Visor Essay Example for Free

Visor Essay Visor, is the handheld computer which Handspring company wants to release to the market to compete its market competitor Razor which produced by 3Com company. However, what is interesting is both companies has contacted IDEO for product design. Palm company, which is one of the 3Com devisions, has a successfully achieved its targets working with IDEO through its legendary product development process to produce Palm V handheld computer. IDEO enabled to translate the vision of Hawkins which was the Palm pilot at that time to reality which gave Hawkins the trust to work again with IDEO in his company Handspring. IDEO product development process is unique, it goes through five development stages which started by understand/observe, visualize/realize, implement/detailed engineering and finally Implement/ manufacturing liaison. Each phase has its targets and deliverables that has to be achieved to move to next phase. However, IDEO has been asked to design Visor to be compatible, smaller and cheaper than Palm V within a limited time that cutes down the development process which could effect the quality of the product. IDEO now has to decide weather to proceed the clint order and take all the consequences or advice Handspring to extend the development process time to create a killer product. From a business perspective, the features that Handspring asked to be designed into its handheld product are competitive but yet its not enough to compete the current market leader. However, maybe the cost would be the main factor which effect this competition. I believe releasing the product with this lower standards wont help Handspring to achieve its targets. here will be that barrier which prevent customers to shift to the new product. what i suggest is giving more time to development process and develop that killer product which then could successfully acquire market attention. What made these companies and other worldwide companies likes Apple choosing IDEO for designing their projects is the designing philosophy that they follow. IDEO is a pioneer in combining engineering with art to produce an aesthetic allycompetent products. Additionally, IDEO has covered all the designing services that is needed for developing and manufacturing new projects such as; mechanical and electrical engineering, industrial design, ergonomics, information technology, prototype machine and cognitive psychology. IDEO is believing in flat organizational structure, no titles, positions or even dress code are existed, only the how excited the individual is in leading the project. This organizational structure is differ IDEO from other startups and big companies which are appleying bureaucratic hierarchal systems to achieve their organizational targets. However, only few big companies like google enabled to implement such a flat system. I believe that these organizational approaches are based on the nature of companys business more than randomness. Its really hard to control a company with 10,000 employes using this methodology. It would cause a managerial problems, process delays and waste of money and time. IDEO believes that failure is enlightened trial which help the company reach production accuracy. Moreover, there is no a wrong idea, any idea has rose will archived for future project. The environment which allow all employes to design his or her own workplace, awarding them by giving more competitive projects and organizing these events where individuals and groups can present there latest projects and designs, it is the culture which characterized IDEO from all its competitors, awarded and made the company a leader in designing felid. Never go to a client without a prototype and If the picture worth thousand words, a prototype is worth ten thousand Thats what prototype constitute to IDEO. It is the most valuable tool which allow the company to communicate with its customers, experts, marketers and end users. Transform the visualizing image of a product into a tangible object is helping the two parties to be ensured about the final design. In prototyping, IDEO does not aim to perfect the prototype more than creating a a quick and simple ones which allow a greater number of iteration. Rapid prototyping at IDEO followed the three Rs : Rough, Rapid and Right. which the final R focuses on creating several models with Right product aspects. In comparison with software development, both systems use a minimal planning and faster designing to make it easier to write or to make and then eligible to make any changes. Palm V is a resulted from accumulative process of five phases started as Palm which had superior features than its competitor at that time Apple by graffiti program for writing, syncing and a size of deck cards that can store address, numbers and calendar. However, after this product has introduced to the market, Startups began to enter the market acquiring market share. Hawkins decided to to contact IDEO to create a slimmer and sleeker version of the existing Palm with a new targeted market segment, Female users. When they first started, IDEO couldnt find customer feedback and data regarding the current palm product to begin with, so they decided to buy thousand of these devices and distributed them among friends and employes to generates feedback about the product. Additionally, they involved female member to the team and other females groups to achieve that targeted focus. A weekly meetings has been held to get the client in touch with development process and to make any necessarily changes. IDEO suggested serval changes and improvements to the current product such as change the battery to the rechargeable lithium ion batteries and using the industrial glue?.? Some of these changes accrued due to the lack of experience and knowledge so they shifted the manufacturing to Asia. By the end of phase 2, 20-25 prototype were produced which used the CAD to help create accurate industrial model. Finally, in last two phase they started to test prototypes and meet governmental requirements and then to production.

