Police and Various Control Mechanisms Essay

Discretion is foundation of the criminal justice system. Discretion is when the effective limits on a public official’s power leave him or her free to make a choice among a number of possible courses of action (Gaines, 2011 p. 219). Police discretion is the power or authority that is given to a police officer to act officially in a manner that appears to be just and proper under the presented circumstances. Discretion is not doing as you please. Discretion is bounded by norms (professional norms, community norms, legal norms, moral norms) (Police discretion). The various control mechanisms available for internal control mechanisms are examining their policies and operating procedures and taking action to ensure that they are consistent with real-world necessity. Policies and procedures not only control what officers do but also provide guidance when officers are confronted with situations where they need assistance (Gaines, 2011 p. 251) also Law enforcement officers should be required to report misconduct by other officers that they witness or of which they become aware. The failure to report misconduct should be subject to appropriate discipline (Gaines, 2001 p. 252). Internal control mechanisms are an attempt by the police to address inappropriate behavior. The various control mechanisms available are for external control mechanisms are external control mechanisms are imposed on the department by other agencies or individuals who may or may not have an understanding of the police role and functions. This control can be achieved through civilian review boards, legislative oversight, or the court system External control of policing is usually associated with civilian review boards (CRBs) (Gaines, 2011 p. 252). The various control mechanisms available for control by the citizens are Civilian review boards were created to â€Å"(1) maintain effective discipline of the police, (2) provide satisfactory resolution of citizen complaints against officers, (3) maintain citizen confidence in the police, and (4) influence police administrators by providing feedback from citizens (Gaines, 2011 p. 254-255). The various control mechanisms available for legislative control are the legislative branch of government can affect the exercise of discretion in three ways: (1) enactment of laws, (2) allocation of funds, and (3) legislative oversight (Gaines, 2011 p. 255). The various control mechanisms available for control by the courts are the courts are perhaps the most visible bodies of external control over discretion exercised by the police. While appellate courts are responsible for determining the constitutionality of a law, they also have the authority to govern procedural aspects of the law and to limit the manner in which it is enforced by the police (Gaines, 2011 p. 256). Reference: Gaines, Larry K. ; Kappeler, Victor E. (2011). Policing In America. Police Discretion. Retrieved on June 22, 2013, from http://faculty. ncwc. edu/mstevens/205/205lect09. htm 2. The ideologies associated with utilitarianism are that one’s actions should ensure the greatest happiness for the greatest number. Utilitarianism, a form of consequentualism, asks that we judge the correctness of an action by its outcome or consequences. If the consequences are good, the action is moral; if the consequences are bad, the action is immoral. Utilitarianism as a framework for ethics raises several issues, such as what is good and who’s good should we be concerned with? (Gaines, 2011 p. 338). The ideologies associated with deontological ethics are it does not consider consequences but examines one’s duty to act (Gaines, 2011 p. 339). Ethics is, in essence, doing the right thing, whatever that may be. The â€Å"right thing† is based on those values society holds dear. Ethical principles are premised on the notion that right is always right and wrong is always wrong. When officers fail to do what is right, and especially when they do what is clearly and blatantly wrong, they erode the public trust just a little more and further degrade law enforcement’s ability to work within the community and carry out its mission. Adherence to high ethical standards, then, is as vital to achieving the overall goal of modern policing as any other tactic, technique or practice (Roufa). For those situations that may prove difficult for officers, several tests can be applied to help in the ethical decision-making process. Perhaps the best known ethical decision making tests are the critical thinking test, the media test and the gut test (Roufa). Reference: Gaines, Larry K. ; Kappeler, Victor E. (2011). Policing In America. Roufa, T. Ethics in Law Enforcement. What the Public Expects and How Officers Can Deliver. Retrieved on June 22, 2013, from http://criminologycareers. about. com/od/Career_Trends/a/Ethics-In-Law-Enforcem ent. htm 3. The Civil Rights Act of 1871 has since been codified as Title 42 of the U. S. Code, Section 1983 (42 U. S. C.  § 1983), and legal actions brought under this legislation are commonly referred to as Section 1983 lawsuits. The legislation allows persons whose civil rights are violated by government officials to bring civil suit in federal court to recover damages (Gaines, 2011 p. 397). Title 42 of the U. S. Code, Section 1983, states that: Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory, or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress (Gaines, 2011 p. 397). Police officer federal liability concerning a law suit under 42 U. S. C. Section 1983, as the cornerstone of police civil liability at the federal level is that the statement can be false also that people take advantage of certain laws such as saying to much excessive force was used, racial slurs. There is never a reason under the law for an officer to shout racial epithets or slurs at a suspect or lethal force when an officer unreasonably shoots to kill a suspect (Snider, 2013). Reference: Gaines, Larry K. ; Kappeler, Victor E. (2011). Policing In America. Snider, B (2013). Police Brutality Lawsuits and Section 1983. Retrieved on June 22, 2013, from http://blogs. findlaw. com/injured/2013/05/police-brutality-lawsuits-and-section-1983. html 4. The impact of the community policing ideology on police community relations building with the community served Community policing evolved from the police–community relations programs of the 1950s and 1960s and the team policing strategies of the 1970s, and were also a response to the increase in citizen fear of crime that began to dominate public policy formulation in the 1980s (Gaines, 2011 p. 427). It was shown that if these problems go unchecked over time, they continue to worsen until there is little that residents or government can do to reclaim the neighborhood. Therefore, the best way to attack crime and disorder is to deal with minor problems such as panhandling, unrepaired homes and businesses, and junk cars

