No Zero Policy Essay

In most schools in many states, teachers and parents consider a grade of zero acceptable for incomplete homework. It is common for teachers to give zeros for late or slacked off assignments. Unfortunately, few teachers or parents question the usefulness of the consequence, and students continue to reap the consequences without benefit. Giving zeros as an punished measurement produces failure rather than performance. Administrators conjure up the fact that raising questions about grading procedures could induce powerful emotional responses from all the teachers. Even when school policies exist, teachers often deviate from the prescribed standard to reflect the teacher’s personal preferences for evaluating students. Grading policies usually develop from teachers’ personal school experiences without questioning or considering the validity of the process. Most teachers agree that grades are a measurement of learning and should reflect the effort of the student rather than the knowledge. However, many grading policies promise zeros for things like not doing homework, having incomplete or late assignments, being tardy, coming to class without books, chewing gum, or failing to follow through with any other required classroom rules. Unfortunately, many teachers combine behavior issues with a students’ academic measurement. Giving zeros for behavior issues is an inaccurate reflection of the student’s academic performance. Academic measurement should only measure learning. A zero is a mathematically imbalanced measurement as the normal grading scale for most school. Conant using the unbalanced tipped scale for certain performance classes. Letter grades usually have a ten point range or less. For instance, A would be 90-100, B is 80-89, C is 70-79, D is 60-69. Using this method, an evaluation for an â€Å"F† should be F as 50-59. It is not required for the â€Å"F† to carry 59 points (0-59) while all other grades carry 10 points. An â€Å"A† averaged with an â€Å"F† should make a â€Å"C.† However, if the â€Å"A† is 100 and the â€Å"F† is 0, averaged they equal a 50 which is still an â€Å"F†. Teachers usually use zeros to motivate students to do better. However, zeros kill motivation. Two zeros, whether just or unjust, can destroy a good average. Zeros produce a sense of hopelessness and certain failure. Many students fail courses due to a lack of organizational abilities rather than defiance. When teachers give zeros for homework assigned for extra credit rather than for the actual learning process, they are using grades as a behavior punishment. Recording a failing grade for assignments not intended for the means of simple knowledge is not reasonable. Assigning zeros for homework issues is especially common for students with organizational issues and dysfunctional homes that lack parental support. The grade of a zero does not benefit the motivation of a child’s education. Students through laziness take zeros as an easy way out of doing the assignment. Students often avoid assignments like research papers, essays, and reports by taking a zero instead of doing the work. The student barely passes to the next grade without having gained these vital learning experiences. Students with organizational problems do not increase performance skills through the automatic zero. Neither does the automatic zero help students who do not understand the assignment gain the knowledge intended. In fact, the automatic zero threatens failure. Teachers need to use logical consequences rather than a full blown zero when work is not completed. There are several possible alternatives to giving a zero. The school can include tardiness and other behavior issues in its own discipline policy rather than in the grading system. If the teacher must give a failing grade, give a grade no more than ten points lower than the last passing grade to make the measurement equitable. The teacher can have a homework detention hall after school to help those who struggle with completing assignments. The student receives a grade of incomplete until the student completes major assignments such as research papers, essays, and reports. The final average for the term is recorded only when the assignments are all received and graded. The student cannot earn credit for the course until these valuable assignments are completed and turned in. A minimal passing grade would be appropriate for extremely late assignments. For many years teachers have followed grading procedures learned from their teachers without evaluating their effectiveness or appropriateness. Grades should measure academic learning not the slacking effort of the student, for they may have their reasons. Receiving a zero for not putting your name on a paper or failing to do homework does not reflect a student’s lack of knowledge. Zeros promote failure rather than the student gaining more knowledge. Three 100’s averaged with one zero gives a score of 75. The zero forces failure and is not an evenhanded measurement of learning. Anything that is inequitable is unjust. If it is unjust, it is unethical. Therefore, giving zeros as an academic measurement is not proper to the safe learning environment of High Schools.

