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The acromioclavicular joint (ACJ) is situated on top of the shoulder joining the clavicle (the collar bone) to the acromion (the tip of the shoulder blade).
There are two ligaments which hold the collar bone in place. The acromioclavicular (AC) ligament attaches the clavicle to the scapula and prevents motion in the horizontal plane. The Coracoclavicular (CC) ligaments go from the coracoid process on the scapula to the clavicle and provide vertical stability.
In a ACJ dislocation, one or both of the above ligaments are torn. Treatment is based on the severity of injury.
Mild cases where the step-off deformity is not severe can be treated in a sling. The sling is used for a few weeks and is followed by a course of physiotherapy. Surgery is usually reserved for cases with more severe displacement.
What does Surgery involve?
The surgery is a day-case and is performed arthroscopically (key hole).
Acute stabilisation is generally considered within 4 weeks from the injury and involves reduction and stabilisation of the Acromioclavicular Joint allowing the Coraco-Clavicular ligaments to heal restoring the stability of the joint.
Typically 2 small skin incisions are used, one at the side and one at the front of the shoulder. The undersurface of the coracoid is exposed and a special jig is used to enable a hole to be drilled through the clavicle and the coracoid.
The Tightrope system is then passed through the 2 holes and secured, reducing the Acromioclaviculat Joint in the correct position. | https://www.birminghamshoulderclinic.co.uk/patient-info/shoulder/shoulder-operations/acj-acute-stabilisation/ |
What is the anatomy of the shoulder? The muscles and joints of the shoulder make it the most mobile joint in the human body.
The bony anatomy of the shoulder consists of the upper arm (the proximal humerus) and the shoulder blade (the scapula). The ball of the shoulder socket is called the humeral head. The shoulder socket is called the glenoid. The roof of the shoulder originates from the scapula and forms a bony arch. This roof coming from the back of the scapula is called the acromion.
The bony arch orginating from the front of the shoulder is called the coracoid process. The ligament connecting the coracoid process and the acromion is called the coracoclavicular ligament. The acromion meets the collarbone (clavicle) at a junction called the AC joint (acromioclavicular joint).
There are several other ligaments that connect the bones of the shoulder together and work to stabilize the shoulder.
The rotator cuff is a group of four muscles that originate on the shoulder blade and pass around the shoulder to where their tendons fuse to the ball of the humerus. They help with shoulder movement, and also work to keep the ball of the shoulder in the socket.
The supraspinatus is the tendon that attaches to the top of the humerus and enables outward reaching.
The infraspinatus and the teres minor attach to the back of the humerus and act to externally rotate the arm.
The subscapularis tendon attaches in the front of the humerus and internally rotates the arm.
The humeral head (ball) and the glenoid (socket) have a smooth white surface coating called cartilage that allows smooth gliding shoulder joint motion.
The labrum is the ring of cartilage that surounds the socket and helps with shoulder stability.
The biceps tendon at the shoulder travels in between the supraspinatus and the subscapularis tendons to attach at the top of the socket. | https://www.omahashoulder.com/category/shoulder/page/16/ |
The bones that connect the upper extremity to the trunk are the clavicle, or collar bone, and the scapula, or shoulder blade. The parts of them that we can feel beneath beneath the skin can be seen in this dissection: here's the spine of the scapula, here's the clavicle. In the dry skeleton, here's the clavicle, here's the scapula.
The proximal long bone of the upper extremity, the humerus, articulates with the scapula at the shoulder joint. The scapula and clavicle articulate with the bones of the thorax at one point only, here, at the sternoclavicular joint.
The lateral end of the clavicle articulates with this projection on the scapula, the acromion, forming the acromio-clavicular joint. Apart from this one very movable bony linkage, the scapula is held onto the body entirely by muscles. It's thus capable of a wide range of movement, upward and downward, and also forward and backward around the chest wall.
Looking at the clavicle from above we can see that it's slightly S-shaped, with a forward curve to its medial half. At its medial end this large joint surface articulates with the sternum. At the lateral end this smaller surface articulates with the scapula. On the underside, massive ligaments are attached, here laterally, and here medially.
The scapula is a much more complicated bone. The flat part, or blade, is roughly triangular with an upper border, a lateral border, and a medial border. The blade isn't really flat, it's a little curved to fit the curve of the chest wall.
This smooth concave surface is the glenoid fossa. It's the articular surface for the shoulder joint. Above and below the glenoid fossa are the supraglenoid tubercle, and the infraglenoid tubercle, where two tendons are attached, as we'll see.
A prominent bony ridge, the spine ...
A prominent bony ridge, the spine of the scapula, arises from the dorsal surface, and divides it into the supraspinous fossa, and the infraspinous fossa. At its lateral end the spine gives rise to this flat, angulated projection, the acromion, which stands completely clear of the bone. The clavicle articulates with the scapula here, at the tip of the acromion. This other projection, looking like a bent finger, is the coracoid process.
Here's how the clavicle and the scapula look in the living body. Round the edge of the shallow glenoid fossa, a rim of fibrocartiilage, the glenoid labrum, makes the socket of the shoulder joint both wider and deeper. This flat ligament, the coraco-acromial ligament, joins the coracoid process to the acromion. Here's the acromio-clavicular joint. Two strong ligaments, the trapezoid in front and the conoid behind, fix the underside of the clavicle to the coracoid process. There's very little movement at the acromio-clavicular joint.
As we've seen, the medial end of the clavicle articulates with the sternum at the sterno-clavicular joint. Strong ligaments between the clavicle and the sternum, and between the clavicle and the underlying first rib, keep the two bones together but permit an impresssive range of motion: up and down, and backward and forward. | https://aclandanatomy.com/multimediaplayer.aspx?multimediaid=10528033 |
Kinesiology introduction: the word comes from the greek words kinesis (movement) and kinein (to move) kinesiology, also known as human kinetics, is the scientific study of human movement. The human shoulder is the most mobile joint in the body two bones comprise the shoulder girdle these are the clavicle and scapula osteology scapula. Proximal component： convex lateral end of the clavicle distal component： concave acromion process of the scapula joint type： nearly plane joint (sometimes slightly concave or slightly. To describe joint motions occurring at the shoulder complex joint structure of the shoulder complex distal component： clavicle saddle. Kinesiology of the upper unit consists of the clavicle, scapula joint instability is another important source of patients’ com.
Evaluation, diagnosis and management options for unilateral and bilateral sternoclavicular joint dislocation (scjd. Study 48 kinesiology chapter 9 flashcards from jessica b on studyblue consists of the scapula, clavicle, sternum, humerus, and rib cage-sternocalivicular joint. Kinesiology of the shoulder complex the scapula rotates around the clavicle at the acromioclavicular joint, and the clavicle normal upper extremity kinesiology.
The english word joint is a past participle of the verb join, and can be read as joined kinesiology ligament replacement joint references. Start studying kinesiology: shoulder girdle & shoulder joint learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools.
•shoulder girdle = scapula and clavicle •shoulder joint (glenohumeral joint) •lippert, ls (2011) clinical kinesiology and anatomy the shoulder joint. Kinesiology of the shoulder complex margaret schenkman joint angle, force of move- humerus, scapula, and clavicle. Kinesio taping properties joint motion and articulation 1 kinesiology tape compared to nsaids in the treatment of rotator cuff impingement. View notes - clinical kinesiology - shoulder girdle notes from sci 271a at baker mi shouldergirdle clinicalkinesiologysci271a shouldercomplex scapula,clavicle,sternum,humerus,andribcage.
Study flashcards on kinesiology exam 4 [shoulder, elbow from posterior axial rotation of the clavicle at the sc joint and upward rotation of the scapula.
Kinesiology of the shoulder 19,913 views share like shoulder joint • glenohumeral joint posterior border of the lateral one third of the clavicle. What does the clavicle do when flexing the shoulder overhead 4 what (distal talofibular joint) kinesiology laboratory activities 38317. Study kinesiology shoulder joint flashcards play games, take quizzes, print and more with easy notecards. Joint articulations exrxnet kinesiology articulations scapula & clavicle (sternoclavicular, acromioclavicular, coracoclavicular.
Kinesiology tape for ac joint pain injuries to the ac joint may also injure the cartilage within the joint, fracture the clavicle or kinesiology tape. Clavicle_‐_anterior_viewpng saddle joint kinesiology precise timing clavicle force couples scapular force couples glenohumeral force couples. Kinesiology of shoulder complex - download as pdf file kinesiology of the human body under the function of the clavicle levangie p: joint structure and. Chapter 5 the shoulder joint – originate on scapula & clavicle – deltoid, coracobrachialis lecture topics in kinesiology.Download
2018. | http://vicourseworkivzh.supervillaino.us/kinesiology-clavicle-and-joint.html |
This post will focus on the scapula and the clavicle elements of the shoulder girdle. The scapula provides the back of the shoulder, and the clavicle articulates with the sternum (discussed in previous post) and the top of the arm (the humerus). The humerus will be discussed in a subsequent post on the elements of the arm.
Excavation
Together with previous posts on the spine and rib cage, this post makes up the ‘trunk’ of the human body. As ever, care should be taken during excavation & examination. Both the scapula and the clavicle are fairly tough elements and survive well. The body and medial border of the scapula is liable to damage however as it is a thin blade of bone (Mays 1999).
On mainland Europe the study of anthropologie de terrain (the study and alignment of the body in a burial context) is often used, especially so in prehistoric sites. Interestingly by examining the placement of the clavicle bones in burial, you can often tell whether a body has been covered in a shroud or likewise garment in the deposit of the cadaver. The clavicles are often found near vertical in the upper chest cavity, which itself is often tightly bound.
The Shoulder Girdle Anatomy and Its Function
The shoulder girdle consists of the scapula bone, and the clavicle, which provide support and articulation for the humerus. They also anchor a variety of muscles which help rotate, move and flex the humerus. The joint of the humerus and scapula is called the Glenohumeral Joint, the acromion process (see below) and clavicle is the Acromioclavicular Joint, & the sternum and clavicle is called the Sternoclavicular Joint (Marshland & Kapoor 2008: 206). The clavicle functions as the strut for the shoulder whilst the scapula helps provide anchor points for the larger muscles as well as the loose ranging ‘cup’ for the humeral head (White & Folkens 2005: 193). Because of the lateral placement of the forelimb on the upper human body, we have evolved away from our nearest ancestors, as the forelimb placement gradually changed (See Afarensis article below in relation to our recent hominid brothers). The diagram below marks out the main features of the shoulder girdle-
The clavicle is easy to palpate in your own body, along the length of the bone whilst the scapula spine and acromial process (see below) can be palpated just adjacent medially from the top of either arm.
Clavicle
As for any shoulder element, there are two clavicles present in the human skeleton. As demonstrated by the above and below diagram, the clavicle is a tubular S shaped bone that sits anteriorly in the shoulder joint and is easily palpated. The clavicle is oval to circular in cross section (White & Folkens 2005: 193). The main anatomical landmarks are featured in the diagram below.
The costal impression is a broad rough surface that anchors the costoclavicular ligament, which strengthens the joint. The lateral side of the clavicle has two major attachment muscle sites for the trapezuis & deltoideus muscles (White & Folkens 2005: 193). The clavicle articulates with the acromial process of the scapula at the lateral end, whilst at the medial end it articulates with the clavicular notch of the manubrium. The clavicle is often broken during a trip or a fall as the bone is so close to the skin, and acts as a supporting strut (Marsland & Kapoor 2008).
There are a few main points to consider when siding a clavicle. The medial end is rounded whilst the lateral side is flattened. Most irregularities are roughenings are on the inferior edge of the bone, whilst the bone itself ‘bows anteriorly from the medial end, curves posteriorly at the midshaft and sweeps anteriorly again at the lateral flat end’ (White & Folkens 2005: 195).
Scapula
The scapula is a ‘large, flat, triangular bone with two basic surfaces; the posterior (dorsal) and costal (anterior, or ventral)’ (White & Folkens 2005: 195). The bone articulates with the humerus at the glenoid cavity (or fossa), and the distal clavicle on a small facet on the acromion process (see below diagram). The ‘coracoid process just anteriorly and superlaterally from the superior border of the scapula’ whilst the acromion process is the lateral projection of the scapula spine. Both of these projection points provide anchoring points for a number of key muscle abductors, rotators and flexors, amongst others (White & Folkens 2005: 200). The glenoid cavity provides the humeral head with great mobility because of how shallow the fossa is; however the arm can be easier to dislocate then the leg bones (Marshland & Kapoor 2008). The scapular spine provides an anchor point for the acromion process, and it key in distinguishing the posterior aspect of the body.
Interestingly scapula fractures are rare in the archaeology record, but when evident they are usually located in the blade of the bone. They are usually marks indicative of interpersonal violence due to the posterior position and location (Roberts & Manchester 2010: 104). However as pointed out above the blade is usually damaged before or during excavation due to its delicate nature.
Another feature to be aware of is the lack of fusion that can take place at the acromion epiphysis (growing plate). The most famous case concerning the lack of fused acromional points in a skeletal series are from the remains of individuals from the Tudor ship The Mary Rose. Of the skeletons studied, 13.6% of their number had unfused acromions (see diagram above/below). The reason suggested was that they represented the archers aboard the ship, and had practised since childhood which had prevented any fusion of the element because of the constant stress, strain and movement needed to be a top bowman (Roberts & Manchester 2010: 105).
When siding and investigating a piece of suspected scapula bone, it should be noted that it is mostly a thin bone, and unlike the pelvis, there is no spongy bone sandwiched between the cortices. The following is taken from (yes that’s right!) White & Folkens 2005, page 202, with some modification.
- The glenoid cavity is teardrop-shaped, with the blunt end inferior.
- An isolated acromion is concave on its inferior surface. The clavicular facet is anteriormedially relative to the tip.
- For an isolated coracoid element the smooth surface is inferior whilst the rough superior. The anterior body is longer and thee hollow on the inferior surface faces the glenoid area.
- The spine thins medially whilst it thickens towards the acromion. The inferior border has a tubercle that points inferiorly, as seen in the above diagram.
- On the posterior body there are several transverse muscle attachment sites. These are usually quite prominent, and are key indicators in helping to visualise the orientation of the scapula.
Range Of Movement
An Arctic Case Study
There is a perception, garnered from the earlier descriptions of the Arctic aboriginal groups, that the native Eskimo groups were passive, of ‘quiet repose and lived in a state of non-violence’ (Larsen 1997: 131). New bioarchaeological investigations are helping to provide data that is slowly leading to a revision in the review of those perceptions.
A Saunaktuk site, dated to the late 14th Century AD, located east of the Mackenzie Delta in the Canadian Northwest Territories has provided compelling evidence of violent confrontation between native groups (Larsen 1997). As Larsen (1997: 132) discusses the skeletal remains of 35 Inuit Eskimo Villages represented at the site, it becomes clear that there is evidence for violent death and body treatment, which is indicated by extensive perimortem skeletal modifications. A large percentage of the whole group are adolescents (68.6%), whilst all of individuals represented had not been purposefully buried. It is suggested that the group represents a targeted selection whilst other adults where away from the site (Melbye & Fairgrieve 1994).
On the skeletons themselves, hundreds of knife cuts were evidenced. These ranged from around the articular joints and neck vertebrae, which is indicative of decapitation and dismemberment (Larsen 1997). As well as this there are numerous cuts on the facial bones on many of the victims, with cuts also present on the clavicles and scapulae as well (Melbye & Fairgrieve 1994). Many of these cuts reflect an overall pattern associated with dismemberment, removal of muscle and other soft tissues as well as intentional mutilation. There is the distinct possibility of cannibalism having been carried out at this site.
In particular, unique to this Saunaktuk skeletal series, is the ‘presence of gauges at the ends of long bones’ (Larsen 1997: 132). The modifications of the gauges on the adult distal femora are consistent with oral tradition describing a type of torture where the victims knees were pierced and the individual dragged around the village by a cord passed through these perforations’ (Larsen 1997: 132).
We have to understand that there is a vast rich historical record that does help to provide a context for this group to group violence as recognised by the skeletal and oral records. Violent interactions at this locality occurred between the groups, and intergroup violence has been recorded by many explorers for the Hudson Bay Company in the 18th century (Melbye & Fairgrieve 1994). Other pre-contact sites such as Kodiak Island in Alaska, alongside the sites of Uyak Bay, Crag Point & Koniag Island there is also evidence of culturally modified human bone. However, we must remember the context in which these actions had taken place. There are a small selection of the overall number of ore-contact Arctic sites in this area. Please refer back to previous posts by my guest blogger Kate Brown on the pre conditions and difficulties of diagnosing cannibalism.
Further Online Sources
- For detailed information on the muscles surrounding the shoulder joint, the 1st and 2nd part of this blog post has in depth knowledge on the muscle and bone elements and attachment sites.
- A short article dealing on breaking the clavicle and Lance Armstrong’s cycling accident.
- A fine post by Afarensis on the Homo Floresiensis & humeral torsion.
Bibliography
Larsen, C. 1997. Bioarchaeology: Interpreting Behaviour From The Human Skeleton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Marsland, D. & Kapoor, S. 2008. Rheumatology and Orthopaedics. London: Mosby Elsevier.
Mays, S. 1999. The Archaeology of Human Bones. Glasgow: Bell & Bain Ltd.
Melbye, J. & S. I. 1994. ‘A Massacre And Possible Cannibalism In The Canadian Arctic: New Evidence From The Saunatuk Site (NgTn-1)’. Arctic Anthropology. Vol 31. No 2. PP 57-77. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin.
Roberts, C. & Manchester, K. 2010. The Archaeology of Disease Third Edition. Stroud: The History Press.
Waldron, T. 2009. Palaeopathology: Cambridge Manuals in Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
White, T. & Folkens, P. 2005. The Human Bone Manual. London: Elsevier Academic Press. | https://thesebonesofmine.com/category/scapula/ |
The shoulder is located where the humerus (upper arm), clavicle (collarbone), and scapula (shoulder blade) meet. While many people think of the shoulder as a single joint, the shoulder actually has four joints:
The glenohumeral joint
is the major joint in the shoulder, where the rounded top, or head, of the humerus, nestles into a rounded socket of the scapula, called the glenoid. This
ball-and-socket
construction allows for circular movement of the arm.
The
acromioclavicular joint
is located where the collarbone, or clavicle, glides along the scapula’s acromion. The acromion is at the highest point of the scapula, which is an irregular, somewhat flat, triangle-shaped bone. The acromioclavicular joint facilitates raising the arm over the head.
The
sternoclavicular joint
is located where the clavicle meets the sternum at the top of the chest.
The
scapulothoracic joint
is sometimes considered a joint. It is located where the scapula glides against the thoracic rib cage at the back of the body. No ligaments connect the bones at this joint. | https://drmichellruiz.com/en/shoulder-specialty |
As yoga teachers, sometimes we find ourselves saying things over and over that just flat out don’t make sense. Typically what happens is that a cue might have some validity in certain poses within particular circumstances, but then it unknowingly gets taken way out of context. I admit that I have been totally guilty of this. I used to feel horrible or embarrassed when I’d realize that what I’d been saying about X wasn’t quite right. Now I just take it as a sure sign that I am steadily investigating, learning and re-inventing.
I would bet that if you practice yoga in any capacity you have heard, "Reach your arms up high and drop your shoulders away from your ears." How did this get started anyways? I honestly don’t see many people walking around wearing shoulders as earrings (another jazzy phrase we yoga teachers use). Shoulders rounded forward around a collapsed chest is definitely something we all see (and do) often, but this is very different from lifted shoulders.
Where is this cue relevant? Consider a pose like warrior 2 where the arms are not lifted above shoulder level. If shoulders are over-working and lifting upwards, relaxing the shoulders down is a good idea.
Any time the arms are lifted higher than the level of the shoulders it is NOT helpful or bio-mechanically correct to take shoulders down. Here's why. The shoulder complex naturally lifts along with the arm. If we are forcing shoulders down while lifting the arms, compression is being created somewhere between the acromion process and the arm bone. The space between the acromion and the arm bone houses muscles and tendons that can become impinged when compression happens.
Take a look at this photo of the shoulder skeletal complex. Imagine the arm lifting straight forward and up. You can see that the arm bone will catch the acromion at some point, lifting it also. The acromion is a bony process of the shoulder blade; therefore, when it lifts, the shoulder blade lifts.
Look at this picture of the shoulder from behind where the arm is not lifted. Note the position of the shoulder blade.
The clavicle or collar bone is connected to the scapula at the acromion; therefore, the scapula and clavicle always move together. One can't lift without the other. You can see that the clavicle/scapula have lifted with the arm bone. When the arm bone lifts, it eventually meets the acromion (part of the scapula) and the entire shoulder complex lifts.
When the arm lifts above the level of the shoulder, the clavicle and scapula will rise. The next time you hear, "Reach your arms up extended mountain pose," let your SHOULDERS RISE! Then smile. This is natural, functional, healthy movement.
Know your body. Embody your practice. Be mindfully aware of what you are feeling from within. | https://www.yogaproject.com/yoga-project-talk-blog/2017/12/15/shoulders-rise |
The acromioclavicular joint, AC joint is the articulation between the medial end of the acromion and the distal (lateral) end of the clavicle. The AC joint is located above the glenohumeral joint (true shoulder joint). Unlike the shoulder joint, the AC joint is small and has a limited range of motion and function. However, it is a critical structure as it is the main connection between the arm and the axial skeleton. The entire upper extremity “hangs” from the AC joint which is why the coracoclavicular ligaments are also called the suspensory ligament. The AC joint capsule, which is a thick ligament that encircles the joint is the primary stabilizer of the AC joint. When the joint is injured these are the first ligaments to be injured.
Secondary support to the AC joint comes from the coracoclavicular ligament. This is a short strong ligament that connects the clavicle to the scapula and prevents downward movement of the scapula. It s has two separate components, the conoid and the trapezoid.
What is an AC Joint Separation?
A complete AC joint separation requires ruptures of both the acromioclavicular as well as the coracoclavicular ligaments. Falling from a height onto the “point” of the shoulder puts a large downward force on the scapula and it literally rips off of the clavicle.
A complete AC joint separation creates a deformity. The protruding bump is the edge of the clavicle. While it seems obvious that the problem is the protruding bone which needs to be pushed back down, the solution actually requires just the opposite! The scapula needs to be pushed back up to meet the clavicle and supported there with adequate fixation. The video demonstrates that reducing the joint requires pushing the scapula “up” to the clavicle, not the other way around:
Correct mechanism of injury
Incorrect mechanism of injury
Clinical demonstration of the mechanism of injury
This video shows a patient with a severe chronic AC joint dislocation. In this video the deformity is being corrected by pushing UP on the elbow, not pushing down on the clavicle. This demonstration emphasizes and underscores the point that the joint dislocates when the scapula is pushed down and restoring a normal joint requires pushing it back UP. While the clavicle is prominent after a dislocation is actually not “sticking up”. Its the shoulder that has dropped away!
The more severe the injury the more the joint is disrupted. | https://www.acjointseparation.com/anatomy/ |
Shoulder Injuries and Disorders Treatment and Symptoms Rotator Cuff Injuries; Shoulder; Shoulder dislocation
In human anatomy, the shoulder joint is composed of three bones: the clavicle (collarbone), the scapula (shoulder blade), and the humerus (upper arm bone) (see diagram). Two joints facilitate shoulder movement. The acromioclavicular (AC) joint is located between the acromion (part of the scapula that forms the highest point of the shoulder) and the clavicle. ...
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Shoulder pain, one of the most common orthopaedic conditions, is caused by damage to one or more of the components of the shoulder—the bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments that comprise the joint. This damage can be caused by disease, chronic overuse, or acute injury, so shoulder pain can appear immediately or progress gradually over time. Generally speaking, shoulder conditions fall into one of four categories: 1) inflammation, which causes soft tissues to become swollen and irritated; 2) instability, in which the physical structures of the shoulder weaken and decrease the security of the joint; 3) arthritis, which is cartilage loss caused by inflammation within the joint; and 4) fractures and dislocations, which are caused by direct trauma with sufficient force to break or dislocate bones.
Bursitis – Shoulder bursitis is caused by inflammation of the bursa, a small, fluid-filled sac in the shoulder that reduces friction between the different components of the joint. When placed under repeated stress, the bursa can overfill with fluid, leading to pain and stiffness.
Capsulitis – Adhesive capsulitis, colloquially known as frozen shoulder, is a painful condition in which the thin, flexible capsule surrounding the shoulder develops adhesions and becomes rigid and thick. This hardening of the capsule makes it increasingly difficult to move the shoulder and can result in significant loss of range of motion in the shoulder.
Tendonitis – Tendinitis occurs when the tendons and muscles that comprise the shoulder are injured, typically from chronic overuse. This condition generally develops gradually over time and is very prevalent in people who perform a lot of repeated, overhead movements—like swimmers, pitchers and tennis players. It can also be caused by keeping the arm in the same position for an extended period of time.
Impingement Syndrome – Shoulder impingement occurs when the rotator cuff tendon and the bursa are squeezed between the acromion and humerus bones in the subacromial space. Over time, this pressure on the soft tissues of the shoulder can cause micro-tearing of the rotator cuff and degeneration of the tendon. If left untreated, this can progressively lead to a full tear of the rotator cuff.
Labral Tear – The labrum is a ring of firm, fibrous tissue that surrounds the shoulder socket (glenoid) and stabilizes the joint. The labrum can tear from repetitive stress or acute trauma, and labral tears are characterized by pain, loss of strength and range of motion, and a clicking, popping or grinding sensation with movement of the arm.
Tendon Tear – Tendons are cartilaginous connective tissue that attach muscle to bone. There are multiple tendons that make up the shoulder, including those of the rotator cuff and the biceps muscle. These tendons can tear over time from stress caused by repetitive motion or suddenly from acute injury.
Osteoarthritis – Also called degenerative joint disease, osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis; it is caused by normal wear-and-tear on the joint over time. As the cartilage disappears, the bones of the shoulder can start to grind into one another, causing pain, swelling and decreased range of motion.
Traumatic-Onset Arthritis – While most arthritis is caused by wear-and-tear over time, traumatic-onset arthritis occurs in the wake of traumatic injury like dislocations and fractures. Studies have shown that damaging a joint, whether through breaking a bone or dislocation, increases your risk of arthritis in that joint sevenfold.
Rheumatoid Arthritis – Rheumatoid arthritis is actually a disorder of the immune system which causes the body to attack the cartilage lining the joints. Similar to osteoarthritis, this condition leads to pain, swelling, and stiffness in the shoulder.
AC Joint – The acromioclavicular (AC) joint is the point in the shoulder where the collarbone (clavicle) and the acromion, a small, bony prominence on the scapula, are connected by ligaments. An AC joint separation occurs when these ligaments are strained or separated, typically from a sharp blow to the shoulder, causing the acromion and the clavicle to be pushed out of alignment.
Glenohumeral – The glenohumeral joint is the point at which the humerus (upper arm bone) joins the glenoid (the portion of the scapula that forms the shoulder socket). Fractures of the glenoid are very uncommon, but they do occur. These fractures are typically found with significant trauma or in high-impact sports. These fractures can occur on the lip of the “socket” or the base of “socket” bowl, known as the fossa, although this type of fracture is the rarest form. The more common injury to the glenohumeral joint is dislocation, which causes the humerus and the glenoid to be pushed out of alignment.
Clavicle – The clavicle (collarbone) is the long, thin bone that runs from the base of the neck out to the shoulder. Fractures of the clavicle are very painful and are often the result of direct trauma. Falls, motor vehicle accidents, and contact sports like football or hockey are common culprits.
Humerus – Proximal humerus fractures are breaks in the portion of the humerus (upper arm bone) that is closest to the shoulder joint, at or just below the humeral head. These are very common fractures and can occur at any age, but they become more common as patients age and develop osteoporosis. | https://ogradyorthopaedics.com/4-most-common-categories-causing-shoulder-pain/ |
The bone ends that constitute a joint are covered with a firm smooth cartilage. In the shoulder joint it involves a humeral head and glenoid process. At the acromioclavicular joint it involves the lateral end of the clavicle and the acromion process and at the elbow it involves the distal humerus and the proximal end of the radius and ulna. The articular cartilage eliminates friction nearly completely, protects the underlying cartilage against damage and allows for smooth sliding motion between bone ends. Wear and tear of the articular cartilage leads to osteo arthritis also called degenerative arthritis. This is the most common type of arthritis that occurs in the shoulder and elbow.
The process of osteo arthritis takes place over time. It might be caused by wear and tear over a period of years, repeated strain on the joint, previous injuries, mal-alignment, metabolic defects or genetic conditions. In weight-bearing joints being overweight also plays a part. Osteo arthritis in shoulder and elbow is more common in patients over 50 years of age but younger patients can develop this after dislocation of the joint or in people with a genetic tendency to develop osteo arthritis.
It causes a dull aching pain that alternates with acute pain episodes, stiffness and swelling of the joint and limited range of motion. Bony outgrowth or osteofytes develop over time together with gradual erosion of the articular cartilage. It may cause symptoms in the soft tissue like swelling or stiffness. Pain is typically centered over the posterior aspect of the shoulder and elbow but in the acromio-clavicular joint it is usually on top or in front of the shoulder. Osteoarthritis can occur simultaniously in joints lying close together like the acromioclavicular and glenohumeral joints.
When no specific cause can be identified or when it occurs due to genetic or metabolic factors it is called primary osteo arthritis. In the case of trauma with an underlying defect of the cartilage or bone, secondary osteo arthritis will develop. Specific diseases of cartilage can also influence the classification.
Pain relief and improvement of function is the aim of treatment. Analgesic medication, anti-inflammatory medication and adjustment of physical activities are first line of treatment. Exercises to improve range of motion and to strengthen surrounding muscle groups might be of help.
Surgical debridement might be indicated for patients that are not candidates for more extensive surgery.
Severe acromio-clavicular joint involvement may require complete removal of the acromio- clavicular joint which will lead to development of scar tissue in place of the diseased joint. For advanced osteo arthritis of the glenohumeral joint replacement of the humeral head and glenoid provides good pain relief. Joint replacement of the elbow is performed less often.
Download Osteo Arthritis document.
The collar bone connects the scapula via the acromion process and coracoid process with the sternum. The collar bone or clavicle is attached to the acromion through the acromion clavicular ligaments and to the coracoid through the coracoid clavicular ligaments. The ligamentous connections allow small amounts of movement and supplies stability with which the person can elevate his arm above his head. For reasons that are not yet clearly understood, the lateral end of the clavicle can start losing calcium, become soft and disintegrates. This condition is known as lateral clavicle osteolysis but is more commonly known as weight lifters shoulder.
It probably is related to single or repeated injury of the acromio clavicular joint. Repeated movement with heavy weights over head can contribute to this or a direct fall on the lateral side of the shoulder. Underlying conditions like infection, rheumatoid arthritis and other chronic conditions can also contribute to its development.
Lifting heavy weights above head height places large amounts of strain over the acromio clavicular joint and leads to micro trauma that is not allowed enough time to heal in-between sessions. This eventually leads to softening and dissolving of the bone in this area. There are studies that show that the bone tends to regenerate as the body tries to repair it, but eventually re-absorption of the lateral end of the clavicle takes place.
It is a condition that develops slowly and starts with a dull ache over the acromion clavicular area, local tenderness and stiffness of the shoulder. These symptoms intensify over time. Pain is typically over the front and the upper part of the shoulder and intensifies during activity, especially lifting of weight above shoulder height, pushing of objects or throwing of objects. Two to 3 cm of bone loss can occur.
It is classified according to the amount of bone involved, the specific anatomical structure involved as well as any associated pathology.
The aim of treatment is to reduce pain and consists of limitation of activities that exacerbates the condition. Adjustment of activities, rest, ice and anti-inflammatory medication are employed as first line treatment and can be followed by corticosteroid injection if inflammation continues. Smoking must be stopped to help remineralisation of bone. It can take many months for the bone to repair. If remmeralisation does not take place and pain continues, excision of the lateral clavicle is indicated. | https://shoulderandelbow.co.za/capetown-orthopaedic-acromioclavicular.php |
In addition to the four muscles of the rotator cuff, the deltoid muscle and teres major muscles arise and exist in the shoulder region itself. The deltoid muscle covers the shoulder joint on three sides, arising from the front upper third of the clavicle, the acromion, and the spine of the scapula, and travelling to insert on the deltoid tubercle of the humerus.
Contraction of each part of the deltoid assists in different movements of the shoulder – flexion (clavicular part), abduction (middle part) and extension (scapular part).
The teres major attaches to the outer part of the back of the scapula, beneath the teres minor, and attaches to the upper part of the humerus. It helps with medial rotation of the humerus. | https://www.boxrox.com/8-shoulder-workouts-to-improve-strength-and-reduce-the-risk-of-injury/3/ |
This document describes how to create a custom touch controller to add virtual input support to a widget.
The sample code uses the standard DateTimeWidget and adds the touch controller logic necessary to initiate a virtual input request and retrieve user data.
Virtual input is a flexible graphical interface that represents some sort of input device, such as a twelve key keypad or a full keyboard. However, not all widgets should use virtual input, since most do not require any user input beyond basic touch functionality. The best candidates for widgets that can support virtual input are ones that require either numerical or text input, such as TextWidget.
In this example, a custom touch controller is created for the DateTimeWidget, which will allow users to enter a date or a time using the default virtual keypad. This touch controller acts an an extension to the default DateTimeTouchController to add virtual input support to this widget.
The application must enable touch on the root container.
The application must enable virtual input on the root container.
Refer to the C/C++ API Reference for more information.
This include is needed to create a touch controller that uses virtual input.
The PROPEX_VIRTUALINPUT_ENABLE property must be handled by the touch controller, which is sent to enable/disable virtual input automatically when the widget is inserted within a virtual input-enabled root container.
When disabling virtual input, all listeners must be properly cancelled, and any state enabled during initialization must be reset.
The following function is used when virtual input is first initialized for the DateTimeWidget.
A listener must be attached to the root container's view model to receive notifications in case the current Virtual Input Manager is changed.
To ensure no orphans, all references to the previous Virtual Input Manager are released and the listeners are cancelled.
Retrieve the current Virtual Input Manager from the root container for future reference.
Initiate a virtual input request on pointer events, namely EVT_POINTER_UP.
The following function is called to set up and display the virtual keypad.
//Update input mode of keypad widget to give us numbers.
When the user presses the finish button, dismiss button, or clicks on a different widget, the status model of the Virtual Input Manager will send a notification. The touch controller must deal appropriately with each notification to ensure a proper and constant behavior.
The function must first ensure that the event is meant for this particular widget.
The touch controller must take different actions based on which status is received.
If VIRTUALINPUT_STATUS_ACCEPT is received, it means the user is finished entering data, and the keypad should be hidden.
//On accept close the window.
The status VIRTUALINPUT_STATUS_MOVE is sent when another widget initiates a virtual input request due to user interaction. The touch controller must respond by cancelling the listener but should not try to hide the keypad since another widget requires it.
//On move, only cancel the listener.
When a VIRTUALINPUT_STATUS_CANCEL status is received, the virtual keypad is dismissed. If a buffer is available, the touch controller ignores it's content.
Dtor is called when the base DateTimeTouchController reaches a reference count of zero. All references are released and listeners canceled. | https://developer.brewmp.com/resources/how-to/creating-custom-touch-controller-uses-virtual-input |
Using Code Profiling to Optimize Costs
Code profilers have considerable value in identifying performance issues by offering developers a systematic and relatively cheap way of profiling data about an application’s performance, specifically in production. This allows developers to investigate issues at the code level, where they can then optimize and resolve performance issues, reduce costs, enhance the user experience, and improve the application’s scalability.
In a nutshell, code profilers facilitate finding the root causes of performance problems and provide actionable insights for fixing them.
In a previous blog post, we provided an introduction to continuous profiling. Now, after a brief review, we will discuss how to use profiling data (i.e., flame graphs) to find opportunities for performance optimization and lower infrastructure costs. Plus, we’ll introduce our own profiling tool, gProfiler.
Code-Level Performance Analysis
Overview of Flame Graphs
Most code profiling tools implement flame graphs, a powerful utility for visualizing and analyzing performance using profiling data. A flame graph is generated by continuously sampling, for example, CPU, analyzing which stack trace is being executed, and building a cumulative graph per a given profiling type (here, how much time/resources each stack and frame took). The following figure shows a CPU flame graph, representing the highest CPU usage of the sampled functions:
Each function is represented as a rectangle (frame), ordered vertically from top to bottom (y-axis) based on the call stack hierarchy. The primary indication of a frame is its width since this indicates resource usage, which in turn helps you identify the code functions consuming the most CPU. On the x-axis (horizontally), functions are arranged not based on the time of execution but alphabetically. Here are the main points to consider when analyzing flame graphs:
- Y-axis: This represents the depth of the nested functions’ hierarchy.
- X-axis: The wider a function on the x-axis, the more time-intensive it will be (since it represents the execution time spent by a function in relation to its parent function’s total time).
- Graph colors do not contribute to performance analysis; they are used only to correlate methods to their packages.
Using Flame Graphs to Identify Resource-Intensive Code Paths
Flame graphs help developers discover resources that might behave poorly by looking for functions taking up more of the total runtime than expected. Most importantly, a flame graph is a great tool to identify hot code paths quickly.
Here’s an example of a flame graph for a demo application:
In such a graph, we start looking for the frame that is wider on the x-axis (time-intensive) and high enough on the y-axis (nested); in particular, the parseCatalog() function is a “hot candidate” method to perform code analysis to investigate underlying performance issues, if any exist.
Runtime Environment Performance Metrics and Analysis
Before profiling an application, you need to understand the runtime environment in which it operates by collecting key performance metrics. Some of the basic metrics to look out for include:
- CPU utilization
- Memory usage
- API request latency
- Throughput
- Error rate
Monitoring and analyzing these metrics is important when profiling an application because any fluctuation or poor metrics will trigger the need to profile your code. Also, you can use them, along with profiling data, to view an application’s historical performance.
Tracking Performance Impacts and Trends with Flame Graphs
It is important to profile your application and measure its performance before you start changing any code. It is also crucial to save your historical flame graphs and use them to compare the impact of an application’s code changes; this way, you can track which hot code paths are eliminated or still exist before and after code changes.
For example, in the following flame graph, you can notice the elimination of the CPU usage of the parseCatalog() function and its ancestor after fixing a code bug by comparing it to Figure 2.
Performance Improvements and Cost Reductions: What’s the Correlation?
Fixing performance bugs always leads to infrastructure cost reductions. For instance, finding the CPU time-intensive functions and introducing improvements leads to a reduction in CPU utilization, which in turn cuts the size of your application’s cluster (servers). This can also deliver higher throughput without the need for extra hardware or cloud resources, such as server instances.
Let’s look at a real-world example of how performance improvements enabled developers to reduce infrastructure costs. By using the codeGuru profiler, the CAGE (an internal Amazon retail service that provides royalty aggregation for digital products) team found different reasons for performance bottlenecks and higher resource utilization, namely:
- High CPU time in garbage collection
- Excessive logging of CPU usage, as shown in the following flame graph:
- DynamoDB metadata cache overhead
By fixing these issues, the team improved service latency and reduced infrastructure costs by 25%. For more details on this use case, check out this AWS blog. Or, take a look at another example of how the load time of GTA was reduced by 70% using profiling techniques.
Introducing gProfiler by Granulate
Our newly released gProfiler, incubated as an internal tool at Granulate, is open-source and simplifies the process of finding performance bottlenecks in your production environment with instant visibility. It can be deployed using a customized Docker container image to any environment. It continuously profiles your application code to the line level and pinpoints the most resource-consuming functions to help you optimize performance and reduce costs.
What makes our profiler unique?
- Open-source: an open-source package for community use
- Plug and play installation: seamless installation without any code changes or efforts
- Immediate visibility: up and running in less than 5 minutes, facilitating immediate visibility to production code.
- Low overhead: minimal performance overhead, less than 1% utilization penalty
- Continuous: designed to be on continuously, facilitating effective analysis of performance issues in all environments, all the time
- Wide coverage: native support for Java, Go, PHP, Python, Scala, Clojure, and Kotlin applications; support for Node.js and Ruby coming soon
Code Profiling Next Steps
Application code profiling tools help you determine which code areas are consuming the most resources in production, which allows you to find ways to adjust the number of infrastructure resources by resolving performance bottlenecks. In addition, code profilers drive the engineering effort needed to fix the performance issues that actually matter in most cases.
Hopefully, this blog post helped you better understand what application profiling means and how to use profiling data to find opportunities for performance improvements and infrastructure cost reductions to boost the user experience ultimately.
To see how you can leverage code profiling to optimize your organization’s costs and performance, as well as boost your customers’ satisfaction, try Granulate’s free, open-source gProfiler. | https://granulate.io/blog/using-code-profiling-to-optimize-costs/ |
At Codemancers, we’re building Rbkit, a fresh code profiler for the Ruby language with tonnes of cool features. I’m currently working on implementing a CPU profiler inside rbkit gem which would help rbkit UI to reconstruct the call graph of the profiled ruby process and draw useful visualizations on the screen. I learned a bunch of new things along the way and I’d love to share them with you in this series of blog posts.
By analyzing the profiling result, you can find the bottlenecks which slow down your whole program.
In this mode, the profiling tool makes use of some hooks, either provided by the interpreter or inserted into the program, to understand the call graph and measure the execution time of each method in the call graph.
As you can see, this output can tell us how much time was spent inside each method. It also tells us how many times each method was called. This is roughly how instrumentation profiling works.
In this mode of profiling, the profiler interrupts the program execution once in every x unit of time, and takes a peek into the call stack and records what it sees(called a “sample”). Once the program finishes running, the profiler collects all the samples and finds out the number of times each method appears across all the samples.
Hard to visualize? Let’s look at the same example code and see how different the output would be, if we used a sampling profiler.
In this example, the process was interrupted every 0.5 second and the call stack was recorded. Thus we got 4 samples over the lifetime of the program and out of those 4 samples, find_many_square_roots is present in 3 and find_many_squares is present in only one sample. From this sampling, we say that find_many_square_roots took 75% of the CPU where as find_many_squares took only 25%. That’s roughly how sampling profilers work.
We just looked into what CPU profiling means and the 2 common strategies of CPU profiling. In part 2, we’ll explore the 2 units of measuring CPU usage - CPU time and Wall time. We’ll also get our hands dirty and write some code to get these measurements. Thanks for reading! | https://crypt.codemancers.com/posts/2015-03-06-diy-ruby-cpu-profiling-part-i/ |
Performance Testing Interview Questions Last updated on Dec 22, 2021
Performance Testing is a process of testing applications for non-functional requirements which helps in determining the speed, stability, responsiveness and scalability of the application under the stipulated workload. A system’s performance is one of the main indicators to determine how successfully it is performing in the market. Poor performance results in a bad user experience, leading to a bad reputation and huge losses in revenue which is why it is very much crucial to conduct performance testing.
In this article, we will be exploring the most commonly asked performance testing interview questions for both freshers and experienced professionals.
Performance Testing Interview Questions for Freshers
1. What do you understand by Performance Testing?
Performance Testing is a category of software testing that ensures the application performs well under any workload. This type of testing is not done to identify bugs in the application. Its main intention is to eliminate performance issues and bottlenecks by measuring the performance quality attributes of the system.
The following image represents the performance attributes of any system:
- Speed – This determines how fast an application responds to any request.
- Scalability – This determines what is the maximum user load an application can handle.
- Stability – This determines if an application is stable under differing loads.
- Reliability - This determines if an application is consistent under different environmental conditions at a specific period.
2. What are the types of Performance Testing?
The different types of performance testing are:
- Load testing – This type of testing checks the ability of an application to perform under known loads. The main goal here is to identify any performance bottlenecks before the application goes into production.
- Stress testing – This type of testing involves testing the application’s behaviour under extreme stress or workloads for identifying the breaking point of an application.
- Endurance testing – This testing is done to ensure that the software can handle the expected load for a continuous period.
- Spike testing – This testing is done to ensure that the system works well under the sudden influence of large load spikes.
- Volume testing – This testing ensures that the system behaves well under the influence of a large volume of data.
The following image represents the summary of types of performance testing:
3. What are some of the commonly available tools for performance testing?
There are so many tools available for accomplishing performance testing, GUI testing, test management, load testing, functional testing etc. Among various tools, the following are the most commonly used tools for performance testing:
- QALoad: This tool is used to perform load tests of web applications, databases and char-based management systems.
- LoadRunner: This tool is used to test web applications by using a wide range of platforms and environments. This is used for getting the performance metrics of every component to identify the bottlenecks.
- WebLOAD (Radview): This is another tool for running performance and load tests and also comparing the test metrics.
- Silk performer: This tool is used for predicting behaviour in terms of complexity and size of e-business before deploying the application.
- Rational performance tester (IBM): This tool was developed by IBM and is used to perform automated performance testing of the server and web-based applications.
- JMeter: JMeter is a Java-based open source performance testing tool that can be used to test both static and dynamic web applications and resources. It is used for simulating heavy server load for testing the strength and analyzing overall performance under varying load.
- Flood.io: This is another load testing tool that is used for executing globally distributed tests on performance from different tools like Selenium, JMeter etc.
4. What are some of the common performance bottlenecks and how do they impact your application?
Bottlenecks are system obstructions that contribute to degradation in the system’s performance. They are caused either by hardware issues or coding errors that lead to a reduction of throughput under varying loads. Some of the common bottlenecks in performance are:
-
Processor bottlenecks: These occur when the processor is overloaded and cannot perform its tasks and respond to requests on time. These can be in 2 forms:
- CPU running at above 80% capacity for a prolonged period.
- A long queue of requests for the processor.
Both of these forms occur when the system has insufficient memory and has continuous interruption from the I/O devices. They can be resolved by adding more RAM, increasing CPU power and improving algorithmic efficiency.
- Memory Utilization: This bottleneck occurs when the system does not have fast RAM or does not have sufficient memory. This impacts the speed of serving information to the CPU thereby slowing down the application. Whenever the device does not have enough RAM, the storage will be offloaded to SSD or HDD. These issues can be resolved by increasing the memory capacity or increasing RAM. If the RAM is very slow, then it can be replaced. Sometimes the problem can arise due to memory leak issues wherein a program does not release memory so that the system can use it. Correcting the application program to free memory also can fix the issue.
- Network bottlenecks: These occur when two or more devices lack the necessary bandwidth to communicate with each other. Whenever there is an overburdened server or overloaded network that causes the network to lose its integrity. These issues can be resolved by upgrading servers, network hardware like hubs, routers, access points etc.
- Software bottlenecks: These bottlenecks are due to the software where programs are built for handling finite tasks so that it doesn’t utilize additional RAM or CPU. This makes the program use only a single core or processor despite the availability of resources. These can be resolved by making the software program more efficient so that it can use available resources efficiently.
- Disk Usage: The slowest component in a server is long-term storage units like SSDs or HDDs that are unavoidable. The fastest long-term storage units have physical limits which makes it difficult for the programmers to troubleshoot such issues. These can be fixed by increasing RAM caching rates, reducing fragmentation issues or by addressing insufficient bandwidth by switching to faster storage units.
The key to fixing all the bottlenecks are by pinpointing the root cause of the system degradation and then by fixing the code or by adding additional hardware resources depending on the causes.
5. What is the need for conducting performance tests?
Performance testing is conducted for providing information to the stakeholders about the speed, capability, reliability and scalability of the application. These help in identifying what needs to be done for improving the application before it goes to the end-users in the market.
- If the application was released to the market without conducting performance testing, then the issues such as slowness in software, application inconsistencies, application crash under the influence of heavy workloads would not be detected.
- Performance testing helps to determine if the application meets the performance requirements under varying workloads. If an application with poor performance attributes is launched to the market, then it can lead to a bad reputation and loss in sales.
- Whenever we are dealing with mission-critical applications or life-saving systems, then it is very much necessary to conduct performance testing so that the application behaves consistently for a long period.
- Just a 5-minute downtime of Google.com in the year 2013 resulted in losses of $545,000. According to LovetheSales.com, a downtime of YouTube for 37 minutes cost Google around $1.7m in losses in ad revenues in the year 2020. According to Gremlin, Amazon.com loses $13,219,128 per hour due to downtimes. We can see the revenue impact of software downtimes on the companies.
Hence, performance testing is very much crucial before any application is launched to the market.
6. What are some of the common problems that occur due to poor performance?
Following are some of the issues caused due to poor performance:
- Bottlenecking – These are obstructions that contribute to system degradation in terms of performance. They occur when there are coding errors or hardware issues that reduces the throughput of the application under certain workloads.
- Poor response time – Response time refers to the time taken by the application to respond to any request. For the best user experience, the response times should be very fast. Poor performance of the application leads to slower response times. If response times are slow, then the user loses interest in our application and might turn towards the competitor’s application.
- Long Load time – Load time refers to the initial time taken by an application to start. This time should be as minimum as possible. Low performance leads to increased load time.
- Poor scalability – This impacts software from handling expected user load which makes the application unavailable to some set of users.
7. What do you understand by performance tuning?
Performance Tuning is the process of identifying performance bottlenecks and taking steps to eliminate them. There are two types of tuning, they are:
- Hardware tuning: This type of tuning helps in improving the system performance by either replacing, adding or optimizing the hardware (Processor, CPU, RAM etc) of a system to eliminate the bottlenecks caused due to hardware.
- Software tuning: This helps identify software bottlenecks by performing code and database profiling. Here, the software code will be modified for resolving the bottlenecks.
8. How is performance testing different from performance engineering?
Both of these terms are closely related yet distinct. Performance testing is a subset of performance engineering that primarily deals with gauging the performance of the application under varying loads.
The difference between these two are as follows:
9. What are the steps involved in conducting performance testing?
Following are the steps involved in the Performance Testing Lifecycle:
- Requirement Analysis: The first step is to determine all the requirements needed for testing after consulting with the clients and developers. This helps in determining the scope and objectives of testing and helps testers to plan out testing accordingly.
- Architecture Review: Once all the requirements are gathered and testing is planned, we perform an architectural review of the system under test.
-
Test Strategy: Once the review is done, carefully layout the strategies required for performance testing that considers the following criteria -
- Response time of the application
- Application bottlenecks involving both software and hardware
- Optimal configuration of the system
- System capacity and scalability
- Resource utilization percentage
- Volume of data and workload capability of the application
- Test Design: Once the strategy is ready, the testers have to come up with automation scripts or prepare the testing environment using the tools by following all the best practices and coding standards. The testers have to come up with various test scenarios covering both positive and negative cases.
- Test Execution: The scripts prepared in the previous step would be simulated and executed.
- Results Analysis: The result of test execution will be analyzed and documented for recording purposes. These metrics will be observed and tracked for any defects.
- Reports and Recommendations: The documented results will be presented to the developers along with the recommended resolutions.
10. What do you understand by distributed testing?
Distributed testing is the process of testing applications when lots of users are gaining access to the application from different devices simultaneously. This helps to perform stress testing.
A brief overview of the distributed testing is represented in the image below:
11. What is the metric that determines the data quantity sent to the client by the server at a specified time? How is it useful?