Fire Behavior Essay

Fire has been associated with mankind for a very long time. There was probably a time when mankind had no fire, and later became acquainted with fire, derived naturally. Man then learnt to preserve fire so as to be able to use it whenever required (Ed Semmelroth, 1998). Today man has come a long way in not only being able to generate fire, but also vary its properties according to his needs and requirements. Today, man has successfully learned to harness this fire power because of his better understanding of the properties of fire. The qualities of fire are various, ignited by different factors and sustained by many factors. A fire which keeps spreading can be examined and estimated using various parameters. Generally people including fire fighters have less understanding on the spread of fire and concentrate only the closest fire front or that which look dangerous. However fire can be more effectively tackled when the science behind it is better understood. The attributes of a fire like the direction of spread, its strength etc. are determined by fire behavior. There are several types of fire based on their strength and spread. For instance, firestorms are high strength or high intensity fires, spreading rapidly. Fires of low strength and rapid spread are referred to as flashy fires while fires with low spread and low intensity are called creep fires (Marco Morais, 2001). The behavior of fires depends on several factors like fuel, weather and topography. A change in any of these factors would cause an appropriate and immediate change in the behavior of fire. The fire behavior is also affected by the interaction of these factors. Fuel is an important determinant of fire behavior and most fuels don’t change rapidly. The behavior of fire is directly related to the amount of fuel present. Lower quantities of fuel result in low strength, low spreading fires, like creep fires. Fuel in larger quantities could produce heavy fires that are most likely to get out of control. When the quantity of fuel is more, the intensity of fire is more and more heat is generated. The total quantity of fuel present in a given area is determined by fuel loading, which is the amount of fuel present in a given area that can burn under high or intense conditions. The fuel loading factor is almost constant and require a long period of time, like a year, to change. On the other hand, the available fuel is the quantity of fuel that can burn at any particular time, under the existing circumstances relevant to that point of time. The size of fuel is important in deciding its ignition time. Smaller fuel can be ignited more rapidly than larger fuels. This is because the time required to heat and ignite fuel is directly proportional to the ratio of surface area to volume. The presence of small sized fuels is also essential for the spread of fire and constitute the fuel bed; and help in igniting larger fuels. The burnout periods of the fuel are determined by their diameter. Fuels with a diameter of less than 0. 25 inches are classified as one hour fuel while fuels with a diameter of 1 to 3 inches are referred to as 100 hour fuel. Dry leaves, twigs and sticks are examples of small fuels while logs and big stumps are large fuels (PFMT). The behavior of fire is also influenced by the arrangement of fuels. Fuels that are more loosely arranged would quickly ignite and burn more rapidly than compactly arranged fuels, due to the availability of oxygen. There are several fuel models which are based on the main cause of fire propagation, like grass, shrub, litter, logging slash etc. The fire behavior can be easily assessed when a single fuel model corresponds to a particular area. By observing the fires and analyzing their behavior, it is possible to assign a fuel model based on its characteristics (NIFC, 2006). Each model has distinct qualities and sometimes the fire may be attributed to the