Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Psychology - Essay Example Important here to note is that there is no meaning attached to them and no forceful repetition of the same. In case of other the both of them, the stored memory becomes a short term memory that can last with the individual for less than half a minute (Henderson, pp. 115-116, 1999). It is like when a person looks at a word or a picture for a while to recall it after a while. The longest possible recall is of the long-term memory that a person posses which can last from minutes to lifetime. One of the most important aspects of this model is flashbulb memories. Under normal situations, one would move from sensory to short term and from short term to long-term memory, however, there are special circumstances when a sensory memory directly becomes a part of your long-term memory. People who have witnessed the assassination of John F. Kennedy, 9/11 Attacks, flood, fire, murder, robbery or some extra ordinary event in their lives, even if they have witnessed, only a glance of it, they tend to remember it for ages making it a part of their long term memory (Heffernan, pp. 89-90, 2005). For the past few decades, flashbulb memories have been considered as very dynamic and life long memories, however, recent researches have shown that they may not remain with a person for that long, as it was believed previously. Furthermore, during the period of 3-12 months after the events, the memory also starts to rust raising serious questions over its accuracy (Cardwell & Flanagan, pp. 56-57, 2005). Levels of Processing Model and Revising an Exam Craik and Lockhart in 1972 presented their model of memory, which they name as Level of Processing Model. Unlike the Multi Store Model of memory, which argues about eh dual store of memory, this model urges that short term and long-term memory is based on depth or level of processing on the stimuli. Fragile, vulnerable and violate memory traces are in the short-term store, however, memories with durable and lasting elements are placed in th e long-term memory section of the brain. However, important here is to understand that what makes a memory fragile or durable? For example, processing of words based on their pictures and sounds requires shallow and straightforward processing, however, processing of things along which some meaning, logic or rational has been associated, is deeper and thus more durable (Miller, pp. 69-71, 2002). The human brain has complete network of semantic structures and whenever a specific stimuli is recalled, it will tend to have a higher recall value it is line with the existing semantic structures’ of the brain. In this case, the processing of that stimuli or memory would be deep, since many different portions of the semantic structure of the brain would come into action before a perfect meaning for the stimuli comes onto the scene. As mentioned that since it is deep processing, therefore, this stimuli or memory would become a part of this long-term memory section of the brain (Weiten, pp. 6-8, 2008). Without any doubts, the level of processing model offers great insights regarding how to revise for an exam. The basic idea to remember is that in some way or the other, the key to recalling things is associating other things

The Sandwich Blitz Inc Essay Example for Free

The Sandwich Blitz Inc Essay 1. How would creating a new position between the CEO and the location managers help the business to grow? 2. Is promoting an existing manager the best option to fill this position? If not, what is an alternative source to fill the position? 3. Who within the company should make these decisions? 4. List the levels of authority (management) that Sandwich Blitz, Inc. would have if the new position is created. Dalmon and Lei are trying to expand their business The Sandwich Blitz Inc. They have two great location mangers that have a lot of skills and are ready to move up in the company. Dalmon and Lei have to make time to investigate the two options of expanding their company. Dalmon and Lei have authority over their staff they give the location mangers authority over the stores to help run the store. I think if they can delegate their task it will free up time for the CEOs to focus more on the expansion of the companies. How would creating a new position between the CEO and the location managers help the business grow? It will help the business grow because it will free some of the responsibilities that Dalmon and Lei are doing now that is conflating with them being able to focus on expanding the company and the growth of the company. Is promoting an existing manager the best option to fill this position? Yes I think that promoting within the company is a great idea because the location mangers have already been in the company and they have the knowledge of the company and skills. I think that if they build a build a senior team thats able to manage all the critical areas of the business it will help take the company to another level. These location managers have an excitement to make things happen and it will help them to grow and be motivated to be prepare for the new expanding. Who within the company should make this decision? The CEO responsibility is to have the right management team that can cover shortcomings. Also CEO may be able to set strategy, predict the future and control the budget, but if they dont hire the right team, they have to master it all themselves. And hire the best like they have done in previous years for the others stores.