Throughput is the metric that determines the data quantity sent to the client in response to its request by the server. It is calculated in terms of requests per second, hits per second, calls per day, etc. In most cases, it is calculated in bits per second. The value of throughput tells the slowness or fastness of the network and its bandwidth capabilities. The higher the throughput, the higher is the network capability.
12. What do you mean by profiling in performance testing?
Profiling is the process of fine-tuning the performance testing process by helping to identify the system components responsible for most of the issues related to its performance.
13. What is load tuning?
Load tuning is a process of performance improvement technique by conducting necessary modifications to the software configurations depending on the results of load testing.
14. What kind of testing deals with subjecting the application to a huge amount of data?
This kind of testing is known as volume testing. It deals with subjecting the application to a huge amount of data to determine how much data the application can handle when there are a good load of users accessing the application concurrently. It verifies the performance of a system to test whether it can handle a stipulated volume of data by entering huge data volume to the application either incrementally or steadily.
15. What do you know about Scalability testing?
Scalability testing is a type of performance testing that analyzes how well the software is capable of handling complex operational capacity from a simple capacity. Some software takes time to adapt to complex capacities. This testing ensures that the application can scale quickly without any glitches or drawbacks.
16. Why is JMeter used for?
JMeter is a Java-based tool for performing load testing. It helps in analyzing and measuring the performance of web services with the use of plugins. The latest JMeter version is 5.4.2 which requires a Java 8+ version to run.
17. How is performance testing different from functional testing?
Performance Testing Interview Questions for Experienced
18. What are the differences between benchmark testing and baseline testing?
Benchmark Testing is a testing process conducted to compare the system framework performance against set industry standards that are laid by some organizations. Baseline Testing is a type of testing where the tester runs various tests to know the information about the performance. Whenever a change is done in the future, the result of the baseline testing will be considered as a reference point to the next set of testing.
19. Why is it preferred to perform load testing in an automated format?
Performing load testing in a manual way has the following disadvantages:
- Accuracy cannot be predicted easily regarding the application’s performance.
- Synchronization among various users becomes challenging to coordinate and maintain.
- In real-time testing, it would require real users to test the application.
- Additionally, manual testing increases the cost of manual effort required.
Due to all the above-mentioned reasons, it is preferred to perform load testing in automated form.
20. On what kind of values can we perform correlation and parameterization in the LoadRunner tool?
Correlation is performed for dynamic values such as session ids, session states, date values etc that are returned from the server in response to any request. Parameterization is conducted upon static data, such as passwords, usernames etc that are usually entered by the user.
21. How can we identify situations that belong to performance bottlenecks?
We can identify performance bottlenecks by monitoring the applications that do not perform well against the stipulated stress and load conditions. We can use LoadRunner software for making use of different monitors that monitor database servers, network delays, firewall monitors etc.
22. Can we perform spike testing in JMeter? If yes how?
Spike Testing is conducted to determine how an application behaves when the number of users accessing the system decreases or increases abruptly. This is because generally when the number of users varies abruptly and suddenly (leading to a spike), then the system behaviour will have unexpected changes. This can be tested in JMeter using Synchronizing Timer. This is simulated by jamming the threads by synchronizing the time until the stipulated number of threads have been blocked and once that is achieved, then release the threads suddenly at once to simulate a large load.
The following steps can be performed:
- Create a performance test plan
- Create a thread group within it
- Add all the JMeter elements specific to business requirements
- Add listeners to view the results
- Run the tests
- Get the results
- Monitor the behaviour.
23. What are the pre-requisites to enter and exit a performance test execution phase?
The necessary entry criteria for the execution phase:
- Completed automated scripts
- The test environment should be ready
- Finalized Non-functional requirements (NFR)
- The latest functionally tested code should be deployed
- The test input data should be ready.
The necessary exit criteria would be:
- Test cases should cover and meet all the NFRs
- No more performance bottlenecks are present
- All defects are finalized
- The behaviour of the application should be consistent and acceptable in heavy and spiked loads.
- Final reports are submitted and shared.
24. How is load testing different from stress testing?
- Load testing is a type of testing that analyzes the software performance when it is saddled with more than normal workloads. The load can be of any kind - data or users accessing the system or the application itself on the server’s operating system. When the load is increased, some applications tend to perform slowly (degenerate) and in some other cases, the applications run normally. Load testing determines that the applications run at optimal levels irrespective of the load given to them.
- Stress testing on the other hand has a broader approach to the software’s performance. It considers the amount of data processed, time taken to process it, network connectivity levels and other applications running in the background. When the stress levels are high, software tends to crash or stop working altogether. This testing imitates the stressful environment to test the resistance of the software to operate correctly.
25. How is endurance testing different from spike testing?
- Endurance testing deals with how long the application can endure and perform well irrespective of the loads. Sometimes when an application is used for a long time, it becomes slow or inactive which is why it becomes important to conduct this testing. Endurance testing analyses all changes in the application by simulating lengthy application usage. For example, endurance testing is conducted on a Banking application where we test if it can perform normally under continuous load or large transactions for a long time.
- Spike testing deals with pushing the application to the limits by subjecting the software to the highest operation level for identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the application. Spike testing is necessary for instances when eCommerce or shopping sites launch flash sales or holiday discount deals where suddenly a large number of users will be accessing the application. If the application crashes under sudden spike every time, then it would result in a bad user experience and the users would lose faith in the application.
26. What are the best ways for carrying out spike testing?
Spike testing can be carried out by bombarding the application with networking, random connections, data, different operations, firing requests to every single functionality of the application. In this way, the application is pushed to the limits and monitoring can be done to identify if it can work under pressure. The data monitored can be documented and then be analyzed.
27. What do you mean by concurrent user hits in load testing?
Concurrent user hits scenarios arise when more than one user will be hitting or requesting for the same event during the load testing process. This scenario is tested to ensure that multiple users can access the same event requests at the same time in the application.
28. Can the end-users of the application conduct performance testing?
No, end-users cannot conduct performance testing. However, while making use of the software the end-users can discover software bottlenecks. However, that cannot be equated to actual performance testing performed by professional testers. If the end-users want to participate in testing, they can be accommodated in the User Acceptance Testing phase.
29. What are the metrics monitored in performance testing?
Following are the metrics monitored in performance testing:
30. What are the common mistakes committed during performance testing?
Following are some of the mistakes committed during performance testing:
- Unknown or unclear non-functional requirements provided by the business.
- Unclear workload details
- Directly jumping to multi-user tests
- Running test cases for a small duration
- Confusion on an approximation of the concurrent users
- Difference between the test and production environments
- Network bandwidth not stimulated properly
- No clear base-lining of the system configurations.
31. When should we conduct performance testing for any software?
Performance testing is done for measuring the performance of any action in the application. We can run performance tests for checking the performance of the websites and apps. In case we are following waterfall methodology, we can test every time we release a new software’s version. If we are using agile methodology, then we need to test continuously.
32. What are some of the best tips for conducting performance testing?
Following are some of the best tips for conducting performance testing:
- The test environment should mirror the production ecosystem as much as possible. If there are any deviations, then the test results might not be accurate and might cause problems when the application goes live.
- It is preferred to have a separate environment dedicated to performance testing.
- The tools selected for testing should automate our test plan in the best possible way.
- Performance tests should be run several times for obtaining a consistent accurate measure of the performance.
- The performance test environment should not be modified in between the testing process.
Conclusion
Performance testing provides in-depth insights regarding the non-functional application requirements like scalability, speed, availability and reliability of the software under test. These help in identifying and resolving the shortcomings and gaps in performance before the application goes live.
Performance Testing MCQ
Which among the following options are considered to be tested as a result of the performance testing?
Which among the below options should be the requirement characteristic to ensure that they are quantified objectively?
Which among the below options define the software’s effectiveness in scaling up for supporting increased user load?
Performance testing is conducted before functional testing, true or false?
Which among the following options indicate time spent by a processor for executing non-idle threads?
Which testing type is an example of the testing printer by sending a large number of documents for printing?
Which type of testing is conducted when the application has to be ready for flash sale?
Stress testing is a variation of spike testing. True/false?
Performance testing helps to identify the maximum load resistance of an application. True/false?
JMeter doesn’t support which of the following types? | https://www.interviewbit.com/performance-testing-interview-questions/ |
An approach for performance measurements in distributed CORBA applications
Abstract: Distributed computing systems are becoming more and more important in everyday life as well as in industrial and scientific domains. The Internet and its capabilities enable people to communicate and cooperate all over the world. One way to construct distributed systems is to use a communication model with distributed objects as CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture). Distributed objects give many advantages, but suffer from some performance problems. In order to handle the performance problem it is important to find where in the event chain the delays occur. Therefore a tool for performance measurement and for identifying the bottlenecks in a distributed system should be a great help. This report answers the question: Can a profiling tool for CORBA applications, constructed with Interceptors as instrumentation for measuring points, give sufficient information for identify performance problems? This report investigates the possibilities to measure performance in a distributed system and if it s possible to automatically find the bottlenecks in a distributed system. The needs of a profiling tool are discussed and analyzed. The different ways of constructing a tool for distributed profiling is discussed. For verifying the ideas evolved in the investigation a prototype tool for profiling and performance measures is constructed. The profiling tool is constructed with Interceptors as instrumentation of the different nodes in the distributed system. A presentation program is also constructed for making the captured information more readable. The tool and presentation program constructed give the flow of the system in different callgraphs and also produces some call statistics in different levels. The constructed tool is tested and verified in a distributed environment. In the experiments we shows that the principle of the tool can work in a distributed environment and gives sufficient information for finding the bottlenecks and identifying the performance problems of the system. | https://www.essays.se/essay/d6682ec902/ |
We’re looking for people who are ready to roll up their sleeves and help us build on our incredible momentum, our diverse, engaged workforce, and our purpose to make the world of work, work better.
Learn more on Life at Now blog about their experiences working at ServiceNow.
Job Description
* As a Performance Engineer, you will be a key member of the Performance team driving the quality of our products and services to the next level. You will work within our agile software development process and have an important impact on the applications team
* You will find ways to remediate outages or enhance performance on the ServiceNow platform
* You will get to utilize tools like BigData, Splunk, Elk, and others to map out metrics and identify trends on transactional throughput, memory, CPU, job processing, and disk utilization to devise self-detect and self-healing solutions
* You will use database optimization skills to tune the database, add indexes, maintain tables and data, and understand execution plans to recommend better formed queries
* You will work and coordinate between different internal teams (Development, Quality Engineers, Platform, Business Units, Load test team) to reproduce performance issues and perform root cause analysis
* Collaborate with developers to design specific performance testing strategies for features being developed and identify bottlenecks and regressions between releases
Qualifications
Required Skills
* A good performance engineer for ServiceNow should have good development skills to quickly identify performance issues. Hands-on experience with full stack and Java in particular will help to quickly identify the bottlenecks with JVMs, GC, memory leaks, code change recommendations
* Hands-on experience with LoadRunner, Apache JMeter, Neoload, Jenkins etc
* Hands on experience in working with linux performance tools, tuning Java virtual machine
* Ability to communicate at both technical and business levels is crucial for ensuring that an appropriate investment in performance optimization is made
* Good experience in analyzing system architectures using shared resources, CPU, memory, storage, networks and be able to understand/articulate and test by mimicing production test environment
* Be able to conduct tests by identifying goals, key requirements, scalability, capacity and reliability
* Very good at interpreting performance test results using consistent measurements and metrics, identify bottlenecks, read results and interpret graphs, and be able to explain the relationship between queues and sub-systems
* Be able to understand user behavior and scenarios during peak and off-peak times and simulate them in performance environments
* Thorough with SQL commands to identify and analyze the underlying performance bottlenecks around databases
* Understand the workloads e.g.: how to perform log file analysis, run queries and monitor load during performance testing
Preferred Skills
* Performance engineering experience is desired
* Experience on the developer tools on browsers like YSlow, Chrome debugger, Webpagetest and Pagespeed for client-side performance testing is a good start in troubleshooting techniques
* Work experience with APM tools like AppDynamics, NewRelic, Dynatrace, Splunk, Wily etc. is a huge plus
In order to be successful in this role, we need someone who has:
* Good knowledge of workload generators like Jmeter, LoadRunner
* Java profiling experience, excellent debugging skills with Heap dump, thread dump bottleneck analysis
* Ability to create, execute and maintain scripts and tools for various testing frameworks
* Ability to work with many different software development teams to develop, test, deploy and report on product performance, quality and stability
* Experience with the agile methodology for software development teams
* Desire to seek continuous improvement in the quality assurance processes
* 5+ years professional experience in performance engineering or software development
* Minimum 4 year Bachelors in Computer Science or equivalent experience
Additional Information
ServiceNow is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin or nationality, ancestry, age, disability, gender identity or expression, marital status, veteran status or any other category protected by law.
If you are an individual with a disability and require a reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process, or are limited in the ability or unable to access or use this online application process and need an alternative method for applying, you may contact us at +1 (408) 501-8550 for assistance.
For positions requiring access to technical data subject to export control regulations, including Export Administration Regulations (EAR), ServiceNow may have to obtain export licensing approval from the U.S. Government for certain individuals. All employment is contingent upon ServiceNow obtaining any export license or other approval that may be required by the U.S. Government. | https://jobs.zigup.in/product/performance-engineer-2/ |
Performance monitoring is the process of capturing and analyzing performance data from different areas of your server environment, which include applications, memory, processors, hardware, and your network. You obtain performance data to help you recognize trends as they develop, prevent unsatisfactory performance, and optimize the use of your system resources. Monitoring also helps you decide when to upgrade your hardware and whether upgrades are actually improving your servers performance.
Although some performance problems and their solutions are immediate and obvious, others develop over time and require careful monitoring and tuning. First, monitor to establish a performance baseline against which to judge and compare the performance of your server; without a baseline, your tuning efforts might not give you optimal performance.
By monitoring performance and analyzing performance data, you can identify performance patterns to help you locate bottlenecks and to identify underused or overused resources. After locating a bottleneck, you can make changes to the component to improve performance. Bottlenecks can occur anywhere in your server environment at any time, so you must regularly monitor performance to capture baseline information about your system.
To get started with performance monitoring, familiarize yourself with the tools used, which include System Monitor, Performance Logs and Alerts, and Network Monitor; with the counters that are available for monitoring performance objects; and with the basics of setting up monitoring in order to collect useful data. | https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2003/cc783195%28v%3Dws.10%29 |
In this issue of The Morning Paper Quarterly Review Adrian Colyer looks at how simple testing can avoid catastrophic failures, symbolic reasoning vs. neural networks, how to infer a smartphone password via WiFi signals, how and why Facebook does load testing in production, and automated SLOs in enterprise clusters.
-
InfoQ eMag: Scalability
This eMag examines topics such as how Twitter re-architected its code-base to improve stability and performance, the approaches Netflix uses to be hyper-resilient, and how Java is replacing C++ for low latency coding. We also look at some lower level tricks such as feedback controls for auto-scaling, and using memory and execution profiling to identify performance bottlenecks in Java. | https://www.infoq.com/socialNetworking/minibooks/ |
General Guide to PostgreSQL Performance Tuning and Optimization
PostgreSQL is an advanced open-source relational database known for its flexibility, reliability, variety of features, integrity, and performance. It can be installed on multiple platforms, including web and mobile.
Though the PostgreSQL default configuration is tuned for any environment on your machine, still, it is recommended to optimize some settings to achieve higher and effective performance specific for your software and workload.
The article covers performance tuning and optimization tips that may help you improve query performance in PostgreSQL.
PostgreSQL hardware optimization
While monitoring PostgreSQL performance, database administrators can detect and analyze information or performance issues and search the ways to optimize them. For example, PostgreSQL big data or retrieval of millions of rows may drastically impact performance, so optimization, in this case, can be crucial for effective performance. However, when writing queries, developers should take into account hardware capacity, table partitioning, index usage, configuration parameters, etc.
First, they should analyze the hardware configuration you use.
RAM
The more memory you have to store data, the more disk cache, less I/O, and better performance you receive. For example, if you consume more memory than you have, you may get the 'out-of-memory' errors in logs or have running processes terminated to free up more space. Thus, it may be worth increasing memory for proper work without disruptions.
Hard disk
When it comes to hard disks, it is critical to monitor disk usage and its parameters, and analyze how you can configure them for the PostgreSQL server to run efficiently. Slow response time may cause poor performance. If the application is bound to input/output operations, the faster drive in this case will be a good choice to improve performance. Using separate drives or tablespaces for different operations, for example, with data or indexes, may also solve any performance issues that may arise.
CPU
PostgreSQL efficient performance greatly depends on CPU usage. Complex operations such as comparison, table joins, hashing, data grouping and sorting require more processor time. If you work with large databases, CPU speed may either make performance worse or better. CPU capacity increase may require more costs. So you should thoroughly analyze the CPU usage and operations running on the server. Perhaps, if CPU does not cause poor performance or you may achieve better performance with other metrics, such as RAM increase, those parameters might be upgraded.
Tuning the operating system
Hardware improvement is unhelpful if your software is not able to use it and results in a waste of your time, costs, and resources. Thus, tuning the operating system should also be taken into consideration.
PostgreSQL query performance greatly depends on the operating system and file systems it is running on. For example, with the Linux operating system enabling huge pages available in this operating system can improve PostgreSQL performance, while disabling data files will save CPU cycles.
Configuration parameters tuning
Configuration parameters may have a significant impact on database performance and resources usage in PostgreSQL. To optimize performance for your workload, you can customize the parameters in the $ PGDATA / postgresql.conf file. Let's overview the commonly-used parameters:
max_connections
Sets the maximum number of database connections open simultaneously on the PostgreSQL server. It is not recommended to set many connections at the same time, because this may impact memory resources and increase the size of Postgres database structures.
shared_buffers
Determines the amount of memory to be used for shared memory buffers on the database server. As a rule, it is optimal to use 25% of the available RAM so that it cannot make performance worse. However, you can try to set another threshold to test whether it can be applicable to your workload.
effective_cache_size
Determines the total amount of memory for caching data per query. This parameter may influence the usage of indexes. The higher the value is, the more likely the index scan will be applied. With the lowest values, the sequential scan will likely to be used.
work_mem
Sets the amount of memory to be used for internal sort operations and hash tables before temporary files are used on disk. If you want to increase this parameter, keep in mind that it will be used per operation. Thus, if there are multiple operations running simultaneously, each operation will use the specified memory volume.
fsync
When enabled, the server records the changes physically to disk, for example, by executing the fsync() system calls. This prevents data loss or corruption and ensures database consistency in the case of a hardware or operating system failure.
commit_delay
Sets the delay in microseconds between committing the transaction and saving WAL to disk. This parameter can improve performance when multiple transactions are committed during the current operation.
random_page_cost
Allows the PostgreSQL optimizer to estimate the cost of reading a random page from disk and decide on the usage of index or sequential scans. The higher the value is, the more likely sequential scans will be used.
Reporting and logging
With the help of logs and error reports, you can analyze how the application works or which errors occur when performing a specific operation. In addition, you can tune database performance with logs enabled on the queries. To scan and get a deeper understanding of any potential performance issues that may arise, let's look at some log parameters:
- logging_collector: When enabled, records the output into log files.
- log_statement: Controls which SQL commands should be logged. You can set to ddl to log structural changes to the database, to mod to log data changes, and to all to log all changes.
- log_min_duration_statement: Detects slow queries in the database. When enabled, the duration of all commands will be recorded, however, I/O capacity will be increased.
- log_min_error_statement: Records failed SQL statements to the server log.
- log_line_prefix: Sets the format of the database logs. It can be used to improve readability.
- log_lock_waits: Identifies slow performance and lock waits due to locking delays.
VACUUM processing in PostgreSQL
VACUUM is considered to be one of the most useful features in PostgreSQL. The VACUUM processing is an operation that cleans updated or deleted rows to recover or reuse free disk space for other operations. Vacuuming is configured and enabled by default in PostgreSQL. However, you can customize settings to meet your business goals and workload, or improve performance. The more frequently you perform vacuuming, the better database performance might be.
DBAs can execute either VACUUM that can be run in parallel with other database operations or VACUUM FULL that requires an exclusive lock on the table to be vacuumed and cannot be done with other operations. The latter overwrites the table in a new disk file leaving available disk space for the operating system. That's why this type is executed much slower. Thus, for routine operations, it would be better to use VACUUM.
Also, database administrators can execute the VACUUM ANALYZE command that first performs a VACUUM operation and then executes an ANALYZE command for the selected table. The ANALYZE command collects statistics to identify the most efficient and optimized way to execute the query.
Finding slow queries
To tune database performance and detect PostgreSQL slow and inefficient queries, you can examine the query plan by executing PostgreSQL EXPLAIN and EXPLAIN ANALYZE commands.
EXPLAIN
Allows you to view the generated explain execution plan for each SQL query without running it. The plan has a hierarchical structure of the tree plan nodes. The plan displays how it scans the table in the query. In the plan, you can view estimated startup cost, the total cost required to process the execution, the number of table rows and their average width returned in the result. In addition, the plan calculates the average time required to execute the query.
EXPLAIN ANALYZE
Allows you to profile each SQL query running in your application and see the result of how the query is actually processed. This command executes the query and then outputs statistics, the actual row count, planning, and execution time along with the same estimates as a standard EXPLAIN command.
In general, both commands help you analyze how queries are executed and find the most optimized way, which you can use to rewrite the queries and adjust them to be more efficient.
Database design
Sometimes database design may lead to slow performance, especially when dealing with large tables. For PostgreSQL database performance optimization and I/O improvement, you can partition large volumes of data into small ones, thus, splitting a single table into several separate logically-joined tables. The main table will store information which you will access frequently, and other tables will keep additional information.
Besides, you can create partial indexes for columns, which you often use. This may accelerate query performance. However, you should be careful with indexes, because their excessive usage may decrease performance.
Analyzing PostgreSQL performance opportunities
For performance optimization and tuning in PostgreSQL, the Devart team developed dbForge Studio for PostgreSQL, a powerful GUI tool that has an advanced built-in PostgreSQL performance analysis tool - Query Profiler. It is a visual query analyzer designed to optimize and tune the performance of slow running queries and to detect bottlenecks that may worsen performance.
The PostgreSQL Profiler tool enables you to:
- Analyze and troubleshoot performance issues
- Compare query profiling results by viewing their differences on a visual dashboard
- Examine an execution explain plan to improve performance of slow-running PostgreSQL queries
- Get a deep understanding of all operations by analyzing metrics on the plan diagram
- Check the most expensive operations on the top operations list
- Share the plan in the .xml format
Conclusion
Analyzing PostgreSQL query performance is critical for efficient work of databases and data retrieval. Using the above-mentioned performance tips and practices may help you not only improve database performance but also identify slow queries, tune and optimize index performance, speed up PostgreSQL queries, and examine issues that may cause poor performance. | https://www.devart.com/dbforge/postgresql/studio/postgresql-performance-tuning-and-optimization.html |
Imagine a situation with no tools available to check a system’s performance, when it comes to an Embedded system engineer. Especially, with operating systems like Linux. There are hell lot of tools now at our service. But during the ages of initial Linux Kernel developement, think about how system analysis had been done. This post is to throw some light over the tools that are available for us to poke the system at right places and see how it behaves.
Tools Category
There are several categories and number of tools under each category.
|Categories||Tools|
|Debugging||GDB|
|strace|
|pmap|
|pstack|
|mtrace|
|Profiling||OProfile|
|Perf|
|gprof|
|memprof|
|Tracing||ftrace|
|Lttng|
|System map|
|dtrace|
|Analyzing|
|(i) Resource Analyzing||valgrind|
|(ii) Process Analyzing||proc tools|
|vmstat|
|procstat|
|Coverage||gcov|
|Benchmarking||LMbench|
|IOzone|
|memtester|
|flashbench|
|fio|
|Additional tools||stress-app test|
|measuretime|
|grabserial|
|linux-serial-test|
Debugging
The tools here are helpful when we are in need of understanding what is going on while the executing a program that is holding the computer with itself. The sequence of system calls, memory it consumes and so on can be traced using the following tools.
|Tool||Description|
|GDB||the GNU Project debugger, allows you to see what is going on inside an other program while it executes-or what another program was doing at the moment it crashed.|
|strace||runs the specified command until it exits. It intercepts and records the system calls which are called by a process and the signals which are received by a process.|
|pmap||reports the memory map of the process|
|pstack||attaches to the active processes named by the pids on the commandline, and prints out an execution stack trace, including a hint at what the function arguments are.|
|mtrace||memory debugger included in GNU C library. The handlers log all memory allocations and frees to a file.|
Profiling
|Tool||Description|
|oprofile||OProfile is a system-wide profiler for Linux systems, capable of profiling all running code at low overhead. OProfile leverages the hardware performance counters of the CPU to enable profiling of a wide variety of interesting statistics, which can also be used for basic time-spent profiling.|
|perf||It is capable of statistical profiling of entire system (both kernel and user code), single CPU or several threads.|
|gprof||a performance analyzing tool in Unix. It uses a hybrid variety of instrumentaion and sampling. It is an extension of the older prof Unix tool. Unlike prof, gprof is capable of limited call graph printing.|
|memprof||tool for profiling memory usage and finding memory leaks.|
Tracing
|Tool||Description|
|ftrace||A Linux kernel internal tracer. It includes function tracer. ftrace is named after it.|
|Lttng||The LTTng project aims at providing highly efficient tracing tools for Linux. Its tracers help tracking down performance issues and debugging problems involving multiple concurrent processes and threads. Tracing across multiple systems is also possible.|
|System tap||Assists the diagnosis of a performance or functional problem. Reduces the developers process sequences to collect performance data.|
|dtrace||A comprehensive dynamic tracing framework for troubleshooting kernel and application problems on production systems in real time.|
Analyzing
Resource Analyzing
|Tool||Description|
|Valgrind||Instrumentation framework for building dynamic analysis tools.|
|Helgrind||A Valgrind tool for detecting synchronisation errors in C, C++ and Fortran programs that use the POSIX pthreads threading primitives.|
Process Analyzing
|Tool||Description|
|proc tools||The proc tools are utilities that exercise features of /proc|
|vmstat||Reports information about processes, memory, paging, block IO, traps, and cpu activity.|
|procstat||Displays detailed information about the processes identified by the pid arguments or all processes.|
Coverage
|Tool||Description|
|gcov||A test coverage program. Use it in concert with GCC to analyze programs to help create more efficient, faster running code and to discover untested parts of the program.|
Benchmarking
|Tool||Description|
|LMbench||A benchmarking tool for bandwidth, latency and processor clock rate etc.|
|IOzone||A filesystem benchmark tool. The benchmark generates and measures a variety of file operations. Iozone has been ported to many machines and runs under many operating systems.|
|memtester||DDR testing benchmark.|
|flashbench||Flash benchmarking.|
|fio||Flash benchmarking.|
Additional tools
|Tool||Description|
|stress-app test||Stressful Application Test (or stressapptest, its unix name) tries to maximize randomized traffic to memory from processor and I/O, with the intent of creating a realistic high load situation in order to test the existing hardware devices in a computer. It has been used at Google for some time and now it is available under the apache 2.0 license.|
|measuretime||Timing analysis.|
|grabserial||Boottime analysis, grabs the serial console with respect to pattern and time.|
|linux-serial-test||For serial bandwidth testing.|
|smem||Gives numerous reports on memory usage in Linux system.|
|SYSSTAT||Contains utilities to monitor system performance and usage activities.|
Usage and Risks
- These tools provide better grounds for delivering a quality software.
- Tests the corner cases.
- Traces the memory leaks, buffer overflow etc.,
- Produces the performance data in both system level and application level.
- Using these tools need understanding of its benefits, Knowledge of when, where and how to use them.
- These tools require configurations and particular coding style, which increases the size of the binary compiled. This means we need to have a provision of debug and release flags in the code.
- The best approach would be to use these tools from the development phase itself.
Proposed methodologies
- To use QEMU, and Eclipse based build and testing platform during developement phase itself.
Known Issues
- sftp-server is needed for transferring the information between target and host for any profiling / debugging tool.
- oprofile-server in target and oprofile-viewer(eclipse) in host are needed for viewing the report in graphical format.
Solution
- We should cross compile sftp-server from openssh source and placed it in target (/usr/libexec/sftp-server). This location is mandatory because eclipse searches for this path.
- oprofile-server is cross-compiled for target and oprofile-viewer is compiled and install in host. | http://babuenir.xyz/tools-in-linux.html |
According to leading analyst firm Gartner, business process management is “a management discipline that treats business processes as assets that directly improve enterprise performance by driving operational excellence and business agility.” At its core, business process management is an approach to improve the processes and workflows within an organization. A business process can be anything from ordering materials and delivering goods to making strategic decisions and managing a department or organization.
Ideally, business process management would enable an organization to reach new levels of efficiency and effectiveness, while at the same time to become more flexible and agile to change. So, how does business process management achieve this?
The goal of business process management is to provide an understanding of an organization and its performance; this is often achieved by providing actionable information in real-time. In this sense, BPM can be thought of as being related to business intelligence and operational intelligence solutions. With this actionable information in hand, key stakeholders within an organization can understand the relationship between processes and model them out, gaining visibility into key areas and finding opportunities for improvement. Technology is often implemented to gather and model this information; technology is often also used to automate business processes, resulting in the elimination of inefficient and tedious manual processes.
The BPM Lifecycle
The business management lifecycle encompasses:
- Process Design: identifying existing processes and designing new ones
- Modeling: running “what-if” analyses and introducing variables into the process design to determine how processes will operate
- Execution: carrying out the required steps of the process and developing or acquiring any necessary applications
- Monitoring: tracking individual processes and their results
- Optimization: analyzing results to identify issues and any potential opportunities for improvement
- Re-engineering: reconfiguring processes if they become too complex or do not deliver the desired value
What are the Benefits of Business Process Management?
Business process management provides organizations with a systematic way to model and analyze their processes, resulting in benefits such as:
- Visibility into organizational activity
- Ability to identify bottlenecks
- Ability to identify areas to improve and optimize
- Lower lead times
- Defined roles and responsibilities for staff
- Automated processes, leading to productivity gains
Ultimately, these benefits empower businesses to respond and act upon changing market demands, giving them a competitive advantage.
BPM Suites
There are a number of BPM suites available on the market built to enable and support continuous process improvement. Business process management is often broken down into a service pattern that provides a guide for how the applications built into a BPM Suite should function.
This service pattern is broken down into several layers that include:
- The user interface layer, which may be provided by the BPM software or may be a custom interface that works with the BPM solution
- The BPM tools layer, which provides the core functionality
- The storage layer, which is a repository for corporate data and business process models
- The interface layer, which exchanges data with the BPM suite
Most business process management suite (BPMS) vendors provide process analysis, design, and workflow modeling tools within their suites. According to Gartner, most organizations choose to invest in a BPMS because they need support for a program of continuous process improvement, support for a business transformation project, and/or support for a service-oriented architecture (SOA), process-based redesign. Organizations may also look to adopt a BPMS to guide their implementation process for an industry-specific or company-specific process solution.
According to research conducted by Gartner, the leading vendors providing BPMS include Active Endpoints, Adobe, AgilePoint, Appian, BizAgi, Cordys, EMC, Fujitsu, and others, which are listed in the Magic Quadrant below.
BPM solutions have primarily been adopted by financial organizations, where visibility and adherence to compliance regulations are an integral part of this sector. BPM has also been implemented within service organizations where staff productivity and effectiveness play a key role in process performance. Most organizations decide to adopt BPM because they anticipate that process changes will occur frequently. However, with the current economic downturn, many organizations are also beginning to look further into BPM as an opportunity to transform their business, improve processes, and cut costs.
Want more on Business Process Management? Find the best BPM software in the industry with Business-Software.com’s Top 10 Business Process Management Software report. For additional reading material, check out the Business Intelligence resource page. | https://www.business-software.com/blog/business-process-management-101/ |
Build #
Build the
d8 shell following the instructions at Building with GN.
Command line #
To start profiling, use the
--prof option. When profiling, V8 generates a
v8.log file which contains profiling data.
Windows:
build\Release\d8 --prof script.js
Other platforms (replace
ia32 with
x64 if you want to profile the
x64 build):
out/ia32.release/d8 --prof script.js
Process the generated output #
Log file processing is done using JS scripts running by the d8 shell. For this to work, a
d8 binary (or symlink, or
d8.exe on Windows) must be in the root of your V8 checkout, or in the path specified by the environment variable
D8_PATH. Note: this binary is just used to process the log, but not for the actual profiling, so it doesn’t matter which version etc. it is.
Make sure
d8 used for analysis was not built with
is_component_build!
Windows:
tools\windows-tick-processor.bat v8.log
Linux:
tools/linux-tick-processor v8.log
macOS:
tools/mac-tick-processor v8.log
Web UI for
--prof #
Preprocess the log with
--preprocess (to resolve C++ symbols, etc).
$V8_PATH/tools/linux-tick-processor --preprocess > v8.json
Open
tools/profview/index.html in your browser and select the
v8.json file there.
Example output #
Timeline plot #
The timeline plot visualizes where V8 is spending time. This can be used to find bottlenecks and spot things that are unexpected (for example, too much time spent in the garbage collector). Data for the plot are gathered by both sampling and instrumentation. Linux with gnuplot 4.6 is required.
To create a timeline plot, run V8 as described above, with the option
--log-timer-events additional to
--prof:
out/ia32.release/d8 --prof --log-timer-events script.js
The output is then passed to a plot script, similar to the tick-processor:
tools/plot-timer-events v8.log
This creates
timer-events.png in the working directory, which can be opened with most image viewers.
Options #
Since recording log output comes with a certain performance overhead, the script attempts to correct this using a distortion factor. If not specified, it tries to find out automatically. You can however also specify the distortion factor manually.
tools/plot-timer-events --distortion=4500 v8.log
You can also manually specify a certain range for which to create the plot or statistical profile, expressed in milliseconds:
tools/plot-timer-events --distortion=4500 --range=1000,2000 v8.log
tools/linux-tick-processor --distortion=4500 --range=1000,2000 v8.log
HTML version #
Profiling web applications #
Today’s highly optimized virtual machines can run web apps at blazing speed. But one shouldn’t rely only on them to achieve great performance: a carefully optimized algorithm or a less expensive function can often reach many-fold speed improvements on all browsers. Chrome DevTools’ CPU Profiler helps you analyze your code’s bottlenecks. But sometimes, you need to go deeper and more granular: this is where V8’s internal profiler comes in handy.
Let’s use that profiler to examine the Mandelbrot explorer demo that Microsoft released together with IE10. After the demo release, V8 has fixed a bug that slowed down the computation unnecessarily (hence the poor performance of Chrome in the demo’s blog post) and further optimized the engine, implementing a faster
exp() approximation than what the standard system libraries provide. Following these changes, the demo ran 8× faster than previously measured in Chrome.
But what if you want the code to run faster on all browsers? You should first understand what keeps your CPU busy. Run Chrome (Windows and Linux Canary) with the following command line switches, which causes it to output profiler tick information (in the
v8.log file) for the URL you specify, which in our case was a local version of the Mandelbrot demo without web workers:
./chrome --js-flags='--prof' --no-sandbox 'http://localhost:8080/'
When preparing the test case, make sure it begins its work immediately upon load, and close Chrome when the computation is done (hit Alt+F4), so that you only have the ticks you care about in the log file. Also note that web workers aren’t yet profiled correctly with this technique.
Then, process the
v8.log file with the
tick-processor script that ships with V8 (or the new practical web version):
v8/tools/linux-tick-processor v8.log
Here’s an interesting snippet of the processed output that should catch your attention:
Statistical profiling result from null, (14306 ticks, 0 unaccounted, 0 excluded). [Shared libraries]: ticks total nonlib name 6326 44.2% 0.0% /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm-2.15.so 3258 22.8% 0.0% /.../chrome/src/out/Release/lib/libv8.so 1411 9.9% 0.0% /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread-2.15.so 27 0.2% 0.0% /.../chrome/src/out/Release/lib/libwebkit.so
The top section shows that V8 is spending more time inside an OS-specific system library than in its own code. Let’s look at what’s responsible for it by examining the “bottom up” output section, where you can read indented lines as “was called by” (and lines starting with a
* mean that the function has been optimized by TurboFan):
[Bottom up (heavy) profile]: Note: percentage shows a share of a particular caller in the total amount of its parent calls. Callers occupying less than 2.0% are not shown. ticks parent name 6326 44.2% /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm-2.15.so 6325 100.0% LazyCompile: *exp native math.js:91 6314 99.8% LazyCompile: *calculateMandelbrot http://localhost:8080/Demo.js:215
More than 44% of the total time is spent executing the
exp() function inside a system library! Adding some overhead for calling system libraries, that means about two thirds of the overall time are spent evaluating
Math.exp().
exp() is used solely to produce a smooth grayscale palette. There are countless ways to produce a smooth grayscale palette, but let’s suppose you really really like exponential gradients. Here is where algorithmic optimization comes into play.
You’ll notice that
exp() is called with an argument in the range
-4 < x < 0, so we can safely replace it with its Taylor approximation for that range, which delivers the same smooth gradient with only a multiplication and a couple of divisions:
exp(x) ≈ 1 / ( 1 - x + x * x / 2) for -4 < x < 0
Tweaking the algorithm this way boosts the performance by an extra 30% compared to latest Canary and 5× to the system library based
Math.exp() on Chrome Canary.
This example shows how V8’s internal profiler can help you go deeper into understanding your code bottlenecks, and that a smarter algorithm can push performance even further.
To find out more about how benchmark that represent today’s complex and demanding web applications, read How V8 measures real-world performance. | https://v8.js.cn/docs/profile/ |
Monday, July 13, 2009
When is "last"?
One of the extreme programming rules is Optimize Last. The rule is stated as
Do not optimize until the end. Never try to guess what the system's bottle neck will be. Measure it!
Make it work, make it right, then make it fast.
When is "last"? Is it one week before the application goes into production, at the end of an iteration, at the end of the story, or at the end of a pairing session?
Another question: what and how much should be optimized?
Though the answers to these questions may very a little from project to project, in my experience "last" should mean both at the end of the stories and end of iteration and just the bottlenecks should be optimized with the aid of a profiling tool.
Optimization strategy:
- Obtain non-functional performance requirements for the system very early in the project. If there is know target, are we not wasting our time optimizing? By the way, "as fast as possible" is not a sufficient requirement.
- Set up automated performance tests. You may even want to go as far a having it run as part of your continuous integration build and having the build fail if certain performance thresholds are not met.
- Near the end of story completion, profile the new code. I use ANTS Profiler for C# and JProfiler for Java. Obvious bottlenecks with minimal code changes for optimization should be implemented without hesitation. Continue to fix bottlenecks until the application is meeting its performance requirements.
- Near the end of the iteration, profile the whole application. Consider having team members rotate through application-wide optimization responsibilities every iteration. | http://blog.hertler.org/2009/07/when-is-last.html |
Profiling is the act of gathering data about the performance of a task with the ambition to improve the performance.
For CPUs, there are many standard tools to gather information about what the CPU is doing, allowing the developer to identify inefficient code and optimize it. These tools include the QML Profiler in Qt Creator down to perf and ftrace. Some of these techniques and tools are described at QML profiling
However the tooling for profiling tasks on GPUs is much less standardized, and the state is usually GPU-manufacturer specific. In addition the information these tools can gather is also much more limited, due to the design of OpenGL and GPUs in general.
Types of GPU Profiling Tool
There are 2 primary types of GPU profiling tool available, each revealing differing aspects of how your application utilizes the GPU.
API tracer
This runs on the CPU side, intercepting all the raw GL calls the application is making to the GPU driver. This allows an experienced developer to learn exactly what the application is asking the GPU to do, and spot any troublesome call combinations.
These tools record the GL calls to file, allowing them to be replayed on the device, and on the developer's PC.
Open source options are
Some GPU manufacturers have more advanced playback applications which can give a developer an idea on how their GPU will interpret those calls, enable/disable rendering options and visualize intermediate rendering state (with wireframes, overdraw indications, etc).
A large drawback of these types of tools are that they impact performance on the device significantly, so while the data gathered is informative if one is experienced in GL, it does not easily show where performance bottlenecks originate. It is also difficult to track down a performance glitch with a long-running process, as the trace file gets huge fast.
GPU performance counter tool
These tools are able to read critical performance statistics the GPU writes as it is working, and visualize them to the developer. These statistics can clearly indicate what the GPU is doing, and reveal bottlenecks like looking up too many textures, poorly performing shaders or cache misses)
On Desktops, there are a few basic free tools available for Intel GPUs. In the "intel-gpu-tools" package are
- intel-gpu-top
- intel-perf-counters
which dumps statistics to your shell.
The mobile GPU case is more promising, there are free to use proprietary tools for many mobile GPUs:
Adreno (Nexus 4, 7) - some free but closed source tools available
Mali (BQ Aquaris 4, M10) - some free but closed source (plus limitations) tools available
PowerVr (Meizu MX 4) - some open source tools available!
Instructions on how to install and use these are provided in the following section:
Guides for the various GPU Profiling tools
Click through to dedicated pages on installing and using the various GPU Profiling tools available. Please confirm the GPU in your device before continuing. | https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/GPU%20profiling |
National and local capacity to segment and out-source supply chain services to the private sector is improved.
1: Preparedness
Supply and logistics preparedness measures are in place at global, regional and country levels, including prepositioning of supplies and contractual arrangements for logistics services and more commonly requested goods
-
Financial, material and human resources are deployed to support timely delivery of supplies
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Supplies are delivered to country entry points within 72 hours for Rapid Response, and within 14 days by air or 60 days by sea for humanitarian responses
-
Supplies are distributed to partners and/or point-of-use in a timely fashion and the end-user monitoring protocols are in place
2: Timely procurement, transport and delivery of supplies
Life-saving supplies for children and communities are delivered to partners and/or point-of-use in a timely fashion
-
Local/regional sourcing is identified and prioritised
-
Sea/road shipments are prioritised for offshore procurement following the first wave of deliveries
-
In-country logistics service arrangements (customs clearance, warehousing, transport) are identified and established, including collaboration with partners
3: Sustainable procurement, supply and logistics arrangements
Sustainable procurement, supply and logistics arrangements (contracts, agreements and/or plans) are made available at the onset or deterioration of a humanitarian crisis
Key Considerations
Coordination and Partnerships
-
Develop supply and logistics strategies based on needs assessments, preparedness and response plans. Preposition essential supplies, including through partners, and strengthening of national supply chain capacity.
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Where appropriate, establish storage and warehousing options (local, district/provincial, national), Long Term Agreements and/or contracts/partnerships for in-country storage/warehousing.
-
Ensure close collaboration between supplies and programme teams at all stages with a focus on alleviating any barriers to availability (i.e. product selection, quantification, appropriate use, end-user monitoring).
-
Liaise with national and local authorities (and with all parties to conflict in conflict-affected contexts), as well as with donors, other agencies, CSOs and private sector to maximize principled collaboration and coordinate the response with all logistics partners.
-
Contribute as an active member to the Non-Food Item Cluster and Logistics Cluster.
Quality Programming and Standards
-
Ensure the timely supply and distribution of gender-sensitive, culturally, socio-economically and environmentally appropriate essential household items to affected populations.
-
Ensure timely access to supplies through multiple formats: distribution, vouchers, cash or a combination of the above.
-
Where appropriate, consider the procurement of goods and services by partners.
-
Build capacities of national and local partners, including governments and CSOs, to ensure timely supply interventions.
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Support partners to ensure supplies are distributed with consideration of gender sensitivities, including protection of girls and women.
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Establish a monitoring system of the delivery and use of supplies by end-users.
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Ensure suppliers and contractors are bound to UNICEF’s ethical principles and code of conduct, especially with regards to PSEA and child safeguarding.
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Explore and use innovative technology to maximise effectiveness and efficiency and to ensure delivery to hard-to-reach places.
Linking Humanitarian and Development
-
Prioritise local/regional sourcing through local logistics agreements for procurement of essential supplies.
-
Promote low-carbon and environmentally sustainable procurement modalities. Prioritise suppliers who manufacture green (environmentally friendly) products, packaging and services. Apply eco-responsible procurement considerations whenever possible to minimize impact on local environment.
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Build national capacities to source, tender, monitor and finance supply chain service providers. Strengthen national supply chains to ensure access to required medicines, equipment and supplies at point of care, based on an analysis of supply chain operational capacity as part of a sustainability and reliance strategy.
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Strengthen the capacities of national authorities to develop, manage and run public supply chains that are robust enough to absorb the emergency shocks and stimulate faster development.
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Invest in systems, capacities, monitoring, waste management and quality control systems of national and local authorities and CSO partner supply chains, to prevent leakage, diversion, misuse or stockout of necessary supplies throughout the supply chain.
-
UNICEF is committed to influence private sector, business and markets to benefit the most deprived children, including by:
-
Deepening its partnerships across the private sector – leveraging their core business, products, research and development and innovation to better serve the needs of hard-to-reach children
-
Influencing global and local markets for children – breaking down market barriers that inhibit children’s access to essential supplies, and pursuing a research and development pipeline of vaccines, medicines and technologies to drive towards the achievement of the SDGs. | https://www.corecommitments.unicef.org/ccc-3-8 |
Images of picturesque beaches and lush rainforests (such as the Amazon) often represent Brazil’s breathtaking environment. Mention the term ‘water scarcity’ or drought and few would associate it with this exotic nation.
Brazil contains approximately 12% and 53% of the global and South American freshwater supplies respectively, whilst covering approximately 5% of the globe’s land mass.
In recent times, international attention has been centred on the water plight of São Paulo, a global megacity with over 18 million inhabitants, situated in the country’s south east. With the city’s overall dam levels fluctuating between 5 and 20% of maximum capacity in recent months (see graph below of the Cantareira network, which supplies water for the city) , it will ultimately take a monumental effort to ensure that the city’s water reservoirs are not rendered bone-dry by this drought. With access to local water supplies restricted, many are resorting to trucking in water from other parts of the nation. Realistically, this is only a band aid solution, addressing the symptoms rather than the causes.
It is critical that Brazil avoids any further self-inflicted pain or traps. The provision of water for agriculture (in particular a greater consumption of animal protein rather than plant-based proteins) and increasing levels of affluence in general have led to sustainable rates of resource usage. In turn, this has resulted in mass-scale deforestation, which has subsequently affected the overall hydrological across the country.
Another faux pas would be to allow bottled water companies, to exploit the indispensible resource during this crisis. This is the situation in California. Fuelling a demand for bottled water (when it could be avoided) will simply exacerbate the burden on the millions of people struggling to live in meagre (or no income), especiallly those in the city’s favelas (slums).
Overall, what are the most viable solutions? Proposals include a five-day-a-week water rationing scheme, in conjunction with fixing up major leaks within the city’s water distribution network. Water recycling (wastewater treatment) and water harvesting be major elements of a long-term blueprint? Desalination plants could possibly play a role in the future, but the technology still has major shortcomings to be addressed.
Will Brazil (and similar developing nations) learn from the major natural disasters in the recent past, such as the 2005 Amazon Drought, by readily buffering its citizens from droughts? Ultimately, we in the western world are in no position to lament about Brazil’s desire to grow and for its nationals to improve their standards of living: doing so would render us as hypocrits. Notwithstanding this, there is also an onus on developing nations to ensure they develop in an ecologically sustainable manner, whilst simultaneously addressing social and economic requirements for a broader society. | https://www.greenoptimistic.com/sao-paolo-drought/ |
Scarcity of water
Water scarcity is possibly to pose the greatest challenge on account of its increased demand coupled with shrinking supplies due to over utilisation and pollution. Water is a cyclic resource with abundant supplies on the globe. Approximately, 71 per cent of the earth’s surface is covered with it but fresh water constitutes only about 3 per cent of the total water. In fact, a very small proportion of fresh water is effectively available for human use. The availability of fresh water varies over space and time.
According to the United Nation Developement Program ,occurrence of water availability at about 1000 cubic meters per capita per annum is a commonly threshold for water indicating scarcity.
Krishna, Cauvery, Subernarekha, Pennar, Mahi, Sabarmati, Tapi, East Flowing Rivers and West Flowing Rivers of Kutch and Saurashtra including Luni are some of the basins, which fall below the 1000 cubic meter mark- out of which Cauvery, Pennar, Sabarmati and East Flowing rivers and West Flowing Rivers of Kutch and Saurashtra including Luni facing more acute water scarcity with per capita availability of water less than or around 500 cu m.
The need of the hour to change the condition of water scarity are as follows:-
- The need to change cropping patterns based on scientific advice,
- use of drip and sprinkler irrigation,
- fertigation for increasing water use efficiency,
- community participation, especially women, for better water management
- Use of treated urban waste water to be used for farming in the adjoining areas
- desilting of rivers
- recharging of rivers,
- check dams and other water storage mechanisms.
Rain water harvesting
Rain water harvesting generally means collection of rain water. Its special meaning is a technique of recharging of underground water. In this technique water is made to go underground after collecting rain water locally, without polluting the same.
Rain water harvesting is a low cost and eco-friendly technique for preserving every drop of water by guiding the rain water to bore well, pits and wells. Rainwater harvesting increases water availability, checks the declining ground water table, improves the quality of groundwater through dilution of contaminants like fluoride and nitrates, prevents soil erosion, and flooding and arrests salt water intrusion in coastal areas if used to recharge aquifers.
Rainwater is relatively clean and the quality is usually acceptable for many purposes with little or even no treatment. The physical and chemical properties of rainwater are usually superior to sources of groundwater that may have been subjected to contamination. Rainwater harvesting can co‐exist with and provide a good supplement to other water sources and utility systems, thus relieving pressure on other water sources. Rainwater harvesting provides a water supply buffer for use in times of emergency or breakdown of the public water supply systems, particularly during natural disasters.
Watershed management
The term watershed refers to a “contiguous area draining into a single water body or a water course” or “it is a topographical area having a common drainage”. This means that the rainwater falling on an area coming within a ridgeline can be harvested and will flow out of this area thorough single point. Some refer it as a catchment area or river basin.
Watershed management is an efficient management and conservation of surface and groundwater resources. It involves prevention of runoff and storage and recharge of groundwater through various methods like percolation tanks, recharge wells, etc. However, in broad sense watershed management includes conservation, regeneration and judicious use of all resources – natural (like land, water, plants and animals) and human with in a watershed.
Integrated Watershed Management Programme is to restore the ecological balance by harnessing, conserving and developing degraded natural resources such as soil, vegetative cover and water. The outcomes are prevention of soil run-off, regeneration of natural vegetation, rain water harvesting and recharging of the ground water table. This enables multi-cropping and the introduction of diverse agro-based activities, which help to provide sustainable livelihoods to the people residing in the watershed area.
The main benefits of watershed management are:-
- Supply of water for drinking and irrigation.
2. Increase in bio-diversity.
3. Loss of acidity in the soil and free for standing water.
4. Increase in the agricultural production and productivity.
5. Decrease in the cutting of forests.
6. Increase in the standard of living.
7. Increase in employment.
8. Increase in personal get together by participation of local people.
Ground water management.
Scientific management of ground water resources involves a combination of
- A) Supply side measures aimed at increasing extraction of ground water depending on its availability and
- B) Demand side measures aimed at controlling, protecting and conserving available resources.
