Thursday, October 31, 2019

Humanities modern era Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Humanities modern era - Term Paper Example as survived through all the ages in the history, yet it has become omnipresent in the present age because of the people’s ease of access to the tools that can be used for violence. This has had immense impact on the moral status of the individuals in the society. Gradually, people have become immune to activities they considered violent in the past like killing and raping. Violence seems to scar the era and to leave its mark on the humanities. Civil disorder has broken out in many countries in the Arabia in the recent years. People have started to revolt against their own leaders. Many a leaders have been killed including Saddam Hussain and Muammar Gaddafi by the people in an attempt to free the lands from the hold of dictators and alter the political and socioeconomic conditions of the countries for the better, but the consequences have been all but favorable even for the mutineers themselves. Millions of people in Iraq and Afghanistan have been killed by the American soldiers since the 9/11 incident. The population of the American soldiers that has been killed by the people in return is also not very insignificant. The popular culture as an essential element of the modern era has also played a cardinal role in the spread of violence. TV, computer and Internet are all technological milestones of the modern era. They have been frequently employed for the spread of violence in the society through sexually explicit videos and violent video games. Young generation has been targeted to develop the violent skills. The violent programs projected in the media are the most convenient and cost effective sources of in-house virtual education and training. Violence has spread to such a level that it has challenged people’s religious beliefs. The war on terror has been commenced solely for the purpose of achieving the very modernity, and has had many potentially negative implications for the Muslims all over the world. â€Å"Political Islam is now portrayed as a critique

Monday, October 28, 2019

The Effect of Poor Lightning Condition on Spelling Performance in 3rd Year Psychology Students Essay Example for Free

The Effect of Poor Lightning Condition on Spelling Performance in 3rd Year Psychology Students Essay The study was conducted to assess the disruption of cognitive performance such as spelling proficiency in a classroom with poor lighting condition. The participants were 31 students, who participated for course credit. It was hypothesized that participants undergoing the spelling test with poor lighting would report low results. The result of the mean is 4. 87 while the standard deviation resulted to 1. 91. We conclude that the results indicated that cognitive process such as vocabulary usage is greatly affected by poor lighting condition and is an affective instrument for determining how the subjects will respond to the given situation. The Effect of Poor Lightning Condition on Spelling Performance In 3rd year Psychology Students Vision is the ability of the brain and eye to detect electromagnetic waves within the visible range of light that makes them interpret this image as sight. Humans are a diurnal species (active in daytime) usually exposed to light while engaged in cognitive tasks. Light not only guides performance on these tasks through vision but also exerts non-visual effects that are mediated (Vandewalle, Maquet Dijk, 2009). People also can easily determine which changes in darkness and lightness are due to the physical properties f objects and the changes in illumination (Goldstein, 2008). The same research conducted by Vandewalle et al. (2009) also demonstrated that recent advancement studies ion vision which demonstrates that the wavelength, duration and intensity of light exposure adjust brain responses to (non-visual) cognitive tasks and adapts to different conditions. A similar study entitled â€Å"daylighting impacts on human performance in school† was conducted by Heschong, Wright Okura (2002) which aims to demonstrate a clear relationship between the presence of daylight and human performance. In humans, light enhances both alertness and performance during nighttime and daytime and influences regional brain function (Vandewalle Balteau, 2006). The results of these researches suggest that the adjustment of cognitive process and performance can vary to those people who are experiencing it with different and changing lighting condition as to support the claims of Makihara, Takizawa, Shirai Shimada (2007). Much of the studies conducted came with the conclusion that the more there is light, cognitive performance is absolute. In contrast, Landsberger (1955) found out in a study conducted by Hawthorne works that the workers’ productivity seemed to improve when changes were made and slumped when the study was concluded. Landsberger (1955) suggested that the productivity gain was due to the motivational effect of the interest being shown in them. However, it does not permit conclusions to be drawn about whether the lighting condition caused reductions in performance or was just a consequence of motivational effect in them (Simonson Brozek, 1948). In terms of effectiveness of lighting condition in increasing or reducing the performance of the subjects, the low lighting in the workplace may suggest that some of the subjects were just motivated in improving their performance to compete or may have been another case of demoralization. These drawn conclusions may suggest that this study is not that highly validated, thus, making it not that reliable also. The present study was an attempt to assess the disruption of cognitive performance, such as spelling proficiency in a classroom setting with no lighting. And the relationship of lighting and visual performance (Rea, 1992). Based on past experimental research on light as a modulator of cognitive brain function by Vandewalle et al. (2009) and related research on the effects of light exposure to brain responses (H. M. Parsons, 1974), it was expected that participants will end up with low scores in the spelling test due to low level of lighting. Method Participants Participants were 15 male and 16 female undergraduate students who attended San Beda College in Manila. The examiner used total enumeration in determining the participants. Total enumeration is selecting all members of the population without randomization. Apparatus The setting of the experiment was in classroom. It is of average size and the lighting is good. The room is also well ventilated. Then the participants were being ready for a spelling quiz. Instrument Participants were instructed to spell out the words given by the test instructor. The highest possible score on the test was 10. Design This experiment was a one-shot case design that is a type of pre-experimental design where a single group of test units is exposed to an experimental treatment and a single measurement is taken afterwards (Babylon, 2009) wherein the participants spelled in poor lighting and then the results was taken afterwards. Procedure The experimenter told the participants to prepare a paper for a spelling test. Then they proceeded with the experiment which is to spell words with the lights turned off. After the spelling quiz was done, the experimenter then opened the lights and then the results of the tests were checked. Results  The effect of poor lighting condition on spelling performance was assessed by finding the mean and standard deviation of the statistical data. The mean resulted to 4. 87 while having a standard deviation of 1. 91. Discussion The result of this study demonstrated that lighting condition greatly affects the cognitive performance of the students. As expected, majority of the participants garnered low scores during the unlighted spelling tests. Past research suggests that lighting conditions affects cognitive processes that tend to focus on how people would respond to that kind of situation (Vandewalle Balteau, 2006). The results of the present study support it because it demonstrates the validation of the past research and thus making it also reliable. In contrast to the study conducted by Landsberger (1955), which implies that the performance varies to the individual regardless of lighting condition, the results of the present study refute this idea. The results basically tell us that having the spelling test on unlighted condition will cause a poor cognitive performance. Although the hypothesis in this study was supported, the study has a limitation. No controls were taken to ensure that lighting condition experiment could occur into two experimental conditions. It is only a one-shot case study making it less dependable in stating whether a change in the outcome or dependent variable has taken place. In conclusion, the findings of this study are consistent with the claim of researchers such as (Vandewalle, Maquet Dijk, 2009) that light not only guides performance on these tasks through vision but also exerts non-visual effects that affects the human cognition. Light really enhances both alertness and performance during nighttime and daytime as the claims of the study of Heschong et al. (2002) states that daylighting impacts human performance in school. Lighting condition plays a large role in cognition not just only by giving us vision or sight as to go on with perception but also the scientific discovery that light exposure dynamically enhances brain responses.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Smart Transport System Based Upon Autonomous Road Vehicles