Essence Of Decision A Review Politics Essay

Essence Of Decision A Review Politics Essay Graham Allisons Essence of Decision offered alternative conceptual models on foreign policy decision making and a specific discussion on the Cuban missile crisis; and has been one of the influential book in history of foreign policy analysis. It gives a significant contribution to political science study, as it has been heavily cited in most international relations textbook and also discussed by foreign policy analysts. However, despite the models strong influence in foreign policy study, it has been heavily criticised by foreign policy analysts about its utility and value in decision making analysis. In Essence of Decision, Allison proposes three different lenses that offers a multi-level analysis rather than a regular solely system-level to analyse foreign policy decision making. His first model, Unitary Government Model or Rational Actor Model (RAM) explain government as a black box, thus the internal actors have the same goals and opinion on how to achieve the goal. On the other hand, model II and model III will open the black box and discuss at two different things inside the box and later known as bureaucratic politics model. Model II or Organizational Process Model looks at the key organizational or agencies with their own function, mission and structure. Lastly, Model III or Governmental Politics Model will focus on key individual decision makers and the political bargaining process among them. Nonetheless, Allisons conceptual framework has been not only highly praised by foreign policy analysts, but also has been much criticised since its first edition. Number of criticism has risen regarding Allisons conceptual framework, ranging from its originality until the problem of evidences that have been used by Allison in explaining the Cuban Missile Crises. Conford and Horelick, for example, argue that Allisons model is not wholly original work, rather than it is developed from previous study. Moreover, another group of criticism have questioned the account of the Cuban Missile Crises that explained by Allison. Despite these two criticisms, there are number of criticism that will be discussed in the following section. By looking at number of criticism about Allisons model, there is a big question about the usefulness of the model in foreign policy decision making process analysis. This essay aims to evaluate the utility of Allisons conceptual policy in foreign policy decision making. This essay will also critically discuss each of the three models by looking from some perspectives. Moreover, taking into account that this essay relies on Allisons Essence of Decision, this essay will also look at the decision making process regarding the Cuban Missile Crisis. Allisons Conceptual Framework Model I: The Rational Actor (RAM) Model I is the basic yet critical conceptual framework that mostly utilized in foreign policy decision making analysis. RAM is the best model in explaining and predicting of an individual behaviour, as well as purpose generalization in states action. The model reduces the organizational and governmental political complications by looking at government as unified actor.  [1]  Thus, a complete-informed government -regarded as black box- will process information to optimize rational action. The internal structure within decision making process will calculate the potential pro and con and later rank all the options by their chance to succeed.  [2]   Its feature of being easy to utilize, RAM could be useful when a state has limited or even no available information about the enemy. Therefore, since it does not require information to analyse a case, RAM would be very suits in a crisis situation. It would safe more time since a state does not necessary do a complex evaluation about their enemy. Lastly, RAM that stresses interaction among states, will immediately produce prudent decision after considering the pro and con. Its simplicity in analysing a case makes RAM one of the popular methods in foreign policy decision making process. On the other side, some foreign policy analysts argue that in the real foreign policy formation, number of external and individual interest factor will eventually give a big impact. Moreover, RAM tends to ignore a large state with complex bureaucratic nature that has various kinds of departments with their own different political and ideological perspectives.  [3]  Therefore, along with the argument that intra-national factors are very importantà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦yet critical when one is concerned with planning policy, Allison has proposed so-called, Bureaucratic Politics Model.  [4]   Model II: Organizational Process Difficulties will arise when the case that are going to be examined is not the behaviour of an individual or a state with simple bureaucracy model, but the behaviour of one organization or government with complex structure inside. Therefore, Allison provides two alternative conceptual frameworks that will open up the black box to evaluate internal structure inside the government, which is later known as Model II and Model III. Model II or Organizational Process Model focuses on the existing organization and their standard operating procedures (SOP) for gaining information, defining possible option and implementing programme.  [5]  Each organization has an agreement for both its mission and function. Afterward, series of program are developed to carry out those missions. In defining feasible option, Model II argues that it is restricted based on SOP that will enhance performance and efficiency. Moreover, Model II is not optimizing rational actor, as model I does, but rather, it is satisfying decision making actors. Its account that foreign policy outcomes are derive from bureaucratic programs, routines and SOP, makes number of advantage from this model. It emphasizes the important domestic political influences on process of foreign policy decision making that sometimes missed out from RAM. Therefore, model II reminds the analysts that the policy was formed not only by a high level decision-maker, but sometimes it is formed by organization.  [6]   Nevertheless, a set of criticism has arisen in the utility of model II. Its emphasis on organisational culture may ill-serve higher level officials and finally can lead to impair the analysts understanding of organizations and their behaviour.  [7]  Even though this kind of problem does not occur for most of the time, but we can take it as a consideration of the effectiveness of the model. Model III: Governmental Politics Governmental politics model or government bargaining model focuses on key individual decision makers with their great influence in deciding on organizational actor. Moreover, the model assumes that decision makers have different perceptions, priorities, commitments and also organizational positions (where you stand depends on where you sit). Therefore, model III assumes that governmental actions are the result of a political bargaining process among key players. Furthermore, bargaining and negotiation processes will result in satisfying rather than optimizing decision making result. It obviously explained because personal ambition of key actor may diverge from public policy position and may lead to personal power considerations when making decision. Between Allisons three conceptual frameworks, model III adds important detail about domestic politics that obviously, cannot be found in model I. In addition, model III not only explains the roles of key individuals, but it also explains why individuals are working at contrary purposes to the interest of the government as a whole. Lastly, model III gives us explanation why policy sometimes appears to be irrational if we look it from a unitary government perspective. Nevertheless, model III also received many critics, especially on the complexity of the model. It is focus on individual key actor that makes it difficult to study and analyse. Moreover, it requires too many variables, some variable are unknown and it is hard to apply for other countries with unclear bureaucratic politics inside. Criticism toward Allisons conceptual framework Allisons conceptual framework has been attacked by number of criticism, varying from the originality of the model, different interpretation of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the US political system, and also methodological criticism. As Stephen D. Krasner has argued that Allisons model à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦is misleading, dangerous, and compelling.  [8]  Therefore, in this section, number of criticism of Allisons model will be critically discussed and assessed. Some foreign policy analysts, such as, Cornford, Horelick, Ball and Art claimed that Allison did not present a pure brand new approach to analysing foreign policy process; but rather it just development from previous theories. Conford has claimed that organisational process mode is previously done by writers such as, Simon, March and Simon, Cyert and March.  [9]  Furthermore, Conford has claimed that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Model IIIà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦is pure Neustadt.  [10]  Horelick et al.  [11]  supported Confords argument by suggesting that the bureaucratic model is closely related to previous work done by Kremlinologists.  [12]  Ball and Art  [13]  also mentioned names of analyst that originally make the bureaucratic policy model, such as Huntington, Hilsman, Schilling, and Neustadt.  [14]   Nevertheless, Allison has dedicated a section in his book to acknowledge previous scholars that become his foundation in developing his methods. He is fully aware that he utilizes and developed earlier scholars work as he mentioned in his book, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦this encourages much repackaging of existing theoriesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ã‚  [15]  Therefore, he identifies a group of writers such as March and Simon, Barnard, Cyert and Simon and so on for foundation of model II.  [16]  Furthermore, Allison also acknowledged his intellectual debt to previous scholars that related to model III paradigm,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦model III variety have attracted increasing attention since 1960à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ the publication of Presidential Power by Richard E. Neustadt.  [17]  Hence, we could argue that Allisons originality does not lie in his model, but rather in his approach to apply his models consistently to one particular case study, the Cuban Missile Crisis.  [18]   Another criticism can be seen from methodological perspective; numbers of similarities between model II and model III have shaped ambiguity between those two models. In many occasions, some foreign analysts will combine model II and model III to analyse a case study, including Allison himself. In his article with Halperin, Allison combines those two models and become one major model the bureaucratic politics paradigm- as an alternative model to RAM.  [19]  As Conford argues that the three models is not totally incommensurable model to analyse foreign policy making process.  [20]  Therefore, even though Allison distinguishes three kinds of model in foreign policy analysis, those models is not easily separable in their actual application. In bureaucratic politics model, decision is not arise from one unitary actor, but through some bargaining between organisation structures with their own agenda. Model II and model III have identical characteristics that enable them to be grouped as bureaucratic politics model. The two models are similar in a sense that both models focus on departments and organizations inside the decision maker; however, it is slightly different, in a sense that, if model II will reach a decision through Standard Operation Program, model III will make a decision through bargaining between various players within government. Despite the insignificant difference between those models, they are usually combined as the bureaucratic politics model.  [21]   However, Caldwell has raised bureaucratic politics models major problem regarding the use of evidence and data. The model requires detailed data that hardly available in term of quantity and quality. In addition, Caldwell argued that there is huge possibility for analyst to imposing the model on the evidence rather than testing the model against it. Therefore, bureaucratic politics model has significant problem in analysing the data and evidence, since previous empirical problems show that data was made to fit the model.  [22]   Allisons alternative model has also been argued that it eliminated decision-makers responsibility toward the policy. The strong criticism has risen from Steel and Krasner, which argued that no one, even the President, holds responsibility of the policy as the outcome from bargaining process among bureaucratic groups. As Steel argued that, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦where everyone is responsible for a decision, no one is responsible.  [23]  The same argument also comes from Krusnet who argued that bureaucratic politic eliminates the importance of election: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Elections are a farce not because the people suffer from false consciousness, but because public officials are impotent, enmeshed in a bureaucracy so large that the actions of government are not responsive to their will.  [24]  In contrast, Smith argues that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦this criticism is only valid to the extent to which the President is unable to get his wishes carried out.  [25]  Therefore, the criticism from Ste el and Kranser is not applicable for all cases and need to be modified. Furthermore, following previous criticism, there is criticism about Allisons model utility to other countries. Even though Allison clearly points out his intention to present two additional frameworks to other countries foreign policy analysis (not only limited to the US and Soviet Unions policy making)  [26]  , a group of writers has argued the inability of the model to analyse foreign policy behaviour in other countries, to be precise, un-industrialized countries. As Hill has noted that there is a growing consensusà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦over the inapplicability of the insights of Allison, et al. to foreign policy-making inside less modernised states.  [27]  Migdal has also argued that the model cannot be applied to the countries that do not have stability of organizational structure, routine, and even bargaining process.  [28]  Moreover, Brenner also argues that Allisons model is not a universal model and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦more distinctive in the United States than elsewhere.  [ 29]  Despite all criticisms regarding its utility to other countries, Weil has proved, in fact, the model could be utilised in the North Vietnamese foreign policy analysis. As Weil notes that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦examining North Vietnamese foreign policy decision making from a governmental politics perspective complements understanding gained from a rational actor analysis.  [30]   Nevertheless, analists argued that the model is not even applicable to the Soviet Union, although the Soviet Union foreign policy has been heavily discussed in Essence of Decision. It is not only because the model requires more specific information than is available, but also as Dawisha has noted that the bureaucracy in some countries (e.g. the Soviet Union) is fundamentally different from its position in the United States because the persistent influence of the Communist Party.  [31]  Therefore, there is a doubt about the utility of Allisons model in other countries, as Wagner has pointed out, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the extension of Allisons model III to other countries may be a less straightforward enterprise than he implies.  [32]   Singapores defence posture change in the early 1980s In the early 1980s, Singapore announces a major important change in its defence policy, from a defensively deterrent strategy (poisonous shrimp) to a more actively deterrent strategy (known as the porcupine). In an article done by Pak Shun Ng, he applies Allisons model to analyse Singapores domestic decision making process. Pak Shun Ng treats Singapore as unitary rational actor to utilizing model I (RAM); the military organisations as the unit of analysis for model II; lastly, the military and political party leadership (including senior military leaders and civilian leaders of Singapores ruling party, the Peoples Action Party (PAP)) as units of analysis for model III.  [33]  The article argues that model II and model III provide the most reasonable explanation of the change in Singapores defence position in the 1980s; while model I has failed to fully explain the change. Model II first reveals the appropriate development of both Singapores military capability and military planni ng ability. Furthermore, model III then prove details how the Singapore Armed Force (SAF) could announce the change convincingly to improve its stature among Singaporeans and foreigners by persuasive them that Singapore has appropriate capability to defend and survive any potential threat.  [34]  Even though the article heavily honours the utility of Allisons model, but it still proposes modification of the models in order to be able to analyse a decision making process in a small and non-western states under absence of crisis condition. Furthermore, the case study of Singapores policy making shows the evidence of model II and III complete each other and make one alternative model against RAM, namely, the bureaucratic politic model. Therefore, it supports the criticism that previously discussed that Allisons models, especially model II and III, have strong similarities and hardly separate. The utility of Allisons model also can be tested in the US foreign policy in Iran hostage crisis in 1979. The bureaucratic politics model is applicable in analysing the decision making process under President Carter administration. The key group in Carters government consisted of number individual who have important position in the executive branch, and also political outsiders that rarely well known, yet have close personal relations to the President. Within the key group that were known as the Georgia mafia, there are two closest advisors for the President; the chief of staff, Hamilton Jordan and Carters press secretary, Jody Powell. Even though these two advisors are not familiar in politic and foreign policy process, they were loyal and intelligent. When sixty American were taken hostage at the American embassy in Iran on 4 November 1979, the initial response from Carter is criticised to be quite slow. On 11 November, the US gave economy sanction by initiating embargo of Iranian oil. While the economy sanction was undertaken, there were ongoing debates about the next step dealing with the crisis. There were two major options; a commando raid to rescue hostages and outright air strikes and military blockades.  [35]  Here we can clearly see how each faction in the government has their own argument to propose to the President is clearly explained by Allisons bureaucratic politics model. A strong debate was occurred between Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance; National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzenzinsky and Carters inner circle, Powell and Jordan. Vance was explicitly being in opposition to any military action after considering that American allies would not tolerate such behaviour. Therefore, he believed that the national security of the US could be maintained without endangering the lives of sixty American citizens.  [36]  On the other side, Brzezinsky strongly opposed military measure as the best means to protect Americas vital interests.  [37]  Moreover, the argument was supported by the director of the CIA, Stanfield Turner, after considering the CIAs best estimates that 60 percent of the hostages could be killed as a result of very complex rescue process. These two faction also argued that they are responsible for the national security, roughly 250 million Americans, and they couldnt simply compromised for the sake of sixty hostages. The final faction c ame from Carters inner circle, including Powell and Jordan, who were concern about the impact of Iran hostage crisis on upcoming election in 1981. The President concurred Vances opinion that a negotiated settlement would be the best for maintaining both national interest and national security. As the response of Carters decision, he received public support, which is important for the upcoming election. However, after considering the effectiveness of the plan, Powell and Jordan opposed the President for tough action against Iranians, again, in order to win the election. In the end, with strong pressure from some faction and absence of Vance in decision making process at the time, Carter called for an immediate military rescues on April 11. The military rescue plan ended in failure with crash of number of helicopters and planes; and killing eight US servicemen. Finally, in 1981s election, Reagan came into power and selesai lah sudah This illustrates the absence of one faction who opposes one specific argument could impact the decision making process as a whole.

Stop-Loss Policy Essay -- Government War Violence Essays

Stop-Loss Policy War has been around since the beginning of time. People have been asked to defend for their country and to die for their cause. But is the war that America is currently involved in, one of the times where people should be forced to die and stay overseas. The men and women who volunteered to fight for the country they love, are not being forced to stay longer then the original time they were supposed to stay, all thanks to President Bush’s â€Å"stop-loss policy† otherwise known as the â€Å"back-door draft.† The â€Å"stop-loss program† was introduced in order to counter act the number of men and women’s lives lost in the war and the number of people who have not been signing up to join. There are few arguments that are pro the â€Å"back-door draft† yet there are many more arguments that are against the policy. This paper will explain why the reasons why the policy is something that will just destroy America, such as people being forced to say in war, their families being affected, the volunteer military becoming a non volunteer, and even what it has done to some of the soldiers. President Bush put the â€Å"stop-loss policy† into effect giving the military the power to keep military personnel for up to twenty-four months longer, in a combat zone or in a high-risk area. If a soldier’s military group is being shipped over to fight the War in Iraq, then the soldier would have to go with them as well. It does not matter if the soldier only has a month left, it would not matter and he would still have to go with him. According to what is written in the policy, â€Å"The policy is designed to assist in meeting manpower requirements for future operations, and will, therefore, evolve to remain relevant to future operations, and will, therefore, evolve to remain relevant to future developments in mission requirements and our involvement in current operations.† (Maradmin) Since the beginning of American there has been a draft for people to join the military. During the Vietnam War (1973) the draft finally became something of the past that is until now. The draft has just changed a little to fit with the changing of times. Instead of civilians being forced to go and fight for their country, the soldier’s who have already given up so much for their country are being forced to stay. How can America claim to have a fully volunteer military when ... ...e vent of war, my enlistment in the armed forces continues six months after the was ends unless it is discontinued by the president.† (Wagner) Even though the soldiers are told these things, is it still ok for the government to be asking this of them? Yes they have previous knowledge, but something like this should not happen. The government needs to realize that they need to not start these things, if they are not going to have enough military to support all of it. In conclusion, the men in women who are protecting the lives of all the citizens in the united states, are being forced to stay in Iraq or Afghanistan, well beyond their discharged dates, for the government who was not very well planned out. The soldiers however have been fighting back, and not just listening to what the government tells them. Although some people think that since soldiers sign up, and have previous knowledge of the issue, that it would be fine, but that is far from the truth. Each member of the military is a person, and deserves the same rights as everyone else. The government has taken the all-volunteer army, and has turned it into a different kind of draft army, a â€Å"back-door draft†.