Demographic Winter and Its Effects on the Society Essay

Concept Paper Final Draft: â€Å"Demographic Winter and Its Effect on Society† For years, people have in mind that the world’s population has been increasing annually. While it is true that a daily increment of 215,060 and yearly growth of 1.10% is happening on our world population of 7,174,592,903 (United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division, population Estimates, and Projections Sections), the demographic trend is actually changing in contrast to the beliefs of many. Historical events that occurred in the past, particularly the World Wars, have paved the way for the eradication of a large portion of mankind, but it also resulted to population explosion. The Baby Boom, a demographic phenomenon in Western countries, rose to fame wherein rapid growth in population was recorded around 1960s. This is usually ascribed within certain geographical bounds and when the number of annual births exceeds 2 per 100 women (or approximately 2% of the total population size) (Wikimedia Foudation, Inc). As the paper progresses, such belief will be proven as a myth these days. In 1968, Stanford University Professor Paul R. Ehrlich published the controversial book, The Population Bomb which warned of the mass starvation of humans in the 1970s and 1980s due to overpopulation. People grew scared of the idea of a population explosion and its detrimental effects to society. As they acquired the paradigm that babies are burden, a trend not to be sexually active anymore in Western countries was created. This, in turn, resulted to a new demographic occurrence called by demographers as Demographic Winter. Demographic winter is a global phenomenon characterized by population decline in birth rates. The term â€Å"nuclear winter,† popularized in the 1980s, alluded to the catastrophic environ mental impact of a nuclear war. The long-term consequences of demographic winter could be equally devastating (Feder). The Total Fertility Rate, the expected number of children born per woman in her child-bearing years of 2.1, is said to be the point of equilibrium in which a country’s population is neither growing nor decreasing. Essentially, a woman must replace herself and a man. This TFR is important because this only shows that an average woman is able to produce  2.1 children during her lifetime which is needed because some children die before maturity and also to stabilize the number of the population. (Fluctuating Fertility: The Baby Boom and the Baby Bust). When the Total Fertility Rate of a State is 2.1 births per woman who has reached the end of her productive life (that is around 50 years old), the Net Production Rate is 1, that is to say, the state has reach population age stability. When it is not, or is less than the nation’s previous TFR, the nation undergoes the phenomenon called demographic winter. (Fluctuating Fertility: The Baby Boom and the Baby Bust). Although demographic winter is a global incident, geography and the country’s economic status are underlying factors that contributed to what extent and to which nations such an event would occur. Demographic winter is currently more evident in developed countries such as in Europe, Australia, East Asia (Japan) and North America (U.S.), whose populations were the first to mature. Maturity here is defined as the average age of the population relative to the economic development of society. These countries also suffered the worst depopulation during the World Wars and experienced rapid population growth after (Yew). We shall focus more on these countries as we elaborate the concept of demographic winter for the cases which will be mentioned later applies more to their population trends. Of the 1 0 countries with the lowest birth rates, 9 are in Europe. Overall, the European fertility rate is 1.3, well below replacement level (2.1). No European nation has a replacement-level birth rate. Italy’s fertility rate is 1.2. Spain’s is 1.1 (Feder). That means, in the not-too-distant future, these countries will lose half of their people in every generation. Russia’s birth rate fell from 2.4 in 1990 to 1.17 today – a decline of more than 50% in less than 20 years. Each year, there are more abortions than live births in the Russian Federation (Demographic Winter). In U.S. alone, Total Fertility Rate (TFR) is almost 3.5 in the early 1960s, then began declining sharply — to below 3.0 in 1965, to about 2.5 (and temporarily holding steady) in the late 1960s, and down to about 1.8 by the mid-1970s. Hence, the TFR fell by almost half between the early 1960s and the mid-1970s. After a decade of stability at a level of about 1.8, the total fertility rate rose slowly after 1986, reaching 2.08 in 1990. It presently st ands at a little over 2, just slightly below the replacement level of 2.11 (Fluctuating Fertility: The Baby Boom and the Baby Bust). Japan’s TFR has continued to fall since dropping below 2.0 in 1975. It slumped to an all-time low of 1.26 in 2005. The number of babies born in the nation in 2012 fell by 13,705 from the previous year to hit a new low of 1,037,101 (Durden). With such data on hand, we now ask: â€Å"what are the factors that led to demographic winter?† According to the documentary film Demographic Winter: a Decline of the Human Family, fertility decline is caused by (1) economic prosperity, (2) sexual revolution, (3) women in the labour force, (4) Divorce revolution, and (5) inaccurate assumptions. As developed countries continue to rise in their economic status, a paradigm shift among members of the labour force occurs. Previously, babies are considered as blessings and investments by parents. Nowadays, they are viewed by parents as an added expense and burden to them. As standards of living in the urban areas of different countries continue to increase, life becomes harder to sustain. An added mouth to feed is just something that can’t be considered especially by realists. Richer countries want to invest and spend their money on adults, the more affluent, whom they can use for further economic development than children. Sexual revolution is also eyed as a contributing factor wherein Feminism is evident. The number of women in their 20s who had a child in 2012 decreased by 16,200 from the previous year, while the number of births among women aged from 35 to 39 and from 40 to 44 increased by a combined total of about 8,700. As more women are empowered and gain equal treatment in education and employment, they now opt to join the labour force, the corporate world and pursue career paths than devoting themselves to family life. Growing valuable time of working mothers constructed the mindset that they don’t want children, they want jobs instead. The labor force participation rates among married women with children, particularly young children, have been steadily increasing since 1970. In 1985, nearly half of all women with children under age 18 were in the labor force, as compared with less than 40 percent in 1970 (Hayghe). Moreover, the declines in fertility rates, as well as declines in family size, increasing childlessness, and delayed childbearing have freed many women to pursue employment opportunities outside the home. Completed family size, for example, decreased from 2.4 children in 1970 to 1 .7 in 1984 among white women, and from 3.1 to 2.2 children among blacks (U.S. Department of Health And Human Services). With the increase of participation of women in  the labour force, an inverse reciprocal in the fertility rates is also observed. Along with sexual revolution and the greater involvement of women on the labour force, divorce revolution can be viewed as a related contributing factor to the decline of fertility rates. With more women gaining financial and social capabilities in the society, marriage is now viewed as something superficial especially with the legalization of divorce in developed countries such as the United States. Not only has marriage been increasingly pushed to a late age, but once accomplished, marriages are more likely to end in divorce than at any previous time in History. Preston and McDonald (1979) estimated that although 16% of all marriages in the United States in 1915 ended in divorce, 36% of the 1964 marriages will end that way. However, by 1988, the data were suggesting a levelling off at about 43% of marriages ending in divorce (Schoen and Weinick). The Un ited States is certainly not unique in experiencing an increase in divorce probabilities. William Goode, in his book World Revolution and Family Patterns (1993), compiled data for Europe showing that throughout the said continent the percentage of marriages that will end in divorce virtually doubled between 1970 and the mid- 1980s. For example, in Germany in 1970 it is estimated that 16% of marriages would end in divorce, increasing to 30% in 1985. In France, the increase went from 12% to 31% during that same period of time. Australia has experienced similar trends (Weeks). With the said increase in the number of divorce cases, an inverse reciprocal for the fertility rate equals. Thus, divorce revolution is a cause of demographic winter. And lastly, the main culprit for all the causes of demographic winter is the inaccurate assumption made from the increasing population. As mentioned earlier in this paper, Stanford University professor Paul Ehrlich’s controversial book â€Å"The Population Bomb† propagated the idea that the rapid increase in population will eventually lead to population explosion causing food shortage. Such occurrence according to him cannot be sustained by the global community. Malthusian Theory stating that human population grows exponentially while food production grows at an arithmetic rate, made people including Ehrlich that such insustainability and shortage in resources is truly imminent. The predictions came true but not exactly as Ehrlich perceived it. The effects are mainly unfelt in the developed world and food production grew exponentially at a rate higher than population growth in  both developed and developing countries. Food per capita is the highest in history. During the greatest population-growth period in human history, food became cheaper and more abundant (prices dropped up to 70%). Population gro wth rates, on the other hand, significantly slowed down especially in the developed world (Erlich). The sad reality at present is this misconception still lingers on the thoughts of the educated ones. This now resulted to interference of government to population growth by creating and implementing policies that aims to decrease rates of population growth. Examples are Reproductive Health Act in U. S. and One-child policy in China and Singapore. The biggest impact on fertility from the pill was from eliminating â€Å"unwanted pregnancies† by 70% of married woman (Demographic Winter: The New Economic Reality). Secularization is also a factor that affects fertility rates. The anti-Christian, anti-family ideology which can be rooted to the Marxist view of activists currently sweeping across most of Western civilisation has precipitated a culture of death that is slowly but inexorably killing off the human family. Those who believe about meaning of life have children. Those who don’t, don’t (Feder). We can therefore say that all aspects of modernity work against fam ily life and is in favour of singleness, having a small family, or opting to have no child at all. Add up to that none of these problems can be easily fixed. It’s who we are and what we’ve become increasingly in these modern times. But the question here that remains is, if we are experiencing demographic winter, why is that population continues to grow? This now can be attributed to the Alternatives of developed countries to compensate for their declining population which is immigration (esp. on Europe and Australia) (Demographic Winter: The New Economic Reality). Also, the issue of ageing population comes in. What we currently perceive is that death rate is less compared to before. Less people are born but also lesser die thus creating that aged population. Given the origin, definition and causes of demographic winter, let us now focus to its effects on society. This can now be classified into (1) biological, (2) political, and to the (3) economy. However, these can be inter-related. Research has shown that demographics can have a significant impact on countries’ stability, governance, economic development and the well-being of its people (Population Action International). As stated earlier, an ageing population is an issue that can be attributed to  biological effects of demographic winter. In 1998, there was a 48-year lag between births and peak spending of those individuals. Japan is one of the countries to first experience demographic winter after the world war for they did not experience the Baby Bomb, unlike U.S. Developed countries will have this age trap or the said modern inverted pyramid wherein number of grandparents is greater than the number of children. This is in contrast to the trend before wherein the number of children is greater than the grandparents’. With this occurrence, the children will not be able to sufficiently take care of the old due to lack of number. Also, some countries might cease to exist. There are fifty-nine (59) nations, namely, Russia, China, Spain, Portugal, Canada, Italy, Germany, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong, (Central Inteligence Agency) – with 44% of the world’s population – th at are now experiencing below-replacement birth rates. Worldwide, there are 6 million fewer children (under age 6) today than there were in 1990. The United Nations estimates that if current trends continue, by 2050 there will be 248 million fewer children (under age 5) than there are now. Overall, Europe’s fertility rate is 1.3; a birth rate of 2.1 is needed just to replace current population. In this century, countries such as Italy, Spain, Russia and even France could cease to exist – at least as they’re currently constituted. Demographer Philip Longman (author of The Empty Cradle: How Falling Birth rates Threaten World Prosperity) observes: The on-going global decline in human birth rates is the single most powerful force affecting the fate of nations and the future of society in the 21st century. â€Å"Demographic winter is a great predictor of a country’s fate and future because children are essential for a country’s economic survival,† Longman added. As Japan’s population has aged beyond 48 years old, its consumer spending has steadily declined. Here now enters the effects to economy. Never in history is an ageing population able to develop a prosperous economy (Demographic Winter: The New Economic Reality). Why? The ratio of young to old will shift dramatically and wreak havoc upon existing social security and healthcare systems. The economy at large may also suffer, as the elderly cease spending and a smaller generation of workers is crippled by the taxes needed to support their parents. â€Å"The world this will bring about, according to the filmmakers, is bleak: grandparents left untended and alone in the streets of Europe as intergenerational bonds are  shattered; the potential desolation of small countries such as Latvia, and a worldwide depression that will touch even those countries that don’t disappear under the sheath of snow that the film shows blanketing the entire globe.† (Joyce). So argues Harry S. Dent, Jr., an economist who specializes in â€Å"demographic-based economic forecasting,† and who predicts that the West will follow Japan’s aging population bust. Politically, demographic winter can be associated with the voting body. A political analysis said that political preference reveals that the metaphorical eggs of Republicans rest entirely in one basket: the vote s of older white people. According to the exit polls conducted by the New York Times of the 2012 presidential election, Republican nominee Mitt Romney won 59 percent of white voters, and 56 percent of voters over age 65. The intersection of those two areas is the demographic base of the Republican Party, and it is dying. Markos Moulitsas posited that conservatives’ endeavours to weaken the social safety net have made it harder for these seniors who comprise the Republican base to stay alive (Atkins). While some may still debunk and not accept the fact that such phenomenon is happening, it just happens, and will still continue despite of us shunning the thought of it. Demographic winter is no joke. Further neglect of the declining rates of population growth will soon not only affect political, biological, and economic aspects of society but may also jeopardize even the existence of mankind in the future. I value intellectual integrity and the highest standards of academic conduct. I am committed to an ethical learning environment that promotes a high standard of honor in scholastic work. Academic dishonesty undermines institutional integrity and threatens the academic fabric of the University of the Philippines. And because I believe that dishonesty is not an acceptable avenue to success, I aff ix my signature to this work to affirm that it is original and free of cheating and plagiarism, and does not knowingly furnish false information.† ______________________________ Mary Philline Descalzo Works Cited Atkins, Dante. Daily Kos. 23 June 2013. Web. 29 August 2013. . Central Inteligence Agency. The World Fact Book. n.d. Web. 12 September 2013. . Demographic Winter. n.d. Web. 29 August 2013. . Demographic Winter. Demographic Winter: The New Economic Reality. 2011. Web. 29 August 2013. . Durden, Tyler. Japanese Birth Rate Plunges To Record Low As Death-Rate Hits Record High. 7 June 2013. web. 29 August 2013. . Erlich, Paul R. The Population Bomb. New York: Ballantine Books, 1968. Print. 29 August 2013. Feder, Don. Demographic Winter. 5 March 2008. Web. 29 August 2013. . Fluctuating Fertility: The Baby Boom and the Baby Bust. n.d. Web. 29 August 2013. . Gone for Goode. Dir. Barry Levinson. Perf. Ned Beatty, Richard Belzer, Andre Braugher, Wendy Hughes, Clark Johnson, Yaphet Kotto, Melissa Leo, Jon Polito, Kyle Secor Daniel Baldwin. 1993. Web. Goode, William Josiah. World Revolution and Family Patterns. New York: Free Press, 1963. Document. Hayghe, Howard. â€Å"Rise in mothers’ labor force participation includes those with young children.† Monthly Labor Review (1986): 43-45. Print. 29 August 2013. Joyce, Kathryn. Kathryn Joyce. n.d. Web. 29 August 2013. Population Action International. Topic  » Population Trends and Demography. 2012. Web. 29 August 2013. . Schoen, Robert and Robin M. Weinick. â€Å"The Slowing Metabolism of Marriage: Figures from 1988 U.S. Marital Status Life Tables.† Demography 30 (1993): 737-746. Document. 29 August 2013. . U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES. Vital and Health Statistics. Primary Research Report. National Center for Health Statistics. Hyattsville, Maryland: DHHS Publication, 1986. Web. 29 August 2013. . United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division, population Estimates, and Projections Sections. United Nations. n.d. Web. 29 August 2013. Weeks, John R. â€Å"Population and Contemporary Issues.† Weeks, John R. Population: an Introduction to Concepts and Issues. Ed. Eve Howard. Sixth. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1996. 338. Print. 29 August 2013. Wikimedia Foudation, Inc. Baby Boom. 25 July 2013. web. 29 August 2013. Wikimedia Foudat ion, Inc. The Population Bomb. 25 August 2013. web. 29 August 2013. Yew, Lee Kuan. Warning Bell for Developed Countries: Declining Birth Rates. 25 April 2012. Web. 29 August 2013. .