interaction of several models. The behavior of fire is also dependent on the amount of moisture content in the fuel. Combustion is slow in moist fuels as the heat is utilized in converting moisture to steam. The fuel can reach ignition temperature and undergo combustion only when the entire moisture is removed. The behavior of fire is also dependent on the shape of the fuels present. Fuels having a flat shape have a higher surface-volume ratio and therefore burn more rapidly. Weather is another important factor of behavior determination. Winds of high speed, low humidity and absence of rains contribute to the acceleration of fire. High temperature and hot air can reduce the moisture content present in the fuel, contributing to the intensity and spread of fire. Wind is a source of oxygen required for fire sustenance and winds of higher speed provide more oxygen and thus more intensity fire. It should be noted here that when the wind speed is doubled, the rate of fire spread is quadrupled. Winds can also carry with them small burning fuels which can start fresh fires on their own. During periods of drought, the shrubs and grass are dry and serve as an ideal fuel for fire. Under such intense dry conditions, even logs and greener leaves get dried quickly and become inflammable. Therefore, rains have a dampening effect on the fuels and suppress fires. (Australian Bureau of Metrology, 2008) The weather changes are rapid, changing even on an hourly basis, causing appropriate change in fire behavior. Topography or the nature of the earth’s surface is an important determinant of fire behavior. The characteristics of a region are unique and is the resultant of existing natural and man made features. The topography of a given region doesn’t change much. In the mountainous regions, topographic factors contributing to fire behavior are crucial while most of these factors are not relevant to fire behavior in the coastal plains. These factors include slope, aspect and barriers. Fire is spread more rapidly up slope than down slope as fuels are preheated by the approaching flames which are closer to them on the uphill side than the downhill side. Hot air from fire move upward drying up fuels which facilitate ignition and burning. Fire spread is doubled when a given slope is raise by 10% (Tropical Savannas CRC, 2008). The direction of the slope favorable for fire is indicated by the aspect factor, which determines the amount of solar radiation received by the slope face. South to southwest facing slopes receive more solar radiation than slopes that face the northern direction. These slopes which receive more radiation would have less humidity and moisture, be drier and burn easily. The barriers to fire in a topography are the presence of roads, lakes, wet swamps etc. Such barriers prevent or retard the advance of fire. Complex terrain can result in fire behavior being very erratic. REFERENCES Marco Morais. What is fire behavior? (2001) [Electronic Version]. Downloaded on 28th May 2008 from http://www. physics. ucsb. edu/~complex/research/hfire/fbehave Private Forest Management Team Fuel’s effect on fire behavior [Electronic Version]. Downloaded on 28th May 2008 from http://www. pfmt. org/fire/fuels_effect. htm Tropical Savannas CRC (2008) Topography [Electronic Version]. Downloaded on 28th May 2008 from http://learnline. cdu.edu. au/wip/fire2/fundamentals/topography. html Australian Bureau of Metrology (2008) Weather and fire Topography [Electronic Version]. Downloaded on 28th May 2008 from http://www. bom. gov. au/inside/services_policy/fire_ag/bushfire/wandfire. htm National Interagency Fire Center (2006) NWCG Fireline Handbook [Electronic Version]. Downloaded on 28th May 2008 from http://www. nwcg. gov/pms/pubs/410-2/appendixB. pdf Ed Semmelroth (1998) A brief history of fire and its uses [Electronic Version]. Downloaded on 28th May 2008 from http://hearth. com/what/historyfire. html