Quality of Life for the Patient and Family Essay

Quality of life has a different meaning for everyone. Many personal thoughts and feelings can come into play when caring for others during the end stages of life. However as a nurse and caregiver, these opinions must be put aside at this significant time. For some health care providers, we may feel that keeping the patient comfortable and having them surrounded by family is most important. However, for the patient, personal culture, lifestyle and value for one self as well as a sense of independence in handling this time alone is most imperative. Therefor a nurse must consider the individual’s past experiences, present lifestyle and personal hopes in which they choose to live in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns at this stage. One must meet not only the physical needs of the patient but the psychosocial demands in this sensitive time of need. Seeking aggressive medical treatment vs. palliative care is something that is very personal and differs from individual to individual. Nurses’ opinions and suggestions of the â€Å"best care† should not be voiced to the patient or family, even if asked directly. For Mrs. Thomas, time also plays an important role. She is young and may have many other worries than those of an older age experience in preparing for end of life. A nurse must consider what areas of life are important to her and what is the relative importance of each of these areas. Personal perception that counting on family support is huge, but may not be possible in Mrs. Thomas’ situation as her children live out of town. STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE QUALITY OF LIFE The nurse should look at several strategies that directly impact the patient as well as the family. Quality of life not only looks at the health status the patient but those directly involved in the care of the patient. This encompasses a broader set of planning including finances, housing, and employment. This will have a direct impact on the entire family. Three important strategies that are helpful to relieve overall stress and promote optimal coping skills include: 1) patient awareness of disease process, 2) available support from healthcare providers and 3) addressing physical as well as the psychosocial needs of the patient. Healthcare professionals must be prepared and speak directly with the patient and family when it is determined best to the physician’s ability, that the identified disease of breast cancer will cause death. Advance planning and preparation may be helpful in dying well if Mrs. Thomas is more aware about her status of disease. Physicians and nurses must change the plan of aggressive medical treatments of curing the disease of breast cancer and concentrate providing support and a comfortable well being of the deteriorating disease process. This in turn should provide a plan of care for relief of pain, contentment to the patient and focus on the overall whole being of quality of life. The homecare team can include doctors, nurses, home health aides, social workers, and clergy as well as trained volunteers. Most team members provide on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to deliver support. The patient and family should feel the comfort in calling these resources at anytime. The nurse must remind Mrs. Thomas and her husband that they are not â€Å"bothering† any team member by asking for assistance. The team must always work together and communicate the patient’s goals for end-of-life care. It is important for all to realize this is very individualized for each patient and family member. Each individual strategy should include caring for the whole person physically, emotionally, socially and spiritually. It important for the team to develop strengths based perspectives of psychosocial interventions and listen to what the patient and family have to say to enable them to cope better. In doing so, the team must also communicate on each encounter with Mrs. Thomas and family as well as each other to assure that her and the husband’s needs are being met. HOLISTIC CARE A holistic nursing care plan in valuable in delivering care to the entire person in supporting the physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, social and environmental needs. With this approach, nursing care needs to move away from viewing Mrs. Thomas as merely a ‘diagnosis’ and treating her as a whole person. Nursing goals should be to develop immediate trust with the patient and family, provide comfort, supportive care, and symptom management. This can be achieved by effective communication and providing a calm, relaxed setting for Mrs. Thomas. Allowing her to speak openly and honestly about her feelings and emotions of grief, physical complaints such as pain, nausea, and difficulty sleeping is a good way to start to develop a trusting nurse/patient relationship. As a nurse, one must be supportive and be willing to listen openly. Once Mrs. Thomas begins to express these types of things, the nurse must review and evaluate every visit to improve specific concerns with her. More importantly, healthcare providers must display an openness to hear new concerns and prioritize the needs of the patient and family. FUNCTIONAL ABILITY Assessments to maintain the self functional ability for Mrs. Thomas should include creating a plan to achieve realistic goals and allow self care as long as possible. This in turn can give control back to Mrs. Thomas, help raise confidence and value her quality of life. Mrs. Thomas’ physical, social and environmental conditions should also be considered to help her care for herself. Discussing the 24/7 availability of visits from registered nurses and social workers, involving family and friends or volunteers that can help with running errands and meal preparation for adequate dietary intake, and discussing appropriate medical equipment to assist with ADLs such as performing personal hygiene can prove to be helpful. PROVIDING ADDITIONAL CARE When self-care is no longer possible, the importance of more frequent nurse and/or social worker visits, and interaction of clergy is valuable. In addition, further involvement of additional family, friends, home health aides or volunteers to assist not only with running errands, meal preparation and assistance with ADLs but being present in the home for longer periods to care directly for Mrs. Thomas becomes more imperative. The nurse can assist in making sure appropriate DME equipment is in the home. In addition, this turns out to be a time when additional emotional support is of great concern for Mr. Thomas. CHRONIC DEPRESSION Mr. Thomas already suffers from chronic depression and now has to endure immense and continuous stress to care for his wife with advanced breast cancer. Over time this takes a toll his health, ability to work, finances, and their own personal and family needs. Involvement of not only the nurse, but also social worker and bereavement counselor can help Mr. Thomas tremendously. Encouraging him to take his medications will help both him and his wife. Also, reassurance that it is okay to want quiet time and allowing others to help to care for his wife should be verbalized to him in a caring manner. Taking some of the financial worries away from Mr. Thomas may help as well. The social worker can discuss resources that are of no cost from community volunteer organizations and review the reimbursement of covered services from the insurance organization at the beginning and in ongoing care of his wife. Sharing the right information with the patient’s family is very important and can assist in better coping. Again, the home care team must offer an environment that provides the openness to hear all concerns and overall needs of not only the patient but also her family.

Vertigo and Film noir essays

Vertigo and Film noir essays "She falls into his arms for a passionate embrace and... Then, suddenly the a black-clad figure in the shadows startle Judy. She backs away from Scottie gasping: "Oh, no!" Terrified, thinking she is seeing the ghost of Madeleine Judy recoils, steps and falls backward through an opening in the tower and plummets to her own death (off-screen) in an emotionally-shattering climax. The figure, actually a nun from the mission, crosses herself and murmurs the last words of the film: "God have mercy." The nun pulls the bell rope and rings the mission bell. As the bell tolls Scottie, cured of his vertigo, emerges from the arched window of the tower onto the belfry ledge. He stares down in horror at her body far below - stunned, open-mouthed, shocked and glassy-eyed... the scene fades to black." This image and many others in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo are intensely shocking, disturbing, and captivating. Hitchcock was able to receive these desired reactions by mastering the style of film noir . "A scion of the burgeoning lower middle class in London," Hitchcock was born on August 13th, 1899 (Perry). During his early childhood, Hitchcock's father punished the then five year old boy by having him locked in a jail cell for a few minutes. Much older, Hitchcock regarded this event as making a lasting influence on his work and outlook on life. One can see the issue of the fear of incarceration present in some of his films. While receiving a Jesuit education under priests, he gained awareness of the force of evil. After some engineering training he became a technical estimator and enrolled for fine arts courses at London University. While learning about art he worked for the advertising department of Henley house magazine and remembered his passion for cinema. He began working for German studios in the 1920s and by the end of 1926, Hitchcock was the most sought after British Director. Beginning first with silent black and white films he was able ...

AM Radio Communication Systems essays

AM Radio Communication Systems essays The process of AM radio signal transmission requires low frequency audio signals to be radiated long distances. This is done by superimposing the low frequency audio signal on a high frequency carrier wave by the process of modulation. This section will describe what each section of the AM transmitter is and the function of it.. The microphone converts sound waves into electrical signals at a very low level (the audio frequency range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz). These signals are amplified by the modulator. The modulator is just an audio frequency amplifier that increases the output of the microphone to a useable level. This increased audio frequency is input into a modulation amplifier (This is some type of non linear device), along with the carrier frequency. The carrier frequency is generated by the RF (radio frequency) oscillator. This oscillator is required to be extremely stable regardless of age or temperature. The audio is superimposed onto the carrier by the modulation amplifier. The low power modulated carrier is boosted in amplitude by one or more the radio frequency power amplifier. The antenna produces an electromagnetic wave which is radiated into space. This signal will be received by the receiver. This section will describe the operation of the superheterodyne receiver. The design of the superheterodyne receiver uses a different approach that has eliminated the need for complex adjustment of the filter. The superheterodyne receiver uses a fixed filter and attempts to alter the desired input signal to the tuned frequency of the filter. There are low power signals from thousands of radio transmitters on many different frequencies. Because of all of these low level frequencies, a receiver must have very good selectivity (the ability to select one frequency while rejecting all others), and good sensitivity (the ability to receive a weak signal and amplify it to a useable level).These signals are inducing signal volt...

