Louis XIV: his domestic and foreign policies Essay

Louis XIV strove vigorously for supremacy in foreign affairs. He was to use his foreign policy to establish a universal monarchy for himself or alternatively to use it to secure natural frontiers for France thus improving its defenses. He worked successfully to create an absolutist and centralized state. During his reign Louis was involved in four major wars, some of which Louis may be accountable as the provocateur; however, I believe that mainly his motives were purely defensive. The war of Devolution served as a pretext which nettled him part of Flanders, although the Dutch then moved against him with the Triple Alliance. Louis was determined to crush Holland and this began the third of the Dutch wars, which depleted his treasury. Louis proved an incredibly extravagant spender, dispensing huge sums of money to finance the royal court. The following ten years the king limited his policies to diplomacy. Louis continued the nobility’s exemption from taxes but forced its member into financial dependence to the crown and the provincial nobles also lost political power. Louis does have a genuine concern for his country and despite his dubious methods he does manage to secure the territories that he wishes to secure. He curtailed local authorities and created specialized ministries. Louis’s grandson retained the Spanish throne but the war of Spanish Succession left France in great debt and a weakened military. Louis used the bourgeoisie to build his centralized bureaucracy. He illustrated new administrative methods to make him more in control. Louis’s general Colbert worked to improve the French economy. Colbert worked to create a favorable balance of trade and increase France’s colonial holdings. He achieved a reputation for his work of improving the state of French manufacturing and bringing the economy back from the brink of bankruptcy. He reduced the national debt through more efficient taxation. His principal taxation devices included the aides, the douanes, the gabelle, and the taille. Louis spent so much money on luxury and wars; France actually became increasingly impoverished. The aggressive and opportunistic implementation of Louis’s policies understandably persuaded those threatened by it that the king’s intention was expansionist and his intentions unlimited. There had been acts of gratuitous violence as well which underlined the arrogance and ruthlessness of French conduct. In conclusion it seems that by the end of his reign the wars had placed him in a strong and secure position in Europe yet his intention was not entirely  for glory.

Eastern Foods Essay

Introduction You need to do the same research and prepare before open a new restaurant. As a member of UK planning team, I need to provide a report about the challenges facing Eastern Foods in next few months, which is very important thing for starting your business. AS the saying goes, everything is hard in the beginning, to open a new restaurant, it will certainly encounter problem. For example, there is no way to attract customers at a loss or gain customers but no profits which lead restaurant have a normal business. Furthermoreï ¼Å'complaint due to food safety issues. Next, recruitment and post-training. For a manager, it is also essential psychological qualitiesï ¼Å'and can clarify the problem & make logical decisions and take the initiative & respond flexibly to change situations. Hence, writing a report can help you know that what issues you will meet and let you can do psychological preparation. The challenges  HRM Human resource management (HRM, or simply HR) is the management process of an organization’s workforce, or human resources. It is responsible for the attraction, selection, training, assessment, and rewarding of employees, while also overseeing organizational leadership and culture and ensuring compliance with employment and labor laws. (WIKIPEDIA, 2014) Thus, developing Eastern Foods which need the HR department must prepare in advance and qualified candidates to start. We need make a plan to attract people join us, and we will face the choice of employees that what we need employees, managers, chef and waiter or other to do and they must meet our satisfactions. Whether the recruitment of employees and compliance with labour laws and the principles of justice. Organization is not a simple tree, pulp, machinery or inventory. Human resources management involves the application of management functions and principles. Its function is applied to the recruitment, mining, maintenance, and reward employees. The staff’s decision must be adjusted. On different aspects of the decision-making of employees, it must compete with other human resources (HR). Decisions will certainly affect the validity of a restaurant. The effectiveness of an organization must lead to improved services to customers at a reasonable cost to provide in the form of high-quality products. Accounting Accounting will directly affect the financial restaurant, a clear accounts will undoubtedly bring many convenient restaurants. The results reflect the elements of corporate accounting. 1. Revenue Income is an enterprise formed in daily activities, which will lead to an increase in owner’s equity and the total inflow of capital has nothing to do with the economic interests of the owner of inputs. 2. Costs Cost refers to an enterprise in their daily activities, which will lead to decrease in owner’s equity, and profit has nothing to do with the distribution of the total outflow of economic benefits to the owner. 3 Profit Profit is an enterprise in a certain accounting period operating results. Net income includes profit after subtracting expenses, gains and losses directly recognized in current profit and so on. Directly included in the current profit gains (Gain) or loss (Loss), which shall be included in profit or loss that refers to will lead to changes in the occurrence of changes in owners’ equity, and the owner of the invested capital or profits unrelated to the owner or the distribution of profits loss. Marketing Marketing is an important part of business operations and includes a number of different activities. Marketing is now seen as essential to the success not only of manufactures, retailers, and other businesses but also of government agencies, hospitals, law offices, schools, and churches. (James Burrow, 2008). We need to do some research before open a new restaurant. The first aim of marketing is to create customers, acquire and maintain customers; To consider how to effectively compete head to defeat invincible from a long-term perspective; Focusing on market research, collecting and analysing large amounts of information under the change of environment and market, and the only way has to make the right decisions in different cases; such as Active promoting innovation, which is proportional to the degree and effect; Conducted in a changing decisions, which requires its makers have a strong ability like entrepreneurs insight, discernment and decisiveness.  Henceï ¼Å'We need to consider how to expand our market to attract customers. Operations Management Everything seemed ready, the restaurant will begin operations management. Operations management is targeted at operational processes and operational systems. Operations management is an investment operation process, convert, process output.it also is a labour process or value-added process, which is the first large object operations, operators must consider how to carry out operational activities such as production planning, organization and control. If the operator improper control which easily lead restaurants into a loss situation. Operations Management deals with the design and management of products, processes, services and supply chains.ï ¼Ë†MITSloan managementï ¼Å'2014ï ¼â€° The main objective of enterprise operations management is to control quality, cost, time and flexibility, which is the fundamental source of corporate competitiveness. Therefore, operations management has an important role in the business. Operational departments will face these challenges, and propose specific work goals, developing specific means to achieve goals and approaches, clear goals. Key issue Accounting Accounting is the currency of the main units of measurement, using a range of specialized methods, accounting and supervision of an economic management of a unit of economic activity, which is designed to provide accounting information and economic efficiency. Accounting work is an important guarantee for improving cooperate governance, which requires to have some work experience in professional accounting staff to help managers of restaurants, and can earn more profits for the restaurant. A simple order to load the software onto your computer (see appendix I), or a suitable business accounting software also is very important (see appendix â… ¡). And in the eyes of many, business accounting is the general accounting bookkeeping, accounting reports afterwards and not specifically involved in the management of the business, even if part of the work involved in business management, but also the financial managers who do it. In fact, divided by the statements of accounting methods for other management staff provides company information, directly or indirectly involves in the company of  management. Whether it is cost accounting, reimbursement, billing or accounting, cooperate insiders budget execution and supervision of the first person, from material procurement to sales outstanding, adoption of the budget, compare prices, credit management, indicators and contrast. Accounting oversight fulfill all the functions, which all involved in corporate management. There are two questions to discuss. First, does not pay attention to the overall budget. The budget only stays in budget, completely ignoring the fee budget. Companies are not able to master the use of a comprehensive budget implementation status of strategic objectives, resulting in a waste of corporate finance, food, and human and other resources. Catering enterprises due to lack of effective overall budget, which is not able to adjust business strategy in a timely manner in accordance with market changes. Next, accounts of chaotic management, accounting is not timely. Many food and beverage companies with a breakdown of the property chronological mix of raw materials. For the food and beverage industry is concerned there will be a lot of consumables, and many companies do not have this set up a separate subsidiary ledgers. As the catering business for the accounts do not pay attention, for a serious lack of original documents, certificates and registration does not match the original accounts. Financial accounting irregularities exist very original certificate changes, account card can’t be consistent. Such as consistent account statement, account match the reality, in line account statement. Accounts of accounting is not timely, resulting in a breakdown of the accounts do not match with the total accounts. Marketing That marketing. This post is divided into two types, one is called front-end marketing, the other is called the back-end marketing. Both the role and position are different, qualities and abilities needed to be different. Front-end sales and marketing in order to serve as the core of the sales company, which is responsible for market development and promotion to stimulate customer demand, they did no matter how the product is manufactured, just out of the product promotion. Of course, a good front-end marketing staff will promptly to customer WHO needs feedback to the back-end marketing AND go to help understand the various back-end marketing target market dynamics and customer needs. The back-end marketing, research and  development in manufacturing as the core segment, the pre-market survey is responsible for product definition and development, which is to understand the market, understand the competition, understand target customers, and according to the market, customers and co mpetition to complete the new product Definition – a complete description of the product-specific documentation. All aspects of the catering business activities are inseparable from the consumers , constantly studying and changing consumer demand , while consumer demand to develop and deliver the food to adapt products to meet consumer demand which has become a synonym for catering business large operators how to treat customers, employees continue to instill the concept of the right customers ; small staff of each service , customer preferences are all trying to figure out to do market positioning , we must figure out who is your target customer and What are their characteristics, such as income, spending habits, . Then we develop targeted promotion. Do not blind pursuit of high profits, location, price, and features which are not unified, and cost less than consumer expectations, completely ignoring consumer psychology and consumer needs of the guests. Not with changes in market conditions and the relative adjusted so that the food does not adequately reflect the variety of price point factor in the difference in price, guests can’t adapt to the different needs of consumer motivation. In today’s technologically advanced world, such as the Internet, wechat, facebook, buy, review sites, etc. These fashion marketing, restaurant operators are embodied acclimatized. Which always wanted a simple way to accomplish more complex thing. Bosses nothing wrong result, and one-sided emphasis on the results without knowing basically failed process. Restaurant carrying out marketing activities in the process, there will be adverse environmental factors leading to damage or failure, so you must know how to transform strain markets, strengthen research marketing environment, the establishment of risk prevention and treatment agencies, face risk head-on, and improve the quality of restaurant employees. Conclusion The restaurant industry is extremely competitive. It’s difficult to be and stand out amongst the hundreds, if not thousands, of other restaurants in your local area; whether it’s the food, customer service or brand, customers will consistently critique your restaurant and even the smallest error could stir up a storm. (Sammy Jo, 2013) Opening new restaurants, will face many challenges, first, to choose a good location which can bring more customers, and also make it easier for customers to remember your restaurant, then the product positioning, elect their own signature dishes can be customized with the positioning of the menu. Then, it can be renovated, rising consumer demand of customers, store environment position in restaurants has become increasingly high, a good environment, and sometimes can be a key factor in the success of the restaurant. This comes into play when the external environment. The human resources department is responsible for hiring, and training employees on the audit. Then for the restaurant staff to begin custom equipment, such as kitchen equipment, customer use chopsticks, etc, which is the soul of a leader, and the organization is a corporate body. Organizational strategy is to create and run a business which is not only an internal team competition THAT needs external lateral and vertical industry chain to support the organization’s business, because the strategy is implemented by the organization. Excellent organizational strategy, first set aggressive strategies and goals, and implementation strategies needed to build possess excellent organizational effectiveness of the implementation of the system, and continue to temper their own sustainable development, building efficient enterprises to continue to promote a positive goal. Restaurant management also needs leaders who will link together the various departments, and less any one department will lead to failure, therefore, whether it is accounting, marketing, human resource management or operational management which will even encounter different challenges that we must face yes, because they are an essential part of the restaurant. Reference 1. Sammy Jo. 2013 Challenges of Operating a Restaurant. LERA BLOG. Weblog [Online] 24/07. Available from: http://lerablog.org/business/management/challenges-of-operating-a-restaurant/ [Accessed 24th March 2014] 2. WIKIPEDIA, (2014) Human resource management. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_resource_management [Accessed 24th March 2014] 3. James Burrow, (2008) Marketing. 4. MITSloan managementï ¼Å'ï ¼Ë†2014ï ¼â€°What is operations managementï ¼Å¸. Available at: http://mitsloan.mit.edu/omg/om-definition.php [Accessed 26th March 2014] Appendix I Source: www.brothersoft.com â… ¡ Sourceï ¼Å¡www.businessoftware.com