Business Process Reengineering Essay Example for Free (#3)

Business Process Reengineering Essay Business process (20) , Business process reengineering (7) company About StudyMoose Contact Careers Help Center Donate a Paper Legal Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy Complaints Whenever we order our drinks at the coffee shops on a daily basis, we are actually triggering a business process. When the waiter at the coffee shop takes the order at our table, he will pass our orders to the kitchen by yelling our orders from one end of the coffee shop to another. Most of the time, the kitchen helper will hear the order and start to prepare. The waiter will then go around taking a few other orders. After he is done with taking orders, he will collect the drinks from the kitchen and serve it to the customers. Customers will then pay up for the drinks. In the event there isn’t enough change for big notes, the waiter will have to go back to the counter to break the notes into smaller variations in order to return the correct amount of change to the customers. In some cases, he might deliver the wrong order as he doesn’t note down the orders in pen and paper, he just passes on the order to the kitchen by shouting. Restaurant scenario Many years down the road, the coffee shop has earned enough to pay for a renovation and overhaul. The boss of the coffee shop has decided to upgrade the coffee shop to a restaurant. He realises that he need to retrain his staff to operate the restaurant as the methods of operating a restaurant differs from the methods of operating the coffee shop. He also realise that he can incorporate some equipment to help him process orders more efficiently. In summary, he needs to change the way the restaurant does things (processes) and how he does things (Method/tools used to carry out the task). The boss has to do a total revamp of the methods and processes of how he was previously used to in the coffee shop. This is what is meant by business process reengineering. In definition, business process is an organizational change in its methods used to redesign an organization to improve efficiency and effectiveness (Mehta, 2011). Reengineering is the organizational change characterized by drastic process transformation. Concepts BPR focus & Objectives In order for companies to operate more efficiently, reduce waste, retain their customers and drive sales, understanding and applying BPR is essential for this change to happen. Firstly, we have to map out the organization’s goals, objectives, primary business function, the people they have and the tools they use. The second objective would be to analyse the current process and redesign/revamp them. By doing so, companies will be able to achieve better ROI and eliminate waste. This will help the company to gain competitive advantage over others in its efficiency and also profits (Muharram, 2007). Perspective of BPR BPR is a framework designed for companies to adopt. This framework helps to optimize processes by making it more streamlined. A good example to explain this point would be the difference between a vertical and cross functional organization. In a horizontal organization, the customer interacts only with one party but in a vertical structure, customers might have to deal with different departments. Figure 3 shows a customer dealing with his account manager for the application of a loan. In the process, the customer does not need to deal with the different departments involved in the application of a loan. This allows the loan application to be more streamlined (Zigiaris, 2000). A vertical structure is not as efficient as customers will have to deal with several departments to process their requests. In a call centre environment, when the customer logs a call for a IT issue, the calling department will answer his call and log the case. He will then be transferred to the technical department who will assist him with 1st level troubleshooting. In the event he cannot solve the problem, the matter will be escalated to a level 2 support and also a product specialist. After his issue has been resolved, he will be transferred to the payment department where he will pay for the IT services he has used. After making payment, he will receive an email from the feedback department where they will ask the customer for feedback for the case. This slows down the entire process of resolving the problem from end to end. One of the main goal in BPR is to optimize the processes that takes place within the organization and reduce lead time. In order to do so, businesses has to look at its processes from a clean state perspective. For a company to be able to streamline their processes, they have to add value to their customers through their processes. Processes should maintain its ability to add value to customers. For those processes that do not, we can automate them and put the focus on adding value. This will result in higher customer satisfaction, better efficiency, elimination of watse and greater ROI(Park, 2008). BPR Methodologies There are several techniques to business process redesign and reengineering. We will discuss a few in this section. Hammer and Champy A major overhaul in the organization’s process and structure is one of the keys to ensuring that cost is lowered and service quality is being improved. The means of implemeting these is via the use of information technology. Besides reorganization and using IT to power the business, redesigning the work process and optimizing it, helps the organization to reduce time taken, lower costs and improve quality (Rouse, 2009). A Case study of Ford Motor Company Ford used to employ 500 accounts payable staff in the past. These 500 staff are running the tasks of tracking faults between purchase orders, receipts and invoices. After Ford decided to reengineer their process, the number of staff needed reduced from 500 to 125. Their reengineering efforts include: * Creating an online database where all purchase orders issued by the buyers are being captured * Goods are being checked when received. The shipment being sent has to match with that in the database. This allows the staff to check if the goods were actual orders being indented. This system of checking eliminates the need to check for faults between purchase orders. * Goods being received will be marked as received and the database is being updated real-time. (Hammer & Champy, 2000) Perspective of process reengineering by Hammer and Champy 1. Organize around outcomes, not tasks. 2. Identify all the processes in an organization and prioritize them in order of redesign urgency. 3. Integrate information processing work into the real work that produces the information. 4. Treat geographically dispersed resources as though they were centralized. 5. Link parallel activities in the workflow instead of just integrating their results. 6. Put the decision point where the work is performed, and build control into the process. 7. Capture information once and at the source. (Rouse, 2009) The methodology preached by Hammer and Champy clearly reflects what was being discussed in the BPR focus and objectives at the start of this report. Its focus is to eliminate waste and also to focus on deliverables that will add value to customers. In order to do so, IT systems can be employed in order to automate processes which do not add value. This point of automation is being reiterated in the case study of Ford Motors. This concept of rethinking and redesigning the business process radically helps us to improve many areas of the business such as lowering costs, improving customer service, ensure quality is being maintained and speed up the entire workflow. Business Process Reengineering. (2016, Dec 15). We have essays on the following topics that may be of interest to you

A critical assessment of marketing analysis tools Essay

A critical assessment of marketing analysis tools - Essay Example The intention is to evaluate, develop as well as disseminate the competitive advantages for an organization. In the current study two competitive strategies have been critically evaluated. Porter’s five forces model The configuration of porter’s five forces differs from industry to industry. In commercial aircraft market, rivalry is strong among dominant producers Boeing and Airbus as bargaining power is strong, while threat of substitutes and threat of entry and supplier power is less. In sector of Movie Theatre, substitute entertainments forms are proliferated as power of distributors as well as dominant movie producers are important. The competitive force which is strongest determines industry profitability and becomes crucial for strategy formulation (Porter, 2004) Economy has become more dynamic as well as volatile, and strategies require moving beyond conventional ideas of positioning and competition while understanding profitability and industry competition (Port er, 1980; Hubbard and Beamish, 2011). In order to describe the five basic forces of competition, economist and professor, Micheal E. Porter created a model which can be considered by companies while developing and implementing business strategies (Porter 2008). The various forces constituting micro level external environment were supplier power, threat of new entry, customers or buyer power, substitute power as well as competitive rivalry (Grant, 2011). The overall configuration and strength of the above forces differ by sector, and these forces determine overall potential for profitability and attractiveness. With the decrease in the intensity, attractiveness and productivity of the industry becomes higher. The goal of business managers is to determine and evaluate the factors, drivers or sources which influence these forces so that they can be shaped to favour the strategy implementation process. New entrants introduce themselves in the market with new capacities. They are interes ted in gaining share in the market and pressurise the pricing strategy and tend to shake the established restructuring as well as industry competition. The influence of these threats depends on how strong is the industry barrier, strategic decisions influencing the industry and overall incumbent reaction (Bain, 2001). Other factors which influence these treats include product differences, economies, switching costs of buyer, brand identity, ease of distribution, capital requirements, government policy, expected retaliation as well as cost advantage. The height of entry barriers has been constantly proven as one of the most critical predicator to overall industry profitability (Frank, 2008). Suppliers have the bargaining power to control and limit profitability of the industry by increasing prices or reducing the services or product qualities. Thus, industry participants find it difficult to achieve profit from increased costs. Various factors influence the supplier power. these can be supplier input differentiation, concentration of supplier in the industry, selling volume of supplier products and its relative importance, information available about supplier products, profitability of the suppliers as well as presence of supplier substitutes. Other factors include forward integration of important suppliers, costs to suppliers relative to overall purchases as well as supplier incentives. Customer or buyers also exert some power in the market. They have the power of bringing down prices of products or services. They can look for better quality as well as intensify internal competition among brands. All of these can result in decrease in the supplier as well as industry profitability. factors which influence the power of buyers include importance of the volume of purchases,

1. Choose one topic from your philosophy. 2. Discuss this topic in Essay

1. Choose one topic from your philosophy. 2. Discuss this topic in relation to your own field of Nursing and one other field of Nursing - Essay Example This is becausehygienecontrols the multiplication and spread of organisms that cause diseasesin everyday life settings. There are different types of hygiene that are essential in the preservation of health, for example, hand hygiene. This is the most common societal form of hygiene. It is also referred to as hand washing and health experts recommend the washing of hands with a hand sanitizer such as soap. Hand hygiene is essential in preventing the spread of diseases in everyday life because the hands come in to contact with many things, such as unclean surfaces, and for this reason, it so happens that hands are more prone to transferring bacteria that will cause diseases. Other forms of hygiene may include food hygiene, laundry hygiene, and personal hygiene among many others. Inthefield of medicine, hygiene is summed up in to medical hygiene. This refers tothe practices which regulate the administration of medicine and medical care. The main agenda of medical hygiene is to minimize the spread of diseases or even to prevent diseases from spreading. For example, if there are or is a patient who has been diagnosed or is showing symptoms of a particular infectious disease, then the prudent medical hygiene procedure that should be followed is isolation. The medical term used for isolation is quarantine. Hand hygiene is also pertinent to medical hygiene. Medical practitionersrequired to wash their hands before handling a patient. Thisrequirement is emphasized more when one is about to enter an operating room but the role that hand hygiene plays in the general hospital or health care setting cannot be overlooked because some bacteria that spread diseases are easily transmittable. In the 20th century, an outbreak of a number of highly infectious and deadly disea ses was experienced. One such disease was Ebola. The rate of transmission of these viruses necessitated the tightening of

