Article Analysis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Analysis - Article Example The fish in the middle has the notion that there is some justice in the world because it can feed on the smallest fish, or it can be fed on by the biggest fish (Peterson 73). When it is threatened by the biggest fish, it can release its anger on the smallest fish. This is a way of seeking justice through revenge. The smallest fish represents the poor and the less fortunate members of the society. Its life is threatened by both the other two fishes. It can be killed by the two bigger fishes, and no justice is done (Peterson 73). The three cartoons can be used in a classroom to help students realize that opinions on injustice and justice are related to an individual’s social class (Peterson 73). In a typical society, a given social class usually benefit from injustice done to others. For instance, the middle fish represent the oppressed middle class who are fighting injustice. Teachers can give their students a picture of the cartoon, and ask them to write down what they see. Se condly, teachers can organize their students into groups and ask them to debate on which fish is the most powerful and why? In Hunger Myths, the other presents four key myths that are blamed for global food insecurity and hunger. The author argues that hunger is not a myth, but the myths are the key barriers to ending hunger. 700 million of the world’s total population lack adequate food supply, while 12 million children die of hunger every year (Food First 241). The problem of food insecurity can only be solved, if people choose to do away with the current myths that they hold. The notion that there is no enough food to go around is a wrong belief, which should not be internalized by anybody. The truth is that there is enough food to provide everybody with 3,500 calories every day. This does not even include foods like root-crops, beans and vegetables. The problem is that a bigger potion of the world’s population is too poor to buy food (Food First 241). In addition, most hungry nations are net exporters of food and other agricultural products. Famine and other natural disasters cannot be blamed for food scarcity. The problem is that most arable lands are held by powerful few, thus depriving the majority of land. Human policies and institutions determine who eats and who starves during food crisis periods (Food First 241). The rapid population growth, which is a major concern in many countries, cannot explain food insecurity. Rapid population growth is caused by inequalities of denying people, especially women, of economic security and opportunity (Food First 241). This phenomenon is common in societies where health care, education, old age, and land ownership are beyond the reach of most people. The Green Revolution and technological advancements such as GM foods have led to increased production of food. This, however, cannot end hunger unless unequal distributions of powers that determine people to feed and not to feed during food crisis are c hanged (Food First 241). In a classroom setting, teachers can help to address food scarcity and insecurity issue by urging the students to unclear the myths described above from their mind. They need to know that food insecurity is caused by unequal distribution of economic powers, which determine the people to buy food during food crisis periods. In Ten Chair of Inequality Polly, Kellogg represents a simulation activity, which can be used

Public Relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Public Relations - Essay Example This paper will explain societal and organizational functions of PR, citing an example of an issue from an organization. It will further explain how the example used would be addressed both on societal and organizational levels. American Apparel is a youth attire brand in the United States that employs the services of professional designers, marketers and managers. Being among the top homegrown brands, the organization betrayed the loyalty of their customers as well as its corporate responsibility by taking advantage of a disaster and using it to market its products. During the event of Hurricane Sandy, the organization sent an email blast encouraging retailers to shop online within a 36-hour period and get a 20 percent discount. The marketing effort turned into an insult when it suggested that the customers were bored after being trapped in their homes by the hurricane, hence it was offering an escape from boredom. The PR officials had done a poor job in their social functions, beca use property and life had been destroyed, with millions of the trapped victims left without electrical power to even get online, yet no apology was offered for the offensive email blast. Societal functions of PR stipulate that public opinion about an organization must be gauged by analyzing what appears online, on the air and in print (Broom, Allen & Scott, 1994). The PR officials should issue press releases on company news, communicate with journalists on industry trends and establish the organization as a responsible player in the industry. Reputation should also be managed online through interactions with prospects and existing customers via social media websites. Conversations should be created by posting updates, responding and commenting to questions or complaints. Despite knowledge of these responsibilities, the marketing director and PR manager at American Apparel did not respond to the huge public outcry about their poor choice of marketing strategy. Customers responded to the email claiming never to visit the stores again, and urging whoever came across the email to spread the same word. This could have devastating effects on the existence of the organization. Innocent employees who had nothing to do with the posting of the email will be traumatized by the comments being made about the organization as a whole, with a negative impact on performance. Those with friends and relatives that were victims of the hurricane may be affected more. If the customers carry out their threats of never visiting the stores again, shutting down would be inevitable. Within the society, the organization would be viewed as being very socially irresponsible. At a time when everyone expects them to join in salvaging a disaster affecting the most critical element of stakeholders, the customers, the firm uses it to market. Organizational functions of PR require the PR manager to share the organizational goals and vision with their internal audience, which includes shareholder s and employees, and seek their feedback (Broom, Allen & Scott, 1994). Open communication increases shareholder satisfaction and employee engagement through uniting an organization in its quest of collective goals via a common identity. Crises can be managed by preparing and sharing response strategies in advance and updating shareholders and

Image Segmentation: Theories and Technology

Image Segmentation: Theories and Technology Theoretical Concepts and Technical Aspects on Image Segmentation Image segmentation is a very significant area in computer vision. Image segmentation, partitions an image into multiple regions based on certain similarity constraints. This acts as the pre-processing stage in several image analysis problems like image compression, image recognition etc. Segmentation is the vital part for the successful extraction of image features and classification. Image segmentation can be defined as the partition of an image into several regions or categories. These regions can be similar in any features like color, texture, intensity etc. Every pixel in an image is assigned to any one of the categorised region. Quality of segmentation is described as pixels in the same region are similar in some characteristics whereas pixels in different regions differ in the characteristics. The segmentation process includes restoration, enhancement, and representation of the image data in the required form. Image Segmentation Techniques Image segmentation techniques can be broadly classified based on certain characteristics. Basic classifications of image segmentation techniques include local and global image segmentation techniques. The segmentation method that is concerned with segmenting specific parts or region of image is known as local image segmentation. The segmentation method that is concerned with segmenting the whole image, consisting of very large number of pixels is known as global image segmentation. The next category of image segmentation method is based on the properties of the images to be segmented. It is categorised as discontinuity detection based approach and similarity detection based approach. In discontinuity detection based approach, the segmentation is based on discontinuities in the images like edge based segmentation and similarity detection based approach is based on similarity of regions like Threshold based, Region growing, Region Splitting and Merging etc. The segmentation technique which is based on the information of the structure of required portion of the image is known as structural segmentation. Most of the segmentation methods are stochastic type, where the segmentation is completely depended upon the discrete pixel values of the image. Threshold based segmentation method is the simplest method of segmentation. The image pixels are segmented based on the intensity level. This kind of segmentation is more applicable for images where the objects are lighter than the background. This method is based on prior knowledge of the image features. There are mainly three types of threshold based segmentation. Global Thresholding: This method is done using a proper threshold value. The threshold value will be constant for the whole image. Output of the image is based on this threshold value. Variable Thresholding: In this type of segmentation method the value of threshold can vary in a single image. Multiple Thresholding: In this kind of thresholding, the output of segmentation is based on multiple threshold values. Threshold values can be computed from image histograms. In [1], threshold based level set approach based on threshold based segmentation and fast marching method [2] for medical image segmentation is proposed. To im prove the image acquisition process in computer vision, threshold based segmentation method based on entropy criteria and genetic algorithm is mentioned in [3]. Edge based segmentation method is based on the sudden change of intensity values in an image. In image processing, object boundaries are represented using edge. Edge based segmentation works by identifying the region of abrupt intensity change in an image [4]. Mainly there are two types of edge based segmentation methods. Grey Histogram Technique: In this method the foreground is separated from the background based on a threshold value. Choosing the correct threshold value creates a problem. Gradient Based Method: Gradient can be defined as the first derivate of the image near the edge. Higher change in the intensity values between two regions is depicted by the high value of gradient magnitude. In order to perform multi scale image segmentation an edge based auto threshold generating method is introduced in [5]. Another method for edge detection using variance filter is introduced in [6]. Theory based segmentation method uses derivatives from several fields. Several types of this kind of algorithm includes, Clustering based segmentation: In this method clusters are formed based on the similarity criteria (size, color, texture etc). Methods include k-means clustering, fuzzy clustering, hard clustering etc [7]. Artificial Neural Network: In this method the neuron represents the pixels and segmentation is performed with the help of trained images. Methods using Wavelet Decomposition and Self Organization Map of artificial neural networks are proposed [8]. Region based segmentation [13] methods are similar to edge based segmentation. The advantage of region based segmentation upon edge based is that, the former is more immune to noise. In this method, the region of an image is either splitted or merged into areas based on similarity. Region Growing: the collection of pixels is grouped into a region with similar properties [9]. Region Splitting and Merging: Here the image is further subdivided into several regions based on some pre-defined criteria. Graph cut image segmentation is a very significant technique of segmentation under region based segmentation. Several techniques of region growing methods include techniques that combine edge and region based information using morphological watershed algorithms [10]. In this method, initially a noise filter along with magnitude gradient is used and pre segmentation is performed through region merging. A region similarity graph is then produced and final segmentation is performed using Multi Class Normalized Cut. This technique overpowers the Spectral clustering method. As the method mentioned is a time consuming task, new method is presented [11]. For the purpose of detecting objects sharply, least square method is used for region based segmentation. Here the local information is also considered by calculating the weight matrix. This segmentation technique is optimum and fast. Graph-cut Image Segmentation As mentioned in the above methods, the techniques either use the region information or use the boundary information [12]. This results in limited segmentation. In graph cut segmentation optimal result for energy function is computed and segmentation is based on that result. Basics of Graph-Cut An undirected graph, set of vertices and a set of edges, are considered. Vertex represents the pixels in an image and edges denote the connection between the adjacent pixels. There exists a source and sink node which holds the foreground and background respectively. In graph cut method, each edge is assigned with a non-negative weight which coins the term cost. [12] A graph cut is actually the partitioning of the edge set into several component sets. Graph cut method can be either min cut or max cut. Min cut can be defined as cut through minimum cost and max cut can be defined as the cut through maximum cost. That is after the cut performed, the vertices are divided into two sets, source and sink, which holds the foreground and background pixels respectively. Implementing graph cut method assigns value 1 to the pixels in the foreground and 0 to the pixels in the background. This is achieved through minimum graph cut method by minimizing the energy function. Types of Graph Cut Based Algorithm The graph cut based segmentation can be mainly divided into three types. They are Speed-up based graph cut, Interactive based graph cut and Shape prior based graph cut. The speed up based graph cut method is used to improve the speed of the graph cut method through parallel computing. Earlier implementation was based on CUDA code [14]. The best way to speed up the computational time is to reduce the number of graph nodes while reconstructing the graph [15] [16]. Another method used for speed up based graph cut method is clustering based graph cut. Clustering based graph cut is based on reducing the number of nodes by grouping similar pixels into a single cluster and treating a cluster as a node. Watershed based method is another important speed up based approach where, gradient images are considered and the concept of catchment basins are used [15]. Interactive based graph cut plays a very important role in segmentation of natural images and the situations where the segmentation requires high precision. In this kind of methods the seed points are selected and then segmentation is performed based on these points. Several methods are performed using the concept of bounding box, where the centre portion of the bounding box corresponds to the object and histogram is constructed. The area outside the bounding box is considered as the background region [17] [18]. Certain interactive segmentation is performed by choosing both the foreground and background region together. Iterative interactive graph cut segmentation is also performed. Shape prior based graph cut segmentation finds its importance where the image to be segmented is affected by noise, diffuse edge, obstructed objects etc. In this kind of segmentation, the shape information is included as the energy function [19] [20]. Case Study In this chapter a graph based image segmentation method is explained. The efficient graph based image segmentation method initially considers the input image as a graph. The pixel values are considered as the nodes of the graph and edge is drawn between the adjacent pixels. The edge weight is represented by the difference between adjacent pixels. Initially, the considered edge set is sorted in the increasing order of edge weight. The segmentation process actually segments the entire vertices set into disjoint sets based on some similarity function. The vertex set is initially randomly partitioned into several component sets. This is considered as the initial segmentation. The vertices producing the largest edge weight is considered first. Let the two vertices be v1 and v2. Then check whether these two vertices belong to disjoint component sets in the previous segmentation (initial segmentation). If the two vertices are in disjoint component sets then compare the edge weight connecting these vertices to the internal difference of these two component sets. If the weight of the edge connecting these vertices is smaller when compared to the internal difference, then these two components are merged. Otherwise, it is neglected. On continuing these steps till the smallest edge weight, a final segmentation of the input image is obtained. Expected Outcome In the proposed chapter, an exhaustive review on image segmentation such as threshold based, edge based, graph based and region based segmentation will be included. The various approaches employed for graph cut segmentation include interactive graph cut, efficient graph cut, shape based graph cut and speed up based graph cut. The chapter would conclude with results on a list of benchmark images. At the enclosure of the chapter, open research problems will be discussed.