Function of Water in the Human Body

Function of Water in the Human Body Water mainly enters the human body through the food and drink we consume. A small proportion of water is obtained from oxidative metabolism e.g. in respiration. Human beings mainly lose water by excretion in urine and faeces. Water is also lost through evaporation e.g. as sweat (Campbell N. A. et al. 1999, Frederic H.M. 2006) The kidneys are highly specialised organs of the body and play an important role in homeostasis. The kidney maintains homeostasis by regulating water balance, waste removal and blood composition and pressure. The kidneys dispose of waste by-products of metabolism and hence prevent the build up of toxic products in the body and to regulate the chemical components of the bodys fluids by responding to any imbalances of body fluids. These functions are fulfilled by a process of filtration of blood, which mainly includes the movement of solutes between the internal fluid and external environment. The movement of solutes is normally through a transport epithelium, in the case of the kidney it is in the form of a tubular channel; this tubular channel gives the kidney a large surface area. The kidneys weigh less than 1% of the human body, they receive approximately 2 % of blood pumped with each heartbeat. Urine exits the kidney through a duct called the ureter. The ureters of both kidneys drain into a common urinary bladder. Urine leaves the body from the urinary bladder to the urethra which empties near the vagina in females or through the penis in males. (Campbell N. A. et al. 1999, Michael F. et al. 2001) At one end the nephron forms a cup-shaped structure called glomerulus From the glomerulus a tube runs towards the centre of the kidney first forming a twisted region called the proximal convoluted tubule and then a long hair-pin loop in the medulla, it runs back upwards into the cortex where it forms another twisted region called the distal convoluted tubule, this then joins a collecting duct which leads down the medulla and into the renal pelvis The functional unit of the kidney is a nephron. Microscopic sections of the kidney show that the kidney is made up of thousands of nephrons. Fig1b shows the location of a nephron and Fig2 shows the detailed structure of a nephron. Each renal capsule is supplied with blood by the afferent arteriole a branch of the renal artery this splits into many capillaries in the capsule which then rejoin to form the afferent arteriole. The nephrons structure is closely related to its function of regulating solutes Osmoregulation is maintaining constant levels of water in the body. Cells cannot survive a huge deviation from its osmolality. Hence, cells have a continuous movement of water across their plasma membranes. A net gain of water will cause the cell to swell up and burst, while a net loss of water will cause the cell to shrivel up and die. Water is transported by osmosis around the body. Osmoregulation is accomplished by creating an osmotic gradient; this requires lots of energy and is done by maintaining solute concentrations in the body fluids. The osmolality of the body is fixed at a mean of 2905 mosmos/g. The kidney is able to maintain a constant osmolality as its able to adjust the rate of water excretion over a wide range. The volume of the extra-cellular fluid is mainly determined by the concentration of sodium ions, hence slight adjustments to the renal excretion rate have a major impact on the extracellular fluid volume. Changes in tubular sodium transport is accompanied by parallel movements of water, this results in no net change in body fluid osmolality (Campbell N. A. et al. 1999, Frederic H.M. 2006, Michael F. et al. 2001) The loop of Henle creates a longitudinal osmotic gradient across the medulla; this aids the reabsorption of water and other important solutes. Ascending and descending limb are parallel and adjacent to each other with a layer of tissue fluid in between. Fluid enters from the proximal convoluted tubules flows down the descending limb and then up the ascending limb. This is known as a counter-current flow. Thewalls of the descending limb are permeable to water, while the walls of the ascending limb are impermeable to water. The ascending limb of the Loop of Henle is made up of a thick walled tubule which is impermeable to the outward movement of water but not salt. The red arrows on fig3 show the movement of water amd solutes along the loop of Henle and the collecting duct. Also, the walls of the ascending limb contain pumps to remove sodium chloride from the lumen and add it to the surrounding interstitial fluid. Hence sodium and chloride ions are actively transported out of the ascen ding limb. This is the site of reabsorption in the kidney, here fluid from theenters and the kidney reabsorbs all the useful solutes and water. The permeability of the loop and the collecting duct depends on the osmolality of the blood and is controlled by a negative feedback mechanism by osmoreceptors in the hypothalamus A high concentration of salt builds up in the medullary tissue, this together with urea retention by these tissues, helps build up a high osmotic pressure in the medullary tissue. This creates a gradient of 200 mosm/g across the tubular wall at any point and causes a loss of water from