The rainfall occurrence in different parts of India is limited to a period ranging from about 10 to 100 days. The natural recharge to ground water reservoir is restricted to this period only and is not enough to keep pace with the excessive continued exploitation. Since large volumes of rainfall flows out into the sea or get evaporated, artificial recharge has been advocated to supplement the natural recharge.
Ground water resources management requires to focus attention on the judicious utilization of the resources for ensuring their long-term sustainability. Ownership of ground water, need-based allocation pricing of resources, involvement of stake holders in various aspects of planning, execution and monitoring of projects and effective implementation of regulatory measures wherever necessary are the important considerations with regard to demand side ground water management. | https://karnataka.pscnotes.com/prelims-notes/indian-geography/scarcity-of-water-methods-of-conservation-rain-water-harvesting-and-watershed-management-ground-water-management/ |
Leakage control models are the sophisticated part of industry’s water management systems and important in terms of resource efficiency, whether that is water, energy or carbon emissions. There is always an increasing necessity to balance costs as well as taking into account environmental pressures, whether that is pushing for the utopian low leakage rate, the development of new water resources to meet demand or the need to reduce abstraction volumes in environmentally sensitive catchments. In all these cases, leakage rates or percentages are important aspects in the promotion of development projects and ultimately play a role in determining whether such development projects go ahead or are successful.
In the urban environment, there is an accepted and growing realisation that urban ecology, in particular trees, contribute enormously to a wide range of ecosystem services and health benefits. Large urban trees are excellent filters for urban pollutants and fine particulates. Spending time near trees is also linked to improved physical and mental health with benefits including decreasing blood pressure and stress. Therefore, maintaining and increasing urban biodiversity, including trees, is essential for future urban generations. With increased concrete coverage in urban areas, and the role of sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDs) not widely utilised in a retrospective manner and only becoming the norm on new developments, the availability of naturally percolating rainwater into the ground for tree support is limited.
Reducing the amount of water leaking into the soil may therefore have a significant impact on the health and long term viability of urban trees. I am not suggesting that we should remove or replace trees unnecessarily but with reduced leakage and water availability, we need to manage and care for urban trees as part of longer term programmes. For existing trees close to leakage reduction programme pipe networks, consideration needs to be given to the introduction of surface water diversion to replace the lost water. Retrospective SuDs and replacement permeable pavements could form part of such schemes and also benefit the sewerage system with reduced peak flow runoff.
I certainly do not want to paint a full doom and gloom picture for urban trees - different species behave in differing ways to reduced water availability. For example, the London plane tree is a pretty common feature on London streets and this tree is also reasonably robust and can withstand drought better than many other trees. Therefore, an understanding of tree species and their requirements is important. In the case of new developments, landscape architects may need to consider the trees they recommend for planting in the future more carefully. With new robust networks, longer term lower leakage levels and climate change, water availability will change. Although these changes will be offset by a full SuDs being installed as part of the planning approval process, this does not necessarily mean native trees will be planted, as many exotic species can adapt to dry conditions, poor nutrient availability, and temperature fluctuations.
Neil Francis, Head of Arboriculture at Thomson Ecology, suggests that a wider range of planting equipment is needed, including underground watering systems, as well as optimising urban design which incorporates surface water drainage into tree planting schemes. The newly planted trees will then rely less on water from leaking pipes and more on the design of future drainage systems.
I think that where pipe replacement occurs, a wider review of reinstatement techniques are required to ensure that urban trees are protected and that wider environmental benefits are gained from the leakage reduction initiatives. However, where leakage control and trees coincide, there is an argument for investment in retrospective SuDs to reduce storm water sewage flows and ensure that urban trees do not pay the penalty for what is termed good water resource management. | https://wwtonline.co.uk/Blog/the-unexpected-environmental-consequences-of-leakage-reduction |
Jan 08, 2021News
Surrey, B.C. – The Teal Jones Group is committed to sustainable management of the resources under their stewardship in a scientifically credible and responsible manner. In the Forest Sector, oversight in all realms is provided by licensed, professional third-party organizations and Government, with approvals for harvesting are issues through the Lands and Resource offices of First Nations. The Teal Jones Group recognizes that only by maintaining a balance of environmental, social, cultural and economic values can weconsistently achieve our long term objectives and commitments, including the competitive and efficient production of high quality forestproducts.
The Teal Jones Group’s commitments to sustainable forest management include:
- Utilizing Qualified Professionals to ensure diverse, healthy, sustainably managed forest lands, resources and ecosystems consistent with the public interest;
- Providing safe and healthy working conditions as well as safeguards for all workers, contractors and, where necessary, the public in and around worksites;
- Achieving and maintaining sustainable forest management which balances the use of natural resources and protects environmental, social and cultural values, including unique or special features;
- Meeting or exceeding all applicable legislation, regulations, policies and other management commitments;
- Recognizing and respecting Aboriginal title and rights, and treaty rights;
- Providing ongoing and meaningful participation opportunities for the public and Aboriginal Peoples with rights and interests in sustainableforest management;
- Incorporating local knowledge, concerns and evolving values and issues;
- Honouring all international agreements and conventions relevant to sustainable forest management to which Canada is a signatory;
- Minimizing or mitigating environmental impacts and pollution through responsible, science based planning and procedures;
- Utilizing and improving on the most current sustainable forest management science, research, theory and technology;
- Promoting sustainable forest management practices and awareness among staff, employees contractors, and the public;
- Educating and engaging the public regarding sustainable forest management and the use of wood products as an environmentally friendly choice; and
- Demonstrating continual improvement and accountability through regular monitoring, evaluation and reporting of performance andprocedures. | https://tealjones.com/teal-jones-sustainable-forest-management-policy/ |
The “Building a Sustainable Water Sector” EC5 initiative will play an important role in putting in place long term strategic plans and processes to ensure water security and improved resilience of the water sector for Victoria’s future.
This initiative is expected to deliver key actions in Water for Victoria, including legislative and policy reforms to improve:
- strategic water planning and management;
- sustainability and resilience of Victoria’s water sector;
- and improved reporting, monitoring and evaluation of EC investments to provide robust, evidence-based planning for water supply investment decisions and to address the impacts of water extraction on the environment and communities.
EC5 Expenditure to date
Program Title (EC5)
2020-21 Expenditure $’000
Building a sustainable water sector
6,120
Long-term Water Security
The objective of this project is to promote the sustainable management of water by developing a long-term, coordinated approach for improving water security across Victoria, including reforms to the water planning and management frameworks for the water sector and embracing new and innovative methods of service delivery and knowledge sharing.
Framework reforms will contribute to the sustainable management of our finite water supplies under pressures of drought, climate change and rapid population growth as well as providing robust, evidence-based planning for water supply investment decisions. Summary of progress in Year 1 of EC5:
The Acting Minister for Water ordered 125 gigalitres from the Victorian Desalination Plant in Wonthaggi to secure Melbourne’s water supply for our growing population. This order considered current water storage conditions, projected water demands, future climate conditions, risk of system spill and the balance between securing supply and keeping bills stable.
The Urban Water Strategy Guidelines were released to urban water corporations to ensure a coordinated approach to planning for the next 50 years of urban water supply across the state. Work has also begun on a clear assessment framework that will demonstrate how each strategy will be assessed against the Guidelines. Water corporations have begun consultation with the communities they supply and are on track to deliver their strategies in year 2 of the tranche.
Central and Gippsland Sustainable Water Strategy
Sustainable water strategies are long-term plans required under the Water Act 1989 to secure the water future of Victoria’s regions. The strategies identify and manage threats to the supply and quality of a region’s water resources and identify ways to improve waterway health.
The Central and Gippsland Region Sustainable Water Strategy (CGRSWS) is under development and is planned to be released in 2022. The planning process of the SWSs involves the community and cuts across the boundaries of Water Corporations, Catchment Management Authorities (CMAs), Registered Aboriginal Parties (RAPs) and other key stakeholders allowing decisions to be made that are beyond the scale of individual organisations.
Summary of progress in Year 1 of EC5:
- Established and delivered a collaborative planning process with water corporations, CMAs, Victorian Environmental Water Holder RAPs in the region and other government departments to develop content for the draft CGRSWS to meet section 22C (1) of the Water Act 1989 and 22C(2) of the Water Act 1989 being to take into account any Long Term Water Resource Assessment.
- Convened a Consultative Committee and an Independent Panel to meet the requirements of 22F of the Water Act 1989.
- Undertook preliminary engagement with stakeholders and community (via round table discussions with community groups, an Engage Victoria survey and a peak body group discussion) to inform the discussion draft of the CGRSWS.
- Developed a discussion draft of the CGRSWS for public consultation.
Mitigating the risks of small dams
This project will improve the long-term resilience and safety of Local Government Authority (LGA) owned and managed small dams and make the recreational areas and public amenities safer for community to enjoy. It will also provide the Victorian Government with a level of assurance that these structures are managed according to current standard and practices, improving emergency preparedness and response and thereby reducing the burden on emergency agencies. The project will also address cost of living pressures as it will reduce the risk of future liability of LGA’s in relation to their dams, and therefore, any future impacts to rate payers.
The current EC5 funded program will provide grant funding as contributions to Central Goldfields Shire Council, Frankston City Council and Latrobe City Council to upgrade Goldfields dam, Baxter Park dam and Traralgon Railway Reserve Large dam projects. All three projects commenced early this year and will be completed on the 30 June 2024. Approximately 25% project work has been completed.
Murray-Darling Basin Inter-jurisdictional strategy and negotiations and MER
Victoria is implementing the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and monitoring the outcomes achieved so far. In this year of EC5 funding, Victoria met all of our monitoring and reporting obligations, and demonstrated that we are continuing to meet our commitments under the Plan. The Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council met twice, and progressed priority discussions including addressing capacity and delivery risks in the River Murray system. The Victorian government collaborated on new legislation which was developed and progressed through the Commonwealth Parliament to establish a new compliance office and increase transparency and community confidence in the Basin. Victoria worked with the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and other Basin Governments on the release of the 2020 Basin Plan Evaluation and is collaborating to develop the Framework for the 2025 Evaluation. Streamlined reporting on Basin Plan implementation includes Schedule 12 Water Resource Plan (WRP) compliance in 2020-21, the first full year of WRPs operating in Victoria.
WCG Drought Response Coordination
The project ‘Evaluation of DELWP Drought Response (2018-2021)’contributes to State’s strategic planning and management framework for the water sector to continue to meet the ongoing challenges of climate change. The project seeks to improve drought preparedness and response across the sector through the review of DELWP/WCG drought response package (2018-2021) against WCG Drought Framework principles. This work is essential to identify necessary refinements in DELWP’s preparedness and response policy to future droughts.
In Year 1 of EC5 the DELWP Drought Response (2018-21), a comprehensive program evaluation was successfully delivered. Key evaluation findings will be implemented and include:
- The evaluation confirmed the Department’s drought response was delivered in alignment to the WCG Drought Preparedness and Response Framework and was found to be operating quite efficiently despite the lack of documented procedures and processes in place; with the culture and collaborative nature of staff at the Department being the key driver to this success.
- Develop a drought escalation process flow chart to provide staff with a step by step guide on how to deliver the Drought Programs.
- Create a central repository for information related to drought escalation periods to increase the efficiency of knowledge transfer to new staff, utilise learnings from previous drought escalation periods and support program evaluations for continuous improvement.
- Have a resource dedicated to implementing the recommendations from evaluations of drought escalation periods and to review readiness of activities and processes each quarter during non-drought periods.
Oversight of Water for Victoria and Environmental Contribution
The objective of this project is to continue delivery of Water for Victoria Action 10.13 by overseeing the implementation of initiatives funded by the Environmental Contribution, tracking delivery of Water for Victoria; and monitoring, evaluating and reporting on progress and achievements.
Summary of progress in Year 1 of EC5:
The project continues to provide oversight of the Environmental Contribution and delivery of Water for Victoria through:
- Supporting effective governance of EC funded initiatives through the EC Project Control Board.
- Coordinating development of business cases, project implementation plans and evaluation plans for EC funded initiatives, to support project delivery and enable effective and transparent monitoring and evaluation of outcomes.
- Providing timely and transparent reporting on project expenditure and outcomes to the Victorian community, through EC initiative progress reporting [link to EC5 progress reports top level page], and publication of Water for Victoria Action Status Reports. | https://www.water.vic.gov.au/planning/environmental-contributions/fifth-tranche-of-the-environmental-contribution/building-a-sustainable-water-sector |
Many child deaths in developing countries are preventable: Children die from treatable conditions, such as pneumonia, diarrhea, and malaria, because families in rural, hard-to-reach, or conflict-ridden areas can’t access or afford the treatments. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), launched in September 2015, set ambitious targets of ending preventable child deaths by 2030 and reducing mortality among children under age five to at least 25 per 1,000 live births.
Integrated community case management (iCCM) has been recognized as a key strategy for increasing access to essential treatments and meeting the objectives for children under five laid out in the SDGs. Integrated community case management entails training volunteer community health workers to serve as the first point of contact for medical treatment in remote areas, enabling them to recognize and treat common childhood illnesses. To be effective, community health workers must operate within a broader pharmaceutical system in which the needs for quality medicines and other health commodities are assured.
That’s where the USAID-funded Systems for Improved Access to Pharmaceuticals and Services (SIAPS) Program, led by Management Sciences for Health (MSH), comes in: supporting community health workers using integrated community case management to save children’s lives by helping governments strengthen five elements of the pharmaceutical system.
1) Governance
One of the most important parts of supporting community health workers is ensuring that they have access to the health commodities they need to do their jobs. This begins with improved governance of the pharmaceutical system, which includes:
- Developing robust policy documents, such as essential medicines lists and standard treatment guidelines, which guide a pharmaceutical system’s procurement needs and the use of health commodities.
- Establishing or improving medicines registration processes, which help ensure quality, efficacy, and safety of medicines.
- Streamlining quantification procedures, which help governments take stock of their supply and estimate needs.
For example, in Democratic Republic of the Congo, SIAPS Program helped the Ministry of Health revise its Essential Medicine List to include all commodities necessary for community use—a particularly important step for ensuring that women and children in the country have access to lifesaving medicines they need.
2) Information management
Proper management of information on pharmaceutical use and supplies is another important factor in supporting community health workers. Governments must be able to accurately track the availability and consumption of pharmaceutical commodities to prevent stock-outs and ensure access to medicines at all levels of the system, from central medical stores down to the community level. Information management can be improved through the development of logistics management information systems and dashboards, such as the SIAPS-developed OSPSANTE in Mali, that can track stocks levels and consumption at all levels—including the community level—and capture data in easily digestible forms that can be used for decision making.
3) Service delivery and 4) human resources
Many community health workers do not have formal medical education, and therefore require training and supervision to perform their jobs correctly. Strengthening systems for performance monitoring of workers and supervisors and continuous refresher trainings of community health workers and meetings with supervisors, who are usually facility-based, lay the foundations for the successful delivery of medicines and services by community health workers. Performance improvement and capacity building are particularly important to ensure that medicines are dispensed properly, and that patients’ adverse reactions from medicine use are tracked and reported. Appropriate dispensing of medicines by community and facility health workers also plays an important role in preventing the spread of antimicrobial resistance, which is caused in part by the improper use or overuse of antimicrobial medicines.
Additional resources, like job aids and posters, provide instruction on key health system areas, such as the rational use of medicines, supply chain procedures, and waste management.
5) Financing
Resource mobilization is a key component for scaling up integrated community case management. While The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) permits the inclusion of integrated community case management platform costs in grants for malaria work for example, but the cost of non-malaria commodities have to be financed with alternative funds. Countries therefore need to estimate the cost of their integrated community case management programs and address any funding gaps to mobilize resources effectively.
SIAPS has worked with several governments to establish and finance successful integrated community case management programs staffed by knowledgeable community health workers. At the global level, SIAPS has been a key player in supporting countries to include integrated community case management in Global Fund grants though its contributions to the Integrated Community Case Management Financing Task Team. SIAPS has also supported resource mobilization and planning at the country level in Burundi, helping the Ministry of Health to conduct a costing exercise to determine the funding necessary for integrated community case management activities.
Stronger pharmaceutical systems, healthier communities
For integrated community case management programs to be successful, countries must support community health workers and their supervisors by strengthening the governance, information management, service delivery and human resources, and financing of their pharmaceutical systems. Improved dashboards and information systems, job aids, trainings and performance monitoring, empower country-led efforts to give community health workers and their supervisors the tools and information they need to end preventable child deaths and ensure healthier communities.
Elyse Franko-Filipasic contributed to this content. | http://www.msh.org/blog/2016/04/28/ending-preventable-child-deaths-with-integrated-community-case-management-stronger |
This economic shift means:
- Shifting land use to higher value use while maintaining and improving our environment
- Redesigning our activities to minimise waste
- Transitioning to a low emissions economy.
Emissions Trading Scheme reform
The New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is a key tool to support New Zealand in meeting emissions reduction targets and transitioning to a low-emission future. This reform requires amending the Climate Change Response Act (the establishing legislation for the NZ ETS) to ensure the scheme is robust and fit-for-purpose, and to provide certainty to the market of the long term credibility and effectiveness of the NZ ETS.
More information
https://www.mfe.govt.nz/climate-change/proposed-improvements-nz-ets(external link)
Zero Carbon Bill and Climate Change Commission
The purpose of the amendment bill is to provide a framework by which New Zealand can develop and implement clear and stable climate change policies that contribute to the global effort under the Paris Agreement to limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5° Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
The amendment bill will:
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Set a new greenhouse gas emissions reduction target
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Establish a system to set a series of emissions budgets to act as stepping stones towards the long-term target
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Require the Government to develop and implement policies for climate change adaptation and mitigation
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Establish a new, independent Climate Change Commission to help keep successive governments on track to meeting long-term goals.
More information
https://www.mfe.govt.nz/climate-change/zero-carbon-amendment-bill(external link)
Resource Management Act reform
The Government is working to improve our resource management system.
We are focusing on reform of the Resource Management Act (RMA) to:
- Support a more productive, sustainable and inclusive economy
- Be easier for New Zealanders to understand and engage with.
Stage 1 of the reforms involves legislative change to address issues with resource consenting, enforcement and Environment Court provisions within the RMA.
Stage 2 of the reform is a comprehensive review of the RMA to examine the broader and deeper changes needed to support the transition to a more productive, sustainable and inclusive economy. The aim is to improve environmental outcomes and enable better and timely urban development within environmental limits.
More information
https://www.mfe.govt.nz/rma/improving-our-resource-management-system(external link)
Essential freshwater: healthy water, fairly allocated
The Essential freshwater programme aims to:
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Stop further degradation in water quality and start making immediate improvements so that water quality is materially improving within five years
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Reverse past damage to bring New Zealand’s freshwater resources, waterways and ecosystems to a healthy state within a generation
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Address water allocation issues.
More information
https://www.mfe.govt.nz/fresh-water/fresh-water-and-government/freshwater-work-programme(external link)
Productive and Sustainable Land Use Package
Budget 2019 funded the $229 million Productive and Sustainable Land Use package to deliver the Government’s goals for freshwater, climate change, and for the land-based sectors. The package includes major complementary initiatives in the Agriculture, Environment and Climate Change portfolios.
The $122.241 million Productive and Sustainable Land Use Agriculture initiative will support and enable farmers and growers to adapt to a rapidly changing operating environment and transition smoothly to more productive and sustainable land use and farming systems. It will help ensure:
Farmers and other land users can meet environmental bottom lines and remain prosperous
Every farmer has a way forward to achieve these goals including changing land use if necessary
The impact of changing land use on land users, their families and communities is managed in a just and sustainable way.
More information
https://www.budget.govt.nz/budget/2019/wellbeing/transforming-economy/a-sustainable-future.htm(external link)
https://www.mpi.govt.nz/funding-and-programmes/other-programmes/extension-services/(external link)
https://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/land/productive-and-sustainable-land-package(external link)
Waste and resource efficiency work programme
The Government’s waste programme focusses on key actions to support the transition to a more sustainable economy. Our key initiatives include:
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Expanding the Waste disposal levy and improving our data on waste
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Improving domestic and commercial recycling processes and practices
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Analysing investment in innovation and infrastructure to support the transition to a circular economy
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Implementing product stewardship schemes for waste such as tyres, e-waste, and chemicals
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Developing a circular economy strategy, starting with priority sectors where greater benefits from circular economies are available.
More information
https://www.mfe.govt.nz/waste/waste-and-government(external link)
Biodiversity Strategy
The Government is committed to protecting and enhancing our biodiversity. DOC is leading a consultation for an action plan from 2020. New Zealand’s last biodiversity strategy laid out actions to protect our nature until the end of 2019.
The new strategy will set a vision and guide our biodiversity work for the next 50 years.
More information
https://www.doc.govt.nz/get-involved/have-your-say/all-consultations/2019/proposal-for-new-zealands-next-biodiversity-strategy/(external link)
Crown Minerals Act review
Tranche Two of the Crown Minerals Act 1991 (the CMA) review is the second stage of a two-stage legislative review that began with the decision to limit new petroleum exploration permits to onshore Taranaki. Tranche Two is intended as a wide ranging review that will consider factors that will impact the CMA, both now and into the future.
More information
https://www.mbie.govt.nz/building-and-energy/energy-and-natural-resources/development-of-a-resource-strategy
Resource Strategy
Government is developing a Minerals and Petroleum Resource Strategy for New Zealand, setting out the Government’s vision for the minerals and petroleum sector over the next 10 years. | https://www.mbie.govt.nz/business-and-employment/economic-development/economic-plan/land-resource-use/ |
On behalf of the United States government, I congratulate the Government of Uganda on accomplishing yet another milestone in improving services for the country’s people. This milestone – the completion and the inauguration today of a new warehousing facility for National Medical Stores – will help ensure that much-needed medicines and health supplies are properly managed, from receipt to storage and onward, until their ultimate delivery to the health facilities and use by those in need.
The United States supports the Government of Uganda’s objective of strengthening the public health supply chain to ensure consistent availability of essential medicines and health supplies for the Ugandan people. The health of the nation’s citizens is critical to Uganda’s national security and to its economic development. To this end, together with the Ministry of Health and the Global Fund, the United States has invested more than $578 million over the last five years in procuring essential life-saving medications, including antiretroviral medications, antimalarials, family planning commodities, laboratory supplies, mosquito nets, and indoor residual spraying supplies. These public health investments contribute to improving the health and well-being of more than 1.2 million people living with HIV in Uganda, protecting more than 2 million households from malaria, thus reducing the morbidity and mortality related to these diseases. And let’s not forget the more than 18 million COVID-19 vaccine doses provided by the United States. COVID remains a concern, especially for vulnerable individuals, and vaccines for initial shots and boosters are available and need to be administered appropriately before they expire. As we work together to contain and prevent the spread of the Ebola virus, we cannot ignore the other public health threats.
To strengthen and improve procurement, storage, and distribution of health commodities by NMS, the United States government invested significant funding to establish and operationalize the NMS+ Enterprise Resource Planning, or ERP, information technology system. This system will improve efficiency in the areas of procurement, warehousing, and distribution, and will provide vital information on financial and human resource operations at NMS. The ERP digitally links NMS to more than 3,400 public Ugandan health facilities so that they are able to place orders for medical supplies online. The ERP system will reduce human error from a paper-based system, enable the NMS to immediately receive orders electronically, ensure that facilities are adequately supplied with the right commodities at the right time, and help to minimize pilferage. Just last week, the IGG reported that Uganda loses UGX 25 million each day to corruption and vice, depriving citizens of vital services, including access to health care and medicine.
The ERP system also enables NMS to access critical real-time data to guide planning for procurement of health supplies. Currently, 1,621 of the 3,400 facilities are ordering their essential medicines and health supplies through the ERP, and more than 7,500 health workers have been trained on use of the system by NMS with USG assistance.
The United States government is also training local governments and health facilities to manage the public health supply chain and ensure continuous availability of life-saving essential medicines. In the past year, we procured, distributed, and installed 535 computers at 350 Uganda health facilities as part of our efforts to digitize the supply chain across the country.
I would like to reiterate that the United States remains committed to collaboration with the Government of Uganda to meet its health sector goals. We will continue to support the implementation of the 10-year roadmap for strengthening the health supply chain in Uganda, an effort that will facilitate sustainability of the various investments in Uganda’s health supply chain.
Through this plan, the Government of Uganda has committed to gradually direct more resources towards commodities, health supplies, and health systems investments for the public sector. Our collective efforts will move Uganda closer to achieving the broader goal of reaching universal health coverage by 2030.
But reaching this goal also requires deliberate and sustained action in controlling the current Ebolavirus outbreak. Having recently traveled to Mubende and Kassanda, I commend the Ministry of Health and all of the health care workers, especially the village health teams, for providing attentive and compassionate care to the infected and their communities. But this virus has the potential to travel across Uganda and across the region, wreaking havoc and undermining all the advancements made in public health. It is imperative that we all redouble our efforts to raise awareness, to ensure individuals go to treatment centers as early as possible, and to provide a comprehensive response. This is not a matter for only the Ministry of Health to resolve; all of us – the entire government of Uganda, diplomatic and development partners, the media, and Ugandan communities in particular – have a role to play. Please do your part.
Once again, our heartfelt congratulations go out to your excellency and the people of Uganda on this occasion. Thank you. | https://ug.usembassy.gov/remarks-by-u-s-ambassador-natalie-e-brown-at-commissioning-of-national-medical-stores-warehouse-facility-november-3-2022/ |
The mandate of the Directorate of Pharmaceutical and Medical Supplies, Ministry of Health, Republic of South Sudan is to ensure that every person in South Sudan has equal opportunity and access to quality, safe, effective and affordable Pharmaceutical products and Medical supplies, because the availability and accessibility of medicines and medical supplies is essential to saving lives and ensuring functional health facilities.
Previously, the MoH depended entirely on the World Bank procurement procedures with guidance of the WHO information on policies, standards guidelines, and regulations. With the end of the MDTF project, the Ministry has taken up procurement of medicines and medical supplies to all public health facilities in the Republic of South Sudan.
Directorate Roles and Responsibilities
- To procure medicines and medical supplies.
- To ensure only high-quality medicines and medical supplies enter the supply chain, management of medical stores, transport and storage of drugs.
- To draw up policies on pharmaceuticals in South Sudan.
Major Functions of the Directorate Include:
- Development of policies and a legal and regulatory framework for streamlining the pharmaceutical sector.
- Ensuring availability of affordable, safe, efficacious and high quality medicines and supplies.
- Establishment of a national quality control laboratory and strengthen quality assurance mechanisms.
- Promotion of the rational use of medicines and containment of antimicrobial resistance.
- Procurement and distribution of vital diagnostic and therapeutic equipment
The Directorate consists of the following Departments:
- Policy and Pharmacy Practice.
- Pharmaceutical Supplies Management.
- Quality Assurance.
Main plans of the Directorate:
- Procure medicines and medical supplies
- Transport medicines and medical supplies to the Counties
- Review and update the existing Pharmaceutical Management Information System
- Establish an autonomous Central Medical Supplies (CMS)
- Construct/renovate medical stores including cold-chain storage (central, regional and State level).
- Promote local production of Pharmaceuticals.
- Strengthen the supply chain system.
- Capacity building of Pharmaceutical staff.
Distribution of Medicines and Medical Supplies
- The public health facilities receive regular distribution of medicines and medical supplies from the Central Medical stores quarterly.
- The number of functional public health facilities in the Central Medical Supplies (CMS) distribution list is 1,297 (47 hospitals, 250 Primary Health Care Centers (PHCCs) and 1,000 Primary Health Care Units (PHCUs)). These health facilities receive regular quarterly distribution from the Ministry of Health (MoH).
Contacts: | https://moh-rss.org/?page_id=79 |
Icewater Seafoods is an eight-generation family-owned cod business operating out of Arnold’s Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador. At the helm is President and CEO Alberto Wareham, the seventh generation of his family in the cod business, who took over Icewater Seafoods from his father, Bruce Wareham. Alberto’s son, Ryan Wareham, is already an integral part of ensuring Icewater Seafoods remains sustainable for the future.
“As a long-time family-owned business, we’re invested in making our company as sustainable as possible for the long term,” Wareham said. “We follow the science to make sure we’re protecting the resource for generations to come.”Alberto Wareham, President and CEO
For Icewater Seafoods, long-term planning is key to more than just keeping the business going. In addition to supporting their family, the Warehams are dedicated to responsible fishing to ensure they can continue to offer essential support to their local community.
Because harvesting and processing sustainable seafood from Canada’s pristine Atlantic Ocean creates thousands of jobs, injects money into the local economy and builds strong coastal communities. Alberto’s late father, Bruce Wareham, was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award for contributing to the survival of his hometown and the positive reputation of Newfoundland and Labrador seafood around the world. Icewater Seafoods invests heavily in their future – including $14 million to improve their processing plant and wages that are well above industry average – and is rewarded with loyalty from their employees. Icewater has 16 employees who have been with the company over 40 years. | https://fisheriescouncil.ca/fishing-for-the-future/eastern-canada/ |
Financial administration can be described as the method or even field in a company that is related to finances, expenses, resources as well as credit, so all the “Organization has to possess the means to carry on along with its own daily functions as well as fulfill its commitments, i.e. earnings requirements, operating expenses and also financial debt repayments.” Financial management deals with all these parts as well as more. It is also associated with resource predicting, budgeting, as well as management. To understand the economic management better, allow our team find several of the vital proportions used in this regard.
The 1st as well as foremost of these crucial ratios is actually the financing proportion, which determines the financial situation of the provider versus the monetary stamina. Generally, monetary monitoring is actually determined as the variation in between present properties as well as current responsibilities.
An additional significant proportion in monetary management is actually the asset-liability proportion. In basic words, this proportion shows the amount of financial threat that any type of business proprietor experiences.
The third essential ratio is the cash flow every transaction. This pertains to the effectiveness along with which cash money is relocated within a company throughout a particular interval. A company’s capital every transaction will certainly mirror the firm’s profit maximization ability. If the earnings every transaction is actually expensive, then it could signify that an inefficient cash flow control system remains in area.
As discussed previously, the 4th critical ratio that must be understood in effective economic monitoring definition is the operating liquidity. This describes the availability of liquid resources properties to comply with the needs of a sudden economic decision-making problems. This is actually a property quality size that is actually utilized to ensure that the monitoring of the company’s funds structure works. It can easily help the company prevent possible dangers and optimize its revenues in the long run.
With the aid of this estimate, companies can easily determine the expected returns on their capital over the course of the firm’s annual accounting pattern. This approach is really a resource used for recognizing the value of their inventory as it connects to the economic performance of the firm.
In outcome, a clear understanding of the 4 fundamental proportions that are included in a business’s financial management device is crucial to the excellence of its own procedures. The introduction of these other ratios is essential to evaluate the total health as well as productivity of the business.
What is financial monitoring? An economic manager is one that handles the economic properties of the company. Financial management can easily additionally be defined as the component or division in a company that is actually mainly worried about financial resources, expenses, cash flow as well as credit score, so the “organism might well possess the ways to take care of on its own.” The majority of organizations rely on financial monitoring for day to day operations including making purchases and investments, budgeting and also keeping an eye on employee capital, remitting to suppliers and providers as well as setting-up/ending economic profiles. It is actually the duty of economic management to make sure that economic goals as well as objectives are fulfilled, and that all financial obligations of the business are actually fulfilled. A financial supervisor is actually also behind setting-up and also regulating long-term economic programs, as well as he makes certain that these programs are appropriately checked as well as executed.
Several managers concentrate on a particular part of the monetary monitoring procedure, including transactional financial, portfolio management, risk administration, affirmation scientific research, financial, possession allotment, financial preparation as well as insurance coverage, worldwide money and also home mortgage financial. While the majority of supervisors have a tendency to pay attention to 1 or 2 components of the field, some concentrate on a variety of various locations. Likewise, there are various kinds of financial monitoring, including monetary statement monitoring, book keeping solutions, budgeting, and defaulter’s receivables as well as finance management. Some other related methods consist of financial planning, personal debt administration, capital budgeting, as well as financial danger control.
The objective of managing money management is actually the cautious economic control of company assets. Its own purpose is actually the long-term sustainable performance of funds properties by managing danger and guaranteeing funding earnings at the correct time. This area blends audit principles, economic bookkeeping techniques, and fund monitoring skills along with investment financial as well as asset allowance skill-sets. Supervisory money needs an eager interest to the key concerns experiencing associations today, since they will affect future company tasks as well as lead to a selection having an effect on the provider’s long term stability. This includes economic troubles involving authorities, economic climate, globalization as well as various other financial clues. | http://www.1dosmundos.com/2021/01/02/10-courses-that-will-definitely-show-you-all-you-required-to-understand-about-financial-administration/ |
Factors contributing to the stock out of essential medicines at health facilities in Mbale District in Uganda.
Date2009
Author
Mangusho, Amuri Joseph
MetadataShow full item record
Abstract
Introduction Drugs play a crucial role in health restoration, prevention and diagnosis of various diseases. In Uganda, essential drugs are provided free of charge to patients in all public health facilities in order to ensure equitable access to health care. In Private-Not-For-Profit health facilities, drugs that are subsidized by Ministry of health through Credit line and Primary Health Care conditional Grant are provided free of charge to patients as well. Statement of the problem: There is persistent shortage of essential drugs in health units in Mbale district. The problem seems to occur in both public and PNFP facilities. It is not clear where the problem originates in the drug management cycle and the extent not known. Therefore, there was need to investigate the cause in order to put appropriate actions in place. Objectives of the study: This research was to assess the effectiveness of the procurement system for essential medicines at health facilities; determine the level of poly pharmacy at health facilities and determining the availability of the core essential medicines and supplies at health facilities in Mbale District in Uganda. Methods: The study was cross sectional and focused on medicines procurement processes and rational medicines used in public and PNFP health facilities. It employed both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection using Checklists, questionnaires, WHO modified drug use indicator form, and key informant interviews. Data was analyzed using SPSS statistical software for statistical analysis. Data was presented in tabular form, as bar charts and figures. Some of the qualitative data were manually analysed and presented in text. Results: The study indicated that the procurement system in Mbale district is not effective. The drug management structure in the district is weak with no Medicine and therapeutics committee constituted. Procurement resources were lacking in the health facilities. It was noted that NMS supply about 52 % of the required drugs to public facilities while JMS supply over 91% to PNFP’S. It was also noted that public health facilities and PNFP’s take 70-79 and 7-8 days respectively from time of ordering to receiving the drugs. Conclusion: The Procurement system in Mbale district is generally ineffective right from the health facility level irrespective of the ownership and factors contributing to this phenomenon needs to be addressed soon. Prescription practices which lead to medicines wastage need attention. Recommendations: The researcher therefore recommended that in order to improve the availability of essential medicines and health supplies at the health facilities in Mbale district, procurement processes should be adhered, use of treatment guidelines for selection of facility lists, regular technical support supervision through mentoring and coaching to the health unit staff and monitoring of medicine management activities. District health offices should ensure that the focal personnel on medicines procurement monitor the activities of the suppliers to ensure accurate information on availability of stocks with the suppliers. Improve staffing of technical personnel like the pharmacy technicians/dispensers at health facilities, encourage inservice training on medicines management and prescribing practices. The quality of training in logistics management should be ensured. | http://makir.mak.ac.ug/handle/10570/2614 |
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Salient Points
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Policy for Ground Water Management, Rain Water Harvesting & Ground Water Recharge in the State of Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh is an agrarian state, where ground water resource has attained a prominent position as prime source of irrigation.
Nearly 70 percent irrigated agriculture in the state is mainly dependent on ground water resources. Water needs of drinking water and industrial sectors are also mainly fulfilled from ground water.
Due to unlimited & excessive use of ground water, the situation of over-exploitation has emerged in many rural & urban areas of the state.
Ground Water development is the need of state, therefore long-term management and planning becomes essential for the stressed areas like over-exploited/quality affected areas.
The State Government is serious for the sustainable management of this resource alongwith its conservation. The programmes like rain water harvesting, ground water recharge and aquifer management have been kept amongst the top priorities of the government.
The need is to prepare comprehensive ground water management policy in the state with the aim to manage ground water resources in a sustainable way and to implement rain water harvesting and recharge programmes in an integrated manner.
The State Government has issued a “Comprehensive Policy for Ground water Management, Rain Water Harvesting & Ground Water Recharge in the State” vide Government Order, dated 18 February, 2013.
Objectives
To ensure regulated exploitation and optimum & judicious use of ground resources.
To initiate National programme of aquifer mapping and aquifer based management in the state in a planned way for overall ground water management.
To implement ground water recharge programme on a large scale in an integrated manner and to bring over-exploited/critical blocks into safe category in a time bound manner.
To effectively implement conjunctive use of surface water and ground water.
To promote efficient methods of water use in the stressed areas.
To give priority to the river basin/watershed approach in ground water management planning and conservation.
To identify ground water polluted areas in order to ensure safe drinking water supplies.
To implement ground water conservation and recharging programmes by the concerned departments through participatory management approach in a co-ordinated and integrated manner.
To make provisions of effective legal structures for ground water management.
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RESPONSES are measures taken immediately prior to and following disaster impact. Such measures are directed towards saving life and protecting property and to deal with the immediate damage caused by the disaster. The quality of response measures greatly varies in accordance with the nature and extent of preparatory measures undertaken.
B. Phases of Response
1. Pre-Response
2. Response
3. Post Response
C. Characteristics of Response
1. The type of disaster
Depending on its type, the onset of disaster may provide long warning, short warning or no warning at all. This will obviously influence the effectiveness of activation, mobilization and application of response effort.
2. The severity and extent of disaster
This represent the size and shape of the response problem and particularly affects aspects such as:
a. The ability of response effort to cope with the problem;
b. The urgency of response action and the priorities which are applied;
c. Exacerbation of disaster effects if appropriate action is not taken; and,
d. Requirements for external assistance.
3. The ability to take Pre-Impact Action
If warning time and other conditions permit pre-impact action to be taken (in the form of evacuation, shelter and other protective measures), this may have a major effect on the success of response overall.
4. The capability for sustained operations
A frequent requirement of response operations is that they must be sustained over a long enough period to be fully effective. Several factors are involved here, including:
a. Resource capacity
b. Management
c. Community self-reliance
However, the capability to sustain operations relative to potential threats is a disaster management objective which needs to be carefully addressed both during preparedness and response action itself.
5. Identification of likely response requirements
It is generally possible to identify beforehand the kind of response action likely to be needed for any particular disaster. The threats likely to emanate from individual disasters are well established. Thus, the required response actions are also identifiable. This represents a considerable advantage in disaster management terms, in that it is possible to plan and prepare for well-defined response action in the face of potential threats. This again constitutes a tangible objective for disaster management.
It is suggested that an assessment of response needs in the light of the foregoing and similar factors has useful application to most circumstances.
D. Requirements for Effective Response
Experience has shown that effective response depends fundamentally on two factors, namely: information and resources. Without these two vital components, the best plans, management arrangements, experts staff and so on become virtually useless.
The Major Requirements for Effective Response are:
1. General Background of Preparedness
Response operations generally have to be carried out under disruptive and sometimes traumatic conditions. The effectiveness of response operations will depend vitally on the general background of preparedness which applies. This includes various aspects of policy direction, planning, organization and training.
2. Readiness of Resource Organization
The readiness of resource organizations (both government and non-government) to respond to disaster situations, often at very short notice, is a very important requirement for response operations. Sometimes, failure on the part of only one designated organization may seriously upset the total response effort. However, disaster management authorities do need to bear in mind that the response lead-time for resource organization can differ markedly.
3. Warning
An effective system of warning is vitally important for successful response operations, even though there are bound to be some occasions when little or no warning will be available. The main needs for warning are:
a. Initial detection, as early as possible of the likelihood that a disaster will occur;
b. Origination of the warning process as early as practicable, bearing in mind false or unnecessary warning needs to be avoided. In this regard however, precautions can be built into the warning sequence by ensuring that, where doubt exists only key officials are initially informed;
c. Effective means of transmitting warning information;
d. Facilities to receive and assess warning information;
e. Response decisions as a result of assessing warning information; and,
f. Dissemination of response decisions and as appropriate, broadcast of warning information to the public.
Preliminary reaction to warning, before a disaster actually strikes can save lives and property. This preliminary reaction might include:
a. Closing of schools, offices, and other public places;
b. Checking emergency power supplies and similar facilities; and,
c. Taking precautions in households to ensure supplies of food and drinking water.
It is re-emphasized that preliminary reaction of this kind usually needs to be planned beforehand and where necessary, the relevant information passed to disaster-related organization and the public.
4. Evacuation
The evacuation of communities, groups or individuals is a frequent requirement during response operations. Evacuation is usually:
a. Precautionary - in most cases undertaken on warning indicators, prior to impact, in order to protect disaster-threatened persons from the full effects of the disaster, or
b. Post-impact - in order to move persons from a disaster-stricken area into safer, better surrounding and conditions.
5. Activation of the Response System
For rapid and effective response, there usually needs to be a system for activating disaster management officials and resource organizations. It is useful to implement activation in stages. These might be Alert, Stand-by and Action.
The benefit of this arrangement is that if, after the initial warning, the disaster does not materialize, activation can be called off. Thus, full mobilization of resources can be avoided and the minimum of disruption is caused to normal life. It is advisable for government departments and other resource organizations to work this system of stages in their own internal plans.
6. Coordination of Response Operations
Coordination of the action taken in response operation is very important. Good coordination ensures that resource organizations are utilized to the best effect, therefore avoiding gaps or duplication in operational tasks.
Appropriate emergency operation centers are essential for achieving effective coordination, because the EOC system is designed to facilitate information management and accurate decision making.
Also, appropriate disaster management committees (usually at the national, intermediate and local government levels) are necessary in order to ensure that, as far as possible, there is overall coordination in decision-making and in the allocation of task.
7. Communications
As with all aspects of disaster management, a good communications system is essential for effective response. Also, since communications may be adversely affected by disaster impact, reserve communications (with their own power supplies) is a necessary part of response arrangements. The value of solar-powered communications, especially under severe disaster conditions, can be considerable.
8. Survey & Assessment
It is virtually impossible to carry out effective response operations without accurate survey of damage and consequent assessment of relief and other needs. To be fully effective, survey and assessment need to be carefully planned and organized beforehand. It usually calls for:
a. survey from the air
b. survey by field teams
c. accurate reporting from disaster management and other official authorities in or near the disaster area.
In most cases, a general survey needs to be made soon after impact, with follow-up surveys when necessary. Some training is usually required for personnel who are required to carry out survey and assessment duties. This is necessary in order to ensure the accuracy of information which is collected. The information gathered through survey and assessment is, of course, vitally important for the implementation of immediate relief measures. However, it should be noted that much of the information is also required for the formulation of recovery programs.
9. Information Management
In the confused circumstances which tend to exist following disaster impact, it is not easy to obtain accurate and complete information. However, without accurate and comprehensive information, it is difficult to ensure that response operations are focused upon the correct tasks, in the correct order of priority.
Emergency operations centers are essential for effective information management. EOCs ensure that information is correctly processed, according to the proven cycle:
a. acquisition of information
b. information assessment
c. decision making
d. dissemination of decisions and information
Therefore, even if there are limitations in obtaining information, the EOC system will make the best use of that which is available.
10. Major Emergency Response Aspects
Following the impact of disaster, there are usually varying degrees of damage to, or destruction of the systems which support everyday life. Communities therefore need help (usually urgently) in order to subsist through the emergency phase and beyond. Key aspects of this assistance include:
a. RESCUE - to rescue persons who may be trapped in buildings and under debris, isolated by flood waters, or need rescuing for any other reason;
b. TREATMENT & CARE OF VICTIMS - to dispose of the dead, to render first aid, to ensure identification tagging of casualties, to identify needs in terms of medical treatment, hospitalization and medical evacuation, and, to deal with these accordingly;
c. EVACUATION - to determine whether people need to be evacuated from the stricken area immediately, or whether such a requirement is likely to arise later.
d. SHELTER - to provide shelter for victims whose housing has been destroyed or rendered unusable. This may involve:
· making urgent repairs to some housing
· issuing tents and/or tarpaulins to provide means of temporary shelter.
e. FOOD - to organize and distribute food to disaster victims and emergency workers.
f. COMMUNICATION - to establish essential radio, telephone, telex and facsimile links.
g. CLEARANCE & ACCESS - to clear key roads, airfields and ports in order to allow access for vehicle, aircraft, and shipping.
h. WATER & POWER SUPPLIES - to re-establish water and power supplies, or to make temporary arrangements for them. The provision of potable water is often difficult, particularly in the early post-impact stages. Water purifying equipment might therefore have to be obtained and/or water purifying tablets issued.
i. TEMPORARY SUBSISTENCE SUPPLIES - to provide supplies, such as clothing, disaster kits, cooking utensils and plastic sheeting, so as to enable victims to subsist temporarily in their own area, thus helping to reduce the need for evacuation.
j. HEALTH & SANITATION - to take measures to safeguard the health of people in the stricken area and to maintain reasonable sanitation facilities.
k. PUBLIC INFORMATION - to keep the stricken community informed on what they should do, especially in terms of self-help, and on what action is in hand to assist them. To prevent speculation and rumor concerning the future situation.
l. SECURITY - to maintain law and order, especially to prevent looting and unnecessary damage.
m. CONSTRUCTION REQUIREMENTS - to estimate high priority building repair and replacement requirements.
n. DISASTER WELFARE INQUIRY - to make arrangements to handle national and international inquiries concerning the welfare of citizens and residents, including tracing of missing persons.
o. MAINTENANCE OF PUBLIC MORALE - depending on cultural and other local circumstances, to make arrangements for counseling and spiritual support of the stricken community. This may involve religious bodies, welfare agencies and other appropriate organizations.
p. OTHER REQUIREMENTS - depending on individual circumstances, other requirements, additional to those above, may arise.
11. Allocation of Tasks
If planning and preparedness have been properly carried out, the majority of response tasks, as outlined in the foregoing paragraph, should have to be designated beforehand to appropriate government departments and other resource organizations such as:
a. Public Works Departments and the LGUs to undertake debris clearance tasks, etc.;
b. Medical and Health Department to implement health and sanitation measures;
c. Police to maintain law and order, and to assist with control of people and vehicle around the disaster area; and,
d. Red Cross to carry out first-aid and other emergency welfare assistance.
12. Availability of Relief Supplies & Commodities
The ready availability of relief supplies and commodities is an important factor in effective response. After disaster impact, there is usually an urgent need to provide and distribute food, drinking water, clothing, and shelter materials.
Disaster management action therefore needs to cover two main areas:
a. obtaining the various commodities from government stores, emergency stockpiles, commercial supplies and international assistance sources; and,
b. organizing the distribution of these commodities according to the best possible orders of priority.
13. International Assistance Resource
International assistance resources often play a valuable part in response operations. These resources mainly comprise relief commodities, especially food, shelter and medical supplies. However, specialist personnel and equipment are also available for damage. Authorities responsible for response operations should bear in mind that some international agencies and some countries hold stockpiles of relief supplies conveniently situated around the world.
14. Public Cooperation
Good cooperation between the disaster response authorities and the public is essential if response operations are to be successful. The foundation of cooperation should be laid down during the conduct of public awareness programs, a necessary part of preparedness. However, disaster response and coordinating authorities should remember that if the affected public is not kept as fully informed as possible, rumors and false reports are likely to be started, causing problems the response authorities.
15. Media Cooperation
Disaster, especially major disaster is news. Consequently, requests for information by local and international media are inevitable. It is clearly advisable to have organized arrangements to deal with this aspect. These arrangements are usually outlined in plans and standard operating procedures (SOPs), which are the responsibilities of government information and broadcasting agencies.
It is important that conditions in the stricken nation should be accurately reported internationally, with no misreporting or misrepresentation of international assistance efforts. Most events will be superseded by other events in the world scene in a fairly short time. To avoid possible misunderstanding and misinterpretation, it is important to give media representatives appropriate opportunities for briefing and gathering of information soon after disaster impact. Delays may lead to some media representatives making their own news, which may not be in the best interest of the affected nation.
Good relations with the local media is also important. Usually, two-way benefits are involved. The local media can also render invaluable services through dissemination of warning and evacuation announcements, and through stimulating public awareness of disasters.
During highly-pressured response operations, disaster management authorities may regard media information as low priority. However, this should and could be avoided if proper arrangements are in place.
16. Pattern of Response Management
It is important, especially in the interest of operational coherency, that disaster managers should try to develop and maintain a pattern of management during response operations.
Disaster Management deals with major requirements for coping with disaster, resource management depends on four major factors:
a. a capable EOC system;
b. a good information picture;
c. effective communication between the disaster management and individual resource organizations; and
d. sensible commitment of resource organizations to operational tasks, bearing in mind their capability and durability.
Given that these factors can be applied, it is useful if the response management authority works to a pattern of:
a. maintaining the best possible information picture (from surveys, situation reports and other information) concerning the disaster situation and the tasks which may need to be undertaken;
b. establishing priorities for tasks;
c. committing resources to tasks in the most effective manner, bearing in mind that personnel need time for meals and reasonable rest periods;
d. continuously assessing the situation in terms of:
· tasks completed
· tasks needing to be undertaken
· resources available
· possible reinforcement by additional resource, etc.;
e. maintaining close liaison with other relevant disaster management authorities (e.g. committees at higher and lower government levels);
f. maintaining close liaison with non-government organizations;
g. keeping the public as fully informed as practicable; and,
h. utilizing self-help from within the community.
17. Period of Response Operations
Broad international experience indicates that most governments find it expedient to keep the period of emergency response operations down to a fairly limited period. This period usually tends to be 2-3 weeks, after which remaining relief and associated needs are met through the normal system and processes of government. Undue extension of the emergency is usually regarded as undesirable. This is to avoid:
a. over-dependence on emergency aid (especially food supplies);
b. adverse effects on the local commercial system; and,
c. unnecessary delay in returning to normal community life.
It may be useful therefore, for disaster managers to bear this likely time frame in mind in formulating their overall concept of response operations. | http://www.nzdl.org/cgi-bin/library?e=d-00000-00---off-0aedl--00-0----0-10-0---0---0direct-10---4-------0-1l--11-en-50---20-about---00-0-1-00-0-0-11----0-0-&a=d&c=aedl&cl=CL3.13&d=HASHcd2bae0c8381ef0542840a.5.2 |
Planning is an active process requiring careful thought about what could or should happen in the future and involves the coordination of all relevant activities for the purpose of achieving specified goals and objectives. Planning is an integral component of forest management; is about determining and expressing the goals and objectives which government, rural communities or companies have, and for deciding the targets and steps that should be taken in order to achieve those objectives.
Planning need not be a complicated process but it requires clear objectives which a government or other group aims to achieve. It requires imagination and a willingness to consider all points of view having relevance to a given situation. The planning process should lead to the formation of a balanced outlook from which proposals for effective management can be written. An element of flexibility is desirable and necessary, however, in order to cope with unforeseen events which could affect the achievement of the objectives.
A range of information is used in planning to evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of alternative courses of action, which enables preferred options to be determined, coordinated with other activities, and expressed in writing. Information should be of good quality. Information of questionable quality should either be discarded or, if used, it should be noted that it is of poor quality and one of the activities of the plan should be acquiring better quality information.