Essay --

Video games have shaped this country in many ways, in such a way that no other product has even came close. This accomplishment would not have been met if it were not for its many different types games there are for sale. If someone were to ask someone that was from an era where video games were popular and you asked them about games from the old age and the new age, that gien person will either know what you are talking about and/or had the experience to play that game. That is how popular video games are in this country. There are many different types of videos games that consumers can choose from. When someone walks into a video game store, or anywhere that sells video games, they are bombarded with huge selections of games. These games vary from action games, war games, tracing games, and even role- playing games. The list of possible selections could go on and on. But, the three best types of games that have been consistently popular have been the third-person video games, first -person video games, and arcade games. Though there are many different types of video games that are out on the market, each one gives the user its own unique experience. A type of video games that I have had a lot of experience with are first person shooter games. A first person video game makes looks through the perspective of the character. This means that the only object seen is the gun or whatever object the character has in hand. Some examples of this type of game include: Call of Duty, Borderlands, Halo, and many others. Usually, these types of games makes someone feel like they are apart of the story line and really gives a feeling that he/she is right there in the action and gives players a cool outlook on the game while playing. This experien... ...s of the games and have at least played arcade games a few times. This just shows that arcade games are still popular among the children and teen population today, and still very well known and appreciated by the adult population. There are many types of video games out there for the consumer to buy and enjoy in their free time. The types of games that I thought were the most popular were first-person, third-person, and arcade games. These sought- after games have been both popular and popular throughout the world. The consumer can see this by how the demand for these types of games has been constant for a number of years. It is up to the consumer to make up their opinion if a game is good or bad. I believe everyone should give these games a chance, because they are not only the best sellers of this video game era, but are in my opinion the most enjoyable to play.

Black People and Story Essay

What is the relevance of the title in Toni Morrison’s â€Å"Recitatif? † â€Å"Recitatif† is a short story written by Toni Morrison and first published in the anthropology â€Å"Confirmation: An Anthropology of American Women† in 1983. The author creates a pioneering story about the lives of two young girls, Roberta and Twyla, living in an orphanage during a period of racial inequality. Both girls had been taken away from their mothers, one for illness and one for indiscretion. What makes this story unique is that, while the characters are clearly separated by class, neither is affirmed as African American or Caucasian. In order to address the essential social issue of that time, Toni Morrison presents five sections that span many years; the author provides a clear insight of inequality between white and black people. Moreover, with the publication of â€Å"Recitatif†, â€Å"Morrison raised issues engaging middle-class black women whose education and personal achievements create tensions within and outside of the black community† (Fultz). A considerable aspect of this story is the title of the work. â€Å"RecitÐ °tif† is a derivation of the word â€Å"recitative† which may be defined as a spoken singing style used in opera and oratories. A now-obsolete meaning is the rhythm peculiar to any language; furthermore, this word uses the root â€Å"recite† which also has special meaning. To recite, or to tell from memory, exemplifies that the story written by Toni Morrison was from a series of memories. Both of these definitions suggest the episodic nature of this story (Kusumoto). The plot is the key to understanding the meaning of the title. There are five encounters that show what occurs when two people have contradictory memories about the same event. For example, when Twyla realizes that she and Roberta have completely different memories of a significant event, she asks, â€Å"I wouldn’t forget a thing like that. Would I? † (Bakara & Bakara). Such uncertainty highlights to the main theme of the story. This instability of memory is expressed through narrative collage – â€Å"Recitatif† brings together the rhythms of 2 different lives for 5 short moments that are narrated by Twyla’s voice. The story is, then, in several ways, Twyla’s â€Å"rÐ µcitatif. † The title of the story accurately conveys some changes in actual voice throughout the text; for example, when Twyla is a younger, it is obvious that the author â€Å"speaks† in a child’s voice. In some cases, it seems that this girl is too thoughtful to be the little child, but the author conveys her voice in such a way that there is no doubt that she is. The sing song voice applies to the narrator as well as to the nature of other characters in the story. Radical changes are visible during Roberta’s and Twyla’s meetings; moreover, the sing song nature of race is also a part of the character’s makeup. Each of them shows clues that may be interpreted as rÐ µpresenting a black or white race. That is why readers try to compare the various aspects of the story in order to identify the race it characterizes. This story develops like acts in an opera, presenting its characters at different points in life. Here is an interesting fact: the voice of the narrator grows with its character much as children grow throughout their life. The title describes Morrison’s prose narrative and provides that the use of â€Å"gaps† is an integral part of this story. They are left out purposely by the author so they can be filled in by readers. In the first lines of the story it may seems that â€Å"Recitatif† tells a simple story about the interactions of two girls. Toni Morrison divided this short story into five encounters which describe the ongoing narrative events from the lives of these two women. These interludes imitate the spoken singing style and narrative of the Morrison story implied by its title. The term â€Å"gaps† is suitable for this story because each encounter is separated by long periods of time that leave the reader guessing; as an example, Roberta’s reference to Jimi Hendrix at the meeting in the HÐ ¾ward JÐ ¾hnsons. Before the reference, readers are certainly unsure of the time period of this meeting, but with the mention of this famous pop star, everyone can fill in the gap and realize this part of the story takes place in the 1960s. In conclusion, it can be said that the title of Toni Morrison’s story plays an essential role in the story. It accurately conveys the style of writing and the use of different techniques throughout the story. Works cited: Bakara, Imamu Amiri, and Amina Bakara. Confirmation: An Anthology of African American Women. 1st ed. Morrow, 1983. Print. Fultz, Lucille P. Toni Morrison: Playing With Difference. University of Illinois Press, 2003. Print. Kusumoto, Jitsuko. â€Å"Memories of the Daughters from â€Å"Recitatif† to Beloved. â€Å". 21-24, 2008. Web. 26 Feb 2013. .

Factors and Motivations That Influence Biological Warfare

Many troops during the years of World War I met their demise in what is arguable the most terrifying and inhumane of all military tactics – biological warfare. Soldiers inhaled a deadly acidic gas that burned them from the inside out, suffocating them in an excruciating and unimaginable pain. Kurth Audrey, a professor of strategy at the U. S. National War College in Washington, stated: â€Å"Science is as neutral as a knife; it may maybe a blessing or a curse depending on the heart and the mind of the man who holds it. †[1] Terrorists organizations are motivated by many factors to use biological warfare. If a terrorist organization has the concepts of science down, as a neutral knife, then they can produce weapons that can fulfill their agenda, whether it is something that has to do with reputation, politics, or religion. Many factors contribute to terrorists using this type of warfare, which stimulates the motivations of terrorist organizations. These factors range from; access to information, cost, ease of dissemination, availability, access to technology, and difficulty of detection. Biological warfare is a dangerous type of warfare, than can cause severe damage to a population of people, crops, or animals. It can also cause harm to the one that is dispersing the biological agent, which causes one to think, why would someone use this type of warfare? Biological agents are often simpler to attain and produce than chemical weapons that can cause mass destruction in a population. The material for biological agents can easily be grown or purchased. There are some agents, such as Anthrax or Brucellosis, which occur naturally in animals in certain parts of the world , and individuals can acquire these agents just by traveling the globe to where these agents grow. For an example, the Aum Shinrikyo cult was reported to have gone to Zaire, a place in Africa, to seek the strains of Ebola for its use in its bio-weapons program. [2] Until recently, anyone could order agents from supple houses around the world. In 1995, American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), a mail order company that provides biological products, shipped the bacteria, Anthrax, to Saddam Hussein's biological warfare program in Iraq. [3] Just like the increase of technology throughout the decades, there is also an increase of availability of information related to chemical and biological weapons. Information on how to create biological weapons can be taken from articles within scientific literature on a variety of topics, which only requires a trained scientist to understand. The Internet has created forums on which terrorists groups can reach out, recruit members, and spread messages. It also makes a large library of information available to just about anyone who is interested on the production of biological agents. One resource that is found online is, Bacteriological Warfare: A Major Threat to North America, which is written by Larry Wayne Harris of the Aryan Nation. 4] This manual describes the reproduction and growth of biological agents, and can be purchased for only $30. [5] Another resource available is called, Silent Death, which instructs the reader in ways to kill using chemical and biological poisons. According to the publisher of this book, it sells thousands of copies each year. [6] Bio-engineers are now armed with knowledge on how to cease biological agents, as well as the effects of the agents upon a population. According to Ken Alibek, who supervised the Soviet bio warfare program, â€Å"Although the mos-sophisticated and effected versions [of biological weapons]require considerable equipments and scientific expertise, primitive versions can be produced in a small area with minimal equipment by someone with limited training†¦ They would be relativity inexpensive and easy to produce. †[7] To produce bio-weapons, a terrorist organization must have access to a scientist with some graduate training in the fields of microbiology or genetic engineering. The political and economic situation in Russia created a supply of bio warfare scientists who were not being paid and were unable to provide for themselves or their families. Regardless of the political, moral and ethical standards of these scientists, it is reasonable to expect that many of those scientists are now working for terrorist organizations around the world. Iraq scientists discovered which strains to order by reviews in American scientific journals, which are located at American Type Culture Collection in Rockville, Maryland. For thirty-five dollars, they also picked up strains of tularemia and Venezuelan equine encephalitis once targeted for weaponization at Fort Detrick. [8] The knowledge that is learned, and the availability of the biological agents, caused the relative ease of production of the agents, storage they can be contained in, dissemination factors, increased safety for the troops handling the binary agents, and the less complicated processes of demilitarization. The cost of producing and deploying biological weapons is less expensive than chemical weapons; the materials, equipment, and production space are all so inexpensive, any terrorist organization can afford them. According to an Office of Technical Assessment (OTA) Report, the cheapest overt production of one nuclear bomb costs $200 million, with larger programs costing up to 50 times more. In contrast, a large arsenal costs less than $10 million dollars. 9] Kathleen Bailey, found through interviews with professors, students, and scientists, that all that was needed to create a biological weapons program capable of producing large amounts of agents, would be several biologists with $10,000 worth of equipment – all of which who could fit into the same room. [10] This then causes many terrorists organizations to actually be capable of producing a biological agent. Dissemination of biological agents can be simple and inexpensive. There are a variety of different ways they can be de livered. The simplest methods of dissemination are through the contamination of food products or water. This method only requires direct access to any food product or water- preferably during the purification stages of that food product or of that water. Biological agents can also be dispersed through the contamination of agriculture, indirect transmission through animals, and direct contact, such as the assassination of Georgi Markov in 1978 through a ricin- containing pallet that was shot into his thigh. Dissemination through aerosol or vapor into an enclosed area or the open air is more complex than just through food products or water. Biological agents released into the air, such as through the release of vapors from a crop duster, are subject to biological decay, physical decay, atmospheric thermal stability, wind speed, and dimension of the land surface. The dissemination of agents is more predictable in rural areas than urban regions. The agents must be able to withstand the stress of the dissemination, environmental factors, and physical obstructions. Researchers have found, however, that dissemination of agents at night or enclosed dark areas, such as subways or tunnels, can be particularly effective. [12] Biological agents can be extremely lethal, some biological agents create more deadly affects than others, such as Anthrax. According to the Department of Defense, ten kilograms of Anthrax can cause more damage than a ten kiloton nuclear weapon. [13] This form of warfare can lead a military down by 90% through the intentions of militarization, by giving the military that dispensed the biological agents a form of character. Since most individuals are not vaccinated for different types of diseases, such as smallpox, it can lead to millions of people dying. Small pox is an example of a bacteria that can cause up to 2 million people, if being exposed to a society, to die because of the complete absence of prevention and control measures since 1970, because people do not believe that this disease will emerge again. It has such a high mortality rate (one in three people die) and infectiousness (on average, one person will infect three additional people). Politics seams to be the cause of many disasters from the corrupt French government in 1740 which led to the brutal French Revolution, to the rebellions of Aum Shinrikyo, which formed their own structure based on the Japanese government. Aum Shinrikyo attracted followers that opposed the Japanese government, in the late 1980's and 1990's, which caused their group to become larger. Their goal was to pursue terrorist violence in competition with rival groups that Shoko Asahara, the leader of this violent group, feared would attract support away from Aum Shinrikyo. Their next goal was to take over the Japanese government. On March 1194, Aum Shinrikyo tried to assassinate the leader of a rival religious sect, the Soka Gakkai, but failed because the spraying system mounted on a van malfunction and contaminated its operators. However, the second attempt occurred in Mastumoto on June 27th, 1994, the members working with the biological agents of Aum Shinrikyo, improved the spraying system, which targeted three judges who were expected to rule against the sect in a land dispute. This later resulted in the injuries of 500, including the three political judges they were after. In September 1984, Rajneeshee religious cult the Dalles, Orgeon grew Salmonella typhimurium to manipulate the results of the November 1984 election. They planned to buss homeless people into their commune and register them as voters, and make the opposing voters sick and unable to vote. They then poisoned to county commissioners by using the method of dissemination of contaminating water with salmonella typhiurium, which caused both the commissioners to become sick. The cult then contaminated ten Dallas restaurants, which opened up 751 cases of salmonella. 16] The uses of these pathogens by both these two different groups, had the attentions of manipulating whatever they deemed was politically corrupted. Biological agents can be small and easy to transport. William Patrick, who left the US biological Weapons Development Program around 1969, regularly carries a vial containing a stimulant for anthrax, just to test whether or not it will be detected. In 1999, he brought the vial with him into a hearing of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence without being detected and claimed to make the same move at the State Department, the Pentagon, and the CIA. 17] Many have traveled through airports, with high-tech security, around the world carrying equipment for deploying these biological agents through the air and never were stopped to explain the purpose for the equipment. The first signs of an attack may not even come until weeks after the agent has been deployed. Thus, by the time the authorities determine an attack has taken place, the perpetrators could be anywhere in the world, trying to escape what they have done. Biological attacks can be mistaken for naturally occurring disease outbreaks. Because of the difficulty in detecting a biological weapons attack, it is almost impossible to lay blame on a particular group or individual for the outbreak. As technology, and information on the biological fields of science increase, so do the potential threats of this type of warfare. It has been examined closely to how the factors help contribute to this type of warfare, as well as how motivation leads for this type of warfare to become some-what successful. The main major factor of groups to use this type of warfare would be religion. Religion plays a tremendous role in human misery, from wars, such as the crusades, to the use of biological weapons targeted at specific religious groups. When terrorism is involved in the name of religion, such as Al-Qaida, it is often motivated by violence that is regarded as â€Å"divine duty† which justifies bloodshed. One of the hallmarks of a religious terrorist is the unquestioned willingness to kill a large number of people without conscience behind their agendas. Since biological warfare is very effective in killing mass number of people, many religious extremist groups use this form of warfare to justify their actions, and views on religion. Terrorists groups have reputations that attract many people. Acquiring such massive biological weapons, or producing such complicated weapons, brings the terrorist group a high-rank reputation as well as to be seen as having no boundaries. It then makes it easier for the terrorist group to achieve their agendas. Aum Shinrikyo cult is an example that uses both of these motivations. Their attack in the subway system in 1995 not only caused the successful attack of fifty-five hundred people, according to their agenda, but had gotten people to realize their dangerous element; the involvement of highly intelligent and educated people, in which some are considered to be Japan's brightest scientists, computer technicians, and trained professionals. Even by the standards of cults, the Aum were a strange bunch. Among other things, members believed in the virtues of levitation and coffee enemas. They also wore elaborate radio sets on their heads so as to better hear the thoughts of their Leader. Despite their unusual ideas, the cult attracted a number of educated followers with scientific and technical abilities. It is a discouraging fact: religious cults may be strange and oblivious, but that doesn't prevent them from attracting capable intelligent followers – or to pursue their doomsday agendas. This type of warfare is an inhumane, dangerous type of warfare, that has killed dozens of people. If we actually take the factors into consideration, than we can lower the motivation and the prevent the further productions of these biological weapons. Bibliography http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/esp_sociopol_AUM01.htm