the descending limb. The loss of water concentrates sodium and chloride ions in the descending limb. Salt concentration in the medullary tissue is highest at the apex of the loop, the tissue in the deeper layers of the medulla contain a very concentrated solution of sodium ions, chloride ions and urea. The fluid leaving the ascending limb is hypo-osmolar as compared to the fluid that enters and has a osmolality of approximately 100 mosm/g .Sodium and chloride ions diffuse out in the lower part of the ascending limb. Fluid passes down the collecting duct through the medullary tissue of increasing salt concentration, water can pass out of it by osmosis. The reabsorbed water is carried away by blood capil laries (Campbell N. A. et al. 1999, Frederic H.M. 2006, Michael F. et al. 2001) Control of water regulation Osmoregulation by the kidney involves a negative feedback mechanism. The osmoreceptors are in the hypothalamus and the effectors are the pituitary gland and the walls of the distal convoluted tubules. Osmoreceptors detect alterations of water levels and send impulses to the pituitary gland which then increase or decrease the production of antidiuretic hormone (ADH). In the case of a low osmolality,when the nerve cells are stimulated by osmoreceptors action potentials travel down them, this causes ADH to be released from their endings into the blood capillaries in the posterior pituitary gland from here it is distributed throughout the body. ADH acts on the plasma membranes of the cells of the collecting ducts. ADH is picked up by a receptor on the plasma membrane which then activates an enzyme. This causes vesicles with water permeable channels to fuse with the plasma membrane hence ADH makes the membrane more permeable to water than usual. Hence more water will be reabsorbed by the collecting duct and more concentrated urine will be produced. On the other hand, when the blood water content rises the osmoreceptors are no longer stimulated and hence do not lead to the secretion of ADH. Hence, ADH secretion slows down and the collecting duct cells become less permeable to water, so less water is reabsorbed and more diluted urine is produced  (Campbell N. A. et al. 1999, Frederic H.M. 2006, Michael F. et al. 2001) In conclusion, the regulation of water is essential for the survival of human beings and is carried out by the kidneys and monitored by osmoreceptors in the hypothalamus and controlled by the pituitary gland. Each of these plays an equally important role in the regulation of water and without any one of them the body will not be able to function in a normal manner. [Words: 1328]

Coastal Squeeze Of Salt Marshes Environmental Sciences Essay

Coastal Squeeze Of Salt Marshes Environmental Sciences Essay Coastal squeeze of salt marshes refers to any situation in which the coastal margin, which is the area buffering land and sea is squeezed between the fixed boundary of the land, and the rising sea level. Numerous studies regarding rising sea level exist, though there is only a select few that directly address the problem of coastal squeeze on tidal marshes. Past 200 years has seen an accelerated and unprecedented loss of natural wetlands due to direct and indirect human activity. A reported 50% or salt marshes are lost or degraded worldwide (MEA 2005, UNEP 2006). Despite ongoing restoration efforts around the world, the overall demands for more housing and associated development activities will lead to more loss of active wetlands. An increasing population, coupled with agricultural development and advances in technology have an ever greater impact on wetlands. Humans have been utilizing wetlands and their resources since the onset of organized civilization. Documented use of salt marshes for ecosystem services date back to the Neolithic in some areas (Knotterus 2005), and the origin of civilization is said to be the Mesopotamian tidal marshes, or the Fertile Crescent. (Sanlaville 2002) Nevertheless, wetlands have been undergoing mass degradation worldwide, with losses in the United States beginning with the arrival of early settlers in the late 16th century. Studies show that the United States has lost 54% of its original 87 million hectares of wetland, and that number is continually dwindling. (Tiner 1984) This loss of wetlands can only be expected to get worse with rising sea level which will drown and squeeze out many coastal marshes. Current predictions expect sea level to rise by 40cm by 2080, producing massive impacts on coastal wetland. Human Use The enclosure of coastal land, namely salt marshes, has been a way of artificially creating productive land for many centuries. Beginning with the colonization of the United States by Dutch and English settlers in the late 17th century, salt marshes were used by humans for a variety of uses, their primary use being grazing of livestock, and harvesting of salt hay to be used as livestock feed and fodder. Salt marshes during this period of time were often artificially diked, filled, planted and tilled to create an alterable and ideal landscape for agricultural use. This widespread drainage was most prevalent in the southern colonies of the United States. As the industrial revolution began in the 19th century, agriculture began to move across the US via Westward Expansion, and an