Articulated Prepositions in Italian

Articulated Prepositions in Italian You’ve learned about prepositions like â€Å"a†, â€Å"di†, and â€Å"da†, but you’ve also been seeing ones that look like â€Å"al†, â€Å"del†, and â€Å"dal†. Are these the same prepositions, and if so, how do you know when to use them? These prepositions are called articulated prepositions, and they are formed when the simple preposition (like â€Å"su†) combines with a definite article (like â€Å"lo†), and form one word that looks like, â€Å"sullo†. Why Do Articulated Prepositions Exist? Despite the difficulty they add to all of the Italian grammar you have to learn, articulated prepositions are probably one of the reasons you like listening to Italian. They add a melodic flow to the language that makes Italian easier on the ears. What Do Articulated Prepositions Look Like? Below you’ll find a table with all of the articulated prepositions.   For example: Ho comprato delle uova. - I bought some eggs. Delle - di le Note: Pay particular attention to what happens when you combine the preposition â€Å"in† with a definite article as the form changes more dramatically than the others. Articulated Prepositions in Italian Definite Article A DI DA IN SU CON il al del dal nel sul col/con il lo allo dello dallo nello sullo con lo l all dell dall nell sull con l i ai dei dai nei sui coi/con i gli agli degli dagli negli sugli con gli la alla della dalla nella sulla con la l all dell dall nell sull con l le alle delle dalle nelle sulle con le Esempi: Vai al cinema? - You’re going to the movies?Vorrei tanto andare negli Stati Uniti! - I would really like to go to the United States!Ci sono tanti ristoranti sulla spiaggia. - There are a lot of restaurants on the beach.Uno dei miei amici mi ha consigliato di andare a Verona. Che ne pensi? - One of my friends advised that I go to Verona. What do you think?Mi piace leggere alla sera. - I like to read in the evening. Also, note that you only need to know how to change five of the seven prepositions into their articulated forms, with con typically only combining with il and i.   You never need to change â€Å"tra†, â€Å"fra† or â€Å"per†. When Do You Use Articulated Prepositions? When you do or do not use this form of prepositions can get tricky very quickly as there are often more exceptions than rules. However, there is one rule that tends to stay consistent. Typically, you would use articulated prepositions when the noun following whatever preposition you’re using requires an article, like â€Å"Che ore sono? - What time is it? → Sono le dieci. - It’s ten†. When you’re talking about time, the article is most likely needed. With that in mind, you would know to use an articulated preposition in this phrase: We’ll see each other at ten. → Ci vediamo alle dieci. Some expressions in Italian are also fixed and must include the articulated preposition, and you’ll often see this happen with locations. For example, â€Å"I’m going to to the dentist† would be, â€Å"Vado dal dentista†. It’s easier, however, to talk about when you should avoid using articulated prepositions. Here are the most common situations. DON’T use articulated prepositions before: A name, like â€Å"Luca†Names of cities, like â€Å"Boston†Fixed phrases, like â€Å"vacanza da sogno - dream vacation†

Reflection paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3

Reflection paper - Essay Example The checklists consisted of items that highlight the characteristic behaviors that can be observed with the student and is associated with the disorder such as inattentiveness and poor organization. A section for other learning problems and family history was also given in the checklist. Finally, a free-flow box was also made available and is intended for checklist users to express further comments and explanations about the student. The next part of the chapter delved on the two types of ADD, its causes, analogous illnesses, co-morbidity, and intervention team. According to Hannell (2006), an individual with ADD can exhibit as an Inattentive Type, Hyperactive-Impulsive Type, or a combination of both. Inattentive individuals typically daydream and fail to finish classroom tasks. Meanwhile, the hyperactive-impulsive types are those who are restless, talkative, and sometimes destructive. Hannell (2006) revealed that the cause of ADD is usually attributed to genetic factors and some food link. In the normal course of development, individuals may show the same symptoms for the disorder but are usually in more intense degrees. Giftedness, emotional and behavioral disturbances, and epilepsy may be quite similar to ADD but is not qualified as such. ADD also co-exists with learning disabilities, oppositional defiant disorder, and conduct disorder. Lastly, teachers, behavior management specialists, and pediatricians are involved in helping the student with ADD. Before taking on any appointment with a student with ADD, it is imperative that a counselor get his hands on as much in-depth information as he can about the intricacies of the disorder. In this way, he will know the best way to communicate with a child or adolescent with the condition during the counseling session. Considering that they have special needs, the typical counseling approaches may not work well with them. But with adequate

HR Developing People Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

HR Developing People - Essay Example Finally, the project recommends the development of people model in group working. Steps in Developing People Model in Group Working Factors influencing and affecting the design of a learning event The most component in the design principle of a learning event is congruency. The presenter of the even must practice what he preaches. If he preaches to listen and support, then he must ensure that he himself does so. The next step in the learning event is developing a shared mission which defines the team. It primarily provides the purpose for which the group works. The purpose is to realise that all efforts coming from the members of the team are directed towards attainment of the group objectives and aims. The next step involves defining the roles and responsibilities of the respective members of the team. Each member must know exactly what is expected of them. Without the expectations, members are not able to develop mutual trust or accountability within the team (MIT, n.d.). The expec tations of the group must be made very clear, based on which members would be able to meet the expectations. There can also be a group leader who would be responsible for coordinating the efforts of the entire team and also providing guidance to the team in the process. The emphasis was to create a demonstration of the skills that were being imparted. The reason for choosing the method was to make the individuals learn from practice. It also allows them to accept and realise feelings. The motive is to make people learn while they are at work. It also enhances people’s confidence and appreciates the works of others. In the process they can help each other out which consequently helps to increase their problem solving skills (Krantz, 1997, p.1). The process of evaluation includes learners to demonstrate their learning. This way the skills of the candidates were evaluated. The demonstration is reviewed focussing on the factors which helped build up the skills of individuals. It would show the benefits of learning that has been generated and also highlight on the loopholes or drawbacks in the process. An effective way of redesigning the session would be to allow individuals to identify and bring forth their own problems. They would also be given the chance of self evaluation. They would be given the authority to judge their own leanings and the learning module that was prepared. Based on the evaluation their feedback would be collected. This feedback in combination with the listener’s feedback would be evaluated for results. The most crucial aspect in working as a team is effective communication. Team members must be communicated well what is expected of them. Members must be encouraged to develop practices for open communication. Communication here requires that members listen carefully and respectfully and then respond positively to the ideas generated from other members. If a particular idea is not clear and needs clarification, members must not s hirk from asking for additional information and clarification of the ideas (MIT, n.d.). It is also the role of the team members to create an environment which encourages members to share ideas among themselves. â€Å"Most great ideas are built by teams building on an initial thought† (MIT, n.d.). This should also be accompanied by treating the ideas of each member with

Credit Counterparts of Broad Money Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Credit Counterparts of Broad Money - Essay Example This paper illustrates that the effect of a government loan to another government is a reduction in the money supply in the economy. Based on the IS-LM model, it is apparent that reducing the supply of money shifts the LM curve to the right thus moving the equilibrium interest rate upwards and the level of national output downwards. On the macroeconomic level, the government can use this item of the Broad money counterparts as a macroeconomic policy to curb inflation or unsustainable increases in national output. The policy can be used as a contractionary fiscal to reduce excess liquidity in the economy and control inflation. Excess liquidity refers to a situation where the money being held by the public is in excess inducing excess spending and hence excess demand. The excess demand to supply can cause an unhealthy price increase. Foreign reserves are adjusted using the surpluses of trade that is a stimulus to increase exports thus increasing the foreign reserves while an increase i n imports decreases the foreign reserves. Changes in foreign prices in countries largely dependent on international trade have a significant effect on the money supply, inflation, and national output. The increase in the prices of imports will result in inflationary pressures in the economy. On the contrary, an increase in export prices will cause an increase in the profitability of the export goods and hence a shift of resources in the production of export goods. The change in import and export prices affects a countries balance of payment situation. The government can control national output and inflation through fiscal policies regulating imports and exports. When the balance of payment has been offset by over importation, the government can curb the inflationary effects by introducing higher tariffs that will adjust imports to a sustainable level.

Tweeter Home Entertainment Group Research Paper - 1

Tweeter Home Entertainment Group - Research Paper Example Empowerment comes in different forms, including financial and non-financial incentives for employees, among others.   DeHoratius Nicole and Raman Ananth conducted this case study on Tweeter Home Entertainment Group in the year 2007. These authors mainly focused on the influence store managers have on the sales of this company, with regard to incentive programs provided by the company to these managers. Tweeter Home Entertainment Group was a company located in New England. This was a retail company with various stores. Tweeter Home Entertainment Group specialized in the sale of different electronic products. These included audio electronic products, video electronic products, as well as electronic accessories such as camcorders. Most customers of this company were the high-income earners in society, who were the well-educated and prioritized quality of products (DeHoratius & Raman, 2007). The store managers in this company played an integral role. These were mainly tasked with ensuring that the company sales increase and the shrinkage level reduces. The store managers, therefore, employed various tactics in ensuring that they achieved this. These included consumer education and product promotion, as well as monitoring of financial issues and deviant consumer behaviors such as shoplifting in the company in order to keep an eye on shrinkage. Generally, store managers in this company were charged with many tasks, which required dedication and motivation for effective performance (DeHoratius & Raman, 2007).  Nonetheless, Tweeter Home Entertainment Group realized the importance of employee motivation, and therefore, provided different incentives to the store managers for their efforts. Store managers in Tweeter were allowed a low penalty on shrinkage, and rewarded differently for the sales they made, depending on their total sales.  

Sexism in Criminal Justice System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Sexism in Criminal Justice System - Essay Example Gender differences describe those differences described by the society and relate to the given social roles. Sex differences are biologically defined. Viewing the intrinsic societal perceptions, the notable notion of sexism is a leading social concern concerning different ideologies held by the society. Sexism entails the oppressive ideologies, attitudes, and behaviors held and propagated at either sex (Thompson, 2012).   The establishment of the social community is a notable advancement in the understanding of social discrimination issues and creating mitigation for the same accordingly. Hence, the understanding of sexism as an evil in the criminal justice system is a defining step towards establishing mitigation for such undesirable occurrences in the very system meant to maintain social order.  It is apparent there is inconsistent progress in improving the fight against the sexism issue. The issue of sexism and related discrimination acts Sexist remarks and actions are an ever yday occurrence, although most cases it occurs naturally at the subconscious level of the human conceptualization depending on the ideologies of that given system. The occurrence within the justice system is an illustration of such perpetuation of the subject of sexism in the society (Belknap, 2007). The women in the criminal justice system continue to face marginalization as they find it remarkably difficult to achieve the senior positions within the system.  The very subject that women are ineligible to hold the senior positions in the system because of their gender is evidence of the propagation of the evil of sexism. Another observable occurrence is that women victims and offenders continue to face heightened levels of marginalization in the criminal justice systems designed for men. The system fails to facilitate the women with support, safety, and justice (Thompson, 2012).  Ã‚  