Child Observation Essay

For this assignment, I observed my six year old niece, Faustine Bui who was born on August 16, 2007, at the park where I was babysitting her with her mom for approximately thirty minutes. The park I observed her at is packed with children and dogs are allowed. There is a large play area with jungle-jims and slide and it includes a sandy area which has a variety of playing equipment as well. I first observed Faustine’s biosocial development such as physical growth, gross motor and fine motor skills. Faustine is 3 feet tall and she weighs 41 pounds according to my Aunt. She is a little shorter than a lot of the six year old that she hangs out with and the ones in the park but I think that her height is in the normal range for kids her age and considering that her parents are already short to begin with, I am not surprised that she is a little shorter than all the other kids. Faustine used to look like a very chubby baby with a large head and stubby limbs but she’s grown u p now to be very lean. She is not chubby nor way too skinny. According to our textbook, â€Å"The Developing Person Through the Lifespan†, Faustine’s physical growth is normal. By the age of six, the average child weighs between forty and fifty pounds and is at least 3  ½ feet tall. They have adult like body proportions which means that their legs constitute about half their total height and they are usually lean considering children around ages five and six have the lowest body fat compared to all the other ages. I believe that Faustine’s lean figure isn’t just due to the normal growth pattern around her age but that shes lean because of her eating habits at home. Fat isn’t really common in her diet at home and vegetables and fruits are mandatory for three meals a day, everyday. I can also tell she eats healthy because for our trip to the park today, my aunt brought a container of fruits and a couple bottles of homemade fruit juice. Faustine’s gross and motor skills are up to par with the skills of children her age. I observed her running across the park many times with the other children and even beating them in the race that they were holding. She had a hard time conquering the jugle-jim though. She kept waddling back and forth every time she tried to get her feet up on the next bar and she eventually gave up and refused to return to the jungle jim again. She threw a few balls here and there but she was unable to throw it very far or accurate. By the age of three, children can already kick, throw, jump and climb things such as ladder. By the age of six, children can skip, climb trees and over  things, and catch a ball (uofmchildrenshospital.org). I was unable to observe a lot of fine motor skills from Faustine but she did pick up a stick from the ground, hold it like a normal adult would hold a pencil, and started drawing in the sand. By the age of 2, children can scribble, fold paper, draw vertical lines and manage semi-large object with their hands. By the age of six, children can copy letters, grasp pencils like a grown adult, and copy complex shapes (kamloopschildrenstherapy.org). I then observed her cognitive skills which included her language, memory, and perception. When observing Faustine, I realized that she is one extremely talkative child. She would talk about everything and anything sometimes she’d just sit in fro nt of us and talk to us and to herself while playing in the sand. According to Lev Vygotsky and his social learning theory, children use private speech (â€Å"The internal dialogue that occurs when people talk to themselves, either silently or out loud† (The Developing Person Through the Lifespan)) to review, decidem and explain events to themselves. Lev Vygotsky’s theories â€Å"stress the fundamental role of social interaction in the development of cognition, as he believed strongly that community plays a central role in the process of ‘making meaning’† (simplypsychology.org). A lot of the things she would say to us would be question like â€Å"why this† and â€Å"why that†. Other times she would run up to us just to blabber out a very nonsensical sentences and run off and other times she would just run up to the other children and make conversation with them. Her vocabulary has almost fully developed and all her sentences made sense even though what she was say were so silly and wild. She is a balanced bilingual and can speak Vietnamese and English fluently. All of this is normal for a child her age. A the age of 3 children can babble and pretend to read, by the age of five, children begin to read, talk, and write and by the age of six, a child has almost developed their language skills full (ed.gov). I was unable to observe Faustine’s memory during my day at the park with her but according to Baddeley’s model of working memory, children ages 4 and up have gained skills in working memory. Memory of children under age 7 is very weak but over seven, children memory have improved to the point where they can remember not only what happened, but where and when these things happened (sciencedaily.com). Faustine was very aware of her surrounding. She liked to dig in the sand to find pebbles and other small objects. She was very  curious about things around the park and would go exploring with the other children. I then observed Faustine’s psychosocial skills. Faustine is not a shy girl. She ran through the park making friends with everyone she bumped into and she even went up to an extremely shy little girl and talked to her as if they have been best friends forever. She hardly came up to ask us to play with her and sometimes acted like we weren’t even there. According to our textbook, children â€Å"prefer to play with peers rather than alone or with parents†. It also states that young children like to play with kids their age and of same social status. In the case of Faustine, she just liked to befriend any kid that was there at the park and willing to play with her. Faustine and the other children did a lot of sociodramatic playing where they would stand on top of the play equipment and pretend to be pirate by scoping out the â€Å"sea† and using the slide when they want other children to â€Å"walk the plank†. She was very friendly to everybody and didn’t cause any trouble with the other children. She was eager to get back to the playground to play with the other children every time we called her back to adjust her clothes or have her eat her snacks. According to Erik Erikson and his stages of psychosocial development, which are eight â€Å" stages through which a healthily developing human should pass from infancy to late adulthood† (simplypsychology.org), Faustine is in the Competence Stage (Industry vs. Inferiority). The age range for this stage is five to twelve years and this is the stage where Children become more aware of themselves as individuals.They work hard at being responsible, being good and doing it right (http://psychology.about.com). I saw this in Faustine because she rarely needed us for anything while she was at the park and she liked to explore and learn things on her own like how to work the equipment. I think that Faustine still need to learn about the f eeling of other people. She loved to make friends and talk to all the children at the park but she did not realise that some of the children just wanted to be left alone of didn’t like and but she kept persisting on making friends with them anyways. She also needs to be more aware of her surrounding. Although Faustine loved to explore the park and things around her, she didn’t realize what was going on around her with the other children. For example, she kept jumping from kids to kids not realizing that they were in the middle of play with her. She would jump from one area to the next and forget where she had previously  left her toys, and on some occasions, she even forgot that we were still watching her because she was to entranced in her own activities. During my observation. I observed that Faustine is a very healthy and fit child. Her biosocial, cognitive, and psychosocial development is up to par compared to children of the same age as her. She is very athletic and her social skills are very strong.