Smart Transport System Based Upon Autonomous Road Vehicles INTRODUCTION People have a high reliance on car for their daily travel to work, shopping, tour and many other places [1]. More than 50% of worlds population lives in cities and more vehicles are on the road causing congestion problems and accidents. Therefore, there is a need for more safe and efficient means of transportation. The new technologies are replacing decade old transportation frameworks and operators with computerization and automation. Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) is an innovative method that utilizes sensors movements, artificial intelligence, and human management together which will help the autonomous vehicle to drive without human intervention [2]. Autonomous vehicles will be seen soon on our roads communicating with nearby vehicles and warn each other by understanding the conditions ahead. Many cars, for example, the Tesla Model S and the Volvo XC90 has already started including propelled self-driving capacities, and this is expected to increase in coming years [3]. In this paper two use case scenarios of autonomous vehicles are discussed. The first use case discusses about an autonomous vehicle valet parking. Parking a vehicle is considered as one of the difficult task in driving. This includes finding the parking slot and park without collision. The proposed system will allow the driver to leave the vehicle when he/she reaches the destination and the vehicle will park itself in a parking slot. The second use case discusses an autonomous vehicle that can drive without human intervention in an unknown environment. The use cases included are obstacle avoidance, backward moving and overtaking. 2.USE CASE SCENARIOS 2.1 AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE VALET PARKING The number of vehicles on road is increasing rapidly causing congestion problems and pollutions. One of the main reasons for this is lack of car parking and time consumed to find the parking slots. This paper discusses the driving and parking of an autonomous vehicle to a car parking slot without human intervention. An autonomous valet parking will allow the driver to leave the vehicle when he/she reaches the destination and will park the vehicle in a parking slot. The sensors will sense obstacles in its way and will steer around them to avoid collision. It will also notify the driver after parking and locking the door automatically through an app. The proposed system will help the driver who is in a hurry to attend a meeting or watch movie, who doesnt want his/her time to waste checking for parking area and to drive and park there. There are three systems in the vehicle for the autonomous vehicle valet parking [6]. (i) Server System The server system will generate the different driving path to the nearest parking slot and will provide it to the driver through the mobile application. The driver can select the preferred path and vehicle will drive through that path. (ii) Mobile System The driver will be able to monitor the vehicle and check whether it is finding any difficulty to reach the parking slot. The vehicle will also notify the driver once when it has reached the parking slot. (iii) Vehicle Control System The control system will generate the control signals such as steering control, gear change, brakes and speed control required for the movement of the vehicle through the provided path. It should also generate control signals to help the car park in the provided slot. Figure 1: Autonomous vehicle parking system 2.1.1 DESIGN ANALYSIS AND ALGORITHM 2.1.1.a. PARKING SLOT SELECTION Once the driver has reached the destination the driver should request for the nearest parking and reserve the parking slot. The algorithm for this is shown in figure 1.1 [6]. Step 1: Driver request for the parking guidance. The parking slot availability in the parking garage should be updated every time in the data base. The parking slot can detect whether it is occupied with vehicle or not by using an IR sensor in the parking slot. The IR sensors will be connected to micro-controllers. The microcontrollers will communicate to the central server system using ESP8266 which contains the data base of the parking slot availability. ESP8266 is a low-cost Wi-Fi chip which will give micro-controller access to communicate with the Wi-Fi network. Along with the number of free parking lots, parking cost in different parking garage will also be stored in the database. The parking guidance is requested by the driver using the navigation system which will be embedded with sim cards inside the vehicle. BMW already have sim card embedded cars [8]. There will be GPS module inside the navigation system which will give the current location of the car. This location of the vehicle, will help to find the nearest parking fa cilities near it. The distance and time to reach each parking garage are calculated by the already programmed navigation device. It will also provide the parking fare for each parking garage. The driver can then select the appropriate parking slot based on his convenience. Step 2: Reserve the parking slot Once the parking slot has been selected by the driver, it should be reserved otherwise there are chances for the parking slot to be occupied by some other car before the vehicle reaches the selected slot. The central server system should be updated once the driver has reserved parking slot. The reservation should be done using the number plate of the vehicle. Sometimes, there might be more than one reservation request for the same parking slot at the same. So, there are chances to get the reservation declined for other customers. In that case the driver can select another parking slot. The vehicle can also go to the parking slot without reservation as well. But there will be a risk of the parking slot to be occupied before the vehicle arrives the parking slot. Step 3: Start the navigation to the parking slot. Once the parking slot has been selected by the driver, he/she can leave the car and the car will navigate to the selected parking slot. Figure 1.1. Algorithm for parking slot selection 2.1.1.b. PARKING PATH FOLLOWING Once the parking slot has been selected the next step is to guide the vehicle to the parking slot. In this paper [6], a graph data structure is used, which will generate driving path using 4D kinematics (i, j, ÃŽÂ ¸, R). The i and j represents the centre co-ordinates of the vehicle and ÃŽÂ ¸ is the heading angle value of the vehicle. To avoid the obstacles while following the path to the parking slot laser scanner sensors (LMS15) are used. These sensors can see the obstacles within 40 m distance and an angular range of 0-1900. The sensors are fitted on both sides in the front and rear side of the vehicle. The obstacle avoidance path is generated by the server system. The figure 1.3. [6] shows the obstacle detecting and avoiding path. Figure 1.3. Obstacle detecting and avoiding path [6] The path generated by the server system consists of location of the vehicle and its heading angle value (ÃŽÂ ¸). The vehicle control system will generate signals to control the steering of the vehicle depending on the heading angle value and location of the vehicle. The steering angle should be calculated for this. The formula for steering angle is shown below [6]. ÃŽÂ ¸s = ÃŽÂ ¸3 ÃŽÂ ¸2  ­- ÃŽÂ ¸1  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   2 ÃŽÂ ¸s = Steering angleÃŽÂ ¸3 = lateral error angle of vehicle location  Ã‚  Ã‚   ÃŽÂ ¸2 = look-ahead way point heading angle  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   ÃŽÂ ¸1 = vehicle heading angle Figure 1.4. [6] shows the driving path followed by the vehicle and the location of the vehicle. Figure 1.4. Driving path followed by the vehicle [6] The speed will also be controlled by the control system. The speed will be reduced to 8 km/hr once the car has entered the parking garage. The car will be notified when it reaches the parking garage by the GPS module installed in the navigation system. The laser scanner sensors can detect the moving obstacles as well. When the vehicle has detected the moving object (e.g. pedestrian) it will stop and wait until it has crossed the road. 2.1.1.c. PARKING AT THE SELECTED PARKING SLOT The next step after reaching the parking slot is the parking at the selected slot. The vehicle control systems consist of two levels [7]. 1. Low level control Low level control is the control of motion which includes steering wheels control, speed control and moving in a proposed distance. 2. High level control High level control is computer vision based control. A trajectory path is formed showing the vehicle direction to park it in the selected slot. To describe the car parking, bi-cycle model is used [7]. This model is commonly used to describe four wheeled vehicles. Rear drive wheel of this model cannot be rotated. To control the vehicle movement the front wheel will be rotated about the vertical axis following the trajectory path. It is assumed that the vehicle is moving on a horizontal and flat surface. Figure 1.5. Bi-cycle model of four wheeled vehicles The figure 1.5. shows the bi-cycle model of four wheeled vehicles [7]. The co ordinate system is represented as V, where x and y represent the co-ordinate points in that system. L= distance between the front and rear wheels ÃŽÂ ³ = steering angle ÃŽÂ ¸ = angle between xv and x v = velocity of the vehicle ICR instantaneous centre of rotation of the vehicle Parking of the car can be done in two ways. [7] 1.Parallel parking method. 2.Perpendicular parking method. Parallel parking method A precise path should be generated to minimize the parking area. The vehicle should move along two arcs created by the high level control without straight-line section between them. A maximum rotational angle of the steering wheels is required to achieve this. The figure 1.6. shows the parallel parking method [7]. Figure 1.6. Parallel parking method [7] The circle radius is calculated using the steering angle (ÃŽÂ ³). Circle radius (R1) = L2tgÃŽÂ ³ Ls1 and Ls2 are the safety boundaries, so the vehicle will not hit the front and back corner of the vehicle while parking. L1, L2, L3 and L4 are the boundary dimensions. The trajectory parking length (S)can be calculated to park the vehicle in the parking slot without colliding on the obstacles. The formula to obtain the trajectory parking length is given below. S = Ls1 + L1 + L2 + L3 + L4 + Ls2 Perpendicular parking method Perpendicular parking method is almost like the parallel parking method. This method reduces the parking area required for parking. The figure 1.7. shows the perpendicular parking method. Figure 1.7. Perpendicular parking method [7] The centre axel wheel should steer along the arc with the radius (R2) value given below to park in a safe condition. R2 = When vehicle reaches point A,for successful completion of parking, the steering wheels should be controlled by the steering. The gear should be in reverse gear and continue until the safe region. There are safety zones LS as in the parallel parking method. The trajectory parking length (S)can be calculated to park the vehicle in the parking slot without colliding on the obstacles. The formula to obtain the trajectory parking length is given below. S = R1 + L2 + LS + 2.1.1.d. NOTIFYING THE DRIVER AFTER PARKING After the car, has been parked in the parking slot, the driver should be notified that the car is safely parked. The sim card embedded in the system will help to notify the driver through SMS or mobile app that it has arrived the parking slot safely. This will help the driver to track the vehicle and ensure that it has reached the parking slot safely. 2.1.2 CHALLENGES AND DESIGN ISSUES IN THE PROPOSED SYSTEM Challenges (i) One of the main challenges in the proposed system is that the driver can only access the parking garages which has been saved in the central server system. (ii) In the proposed system, the vehicle will not come to pick the driver. He/she should go to the parking slot to find the car. This can be included in the future development. Design Issues (i) Sometimes GPS might fail to work in that case the autonomous car might fail to find its direction. (ii) Infrared sensors are expensive and sometimes fail to work due to temperature change. 2.1.3. VEHICLES THAT HAS BEEN USING AUTOMATED VEHICLE VALET PARKING Using digital mapping technology, BMW i3 is about to launch their new car [9] that can park in multi-storey parking garages. This fully autonomous vehicle will drive until it detects a free parking space. Their new Remote Valet Parking Assistant will parks the i3 without any driver assistance. The new car can also detect the moving obstacles and falsely parked car using its LiDAR sensors and drive accordingly without colliding with the obstacles. The car will not notify the driver it has reached the parking slot is one of the drawback in their features. 2.2 AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE NAVIGATION IN UNKNOWN ENVIRONMENT. A fully automatic vehicle should be able to drive by itself and for that it should sense, control, observe and react to its environment. This paper describes an autonomous vehicle that can drive without human intervention in an unknown environment. The use cases included are obstacle avoidance, backward moving and overtaking. The car will reach its destination by avoiding obstacles and following the path lane. A fuzzy logic control technology is used in this paper which will receive the required information from the sensors which will sense the obstacles in its way and the environmental changes. A GPS module is also used to track the position of the vehicle. The system will also control the speed, brake and steering effectively. 