Wal-Marts sustainability strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Wal-Marts sustainability strategy - Essay Example From that time the company has attained massive expansion and is currently operating under different brand names. It is one of the most successful groups with operations in 27 countries, has more than 10,000 stores with different departments and employs over 2 million people. (Wal-Mart, 2012, p.3). The aim was to improve the lives of the people by saving their money while making profit through reduced expenses and improved management. They operate as supercenters, food and drug store, restaurants, general merchandise stores, warehouse clubs, small markets, discount stores human and cash and carry stores. Its strategic management has been based on five principles: resource development, reduced expenses, online shopping services, satisfied customers and social and environmental responsibility (Sullivan, 2010, p. 156).These have led to the rapid growth in revenue, customer base and workforce. Like any other large international companies, there need to develop a proper management strateg y to ensure the business fulfills its mission.This paper will critically analyses the challenges facing Walwart international and gives its recommendation on how to overcome these challenges with keen consideration of seafood supply chains. Challenges of Wal-Mart’s supply chain Employees The company employs over two million employees across the world and has been accused of violating their rights. According to Marshall (2012, p.3), their employees went on strike in Los Angeles after several months of trying to reach out to the company’s executives with success. Prior to this strike, there was also demonstration in other regions, with the employees complaining of low wages, healthy risk and poor treatment while at work. There has been case of firing of workers that are actively involved in their trade union OUR Wal-Mart (Marshall, 2012, p. 4). OUR Wal-Mart has filed several cases on unfair treatment of the workers Such as termination, warnings or reduced working hours. Most complain seem to be a strategy by the executives to reduce the cost of labor and eventually reducing the operational cost. The reduction in expenses is supposed to increase in sales and revenue. Staff reduction can hinder proper management of day to day activities in the stores as well as in factories. Each outlet has different management and this has worsened the situation, some stores lack proper safety facilities, do not give employment contract to their employees, and poor sanitation. Poor working conditions can affect the quality of their products especially food and this pose greater health risk to the consumers. Thestrikes, demonstrations and poor working conditions, not only have negative impacts on the employees but also create a negative image of the company thus affecting business. Competition Like any other company in profit making business, Wal-Mart faces stiff competitions from other large stores, small stores and international companies and sometimes has been for ces to close down their stores. This has forces them to change their mode of marketing as well as their mode of doing business. Being an international company poses greater challenges because of different ways of doing businesses in these countries and also different cultural back grounds of their customers. Sea food store in China almost closed down due to the way chines prefer to choose their sea food, they were forced to display them while uncovered and this led to high sales. According to Ellickson at el (2012. P 750) Wal-Mart has changed the pricing strategy of supermarkets to reduce completion. Its entrance in the market led to closed down of other business but this is just one sided opinion since it has also faced competition. Their low price strategy has worked well for

Legal brief (Kentucky v. King, 563 U.S. ___ (2011) ) Assignment

Legal brief (Kentucky v. King, 563 U.S. ___ (2011) ) - Assignment Example denied the accused’s indication to suppress the evidence; reason being that exigent circumstances (the need to prevent the elimination of evidence) vindicated the warrantless entrance. The respondent reserved his right to appeal the decision by a lower court. The Court of Appeal of Kentucky affirmed the decision of the Circuit court, but the Supreme Court reversed the decision. Procedural History of the case: the King moved to court and filed an appeal to reverse the decision of the Circuit court which was affirmed by the Kentucky court of Appeals, which had come to a finding that the officers had a reasonable basis to investigate the marijuana odor and that they properly carried out the investigation by firstly knocking on the door of the apartment and anticipating a response .The court also held that the exigent circumstances vindicated the warrantless entry since there was no response from the apartment when the officers knocked and one officer heard movement in the apartment which he thought were people trying to destroy evidence. The respondent was sentenced for 11 years imprisonment. The respondent reserved his right to appeal the decision by a lower court. The Court of Appeal of Kentucky affirmed the decision of the Circuit court, but the Supreme Court reversed the decision. Holding and reasoning of the case: The court held the opinion that the police should have foreseen that their action would have impelled the occupants to purge the evidence. The court determined that the exigent circumstances rule did not apply in this case. The exigent circumstances rule usually applies in circumstances when police fail to create the exigency by engaging themselves in the conduct violating the Fourth Amendment. This amendment (fourth amendment) brings about requirements: all searches and seizure ought to be sensible and the scope of the search should be well set out and a warrant may not be issued unless a justifiable cause is established. The presumption

Brazil Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Brazil - Essay Example (CIA, 2007) Brazil has a multiethnic social structure with Roman Catholicism as the dominant religion and Portuguese as the main language. It is characterized by natural surroundings, wildlife diversity, protected habitats. It terms of demography, it is fifth most populous nation in the world and in terms of geographical area it is the fifth largest. Brazil is officially known as the Federative Republic of Brazil. (CIA, 2008) The natives of Brazil are perceived to have descended from the North Asian migrants of around 9000BC. In the beginning due to the already generated high profits from trade with India, Japan and China, Brazil did not evoke much interest in the Portugal colonists. The country was economically exploited mostly for its Brazilwood which provided the red dye. Previously they had established temporary trading establishments which ensured the trade of brazilwood but later permanent settlement ensured the setting up of sugarcane industry. The nation turned out to be agri culture based economy from where the Portuguese exported the agricultural commodities to European nations. With time the most crucial colonial product of Brazil was sugar and this remained equally important till the eighteenth century when there was a crisis as they faced competition from both Dutch and French sugar producers located close to Europe. This led to a fall in the price of sugar. Even gold production declined towards the close of the eighteenth century. The Portuguese administration still kept its integrity by sending bullions to the nation. The nation however has undergone wide scale changes overtime and currently are known as an emerging economy of the world. The changes have occurred in all dimensions including the social, economic and political scenario. Emerging Markets is a term which is used to refer to the social and economic operations of a nation which is in its way towards fast growth process and industrialization. China is currently considered to be the

ArticleAbstract Assignments Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

ArticleAbstract Assignments - Essay Example icle, based on its two research questions, concludes that league matches are the products of the professional leagues and that the products are sold to four parties, â€Å"the fans, television and other media,† communities that either support or offer services to league teams and â€Å"corporations† (Mason 410). It makes an important contribution by creating awareness of the roles of different stakeholders in the sports market. By identifying the fans, for example, through their attendance or media charges, as primary buyers of the sports’ product and not the media product, the article motivates them and promotes their commitment to supporting the economic activity at both social and economic levels. It therefore succeeds in promoting the economic aspect of the sports by identifying benefits to all the involved consumers (Mason 403-414). The article can however be criticized for relying on outdated resources. Using resources that are more than two decades old can mislead because of the dynamic nature of sports and markets. The researcher also failed to outline his

Critical Appraisal of a Paper (Hepatitis B and C virus co-infection in Essay

Critical Appraisal of a Paper (Hepatitis B and C virus co-infection in Nigerian patients with HIV infection) - Essay Example The fact that the study population was adopted from the same hospital means that this study was committed to using its own approach, unique from other studies. The authors made a nice conclusion, which is all-inclusive. For instance, they have identified some of the limitations, which are present in their research. This helps the audience of this research to interpret the research findings in the context in which the researchers conducted it. Additionally, they have identified the importance of this study to their hospital, and as it applies to the wider society. This research is a great achievement, especially to the National Hospital in Abuja, Nigeria, considering that this is the first research of its kind to be conducted in this hospital. This will help the doctors and other caregivers to predict outcomes of different cases related with HIV and the two types of Hepatitis. Furthermore, although this research was not conducted in the communities, these findings can still be of help to the people in the grassroots level. This will also help in sensitizing the HIV infected members of the society to test for the different types of Hepatitis, considering the implications they have on HIV patients. This research article is not perfect, but it rates above average. The presentation is well above average, and the clarity is incredible. Additionally, the analysis of the research findings is in-depth, highly insightful, and quite easy to understand. Although this research presentation is quite commendable, there are some important aspects, which were omitted. First, the literature review section is missing. Normally, it is appropriate if a research includes a review of literature. In addition, considering that this was a first research in this field for this hospital, literature review would have helped this research through offering a direction, and predicting expected outcomes of the research. By comparing the works of other authors in the