Forest management plans should have a minimum duration, or length, of 10 years. A shorter period than 10 years does not provide the medium-term stability that is needed to guide consistent implementation of sustainable forest management activities. A realistic maximum length is 20 years. The duration is also called the term, or period, of a plan. A management plan should include prescriptions that provide for:
· Review at the mid-point of the plan,
· Review in the final year of the plan,
· The preparation of a new plan upon expiry of the present plan.
Annual plans of operations are written for a one-year period and should be derived from a five-year (or longer) management plan. A Plan of Operations should express specific activities in tabular form for one year only and for a specific locality, such as a felling area. An example of the tabular structure of a plan of operations is shown in Annex 5.
The relationships between elements of medium-term and annual forest management planning cycles are shown in Figure 24. Table 13 describes a tiered structure of long-, medium- and short-term management relationships. A number of commonly used terms in forest management planning and in the implementation of plans are defined in Figure 25.
Figure 24: The Forest Management Cycle
Table 13: The Tiered Forest Management Planning System
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Management Level
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Time Frame
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Key Elements of Forest Management
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Strategic Issues
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National
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> 10 years
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Conservation driven forest policies
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Sub-national
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> 10 years
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Forest Sector Development Plans
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Operational Issues
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Forest Management Unit
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10 years
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1. Management function - Planning
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Compartment
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Annual
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2. Management Function - Implementation
Source: adapted from the Malaysian-German Forest Management and Conservation Project
A component of forest legislation that applies to a country or province should be that management plans are to be prepared for State forest land and for forest lands in non-State tenure the conservation of which is in the national or provincial interest or where subsidiaries or incentives are paid to promote forestry development.
The following guidelines indicate the primary requirements that should be included in forests legislation in respect of forest management planning:
· Subject to the rights existing in a forest when a management plan comes into operation, forests legislation should specify that a plan must regulate the management of forest land in conformity with the management objectives for a specified time period.. The maximum number of years for which a management plan can be in operation should be specified. It should not be less than five year nor more than 20 years. Scope for review of a plan during the planning period should be provided.
Figure 25: Commonly Used Terms in Forest Management Planning
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Forest Management Plan: A document that translates forest policies into a coordinated programme for a forest management unit and for regulating production, environmental and social activities for a set period of time through the use of prescriptions specifying targets, action and control arrangements.
· Each forest management plan should specify:
- the maximum area from which forest produce may be harvested, or the maximum quantity of forest produce which may be harvested, or both, in a given time period,
- the forest protection operations to be carried out,
- the forest development operations to be carried out, including silviculture,
- other matters which are necessary or appropriate in order to implement management objectives effectively. This could include forest inventory, mapping, technical and social surveys, and public consultation.. A management plan to be applied to State or private forest land should be approved by the Ministry responsible for forestry or other specified authority.
Forests provide a wide range of benefits at local and national levels. Log production is usually the main objective and revenue earned for governments and companies is the major driving force in tropical forest harvesting. Revenue earned from log harvesting will usually be the main funding source for long-term sustainable tropical forest management.
Many communities depend heavily upon non-wood forest products for subsistence and as a basis for local trade, for example, canes, medicinal and food plants, gums, resins and wildlife. Tropical forests are an essential source of energy for many communities, directly through burning of wood for cooking and heating and indirectly to protect watersheds as source of water for hydroelectricity generation. They have an important role in protecting physical and biological environments at local and provincial levels. Tropical forests are dwelling places for many millions of people and are increasingly of value for recreation and tourism, notably "eco-tourism". They are important havens for wildlife and are the habitats of many endangered species of plants and animals. It is essential in tropical forest management planning to achieve a balance between the long-term between wood production, social and environmental management objectives.
The initiative for the formulation of a forest management plan should be taken by the forest owner, such as the state, or by a concession holder on behalf of the owner. Local communities and others having historical rights or privileges in a forest are important stakeholders and must be involved in planning. The likelihood that sustainability will be achieved will be considerably enhanced if local people who live in and around tropical forests have a say in and participate in management planning and are able to share in the benefits of forest use to ensure that their basic needs are met. The steps that can be taken can include:
· Granting secure tenure to existing productive farmland within the forest
· Local participation in management decision-making.
· Guaranteed access to forest products.
· Provision of employment.
· Shared benefits in forest harvesting.
Accommodation of the respective interests of forest management companies and local community groups can be eased with the recognition that companies and indigenous communities are, in most cases, interested in different things - industrial logs by forest management companies on the one hand and small dimension wood and non-wood products by local communities on the other. A positive approach towards adapting the interests of both groups is to include rural communities as partners in forest management and to share the benefits of wood production with them.
3.2.1 Types of yield prediction models
The basic steps involved in the construction of a yield prediction model
3.2.2 Examples of yield prediction modelling technology
A yield prediction model uses the quantitative relationships between measured growth variables to predict yields of forest types, and is a tool that helps to schedule and regulate harvests at sustainable levels. Two basic methods are available for their construction, diameter class (or stand table) projection and cohort modelling. Both depend upon the use of comprehensive growth data to construct and fit a yield prediction equation. Detailed development and application of both methods require specialized assistance that is beyond the scope of these Guidelines but descriptions of each are included to illustrate the basic steps involved in their construction.
Diameter Class Growth Projection
The manual method of diameter class growth projection is the oldest method, first used in Myanmar in 1856, and used elsewhere for simulating the growth of tropical forests. A tree population/diameter class distribution is compiled using PSP summary data. DBH classes are in 5 or 10 cm intervals. Stratification of the tree population can be made on the basis of species groups. Average diameter growth and average tree mortality rates are determined from periodic measurements of PSP, for each diameter class. Growth is projected for a five-year period for each diameter class per hectare by applying growth and mortality rates.
Construction of a Growth and Wood Yield Prediction Model
The process of fitting a yield prediction model from forest data may be by fitting the field data to a pre-determined regression, for example, a linear regression, or manually by plotting the data on graph paper; equations can then be developed from the hand-drawn curves. The use of personal computers allows statistical procedures to be applied with greater precision and more quickly than manual methods.
Testing of a Yield Prediction Model for its Validity
A wood yield prediction model must be tested to determine its validity and precision. The precision of a yield model will depend on how well the PSP represent the forest, the number and period of the remeasurements, on covariances of the predictor variables and on coefficients used in the model.
Model testing is best done using a second set of forest data which was not used during the preparation of the yield model. The model is used to predict the behaviour of the forest from where the test data were collected and the results are compared with the actual observations. It is often necessary to repeat this stage several times. Adjustments to the model are made as a result of anomalies, or irregularities, that show up at each stage of testing.
Application of the Yield Model to the Required End-Use
A yield model may be applied in one of three ways:
· To forecast timber out-turn through a simple table or graph or a set of both. These can be used by forest planners directly or tables can be entered into a computer for updating of inventory data.
· To test forest management options as a computer or calculator programme which produces a table or graph of growth and yield for a particular set of treatments.
· To provide information on timber outputs for wider aspects of forest planning
Readers will find references at the end of this chapter for detailed guidance on the development of yield prediction models.
A Simple Diameter Class Growth Projection Model
Data Assembly:
Assemble the relevant tree population and size data collected from a CFI for a whole forest management unit, or a part of it (a felling series), for which a yield determination is proposed.
Stand Table Preparation:
Using PSP summary data, compile a tree population/diameter class distribution. DBH classes are typically in 5 cm intervals, e.g. 30-35 cm. Stratification of the tree population into smaller groupings can be made, based on species groups, e.g. "present commercial", "potentially commercial" and "presently non-commercial" species, and also on crown illumination classes.
Growth and Mortality Rates:
Determine average diameter growth and average tree mortality rates from PSP data, for each diameter class.
Diameter Class Projection:
Growth is projected for a five year period for each diameter class, on a per hectare basis, by applying growth and mortality rates. An adjustment is made to reflect the actual rather than the step-wise diameter class distribution of a stand because there are fewer trees in the upper part of a diameter class than in the lower part. In its simplest form, diameter class growth for each separate diameter class can be projected by applying the following formula:
where:
N = the number of trees growing from one diameter class to the next,
S = number of live trees in each diameter class,
I = average diameter increment for the class (cm),
q = an adjustment factor for each specific forest type and groups of diameter classes that is used to reflect the actual diameter class distribution.
The calculations can be carried out using standard spreadsheet software on a personal computer.
DIPSIM (Dipterocarp Forest Growth Simulation Model): an Empirical Individual-tree Growth Simulation Model
DIPSIM is an empirical individual-tree growth simulation model that has been developed in Sabah, Malaysia, as a management planning tool for natural Dipterocarp forests specifically for the purpose of:
· predicting annual growth in terms of stocking, volume and basal area,
· predicting changes in stand characteristics for periods of up to 60 years,
· providing decision-support in yield regulation through the simulation of different harvesting prescriptions.
Main Features of the DIPSIM Modelling Process
Diameter Growth:
Developing a multiple regression that relates basal area increment of individual trees to tree basal area, site quality, stand basal area and overtopping basal area. Increment equations have been developed for groups of species having similar growth patterns; 20 growth groups in all. Diameter increment patterns are developed for each species group.
Mortality:
Developing a model that reflects regular and catastrophic mortality and predicts the probability of mortality from tree size and stand competition.
Recruitment:
The model predicts recruitment rates for species in seven timber groups into the lowest (10 cm) stem diameter class.
Harvesting:
Three steps are included in the harvesting component;
· stocking assessment - the model compares the actual stocking of a stand against pre-defined post-harvest minimum stocking standards. In Sabah, a post-harvest minimum stocking of at least 8-10 trees/ha _ 60 cm dbh after 40 - 60 years.
· tree selection and removal - predetermined minimum and maximum diameter cutting limits of 60 cm and 120 cm respectively are specified in the model.
· harvesting damage - the user can specify in the model the percentage of trees expected to be destroyed in two size classes, 10-39 cm and_ 40 cm. The model randomly selects trees, removes them from the simulation database and places them into a mortality account database.
Model Operation:
The PC-based DIPSIM is programmed in relational database software and the model structure consists of three main modules, database preparation, simulation and output. These are shown in Figure 26. The output module summarizes the simulation output in the following forms:
. stand and stock tables,
. volume increment tables,
. harvesting tables, comprising a harvest composition table and an annual harvest record table.
Operation of this system is explained in a manual: DIPSIM: an Empirical Individual-tree Growth Simulation Model, Ong, R. & Kleine, M. 1995. Research Paper No. 2, FRC, Forest Department, Sabah, Malaysia.
Figure 26: The DIPSIM programme structure
Although practical and easy to understand, this and other diameter class projection methods do not effectively take changes in stand density or the consequences of spatial distribution (of diameter classes) of tropical forests into account. They are best used for preliminary yield analysis. For more accurate work the cohort modelling approach should be used.
Cohort Modelling
The term "cohort model" refers to a group of trees of the same species group and size class which is the basic information unit used for cohort growth modelling.
· CAFOGROM Model: A new and powerful tool for growth modelling research workers is the CAFOGROM model, developed at the Centro do Pesquisa Agropecuaria da Amazonia Oriental, in Brazil. It is a cohort model that is directed towards the analysis of PSP data from mixed tropical forests to produce growth and yield models. Although the CAFOGROM model is complex and does not provide, in itself, a standard set of computer programmes for the analysis of PSP data, the method is described in order that this new approach can become more widely known and to encourage local research on growth modelling. The four development stages of the CAFOGROM model are explained in Figure 27.
Figure 27: Main Features of the CAFOGROM Modelling Process
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Data Entry, Editing and Preliminary Processing:
Diameter Class Projection:
Cohort Models for Forest Growth:
Growth Model Validation and Application:
Readers are referred to a manual and demonstration computer software on the technology in Growth Modelling for Mixed Tropical Forests, by Dr. D. Alder, 1995, Tropical Forestry Paper No. 30, Oxford Forestry Institute, University of Oxford.
· SIRENA Model: In early 1996 a model called SIRENA I was developed for applied forest management in Costa Rica, Central America. It is an operational growth modelling tool, conceptually similar to CAFOGROM, but based on the analysis of local PSPs. SIRENA I is being used in the northern part of Costa Rica by an NGO CODEFORSA (Comisión de Desarrollo Forestal de San Carlos/Commission for Forest Development in San Carlos) for making management plans for private forest owners in that region of the country. SIRENA is based on "Excel" and "Visual Basic for Applications" software. SIRENA II is a revised version of SIRENA I based on operational experience with SIRENA I which is a flexible operational tool where a user may specify treatments and outputs. It is also used in Costa Rica.
· Queensland Model: The Queensland model, used until harvesting was discontinued for environmental conservation reasons in 1988, was developed to predict the growth of commercially loggable harvests in mixed species, uneven-aged rainforests in North Queensland, Australia. More than 100 commercial species and several hundred others are aggregated into about 20 species groups based on growth habit, volume relations and commercial criteria. Trees are grouped into cohorts, according to species group and tree size, which form the basis for simulation. Equations have been developed to predict increment, mortality and recruitment. The model has been used for determining wood harvests from north Queensland forests and provide an objective basis for investigating the effects of rain forest management strategies. The approach is expected to be applicable to other natural tropical forests.
3.3.1 Classical methods for determination of the allowable cut
3.3.2 Determination of the AAC where regrowth and previously harvested forest occurs
Yield regulation, irrespective of the silvicultural system being applied, provides a basis for deriving a log harvest which is in balance with forest increment and for controlling the output to ensure that the cut is neither exceeded nor undercut. In many tropical forests where a knowledge of the uncut and regrowth forest resources is incomplete, where there is little or no information of forest increment and where forest management is being introduced for the first time, the allowable cut should be derived using one of the classical empirical procedures.
There is no alternative in these situations but to use an empirical approach. Four allowable cut determination procedures are explained to enable the reader to appreciate and understand the main features of each. In practice, the choice and use of each method depends upon the silvicultural system being applied, either polycyclic or monocyclic, in a specific forest situation. The methods are:
· A combination of area and the felling cycle.
· A combination of area, volume and the felling cycle.
· A combination of volume and forest increment.
· A consideration of volume only.
Each of these methods provides only a general guideline for deriving an allowable cut. Notwithstanding this qualification, a application of one of the methods having relevance to the technical characteristics of a forest management unit and the management objectives will be a positive contribution to sustainable forest management where at present no other basis for this exists. Selected technical reports listed at the end of the chapter explain each method and how they are applied in practice.
New computer-based methods of yield determination are currently being developed and have the potential for achieving much greater precision than do older methods. Their use depends upon having good quality information of tree diameter class distributions, tree volumes, growth, recruitment and tree mortality derived from CFI. The new procedures enable a user to calculate on a personal computer the increment of tree diameters and basal area over time, make allowances for tree recruitment and mortality, to simulate harvesting and logging damage and thus project forest growth and yield. Specialist technical assistance is required in order that these new methods are able to be applied in a specific forest situation.
Figure 28: Some Common Terms Used in Yield Determination and Harvest Planning
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Allowable Cut, Prescribed Cut, Prescribed Yield and Permissible Yield: A dearly expressed specification of the average quantity (of wood, bamboo or cane), usually in an approved management plan, that may b e harvested from a forest management unit, annually or periodically over a five- or ten-year period.
· A Combination of Area and the Felling Cycle
Where the polycyclic silvicultural system is being applied in an uneven aged forest, the Annual Cutting Area (ACA) can be derived by dividing the area of the net productive forest into equal parts depending upon the length, in years, of the felling cycle. The most productive area is determined by zoning, described in Part II, section 1.1.3, by deducting the area of land which is "unproductive", from a wood production point of view, from the total area of a forest management unit. This method can also be applied in forest types being managed under monocyclic silviculture, such as in mangroves or bamboo. In equation form, the area control method is expressed as follows:
where:
ACA = the ACA; the maximum area of forest which may be cut each year,
TA = the total area of a forest management unit,
UA = the "unproductive" forest area,
n = the length of the felling cycle, in years.
The Annual Cutting Area method can only provide a general, though rapidly determined, indication of allowable cut. Because it is the simplest and least precise method it should not be applied without clear specification of species, tree diameter sizes and numbers of trees per ha which may be harvested.
· A Combination of Area, Volume and the Felling Cycle
In its simplest form, the Annual Allowable Cut (AAC) can be derived by combining the maximum felling area which may be cut each year with the volume of wood in the felling area that has been determined from a pre-harvest inventory, described in Part II, section 1.3.5. The volume figure used can be revised as more volume information becomes available from later inventories. The nominated stem diameter is a variable figure and dependent mainly on the type of forest being managed. It can be as low as 30 cm in some forest types and more than 60 cm in others. This method is expressed as follows:
where:
V = the average volume per ha of commercial species above a specified stem diameter that is estimated from the first forest inventory.
A = the area of a whole forest, or of a felling series.
N = the length of the felling cycle, in years.
This approach is used in Dipterocarp dominant hill forest concessions in Indonesia where n, the felling cycle, is 35 years. It is a relatively simple and easily understood approach and allows yields to be determined easily. In practice, maximum and minimum values are determined and form the basis of the AAC for each concession. The method does not reflect the losses in volume which always occur during logging, caused by stem breakage, nor does it account for volume losses through stem decay. It also disregards increment of existing or potential timber trees. The AAC can be reduced by an "exploitation factor" and a "safety" factor (0.7 and 0.8 respectively in Indonesia) which provides some allowance for losses at harvesting and also for damage to a residual stand during logging.
A modification of this procedure is applied in the Dipterocarp forests in the Philippines. The procedure recognises the variability in size and distribution of large trees in different forest types and it considers an estimate of the volume which can be cut, derived from a yield table. It is explained in Annex 3.
· A Combination of Forest Volume and Forest Increment
In uneven-aged forests where selection cutting is proposed or is underway and where comprehensive forest inventory data and a confident knowledge of current annual increment are available, the Gehrhardt Method provides a basis for determination of the allowable cut. It is expressed as follows:
where:
If = the Current Annual Increment for the forest,
In = the CAI for a theoretically normal forest,
Vf = the total volume for the forest determined by inventory,
Vn = the total forest volume for a theoretically normal forest,
AP = a planned adjustment period for the forest to reach normality.
A drawback in the use of the Gehrhardt Method is the difficulty of deriving a theoretically normal forest and the uncertainty of knowing whether it will be possible to plan cutting over a sufficiently long period to achieve a normal distribution of area classes.
An alternative approach which also depends upon having a reliable knowledge of increment but avoids the need to derive a theoretical normal forest structure, is the Cotta Method. It enables the cut to be determined for a forest being managed under an irregular shelterwood silvicultural system and is explained in Annex 3.
· Yield Determination Based on Volume Only
Where a forest management unit is being managed under a monocyclic silvicultural system and there is currently no knowledge of increment, the most simple method for yield determination is to divide twice the volume of the growing stock by the rotation or cutting cycle. Known as the Von Mantel Method, it does not consider increment, forest structure or variability in growth and volume at all and thus can only provide a very general indication of forest yield. It does however have the benefit of being simple, its use requires only a small amount of data and the yield determination tends to be conservative. In equation form the Von Mantel Method is expressed as follows:
where,
R = the rotation (cutting cycle) for the major tree species comprising the growing stock.
V = the average volume of commercial species above a specified stem diameter that is estimated from the first forest inventory.
For increasingly large areas of tropical forests the AAC needs to be determined where regrowth and previously harvested forest occur and where there are declining areas of primary forests. The empirical methods described in the previous section are less appropriate is these situations. A typical mixed forest resource structure where an alternative approach for determination of the AAC is required is as follows:
· Some primary forest, yet to be harvested;
· Some previously worked forest where a range of harvesting densities, from light to heavy, have been applied over the past 10 to 30 years, and regrowth has led to a new forest structure;
· Some land that has been cleared of forest through shifting cultivation or wildfires and where a pioneer forest has developed.
A helpful approach for determination of the AAC where a mixed forest structure occurs is as follows:
· Undertake forest zoning to determine the net productive area, being careful to exclude all forest land where social and environmental constraints will preclude any wood production at all.
· Update the forest resources statement for the net productive area of primary and secondary forests by undertaking new inventory.
· Calculate the AAC for regrowth forests that have been harvested previously, and for pioneer forests if applicable, plus the AAC for the remaining primary forest resources which can be cut over a period of "X" years.
· Define a "target growing stock" of commercially harvestable volume for the forest management unit. This is a value judgement based on ecological as well as commercial criteria.
· Using a growth simulation system, such as SIRENA or DIPSIM, derive a cutting cycle, in years, that will be required in order to reach the target growing stock. The cutting cycle will vary, depending upon species and their distribution, the damage pattern, the distribution of wood resources and site productivity. Several different harvesting prescriptions will need to be simulated in order to arrive at a practical and commercially realistic cutting cycle.
· Again using a growth simulation system, determine the adjustment period that will be required in order to achieve the target growing stock for the net productive area of forest.
3.4.1 Guidelines for yield regulation planning
3.4.2 Yield control
Yield regulation, or allocation, involves making decisions that lead to clear specifications of where and under what conditions a harvest may be cut using AAC and technical information about a forest. It is a critically important part of sustainable tropical forest management. Practical guidelines for yield regulation planning for each compartment that is included in an annual cutting plan are:
· Technical information;
- the average volumes of different species,
- diameter class distribution and the minimum diameter that may be cut,
- distribution of trees on the ground in relation to topography and practical road access,
- site types and the characteristics of the silvicultural system, or systems, specified in a management plan that are being applied in the forest,
- technical information for unlogged, previously logged and secondary forests on each compartment should be considered separately because of differences in tree species, stem diameters and tree distribution that almost always occur. Yield allocation will inevitably be different for each of these classes of forest.
· Clearly define on maps and on the ground those areas of forest which are to be excluded, through zoning, from logging for environmental or social reasons. Harvest planning maps can either be manually drawn or GIS generated.
· It is desirable that yield allocation plans be prepared two and preferably three years in advance of logging to enable roadline logging and road construction to take place, for roads to settle before use and, where necessary, for climber cutting to be completed.
· Wood harvested from roadlines should be allocated as a part of the annual allocation for the year; it should not be an additional allocation of yield.
Annual Control of Yield
On a year to year basis it is essential that frequent checks be made by a forest manager to ensure that the AAC and other details of cutting prescriptions are followed by logging crews. A programme of continuous log measurement, or scaling, provides an annual and a compartment-by-compartment basis for yield control. This is an essential practical aspect of sustainable tropical forest management and is a part of operational monitoring.
It is usually difficult to extract equal volumes of wood or other produce every year because of the variability within a forest and physical difficulties caused by wet weather and short term changes in market demand and prices. Some variation, perhaps as much as 15 per cent above and below a prescribed volume, in the annual rate of harvest can be expected and needs to be planned for. Three approaches for managing this situation are:
· Subtract an "overcut" from the prescribed harvest level for the following one (or two) years.
· Add all or part of an "undercut" to the prescribed harvest level for the following year.
· Cancel an "undercut" and add this volume to the total forest growing stock for the next five years and recalculate the AAC.
Long Term Control of Yield
Year-by-year indications of wood harvests and comparisons with the AAC does not enable the question of whether a forest is being managed sustainably to be properly answered. In order to monitor the yield over a longer term, of at least 15 years, the MAI for the whole of the forest management unit should be derived for this period and should be balanced against the total harvest for the same period.
Periodic and regular assessment of a forest is the most reliable method for determination of increment. Accurate mapping and CFI are able to provide reliable data on forest resources at the beginning and end of a planning period for which the MAI is to be derived. The total volume of removals (including logging waste losses) are derived from accurate records of volumes cut each year, supplemented with an estimate of waste determined through logging waste studies. In equation form the relationship is:
where:
MAI = mean annual increment in m3/year for a forest management unit during a planning period of not less than 15 years in length.
Vt & V (t+n) = total standing forest volume in m3 determined from CFI at the beginning (Vt) and at the end (V (t+n)) respectively of the planning period.
Vp = total wood volume in m3 harvested during the planning period, including a logging waste estimate for the period.
n = length of the planning period, in years.
Sustained yield management of wood (or rattan, bamboo or other products) would, in technical terms, be considered to be achieved if the total harvest does not exceed the accumulated annual increment during a specified planning period. Conversely, sustainable harvesting would not be achieved if the total cut during a planning period does exceed the accumulated annual increment. These statements are summarized in Figure 29. Case Study 6 describes studies on the sustainability of yields in Queensland, Australia.
Figure 29: Sustainable Forest Management Criteria
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Sustainable Forest Management is achieved if the accumulated mean annual increment for uneven-aged forest having a balanced diameter class distribution is equal to or marginally greater than the total harvest during a planning period of not less than] 5 years. In the case of heavily exploited uneven-aged forest where the diameter class distribution is not balanced the accumulated MAI should always be less than the total harvest.
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Sustainable Forest Management is not achieved if the total harvest exceeds the accumulated mean annual increment during a planning period of not less than 15 years.
Case Study 6: Sustainability of Yields in Australia
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Commercial timber harvesting commenced in the tropical rain forests of Queensland in 1873 and ceased in 1988 following their inclusion for conservation reasons on the World Heritage List. During the 1950 to 1985 period, eight estimates of the Sustainable yield varied by up to ten times. Discrepancies were due to different assumptions regarding management and to errors in estimating net productive areas and growth rates. Between 1950 and 1985 the allowable cut (130,000 -207,000 m3/year) exceeded sustained yield estimates (60,000 - 180,000 m3/year), but the actual harvest (90,000 - 205,000 m3/year) remained less than the allowable cut. The allowable cut was reduced to a Sustainable level in 1986, and commercial logging ceased in 1988. It is not certain that the harvest during the 1980s was Sustainable, but several indicators suggest that it probably was. Lessons for other tropical wood producers are that area, growth and yield determination must be careful, management objectives and implementation must be clear and regular monitoring is essential.
3.5.1 Management structure and format
3.5.2 Guidelines for forest management planning
A Four-Part Forest Management Plan Structure
To be effective a forest management plan should comprise basic information having direct relevance to the management of a forest, a long-term management goal, and specific prescriptions to achieve each of the objectives. The management plan structure should be flexible depending upon the characteristics of the forest for which long-term management is being planned. A logical, easily assembled and practical plan structure has four main parts, shown in Figure 30.
Figure 30: A Four-Part Forest Management Plan Structure
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Basic Information:
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Management Goal and Specific Objectives:
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Management Proposals:
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Records of Forest History:
A Model Forest Management Plan Format
The subject matter of a plan is likely to vary from one locality to another, depending upon the characteristics of the land and forest being considered as well as upon objectives, opportunities and risks. There is however a basic list of contents which should be considered where plans are to be assembled for tropical forests that are being managed for the production of wood. The model format which follows provides an effective framework for drafting a management plan for tropical forests.
Part I Basic Information
* Authority, Period of Operation and Policies
- Name of Management Plan
- Legal (or controlling) Authority
- Period of Operation (Term)
- Local or National Policy Statement
* Location, Area and Legal Description of Forest Lands
- Location and Area
- Legal Description
* Physical Resources
- Climate
· Rainfall, Humidity and Winds (only if relevant)
· Temperature and Sunshine
- Hydrology
- Managerial Implications of Climate and Hydrology
* Geology
- Topography
- Rock Types and Erosion (only if relevant)
- Managerial Implications of Geology
* Soils and Land Use
- Soil Types
- Land Uses
- Land Use Capability Classification (only if relevant)
- Managerial Implications of Soil Types and Land Use Capability Classifications
* Forest Resources
- Vegetation Types
· Natural Forest Types and Distribution
· Ecological Succession and Ecological Changes in Natural Forests. Biological Diversity Amongst Plants
· Ecological Problems Concerning Vegetation
- Summary of Forest Type and Land Use Classes
- Managerial Implications of Forest Ecology Issues
- Summary of Forest Resources Data (tables).
· General Forest Inventory Data.
· Species, Volume and Tree Size Data.
· General Non-wood Forest Resources.
· Overall Forest Resources Summary
- Silvicultural System (s) - type (s), strengths and limitations
- Forest Growth and Yield Data (tables)
- Assessment of the Potential for Sustainable Wood Production
* Log Harvesting and Transport Issues
- Strategic Harvest Plan
- Tactical Harvest Planning
- Logging Methods and Machinery, including potential for minimising environmental impacts of wood extraction
- Log Transport Methods (roads, railways, barging, etc)
- Managerial Implications of Log Harvesting and Transport.
* Forest Industry Issues
- Summary of Existing Forest Industry
- Wood Industry Development Potential (preferred and under-utilized species, resources, log sizes)
* Social Issues Involving Natural Forests
- Characteristics of Community Groups: ethnic origin (s), populations, distribution and size of villages, etc)
- Social Dependency Patterns on the Natural Forests
- Summary of Social Conflicts, or Potential Conflicts with Forests
- Managerial Implications of Social Issues with Forests.
* Wildlife Resources
- The Forest "Landscape" as Habitat for Wildlife
- Significant Wildlife Resources
- Biological Diversity Amongst Animals
- Managerial Implications of Wildlife Relationships with Natural Forests
* Environmental Issues
- Summarise Environmental Issues Influenced by Wood Production Management, for example, Soil and Water Conservation, Biodiversity and Wildlife Conservation, Eco-tourism
* Forest Protection and Security
- Summary of the Issues and Data Concerning Protection of a Forest Management Unit from Fire, Trespass, Shifting Cultivation and other potential threats
- Managerial Implications of Forest Protection and Security Issues
Part II Goal and Objectives
* Goal
* Objectives
- Forest Protection
- Wood Production
- Non- Wood Production
- Other Objectives, such as social development, reforestation, afforestation, research, environmental conservation and business development.
Part III Management Prescriptions
Prescriptions should be explicit, directly related to objectives expressed in a plan and be sufficiently comprehensive to ensure that objectives are able to be implemented without difficulty.
* A plan having sustainable production of wood as the primary objective should, as a minimum, include prescriptions on the following topics:
· Forest and land use zoning, inc. demarcation and mapping of protection forest on steep slopes, natural regeneration, water sources, fragile soils and swamps, endangered species, etc.
· Pre-harvest wood inventory for annual yield planning.
· Continuous forest inventory for determination of forest growth and derivation of yields.
· Specification of a periodic (5 year), or annual cut.
· Tactical harvest planning, inc. wood harvesting and log transport arrangements.
· Forest protection and security arrangements.
· Diagnostic sampling
· Specification of an appropriate silvicultural system (s).
· Specification of silvicultural operations.
· Specification of environmental prescriptions on issues influenced by production management.
· Accountability prescriptions to ensure that progress in plan implementation can be regularly and reliably monitored and subsequently reported.
· Specification of the action that should be taken, before a plan terminates for its review and for preparation of a new plan.
Part IV Annexes
* Maps, including remote sensing imagery.
* Technical details of topics expressed in Part I.
Records
* Comprehensive compartment records of forest operations. Where practicable, records should be made using a computer database system and should include GIS.
Forest Management Plan Formulation
Guidelines for formulating and drafting a management plan are:
· A plan should be prepared in conformity with a country's forest policy, legislation and regulations.
· The planning process must overcome past managerial problems and should provide workable, positive and affordable solutions to these problems.
· Nomination by a government forestry office, a concession holding company or other agency having management responsibility that one person, or a group of people, will be responsible for plan preparation. It should be the primary task of that person, or planning group, and should not be undertaken in conjunction with other duties.
· Once a start is made on plan preparation every effort should be made to continue the process until it is completed.
· Summarise managerially significant resources information. Only information that is directly relevant to implementation of management objectives should be included. Be conservative when resources information is being assembled for the first time and where it is known that information is incomplete, or its quality is uncertain. In practice, conservative resources statements tend to be closer to future reality than do optimistic estimates. Technical details should be placed in an appendix, not in the text of a plan.
· Assemble base maps, aerial photographs and satellite imagery and use these to compile forest maps needed to provide graphical support for management requirements. Subdivide the forest management unit into permanently defined compartments.
· The planning team must visit and acquire a good visual knowledge of all parts of a forest, villages and dependent industries.
· Summarise the managerial implications of specific features of basic information that has been presented in each section of Part I of a plan, for example, climate, topography and social issues. The summary should be a succinct statement of the decisive issues that are expected to influence the management of a forest. Assessments of the managerial implications of each specific feature of basic information become the link between the objectives and prescriptions in a plan.
· A plan should be no longer than is needed to present relevant information - the goal, preferably no more than five objectives and the supporting prescriptions that are related to those objectives.
· One or more people can contribute towards drafting different chapters of a plan but only one person should have responsibility for coordination and final assembly.
· Avoid identifying and specifying too many priorities for action. There should only be one priority on any one subject.
· Plans must be affordable and should be able to support the implementation of realistic budgets; it is unwise to prescribe action if it is unlikely that implementation can be funded.
· Plans must include provision for review at pre-determined intervals.
· Plans incorporate implementation of departmental technical instructions, guidelines and standards.
· Monitoring and reporting requirements should be expressed in the form of prescriptions. A plan should not be approved without having monitoring and reporting requirements included.
· Frequent dialogue with all people having an interest in the formulation of a plan and in its implementation is to be encouraged.
· A plan should have a readable "user friendly" style and must be easily understood by all who will use it in practice.
Formulating Management Plan Prescriptions
The following guidelines for formulating management plan prescriptions are suggested:
· Prescriptions should be concisely written, specific to the issue being addressed and should be related to specific management objectives. They should not be vague or ambiguous.
· Prescriptions should not be too long or too technical. Lengthy or excessively technical prescriptions are likely to be misunderstood or simply ignored. Only include material that is directly relevant to support the implementation of forest management objectives.
· Prescriptions must be measurable, or capable of being monitored easily, so that progress can periodically be reported.
· Although a need for precisely written prescriptions should be recognised, it also needs to be acknowledged that there may be occasions where a manager should be allowed some discretion in the implementation of a prescription if local conditions or common sense indicate that a degree of flexibility is desirable. Losses of forest through fire, additions or losses of forest area, changes in the definition of forest resources or changes in community interests in a forest are cases of unforeseen events which may influence the progress of the management plan.
Examples of text for management plan prescriptions are shown in Annex 5.
Management Plan Approval
The basic requirements for gaining approval of a forest management plan are as follows:
· When completed, an executive summary of a management plan should be assembled setting out the primary features of it, including the goal, objectives, the allowable cut and its location, operational features of the silvicultural system, community participation and forest protection arrangements.
· The principal features of the plan should be explained and discussed with senior staff in an oral presentation.
· The plan should be passed to the office of the approving officer with the support of a covering letter.
· Plans prepared for forests on private land should be approved by the government forestry authority to ensure that plan quality is acceptable, to strengthen the basis of the national forest policy and to ensure that the rights of third parties are protected.
3.6.1 Recommended practices for strategic harvest planning
3.6.2 Recommended practices for tactical harvest planning
Harvest planning provides a balanced and comprehensive foundation for sustainable harvesting practices to enable good technical control during harvesting to be reconciled with the need for reducing harvesting costs. Harvest plans are of two types, strategic and tactical, and both are an integral part of the forest management planning process. A map and a written plan are the basic components for both strategic and tactical harvest planning.
A Strategic Harvest Plan explains why, where, when and what type of harvesting is proposed. Strategic harvest, planning cannot be undertaken without considering the issues which affect the management of the forest more widely. It is an integral part of a forest management plan, prepared by the planning team, and should never be a separate planning statement that is independent of it. Strategic harvest planning should rely upon a knowledge of:
· The area of forest that has been zoned for wood, bamboo or other production objectives; it should exclude all areas zoned as protected or protection forest and for settlement purposes, including buffer zones.
· The annual or periodic cut for woody produce.
· The silvicultural system, or systems, to be applied.
A strategic harvest plan map (or maps), at a scale of between 1:10,000 and 1:20,000, should show the following features which should also be identified in an approved forest management plan:
· Forest types, topography, existing and planned infrastructure.
· Forest land which is to be protected for watershed or biodiversity conservation or for community development reasons.
· Areas where harvesting is proposed, divided into annual felling areas that can be conveniently defined on the ground.
· Areas where major problems exist, such as rock outcrops, river crossings or swamps, that must be overcome when developing a transport system, or in carrying out forest operations.
· Areas of non-forest land uses.
· Locations of communities or indigenous populations that could be affected by harvesting or transport operations.
A written strategic harvest plan should briefly describe the items shown on the harvest plan map and include the following topics:
· The silvicultural system to be applied, and why.
· An explanation of how harvesting is expected to achieve silvicultural objectives, especially its effect on the next crop, and the extent to which this is expected to be achieved.
· A brief description of the types of harvesting equipment to be used in specific felling areas and why these are selected.. A tabular summary, derived from a general forest inventory, of the species, volumes and log size classes that are expected to be cut in each compartment.
· A schedule showing the year when each felling area is to be harvested.. A summary of special problem areas shown on the strategic harvest plan map, such as river crossings and difficult roading areas, with notes on how these might be overcome.. Information concerning the forest transportation system, such as road design requirements for different topographical conditions (valley bottoms, ridges, slopes), stream crossings and the design specifications for drainage structures.
· Annual labour requirements for harvesting and roading.. Arrangements for accommodation, health, safety and recreation of the workforce.
· The estimated cost of harvesting within each felling area and annual maintenance of the transportation system.
A Tactical Harvest Plan is a short-term plan, prepared by a team directly responsible for supervision of harvesting operations, that explains how and who will carry out the operations and when cutting will be undertaken in each annual cutting area. It should be linked through the Annual Plan of Operations with an approved forest management plan and should not be a separate planning statement. A Tactical Harvest Plan is formulated for the operational part of a year, for example, a dry season. It can apply to a single felling area or to a group of separate felling areas. The following basic steps are involved in tactical harvest planning:
· A pre-harvest inventory should be conducted to identify tree species, to estimate the size and volume of trees present and their position throughout a felling area. The pre-harvest inventory should extend over the whole area where harvesting is proposed. In the case of selection harvesting, trees to be cut should be identified, marked and numbered.
· A topographic survey, either on the ground or using remote sensing imagery, should be conducted during a pre-harvest forest inventory to provide information for mapping.
· Using field survey information, a detailed topographic map should be drawn at a scale of between 1:10,000 and 1:2,000 showing all topographic features that will influence logging, and also the boundaries of the harvest area. Streamside protection strips, scientific, wildlife and cultural zones and any other special reservations specified in a management plan should be mapped. Contour mapping can be prepared either by manual drafting methods or through the use of GIS technology. It is the experience of many companies who are managing tropical forests that an investment in good quality mapping can lead to reduced harvesting, reading and other infrastructure costs.
· A felling area should be divided into administrative units, termed cutting units, that can be identified on the ground and used to control a harvesting operation. A cutting unit should be limited to a single extraction method because cable, tractor, draught animal and helicopter systems each have different characteristics.
Specific planning requirements are:
- Tactical harvest planning should be based on harvesting prescriptions set out in a forest management plan. The volume and/or number of trees per hectare to be extracted and the number of seed trees per hectare that are to remain should be specified.
- A cutting and log extraction plan should comprise a part of the harvest plan and should be undertaken using the topographical and tree position map. It can also be generated using vertical and oblique GIS imagery. The plan should be prepared jointly by forest planners and loggers and must be practical and realistic. The location of landings, skid trails (if ground skidding is to be used), cableways (if cable extraction systems are to be used), haul roads and feeder roads should be shown. Where possible, directional felling should be indicated.
· Harvesting equipment should be specified and a general operations schedule formulated, using actual or estimated production rates. Work studies may be necessary to determine appropriate production rates.
· A harvesting schedule should be prepared setting out the anticipated timing of harvesting in different felling areas. It should be flexible and able to be quickly modified, when necessary. For example, it should anticipate the onset of a rainy season, irregular wet season conditions, severe storms, roading problems, protection of specific endangered animals during breeding, fire hazard conditions (and wildfires) and periodic heavy seedfalls.
· Preparation of a harvesting schedule should, where appropriate, be prepared in consultation with local communities who might be affected by harvesting. The harvest of NWFPs and the dependency of local communities upon these for subsistence, employment and income generation should be considered. Examples are collection of rattan, fruit, resins and medicinal plants.
· Any legal requirements, such as right-of-way easements or specific local authority consents concerning roading, rivers, or aviation permits (for helicopter logging) should be obtained and listed.
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Artisanal fishing: The environmental impact in Guadalcanal Province.
Abstract
The Fisheries Management Act (No. 2 of 2015), in the Solomon Islands’ Environmental Statute, seeks to ensure a fisheries management system that promotes long-term conservation and sustainable utilization of the fisheries resource. This requires that both coastal and continental artisanal and off-shore commercial fishing are conducted in a manner that preserves the fish habitat, protects the coastal reef ecosystem, prevents pollution of the coastal environment, including mangroves and swamps, and ensures that the resource benefits the people across time (Price et al.. 2015, p. 11). The use of destructive methods hitherto considered environmentally benign, are transitioning to enterprises that pose significant ecological threats (Sabetien and Foale, 2006, p. 3). To protect the environment and ensure the sustainability of the fish resource, increase food production and safeguard food security, guarantee sustained economic growth and the wellbeing of the people (SINSO & MoFT, 2015, p. 2), the full impact of the use of explosives, poisonous and other noxious substances (natural stupefacient agents), among artisanal fishers, must be established. The multivariate regressional analysis is used in this study to examine the environmental effect of artisanal fishing practises, as well as their impact on the fish stock. Out the effect of all covariates and residuals, we establish the consequence of fishing methods on coral reefs, the coastal environment and the impact of fisher behaviour on the stock. | http://sinu.edu.sb/artisanal-fishing |
What is reforestation and afforestation?
Satisfaction / waiver of conditions in relation to the proposed acquisition of Pinnacle Renewable Energy Inc.
What is biomass?
One of the most interesting outcomes of the recent analysis from the UK’s Forest Research (FR) agency on the Carbon Impact of Biomass (CIB) is the call for regulation to ensure better forest management and appropriate utilisation of materials.
The research was commissioned by the European Climate Foundation (ECF) to follow up FR’s mighty tome from 2015 of the same name.
This new piece of work essentially aims to clarify the findings of the initial research with supplementary analysis to address 3 key areas:
- A comparison of scenarios that may give relatively higher or lower GHG reductions — in simple terms, providing examples of both good and bad biomass.
- Based on the above, the report “provides a statement of the risks associated with EU bioenergy policy, both with and without specific measures to ensure sustainable supply.”
- It then goes on to “provide a practical set of sustainability criteria to ensure that those bio feedstocks used to meet EU bioenergy goals deliver GHG reductions”.
Not surprisingly, the report finds that unconstrained and unregulated use of biomass could lead to poor GHG emission results, even net emissions rather than removals. This, again, is a no-brainer. No reasonably minded person, even the most ardent bio-energy advocate, would suggest that biomass use should be unconstrained and unregulated.
There are plenty of obvious scenarios where biomass use would be bad, but that doesn’t mean that ANY use of biomass is bad. Thankfully this analysis takes a balanced view and identifies a number of scenarios where the use of biomass delivers substantial GHG emission reductions.
The report identifies the use of forest and industrial residues and small/early thinnings as delivering a significant decrease in GHG emissions, this is characterised as “good biomass” — around 75% of Drax’s 2017 feedstock falls into these feedstock categories (including some waste materials).
The remainder of Drax’s 2017 feedstock was made up of low grade roundwood produced as a bi-product of harvesting for saw-timber production. This feedstock was not specifically modelled in the analysis, but the report concludes that biomass users should: Strongly favour the supply of forest bioenergy as a by-product of wood harvesting for the supply of long-lived material wood products. The low grade roundwood used by Drax falls into this category.
Among the more obvious suggested requirements are that biomass should not cause deforestation and that biomass associated with ‘appropriate’ afforestation should be favoured. Agreed.
Another interesting recommendation is that biomass should be associated with supply regions where the forest growing stock is being preserved or increased, improving growth rates and productivity. Drax absolutely supports this view and we have talked for some time about the importance of healthy market demand to generate investment in forest management, encourage thinning and tree improvement.
Timber markets in the US South have lead to a doubling of the forest inventory over the last 70 years. These markets also provide jobs and help communities and ensure that forests stay as forest rather than being converted to other land uses.
The importance of thinning, as a silvicultural tool to improve the quality of the final crop and increase saw-timber production, is recognised by Forest Research. This is an import step in accepting that some biomass in the form of small whole trees can be very beneficial for the forest and carbon stock but also in displacing fossil fuel emissions.
The forest resource of the US South is massive, it stretches for more than a thousand miles from the coast of the Carolinas to the edge of West Texas, a forest area of 83 million ha (that’s more than 3 times the size of the UK). Given that a wood processing mill typically has a catchment area of around a 40–50-mile radius, imagine the number of markets required for low grade material to service that entire forest resource!
So, what happens when there isn’t a market near your forest, or the markets close? Over the last 20 years more than 30 million tonnes of annual demand for low grade timber — thinnings and pulpwood — has been lost from the market in the US South as the paper and board mills struggled after the recession. What happens to the forest owner? They stop harvesting, stop thinning, stop managing their forest. And that reduces the rate of growth, reduces carbon sequestration and reduces the quantity of saw-timber that can be produced in the future. Recognising that biomass has provided essential markets for forest owners of the US South, and directly contributed to better forest management is a really important step.
The CIB report talks about different types of biomass feedstock like stumps, which Drax does not use. Conversely the report also identifies good sources of biomass which should be used such as post-consumer waste, which Drax agrees would be better utilised for energy where possible, rather than land fill. It also shows that industrial processing residues that would otherwise be wasted and forest residues that would be burnt on site or left to rot would deliver carbon savings when used by facilities like Drax.
All of these criteria are similar to those outlined in the 7 principles of sustainable biomass that Drax has suggested should be followed.
Among the other recommendations which echo Drax’s thinking are that biomass should not use saw-timber or displace material wood markets, the scale should be appropriate to the long term sustainable yield potential of the forest — it should be noted that harvesting levels in the US South are currently only at around 57% of the total annual growth.
Counterfactual modelling, like that used in this report, cannot take account of all real-world variables and must be based on generic assumptions so should not be used in isolation, but this report makes a very useful contribution to a complex debate.
It is possible to broadly define good and bad biomass and to look at fibre baskets like the US south and see a substantial surplus of sustainable wood fibre being harvested a rate far below the sustainable yield potential.
Drax is currently working with the authors of this report, and others in the academic world, to develop the thinking on forest carbon issues and to ensure that all biomass use is sustainable and achieves genuine GHG emission reductions. | https://www.drax.com/sustainability/better-forest-management%E2%80%8A/ |
Under the supervision of the Director, Demand and Supply Planning, the Distribution Analyst works closely with the sales, marketing, finance and customer service teams, as well as with the plants, to analyze and optimize the planning network within the plants while ensuring customer satisfaction. The incumbent coordinates with the plants to determine the capacity and availability of supplies, production time, shipping requirements and product mix of each branch. The incumbent also works with each plant to improve profitability and coordinate the launch of new products and the depletion of obsolete items.
- Benefits program;
- Profit sharing;
- Work-family balance (telecommuting, flexible hours);
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP);
- Training Centre;
- Long-term career management plan;
- A work environment focused on knowledge sharing and recognition of individual and team successes.
The Distribution Analyst will have the following main responsibilities:
- Identify and communicate supply or distribution constraints in order to refine and execute the S&OP plan;
- Produce sales and promotion forecasts;
- Support the sales and marketing teams;
- Manage, establish and implement inventory strategies;
- Ensure deliveries within capacity;
- Ensure the maintenance of data in the integrated system;
- Perform maintenance according to business rules;
- Ensure that purchase orders are processed/followed up according to business rules;
- Determine, review and optimize the parameters of the material requirements planning.
The Distribution Analyst shall have the following qualifications:
- Possess a BAC in Operations Management in another related field;
- 5 to 10 years experience in a similar role;
- Master the Microsoft Office suite and SAP;
- Knowledge of the IPB management system (a strong asset);
- Excellent skills in priority management and resource organization;
- Extensive and in-depth expertise in planning and distribution;
- Ability to communicate effectively with team leaders and site partners on complex issues;
- Excellent decision-making and proactive analytical skills;
- Experience in improvement processes and knowledge of inventory management;
- Analytical, mathematical and statistical skills.
#revealyourpotential #LifeAtCascades
Cascades believes in the success of an inclusive organization that values diversity within its team. All qualified candidates will be considered for this position in a fair manner. Use of the masculine in our communications refers equally to both women and men.
About Cascades
To be part of Cascades is to reveal the full potential of materials, people and ideas. We are source of possibilities.
Since 1964, we have been providing sustainable, innovative and value-creating solutions in packaging, hygiene and recovery.
Join 12,000 women and men working in a network of more than 90 operating units located in North America and Europe. | https://jobs.cascades.com/job/Candiac-Production-Planner-Group-L2-QC/693713800/ |
Can sincerely held moral convictions be wrong?
Two weeks ago I spent an entire school day with the Year 12 students at Toowoomba Christian College. From 9:00 am – 3:00 pm we discussed this question, which is the central focus of C. S. Lewis’ The Abolition of Man.
To set the stage, we watched a popular YouTube clip of students at an American university being asked a series of questions by a middle age, medium height, white male.
“If I told you I was a woman, what would your response be?,” he asked. “I wouldn’t have a problem with it,” responded one student. “If I told you I was Chinese, what would your response be?,” the interviewer continued. “Good for you—be who you are,” answered another student. “7 years old…?,” he inquired. “If you feel 7 at heart, then so be it,” came the reply. Then he posed this question: “What if I told you I was 6 feet, 5 inches tall?” “You’re not,” said a respondent.
Summing things up, the interviewer asked, “So I can be a Chinese woman ... but I can’t be a 6’5’’ Chinese woman?” “Yes,” came the answer.
Questions about identity are notoriously complex, and they deserve a more careful, nuanced consideration than this edited clip provides. But the video succeeds in reminding us that today’s students are growing up in very confusing times! What stands out is how hesitant millennials seem to be in telling another person that their sincerely held beliefs might be wrong.
In The Abolition of Man, Lewis raises a question about someone looking at a waterfall and calling it sublime. What, he asks, is this judgment referring to—the waterfall or the observer’s feelings? If the latter, then we would not argue that the claim was either accurate or false, for in that case the word “sublime” would simply indicate an individual’s preference.
But Lewis thinks that such a claim can, indeed, be evaluated as a truth claim about the waterfall—the kind of claim that can be reasonably debated by different parties.
To assert that something is sublime or good—and to mean more than just “I happen to prefer it”—we must be able to evaluate it in terms of some recognised independent standard. To evaluate the claim that a man is 6’5” tall, he would need to stand next to a yard stick. Similarly, to evaluate the claim that a human behaviour or relationship is wrong, we would need to compare it to some objective moral standard.
The central question of The Abolition of Man is whether such an objective moral order exists. Arguing from within the Christian tradition, Lewis asserts that it does. There is, he says, something inherent in the waterfall’s nature that deserves to be appreciated. Similarly, there is something inherent in human nature that makes certain ways of treating people good and other ways bad.