2.2.1 DESIGN ANALYSIS AND ALGORITHM The proposed system is divided into two units [5] Fuzzy logic control unit Computer vision unit. The block diagram of the proposed unit is shown in the figure 2.1. [5]. Figure 2.1. Block diagram of the proposed system [5] 2.2.1.a. FUZZY LOGIC CONTROL UNIT Autonomous cars are very complex to design. In this system, fuzzy logic is used to generate logical control signals from the input analog signals. Fuzzy logic is widely used in artificial intelligence. There are many alternative approaches such as genetic algorithm and neural network, but fuzzy logic has the merit that, it can be easily understood by the human operators. The block diagram of the fuzzy logic control unit is shown in figure 2.2. Figure 2.2. Fuzzy Logic Control Unit [4] The proposed system consists of two ultrasonic sensors for recognising the obstacles and measuring the distance between the obstacle and vehicle. Ultrasonic sensors produce ultrasonic waves, which will not produce any sound pollution/environmental pollution. Its also inexpensive. A H-Bridge is used to control the steering motor and the back motor. Webcam is used to see and follow the road lane path. The steering angle is measured and controlled by a potentiometer. The GPS receiver senses the position of the vehicle and is given to the microcontroller. This will help the micro-controller to know whether the vehicle has reached its destination or not. The steering and speed commands are combined and based on this the vehicle will move through the lane. The speed of the vehicle is the most important part while driving. The speed of the vehicle depends on many external factors such as environmental condition, road condition and car condition. For a normal autonomous car, it should have an auto-braking system, auto-speed control system and auto-steering system. These systems depend on different factors like environmental condition, car condition, road condition and so on. The fuzzy logic control unit will control the speed, brake, and steering based on these factors. The figure 2.3. [4] below shows the fuzzy logic controller controlling the systems based on the environmental condition and car condition. Figure 2.3. Fuzzy Logic Controller [4] Auto-braking System The auto-braking system is provided in autonomous car to avoid collision. The ultrasonic sensors will sense the distance between the obstacle and the car and if it is not in a safe distance the car will either stop or reduce the speed. The normal speed limit is set as 0 60 km/hr and the minimum distance between the car and the obstacle is maintained at 5 10 m. This is selected as per the traffic safety authorities. Auto- speed System Speed of the car is controlled on various factors such as environmental condition and car condition. Environmental condition and car condition will be between the range shown below and the car should choose the speed accordingly. Environmental Conditions: Rains falling: (0 200) mm. Winds Speed: (0 150) km/h. Rain sensors are used to sense the rain. The sensors can tell when it is raining depending on the rain drops falling on the wind shield depending on the light reflected. If there are more rain drops on the wind shield less light will be reflected to the rain sensor. Car Condition: Weight (including passengers): (1600 1900) kg. Engine Heat: (-25 65) à ; c. A weight sensor can be used in the seats so that it will sense how many passengers are there in the seat and the vehicle can control the speed. All these factors are given a rating between 0 and 10 [4]. If the conditions are bad, the rating will be between 0-3 and if the conditions are good, then the rating will be between 7-10. The micro-controller will be pre-programmed in such a way that it will be indicated when its raining, or when the air content in the tire is less and the speed of the car will be controlled according to that. Auto-Steering control The steering control is the main part of the autonomous car. The steering is controlled in such a way that; it will follow the trajectory or path to the destination generated by the computer vision unit. Obstacle Avoidance The main feature that should be incorporated in an autonomous vehicle is obstacle avoidance to avoid collision. There are two type of obstacles static and moving obstacles. The obstacles are sensed by the ultrasonic sensors which are connected at the right and left side of the vehicle at an angle of +45o and -45o. The distance is measured using fuzzification. The fuzzy sets used are adjacent, medium and far. The range is set between 25 m and 85 m and is determined by the sensor and the dimension of vehicle [4]. Any measured value by the sensor that is below 25 m is set as minimum value and any measured value exceeding 85 m is set as maximum value. To determine in which fuzzy set (near, medium or far) the measured sensor value belong to is determined using triangular membership function. The equation for that is given below [4]. The speed control and steering control signals are got as an output from the controller which are then given to the steering motor and back motor. The steering is controlled by the steering motor. The steering will be turned according to the steering control signals. The steering angle is controlled by the potentiometer. The digitized value of steering angle decision is shown below. Large Left 120 Small Left 145 Straight 170 Small Right 195 Large Right 220 Figure 2.4. [4] shows the graphical representation of the steering angle decision. Figure 2.4. Graphical representation of the steering angle decision [4] Similarly, the speed is controlled by the back motor and three commands are used for this Slow, Medium and Fast. The values for this is shown below and is decided by the back motors duty cycle values for pulse width modulated signal. Slow 20 Medium 50 Fast 80 Figure 2.5. [4] shows the graphical representation of speed control decision Figure 2.5. Graphical representation of speed control decision[4] Destination Arrived A GPS receiver is attached to the controller to know whether the autonomous car has arrived its destination. The destination will be already decided and entered by the user to the micro controller by using a mobile app. The car and the user can communicate to each other using the 4G network. A SIM card will be already embedded inside the car. Once the car has arrived the destination the car will notify the user. 2.2.1.b COMPUTER VISION UNIT Computer vision unit does the decision-making process in the system. In this paper, overtaking and backward process are discussed. Computer vision unit extracts information from the images taken from multiple cameras and makes decision when to overtake other vehicles and when to reverse the car. Backward direction The figure 2.6. [5] shows the algorithm for backward process of the vehicle. Figure 2.6. Algorithm for backward process [5] Step 1: Decide whether the car should take backward direction or not. Step 2: If yes, the car should select the speed of the vehicle to move in backward direction. If not, then the car continues to move in forward direction. Step 3: After selecting the speed of the backward movement, the next step is to select the direction of the backward movement. If the car wants to move left, then steering should be turned to right and if the car wants to move right then the steering should be turned left. If the wants to move backward in a straight direction then the steering should be kept straight i.e., no change for the steering. Step 4: After the step 3 the car will check the backward process has been completed and the process comes to an end. Overtaking Overtaking is a difficult process normally done by human drivers. To overtake another car the vehicle should maintain a certain speed limit and distance between the two cars should be in a safe distance so that it will not collide. The algorithm for a safe overtaking is given in the figure 2.7. [5]. Figure 2.7. Algorithm for overtaking [5] Step 1: The autonomous car will decide whether to overtake the other car in front of it which will be moving slower than it. If yes, then it should select the overtaking speed. If not, then the car should continue the previous speed. Step 2: The autonomous car should change to the left lane after deciding the speed to overtake. It should check through the rear camera that no other vehicles are trying to overtake it in the left lane, otherwise the two cars will collide with each other. Step 3: After changing to the left lane the autonomous car should continue to move in straight direction. It should check whether it has overtaken the slow vehicle. If yes, then it should change to the right lane maintaining a safe distance. If not, it should continue to move in straight direction and keep on monitoring whether it has overtaken the slow vehicle. Step 4: After the change of lane the autonomous car should check whether it has completed the lane changing. If yes, then the process comes to an end. 2.2.2 CHALLENGES AND DESIGN ISSUES IN THE PROPOSED SYSTEM Challenges (i) In the proposed system, only the algorithm for overtaking and backward movement has discussed. Artificial intelligence algorithm has not been discussed. (ii) In the proposed system, there is detection of traffic signals which can be incorporated in the future development Design Issues (i) Sometimes GPS might fail to work in that case the autonomous car might fail to find its direction. (ii) Ultrasonic sensors can produce some errors when sensing objects which might result in collision. 2.2.3 AUTONOMOUS CARS ALREADY IN MARKET Fully autonomous car will be on our road by 2021. Many car companies like tesla, google, BMW has already started developing such cars. Googles self-driving car has completed 1,500,000 miles in full automated mode on mar 2016 [10]. This car has no steering and brake pedal. It has laser and radar sensors to sense the obstacles and also have a back-up steering, braking, and computing system if any of these fails. 3. CONCLUSION To conclude, we will be able to see self-driving cars on our roads soon, addressing all the road problems like congestions, parking problem, accidents and so on. In this paper two use cases have been discussed. In the first use case, a server system, mobile system and vehicle control system are used for autonomous vehicle valet parking. The proposed system will drop the diver/user at his/her destination and will park the vehicle in the parking slot selected by the user. The future development of the system can be made by making the car to go and pick the user from the parking slot, when he/she is ready to leave. The second use case describes an autonomous vehicle that can drive without human intervention in an unknown environment using fuzzy logic. The use cases included were obstacle avoidance, backward moving and overtaking. The block diagram and algorithm of the proposed system are described in the paper. REFFERENCES [1] C. F. Lin, J. C. Juang and K. R. Li, Active collision avoidance system for steering control of autonomous vehicles, in IET Intelligent Transport Systems, vol. 8, no. 6, pp. 550-557, Sept. 2014. [2] Mohammad Abdul Qayum, Nafiul Alam Siddique, Mohammad Abtiqul Haque and A. S. M. Tayeen, Control of autonomous cars for intelligent transportation system, 2012 International Conference on Informatics, Electronics Vision (ICIEV), Dhaka, 2012, pp. 377-382. [3] B. Brown, The Social Life of Autonomous Cars, in Computer, vol. 50, no. 2, pp. 92-96, Feb. 2017. [4] U. Farooq, K. M. Hasan, M. Amar and M. U. Asad, Design and implementation of fuzzy logic based autonomous car for navigation in unknown environments, 2013 International Conference on Informatics, Electronics and Vision (ICIEV), Dhaka, 2013, pp. 1-7. [5] A. H. A. Widaa and W. A. Talha, Design of Fuzzy-based autonomous car control system, 2017 International Conference on Communication, Control, Computing and Electronics Engineering (ICCCCEE), Khartoum, Sudan, 2017, pp. 1-7. [6] K. W. Min and J. D. Choi, Design and implementation of an intelligent vehicle system for autonomous valet parking service, 2015 10th Asian Control Conference (ASCC), Kota Kinabalu, 2015, pp. 1-6. [7] D. M. Filatov, E. V. Serykh, M. M. Kopichev and A. V. Weinmeister, Autonomous parking control system of four-wheeled vehicle, 2016 IEEE V Forum Strategic Partnership of Universities and Enterprises of Hi-Tech Branches (Science. Education. Innovations), St. Petersburg, 2016, pp. 102-107. [8] The Economist (2014). The connected car smartphones on wheels Available: http://www.economist.com/news/technology-quarterly/21615060-way-cars-are-made-bought-and-driven-changing-mobile-communications [Accessed 27/02/2017] [9] Autocar (2014). BMW reveals new self-parking autonomous technology. Available:http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/bmw-reveals-new-self-parking-autonomous-technology. [Accessed 01/03/2017] [10] Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (2017). Autonomous car Available:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_car [Accessed 04/03/2017]