Cultural Heritage Paper Essays - National Symbols Of The Philippines

Cultural Heritage Paper Essays - National Symbols Of The Philippines Cultural Heritage Paper HUB 500 Cross Cultural Dynamics of Behavior September 1, 2013 The Filipino culture has always been an amazing thing to me, especially with all the information I have never even knew about myself. The first people to ever enter the United States were both my Grandmother and Grandfather. They have come along way back in the day, and the day they finally got to start their new life in the United States was a great blessing. As they came to the Philippines, they tried to get as many of my aunts and uncles into their as quick as they can, but unfortunately only just a few were able to. And one of those few was my father. Growing up, I was left there for about two years until my father came to come get me, along with my mother. But from then on after I was four years old and changing to a different environment and different language was a pretty challenging task for myself even though I dont remember much. Identifying myself as well as my family, I would consider myself as an Ilocono and as I grew up I definitely came to know about it more because I would speak my language so fluently although I wasnt able to learn the main language which was Tagalog. My family entered the United States as immigrants back then but later below, I will explain the significance of the race, skin color and hair play within my group. One of the most dominant religions in the Philippines would have to be Catholicism but they do have other religions. My expectations when I was little was becoming a basketball player because growing up, I would always watched basketball but then realized I was too short and didnt have the determination to become an NBA player. In most Asian countries as well as the Philippines is that individuals seem to have an awfully hard time saying no all because they have a tendency to try and avoid hurting another persons feelings. Basically saying no to a person, can be considered by others as not being so friendly or even disrespectful. Filipinos would rather agree and say yes, even though they really mean to say no. Many Filipinos are dialogue oriented but in some cases it somewhat resembles and has a relation to Spanish. As a sign of respect, they usually do simple things that people tend to find a little strange but they usually address people by their title. After awhile from time to time, as well as a relationship being established, they address business associates by their nickname or title. Knowing the Filipino culture, there are also ways that they communicate. For an example they might have made a gesture, which means something. A smile can easily be understood as an agreement or conformation in a discussion that may have recently occurred. This same exact smiling gesture can also be used to hide an embarrassing disagreement, as well as an aggravation. An eyebrow that is raised and a jerking of the head upward is a nonverbal sign of affirmation. A person could also point their head downward is a gesture for saying no. Another example could also be when an individual says yes including the pointing of their head down can be legitimately certain that they have a negative agreement with what you have been recently discussing about. While in most of the cultures, it is similar and mutual for both women and men to shake hands with each other when they are introduced for the first time as well as being able to greet each other. With that being said, Filipinos are the opposite. For the Filipino culture, any kind of touching is a low for most. When men touch women, that is the case. All across the Philippines there are many dialects, but one interesting thing is that the country is split into different regions. These regions are called Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. In the Philippines, the Gender roles are mostly found in dating, marriage, school systems, and especially the many families of Filipinos. Their sex is assumed when they are born according to Filipinos. The most respect goes to all males for the most

Solutions for Challenging Counting Problems

Solutions for Challenging Counting Problems Counting can seem like an easy task to perform. As we go deeper into the area of mathematics known as combinatorics, we realize that we come across some large numbers. Since the factorial shows up so often, and a number such as 10! is greater than three million, counting problems can get complicated very quickly if we attempt to list out all of the possibilities. Sometimes when we consider all of the possibilities that our counting problems can take on, its easier to think through the underlying principles of the problem. This strategy can take much less time than trying brute force to list out a number of combinations or permutations. The question How many ways can something be done? is a different question entirely from What are the ways that something can be done? We will see this idea at work in the following set of challenging counting problems. The following set of questions involves the word TRIANGLE. Note that there are a total of eight letters. Let it be understood that the vowels of the word TRIANGLE are AEI, and the consonants of the word TRIANGLE are LGNRT. For a real challenge, before reading further check out a version of these problems without solutions. The Problems How many ways can the letters of the word TRIANGLE be arranged?Solution: Here there are a total of eight choices for the first letter, seven for the second, six for the third, and so on. By the multiplication principle we multiply for a total of 8 x 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 8! 40,320 different ways.How many ways can the letters of the word TRIANGLE be arranged if the first three letters must be RAN (in that exact order)?Solution: The first three letters have been chosen for us, leaving us five letters. After RAN we have five choices for the next letter followed by four, then three, then two then one. By the multiplication principle, there are 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 5! 120 ways to arrange the letters in a specified way.How many ways can the letters of the word TRIANGLE be arranged if the first three letters must be RAN (in any order)?Solution: Look at this as two independent tasks: the first arranging the letters RAN, and the second arranging the other five letters. There are 3! 6 wa ys to arrange RAN and 5! Ways to arrange the other five letters. So there are a total of 3! x 5! 720 ways to arrange the letters of TRIANGLE as specified. How many ways can the letters of the word TRIANGLE be arranged if the first three letters must be RAN (in any order) and the last letter must be a vowel?Solution: Look at this as three tasks: the first arranging the letters RAN, the second choosing one vowel out of I and E, and the third arranging the other four letters. There are 3! 6 ways to arrange RAN, 2 ways to choose a vowel from the remaining letters and 4! Ways to arrange the other four letters. So there are a total of 3! X 2 x 4! 288 ways to arrange the letters of TRIANGLE as specified.How many ways can the letters of the word TRIANGLE be arranged if the first three letters must be RAN (in any order) and the next three letters must be TRI (in any order)?Solution: Again we have three tasks: the first arranging the letters RAN, the second arranging the letters TRI, and the third arranging the other two letters. There are 3! 6 ways to arrange RAN, 3! ways to arrange TRI and two ways to arrange the other letters. So there are a total of 3! x 3! X 2 72 ways to arrange the letters of TRIANGLE as indicated. How many different ways can the letters of the word TRIANGLE be arranged if the order and the placement of the vowels IAE cannot be changed?Solution: The three vowels must be kept in the same order. Now there are a total of five consonants to arrange. This can be done in 5! 120 ways.How many different ways can the letters of the word TRIANGLE be arranged if the order of the vowels IAE cannot be changed, though their placement may (IAETRNGL and TRIANGEL are acceptable but EIATRNGL and TRIENGLA are not)?Solution: This is best thought of in two steps. Step one is to choose the places that the vowels go. Here we are picking three places out of eight, and the order that we do this is not important. This is a combination and there are a total of C(8,3) 56 ways to perform this step. The remaining five letters may be arranged in 5! 120 ways. This gives a total of 56 x 120 6720 arrangements.How many different ways can the letters of the word TRIANGLE be arranged if the order of the vowels IAE can be changed, though their placement may not?Solution: This is really the same thing as #4 above, but with different letters. We arrange three letters in 3! 6 ways and the other five letters in 5! 120 ways. The total number of ways for this arrangement is 6 x 120 720. How many different ways can six letters of the word TRIANGLE be arranged?Solution: Since we are talking about an arrangement, this is a permutation and there are a total of P( 8, 6) 8!/2! 20,160 ways.How many different ways can six letters of the word TRIANGLE be arranged if there must be an equal number of vowels and consonants?Solution: There is only one way to select the vowels we are going to place. Choosing the consonants can be done in C(5, 3) 10 ways. There are then 6! ways to arrange the six letters. Multiply these numbers together for the result of 7200.How many different ways can six letters of the word TRIANGLE be arranged if there must be at least one consonant?Solution: Every arrangement of six letters satisfies the conditions, so there are P(8, 6) 20,160 ways.How many different ways can six letters of the word TRIANGLE be arranged if the vowels must alternate with consonants?Solution: There are two possibilities, the first letter is a vowel or the first letter is a consonant. If the first letter is a vowel we have three choices, followed by five for a consonant, two for a second vowel, four for a second consonant, one for the last vowel and three for the last consonant. We multiply this to obtain 3 x 5 x 2 x 4 x 1 x 3 360. By symmetry arguments, there are the same number of arrangements that start with a consonant. This gives a total of 720 arrangements. How many different sets of four letters can be formed from the word TRIANGLE?Solution: Since we are talking about a set of four letters from a total of eight, the order is not important. We need to calculate the combination C(8, 4) 70.How many different sets of four letters can be formed from the word TRIANGLE that has two vowels and two consonants?Solution: Here we are forming our set in two steps. There are C(3, 2) 3 ways to choose two vowels from a total of 3. There are C(5, 2) 10 ways to choose to consonants from the five available. This gives a total of 3x10 30 sets possible.How many different sets of four letters can be formed from the word TRIANGLE if we want at least one vowel?Solution: This can be calculated as follows: The number of sets of four with one vowel is C(3, 1) x C( 5, 3) 30.The number of sets of four with two vowels is C(3, 2) x C( 5, 2) 30.The number of sets of four with three vowels is C(3, 3) x C( 5, 1) 5. This gives a total of 65 different sets. Alternately we could calculate that there are 70 ways to form a set of any four letters, and subtract the C(5, 4) 5 ways of obtaining a set with no vowels.

American workforce

The behavioral component means the tendency to take negative actions against a particular group. The behavior stems form attitudes and feelings which constitute prejudice. Although prejudice is generally negative it is not as damaging as discrimination. The behavior component makes it possible to make the thoughts become real. Research has found that discrimination in any form is detrimental to the well being of the discriminated individual (Mathis Jackson, 2004). The workplace is the place in which the employee comes to work on his tasks and to carry out his profession. If the workplace is non-discriminatory, the employee is more likely to work effectively and efficiently and to increase productivity and performance as well. The most common methods employed by organizations to ensure that their work environment is non-discriminatory are to conduct sensitivity trainings, to provide provisions for grievances and complaints of discriminatory behavior and to follow non-discriminatory guidelines in terms of hiring, selection and promotions. Sensitivity trainings are common in most organizations especially if the company is culturally diverse as well as sexual orientation, disability and religion. The advantages of using sensitivity trainings to make employees become aware of the prejudices and discrimination they may have for other people and teaches the employees how to change their thoughts about minority groups in an experiential manner. It also communicates to each employee that an individual is a person in his/her own right and should be respected as such, and not be accorded respect based on one’s race, religion or sex. The disadvantage in using this method is that if  employees do not have a positive attitude towards the training then this would surely limit their capacity to learn from the sessions. Moreover, sensitivity trainings are periodically given and is not reinforced thus limiting its effectiveness. The provisions for grievances and complaints communicate to the employees that discrimination will not be tolerated by the management. It is effective as a control mechanism to lessen discrimination in the workplace and make the employees become cautious of their behavior. This method does not really ensure that the workplace would be discrimination free since it does not teach the employees why discrimination is wrong. It only holds people accountable for their actions, although it gives the employees who belong to the minority group comfort. Besides, discrimination may come in subtle forms and not even many employees who are victims of discrimination will file a complaint for fear of repercussions in terms of inter-office politics. Hiring, selection and promotion of employees based on merit and performance is a non-discriminatory principle to ensure that people become part of the organization based on criteria that can be achieved by most people. The difficulty with this measure is that although it is an objective measure, subjectivity is still present. It is common knowledge that when it comes to promotions and even selecting candidates for the job a certain amount of subjectivity that cannot be monitored by a guideline. It also does not consider that mangers may have their own prejudices which may dictate their decisions on hiring and promotion. References Bohlander, G. Snell, S. (2003). Managing Human Resources 13th ed., South-Western College Publication Fitzenz, J. (2001). How to Measure Human Resource Management 3rd. ed , New York; McGraw-Hill Mathis, R. Jackson, J. (2004). Human Resource Management 11th ed., South-Western College Publication American Workforce