Ethics in Entrepreneurship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Ethics in Entrepreneurship - Essay Example But in performing such type of operations, Ethics is extremely essential. It is known as the philosophy that an entrepreneur or business organization adheres in its dealings. This means, each and every business organization or entrepreneur comprises of certain rules and principles that its employees need to follow at the time of tackling its operations. Otherwise, the entire business organization might lead to downfall of productivity and profit margin. Apart from Ethics, Morality is another essential term offering high value towards business. Morality is mainly concerned with varied types of values, norms and beliefs that help an individual to detect the right or wrong actions. Thus, the behavior of an individual is highly influenced by such values, beliefs and norms that vary from person to person. With the help of such behaviors, an entrepreneur or individual enhances the prospects of a business organization. So, such values are extremely essential for an entrepreneur. Discussion The characteristics of Ethics in business are as follows: Ethical decisions differ from one person to another. It is mainly due to different views, values, norms and beliefs of varied types of individual. However, each and every types of ideas and values need to be apt for the customers or employees of the organization. Ethical decisions need to be at par with the cost incurred and the profit margin of the business. In order to do so, the entrepreneur needs to offer the products and services in such types of prices to its customers. The decisions of the employees in a business are voluntary their own deeds. So, it is essential for the employees to present ethical decisions that might prove effective for the business in long run (Shaw, 2010). Ethics is a trait of human being that needs to be ethical. Otherwise, being an employee of an organization, he might not be able to take any type of ethical decisions. Not only in his professional life, but ethics is also essential in oneâ€℠¢s private life. If he or she fails to take the ethical decisions, then he or she might never prosper in life in future era. Side by side, due to an unethical decision, not only the image or productivity of the organization might get reduced but also the reputation may decline. The range of customers might get reduced slowly and slowly leading to downfall of the entire profit margin of the organization. Thus, the rate of loyalty over the brand or the entrepreneurial image might get faded among the public day by day. So, it is extremely essential to maintain a strong status and supremacy in the market for the brand and its products on the basis of ethical decisions. Only then, an entrepreneur might prosper. Ethics is a type of characteristics feature of a human being that varies from one individual to another. Moreover, working in a group or an organization, the ethical views and norms of an individual also gets highly influenced by others. Some of the aspects by which, ethics within an organization gets affected are stated below: Religion- as numerous individual works within an organization or under an entrepreneur, some due to diverse religious traditions and norms, ethical decisions also get affected. Thus, sometimes, due to religious variations, the decision making of the individual gets influenced to a certain extent. But still, serving the human being in a best way is the only view

Tweeter Home Entertainment Group Research Paper - 1

Tweeter Home Entertainment Group - Research Paper Example Empowerment comes in different forms, including financial and non-financial incentives for employees, among others.   DeHoratius Nicole and Raman Ananth conducted this case study on Tweeter Home Entertainment Group in the year 2007. These authors mainly focused on the influence store managers have on the sales of this company, with regard to incentive programs provided by the company to these managers. Tweeter Home Entertainment Group was a company located in New England. This was a retail company with various stores. Tweeter Home Entertainment Group specialized in the sale of different electronic products. These included audio electronic products, video electronic products, as well as electronic accessories such as camcorders. Most customers of this company were the high-income earners in society, who were the well-educated and prioritized quality of products (DeHoratius & Raman, 2007). The store managers in this company played an integral role. These were mainly tasked with ensuring that the company sales increase and the shrinkage level reduces. The store managers, therefore, employed various tactics in ensuring that they achieved this. These included consumer education and product promotion, as well as monitoring of financial issues and deviant consumer behaviors such as shoplifting in the company in order to keep an eye on shrinkage. Generally, store managers in this company were charged with many tasks, which required dedication and motivation for effective performance (DeHoratius & Raman, 2007).  Nonetheless, Tweeter Home Entertainment Group realized the importance of employee motivation, and therefore, provided different incentives to the store managers for their efforts. Store managers in Tweeter were allowed a low penalty on shrinkage, and rewarded differently for the sales they made, depending on their total sales.  

Ethics in Entrepreneurship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Ethics in Entrepreneurship - Essay Example But in performing such type of operations, Ethics is extremely essential. It is known as the philosophy that an entrepreneur or business organization adheres in its dealings. This means, each and every business organization or entrepreneur comprises of certain rules and principles that its employees need to follow at the time of tackling its operations. Otherwise, the entire business organization might lead to downfall of productivity and profit margin. Apart from Ethics, Morality is another essential term offering high value towards business. Morality is mainly concerned with varied types of values, norms and beliefs that help an individual to detect the right or wrong actions. Thus, the behavior of an individual is highly influenced by such values, beliefs and norms that vary from person to person. With the help of such behaviors, an entrepreneur or individual enhances the prospects of a business organization. So, such values are extremely essential for an entrepreneur. Discussion The characteristics of Ethics in business are as follows: Ethical decisions differ from one person to another. It is mainly due to different views, values, norms and beliefs of varied types of individual. However, each and every types of ideas and values need to be apt for the customers or employees of the organization. Ethical decisions need to be at par with the cost incurred and the profit margin of the business. In order to do so, the entrepreneur needs to offer the products and services in such types of prices to its customers. The decisions of the employees in a business are voluntary their own deeds. So, it is essential for the employees to present ethical decisions that might prove effective for the business in long run (Shaw, 2010). Ethics is a trait of human being that needs to be ethical. Otherwise, being an employee of an organization, he might not be able to take any type of ethical decisions. Not only in his professional life, but ethics is also essential in oneâ€℠¢s private life. If he or she fails to take the ethical decisions, then he or she might never prosper in life in future era. Side by side, due to an unethical decision, not only the image or productivity of the organization might get reduced but also the reputation may decline. The range of customers might get reduced slowly and slowly leading to downfall of the entire profit margin of the organization. Thus, the rate of loyalty over the brand or the entrepreneurial image might get faded among the public day by day. So, it is extremely essential to maintain a strong status and supremacy in the market for the brand and its products on the basis of ethical decisions. Only then, an entrepreneur might prosper. Ethics is a type of characteristics feature of a human being that varies from one individual to another. Moreover, working in a group or an organization, the ethical views and norms of an individual also gets highly influenced by others. Some of the aspects by which, ethics within an organization gets affected are stated below: Religion- as numerous individual works within an organization or under an entrepreneur, some due to diverse religious traditions and norms, ethical decisions also get affected. Thus, sometimes, due to religious variations, the decision making of the individual gets influenced to a certain extent. But still, serving the human being in a best way is the only view

The Effect of Modern War Games on the Prejudices of Children Essay Example for Free