Where does objective value come from and in what does it consist? The key, I believe, is PURPOSE—i.e., the notion of what something would become if it developed unhindered into what it was intended to be. The purpose for which something was created—what the ancient Greeks called its telos—is the standard by which we can judge it good or bad. A good watch is a watch that does what it was created to do well, and a good relationship is a one that fulfills God’s purposes when creating us as relational beings.
As Lesslie Newbigin said,
Value judgments are either right or wrong in that they are or are not directed to the end for which all things in fact exist … If one has no idea of the purpose for which a thing exists ... then one cannot say whether it is good or bad. It may be good for some purposes but not for others.
On this view, to call something “good” is not just to say that you happen to like it (and if somebody else disagrees and calls it “bad,” you are both right). Rather, to call something “good” is to say that it is close to what it was intended to be—it is realising or achieving the purpose for which it was created.
Christian schools and universities need to teach students how to think clearly about the nature of the world that we inhabit and of the people that we interact with. If these are realities created by God with purpose and meaning, then there’s something more than our mere personal opinions to attend to. If certain kinds of behaviour and relationship have a telos that’s embedded in the very nature of what it means to be human, then it can actually be loving to acknowledge that reality. Indeed, Lewis thought we had a moral duty to help our neighbours—and to allow our neighbours to help us—to better align with that objective moral order. We should do so with charity and humility, but we should do so nonetheless.
If, instead, our educational institutions fail to teach the reality of a true human nature or telos—if they fail to teach teleologically—then they will help contribute to the abolition of man.
[Kudos to schools like Toowoomba Christian College for devoting time and attention to such an important topic for students at such a crucial stage of life!]
Final Formal Hall of Semester 1
Last week the Millis Institute celebrated the end of Semester 1 with a formal hall dinner. During dessert, two Millis students--Johnny van Gend and Kate Worley--treated us to a pair of violin duets by Reinhold Gliere. We were also honoured to have as our guest speaker Ps Ron Woolley, Headmaster of Citipointe Chrisian College, who is retiring at the end of 2017. Thank you, Ron, for your many years of faithful service!
Featured Posts
I'm busy working on my blog posts. Watch this space! | https://www.millis.edu.au/single-post/2017/05/31/Can-We-Say-Youre-Wrong |
Objective: To increase our understanding of moral distress experienced by nurse practitioners in the continuing care setting Design: This qualitative study employed an interpretive description approach in which participants in a major urban center in Western Canada were interviewed about their experiences of moral distress. Participants: The study consisted of a small sample of six nurse practitioners that practiced in the continuing care setting during the time of recruitment. Inclusion criteria ensured potential participants had practiced as a nurse practitioner for a minimum of one year, had practiced in the continuing care setting for a minimum of six months, and were able to speak English. Methods: Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted and recorded with each of the participants. Transcriptions were imported into QSR International NVivo Version 11 for thematic analysis of the participants’ experiences of moral distress, including contributing factors, and methods to address these experiences. Ethical Considerations: Ethical approval was obtained from the Research Ethics Board at the University of Alberta prior to commencement of the study. Findings: This study provided confirmation that nurse practitioners in continuing care experience moral distress. The data presented five themes related to the tensions they identified in their descriptions of their experience. The themes were patients, perceptions, physicians, palliation, and policies. It was found that nurse practitioner experience of moral distress was similar to that of the registered nursing population, although the contributing factors had perhaps a more pronounced impact because of the advanced level of independence and the persistent role issues in advanced practice. Conclusion: Moral distress is a substantial issue for nurse practitioner practice in the continuing care setting. Further research is required in the continuing care setting in addition to other settings, to determine as to whether the experience of moral distress is limited to the profession, practice setting, both, or neither. It is imperative that the experience and contributing factors of moral distress be addressed, and that strategies for cohesiveness among key stakeholders in continuing care be developed in order to decrease the negative experiences of nurse practitioners, and prevent them from leaving the profession.
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- This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law. | https://era.library.ualberta.ca/items/d65148b8-59aa-4dcf-a6de-5ad569ac7332 |
Moral and Religious Experience
The result seems to be a draw. The evidence from personal experience for an objective Spiritual Reality is significant but not overwhelming. But perhaps it is misleading to concentrate on special "religious" experiences, whether of conversion, mystical union, or numinous feeling. If we do that, the crucial question seems to be whether the experiences can guarantee the reality of their objects. It is then hard to see what sort of guarantee could possibly be provided.
If we look back at religious morality, while there are intense experiences that convert some people to an altruistic outlook, the normal moral experience among religious believers does not seem to lie in the occurrence of intense, identifiable, and transient experiences. It is more a matter of interpreting many of life's situations than a matter of having a remarkable and discrete feeling state.
We do not normally speak of having "other-person experiences," of trying to describe what such experiences feel like, and then asking whether they show that other persons exist. We interpret the bodily behavior of others as the behavior of persons with thoughts, intentions, feelings, and desires. Our attention is focused on the persons, not on the nature of our feelings. And we are not trying to prove they really think and feel; we assume that they do, in order to have personal relations with them.
So, in regard to morality, we might interpret various events as demanding a moral response of compassion or as leading us to set aside personal prejudice in order to get at the truth. We do not infer the demand from our feelings; we accept that the demand is there. This may not seem religious, as we may feel we encounter a moral demand without believing in any God. But this is one important root of belief in God. For a Confucian, to feel the rightness of living in accord with the will of heaven is to respond to an element of reality. The physical elements of certain situations mediate the objective demand, the inmost moral structure of being. But because there is little or no talk of God, some may regard Confucianism as humanistic rather than religious.
Perhaps we could trace a spectrum of personalization in "transcendental" interpretations of morality. Confucian reticence about the reality of a transcendent being would lie at one end. Buddhism, being a "Middle Way," would appropriately speak of an objective state of compassion and wisdom. The Abrahamic faiths would lie at the other end, seeing compassion and wisdom as embodied in a personal creator God.
There may be no specifiable "feeling" to our interpretation of our sensory data as mediating moral claims upon us. What is significant is that some views of morality find it natural to speak of transcendent claims or ideals of beauty and goodness mediated through the objects we see, hear, and feel. Others find such talk unhelpful and think of morality as a matter of decision and the will.
We rarely speak of "moral experience," but we could (or some of us could) speak of apprehension of a moral dimension of reality. Religious morality ties such apprehension closely to apprehension of a Spiritual Reality. Indeed, it partly defines Spiritual Reality in terms of such moral apprehensions. Specific "religious experiences" would then be occasional and particularly intense feelings of such an apprehension. But the disposition to interpret all experience in terms of mediation of a Spiritual Reality, with a strong moral dimension, would be a more permanent, less intense, and often unnoticed cognitive orientation that might seem entirely natural.
Perhaps specific "religious experiences" could not establish the reality of their alleged objects. But maybe that is the wrong way to approach religious and moral cognition. It may not be a matter of inferring from inner states to unverifiable outer realities. It may rather be a question of whether we wish to divide "inner" and "outer" in this way at all. We might think of general interpretations of human experience and ask whether it is more reasonable to say that we experience a purely physical reality, to which we have purely subjective value responses, or to say that we experience a many-leveled, multifaceted reality that is mediated by means of our senses and involves our whole cognitive equipment, including our feelings.
If we do choose the latter option, surveys of "religious experience" may show that about half the population has occasional intense and memorable transcendental experiences, experiences of reality as more than purely physical. Such "peak experiences" may be given a naturalistic interpretation, but they do seem to be apprehensions of a spiritual dimension of reality, however they are more precisely interpreted.
We do not ordinarily speak of "moral experiences," but common sense assumes that there is an objectivity about morality; truth, happiness, justice, and beauty seem to exercise an influence upon us that is not causal but the influence of an ideal that calls us to realize it. As the philosopher J. L. Mackie (1977) said, believing in moral objectivity is just too "queer" if there is nowhere moral objects could be. There may just be "queer moral facts," facts of what G. E. Moore called "ought-to-beness." But a very natural place to put ideals of beauty, truth, and justice is in the mind of a God who is perfect beauty, truth, and goodness.
Morality can lead to religion, when the transcendental sense of goodness is linked to religious experiences of a spiritual sense of presence and power. If such a link is not made, morality can lose its binding and captivating force—as it is almost bound to do on a purely sociobiological account. As Michael Ruse once said, "A better understanding of biology might incline us to go against morality" (1995, 283). But equally importantly, religion can lose its moral basis and degenerate into a prudential bargaining with an authoritarian God, rather than being a free submission of the heart to a supremely beautiful and good Creator.
In conclusion, a purely naturalistic account of moral and religious beliefs can be given, but it is not the role of evolutionary biology to do so. Evolutionary biology can give us a better understanding of the development of our basic moral and religious inclinations and account for some of their peculiarities. But it cannot answer the question of what we ought to do or the question of whether, in our moral and religious lives, we are encountering a transcendental aspect of reality. The more we know about human nature from a scientific point of view, the better we will be able to reflect on what we should do. But science itself cannot tell us what to do, and our fundamental choice still lies where it always has: between seeing morality primarily as a matter for decision and seeing it primarily as a matter for discernment and response. Evolutionary psychology might help us to see that choice more starkly and to be better informed about the nature and limits of our choice. But whether morality puts us in touch with a Transcendental Reality remains, for science, an open question. | https://ebrary.net/4772/religion/moral_religious_experience |
Why doesn’t religion make us better people?
When moral structure becomes only a form of ritual
I am often asked, especially by non-believers, whether religious practice can actually make us better human beings.
This is a real-life query. And often, it’s actually a deeper, far more personal question that each of us might ask of ourselves: what does religious practice mean to me? For one person, “Do not steal” can be guidance from within: theft is something that he despises and avoids at all costs. For another, “Do not steal” may mean: do not steal when there are witnesses, especially if the police are around.
In the best instance, one’s faith plays a central role in the way one acts in the world. For such a person, religion is not only the performance of a ritual; it is also a spiritual, moral structure. Avoiding sin and embracing positive acts can transform us into better people, both in behavior and in our emotional lives. Religious practice can change our behavior toward others and have a profound impact on our interior worlds.
But there is also the opposite case: that of the person who is very particular about religion, but sees it only as a form of ritual. For him, religious practice does not have any meaning — except for going through a routine in a particular way. While such people may be good or evil by nature, ritual life may become mechanical.
Over time, they may be more and more involved with meticulous observance. They may measure others only by the way they, themselves, practice religion. They may see observance as an excuse for avoiding any good deeds that are not part of the ritual.
And sometimes ritual practice even serves as atonement for very immoral behavior in other arenas, or for belittling or despising other religions. They see God as an idol who demands sacrifices — the sacrifice of other human beings.
Looking at this group, the difference between the ardent church-goer and the person who hardly visits there is very small. There is a very small defense of those of the second group — the careful religious practitioners who fail in loving kindness or high ideals. Had they not gotten religion, perhaps these same people would have behaved in a much worse way. So if religious people are not always models of high behavior, one can imagine how they would have been without any religious feeling.
Most people fall somewhere between these two extremes. For them religion and its practice are only a part, a very small part, of their self-definition. In these cases, the results may be very diverse; sometimes, when there is a heightening of religious sentiment, it is followed by becoming, at least temporarily, a better person. There surely are people that on occasions of special holidays become more benevolent, forgiving, or understanding of those around them.
All of the world’s religions deal, at least in part, with the inner life and the demands of the soul: even so, the effect of religious life on the adherent depends very much on how much it is internalized. Both wisdom and faith work much better when the worshipper identifies with them internally rather than being tamed to show them off externally. | https://njjewishndev.timesofisrael.com/why-doesnt-religion-make-us-better-people/ |
At first blush, this dietary and dream advice may seem a bit bizarre. Then again, we may want to find out more. That’s because philosophers often have ideas that initially seem silly, but later turn out to be reasonable. Even right.
Morally speaking, this is certainly the case. John Rawls (arguably the most important moral and political philosopher of the 20th century), called the moral principles we accept at any given time “considered judgments.”
Considered judgments can’t be proven logically or mathematically, but they can nevertheless be pretty compelling. Some examples of considered judgments we have today are that (1) slavery is wrong; (2) religious freedom should be guaranteed. Rights to self-ownership and religious belief are common today, but they weren’t always. This shows that considered judgments can change over time. One way to change them is to make the case for why things should change. Philosophers have been up to this for a long time, and they aren’t always immediately successful, even when they seem right in retrospect.
In particular, I am thinking of John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) and his advocacy for women’s suffrage in Victorian England. Mill’s On the Subjection of Women remains one of the founding works of feminism in western philosophy. But people at the time thought it was such an absurd idea that Mill’s logic should be called into question entirely.
The Sedona International Film Festival recently screened Suffragette, which was a disturbing reminder of the physical and emotional brutality that women faced when they campaigned for the vote in Britain. Even in America, women have only been voting since 1920—less than a hundred years. The only thing absurd about Mill’s advocacy for women’s suffrage is the length of time it took people, all over the globe, to come around to it.
But back to Cicero. He wasn’t talking about things that seemed morally absurd. He was referring to absurdities of another kind—about dreams, souls, and generally, about spiritual experiences.
These days there is a tendency to simply omit the spiritual aspects of the ancient schools. But not everybody does this. Some people still aren’t afraid of having an “absurd” idea.
Pierre Hadot has reminded us of the comprehensive nature of the ancient schools. Whether we are talking about Plato or Pythagoras, the Epicureans or the Stoics, Hadot notes that their philosophies attended to the whole person, including spiritual practices. He breaks down the Stoic and Epicurean stereotypes to show how much their philosophies overlapped.
Hadot’s own work has been used as a resource for coping with life’s challenges. Hadot reminds us that philosophy can and should address the whole person, including the spiritual side. This takes philosophy back to its roots as a resource for daily living.
Speculating about the spiritual seemed absurd to Cicero. Indeed, it will seem absurd to many today. Many cull through ancient philosophy retrieving only what suits rationalist sensibilities. Is the spiritual absurd? On the contrary, failing to attend to this dimension of human experience is what is absurd. Spirituality is a meaningful dimension of the human lived experience. Trying to deepen our understanding of spirituality can be just as sensible as giving women the vote. There is nothing absurd about either one.
So the next time an idea seems absurd. Maybe think it over for a while—whether it’s moral or metaphysical, there may be something to it.
Happy trails, | https://sedonaphilosophy.com/2016/01/cicero-and-the-absurd/ |
The Creation Of The Universe
Unbelievers use ignorant criteria established by themselves in almost every aspect of life. The common feature of these criteria is that they are all constructed on each individual’s obtaining the greatest amount of worldly benefits possible. They do not love one another for their spiritual beauty, depth of soul or moral virtue and see them as blessings; they rather regard them as business objects by which they can secure the maximum gain. For that reason, whenever they make friendships with people, and choose friends or even spouses with whom to spend the rest of their lives, they look at whether they meet those criteria. For some of these people, certain spiritual attributes again based on worldly gain are of great importance. For example, they want other people to be helpful, loyal, mature, tolerant, forgiving, gentle, docile, understanding, reconciliatory and hard-working. Because these are all forms of behavior that will be of advantage to them. They may be irritable themselves, but they do not want other people to create any problems at any price. They will turn a blind eye to and be understanding of that all that person’s flaws.
Some people look for character traits such as these in their friendships in order to live comfortably and obtain benefits from other parties. But they do not actually want any of these attributes because they regard them as valuable. Indeed, the other party also exhibits these qualities in order to gain the approval of other people and other worldly benefits, not out of any fear of Allah.
Most of the people who assume the moral values of the society of the ignorant do not adopt any of these spiritual attributes that are based on ignorance. For this vast mass of people, what matters in the friendships they establish with people is their external appearance, wealth and prestige. The main criteria involved are this person having an impressive physical appearance, having a good place in society and doing the kind of work that will cause others to admire them. So long as these are present, the other person’s moral qualities are of no importance at all to them. The fact that their selection criteria are limited to these is a small reflection of these people’s entire perspectives on life. It is a result of lives lead without the use of reason and conscience, never thinking of the transience of this world, of the eternal nature of the Hereafter or the proximity of death. They live literally like robots programmed by the system of ignorance, according to the prevailing criteria in society, never questioning them and never using their reason. They unthinkingly turn what they see in others into something for themselves. For example, in the same way that they look at the animal’s pedigree when buying a horse or wanting to have the best make when buying a car, so they behave according to that same perspective when choosing a friend or a spouse. For example, they will always say that they like someone who owns a very expensive, latest model of car, who is rich and popular and famous, more than anyone else and will prefer them to anyone else, even if their moral values are exceedingly poor. However, when this wealthy individual suddenly loses all those attributes they no longer feel any closeness to him, even though he still looks exactly the same in appearance. In the same way, they will never have any dealing with someone who is poor, who does an ordinary job that might embarrass them, even if that person is morally highly virtuous.
The fundamental reason for this behavior by the people in question is that rather than love, they look for money, prestige and comfort in their friendships or marriages. Because it is those things, rather than love, that they regard as essential if they are to make a success with those around them. They want the person with whom they will spend the rest of their lives to literally be a “money printing machine,” rather than someone they can find depth in and share loved with. Indeed, the first thing they ask when they meet someone is “what line of work are you in?” When they receive the kind of answer they are looking for, they then immediately say that they like that person, and even feel a deep affection for them in their hearts. Occupation is one of the main factors in their being drawn to someone. However, if they later hear that that same person’s “firm has gone bankrupt,” they immediately drop them saying: “It has got nothing to do with that, but for some entirely different reason I have gone off them, and I therefore no longer want to have anything to do with them.”
So well-known is this perspective of people in the society of the ignorant that it is even made the subject matter of films. If you have a rapid look back over the films you have seen recently, you will notice that “moral virtue” is never the main idea in those films dealing with closeness between two individuals. Because film producers living within that same system know full well what matters they need to concentrate on. If they make a film totally revolving around moral virtue, the people in question will not be in the slightest bit interested in it. Film-makers know that the physical appearance of the people in the screenplay, their wealth, homes, cars, jobs and social prestige need to kept in the foreground. The people who watch these films will only be interested in the film if it concentrates on those things; and only then will the producers be able to make money.
However, films about personal relations concentrating on criteria such as money, appearance and occupation can attract the hoped-for interest, and as a result it is those films that attract the largest audiences.
In almost all films of this kind, one person inevitably buys gifts such as homes, cars or expensive presents for the other. Similarly, people with this kind of mindset also enjoy films in which someone buys expensive gifts for their family or prepares material surprises for them which will make them happy. The more details compatible with the criteria of the society of the ignorant a film contains, the higher its ratings will be.
However, nobody will like or be influenced by films about the lives of people with no material means, who fail to make displays of love compatible with the criteria of the society of the ignorant and who regard moral virtues as more important than anything else.
This perspective of the society of the ignorant that we have briefly touched on here is of course a terrible error. The people in question imagine that all these material attributes they attach such importance to will be enough to make them happy. The fact is, however, that they can clearly see the false nature of this perspective in their own lives. Yet since many people do not make proper use of their consciences they continue living by the criteria of the society of the ignorant, despite being aware of the true situation.
The fact that money, physical attributes, occupation, prestige, and expensive and showy homes and cars do not bring happiness is a great opportunity for people, even if they have realized this through personal experience. Allah creates this unhappiness as a blessing for them in order for them to see the truth. As with everyone else, He causes them to feel that they can only experience true love and happiness through faith, love of Allah and by adopting the moral values of which He approves. If they listen to the voices of their consciences then they will enjoy love, happiness, and all forms of blessings and beauty both in this world, and in the Hereafter for eternity.
Otherwise, our Almighty Lord states that people who are passionately attached to the goods of the life of this world will never enjoy any beauty, but will be recompensed with suffering: | https://creationofuniverse.com/en/Guncel-Yorumlar/10889/The_society_of_the_ignorant_imagines_that_the_expectation_of_gain_is_really_love |
As a single, unified thing there exists in us both life and death, waking and sleeping, youth and old age, because the former things having changed are now the latter, and when those latter things change, they become the former.
— Heraclitus
Session 10 explores the ways that right and wrong often seem mixed up with each other as well as the idea that determining right and wrong often depends on circumstances and perception. This is the second in a series of four sessions focusing on spirituality.
The session begins with a discussion of two Conundrum Corner items that indicate everything is always moving, always changing. The central story and the discussion that follows demonstrate that deciding who or what is right or wrong often depends on your point of view. In small groups, youth imagine stories that show how ethical decisions often depend on circumstance. A spiritual moment presents meditation as a way to clear the mind of distractions that can prevent good decisions. Through Faith in Action, participants become better acquainted with each other and experience how mutual understanding can promote mutual respect and tolerance and acceptance of diverse ideas and actions.
By pushing gently against youth's tendency to think in absolutes, you can help participants toward more complex and abstract understanding. Use concrete examples when possible to give youth solid and familiar ground from which to view the "clouds."
Goals
This session will:
- Provide examples of the ever-changing nature of life and matter
- Present examples of the sometimes-complex relationship between right and wrong
- Explore ways that circumstance, detail, and perception affect ideas of right and wrong
- Expose youth to meditation
- Ask youth to design new gods for the modern age.
Learning Objectives
Participants will:
- See that everything changes and grows
- Understand how perception affects ethical judgments
- Explore actions that can be right or wrong depending on situation, circumstance, and detail
- Learn definitions for polytheism, moral absolutism, and moral relativism
- Experience a spiritual moment based in meditation
- Optional: Find sameness and differences in themselves and other youth. | https://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/children/grace/session10/115421.shtml |
In conjunction with Psychology Today blogger, Steven Kotler, I’ve been pondering whether nonhuman animals (“animals”) have spiritual experiences and are they religious. Here, Steven and I want to offer some ideas and hope readers will weigh in. As I’ve discussed in many of my PT blogs ample evidence shows that animals are extremely smart and that they demonstrate emotional and moral intelligences ( see also).
But what about their spiritual lives? Do animals marvel at their surroundings, have a sense of awe when they see a rainbow, find themselves by a waterfall, or ponder their environs? Do they ask where does lightning come from? Do they go into a “zone” when they play with others, forgetting about everything else save for the joy of playing? What are they feeling when they perform funeral rituals?
We can also ask if animals experience the joy of simply being alive? And if so, how would they express it so that we would know they do? Wild animals spend upwards of 90 percent of their time resting: What are they thinking and feeling as they gaze about? It would be nice to know. Again, science may never be able to measure such emotions with any precision, but anecdotal evidence and careful observation indicate such feelings may exist.
So, what can we say about animal spirituality? Of course much turns on how the word “spiritual” is defined, but for the moment let’s simply consider nonmaterial, intangible, and introspective experiences as spiritual, of the sort that humans have.
Consider waterfall dances, which are a delight to witness. Sometimes a chimpanzee, usually an adult male, will dance at a waterfall with total abandon. Why? The actions are deliberate but obscure. Could it be they are a joyous response to being alive, or even an expression of the chimp’s awe of nature? Where, after all, might human spiritual impulses originate?
Goodall admits that she’d love to get into their minds even for a few moments. It would be worth years of research to discover what animals see and feel when they look at the stars. In June 2006, Jane and I visited the Mona Foundation’s chimpanzee sanctuary near Girona, Spain. We were told that Marco, one of the rescued chimpanzees, does a dance during thunderstorms during which he looks like he is in a trance. Perhaps numerous animals engage in these rituals but we haven’t been lucky enough to see them. Even if they are rare, they are important to note and to study.
Like Jane, I too would love to get into the mind and heart of a dog or a wolf even if I couldn’t tell anyone about it afterwards – what an amazing experience it would be.
We can also ask if animals are religious (see for example ; see also) and we will consider this question at a later date.
For now, let’s keep the door open to the idea that animals can be spiritual beings and let’s consider the evidence for such a claim. Meager as it is, available evidence says “Yes, animals can have spiritual experiences” and we need to conduct further research and engage in interdisciplinary discussions before we say that animals cannot and do not experience spirituality.
Marc Bekoff, Ph.D., is professor emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and co-founder with Jane Goodall of Ethologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. He has won many awards for his scientific research including the Exemplar Award from the Animal Behavior Society and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Marc has published more than 1000 essays (popular, scientific, and book chapters), 30 books, and has edited three encyclopedias. | http://www.merliannews.com/animal_spirituality/ |
By rev christine robinson a sermon preached at the first unitarian church of albuquerque, new mexico on january 9, 2005 this morning, we are going to be talking about a difficult subject: abortion, and the moral values which come into play in the case of unintended pregnancy. But without facing the moral question at the heart of abortion, words like davis’s are much likelier to rally the existing pro-choice troops than to actually persuade by contrast, words like . The issue of abortion hinges on the question of personhood nearly everyone believes that persons have a special moral status: taking the life of another person, barring extreme circumstances, is . The catholic church opposes and condemns any and all direct abortions even pregnancies that result from rape, incest, and present a danger to the life of the mother aren’t reasons for abortion the church teaches that human life is created and begins at the moment of conception the catholic .
Voice your opinion on the morality of abortion and whether or not a fetus is a baby or merely a group of cells. In an influential essay entitled why abortion is wrong, donald marquis argues that killing actual persons is wrong because it unjustly deprives victims of their future that the fetus has a future similar in morally relevant respects to the future lost by competent adult homicide victims, and that . Yes abortion is moral the question of abortion has always to be considered a matter of freedom of choice for individual women there are too many issues that the choice of abortion entails to make it a decision that has absolute say over all situations.
The abortion debate is the ongoing controversy surrounding the moral, legal, and religious status of induced abortion the sides involved in the debate are the self-described “ pro-choice ” and “ pro-life ” movements. However, the morality of abortion is not necessarily settled so straightforwardly even if one accepts the argument that the fetus is a person, it does not automatically follow that it has a right to the use of the pregnant woman’s body. Berny belvedere responded to my question about whether it is moral for the state to force women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term by arguing that the immorality of abortion trumps that concern. Abortion is the ending of pregnancy due to removing an embryo or fetus before it can survive outside the uterus an abortion that occurs spontaneously is also .
Abortion: a moral choice by ellen kenner ellen kenner, phd, is a licensed clinical psychologist with a private practice in rhode island and host of the nationally-syndicated radio talk show , “the rational basis of happiness®”. Abortion access the morality of abortion women's access to abortion terminology definitions why this website is different webmaster's comment:. The morality of abortion is a hotly contested issue this is a detailed breakdown of the major arguments for and against the legality of abortion. The morality of abortion two debates, dozens of voices, hundreds of arguments, but just one topic emotive, morally complex and challenging, the issue is abortion.
- the morality of abortion abortion is the termination of a foetus whilst in the womb and is a constantly argued issue in today's society whether abortion is moral or immoral depends on many topics and on one particular topic when does life start. The conventional moral reasoning of the clergy was that abortion was the lesser of evils (much as conventional wisdom today asserts that legal abortion is the lesser of social ills—better than the horrors of illegal abortion). Free essay: morality of abortion for the past couple of decades, the issue of abortion has been the most heated topic debated in the united states when.
When they donned the “pro-life” label in the 1970s, anti-abortion activists and politicians planted their flag in the moral high ground after all, what could be more moral than protecting the. Americans' views on the legality and morality of abortion haven't changed in the past year most say abortion should be legal, but many of these favor limits. In both public and private debate, arguments presented in favor of or against abortion access focus on either the moral permissibility of an induced abortion, or justification of laws permitting or restricting abortion.
The abortion debate asks whether it can be morally right to terminate a pregnancy before normal childbirth some people think that abortion is always wrong some think that abortion is right when . Abortion this article gives an overview of the moral and legal aspects of abortion and evaluates the most important arguments the central moral aspect concerns whether there is any morally relevant point during the biological process of the development of the fetus from its beginning as a unicellular zygote to birth itself that may justify not having an abortion after that point. (the remaining 12% say that the morality of abortion depends on the situation or refuse to express an opinion) there is a strong connection between views on whether abortion should be legal and views on the morality of having an abortion. | http://qkpaperyfsk.firdaus.info/morality-of-abortion.html |
Generous future historians may someday write that our generation finally met the environmental challenges of our time—not only climate change but the change of climate in the human heart, our society’s nature-deficit disorder—and, because of these challenges, we purposefully entered one of the most creative periods in human history; that we did more than survive or sustain, that we laid the foundation for a new civilization, and that nature came to our workplaces, our neighborhoods, our homes, and our families.
Few today would question the notion that every person, especially every young person, has a right to access the Internet, whether through a school district, a library, or a city’s public Wi-Fi program. We accept the idea that the “digital divide” between the digital haves and the digital have-nots must be closed.
Recently I began asking friends this question: Do we have a right to a walk in the woods?
Recently I began asking friends this question: Do we have a right to a walk in the woods? Several people responded with puzzled ambivalence. Look at what our species is doing to the planet, they said. Based on that evidence alone, isn’t the relationship between human beings and nature inherently oppositional? That point of view is understandable, given the destructiveness of human beings to nature. But consider the echo from folks who reside at another point on the political/cultural spectrum, where nature is seen as an object under human dominion or as a distraction on the way to Paradise. In practice, these two views of nature are radically different. Yet, there is also a striking similarity: nature remains the “other”; humans are in it, but not of it.
When she referred to her woods as “part of me,” she was describing something impossible to quantify: her primal biology, her sense of wonder, an essential part of her self.
I was struck by her last comment: “It was like they cut down part of me.” If E. O. Wilson’s biophilia hypothesis is right—that the human attraction to nature is hardwired—then our young poet’s heartfelt statement was more than metaphor. When she referred to her woods as “part of me,” she was describing something impossible to quantify: her primal biology, her sense of wonder, an essential part of her self.
To reverse the trends that disconnect human beings from nature, actions must be grounded in science, but also rooted in deeper earth. “When making a moral argument, there are no hard-and-fast rules, and such arguments can always be contended,” according to philosophy professor Lawrence Hinman. “But most moral arguments are made based on one or two points. These include a set of consequences and a first principle—for example, respect for human rights.” Science sheds light on the measurable consequences of introducing people to nature; studies point to health and cognition benefits that are immediate and concrete. But a “first principle” emerges not only from what science can prove but also from what it cannot fully reveal: A meaningful connection to nature is fundamental to our spirit and survival, as individuals and as a species.
In our time, Thomas Berry presented this inseparability most eloquently. Berry incorporated Wilson’s biological view within a wider, cosmological context. In his book The Great Work, he wrote: “The present urgency is to begin thinking within the context of the whole planet, the integral Earth community with all its human and other-than-human components. When we discuss ethics we must understand it to mean the principles and values that govern that comprehensive community.” Berry believed that the natural world is the physical manifestation of the divine. The survival of both religion and science depends not on one winning (because then both would lose) but on the emergence of what he called a 21st-century story—a reunion between humans and nature.
Speaking of absolutes may make us uncomfortable, but surely this is true: As a society, we need to give nature back to our children and ourselves.
Speaking of absolutes may make us uncomfortable, but surely this is true: As a society, we need to give nature back to our children and ourselves. To not do so is immoral. It is unethical. “A degraded habitat will produce degraded humans,” Berry wrote. “If there is to be any true progress, then the entire life community must progress.” In the formation of American ideals, nature was elemental to the idea of human rights, yet inherent in the thinking of the Founding Fathers was this assumption: with every right comes responsibility. Whether we are talking about democracy or nature, if we fail to serve as careful stewards, we will destroy the reason for our right, and the right itself. And if we do not use this right, we will lose it.
Van Jones, founder of Green for All and author of The Green Collar Economy,maintains that environmental justice groups are overly focused on “equal protection from bad stuff”—the toxins too often dumped in economically isolated neighborhoods. He calls for a new emphasis on equal access to the “good stuff”—the green jobs that could lift urban youths and others out of poverty. However, there’s another category of “good stuff”—the benefits to physical, psychological, and spiritual health, and to cognitive development, that all of us receive from our experiences in the natural world.
Our society must do more than talk about the importance of nature; it must ensure that people in every kind of neighborhood have everyday access to natural spaces, places, and experiences.
Our society must do more than talk about the importance of nature; it must ensure that people in every kind of neighborhood have everyday access to natural spaces, places, and experiences. To make that happen, this truth must become evident: We can truly care for nature and ourselves only if we see ourselves and nature as inseparable, only if we love ourselves as part of nature, only if we believe that human beings have a right to the gifts of nature, undestroyed.
From The Nature Principle by Richard Louv. ©2011 by Richard Louv. Reprinted by permission of Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. All rights reserved. | https://yogainternational.com/article/view/champion-your-fundamental-human-rights-by-reclaiming-a-meaningful |
Einstein revealed some amazing truths about the cosmos through his theory of relativity and other research. Einstein also spent time with six girlfriends while he was married.
Is there any connection between these two facts? Should we question the validity of the theory of relativity because Einstein engaged in behavior that would seem morally questionable to many people?
No, of course not.
Universal scientific truths have no connection with individual, or even societal, moral norms. The cosmos doesn't care what we do with our bodies and minds. Laws of nature aren't dependent on human thou shalt's and thou shalt not's.
So why do religions put so much emphasis on adhering to moral codes and commandments? (Which markedly differ from each other, but every religion has them.)
Imagine that Jesus had a "significant other," which, of course, could have been the case -- given that so much of Jesus' life is shrouded in myth and mystery. He could have been gay, but I'll assume his bed partner was a woman.
Imagine further that a previously unknown gospel is discovered in a newly unearthed middle eastern cave. Scholars affirm it is as historically valid as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Roughly translated, the gospel contains this passage:
While Jesus loved his wife, he also enjoyed hot sex with six girlfriends.
Would this throw Christian theology into a tailspin? Would the Christian faithful question whether Jesus truly was the son of God who died on the cross to atone for mankind's sins if, prior to his atonement, he'd happily fucked six women along with his wife?
(When climaxing, I picture Jesus throwing his head back and screaming "Oh my god! Oh my god!")
The truths Einstein discovered are independent of his personal lifestyle choices. They are part and parcel of a universal reality far removed from human notions of morality.
Yes, some philosophers, such as Derek Parfit, assert that moral reasoning is more objective than is commonly believed. This is a controversial position, though, by no means proven in anywhere near the same sense that the theory of relativity has been.
Yet most believers in the validity of a divine reality continue to associate truth-revealing and morality.
Prophets, mystics, gurus, masters, sages, yogis, popes, preachers, and such generally aren't trusted if their personal lives aren't in accord with a particular moral code esteemed by believers in a certain religion, spiritual teaching, or mystical practice.
I used to belong to an India-based organization which taught that god-realization wasn't possible without being a vegetarian, abstaining from alcohol and illicit drugs, and not having sex outside of marriage.
Having briefly been a Catholic in my childhood years, I sometimes thought about the wine-soaked wafer I was given at holy communion. Most Christians certainly would disagree that alcohol consumption is a barrier to knowing God. And many cultures use psychedelics (such as "magic mushrooms") to commune with divinity.
It now seems to me that the reason morality is so intimately connected with spiritual truths, but not scientific ones, is this: those supposed spiritual truths are lies.
People may subjectively believe in them. However, they have no objective reality. Light and gravity really do behave in accord with the theory of relativity. There is no similar demonstrable evidence to support the assertions of believers in supernatural laws of nature.
Thus religions are left with subjective moral injunctions rather than objective truths. People cling to these commandments for many reasons, some of which may make sense. But only to us humans.
The cosmos rolls on, oblivious to our notions of right and wrong, good and bad. Science understands this; religions don't. | https://hinessight.blogs.com/church_of_the_churchless/2012/07/morality-has-nothing-to-do-with-scientific-truth.html |
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Fair use is a set of broad guidelines rather than explicit rules.
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The Code of Best Practices developed by the Center for Media & Social Impact at American University in partnership with major associations provide professionals, educators, artists, libraries and the public with a set of principles addressing best practices in the fair use of copyrighted materials. They describe how fair use can be invoked and implemented when using copyrighted materials in scholarship, teaching, museums, archives, and in the creation of creative works.
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Beliefs involve, and hence depend on, concepts. The belief that stars are exploding balls of hot gas involves the empirical concept star. The belief that nine is a square number involves the mathematical concept square number. The belief that equality is a fundamental value involves the moral concept equality. But what exactly is a concept? Concepts are the building-blocks of thoughts, just as words and expressions are the building-blocks of sentences. Crucially, concepts are acquired in the context of a shared world, and hence anchor our individual thoughts to that shared world. The concept star, for example, is acquired initially, perhaps as a child, in the context of someone pointing to stars in the night sky. A more theoretical understanding of stars may develop later, but of course a theoretical understanding will develop in different ways depending on contingent factors such as how interested one is in the subject matter, how well informed or competent one’s teachers are, what theory is accepted at the time, and so on. A child, an ancient Greek astronomer and a modern-day astronomer will have very different beliefs about stars, but this doesn’t prevent them from having the very same concept. Indeed, it is because the child, the ancient Greek and the modern-day astronomer all have the concept star that their different beliefs all count as beliefs about stars. One implication of this view is that the grasp of a concept comes in degrees; the more one knows about the subject matter, the better one grasps the relevant concept.
These claims about concepts apply not only to empirical concepts, but to all concepts. Take mathematical concepts, for example. These are acquired, in the first instance, by learning to count ordinary empirical objects, such as apples and pencils. In this context, mathematical concepts apply in a relatively straightforward way to objects and events in the empirical world. More abstract mathematical concepts—such as the concepts irrational number, √−1, pi, and so on—are acquired by sophisticated extrapolation from the basic cases, and the relatively straightforward application to objects and events in the empirical world is soon lost. Again, a more abstract mathematical understanding will develop in different ways depending on contingent factors such as how interested one is in the subject matter, the competence of one’s teachers, the mathematical knowledge of the time, and so on. But mathematical concepts are anchored to objective mathematical properties and remain thus anchored even through variations in beliefs. Mathematical concepts will naturally be grasped more fully by some than by others.
The same is true of moral concepts, which are also acquired in the first instance by application to examples. As a child, you acquire moral concepts by being told that you’ve acted in a kind or selfish way, that you’ve been fair or mean, that you’ve been honest or dishonest, and so on. In this context, many of the examples are relatively clear, and the application of moral concepts to particular cases is relatively straightforward. More abstract moral concepts—such as justice, equality, treachery, loyalty—in contrast, are acquired by consideration of more complex situations in which the application of moral concepts is not always clear. A more abstract moral understanding, then, will develop in different ways depending on contingent factors such as one’s ability to empathize, the time one is willing to spend fact-finding, the time one is willing to devote to reflecting on the issues, when and where one happens to live, and the moral beliefs of those in one’s community. But it’s important not to lose sight of the fact that moral concepts are not determined by one’s moral beliefs. A child, a campaigner for equal rights, and a member of the anti-suffrage movement have different beliefs about equality, but the fact that they count as disagreeing about equality depends on them all having the same concept—the concept of equality. Moral concepts, just like empirical concepts and mathematical concepts, are acquired, at the most fundamental level, in the context of a shared world; moral concepts concern objective moral properties.
The objectivity of moral properties is related to the objectivity of moral reasons. Moral reasons for acting are not contingent on our desires; they are reasons for us no matter what we happen to want. The objectivity of moral reasons is supported by the natural thought that recognition of a reason to act is recognition of a consideration in favour of acting—that is, recognition of some objective value that exists independently of one’s motives. Thus in certain contexts, a child has a reason to own up to breaking the vase, a reason not to cheat at snakes and ladders, a reason to hand in the toy she found in the playground, a reason to share her sweets and so on, even if she has no desire to do any of them and is not in the least bit motivated to do so. After all, owning up, playing fairly, handing in lost property, and sharing are all, at least in certain circumstances, the right things to do, and this provides, in those circumstances, a reason to do them.
Of course, an objective moral reason won’t by itself lead one to action; unless you recognize the objective moral reason as a reason, you will remain unmoved. There needs to be some way in which objective moral reasons can be understood by individual people—some way in which people’s actions can be guided by objective moral reasons. This is why moral beliefs are important. In contrast to empirical beliefs and mathematical beliefs, moral beliefs have motivational force; they are essentially motivating. Thus, part of what it is to believe that one ought to recycle is to be motivated to separate your cardboard, newspapers, tin cans, and so on from the rest of the rubbish; part of what it is to believe that one should keep a promise is to be motivated to keep the promises one makes; and part of what it is to think one ought to be an equal opportunity employer is to be motivated, for example, to change policies that unfairly favour the hiring and promotion of certain people on the basis of factors such as gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. There is something peculiar about a person who claims to have these kinds of moral beliefs and yet shows no inclination whatsoever to act in accordance with them. We are likely to regard the proclamations of such a person as insincere; we are likely to regard such a person as merely paying lip service to the views they espouse without really believing them at all. In fact, lack of motivation in the face of moral judgement can be a form of moral ignorance—a failure to grasp the moral concepts fully. A better understanding of the moral facts would, since moral beliefs are essentially motivating, motivate one to do the right thing. This is because the objective moral reasons that count as reasons in favour of doing the right thing would be ones of which, having a better grasp of the moral concepts, you were aware.
The view I have been articulating is a view I call ‘moral externalism’. Moral externalism embodies a robust form of moral realism, since it presupposes that moral concepts refer to objective moral properties. This means that if the unequal treatment of women is wrong, it is wrong independently of what anyone believes, and independently of whether anyone either recognizes or is motivated by its moral force. Just as in the empirical and mathematical realms, agreement does not make for truth, and disagreement does not undermine objectivity. It’s a mistake to think, however, that the existence of objective moral truths implies that there are exceptionless general moral principles that can be applied blindly, without thought, in any context. The objectivity of morality is consistent with there being no list of moral truths that one can learn first and apply later; it is consistent with there being no systematic procedure for determining in a given context the correct answer to a moral question. Moral truths are difficult to discern precisely because the right course of action depends essentially on the specific details of the case. The existence of objective moral truths is also consistent with there not being a determinate answer, one way or another, on every moral question. Objectivity merely requires that when there is a determinate answer to a moral question, the answer is determinate independently of our beliefs and motives.
Moral externalism explains how moral beliefs are essentially motivating; it provides a way in which moral reasons can be both objective and action-guiding; and it is consistent with there being a middle ground between dogmatism and relativism. The view depends, at root, on the claims I make about concepts.
The Source Code
This essay is based on the article ‘Minds and Morals’ by Sarah Sawyer, published in Philosophical Issues. | https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/theforum/thinking-about-morality/ |
Healthcare practitioners attend to people from diverse cultural andreligious backgrounds. The spiritual beliefs that patients harborhave a significant effect on their health. Understanding the beliefs,and being accommodated, creates a friendly environment for thepatient and the practitioner. Buddhism and Christianity are majorworld faiths with varied worldviews. They have divergent teachings onprime reality, human history, morality, life after death anddiscerning truth from falsehood. However, they have some similarcritical components of healing, including, prayers and mediation.Understanding the different perspectives of healing professed byindividuals in the two religions can assist in moderating ahealthcare setting to offer patient-centered care. In addition,practitioners should be tolerant to the holy traditions of theirpatients, regardless of whether they are contrary to the ones theyprofess.
Professionals working in the healthcare field meet patients fromdifferent spiritual backgrounds. The religious customs and theteachings imparted on people significantly influence their healthbehavior. It also affects the values that they uphold, and that mighthave detrimental consequences on their wellbeing. According toAshcroft et al. (2007), the varied practices attributed to diversedeities have an assortment of implications on the definition of humanlife, their role in the universe, the value of existence and, thus,their health (8). This paper will compare the Christians andBuddhists’ perceptions of human life, history, prime reality, thecritical components of healing, and the benefits that accrue when anindividual professing a different faith attends one.
Worldview Questions
Christianity passed its formative stages in the 1st century. Thepractices were first pertinent in Judea before spreading to Europeand some parts of Asia. Through mission work, the religion spread tothe Western countries and Africa. The believers base their faith onthe teachings of Jesus Christ, whom they refer to as, the Son Of God.The followers also profess that Christ was born, died, rose from thedead and ascended to heaven. Moreover, they believe that he willreturn to liberate them. Through his death, Christians were salvagedfrom sin that had become inherent to humans after the disobedience ofAdam and Eve.
Conversely, Buddhism is largely practiced in parts of Asia and theWestern countries. About 300 million people in the world profess thereligion. It borrows its practices from the life of Gautama Buddha.It has gradually spread over the past 2,500 years (Murti, 2013, p.17). Buddhists pursue having a moral life by being conscious of theiractions and environment. Through an awakening process, they aremindful of their thoughts, as well as strive to accomplish truehappiness by discovering their purpose in life.
The Prime Reality
Christians trust in a deity, God. He is above every other creature inthe world (Tripp, 1999). Furthermore, he is the origin of life andthe creator of the universe through his omnipotence. The believersare convinced that God is triune with an unending love, goodness, andfaithfulness.
Buddhism has a contrary view of prime reality. According to itsteaching, there is no personal god or a spiritual deity (Murti, 2013,p. 12). In addition, the faith provides that the world exists becauseof casual actions. It claims that all things happen because of causeand effects, without being monitored by a supreme power.
The Nature of the World
Christianity infers that God created the universe from nothing.Through His word, everything came into existence. Therefore, theworld is subject to His rule and entirely dependent on Him. Moreover, the components of the world are not eternal (Tripp, 1999).Their proliferation is dependent on the will of a supernatural being.
On the other hand, Buddhism argues that the world is composed ofwide-ranging facets that are dependent on each other. It upholds thecomponents of earth, air, fire, water, and space. The elements formthe subtle constituents from which all the others emanate.
The Nature of Human Beings
Christianity contends that God created man in his image. Unlike othercomponents in the universe, that came to be through a word, Godcreated man from dust and inhaled in him the breath of life. As aresult, humankind has a personal relationship with the supernaturalbeing (Hossler, 2012, p.102). Nonetheless, his rebellious nature ledhim to disobey the Deity. The sin created a rift between him and hiscreator. However, God, through his unending love, sent his son to dieand salvage man from sin.
Buddhism stresses that human beings are the only ones in the universewho can achieve enlightenment. The religion also asserts that peoplewere present at the beginning of Kalpa. They had the capacity ofmoving through the air without any mechanical aid. However, theydeveloped a craving for consuming physical nutrients. They lost theirshining attribute, and the nutrients what different physicalappearances.
What Happens after Death?
Christianity bases its teachings on the perpetuation of life afterdeath. After the transformation, those who comply with the teachingswill continue living happily in God’s dwelling place. On the otherhand, the rebels will suffer in an unquenchable fire forever(Hossler, 2012, p.103).
Contrary to the Christian teaching on the continuation of life inheaven, Buddhism provides that only karma exists after death. Once anindividual passes on, a new being is born with a similar fate.Therefore, life is an unbroken progression of rebirth.
Knowledge
Christianity maintains that morality, ethics, and knowledgeoriginates from God. He is the absolute standard for goodness andjust behavior. The faith believers deduce knowledge by acquaintingthemselves with the information as inscribed in the Bible (Hossler,2012, p. 114). In addition, Christians receive a nonstopcomprehension of their universe by revering and complying with thelaws given by God.
According to Buddhism concepts, intelligence comes from beingconscious of the world. There is no criterion for shaping truth andfalsehood (Murti, 2013, p.37). The religion believes in personalperception and oneness with the divine spirit.
What Happens after Death?
Christianity bases its teachings on the perpetuation of life afterdeath. After the transformation, those who comply with the teachingswill continue living happily in God’s dwelling place. On the otherhand, the rebels will suffer in an unquenchable fire forever(Hossler, 2012, p.103).
Contrary to the Christian teaching on the propagation of life inheaven, Buddhism teaches that only karma exists after death. Once anindividual dies, another being is born with a similar behavior.Therefore, life is a continuous process of rebirth.
Knowledge
Christianity teaches that morality, ethics, and knowledge emanatesfrom God. He is the absolute standard for goodness and ethicalbehavior. Christians deduce knowledge by acquainting themselves withthe teachings as inscribed in the Bible (Hossler, 2012, p. 114). Inaddition, Christians receive a continuous understanding of theiruniverse by revering and complying with the laws given by God.
According to Buddhism teaching, knowledge emanates from consciousnessof the universe. There is no criterion for determining truth andfalsehood (Murti, 2013, p.37). It emphasizes on personal perceptionand oneness with the divine spirit.
Knowing Right from Wrong
Christianity teaches that God is morally perfect. Those who professthe faith believe that they are created in the image of God, arerequired to harbor such attributes. It is the responsibility of manto choose between morality and sin using the biblical teachings.
In knowing wrong and right, Buddhism focuses on the withdrawal fromthe world and becoming conscious with oneself. The ultimate realityand truth are unknown. They are not what human beings may physicallypoint out to be correct.
The Meaning of Human History
Christianity teaches that history is a linear succession of events toachieve a meaningful objective. Although occurrences may appearsimilar, each is unique. Itdoes not uphold the ideology of cyclicevents. According to Hossler (2012), history is a teleologicalprocess towards an end determined by God (p.106). All the processeswork towards fulfilling his glory.
Buddhism infers that life is a cycle of continuous rebirth.According to Murti (2013), history has little meaning (29). Those whoprofess the religion desist from understanding history as movingtowards a given purpose.
Analysis
The two religions have various merits and disadvantages that can havesignificant impacts on the health of those who profess them. Thoughnone of them is absolute, various practices support health-seekingbehavior. It is easy to predict the health behavior drawing from theteachings.
Christianity
Christianity teaches on the existence of a flawless deity. The faithhas several pros. First, it upholds the sanctity of human life.Therefore, they are likely to seek medical attention. Besides, allhuman beings are in the likeness of God. None is superior to theother (Hossler, 2012, p.98). The principle is paramount in thedelivery of services since it shields people from unnecessarydiscrimination.
Despite the supportive principles, Christianity is likely to opposepractices that jeopardize human life. Since God is the giver andprotector of life, some believers may be reluctant to seek medicalhelp in the belief that God is omnipotent and can heal them.
Buddhism
Gautama learned the art of science and medicine at a young age(Murti, 2013, p.9). He gained insight into the nature and cure ofdiseases. While Christianity focuses on the power of God to heal,Buddhism recommends a rational approach of dealing with bodily injuryand psychological illnesses. The religion’s sacred wellbeingcultivates a compassionate mind and consciousness in suffering(Murti, 2013, p.9). Prayers also make an important part of thetherapeutic process.
Components of Healing
People from assorted religious settings take these factors as vitalto remaining fit and recuperating from maladies (Hossler, 2012,p.98). Buddhism lays emphasis on physical strength. The humancondition involves suffering, sickness, old age, and finally death.Maintaining a physically energetic body can reduce the affliction.The believers achieve this state by avoiding pleasurable behaviorsthat increase susceptibility to ailments. Mental health is also animperative component of healing in Buddhism. The faith teaches thatthe states that people find themselves in are results of theirthoughts (Murti, 2013, p.17). As such, they dedicate time tomeditation and soul-searching to counter unconstructive thoughts. Thebelief stresses on compassion towards the suffering. Theirbodhisattva focuses on altruistic joy and equanimity.
On the contrary, Christianity emphasizes on prayers for the unwell.They seek the divine intervention of God (Kirschner, 2003, p. 185).They also look for medical help from health providers since theytrust that God can use different avenues to cure. Besides,Christianity encourages empathy and affection in time of suffering.The social circles that people have are critical in offering bothsocial and spiritual prop.