Discuss Thomas Paine's THE RIGHTS OF MAN as a product of its time Essay

Discuss Thomas Paine's THE RIGHTS OF MAN as a product of its time - Essay Example But in 1793, he was imprisoned in France for not supporting the execution of the French King, Louis XVI. While being imprisoned, he wrote the Age of Reason, an anti-church work, and very narrowly escaped execution due to efforts of US Minister James Munroe and later went to America on an invitation from Thomas Jefferson where he died a rather disillusioned man in 1809. Thomas Paine was undoubtedly one of the most intellectual products of his time. His time was dominated by the French Revolution, the most important and horrifying event in Europe. While completely supporting the French Revolution, Paine was against the total anarchy, lawlessness and brutality that the revolution unleashed in the name of liberty. He could not bring himself to support the terrible execution of the monarch and was unhappy about the pointless murders and humility of noble families. Even modern thinkers of the time, who had supported the Revolution, could not celebrate the unending rule of terror that eliminated a large number of guiltless and wiped out great scientists like Lavoisier â€Å"Every generation is, and must be, competent to all the purposes which its occasions require. It is the living, and not the dead, that are to be accommodated. When man ceases to be, his power and his wants cease with him; and having no longer any participation in the concerns of this world, he has no longer any authority in directing who shall be its governors, or how its government shall be organized, or how administered1† He was very conscious of the changing needs of people and societies. He always emphasized that the needs have to change according to times, needs could not be stagnant and old principles could not apply to new surroundings. Men can only take the old times as guidance wherever applicable, but they definitely cannot replicate old times to suit the new ones. In that context, again he argues: â€Å"The circumstances of the world are

Local ownership a dilemma in peace building Essay

Local ownership a dilemma in peace building - Essay Example Local ownership as far as the peace building is concerned refers to the degree of involvement of the domestic actors in formulation and implementation of a political process. In addition to local ownership issues, the Afghanistan state has remained crippled due to rampant corruption, emboldened insurgency and political disunity. The citizens have already grown tired of having international bodies present and demand the return of ownership of policies to their state. However, there is great tension that chaos might reemerge once the international communities hand over the local ownership to the Afghanistan citizens. The paper gives a analyses the dilemma that faces the local ownership especially in the Afghanistan state. The citizens of Afghanistan began opposing the idea of local ownership after making several findings about the local ownership process, according to the Afghanistan case study. The case study shows that local ownership process in Afghanistan is subject to both practical and structural problems. Practical problems identified by the case study include mutual mistrust, dependence on external forces and lack of capacity among others. Structural problems identified include moral superiority and problem of the independence in the state. Primarily, the findings show that the local ownership process in Afghanistan was not feasible because there was mutual mistrust and suspicions between the various actors involved in the peace-making process. This deepened the tension amongst the citizens. They no longer trusted each other and thus making it difficult to have a common political leadership that all the citizens and the actors, both local and international would agree to. Despite the local and international actors having a common goal of intervention, differences arose over what a sound end state capable of sustainable peace appears like and how to attain it. The various actors could not agree due to mistrust. Another factor that made the local

In the Hospitality Industry Job Satisfaction Is Critical to Service Research Paper

In the Hospitality Industry Job Satisfaction Is Critical to Service Efficiency - Research Paper Example Societal norms are changing where loyalty is no more considered an important criterion (Gustafson, 2002). Managers are faced with the challenge to retain current employees and position themselves in a way to attract talent. The situation is challenging because the staff is unskilled and untrained. If the organization invests in their training, employees switch to better-paying jobs and this translates into fresh recruitment and training costs. Without training, the employees do not find the work meaningful and hence results in poor job satisfaction and low organizational commitment. Job redesigning, better communication between the staff and the managers, a stable work environment, sense of belonging, recognition, flexible working hours, mentorship, groups tasks, shorter working hours and compensation programs can help to increase the level of job satisfaction and increase organizational commitment. Locke (1976) has defined job satisfaction as a pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's job or job experience (cited by Lee, 2000). Job satisfaction is directly related to motivation, role clarity and organizational commitment. Organizational commitment relates to an attachment to the organization while job satisfaction is concerned with the task environment where the employee performs his duties. An extensive study conducted by Woods and Macaulay in 1989 to try and determine the reasons for high turnover in the hospitality industry revealed eight frequently cited reasons – quality of supervision, ineffective communication, working conditions, quality of co-workers, inability to ‘fit’ with the organizational culture, low pay and few benefits, lack of clear definition of responsibilities, no direction at work (cited by Gustafson).

The impact of financial crisis on five USA companies Essay

The impact of financial crisis on five USA companies - Essay Example However, subprime mortgage loans given to individuals with less than perfect loan carrying capacity and declining home prices coupled with structural changes in the United States economy that had built up a huge deficit in trading with the rest of the world caused the bubble to burst. This left many with write-offs worth many billions and assets whose real value had declined substantially. Because the mortgages converted into mortgage-based securities sold to many around the world, the financial crisis turned global. Businesses now faced a changed business environment, uncertainty and problems raising funds. This dissertation examines the impact of the financial crisis of 2007 – 2009 on selected businesses headquartered in the United States of America. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the years 2008 – 2009 presented the world with the deepest global recession since the great depression and the most important of all reasons for this economic downturn was a global financial crisis (Berlatsky, 2010, Pp. 16 – 20). In an interlinked world, economic problems in one country were bound to have an impact on the others to threaten global financial stability. According to the previously mentioned author, prominent economists suggest that the United States economy that had been the envy of the world for many years now carried mountains of debt that endangered prosperity and the global economy. A desire on the part of Americans to own their homes had resulted in a massive increase in home prices in the United States of America and irresponsible lending at low rates of interest to many who were bad credit risks created a bubble involving rapidly increasing home prices that were to later collapse. In a market wit h collapsed property values, banks could no longer readily recover the amounts loaned to bad credit risks. Because many banks were involved in arrangements involving credit default swaps, the financial strains were to result in the collapse of

Organization details Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Organization details - Essay Example This study finds complaints and criticisms that Wal-Mart has failed in its accountability to workers, but not to its stockholders. He conclusion drawn in this study is it is best to satisfy employees, because motivated employees will go an extra mile for the company. This would mean more productivity that will give Wal-Mart a good return in profits. This paper focuses at the organizational structure of one of the biggest retail store in the United States, the Wal-Mart. This store has been ranked by Forbes Global 200 list as the world’s 18th largest corporation.( http://www.forbes.com/companies/wal-mart-stores/) Wal-Mart is a global company selling goods in 15 countries and has 8,500 stores of 55 different names. This company makes an interesting study of an organizational culture that has to adopt a system under a global atmosphere that employs 2.2 million people. This study attempts to find out whether the store has been effective, efficient and has met the ethical standards and accountability in its operations. Why is an organizational structure important in a company, whether public or private? An organization as incorporated in a theory, is defined as â€Å" assembly of people working together to achieve common objective through a division of labor† ( INC.,2014) . The importance of an organization structure of a company plays significant role in the company, and that there are elements in it that ranks in significance. Hao, Kasper, et. al (2012) found out in their studies that views of importance differ according to ranks and places. For Austrians, structure has an important effect on performance, while Chinese prefers learning innovated innovations. These authors concluded that high –tech industry prefers to have an organizational structure that implements innovations and organizational learning while the labor intensive industry prefers innovation. Overall, the different age ranges of firms affirmed that innovation and learning