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Dial-Up Scripting Command Language :: essays research papers

Table of Contents 1.0 Overview 2.0 Basic Structure of a Script 3.0 Variables 3.1 System Variables 4.0 String Literals 5.0 Expressions 6.0 Comments 7.0 Keywords 8.0 Commands 9.0 Reserved Words 1.0 Overview Many Internet service providers and online services require you to manually enter information, such as your user name and password, to establish a connection. With Scripting support for Dial-Up Networking, you can write a script to automate this process. A script is a text file that contains a series of commands, parameters, and expressions required by your Internet service provider or online service to establish the connection and use the service. You can use any text editor, such as Microsoft Notepad, to create a script file. Once you've created your script file, you can then assign it to a specific Dial-Up Networking connection by running the Dial-Up Scripting Tool. 2.0 Basic Structure of a Script A command is the basic instruction that a script file contains. Some commands require parameters that further define what the command should do. An expression is a combination of operators and arguments that create a result. Expressions can be used as values in any command. Examples of expressions include arithmetic, relational comparisons, and string concatenations. The basic form of a script for Dial-Up Networking follows: ; ; A comment begins with a semi-colon and extends to ; the end of the line. ; proc main ; A script can have any number of variables ; and commands variable declarations command block endproc A script must have a main procedure, specified by the proc keyword, and a matching endproc keyword, indicating the end of the procedure. You must declare variables before you add commands. The first command in the main procedure is executed, and then any subsequent commands are executed in the order they appear in the script. The script ends when the end of the main procedure is reached. 3.0 Variables Scripts may contain variables. Variable names must begin with a letter or an underscore ('_'), and may contain any sequence of upper- or lower-case letters, digits, and underscores. You cannot use a reserved word as a variable name. For more information, see the list of reserved words at the end of this document. You must declare variables before you use them. When you declare a variable, you must also define its type. A variable of a certain type may only contain values of that same type. The following three types of variables are supported: Type Description integer A negative or positive number, such as 7, -12, or 5698. string A series of characters enclosed in double-quotes; for example, "Hello world!" or "Enter password:". Dial-Up Scripting Command Language :: essays research papers Table of Contents 1.0 Overview 2.0 Basic Structure of a Script 3.0 Variables 3.1 System Variables 4.0 String Literals 5.0 Expressions 6.0 Comments 7.0 Keywords 8.0 Commands 9.0 Reserved Words 1.0 Overview Many Internet service providers and online services require you to manually enter information, such as your user name and password, to establish a connection. With Scripting support for Dial-Up Networking, you can write a script to automate this process. A script is a text file that contains a series of commands, parameters, and expressions required by your Internet service provider or online service to establish the connection and use the service. You can use any text editor, such as Microsoft Notepad, to create a script file. Once you've created your script file, you can then assign it to a specific Dial-Up Networking connection by running the Dial-Up Scripting Tool. 2.0 Basic Structure of a Script A command is the basic instruction that a script file contains. Some commands require parameters that further define what the command should do. An expression is a combination of operators and arguments that create a result. Expressions can be used as values in any command. Examples of expressions include arithmetic, relational comparisons, and string concatenations. The basic form of a script for Dial-Up Networking follows: ; ; A comment begins with a semi-colon and extends to ; the end of the line. ; proc main ; A script can have any number of variables ; and commands variable declarations command block endproc A script must have a main procedure, specified by the proc keyword, and a matching endproc keyword, indicating the end of the procedure. You must declare variables before you add commands. The first command in the main procedure is executed, and then any subsequent commands are executed in the order they appear in the script. The script ends when the end of the main procedure is reached. 3.0 Variables Scripts may contain variables. Variable names must begin with a letter or an underscore ('_'), and may contain any sequence of upper- or lower-case letters, digits, and underscores. You cannot use a reserved word as a variable name. For more information, see the list of reserved words at the end of this document. You must declare variables before you use them. When you declare a variable, you must also define its type. A variable of a certain type may only contain values of that same type. The following three types of variables are supported: Type Description integer A negative or positive number, such as 7, -12, or 5698. string A series of characters enclosed in double-quotes; for example, "Hello world!" or "Enter password:".

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Sc300: Big Ideas in Science: from Methods to Mutation

Jennifer Rivera SC300: Big Ideas in Science: From Methods to Mutation Professor: Shalon Bull August 14, 2012 1. List all of the components of two of your meals. Meal #1 – Breakfast For breakfast I had a Tuna fish sandwich, with lettuce, two slices of tomato, sauteed onions, and Hellmann's mayonnaise. I also had approximately 10 ounces of Minute Maid Tropical fruit Juice. Meal #2 – Lunch My Lunch consisted of a grilled Tyson chicken breast fillets, with steamed mix vegetables, and 8 ounces of bottle purified Dasani water. 1A. Where did each component of your meal originate?List the country that each part of your meal came from. Meal #1 – Breakfast The origin of the Tuna fish sandwich is as follows; The bread for the sandwich was two slices of Holsum whole wheat bread which is made in Puerto Rico, one 5 ounce chicken of the sea tuna can which is made in San Diego California, The lettuce and tomato was locally grown on the US Virgin Islands St. Croix by local farmer s, the Hellmann’s Mayonnaise was made in New York and the Minute Maid Tropical fruit Juice is produced by the Coca Cola Bottling Co. f Atlanta, GA. Meal #2 – Lunch The Tyson Chicken Breast Fillets are from Springdale, Arkansas and the mix vegetables are locally grown on the US Virgin Islands St. Croix by local farmers. The Dasani water is produced by the Coca Cola Bottling Co. of Atlanta, GA. 1B. List where you purchased the products from. Being the St. Croix US Virgin Islands is only 84 square miles and has a population of about 60,000 people we only have two main grocery stores which are the same just two different locations, Plaza Extra East and Plaza Extra West.I do all my shopping for grocery in Plaza Extra East for the last 20 plus years. So Meal #1 – Breakfast, and Meal #2 – Lunch were all purchased from Plaza Extra East on St. Croix USVI. 1C. Consider the chain of events that took the product to get from the farm/laboratory to your table Being tha t St. Croix is located in the Caribbean, most of our foods supply come from the State of Florida and is ship by containers on ships. The fresh produce and bread are shipped from the island of Puerto Rico where they are made.The only thing that is grown on the Virgin Islands is fresh vegetables and some fruits. 2. What are some of the benefits of a global market and why? List at least 2 benefits, weighing any short-term and long-term impacts. Some of the benefits of global marketing would be that consumers would have a larger range of products to choose from. Another would be the opportunities to small companies which can expand to serve a global market instead of a small country. This would give consumers the opportunity to buy better products at lower cost.Another benefit would be that opening offices in other countries would provide jobs for locals in that country and for the country that is opening the office this means that they will be getting cheaper labor than that which they would pay in their home country for the same job. 3. What are some of the impacts of this global market and why? Considering both short-term and long-term impacts, provide at least 2 negative impacts. Some of the negative impacts that the global market can experience can be caused by poor management of these international markets and others can occur naturally like for example bad weather.Weather and natural disasters can affect the global market in many ways, for example a country like China which exports Rice, can experience bad weather for a year which would affect the production of rice, this would not only affect China economically but cause the global price of rice to rise and the availability of the produce to diminish. So can we as a Country trust the global market as our primary source of food? I would suggest developing the nation’s agriculture programs and the production of foods in our nation the United States of American, and all other countries should do the sa me.This would be like an emergency reserve in other words. Another negative impact would be regulating the rates of taxation from one country to another. For instance if the rates of taxes are higher in Mexico for an American company then the United States might then move that office to Brazil for example. This would affect the investments market for others which would affect the global market tremendously. 4. Consider the phrase Think Globally, Act Locally. What does it mean to you?This phrase in my opinion means that you are thinking beyond the horizon and understand the issues and needs of the entire world, but need to master and fix the issues of your own country before you can get involved with the rest of the world. I think that if we improve and expand our food production capabilities then we can move on to the global market and work together for the same cause which is to bring food to those places that lack it and so much desires it. 5. Has your research on the global marke t changed the way you will choose goods in the future?Why or why not? After my research on the global market I would say that I will not be changing the way I choose my goods in the future. I would still choose the things that I like and would not change these things just because a nation or country might be benefiting from my purchase more than another. The one thing that I now understand after my research is the reason why certain name brands of products are more expensive than others. The prices of products in the global market fluctuate based on the economical state of the producing country and the markets demands.I learned that the more money a country has the more food and better quality they get, this is why poor countries lack food, and even more have a smaller variety in the food choices. References J. C. Chavis. (April 2010) Negative Impacts of a Global Market for Investment. Retrieved from http://www. brighthub. com/money/investing/articles/69512. aspx â€Å"Economic Glo balization† UC Atlas of Global Inequality. Retrieved from http://ucatlas. ucsc. edu/economic. php Global Marketing. Retrieved from http://www. businessdictionary. com/definition/global-marketing. html

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Free Essays on International Business