Supply Chain Management in the Argri Foods Sector within UK and Research Paper

Supply Chain Management in the Argri Foods Sector within UK and Northern Ireland - Research Paper Example Over the past few years, companies having been focusing on reducing the number of suppliers that they have so as to harness effective relationships that is build more on collaboration (Ponce-Cueto, Garcia-Sanchez, and Ortega-Mier, 2010: 111). Indeed supplier relationship which had in the past been ignored is presently growing to be an influential aspect of the retail supply chain and businesses as well. Lintukangas and Kahkonen (2010:107) show that supplier relationship which essential in connecting a business to the supplier network, is critical in increasing a firm’s competitiveness as the company is able to exploit synergies from such relationships. This increases the effectiveness of supplier relationship management thereby increasing business performance. Such views are also shared by Jiang, Henneberg and Naude (2012) who note that supplier relationship management which thrive in trusting and dependent environments are critical for the enhancing business objectives where the quality of such relationships determine level of trust. Problem Statement Though there have a wide array of research on how best to manage relationships within the supply in order to enhance the performance of an organizational (Olurunniwo et al, 2011; Leeman, 2010; Croxton et al, 2001), the evolving nature of the retail supply chain necessitates constant change in the way it is managed. Such changes that have over the recent past been impacting the supply chain include changes into multi-tier network of relationships, the increasing practice of outsourcing key supply chain processes within the retail sector and the impacts of the recession in the way the way that retailers carry their business and relate to the suppliers. This necessitates a study in this area into how such... This essay approves that in analyzing data in this research study, repeated themes and ideas gathered from the interview answers will be identified in order to give meaning to the data collected. The data gotten will be constantly compared both with the reviewed literature and with other respondent’s answers in order to determine a pattern and meaning. Common elements within the smaller retailers will also be analysed and identified in order to understand what these have in common, while common elements, themes and ideas from the large retailers will also be analysed in order to be able to understand what these share. This report makes a conclusion that it is not possible to explore and reach out to all the retail supply players and to relevant business entities since there are quite many businesses with different business operations. This follows the fact that the research focuses on retail supply chain which is crowded with diverse businesses. The research will therefore have some bias in a way as regards reaching out to particular relevant businesses. In addition, the research will cover only one specific geographic region and therefore may not be representative of all geographic regions and especially the global environment. In addition, getting access to some executives in some companies may need a lot of dedicated efforts in order to get an appointment set. Though the study is limited by these constraints, the results could have important practical implications to the retail industry.

How should one live Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

How should one live - Coursework Example However, we should not forget that all people are linked to the earth. In this regard, we are all connected, and this connectedness requires us to live in harmony and ecologically conscious. The question on how an individual should live is significant to human existence. Aristotle provided an explanation on how one should live through the concept of eudaimonia (Pojman, 2005). This concept was translated to imply happiness, fulfillment and human flourishing. Aristotle gave this answer because he established that eudaimonia was the only goal of life that could be taken into account as "an end in itself, and not a means to another end" (Pojman, 2005). Aristotle can be viewed to have offered an appropriate manner to live, if such a thing subsists. He came up with eudaimonia through observing the virtues that were portrayed by people who seemed happy and flourish (Pojman, 2005). As it was, such people conducted themselves with some degree of courage, honesty, integrity, honor, fairness and rationality. Therefore, how one ought to live is concerned with ethics, which develops an individual’s virtuous character (Pojman, 2005). Notably, if an individual develops such a p ersonality, he or she understands the right thing to do and do

Ethical Business in the UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ethical Business in the UK - Essay Example A survey done by UK’ Institute of Business Ethics revealed that the ethical companies posted better performances when compared to those that were not. The institute made comparisons of the economic value added (EVA), price and the market value added (MVA). One of the reasons why the ethical companies outperformed those that do not be not was because of the high productivity of their employees (Palmer, 2010, 99). It is very rare that these companies lose their best workers and thus the production process flowed effectively. The other factor that is pointed out as making the ethical companies perform exemplary was due to the positive reaction to people to their products and services. In many cases, people preferred to be involved with the ethical companies that are operational in the UK. The last factor lead to the better performance of ethical companies is that highly qualified employees and executives are normally attracted to such companies. Economists argue that the focus on ethical companies came as a response to an environment characterized by aggressive enforcement. The financial crisis that took place in the UK made the ethical companies skate the financial downturn (Flynn, 2008, 121). Unlike the olden days where business leaders just rolled down their eyes on the mention of ethics, many managers recognize the role that ethics play in their businesses. Leaders who are innovative have the ability to see the connection that exists between profits and ethics. Leaders in the ethical companies have the notion that the company does not suffer any losses in the increase of resources that help it comply with the set ethical rules. People in the UK have grown frustrated by the existing tax loopholes that make the international companies avoid paying taxes or pays very little taxes as compared to the other companies. In England, a group of people took to the streets of London to demonstrate against the tax loopholes that existed in the country (Crane & Matten, 2010, 67).

Rapid Economy Developmentt Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Rapid Economy Developmentt - Essay Example Both India and China government can now provide timely and more efficient services for everyone’s wellbeing. This is as a result of more people being able to pay their taxes as there are more employment opportunities. The availability of more revenue has thus enabled them to improve on the medical healthcare facilities and education. This not only has private benefit, but a healthy population can be more productive due to the increased life expectancy. There is also the reduction of crime. This is because those lower the social ladder are able to earn enough thus eliminating theft cases. Economic, environmental and global problems that have arisen and are likely to arise On the other hand, rapid growth has caused a lot of harm in China and India. These negative consequences have affected the economic sector, the environment and the global security. These issues arise from expansion of economic activities. As demand keeps on increasing, the more the global side effects. India a nd China being in the beginning phase are experiencing the structural shifts from agriculture to industrial growth. With this, there is a substantial decline in the agricultural share, in these two countries. This has led to the rural- urban migration and thus the amount of farming has reduced. While this happens, the levels of energy consumption go high thus the release of poisonous gases into the environment. To achieve economic growth, these two countries have to increase in manufacturing exports, and decline in manufacturing imports. This leads to increase in energy consumption levels which cause environmental dilapidation. Both China and India are dependent on coal, fuel and electricity as sources of energy. India consumes a lot of energy in the form of solids which include coal and commercial wood. With the rate of economic growth, they had to depend more on liquid fuel, which includes petroleum. However, with the scarcity of oil sources, India had to depend on liquids from th e rest of the world, therefore, started importing, which has peaked annually. China being a popular nation with rapid industrialization requires a lot of energy. From the availability of resources, China depended more on solid fuel mainly coal. However, the energy consumption went higher each year, creating the need for other sources of energy and that's when they started falling back on liquid fuel (Erol & Yu, 1987). By the year 2005, China was the second largest consumer of oil led by United States of America. The net imports for oil seem to be growing each year. This puts an economic strain on citizens who pay for these imports indirectly through their taxes. This high usage of energy in these two countries causes the main problem of pollution. While meeting the high energy demand, the energy production causes the release of toxic gases like carbon dioxide and sulphur. High dependency on coal in both China and India causes severe air pollution by release of sulphur in the air whi ch is the cause of acid rains. The continued emission of these gases is a leading cause of global warming, which causes the erosion of the ozone layer, resulting in the rise, in temperatures. The effects of this are already global; with the melting of snow ice and glaciers, the rivers are overflowing causing high dispensation of waters into the oceans. Other effects of global warming are the increase

Criminalology Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Criminalology - Case Study Example el also views the community as the center of correctional treatment and feels that by reintegrating the individual back to the society, he/she will quit his/her deviant behaviors and uphold a living that will be beneficial both the him/her and the society (Restorative Justice, n.d.). When the community takes charge in maintaining and reintegrating the members who are deviant, least amount of security is necessary to maintain public safety. Everyone becomes aware that they have an important role to play and so deviance is discouraged. The Rational Basis Test is used to determine whether a law is constitutional. Therefore, according to the test or for a law to pass the rational basis test, it must be established that it is related to a legitimate government interest. So using the test, there must be a rational connection between the regulation and the legitimate interest put forward to justify it. If a law cannot pass the rational basis test, then it translates that it is not legitimate and cannot be used in the criminal justice system. The rational basis test is used mainly in cases where no fundamental rights are at stake. There must be an alternative means of exercising the right. As indicated earlier, the test establishes or tests whether an action taken by the government is reasonable and whether it may be legitimately pursued by the same. In simple words, the action taken must be rationally related to a given government action to be considered legitimate. There must be an alternative means of exercising the right that remains open to the offender. The offender has his rights and so the action taken must not close all avenues that he can use. Otherwise the action will not pass the Rational Basis Test. The social environment has significant effects on the correctional policies. For instance, the community plays a major role in the correction of offenders and most often it’s their failure that makes the person not to be integrated again in the community.

Developing Professional Practice for a Student Essay

Developing Professional Practice for a Student - Essay Example Effective professional practice makes the difference between competency and incompetency. Throughout the unit, I have leaned the effect of acquiring best practice since during internships I would find communication and interaction with fellow staffs easy and cordial. This would not have been so if I had not gone through the unit. Effective professional practice is intense to permit students and others to develop new skills and knowledge essential in their professional practice. Professional skills The unit has equipped me with numerous skills regarding professionalism. Time management is one of the skills learned; time is an essential part of individual and its management practice distinguishes the rich and poor. I need to be wealthy in knowledge and material thus time management is an essential skill that the unit has endowed. Currently and in future time management help and will help me deliver my duties promptly and become a role model to others. Communication and interpersonal sk ills are professional knowledge and skills acquired. Communication is essential and it gives a significant impact if done professionally (Morrison, 1993). The communication skills vary from the body language, intonation and words used. The best mode of communication attraction is the first impression; within seconds of interaction people form their opinion and if my dressing is not presentable my wording and intonation would not impress them. The formal and informal communication category assists in interaction with other people such as fellow staffs, patients or clients, and management. This skill that assists me to treat people as individuals thus ensuring interpersonal rapport is maintained. The skills can assist me in the future to attract and retain clients when I start my own business and also interact with employees professionally. Further training and practice of the skills can assist to add more value to what I have learned. Teamwork is another professional skill learned. A ny profession requires teamwork spirit to make work easy and also to encourage different experts to pull together in achieving organizational objectives. These skills help me appreciate individuals with their capacity and contribution. The future is brighter with this kind of skills put into practice I can manage bigger human resource capacity. It is essential to be a team player to make effective manager or a leader in an organization. With practice and involving my role models, I can add value to skills acquired and be better. Behavioral characteristics of the successful professional skills and presentation skills are additional professional knowledge acquired in this unit. Professional skills are pillars of my professional growth and development (Karten, 2010). Practice and training are additional activities to assist in perfecting the skills acquired and remain relevant. Knowledge development Knowledge gathered from this unit is that attitude, hard work, good communication, pres entation, dedication, and devotion are professionalism values that I have to keep throughout my career development. Maintaining ethics is an essential matter in professional development since it builds a reputation and assists one earns the trust of others (Eraut, 2003). I have learned trust is essential in financial matters and going through the unit this cannot be over-emphasized.  

Criminalology Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Criminalology - Case Study Example el also views the community as the center of correctional treatment and feels that by reintegrating the individual back to the society, he/she will quit his/her deviant behaviors and uphold a living that will be beneficial both the him/her and the society (Restorative Justice, n.d.). When the community takes charge in maintaining and reintegrating the members who are deviant, least amount of security is necessary to maintain public safety. Everyone becomes aware that they have an important role to play and so deviance is discouraged. The Rational Basis Test is used to determine whether a law is constitutional. Therefore, according to the test or for a law to pass the rational basis test, it must be established that it is related to a legitimate government interest. So using the test, there must be a rational connection between the regulation and the legitimate interest put forward to justify it. If a law cannot pass the rational basis test, then it translates that it is not legitimate and cannot be used in the criminal justice system. The rational basis test is used mainly in cases where no fundamental rights are at stake. There must be an alternative means of exercising the right. As indicated earlier, the test establishes or tests whether an action taken by the government is reasonable and whether it may be legitimately pursued by the same. In simple words, the action taken must be rationally related to a given government action to be considered legitimate. There must be an alternative means of exercising the right that remains open to the offender. The offender has his rights and so the action taken must not close all avenues that he can use. Otherwise the action will not pass the Rational Basis Test. The social environment has significant effects on the correctional policies. For instance, the community plays a major role in the correction of offenders and most often it’s their failure that makes the person not to be integrated again in the community.