Important Factors
At times, sick people may be under the care of practitioners ofdifferent faiths. Christians under the care of Buddhists may find itperplexing if they are required to remain alert and conscious oftheir environment during medical procedures. While caring for aChristian, Buddhist practitioners will be compelled to allow theclose friends and relatives to engage in prayers because it is acritical component in their therapeutic process (Murti, 2013, p.12).
While caring for the Buddhists, Christian practitioners shouldmaintain the responsibility of mediation and prayer. The chantingthat Buddhists engage in should not be repulsive. Besides, Buddhisminsists on remaining cognizant with their environment and suffering.The practitioner should allow them the liberty unless when sedationis necessary and inevitable.
What was learned?
In the nursing practice, tolerance and consciousness are crucialwhile dealing with sick individuals from different backgroundsbecause faith affects health. According to Kirschner (2003),respecting the spiritual views of clients can lead to a fast recoveryprocess and a more fulfilling experience (185). This discovery canstrengthen the framework for patient-centered care.
In conclusion, sacred conviction plays a critical role in anindividual’s fitness. People in different parts of the worldprofess distinct faiths that affect their wellbeing behaviors. Thewide-ranging practices attributed to assorted deities have a range ofimplications on the definition of human life, their role in theuniverse, the value of life, and consequently, their physicalcondition. Christianity and Buddhism are major world holy beliefs,which have unique worldviews that can predict their wellbeing andresponse to suffering. Practitioners working with a heterogeneousgroup of patients should be sensitive to their divine needs. Theknowledge of spirituality can contribute to strengthening theframework of patient-centered care.
References
Ashcroft, R. E., Dawson, A., Draper, H., &McMillan, J. (Eds.). (2007). Principlesof health care ethics. John Wiley &Sons.
Hossler, P. (2012). Free health clinics,resistance and the entanglement of Christianity and commodifiedhealth care delivery. Antipode,44(1),98-121.
Kirschner, M. H. (2003). Spirituality and health.American Journal Of Public Health,93(2),185.
Murti, T. R. V. (2013). Thecentral philosophy of Buddhism: A study of the Madhyamika system.Routledge.
Tripp, D. (1999). Four Major Worldviews. GraceCommunion International. Retrieved fromhttps://www.gci.org/series/truth2
Young, C., & Koopsen, C. (2010). Spirituality,health, and healing: An integrative approach.Jones & Bartlett Publishers. | https://an-essay.com/diversity-in-religion-abstract |
oneself to consistent moral and ethical standards.
In ethics, integrity is regarded by many people as the honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one's actions. Integrity can stand in opposition to hypocrisy, in that judging with the standards of integrity involves regarding internal consistency as a virtue, and suggests that parties holding within themselves apparently conflicting values should account for the discrepancy or alter their beliefs.
The word integrity evolved from the Latin adjective integer, meaning whole or complete. In this context, integrity is the inner sense of “wholeness” deriving from qualities such as honesty and consistency of character. As such, one may judge that others “have integrity” to the extent that they act according to the values, beliefs and principles they claim to hold.
Integrity is a personal choice, an uncompromising and predictably consistent commitment to honor moral, ethical, spiritual and artistic values and principles.
Developing personal integrity requires examining your beliefs and value system, and taking conscious steps to behave in ways that are consistent with your personal moral code.
An organization’s success depends on the integrity of its employees. Integrity is an internal system of principles which guides our behavior.
Integrity is a choice rather than an obligation. Even though influenced by upbringing and exposure, integrity cannot be forced by outside sources.
Integrity conveys a sense of wholeness and strength. When we are acting with integrity we do what is right – even when no one is watching.
People of integrity are guided by a set of core principles that empowers them to behave consistently to high standards. The core principles of integrity are virtues, such as: compassion, dependability, generosity, honesty, kindness, loyalty, maturity, objectivity, respect, trust and wisdom. Virtues are the valuable personal and professional assets employees develop and bring to work each day.
The sum of all virtues equals integrity.
There is a dynamic relationship between integrity and ethics, where each strengthens, or reinforces, the other. Personal integrity is the foundation for ethics – good business ethics encourages integrity. A person who has worked hard to develop a high standard of integrity will likely transfer these principles to their professional life. Possessing a high degree of integrity, a person’s words and deeds will be in alignment with the ethical standards of the organization.
The right thing to do is not always the easy thing.
It can be challenging for organizations to establish and then comply with their own ethical standards. Whether ethics are defined or not,
employees at all levels experience pressures to act against ethical standards and counter to their own integrity. Some say one thing and then,
in the heat of battle, do another. It takes awareness and courage to act in that moment; to hold out for a choice that is in alignment with the
stated ethics of the organization and the integrity of those involved.
Just as there are risk factors for one’s health, there are factors that discourage or encourage integrity. A person lacking self-esteem, friendships and financial stability has a higher than normal likelihood of acting without integrity. A person with high self-esteem, a strong support system and a balanced life will most likely act with integrity.
Our integrity is always being tested. If we have the courage to ask the right question, we will often know the right answer. Following are some sample questions to guide a person in the right direction: | http://rivercitysecurity.com/about/integrity.php |
If you think for a moment about these two words, you"ll find that they can be said as an answer to almost every question lingering in your mind about life. I'll explain this in some detail in this post.
Month: March 2019
The concept of the Lamp
If you profoundly analyze your life, you will notice that the darks and lights of your life go hand in hand. Just like a sine wave, a positive hemisphere followed by the negative one. This is how it is designed by nature. A morning comes after a night full of dark and night comes after a day full of light. The Universe itself has created the rule of duality due to which the two sides of each coin exist.
|| Right, Wrong and Zero ||
in reality, we never know what is right and what is wrong. They're just the scales. Whatever you think, whatever your perspectives are, they all are right, but also they all are wrong. So, all the rights and wrongs cancel each other, we get the net result, a Zero.
A battle of Ego, Copyright law, and Nature
what if Nature herself says that the mind you're using to create these things, belongs to her and she's the owner of it?........ Have you ever thought about this?
Genetics and Surroundings
The impact of surroundings can also pierce the moral and spiritual traits like honesty, patience, understanding and so on. An honest father's son could be wicked and selfish or vice versa. It depends that what he observes the most around him, especially during his childhood. Not only observation, but it is also important that how much the information mesmerizes or fascinates him and how much he revises the information because the impact is created by the revision. | https://bittermarshmellos.com/2019/03/ |
Need of Research
World over there is a shift in health care profession towards considering the mental, emotional, social and spiritual components of one’s personality into mainstream medical practice which is focusing grossly on physical health. This is evident by a report which showed that 60 percent of Americans used ‘alternative and complementary medicine’ amounting to national expenditure to the tune of $13 billion. Interesting fact added to this was that patients did not disclose their interest to use the alternate therapies to their physicians. Following similar developments in other places lead to establishment of systematic professional education in alternative and complementary medicine, registration facilities to practitioners to legalize their practice, research centers at medical schools attached to Universities and centers at National institutes to standardize education, clinical practice and research in the area. Like any other nation India witnessed similar growth in this area and has considerable facilities and potential in the area of traditional systems of medicine.
In view of the public acceptance, there is need for rationalized investigations and scientific research on these therapies. Hence it is imperative that every institution imparting education and treatment based on traditional healing systems, must engage in generating empirical data to establish scientific basis, effectiveness and adverse effects of these modalities.
- During the past 40 years, have conducted a series of scientific studies demonstrating that integrative changes in food, lifestyle and mental attitude can:
- Reverse the psycho-somatic diseases like coronary artery disease, diabetes, hypertension, psoriasis, hypothyroidism, bowel syndromes…
- Regression of auto-immune disorders
- Slow, stop, or reverse the progression of cancers of various stages
These research findings are published in leading journals.
- A chronological computerized record and detailed data of all case histories, all investigations, testimonial opinions, success stories, and pre and post photographs of more than twenty thousand patients who were admitted in this hospital are maintained in the center.
- The specific treatment modules have been designed and prepared for management of various chronic diseases after years of practical experience, meticulous observation and research. The center has developed newer and modified treatment methods, treatment combinations and approaches, effective to produces successful results in short duration.
- The center has represented and actively participated in many national and international health conferences. Many research reports and paper have been published in various research journals and magazines.
KHOJ will be a Center for research in natural health sciences at Anand-Kunj, where different laboratories and instrumental facilities will be established for research. The center shall emphasize the research in following main areas…
(i) Basic research: aimed at scientifically mapping anatomical, physiological, biochemical and immunological effects of the therapies used in naturopathy and yoga,
(ii) Clinical research: aimed at evaluating the
- effects of individual therapies used, and
- integrated therapy module being used for major psychosomatic ailments,
(iii) Medical rehabilitation research: aimed at scientifically exploring the use of natural therapies and other mind- modifying techniques for the rehabilitation programs,
(iv) Literary research: aimed at compiling and systematically documenting all the traditional and natural treatment methods mentioned in various scriptures and practiced by people.
- Sarang SP, Telles S. Changes in p300 following two yoga-based relaxation techniques. International Journal of Neuroscience. 2006.
- Sarang PS, Telles S. Oxygen consumption and respiration during and after two yoga relaxation techniques. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. 2006.
- Sarang PS, Telles S. Effect of two yoga based relaxation techniques on heart rate variability. International Journal of Stress Management, 2005.
- Sarang PS, Telles S. Immediate effect of Yoga based relaxation techniques on performance in a letter cancellation task. Perceptual and Motor Skill, 2005.
- Sarang PS, Telles S. Cyclic meditation – a ‘moving meditation’ – Reduces energy expenditure more than supine rest. Journal of Indian Psychology, 2004.
- Integrated Approach of Auto-Urine-Therapy: a long term prospective study – a research report on Auto urine Therapy, Naturopathy and Yoga; Samyak Publications, 1996, India.
- Published many review articles in leading news papers, magazines of Yoga and Naturopathy.
Research is a careful inquiry or examination to discover new information or relationship and to expand and to verify existing knowledge. Research therefore must be carried out employing internationally acceptable, time honored principles and methodologies. A short term training course in Research Methodology is offered for the students who want pursue career in research and hone the skills of scientific investigation.
In much of society, research means to investigate something you do not know or understand. Research is creating new knowledge. At this center the students, physicians, experts and researchers gather to expand the frontiers of holistic medicine and the understanding of healing. | http://urinecure.org/research/ |
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Further Rests need to be conducted. Background Information Review of the Literature Discussion of Methodology Specific Data Analysis Conclusion 3. Based on analysis of 5 areas, assess whether the evidence presented in the research report supports the conclusion. The background information was general and brief. Although there were some noteworthy findings in the survey I did not feel that the subject was developed entirely. The discussion of methodology was short and described the obtaining of information with the trials.
The team was developed and the controlled trials, indexes to nursing literature and dissertation -abstracts as well and citation lists with researchers. The review of the literature was mixed with he specific data analysis from the surveys. It combined the two when talking about the studies found within the different surveys and took up most of the article. I feel that other questions related to the information and preparing the patient, nurse coaching plus distraction, parent positioning plus distraction, and distraction should be addressed.
Based on my analysis I would state the conclusion needs further review. The conclusion is not complete. There is preliminary evidence that a variety of cognitive-behavioral interventions can be used with children and adolescents to reoccurred however further studies will need to be taken in order to base the evidence due to other factors. The study had limited evidence of the numerous other psychological interventions. 4. Discuss ethical issues that may have arisen for the researcher while conducting the research for the article.
Ethically no one was hurt during this study so there are no specific issues but there are different types of families and different dynamics exist in each family. The parents may not have been able to help with holding, comforting providing the assistance needed to help with the psychological interventions. Every child perceives and can tolerate pain different and one child will use one form of distraction and another will prefer another form. Some children like to be distracted while others like to be engaged and watch the intervention. Pain is very subjective and as such it is very difficult to research.
Nurses are different is their approach as well and have many different personalities. Some may be very nurturing and take time to talk over the procedure while others may be matter of fact and don’t prepare the pediatric patient for the procedure. Some parents may not like the approach of the nurse in helping alleviate pain. 5. Discuss the type of research used for the study: Empirical evidence research and a Medicine search using mesh headings and manually identifying articles of interest. A. Explain whether or not other types of research would have been appropriate in the same situation.
I think that this type of research was the appropriate type of research. Surveys offer valuable information but did not address all areas psychological interventions. The background information the clinical trials were extracted but the quality was speculative. Although there were some noteworthy findings in the survey I did not feel that they offered straightforward commendations on reducing pain with procedures. Also, the survey did not inquire about the other factors of other interventions that could be used. Further research should investigate other aspects of the variety of cognitive behavioral interventions.
This will likely expand the number of strategies and actions available to the profession as well as nurse leaders to help the families and nurses reduce the distress with pain related procedures. B. Conduct a literature search to evaluate nursing care or management implications of a therapeutic nursing intervention by doing the following: 1 . Identify a nursing care or management problem for a therapeutic nursing situation. Reviewing alternative methods of alleviating procedural pain in children 2. Complete the attached matrix to list 10 primary research sources- (see attachment) 3.
Conduct a review of the 10 peer-reviewed research articles in which you: a. Develop an annotated bibliography of the articles b. Discuss whether the researchers present a case for the efficacy of a specified therapeutic approach. C. Identify whether the researchers chose tools that were similar or different. D. Discuss whether you believe the tools the researchers chose loud have affected their results. 4. Develop an evidence based summary of the McGrath & P], Skills, SIR… (October 18, 2011) Psychological interventions for needle related pain and distress in children and adolescents.
Published by John Wiley and sons. Retrieved November 8, 2011 from www. Cochrane. Org/reviews This article talks about reducing procedural pain with distraction and a combination of cognitive-behavioral interventions including hypnosis. The study was done with clinical trials with the most commonly studied needle procedures were immunization and injections. The efficacy was limited because of the other psychological factors including information or preparation, nurse coaching distraction, parent positioning plus distraction and distraction plus suggestion.
Overall I feel that cognitive-behavioral interventions can be used with children to manage or reduce pain but because pain is very subjective it is difficult to determine. They did not measure pre-treatment heart rate, Blood pressure or oxygen saturations like some of the other reviews. The study needed more clinical trials to have better results and to determine a clear outcome. 2. So, AS, Gangly Sin Y… (2011)Touch therapy for pain relief: Published by John Wiley ND sons in the Cochrane Database. Retrieved November 1 1, 2011 from www. Cochrane. Rug/reviews This article is a review about how touch therapies (Healing Touch, Therapeutic Touch and Erik) have been found useful in pain relief for adults and children. The evidence although inconclusive was strong that using touch therapy reduces the amount of analgesia and pain reduction. The efficacy was also limited due to inadequate data. Future studies should focus on side effects and report the experience to the practitioner. The article was not credible because of the small number of studies and insufficient data. 3. Harrison D. Yamaha J, Adams-Webber T. ,Olsson A, Been J, Stevens B…. 2011) Sweet tasting solutions for reducing procedural pain: Published by John Wiley and sons. Retrieved October 6, 2011 from www. Cochrane. Org/reviews The focus of this article is to determine if injection pain or blood draws are reduced if taking small amounts of sugar water or older children chewed gum before a procedure. In this article the sample size was small and therefore inconclusive. The efficacy was limited because they only had four studies therefore there is insufficient data of the analgesic effects of sweet tasting solutions during a painful reoccurred.
They used similar tools as the other researchers but more quality research needs to be developed. Currently in our hospital the NICE offer sweet solutions on the babies pacifier before painful procedures so that indicates that there is some credibility in dipping the pacifier into a sweet solution before a procedure. 4. Sawn’, A & Thomas, R… (2007) Pediatricians attitude, experience and referral patterns regarding complementary/alternative medicine: A national survey. Published online 2007. Retrieved October 12, 2011 from www. Incubi. Nil. Gob/PC/ articles physicians and their referral patterns.
This was done with a survey of a 27-item questionnaire and 648 of 3500 responded (18%). This was limited because only one mailer was sent and only 18% responded. It was only limited to pediatricians and not nurse practitioners or family physicians who also survey. It did indicate that the pediatricians had had a positive impression towards CAM and that there should be more education on CAM both in medical school and through CAME programs. There is evidence that CAM’s are growing and can be integrated into pediatric care. This review was different in that it was sent out in a mailer. 5. Bikinis, T… (DCE. 09) Music therapy my reduce pain and anxiety in children: published by J Ivied based dental Pratt. Retrieved October 12, 2011 from www. Incubi. Nil. Gob/PC/articles This article is an abstract of a unapologetically method such as music can be used as an alternate or compliment to analgesic. This was done as a randomized clinical trail followed by interviews. The tests were measured by physical symptoms such as heart rate, blood pressure and respiratory rate. The result was positive in that music reduces fear and pain in children. I thought this was a credible article because it measured physical symptoms caused by fear and pain.
They use similar tools such as measuring vital signs and clinical trials. 6. Analog, K. , Kingston, S, Lament, A. , Makeover, P & Macarthur, C… (2011) the effectiveness of music in Pediatric Healthcare: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials: published online 2010. Retrieved October 12, 2011 from The aim with this article was to combine five electronic databases for trial designs from 1984-2009. The research used in this study was unblended; cluster randomized controlled study and computer decision support system. They had seventeen studies that met the criteria of the peer review articles.
The findings suggest the effectiveness of music as an intervention in pediatric healthcare. The findings offer limited qualitative evidence that music helped with coping, used to enhance cognitive abilities, facilitate communication and reduce the effects of trauma. It also indicates that music may also reduce symptomatically of painful procedures. This article was different because it combined data from other trials to form their opinion. I believe that forming an opinion is more credible with more data backing up the findings however this article did not give specific recommendations. . Rooster-Stevens, K, Answerer, S. , Archery, T & Kemp, K… One 2008) How do parents of children with Juvenile idiopathic arthritis WA) perceive their therapies? Published by department of pediatrics, Wake Forest University. Retrieved October 9, 2011 from www. Incubi. Nil. Gob/PC/articles This is a published abstract published to determine which complementary and alternative (CAM) therapies are commonly used with chronic medical conditions. The study describes the views of parents regarding conventional and CAM therapies. They used questionnaires in over 75 clinics in 30 days.
It determined that 88% use dedications, 67% use heat, 54% use extra rest and the CAM therapies included 48% management techniques 33%. The tools were similar in that questioners were used. Because the article covered so many areas it wasn’t credible but it was informative. 8. Evans, S, Tsar, J, Seltzer… (Cot. 2008) Complimentary and alternative medicine for acute procedural pain in children: Published online BMW complement alter. Med 2008, Retrieved October 12, 2011 form www. Incubi. Nil. Gob/PC/articles This is also an abstract article about the use of CAM and alternative medical therapies in treating children and their painful procedures.
They have shown evidence that CAM has a place in pediatric medicine and have become increasingly important in treating children’s painful procedures yet it is still not clear if it has a place in pediatric analgesia. The modalities tested were Music therapies, acupuncture, laughter therapy and massage therapy. Standardizing these into intervention used is the next step toward implementing CAM into practice. They used an over view of other published material which was the same as number four. This article is fairly vague because they did paint a clear picture of the procedures.
I live other tools could have been used to better prove the efficacy of this article. 9. Line, Y, Lee, a, Kemp, K & Beard, C (DCE. 2009) Use of complementary and alternative medicine in pediatric pain management service: a survey. Published online December 6, 2009, retrieved from www. Incubi. Nil. Gob/PC/articles A telephone survey that included questions on the provision of complementary and alternative medical therapies in their pediatric pain programs to pediatric anesthesia affiliated with major universities. Out of forty three anesthesia fellowship programs 100% responded to the survey.
Thirty eight (86%) offered one or more CAM or their patients. Those therapies include biofeedback, guided imagery, relaxation therapy, massage, hypnosis, acupuncture, art therapy and meditation. The efficacy for this survey indicates that there is a trend moving toward alternative medical therapies in tertiary pediatric pain management. It also suggests that safety and efficacy in CAM use is urgently needed. This article used similar tools such as surveys and I liked the percentages with each CAM. They had very good response from the survey and did a good Job compiling the research. 0. Pat, O, Calmness, C, Dolores, J, Laconic, F and Compulsive, (2009) MEAL errors Nitrous Oxide for venous accumulation in children. Published by department of pediatrics Anesthesia, La Timing University hospital. Retrieved October 12, 2011 This article compared MEAL cream with nitrous oxide for providing pain relief during venous accumulation in children. In a sample of 40 random children they compared the two and measured visual pain scores, heart, rate, blood pressure and oxygen saturations that were compared before and after.
There was no statistical difference between the two groups and both provided adequate pain relief during venous accumulation as demonstrated with low pain scores. This article was also credible because they used similar tools such as monitoring vital signs to measure the outcome. The researcher did a good Job at presenting their case and the MD orders it before painful procedures but I enjoyed reading this article to see that there are other products that are similar. 5. Recommend a specific nursing strategy based on the theoretical models and evidence found in review.
In the ten articles I reviewed I found a trend toward finding alternate solutions to pain control in children with several modalities including distraction, massage, sweet assisting solutions, MEAL cream, nitrous oxide, music therapy, distraction, relaxation therapy, massage, hypnosis art therapy and meditation. I work with pediatric patients every day and use a variety of these methods based on the developmental age of the patient. I would love to see some standards developed based on these trials, formulate interventions, creating treatment manuals and determining treatment efficacy as a function of the child’s development.
There is a movement towards CAM (complimentary and alternative treatments) in pain control. I feel that pain has many psychological factors and when nurses use and implement simple rooms of distraction as well as prepare the child the outcome will be far less emotionally scarring and traumatizing in associating this event with procedural pain. Most of the children I work with have the same procedure every week and I would never attempt to start a procedure before applying MEAL cream which contains leading to numb the area because the emotional trauma that it causes.
Why not alleviate some of the fears and pain in these little children? I am an advocate for trying anything that will help reduce or eliminate this type of pain in children 6. Explain why you believe it is important to use a theoretical model for nursing. It is important to use theoretical models in nursing research because this technique helps researchers and the people reading about the research, to answer the questions that they had about different aspects in nursing. You first create a theory and then you research about your theory.
As nurses we are taught to “critically think” about everything we do and say. We are taught to always question why we are performing tasks under different protocols and time frames. It is important in nursing to remember to always ask why. Getting back to theoretical models, it is important to test and prove via research that theories about different patient cares are sound/efficient. In nursing school we used the acronym ADAPT for nursing theoretical models. It stands for assess, diagnose, perform, implement, and evaluate. | https://lawessay.net/evidence-based-practice-8/ |
Polymer/clay nanocomposite materials based on poly(propylene-graft-maleic anhydride) (PPgMAH) and two different organophilic modified clays were investigated by dielectric relaxation spectroscopy (DRS). In contrast to ungrafted polypropylene (PP), PPgMAH shows a dielectrically active relaxation process which can be assigned to localized fluctuations of the polar maleic anhydride groups. Its relaxation rate exhibits an unusual temperature dependence, which could be attributed to a redistribution of water molecules in the polymeric matrix. This is confirmed by a combination of Raman spectroscopy and thermogravimetric experiments (TGA) with real-time dielectric measurements under controlled atmospheres. In the nanocomposites this relaxation process is shifted to higher frequencies up to 3 orders of magnitude compared to the unfilled polymer. This indicates a significantly enhanced molecular mobility in the interfacial regions. In the nanocomposite materials a separate high-temperature process due to Maxwell-Wagner-Sillars (MWS) polarization was observed. The time constant of this MWS process can be correlated with characteristic length scales in nanocomposites and therefore provides additional information on dispersion and delamination/exfoliation of clay platelets in these materials. These properties also influence the diffusivity of the water molecules as revealed by real-time dielectric investigations.
Dynamic and photochemical behavior of amorphous comb-like copolymers with photochromic azobenzene side groups (1999)
A series of amorphous photochromic homo- and copolymethacrylates with an azobenzene moiety in the side group is investigated systematically by optical and dielectric spectroscopy. The aliphatic ester component of the comonomer unit and the concentration of the azobenzene groups within the copolymer are varied. The kinetics and the temperature dependence of the E/Z (trans/cis) photoisomerization and of the thermal Z/E (cis/trans) isomerization is studied for spin-coated films of the polymers. To understand the polarity of the polymeric materials as well as the matrix dependence of the reactions and of the photoinduced reorientation processes in the steady state molecular dynamics is investigated by dielectric spectroscopy. A variety of relaxation processes is observed: a γ-relaxation at low temperatures followed by a β-, an α-, and a δ-process. Additionally at room temperature a new -relaxation is detected for polymers containing azobenzene moieties. The temperature dependence of the reaction rate of the thermal Z/E isomerization process measured by optical spectroscopy seems to correlate with the values of the β'-process. A correspondence between dielectric and photochemical behavior is discussed.
Characterization of the crosslinking kinetics of a thin polymeric layer by real-time dielectric relaxation spectroscopy (2001)
The crosslinking kinetic of a thin polymeric layer based on a prepolymer of a phthalic aciddiallylester was studied by real-time dielectric spectroscopy in the frequency range from 10-1 to 105 Hz. With increasing reaction time the real part of the dielectric function ε ´ decreases. The time dependence of ε ´ can be described by a stretched exponential function with a stretching exponent of 0.5. This means that the influence of the chemical reaction on ε ´ cannot be described by a first order kinetic. From the temperature dependence of the characteristic time constant an activation energy of 71 kJ/mol could be estimated for the reaction. From the dielectric loss data the change of the relaxation rate of the dynamic glass transition fpα with the reaction time is obtained. After a temperature dependent induction period fpα decreases very strongly. No plateau value which corresponds to a glass transition in the crosslinked system is obtained for long reaction times.
Anisotropic films of poly(olefin sulfone)s with cinnamoyl side groups prepared by self-organisation and photoreactions (2006)
Comparison of thermal and dielectric spectroscopy for nanocomposites based on polypropylene and layered double hydroxide - proof of interfaces (2014)
Polymer based nanocomposites by melt blending of synthesized ZnAl-Layered Double Hydroxide (ZnAl-LDH) and polypropylene (PP) were investigated by temperature modulated differential scanning calorimetry (TMDSC). The LDH was organically modified by using a surfactant, sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (SDBS) to increase the interlayer spacing of the LDH, so that polymer segments can intercalate the inter layer galleries. The glass transition temperature (Tg) and the thermal relaxation strength (Δcp) were determined. The Tg remains constant for concentration till 12 wt% of LDH and a slight reduction of 3 K might be observed for 16 wt% LDH but within the experimental error. The thermal relaxation strength decreases indicating reduction in the amount of mobile polymer segments from amorphous fraction. This finding is supported by the increase in the rigid amorphous fraction (RAF) which is attributed to the polymer molecules which are in close proximity to the crystals and the LDH sheets, as they hinder their mobility. This is analyzed in detail and related to the dielectric relaxation spectroscopy (BDS) results.
Dielectric spectroscopy has been used to study poly(ethylene naphthalene 2,6 dicarboxylate) (PEN) samples of different morphologies obtained by thermally treating bi-axially stretched PEN films. Neat and thermally treated samples of PEN films have been characterised by differential scanning calorimetry in order to measure the glass transition and melting temperatures as well as the degrees of crystallinity. Dielectric analysis has allowed the observation of the evolution of molecular relaxation phenomena with morphology changes and has revealed three relaxation processes: ?-, ?*- and ?-relaxation (increasing temperature). The ?-relaxation is associated with local motions of ester and the ?*-relaxation with partially cooperative motions of naphthalene groups. The latter has been shown to be related to the morphology of the materials under study. The ?-relaxation associated to the glass transition of PEN corresponds to cooperative motions induced by conformational rearrangements of the main chain and depends also on the morphology of the PEN films. Dielectric relaxation behaviours were compared using the activation energies calculated from Arrhenius equation formalism for the two sub-glass processes. VogelFulcherTammann fits were performed on the ?-relaxation. Our important contribution for the bi-axially stretched PEN films study is related to the assignment of the ?*-relaxation that can be attributed to naphthalene aggregates.
Polymers synthesized with plasma techniques are very interesting materials for electronic, optic, and bio compatible applications. Thin films of plasma polymers shows a good adhesion to metals, glass, or other polymers. But the supramolecular structure, the durability, and the chemical and mechanical behavior of these polymers is poorly understood. Therefore dielectric investigations are carried out to study the dynamic behavior of the plasma polymers. As polymer system allyl alcohol/alkene is chosen to get polymers with a defined concentration of hydroxyl groups. The dielectric investigations shows several relaxation processes and a dependency of the dielectric parameters from the ratio of allyl alcohol in the polymer is observed. This results indicated that the alkene monomers were assembled continuous into the polymer matrix.
The retention of chemical structure and functional groups during pulsed plasma polymerization was used for producing adhesion-promoting plasma polymer layers with high concentrations of exclusively one kind of functional groups, such as OH, NH2, or COOH. The maximum content of functional groups was 31 OH using allyl alcohol, 18 NH2 using allylamine, or 24 COOH per 100 C atoms using acrylic acid. To vary the density of functional groups, chemical co-polymerization with ethylene as 'chain-extending' co-monomer, or butadiene as 'chemical crosslinker' was initiated in the pulsed plasma. The composition of these co-polymers was investigated by XPS and IR spectroscopy. The concentrations of functional groups were measured by derivatizing with fluorine-containing reagents and using XPS. A set of plasma parameters was found to be a good compromise between a high number of functional groups and complete insolubility in water, ethanol or THF,which is needed for further chemical processing. Here, these monotype-functionalized surfaces were used in metal-polymer systems as adhesion-promoting interlayers to examine the influence of type and density of functional groups on adhesion. As expected, COOH- and OH-group-terminated interlayers showed maximum peel strengths to evaporated aluminium layers. The adhesion increased linearly with the number of OH groups to a maximum at about 27 OH per 100 C atoms. Higher concentrations of OH groups did not increase the peel strength further. | https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bam/solrsearch/index/search/searchtype/authorsearch/author/Andreas+Sch%C3%B6nhals |
BACKGROUND: Upper limb repetitive strain injury is a common problem in western countries, causing human suffering and huge economical losses. Patients with prolonged pain associated with repetitive tasks in the work place can face both psychological and physical difficulties. Different treatment programmes, physical, psychological, behavioural , social and occupational treatments have been developed and used to help these patients.
Mind-body therapies are commonly recommended to treat vasomotor symptoms, such as hot flushes and night sweats (HFNS). The purpose of this systematic review was to evaluate the available evidence to date for the efficacy of different mind-body therapies to alleviate HFNS in healthy menopausal women and breast cancer survivors. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were identified using seven electronic search engines, direct searches of specific journals and backwards searches through reference lists of related publications.
BACKGROUND: The regular update of the guidelines on fibromyalgia syndrome, AWMF number 145/004, was scheduled for April 2017. METHODS: The guidelines were developed by 13 scientific societies and 2 patient self-help organizations coordinated by the German Pain Society. Working groups (n =8) with a total of 42 members were formed balanced with respect to gender, medical expertise, position in the medical or scientific hierarchy and potential conflicts of interest.
BACKGROUND: Antipsychotic medication can cause tardive dyskinesia (TD) - late-onset, involuntary, repetitive movements, often involving the face and tongue. TD occurs in >?20% of adults taking antipsychotic medication (first-generation antipsychotics for >?3 months), with this proportion increasing by 5% per year among those who continue to use these drugs. The incidence of TD among those taking newer antipsychotics is not different from the rate in people who have used older-generation drugs in moderate doses.
INTRODUCTION: The phantom limb pain has been described as a condition in which patients experience a feeling of itching, spasm or pain in a limb or body part that has been previously amputated. Such pain can be induced by a conflict between the representation of the visual and proprioceptive feedback of the previously healthy limb. The phantom limb pain occurs in at least 42 to 90% of amputees. Regular drug treatment of phantom limb pain is almost never effective.
Pregnancy presents many problems without working through additional problems in coping with an ostomy. Yet many women with an ostomy do get pregnant and do deliver healthy babies. Evidence-based nursing is of the utmost importance, as there is little published information on this topic. Because of the scarcity of pregnant subjects within the ostomy category, most studies, by necessity, select a purposive subject base. Therefore, other information sources regarding nursing management of the pregnant woman with an ostomy take on considerably more importance.
The purpose of this review was to discuss the place of hypnotherapy in a modern medical world dominated by so-called evidence-based clinical practice. Hypnosis is an easily learned technique that is a valuable adjuvant to many medical, dental and psychological interventions.
OBJECTIVE: To provide physicians with a responsible assessment of the integration of behavioral and relaxation approaches into the treatment of chronic pain and insomnia. PARTICIPANTS: A nonfederal, nonadvocate, 12-member panel representing the fields of family medicine, social medicine, psychiatry, psychology, public health, nursing, and epidemiology.
OBJECTIVES: A large body of research has demonstrated that patient factors are strong predictors of recovery from surgery. Mind-body therapies are increasingly targeted at pre-operative psychological factors. The objective of this paper was to evaluate the efficacy of pre-operative mind-body based interventions on post-operative outcome measures amongst elective surgical patients. METHODS: A systematic review of the published literature was conducted using the electronic databases MEDLINE, CINAHL and PsychINFO.
BACKGROUND: Preterm birth (PTB) is a leading cause of perinatal mortality and morbidity. Although the pathogenesis of preterm labour (PTL) is not well understood, there is evidence about the relationship between maternal psychological stress and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Relaxation or mind-body therapies cover a broad range of techniques, e.g. meditation, massage, etc. There is no systematic review investigating the effect of relaxation techniques on preventing PTL and PTB. This review does not cover hypnosis as this is the subject of a separate Cochrane review.
© ISHAR is a program of ISHAR LLC, which is a Chopra Foundation Initiative and a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public charity. | http://isharonline.org/tags/hypnotherapy?page=1 |
Burning Mouth Syndrome: Everything You Should Know
Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) or glossodynia refers to the feeling of a burning sensation in your mouth. Although BMS usually occurs suddenly, it can also develop over time and affect your lips, tongue, mouth palate, cheeks, or your whole mouth. The burning sensation is not accompanied by redness or soreness in the affected areas. BMS is also described as a neuropathic pain if it originates from nerve damage.
What Are the Causes of BMS?
BMS occurs when your brain does not understand the messages sent by the nerves in your mouth. Here are some potential causes of BMS:
- Loose or ill-fitting dentures or allergies resulting from the denture materials
- Hormonal changes
- Immune system problems
- Depression, anxiety, or stress
- Side-effects of certain types of mouthwashes and toothpastes
- Damage to the nerves that control pain or taste
What Medical Conditions Can Cause Burning Mouth Syndrome?
BMS can occur due to the following medical conditions:
- Acid reflux
- Thyroid problems
- Dry mouth
- Nutritional deficiencies
- Thrush
- Diabetes
Who Is at Risk of Developing Burning Mouth Syndrome?
Anyone can develop BMS, but people who have an increased risk for the condition include:
- Perimenopausal or postmenopausal women
- People who are 50 or above
What Problems Can Burning Mouth Syndrome Cause?
Burning mouth syndrome might cause a moderate to a severe burning sensation on your gums, tongue, mouth palate, lips, or inside your cheeks. For some people, the burning sensation starts in the morning and becomes worse as the day progresses, whereas some other people have burning sensation all the time. For others, the feeling may come and go.
Some common symptoms of BMS include:
- Loss of taste
- A dry or sore mouth with increased thirst
- A bitter or metallic taste in your mouth
- Stinging, numbness or tingling in your mouth
- A scalding sensation
How Is Burning Mouth Syndrome Diagnosed?
First, your dentist will thoroughly review your mouth to determine the origin of the problem, then they will:
- Review your medical history and medications
- Discuss your symptoms and oral care habits
- Perform swabs or blood tests to learn about the nutritional deficiencies, infections, or other conditions such as diabetes or thyroid that may be present in your body.
- Recommend an allergy test learn about your intolerance to any food or additives.
What Is the Treatment for BMS?
Treatment for BMS vary depending on the causes, and include:
- Health or nutritional supplements for BMS due to a poor diet.
- Making adjustments to your dentures if your BMS is caused by poor-fitting dentures.
- Medication for fungal infection in your mouth and dry mouth condition, and low-dose antidepressants, or a course on depression counseling for depression.
- Other therapies, including meditation, yoga, hypnotherapy, and relaxation, may also be recommended.
How Can You Ease Your Symptoms?
You can improve your BMS symptoms at home by:
- Avoiding alcohol and tobacco products
- Regularly sipping water
- Chewing sugar-free gum
- Sucking on crushed ice
- Avoiding foods and beverages that cause irritation to your mouth
Also Read: Bridges and Partial Dentures: Things You Need to Know
What Should You Do If You Think You Have BMS?
Visit your dentist in shoreline immediately if you think you have burning mouth syndrome. They will find the root causes of BMS by performing various tests and recommend medications, supplements, or other therapies based on your test results.
How Long Could You Have Burning Mouth Syndrome?
Burning mouth syndrome is a long-term condition, which can affect you for months or years. However, by following the dentist-recommended treatments or therapies, you can improve your symptoms and manage your pain. | https://www.reigndental.com/blog/burning-mouth-syndrome |
The term Postpartum (also known as postnatal) refers to the first six weeks immediately after birth of an infant, this is a significant phase in the mothers and babies’ lives, it’s the period of adjustments to parenthood and the start of life long bond within the family and the wider community.
Epidemiology[edit | edit source]
The global prevalence is high yet ranges from 25-90% in the United States of America, Europe and some regions of Africa, with the highest rates recorded in Brazil and Sweden. This is because there is currently no universally recognised classification system for the condition. It usually occurs in the second trimester (gestational 22 week average), although pain continues for up to three years in 20% of women postpartum. It is estimated that 1/3 of women will suffer from severe pain, reporting that 80% impacts their quality of life, sleep and 10% causing an inability to work. A cross-sectional study consisting of 400 pregnant women found that 75.3% experienced LBP, reporting a mean Visual Analog Scale (VAS) score of 4.91 ±1.88. Despite a sufficient sample size, the generalisability is limited and the classification of pain, type and localisation were subjectively assessed.
Aetiology[edit | edit source]
The aetiology is poorly understood due to the multifactorial nature, but suggested theories are associated with biochemical, vascular and hormonal changes during pregnancy. Although no true consensus regarding the risk factors, those most common include, young age, pelvic trauma, 'hunchback' posture, gestational weight gain, chronic LBP and previous history of LBP in pregnancy.
Management Techniques[edit | edit source]
Various non-pharmacological Rx options[edit | edit source]
Back pain in pregnancy is treated differently depending on the stage of pregnancy, the underlying cause, aggravating factors and the involvement of other medical conditions such as diabetes or heart problems.
Postural correction
- Supported side-sleeping
- Lumbar roll while sitting
- Limiting standing and walking
Antenatal exercises
- Healthy pregnant women can exercise for at least 150 minutes per week or 20-30 minutes of moderate to intense aerobic activity
- Aquatic therapy
- Acupuncture
- Yoga
Any low intensity, relaxation activity
Yoga[edit | edit source]
Yoga is a form of complementary and alternative medicine, incorporating fluid transitions of poses to promote increased joint range of motion, flexibility, muscular strength and balance. This is coupled with deep breathing exercises and meditation to facilitate mental relaxation, concentration and introspection. Yoga is widely recognised having 300 million people practicing worldwide, encompassing 7% of women during pregnancy. It is a low impact and easily modifiable exercise, being suitable for pregnant women. It has found to be effective in managing LBP during pregnancy, thought to have a similar mechanism of action for those with non-specific LBP, though with minor modifications. Despite current gaps in the literature, interest and awareness is growing due to effects on quality of life and societal costs such as, days lost at work, disability payments and workers' compensation.
A Cochrane Review investigated various interventions for preventing and treating low back and pelvic pain during pregnancy. This included 34 randomised controlled trials (RCTs) consisting of 5121 pregnant women aged 16-45 years old. Primary outcome measures were pain intensity, back or pelvic related functional disability, sick leave and adverse effects. Two authors independently assessed studies and disagreement resolved through consulting a third assessor. It revealed that an 8-12 week exercise programme with yoga poses reduced the risk of pregnant women reporting LBP by 44% and sick leave by 24%. Overall, it was regarded as low quality due to heterogeneity in study designs and varied results, precluding the ability to pool data. Additionally, publication bias and selective reporting were unable to be ruled out. Further research is required to ensure confidence in utilising this treatment option. However, this has been disputed by a systematic review recently conducted by Koukoulithras et al. (2021) finding that yoga was not effective to improve long-term pregnancy related LBP nor statistically significant. But, the small population sample size limited conclusions able to be drawn.
A RCT of 60 pregnant women ranging from 14-40 years old found that 1 hour of Hatha yoga practice per week for 10 weeks significantly lowered lumbo-pelvic pain on the VAS (p<o.0058) compared to postural orientation exercises. Also, lumbar pain provocation tests showed a gradual decreased response throughout the sessions. Yoga was shown to be of most benefit in women suffering from LBP coupled with anxiety, depression, stress and sleep disturbances. Also, associated with more comfort and shorter duration of first stage labour. It concluded that yoga is a safe and fetal tolerated therapeutic intervention for LBP in both first time and higher risk pregnancies, with no adverse events reported.
These findings are in accordance with a Systematic Review (SR) of 15 articles including 2566 participants meeting the inclusion criteria to evaluate the literature about non-pharmacological, easily accessible management strategies for pregnancy-related LBP. The types of Yoga were Iyengear-based, Hatha and modified yoga based, incorporating progressive muscle relaxation as a tranquillity aspect. Findings indicated that 8 weeks of yoga for 20 minutes twice daily showed statistically significant improvements in LBP, with additional improvements in mental health, physical and social function. It was suggested that starting the intervention early in pregnancy shows the greatest effect. Though results variability highlighted the need for more well-designed research, conducted in 8 different countries meaning inferences can be globally recognised. Future studies should identify the frequency and duration, objective endpoints, health effects on the fetus and long-term benefit.
Pilates[edit | edit source]
Pilates is defined as “a mind–body exercise that focuses on strength, core stability, flexibility, muscle control, posture and breathing. Pilates was created in the 1980’s by Joseph Pilates, a German exercise instructor. He originally developed this exercise method using bed springs attached to the end of beds to help his bed bound patients and soon realised that added resistance helps with increased muscle strength. The following table adapted from Latey’s 2002 article “Updating the Principles of the Pilates Method – Part 2” outlines the traditional principles of Pilates:
|Traditional Principle||Definition|
|Centring||The main focus of Pilates, the centre, “powerhouse” or core. This is the tightening of the muscular centre of the body located between the ribcage and the pelvic floor during exercise.|
|Concentration||The mind guides the body. Cognitive attention is required to perform the exercise.|
|Control||The work of exercise is being done from the centre. It is close management of posture and movement during exercise.|
|Precision||The accuracy of the exercise technique. Common saying in Pilates: “It is not how many, but how.”|
|Flow||The smooth transition of movements within the exercise sequence.|
|Breathing||All exercises to be done with a breathing rhythm in order to get oxygenated blood to all tissues of the body. Moving air into and out of lungs in coordination with exercise.|
Evidence Behind Pilates[edit | edit source]
There have been many studies into the effects of Pilates on low back pain, however there is limited evidence around its effects on LBP as a result of pregnancy.
In a systematic review completed in 2015, it was found that Pilates is an effective intervention to use in the treatment of chronic low back pain. This was not pregnancy specific, however the study states that Pilates helps with postural control movement and lumbar stabilisation which in turn decreases low back pain. These findings can be applied to pregnant women with low back pain as participants were all experiencing chronic LBP, which has a duration of over 3 months.
In a study analysing Pilates for women's health, strong evidence was found to determine that Pilates was an effective method for the reduction in low back pain and improvement in lower extremity strength. This study also stated that Pilates is effective in alleviating the discomforts of pregnancy such as low back pain, and assisting in strength and endurance for labour and birth.
In a randomized control study completed in 2021 by Sonmezer et al, it was found that not only was low back pain significantly improved, however, functional disability, sleep, mobility and lumbopelvic stabilization also improved. The group completed Pilates based exercises twice a week for eight weeks and results showed that pain and disability significantly improved. In the control group, no significant improvements were seen; back pain improvements were measured using the Oswestry Low Back Pain Questionnaire.
Frequency and Duration[edit | edit source]
The frequency and duration of Pilates based exercise varies depending on the study read and therefore frequency and duration can be up to the discretion of the patient.
An experimental study investigating the effects of Pilates versus regular exercise in LBP in pregnant women found that 70-80 minutes of Pilates one day, once a week for eight weeks was sufficient to reduce overall pain rates in these women. The studied routine consisted of 10 minutes of warm-up, 50-60 minutes for the main workout and 10 minutes of cool down.
In a randomised clinical trial, pregnant women completed an eight week Pilates programme consisting of 2 sessions a week of 40-45 minutes in total. The layout of this class was different with it consisting of verification of posture, warm-up phase (5-8 minutes), aerobic and toning phase (25-30 min), flexibility phase (5-10 minutes) and then finally a relaxation phase (5-10 minutes). The women taking part in this programme also noticed a wide array of benefits.
While these are good baselines to follow, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists recommends that pregnant women should exercise for at least 30 minutes daily, in the absence of medical or obstetric complications. The ACOG acknowledges that Pilates can be an effective type of exercise to meet guidelines due to its strength training aspects.
Positions to be Avoided[edit | edit source]
In a study completed by Mazzarino, Kerr and Morris in 2018 there were a few Pilates exercises and positions which were recommended to be avoided or modified by pregnant women. These include: modification of abdominal exercises; this is to avoid significant divarication of the rectus abdominus muscle which can be split from pressure from the uterus. Flexion should be performed while seated to avoid this.
Exercises in the supine position should be avoided as it can prevent and obstruct venous return due to the growing uterus compressing the vena cava; this can cause the mother to feel dizzy. Positions can be modified to include side-lying, seated or standing exercises.
This study also found that opinion of Pilates instructors on the type of exercises to be included and excluded and the average duration and frequency was discordant with the advice from The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) published in 2015.
Example Pilates Programme[edit | edit source]
A booklet of recommended Pilates exercises to complete for Women's Health was compiled by Pelvic Obstetric, Gynaecological Physiotherapy. It is recommended as all of the Physiotherapists involved are CSP registered and prenatal and antenatal advice was included.
Pre-Pilates Safety[edit | edit source]
Guidelines published by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists have stated that women experiencing a normal pregnancy and have been previously healthy are safe to continue or start regular physical activity including Pilates. Prior to exercise, it is a good idea to check with your obstetrician or other member of a health care team at one of the early prenatal health visits.
Manual Therapy Techniques[edit | edit source]
There is a growing evidence in support of the use of manual therapy as a safe treatment to effectively treat low back pain, especially massage and spinal manipulation.
Massage
Massage therapy can be helpful for stress relief, well-being and pain reduction among women during pregnancy, and is also used to relieve low back pain during pregnancy. A small study explored the impact of deep tissue massage for low back pain in women, the intervention included twice a week deep tissue massage for 2-months; the massage included: appropriate pressure, lengthening movements, movements in intermuscular grooves, anchor and stretch technique and releasing muscle tension and found it decreased pain and improve functionality of the pregnant participants.
Spinal Manipulation
A systematic review was conducted in 2017, which explored osteopathic manipulative treatment/ spinal manipulation therapy for low back pain during and after pregnancy, and it was concluded that it had a significant medium-sized effect on decreasing pain and increasing functional status in women with low back pain during pregnancy, but had low-quality evidence that it decreased pain and functional status postpartum. Additionally, it was found that there are physical and mental health benefits and can minimise pharmacological treatment options for low back pain.
Aquatic Therapy[edit | edit source]
Aquatic therapy utilises the beneficial properties of water and has been used as a treatment method for the management of lower back pain. There is limited evidence in its effectiveness in the management of lower back pain during pregnancy, however it is still used as a treatment method.
A small scale prospective quantitative study conducted in Australia found aquatic physiotherapy sessions reduced low back pain in 70% of participants. Exercises included focused on thoracic mobility, transverse abdominus and pelvic floor muscle strengthening aiming to improve core stability and a component of aerobic exercise to maintain general fitness. A systematic review concluded that there was sufficient evidence to suggest that aquatic therapy does provide some benefits to patients suffering from low back pain during pregnancy, however of the included studies all were considered to be low quality.A randomised clinical trial containing 129 participants found that participants who completed 60 minute aquatic therapy classes three times a week reported reductions in lower back pain. However, reduction in back pain was a secondary outcome measure.
Benefits of Exercise During Pregnancy[edit | edit source]
Maternal Benefits[edit | edit source]
- Improved cardiovascular function.
- Lowers risk of developing gestational diabetes.
- Improved psychological well-being.
- Improvement in sleep.
- Reduction in musculoskeletal pain associated with pregnancy e.g., low back pain.
- Helps with weight management: excessive weight gain during pregnancy can lead to maternal complications such as hypertension, preeclampsia, and gestational diabetes.
Fetal Benefits[edit | edit source]
Contraindications to exercise during pregnancy[edit | edit source]
- Persistent vaginal bleeding in the 2nd and 3rd trimester.
- Cardiovascular disease.
- Cervical Weakness.
- History of fetal growth restriction.
- History of preterm labour.
- Multiple gestation.
- Placenta previa after 26 weeks.
- Preeclampsia or pregnancy induced hypertension.
- Premature contractions or labour.
- Premature rupture of membranes.
- Severe anemia.
- Chronic bronchitis.
- Poorly controlled diabetes.
- Poorly controlled seizures.
- Poorly controlled thyroid disease.
These contraindications are taken from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, no distinction was made between absolute and relative contraindications.
Clinical Relevance[edit | edit source]
Pregnancy-related LBP is prevalent, disabling and costly to both the individual and the society. There is growing evidence in support of the use of yoga, pilates, aquatic therapy and manual therapy as a safe treatment option to effectively treat pregnancy-related LBP. Although the evidence base is of low quality, overall these management strategies are safe and recommended interventions, however further research is required to determine the extent of benefits in clinical practice. It is the responsibility of clinicians to ensure evidence-based practice when providing holistic patient centred care. Future investigations should focus on higher quality research to explore the effects of LBP in the long term and on quality of life in pregnant women.
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Pierce, H. (2013). Pregnancy-related low back and pelvic girdle pain : listening to Australian women. Uts.edu.au. [online] Available at: https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/handle/10453/24033
- ↑ Katonis, P., Kampouroglou, A., Aggelopoulos, A., Kakavelakis, K., Lykoudis, S., Makrigiannakis, A. and Alpantaki, K. (2011). Pregnancy-related low back pain. Hippokratia, [online] 15(3), pp.205–10. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3306025/
- ↑ Berber, M.A. and Satılmış, İ.G. (2020). Characteristics of Low Back Pain in Pregnancy, Risk Factors, and Its Effects on Quality of Life. Pain Management Nursing, [online] 21(6), pp.579–586. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1524904220301314?casa_token=84EnmXzqlt4AAAAA:TwlY0jhc45cbQvA3yBDzsIT1-UhHmATbGJKdm8D0ojBPpm7Y1xzcXz3552qja2iMnYRAIrA
- ↑ Liu, C., Jiao, C., Wang, K. and Yuan, N. (2018). DNA Methylation and Psychiatric Disorders. Progress in Molecular Biology and Translational Science, [online] pp.175–232. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187711731830019X
- ↑ World Health Organisation recommendations on postnatal care of the mother and newborn. (2020). WHO recommendations on postnatal care of the mother and newborn. [online] Available at: https://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/documents/postnatal-care-recommendations/en/
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Liddle SD, Pennick V. Interventions for preventing and treating low‐back and pelvic pain during pregnancy. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2015(9).