ADCP International Marketing/Special Studies 1. a. Customers are the focal point of all marketing activities. Organizations have to define products not as what they make or produce but as what they do to satisfy customers. Marketing Barbie dolls would require a marketer to consider the socioculture of its consumers. Sociocultural forces are the influences in a society and its culture that bring about change in attitudes, beliefs, norms, customs, and lifestyles. There are three issues that need to be addressed in decided who will purchase a Barbie doll in international markets. First, there are constant changes in population demographic characteristics-age, gender, race, and ethnicity. The U. S. has entered into another baby boom, with 76 million Americans aged 18 or younger. Other nations may have this same occurrence and this information would help in directing attention to those areas that have a high representation of children wanting a Barbie doll. Another population trend is the increasing multicultural nature of U .S. society. The number of immigrants into the United States has steadily risen during the last thirty years, thus, the emergence of cultures emulating the U.S. Another thing to consider would be the modification of marketing practices to reach ethnically diverse customers to eliminate language barriers. Second, cultural values need to be addressed so that marketers can try to monitor changes in consumers’ needs for Barbie dolls and its products (clothes, accessories, etc.) in the near future. For instance, Barbie dolls were very popular when I was younger (not that I played with them, I had a sister) and today, they are not because of increased competition of other toy and doll makers. Video games have also become very popular in favor of toys. b. When marketing beer internationally, a marketer may have to consider the political/legal environment of the country they are trying to solicit. Some politic... Free Essays on International Business Free Essays on International Business The term Globalization was first coined in the 1980’s. However, the definition of globalization varies in cultural, economical, environmental, political and social studies. According to Williamson, globalization in economical studies refers to an increasing integration of the global economy through factor and product markets by way of direct investment, financial flow and trade greatly aided by the deregulation of markets as well as the liberation of capital movement and trade (Williamson 1998,1). It is a driving force that is expected to affect the countries well being in terms of trade, employment and income as well as the values of dollar in relative to other currencies and so on. Based on a study on the globalization’s rankings in the world, New Zealand is currently rank at number 23. (Graham, Crocombe. Michael, Enright and Michael, Porter 1991,12) In the following paragraphs, there will be an explanation how the globalization affects the New Zealand’s trade with other countries, especially for multinational company’s competition in international trade, employment opportunities for New Zealanders and some reasons which are beneficial and harmful to New Zealand as a whole as well as some policies that should be taken into consideration by other businesses and the government in order to benefit from it. According to the definition of globalization above, it also is simply to understand that globalization refers to the shift a more integrated and interdependent world economy. Globalization has two main components: the globalization of markets and the globalization of production (Charles, Hill 2003,6). The globalization of markets means each the merging of distinct and separate national markets into one huge global marketplace. Each country can sell its products internationally by falling trade barriers. It provides a chance for local companies to compete in international trade by offering qualified goods and services. Wh... Free Essays on International Business ADCP International Marketing/Special Studies 1. a. Customers are the focal point of all marketing activities. Organizations have to define products not as what they make or produce but as what they do to satisfy customers. Marketing Barbie dolls would require a marketer to consider the socioculture of its consumers. Sociocultural forces are the influences in a society and its culture that bring about change in attitudes, beliefs, norms, customs, and lifestyles. There are three issues that need to be addressed in decided who will purchase a Barbie doll in international markets. First, there are constant changes in population demographic characteristics-age, gender, race, and ethnicity. The U. S. has entered into another baby boom, with 76 million Americans aged 18 or younger. Other nations may have this same occurrence and this information would help in directing attention to those areas that have a high representation of children wanting a Barbie doll. Another population trend is the increasing multicultural nature of U .S. society. The number of immigrants into the United States has steadily risen during the last thirty years, thus, the emergence of cultures emulating the U.S. Another thing to consider would be the modification of marketing practices to reach ethnically diverse customers to eliminate language barriers. Second, cultural values need to be addressed so that marketers can try to monitor changes in consumers’ needs for Barbie dolls and its products (clothes, accessories, etc.) in the near future. For instance, Barbie dolls were very popular when I was younger (not that I played with them, I had a sister) and today, they are not because of increased competition of other toy and doll makers. Video games have also become very popular in favor of toys. b. When marketing beer internationally, a marketer may have to consider the political/legal environment of the country they are trying to solicit. Some politic...

Monday, October 21, 2019

Angola essays

Angola essays Angola is a country on the southwest coast of Africa. Its official name is the Republic of Angola. The Congo River and Congo (Kinshasa) separate it from the rest of the country. Most of Angola's people live in rural areas and work on farms. Angola produces a variety of crops, including bananas, coffee, corn, sugar cane, and a starchy root called cassava. Angola also has many natural resources, including diamonds, iron ore, and petroleum. Luanda, the capital and largest city, is a major African seaport. A president is the most powerful official in Angola's government. The National assembly, the country's legislature, makes the laws. The people of Angola elect both the president and the National Assembly. The people in Angola are black Africans. The blacks belong to several ethnic groups, including the Ovimbundu, the Mbundu, the Kongo, and the Luanda-Chokwe. Before the nation became independent, more than 400,000 Europeans and mestizos (people of mixed black African and white ancestry) lived in Angola. Most Europeans fled during a civil war that began after the country achieved independence. The people who live in Angola's rural areas work as farmers and herders, and many raise just enough food for their own use. Most black Angolans speak a language that belongs to the Bantu language group. Europeans, mestizos, and some blacks speak Portuguese, the official language. About 90 percent of the people are Christians, mostly Roman Catholics. Others practice religions based on the worship of ancestors and spirits. Angola forms part of the large inland plateau of southern Africa. The country consists chiefly of hilly grasslands, but a rocky desert covers the south. Temperatures average about 70 F in January and about 60 F in June. From 40 to 60 inches of rain falls annually on the northern coast and in most of the interior. Only ...

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Last Minute Speaking Activities for ESL Teachers

Last Minute Speaking Activities for ESL Teachers Any teacher whos been in the business for more than a few months knows its important to have short speaking activities on hand to fill in those gaps that inevitably occur during class.   Student Interviews Introducing Students to Each Other / Expressing Opinions Choose a topic that will interest your students. Ask them to write five or more questions about this topic (students can also come up with the questions in small groups). Once they have finished the questions, they should interview at least two other students in the class and take notes on their answers. When the students have finished the activity, ask students to summarize what they have found out from the students they have interviewed. This exercise is very flexible. Beginning students can ask each other when they do their various daily tasks, advanced students can make up questions concerning politics or other hot topics. Conditional Chains Practicing conditional forms This activity specifically targets conditional forms. Choose either the real/unreal or past unreal (1, 2, 3 conditional) and give a few examples: If I had $1,000,000, Id buy a big house. / If I bought a big house, wed have to get new furniture. / If we got new furniture, wed have to throw away the old. etc.   Students will catch on quickly to this activity, but you might be surprised by how the story always seems to come back to the beginning.   New Vocabulary Challenge   Activating New Vocabulary Another common challenge in the classroom is getting students to use new vocabulary rather than the same old, same old. Ask students to brainstorm vocabulary. You can focus on a topic, a particular part of speech, or as a vocabulary review. Take two pens and (I like to use red and green) and write each word in one of two categories: A category for words that should not be used in conversation - these include words like go, live, etc., and a category that students should use in conversation - these include vocabulary items youd like to get students using. Pick a topic and challenge students to only use the target vocabulary.   Who Wants a...? Convincing Tell students that you are going to give them a present. However, only one student will receive the present. In order to receive this present, the student must convince you through his/her fluency and imagination that he or she deserves the present. Its best to use a wide range of imaginary presents as some students will obviously be more attracted to certain types of presents than others. A computerA gift certificate for $200 at a fashionable storeA bottle of expensive wineA new car Describing Your Best Friend Descriptive Adjective Use Write a list of descriptive adjectives on the board. Its best if you include both positive and negative characteristics. Ask students to choose the two positive and two negative adjectives that best describe their best friends and explain to the class while they chose those adjectives. Variation:Have students describe each other. Three Picture Story Descriptive Language/Reasoning Choose three pictures from a magazine. The first picture should be of people that are in some sort of relationship. The other two pictures should be of objects. Have students get into groups of three or four students to a group. Show the class the first picture and ask them to discuss the relationship of the people in the picture. Show them the second picture and tell them that the object is something that is important to the people in the first picture. Ask students to discuss why they think that object is important to the people. Show them the third picture and tell them that this object is something that the people in the first picture really dont like. Ask them to once again discuss the reasons why. After you have finished the activity, have the class compare the various stories that they came up within their groups.

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Communication (Neo-Liberalism) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Communication (Neo-Liberalism) - Essay Example Surveillance has become part of media and to some extent life too. Current communication policy is ruled by the technological discoveries and achievements. UNESCO's New World Information and Communication Order have sponsored various world summits to evolve and update communication policies based on the emerging neoliberalism and other connected theories. Neoliberal visions and revisions of the global communication policy are focused on the technical aspects of communication. Globalization, technical evolution and democratization are the forces that have introduced neoliberalism. According to Andrejevik (2004), reality surveillance shows like Big Brother are not tremendously popular and is only viewed by spectators willing to enter into a virtual space; but this does not mean that it is not successful and its success is attributed to its democratic attitude, though considered to be a distorted version by others. He says this is mainly because of the emergence of a surveillance based economy gives authenticity to the reality shows and how the society is reacting to them without being obviously revolutionalised by them. Also there is a genuine fear that the bad old days of police states, unlimited surveillance and authoritarian regimes are not far off, due to the communication and media technologies that are becoming more and more aggressive every day. In addition to this, sociologists are worried about the addictive shopping that might overtake all other priorities. Bennett, who gives historical and political background through Freudian concepts of psychoanalysis as a contributing factor, invoking Freud's penchant for economic explanations of the psyche, talks about getting motivated by the unconscious marketing and goes to the extent of sexualizing advertised products which will once again lead the unconscious buyers into compelling addictive shopping. "Addictive shopping first entered the psychiatric textbooks in 1915; but it was only in the 1990s that it became the subject of a raft of psychological theories and therapies offering to explain and address the emotional needs and personality traits assumed to give rise to compulsive spending" Bennett (2005). No doubt, this is stating it in its extremity with 'utmost skepticism'; but the days of unlimited freedom, individuality and privacy seem to be very fast disappearing and this is a disturbing trend. According to Williams tries to attach neoliberalism into Marxist theories and thinks it is necessary to understand both the dominant and the residual cultures. He argues that cultural emergence could be complex; but is of major importance, as the social order is changing and right now it is difficult to differentiate between the dominant and the secondary. Because the society under neoliberalism has not yet reached the changed perspective; instead, it is still going through the stage of pre-emergence of the final form."Again and again what we have to observe is in effect a pre-emergence, active and pressing, but not yet fully articulated, rather than the evident emergence which could be more confidently named. It is to understand more closely this condition of pre-emergence, as well as the more evident forms of the emergent, the residual, and the dominant, that we need to explore the concepts of struct6ures of feeling," Williams (1977). Neoliberalism is