How Does the Scoring Curve Work for the ACT?

The ACT is a standardized exam most commonly taken by juniors and seniors in the United States. Many college admissions committees require either an ACT or SAT score, and some states now use the ACT as a high school graduation requirement. The test is well known nationally and its results are recognized by the most competitive colleges and universities in the country. For this reason, it comes as a bit of a surprise that ACT scores are not as commonly understood as one might expect. In fact, there are many misconceptions about ACT scores and their meaning, including the idea of an ACT scoring curve.       In this post, we will outline how ACTs are scored and what the implications of this scoring are on testing decisions and score comparisons. Read on to learn more about how the ACT scoring curve works. The ACT is offered in the United States six times per year, and while it’s common to think that your test will be scored on a curve in relation to the other tests taken on your test date, this is actually incorrect.   Your ACT is scored through a series of careful calculations. First, the number of questions you got right on each separate section is tallied. This results in what is known as a raw score. The raw score is simply the number of correct answers you submitted, and this number is not readily apparent on your score report. Instead, you see a score that is scaled. Your raw score is converted to a scaled score ranging from 1-36. These are the scores headlining your score report and are the numbers you’re probably most familiar with if you’ve researched ACT averages or benchmarks. Your scaled scores for each separate section are then averaged to calculate your composite score. Fractions more than or equal to one half are rounded up to the nearest whole number, while fractions under one half are rounded down to the nearest whole number. Your composite score is the first number that appears on your score report and is widely accepted as the most important indicator of your success on the test. Raw scores are converted to scaled scores by using a test-specific curve designed to correct for slight variations in the difficulty of each test. The curve is not based in any way on the performance of your peers. While we’re most accustomed to hearing about curves that are plotted in relation to other scores on the test, for the ACT this is not the case. Instead, the curve is calculated based on the specific difficulty of the ACT that you took. Because there are multiple versions of the test administered each year, it’s necessary to account for slight variations in how difficult each test is. Questions are weighted by difficulty and each test’s specific curve will take this into account. Again, multiple versions of the ACT are administered throughout the year and the difficulty of each test will vary. But generally, there is no single test administration that is easier than another. Even if a single test was easier, the score conversion process is designed to negate this difference on your scaled score. That is to say, if you did happen to take a slightly easier version of the exam, the scale to convert your raw score would be slightly steeper, making any mistakes more significant than they would be on a harder version of the test. Because many people do not understand the scaling process, there are some misconceptions about choosing a specific test date. One common misconception is that you should avoid taking the test during a particular month if there may be a large group of strong students taking the test, since this would throw off the scoring curve. Some people might say that the October test date is typically the most competitive, since many high school seniors are taking the test for the last time. But this idea is actually false, since the scoring curve does not depend on the scores achieved by other students taking the test at the same time as you. For example, if you take the ACT during a month when many strong students are also testing, and many of them score a perfect 36, your score will be the same as it would have been had they not taken the test. Your scaled score is dependent only on the independent difficulty of the particular version of the ACT that you took. The performance of your peers bears no weight on your converted score. Unless you have an official ACT Converted Score Chart produced specifically for the version of the test that you’re trying to score, you cannot convert your own raw score to the scaled score. On official practice tests, you are given a conversion chart made specifically for that test. While the chart changes only slightly from one version of the test to another, it cannot be reliably used to convert scores from other versions of the ACT. To get an idea of what the converted score chart looks like, and the process for scoring an ACT, check out page 60 of the official Preparing for the ACT Test booklet, which contains a complete practice test and its specific ACT Converted Score Chart. There is no magic formula when it comes to scoring well on the ACT. No test dates are easier than others, no test facilities will administer an easier test on any given day, and no amount of peer influence will change the way your raw score is converted to the 36-point scale. The only way to ensure that you receive the highest ACT score you’re capable of is to maximize your studying and test preparations. Some students find a study group helps to keep them on track and hold them accountable. Other students find that a personal ACT tutor is the most effective means of preparing. Still others prefer studying independently. Whatever the case may be for you, make sure to begin your test preparations well ahead of time. Here are some study guides to get you started: In addition to studying the test content, be sure to study test strategy and format as well. You should go into the test knowing exactly what to expect on test day so that there are no surprises to throw you off your game. Be familiar with the instructions for each individual section, the pacing of each section, and the general content knowledge required. While there is no single test date or facility that will magically transform your ACT score from drab to fab, there are certainly measures that you can take in advance to set yourself up for the most successful testing experience possible. Don’t overlook the value of proper planning and prior preparation as you get ready for your ACT test day. To learn more about the ACT test, check out these posts: With our free ACT checklist, you’ll get tips on how to strategize and get ready for the ACT. Enter your name and email below to download the checklist.