- ↑ Katonis P, Kampouroglou A, Aggelopoulos A, Kakavelakis K, Lykoudis S, Makrigiannakis A, Alpantaki K. Pregnancy-related low back pain. Hippokratia. 2011 Jul;15(3):205.
- ↑ Berber MA, Satılmış İG. Characteristics of Low Back Pain in Pregnancy, Risk Factors, and Its Effects on Quality of Life. Pain Management Nursing. 2020 Dec 1;21(6):579-86.
- ↑ Manyozo S. Low back pain during pregnancy: prevalence, risk factors and association with daily activities among pregnant women in urban Blantyre, Malawi. Malawi Medical Journal. 2019 Oct 1;31(1):71-6.
- ↑ Schröder, G., Kundt, G., Otte, M., Wendig, D. and Schober, H.-C. (2016). Impact of pregnancy on back pain and body posture in women. Journal of Physical Therapy Science, [online] 28(4), pp.1199–1207. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4868213/
- ↑ Ferrari, N. and Graf, C. (2017). Bewegungsempfehlungen für Frauen während und nach der Schwangerschaft. Das Gesundheitswesen, [online] 79(S 01), pp.S36–S39. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28399584/
- ↑ Bishop, A., Holden, M.A., Ogollah, R.O. and Foster, N.E. (2016). Current management of pregnancy-related low back pain: a national cross-sectional survey of UK physiotherapists. Physiotherapy, [online] 102(1), pp.78–85. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031940615037712 .
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Babbar S, Shyken J. Yoga in pregnancy. Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2016 Sep 1;59(3):600-12.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Kinser PA, Pauli J, Jallo N, Shall M, Karst K, Hoekstra M, Starkweather A. Physical activity and yoga-based approaches for pregnancy-related low back and pelvic pain. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing. 2017 May 1;46(3):334-46.
- ↑ Koukoulithras Sr I, Stamouli A, Kolokotsios S, Plexousakis Sr M, Mavrogiannopoulou C. The Effectiveness of Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions Upon Pregnancy-Related Low Back Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Cureus. 2021 Jan;13(1).
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Martins RF, Pinto e Silva JL. Treatment of pregnancy-related lumbar and pelvic girdle pain by the yoga method: a randomized controlled study. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 2014 Jan 1;20(1):24-31.
- ↑ Wells, C., Kolt, G. and Bialocerkowski, A., 2012. Defining Pilates exercise: A systematic review. Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 20(4), pp.253-262.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Latey, P., 2001. The Pilates method: history and philosophy. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, 5(4), pp.275-282.
- ↑ Penelope, L., 2002. Updating the principles of the Pilates method—Part 2. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, 6(2), pp.94-101.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Patti, A., Bianco, A., Paoli, A., Messina, G., Montalto, M., Bellafiore, M., Battaglia, G., Iovane, A. and Palma, A., 2015. Effects of Pilates Exercise Programs in People With Chronic Low Back Pain. Medicine, 94(4), p.e383.
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 Mazzarino, M., Kerr, D., Wajswelner, H. and Morris, M., 2015. Pilates Method for Women's Health: Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 96(12), pp.2231-2242.
- ↑ Sonmezer, E., Özköslü, M. and Yosmaoğlu, H., 2021. The effects of clinical pilates exercises on functional disability, pain, quality of life and lumbopelvic stabilization in pregnant women with low back pain: A randomized controlled study. Journal of Back and Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation, 34(1), pp.69-76.
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 Oktaviani, I., 2018. Pilates workouts can reduce pain in pregnant women. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, 31, pp.349-351.
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 Rodríguez-Díaz, L., Ruiz-Frutos, C., Vázquez-Lara, J., Ramírez-Rodrigo, J., Villaverde-Gutiérrez, C. and Torres-Luque, G., 2017. Effectiveness of a physical activity programme based on the Pilates method in pregnancy and labour. Enfermería Clínica (English Edition), 27(5), pp.271-277.
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 Mazzarino, M., Kerr, D. and Morris, M., 2018. Pilates program design and health benefits for pregnant women: A practitioners' survey. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, 22(2), pp.411-417.
- ↑ Acog.org. 2019. Exercise During Pregnancy. [online] Available at: <https://www.acog.org/womens-health/faqs/exercise-during-pregnancy> [Accessed 24 May 2021].
- ↑ Oswald, C., Ceara, D., Higgins, C., Demetry, D. and Dc, A. (2013). Optimizing pain relief during pregnancy using manual therapy. [online] 59, p.841. Available at: https://www.cfp.ca/content/cfp/59/8/841.full.pdf.
- ↑ Holden, S.C., Gardiner, P., Birdee, G., Davis, R.B. and Yeh, G.Y. (2015). Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use Among Women During Pregnancy and Childbearing Years. Birth, [online] 42(3), pp.261–269. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26111221/
- ↑ Romanowski, M.W. and Spiritovic, M., (2016). Deep tissue massage and its effect on low back pain and functional capacity of pregnant Women-a case study. Journal of Novel Physiotherapies, 6(03).
- ↑ Franke, H., Franke, J.-D., Belz, S. and Fryer, G. (2017). Osteopathic manipulative treatment for low back and pelvic girdle pain during and after pregnancy: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, [online] 21(4), pp.752–762. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1360859217301146
- ↑ Sheraton, A., Streckfuss, J. and Grace, S. (2018). Experiences of pregnant women receiving osteopathic care. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, [online] 22(2), pp.321–327. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1360859217302310?casa_token=HSWhYgyserIAAAAA:baLVTntV0u8rBlSGt6KPKVjy4it77TYPd573TpTkyldXaOnQ7z2TLnVwNN__1qv7oOhjXzg
- ↑ Intveld E, Cooper S, van Kessel G. The effect of aquatic physiotherapy on low back pain in pregnant women. International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education. 2010;4(2):5.
- ↑ Waller B, Lambeck J, Daly D. Therapeutic aquatic exercise in the treatment of low back pain: a systematic review. Clinical rehabilitation. 2009 Jan;23(1):3-14.
- ↑ Rodríguez-Blanque R, Sanchez-Garcia JC, Sanchez-Lopez AM, Expósito-Ruiz M, Aguilar-Cordero MJ. Randomized clinical trial of an aquatic physical exercise program during pregnancy. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing. 2019 May 1;48(3):321-31.
- ↑ 35.00 35.01 35.02 35.03 35.04 35.05 35.06 35.07 35.08 35.09 35.10 Prather H, Spitznagle T, Hunt D. Benefits of exercise during pregnancy. PM&R. 2012 Nov 1;4(11):845-50.
- ↑ 36.00 36.01 36.02 36.03 36.04 36.05 36.06 36.07 36.08 36.09 36.10 36.11 36.12 36.13 36.14 36.15 Evenson KR, Barakat R, Brown WJ, Dargent-Molina P, Haruna M, Mikkelsen EM, Mottola MF, Owe KM, Rousham EK, Yeo S. Guidelines for physical activity during pregnancy: comparisons from around the world. American journal of lifestyle medicine. 2014 Mar;8(2):102-21. | https://www.physio-pedia.com/The_Management_of_Low_Back_Pain_In_Pregnancy |
For many decades, neuroscientists have wrestled with the notion that the brain itself might play a key role in the modulation of pain. Several researchers, most notably Melzack and Wall, have theorized on the various systems that are activated through the “gating” process that allows the brain to dampen pain from local injury or even to burn more hotly through various unconscious reflexes.
But the real burning question that has mystified the scientific establishment for so long is this: can the brain itself be the sole cause of pain in the absence of any nociceptive input from the spine?
Pain management researchers and manual therapists have suspected for some time that some portion of chronic back pain represents ongoing dysfunction in the brain and nervous system rather than any local spinal injury. To buttress their case, they point to the fact that it is difficult to identify and verify a specific, obvious local pain generator in most chronic neck and low back pain cases.
Study Suggests Brain Involvement in Pain
A recent study from the University of Pittsburgh suggests that the brain can indeed generate pain in the absence of any local nociceptive input. Stuart W. Derbyshire, Ph.D., and colleagues hypnotized eight experimental volunteers (1). They then studied patterns of brain activity:
-
While the subjects received a painful thermal stimulus
-
While they believed they were receiving a painful thermal stimulus but were not
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While they were aware, they were not receiving painful stimuli.
The hypnotic state in which the subjects believed they were receiving a painful stimulus resulted in a similar pattern of symptoms and brain activation as pain from the real thermal insult. There was notable activity in the thalamus (the great sensory integrator) and prefrontal and parietal cortices.
“These findings compare well with the activation patterns during pain from nociceptive sources and provide the direct experimental evidence linking specific neural activity with the immediate generation of a pain experience,” according to Derbyshire and colleagues.
It’s Not “All in Your Head”
This cleverly designed study provides direct evidence of the brain generating pain in the absence of any actual noxious input. The significance of this study is profound for pain management therapists since many functional disorders are commonly seen in the clinical setting that appear idiopathic, such as fibromyalgia and some low back/neck pain cases. Now we know that these are real disorders and may actually have roots based upon the mechanisms described by Derbyshire.
It is helpful to remember that if you or your clients regard an experience as pain and if you or they report it in the same way as pain caused by tissue damage, it should be accepted as pain. This definition avoids tying pain to the stimulus.
Because brain scanners can’t be fooled, the new brain imaging technology is an extremely effective and objective way to explore reported experiences of pain. The fact that hypnosis was able to induce a painful experience in the absence of an actual external stimulus suggests there is a neural network for pain. In other words, some pain could really be in the brain.
Yoga and the Pain Response
Slow, mindful yoga practice can be a powerful tool in pain management. Gentle movements that encourage settling into the parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) side of the autonomic nervous system can be especially helpful.
Restorative Yoga is designed to elicit the relaxation response, but you can practice traditional poses such as forward bends and twists, with a “cooling” intention. For example, instead of practicing with the intention to get somewhere, focus on the internal experience unfolding at the moment. Breathe slowly, deeply, and without strain, allowing your body to settle into each asana in its own time.
Reprinted with permission from Erik Dalton.com
Erik Dalton, Ph.D., is executive director of the Freedom From Pain Institute, creator of Myoskeletal Alignment Techniques, and author of three best-selling manual therapy textbooks and online home-study programs. Educated in massage, osteopathy, and Rolfing, he resides in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and San Jose, Costa Rica. View his articles and videos at www.erikdalton.com or Facebook's Erik Dalton Techniques Group. | https://yogauonline.com/yoga-research/yoga-research-study-explores-brains-role-experience-pain |
Neurotechnology and biodesign: workshop outputs
Between September 2020 and February 2021, KTN Neurotechnology Innovation Network held a series of events showcasing 3 examples of biodesign approach and applications.
These events were designed to bring together clinicians, companies, academics, charities and other stakeholders in order to accelerate the development of new neurotechnologies to treat mood & psychotics disorders, neuropathic pain and stroke rehabilitation. Following these successful events, we are delighted to share the findings with you today. You can access and download the PDFs below.
Neuropathic pain – 19th September 2019
Neuropathic pain is caused by nerve disease or nerve damage. Between 7-10% of the general population suffer from neuropathic pain and with an ageing population, these figures are likely to increase. It can be a result of shingles, diabetes, surgery, stroke and many other causes and is described as a burning sensation, often causing excruciating pain. Other symptoms can include a sensitivity to touch, pins and needles, numbness, weakness, sleep disturbances and loss of balance. The complexity of neuropathic symptoms can make treatment decisions difficult, often resulting in poor outcomes.
Regular painkillers such as ibuprofen and paracetamol are generally not effective. But anti-epileptics, anti-depressants or opioids are sometimes used to treat the pain but can have numerous side effects.
There is growing interest in non-pharmaceutical alternatives: spinal cord stimulation, which has been in use for three decades, is a relatively safe, reversible and cost-effective long-term way of managing neuropathic pain. Brain-computer interfaces can provide neurofeedback for the treatment of central neuropathic pain following injuries to the spinal cord. There have also been exciting recent developments on visual feedback therapies using virtual and augmented reality to help with pain management for patients with spinal cord injury.
Click here to download the full workshop outputs
Mood and psychotic disorders – 12th November 2019
According to the charity Mind, approximately 1 in 4 people in the UK experience a mental health problem each year. However, 75% of people with mental illness currently receive no treatment and even when people are referred to NHS psychological services, 60% still don’t access any help.
Mood disorders are often treated with antidepressants and mood stabilising medicines; however, these can cause a wide range of unpleasant side effects. There are a range of non-pharmaceutical treatments currently being investigated and some are already available for patients. Neuromodulation techniques such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) are in use and are being evaluated in the NHS.
There have been some promising results for deep brain stimulation and vagus nerve stimulation in the treatment of depression. Recently, there have also been some very exciting studies which have shown that virtual reality has the potential to deliver rapid and lasting improvements in mental health.
This Workshop was held in collaboration with the University of Nottingham and NIHR MindTech MedTech Co-operative.
Click here to download the full workshop outputs
Stroke rehabilitation – 27th February 2020
Stroke is the main cause of disability in adults. Recovery from the neurological damage of a stroke is predicated on the adaptive capacity of the central nervous system. This neuroplastic process can be enhanced through intensive task-specific practice, stimulating environments, cognitive engagement and aerobic exercise.
Evidence from repeated observational studies indicate a general inability in the UK to deliver this standard of therapy through existing models. There is then a clear argument for the more widespread adoption of technologies to support the delivery of rehabilitation to stroke survivors. These technologies should be consistent with the principles of neuroplasticity, address the need to motivate, and be widely accessible, including a deployment in home and community environments.
Recent advances in brain-computer interfaces, robotics and brain & muscular electrical stimulation have the potential to significantly improve rehabilitation and will have the greatest chance of success when tailored to meet the needs of individual patients and used in combination. | https://iuk.ktn-uk.org//news/biodesign-workshop-outputs/ |
Pain management is an important concern for a child with cancer or other pain-causing diseases. When a child has cancer, one of his or her greatest fears, and the fear of parents, is pain. Every effort should be made to ease the pain during the treatment process.
Pain is a sensation of discomfort, distress, or agony. Because pain is unique to each individual, a child's pain cannot be measured with a lab test or imaging study. Health care providers can evaluate a child's pain by observing him or her and asking about it. There are a number of tools and techniques available to help assess pain in children.
Pain may be acute or chronic. Acute pain is severe and lasts a relatively short time. It is usually a signal that body tissue is being injured in some way, and the pain generally disappears when the injury heals. Chronic pain may range from mild to severe, and is present to some degree for long periods of time.
Many people believe that if an individual has been diagnosed with cancer, they must be in pain. This is not necessarily the case, and, when pain is present, it can be reduced or even prevented. Pain management is an important area to discuss with your child's doctor as soon as a cancer diagnosis is made or suspected.
Pain may occur as a result of the cancer or for other reasons. Children can normally have headaches, general discomfort, pains, and muscle strains as part of being a child. Not every pain a child expresses is from the cancer, or is being caused by the cancer.
Cancer pain may depend on the type of cancer, the stage (extent) of the disease, and your child's pain threshold (or tolerance for pain). Cancer pain that lasts several days or longer may result from:
Pain from a tumor that is enlarging, or pain from a tumor that is pressing on body organs, nerves, or bones.
Poor blood circulation because the cancer has blocked blood vessels.
Blockage of an organ or tube in the body.
Metastasis. Cancer cells that have spread to other sites in the body.
Infection or inflammation.
Side effects from chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or surgery.
Stiffness from inactivity.
Psychological responses to illness, such as tension, depression, or anxiety.
Specific treatment for pain will be determined by your child's doctor based on:
Your child's age, overall health, and medical history
Type of cancer
Extent of disease
Your child's tolerance for specific medications, procedures, or therapies
Your opinion or preference
The two categories of pain management are pharmacological and nonpharmacological.
Pharmacological pain management for cancer refers to the use of medications. Pediatric oncology clinics usually offer several pain management options for any procedure that may be painful, such as a bone marrow aspiration or lumbar puncture. There are many types of medications and several methods used in administering them, from very temporary (10 minute) mild sedation, to full general anesthesia in the operating room. Pain medication is usually given in one of the following ways:
Orally (by swallowing)
Intravenously (IV), through a needle in a vein or marrow in a long bone
By a special catheter in the back
Through a patch on the skin
Examples of pharmacological pain relief include the following:
Mild pain relievers, such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen
Opioid analgesics, such as morphine and oxycodone
Sedation (usually given by IV)
General anesthesia
Topical anesthetics (cream or patches put on the skin to numb the area)
Some children build up a tolerance to sedatives and pain relievers. Over time, doses may need to increase or the choice of medications may need to change. Fear of addiction to narcotics is common among families. It is important to understand that the ultimate goals are comfort, function, and overall quality of life, which means taking appropriate measures to assure the child is free from pain. There is no evidence of addiction to pain medications in children being treated for cancer.
Nonpharmacological pain management is the management of pain without medications. This method utilizes ways to alter thinking and focus to decrease pain. Methods include:
Psychological. The unexpected is always worse because of what one imagines. If the child is prepared and can anticipate what will happen to him or her, his or her stress level will be much lower. Ways to accomplish this include:
Explain each step of a procedure in detail, utilizing simple pictures or diagrams when available.
Meet with the person who will perform the procedure and allow your child to ask questions ahead of time.
Tour the room where the procedure will take place.
Adolescents may observe a videotape, which describes the procedure, while small children can "play" the procedure on a doll, or observe a "demonstration" on a doll.
Hypnosis. With hypnosis, a professional (such as a psychologist or doctor) guides the child into an altered state of consciousness that helps him or her to focus or narrow his or her attention, in order to reduce discomfort.
Imagery. Guiding a child through an imaginary mental image of sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and feelings can often help shift attention away from the pain.
Distraction. Distraction can be helpful particularly for babies by using colorful, moving objects. Singing songs, telling stories, or looking at books or videos can distract preschoolers. Older children find watching TV or listening to music helpful. Distraction should not be a substitute for explaining what to expect.
Relaxation. Children can be guided through relaxation exercises, such as deep breathing and stretching, to reduce discomfort.
Other nonpharmacological pain management may utilize alternative therapies, such as acupuncture, massage, or biofeedback, to eliminate discomfort.
Each child experiences pain differently. It is important to tailor a pain treatment plan based on each child’s needs. Finding the best plan often requires testing a variety of treatments by trial and error.
For more than 25 years, the Skeletal Dysplasia Clinic has provided multidisciplinary care for infants, children, and young adults with various forms of skeletal disorders.
From sprains and strains to complex congenital, Children’s National offers one of the most experienced pediatric orthopaedic practices in the nation with experience in treating all areas from head to toe.
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View our medical library to learn in-depth information about pediatric conditions and treatments.
The term mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) is used interchangeably with the term concussion.
Our orthopaedic experts provide minimally invasive orthopaedic surgery that protects children's growth and development. | https://childrensnational.org/visit/conditions-and-treatments/bones-joints-orthopaedics/pain-management |
Clean the glass jar and add a layer of rocks, pebbles and soil to the bottom of the jar (preferably in that order).
Step 2
In a bowl, dampen the compost and place a layer over the soil.
Step 3
Select a small number of seeds/seedlings and embed them into the soil. (If using seeds, ensure that they are placed deep enough and if using plantlings make sure that the roots are fully embedded within the soil).
Step 4
Pour a small amount of water over the compost.
Step 5
Place a few insects on the soil.
Step 6
Seal the container and place in a well lit area.
Some decorations may be placed within the jar prior to sealing, such a toy house or figures to give each terrarium an individual touch.
Parafilm may be used to further seal the lid.
Ensure that the terrarium is kept in a well-lit, warm area.
Do not add too much water as this would lead to water-logging and rotting.
When choosing plants, choose ones that will not grow larger than the container they will be placed in.
The main precaution in this experiment is ensuring that the lid is securely sealed in order to prevent gases from being lost.
Before I start I wanted to ask you guys a quick question, what 3 things do people require to live? (pause and accept answers, expect silly and funny answers but the correct 3 would be food, water and oxygen/air). Plants aren’t very different from us because for them to survive, they require a source of food, air and water. However, the way they get and use these things are very different from us.
Let’s start with air, people need oxygen to survive. Plants also need oxygen for the process of respiration. This is the process whereby sugars are broken down into co2, water and energy. Plants, unlike people, also take up CO2. This CO2 however, is needed to produce the plant’s food in the form of sugar through the process of photosynthesis. For the plant to make its food through this way, it also needs water and light energy. Water is simply taken up by the plant via the roots along with additional nutrients from the soil (It is because of this, that the soil is dampened and compost added as a nutrient source).
Now you might be wondering how our little ecosystem is self sustaining. Well, as long as light is shining upon the plants, photosynthesis can occur. The water remains within the closed system as although it is utilised photosynthesis, it is released in respiration and thus, is sustained. Similarly, oxygen and carbon dioxide are also sustained within the jar. The only non-renewable substances are the nutrients.
This is where the insects come in. The insects are herbivores and detritivores that eat plant material and excrete it into the soil. This excretion is rich in nutrients that seep into the soil and are hence, taken up by the plant.
Why is the system sealed?
To prevent gases from escaping.
Why should the container be placed in direct sunlight?
To allow the plants to photosynthesise.
Why should the container be transparent?
To allow light to pass through in order to reach the plants.
Why do we add both soil and compost?
To aerate the soil for the roots.
Why do we add the insects?
To break up decaying material and increase the nutrient content within the soil.
Two main processes are being studied here: photosynthesis and respiration. As the word implies, photosynthesis is the process whereby energy in the form of light is absorbed by plants along with CO2 and water to produce sugars (glucose) and oxygen. This reaction occurs within the chloroplasts of plants and are the reason why leaves are green.
Respiration, simply put, is the reverse of photosynthesis. It is the breakdown of sugars in the presence of oxygen to produce water, co2 and energy. In this case, the energy is not light energy but metabolic energy where the reactions occur within the cytosol and the mitochondria of plants.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/add_ocr_gateway/green_world/photosynthesisrev1.shtml
Photosynthesis:
Photosynthesis is a chemical reaction that occurs within the leaves of green plants and is the primary step in food production. This occurs within the chloroplast of plant cells. These organelles contain the light capturing pigment called chlorophyll. This chlorophyll captures photons of light which in turn react with CO2 and water to produce glucose and oxygen according to the reaction below:
6CO2+6H2O+ Light Energy → C6H12O6 +6O2
The water required by this reaction is taken up by plants via the roots while the carbon dioxide is taken up through the leaves. The glucose produced can be utilized in respiration (see below) or converted into starch which can then be stored and converted back to glucose when required. The oxygen produced at the end of photosynthesis is released as a byproduct of photosynthesis.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/add_ocr_21c/life_processes/plantfoodrev1.shtml
Respiration:
Respiration is the process by which living organisms acquire energy needed to perform chemical reactions. Plants undergo aerobic respiration where oxygen is used to break down sugars. In plants, respiration is often coupled with photosynthesis as the glucose used in this step is synthesized during photosynthesis.
Respiration follows the equation below:
C6H12O6 +6O2 → 6CO2+6H2O+ Energy
Essentially respiration is the reverse of photosynthesis however, in this case, the energy produced is not light energy but metabolic energy.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/education/guides/zq349j6/revision
Decay Process:
Decay is an essential process within nature and it aids in the recycling of materials within an ecosystem. Here it is important to distinguish between decomposers and detritivores. Decomposers chemically break down dead organisms through decomposition and enzyme secretion. Such organisms are naturally found in all habitats and include a number of fungi and bacteria. Detritivores consume decaying matter and thus, excrete it out as smaller particles. In doing so, the surface area upon which the decomposers can work on is greatly increased. These two types of organisms are required to replenish the nutrient content within soil.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/add_ocr_gateway/green_world/decayrev1.shtml
Application
The growth of plants is essential in agriculture and is the basis of farming, as well as home gardening. This is particularly important when making use of green houses. However, no self-sustaining greenhouses are built on such a basis.
http://home.howstuffworks.com/lawn-garden/professional-landscaping/alternative-methods/greenhouse.htm
Research
Artificial photosynthesis is currently being researched as a novel means of energy production that is both relatively greener and more sustainable.
https://www.thegreenage.co.uk/tech/artificial-photosynthesis/
Try covering the container with foil or cardboard paper – the terrarium should not grow.
Investigate the rate of plant growth by exposing the terrarium to different types of light sources (natural, UV, artificial, LEDs etc…).
Try growing the terrarium without the rock layer or without the insects and observe how this influences the microcosm. | http://steamexperiments.com/experiment/nature-in-a-bottle/?_sfm_cost=10+%E2%80%93+25+%E2%82%AC |
ATP is an unstable molecule which hydrolyzes to ADP and inorganic phosphate when it is in equilibrium with water. The high energy of this molecule comes from the two high-energy phosphate bonds. The bonds between phosphate molecules are called phosphoanhydride bonds.
People also ask, what are the high energy bonds found in ATP?
ADP (Adenosine Diphosphate) also contains high energy bonds located between each phosphate group. It has the same structure as ATP, with one less phosphate group. The same three reasons that ATP bonds are high energy apply to ADP’s bonds.
How many energy bonds are stored in a molecule of ATP?
The electrons in these bonds carry energy. Within the power plants of the cell (mitochondria), energy is used to add one molecule of inorganic phosphate (P) to a molecule of adenosine diphosphate (ADP). The amount of energy stored is about 7,300 calories for every mole of ATP formed.
Where is the energy stored in the glucose?
Remember that this energy originally came from the sun and was stored in chemical bonds by plants during photosynthesis. Glucose and other carbohydrates made by plants during photosynth esis are broken down by the process of aerobic cellular respiration (requires oxygen) in the mitochondria of the cell.
What is stored in the bonds of the glucose molecule?
– the process by which all living organisms release the energy stored in the chemical bonds of food molecules and use it to fuel their lives. – The energy from sunlight is stored in the chemical bonds of molecules. – First it must be captured in the bonds of a molecule called adenosine triphosphate (ATP).
What molecules do plants use to store extra glucose?
Starch it, please: Storing glucose in plants. The storage form of glucose in plants is starch. Starch is a polysaccharide. The leaves of a plant make sugar during the process of photosynthesis.
What kind of energy is released when chemical bonds are broken?
Exothermic reactions release energy in the form of heat, so the sum of the energy released exceeds the amount required. Endothermic reactions absorb energy, so the sum of the energy required exceeds the amount that is released. In all types of chemical reactions, bonds are broken and reassembled to form new products.
What do plants do with the extra glucose?
Starch is a polymer made by plants to store energy. You see, plants need energy to grow and grow and grow. They use energy from sunlight to make a simple sugar, glucose. Plants make polymers – starch – out of extra glucose, so it’s right there when they need it.
What does the plant do with the rest of the glucose?
The glucose made in photosynthesis is transported around the plant as soluble sugars. Glucose is used in respiration to release energy for use by the plant’s cells. However, glucose is converted into insoluble substances for storage.
What factors can limit the rate of photosynthesis?
Factors limiting photosynthesis. Three factors can limit the speed of photosynthesis: light intensity, carbon dioxide concentration and temperature. Without enough light, a plant cannot photosynthesise very quickly, even if there is plenty of water and carbon dioxide.
How do plants get energy to make glucose?
Green plants absorb light energy using chlorophyll in their leaves. They use it to react carbon dioxide with water to make a sugar called glucose. The glucose is used in respiration, or converted into starch and stored. Oxygen is produced as a by-product.
Where do plants get the energy to live and grow?
Plants use light energy from the sun, carbon dioxide, and water to make sugar. Plants produce sugar during a process called photosynthesis.
Where do plants get their energy to produce food?
Plants make food in their leaves. The leaves contain a pigment called chlorophyll, which colors the leaves green. Chlorophyll can make food the plant can use from carbon dioxide, water, nutrients, and energy from sunlight. This process is called photosynthesis.
Is the main energy source for all life on earth?
The Sun is the primary source of energy for Earth’s climate system is the first of seven Essential Principles of Climate Sciences. Principle 1 sets the stage for understanding Earth’s climate system and energy balance. The Sun warms the planet, drives the hydrologic cycle, and makes life on Earth possible.
How do animals obtain energy to grow?
Through the photosynthesis process, producers, such as grass, absorb the sun’s light energy to produce food (stored sugar and starches). Consumers cannot make their own food, so they have to consume other organisms. (Less of a focus today: The sun’s energy is then passed on to decomposers when plants and animals die.)
Where do plants get their energy?
All the energy that plants and animals need come either directly or indirectly from the Sun. Photosynthesis takes place in the prescence of water, carbon dioxide and light. Plants get their water from the soil and carbon dioxide from the air. the leaves of the plant contain a green pigment called chlorophyll.
Where do bacteria get their energy source from?
Bacteria can obtain energy and nutrients by performing photosynthesis, decomposing dead organisms and wastes, or breaking down chemical compounds. Bacteria can obtain energy and nutrients by establishing close relationships with other organisms, including mutualistic and parasitic relationships.
How do bacteria obtain and release energy?
Cellular respiration is an energy generating process that occurs in the plasma membrane of bacteria. Glucose is broken down into carbon dioxide and water using oxygen in aerobic cellular respiration, and other molecules such as nitrate (NO3) in anaerobic cellular respiration, meaning simply, without oxygen.
Do bacteria grow and develop?
Bacteria are one-celled, or unicellular, microorganisms. Bacteria reproduce when one cell splits into two cells through a process called binary fission. Fission occurs rapidly in as little as 20 minutes. Under perfect conditions a single bacterium could grow into over one billion bacteria in only 10 hours!
Can a virus grow and develop?
Whereas a virus can be defined as “an infectious agent that replicates only within the cells of living hosts” (Dictionary.com, 2011). Unlike cells, viruses cannot grow and develop on their own. In the same manner, viruses do not have the ability to reproduce on their own without the help of a host cell.
What makes bacteria grow faster?
Food/Nutrients — All bacteria require energy to live and grow. Energy sources such as sugars, starch, protein, fats and other compounds provide the nutrients. Oxygen — Some bacteria require oxygen to grow (aerobes) while others can grow only in the absence of oxygen (anaerobes).
What is the maximum number of hours that food can be held in the danger zone?
Bacteria grow most rapidly in the range of temperatures between 40 °F and 140 °F, doubling in number in as little as 20 minutes. This range of temperatures is often called the “Danger Zone.” Never leave food out of refrigeration over 2 hours.
What are the most common carriers of viruses and bacteria?
The symptoms and severity of food poisoning vary, depending on which bacteria or virus has contaminated the food. The bacteria and viruses that cause the most illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths in the United States are: Salmonella. Norovirus (Norwalk Virus)
Originally posted 2022-03-31 04:08:25. | https://www.foleyforsenate.com/how-many-high-energy-bonds-are-present-in-adp.html |
what indicates a new substance has been formed?
bubbling and fizzing
A physical change occurs in digestion when-
teeth break down and grind food particles into smaller pieces
What is most likely to be observed first in a garden area?
weeds sprouting in the soil
what does an ecosystem need to have in order to have the greatest sustainability?
high biodiversity
The habitat with the greatest sustainability will be the one that-
has the greatest overall biodiversity
Green plants capture and store energy from the Sun through the process of-
photosynthesis
Plants use photosynthesis to meet their survival needs by enabling them to-
convert radiant energy into chemical energy
Photosynthesis produces the chemical energy that a plant's cell need. What form does this energy take?
Glucose
What gas do plants release as a result of photosynthesis?
Oxygen
Photosynthesis is the process by which plants convert-
radiant energy into chemical energy
What is the role of a consumer in the flow of energy through a food chain?
gaining energy by eating other living things
Which group of organisms provides the primary source of energy for all other organism?
Producers
In a food web, primary consumers get their energy by-
eating organisms known as producers
When a seedling emerges upright from the soil, which force is it overcoming?
Gravity
The pull of gravity has the greatest effect on which of the following in plants?
the downward growth of roots
Geotropism explains which of the following phenomena?
A seed is planted upside-down, but the roots still grow in the direction of gravity
Turgor pressure can help plants move. Internal water pressure can cause-
a wilted stem to return to an upright position
Turgor pressure helps a seed by-
Pushing its way out of the seed coat
What is a positive effect of a forest fire?
clears the underbrush to allow new plants to grow
Tornadoes can be more damaging than a hurricane to trees in a habitat because tornado produce-
stronger winds
High rains cause the flow in a river to increase. The increase in the river's flow will most likely have which of the following effects on the environment?
The banks of the river will experience increased erosion.
When fertilizers enter surface water, they cause problems in the watershed by -
causing rapid algal growth that decrease oxygen levels and choke aquatic life.
Runoff from agricultural land (farmland) carries chemicals from fertilizers that collect in a lake. The buildup of chemicals can eventually cause -
aquatic life, such as fish and turtles, to die from a lack of oxygen.
The greater a habitat's biodiversity, the greater will be that habitat's-
sustainability over time with varying conditions.
Over time, a shallow pond fills with plants, such as duckweed and cattails. These plants -
support ecological succession from pond to marshland. (Pond to forest)
A habitat that receives little or no precipitation will most likely be suitable for organisms that -
store large quantities of water internally.
Ecological succession usually includes changes in all of the following EXCEPT -
the rate at which species produce offspring.
A barrel cactus is a plant adapted to survive in the harsh conditions of a desert. Individual barrel cacti might vary in several traits. Which of the following variations would have the greatest effect on the ability of individual barrel cacti to survive in an arid climate?
Thickness of waxy coating
Over time, a certain species of hummingbird has developed traits including a small body, brightly colored feathers, a long, narrow beak, and the ability to drop its body temperature while it sleeps. Which of these characteristics is most likely a trait that developed in response to available food sources?
Long, narrow beak
Galapagos finches are birds that live on islands off the coast of South America. The finches on the various islands are very different from each other. As a result of the different food resources on the islands, which of the following structures of the Galapagos finches experienced the greatest change through natural selection?
Beak shape
Leopard seals are animals adapted to survive in the freezing conditions of Antarctica. Individual leopard seals vary in their different traits. Which of the following variations would give a leopard seal the greatest chance of surviving in its harsh environment?
Thicker layer of blubber
Peppered moths often hide on white-colored birch trees because they are similarly colored. Which of the following environmental changes would lead to the enhanced survival of darker moths?
Birch trees become covered in black ash from nearby factories.
Both primary and secondary succession begin with pioneer species that —
modify the area and allow larger and more complex organisms to appear
Wheat was one of the first plant crops that humans domesticated. In the process of domestication, the wild form of wheat was eventually changed into a form more suited to human agricultural practice.
Early farmers most likely used seeds only from wheat plants with —
larger grains that could produce more food per plant
Some dairy farmers want to increase the amount of milk produced by their cows. How can the farmers use selective breeding to increase milk production?
By choosing cows that are high milk producers
What role do decomposers have in contributing to the survival of other organisms in their environments? Decomposers —
release nutrients that plants use into the soil.
A flame burns wood and turns it black, creating a new substance. What is the sign of a chemical change?
The color change of the wood.
How does pollution on the water enter the water table?
When it rains the water seeps (inflitrates) the soil, carrying the pollution with it. Eventually the polluted water reaches the water table.
Trees in the rain forest create a canopy. This canopy shields all plants below the trees from the sun. If all of the trees were cut down, leaving all smaller plants behind, what adaptation would be most beneficial to the plants?
The ability to resist direct sunlight.
Explain competition for resources during succession.
Weeds will do better than other plants early on because they require fewer nutrients to grow.
How can non-native species affect the organisms in that environment.
Non-native or invasive species will compete with native species for food, water, and other resources. This would cause stress on native species and can affect their suitability.
What effect will dark colored trees have on the peppered and dark moth populations?
The dark moth populations will survive and increase due to better camouflage. The white peppered moth population will decrease due to ineffective camouflage.
The erosion of sand dunes leads to a situation where sea water begins to move into a forest area formerly protected by the dunes. Which of the following traits in forest plants will most likely increase in the population over time?
The ability to tolerate salt.
What allows plants to stand upright (move)?
Turgor pressure (water pushing outward on the cell wall)
If a hurricane were to hit a marsh land what might occur?
The storm surge can bring salt water into the marshland and kill off the plant life.
What does the path of a tornado look like?
A line of devastation from where the tornado set down to where it ended.
A local factory is dumping pollution into a pond. What will this affect?
The local pond life (plants and animals)
What is the function of Xylem in plants?
Transports water from the roots to the leaves.
The environment of an aquatic organism is experiences less oxygen in the water over time. What adaption would be most beneficial?
Increased gill surface area to allow the organism to better absorb oxygen from the water.
A farmer wants to increase the amount of food produced by corn crops. If the farmer selectively breeds the plants, for which trait should the farmer select?
More cobs on the corn plants.
What organisms are responsible for decomposition? | https://quizlet.com/353373360/semester-exam-2018-flash-cards/ |
Student Portal:
Microscopic Explorations
Investigation 4 CAP
SLIDE MICRO-4-1
In this CAP, we will trace the flow of energy from the Sun to plants and then to animals of all kinds.
SLIDE MICRO 4-2
Photosynthesis, a chemical reaction that takes place inside plant cells, is one of the most important chemical reactions ever to have evolved on Earth. In the lab, we discussed that photosynthesis occurs in plant cell organelles called chloroplasts. This slide simply asks “Where does the light come from for photosynthesis?” and “Where does the energy come from for photosynthesis?” The answer to both questions, of course, is the Sun.
SLIDE MICRO-4-3
This slide shows the photosynthesis reaction. The ball and stick models show the chemical structures of the components and products of photosynthesis. The precise nature of these molecular models may be too complex for you at this time but are included only to show you that we can build molecular models. You will see such models again and again in middle school and beyond.
In the plant chloroplast, water and the gas carbon dioxide are converted into the sugar glucose and the gas oxygen. This accentuates just how important the photosynthesis reaction really is. Not only does it capture the Sun’s energy for use on Earth, but in the process, it produces the oxygen that animals need to survive. Before photosynthesis evolved, no animal life on Earth was possible.
Energy in the form of light is required for the photosynthesis reaction to occur. As indicated in the slide, light energy from the Sun comes in the form of photons. At this point, you may think of photons simply as very small, subatomic-sized, packets of energy. You will learn much more about photons in several LabLearner middle school CELLs.
SLIDE MICRO-4-4
This slide shows that plants are able to collect light energy (photons) from the Sun. Not only do large plants, like trees, bushes, and grasses, perform photosynthesis, but also microscopic algae and some bacteria can carry out photosynthesis as well. In fact, photosynthetic bacteria may well have been the first cells that were capable of producing atmospheric oxygen on Earth.
SLIDE MICRO-4-5
While plants are able to directly capture the Sun’s energy for their own growth and other energy needs, animals cannot do so. Instead, animals have evolved to eat plants and thereby obtain energy from them. Animals that eat plants for energy are called consumers. Plants, on the other hand, are called producers because they can produce useable energy in the form of the sugar glucose directly from the Sun through photosynthesis.
Not all animals eat plants. So where do they, the snake and bird of prey in this slide, get their energy? These types of animals are known as carnivores (meat-eaters) and get their energy by eating animals who feed on plants. Thus, the energy from the Sun passes through plants (producers) to the animals that eat plants (consumers) to animals that eat animals (carnivores) that eat plants. At any level in this chain, however, all of the energy comes originally from the Sun in the form of energetic photons of light.
SLIDE MICRO-4-6
This final slide is included to complete the cycle of energy transfer through the food chain. As we have discussed, plants are producers since they produce the sugar glucose directly from the Sun through the process of photosynthesis. Consumers eat plants for their energy, either directly or indirectly as carnivores that eat animals that eat plants. Some animals, like the mouse in this case, eat both plants and animals and are called omnivores.
At the bottom left of this slide are the decomposers. These are both multicellular and unicellular organisms that break down the dead bodies of higher plants and animals. Decomposers therefore recycle the materials accumulated in plant and animal bodies. Just imagine how different the Earth would be if there were no decomposers! | https://s.lablearneronline.com/student-portal/student-portal-elementary/microscopic-explorations-s/microscopic-explorations-investigation-4-s/microscopic_cap4-s/ |
Photosynthesis and cellular respiration work together to provide energy for other reactions in life on Earth. Except for creatures that depend on sulfur near hydrothermal vents, the bulk of life on Earth relies on sugar glucose. The process of photosynthesis produces glucose.
The breakdown of glucose and storage of the energy acquired in the molecule ATP are both parts of cellular respiration. Plants generate their energy via photosynthesis and manufacture ATP through cellular respiration. Animals must depend on sugars obtained from plants to provide the substance needed to create ATP in the mitochondria.
Photosynthesis: A Brief Overview
The primary source that propels life on Earth is photosynthesis. Using this process, the sun’s energy is stored in the form of organic molecules, glucose. The process of cellular respiration will employ glucose molecules to harness the energy stored in the form of sugar.
Photosynthesis takes place mostly in leaves. The chloroplasts, a specialized organelle of plant cells, contain specific proteins. Such specialized proteins are termed cytochromes which interact with light. The cytochromes also have a heme group similar to hemoglobin in blood cells.
However, cytochrome’s heme group binds to magnesium instead of iron and interacts with the light. The chloroplast uses the energy captured from these photons by interacting with cytochromes and other proteins to synthesize glucose molecules. Chloroplasts carry out synthesis of glucose by combining carbon dioxide units into chains of six carbons, twelve hydrogens, and six oxygens.
This newly synthesized glucose may be converted in other forms or mixed with other glucose molecules to be stored in fructose or starch. Process of Photosynthesis There are two parts of the photosynthesis process known as the Light Reactions and the Calvin Cycle. The complete photosynthesis process is depicted below.
The initial reaction starts by combining light and water in the chloroplast, where the hydrogens are separated from oxygen from proteins that start with energy-collecting cytochromes and auxiliary pigments. The ADP and NADP+ bind to hydrogens, electrons, and related energy.
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Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP): Definition, Structure, and Function
These molecules can bind hydrogen, electrons, and energy and become the major products of the light reactions, NADPH and ATP. As a by-product, oxygen is released. The ATP and NADPH are utilized during Calvin Cycle. Following a set of defined chemical reactions, glucose molecules are produced.
Throughout the cycle, the energy inside and the hydrogen molecules are utilized to energize the processes. Carbon fixation, reduction, and ribose regeneration are the three steps of the Calvin Cycle. The figure below depicts these responses. One carbon dioxide is added in one round of the process, yielding the 3-carbon molecule 3-phosphoglycerate. In addition to producing other products, two molecules are combined to generate a glucose molecule.
The Cellular Respiration Process
The chloroplasts produce glucose, which may then be utilized to fuel other processes inside the cell. It’s also possible to export it to other cells within the organism. The process of cellular respiration takes control at this point. Four separate pathways drive the production of ATP during cellular respiration.
This newly produced ATP may be utilized in various cellular activities, including the proper functioning of enzymatic activities. The mitochondria is a tiny organelle comparable to the chloroplasts where cellular respiration occurs. The mitochondria are present in all living eukaryotes, but chloroplasts are exclusively found in plants.
The cells need glucose which the plants provide. However, the extra glucose is stored in the form of starches and complex sugar. In a nutshell, the plants produce glucose which animals use, and other food chains.
The Reaction of Cellular Respiration
The first step in cellular respiration is called glycolysis, which is exactly what it sounds like. The prefix “glyco-” means glucose, while the “-lysis” means “to divide or split into two.” Glycolysis takes place outside the mitochondria and in the cytoplasm of the cell.
The six-carbon glucose molecule is broken into two pyruvate molecules during this process. In the following step, the three-carbon molecules are transformed to Acetyl CoA. This molecule is further taken up by the Krebs cycle. The Acetyl CoA may also enter the mitochondria, where it will participate in the Krebs cycle and oxidative phosphorylation. The graphic below illustrates the reaction pathways.
The Krebs cycle is similar to the Calvin cycle, where it uses specific molecules to maintain ATP synthesis and electron generation. Following this, the electrons are sent to the inner mitochondrial membrane. This mitochondrial inner membrane is densely packed with specific proteins that may transfer energy generated by the electrons traveling across its potential gradient.
A series of chemical reactions happen where the specific enzymes attach the free phosphate groups to ADP in this electron transport chain. As a result of this chemical reaction, ATP is produced, storing energy in the bond between these molecules.
These ATP molecules are subsequently exported from the mitochondria and may be utilized to supply energy in various processes throughout the cell. For example, ATP is used to push ions out of cells, which creates the electrical potential required for neurological processes.
Cellular Respiration and Photosynthesis: An Evolutionary Perspective
The Theory of Evolution is strongly disputed. However, a substantial amount of data suggests that all life had a common ancestor. This progenitor then diversified into the millions of species we see today over the period of hundreds of millions of years. The endosymbiotic process would explain this intricacy.
Bacteria, the simplest living organism, are most likely a near-identical copy of the initial form of life. Bacteria do not have organelles and carry out all of their metabolic activities in a single compartment. Many bacteria are capable of completing glycolysis to obtain energy while others, such as primitive single-celled plants, use photosynthesis.
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As per the Endosymbiotic hypothesis, these ancient bacteria started interacting and evolved into diverse niches within the environment. Some would use sunlight to generate energy, while others feed on it. Some of the predatory bacteria grew to be pretty huge.
As a result, they may be able to take in vast amounts of tiny germs. Rather than digesting them, they provide a safe environment for them and assist in producing energy. Therefore the endosymbiotic bacteria are considered the earliest organelles. According to this view, the chloroplasts were photosynthetic bacteria, and mitochondria were once competent in oxidative phosphorylation.
The more giant bacteria evolved into eukaryotes, which included more organelles. The fact that both chloroplasts and mitochondria are enveloped by double membranes, a presumed vestige of the primordial engulfing process, supports this idea.
Furthermore, pieces of circular DNA are detected in both mitochondria and chloroplast, which are identical to that found in bacteria. This DNA is independent of the DNA in the bacterial nucleus.
Cellular Respiration and Photosynthesis: An Ecology Perspective
Evolution has provided us what we see now hundreds of millions of years after this separation of organelles. Algae, which are connected to photosynthetic microorganisms, are related to plants. Animals are connected to ancient species that did not have photosynthetic endosymbionts and eat other organisms instead.
At the bottom of the food chain, we find photosynthetic organisms. They are by far the most biomass on the planet, restricted only by their access to sunshine, nutrients, as well as water. Herbivores, which are one step above plants and algae, use the richness that plants generate.
For example, an elephant, a relatively large animal globally, is entirely herbivorous. However, the herbivores are of different sizes, from grasshoppers to microscopic insects. Because herbivores must devour a large number of photosynthetic species to thrive, there are fewer organisms at this level of the food chain.
On the other hand, the carnivores are much less in number than the herbivores since they consume smaller species throughout their lives in order to grow and breed. In doing so, photosynthesis and cellular respiration are at the heart of the whole food chain. Ecology also involves studying how different organisms interact while performing these reactions.
Related Questions
1. What is difference between Photosynthesis and cellular respiration?
- A. Only one employs the utilization of sunshine.
- B. Glucose is broken down by just one person.
- C. Only one is based on a carbon molecule cycle.
2. Glucose is required for human cells to operate. Name the source of this glucose?
- A. Your body
- B. Plants
- C. Meat
3. Which of the following would have the greatest impact on an ecosystem?
- A. A herbicide is used to destroy all of the grass in a meadow.
- B. A pesticide is used to destroy all of the butterflies in a meadow.
- C. Hunters slaughter all of the birds in a meadow.
References
Lodish, H., Berk, A., Kaiser, C. A., Krieger, M., Scott, M. P., Bretscher, A., . . . Matsudaira, P. (2008). Molecular Cell Biology (6th ed.). New York: W.H. Freeman and Company.
McMahon, M. J., Kofranek, A. M., & Rubatzky, V. E. (2011). Plant Science: Growth, Development, and Utilization of Cultivated Plants (5th ed.). Boston: Prentince Hall.
Nelson, D. L., & Cox, M. M. (2008). Principles of Biochemistry. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company.
Answers and Explanations
Q1. C is the right answer. While the Krebs cycle and Calvin cycle produce different results, they both depend on a continuous chain of carbon molecules. Although the molecules vary, the mechanisms are fairly similar.
Q2. B is the right answer. Every single thing you eat started out as a plant. If you eat meat, the nutrients you get are the same ones that the animal consumed before it died. Even animal protein as well as fat are made out of the same protein as well as glucose found in plants.
Q3. A is the right answer. The whole food chain will collapse if grass is not there. Higher stages of the food chain are shown by the other two cases. All insects as well as birds would perish if grass were not there. But keep in mind that none of the solutions are ideal. Without the birds, insects may consume all of the grass, resulting in the same outcome. | https://risingacademy.org/photosynthesis-cellular-respiration/ |
The products of photosynthesis are glucose and oxygen. Photosynthesis takes in carbon dioxide and water and combine them in the presence of energy from the sun to make food for the organism. Photosynthesis occurs in membrane-bound structures called the chloroplasts.
Also to know is, what are the 3 products of photosynthesis?
The reactants for photosynthesis are light energy, water, carbon dioxide and chlorophyll, while the products are glucose (sugar), oxygen and water.
Also Know, what is produced during photosynthesis? Photosynthesis is the process by which plants, some bacteria and some protistans use the energy from sunlight to produce glucose from carbon dioxide and water. This glucose can be converted into pyruvate which releases adenosine triphosphate (ATP) by cellular respiration. Oxygen is also formed.
Similarly, it is asked, what are the products of photosynthesis quizlet?
Photosynthesis uses carbon dioxide and water, produces glucose and oxygen, and takes place in chloroplasts. Cellular respiration uses glucose and oxygen, produces carbon dioxide, water, and ATP, takes place in mitochondria.
Why is photosynthesis so important?
Green plants and trees use photosynthesis to make food from sunlight, carbon dioxide and water in the atmosphere: It is their primary source of energy. The importance of photosynthesis in our life is the oxygen it produces. Without photosynthesis there would be little to no oxygen on the planet. | https://www.whatswhyhow.com/what-are-2-products-of-photosynthesis/ |
PLANT GROWTH & PHYSIOLOGY. (Part 5)
There are three classes of plants. Each of these classes metabolize in a different way. The first class are succulent plants called CAM. These plants like low light and high humidity levels and so thrive indoors, in bathrooms and kitchen areas.
The second class of plants is called C4. These plants grow in hot arid regions and are very efficient at using both Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Sunlight. Most C4 plants are grasses.
The third and last class of plants are called C3. These plants join two 3-Carbon atoms together to produce sugar. The chemical formula for sugar is C6H12O6 which is 6 Carbon, 12 Hydrogen and 6 Oxygen atoms stuck together. Most of our favourite plants are to be found in this class.
HOW DOES A PLANT WORK?
Like all living things, plants breathe 24 hours a day. In order to make energy each plant cell respires (converts plant sugar to energy). The plant uses Oxygen (O2) and expires, or breathes out, Carbon Dioxide (CO2).
In the same way that energy moves around the human body, so water, nutrients and plant sugars are continually being transported around the plant body. The leaves create a circular flow with the roots. This circulation occurs when the leaves draw up, water from the roots, through their Xylem.