increasing immigrant population and the need for urban expansion yielded a new population which had little connection to the land. In this time period, salt marshes were increasingly converted to usable space, such as housing and industrial factories. (Bromberg- Gedan Sillman 2009) The public perception of salt marshes shifted from that of a fertile agricultural land, to a menace to health and life, a trackless wasteland that must be converted to a usable landscape. In this time period, a large portion of the United States salt marshes were converted into other types of environments, often urbanized. It was not until the late 1960s that the value of salt marshes was recognized again by the United States public and governmental population, and these concerns have deepend over time as repeated environmental and economic disasters validate the predictions of the 60s and 70s. Scientific perspectives towards wetland science are shifting to contain: a wider recognition of the consequences of wetland degradation, opportunities for wetlands to deliver improvements through integrated development, a focus through the conservation movement, and more recognition of ecosystem services within policy frameworks. (Maltby, 2009) The concept of wise use of wetlands, enacted through the Ramsar Convention of 1970, was a major leap forward in the preservation of coastal wetlands, with its regulations and goals still being used in coastal policy today. (Maltby 2009) Though human society has made leaps and bounds in the preservation of salt marshes, the current rate of loss is estimated at 1-2% per year worldwide. (Butler, 2010) The diked coastal floodplain of the US is about 50,000 km in size, much of which would have been coastal wetlands, and while restoration efforts are in place, it is not enough to counteract the loss worldwide. Models suggest that future coastal wetland loss through sea level rise will reach 5-20% of current wetlands by 2080, while urban development will continue to pressure wetlands. The global biodiversity outlook suggests that this coastal squeeze may cause coastal wetland systems to be reduced to narrow fringes by 2100, or lost entirely. (Figure 1) http://www.beachapedia.org/images/d/db/Global_warming_graphic3.gif Figure 1: Anticipated future changes to salt marshes as sea level rises. (Titus 1991) The Importance of salt marshes To stand at the edge of the sea, to sense the ebb and flow of the tides, to feel the breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shore birds that have swept up and down the surf lines of the continents for untold thousands of years, to see the running of the old eels and the young shad to sea, is to have the knowledge of things that are nearly eternal as any earthly life can be.- Rachel Carson, Under the Sea Wind, 1941 National academy of Sciences defines wetlands as: ecosystems that depend on constant or recurrent, shallow inundation or saturation at or near the surface of the substrate. The minimum essential characteristics of a wetland are recurrent, sustained inundation or saturated at or near the surface and the presence of physical, chemical, and biological features reflective of recurrent, sustained inundation or saturation. Common diagnostic features of wetlands are hydric soils, and hydrophytic vegetation. These features will not be present where specific physio-chemical, biotic, or anthropogenic factors have removed them or prevented their development. (Natural Resource Council, 1995) Technically, wetlands can occur in any area in which precipitation is larger than losses from evaporation and drainage, but are dependent on how humans choose to use them. Since the colonization of the United States, wetlands have been steadily decreasing. Wetland occur over a wide range of environments, from the arctic to the tropics, from coastal areas to secluded intercontinental areas. The total wetland area on earth has been estimated to be approximately 6% of its total land surface at a minimum, as many countries do not have comprehensive inventories of identified wetlands. (Mitsch and Gosselink, 2000) In North America, specifically the USA and Canada, there is an estimated 14.2 million hectares of wetlands (Scott and Jones 1995). The wetlands of the United States span the entire east coast, and are also incredibly extensive along the Gulf of Mexico, but less common on the steeper, rockier Pacific coast. This paper will focus on the salt marshes of the Eastern United States, namely New England. Complex interactions take place within these ecosystems, in which the biotic and abiotic world are fully linked. The interactions that take place within these environments provide the basis for the delivery of goods and services from these ecosystems. The provision of these services, however, is reliant on the maintenance and protection of these ecosystems. Benefits from ecological processes that occur in wetlands are not always obvious, and for this reason, they tend to be ignored by humans when decisions are made to alter wetlands. As stated in The Wetlands Handbook, Wetland functions are the result of ecological processes that are necessary for the self-maintenance of the ecosystems, and occur without human intervention. (Maltby 2009) Wetlands protect and maintain water quality by providing a filter for sediments