The Effect of Modern War Games on the Prejudices of Children Essay The rise of video games among youth in recent decades has spurred many new studies into the psychological effects of continued video game usage on a high level. According to a study by The Pew Internet American Life Project, 97% of children and teens play video games (Lenhart, 2008). Video games and violence have also had a positive correlation, meaning they have some relation to each other in increased violence levels in adolescents. In recent years there have been a multitude of multi-platform supported games all with a plot that involves Middle Eastern cultures in a negative context. Could the effect of psychological conditioning and consistent positive reinforcement from the gameplay against radical Islamic terrorist groups develop into prejudices and generalized stigmas toward Middle Eastern cultures? These games that are being represented also share a close similarity to military simulation used to condition soldiers to combat, which I believe also proves that aggressive gameplay is indeed supportive, if not at part causal, for aggressive actions or thoughts. The groups who would be affected most by this would be children and teens, as they have the highest usage on a regular basis with teens up to fifty percent who had played a game â€Å"yesterday† (How Can Advertisers, 2009). Looking at both the pervasive and regular usage of children under the age of eighteen, it seems evident that whatever effect may be present would be experienced by a large portion of youth. Video game usage for these youth is happening at a time in their lives when they are forming and developing social ideology. In the stage of human development at this time in their lives, full reasoning skill and acknowledgement of the fact that it is only a game may not be present in all children. The game itself would be very important in the way that it would affect the player. In the same study done by The Pew Internet American Life Project, 86% of teens play games on a console such as a Xbox 360 or PS3 and 73% play games on their computer (Sood, 2008). If we look at record sales of games in the last few years we can see that the Call of Duty series has been extremely successful. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare sold more than 13 million copies since released according to figures from 2009 since the game was released in late 2007(Activision to Showcase, 2009). Its predecessor, Modern Warfare 2, set records with selling 4.7 million copies within 24 hours of its release (Molina, 2009). Another hit game series is Battlefield, especially in its versions Bad Company 2 and now Battlefield 3. In all of these blockbuster and hit games that were just mentioned there is an element of Arab hostility in which the player has to fight against a Middle Eastern militia or military faction. With video games now emerging as a significant industry affecting millions of people, we must consider what possible impact these games could be making on their customers. The psychological effect of conditioning is always in use by our brain, as it perceives stimuli and attempts to analyze it in conjunction to the situation surrounding it. This effect has been experimented on by many, but was fathered by Ivan P. Pavlov and later deeply researched by B. F. Skinner, a strong behaviorist (Staddon, 2003). This psychological paradigm states that all actions can be accounted for, both experimentally and in one’s natural development, by conditioning. Classical conditioning is based on the basic principles of a response that is generated by an unconditioned stimulus (US) which then results in an unconditioned response (UR). In cases, conditioning takes place when certain elements are present that, by themselves, initially do not produce the corresponding UR, this is called the conditioned stimulus (CS). After the conditioning process has occurred, the CS will illicit the same response as the US, before called the UR. The new response when using the CS is called the conditioned response (CR) (Staddon, 2003). In order to better understand the concept, here is an example of the above from a psychologist, John Watson, who conditioned a child, Little Albert, to fear certain stimuli. First, Watson took a rat, dog, and monkey and showed Albert each for the first time in his life. The result of the initial exposure showed that, initially, Albert had no fear of the animals. Watson then took his unconditioned stimulus (UCS), which was a gong noise, which upset Albert, the unconditioned response (UCR) (Swets, 2011). He then introduced the same rat, before not feared, to Albert in addition to the gong noise (UCS), which caused Albert to cry (UCR). After repeating this several times, the rat was then turned into the conditioned stimulus (CS). The fear transferred to the rat (CS) then exhibited the same response of crying, before the UCS and now the conditioned response (CR). Once the hairy rat was taught to be feared in this experiment, Watson then generalized Little Albert to several animals, which is the broadening of a condition to additional similar objects than the original stimuli (Swets, 2011). When a rabbit, which he hadn’t seen before and had no pre-existing condition of fear, upset Albert he associated the hairy aspect of the rabbit with the rat. A mask and dog were also feared. When Albert was shown these, he would then cry. The UCS in the case of the video games would be the enemy combatant. The UCR would be an act of aggression in the game that would defeat the opponent, normally by shooting or otherwise killing. This is obviously violent behavior, but not necessarily in the pretext of the game. The CS would be the fact that normally this enemy happens to be Arabic or Middle Eastern. Over the course of playing the game and repeating the same violent in-game actions, the CR would be thoughts of aggression or suspicion when shown Middle Eastern People. This perhaps leads to a stigma against Arabic people. The aggression documented in studies such as Anderson in 2000, and Ferguson in 2008 may not necessarily be augmented toward this prejudice, but rather it would manifest itself in a much less outwardly violent way resulting in a conscious or subconscious stigma. The connection between the UCR and the CR is that the UCR is learned aggression in gameplay, and that would be transferred into a real world application; an example would be a stigma or a prejudice. The conditioning element example for the racial prejudice is in the example above. It is unfair to credit the video game with the entire generation of such a stigma. There was a study and article just published by Erik Bleich that talks about Islamophobia and how western cultures have generally negative thoughts about Muslim people. The article continues to predict that Muslim-fearing people will become an emerging social group (Bleich, 2011) Bliech theorizes that since prominen t figures, in politics, media, or otherwise, have openly stated or engage in anti-Muslim plans that there is no stopping the movement. Soon people will start labeling themselves or actions by the possible fear of Muslims (Foner, 2011). After 9/11, there was a significant rise in suspicion and hate acts directed toward most Muslim people. With that increase, there was 18 to 26 percent of the civil rights violations that happened at the workplace. In a target group, there was an average drop of seventeen hours per week for younger Muslim Americans (Rabby, 2011). There are clear indications that there is a fear of Muslims. In fact, at the time of September 11, 2001, I was nine years old and I too had developed an irrational fear of all Muslims. The conclusion is that there is, and probably will be, a generalized fear of Muslims, due to ignorance or historical precedent, so long as terrorism has a main role in global politics. There is no general consensus that video games in themselves cause violent behavior, even though there are many studies that show a positive correlation, but it is agreed that it at least promotes aggression in people who already have aggressive tendencies. Video games were seen to provide a mode or method for enacting the violence that the individual would commit regardless of the game’s influence (Anderson, 2000). In a study done by Anderson and Dill in 2000 they also state that, â€Å"We believe that video game violence also primes aggressive thought†. Males during adolescence show considerable aggression toward other males in particular but also toward females. The evolutionary reasoning behind this is because younger males have to compete over possible mates, so a greater amount of aggression would yield a greater possibility of attaining the mate. (Hilton, 2000) Using this comparison, we could stipulate that a percentage of the gaming population is aggressive, given the natural percentage plus the increase because of the age category. Given this fact we would see that the more aggressive nature of the selected population would then be more likely to be affected by any effect the game would render to its players. Movies are also a form of visual information that most people can understand, given the wide presentation of most productions. Studies show that media presentations generate a strong effect on the consumers of the information. (Heusmann, 1994) . For example, in the twentieth century communist Russia was a strong force of fear that was widespread due to actual diplomatic relations and hostility. The movies of that time added unnecessary amounts of fear to the topic by generalizing all Russians as spies or communist invaders. The games present information and realism smoothly into the gameplay so that the user barely notices all of the interactions taking place while playing the game. Anderson and Dill also point out the correlation between general media and video games when they said, â€Å"Entertainment media affects our lives. What behaviors children and adults consider appropriate comes, in part, from the lessons we learn from television and the movies. There are good theoretical reasons to expect that violent video games will have similar, and possibly larger, effects on aggression.†(Anderson, Dill 2000) This could be reasoned because the level of involvement into the game correlates with the level of brain usage, because of the attention levels needed to operate in an immersive gameplay. The brain could be more likely to accept these facts and bits of information as truth presented to it. This truth could then be used to advance a possible, already present, stigma of terrorist to a more generalized stigma against Arabic people as a whole. The overall emergence of video games as a massively used media for youth has presented many areas of study for psychologists. The age of the individual, factoring psychological development phases and increased male aggressiveness, in conjunction with the prevalence of violent video games portraying Middle Eastern combatants sets up a possible prejudice effect on its users. This effect could be explained using simple conditioning and generalization, the natural aggressiveness of the subject, and a preexisting fear toward Muslim people all of which will result in a stigma or increased prejudice toward Middle Eastern people among select gamers. I would like to see a formal study on possible prejudice because its significance could be widespread amongst subjects and could be conveyed as racism. Works Cited Activision to Showcase Some of the Most Anticipated Games of the Year at E3 IGN. IGN Video Game Reviews, News Previews. 27 May 2009. Web. 08 Dec. 2011. Anderson, Craig A., and Karen E. Dill. Video Games and Aggressive Thoughts, Feelings, and Behavior in the Laboratory and in Life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 78.4 (2000): 772-90. Print. Bleich, Erik. What Is Islamophobia and How Much Is There? Theorizing and Measuring an Emerging Comparative Concept. American Behavioral Scientist 55.12 (2011): 1535-540. Web. 4 Dec. 2011. Ferguson, Christopher J. Violent Video Games and Aggression. Criminal Justice and Behavior 35.3 (2008): 311. Web. 7 Dec. 2011. Foner, Nancy, and Christophe Bertossi. Immigration, Incorporation, and Diversity in Western Europe and the United States: Comparative Perspectives. American Behavioral Scientist 55.12 (2011): 1535-540. Sage Journals Online: American Behavioral Scientist. Sage Publications, Dec. 2011. Web. 5 Dec. 2011. Hilton, N. Zoe, Grant T. Harris, and Marnie E. Rice. The Functions of Aggression by Male Teenagers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 79.6 (2000): 988-94. Print. How Can Advertisers Get Through to Teens? EMarketer. Market Research Statistics: Internet Marketing, Advertising Demographics EMarketer. 30 June 2009. Web. 1 Dec. 2011. Huesmann, L. Rowell. Aggressive Behavior: Current Perspectives. New York: Plenum, 1994. Print. Lenhart, Amanda, Joseph Kahne, Ellen Middaugh, Alexandra Macgill, Chris Evans, and Jessica Vitak. Teens, Video Games and Civics. Pew Research Centers Internet American Life Project. 16 Sept. 2008. Web. 07 Dec. 2011. Molina, Brett. Acti vision: Modern Warfare 2 Sells 4.7M Copies on First Day. News, Travel, Weather, Entertainment, Sports, Technology, U.S. World USATODAY.com. 12 Nov. 2009. Web. 08 Dec. 2011. Rabby, Faisal, and William M. Rogers III. Post 9-11 U.S. Muslim Labor Market Outcomes. Atlantic Economic Journal 39.3 (2011): 273. SpringerLink. 26 July 2011. Web. 5 Dec. 2011. Sood, Medha. Pew Study Shows 53% of US Adults Play Computer Games. TopNews United States. 10 Dec. 2008. Web. 08 Dec. 2011. Staddon, J. E. R., and D. T. Cerutti. Operant Conditioning. Annual Review of Psychology 54.1 (2003): 115-44. Web. 24 Nov. 2011. Swets, Dr. Benjamin. Learning. PSY 101. GVSU, Allendale. 3 Oct. 2011. Lecture.

Analysing Remediation Of Contaminated Land In Nigeria Environmental Sciences Essay