Friday, October 18, 2019

The Impact of Every Child Matters on Workplace Case Study

The Impact of Every Child Matters on Workplace - Case Study Example Aside from briefly discussing the context of â€Å"Every Child Matters†, this report will examine the different UK public policies such as Equality Act 2006, the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995, Employment Rights Act of 1996, Sex Discrimination Act of 1975, and Race Relations Act of 1976 as a way of examining how the promotion of cultural diversity within the educational system could help each child prepare and protect themselves as soon as they are ready to look for employment opportunities. After discussing the significance of cultural diversity in the work environment, strategic ways on how to develop and create an effective inclusive learning environment for children with or without learning difficulties will be tackled in details. Specifically, the educational support needs of each child vary depending on their individual learning capabilities. Some students are fast learners whereas students who were born with mental or physical health problems may have difficulty in learning (Learning and Teaching Scotland 2007). In order to remove all the barriers to learning, the Scottish government has exerted so much effort on increasing the social complexity of each school. Under the current Scottish Executive Education Department, the Education Act 2004 promotes an equal opportunity for education regardless of the mental and physical condition of a child. The said Act includes rendering additional short- and long-term support needs related to social, socio-economic status, emotional, cognitive, linguistic, disability or family and care circumstances which may hinder a child’s learning development (Scottish Executive Education Department 2004; Killean 2003). Similar to Children Act of 2004, â€Å"Every Child Matters† was developed to ensure that the educational and health services that each child will receive equal benefits regardless of their physical and mental condition.  

Modern China Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Modern China - Essay Example When Europeans and Americans started to recognize the Chinese people, the traditional intellectual Chinese started to take part in the political and economic systems of China. The most significant evidence was that Sun Yat-sen overthrew the Qing rule and established the Republic of China. 2.What are your ideologies? Why are they suitable for 1905s China and better than your rivals? My ideologies are about reforms. Being a reformer in Chinas 1905s during the Qing dynasty would mean overcoming the bureaucratic structures of the government. As a reformer, I would recommend and implement various reforms in the military, administrative, and fiscal systems to eliminate bureaucracies and encourage coordination and representation in all decision-making activities of the government. Like in the Boxer Protocol, reforms would include improvement in the tax systems, subsidies, and benefits offered by the government. The tax reforms would include enforcement and collection of land taxes to reduce inefficiencies and conflicts in the lenient approach of landowning. The revenue received from taxation would be used to improve various sectors of the economy including irrigation, roads, schools, and charities and benefits to needy members of the society such as old people and people living with disabilities. There should also be reforms in the electoral system in which the people would have more power and independence to choose their leaders. The reforms also involved changes in the legal code and abolition of the examination system.

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Reflective Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 1

Reflective - Essay Example Besides, the aspect of professional behaviour is amalgamation of two different words profession and behaviour in which profession referred as the work that requires particular skill and involve high-level education as well as competencies in an individual. On the other hand, behaviour is regarded as way of acting or behaving in a particular scenario. Thus, based on the above analysis and discussion, I understood that professional behaviour is the approach of reflection of professionalism. Besides, in the overall respect, if we behave in a professional manner, then we will be able to uphold good respect over the public. On the other hand, it has also been reflected that if we tends towards behaving in a professional manner, it will significantly assist in uplifting our career and improve the overall working environment. The learning module assisted me with the aspect that in order to ensure professional behaviour, we must tend to compel the assigned rule and law in the professional ground. For instance, in a business, the accountants are needed to ensure that their work is conducted in accordance with the rules and the standards, which are applicable in the field of accounting. Moreover, the aspect not only emphasis the written rules and conduct, but also includes unwritten aspects in much ethical manner ensuring reduction of possible disrepute over the professions. Nevertheless, in the working environment, professional activities are highly interlinked, as an individual breaking his/her professional practice and code of conduct will create significant impact over the entire profession. Based on discussion of the learning module, I can affirm the fact that professional conduct is acting and governing the activities in a professional manner. In this respect, code of conduct is regarded as an important approach of ethical benchmark of the professional practice. Additionally, I can

Othello by William Shakespeare Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Othello by William Shakespeare - Essay Example Outdoors, the cool autumn New York City air was tinged for a moment with the melancholy sounds of Billy Holliday belting out her first-hand impression of the ever-present scourge of lynching in the Deep South; painfully echoing through the words of a song she named Strange Fruit. Set in northern Italy during the late sixteen century, William Shakespeare's tragedy has never been able to avoid its powerful racial imagery. Perhaps that is as it was meant to be. However today, in such a multi-cultural and yet arguably still a rather segregated society, it is often difficult for Americans to truly gage racial sensibilities across several centuries and such wide bodies of water. When have we ever been able to gage an honest understanding of the true nature of racism within our own society So it is, that the best that we may hope to do is to put notions of racial antagonism and identity within the proper context of a prominent European city immersed within the waning years of the Italian Renaissance. Watching from the very first scene, as Iago appears to speak somewhat disparagingly of him as - 'The Moor', and Roderigo mocks his 'thick lips', what are we to make of the contemporary at

Homeland Security Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Homeland Security - Assignment Example Each support annex identifies a coordinating agency, as well as assisting and cooperating agencies. In some instances, two departments or agencies share coordinating agency responsibilities (US Department of Homeland Security FEMA, 2009, p. 3-7) A plan is said to be achievable when the organization is able to achieve the main aims and objectives of the plan given the resource and time constraints placed upon the project. In every plan, a certain amount of resources are allocated and they are later monitored through the use of different statuses. The available resources of a project consist of the internal assets within the organization and even those that the organization is able to attain through agreements (US Department of Homeland Security FEMA, 2009, p. 4-17) U.S. Department of Homeland Security FEMA. (2010). Developing and maintaining emergency operations plans: Comprehensive preparedness guide 101, Version 2.0. Retrieved from

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Reflective Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 1

Reflective - Essay Example Besides, the aspect of professional behaviour is amalgamation of two different words profession and behaviour in which profession referred as the work that requires particular skill and involve high-level education as well as competencies in an individual. On the other hand, behaviour is regarded as way of acting or behaving in a particular scenario. Thus, based on the above analysis and discussion, I understood that professional behaviour is the approach of reflection of professionalism. Besides, in the overall respect, if we behave in a professional manner, then we will be able to uphold good respect over the public. On the other hand, it has also been reflected that if we tends towards behaving in a professional manner, it will significantly assist in uplifting our career and improve the overall working environment. The learning module assisted me with the aspect that in order to ensure professional behaviour, we must tend to compel the assigned rule and law in the professional ground. For instance, in a business, the accountants are needed to ensure that their work is conducted in accordance with the rules and the standards, which are applicable in the field of accounting. Moreover, the aspect not only emphasis the written rules and conduct, but also includes unwritten aspects in much ethical manner ensuring reduction of possible disrepute over the professions. Nevertheless, in the working environment, professional activities are highly interlinked, as an individual breaking his/her professional practice and code of conduct will create significant impact over the entire profession. Based on discussion of the learning module, I can affirm the fact that professional conduct is acting and governing the activities in a professional manner. In this respect, code of conduct is regarded as an important approach of ethical benchmark of the professional practice. Additionally, I can

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Homeland Security Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Homeland Security - Assignment Example Each support annex identifies a coordinating agency, as well as assisting and cooperating agencies. In some instances, two departments or agencies share coordinating agency responsibilities (US Department of Homeland Security FEMA, 2009, p. 3-7) A plan is said to be achievable when the organization is able to achieve the main aims and objectives of the plan given the resource and time constraints placed upon the project. In every plan, a certain amount of resources are allocated and they are later monitored through the use of different statuses. The available resources of a project consist of the internal assets within the organization and even those that the organization is able to attain through agreements (US Department of Homeland Security FEMA, 2009, p. 4-17) U.S. Department of Homeland Security FEMA. (2010). Developing and maintaining emergency operations plans: Comprehensive preparedness guide 101, Version 2.0. Retrieved from