Argument of Value Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Argument of Value - Essay Example But, as the movie tries to portray, it never takes itself seriously. All the fun does not get lost owing to the apparent upheavals in the lives of the characters. There is a definitive degree of fresh air in the treatment of the main characters. From the very beginning, the viewer is drawn into the intricacies of the characters, their joys and life. Even in the deepest melancholy, there are streaks of hope and happiness. In that sense, this movie has veered away from the staple comedy movies which lack poignant humor, but cover it up with condescending laughter. The movie exposes the tumultuous underbelly of human emotions with a fine serving of humor. This movie is perched between a razor sharp psychological drama on one hand and comedy on another. The film has a very upbeat title, which suggests the likeliness of having a generic bent towards the creation of a happy atmosphere: that is not very serious. It has all the ingredients of a nice movie, with the creation of sequences that exude positive spirit. A hero who is full of faults, a heroine with very doubtful credentials, the Christmas streets, the snow flaked roads are a constant reminder of the impending festivities. Throw on top of that, a dance competition and a football game, the movie tries to cover all the bases for a happy Hollywood film. ... Robert De Niro has played a delicious role as the father, who is torn among different problems. He runs an illegal gambling racket out of his parlour. He has a very supportive mother, who keeps him company. However, he is supposed to stay away from his wife and has to visit a doctor. All of the characters are obsessed with something in their lives, with sports being a big obsession. There is a tradition of disruptive violence, as the crowd identifies the game with their identity. The father of the hero has been banned from appearing in the matches due to the bouts of rage, which were experienced while viewing the match. One of the central characters in the movie is a young widow called as Tiffany. She is a good looking woman who lives in the garage of her parent’s home. She is preparing for a dancing competition, with the help of the hero. They bond over a dinner and she agrees to help him reunite him with his wife. The strength of the film lies in the differential treatment b eing given to the generic comic situations. Although, there is a lot of pain in the lives of the characters, there is sense of joy that runs throughout the fabric of the film. There are a number of scenes that would be very difficult even in real lives, but the handling of the situations has rendered the scenes funny. Some of the examples of such scenes; as the fighting in the diner that spreads onto the street: and also among the crowd wearing the Halloween dress. The film goes over the edge at times, but never fails to maintain the humorous simplicity in the storyline. The narrative is contextual and also very relevant due to the essential foresight being provided into the human heart. The design of the story has been calibrated with a lot of alacrity, so as to incite the maximum level of

Complete Training Program Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Complete Training Program - Assignment Example In a hotel environment, there are lots of issues taking place. However, after working the whole day in offices hence they require a lively class so that they do not fall victims. During class hours it is important to resort to interactive and experimental programs so that all the students would grab a little. In order for the program to be successfully completed with effective results, the program should run for six months being that the course is being conducted on the part-time basis. However, this will allow the student to fully complete both theory and practical tests to ascertain their competency in the lucrative field in the Hotel industry. Each and every student taking the course will have to submit a series of theory and practical assignments which will cater for 30% of the final examination at the end of the course. However, this does not mean that the students must dedicate all their efforts towards exams, but through their daily work performance to they will be able to earn points. This affirms that the training is not meant to equip the students with skills to pass the examination but also the ability to confidently work in any given situation with minimum superb vision. To ascertain that the course is well covered, I will not only look at the examination results but also the courage and confidence in the daily work, personal etiquette and customer service criterion among others. Being that learning is a process, I will include unplanned continuous assessment tests which do not require bookwork so that the real picture and efforts in mastering the study topics would be affirmed. First and foremost, learning after work is really tiresome especially in the food industry where there is hardly any rest till evening.

Recommendation to purchase Southwest Airlines Research Paper

Recommendation to purchase Southwest Airlines - Research Paper Example It is not long ago in 2002, when United Airlines, in the wake of the downturn resulting from the September 11 attacks, was forced to file for bankruptcy. Further, American airlines is operating currently with over $18 billion debt in its balance sheets. During the concluding financial year, the three biggest airlines in the United States have posted combined losses to the tune of $15 billion. This is huge considering the millions of money belonging to shareholders, which is at stake (Kevin Freiberg, 2006). In contrast, Southwest airlines have earned a profit of $178 million in 2008, although this figure is substantially less in comparison to the preceding year (decline by 72.4%). As such, the airline happens to be one of the few airlines to post a profit despite the problems being faced in the sector. this puts its profit at a much larger margin than the performances of all the other airlines put together. In terms of passenger traffic, the airline boarded more than $88 million passengers, a figure which has not been surpassed by any other airline, as per the figures from the Department of Transportation. However, it must be pointed out that Southwest is still placed 7th in terms of revenue with close to $11 billion in 2008 (Charles OReilly, 2005). When considered in tersm of its fleet size, southwest emerges the front runner and is capable to carry more passengers especially when including even its overseas routes. All along, especially since the period after the terrorist attacks in 2001, industry analysts have been constantly questioning whether Southwest would be in a position to maintain its upward trajectory. However, it must be recognized that despite the recent decline in sales, Southwest is among the very few airlines that has posted a profit when other carriers are experiencing both decline in sales as well as passenger volumes (Kevin Freiberg, 2006). It is therefore no surprise that Southwest has time and again managed to be included in

Inclusive Education Essay Example for Free

Inclusive Education Essay The management of inclusion is a source of enormous challenge to many schools across the globe. Developed countries in particular are faced with the mounting challenge of ensuring that every child is educated up to adequate standards (Ainscow 1995). Similarly, families that have children with special needs are seeking institutions that can provide their children with the standard level of education received by other children. Educational Institutions are also in a similar boat, continually faced with the mounting challenge of accepting and responding to the diversity that each child brings to the classroom. While many definitions of inclusion are pervasive, it remains widely accepted that the notion of inclusion involves welcoming and encouraging diversity amongst all learners. Inclusive education can be viewed from different perspectives. Different educational settings and social communities have differing perceptions of what it means. Most literature however start with the general notion that education is a basic human right that forms the foundation of every just and fair society. However, the basic elements of its meaning can be categorized into four. Ainscow (2005) suggests the first element involves seeing inclusion as a process – a continuous process that analyzes and recommends improved ways of responding to diversity by accepting and learning from peoples’ differences. Every one’s difference is seen as an asset which can be used to ensure learning takes place under varied and flexible circumstances. Ainscow (2005) also refers to the second element of inclusion as identifying and removing barriers. The teachers or managers of the inclusion process should be actively involved in collecting, analyzing and managing information from diverse sources which can be applied to policy refinements and modifications. The third element is centered on enforcing active participation and goal achievement for each student. The fourth element highlighted by Ainscow (2005) is the need for teachers or those in charge of learning to place an increased emphasis on those who are at greater risk of being marginalized or who are less able to benefit from the current modes and aspects of learning. In summary, Ainscow (2005) suggests that the practices that are pervasive in most organizations today is a reflection of present culture and norms. Learners may be impeded from learning optimally under certain conditions due to over learned behaviour imposed by social institutions and their thinking patterns. Consequently, Ainscow (1999) suggests that the development of inclusive practices should focus on reforming the way actors think in order to be able to realize the full potential of inclusive education and make its practice more reinforced in schools across the world. Armstrong (2003) describes inclusion as a set of principles, values and practices that are executed to initiate a revolution of education systems and communities.   It seeks to challenge thinking that is conditioned to assume that certain pupils need to be dealt with in a particular way (Armstrong 2003). According to (CSIE 2010) Inclusive education has a long history but centers on the need for equality and human rights. It is based on a moral perspective that values and respects every person while welcoming diversity. Schools are becoming more open to people of different abilities, backgrounds, ethnic and cultural histories. Consequently, there’s an extensive need for schools to fend for different learners. According to CSIE (2010), inclusion in education has a large number of connotations and the basic ones include:  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The need for schools to value everyone including staff and students equally.  · The participation of all students in cultures and learning communities, while reducing barriers to their learning and the inclusion of students, even though categorized as having special educational needs  · Revamping school’s practices and policies so that they are responsive to the variety of students within the region  · Learning from attempts at inclusive education and implementing the changes more widely  · Acknowledging the basic right of every child to a fair education and recognizing that inclusion in education is paramount to inclusion in society.  · Emphasizing the role of schools in community development, sustaining relationships and adjusting the resources of the schools to support learning. According to CSIE (2010), the world is changing and stereotypical thinking needs to be nipped in the bud. Valuing some people over others is deemed unethical; people should not be prevented from participating in culture and curricula and neither should segregated schooling be used for children with special needs since it violates their right to education without any form of discrimination (Ainscow 1994). Academic achievements should not be the sole aim of schooling there is also the moral and personal development that every child should have a right to. Also, isolating schools and communities from each other deprives students of rich and multifaceted experiences that can enhance their learning. The right to an inclusive education is in Article 24 (Education) of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (2006). Even though the idea of inclusive education is generally accepted, some schools have reservations to it and claim that they do not have the resources to cater for all categories of children. It is unclear whether this problem is persistent due to funding, personal reservations or a lack of resources. In addition, inclusive education can be seen as an educational practice that emphasizes that students who can learn normally, without any learning inhibitions, spend time with those who have special educational needs which may be of any form. This type of inclusion emphasizes the child’s right to participate while schools are also inclined to accept the child as they would any other normal child. This principle rejects the use of special, isolated classrooms and learning environments for students with disabilities. The social, civil and participatory rights of students are emphasized and form the heart of any inclusive education strategy. It is a collective form of education in which all types of children can sit and learn together and it proposes the need to emphasize diverse learning approaches to handling children with varying educations and academic limits. With inclusive education, children who were previously excluded may now spend time with other children, which would not have been possible earlier. The use of segregated schooling is however still pervasive and one must bear in mind that Inclusive education does not apply only to disabled children but to everyone (CSIE 2010). The Benefits of Inclusive Education There are a number of ways to analyze the benefits of inclusive education. This section will start off by examining the benefits to disabled children. There are many aspects to inclusive education that can benefit disabled children as well as the normal children. Children with special needs would have the chance to learn in the same environment as normal children; they are thus subjected to the same learning environment and resources which will on the long run, ensure that they also have the opportunity to learn at the same pace as the normal children. Inclusive education may also nip in the bud, future psychological problems that a child may have when they eventually become aware that they have special needs. Inclusive education helps them to mix with other children thereby reducing possible issues of inferiority complex that may arise in the future. With inclusive education, schools can become flexible to adapting to the needs of the children, and not the other way round. The differences between the students can also serve as a means of achieving diversity and variety – the educational facilities and teachers would then have to develop unique responses to deal with each child (Ainscow 1999). In terms of society, the benefits are multi-fold. Inclusive education can help in forming stronger links between schools and communities. This on the long run will lead to stronger societies, partnering, consolidation and the forging of self respect for every individual in the society.   For developing countries, the benefits are extensive. Education is one of the hallmarks of any progressive society and as such should not be taken lightly. Inclusive education would give every child the right to fair education and a chance of a bright future. Inclusive education should be central to the educational polcies of any country claiming to be democratic. When countries embrace this ideal, it promotes a culture of fairness, comraderie and may nip societal ills such as racism and discrimination in the bud.