How Is the Power of Dreams and Dreaming in the Novel of Mice and Men Essay Example for Free

How Is the Power of Dreams and Dreaming in the Novel of Mice and Men Essay The idea of moving from one place to another, working hard and trying to raise the quality of life for you and your loved ones is known as The American Dream. Steinbeck invites us to understand how having this dream keeps them going despite the challenging life that each character faces. Throughout the novel, Steinbeck makes this dream the main focus of the story for both the reader and characters. George’s dream is to have independence and to go into town and get whatever I want but most importantly he dreams of being somebody. On the other hand, Lennie aspires to be with George and to tend the rabbits. Ultimately, George and Lennie both wanted to have a little house and couple of acres an a cow and some pigs however, George only tells Lennie about their dream to comfort Lennie. This is shown when Lennie says No You tell it. It aint the same if I tell it. Go on George. How do I get to tend the rabbits. It is only after they all realised that together, this thing they never believed in was coming true Even though the dream is very important to George as well, Steinbeck portrays Lennie as someone who wants the dream a lot more. This is shown through Lennies angry or upset feelings when he feels like he has done something that would jeopardise their dream. George uses this to his advantage to threaten and control Lennie by blackmailing him, If you do, I wont let you tend the rabbits. Consequently, Lennie tries to please George and to gain his approval as much as possible. Another way in which Steinbeck shows the power of dreams and dreaming in the novel is through how much they want it. Steinbeck portrays each character’s desperation through their lifestyle. The dream that each character has reflects what is missing from their life. George and Crooks are both very desperate about this dream because they both want their current lives to be like their past. This is shown when, for a second, George loses track of the present and says â€Å"we’d keep a few pigeons to go flyin’ around the win’mill like they done when I was a kid† which is referring back to his childhood. Similarly, Crooks wants to return to his past. â€Å"The white kids used to play at our place, an’ sometimes I went to play with them. † This shows that Crooks used to be well respected and equal within his community. After all, Crooks â€Å"ain’t a southern negro†; however, he is not treated well at the ranch, therefore, the dream provides comfort for Crooks. Although George wants to return to his childhood, there is a deeper meaning to his dream. George wants to â€Å"just say the hell with goin’ to work† because unlike Candy, George doesn’t want to stay at the ranch too long so he would get ‘canned’. For George, the dream means that â€Å"nobody could can us† Furthermore, George doesn’t want to have to keep moving because he would â€Å"jus live there† and â€Å"belong there. There wouldnt be no more runnin round the country and gettin fed by a Jap cook. † This suggests that he’ll be his own boss. A result of being a migrant worker, no one at the ranch has any friends, which is why Crooks was surprised to hear that Lennie had George. For George and Lennie, the dream of having their own land provides a stable home that will eventually gain them friends and family. On the other hand, Crooks is very pessimistic about the possibility of a dream becoming a reality because he has been segregated in the ranch for as long as he can remember. His cynicism has led him to believe â€Å"Its just in their head. Theyre all the time talkin about it, but its jus in their head. This suggests that his past experiences have affected his power to dream. Steinbeck reinforces the power of dreaming within the novel, as he shows every character’s reaction when they all realise that there is a possibility of George and Lennie’s dream becoming reality. â€Å"They looked at each other, amazed. This thing they had never really believed in was coming true. Once they believed that the dream is a possibility, the tension is ramped up. Suddenly there is something to lose and something to fight for. This massively enhances the power that the dream has over each character and for a while the feeling of doom is lessened. The reader wants to know if each character can escape the curse they seem to be under and reach their goals. For Lennie and candy the dream would provide an exciting opportunity, as both characters are not worth mu ch in the real world. The dream would provide them a chance of appreciation. To Lennie, the dream is an antidote to disappointment and loneliness, and he often asks George to recite the description of the farm to him for comfort. Like a child, he loved the hear George telling him to â€Å"tend the rabbits† correspondingly for Candy it would make him feel more important as he can â€Å"cook and tend the chickens and hoe the garden some† Even though Curley’s Wife was the reason that the dream fell apart, she had big dreams to be in â€Å"pitchers† Unsatisfied by her surly husband, she constantly lurks around the barn, trying to engage the workers in conversation. However, although she may come across as very flirtatious, she only flirts with the men for attention. Which is what her dream would have provided her if she didn’t marry Curley. Shes so lonely, and so desparate for the attention of the men at the ranch that she even flirts with Lennie as she leans â€Å"closely† at him to â€Å"see if she was impressing him† To look in more detail about how Steinbeck shows the power of the dreams, take each individual character and how they all act to their dreams ending. For example, Steinbeck has made Curley very bitter after the realisation of his dreams ending when Candy’s wife is killed by Lennie. His bitterness shows how much the dream meant to him and how he needed it because he is old and disabled so he will probably get ‘canned’ soon, He shuffles out of the barn which that he has given up all hope, almost given up on life.

Porters Five Forces Analysis of Yahoo!

Porters Five Forces Analysis of Yahoo! The World Wide Web brings about new products and services every day for any consumer to access at any time with the simple click of a mouse. Consumers may look at the local weather forecast, find address and phone number of a business, or simply use the Internet for entertainment. All of these activities and many more are all accessible on Yahoo!s website. Terry S. Semel, Chief Executive Officer at Yahoo! and the Porters Five Forces analysis model along with Porters Differentiation strategy helps Yahoo! compete intensely among its competitors. From an internal perspective, Porters Five Forces gives Yahoo! a sustainable competitive advantage by analyzing the Threat of New Entrants, the Bargaining Power of Buyers, the Bargaining Power of Suppliers, the Threat of Substitute Products and Services, and the Intensity of Rivalry among Competitors in an industry. Semel analyzes each piece of Porters Five Forces model to determine the best route for Yahoo! to boost its competitive advantage in the Internet industry. First, Yahoo! analyzes the Threat of New Entrants coming into the Web industry. The Threat of New Entrants refers to the possibility that the profits of established firms in the industry may be eroded by new competitors (Dess, Lumpkin, Eisner, 2007, pg. 59). In Yahoo!s industry, it is relatively easy for any firm to have an eye-catching website. A new entrant can be a firm in its beginning years who does not have a significantly large budget, but could better serve consumers wanting specific products or services because of new technology it owns. Distributors and manufacturers may also reach more consumers through the Internet, so they enter the market. Semel bought technology such as the Inktomi search engine for Yahoo! to better serve the Internet world and keep a sustainable competitive advantage using product differentiation to create a higher barrier of entry for those smaller or newly established firms. The second of Porters Five Forces discusses the Bargaining Power of Buyers in an industry. Buyers threaten an industry by forcing down prices, bargaining for higher quality or more services, and playing competitors against each other (Dess, Lumpkin Eisner, 2007, pg. 61). Buyers are generally not loyal to a specific brand of product or service. Buyers have any information available to them 24 hours a day and they use this to their advantage. Consumers want the best deal for them at that time, so they will take a few minutes, click the mouse a few times, and find the best opportunity for their needs. Buyers use this tool to their advantage. It is difficult for suppliers to retain repeat customers because the customers have the opportunity to shop around to best satisfy their quality and price needs. With Yahoo! expanding their search capabilities by adding new features like its alliance with SBC communications, adding WUF Networks Inc., and HotJobs.com, Semel is aiming to keep more of Yahoo!s consumers within the Yahoo! website and prevent them from exiting to search on a competitors sites. The Bargaining Power of Suppliers is another of Porters Forces that Yahoo! needs to keep in mind. Suppliers involve providing products or services to other businesses, therefore use the term B2B-that is, business-to-business (Dess, Lumpkin Eisner, 2007, pg. 285). Yahoo! is an intermediary between some buyers (consumers) and sellers (advertisers) and is business-to-business oriented. Suppliers can make arrangements on the Internet to make searching and buying easier for consumers and prevent them from switching. Yahoo! relies heavily on several different advertisers to keep consumers searching on the Yahoo! site. Semel has built Yahoo! into a site that can offer surfers many different services, with several of them requiring the customer to pay a small fee (Shamsie, pg. 795). The customer is more likely to stay on one site if everything he/she is searching for is there, letting Yahoo! and the advertising supplier profit. Any company in an industry needs to keep a watchful eye for the Threat of Substitute Products and Services. This may be the most important of Porters Five Forces for Yahoo! to stay on top of. Substitutes limit the potential returns of an industry by placing a ceiling on the prices that firms in that industry can profitably charge (Dess, Lumpkin Eisner, 2007, pg. 63). Again, consumers can compare prices, quality, and customer service between companies, but companies can do the same. A firm can research what products and services other firms are selling and make substitute products or services. This is the case for Yahoo!s digital theme part Semel is pushing into effect. AOL and MSN are also envisioning a digital theme part and they have many substantial advantages from competitive software and programs to money on hand. Semel has pushed through with new advanced technology to give Yahoo! the edge they need to compete with companies such as AOL and MSN (Shamsie). The last of Porters Five Forces Model is the Intensity of Rivalry Among Competitors in an Industry (Dess, Lumpkin Eisner, 2007). Because the Internet creates more tools and means for competing, rivalry among competitors is likely to be more intense (Dess, Lumpkin Eisner, 2007, pg. 288). Rivalry among competitors on the Internet is extremely high because technology is constantly changing. New, better software is being introduced every day to give certain companies a competitive advantage and leave others trying to catch up. Google is Yahoo!s biggest competitor, and is regarded as the most prominent search engine in most parts of the world (Shamsie, pg. 796). Semel and his team have been dedicated to increase Yahoo!s search engine capabilities to compete with competitors like Google, MSN, and AOL. Semel has done a wonderful job turning Yahoo! around from the falling company it was before he joined the team. Using Porters Five Forces, Semel has wisely used the companys funds and resources to gain new technology to push Yahoo! to the top of the bar. Implementing Porters Differentiation strategy by building an animated theme park as Yahoo!s Web site to keep people wanting more from Yahoo! might just give Yahoo! the edge it needs to move forward and take over the number one spot for search engines. Differentiation consists of creating differences in the firms product or service offering by creating something that is perceived industrywide as unique and valued by customers (Dess, Lumpkin Eisner, 2007, pg. 169). Differentiation can have a huge influence on customers because of unique service and product offerings and positive brand image (Dess, Lumpkin Eisner, 2007). Semel is creating differentiation through features and technology with Yahoo! having multiple services in one location in Yahoo!s digital theme park. He is building brand image by investing in billion dollar companies like SBC Communications and Inktomi so Yahoo! will have the technology and the freedom to adapt to changes in the fast-paced Internet industry by owning their own technology. Semel is aiming for Yahoo! to be a whole, small world in itself and enticing customers to stay in Yahoo!s website for all of their service and product needs. Semel comments, The more time you spend on Yahoo!, the more apt you are to sample both free and paid services, (Shamsie, pg. 795). The total revenue for Yahoo! leaped tremendously from 2002 to 2003 and continues to rise because of Yahoo!s CEO Terry Semel. Yahoo! hired Semel to pull the company out of ruins and he did so successfully with Michael Porters Five Forces Analysis model and by implementing Porters Differentiation strategy. He acquired excellent technology and made strategic alliances with companies to give Yahoo! a step-up from its competition. Semel is differentiating Yahoo! by building a digital Disneyland-a souped-up theme park for the Internet Age (Shamsie, pg. 792). His goal is to keep current customers in Yahoo!s site by offering everything to fill their needs. The more time a customer spends on a specific site, the more likely he/she is to do business on that sight, letting Yahoo! profit from his/her requests. Semel using Porters Five Forces and the Differentiation strategy continues to push Yahoo! to the top of the leader board. References Dess, G. Gregory, Lumpkin, G.T., Eisner (2007). Strategic Management 3e. McGraw-Hill. Shamsie, Jamal. Yahoo!. Michigan State University, 792-797. Porters Five Forces and Differentiation The Threat of New Entrants Easy for anyone to have eye-catching websites that compete with large companies New entrant can be any firm who will do well because of technological advances Distributors and manufacturers can reach more consumers through the Internet, so they enter the market The Bargaining Power of Buyers Buyers can get information off of Internet about competing products and services Most Internet buyers are not loyal to a specific brand. Want what is good now Suppliers have a hard time keeping loyal customers because they shop around for the best quality, prices, and customer service The Bargaining Power of Suppliers Yahoo! is intermediary between some buyers and sellers B2B oriented Suppliers can make arrangements on the Internet to make searching and buying easier to prevent customers from switching Yahoo! is intermediary between some buyers and sellers B2B oriented Suppliers can make arrangements on the Internet to make searching and buying easier to prevent customers from switching Yahoo! uses several different types of suppliers on their site to keep customers within their walls The Threat of Substitute Products and Services Any company can research and find a better way to accomplish the same task Yahoo! was threatened by AOL and MSN for the theme park The Intensity of Rivalry among Competitors in an Industry Rivalry is very intense because there are many tools and excellent technology for competing firms Google, MSN, and AOL are major rivals Differentiation Huge influence because of the unique services and products Yahoo!s alliance with big companies Yahoo!s buying of outstanding technology Yahoo! wants to keep people in their site. They are more apt to pay a small fee for something if they can stay in one place