and excess nutrients, essentially purifying water in connected water resources, such as oceans, lakes, and rivers, which are used by humans for recreational activities, and drinking water. Nutrients, toxins, and sediments enter the wetland environment via runoff, which in urban areas can contain very high levels of toxic materials which could contaminate the water supply, if not for filtration via marshes and wetlands. Scientists have estimated that wetlands may remove between 70% and 90% of the worlds entering nitrogen (Reilly 1991, Gilliam 1994), in addition to the removal of pathogens, toxic metals such as lead and copper, surface water pollutants, and other nutrients such as phosphorus. Salt marshes alone sequester more carbon in their soils than any other temperate biome partially due to the unique microbes that live in these environments, sequestering roughly 771 Billion tons, the same amount that i s currently in our atmosphere. In addition to this, they contribute 1% or more to the annual global loss of fixed nitrogen via microbially mediated denitrification. (Schuster Watson 2007) The hydrology of a particular wetland environment controls every factor of the ecosystem, including nutrient cycling, biogeochemical processes, species biodiversity, and filtration. (Maltby 2009) Coastal Wetlands are not only an interface between land and sea, but also an interface between groundwater, surface water, and atmospheric moisture. Wetlands process key ecosystem elements such as nitrogen, carbon, and phosphorus, and thus are the basis of ecosystem functioning and balance. It is this balance that maintains the supply of wetland products and service that are valuable to humans and other species alike. However, like many environments, this balance is fragile, and the removal or addition of one key element could alter the way the entire ecosystem functions. Salt marshes provide many valuable ecosystem services which must be preserved. (Table 1) Salt marshes act as natural filters that purify water entering the estuary (Mitsch and Gosselink 2008). As water passes through marshes, it slows due to friction of grasses. Suspended sediments are then deposited on the marsh surface, facilitating nutrient uptake, and filtering the water. This filtration is very valuable to human drinking water, as displayed In Louisiana, where treatment of wastewater attained capitalized cost savings of $785 to $15,000/acre compared to municipal treatment. (Breaux 1995) Marshes are an important storm buffer, and provide many resources such as fish, sand, gravel, hay, and shellfish to humans. Table 1 Values of ecosystem services of tidal marshes Ecosystem service Examples of human benefits Average value (Adj. 2007 $a haà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢1 yearà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢1) Disturbance regulation Storm protection and shoreline protection $2824 Waste treatment Nutrient removal and transformation $9565 Habitat/refugia Fish and shrimp nurseries $280 Food production Fishing, hunting, gathering, aquaculture $421 aw materials Fur trapping $136 Recreation Hunting, fishing, birdwatching $1171 TOTAL $14,397 Table 1: Estimated monetary value of ecosystem services marshes provide on an annual basis (Gedan Bromwell, 2009) Dollar values were adjusted for inflation from original data, presented in 1994 dollars (Costanza et al. 1997). The adjustment was done with the U.S. Department of Labor Inflation Calculator, which uses the Consumer Price Index to correct values through time. Please see Costanza et al. (1997) for valuation methods and note that this valuation method is not universally accepted by economists, see Bockstael et al. (2000) Coastal Squeeze in Marshes Coastal squeeze, as defined by the Environment Agency of England is The reduction of intertidal (mean low water spring tide to mean high water spring tide) habitat as a consequence of sea level rise and the action of flood defenses. If sea levels rise without flood defenses in place, the inter-tidal area is able to gradually move inland over time and there is no net loss of habitat. With defenses or other constraints present, the movement inland of the high water line is impeded, but the low waterline moves shoreward, which leads to a loss of the inter-tidal delta. (Figure 2) (Black and Veatch, 2006) It occurs when landward conversion is not able to take place. Landward conversion takes place when the lower limits of salt marsh habitats are eroded, and the eroded sediments are re-deposited further landwards. This process is often referred to as habitat rollover. http://www.eloisegroup.org/themes/climatechange/images/coastal_squeeze.jpg Figure 2: Illustration of the process of coastal squeeze due to seawalls. (Pontee 2011) Causes of Coastal Squeeze There are many different driving factors of coastal squeeze, including sea level rise, waves, storm activity, sediment supply, and sediment mobility. Coastal erosion is the main factor in coastal squeeze, as it would not be able to occur if it were not for sea level rise and the resulting need for a migration of the salt marsh landscape. Natural causes of coastal squeeze are loss of the total wetland area by coastal erosion and inundation, change in forest or beach structure via natural disasters or erosion, migration rather