Use Of Intelligent Agents In E Commerce Information Technology Essay

Use Of Intelligent Agents In E Commerce Information Technology Essay Software agents can be defined as semi-autonomous software entities which support individuals cope with the complexities when working in a distributed information environment. This paper describes how these intelligent agents involved in e-commerce transactions. 1. Introduction In recent years the World Wide Web has become largest market place due to its exponential growth enabled extensive progress in new information society functions such as electronic commerce. Electronic commerce, known as e-commerce, is a type of industry where buying and selling of product or service over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks.[1] Simply e-commerce is buying and selling over the internet medium. Electronic commerce involves business to business (B2B), business to customer (B2C) and customer to customer (C2C) transactions. It covers a wide variety of issues including security, trust, reputation, law, payment mechanisms, advertising, ontologies, electronic product catalogs, intermediaries, multimedia shopping experiences, and back office management. Agent technologies can be applied to any of these areas in e- commerce.[2] 2. Intelligent Agents According to IDMs definition intelligent agents are software programs that carry out some set of tasks on behalf of a user or another program with some degree of independence. So doing, gain some knowledge or representation of the users desires. According to Meas definition software agents are computer programs that run in the background and perform tasks autonomously. Software agents are becoming an important part of these Modern information systems because they diminish the complexity, and they achieve this technically and psychologically. Technically, each agent provides a locus of intelligence for managing a subset of the information in the system, either on its own initiative or under the direction of a user. Each intelligent agent can be readily replicated and then distributed as needed. This agent-based approach to information management is both scalable and cost-effective. Psychologically, people need abstractions by which they can understand, manage, and use complex systems effectively. A natural and convenient abstraction appears to be one based on humanizing the information system components that is, treating the components as animate. In this abstraction, software components are like human agents. The abstraction is effective, because people have a lot of experience in dealing with other people, and they can apply their experience to understanding and dealing with complex software. [3] Software agents were first used few years ago to filter information, match individuals with similar interests, and automate repetitive activities. More lately, agents have been applied to e-commerce, encouraging a revolution in the way people conduct transactions in e-commerce. Intelligent agents in e-commerce web sites can carry out many decision making and problem-solving tasks that usually require human intelligence, such as diagnosis, data sorting, planning, or negotiation. They can answer email messages, search the Internet for valuable information, carry out comparisons, or even become electronic pets. O. Etzioni and D.S. Weld [5] defined a software agent as a software entity which functions continuously and independently in a specific environment often occupied by other agents and processes. The requirement for endurance and independence derives from human desire that an agent should be able to do activities in a flexible and intelligent manner reactive to changes in the environment without constant human observation. An agent that functions over a long period of time should be able to implement from its experience. Also, an agent should be able to occupy an environment with other agents and processes, and to be able to communicate and collaborate with them. 2.1 Types of Software Agents Hendler [4] distinguishes four types of agents by function. Problem-solving agents -They do many traditional planning expert systems did, namely collect data, analyze a situation, and make a conforming decision for how to act on the users behalf. Purchasing agents is an example for this category. User-centric agents- These type of agents enable interaction with the user. Also they provide a better user interface by getting knowledge about the users system use preferences and tailoring the interface to the user preferences. Control agents They control the operation of some agents in a multi agent environment. In this context one needs to remember that agents are not only mobile, but also small in size, each with a very specialized capability. Hence, the interaction of several agents might be required to provide sufficient intelligence and capability. These are very progressive agents used in research experimentations. Transaction agents- These agents translate information between different data standards within a unrelated database or file environment. Between these four types, the ones that create contention are problem solving agents specializing in data gathering. They may be aided by transaction agents to access data from numerous data sources and may be controlled by control agents. However, the most important functionality is the ability to collect and analyze information from remote sites. 2.1.1 Characteristics of Software Agents Dependable with the requirements of a specific problem, each intelligent agent might possess to a greater or lesser degree the attributes stating below [5, 6, and 7] Reactivity: the capability of selectively sense and act. Autonomy: goal-directedness, and self-starting behavior. Collaborative behavior: can work in collaboration with other agent to attain a mutual goal. Knowledge-level communication ability: their ability to communicate with human and other agents with language more approaching human-like speech than symbol-level protocols. Inferential capability: can perform on abstract task specification using previous knowledge of general goals and chosen methods to achieve flexibility. Temporal continuity: persistence of uniqueness and state over long time periods. Personality: the ability of exhibiting the attributes of a believable character such as emotion. Adaptively: being able to learn and progress with experience. Mobility: ability to transfer in a self-directed way from one host platform to another. 3. Intelligent Agents in e-Commerce Artificial intelligence (AI) started to play a important role in many leading information systems. In the past, its use of AI has been limited due to its complexity, huge designs and lack of expertise in system developers. AI involvement is now essential in nondeterministic systems such as workflow, data mining, production planning, supply chain logistics, and most lately, e-commerce. Intelligent agent technology is the next logical step in overcoming some shortcomings in e-commerce. Namely, successful computer systems underlying e-commerce require judgment and the knowledge of experts such as buyers, contract negotiators and marketing specialists [8] Also e-commerce covers a broad range of issues; some of them are away from the scope of consumer buying behavior model. There are a variation of theories and models that describes buying behavior, such as the Nicosia model, the Howard- Sheth model, the Engel-Blackwell model, the Bettman information-processing model, and the Andreasen model [9].Acoording to Aleksander Pivk and MatjaÃ…Â ¾ Gams these models all have a comparable list of six fundamental stages of the buying process, which also relevent where agent technologies apply to the shopping experience[8] Identification: In that stage characterizes the buyer becoming aware of particular unmet need by inspiring through product information. Agents can play an significant role for those purchases that are repetitive (supplies) or predictable (habits). One of the oldest and simplest There are many examples in abundant use, one very aware of is a notification agent called Eyes by Amazon.com, which observers the catalog of books for sale and notifies the customer when certain events occur that may be of interest to the customer Brokering: There are two types of brokering namely product brokering and merchant brokering. In product brokering once a buyer has recognized a requirement to make a purchase the buyer has to determine what to buy through a critical evaluation of retrieved product information. There are several agents systems that lower consumers search cost when deciding which products best meets their needs. The result of this stage is a get attention to set of goods. In merchant brokering stage combines the consideration set from the previous stage with merchant-specific alternatives to help determine who to buy from. Negotiation: in this stage of buying behavior, price and other terms of the transaction are settled between merchants and buyers. Real-world scenarios negotiation increases transaction costs that may be too high for either consumers or merchants.. The most of business-to-business(B2B) transactions contain negotiation. Payment and Delivery: this stage can either indicate the end of the negotiation stage or cause to place another order. In some cases, the presented payment or delivery options can affect product and merchant brokering. â‚ ¬Ã‚  Product Service and Evaluation: this post- purchase stage contains of product service, customer service, and an â‚ ¬Ã‚  evaluation of the satisfaction of theâ‚ ¬Ã‚  Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  total buying experience and decision. Considering above five stages, It can be recognized the roles of agents as mediators in e-commerce. The nature of agents makes them suitable for mediating those consumer behaviors involving information filtering and retrieval, personalized evaluations, complex coordination, and time-based interactions. Those roles correspond most especially to the need identification, product and merchant brokering, and negotiation stages of the buying behavior model. 4. Benefits of intelligent agents in e commerce 5. Limitations of Intelligent Agents A major limitation intelligent agent technology using most e-commerce activities is that agents can pose a security risk to remote hosts as well as their original host). A broad discussion of these risks and possible countermeasures is provided to International Journal of Electronic Commerce by T. Mandry ,G.Pernul and A. Rà ¶hm the following possible risks were identified.[9] Stealing data and Illegal access Web agents may try to get access to databases they are not permitted to access or for which there is an access charge. Free use of resources Agents always tries to steal resources from remote hosts. As long as this is in line with accepted protocols, it is an acceptable practice. However, if agents cover-up as alternate processes, they may use insupportable levels of resource. Unauthorized program execution This also known as Trojan horse. Agents can be masquerade and then execute programs that are eventually harmful to the remote hosts. Such Trojan horses attacks have now been used frequently on the Internet.. Data stripping or alteration (by server). Technically it is possible to strip Web agents of their data. This is mostly a concern for a site that sends out agents to remote hosts, but also it could potentially affect other sites. For instance, suppose Buyer has a trusted relationship with both Seller 1 and Seller 2. However, there exists a competitive relationship between the two sellers. An intelligent agent that originates from Buyer and travels to Seller 1 and then to Seller 2 could be stripped by Seller 2 to obtain competitive data about Seller 1. Resource exhaustion resulting in denial-of service -. Web agents can exhaust remote host properties to the point where the remote host can no longer function correctly. Deceitful agent behavior. Agents can mislead other agents or hosts about their intent and can lie about transactions. 5. Discussion This paper describes how intelligent software agent can automate and add value to e-commerce transactions and negotiations. By using intelligent agent based e-commerce techniques, businesses can more effectively and efficiently make decisions since they have more accurate and reliable information and recognize consumers perceptions and behaviors. Benefits and limitations of using intelligent agents in e-commerce are also discussed through this paper.

