agencies have been assigned a new task: that of handling the uncertainties occasioned by the threat of terrorism. The Role Played By Local Police Agencies in the Fight against Terrorism. As opposed to the military whose main preoccupation is that of protecting the country from eternal aggression, the main domain of local law enforcement agencies lies in the provision of homeland security. Due to the numerous security connections that state and local officials have established with institutions such as the Intelligence Community and the society in general, they usually tend to have an upper hand in detecting and preventing terrorist activity (Sauter and Carafano, 2005). It is in view of this reality that governments within the state and local levels have since embarked on an initiative of establishing antiterrorism and counterterrorism programs. The former entails the defensive or passive strategies employed to curb terrorism, while the latter involves proactive measures such as pursuing terrorist perpetrators and supporters (Sauter and Carafano, 2005, p. 261). In essence, the failure of such initiative to suffice in equipping law enforcement personnel with the basic as well as specialized skills of fighting terrorism implies that the local law enforcers assisted by other personnel would be the in the forefront should a terrorist attack occur. A preliminary study carried out by the Police Executive Research Forum in 2001 found that the local police played a vital responsibility in critical incidence response, information and intelligence sharing, enhancement of community stability after a major incident, and the establishment of multi-agency task forces (Police Executive Research Forum, 2003). However, one of the most remarkable findings of the survey was the strong belief expressed by these law enforcement agents: that they were now faced with an expanded role of terrorism prevention in such subfields as increasing community policing systems, intelligence gathering and information-sharing with the civilian fraternity. Nevertheless, training and conversancy with the nature of global terrorism as well as the need for upgrading terrorist attack-preparedness emerged as critical components if these agencies are to perform a greater role in antiterrorism initiatives. Since 2001, the role of local law enforcement agencies in the fight against terrorism has been transformed from a relatively amorphous form into a more distinct one with specific responsibilities and tasks. One of the areas in which the local police have continued to play is in the domain of terrorism prevention. In essence, the very complex nature of terrorism and terrorist groups makes it impossible for the federal law enforcers to effectively handle the threat posed by global terrorism. Working in close collaboration with the local communities, the local law enforcers have played a critical role of collecting vital information on personalities suspected to have links to terrorist groups. A critical evaluation depicts these agencies as better placed to make a objective assessment of community security fears and concerns identified as critical in effective fathering of intelligence information, particularly considering the ability of community policing to engage citizens, foster collective problem solving, and encourage information sharing based on mutual trust (Middlemiss and Gupta, 2007). By receiving and sharing information with state as well as federal agents while at the same time maintaining confidentiality especially in reference to sensitive information, the local police have been, and continue to be of great help in the fight against terrorism. Other terrorism prevention initiatives that they could be involved in include the identification, evaluation and reduction of the terrorist threat posed to local targets (Sauter and Carafano, 2005). Another domain in which the local law enforcement agencies should be actively involved in is in the domain of critical incident prevention, preparations and response (). One of the traditional roles in which the local police have been involved in is preparing and promptly responding to disasters such as Katrina. With the increasing threat of global terrorism however, such an approach has similarly been transferred to terrorist operations. Such efforts have included initiatives geared towards the derivation of early warning systems to detect the possibility of a terrorist attack. However, this role has also been expanded to security operations enhancement as well as establishing emergency medical teams. Besides, they have been involved in the establishment and implementation of local critical incident plans essential in the evaluation of the various waves of domestic and global terrorism (). However, the successful management of terrorist scenes requires that the local police work in close collaboration with state and federal agencies. Although numerous precautionary measures have been undertaken to prevent terrorist attacks similar to 9/11, the possibility of another attack, either by a foreign or domestic organization can not be ruled. As witnessed in 2001, such deadly attacks cause unprecedented trauma on those involved or their relatives. Thus, the local law enforcement agencies have to work closely with the local leaderships and the community in general in ensuring that such individuals recover from post-terrorist trauma. This could involve adopting effective strategies to alleviate the fear of potential attacks in future. In addition, the local police have to brace themselves with the complex security expectations that the affected community may place, including the provision of information and other extra services (Lyons, 2002). Besides the maintenance of manpower skilled in handling various terrorist challenges, local law jurisdictions have the responsibility of availing the resources necessary to implement antiterrorism and counterterrorism initiatives. Indeed, the reallocation of existing resources as well as the identification of new ones goes a long way in improving the security-preparedness of state and local officials (Sauter and Carafano, 2005). Such resources have been deployed to upgrade the capabilities of old security units in addition to establishing new ones. However, majority of the state and local authorities have increasingly faced numerous counterterrorism budget constrains which have posed as significant obstacles in the initiatives aimed at scaling up security measures. A number of these security initiatives have been funded by the federal government. Notably, the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security was aimed at consolidating most of the federal aid inclined to homeland security within the new department under the Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness (Sauter and Carafano, 2005, p. 64). Some of the activities currently funded include the provision of equipment as well as training of officers on domestic counterterrorist procedures and activities. Nevertheless, the limited funds availed have sometimes precipitated a reduction of existing security functions, for instance, redirecting local intelligence fraternity from the traditional role of unraveling organized crime to that of countering terrorist activity. Conclusion. Although relative calm has been witnessed since the 2001 attacks on American soil, the fight against terrorism is far from over. This calls for concerted efforts amongst all the stakeholders involved. Based on past experience, the local law enforcement agencies can indeed play a pivotal role in the antiterrorism and counterterrorism initiatives. These not only include the initiation of preventive strategies, but also extend to prompt response during actual attacks, as well trauma management. However, various factors continue to present insurmountable challenges in the realization of this noble mission. Particularly, a significant number of local law enforcement agencies still grapple with the reality of maintaining a balance between the fight against terrorism on the one hand and deterrence, and prevention of other crimes on the other. In essence therefore, greater federal support and cooperation is essential in supplementing the efforts of local law enforcement agencies.