than overall loss, and the accretion of new beach or land. There are also a number of anthropogenic causes of erosion, which tend to be more localized than natural causes. Oftentimes, the erosion is caused by sand and gravel extraction from beaches, the construction of piers or breakwaters, which interrupt sediment transport, and the construction of floodwalls and ditches, which prevent coastal retreat. (Pontee 2011) . Examples of anthropogenic coastal defenses i nclude seawalls, which are large concrete structures, bulkheads, which are retaining walls made of wood (not only do they block landward migration, but also often release toxins into the water), and revetment, which is a sloping structure of rocks which decreases the shallow water refuge of an intertidal zone. (Butler 2007) While the width of coastal environments varies natural on an annual, or even a month to month basis, the result of anthropogenic coastal squeeze are typically long term, if restoration actions are not taken. Relation to Climate Change Climate change can affect salt marshes in a number of different ways, namely through sea level rise, particularly when sea walls prevent marsh vegetation from moving upward and inland. With predicted rates of sea level rise, coastal accretion may very well fail to keep pace with this accelerated rise if a critical threshold is crossed, and marsh vegetation is drowned. (Kirwan and Guntenspergen 2009) However, sea level rise does not always lead to the loss of marsh areas, because some marshes experience a process called vertical accretion, in which sediments accumulate vertically, helping the marsh to maintain their elevation with the respect to sea-level where the supply of sediment is sufficient. This is only possible, however, in areas in which the sediment is available. In areas where the sediment supply is more limited, marshes are more susceptible to coastal squeeze, which may lead to their eventual drowning. Vertical Accretion is not always good, however, because after a certai n height, marshes will no longer be regularly inundated by the tide, and this accretion will form a natural barrier. (Temmerman et al 2004) Rising levels of Co2 may affect salt marsh plants and limit their response to coastal squeeze, and temperature change could potentially alter the geographical distribution of salt marshes in temperate and arctic latitudes. (Chapman 1977) However, temperature may change too quickly for many marshes to migrate and adjust. Recent evidence suggests that hurricane intensity and frequency is also anticipated to increase with climate change, causing higher rates of erosion in tidal marshes, increasing the rate of coastal squeeze. (IPCC 2007) Case Studies Abbots hall: Abbots hall Farm is located within the Blackwater Estuary of Essex, England. It consists of farmland, dry grassland, salt tolerant grassland, and existing marsh areas. The main factor in the increasing problem of coastal squeeze in this area was the 3.8km of sea wall along the north bank of the Salcott Channel, a main marsh creek. The saltmarsh was on the seaward side of this wall, thus subjecting it to coastal squeeze by limiting it migration landwards. However, the Coastal Realignment project breached the wall in many areas, so as to provide area for new saltmarsh to form inland. While wall still remains at the ends of the farm as property markers, the resulting intermittent, unrestricted areas of marsh now have the potential to remain healthy and viable in the future. While this is an improvement, the Essex coastline still contains over 400 miles of sea wall, built to enclose saltings to improve grazing. Though these are not expected to be taken down in the near futur e, the loss of wetlands may prompt a dire need to do just so. (Figure 3) Figure 3: Rising seas causing a narrowing shoreline on the Blackwater Estuary, Essex (Doody, 2004) The Gulf coast Region of the United States, which includes vast marshes such as the Florida Everglades, is experiencing some of the highest wetland loss rates in the United States, largely because of human interference. The Everglades region of Florida contains a wide array of wetland environments, including sawgrass prairies, salt marshes, tree islands, and mangrove forests. The Southern Florida Project for Flood Control and Other Purposes of 1948 created many canals, floodgates, and levees to reduce flood risks to agriculture, transportation, and urban development. However, they interfered with natural hydrological processes in the area, and in return, actually reduced their natural capacity to mitigate flooding. (Robert Twilley 2007) Future Expectations and Conclusions Global climate change is expected to affect can and atmospheric circulation, sea level rise, the intensity of hurricanes, the magnitude of precipitation, and sea surface and air temperatures. (IPCC 2007) Under normal conditions, salt marshes adjust to these conditions, but under the increased pressures of population rise and urbanization, combined with the ever quickening rate of climate change, salt marshes may not be able to adapt fast enough to the changes occurring around them. The future hydrology of salt marshes will all depend on these factors. In the case of a widespread depletion of salt marshes, we can anticipate the effects to worsen globally.