Mercury Problems In Oil And Gas Industries Environmental Sciences Essay

Mercury Problems In Oil And Gas Industries Environmental Sciences Essay Mercury is a natural occurring element and could be present in various stages of oil and natural gas exploration, production and processing. Mercury is not only hazardous to human health and the environment but could also attack process equipment components that have mercury reactive materials, leading to potential catastrophic failure to the plant. The mercury associated with petroleum and natural gas production and processing enters the environment primarily via wastewater, solid waste streams, and air emissions. Wastewater originates in production and oil refining operations in the form of produced water and wastewater respectively. The solid wastes are also generated in production (e.g. drilling muds), transportation (e.g. sludge), and refining operations (e.g. spent mercury adsorbent. The primary opportunities for mercury emission to atmosphere include fuel combustion for process utilities and fugitive emissions from process equipment. Several approaches have been used to reduce mercury emissions from oil and gas production and processing which include mercury waste treatment, recycling and disposal. Mercury is considered as a serious toxic heavy metal to both humans and the ecosystem because of its high toxicity to the central nervous system and the tendency to bio-accumulate in a human body [1]. Mercury is a natural occurring element and could be presenting varying concentrations and of various species in oil and gas fields [2]. It is freely distributed throughout production, processing, transportation and consumption systems. Table 1 shows the range of variations of the mercury content in oil and gas [3]. Wilhelm and Bloom [4] reported that the concentration of mercury in crude oil and natural gas varies between 0.01 ppb and 10 ppm depending on the geologic location, which may exist in three different forms, namely elemental (Hgo), inorganic (HgCl2), organic ((CH3)2Hg), and organo-ionic (ClHgCH3) mercury compounds. Several mercury species shown in Table 2 were detected in natural gas, gas condensate and crude oil. The properties of mercury species are difference in terms of mobility, reactivity, toxicity and bioavaibility [5]. Table 1 Range of Mercury Content in Oil and Gas Fields in the World [3]. Component Mercury Concentration Oil 0.003 21 mg/kg Condensate Gas 0.01 . 10-6 14 000 . 10-6 g/m3 The existing mercury in oil and gas can cause problems during oil and gas exploration, processing and transportation. This mercury needs to be removed from oil and gas streams especially from natural gas, in order to get pure product as well as to protect the process equipment and catalyst used in the downstream processes. For instance, it may cause mechanical failure and gas leakage of cryogenic aluminium heat exchangers. The mercury in the natural gas can degrade the aluminium coldbox materials by three basic mechanisms [Wilhelm, 1994]: amalgamation with various metals (primarily Al, Au, Ag and Zn), amalgam corrosion, and also liquid metal embrittlement (LME) [Coade and Coldham, 2006; Wilhem, 1994]. Besides, reported by Phannenstiel [7], mercury is pointed as a caused of corrosion in gas-gathering system at Groningen field in Holland [8]. Table 2. Approximate Natural Abundance Mercury Compound in Natural Gas and Gas Condensate [2]. Mercury Element Natural Gas Gas Condensate Crude Oil Hg0 >50 of total mercury >50 of total mercury >50 of total mercury (CH3)2Hg HgCl2 Rarely detected (10-50) % (10-50) % HgS Rarely detected suspended suspended HgO Rarely detected Rarely detected Rarely detected CH3HgCl Rarely detected Mining activities such as exploration and processing could also generate mercury waste generate mercury waste in the form of produced water, refinery wastewater, drilling waste, and associated wastes. The mercury wastes need to be treated and disposed due to the environmental and safety considerations. The failure to monitor and control the existing mercury in oil and gas can caused contamination on process facilities and mercury emission to water, soil and atmosphere [U.S. EPA, 2001] Mercury Removal Process From Natural Gas Mercury removal systems are most often located at gas processing facilities that produce the feedstock materials for downstream chemical manufacturing plants. It is properly designed and operated, to make sure the removal systems can scavenge mercury from the feed gas and reduce the impact of mercury on downstream processes [2]. Table 3 summarizes several methods used for mercury removal in natural gas processing. All these methods have limitations that detract from their applicability to natural gas processing [El Ela et al., 2006; El Ela et al., 2008]. Table 3 Mercury Removal Systems for Natural Gas [Bingham, 1990; El Ela et al., 2008 ]. Method Comments Chemisorption on sulfur impregnated activated carbon Most used, cheap; disposal problems Adsorption on activated carbon Low saturation loading Chemisorption on iodine impregnated activated carbon Good for high mercury concentrations Adsorption by amalgamation with a metal: Silver impregnated alumina, silver zeolites, metal sulfides and metal oxides High investment costs, high removal capacity Acid absorption of mercury chromic acid and acidic permanganate Increased corrosivity, through system contamination, low saturations Oxidizing solutions permanganate, sodium hypochlorite, and sodium vanadates Regeneration problems, system contamination Chemical reaction with H2S Increased corrosivity, limited H2S access Condensation and separation Poor removal efficiency, liquid contamination Stripping through liquid hydrocarbons Poor removal efficiency, liquid contamination The basic requirements for successful mercury removal are economics of the process and the removal medium needs to be capable to reducing mercury concentrations to extremely low and acceptable levels. The medium must have a high capacity for an active bonding to mercury so that they can retain the mercury in a form that can be disposed. The examples of commercial mercury removal systems are shown in Figure 1 (c,d), where the Salam mercury removal system is the most efficient removal method ever reported [9]. It is loaded with 19 tons of catalysts PURASPEC Absorbent 1156 (pre-activated sulfide) [El Ela et al., 2008]. Figure 1 (a,b) shows the mercury removal unit located in Malaysia which is the successful systems used to remove mercury from raw condensate [Sainal et al., 2007]. Figure 1. Joint Delivery System (JDS) mercury removal system situated in Kerteh, Terengganu, Malaysia (a), Resak Delivery System (RDS) mercury removal system situated in Kerteh, Terengganu, Malaysia (b), Mercury removal unit at Salam gas processing plant (c), Vessel loading diagram of Salam mercury removal unit (d) [El Ela et al., 2008; Sainal et al., 2007 ] Mercury Waste Generation A wide variety of waste streams contains of mercury generates from oil and gas processing. The mercury in produced hydrocarbons may escape to the environment by several avenues which are generally categorized as wastewater, solid waste streams and air emissions. During exploration and processing, wastewater originates from the produced water, refinery wastewater, drilling waste, and associated wastes (Ahmadun et al., 2009; Frankiewicz et al., 2000; U.S. EPA 2001). Solid wastes are also generated in production (e.g. drilling muds), transportation, refining operations (Juvkam-Wold, 1976; U.S. EPA 2001). Air emissions originate from fuel combustion for process utilities and fugitive emissions in the process equipment (Wilhelm, 1999; U.S. EPA 2001. These are the possible avenues of mercury to be transferred from produced hydrocarbons to the environment (Mussig and Rothmann, 1997; US EPA, 2001). Table 4 shows a wide variety of waste streams that contain mercury generated in conjunction wi th petroleum production and processing (Wilhelm, 1999). Table 4 Petroleum Processing Mercury Waste Streams [Wilhelm, 1999]. Type Matrix Mercury Sludge Hg++ Hydrocarbon Hgo, XHgX, HgS Sludge Water HgS, Hg++ Cleaning Solutions Water Hg++ inorganic compounds Cleaning Solvents Hydrocarbon Solvent Hgo, XHgX Hg Sorbent Carbon, Sulfur HgS, S, Organic compounds. Hg Sorbent Metal Sulfide, Alumina Hgo, XHgX, HgS, Cu, Al2O3 Hg Sorbent Zeolite, Ag AgHg Hg Sorbent Carbon, KI HgI2 Dehydration Fluid Triethylene glycol Hgo, XHgX, Hg++ CO2 Removal Water Hgo, XHgX, Hg++ KCO3 Sour Gas Treatment DEA, TEA Hgo, XHgX, Hg++ amines Catalysts Metal Hg amalgam Filtration Material Clays, Fibers Hgo, XHgX, Hg++ Debris Hgo, XHgX Produced Water Generally, in oil and gas production operation one of the upstream activities involves a primary separation of water, gas and oil followed by treatment of the produced water for discharge or re-use. Produced water is the largest waste stream generated in association with oil and gas production operations which contains various organic and inorganic components. It originates from water that is trapped in permeable sedimentary rocks within the wellbore. The separated water is either disharged (to an ocean, lake or stream) or re-injecting back into rock formations from whence it originated [Hayward Gordon Ltd.; Gallup and Strong]. However, some of the produced water is fairly fresh and is readily re-used for specific purposes such as agricultural, industrial, or treated water use [Sullivan et al., 2004]. There are some major components containing in produced water such as hydrocarbons and organic compounds (e.g. oil, grease, benzene, dissolved organic compounds such as napthalene, toluene, phenanthrene, and pentacholorophenol), salts (e.g. chlorides and sulfides of Ca, Mg, and Na), metals (e.g. lead, chromium, nickel, barium, manganese, iron, strontium, zinc, silver, cadmium, lithium, copper, mercury, arsenic, selenium, and boron), radionuclides and production chemicals [Frankiewicz and Gerlach, 2000; Sumi, 2005]. Moreover, produced waters are typically more saline and have total solid dissolved concentrations from less 100 mg/l to over 300 000 mg/l compared to sea water [Stewart, 2008; U.S. EPA, 2001]. Research by United States Geological survey reported that conventional oil and gas wells produce produced water that increases over time [Sumi, 2005]. In some states in United States, surface discharges of produced water is allowed and is used for stock and watering an agriculture. However, it can be problematic to the environment due to its highly saline nature and contaminated with mercury. Neff [18] reported that, about 8 pounds per year of total mercury are discharged with produced water. The dominant forms of mercury available in produced water are suspended mercury sulfide (HgS) and elemental mercury (Hgo) [2,13]. Similar forms of mercury are also found in produced water associated with gas production in the Gulf of Thailand [Frankiewicz and Tussaneyakul, 1997]. A treatment process to remove mercury from produced water prior to overboard discharge has been developed consisting of a three-phase separator to remove the gas and also condensate [Gallup and Strong, ; Sullivan et al., 2004]. Refinery Wastewater Refinery wastewaters streams typically contain vary widely chemical compositions having a large volume of water (per barrel of oil processed). Moreover, it also contains many regulated organic and inorganic contaminants (soluble or insoluble form) that can restrict its use and disposal thereof. In refineries, wastewater that entering the water treatment system is a composite of water discharge from processing units with different types and functions. The water streams from process units, cooling water and leakage in the system may contain some contaminated hydrocarbons [Veenstra et al., 2008]. The amount of mercury in refinery wastewater cannot be stated in certainty because of very little information is availably reported. The refinery biological water treatment generates several mercury compounds with a wide range of concentrations. The amount less than 5 percent of the total mercury concentration exists as a monomethylmercury, less than 0.01 percent as a dialkylmercury, and less than 0.1 percent as elemental mercury. Moreover, in a range of 10 to 30 percent exits as suspended particulate mercury with less than 10 percent as a labile Hg2+ and between 60 and 90 as an organochelated Hg2+. Reported by Bloom and Falke [21] that the concentration of total mercury in effluents from sewage treatment facilities is in the range of 5 to 20 ng/L. Drilling Wastes The exploration for oil and gas produces the drilling wastes which primarily consist of extracted cuttings and drilling muds. During drilling process, the drilling muds (also termed fluids) which inject into the well bore are identified as the sources of toxic materials that may discharges into aquatic environment surrounding offshore drilling operations [2,22,23]. Drilling muds is generally a viscous, heavy fluid designed to perform a variety of functions such as to transport rock chips (cuttings) from the bottom of the well up and out of the well bore, where the cuttings are screened and removed, and the separated mud is re-used. In addition, the drilling muds act to cool the drill bit, to stabilize the wells walls during drilling process and to control formation fluids that may flow into the well [23]. Besides, it also functions to minimize reservoir damage and limits corrosion. Most drilling muds are engineered slurries made up from drilling fluids, liquid-based mud (such as water-based muds, oil-based muds and synthetic-based muds), barite (optional additives), low gravity solids and treatment chemicals (bentonite clay) [23,24]. The drilled formation cuttings and barite contribute to the existing mercury as a trace mineral in drilling