Lessons from Hewlett-Packard Case Essay -- corporate spying, hp corpora

Hewlett-Packard Corporation plays an important role in the Information Technology products. In the report, it will choose two of the issues which are related to each other from the Hewlett-Packard troubles list. The first issue is the congressional federal did research to the corporate spying and pretexting in 2006. The second issue is about Mark Hurd, who was the president and CEO in HP, was accused of sexual harassment and did illicit business which conduct that he is short of judgment. First, the report begin with identify the moral problem which combine with some relevant background information which can let the reader better understand the situations. Next part, the report will definitely point to point analysis two of the issues related with the moral problem which are covering in the organizational behavior, so that reader can deeply understand and interpretation the problems. At last, finding the feasible ways and establishing the clear effectiveness solutions are the importa nt steps to pull HP Corporation through the downturn. The purpose of this report is using organizational behavior knowledge to comprehend and solve the HP workers’ moral problem. â€Æ' In the report, the first issue describe Hewlett-Packard Corporation was involved into an investigation of spying and pretexting by a congressional federal. According to Hyatt (2007), Patricia Dunn, who was the chairwoman in HP, illegally obtained the private phone records and some of the employee’s information which using the pretexting method led to HP corporation internal leaks. In the second issue, in his article, Hurd on the Street, Booth (2010) describes Mark Hurd, who was the chief executive officer in HP, was got fired on account of intentionally faked financial sta... ... Works Cited Barnard, J. (1992). Successful CEOs Talk about Decision Making. Business Horizons, 35(5), 70-74. Sheeder, F. (2006). If you Find Yourself in A Hole, Put Down the Shovel. Journal of Health Care Compliance, 8(6), 51-52. Booth, R.A. (2010). Hurd on the Street. Regulation, 33(4), 2-4. Collins, D. (2006). Five Levees for Improving Ethical Performance. Strategic Finance, 88(1), 19-21. Gebler, D. (2006). Creating an Ethical Culture. Strategic Finance, 87(11), 28-34. Hyatt, J. (2007). Lessons from Hewlett-Packard. Board Leadership, 2007(90), 6-7. Ostapski, S.A. & Pressley, D.G. (1992). Moral Audit for Diabco Corporation. Journal of Business Ethics, 11(1), 71-80. Priem, R. L., Walters, B. A., & Li, S. (2011). Decisions, Decisions! How Judgment Policy Studies Can Integrate Macro and Micro Domains in Management Research. Journal of Management, 37(2), 553-580.

Oedipus - He tried and failed. :: Classics

Oedipus - He tried and failed. Oedipus is one of the most famous tragic characters of Greek drama. Sophocles, a famous composer of tragic Greek drama, wrote Oedipus the King. In this drama, Oedipus is just a good king trying to help his people by punishing a criminal for a certain crime he committed. Even though he tries so hard not to do what was foretold that he would do, he ends up doing it all the same. He was innocent of the knowledge of what he was doing, but guilty of the act he commits. He is a good king in trying to help his people, without his knowing it, he is the cause of the problem he is trying to solve, and when he tries to avoid the unavoidable, he finds that he is the reason for the problem. Oedipus is a good king, just trying to save his people by removing the plague. In his attempt at trying to be the savior of his people, he condemns the man who killed the former king. He wants to punish that man because he is the reason for the plague that is harming his people. He says, "Whoever he was that killed the king may readily wish to dispatch me with his murderous hand; so helping the dead king I help myself." (161-4) What he does not realize is that he is the culprit, the reason for the problem, and because he is going unpunished, the plague had continued. When Oedipus is a young adult, he goes to the oracle of Apollo, who tells him that he will one day kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus, who has no idea that he is adopted at the time, flees his home in fear that he will cause harm to the parents he loves. After he leaves Delphi, the place of the oracle, he meets a man in a chariot whose charioteer tells him to move aside. When he refuses, the other man attacks him, and then Oedipus turns and kills them all. He comes to Thebes; the people were under siege by a Sphinx. After he saves the town, he is given the queen, Jocasta, to be his wife as a reward. What he does not know was that the one of the men he killed was his father and the woman that he marries is his mother. Oedipus the king never considers what he had done, until he hears certain pieces of information and starts to piece things together. He finds out that what was foretold to him, his killing his father and