Eye Witness Essay Example for Free

Eye Witness Essay This essay is based on â€Å"The Story of an Eyewitness† by Jack London and â€Å"Leaving Desire† by Jon Lee Anderson. â€Å"The Story of an Eyewitness† talks about how the San Francisco earthquake and fire destroyed the city in 1906. â€Å"Leaving Desire† talks about a victim of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. London and Anderson’s coverage of these disasters are different in several ways. Some examples of their differences are portrayed in the author’s purpose, the achievement of their purpose, and the authors focus. Purpose for Writing London’s purpose for writing is to describe the destruction of San Francisco from the earthquake and fire. London describes the effects the disasters had on the city. For example, â€Å"The earthquake shook down in San Francisco hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of walls and chimneys†¦ I passed through Union Square. It was packed with refugees. Thousands of them had gone to bed on the grass. Government tents had been set up†¦Ã¢â‚¬  this describes how the disasters had an effect on the living conditions in the city. London describes the attitude of the people in San Francisco, which is sort of a hopeless feeling because they knew that their valuables and their own selves couldn’t be rescued. In the text, â€Å" ‘yesterday morning’ he said, â€Å"I was worth six hundred thousands dollars. This morning this house is all I have left. It will all go in fifteen minutes. † The victim of the earthquake has an attitude of ‘there is nothing I can do’ (hopeless), and London doesn’t really state it but its apparent by what the victim says. London Also describes the remains of San Francisco, which is barely anything. In the article he writes, â€Å"San Francisco is gone. Nothing remains of it but memories and a fringe of dwelling houses on its outskirts. † This plainly states that everything is gone, but further into the article (page 413) he builds it up in description. Anderson’s purpose for writing is to create the mood of empathy in the reader from the victim’s experience. Anderson has also witnessed heartbreaking things in New Orleans, for example, â€Å"As the water rose, they took refuge in the choir loft. They stayed there for eight days, drinking the water the storm washed in. We were down to our last two crackers. †Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬  That created an empathetic mood because the old married couple barely made it through these eight days and only had little to eat and unsanitary drinking water. Anderson learns how the disaster effected the main victim in this article, Lionel Petrie. For example â€Å"Petrie took a step back on his porch†¦Ã¢â‚¬ Can I take my dog with me? †Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ â€Å"I hate this. † Then she said to him, â€Å"I am so sorry Mr. Petrie, but, no, they won’t allow us to take animals. You will have to leave him here. †¦Ã¢â‚¬  This creates a mood of empathy because thinking he probably loved his dog very much it would be hard to leave him there to perish in the storm. Anderson gives details about what Petrie had to witness in his town. For example â€Å"As we made our way down Desire, Petrie looked around him at the devastation, his neighbors houses submerged in water. He said â€Å"Oh my God. I had no idea. † Petrie’s shocked and disturbed feeling really advances the mood of empathy in the article because he is so overwhelmed and hurt by what he saw, thinking it wasn’t going to be as bad as it was. How Purpose is Achieved London achieves his purpose by using descriptive language and words/terms. He describes his surrounding and the destruction of the city, like he says, â€Å"The streets were humped into ridges and depressions, and piled with the debris of fallen walls†¦The steel rails were twisted into perpendicular and horizontal angles. † London describes what the city looks like by using descriptive words such as depressions, horizontal, perpendicular, steel, and twisted. He also discusses the people of San Francisco and their reactions about what happened or what was to come. For example â€Å"Try that piano. Listen to its tone. There are a few like it. There are no horses. The flames will be here in fifteen minutes. † This victim doesn’t state that he has given up on trying to be saved but the words he says expresses that he has lost all hope. London tells how everything is destroyed in the city by repeating the same descriptive phrase. He says, â€Å"Its industrial section is wiped put. Its business section is wiped out. Its social and residential section is wiped out†¦Ã¢â‚¬  London describes sentence by sentence how all together San Francisco s gone. Anderson’s purpose is achieved by getting a primary source and being a primary source of the aftermath of the hurricane. He was able to get information about Petrie’s sad experience. For example â€Å"Petrie explained that his wife and son and daughter had left the city†¦ He didn’t know where his family was now†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The author creates an empathetic mood by getting the reader to think about losing our family members or not knowing where they were and wondering if you would ever see them again. Anderson tells about Petrie’s worries and fears of the unknown. For example â€Å"Petrie told me that he was worried about his aunt Willa Mae Butler: â€Å"She’s about eighty-two and lives on†¦ I’m worried she’s dead, because this time she said she wasn’t going. † Petrie is unsure about his families’ safety and that actually creates a mood of sympathy. People have experiences this in natural disasters like the earthquake in the fall of 2011. Anderson uses the surroundings to create a mood of empathy in the reader. For example â€Å"A boat came up and deposited an elderly black couple†¦ They took refuge in the choir loft. They stayed there for eight days, drinking the water the storm washed in. † This creates a mood of empathy through the surroundings because he saw the couple and heard what they went through and its heartbreaking they had to go through it. Focus of the Author London focuses on San Francisco as a whole. He focuses on how the earthquake had an impact on the entire city. For example â€Å"San Francisco is gone. † He doesn’t say one specific area of the city is gone, but the entire San Francisco. London also tells about where the fire hit and where it was heading. He writes, â€Å"I sat on the steps of a small residence on Nob Hill†¦ To the east and south at right angles, were advancing two mighty walls of flame†¦ I went inside with the owner of the house on the steps of which I sat†¦ â€Å"The flames will be here in fifteen minutes. † London tells where the flames were a citizen of San Francisco tells when the flames will be in fifteen minutes. London gives information about how the victims, or soon to be victims, reacted to the danger (fire), for example â€Å"He was an old man and he was on crutches. Said he: â€Å"Today is my birthday. Last night I was worth thirty thousand dollars. I bought some delicate fish and other things for my birthday dinner. I have had no dinner, and all I own are these crutches. † The old man seems to be very disappointed that the fire has destroyed everything he owned. His reaction to the disaster is disappointment. Anderson’s main focus is on Lionel Petrie and Ninth Ward of New Orleans. He only covers one part of New Orleans in the story. For example â€Å"Alladio was out on a search for trapped survivors†¦ in one of the poorest and worst-hit parts of the city, the Ninth Ward, in eastern New Orleans. That basically tells what area the article mainly focuses on. Anderson’s article is based on the experience of Lionel Petrie and barely anyone else’s. For example â€Å"Petrie explained that his wife and son and daughter had left the city by car, heading for Baton Rouge†¦ he didn’t know where his family was now, and if he left, they wouldn’t know where he was. † This tells about Petrie’s experience in not knowing whether he would see his family again. Anderson is writhing about Lionel Petrie who lived in Ninth Ward of New Orleans so that would most likely be the place Anderson would cover and focus on. In the story it says, â€Å"When I first saw Lionel Petrie, he was standing on the second story porch of his house, at the junction of Desire Street and North Bunny Friend, in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans. † This is the first sentence of the entire article so apparently it is about Lionel Petrie who lived in Ninth Ward of New Orleans. Conclusion In conclusion London’s purpose, achievement of purpose, and focus, differ from Anderson’s. They both use their differences to cover the disasters in their articles. Though the author’s methods of reportage were different, both were very effective in achieving their purposes. (Jon Lee Anderson)