You need to answer the following question in the instruction Assignment

You need to answer the following question in the instruction - Assignment Example It is assumed that she is working at Dream Group for more than four years. It is assumed that Sarah has been continually employed with no significant breaks by the Dream Group on a fixed-term contract after 10th July 2002. In such scenario, she should make a protest for change of her employment status to a casual worker. She should ask Dream Group to serve a statement corroborating that Sarah is now a permanent employee. If Sarah’s employer fails to serve a statement or served a statement of reason that they would keep her only on fixed terms’ contract, and if she is aggrieved over it, she can make a claim to an Employment Tribunal for breaching the terms of the employment contract (Furber 2011). Sarah may request the management to provide her work in one of the hotels in the group which is adjacent to her home or to provide flexible working hours to take her child’s educational requirements. In Brennan v Park Vista Care Homes Ltd (ET/3401225/13, 26 Jun 2014), EAT held that there was no legitimate aim in turning down flexible working hour (Equal Opportunity Review 2013). Sarah can demonstrate that the scheme (with no hours of work set) would disadvantage her in that way as well. However, Dreams Ltd may show that the scheme is an impartial way of accomplishing a genuine business aim. As held in Seldon v Clarkson Wright & Jakes UKEAT/0434/13, this should be based on a fair and detailed analysis of the working practices and business considerations (Employment Opportunity Review 2013). In â€Å"Khan v. NIC Hygiene ET† (case no 1803250/04), where a Muslim employee was prohibited from completing his Haji, once in a lifetime commitment for a Muslim, the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca was a religious discrimination as held by EAT (Meer 2010:197). In Abdirsak Aden & Mahamed Hasan v Tesco, Bedford EAT on 3rd October 2013 held that the act of managers of Tesco, who locked the prayer room meant for Muslim employees and asked them to sign in/out when they

The Implementation of Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA) and Research Paper - 1