Analysing Remediation Of Contaminated Land In Nigeria Environmental Sciences Essay Crude oil is an important mineral resource vital to everyday life. Modern trend toward increasing dependence on the use of petroleum hydrocarbons for energy needs has resulted in severe pressure on the energy resource as well as increased accidental discharges of oil and its products into the environment. This occurs frequently during operations such as extraction, transportation, storage, refining and distribution notwithstanding technology-driven precautions. It would be reasonable to state that oil contamination is one of the most serious forms of water and land pollution as it endangers public health, imperils drinking water, devastates natural resources, and disrupts the economy. Nigeria is one of the largest crude oil producing countries in the world and depends almost entirely (over 90%) on it for her revenue. The Niger Delta region in Nigeria contains the bulk of Nigerias proven oil and gas reserves. The region is ridden with environmental problems, ranging from devastation of land and water (crippling income generation through farming and fishing), through death of thousands of domestic animals, disastrous fire out-breaks, various illnesses to deaths. This is as a result of oil spillage which has become a daily experience in the region. There exist some prevention and mitigation measures associated with oil and gas exploration activities but these measures are not implemented in Nigeria. Owing perhaps to poor enforcement of the standards by regulatory bodies, corruption, high cost of procuring and maintaining some of the mitigation equipments, ignorance, lack of vision, or carelessness. These have led, to political unrest, with the people of the area feel ing exploited and calling for reparations. Contamination of soil by is a widespread environmental problem that often requires clean-up of the contaminated site. Though many techniques have been undertaken to address oil contamination of land in the Niger Delta region, these either have negative effects or result to incomplete clean-up of the hydrocarbon contaminated soil. Although disposal or open dump burning may be simple and easily adaptable, these techniques have undesirable health and safety hazards from e.g. air pollution. Bioremediation is an alternative technology which is likely to be capable of achieving permanent remediation. Nature has developed microorganisms that can degrade hydrocarbons to avoid their accumulation to a point of being detrimental to life. To achieve rapid bioremediation, nutrients and aeration are applied to the soil and the indigenous microorganism is often augmented to obtain enhanced bioremediation. The design of an efficient bioremediation system requires a set of careful studies of the local conditions of the site to be remediated. Despite several indications of the environmental degradation and health effects caused by oil contamination of land in the Niger Delta region, little attention has been paid to investigating the effectiveness of the use of bioremediation in this region. Undertaking an evaluation of a selection of case studies could provide better insight whether bioremediation is the appropriate solution to oil contamination problems in the region. Various application of bioremediation on oil contaminated soil has been reported with encouraging results but its effectiveness has not been fully employed in the region. 1.2 Aim and Objectives The primary aim of this study is firstly to consider oil contamination of land as a global problem, assess the causes and effects of oil contamination of land both across the world and in Nigeria and secondly to evaluate whether bioremediation could be an effective treatment technique of land contaminated by oil with particular reference to the Niger Delta of Nigeria. In order to achieve this, the following will be addressed; (a) The extent and causes of oil contamination (b) The effect of oil contamination (c) Oil contamination in Nigeria (d) Remediation methods (e) Case studies and/or questionnaire 1.3 Overview of oil contamination of land Pollution of the land by oil has become a matter of widespread concern, attracting attention of politicians, environmentalists and scientists. There is growing public concern as a wide variety of toxic organic chemicals are being introduced accidentally or deliberately into the environment. Petroleum hydrocarbons are one common example of these chemicals, which enter the environment frequently and in large volumes through numerous routes. These routes include seepage from natural deposits, human activities in exploration, production, transportation and storage of petroleum. Such human activities inevitably involve the risk of accidental spills that can only be minimized but not eliminated completely. Deonarine and Basdeo (2001) explained that leaks from wellheads, leaks from pipelines, and overflows at gathering stations and deposition of oily mud are also other routes through which hydrocarbon enter the environment. Oil spills are now becoming a frequent and major source of water an d land contamination across the globe especially in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. 1.4 Justification of the Study In time past, land contamination was usually perceived in terms of relatively rare incidents, with poorly known but possibly catastrophic impact on human health and the environment. According to Nathanail and Bardos (2004) numerous incidents drew media attention and these include Love canal in New York; Times Beach Missouri in United States and Minamata, Japan disaster. They further explained that today land contamination is no longer perceived in terms of few severe incidents rather as extensive infrastructural problems of varying intensity and significance that is inherited from past and present industrial and waste disposal activities. Nowadays across the globe, land contamination is gaining a higher official recognition and is been recognised as a serious challenge to present and future generation. Recently a lot of policies for sustainable development and contaminated land management have been introduced and so many countries especially in developed countries have implemented these policies. Despite this trend, the Nigeria Government and oil multinational companies operating in that country are yet to implement such policies. They agree with sustainable development and good environmental management but these are only seen as a paper exercise. There is no adequate implementation of sustainable development and environmental management in Nigeria. Moreover, oil spill incidence still occurs and no adequate management is given to the spilled site. There are no known instances in Nigeria whereby an oil polluted site had been fully remediated and restored by any of the oil companies. Most polluted sites are neglected to the mercy of slow process of natural recovery that takes several years to accomplish.   Even in terrestrial environments where remediation is conventionally cheaper and easy, in the Nigerian situation, it is a luxury that is impossible. For example, most sites in Ogoniland where incident oil spill incident occurred since 1970 remains unclean till date 2009. Besides deliberate negligence, corporate corruption and penchant to cut-corners hinder remediation programmes in the Nigerian oil industry. Remediation contracts are often awarded to contractors who simply transport topsoil from elsewhere to mask contaminated spill sites. These sites are often reported as begin remediated Although many people and organisations especially non-governmental organisation (NGO) have writing about oil pollution in Nigeria and its negative effects, but solution to the pollution have been limited. 1.5 Structure of the Report Chapter one began with an introduction and justification of the study. It brought problems, Aims and objectives and conceptual framework of the work. The second chapter carries out a review of the existing on oil contamination of land with emphasis on the meaning, causes, effects, issues across the world and Nigeria, technology and oil spillage as a major cause of the oil contamination. Also this chapter review oil contamination in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. Chapter three looks at the methodology, nature and sources of data collection as well as the technique for data analysis. The Chapter four looks at the proposed solution to oil contamination. Chapter five focuses on case studies and Discussion of findings of the study. (develop best practice guide for Nigeria) Chapter six looks at the conclusions and recommendations CHAPTER TWO 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction Oil contamination is a major environmental problem which is caused as result of oil operations. Activities of oil companies constitute environmental problems; with substantial implications for economic development and human health. As a result of its impacts some individuals live as aliens in their own communities, where they are unable to actualize their interest or aspirations. This chapter provides a review of the menace of oil contamination. 2.2 The problem Oil contamination of land. The demand for energy is increasing globally as a result of rising population, increased industrialisation and prosperity. This has resulted on severe pressure on available energy resources. Energy has a major impact on every aspects of socio-economic life as it plays a vital role in the economic, social and political development of any nation. As a result, the demand for energy is increasing worldwide, along with this, pollution is on the increase. Many parts of the world have as a consequence, suffered significant contamination. Khan et al (2004) pointed out that these oil contaminants enter the environment directly as a result of oil waste (sludge), spills during exploration, production and transportation, leakage from storage sites, or from industrial facilities. Oil spillage and oily waste deposits represent the majority of hydrocarbon contamination of our planet. Al-Saleh and Obuekwe (2005) asserted that accidental and deliberate oil spills have been and still continue to be a significant source of environmental pollution. Contamination of soil arising from spills is one of the most limiting factors to soil fertility and hence crop productivity as well as animal activity. Also the runoff from oil spill impacted site usually degrade the quality of the fresh water source which serves the domestic rural water supply needs of the host communities. Molina-Barahona et al (2004) corroborated that oil spills caused great damages to the ecology and economy of rural regions as well as nations. Therefore these polluted areas constitute a big potential risk to human health, environment, subsoil infrastructure, flora and fauna as well as groundwater. 2.3 Causes of oil contamination Crude oil is extracted world-wide at a very high rate to meets the bulk of the worlds energy requirements. At the same time, crude oil constitutes a potential hazard if discharged into the environment. Such discharge happens despite the fact that the distribution and storage network for crude oil is closely and well monitored. Oil development activities involve several polluting processes. The extent of these processes depends mainly on the environmental practices and technology used by oil companies. Apart from oil spills that mainly cause oil contamination of land, there are other different operations in the petroleum industry that cause contamination. These include drilling operation, leakage from wellhead and pipeline and over-flows at gathering stations. Fisher and Sublette (2005) stated that these causes of oil contamination are as a result of overflows, intentional dumping , illegal activity, aging facilities, equipment failure, operators error, construction defect, accidental damage, transport accident, defeat/bypassing protective system, ineffective quality control, over pressuring, natural phenomenon, blow out of oil well, sabotage and corrosion. During drilling, each well that is drilled produces drilling wastes, including formation water and drilling muds. Miguel and Anna-Karin (2004) pointed out that these wastes are frequently deposited into open pits, from which they are either directly discharged into the environment or leached out as the pits degrade or overflow from rainwater. Extraction of oil is also accompanied by seepage and spills. Offshore drilling routinely creates low level spills, and sometimes causes a blowout, a massive gush of petroleum. Most oil-wells are situated in deserts and oceans, which is where the majority of the worlds documented blow-outs have occurred. Storage facilities and pipelines can typically be destroyed by e.g.; either natural disasters like hurricanes, or accidents during construction or due to acts of sabotage or ageing of the facilities all resulting in release of large amounts of oil. The table below shows incident oil spill causes and number of incidents between 2000 and 2008. Table 1: Incident oil spill causes 2000-2008 2007 Incidents Causes No of incidents 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Equipment failure 8,383 8,429 8,341 9,132 10,078 9,958 10,209, 10,849 8,578 Operator error 3,459 2,885 2,305 2,889 2,997 2,684 2,908 2,885 3,022 Transport accidents 609 713 563 631 1,050 1,152 1,103 1,361 1,387 Dumping 1,523 1,494 1,265 960 806 757 863 1,004 935 Natural phenomenon 472 716 497 711 685 575 804 708 726 Sabotage 6,428 7,204 7457 6,531 3,907 3,865 3858 3860 3,942 Accidental spillage(aging facilities, construction defect, blow out of oil well, etc) 10,552 11,800 10,266 10,314 10,078 9,958 10,209 10,849 10,578 Source: (National response center statistics U.S 2008) It is observed from the table above that equipment failure and accidental spillage are the two main causes and these account for over 50% of oil spillage cause. Accidentals spillage could be as a result of traffic accident, aging facilities and blow-out of oil well. In addition to the above table, European Environmental Agency report that tanker accidents account for about 10-15 per cent of all oil that spill into the ocean world-wide every year. Fingas and Charles (2001) argued that oil spills accounts for a highest number and volume of oil contamination. Mokhalalati et al (2000) demonstrated that observations from many oil spill incidents around the world have shown that both land and aquatic environment suffer oil exposure and these environments are particularly difficult to protect and also clean- up once a spill has occurred. 