Polyesters: Characteristics and Applications

Polyesters: Characteristics and Applications Scrunch it, wash it without any wear and wrinkles. Thats what polyester became famous for. Polyester was the fabric of choice in a changing economy of speed, efficiency and convenience. If the food industry produced fries and coke, the textile industry supplemented it with Polyester quick, cheap and easy. It was W.H. Carothers who discovered that alcohols and carboxyl acids could be successfully mixed to create fibers. Carothers was working for duPont at the time and unfortunately when he discovered Nylon, polyester took a back seat. PET Terylene Carothers incomplete research had not advanced to investigating the polyester formed from mixing ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid. It was British scientists Whinfield and Dickson who patented PET or PETE in 1941. Polyethylene terephthalate forms the basis for synthetic fibers like Dacron, Terylene and polyester. Later that year, the first polyester fiber Terylene was created by Whinfield and Dickson along with Birtwhistle and Ritchiethey. Terylene was first manufactured by Imperial Chemical Industries or ICI. DuPonts Role It was in 1946 that duPont bought all legal rights from ICI. In 1950, the Dealware property of duPont manufactured another polyester fiber, which they named Dacron. Mylar was introduced in 1952. Polyester was first introduced to the American public in 1951 as the magical fabric that needed no ironing! PET and PEN are duPont trademarks that have turned the use and consumption of Polyester around. Polyester Becomes Popular Subsequent to the development of Terylene and Dacron, Kodel was developed by Eastman Chemical Products, Inc in 1958. The polyester market underwent rapid expansion and textile mills emerged everywhere. Many of the mills were located at small gas stations and produced cheap polyester apparel. The inexpensive and durable fiber became very popular and the industry expanded rapidly till the 1970s. Unfortunately, the infamous double-knit polyester image hit the industry and polyester soon came to be known as the uncomfortable fabric. The Phoenix Rises Today, polyester is largely regarded as a cheap fabric that is rather uncomfortable for sensitive human skin to wear. However, the emergence of luxury fibers like polyester microfiber and various polyester blends the industry is experiencing resurgence. The Tennessee Eastman Company and the Man-Made Fiber Producers Associations (MMFPA) Polyester Fashion Council played a significant role in the revival of polyester. The Tennessee Eastman Company started a YES campaign for polYESter and popularized it via radio and television. The idea was to focus on the wash and go properties of polyester rather than sell it as a cheap fabric. Hoechst Fibers Industries also played a part. They conducted various studies from 1981 to 1983 and found that 89% of people could not distinguish between polyester and other natural fibers like cotton, wool and silk. Also, it was found that people were more interested in the appearance of the apparel than the fabric it was made of. Today, the biggest contributor to the appeal of polyester is the discovery of microfibers. Microfibers give polyester the feel of silk and are rapidly becoming the choice of fabric. With an expensive tag to match, the cheap image of polyester seems to be on its way out. Heres to heralding a new era in the history of polyester! Polyester is a term often defined as long-chain polymers chemically composed of at least 85% by weight of an ester and a dihydric alcohol and a terephthalic acid. In other words, it means the linking of several esters within the fibers. Reaction of alcohol with carboxylic acid results in the formation of esters. Polyester also refers to the various polymers in which the backbones are formed by the esterification condensation of polyfunctional alcohols and acids. Polyester can also be classified as saturated and unsaturated polyesters. Saturated polyesters refer to that family of polyesters in which the polyester backbones are saturated. They are thus not as reactive as unsaturated polyesters. They consist of low molecular weight liquids used as plasticizers and as reactants in forming urethane polymers, and linear, high molecular weight thermoplastics such as polyethylene terephthalate (Dacron and Mylar). Usual reactants for the saturated polyesters are a glycol and an acid or anhydride. Unsaturated polyesters refer to that family of polyesters in which the backbone consists of alkyl thermosetting resins characterized by vinyl unsaturation. They are mostly used in reinforced plastics. These are the most widely used and economical family of resins. Characteristics of polyester Polyester fabrics and fibers are extremely strong. Polyester is very durable: resistant to most chemicals, stretching and shrinking, wrinkle resistant, mildew and abrasion resistant. Polyester is hydrophobic in nature and quick drying. It can be used for insulation by manufacturing hollow fibers. Polyester retains its shape and hence is good for making outdoor clothing for harsh climates. It is easily washed and dried. Uses of Polyester The most popular and one of the earliest uses of polyester was to make polyester suits all the rage in the 70s. Polyester clothes were very popular. Due to its strength and tenacity polyester was also used to make ropes in industries. PET bottles are today one of the most popular uses of polyester. Polyester care tips Taking care of polyester clothing is really easy and very time efficient. Polyester clothing can be machine washed and dried. Adding a fabric softener generally helps. Dry the fabric at low temperatures to get maximum usage from the clothing. Though polyester does not require much ironing, if you must then iron warm. Polyester can be dry-cleaned with no hassles. Polyester is the choice of fiber and fabric for many industries. It can be applied to a wide variety of useful purposes. Use of polyester in garments Polyester is used in the manufacturing of all kinds of clothes and home furnishings like bedspreads, sheets, pillows, furniture, carpets and even curtains. The disco clothing of the 70s with all its jazz and flash was made of polyester. Hydrophobic nature: High tenacity and good durability makes polyester the choice of fabric for high stress outdoors use. Polyester is also a strong fiber that is hydrophobic in nature. It is thus ideal for clothing to be used in wet and damp environments. The fabric is also coated with a water-resistant finish and further intensifies the hydrophobic nature. Being the most heavily recycled polymer worldwide, it is also used by climbers. Climbing suits, parkas, sleeping bags and other outdoor gear are using the new insulating polyester fiberfill products. One can also do winter windsurfing wearing dry suits lined with polyester fleece. Creating insulation: By creating hollow fibers it is also possible to build insulation into the polyester fiber. Air is trapped inside the fiber, which is then warmed by the heat of the body. This keeps the body warm in cold weather. Another method to build insulation is to use crimped polyester in a fiberfill. The crimp helps keep the warm air in. Polyester is an ideal fabric for this kind of insulation because it retains its shape. Cotton and wool tend to flatten over a period of time and loose the warming effect. Wrinkle resistant: Polyester is also wrinkle resistant and is used very often in everyday clothing like pants, shirts, tops, skirts and suits. Used either by itself or as a blend, it is also stain resistant and hence very popular. Industrial uses of polyester While clothing used to be the most popular use of polyester and which made it a household name worldwide, there are many other uses polyester is put to. PET: The most common use of polyester today is to make the plastic bottles that store our much beloved beverages. Shatterproof and cheap these bottles are an absolute boon to the beverages industry. Mylar: An unusual and little known use of polyester is in the manufacturing of balloons. Not the rubber kind that you use for water balloons but the really pretty decorated ones that are gifted on special occasions. These are made of Mylar a kind of polyester film manufactured by DuPont. The balloons are made of a composite of Mylar and aluminum foil. Miscellaneous: Polyester is also used to manufacture high strength ropes, thread, hoses, sails, floppy disk liners, power belting and much more in industries. Thus, polyester has many uses for homes and industries as well. The process of manufacturing polyester is fascinating. It is an artificial man-made fiber. Polyesters are generally manufactured from petroleum from which the constituent acids and alcohols are derived. There are three steps in the synthesizing of polyester. Condensation Polymerization: When acid and alcohol are reacted in a vacuum at high temperatures it results in condensation polymerization. Once the polymerization has occurred the material is extruded onto a casting trough in the form of a ribbon. Once cool, the ribbon hardens and is cut into chips. Melt-spun Fiber: The chips are dried completely. Hopper reservoirs are then used to melt the chips. A unique feature of polyester is that it is melt-spun fiber. The chips are heated, extruded through spinnerets and cools upon hitting the air. It is then loosely wound around cylinders. Drawing: The fibers consequently formed are hot stretched to about five times their original length. This helps to reduce the fiber width. This fiber is now ready and would into cones as filaments. It can also be crimped and cut into staple lengths as per requirements. Different Types Of Polyester There are several processes that can be carried out on the base polyester fiber. These processes add dimension to the polyester fiber as required for various end uses. Polyester is a bright fiber by nature. However, it can be made dull or semi-dull by adding a delusterant. By changing the shape of the spinneret also, the hand and the strength of the fiber can be changed. Most spinnerets are circular. However, square, oval and bean-shaped fibers are also produced sometimes. Hollow fibers can also be created. Polyester fiber is generally drawn to about five times its original length. However, drawing it out further makes it thinner. This is how the latest microfibers are being manufactured. Dyeing can give desired colors of polyester fiber. Normal polyester fiber is long and smooth. Crimping it can give the fiber more bulk and texture and increase its insulation capabilities. Using Polyester Once the polyester fiber is ready it is used to make filament and spun yarns. The yarns can be blended with other fibers to make various blended fabrics. Polyester and cotton are a popular combination. Wool and rayon are also blended with polyester to make fabrics. Polyesters are long chain synthetic polymers that have ester linkages. Polyester materials are used as fibers, plastics, and films; in composites and elastomers; and as coatings. They are truly versatile materials. In the late 1920s American chemist Wallace Carothers and his research group at DuPont began to investigate the formation of polymers from the reaction of aliphatic di acids (having two acid groups) with diols (having two alcohol groups), in search of materials that would give them fibers. At first they were able to form only syrupy mixtures. But the Carothers group did make polyester fibers. They investigated a wide array of dialcohols, diacids, and w-hydroxy acids for use as starting points. Some of the polyesters that they achieved were solids, but they had rather low melting points and thus were not useful as fiber materials. The lack of success was due to the fact that the researchers had used only aliphatic diacids. In order to form long polymer chains, the reactive groups of the reactants must be present in approximately equal amounts. This is easily achieved via the use of amines and the subsequent formation of amine salts. (Diols do not easily form salts.) Carotherss group un derstood the principle of driving an equilibrium reaction and so sought to remove water from their amine salt mixtures, thus forcing the reaction toward ester formation. For this they developed a so-called molecular still, which involved heating the mixture and applying a vacuum coupled with a cold-finger that allowed evacuated water to condense and be removed from the reaction system. Even with this understanding and lots of hard work, they achieved polymer chains with fewer than 100 repeat units. (See Figure 2.) The DuPont research team turned from the synthesis of polyesters to tackle, more successfully, the synthesis of polyamides. The experience with polyesters was put to use in the making of polyamides. Initial polyester formation actually occurred much earlier and is attributed to Gay Lussac and Thà ©ophile-Jules Pelouze in 1833 and Jà ¶ns Jakob Berzelius in 1847. They did not realize what they had discovered, however, and so moved on to other work. Glyptal polyesters were first produced in 1901 by heating glycerol and phthalic anhydride. (See Figure 3.) Because the secondary hydroxyl is less active than the terminal, primary hydroxyl in glycerol, the initial product formed is a linear polyester. A cross-linked product is produced by further heating through reaction the third alcohol. Related compounds, alkyds, were synthesized by Kienle in the 1920s from trifunctional alcohols and dicarboxylic acids. Unsaturated oils (alcohols and anhydrides containing double bonds) were also reacted with phthalic anhydride, yielding polyesters that contained a double bond, which could be further reacted to produce cross-linked products. The extent of cross-linking or drying depends on the amount of unsaturated oil present. Today, the term alkyd is often used to describe all polyesters produced from the reaction of a diacid or anhydride and a diol or