Douglasian Cultural Model in Indian Context Essay Example for Free

Douglasian Cultural Model in Indian Context Essay Introduction Today’s world is being dominated by daily innovations in technology and increasing globalization which helps organizations to spread and to operate globally in a successful way. Every organisation operating at a global level is trying to improve their financial profits. The success of such organizations greatly depends on their workforce and their decision-making capabilities. Many times the ethicality of such decisions have been questioned because of the profit driven strategies of these organizations. As Nobel Prize winner economist Milton Friedman quotes, â€Å"An executive’s responsibility generally will be to make as much money as possible while conforming to their basic rules of the society, both those embodied in law and those embodied in ethical custom. † The decision-making process and hence ethicality of the decisions in such organisations is greatly influenced by the culture of the workforce. Bartels (1967) was one of the first to note the importance of the role of culture in ethical decision-making. There are different studies which discuss the diversity of ethical decision-making based on different perspective for example, Vitell, Nwachukwu and Barnes, 1993 discuss the effect of culture on ethical decision-making with the help of Hofsted’s typology while Patel and Schaefer, 2009 discuss the same with the help of Douglasian Cultural Theory (CT) perspective in the Indian context. Summary Patel and Schaefer’s article discusses the impact of culture on ethical decision-making from a Douglasian Cultural Theory (CT) perspective. It explains the dynamic ethical behaviour of the individual with four solidarities of CT. The Article also discusses the business ethics in the Indian context. Authors argue that applying static conception of culture to the process of ethical decision-making in business results in several problems. The Authors propose CT as an alternative model to these static conceptions to avoid these problems. The Article says that every social system is ethically plural because of the presence of all four solidarities together. An Individual from different solidarities may have a different perception of an issue’s moral intensity which may lead to different levels of moral awareness and hence to different moral judgements. The Article explores the dynamicity and diversity of ethical decision-making in business using the CT framework within the I ndian context with examples of Amul, SEWA, Tata Steel, ONGC and Reliance. Strengths This article offers an alternative approach of CT stating the impact of culture on ethical decision-making process in business. Authors argue that applying the static conception of culture to the business ethics results in different problems like national stereotyping, focus on only national cultural aspect ignoring the other aspects and broad generalisation of culture at national level. This article strongly supports the scholars who challenge the essentialist culture approach like Hofstedian framework. Singh (1990) and Bosland (1985a) have shown that it is possible to have different scores on the four Hofstedian dimensions within the same country. Hence there is possibility of difference in ethical behaviour within the same country. The Authors also talk about the same ethical dynamicity in behaviour. The article powerfully illustrates the diversity in business ethics within Indian context using CT model. The Article talks about the different cultural patterns existing in same corporation at same time. This article supports the argument by Sathe (1985) which says that although, the term â€Å"corporate culture† is used as if organisations have a monolithic culture, most companies have more than one set of beliefs influencing the behaviour of employees. The Article also supports the Thompson’s (1997 a-c) theory who argues that same individual could be a member of different solidarities in different contexts which explains the different ethical behaviour of an individual at a different social context. Also the article studies the ethical practices of different types of companies and business entities to understand the business ethics beyond large private corporations with respect to all the four solidarities of CT. The article debates about the dynamicity of ethical decision-making by citing the examples of all the solidarities existing in different Indian corporations. Also it talks over about the historical and philosophical background for the adoption of different ethical strategies by different corporations. Weaknesses The article explains the process of ethical decision-making in business from a ‘Douglasian Cultural Theory’ perspective only. The article does not identify many other factors beyond culture that may account for differences in work behaviour across nations. Scholars like Parboteeah and Cullen (2003) have suggested the need to include noncultural factors to isolate the influence of culture on ethical behaviour. Also many scholars have talked about the other personal characteristics like education, age, gender and religion that affect the ethical decision-making but they have not put any light on this part in the article. According to Kracher, Chatterjee and Lundquist, education plays an important and positive role in one’s ethical decision-making. Also Singhapakdi et al.: JBE (1996) talk about the relationship between ethical sensitivity and age being significantly positive. Ameen, et al., (1996) suggests that ethical judgments vary according to gender, where females have historically been more ethical compared to males. According to Singhapakdi et al :JBE (2000), there is a positive relationship between religion and perception of an ethical problem. The article has not mentioned all these perspectives while considering the process of ethical decision-making. Patel and Schaefer explained the ethical behaviour in Indian business context with the help of CT and argue that as CT is not limited in its scope of application, what is true for one country should also be true for other countries. This contradicts the findings of the researchers like Tsui which states â€Å"The major contexts that may separate one nation from another include the physical, historical, political, economic, social, and cultural.† This may cause an individual from another country to behave differently in the same context compare to individual in India. My standpoint The research article applies CT model to explain the ethical decision-making process in business within Indian context which allows us to look beyond static and limited conception of national culture. The authors have explained the ethical behaviours using examples of different Indian business entities. Since India is one of the largest growing economies, this research paper will be useful in providing the insights of the ethical practices in India. In my opinion, the authors have raised valid questions about the studies that link static conceptions of the culture to the business ethics. The authors have successfully associated dynamicity in ethical behaviours with the different cultural patterns as per CT which proves the existence of all the four solidarities in every social system. Paper also gives us insights about how all the solidarities co-exist and try to dominate each other. The Authors explain it in an Indian context citing examples for each solidarity. Moreover, authors have highlighted the important fact that managers operating under different cultural patterns may perceive and attend to information about moral issues differently which results in different ethical behaviours. The article considered the very important factors of history and politics that may have influenced while discussing dynamicity of ethical behaviours within Indian context. I am of the opinion that the Douglasian cultural theory is not sufficient to judge the ethical behaviour in business. There are many other factors like education, age, gender and religion which hold a significant role in the decision-making process. The authors have failed to consider these factors. I believe the consideration of the above mentioned factors would have made this research work more reliable. Also I disagree with the authors’ argument of what is true for India should also be true for other countries since every country has a different political, economical, cultural and physical background. Conclusion Taran Patel and Anja Schaefer have criticized the static and limited conception of culture to ethical decision-making in business. They have provided the alternative approach of Douglasian cultural theory to explain the dynamicity and diversity in ethical behaviours with the help of examples from business entities in India. The Authors advocate that the managers should be sensitive to the beliefs of all the four solidarities to be more effective. The Authors also agree that more empirical and theoretical work is needed to strengthen the relationship between the cultural patterns and business ethics. References Bartels, R.: 1967, A Model for Ethics in Marketing’, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Jan., 1967), pp. 20-26 Vitell S, Nwachukwu S and Barnes J. : 1993, ‘The Effects of Culture on Ethical Decision-Making: An Application of Hofstedes Typology’, Journal of Business Ethics,Vol. 12, No. 10 (Oct., 1993), pp. 753-760 Hofstede, G. 1980. (Revised in 1984). Culture’s Consequences – International Differences in Work-related Values. Sage Publications. Singh, J. 1990. Managing Culture and Work-related Values in India. Organization Studies, 11(1): 75-101 Bosland, N. 1985a.An evaluation of Replication Studies using the Values Survey Module.Institute for Research on Intercultural Cooperation, Rijks-universiteit Limburg Working Paper 85-2, Maastricht Sathe, V. (1985), Culture and Related Corporate Realities, Irwin, Homewood, IL. Thompson, M.: 1997a, ‘Rewriting the Precepts of PolicyAnalysis’, in M. Thompson and R. J. Ellis (eds.),Culture Matters: Essays in Honour of Aaron Wildavsky(Westview Press, Boulder, CO). Thompson, M.: 1997b, ‘Cultural Theory and TechnologyAssessment’, in F. Fischer and M. Hajer (eds.),Living with Nature: Environmental Discourse and Cultural Politics (Oxford University Press, Oxford). Thompson, M.: 1997c, ‘Cultural Theory and IntegratedAssessment’,Environmental Modelling and Assessment 2,139–150. Kracher, B., A. Chatterjee and A. R. Lundquist: 2002, ‘Factors Related to the Cognitive Moral Development of Business Students and Business Professionals in India and the United States: Nationality, Education, Sex and Gender’, Journal of Business Ethics 35(4), 255–268 Parboteeah, K. P., Cullen, J. B. 2003. Social institutions and work centrality: Explorations beyond national culture. Organization Science, 14(2): 137-148. Patel, T.: 2005, Using Dynamic Cultural Theories to explain the Viability of International Strategic Alliances: A Focus on Indo-French Alliances. PhD Thesis, Open University. Milton Keynes, UK. Singhapakdi, A., S. J. Vitell and K. L Kraft: 1996, ‘Moral Intensity and Ethical Decision-Making of Marketing Professionals’, Journal of Business Research 36, 245–255. Ameen, E., Guffey, D. and J. McMillan. 1996. Gender Differences in Determining the Ethical Sensitivity of Future Accounting Professionals. Journal of Business Ethics 15: 591-597. Singhapakdi, Anusorn, Janet K. Marta, Kumar C. Rallapalli, and C.P. Rao (2000), Toward an Understanding of Religiousness and Marketing Ethics: An Empirical Study, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 27, No. 4, 305-319.