2.4 Effects of oil contamination The oil and gas sector is one of the most lucrative sectors in business but reducing its negative impacts is one of the most pressing issues today. As an example, one barrel of crude oil can make one million barrels of water undrinkable and make hectares of land and water bodies useless. It has also destroyed crops, damage the quality and productivity of soil use for farming and as well damage fisheries. This exacerbates hunger and poverty in affected communities. In addition the residents often experience an increase of conflict with their neighbourhood. Miraglia, A.R (2002) observed that Chenega Bay, Niger Delta, Ecuador indigenous communities etc have been fighting due to oil compensation. This has resulted in killing of people, destroying of houses, property, etc. Khan,M.I and Islam,R.M (2003) asserted that practically all activities of hydrocarbon operations are accompanied by undesirable discharges of liquid, solid and gaseous wastes which have enormous devastating impacts . When oil reaches and penetrates into the soil and deep sea, the effects will be apparent for long period of time, thus the oil that reaches quickly will be more toxic. The effect depends on the following factors such as; size of the spill, the spread of the oil slick, the toxicity and persistence of the oil and the sensitivity of the environmental region affected. However oil contamination has caused a range of pervasive impacts on the environment, human health, economy and society. Ecological effects may include physical and chemical changes in habitats, changes in growth or behaviour and increased mortality of organisms and species. Wildlife can be impacted by direct physical contact with the oil, e.g., filterfeeding shellfish and bird eggs can be smothered by oil and the feathers of birds or the fur of seals lose their insulating properties when coated with oil, leading to the danger of death from cold. Also if oil is ingested, it can damage the digestive system of the animals. Its vapours have the potential to damage the nervous system of animals, as well as their lungs and liver. The oil impedes proper soil aeration as oil film on the soil surface acts as a physical barrier between air and the soil and this affects soil fertility which consequently has great negative impact on food productivity. Oil contamination affects certain soil parameters such as the mineral and organic matter content, the cation exchange capacity, redox properties and pH value. As crude oil creates anaerobic condition in the soil, coupled to water logging and acidic metabolites, Onwurah et al (2007) stated that the result is high accumulation of aluminum and manganese ions, which are toxic to plant growth. The smearing root plants with oily substances may cause the plants to wilt and die off due to blockage of stomata inhibiting photosynthesis, transpiration, respiration and reduces permeability of cell membranes. Due to the toxic nature of oil, Pezeshki et al (2000) asserted that petroleum-based products have adverse im ­pact on yields of various plant species and in high doses they can depress germination of plants and cause necrosis of seedlings. A substantial high rate of illness as well as psychological and physical symptoms is usually reported in areas affected by spill oil and on increase on the days when oil exposure was at its highest. Rodrigue-Trigo et al (2007) stated that these illnesses include; respiratory tract irritation, vertigo, headache, sore eyes, sore throat and exacerbation of asthma. They further stated that anxiety and depression rate is usually on high increase in the exposed region. Oil contamination has shown to have great influence on the engineering properties and behaviour of a soil. Puri, K.V (2000) corroborated that it has resulted in decrease in shear strength of a clayey soil, angle of internal friction of sand based on total stress condition decrease with the presence of oil in the pore spaces and compression characteristics of sand are significantly influenced. Khamehchiyan et al (2007) asserted that it has resulted in decrease in the value of the constrained modulus with increase in the degree of oil saturation. Oil contamination induces a reduction in permeability and strength of soil samples. Generally oil contamination has drastically reduced the bearing capacity of the soil. 2.5 Worldwide issues: Oil spill across the world In the last decade, a lot of oil contamination across the world has been experienced as a result of oil spill incident which account for highest cause of oil contamination. Meniconi et al (2002) pointed out that, characterizing the spilled oil, monitoring the affected ecosystem, determining the fate of the oil in the environment and subsequently assessing the environmental damage caused have been a pressing issue. The spill case studies described below encompass crude and fuel oil release on coastal ecosystems and land. We know that oil spill on sea can spread and dispersed to land by wind, tide, wave action and rainfall. Any oil spill on sea also affects the land. Some of the oil spill case studies in Nigeria and major spills across the world are highlighted below; The Torrey canyon supertanker disaster (1967) This is the first major oil spill to awaken the international community to the dangers of oil transport. On 18th March, 1967 the Torrey Canyon carrying 117000 tons of Kuwait crude oil ran aground on the Pollards Rock in the Seven Stones reef between the Scilly Isles and Lands End, England. Approximately119, 000 tonnes of Kuwait oil leaked from the ship and spread along the sea between England and France, killing most of the marine life it touched along the whole of the south coast of Britain and the Normandy shores of France. Sands, P. (2003). The Torrey Canyon oil spill proved for the first time the immense environmental damage that could result from an accident involving a large oil tanker as well as revealed the problems inherent in the international system for assessing liability and compensation for oil spill damage. Jacobsson (2007) stated that this spill triggered the International Compensation Convention. Exxon Valdez (1989) In March 1989, the tanker Exxon Valdez hit a reef in Prince William sound, Alaska and spilled about 37,000 tonnes of oil, the worst spill in US history. The spill subsequently affected a variety of shores, mainly rock and cobble, to varying degrees over an estimated 1,800km in Prince William Sound. The spilled oil impacted a wide range of intertidal organisms and as a result thousands of marine animals and seabirds were killed. (Peterson 2001) Braer (1993) The oil tanker Braer ran aground at Garths Ness on the Southern Shetland Isles Coast on 5th January, 1993 spilling approximately 84,700 tonnes of crude oil. The spilt oil was dispersed naturally in the wave action against the North Sea. The BRAER spill was unusual in that a significant amount of oil was blown on to land adjacent to the wreck site. Seabird casualties were also moderately low. Considering the size of the spill, the environmental impacts were surprisingly limited . (Gregory 2007). Erika Incident The Maltese tanker ERIKA, carrying some 31,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil, broke in two in a severe storm in the Bay of Biscay on 11th December, 1999, off the coast of France. About 20,000 tonnes of oil were spilled. The main environmental impact of the spill was on sea birds and 65,000 oiled birds were collected from beaches, of which about 50,000 were dead. This incident led to rapid moves to accelerate the phasing out of all single hull oil tankers. (Le Moigne, and Laubier, 2004). Prestige (2002) In September 2002, oil tanker prestige sunk of the Galician north west of Spain spilling about 30,000 tonnes of oil. The spilled oil affected the entire coastline particularly the exposed rocky shores and sandy beaches which caused the largest ecological catastrophe in the history of Spain (de la Huz et al, 2005). Bernabeu et al (2006) observed that the spill had a huge economic impact as it affected the fishing and marine cultivation on which the Costa da Morte (Galicia, N.W. Spain) depends economically. Tasman Spirit (2003) The oil tanker Tasman spirit grounded in the channel of the port of Karachi, on 27th July, 2003 carrying a cargo of 67,535 tonnes of light crude. Approximately 30,000 tonnes of oil spilled when the Tasman Spirit broke down. Strong winds and rough seas spread the light crude along 10 kilometres (seven miles) of the highly populated residential and recreational coastline. As a result of the spill incident, people living around the area have experienced health problems. The coastal environment in which the Tasman Spirit spill occurred was a rich and diverse tropical ecosystem which was negatively affected by the spill. (Janjua et al 2006) Gulf war 1991 The Gulf War in Kuwait 1991 resulted in one of the largest man made environmental disasters, and almost certainly the greatest acute contamination of land and water with oil, in history as the result of oil spills. Kostreba (1999) described that during the Gulf war an estimated 67 million tonnes of crude oil was spilt and burnt on land. The oil spills were as a result of deliberate damage done by Iraqi forces during their invasion of Kuwait. Crude oil was deliberately dumped into the gulfs and oil production, storage, and refining facilities were destroyed. The oil leaking from the well heads, storage tanks, and pipelines formed huge oil lakes as deep as 2 meters. Many of the oil wells were also set on fire and this resulted in the aerial deposition of partially combusted oil particles and associated non-combusted products of the oil fires, which also polluted large areas. The resulting oil pollution affected mainly Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Hans-Jorg Barth (2001) pointed out that over 700 km of coastline from southern Kuwait to Abu Ali Island were smothered with oil and tar, erasing most of the local plant and animal communities. Lebanon (2006) During hostilities in Lebanon in 2006, Isreali planes struck the Jiyyeh power plant about 25 kilometres south of Beirut. The hit storage tanks leaked 20,000 to 30,000 tonnes of oil into Eastern Mediterranean Sea. The oil slick covered 170km of coastline and was threatening Turkey and Cyprus. This is the worst environmental problem in the history of the country. The oil spill damaged land and marine ecosystems, destroyed fishermens livelihoods and rendered coastal areas lifeless. To worst the issue, no clean-up started until after three weeks due to security situation in Lebanon. (Friends of the Earth 2007). Ogbodo oil spill On 24th June, 2001 the community of Ogbodo in Rivers State, Nigeria, heard a loud explosion which was the bursting of a Shell Petroleum pipeline which traverses the village lands and waterways. Crude oil began to spill out into the environment. Rains and swiftly flowing water rapidly distributed the crude oil into the waterways surrounding the community. At least about 26,500 barrels of oil were spilt. The impact of the spill and the fire on local livelihoods was extensive and the devastating impact of the oil spill was exacerbated and prolonged because of failure to contain the spill swiftly. (www.waado.org). Oshire-2 oil spill According to Osuji and Opiah, (2007) on the 24th July, 2003, an oil spillage occurred in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State in Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The oil spill was as a result of leakage of one of the above-ground pipelines that criss-cross the Oshire-2 oil field. About 3,000 barrels of crude oil was allegedly spilled as a result a suspected sabotage. Oil spill in Ogoniland Ogoniland is the site of huge Shell facilities that have devastated the local environment. On June 6, 2001, Shell oil pipeline, which passes through the Baraale community, ruptured and started spilling crude oil into nearby forests, farmlands and houses. Many houses were flooded with crude oil. Disaster struck on 1st October, 2001, when the leaking oil caught fire. Residents of the community were about going to bed that night when a large fire started following a loud explosion. (Olukoya 2002). Also on 1 Sep 2003Crude oil from a ruptured oil pipeline caught fire, destroying farmland and polluting streams in the Ogoni area. This Day (2006) reported that oil spill from one of the Shell companys oil wellheads has devastated another Ogoni community. The spill is as a result of leak which occurred at Bomu Well-2, a dormant well in Ogoni land belonging to Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria limited. Oil spill incidence in Nigeria has become everyday news and its occurrence is too numerous that it cant all be highlighted in this study. Federal ministry of Environment on 2006 reported that quantity of oil spilled over 50 years is equivalent to 50 Exxon Valdez spills. This makes the Nigeria delta one of the 5 most oil polluted environments in the world. 2.6 Oil spill in Nigeria 2.6.1 Oil exploration in Nigeria In 1956, Royal Dutch Shell discovered crude oil at Oloibiri, a village in the Niger Delta, and the first commercial production started in 1958. Nwilo and Badejo (2005a) stated that 50 years later, 606 oil fields exist in the Niger Delta, of which 360 are on-shore and 246 off-shore. Nigeria is now the largest oil producer in Africa and the sixth largest in the world, averaging 2.7 million barrels per day (bbl/d) in 2006. Nigerias economy is heavily dependent on earnings from the oil sector, which provides 20% of GDP, 95% of foreign exchange earnings, and about 65% of budgetary revenues (Central intelligence Agency (CIA) World Fact Book, 2005). Current oil exploration and production activities in Nigeria is concentrated in the Niger Delta region, a huge fertile wetland which covers a land mass of over 70,000 km2, and cuts across 800 oil producing communities. Oguejiofor (2008) demonstrated that the region has huge oil and gas reserve and accounts for 90 per cent of national exports and 70 per cent of Government revenue, mainly from oil and gas exported is from the region. Geological record and research shows that the region (both onshore and offshore areas) is particularly conducive for the formation and accumulation of oil and gas. Today, the oil industries are highly visible in the Niger Delta and have control over a large area in the region. The area is crisscrossed by thousands of kilometres of pipeline, punctuated by wells and flow stations. Much of the oil infrastructure is located close to the homes, farms and water sources of communities. 2.6.2 Overview of the damage in the Niger delta Oil and gas activities and enormous oil installations deployed in the Niger Delta explains her vulnerability to oil spill. The social and environmental costs of oil contamination have been extensive. These include destruction of wildlife and biodiversity, loss of fertile soil, pollution of air and drinking water, degradation of farmland and damage to aquatic ecosystems, all of which have caused serious health problems for the inhabitants of areas surrounding oil production. Oil spills in the Niger Delta have destroy vegetation, mangrove forests, food/cash crops, fishing ground/marine life, reduces nutrient value of the soil, induces land fragmentation, and sets communities on fire. For example a spill at Osima creek in Agbakabiriyai, near Nembe on February 28th 1998, led to eight days of fire, which razed down the entire community. This resulted to the destruction of about 400 houses, and the displacement of about 130,000 inhabitants. Also a spill that occurred on 7th December, 2008 in Ikarama community terribly caught fire on 1st of March 2009. The fire caused more damage to the environment (www.eration.org/index.php?). Given these challenges, land as an economic power resource base becomes critical for the Niger Delta region. Without fertile soil and good water, indigenous communities in the region lose their mode of survival and are faced with the crisis of food shortages. Due to oil spillage, many water ways, land and marine systems in the region have been badly polluted and residents have been badly affected by enviro