triol resulting in a product that contains a double bond that can be further reacted, giving a cross-linked product. (See Figure 4.) These polyesters are called unsaturated polyesters. They are mainly used in the production of reinforced plastics (composites) and nonreinforced filled products for the marine, automotive, and other industries. These glyptal and alkyd polyesters are useful as coating materials but not for fiber or plastic production. The first commercially available polyesters were made by GE in the 1920s. Called Glyptals à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ , they were used as sealing waxes. Out of the Glyptalà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ research came alkyd paints. Although these reactions had low fractional conversions, they formed high molecular weight materials because they had functionalities (i.e., a number of reactive groups on a single reactant) greater than 2, resulting in cross-linking. The heat resistance of Carotherss polyesters was not sufficient to withstand the temperature of the hot ironing process. Expanding on the work of Carothers and his coworkers on polyesters, Whinfield and Dickson, in England, overcame the problems of the Carothers group by using aromatic acids, especially terephthalic. This classic reaction, which produces plastics and fibers that are sold under a variety of tradenames, including Dacron, Fortrel, Trevira, and Terylene, and films sold under a variety of trade names that includes Mylar, is shown in Figure 5. All new plants now use pure acid for this reaction. Methyl alcohol, or methanol, is lower boiling than water (65  ° C compared with 100  ° C) and is thus more easily removed, allowing the reaction to be forced toward polymer formation more easily. Although this poly(aryl ester), produced by Whinfield and Dickson, poly(ethylene terephthalate) or PET, met the specifications for a useful synthetic fiber, because of inferior molding machines and inadequate plastic technology, it was not possible to use it in injection molds. Until more recently PET was not a widely used plastic or film material. Although aromatic polyesters had been successfully synthesized from the reaction of ethylene glycol with various aromatic diacids (almost always terephthalic acid or its ester), commercialization of polyester synthesis awaited an inexpensive source of aromatic diacids. In 1953 an inexpensive process for the separation of the various xylene isomers by crystallization was discovered. The availability of inexpensive xylene isomers enabled the formation of terephthalic acid through the air oxidation of the p-xylene isomer. Du Pont, in 1953, produced polyester fibers from melt spinning, but it was not until the 1970s that these polyester fibers became commercially available. John Travolta and Karen Lynn Gorney in the 1970s hit film Saturday Night Fever. Polyester was a popular fabric used in clothing in the 1970s. In 2000 about 3,900 million pounds of polyester fiber were used in the United States, making it the largest single fiber group material. As with nylon, polyester fibers are comparable to and/or surpass common natural fibers such as cotton and wool in heat stability, wash-and-wear properties, and wrinkle resistance. Textiles blended from polyester, cotton, and wool (in varying combinations) can also be made to be permanent press and wrinkle resistant. The fibers are typically formed from melt or solvent spinning. Chemical and physical modification can generate fibers of differing fiber appearances from the same basic fiber material. Self-crimping textiles are made by combining materials that have differing shrinkage properties. Different shaped dyes produce materials with varying contours and properties, including hollow fibers. Along with the famous polyester suits and slacks, polyester fibers are widely used in undergarments, permanent press shirts, tire cord, and felts. Because the ease of processing and fabricating polyesters is related to the number of methylene groups (-CH 2 -) in the repeat units, scientists turned to the use of diols with additional methylene units. Whereas PET is difficult to mold because of its high melting point, Tm 240 ° C, poly(butylene terephthalate), or PBT, because of its two additional methylene units in the diol-derived portion, is lower melting with a Tg of about 170 ° C. PET also crystallizes relatively slowly, so extra care must be exercised to insure that PET molded products become fully crystallized. Otherwise, the partially crystallized portions will be preferred sites for cracking, crazing, shrinkage, and so on. By comparison, PBT melts at a lower temperature (as noted above), crystallizes more rapidly, and is often employed as a molding compound. PBT has properties that represent a balance between those of nylons and acetals. It is characterized by low moisture absorption, good fatigue resistance, good solvent resistance, extremely good self-lubrication, and good maintenance of its physical properties even at relatively high use temperatures. Fiber-reinforced PBT molding compound is sold under the trade-name Celanex. Another PBT molding compound was first sold under the trade name Valox. Today, there are many PBT molding compounds available. In 2000 worldwide production of PET was 30 million tons. The manufacture of PET textiles is increasing at 5 percent a year, of PET bottles at 10 percent a year. China produces the most polyesters. PET is now used extensively as bottling material for soft drinks instead of glass because it is shatterproof and lightweight. Carbon dioxide permeability decreases with increasing film thickness and crystalline. Glass has better CO 2 impermeability than PET in these respects. Therefore, to achieve optimal crystalline, partially crystalline PET is employed in the stretch blow molding process, carried out to promote further crystalline formation. It is also used for molded automobile parts. Over 500,000 tons of polyester engineering plastics are produced annually in the United States. Polymers are the origin of polyesters Classification of polymers:- Based on characterstics ,intended use and performances of the finished product, polyesters are divided into three main categories:- Plastics, fibres, elastomers. Plastics are widely variety of polymers-based composite materials which possess appreciable me chanical strength (they have stiff chains at room temperature) and are characterised by plasticity,they can be formed or moulded into useful shapes by application of heat andpressure. Materials which possess plasticity at some stage during their formation are also included in this category. Based on their thermal behaviour, plastics have been subdivided into thermoplatics (that soften and flow on heating) and thermosetting or thermohardening plastics (that set or harden on heating) A fibre is any material whose minimum length is 100 times its average diameter which should be less then .25 mm. fibres are natural (cotton, silk, wool) or artficially prepared long chain polymers with average molecular weight of 15000 or more. Fibre forming materials are characterised by high softening or melting points, a high degree of resistence to chemicals and solvents, high tensile strength and very hight rigidity They however undergo irreversible deformation. Elastomers or rubbrs are polyesters characterised by a very high degree of reversible or elastic deformation. They can be stretched to several times their original length but regain their previous shape or dimensions when the streching force is removed. The molecular chains of elastomers can exist in randomly coiled state and their elastic behaviour can be can be compared to that of the spring of a chest expander which uncoils and recoils on application and removal respectively, of an elongated force. The glass-transition temperatures of elastomers are very much below their use temperature. Preparation of polymers:- Bulk polymerization:- a free radical catalyst or initiator is dissolved in the monomer which is then heated and stirred in a suitable vessel. The polymerization n is exothermic and dissipation of heat through cooling ma y be required. As the reaction progresses, the suystem becomes vicious making stirring difficult. The method is economical and the product is of high purity. The technique is used for preapring polyvinyl chloride (PVC) polystyrene (PS) polymethymethacrylate (PMMA). Solution polymerization:- the monomer and catalyst (free radical, cationic and anionic) are dissolved in a suitable inert solvent.  The resulting solution is heated and stirred.  The presence of solvent helps in heat dissipation and in controlling viscosity. The solvent may interact and reduce the molecular wieght of the product whose isolation from the solution is uneconomical unles it is insoluble. The technique is employes where the polymer is to be used in solution form such that as in case of adhesives and surface coatings. Polyacrylonitrile, polyisobutylene and certain block copolymers are produced by this method. Suspension polymerization:- a solution of the catalyst in the monomer is disperse as fine droplets in a n inertsolvent,usually water. To stabilize the suspension, water soluble protective colloids such as polyvinyl alcohol, methyl cellulose or scratch are added and the mixture is kept stirring continuously. The problems of heat dissipation and viscosity increase are absent. The method gives a fairly high molecular weight product in the form of easily separable beads that can be filtered or centrifuged and water washed to remove the protective colloids. The technique is employed for the production of pvc,ps and styrene divinylbenzene copolymer(used for making ion-exchange resins)Emulsion polymerisation:- the particle size of the monomer is reduced to colloidal dimensions by more vigrous stirring and use of synthetic surfactants(aninoic,cationic or non-ionic)in place of protective colloids used in suspension polymerisation.usually water soluble catalysts such as persulphate, hydrogen p eroxide are used.thermal dissipaton and viscosity problems are absent. Both the rate of polymerisation and the molecular weight of the product formed are very high. The product which is in the form of fine particles dispersed in water (called latex) can be used directly as adhesive or an emulsion paint, or it can be isolated by coagulating with an electrolyte. The technique is employed for the industrial production of PVC, PCP, polybutadiene, polyacrylates, polymetyl methacrylate. Melt polycondensation:- The reactants are heated together in exact stochiometry above the melting point of the product, at which temperature the starting materials and product must be thermally stable. Oxygen has to be excluded form the reaction chamber to avoid oxidation at high temperature. Increase in viscosity makes removal of the by-product extremely difficult towards the end (unless high vacuum is applied) which may prevent formation of high molecular weight product. The molten polymer is usually sent directly forspinning, extrision etc. The technique is usually applied for the preparation of polyesters and polyamides. Interfacial polymerization:- The reaction takes place at the interface of between solutions of the recatants in immiscible solvents. increasing the interface by thorough agitation of two solutions substantially the rate of polymerisation. Exact stochiometry is not necessary and a high molecular weight product can be easily formed. Being very simple the method is widely used for the production of polyamides, polyesters, polyurethanes, polysulphonamides. Difference in the reactivity of materials can be utilized to prepare ordered copolymers which otherwise are very difficult to produce. The technique is however limited to reactants having highly reactive functional groups that can readily react at the ambient temperatures. Testing and characterization of polymers:- Testing and characterization of polymeric materials is essential for determining their suitability for a Particular application. The manufactures and processors and need it for quality control such as maintaining product uniformity and for accessing the performance of new material in relation to the existing ones. processors and users wanting to better understand the polymeric behaviors. Under various conditions are naturally interested in knowing their chemical nature. Polymeric materials are very complex in nature. their high molecular weights in homogeneity and their chemical inertness often present difficulties in their identification which therefore requires specific techniques and the use of advanced methods of analysis. The problem of characterstic is further complicated by the market availability of an extermely wide range of materials and the presence of compounding materials such as plastic stablizers and filers (which change the physical propeties of the product) and thus Complete identification of polymeric materials may not always be possible. It is howevere possible to make a positive identification as to the class of polymers (polyeolefine, polyesters, polyamine) to which a given sample belongs. By carrying out some simple test and correlating their results: Application of these tests to the identification of to common polymeric materials is described as:- Physical test:- Physical examination of polymeric materials includes the observation of their color,,solubility,density etc Floatation test:- The test is based on Archimedes principal from which it follows that a material will flow in liquid of same or high density . Combustion test:-holding the pair of tweezers or tongs insert a small piece of the sample into flame of Bunsen burner and ob serve the ease of ignition, flammability of the sample in and out of flame Ph paper test:-take a small amount of powdered sample in a paralysis or ignition tube and place at its open end a piece of moist ph paper holding tube with a clip heat it with Bunsen burner at low heat.