Personality Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Psychology covers a huge field and one interesting aspect of it is personality. Personality by itself involves various issues. Some aspects are Psychoanalytic, Ego, Biological, Behaviorist, Cognitive, Trait, and Humanistic. Different types of behaviors are amazing to learn about, mainly the behavior therapy, collective behavior, crime and punishment, and Social behavior and peer acceptance in children. I chose Behaviorism over the other aspects because I believe behavior determines human personality and is very interesting. You can tell what one is by his behavior, and one behaves according to what place he has in society. By doing this paper on Behavior, I hope to get a better understanding of, if behavior develops a personality or if personality guides behavior. I also see behaviorism helping me in the future with my personal and professional career by understanding human personality and behavior better than I do. No matter what your major is , if you can determine one's personality by his behavior you can really get your work done from that person and understand the better than you would otherwise. This person could be your employee or your employer. Behavior Therapy Behavior therapy is the application of experimentally derived principles of learning to the treatment of psychological disorders. The concept derives primarily from work of Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov. Behavior-therapy techniques differ from psychiatric methods, particularly psychoanalysis, in that they are predominately symptom (behavior) oriented and shows little or no concern for unconscious processes, achieving new insight, or effecting fundamental personality change. The U.S. psychologist B.F. Skinner, who worked with mental patients in a Massachusetts State hospital, popularized behavior therapy. From his work in animal learning, Skinner found that the establishment and extinction of responses can be determined by the way reinforces, or rewards, are given. The pattern of reward giving, both in time and frequency, is known as a schedule of reinforcement. The gradual change in behavior in approximation of the desired result is known as shaping. More recent developments in behavior therapy emphasize the adaptive nature of cognitive processes. Behavior-therapy techniques have been applied with some success to such disturbances as enuresis (bed-wetting), tics, phobias, stutteri... ...nvolving children to learn social acceptance showed us clearly how one behaves makes him what he is. I believe the same for adults. I believe if one behaves in a certain way for a long time, not only society with believe you are what you are behaving as but he himself will start believing he is what he is behaving as. Also I have learned to be more patient with people because I take a step in the further and think why a person would behave in a particular way. I now can see a clear difference between normal and abnormal behaviors. Benjamin, L. S. (1982). Use of structural analysis of social behavior (SASB) to guide intervention in psychotherapy. In J. C. Anchin & D. J. Kiesler (Eds.), Handbook of interpersonal psychotherapy (pp. 190-212). New York: Pergamon. Benis A.M. Toward Self & Sanity: On the Genetic Origins of the Human Character. Psychological Dimensions Publishers, New York, 1985 http://pmc.psych.nwu.edu/personality.html Carson, R. C. (1969). Interaction concepts of personality. Chicago: Aldine Gurtman, M. B. (1992b). Trust, distrust, and interpersonal problems: A circumplex analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 989-1002.

Breaking Society’s Rules :: Essays Papers

Breaking Society’s Rules American literature often examines people and motives. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, and in Arthur Miller’s dramatic classic, The Crucible, people and motives often depict patterns of Puritans struggling for life during a precarious time. Guilt and shame can tear a person's soul away. The inevitable consequence of sin is the immediate reaction of guilt, shame, and remorse. For example: John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor, and Reverend Dimmesdale have all committed a sin or sins and are feeling extremely guilty about it. They want to be forgiven, but they have no strength and are cowards. Forgiveness can only be obtained when these characters find the strength within themselves to speak the truth. The first to commit a sin is John Proctor, the husband of Elizabeth Proctor. John is a good man until Abigail Williams comes into his life. John lives in a house feeling empty and thinking his wife does not love him. Lust is a very powerful feeling, and it tempts John right into bed with Abigail. Unfortunately once he commits adultery, Elizabeth does not forgive him. She finds ways to punish John and make him feel more remorseful. For example, Reverend Hale asks John to recite the commandments, and he forgets one, Elizabeth then says sarcastically, â€Å"Adultery, John.† Elizabeth responds in such a manner that John feels overwhelming pain in his heart. Naturally, Elizabeth feels guilty as well. She tells John, â€Å"I have sins of my own to count. It needs a cold wife to prompt lechery.† Elizabeth feels as though she is to blame for John committing adultery. She is a mother and, of course, Elizabeth will be consumed with taking care of their children, cooking, cleaning, etc. At first, Elizabeth does not recognize John pulling away from her and turning towards Abigail. Soon after Elizabeth finds out John committed adultery with Abby, she fires her. Later on in the novel Elizabeth is accused of being a witch and John goes to court to prove Abigail is lying.