discharges. The concentrations of mercury in barite ores can vary widely from as little as 0.05 ppm to as much as 31 ppm. Moreover, mercury in drilling discharges is completely made of inorganic mercury which is extremely insoluble in water and not readily converted into organic methylmercury. The methylation process, which bioconverted mercury to methylmercury is dependent on several variables including an anoxic environment, low pH, presence of organic materials, low salinity, and warm temperatures. Associated Wastes The process of producing, treating, storing and transporting of oil and gas generates low volumes of a variety of wastes such as sludges, cleaning fluids, process treatment fluids, spent catalysts, spent removal system sorbents, debris and soils [12]. These wastes commonly known as associated wastes which are produced less than 1% of total volume of waste generated by oil and gas exploration and production [2]. Sludge is a semi-solid material tends to aggregate with mixture of one and more liquids and suspended solids. In hydrocarbon processing facilities, sludges are removed from tanks and vessels during maintenance and inspection. Mercury in hydrocarbon sludge is usually higher than the process fluid in the process stream. Since mercury has higher solubility in higher molecular weight organic compounds, it tends to accumulate in the sludges and turn out to be contaminant [12]. Solid wastes such as spent materials (i.e. spent catalyst and spent adsorbents) contain a significant quantity of mercury. The catalysts used in oil refining and chemical manufacturing accumulate mercury during their operations. The spent adsorbent obtained from the separation system, which is designed to remove mercury from gas, liquid and condensate has very high mercury content. Mercury also exists and contaminates the solvent used to liquefy sludge deposit in the process equipment and in process treatment of fluids for dehydration and sweetening processes [12]. Mercury Emissions to Atmosphere Air pollution has been linked to a number of significant problems such as ozone depletion, global climate change, acid rain, environmental degradation, and health effects in humans, plants, and animals. It is created by a number of different of sources and exits in a number of different forms. The point sources in industrial activities include chemical plants, oil refineries, power plants, hazardous waste incinerators and, oil and gas processing. It was estimated that the annual mercury emissions from oil and gas industry to atmophere in US is about 6,300 kg/year [2]. In natural gas industry, the emissions of mercury to the atmosphere could be through a glycol-overhead-gas. In the dehydration process, absorption liquids like glycols are used to absorb water and also mercury. On the elevated temperature, the glycol is regenerated and mercury is evaporated together with water. Therefore, the glycol-overheads containing mercury are released directly to the atmosphere [11]. In oil refinery, volatile and particulate mercury emissions to the atmosphere are claimed to generate mostly from the fuel combustion that are used to fire refinery process heaters and some amount from fugitive emissions. The fuels also include mostly gas and coke [25]. In refinery processing, catalyst is regenerated by using gas and some of the catalyst collect mercury and released it when regenerated. The gas from regeneration process which may contain higher amount of mercury than other typical gas flares is sent to flare [2]. Mercury Contaminated Facilities Mercury enters into gas gathering and processing facilities through the feed gas, from instruments used to measure gas properties and in used-catalyst. Several problems occur due to the existing mercury during the restoration. Mercury contaminated on steel surfaces and creeps by adsorbs into the micro-crevices and pore, although the temperature and pressure are at below condensation and without forming amalgams [11]. The pigging operations of mercury contaminated pipelines can generate sludge and debris that have high in mercury content [11,12]. Furthermore, during maintenance and cleaning activities, spillage of mercury from instruments contaminates buildings and soil [11,12]. Mercury Waste Treatment, Recycling, And Disposal Due to the extreme threat of mercury pollution, several remediation technologies have been developed, aim to remove mercury from wastewaters, although some works have targeted for mercury removal in gas phase. Mercury removal systems that are now prevalent for many processes which employ to protect equipment and catalysts for such systems depend on their chemical properties and process location [10]. Moreover, mercury waste can be treated and disposed by recovery; physical and chemical treatments, incineration and thermal process. Physical, Chemical and Thermal Treatments Physical separation methods depend on elemental mercurys high density and surface tension. This could be achieved by allowing segregation process to taking place. In contrast, mercury compounds differ from elemental since it cannot be physically separated. One of the examples of physical treatment is by using filtration equipment which employs to remove solid mercury from the waste streams. Removal and segregate waste mercury through equipment decontamination, soil remediation, fluid decontamination or disposal sludge processing are accomplished by using chemical treatments, precipitation treatment for filtration and aqueous extraction treatment. In addition, the thermal process (refer to distillation process) is used to remove mercury from the most mercury-contaminated area of oil and gas industry [11,12,26]. Several treatment processes have been developed to remove contaminants (i.e. mercury) from produced water prior to overboard discharge. The treatment processes involved re-injecting produced water back into rock formations from whence it originated. Figure 2 shows the original water treatment process based upon a sequence of stages according to the influent oil and solid content [27]. The first stage is characterized by a de-oiling unit, where water leaves the bottom of the separator and passes through desanding and de-oiling hydrocyclones. The water then enters the chemical treatment process followed by addition of an oxidant (NaOCl), ferric ions and a flocculant sequentially to form a floatable sludge consisting of ferric hydroxide, chemisorbed mercury, ferri-arsenate, and hydrocarbons (known as flotation units). The oxidation-reduction potential of the water is controlled by oxidant addition to allow Hg in elemental form [15,16]. There are several commercial processes available to prevent the mercury contamination at processing facilities. Table 5 summarizes the mercury removal systems for hydrocarbons and water which involve adsorption, chemical precipitation, ion exchange, iron cementation, membranes separation, and activated carbon adsorption [12]. Figure 2 Typical Produced Water Treatment [27] Recycling and Restoration The recovery process known as recycling or reuse method which involve a common process such as gravity separation, filtration, distillation, solvent, and chemical regeneration [28]. Physical methods could be neutralization, precipitation or separation and detoxification (chemical). Equipment decontamination is accomplished using chemical cleaning solutions that selectively oxidize complex elemental mercury deposits. These cleaning solutions consist of aqueous base solution having iodine as a complexing agent and organic solution (alcohol). In the case of incineration, the mercury contaminated waste is burnt at medium or high temperatures. For soil, sludge and debris must be thermally processed to remove mercury. The thermal process uses a vacuum, inert gas, or air as a carrier medium. However, if air is used, sulfur existed in matrix is converted to SO2 and hydrocarbons are oxidized to CO2 and H2O. Anaerobic thermal systems employ selective condensation and/or adsorption to separate sulfur and hydrocarbons from mercury. Spent adsorbent materials are also thermally processed using strictly anaerobic conditions to avoid exothermal reaction involving carbon [12,28]. As described above, mercury contamination can be preventing by using appropriate treatment processes. However, at the end of life cycle of gas installations, it may remain abandoned and need to be restored. For steel factories, scrap materials (i.e. tubings, flowlines, and facilities contaminated mercury) were cleaned before scrapping and added to steel production. Therefore, in European steel factories, the steel has to be cleaned or re-melting if the mercury contamination exceeds 2 to 10 mg per kg steel. In other cases, there are some processes available to clean mercury contaminated in pipelines and equipment such as sand blasting, high pressure water jetting, chemical process, milling techniques and also thermal treatment. Besides, the restoration or intermediate remediation of soil contaminated area is available with several soil cleaning methods [11]. Table 5 Mercury Removal Systems for Hydrocarbons and Water [12]. Method Process Comments Adsorption (Activated carbon, Sulfur, iodine impregnated carbon ) Mercury (Hgo) physically adsorbs and reacts to form non-volatile mercuric sulfide. Low saturation loading. Most used cheap, disposal problems. Prevalent wet collection To bubble gas (contain Hg) through permanganate solution. All Hg species convert to mercuric ion. Accurate, reasonably sensitive, increased corrosivity. Sulfide precipitation Sulfide reacts with ionic forms of Hg to form the insoluble mercuric sulfide and separated by filtration Increased corrosivity Ion exchange To remove ionic Hg from some waste streams. Regeneration problems, system contamination. Reverse osmosis treatment (semi-permeable membranes) Produce a clear permeate and a concentrate containing mercury Effective in treating specialized water streams Iron cementation (metal replacement process) Dissolved mercury cemented in a active metal (Zn or iron) Carried out in acid solution Disposal and Storage Waste materials that contain mercury need to be identified and characterized. They must be treated prior to disposal to avoid the long-term liabilities of burial or storage. Practically, all the mercury and contaminated materials should be accounted and collected because of the potential impacts of mercury into the environments. Removal of mercury from complex mixtures can be accomplished by combination of physical, chemical, immobilization, thermal, electrolytic and in-situ vitrification treatment methods. Sludge is one of the more difficult waste materials to process for treatment and disposal due to the existing of hydrocarbon in the matrix of sludge [12,28]. In the case of drilling fluid, it is often disposed of when a well is completed, and fresh fluid is used for any adjacent wells. Filtration processes have allowed drilling fluid to be reconditioned, so that it can be used for multiple wells before being discarded. Other possible uses for used drilling fluids are to plug-in the productive wells or to spud in new wells. Reuse of oil-based and synthetic-based drilling fluids to drill additional wells is common because of the high cost of the base fluids [29]. Mercury Emission Regulations Mercury is released through emissions from manufacturing, use or disposal activities. Environmental laws and regulations have been introduced by various regulatory bodies in order to protect the environment. Several specific laws such as Mercury Export Ban Act of 2008 and Mercury-Containing and Rechargable Battery Management Act of 1996 have been subjected related to mercury. In the case of environmental statutes such as Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and Safe Drinking Water Act, EPA has the responsibility to develop regulations to control some mercury emissions to air, water, or from wastes and products. The stringent regulations were recommended to set an upper-bound limit on the amount of mercury for any facilities. Besides, it is require for every power plant in the country to adopt the maximum available control technologies (MACT). The possible approaches of these MACT are to achieve the reduction in mercury emissions by setting the uniform emissions limits for existing facilities and more restrictive limits for new ones; and the mandatory emissions reductions with an emissions credit trading system. Concluding Remarks Mercury is often present in oil and gas with various concentration and species. Mercury is toxic to both human health and the environment. It also leads to the potential of plant failure. Mercury emissions from oil and gas exploration, production, and processing into the environment could be via wastewater (produced water, refinery wastewater), solid waste (drilling waste, refinery waste) and contaminated facilities. The mercury emissions to atmosphere originate from gas processing plant, flared gas refineries, and fuel burning for process utilities. To minimize the amount of mercury emissions, several techniques for monitoring and removal of mercury have been developed. These include segregation, treatment, recovery, and disposal of mercury waste in the process. In treatment process, it involves physical, thermal, and chemical processes to remove the contaminated mercury. The waste materials that contain mercury are usually treated to remove mercury prior to the disposal and storage . Concluding Remarks The financial support from the MOSTI under the e-Science Research Program (Project No. 03-01-06-SF0464) is gratefully acknowledged. Amin-Nejad S., Smith J.S., and Lucas.J (2003). A Visual Servoing System for Edge Trimming of Fabric Embroideries by Laser. Journal of Mechatronics, Pergamon Press, New York. ISSN 0957-4158. 13(6): pp533-551.