Good and Bad Dams

Latin America and Caribbean Region Sustainable Development Working Paper 16 Good Dams and Bad Dams: Environmental Criteria for Site Selection of Hydroelectric Projects November 2003 George Ledec Juan David Quintero The World Bank Latin America and Caribbean Region Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Department (LCSES) Latin America and the Caribbean Region Sustainable Development Working Paper No. 16 Good Dams and Bad Dams: Environmental Criteria for Site Selection of Hydroelectric Projects November 2003George Ledec Juan David Quintero The World Bank Latin America and the Caribbean Region Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Sector Management Unit George Ledec has worked with the World Bank since 1982, and is presently Lead Ecologist for the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Unit (LCSES) of the World Bank’s Latin America and Caribbean Regional Office. He specializes in the environmental assessment of development projects, wit h particular focus on biodiversity and related conservation oncerns. He has worked extensively with the environmental aspects of dams, roads, oil and gas, forest management, and protected areas, and is one of the main authors of the World Bank’s Natural Habitats Policy. Dr. Ledec earned a Ph. D. in Wildland Resource Science from the University of California-Berkeley, a Masters in Public Affairs from Princeton University, and a Bachelors in Biology and Environmental Studies from Dartmouth College.Juan David Quintero joined the World Bank in 1993 and is presently Lead Environmental Specialist for LCSES and Coordinator of the Bank’s Latin America and Caribbean Quality Assurance Team, which monitors compliance with environmental and social safeguard policies. He specializes in environmental assessment of infrastructure projects, mainly roads, hydropower, oil and gas, urban transport, and water supply and sanitation. He has received the Regional Award from the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) for promoting improvements in environmental impact assessments throughout Latin America.He is a civil engineer with postgraduate degrees in Environmental and Sanitary Engineering. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions in this document are those of the authors, and should not be attributed in any manner to the World Bank, its affiliated organizations, members of its Board of Executive Directors, or the countries they represent. This working paper series is produced by the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Sector Management Unit of the Latin America and Caribbean Regional Office. Additional copies may be obtained from the authors or from LCSES Program Assistant Peter Brandriss ([email  protected] rg, or tel. 1-202-473-9379). Cover photos (clockwise from upper left): Loksop Dam, South Africa Guavio Dam, Colombia Yacyreta Dam, Argentina/Paraguay All photos by George Ledec ii Contents Acknowledgments †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢ € ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. iv Foreword †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. v Executive Summary†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ ii Introduction †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 1 Adverse Environmental Impacts of Hydropower Development †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 3 Key Indicators of Likely Environmental Impacts †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 9 Overview of Environmentally Good and Bad Hydroelectric Dam Sites †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 13 Conclusions †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚ ¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 5 Bibliography†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 17 Tables 1. Hydroelectric Projects: Adverse Impacts and Mitigation Options 4 2. Land Area Flooded and People Displaced in Large Hydropower Projects iii 12 Acknowledgments Doug Mason (consultant) compiled data on more than twenty completed Latin American hydroelectric projects; this information was very useful in our analysis of environmental and social impacts, mitigation measures, and site selection criteria.Several current and former World Bank Group staff members provided useful comments and much encouragement, including Alessandro Palmieri, John Briscoe, Teresa Serra, Tony Whitten, Robert Goodland, Tor Ziegler, Warren Van Wicklin, William Partridge, Maria Clara Mejia, Kristine Ivarsdotter, Mateen Thobani, Salman Salman, and A. J. Glauber. This paper also reflects the helpful comments provided by Dominique Egre and Gaitan Guertin (Hydro-Quebec), Jose Goldemberg (World Commission on Dams), and Paul Dulin. Peter Brandriss helped edit and prepare the report for publication. iv ForewordFew types of development projects arouse as much controversy as hydroelectric dams. Their often serious environmental damage has been amply documented within the past decade. Nonetheless, many countries, in Latin America and worldwide, rely upon hydroelectric dams for a major portion of their electric power. Electricity remains a key ingredient for improving the lives of poor people almost everywhere. In developing countries, rapid urbanization and continued population growth will ensure increased demand for electric power for decades to come, even with the most successful of demand management and en ergy efficiency measures.Energy planners in many developing countries are thus likely to continue seeing hydroelectric dams as a promising source of renewable electric power. This report provides important advice for substantially reducing the environmental damage from future hydroelectric dams (whether or not they receive World Bank Group financing) through good project site selection. Although the report’s conclusions are drawn primarily from a review of Latin American dams, its innovative methodology for dam site selection–based on robust environmental and social criteria and straightforward, quantitative indicators–should prove useful worldwide.The report also helpfully summarizes the environmental mitigation options for the improved operation of existing hydroelectric dams. As such, this report should be of considerable interest to people interested in hydroelectric dams, whether at the World Bank, other multilateral and bilateral development institutions, government agencies, private energy companies, consulting firms, environmental and other NGOs, and academia. This report is part of the LCR Sustainable Development Working Paper Series published by the Latin America and the Caribbean Region’s Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Sector Management Unit (LCSES).This series seeks to disseminate the results of our analytical and operational work, present preliminary findings, and describe â€Å"best practices† with respect to major sustainable development issues facing the region. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in these papers are entirely those of the authors and should not be attributed to the World Bank, members of its Board of Executive Directors, or the countries they represent. John Redwood Director Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Latin America and Caribbean Region The World Bank v Executive SummaryLarge dams vary considerably in their adverse environment al and related social impacts. From an environmental standpoint, there are relatively good dams and bad dams. While some large dams are relatively benign, others have caused major environmental damage. The severity of environmental impacts from a hydroelectric project is largely determined by the dam site. While dams at good sites can be very defensible from an environmental standpoint, those proposed at bad sites will inherently be highly problematic, even if all feasible mitigation measures are properly implemented.This paper provides a simple, yet robust, methodology for comparing proposed hydroelectric project sites in terms of their expected negative environmental impacts, and relating these to power generation benefits. The paper also summarizes the environmental mitigation options for large dams. If properly implemented, these mitigation measures can effectively prevent, minimize, or compensate for many (though not all) of a hydroelectric project’s negative impacts.Non etheless, the most effective environmental mitigation measure is good site selection, to ensure that the proposed dam will cause relatively little damage in the first place. The paper presents quantitative indicators (using data that are relatively easy to obtain) for rating and ranking proposed new hydroelectric projects in terms of their likely adverse environmental impacts. Projects with a small reservoir surface area (relative to power generation) tend to be most desirable from both an environmental and social standpoint, in part because they minimize natural habitat losses as well as resettlement needs.In general, the most environmentally benign hydroelectric dam sites are on upper tributaries, while the most problematic ones are on the large main stems of rivers. Power expansion planning should ensure that environmental criteria, of the type outlined in this paper, are given appropriate weight in hydroelectric project site selection. Many of the more problematic dam sites are best left undeveloped, because the environmental or related social impacts are likely to be unacceptably high. In those cases, other power generation technologies are likely to be more environmentally desirable.Conversely, hydroelectric dams at good sites (with relatively low adverse impacts) and with effective implementation of proper mitigation measures are likely to be more attractive from an environmental standpoint than the most likely power generation alternatives. vii Introduction 1. Large hydroelectric dams are among the most controversial of all types of development projects. They have been the focus of much criticism of the World Bank and other international financing agencies. The â€Å"large dams† debate is often highly polarized.Critics of large hydroelectric projects point to a wide range of negative environmental and related social impacts, from the destruction of unique biodiversity to the displacement of vulnerable human populations. Defenders of large dams n ote that they are often the economically least-cost source of electric power available, especially to large urban centers; they are a renewable electricity source; and most other power generation technologies also imply significant adverse environmental impacts. 2.Worldwide, many countries rely upon hydropower for a substantial portion of their electricity. In developing countries, rapid urbanization and continued population growth will ensure increased demand for electric power for decades to come, even with the most successful of demand management and energy efficiency measures. Electricity remains a key ingredient for improving the lives of millions of poor people throughout the developing world. Energy planners in many countries are likely to continue seeing hydroelectric dams as a promising, renewable source of electricity.Major recent international initiatives–including the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, 2002), World Water Forum (Kyoto, 2003), Wo rld Commission on Dams (1997-2002), and the ongoing Dams and Development Project of the United Nations Environment Program–have reaffirmed the commitment of many governments and international agencies (including the World Bank) to hydropower development, but in a manner which fully reflects modern environmental concerns. 3. In this context, it is important to remember that all large hydroelectric dams are not alike.Large hydroelectric projects vary tremendously in the extent of their adverse environmental and related social impacts. (In this paper, we define large hydroelectric dams as those with 10 megawatts or more of installed generating capacity, to distinguish them from small or micro-dams which generate power on a smaller scale. ) For example, the 500–megawatt Pehuenche Hydroelectric Project in Chile flooded only about 400 hectares of land (with minimal damage to forest or wildlife resources) and has had no water quality problems.By contrast, the Brokopondo Dam i n Suriname inundated about 160,000 hectares of biologically valuable tropical rainforest and is known for serious water quality and aquatic weed problems, while providing relatively little electric generating capacity (only 30 megawatts). 4. We conducted a review of more than twenty completed hydroelectric dam projects in Latin America, along with several well-known projects from other regions. Our study found that some large dams are relatively benign, while others have caused substantial environmental and related social damage.This paper provides a methodology for easily comparing proposed hydroelectric project sites in terms of their expected adverse environmental impacts, relative to their power generation benefits. The technical criteria and quantitative indicators in this paper should be viewed as complementary to 1 2 LCR Sustainable Development Working Paper No. 16 the broader and often more process-oriented advice of other recent reports on dams, including the 2000 Dams and Development report of the World Commission on Dams.This paper’s recommendations are fully compatible with the World Bank’s Water Resources Sector Strategy, although this paper provides more technical detail regarding specific environmental impacts, mitigation options, and site selection criteria. Adverse Environmental Impacts of Hydropower Development 5. The range of adverse environmental and related social impacts that can result from hydroelectric dams is remarkably diverse. While some impacts occur only during construction, the most important impacts usually are due to the long-term existence and operation of the dam and reservoir.Other significant impacts can result from complementary civil works such as access roads, power transmission lines, and quarries and borrow pits. Table 1 summarizes the adverse environmental and social impacts associated with dams and reservoirs, along with the typical kinds of mitigation measures often proposed (and, less often, effective ly implemented). 6. Our analysis indicates that with properly implemented mitigation measures, many of the negative environmental and related social impacts of hydroelectric projects can be reduced to very acceptable levels.As outlined in Table 1, mitigation measures can effectively prevent, minimize, or compensate for most adverse impacts, but only if they are properly implemented. In our review of Latin American hydroprojects, we found wide variation in the extent to which environmental mitigation measures were planned, budgeted, and actually implemented. 7. Moreover, for some types of negative impacts, at some project sites, the available mitigation measures—even when properly implemented—are inherently unsatisfactory.Examples of adverse environmental impacts which occur at some hydroelectric projects and cannot be fully mitigated include (i) irreversible biodiversity loss, if critical natural habitats not occurring elsewhere are submerged (or left dry) by the dam; (ii) fish passage facilities frequently cannot restore the pre-dam ecological balance of a river, in terms of species composition or fish migrations; and (iii) some cultural property (including sacred sites) cannot be adequately salvaged prior to reservoir inundation. 8.Thus, because mitigation measures are often not fully implemented, and are sometimes inherently inadequate, the single most important environmental mitigation measure for a new hydroelectric project is good site selection, to ensure that the proposed dam is will be largely benign in the first place. In the following summary of typical adverse environmental impacts and corresponding mitigation options, it is important to keep in mind that all these types of impacts can be either avoided or minimized through good project site selection. 3 4Note: All of these impacts can be avoided or minimized by good dam site selection, the single most important environmental measure. Environmental Impacts Mitigation Options Impacts o f the Dam and Reservoir Flooding of Natural Habitats Some reservoirs permanently flood extensive natural habitats, with local and even global extinctions of animal and plant species. Very large hydroelectric reservoirs in the tropics are especially likely to cause species extinctions (although such losses are only infrequently documented due to the lack of scientific data).Particularly hard-hit are riverine forests and other riparian ecosystems, which naturally occur only along rivers and streams. From a biodiversity conservation standpoint, the terrestrial natural habitats lost to flooding are usually much more valuable than the aquatic habitats created by the reservoir. One occasional exception to this rule is that shallow reservoirs in dry zones can provide a permanent oasis, sometimes important for migratory waterfowl and other terrestrial and aquatic fauna.To offset the loss of natural habitats to reservoir flooding or other project components (such as borrow pits), one or more compensatory protected areas can be established and managed under the project. If an existing area is protected â€Å"on paper† only, a useful project option is to strengthen its onthe-ground protection and management. The area protected under the project should ideally be of comparable or greater size and ecological quality to the natural area lost to the project.Under the World Bank’s Natural Habitats Policy, hydroelectric and other projects should not be sited where they would cause the significant conversion or degradation of critical natural habitats that do not occur elsewhere (and, hence, cannot be adequately compensated). Loss of Terrestrial Wildlife The loss of terrestrial wildlife to drowning during reservoir filling is an inherent consequence of the flooding of terrestrial natural habitats, although often treated as a separate impact. Although they may be useful for public relations purposes, wildlife rescue efforts rarely succeed in restoring wild populati ons.Instead of drowning, the captured and relocated animals typically starve, are killed by competitors or predators, or fail to reproduce successfully, due to the limited carrying capacity of their new habitats. Wildlife rescue is most likely to be justified on conservation grounds if (a) the species rescued are globally threatened with extinction and (b) the relocation habitat is ecologically suitable and effectively protected. However, the money spent on rescue would usually do much more for wildlife conservation if it were invested in compensatory protected areas.The most effective way to minimize wildlife mortality in hydroelectric projects is to choose dam sites which minimize the wildlife habitat flooded. LCR Sustainable Development Working Paper No 16 Table 1. Hydroelectric Projects: Adverse Environmental Impacts and Mitigation Options Environmental Impacts Mitigation Options Involuntary Displacement Involuntary displacement of people is often the main adverse social impact of hydroelectric projects. It can also have important environmental implications, such as with the conversion of natural habitats to accommodate resettled rural populations.For physical displacement, the main mitigation measure is the resettlement of displaced populations, including new housing, replacement lands, and other material assistance, as needed. Success usually requires consultation and participatory decisionmaking by both the resettled and host populations (mandatory for World Bank–supported resettlement). Effective resettlement of vulnerable ethnic minorities is particularly challenging because some of these people are highly vulnerable to adverse social changes.Accordingly, the World Bank’s Involuntary Resettlement and Indigenous Peoples policies afford special consideration to these populations, specifying that, among other requirements, all viable alternative project designs should be explored before considering physical displacement for these groups. Fo r people who are not physically displaced but suffer an economic loss of livelihoods (based on fisheries, agricultural or grazing lands, river-edge clay for brick and tile production, or other resources), mitigation measures should involve the provision of replacement resources, new job training, or other income restoration assistance, as needed.Deterioration of Water Quality The damming of rivers can cause serious water quality deterioration, due to the reduced oxygenation and dilution of pollutants by relatively stagnant reservoirs (compared to fast-flowing rivers), flooding of biomass (especially forests) and resulting underwater decay, and/or reservoir stratification (where deeper lake waters lack oxygen).Water pollution control measures (such as sewage treatment plants or enforcement of industrial regulations) may be needed to improve reservoir water quality. Where poor water quality would result from the decay of flooded biomass, selective forest clearing within the impoundmen t area should be completed before reservoir filling. Downriver Hydrological Changes These adverse impacts can be minimized through careful management of water releases.Objectives to consider in optimizing water releases from the turbines and spillways include adequate downriver water supply for riparian ecosystems, reservoir and downriver fish survival, reservoir and downriver water quality, aquatic weed and disease vector control, irrigation and other human uses of water, downriver flood protection, recreation (such as whitewater boating), and, of course, power generation. From an ecological standpoint, the ideal water release pattern would usually closely mimic the natural flooding regime (although this may not be feasible for densely settled floodplains where flood protection is a high priority).Dams that generate baseload electricity are typically more capable of replicating near-natural downriver flows than those that produce peaking power (where daily water releases may fluctu ate sharply, often to the detriment of aquatic organisms that are adapted to less frequent flow changes). Environmental management plans for hydroelectric projects should specify environmental water releases, including for dams owned or operated by the private sector. Good Dams and Bad Dams 5Major downriver hydrological changes can destroy riparian ecosystems dependent on periodic natural flooding, exacerbate water pollution during lowflow periods, and increase saltwater intrusion near river mouths. Reduced sediment and nutrient loads downriver of dams can increase river-edge and coastal erosion and damage the biological and economic