Communication Within The Construction Industry Essay

Communication Within The Construction Industry - Essay Example In this context, it has been found that the Simon reports (1944, 1945, 1948) could be possibly regarded as a primary theoretical approach to the issue of communication in the construction industry. These reports refer to the â€Å"distribution of building materials, awareness of the problems faced and the contingency planning required to overcome post-war problems† (Emmitt et al., 2003, 12). In other words, there was an ‘indirect’ reference to the communication as a necessary element for the successful completion of a construction project. The study of the role of communication in the development of a construction project was expanded after the decade of 1960s while in the 1970s one of the most important studies appeared in the area is that of Broadbent’s Design and Architecture in 1973 which included â€Å"an entire chapter for the issue of communication† (Emmitt et al., 2003, 16). Another important study was also that of Paterson ‘Information Methods: For Design and Construction’ in 1977 which refer to the value of information towards the successful completion of a construction project. Other studies also followed in recent years emphasizing the need for effective communication in order to achieve the targets set in any construction project. Communication should be considered as an element of primary importance for the success of any construction project. In this context, it has been supported by Brown (2001, 1) that â€Å"communication has been cited by 25 per cent of all construction employers as a basic reason for failure†. On the other hand, it has been found that â€Å"differences in communication techniques, language and subsequent translation of the language into the design product mean that the existence of certain hurdles must be accepted; techniques need to be developed to ensure that they become simple obstacles, as opposed to

How modernism has changed architecture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

How modernism has changed architecture - Essay Example The word â€Å"modernism† is used as the synonym to the â€Å"modern architecture† or as the name of the style (in English literature- modern). The style is characterized by free and natural forms (Picture. 1). Modernism in architecture includes such branches as European functionalism of 1920-1930s, constructivism and rationalism of 1920s in Russia, the movement â€Å"Bauhaus† in Germany, the artdeco style, international style, brutalism, organic architecture. Thus, every of these phenomena is one of the branches of one tree that is called modernism in architecture. The main representatives of the modernism in architecture are the pioneers of the modern architecture: Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Adolph Georg Gropius, Richard Joseph Neutra, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier; Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto, Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida de Niemeyer Soares Filho (Crouch, 2000). Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris, 1887-1965) is a French architect with Sweden origin, a pioneer of modernism, a representative of the international style of architecture, a painter and a designer. The great popularity of the work of Le Corbusier can be explained by his universal approach and social meaning of his propositions. It is impossible not to mention his contribution, which revealed free forms in architecture. He stated: â€Å"modern life demands, and is waiting for, a new kind of plan, both for the house and the city† (cited in Le Corbusier). Under the influence of his projects and the buildings he designed the perception of architects changed and they start using free forms in architecture more frequently. One of the buildings, which perfectly reflect his ideas, is Villa Savoye (Picture 2): â€Å"Villa Savoye is Purist to the extreme–a stark white floating box pierced by symmetrical horizontal window openings. The house is devoid of decoration a nd visual interest is created by the play of