The Implementation of Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA) and Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) plans and the Challenge of Effective Integration - Research Paper Example It is for this reason that such bodies as the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) continue to enforce international policies that seek to minimise the number of air travel incidences and accidents. In its 2014 safety report, the ICAO recorded decrease in the number of accidents per one million departure from 3.2 in 2012 to 2.8 in 2013 (ICAO, 2014). This was against 2011 and 2010 rates of 4.2 each. This statistics shows that a lot of progress is being achieved in aviation safety. This research paper therefore seeks to investigate ways in which the implementation of two major flight safety systems namely the flight operational quality assurance (FOQA) and flight data monitoring (FDM) can aid in improving the safety status in air travel. This is done along the need to understanding the challenges that come with the effective integration of these and other flight safety systems. The FOQA and FDM systems are often thought of as being the same type of system and representing the same outcome. Klein and Militello (2011) however explained that even though these two may be very similar and used interchangeably, they are not the same and do not represent the same outcome. FDM can be said to be the parent safety system introduced by the Flight Safety Foundation and approved by the ICAO for practice for processing recorded data from routine flights. The overall aim of such processing of recorded data is to ensure that there is effective operational risk assessment for all aircrafts that are over 27 tonnes (Diehl, 2013). Out of the FDM, the FOQA was born very specifically by the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) which exempted itself from the ICAO’s mandatory requirement on January 1, 2005 for National Aviation Authorities (NAA) through the FDM (UK Health and Safety Executive, 2011). As a flight safety system, the FOQA acts as a voluntary program or guideli ne for capturing, analysing and visualising all forms

Does the Beauty and Majesty of the Natural World Need to Be Tied to a Essay

Does the Beauty and Majesty of the Natural World Need to Be Tied to a Higher or More Spiritual Force to Be Truly Understood - Essay Example Even in the cases when nature itself is considered divine, more conscious attitude to one’s own religious beliefs is psychologically beneficial. Some objections to this view are examined and followed by counterarguments related to current environmental ethics and politics. People need to have values in life. The need for spirituality is proven by psychological studies (Schroeder, 1992) and numerous moments of our daily experience. We want to transcend the limits of our own personalities by experiencing Other, be it in God, nature, or other entities (Schroeder, 1992, p. 25). Protection of environment is another acute need of humanity. There are numerous ways of satisfying these two necessities. The difference between them lies in the question where is the Other. Or, to put it playfully, who is the Significant Other? Once a person has decided, it becomes clear what God and nature mean to him or her. For pantheists and deep ecologists, nature is valuable by definition (Naess, 197 3). For most of the believers of world religions, nature is beautiful and majestic as long as its phenomena are sanctioned by some deity. Even pagans worship the deities of streams, trees, and rocks, not nature itself. But regardless from the forces considered divine in any one of these cases, the value of nature should not be mediated and limited by any other values.... It often establishes some hierarchy: many animals are believed to be ‘unclean’ or ‘sacred’ in various religions, and the believers treat those animals accordingly. Usually, this inequality does not result in animal massacres or maltreatment, but it has subtler implications for the entire ecosystems. In most of such hierarchies of world religions, human beings are usually situated above the other living creatures, so that the decisions about the entire ecosystems are made, so to speak, in their ‘favour’. This anthropocentrism of traditional culture is blamed for environmental crisis by deep ecologists and radical environmentalists, as it fails to represent the parts of ecosystem as interrelated (Leopold, 1949). There is also selectivity of non-human species: for instance, people are more likely to preserve the spotted owls than the insects that belong to the same ecosystem. It may be argued that human eye is selective by nature and that our exper ience of nature is still mediated by something, be it religion, science, or anything else. This view echoes the one expressed by Ralph Emerson, a classic representative of transcendentalism: that the poet’s eye â€Å"can integrate all the parts† (Emerson, 1836), thereby giving them sense. For Emerson, art and spirit were superior to nature: â€Å"Have mountains, and waves, and skies, no significance but what we consciously give them, when we employ them as emblems of our thoughts? (...) the whole of nature is a metaphor of the human mind† (Emerson, 1836). From the fact that our interaction with nature is mediated, it does not follow that our view is right. Schroeder (1992) explains that spiritual experience, including the spiritual experience of nature, should be