productivity of rivers and estuaries. Induced desiccation of rivers below dams (when the water is diverted to another portion of the river, or to a different river) kills fish and other fauna and flora dependent on the river; it can also damage agriculture and human water supplies.Mitigation Options Water-Related Diseases Some infectious diseases can sp read around hydroelectric reservoirs, particularly in warm climates and densely populated areas. Some diseases (such as malaria and schistosomiasis) are borne by water-dependent disease vectors (mosquitoes and aquatic snails); others (such as dysentery, cholera, and hepatitis A) are spread by contaminated water, which frequently becomes worse in stagnant reservoirs than it was in fast-flowing rivers.Corresponding public health measures should include preventive measures (such as awareness campaigns and window screens), monitoring of vectors and disease outbreaks, vector control, and clinical treatment of disease cases, as needed. Control of floating aquatic weeds (see below) near populated areas can reduce mosquito-borne disease risks. Fish and Other Aquatic Life Hydroelectric projects often have major effects on fish and other aquatic life. Reservoirs positively affect certain fish species (and fisheries) by ncreasing the area of available aquatic habitat. However, the net impacts are often negative because (a) the dam blocks upriver fish migrations, while downriver passage through turbines or over spillways is often unsuccessful; (b) many riveradapted fish and other aquatic species cannot survive in artificial lakes; (c) changes in downriver flow patterns adversely affect many species, and (d) water quality deterioration in or below reservoirs (usually low oxygen levels; sometimes gas super-saturation) kills fish and damages aquatic habitats.Freshwater molluscs, crustaceans, and other benthic organisms are even more sensitive to these changes than most fish species, due to their limited mobility. Management of water releases may be needed for the survival of certain fish species, in and below the reservoir. Fish passage facilities (fish ladders, elevators, or trap-and-truck operations) are intended to help migratory fish move upriver past a dam; they are usually of limited effectiveness for various reasons (including the difficulty of ensuring safe downriver passage for many adults and fry).Fish hatcheries can be useful for maintaining populations of native species which can survive but not successfully reproduce within the reservoir. They are also often used for stocking the reservoir with economically desired species, although introducing non-native fish is often devastating to native species and not ecologically desirable. Fishing regulation is often essential to maintain viable populations of commercially valuable species, especially in the waters immediately below a dam where migratory fish species concentrate in high numbers and are unnaturally easy to catch.Floating Aquatic Vegetation Floating aquatic vegetation can rapidly proliferate in eutrophic reservoirs, causing problems such as (a) degraded habitat for most species of fish and other aquatic life, (b) improved breeding grounds for mosquitoes and other nuisance species and disease vectors, (c) impeded navigation and swimming, (d) clogging of electro-mechanical equipment at dams, and (e) increased water loss from some reservoirs. Pollution control and pre-impoundment selective forest clearing will make reservoirs less conducive to aquatic weed growth.Physical removal or containment of floating aquatic weeds is effective but imposes a high and recurrent expense for large reservoirs. Where compatible with other objectives (power generation, fish survival, etc. ), occasional drawdown of reservoir water levels may be used to kill aquatic weeds. Chemical poisoning of weeds or related insect pests requires much environmental caution and is usually best avoided. LCR Sustainable Development Working Paper No 16 Environmental Impacts (table continues on following page) 6 Table 1.Hydroelectric Projects: Adverse Environmental Impacts and Mitigation Options (continued) Environmental Impacts Mitigation Options Loss of Cultural Property Cultural property, including archaeological, historical, paleontological, and religious sites and objects, can be inundated by reser voirs or destroyed by associated quarries, borrow pits, roads, or other works. Structures and objects of cultural interest should undergo salvage wherever feasible through scientific inventory, careful physical relocation, and documentation and storage in museums or other appropriate facilities.However, it is often not possible to replace the loss of, or damage to, unique or sacred sites which may have great religious or ceremonial significance to indigenous or other local people. Reservoir Sedimentation Over time, live storage and power generation are reduced by reservoir sedimentation, such that much of some projects’ hydroelectric energy might not be renewable over the long term. If effectively implemented, watershed management can minimize sedimentation and extend a reservoir’s useful physical life, through the control of road construction, mining, agriculture, and other land use in the upper catchment area.Protected areas are sometimes established in upper catchme nts to reduce sediment flows into reservoirs, as with the Fortuna Dam in Panama and the proposed Rio Amoya (Colombia) and Nam Theun II (Laos) projects. Aside from watershed management, other sediment management techniques for hydroelectric reservoirs may at times be physically and economically feasible; they include, among others, upstream check structures, protecting dam outlets, reservoir flushing, mechanical removal, and increasing the dam’s height.Greenhouse Gases Greenhouse gas releases from reservoirs can be reduced by a thorough salvage of commercial timber and fuelwood, although frequently this does not happen because of (a) high extraction and transportation costs, (b) marketing constraints, or (c) political and economic pressures not to delay reservoir filling. The surest way to minimize greenhouse gas releases from reservoirs is to choose dam sites that minimize the flooding of land in general, and forests in particular. table continues on following page) Good Dams and Bad Dams 7 Greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide and methane) are released into the atmosphere from reservoirs that flood forests and other biomass, either slowly (as flooded organic matter decomposes) or rapidly (if the forest is cut and burned before reservoir filling). Greenhouse gases are widely considered to be the main cause of human-induced global climate change. Many hydroelectric reservoirs flood relatively little forest or other biomass.Moreover, most hydroprojects generate sufficient electricity to more than offset the greenhouse gases which would otherwise have been produced by burning fossil fuels (natural gas, fuel oil, or coal) in power plants. However, some projects which flood extensive forest areas, such as the Balbina Dam in Amazonian Brazil, appear to emit greenhouse gases in greater amounts than would be produced by burning natural gas for many years of comparable electricity generation. Mitigation Options Impacts of Complementary Civil Works Access RoadsNew acc ess roads to hydroelectric dams can induce major land use changes— particularly deforestation—with resulting loss of biodiversity, accelerated erosion, and other environmental problems. In some projects (such as Arun II in Nepal), the environmental impacts of access roads can greatly exceed those of the reservoir. The siting of any new access roads should be in the environmentally and socially least damaging corridors. Forests and other environmentally sensitive areas along the chosen road corridor should receive legal and on-the-ground protection.Road engineering should ensure proper drainage, to protect waterways and minimize erosion. Environmental rules for contractors (including penalties for noncompliance) should cover construction camp siting, gravel extraction, waste disposal, avoiding water pollution, worker behavior (such as no hunting), and other construction practices. See Ledec and Posas (2003) for details. Power Transmission Lines Power transmission line r ights-of-way often reduce and fragment forests; indirectly, they occasionally facilitate further deforestation by improving physical access.Large birds are sometimes killed in collisions with power lines, or by electrocution. Power lines can also be aesthetically objectionable. Power lines should be sited to minimize these concerns and built using good environmental practices (as with roads). In areas with concentrations of vulnerable bird species, the top (grounding) wire should be made more visible with plastic devices. Electrocution (mainly of large birds of prey) should be avoided through bird-friendly tower design and proper spacing of conducting wires.Quarries and Borrow Pits Quarries and borrow pits are used to provide material for construction of the dam and complementary works. They can considerably increase the area of natural habitats or agricultural lands that are lost to a hydroelectric project. To the greatest extent feasible, quarries and borrow pits should be sited w ithin the future inundation zone. Where this is not feasible, the pits should be rehabilitated after use, ideally for conservation purposes such as wetland habitats. Impacts of Induced DevelopmentAssociated Development Projects Hydroelectric dams often make possible new development projects with major environmental impacts, including irrigation, urban expansion, and industrial facilities (due to new water supplies). New development projects should be planned to minimize adverse environmental and social impacts. Environmental impact assessment studies should be carried out in the early stages of project planning; the resulting environmental mitigation plans should be fully implemented. Additional DamsThe construction of the first dam on a river can make the subsequent construction of additional dams more economical, because flow regulation by the upriver dam can enhance power generation at the downriver dam(s). The environmental impact assessment study for the first dam on any river should include a cumulative environmental assessment of the likely impacts of proposed additional dams on the same river system. Implementation of mitigation measures for cumulative (rather than dam-specific) impacts should be completed or well underway prior to construction of the second dam on the river. LCR Sustainable Development Working Paper No 16Environmental Impacts 8 Table 1. Hydroelectric Projects: Adverse Environmental Impacts and Mitigation Options (continued) Key Indicators of Likely Environmental Impacts 9. Before a dam site is chosen (with a project-specific environmental impact assessment), sector-level environmental analysis can rank potential sites according to their degree of environmental desirability. A sectoral environmental assessment (SEA) should be carried out prior to making major power sector planning decisions, especially in the comparison of hydroelectric and other power generation (and demand management) alternatives.However, even without a detailed SEA , it is possible to carry out a simple environmental and ranking of different hydropower sites using basic, often readily available technical data. There exist various quantitative, easily calculated indicators that can be used to estimate the extent of adverse environmental impacts for any proposed hydroelectric project. 10. This paper presents 13 quantitative, easily calculated indicators that we consider especially useful for hydroproject site selection from an environmental standpoint. These indicators have high predictive value for likely adverse environmental (and related social) impacts.The first nine indicators (A–I) use information that is normally easy to obtain from basic dam planning data, even without a separate environmental study. The other four indicators (J–M) are also very important in the environmental comparison of alternative dam sites, but involve data that may require further environmental (or resettlement) study to obtain. Indicator A (hectares of land inundated) is perhaps the single most useful one in predicting the degree of environmental damage, because this indicator is positively correlated with many of the others.From a social standpoint, the number of people requiring resettlement (Indicator J) is an especially important. A. Reservoir Surface Area 11. The area flooded by the reservoir is a strong proxy variable for many environmental and social impacts (Goodland, 1997). A large reservoir area implies the loss of much natural habitat and wildlife and/or the displacement of many people. Very large reservoirs are typically in the lowlands (often with tropical disease and aquatic weed problems) and usually impound larger rivers (with more fish and other aquatic species at risk).A very useful measure of environmental costs relative to economic benefits is the ratio of inundated hectares per megawatt (ha/MW) of electricity; it varies by four orders of magnitude for large power projects (see Table 2). The global average f or all large hydroelectric dams constructed to date (not just those in Table 2) is about 60 ha/MW (J. Goldemberg, pers. comm. ); it would be environmentally highly desirable for this average to be much reduced in future hydroprojects. B. Water Retention Time in Reservoir 12.Mean water retention time during normal operation (the shorter, the better) is very useful in estimating the extent to which reservoirs will have long-term water quality problems. This figure (number of days) is calculated as a function of reservoir volume (cubic meters) and mean river flow (cubic liters per second). 9 10 LCR Sustainable Development Working Paper No. 16 C. Biomass Flooded 13. Biomass flooded is calculated in tons per hectare based on the percent cover of different vegetation types in the reservoir area.For good reservoir water quality, dams should minimize flooding of forests (which have high biomass content). Flooding native forests also threatens biodiversity and releases greenhouse gases. D. L ength of River Impounded 14. To conserve aquatic and riparian biodiversity (including riverine forests), dam sites should minimize the length (kilometers) of river (main stem plus tributaries) impounded by the reservoir (measured during high flow periods). E. Length of River Left Dry 15. This measures the kilometers of river left dry (with less than 50 percent of dry season mean flow) below the dam, due to water diversion.The length of dried-up river bed (before the next important downstream tributary) should be minimized, due to the loss of fish and other aquatic life, damage to riparian ecosystems, and disruption of human water supplies, agriculture, and/or fishing. F. Number of Downriver Tributaries 16. The more (major, undammed) tributaries downriver of the dam site, the better, in terms of maintaining accessible habitat for migratory fish, the natural flooding regime for riverine ecosystems, and nutrient or sediment inputs needed for the high biological productivity of estuarie s. G. Likelihood of Reservoir Stratification 7. Stratification in a reservoir occurs when the lake’s upper zone (epilimnion) is thermally divided from the deeper zone (hypolimnion); the latter becomes stagnant and lacking in dissolved oxygen (anaerobic), thereby unsuitable for most aquatic life. A rapid estimate of stratification tendencies in a reservoir can be obtained with the Densimetric Froude Number (F). F can be calculated as: F = 320(L/D)(Q/V), where L = length of the reservoir (meters), D = mean reservoir depth (meters) (for which dam height can be a proxy), Q = mean water inflow (cubic meters per second), and V = eservoir volume (cubic meters). If F is less than 1, some stratification is expected, the severity of which increases with a smaller F. When F is greater than 1, stratification is not likely. H. Useful Reservoir Life 18. Useful reservoir life is the expected number of years before a reservoir’s dead storage is completely filled, so that further sedim entation reduces the live storage and curtails power generation. Dead storage comprises all reservoir water beneath the level of the intakes for the dam’s turbines; all of the water at or above this intake level is part of the live storage.Useful reservoir life is a function of dead storage and river-borne sediment loads. Useful reservoir life is a good indicator of the relative sustainability of electric power generation; it varies from less than ten years before dead storage is filled (such as the Paute Dam in Ecuador) to potentially thousands of years. In general, reservoirs with the longest useful life are relatively deep and situated on rivers with low sediment loads. Maintaining low sediment loads over time typically requires good watershed management. Good Dams and Bad Dams 11 I. Access Roads through Forests 19.Where the risks of induced deforestation are high, project siting should minimize the kilometers of required new or upgraded access roads passing through or nea r natural forests. J. Persons Requiring Resettlement 20. The number of people physically displaced by hydroelectric projects ranges from zero (e. g. Pehuenche, Chile) to over 50,000 in Latin America (e. g. Yacyreta, Argentina-Paraguay) and well over 1 million in Asia (Three Gorges, China). Dam siting should generally seek to minimize the number of individuals or households requiring resettlement from lands affected by the reservoir and complementary civil works.A useful measure for relating resettlement costs to hydropower benefits is the ratio of people displaced per megawatt (Table 2). Because of their usually greater vulnerability to social disruption, it is especially important to minimize the number of indigenous people with traditional land-based models of production who would require resettlement. K. Critical Natural Habitats Affected 21. It is important to know the number of sites and hectares of critical natural habitats that would be lost to inundation, borrow pits, or oth er project components.Critical natural habitats include existing and officially proposed protected areas, as well as unprotected areas of known high importance for biodiversity conservation. To comply with the World Bank’s Natural Habitats Policy, hydroelectric projects should not cause any significant loss or degradation of critical natural habitats. On the other hand, some hydroelectric projects imply very important conservation opportunities by providing a strong justification (sediment reduction) and financial resources needed for protecting natural habitats in upper catchment areas.L. Fish Species Diversity and Endemism 22. Fish species diversity is the number of species known from the project area, including the dam and reservoir site, as well as the downstream zone of project influence. Fish species endemism is the number of native species known only from the project area, or the river system where the project is located, and nowhere else on Earth. Dams are environment ally less objectionable if they affect rivers with a naturally low diversity and endemism of native fish species.In general, large, lowland rivers in warm (tropical or subtropical) climates have a high diversity of native fish and other aquatic organisms, while small rivers in cold (tropical highland or temperate) climates have relatively low diversity. Large, lowland rivers are also more likely to have significant seasonal fish migrations, which are effectively blocked by most dams. However, highland rivers and streams often have relatively high endemism in their fish fauna, especially if they are isolated from other rivers by waterfalls or other natural barriers.River segments with threatened fish species found nowhere else should be classified as critical natural habitats and, ideally, would receive permanent protection from dams or other potentially damaging civil works. However, dams and reservoirs in upper tributary rivers and streams need not threaten the survival of any ende mic fish (or mollusks, or other aquatic life) if they affect only an insignificant portion of the river area used by these species (see Indicators D and E); they should also be sited so as not to block important fish migrations. M. Cultural Property Affected 23.An indication of the cultural significance of the area to be inundated (or otherwise affected by the project) is the number (by type) of cultural (archaeological, historical, paleontological, or religious) objects or sites. It is important to note whether each type of cultural property at the project site is salvageable (totally, partially, or not at all). 12 LCR Sustainable Development Working Paper No. 16 Table 2. Land Area Flooded and People Displaced in Large Hydropower Projects Project (country) Arun II (Nepal) Pehuenche (Chile) Pangue (Chile) Guavio (Colombia) Tehri (India) Ghazi Barotha (Pakistan)Nam Theun-Hinboun (Laos) Ertan (China) Fortuna (Panama) Chixoy (Guatemala) Grand Coulee (United States) Three Gorges (China) Tarbela (Pakistan) Salvajina (Colombia) Zimapan (Mexico) Itaipu (Brazil/Paraguay) Victoria (Sri Lanka) Kararao/Belo Monte (Brazil) Aguamilpa (Mexico) Betania (Colombia) Urra I (Colombia) Mangla (Pakistan) Bakun (Malaysia) Ataturk (Turkey) El Cajon (Honduras) Ilha Solteira (Brazil) Guri Complex (Venezuela) Salto Grande (Argentina/Uruguay) Nam Theun II (Laos) Arenal (Costa Rica) Yacyreta (Argentina/Paraguay) Tucurui (Brazil) Narmada Sagar (India) Porto Primavera (Brazil)Churchill Falls (Canada) Khao Laem (Thailand) Kedung Ombo (Indonesia) Kainji (Nigeria) Pak Mun (Thailand) Cabora Bassa (Mozambique) Aswan High (Egypt) Nam Ngum (Laos) Sobradinho (Brazil) Kariba (Zambia/Zimbabwe) Balbina (Brazil) Akosombo (Ghana) Bayano (Panama) Kompienga (Burkina Faso) Brokopondo (Suriname) Installed capacity (MW) 402 500 450 1,000 2,400 1,450 210 3,300 300 300 6,494 18,200 3,478 270 280 12,600 210 8,381 960 510 340 1,000 2,400 2,400 300 3,200 10,300 1,890 1,086 157 3,100 3,980 1,000 1,815 5,225 300 2 9 760 34 2,075 2,100 150 1,050 1,260 250 833 30 14 30 Reservoir rea (hectares) 43 400 500 1,530 4,200 2,640 630 10,100 1,050 1,400 33,306 110,000 24,280 2,030 2,300 135,000 2,270 116,000 13,000 7,370 7,400 25,300 70,000 81,700 11,200 125,700 426,000 78,300 45,000 7,000 165,000 243,000 90,820 225,000 665,000 38,800 4,600 126,000 6,000 380,000 400,000 37,000 415,000 510,000 236,000 848,200 35,000 20,000 160,000 People displaced 775 0 50 4,959 100,000 899 0 30,000 446 3,445 10,000 >1,300,000 96,000 3,272 2,800 59,000 45,000 n. a. 1,000 544 6,200 90,000 9,000 55,000 4,000 6,150 1,500 n. a. 5,700 2,500 50,000 30,000 80,500 15,000 0 10,800 29,000 50,000 4,945