How To Annoy People Essay -- Process Essays

How To Annoy People This paper will attempt to explore how to annoy people in many different situations these categories are as follows: how to annoy people in restaurants, chat rooms, while driving, and in the grocery store. Also explored are annoying your roommate, your neighbors, public bathroom stall mates, your teacher or professor, and the police. The following are guaranteed ways to annoy at your favorite restaurant: Decline to be seated and simply eat their complementary mints by the cash register. Pretend you do not understand what your server is saying no matter how much he/she yells or how slowly they say it. Ask your server for an extra seat and place setting for your imaginary friend. Wander around the restaurant asking other diners for their parsley. Slurp your soup. Eat out with your friends and forget your wallet. Order a side of pork rinds with your filet mignon or pay for your dinner with pennies. Getting a rise out of people by annoying the heck out of them was never this easy before chat rooms. First, ONLY TYPE IN UPPERCASE or only type in lowercase, and dont use any punctuation either. Invent nonsense computer jargon in conversations and see if people play along to avoid looking ignorant, if they ask what it means be demeaning and rude rather than giving them an explanation. TalkLikeThisInChatRooms. CapitalizeTheBeginningOfEveryWordAndNeverUseSpaces. YouHaveNoIdeaHowAnnoyingThisCanGet. On the other hand, you could simply capitalize letters that ShouLDn't bE capitalized. Go into random chat rooms and say "Turkey," then leave and every 5 minutes, on the dot, send someone an instant message saying "Turkey" as well. Choose someone you do not like and annoy him/her until he/she leaves the chat room. Use the "find member" command and follow this person all over whatever online service you use. This may get you permanently kicked out of all the chat rooms, so make it worth it. Finally, e-mail some random person in a chat room and ask them why they keep harassing you. If your passengers are annoying you, get relief by annoying the other drivers around you. When driving at a slower speed, stay in the left-most lane and when there is a lot of traffic behind you, always drive 8-20 MPH slower than the speed limit. These will definitely get you the finger by everyone who finally gets past you, so use sparingly if weak hearted. When dri... ...assignments, or write your psychology paper on possible genetic anomalies that might cause a person to prefer anchovies. Finally, pwetend you have a speech impediment and awways type w's whenevew you weawwy want to type r's or l's. The last category in our exploration on how to annoy people is the police. We will call this category "How To Be a 3 Time Loser on Your First Dealing With The Police." If you really want to annoy the wrong person, simply use one of these lines the next time you get pulled over: "Aren't you the guy from The Village People?" or "Didn't I see you get your butt kicked on COPS?" You could also try "I pay your salary," "I thought you had to be in relatively good shape to be a police officer," "You're not going to check the trunk, are you," or "So, are you on the take, or what?" I do not recommend the next line unless you would like to experience police brutality, but here it is anyway: "Wow, you look like the guy in the picture on my girlfriend's night stand." I end this paper with my favorite how to annoy a police officer line which is "I was trying to keep up with traffic. Yes, I know there are no other cars around, that's how far they are ahead of me."

Censorship of Music :: Music Censoring Singers Bands Musicians Essays

Censorship of Music During the Doors concert in Miami, in 1969, lead singer Jim Morrison, "did lewdly and lasciviously expose his penis and shake it. . ." (Rosen et al. 90). Today, Billy Joe Armstrong, lead singer of Green Day, bares all at his concert in Philadelphia (Bernstein 95). The eccentric Courtney Love will rip off her bra for the audience to marvel and glorify at her action (Bernstein 95). She acts in such a fashion because she is insane and wants to prove it to the world, where as Billy Joe just performs naked for the shock value and the love of hearing tabloids and gossip. Both performers of past and present conducted strange acts on stage for the shock value and attention, but with performers of old, it reflected their life and what they were really like. Today's performers, however, do not act like that in real life, for the most part. Today, performers take on challenges, like the dare of a child. . . "Betcha won't do it!" These rock performers cannot turn down a dare or back away from even the slightest bit of public notoriety. By listening to one of their "questionable" albums, it is easily noticeable how they thrive off of it. All of these performers do have one thing in common, at one time or another, censorship made them victims because of their social unacceptable actions or the content of their music and lyrics. While censorship is slightly more realistic and open-minded (no more censoring performers from the waist down, like Elvis Presley on the Ed Sullivan show), it still affects listeners and their choice of music quite significantly. Although the government, music associations, and other various groups try censorship, the music a person chooses is still, and always should be, his choice. Some children are too young for the exposure to certain types of music. Albums containing sexually explicit lyrics depicting sexualacts in great detail are not good for young children to hear. Also, sexual content within the albums, as in their artwork, is unacceptable. For example, the Frankenchrist album by the Dead Kennedys, which portrays an extremely sexual painting by H.G. Giger, entitled Landscape #20: Where Are We Coming From (Wishna 444). Not to mention all the shows and concerts in which some kind of pornography is used or displayed that is inappropriate for younger kids, such as Billy Joe Armstrong, of Green Day, baring all for a concert of his in Philadelphia (Bernstein 95). Also, in Cleveland, a frustrated Courtney Love tore off her bra and screamed, "Now you know how I get all the guys," (Bernstein 95).