Monday, October 14, 2019

The difference of being a social worker

The difference of being a social worker What is the difference between helping service users and being a professional Social Worker? Social work in UK has been a regulated profession since 2005 and the title Social worker is protected by its regulatory body (GSCC) that entitles only those professionally qualified to use this term to describe themselves. Social work professionals are held accountable to the law, their employers, service users and to the GSCC code of ethics. They are guided by principles which make up an ethical framework these can sometimes prevent a social worker to do what service users may see as helping. More than helping, social work is seen as enabling people to resolve their problems. Therefore, working with them to develop skills required to overcome the problem, rather than providing a quick fix. The skills of empowerment, advocacy and user involvement are needed in professional practice so the social worker would be able to exercise their duty in line with the professional code of practice and conduct. This would help to limit bad practices while also promoting moral and job satisfaction. Firstly, this essay will give a brief definition of what is social work; it will then go on to examine the key principles in social work practice. The role of a social worker, their responsibilities and the ethical framework will be described in some detail. It will then conclude with an examination on the significance in working in partnership. Lastly, I will look into the issues of diversity along with AOP and ADP. Finally, this essay will look on the significance of service user and carer experiences and perspectives along with a brief conclusion. Social work is defined by the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) as a profession that promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well-being. Utilising theories of human behaviour and social systems, social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work (IFSW, 2000). This definition of Social work shows that the duties of social work practitioners are linked with principles of empowerment, human right and social justice. Social works main duty is to enable all people to develop their full potential, enrich their lives, and prevent dysfunction (IFSW, 2000). They will act as advocates on behalf of the people they serve and their duty is focused on problem solving also bringing about change. Social work is an interrelated system of values, theory and practice (IFSW, 2000). Social work is also a form of social control, this because it involves promoting and protecting the welfare of not only the individual but also the wider community this dual responsibility often causes conflicts and tensions, (Thompson, 2009, p.3). Social workers come to contact with individuals from many different backgrounds. Their aim is to help people overcome difficulties and live a successful life, while there are times where practitioners are there to support people in accepting a situation that cannot be changed (e.g. terminal illness, etc.). What differs social work from other professionals is the complexity and the variety of the roles in which they are involved. The need to involve service users wherever possible and working closely with other professionals is required by a number of legislations, this makes the practice in a way easier, as it rules out misunderstandings or the possibility of missing out on important information. Individuals and other professionals involved in the process of working in partnership have to be involved during each stage of intervention. Partnership working is seen as a highly skilled activity, it requires the ability to communicate and engage, assess and plan, to be sensitive and observant, and so on, (Thompson, 2009, p.118). Social work practitioners are expected to take regular training in order to expand their knowledge as the result of continuous developments in policies, theories etc. Social work is an evolving profession, constantly responding to new policy aspirations, expanding knowledge and rising public aspirations. (GSCC, 2008, p.10). Trevithick (2009) categirizes knowledge under three headings that overlap and are linked together: Theoretical borrowed theories, analyse theories (purpose of SW), practice theories/approaches Factual law/legislation, social policy, etc. Practice/practical/personal acquisitioned, used, created knowledge. Trevithick (2009, p.25-43). The advantage of this framework would be that it gives directions where there is a need to further expand your knowledge. Social work profession requires a breadth and in depth knowledge base, however, the knowledge base of the caring profession is not appreciated by the general public .. partly due to the assumptions about the caring professionals being common sense and requiring little or no specialist knowledge or skills, (Thompson, 2009, p.11) Social work professionals are guided by a set of values and a Code of Practice. Practice ethics are based on these values which aim to inform social workers intervention with service users. The code of practice set up by the general social care council (GSCC) offers an ethical framework to its practitioners, this aims to maintain a standard of conduct for both employers and employees. The social work code of conduct is designed to serve social workers when practicing their profession, it contains ethical principles which will underpin the approach taken in practice. The professional code of conduct serves many different functions such as; guidance, regulation, discipline, protection, information, proclamation, negotiation, (Values and ethics in practice, p.127). It is very helpful to social workers as it offers guidelines as to what is expected from them as professionals. Social workers have to be familiar with their value base and abide to them in day to day work. They have to put into practice the understanding of the values when practicing their profession. Ethical awareness is an essential part of the social work practices, a social workers ability to act ethically is vital when aiming to provide a high standard of services. The code of conduct, ideally, offers the prospect, tantalizing if theoretical, of resolving value and ethical issues in social work (Adams et al. 2009, p.37). The day to day practice and the uncertainty which social workers can sometimes face would carry ethical dilemmas which will challenge their practice, ethical dilemmas occur when the social worker has a choice between two different courses of action that can be both morally right but only one choice can be made, or when either course of action if chosen, would lead to the compromise of values or principles, (Purtilo, 1993), (Values and ethics in practice, p.117 ). Ethics and values can also intersect when values or moral principles are in conflict, which poses a challenge about what to do, then an ethical problem has occurred, (Purtilo, 1993),'(Values and ethics in practice, p.117 ). The traditional values developed by Biestek (1961), outlined the principles which formed the fundamentals of the social work practice. These principles were made up of seven points and act as an underlying framework to intervention with service users. Individualisation; Non-judgmental attitude; Acceptance; Purposeful expression of feelings; Controlled emotional involvement; User self-determination; Confidentiality. (Crawford and Walke, 2008, p.6) These principles are essential to social work practice as they comply with what social work stands for, human right and social justice. Individuality for example gives the right to the service users to be free from bias and prejudice, therefore the social worker should avoid labels and stereotyping. Non-judgmental attitude would assure the situations are examined without bias, requiring social workers to avoid personal feelings and prejudices. Acceptance implies the expression of genuine concern, acknowledging the service users point of view, mutual respect, etc. Social workers have to give the opportunity to service users to purposefully express their feelings. In this way they will feel empowered and respected. Controlled emotional involvement requires the social worker to express their feelings but however in a controlled way, they should not come across as cold or disinterested this should be guided by knowledge and purpose, at the same time avoiding to over identify with the ser vice user. Self determination is a principle that places importance in recognising the service users rights and needs to autonomy, right of decision making and the right of choice. Confidentiality is a right that service users are entitled to; this implies that consent must be taken from the service users before the information can be disclosed, unless there is a situation where other people may be at risk. In social work there is a wide variety of theories and methods that help social workers intervene, the theory or method chosen will influence the language used and will shape the relationship between the social worker and service user. Language is the wealth of communication, it can open or close doors but also it can influence actions. Language plays a big part of power relations that have to be unpacked and understood for empowerment to occur, (Dominelli, 2002) (Adams et al. 2009, p.175). Being a good communicator is essential to social work practice as communications skills are essential to building a relationship and also interviewing. Lishman (1994) identifies four types of communicating: symbolic, verbal, nonverbal and written, any type of communication is essential to all professional practices therefore social workers have to simultaneously ask good questions, listen actively, convey information, exercise scepticism and reflect on interaction, Adams et al (2009, p.176-178). Social work professionals are expected to work in partnership with people to find the solutions and achieve the outcomes they want, and to collaborate with other agencies and disciplines to ensure support is delivered in a coordinated way. (GSCC, 2008, p.6) One of the principles in building an effective relationship will be honesty (e.g. explaining the reason for intervention). Exercising mutual respect should be another fundamental principle in relationship building, keeping appointments or being on time is a very simple example but however very important. Respect should be exercised even in a case of different personal values as social workers are not there to judge but to help. Consistency is another principle that the service users appreciate, as it shows concern about their situation and understanding. Ethical behavior is essential, because as a social worker there is the duty to respect the code of conduct that social work abides to. Explaining issues that might arise during the intervention and making things clear before work is commenced can rule out later misunderstandings. All these principles will contribute to underpin the trust aspect of the relationship and make the intervention more effective. Social workers always try to involve service users as much as possible in every aspect of their intervention, however, this is not always possible. There are times where social workers are requested to reach decisions and make judgments so that they can protect vulnerable people or in order to implement control. Social workers have legal powers which they would exercise to protect vulnerable people who may be at risk, this however may sometimes conflict with what other people involved wish for. Anti-oppressive practice is a frame work that aims to incorporate the social work value base, it is a response to the continual lobbying by the oppressed individuals. Professionals providing anti-oppressive services redefine professionalism within an open power sharing framework and precise human rights-based value systems. Practicing equality involves practitioners in valuing difference in life-styles and identity instead of demanding uniformity (Adams et al. 2009, p.55). Power imbalance is an important issue that should be addressed when working in an anti-oppressive way. The power that the social worker holds can be used both ways, constructively aiming to empower the service user, but also social workers can abuse this power therefore reinforcing the power imbalance and oppression. However there is always the risk of being oppressive even though not intentionally, e.g. Through naivety or ignorance, reinforcing stereotypes, inappropriate language, using power inappropriately and by acting as an expert, Thompson (2009, p.158-159). Social workers are involved in many complex interactions, we have to recognize the potential for social work to do harm as well as good (Thompson, 2009, p.80). When looking at how inequalities and oppression manifest themselves, the PCS (Thompson, 1996) would be helpful. Service user and carer involvement and participation can be challenging and also rewarding. However it is very valuable to social work practice, service users and carers can get involved in their own package of services or in a strategic planning and service development. Users views of the quality of services and their participation in providing regular feedback on all aspects of social work are therefore an essential part of good practice,(Warren, 2009, p.15). Service users and carers perspectives on services provided, have been sought by many researches for and also evaluators. However, in the recent years there has been a distribution of power which has resulted in the participation of the service users but also giving them the power to drive the research project. In conclusion, social work is a challenging profession which continually challenges the boundaries of its practitioners, whether on a personal, cultural or professional level. Ethics, morals and values are all essential parts of the profession practice. Social workers have to practice in e reflective way, while recognizing diversities which they come across in a daily basis. A social work practice that takes no account of existing inequalities runs the risk of: failing to recognize important factors in someones live, causing tension, reinforcing the negative effects of discrimination (Thompson, 2009, p.26). Word Count: 2 217 Bibliography References Adams, R., Domilelli, L., Payne, M., (2009), Critical Practice In Social Work, 2rd edition, Palgrave Macmillan. Adams, R., Domilelli, L., Payne, M., (2009), Social Work: Themes, Issues and Critical Debates, 3rd edition, Palgrave Macmillan. BASW (1996) The Code of Ethics for Social Work, (www.basw.co.uk accessed: 09/04/2010) Crawford, K., Walke, J., (2008), Social Work with Older People, 2nd Edition, Learning Matters. Eby, M., Gallagher, A., Values and Ethics in Practice, Chapter 7, (Course material). http://www.ifsw.org/f38000138.html (accessed: 12/04/2010) Thompson, N., (2009), Understanding Social Work, 3rd Edition, Palgrave Macmillan. Trevithick, P., (2009), Social Work Skills a practice handbook, 2nd Edition, Open University Press. Warren, J., (2009), Service User and Carer Participation in Social Work, Learning Matters.