Looking At Internet Crimes Against Children Media Essay

Looking At Internet Crimes Against Children Media Essay The internet is a fundamental resource that provides adults and children with opportunities for learning, entertainment and communication. But how hard is it to use the internet? Any child that is old enough to find a letter on a keyboard can access the World Wide Web. New technologies provide number of ways to communicate, and youth of today have mastered those techniques. The world of computers and internet is constantly expanding and changing, and it is not unusual if a child might know more about some software or website than a parent. But, the truth is that a child does not know that one of these technologies might have a negative impact on his/her moral values and behavior. As great of a resource as internet is, sometimes it might be used for illegal activities such as sexual exploitation, harassment, and pornography. The sad thing is that the victims of these activities are mostly children. Thats why in this research paper, I am going to focus on internet crimes against children, measures that should be taken to prevent these crimes, and punishment for those who commit them. Pornography and Children as a Target First of all, how often are children exposed to sexually explicit material on the internet? Unfortunately, any child that has access to the internet may come in contact with sexually explicit material. They do not even have to know the name of the URL of the website to view pornography on the internet. Most of the youth today are familiar with search engines such as google and yahoo, and it is really simple to type in something that might contain sexually explicit words and get at least ten thousand results in return. The study of adolescents ages fourteen to seventeen has been done, and it shows that most of the children came to exposure to pornographic material accidentally or unintentionally. Sometimes they would get e-mails with links to unknown or unfamiliar websites, and out of curiosity they would click on the link, which brought them to a page that contained pornographic material. Some exposures to the pornographic material are intentional and are done mostly by teens in puberty with the purpose of pleasure. So how often do children view pornographic material on the internet? An online survey was carried out which included 500 students, and 72.8 percent reported that they viewed sexually explicit material on the internet before the age of eighteen. Most children that intentionally viewed pornography in on the web in the past are likely to do it again almost every time they get a chance. This happens when parents are not around, and it even happens in random places that have computers and access to the internet such as public schools and libraries. Impact of Online Pornographic Material on Children It influences the moral values and sexual attitudes of youth. It changes the way children think about sex. They start perceiving sex only as pleasure, not thinking about consequences that might arise such as unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Children that view pornography are more likely to become sexually active earlier that children that do not. One of the ethical issues that arises is questioning if pornography should exist on the web or not, since it obviously has a negative impact on youth. Well, in this case the three of workable ethical theories could be applied to analyze the problem, and decide if having pornographic material on the internet is fair. Lets look at Kantians 2ndFormulation of Categorical Imperative, which states that people should never treat other people as a means to an end. So when a new website is uploaded to the server, people are not forced to view that website. Since no one is forced to do so, it can be said that in this case people are not being used as a means to an end. But, here we are talking about children and youth as victims of being exposed to sexually explicit material on the Web. Well, thats up to the parents to take part and get familiar with activities that their children are doing online. We can also apply Utilitarianism to analyze the issue of pornography on the internet. First of all, we have to consider who benefits and who is being harmed by presence of pornographic material on the Web. Porn industry has great benefits from their websites being available to the people on the internet. For them, it is a way advertising their products and making money as well. There are also a lot of adults who benefit from it because they view it for their pleasure. Children and youth are being harmed by their actions because sexually explicit material influences their moral values and sexual attitudes. In this case its hard to tell if there are more people who benefit then people who are being harmed by presence of pornography on the Web. On the other hand, it is easy to tell that there are greater benefits on pornographic material being on the internet. Utilitarianism does not mean the good of the greatest number, therefore having pornography on the Web is fair. Now lets look at Social Contract Theory, and how it approaches having pornographic material on the internet. Most of the pornography pages now days have their policy listed for users before they can access the page. It has the terms of use, and users have a choice to exit if they have any obligations. At the bottom of any pornography page, there is a warning that urges users to exit the page if they are under the age of eighteen. So this is one of the ways for porn industry to guard themselves against any opposition and illegal activities. Having the warning label, they are following the US law, which gives them legal rights to upload their websites to the server. So according to the Social Contract theory, it is acceptable to have pornography containing material on the internet. Pornography on the internet is not the only issue that arises with easy accessibility to the World Wide Web. Whats more of an issue is that some people are using the Web for sexual exploitation. Online Sexual Exploitation Easy access to the internet has led to increased exposure of children to online sexual exploitation exposure of children to online predators. Most of the children that are victims of online sexual exploitation are under the age of seventeen. A year-long survey has been conducted in 2001, which analyzed 129 Internet-initiated sex crimes. It involved victims age seventeen or younger, and it found that 74 percent of those victims actually met with the predator. What is even more heartbreaking is that 93 percent of those occurred meetings involved sexual contact. Are girls and boys equally exposed to online sexual exploitation? It was assumed that girls are at higher risk and are more likely to fall victims to online sexual exploitation than boys. Well, this turned out to be true confirming that seventy-five percent of victims included in the survey from 2001 were girls. Online Predators Today there are more ways than ever to find a mate, but sometimes search for love can be devastating. When it comes to potential of meeting new mates, nothing compares to the internet. Most of the time, the danger of this modern way of dating can be ignored. There are also situations where people involved in online dating might be in it for love. Well, these people are known to our community as online predators. So where do online predators come from, and is it easy to tell who might be online predator by their physical appearance? Online predators come in different shapes and sizes, and have different expectations from their victims. Social status does not matter when it comes to determining who might a potential online predator. They come from all backgrounds, and are not easily detectable. They might seem like respectable members of the community, which of course can be deceiving to many of us. Who would ever come to thinking that an online predator might be a teacher, fireman, ph ysician, former military personnel or a successful businessman, but the cases of these have been reported. A reality television show To Catch a Predator was featured on NBC, and there was an episode where a high school teacher, caught on hidden cameras, showed up to a meeting, which he thought he arranged with an under aged girl. There was no under aged involved, instead police officer was posing as a thirteen year old. He was caught and trialed thanks to the effort of the police and enough evidence collected by hidden cameras. There was also one case were a former military officer was involved in online sexual exploitation. He was also caught and sentenced to serve time in jail. Most of the time when online predators get caught; they are publically humiliated and sentenced to prison time. The prison time depends on the severity of the case, and it ranges from two to twelve years. Some predators were just placed on probations because they did not make sexual contact with their victims, but did set up the meeting which they never showed up to. They were also ordered to pay a big fine. Bullying and Harassment on the Internet Communication technologies such as social-networking websites like MySpace and Facebook have led to rapid growth of teens harassing their peers. In 2005, a survey was conducted, and it has been found that almost thirty percent of youth have harassed their peers via the internet. Seventeen percent of those have harassed the others multiple number of times. The survey was also done with the purpose to show the incidence of children being bullied on cyberspace. It showed that thirty-two percent of 900 teens under the age of seventeen have been harassed when using MySpace, Facebook or instant messaging. What is heartbreaking is that cyber-bullying may lead to a tragic end sometimes. A 13 year old girl committed suicide after being cyber-bullied by her neighbor who pretended to be a teenage boy. It turned out that he was an adult, and of course he had to pay for his actions. Measures Parents are taking to prevent Their Children from Internet Crimes Although kids feel like they are aware of dangers of using the internet, in reality, they are naive when it comes to online communications. The following are measures that parents should take to prevent their children from becoming a victim. Parents need to become familiar with their childrens online activities. There is software that comes with Windows 7 and Windows Vista, or that can be downloaded for free such as Windows Live Family Safety Setting. Most of the social-networking sites have policies that require users to be thirteen years or older. If a child is not old enough to fulfill that requirement, parents should not let them use it. Some parents educate their kids about the dangers of online chatting, and set certain expectations from their children. Many parents are taking part in becoming familiar with who their kids talk to when they use chat rooms. They are also educating their children to stay in public areas of chat room since many chat rooms allow for one on one commu nication in chat rooms private area. Parents are also encouraged to keep their computers in most common areas of the house so that they can monitor their kids when theyre online. Since there are potential risks of email, many parents are setting up family emails, which their kids can use as well. This is one of the ways to protect their kids from being exposed to pornographic material contained in emails. They also urge their kids not to open any unknown emails reducing the risk of internet related crimes. Some also have passwords to their childrens social networking sites, which enables them to check the messages. There are options which allow parents to use parental controls, and other setting and preferences. Another way of monitoring that same parents use are is spy software. A Spybot by Brickhouse Security was advertised on CNN, which enables parents to monitor everything their children do on the internet. Its easy to install, undetectable, and the kids will never know its there. Internet Crimes against Children and Law Enforcement The expansion of the computers and internet has played a major role in sex crimes being committed against children and youth. The new communication technologies created new challenges for Law Enforcement to come up with new investigation techniques, and handle the crimes done on internet. The federal government has increased funding in the effort to prevent internet related crimes. They created Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which supports state and local law enforcement agencies in fight against internet crimes. Internet crimes are divided into three categories. Internet Crimes Against Identified Victims, which involves production of child pornography and other internet related crimes committed against identified victims. Then there Internet Crimes Against Unidentified Victims, which involves undercover law enforcement posing as minors in chat rooms. And the third category of internet crimes deals with offenders who are involved in possession, trade or distribution of Internet Child Pornography not using the internet to sexually exploit identified victims or solicit undercover investigators. Most of the arrests are made against offenders who commit crimes against identified victims. Sixty-seven percent of the arrests involved offenders who possessed child pornography. Eighty-three percent had images of children mostly ages 6 to 12, and 80 percent of those images showed sexual contact between minors and adults. Majority of offenders were non-Hispanic white males over 25 years of age. Eighty-five percent of arrests involved state, local or county law enforcement agencies, 46 percent had agencies operating on federal level. Moral Question Related to Online Predators and Law Enforcement Is it ok for Law Enforcement Agencies to set up traps in which online predators can fall into? According to all three workable ethical theories, it is ok for law enforcement to pose as minors in order to catch a predator. Minors are being used as a means to an end since predators introduce themselves as cute teenage boys. Minors do not benefit from these kinds of actions, and they get to live with the fact that they were sexually abused by an adult. On the other hand, predators get pleasure from these actions. So there is greater bad than good in it. Social Contract Theory approves actions of law enforcement because they are dealing with someone who shows up to the meeting ad forces a minor into something that they do not want to do. As we could see, Internet use has become widespread. Some use with the purpose of sexual exploitation of children and distribution of child pornography, while some use it to harass their peers. These kinds of activities have created concerns among parents, lawmakers, educators and law enforcement agencies. Parents have taken part in educating their children about dangers of internet crimes. Despite all these measures, internet crimes against children are still present, and law enforcement agencies are operating on local, state and federal levels to catch those committing these crimes, and preventing internet related crimes from happening as well.