How Does Hughes Create An Effective Description of a Windy Day?

Hughes uses a variety of poetic techniques to create an effective description of a windy day. He uses a lot of figurative language, such as metaphor, simile and personification. Hughes also creates the effect of a windy day using structural techniques such as enjambement, and the sound technique onomatopoeia. He often uses interesting lexis to help our imaginations. Hughes uses a lot of figurative language in this poem. One particularly effective technique is metaphor. He starts the poem with the metaphor – â€Å"This house has been far out at sea all night† This is very effective because it creates a very strong picture in your mind. â€Å"Far out† suggests isolation, and a mention of night suggests danger and fear. Another effective example of metaphor is â€Å"The skyline a grimace†. This suggests that the whole view and landscape is grotesquely distorted. A grimace means to pull a strange face, so this makes it an example of personification. The mental image is very clear too. Simile is another example of figurative language use by Hughes in this particular poem.What is the difference between a figurative and a literal analogy? â€Å"Flexing like the lens of a mad eye† This suggests that the view is constantly moving with the wind and the movement in my mind is visualised as everything bending, swaying and generally looking contorted. Similes are used throughout Hughes's poem. Another magnificent example of a simile is â€Å"Rang like some fine green goblet† This makes the house seem very delicate, as a glass will shatter if it resonates at a certain pitch. Glass is brittle anyway, so using this particular material as a simile would automatically suggest fragility. Another example of simile is â€Å"Black gull bent like an iron bar slowly†. This suggests that the gull is fighting against the wind's strength with all it's might. The mental picture it puts into my mind is very clear, and it makes me think that the wind is very powerful. Personification is a type of figurative language, giving an inanimate object humane characteristics. An example of personification occurs in line 13 of the poem: â€Å"The fields quivering, the skyline a grimace† The fields are ‘quivering' which suggests that they are afraid of the wind, and are shaking and ducking down to avoid the devastation that the wind can cause. In actual fact, the wind makes the grass bend over. Hughes uses structural techniques in his poetry, and enjambement is the one that probably stands out the most.

Costs and Benefits from Clinton to Bush Essay

Under the administration of former president Bill Clinton during the fiscal year of 1999, approximately $108. 2 million was spent on border control which includes operations from criminal justice, law enforcement and actual border patrol along the twenty-four U. S. -Mexico borders alone (â€Å"Illegal Immigrants in U. S. /Mexico Border Counties Coalition†). In fiscal year 2007 under the administration of President George Bush, approximately $7. 8 billion was sought to finance the whole border patrol operations which was roughly $1 billion more than last year (Campbell). The jump in the budget allocation from 2006 is based on the target of President Bush to add 12,000 more border patrol agents across the country. But back in 2001 and previous years during the Clinton leadership, the border control operations were merely funded with an average of about $2 billion annually (Schmitt). The increase in the funding for border patrol from the Clinton through the Bush administrations has paved the way for more patrol equipments, patrol agents and other resources necessary for securing the borders. However, the increase in both manpower and patrolling facilities and equipments has not entirely stalled illegal immigrants from crossing the borders. The reason behind this is that in January of 2000 there were approximately 7 million illegal immigrants in America according to the Center for Immigration Studies or CIS (â€Å"How Many Illegal Aliens are in the U. S.? †) and almost half of immigrants after year 2000 were illegal aliens estimated at around 3. 7 million (Camarota). The continued illegal immigration to the United States is proof that border patrol measures are not sufficient which apparently stands as the primary reason behind the continued increase in funding. While the benefits from these measures include the lessening of illegal immigration, the problem of illegal immigration can hardly be stopped in a short span of time as it has been a major concern for more than a decade already. Works Cited Camarota, Steven A. â€Å"Immigrants at Mid-Decade: A Snapshot of America’s Foreign-Born Population in 2005†. Center for Immigration Studies. August 9, 2008. . Campbell, Dakin. â€Å"Big Payoff for Big Business on Border Security? â€Å". 2007. NewsInitiative. Org. August 9 2008. . â€Å"How Many Illegal Aliens are in the U. S.? † 2007. The American Resistance, August 9, 2008. . â€Å"Illegal Immigrants in U. S. /Mexico Border Counties Coalition†. Washington, DC: U. S. /Mexico Border Counties Coalition, February 2001. Schmitt, Eric. â€Å"Ambivalence Prevails in Immigration Policy†. 2001. New York Times. August 9, 2008. .