Civil Disobedience: The Curious Case of Edward Snowden :: Civil Disobedience

More than six months after first sending shockwaves through the world, Edward Snowden is alive, not imprisoned, and still making daily headlines. A former National Security Agency contractor, Snowden was responsible for revealing to the American public the existence of enormous, secret governmental surveillance programs, tactics that irrefutably border unconstitutionality. He gave up his freedom and ultimately his way of life in revealing how the NSA was harvesting and storing global phone records and text messages, the majority sent by ordinary American citizens. Snowden voluntarily broke the law and publically took credit for his leaks, rallying behind his core belief that mass surveillance undermines the fundamental right to privacy. He felt obligated to warn his fellow countrymen that their freedom â€Å"to speak and to think and to live† was potentially being threatened, and was thus compelled to release the classified information to which he had access to, regardless of consequences. Believing that he had â€Å"done nothing wrong,† he maintains that it was absolutely necessary to inform the public that they were being victimized. While he acted alone, Snowden hopes that his actions will encourage a larger movement amongst the populace, especially other technologists, to pressure the government into reconsidering its national security platform. An essential feature of civil disobedience is nonviolence, a factor that Snowden and King similarly endorsed. Both assumed activist roles and looked to bring nationwide attention to their causes, but in no way did they promote an outbreak of violence, which they felt would prove detrimental. However, this did not stop the two from knowingly breaking the law, as each maintained that they possessed the right to defy authority due to the obvious presence of social injustice.

Reconstructionalism †Curriculum Essay

Reconstuctionism in not a fully developed philosophy of life or of education. Many writers view it as only an extension of progressivism, the educational philosophy. Like progressivism, it is based on the â€Å"pure† philosophy of pragmatism. Therefore, its answers to basic questions are the same. In answer to the ontological question of what is real, reconstructionists agree that everyday, personal experience constitutes reality. The epistemological question asks: â€Å"What is truth and how do we know truth†? The reconstructionist claims that truth is what works, and we arrive at truth through a process of trial and error. The axiological question asks: â€Å"What is good and beautiful†? The reconstructionist’s answer to this is whatever the public consensus says it is! Educational Theory As far as his educational views are concerned, the reconstructionist sees things the same way as the progressive—up to a point. For example, reconstructionists believe that students learn more, remember it longer, and apply it to new situations better if they learn through experience, rather than through being told something. As they see it, the teacher’s main role is that of a resource person or a research project director who guides the students’ learning rather than being a dispenser of knowledge. In this role, the teacher carries on a dialogue with students, helping them identify problems, frame hypotheses, find data, draw appropriate conclusions, and select efficacious courses of action (praxis). Reconstructionists don’t believe in a predetermined curriculum. They would use the subject matter from any or all disciplines when needed to solve a problem. They would probably deal more, however, with the subject matter of social experience (the social sciences) in solving problems. The teaching methods favored by reconstructionists are (1) the pupil-teacher dialogue and (2) praxis. Praxis is â€Å"effective action.† In other words, reconstructionists favor applying the problem-solving method (scientific method) of the progressives to real-life problems. After one has reached an â€Å"intellectual solution† to a problem, reconstructionists favor carefully thought-out social action to remedy or ameliorate the problem. Reconstructionists, like progressives, do not favor any type of ability grouping. They feel students should be grouped only upon the basis of common interests. Reconstructionists also like flexible student seating arrangements, but since there is so much involvement outside the classroom, seating is not even an issue. Reconstructionists share the progressive’s view of student discipline. Moreover, they feel that if students are actively involved in bringing about change in areas that concern them, they will not become frustrated, and therefore, will not be likely to become discipline problems. Reconstructionists prefer to evaluate students subjectively on the basis of their ability as a social activist rather than give written examinations. Like progressives, they feel that student self-evaluation has a proper place. Reconstructionists’ Platform Reconstructionists differ significantly from progressives in the matter of social policy. Progressives acknowledge the rapidly changing conditions around us. But they are content to just teach students how to cope with change. It has been said that progressives seek to teach students how to reach â€Å"intellectual solution† to problems. This often culminates in writing a paper, doing a report or a project of some kind. This kind of education would tend to â€Å"mirror the contemporary society.† On the other hand, reconstructionists believe that students must learn through practical experience how to direct change and control it. They believe strongly that our culture is in crisis. They believe that things will get uncontrollably bad unless we intervene to direct change and thereby reconstruct the social order. Reconstructionsists believe that a â€Å" Utopian Future† is a genuine possibility for mankind if we learn how to intervene and to direct change. They believe that the school should train students to be social activists in the tradition of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Nader and Jesse Jackson. Reconstructionists believe that we should apply the reflective inquiry method to life’s problems. They feel, however, that we should be prepared to act upon our conclusions. This requires a sense of commitment and responsibility on the part of students. This goal of initiating change is of course very controversial. For this reason, reconstructionism has never caught on fully in our schools. Questions have been raised concerning whether or not schools should become a tool for re-making society. Questions have also been raised as to whether students at any age have the intellectual and social maturity to participate in social action. Advocates of social action contend that the more involvement we have, the better off we will be as a society. They claim that as things stand now, only a small percentage of people get involved in social issues because they do not know how to do so. Advocates of social action emphasize that it can be safely practiced if certain common-sense â€Å"safeguards† are applied. For example: 1) Young students should be encouraged to act in a more limited setting than older students, such as the classroom or school, rather than the larger community. 2) Teachers should help students weigh the probable outcomes of various lines of social action before anything is done. They should consider whether or not a given action will solve or ameliorate a problem. Moreover, they should consider the probable â€Å"side effects† of a given line of action, including how it will impact on significant others. 3) Teachers should work with students to get them to accept the consequences (good or bad) of their actions, once they have taken place, without complaining or expecting to be let off the hook. This is important if a sense of commitment and responsibility is to be nurtured.

Hydration Lab Essay

The usage of this testing ground is to even up the water supply of hydration of a obscure (CuSO4) by heating it and whence find its chemical formula. It was determined that the compound contained 4 inguens of H2O for every 1 mole of CuSO4, hence had the formula CuSO4 4H2O and copper color II Sulfate Tetrahydrate. However, the literature entertain was 5 moles of oxygen for every 1 mole of CuSO4 (Copper II Sulfate Pentahydrate CuSO4 5H2O).As calculated above in Data Processing, this means that the administer deviation from the literature apprise was 20%. This is significantly less than the dowry uncertainty, which was 37%. This should indicate that the random demerit was high than systematic error, because while there was a high pretend of uncertainty, the literature value still falls within that value, content that the measurements were close enough.In reality, though, this high level of uncertainty says to a greater extent about the inaccuracy of the measuring rod equipment than it does about the sum of systematic error. For example, it is likely that patently non all of the water was removed from the compound. On the contrary, the lab surgical operation instructed to continue trials of heating the compound and unhurriedness it until the mass values were within 0.05g of to each one other. Those in this lab were only 0.01g asunder a difference which would not assume affected the outcome of the lab. This means it is improbable that there was a significant descend of water re importanting in the compound. paygrade of ProcedureIt cannot honestly be verbalise that this lab was executed successfully. This is for two main reasons1. the false result2. the high period of uncertaintyThe first of these is surely the roughly important this lab did not strike the desired result. While the compound had a water of hydration of 5, the lab results said that this value should be 4. In some circumstances, much(prenominal) error could be tol erated indeed, 20% is not terrible. However, the very purpose of the lab was to determine the compound, and this goal was not achieved.The second organise is how uncertain the data really was. ground on the percentage of uncertainty, the water of hydration could project been anywhere from 2.5 to 5.5. This does contain the literature value, hardly has a range of more than half of that value (3/5). If the water of hydration could nearly kick in been 2 or 6, does this lab very reveal anything? It gives a vague estimate of how much water there is, unless little more.Much of the uncertainty was caused by an imprecise carapace used in the initial measurements. Only after the subroutine requested precision to two tenfold places was a more precise de weighing machine used, and the initial measurements were still only correct to 0.1g. Also, if the mass of compound used had been higher, the percentage error would take a shit been less simply because it would be a smaller porti on of the measured value.Improving the InvestigationThis lab did not meet its goal, hence unquestionably should be improved. The simplest change that could be make is to use the more precise scale from the beginning of the experiment. This would reduce the percentage error down to 6.7%, a much more reasonable value. This, however, does not solve the trouble of the inaccurate value determined, because it is unlikely that this scale would have been any more accurate, disrespect being more precise.It is hard to pinpoint, therefore, simply where the experiment went wrong, as it seems that the scales were not at fault but that a capable amount of water had been removed. There was for certain some kind of systematic error. cardinal way that this error might be reduced, even without understanding its source, is to increase the amount of substance measured. Because the lab is about obtaining a ratio, this would not affect the result at all except hopefully to belittle the effect of a ny systematic error. This would, however, have the disadvantage of making the lab take longer, and steps might need to be added to ensure that all of the compound has a chance to dehydrate.