These are straw like cells found in the plant stem. The water continually evaporating from the leaves sucks up more water from the roots and creates the internal water pressure that keeps the plant rigid. Thus if the plant is deprived of water, as in a drought, it loses its rigidity and begins to wilt when the internal pressure drops.
The leaves return energy to the roots in the form of sugar solutions. These are transported from the leaves via the plants Phloem. These are also straw like cells found in the plant stem. In this way the leaves exchange sugars for water and nutrients, while the roots exchange water and nutrients for sugar solutions. This liquid circulation is constant and continuous throughout the life of the plant.
THE MAIN PLANT PARTS.
The 3 main parts of a plant are the Roots, the Stems and the Leaves. Each of these parts is of great importance and any problem that arises in any of them will be a major one. The most sensitive part is the roots, as well as being the most difficult to see should a problem occur.
The Roots:
The miracle of growth starts at the roots. As already mentioned, roots transport nutrients up to their leaves and plant sugars are returned by the leaves. The roots also act as storerooms for the excess sugars that are produced by the leaves. These sugars are stored in the form of starch. The size of the root ball and therefore the amount of starch that can be stored, determines the success of the plant in terms of growth and productivity.
The size of the root system is directly affected by the amount of moisture, the temperature, the available Oxygen and the supply of plant sugars being transported down from the leaves. According to Graham Reinders, in his book "How to Supercharge Your Garden", a research Rye plant in a 12 inch pot was said to have had 14 billion root hairs. These hairs would have stretched 6200 miles (nearly 10,000 km) if placed end to end and covered an area of 180ft by 180ft (about 55m by 55m). The greater the root system is the more energy (starch) it will be able to store and so, the more nutrients it will be able to send up to nourish the leaves. The plant will then have the capability to grow stronger. The end result of this is that the leaves will be able to pass more plant sugars back down to the roots and so the cycle continues.
Another factor to be taken into account is the root medium. Plants take their nourishment from the medium surrounding their roots. It stands to reason that the less energy the plant has to expend in order to get that nourishment the more energy it will have available to use for growth and nutrient exchange with its leaves. Because a plant takes most of its water in via its roots, (the root hairs trapping the water molecules surrounding it) and transpires about 99% of that water out via its leaves, it will wilt and fall over if its roots cannot extract enough water out of its surrounding medium.
A plant growing in the ground will take its moisture from the surrounding soil. This moisture normally gets into the soil as rain and the plant absorbs that rain and the nutrients that have dissolved in it, via its root hairs. After the rain has stopped the topsoil quickly dries out as the water filters into the ground. Because of this drying out the plant has developed a means of absorbing Oxygen via its upper roots. The top third of the roots become specialized as "Air Roots" while the bottom third becomes specialized as "Water Roots".
It is vital to ensure that the Air Roots are not kept constantly wet as this will result in the plant drowning. The Water Roots however, may be kept wet all the time, providing that the water has sufficient Oxygen dissolved in it. Insufficient Oxygen will result in roots with brown, discoloured root tips and subsequent infections. Healthy roots are a crisp, white looking structure.
The plant is quite capable of healthy living with the roots exposed to light as long as they remain moist. However, light will encourage the growth of Algae which will cause odours. The Algae will also compete with the plant for Oxygen during the dark periods and nutrients in the light ones. This, of course will mean the plant has to work harder in order to produce sufficient sugars for its needs. The Oxygen produced during the dark periods is used to help the roots convert these sugars, from the leaves, into energy (Starch).
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J R Haughton. ITEC MIPTI
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What is Photosynthesis?
- Photosynthesis is a process carried out by all green plants. The plants use carbon dioxide and water to make oxygen and a sugar called glucose.
- The glucose might be used by the plant for energy, or stored in the form of starch. Glucose and starch are carbohydrates – food sources that animals (like us) need to eat as a source of energy, as, unlike plants, we cannot make our own food.
- The process of photosynthesis removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and releases oxygen into the atmosphere – oxygen that animals (like us) need to breathe.
- Whilst it is tempting to summarise photosynthesis by saying that plants do the opposite to us, by ‘breathing in’ carbon dioxide and ‘breathing out’ oxygen – that is not true, for a couple of reasons.
- Firstly , plants do not have any organs like the lungs in animals where gas exchange takes place. Instead gases pass into and out of the plant via tiny holes in the underside of the leaves. These holes are called stomata and they are shown in the photo. The cells on either side of the stomata can change shape to open or close it.
- Secondly, just like all other living things, plants respire. They use oxygen and glucose to produce energy so they can grow and reproduce. The difference between plants and animals though, is that the plant itself produces the glucose, but animals must get it from the food they eat. | https://www.madaboutscienceincursions.com.au/2018/09/12/what-is-photosynthesis/ |
Photosynthesis is a metabolic process which makes stuff using light. How? How can you make anything from light? And why? Living things are made of complex organic molecules such as carbohydrates and proteins, as opposed to simple inorganic molecules such as carbon dioxide and water.
…where water, carbon dioxide and energy are the starting materials, and glucose and oxygen the products. Here, glucose is the key product because it is the complex organic molecule made from simple inorganic reactants. The “energy”, as you may have noticed, is where the light comes in.
The energy stored in big molecules (such as carbohydrates) created via photosynthesis is derived in part through the light energy in photons. In order to tap into this energy, light must be absorbed by plants and other photosynthetic organisms.
Between 400-700 nm, light passes through several colours from violet to red. Pigments absorb some wavelengths more than others, just like anything else we see as coloured. For example, something appears yellow if it absorbs other colours like blue (500 nm) and red (700 nm) but reflects yellow (600 nm).
The different pigments can be extracted from a plant by grinding its tissue in a solvent which will become green, having taken up the pigments. There are other, different coloured pigments included in the overall green appearance. Paper chromatography can be used to separate them and see what colour they are and how many pigments there are.
Paper chromatography involves using a defined piece of chromatography paper and placing a droplet of the mixture at the bottom, in the middle of the paper. This section is then immersed in a solvent which is drawn up the section of paper through capillary action. Depending on their chemical properties, some components of the mixture will be drawn up with the solvent, while others will lag behind or not move at all. This separation is enabled by their interaction with the stationary phase (the paper) and the mobile phase (the solvent).
Photosynthesis is the process by which most plants as well as other organisms e.g. photosynthetic bacteria obtain their energy (glucose) ultimately in the form of ATP upon respiration. So photosynthesis produces the glucose, and the glucose is the substrate for respiration which produces ATP.
All living things undergo respiration to produce ATP from substrates including glucose, but only some (notably plants) undergo photosynthesis to produce the glucose themselves.
So where do other organisms get their respiration substrates – “food” – from? Well, most do directly from the plants by eating them, indirectly from other organisms who ate the plants (herbivores) or even more indirectly from carnivores. Fungi, for example, do neither – they simply digest any organic compounds from their environment, the soil.
That is why plants are considered autotrophs (they make their own “food” via photosynthesis), while humans amongst others are considered heterotrophs (they must obtain their “food” indirectly from other organisms which photosynthesise).
Back to photosynthesis itself now! We know that photosynthesis requires light, however the twist is that the process is split into two: the light-independent and light-dependent reactions. So some parts of photosynthesis don’t actually require light. The very first stages of photosynthesis are the ones which require light, and once those have been accomplished, the subsequent reactions may proceed regardless.
The LD reactions take place on the thylakoid membranes within chloroplasts, whereas the LI reactions take place in the surrounding space called the stroma.
The LD reactions produce protons, electrons and oxygen, while the LI reactions produce triose phosphate which ultimately is converted to glucose and other organic molecules. So the overall purpose of the LD reactions is to convert light energy into chemical energy, while the overall purpose of the LI reactions is to convert the LD products into useful molecules like glucose.
As in the overview of photosynthesis, the light-dependent reactions utilise light energy to convert it into more usable chemical energy.
1. The electrons present in the chlorophyll of the plant’s chloroplasts are brought to a higher energy level (they enjoy dancing more) by light energy. This takes place on the thylakoid membrane, and more specifically in a conglomerate of proteins/enzymes dedicated to this reaction, called photosystem II. It’s known as photoionisation.
2. To maintain a fresh supply of dancing electrons, light also splits (photolysis) the H2O into… electrons, protons and… wait for it. Wait for it. Wait… Oxygen! So that’s how the oxygen by-product is made.
3. What’s the deal with the dancing electrons? They’re picked up by electron carriers (nightclub bouncers) and thrown out, one by one. This releases energy every time a poor electron is pushed down another flight of stairs (thylakoids are multi-story clubs thank you very much) all the way to photosystem I. Ouch. I sure hope that energy is put to good use.
4. The sweat and blood and tears of electrons passing down the electron transport chain is used to pump the elite clientèle into the thylakoid. Who is this clientèle, I hear you ask. It is none other than the protons! You know, the ones snatched from the H2O.
They rush inside all at once as soon as the electrons are suitably thrown out – just couldn’t stand all that… negativity. They are stuffed inside the thylakoids like sardines on a hot day, to the point where the nightclub is filled with positivity and the outside (the stroma) is totally missing out.
5. The proton gradient formed as a result (lots of protons inside the thylakoid, few outside) enables their movement subsequently in the opposite direction, down their concentration gradient. Unfortunately for them, there are only a few exits back outside. These are gates – enzymes – called ATP synthase. They have the absolute cheek to charge every proton to get out energy currency. This energy makes ATP from ADP + Pi.
6. Meanwhile, what are the electrons doing at photosystem I? They’re electrons, what else are they going to do if not get excited – again – and end up in trouble – again. Light strikes them at PSI, even harder this time, and they roll-rollety-roll along to electron carrier NADP (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate, of course you were dying to know) where they are coerced into making friends (?!) with a proton from the stroma and sticking together to form reduced NADP.
Phew. Did I call that a BRIEF sequence of events? Hahahaha sorry, my bad.
On the upside, you now get to see the gorgeous summary diagram of it all happening at once. You wouldn’t have wanted to see that first.
Understanding that the light-dependent reaction of photosynthesis takes place separately from the light-independent reaction was a stepping stone in laying out the framework for how photosynthesis occurs. Hence, it was shown that the use of water and light without carbon dioxide could produce oxygen. Carbon dioxide would only be required later on for the actual synthesis of glucose, in a separate process.
Robin Hill, after whom the Hill reaction and Hill reagent (DCPIP) were named, discovered this through isolating chloroplasts from plants and adding a chemical that would accept electrons like NADP (i.e. become reduced), but was in large supply for the reaction to take place. By decoupling the light-dependent and light-independent reactions, the activity of the light-dependent reaction only, in the chloroplasts, could be investigated.
The reduced chemical is a dye called DCPIP (dichlorophenolindophenol) which is dark blue in colour. As it becomes reduced in the solution with reacting chloroplasts, it turns clear, revealing the background green colour of the chloroplasts. This is observed by eye, and can be quantified using a colorimeter (by measuring the absorbance of red light, the intensity of green light is measured).
Different light intensities can be investigated during this experiment. Prior to measuring the colour change, the reagent mixture must be kept in the dark to prevent the reaction starting prematurely. A control reaction can also be kept in the dark. This should stay dark blue, proving that it is light that causes the reduction of DCPIP. The reaction should progress at different speeds depending on light intensity, light duration, temperature and other factors.
DCPIP gets reduced in the same manner as NADP does in the living plant. In the presence of light, water gets split into its components, providing the electrons used in the reduction reaction of NADP (or DCPIP).
The light-independent reaction of photosynthesis is where the ultimate product, glucose, is made. Given its name, the reactions involved in this step do not require light, since the reactants used are taken from the products of the light-dependent reaction. The LIR occurs in the stroma of chloroplasts (the space around thylakoid stacks which contains lots of enzymes involved in photosynthesis).
All LIR events can be viewed as a cycle termed the Calvin cycle. The starting point is carbon dioxide, CO2, and the ending point is glucose (C6H12O6). Before the carbon atoms in CO2 can be incorporated into glucose, a series of events must take place. As you can appreciate, turning a simple inorganic gas into a complex organic molecule which is at the heart of life today as we know it takes just a little bit of magic.
Next: The 2 GP molecules react further to produce triose phosphate/TP (3-carbon molecule also known as glyceraldehyde phosphate, GALP). This forms the building block for glucose (and other carbohydrates) and other organic compounds like amino acids and lipids. To add up the carbon atoms, 2 TP are needed for 1 glucose.
Expenditure: 2 ATP molecules and 2 NADPH molecules from the LDR. Once NADPH is oxidised back to NADP, it can return to the LDR in the thylakoids. NADP is therefore recycled.
For the production lipids, TP turned into carbohydrates is further processed into lipids. Amino acids are processed from an additional reaction of GP to phosphoglyceric acid (PGA), and require mineral ions such as nitrates and sulphates. These provide key elements required by amino acids, such as nitrogen and sulfur.
Finally: For the cycle to continue, a supply of RuBP must be kept constant to meet the incoming carbon dioxide back at the beginning of the Calvin cycle. This is actually achieved by most TP molecules produced in the previous step. A phosphate group from ATP is used to convert ribulose monophosphate into ribulose bisphosphate, RuBP.
If photosynthesis had no limiting factors, what would glasshouse growers have to exploit?
The rate of photosynthesis is sluggish at lower temperatures, while at higher temperatures it drops sharply. What’s happening? It’s all in the enzymes. Enzymes are subject to the same laws of thermodynamics as everything else. Put simply, temperature influences the random movement and collisions between molecules; at low temperatures the movement decreases, so the activity of enzymes involved in photosynthesis, among others, also decreases.
Turn up the heat a few notches, and hey presto, photosynthesis speeds up! Turn it up beyond 30 degrees or so, and you kill the party. Just what’s happened now? It’s a very general property of most enzymes that at high temperatures they denature. Photosynthesis enzymes, such as RuBP, are no exception. Denatured enzymes have a misfolded 3D structure.
In this state they cannot bind their substrates and carry out their catalytic activity. Hence, no photosynthesis!
As the CO2 concentration increases, so does the rate of photosynthesis, as the much-loved carbon dioxide is becoming more and more plentiful! So why does it have to end so tragically and abruptly? It seems as if the plant has enough CO2 but it’s just not good enough. Why?
Temperature has degrees, CO2 concentration has pressure/volume, so what does light intensity have? Would you believe it, there’s a special unit of measurement for light called the lux. Pretty awesome. Around 100,000 lux are available in an average day to a photosynthesising plant. Unsurprisingly, light is very much welcomed.
Just like CO2 concentration, increasing light intensity will only result in so much increased photosynthesis rate before another limiting factor comes in.
Plant growers must take into account all these different factors affecting photosynthesis and know which one becomes limiting when. The environment within a glasshouse, for example, must be optimised by adding extra CO2, increasing the temperature especially during winter, and maximising light exposure including adding artificial light.
Naturally, light duration a.k.a. photoperiod contributes to the increase of photosynthesis over what would be equivalent to daytime. Further lengthening of this period does not cause additional increase in the rate of photosynthesis, as similarly to the other factors, a different factor becomes limiting. Since light intensity and duration increase and decrease together from sunlight, investigating light duration alone, at constant intensity, is relevant in artificial lighting scenarios such as greenhouses.
Finally, light wavelength affects photosynthesis because different pigments have different, sometimes narrow, active wavelength ranges.
The two main classes of pigments in photosynthesis are chlorophyll of which there are multiple types (a, b, c, etc.) and carotenoids of which there are also multiple. The former are, surprise! green, while the latter are yellow, orange or red.
Their absorption spectra are different. Chlorophyll b for example, absorbs blue light excellently, as well as some orange light. Carotenoids only absorb blue light, with some towards the violet end of the spectrum as well as towards the green wavelengths.
Plants can make use of these multiple pigments to maximise their light absorption potential. Together, these pigments offer a range of 400-530 nm and 650-700 nm which is a total of 180 nm accessible wavelength values, out of 300 nm of visible light. That’s 60% of wavelengths. These are available as light for photosynthesis.
The rate of photosynthesis can be monitored as a function of either CO2 uptake or O2 production.
Since organisms that photosynthesise (such as plants) also undergo respiration (to have usable energy from the food they just made through photosynthesis), the relationship between the amount of photosynthesis and the amount of respiration that takes place at any time can be analysed.
Photosynthesis taken alone is the gross photosynthesis taking place. After accounting for any respiration that is using up the products of photosynthesis, extra products of photosynthesis amount to the net photosynthesis.
The point at which photosynthesis and respiration are taking place at the same rate is called the compensation point.
The compensation point is significant in crop production. In order to grow, thrive and produce the parts for which crop plants are cultivated, they must have enough extra energy from photosynthesis carried out in light hours to support basic respiration needed for survival, as well as these additional activities.
For a single plant such as a house plant, daylight is sufficient to allow it to grow (light intensity of 50 fc; fc stands for foot-candle, believe it or not! It is a non-SI unit). Crops require a full exposure to sunlight (over 1,000 fc) to grow sufficiently.
If crops fall below their compensation point, the lower availability of carbohydrates for the activities of growth and development will result in stunted growth, decreased functions and even death.
Investigating different leaf compensation points can done in a practical using hydrogencarbonate indicator solution. Hydrogencarbonate indicator changes colour with pH. Very acidic pH shifts it to yellow, while very basic pH shifts it to purple (via orange and red).
The indicator solution monitors leaf respiration as a function of carbon dioxide release. Carbon dioxide turns the solution acidic, so increasing CO2 will make the solution yellow. It also measures photosynthesis as a function of carbon dioxide take-up. High levels of photosynthesis relative to respiration will make the solution purple.
Therefore, the experiment monitors the net carbon dioxide present in solution as the leaves respire and photosynthesise. Experiments can be carried out with multiple samples. Leaf sample can be trapped in small alginate (jelly) balls, and immersed in the solution. Those exposed to light can be expected to carry out more photosynthesis than respiration, and be above their compensation point. These will turn purple.
Those kept in the dark are expected to respire more than photosynthesise (if at all), and be below their compensation point. These samples will turn yellow. After exposing multiple samples to different light intensities, the samples that maintain a red colour and haven’t turned yellow or purple exhibit a balanced level of respiration and photosynthesis. This is the compensation point. For example, this might be an arbitrary level of light intensity e.g. 36% of a 50 W light bulb at a certain distance from the sample.
Nitrogen is a key element that makes up DNA and proteins. It is present in its cycle in various forms including nitrogen gas which makes up the biggest part of the air in the Earth’s atmosphere, ammonia, nitrites and nitrates in the soil, and of course in all the waste products of living things.
Microorganisms also play a key role here in decomposing these materials and producing the intermediary nitrates. Following a series of reactions, nitrogen from these sources ends up back into the atmosphere.
In the nitrogen cycle there are two stages of N presence: the atmosphere and the ground. Whenever N is in the atmosphere it’s in the form of nitrogen gas, N2 which of course is what most of the air is made of. In the ground, N is found in ammonia (NH3), nitrite (NO2-) and nitrate (NO3-).
Find it hard to distinguish the formulae for nitrite and nitrate? Needn’t be! A is large (3-) and i is little (2-), former’s nitrate, latter nitrite.
Both nitrogen-fixing bacteria and lightning can take the nitrogen gas in the air and fix it into the soil, where plants take it up (nitrate assimilation) and pass it on through the trophic levels to other organisms. Azotobacter is an example of bacteria that are able to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere and release it as nitrogen ions for plants to take up.
Associations with nitrogen-fixing bacteria exist, where bacteria live in symbiosis with plants in their root nodules. An example of this are Rhizobium bacteria. They fix atmospheric nitrogen and produce ammonia, while contributing to the plant’s nutrient needs; the plant in return provides some other nutrients that are products of photosynthesis.
Since nitrogen is one of the most limiting factors of plant growth, the use of bacteria in legume root nodules has been sought to reduce reliance on fertilisers. Isolating Rhizobium from legumes, culturing them and then returning them to cultivated legumes is one approach. In order to culture Rhizobium in the lab (in vitro), a specific nutrient medium is required for growth, called Yeast Mannitol Agar (YMA).
Back to the nitrogen cycle! Upon their death, saprobiotic bacteria decompose the remains and produce ammonia which then undergoes nitrification to NO2- and NO3- by nitrifying bacteria.
An example of this is Nitrosomonas which convert ammonia into nitrites by oxidation as part of their metabolism. Nitrites are oxidised into nitrates by Nitrobacter species of bacteria. This, too, contributes to the nutrients available to plants in the soil.
Denitrifying bacteria turn the N in nitrates into nitrogen gas again, so the cycle may begin once more!
The quality of soil and water is essential to plant growth and human health, so environmental monitoring is carried out in certain areas in order to check for, and control, the amount of toxic chemicals such as heavy metals and pesticides present. A quicker and cheaper approach to monitoring, compared to chemically analysing the samples, is the use of bioluminescent bacteria.
Bioluminescence is the process by which certain organisms emit light through their metabolism. Bacterial species such as Aliivibrio fischeri are capable of bioluminescence and reside in marine environments. Under good conditions they bioluminesce, however this is impeded if their environment is poor. As such, kits have been developed to allow researchers to quickly tests water and effluent samples for toxic chemicals using bacteria as biosensors.
Upon presenting the sample to the bacteria, over the course of 30 minutes they will emit light if the sample is safe, or stay dull if it is contaminated. One limitations of this assay is the type of sample suitable for testing e.g. solid particles or opaque samples may interfere with the bioluminescence.
Don’t plants also use their own photosynthesised goodies (glucose) to provide energy for their own business (growth, reproduction, etc.) via respiration, and waste stored energy in their tissues upon their death? Of course they do. So less must be available for whatever eats the plant. And whatever eats the plant will also lose energy through excretion for example, so whatever eats this herbivore will have even less energy available to themselves.
The plants at the bottom are the photosynthesising primary producers. They hold the most energy (Joules) and are fed on by herbivores – primary consumers.
Notice only about 10% of that energy is available one trophic level higher. This is taken by carnivores feeding on herbivores – secondary consumers.
At the very top of the pyramid a mere 0.001% of the original 10,000 J remains (10 J). This is taken by tertiary consumers feeding on carnivores.
Because such tiny amounts of energy are left at the highest level, it’s rare to find quaternary consumers or above.
Notice how the above pyramid is based on energy alone. There are 2 other types of pyramid: biomass and numbers. A numbers pyramid is based on simple numbers e.g. 1,000 plants at the bottom eaten by 100 herbivores eaten by 10 carnivores eaten by 1 omnivore.
As you can see, there is a clear correlation between these types of pyramid. However, you can get irregular “pyramids”. For example, a single tree can feed several hundred insects, etc.
Since humans are not primary producers, they can consume primary producers either as primary consumers or as secondary consumers. The amount of energy from food that is available one way or another is therefore significantly affected by these eating choices.
Since food chains are so sensitive to the presence of different species at each level, the amount of sustainable food for humans is also very sensitive to farming practices. This is evident in fish farming, and cultivating crops such as maize for beef cattle consumption (for later human consumption) at a hugely undercut energy level, as opposed to direct human consumption.
The carry-over energy expenditure of raising cattle for beef is over 30 times greater compared to growing maize (corn) itself. Even as other food sources expend more energy than maize, beef is still more than twice as energetically inefficient as the runner-up, pork.
This killer infographic brings home the point about how much fish stocks have plummeted more than any description could.
Maintaining viable fish stocks is essential to being able to sustain our reliance on fish, especially in parts of the world where it is one of the main sources of food. Fish are also a major part of the aquatic ecosystem on Earth, and are hence part of complex food webs.
Depleted fish stocks in an ecosystem can throw off other species, and even be the end of a specific ecosystem itself. Several actions have been implemented in fisheries to address these pressing issues.
Safe catch limits can be determined scientifically, and ensure that there is a minimum number of fish left in the ecosystem to maintain a long-term balance.
Controls on bycatch involve using catching methods that minimise the targeting and death of other species alongside the target fish.
Protection of pristine habitats ensures that the spawning grounds of fish aren’t disturbed, as well as unexplored areas (much of the oceans remains unexplored) and corals, which have already been impacted by climate change.
Finally, for any of these measures to be effective, monitoring and enforcement are critical to their long term success. People involved in the fishing industries must be monitored to ensure they are following these guidelines, and a monetary incentive is required to make it uneconomical to cheat.
In the context of human food, the extraction of maximum energy from plants is key in being able to feed an increasing population. There is a lot of energy trapped in parts of crops that humans cannot digest. This energy can be preserved by feeding plant leftovers rich in cellulose (indigestible to humans) to ruminants. Ruminants are animals with specialised guts, capable of digesting plant matter effectively through the action of their gut bacteria. These ferment the food and make the nutrients available to the ruminant animal.
Gut-wise, they have four compartments: the rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum.
In the first two sections, the rumen and the reticulum, food is digested with saliva and a process of separation of liquids from solids takes place. The solids become the bolus.
OK, put your drink down for this bit: the food is then regurgitated to mix it with more saliva and break it into smaller pieces again. Food gets fermented by microorganisms in these two compartments.
Upon passing into the omasum, the first absorption take place in the form of water and inorganic ions being taken up into the bloodstream. Then the food arrives in the equivalent of the “stomach”, the abomasum which operates in familiar ways: enzymes, rumbling and low pH break down food.
Absorption of nutrients takes place in the small intestine, while the final stage of digestion in the large intestine involves further fermentation, the same way as in the reticulorumen (rumen+reticulum).
As such, the ruminant gut is an ecosystem where microorganisms digest cellulose. Cellulose is a carbohydrate based on the glucose monomer. Through the ruminant metabolism, this monomer can be further used and contribute to the formation of other useful organic compounds including fatty acids and protein. So rather than waste indigestible cellulose in the human food chain, it is used indirectly via ruminants by consuming their products e.g. milk, as well as their meat, if applicable.
Farms can be regarded as ecosystems in their own right, where different species interact with each other and with the non-living factors present. Both the living and non-living factors are subject to the influence of humans who carry out farming.
What is a population? A population is all the individual organisms found in a given habitat, of one species. So you could talk about a population of wolves in the woods. If you want to talk about the wolves and rabbits in the woods, then you’d be referring to a community. A community is made up of the various populations in a habitat. So the summation of all the living things in a given area is called a community. What then is an ecosystem?
An ecosystem comprises the community of living organisms in a habitat, together with all the non-living components such as water, soil, temperature, etc. called abiotic factors.
So that’s the last and loveliest new term: niche. It rhymes with quiche. A niche is the interaction, or way of life, of a species, population or individual in relation to all others within an ecosystem. It’s how it behaves, what it eats, how it reproduces, where it sleeps, etc.; a species’ niche is determined by both biotic factors (such as competition and predation) and abiotic factors.
Different things may determine the population sizes within an ecosystem.
Non-living factors such as light intensity, temperature and humidity determine the number of organisms that a habitat can sustain. All species have a varying degree of ability to withstand harsh or fluctuating conditions, called resilience. If an abiotic factor changes dramatically in favour of a population – for example, plenty more light in a field – then the population will increase provided no other factors are limiting. The opposite is true if an abiotic factor changes against the resilience limit of a population – it will decrease.
“Living factors” refer to all interactions between organisms, be it a bunny rabbit being predated, or two shrubs competing for sunlight. All individual actions between organisms form a web which impacts on all populations in an ecosystem, therefore determining their sizes.
Interspecific competition refers to competition between members of different species for the same resources (food, light, water. etc.). Often when a new species is introduced in a habitat, say the American ladybird to the UK, if the invader species is better adapted, then the host population decreases in size. This may lead to extinction in some cases of the host species.
Intraspecific competition refers to competition between members of the same species. If a population of apple trees all compete for a source of light, then each apple tree is taking up some light that has now become unavailable to a different apple tree. There are only so many apple trees which that habitat can sustain. The maximum population size sustainable indefinitely in a habitat is called the carrying capacity.
Suppose you start off with equal populations of wolves and rabbits, and all the wolves rely on the rabbits for food. As the wolves start predating the rabbits, the rabbit population will decrease, while the wolf population will be sustained. Now there are fewer rabbits, so some wolves won’t have any food left. These wolves will die, so the wolf population will decrease. What will happen to the rabbit population now? Well, there are fewer wolves so they are predated less. The rabbit population will increase, followed by an increase in the wolf population, and so on.
The predator-prey relationship is very intricate, so the two affect each other and hence their population sizes rise and fall accordingly.
With the pressure to produce more food, as well as following the economic incentives to do so, various practices are carried out that are unfortunately detrimental to biodiversity.
Clearing land for farming in itself destroys large areas of plant biodiversity, and with it, all the animal biodiversity that relies upon it. Side effects of farming such as leaching of fertilisers into the environment negatively impacts local, or even more distant, biodiversity.
1. Prioritising land – since so much energy is inherently wasted every time plants are used for anything else apart from direct eating by us, it is both an economical and social issue to decide whether so much land should be used for plants grown simply to feed animals which then pass on a tiny fraction of energy onto us; for plants grown to produce biofuel rather than food for us; or for plants grown to end up straight onto our plates so that the energy they pass on is maximised.
2. Controlling the effects of chemicals – artificial compounds used en masse such as antibiotics and pesticides can have far-reaching impacts. For example, if fertilisers leak underground and are transported to a distant lake, they will result in an algal bloom which will cover the entire surface of the lake. All organisms living below will eventually be starved of oxygen and nutrients and die, while other species may colonise the lake and shift the flora and fauna of the area, causing a cascade of events that will radiate outwards.
3. Drawing ethical boundaries – intensive rearing of livestock comes with an array of ethical issues. The range includes forced growth using hormones, captivity in crowded conditions, mass murder for meat, mass torture for cutting off the beads of chicks, and enhancing bacterial resistance by the mass use of antibiotics preventively.
This is how fertilisers can reach further areas than planned, by the action of rain and irrigation.
The fertiliser is therefore washed away, out of the control of the plant grower.
Eutrophication is the process of artificial or natural chemicals reaching bodies of water and changing their ecosystem.
Fertilisers will cause the aquatic organism phytoplankton to grow aggressively and cover the surface of the water.
It’s super beautiful, but all the organisms within the body of water are being deprived of oxygen, causing hypoxia. While certain species die and others thrive, the balance of the ecosystem is shifted dramatically. This can have unprecedented and unpredictable effects on the wider community.
Slurry in farming consists of a mixture of organic debris from livestock and other sources, while the silage is the plant feed stored away for winter to feed animals. These are materials highly concentrated in various organic chemicals that are not normally found in the environment, so it is essential that they are stored securely and do not run off into neighbouring land.
In the UK the government has guidelines for managing and storing slurry and silage, such as secure silos (large tanks that may be above ground or underground) and prohibition of storing within 10 m of any inland or coastal waters.
Human activities such as intensive farming can negatively impact biodiversity. Various practices limit this impact, and can even improve biodiversity. These practices include polyculture rather than monoculture, crop rotation, hedgerow conservation and maintenance, predator strips at field margins, and integrated pest management and biological control.
Polyculture refers to cultivating multiple species of plant in the same area, rather than just one (monoculture). This improves biodiversity and attempts to reproduce the existing biodiversity in the environment.
Cultivating different plants together can also improve their resistance to disease, as shown by growing different rice varieties in China, decreasing disease incidence by 94%. This rendered pesticides unnecessary.
A disadvantage of polyculture versus monoculture is the increased labour needed to carry it out.
Crop rotation refers to cycling the type of plant grown in an area with every season. It prevents the depletion of specific nutrients from the soil.
Additionally, the soil is better structured after growing different crops in it. Pathogens and pests are also disrupted and prevented from building up as a result of prolonged culture of just one species.
A disadvantage of crop rotation is that it is very sensitive to multiple environmental factors such as the weather, and therefore cannot be planned too long in advance. If the rotation isn’t right, rectifying it can take a long time.
Hedgerows are critical habitats and corridors between isolated areas used for farming. They host moths, fungi and insects, and provide key resources for many mammals, birds and insects.
Since hedges would be displaced by trees over time, it is important to maintain them, too.
Implementing field margins where natural prey-predator relationships can continue is a way to maintain biodiversity.
A downside to this is the growth of weeds in these spaces, producing many weed seeds in the habitat that would disperse to the nearby field.
Pesticides such as weedkillers (herbicides) and insecticides can be selective (or non-selective) and systemic (or contact). Selective plant protection chemicals only affect certain species, commonly certain weeds. Non-selective chemicals are useful in a large breakout, but risk contaminating wider areas, and weeds as well as other plants.
Systemic chemicals spread through the whole system of an organism, so if the leaves are sprayed, the chemical will reach the roots and other parts. Contact chemicals require application directly onto the target area in order to be effective.
Resulting issues with the use of these protective plant chemicals include leaching into the wider environment and potentially spreading through food chains, toxicity to certain animal species, and providing a strong selection force that results in resistance against the further use of pesticides, similar to the development of antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria.
In order to mitigate these issues and provide the most efficient protection to crops, biological control strategies as well as integrated pest management strategies are employed.
Biological control involves the use of a natural predator of the pest being used to keep its spread in check, while the integrated management (IPM) involves the combination of both chemical control and biological control.
Introducing often exotic species to a new area can successfully result in a drop in the number of their prey. However, it is not a predictable setup, and it can cause unforeseen ecological problems as well as fail to accomplish its goal. By placing a new predator species into a new environment it may target the intended species, but also feed on non-intended species. This can cause an imbalance in the preexisting food chains, and disrupt the ecology of the area.
IPM aims to combine a number of principles and strategies in order to achieve crop protection. It includes responsible pesticide use, biological control methods, preventative measures, monitoring and maintaining a threshold of acceptable levels of pests as opposed to their complete annihilation.
Additionally, in the event of a breakout, mechanical methods of removal such as hand-picking and traps are prioritised over the use of chemicals.
The Countryside Stewardship is a UK government scheme that aims to motivate farmers and land managers to improve and maintain the environment they are responsible for. This covers a wide range of activities, and extends to wildlife, controlling flood risk, maintaining the natural state of the countryside, and creating and managing woodland.
The government puts forward multiple different funds, such as one for hedgerows, that farmers can apply to. Depending on the extent and type of work carried out, grants are awarded competitively in three tiers: capital grants, mid tier and higher tier.
It may be classified as primary succession or secondary succession. The difference is that the above is primary i.e. it begins with totally barren land devoid of any nutrients or other abiotic factors (water, wind, temperature) conductive to life thriving, while secondary succession occurs after an already-thriving community has been wiped out by natural disasters such as a wild fire.
Why make the distinction? In secondary succession, although it may look like all life is gone, the conditions needed for it to begin again more readily than in primary succession are there: plant seeds, plenty of nutrients in the soil and plant waste all contribute.
Let’s look at succession in more detail.
1. Pioneer species colonise the harsh land – since the conditions are extremely unfavourable for most larger organisms to develop and thrive here, only the most resistant species will grow after their seeds have been dispersed to reach this place.
2. Tolerant species take over once the pioneers have died and enriched the soil with more nutrients than previously. This progresses from small plants to shrubs and bushes, and eventually trees. Throughout the succession new opportunities for food and shelter attract diverse animals to the community.
3. Climax community – this is the “steady-state” final community which is characterised by a diverse range of interdependent biotic and abiotic factors. No new species overtake the established ones, and any new plants and animals are descendants of the same species present beforehand.
It is the climax community that, if destroyed, presents an opportunity for secondary succession.
There are various types of climax community based on how stable they are, and which factors are contributing to any instabilities. The theoretical climatic climax is a single community solely maintained in its climax state by the climate. The soil is presumed to be stable enough not to affect the species beyond the climate. The long period in succession leading up to a climax community is called subclimax.
Disclimax (disturbance climax) occurs when the natural climax is prevented by the activity of humans or domesticated animals. Animal grazing can, in excess, encourage a more desert-like community as opposed to the grassland that would otherwise thrive in the absence of the excessive grazing.
Therefore, land management practices such as forestry and agriculture can prevent, delay or change the course of succession.
The knowledge we can derive from succession enables the conservation and maintenance of different habitats.
Sampling of organisms must be like those annoying, attention-seeking Snapchat friends. It must be random. Random sampling can be carried out using quadrats. If you’re wondering what they are, look no further – they’re squares.
How would you make sure that your sampling is random? In a field, you could lay two long tapes perpendicularly to define the limits of the area where the samples will be taken from.
As you can see above, a tape is laid on one side of the sampling area. As you can’t see above, another tape is laid from one end of the first tape, across on the adjacent side of the sampling area (like a giant L). Then two random numbers are generated using a random numbers table. These numbers are used to determine the coordinates of the first quadrat placed on the field, by matching them on the two tapes. And voila! You have yourself a system for random sampling using quadrats.
Transects are tapes (like above) placed across an area which has some form of gradient caused by abiotic factors which directly determines the distribution and abundance of the organisms present. For example, a beach is not suited for random sampling because there are clear zones ranging from the low population zone near the sea, to the more densely inhabited areas further up the shore. In this case the best way of obtaining useful data is by systematic sampling.
After placing the tape across the shore, place quadrats at set intervals such as every 5 metres, then take your data down.
Depending on the size and type of organism, data can be collected in the form of numbers by counting the present organisms in each quadrat (frequency), or working out the percentage of area within a quadrat that a species occupies (percentage cover), then scale it up to the whole area investigated by multiplying.
For percentage area, you’d count the smaller squares within the quadrat that your target species covers, and convert that number to a percentage (there are 100 smaller squares in the quadrat). So for example, our green plant would cover approximately 25 squares, giving us a 25% coverage. Both these methods are quantitative, giving us 11 plants per quadrat and 25% quadrat coverage, but there is another less quantitative, more descriptive method called ACFOR.
Based on this, we might describe the above scenario for the green plants as perhaps, frequent. Are they common instead? Maybe just occasional? Hard to tell, and dependent on what the overall area looks like, and what other species there are.
This is why it is important to select the appropriate ecological technique for the ecosystem and organism to be studied. For example, if our area contains many different species with scattered distributions, we are likely to get many different numbers for each, which might take a very long time, and might not be that necessary for our analysis. Perhaps we are only intending to compare whether two species are equally abundant or not.
In that case, we wouldn’t be spending time counting small squares to get a percentage cover, but rather using the ACFOR scale. Another scenario is looking at very small species that we cannot count individuals for! Think grass. We would use a percentage cover or ACFOR in this case.
In another case, we might have a scarce area with very few individuals for each whole quadrat, nevermind little square within. In this case we might prefer to simply count them rather than try ACFOR which wouldn’t work because it’s too generic and we might end up with all “R”s, or percentage cover which would also mostly be totally empty and give 0% for no individuals present, or 10% if one quite large individual is present that covers many squares. In this case, counting would give the most useful data as we would get a few whole numbers, e.g. 1 for the first quadrat, 0 for the next, 2, then 5, then 1. | https://thealevelbiologist.co.uk/energy-reproduction-populations/photosynthesis-food-production-and-management-of-the-environment/ |
The influence of Artificial Intelligence in the modern world is undeniable – and the software development industry is no different in this regard. But how exactly has AI influenced software development and what can be expected in the future? Without further ado, here’s everything you need to know about how Artificial Intelligence improves software development.
#1 Developers Have New Roles
Perhaps the most obvious way AI has been influencing software development is reflected in the role developers have in the entire process of developing a software or application. While AI still can’t write code on its own entirely without any help from developers, there are still ways in which AI makes the work of developers easier. For instance, many tasks can be automated with the help of AI-powered tools. By automating some tasks, developers can focus on other responsibilities or even develop new skills to become better at their jobs.
In most cases, it is possible to automate smaller, simpler tasks so that developers can focus on more complex tasks. As time goes on and AI solutions become more advanced, developers will be doing fewer tasks manually and advancing their own skills to come up with more innovative solutions for different problems. Of course, this will also mean that developers will have to adapt to working with AI, so they will need to understand how the said AI functions.
#2 Development Itself Is Expanding
While developers’ roles in the development process are changing, the development of programs and applications itself is expanding rapidly thanks to AI. Both the speed at which development can be completed and the scale at which it can be performed are vastly different than they used to be. Thanks to the partial automation of certain tasks, there is more time for developers to focus on specific parts of development that can now be performed faster. At the same time, AI helps developers to take on projects that are more complex and bigger in scale.
For example, machine learning and deep learning technologies can be used to shorten the time needed to test software. Many tests can be run automatically, and more scenarios can be tested thanks to AI technologies. Moreover, AI is critical for testing because manual testing often involves a higher risk of human error. Overall, AI can help streamline processes and reduce waste while handling repetitive tasks much faster than developers. Thus, development as a process is gradually transforming into a new version of itself.
#3 Decision-Making Gets to a New Level
Another aspect of software development that is changing thanks to AI is decision-making. Thanks to AI solutions, decision-making has become more strategic and doesn’t require as much human intervention as it used to. AI tools can handle extremely large amounts of data to make predictions and guide decisions. Moreover, as more data is collected throughout the development process, past predictions can be adjusted to make even more accurate ones.
For example, developers might want to find out the specific needs of the target audience for an app they are developing. AI-powered tools can collect and analyze more data (e.g. from forum discussions among potential customers) which will give the developer a more complete picture of what the audience is looking for.
#4 Improved Error Management
In addition to strategic decision-making, AI can help improve error management. As explained above, AI solutions don’t only make predictions at a specific time – they can adjust the said predictions based on new data. This means that errors can be identified faster, sometimes before they even happen. In most cases, error management takes a lot of time which is why software development processes often stagnate during this period. However, with the help of relevant AI solutions, this problem can be eliminated or reduced to an extent.
The best part is that AI can identify errors both during the development stage of the application development lifecycle and later on which is especially important for software as a service (SaaS) as well as cloud-based platform-as-a-service solutions. Because such services are usually running round the clock and are utilized by users constantly, downtime can be detrimental. Every minute counts, but with the help of AI, errors and issues can be found and corrected automatically much faster. It is both efficient and affordable for developers.
#5 Get Real-Time Feedback
One major advantage of using AI in software development is that it can provide developers with real-time feedback. Such feedback is crucial for developers to continue improving the software even once it has been released and is already in use. For example, many video conferencing programs collect real-time feedback from users to further improve UX and UI. As a result, the way users use and interact with a specific application or program can change in a good way thanks to constant feedback.
Machine learning technology can be particularly helpful in this sense. Algorithms can be programmed to track the way users act in specific situations when using a program or app. By collecting this data, developers can then fix bugs, correct errors, and so on without losing much time or waiting for users to complain and leave. In addition to that, AI can be used to personalize user experiences by showing relevant content to users based on the collected data about their activities.
#6 Make Precise Estimations
Last but not least, AI can help developers make more precise estimations. As mentioned earlier, decision-making has become more strategic thanks to the implementation of AI during the development process. But in addition to that, AI solutions are dramatically changing the way estimations are made in terms of both costs and timelines. It is a common problem in the software development industry where deadlines are usually too close and costs are often underestimated. Luckily, AI tools can help plan out the development process in a more realistic way which is beneficial both for developers and senior executives.
In most cases, to make such estimations, AI-powered programs need to analyze past projects to understand what the outcomes were like in the past. This way, new projects can be planned out more accurately. Everything from budgeting to scheduling to role allocation can be organized with the help of AI estimations. Of course, even AI can’t account for all the unpredictable situations, but such intelligent automation technologies can still take into account quite a few factors that ultimately shape the progress of a specific type of project. This way, software development companies can satisfy clients, keep developers motivated, and meet deadlines.
Conclusion
So, what’s the bottom line? Everyone involved in software development should realize the impact AI has already had on the industry and should utilize its advantages to the fullest (e.g. decision-making, error management, and making estimations among other things). Consider the points in this article to help you better understand the influence of AI on software development and what developers can get out of it.
Author bio
Tiffany Porter has been working as a writer at Rated by Students reviewing a variety of writing services websites. She is a professional writing expert on such topics as digital marketing, blogging, and design. She also likes to read and provide consultation for creating expert academic materials. | https://www.comidor.com/knowledge-base/machine-learning/ai-software-development/ |
F. Callaway, et al.
PNAS, 2022, 119 (12) e2117432119
Abstract
Human decision making is plagued by systematic errors that can have devastating consequences. Previous research has found that such errors can be partly prevented by teaching people decision strategies that would allow them to make better choices in specific situations. Three bottlenecks of this approach are our limited knowledge of effective decision strategies, the limited transfer of learning beyond the trained task, and the challenge of efficiently teaching good decision strategies to a large number of people. We introduce a general approach to solving these problems that leverages artificial intelligence to discover and teach optimal decision strategies. As a proof of concept, we developed an intelligent tutor that teaches people the automatically discovered optimal heuristic for environments where immediate rewards do not predict long-term outcomes. We found that practice with our intelligent tutor was more effective than conventional approaches to improving human decision making. The benefits of training with our cognitive tutor transferred to a more challenging task and were retained over time. Our general approach to improving human decision making by developing intelligent tutors also proved successful for another environment with a very different reward structure. These findings suggest that leveraging artificial intelligence to discover and teach optimal cognitive strategies is a promising approach to improving human judgment and decision making.
Significance
Many bad decisions and their devastating consequences could be avoided if people used optimal decision strategies. Here, we introduce a principled computational approach to improving human decision making. The basic idea is to give people feedback on how they reach their decisions. We develop a method that leverages artificial intelligence to generate this feedback in such a way that people quickly discover the best possible decision strategies. Our empirical findings suggest that a principled computational approach leads to improvements in decision-making competence that transfer to more difficult decisions in more complex environments. In the long run, this line of work might lead to apps that teach people clever strategies for decision making, reasoning, goal setting, planning, and goal achievement.
From the Discussion
We developed an intelligent system that automatically discovers optimal decision strategies and teaches them to people by giving them metacognitive feedback while they are deciding what to do. The general approach starts from modeling the kinds of decision problems people face in the real world along with the constraints under which those decisions have to be made. The resulting formal model makes it possible to leverage artificial intelligence to derive an optimal decision strategy. To teach people this strategy, we then create a simulated decision environment in which people can safely and rapidly practice making those choices while an intelligent tutor provides immediate, precise, and accurate feedback on how they are making their decision. As described above, this feedback is designed to promote metacognitive reinforcement learning. | https://www.ethicalpsychology.com/2022/04/leveraging-artificial-intelligence-to.html |
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Vision, Dubai United Arab Emirates:- The New Atlas website said that the British Royal Navy succeeded in experimenting with the use of artificial intelligence systems to counteract supersonic missile attacks with live ammunition during the military naval exercises, which were conducted within the framework of the "Great Shield" maneuvers, in which forces from 10 member countries of the alliance participate. NATO with 15 warships, dozens of aircraft and about 3,300 personnel, off the coast of Scotland and Norway.
The British experiment aimed to test the extent to which artificial intelligence systems can quickly detect, track and intercept hypersonic and ballistic missiles compared to human intervention.
Hypersonic missiles are among the most powerful weapons in modern naval arsenals, and because they are able to fly faster than the sound near the sea surface, they are difficult to monitor and detect their trajectories, and the process of intercepting them requires immediate computation and rapid decision-making, allowing to confront and destroy the hostile threat at a distance of up to 1500 meters before reaching its target.
With the emergence of hypersonic weapons, there is a danger that human air defense operators, even with the help of computers, could be forced to indulge in the tasks of analyzing vast amounts of data, identifying the sources of the threat, and then making the right decision to take defensive countermeasures.
The use of artificial intelligence systems in these tasks allows employing the ability to learn from large sets of data and extract patterns from them, enabling them to quickly analyze the massive flow of data provided by increasingly sophisticated sensors, and identify and track missile threats.
According to the British Navy, integrated AI systems allowed human operators to identify live-fire threats more quickly, and helped the warcraft's operations room, which was less burdened, to achieve a distinct advantage.
For the live-fire naval exercises, which lasted three weeks, the Navy deployed three warships: the destroyer HMS Dragon and the frigates HMS Lancaster and HMS Dragon, which, along with crews and military forces, carried experts from the British government's Defense Laboratory Dstl, and industry partners from Roke Companies, CGI and BAE Systems.
Startle systems, which monitor the atmospheric environment from inside the warship's operations room, are used to provide real-time recommendations and alerts, and Sycoiea, which takes results from Startle and helps identify incoming missiles and determine what type of weapon to use to stave off the threat and successfully destroy a hostile target. | https://visi-on.top/east/british-navy-counters-hypersonic-missiles-with-artificial-intelligence.html |
Making Marking Work
Marking comprises a significant part of teachers’ workload. It is an inevitable part of the work we do, but it is an important one. However, its importance is only realised if the purpose of the work being marked is clear to both teachers and students.
The biggest issue with marking is that it is time-consuming. The second biggest issue is that the students often do not read the feedback carefully written by the teacher. So, I will deal with these two primary issues in turn.
Streamline Marking
Create a mark scheme
As said, make sure the tasks being marked are purposeful; i.e. that they relate to the summative assessment criteria; that they are supporting students’ development at a specific point in time; and that the feedback is specific and returned to students in a timely fashion. Immediacy allows feedback to feed-forward in students’ upcoming work.
Using the summative assessment criteria means that you are not re-inventing the wheel, but also using them purposefully to support students’ achievement. Many qualifications have a plethora of criteria, so, be selective and use what is appropriate at different stages of your courses. It may be that you have a specific focus at different points in a term, depending on curriculum and the abilities and stages of development of your students at any given point in time.
Don’t feel you have to mark everything in minutiae detail – focus on the key points being worked on in that piece of work. Note any common issues across the cohort and address these within class or tutorials; any recurring issues with specific students, address these individually or refer to additional support (e.g. study skills).
Use the mark scheme provided by the exam board, adapt accordingly if necessary, and develop peer and self-assessment of tasks. Promoting effective peer and self-assessment takes practice and needs to be structured so students know what is expected and why this approach is being used. It is always encouraged to view the work yourself before such an activity so that you can highlight any key strengths and areas for development of the work on an individual and collective basis and share these with the students as key learning points.
Mark alongside students
This is an innovative approach to the whole marking and feedback process. It is sometimes referred to as ‘live marking’. Basically, it means that you mark students’ work in real-time alongside them so you can give immediate feedback which can be acted on immediately. Knowing where your students are at in their development in real-time allows you to address key learning points when they are most relevant to students – there and then.
Effective Feedback
The whole point of marking is so that teachers know where their students are at any given time during the course and that the feedback provided helps students to develop in preparation for their summative assessment. Ensure the feedback is aligned to the summative assessment criteria and that any additional feedback is supportive of study skills.
Written feedback takes time to draft and is often not read or digested fully by students. One effective approach I have found is giving verbal feedback which can be recorded by the student in a face-to-face discussion, or recorded by the teacher and sent via email, VLE or media platform to the student. The student is then tasked with reviewing the feedback and responding via email, VLE or media platform to summarise the key points of the feedback including the areas for development. This approach actively involves students in the feedback process and gives them more agency in setting their own development targets.
Less is Sometimes More
Home-study tasks and formative assessments may not always be in your full control as a teacher, however, making the most of one task can often surpass the need for multiple tasks of lesser value to the progress of your students – again it comes back to the point of purpose. These are some questions to assess the value of tasks being set:
- Why is this task being set?
- What is being assessed?
- How does it help me in my assessment of students at this time?
- How does it help my students’ development?
- How will the feedback from this task be used to feedforward, by you the teacher and your students?
Above all, find out about your institution’s marking policy. This is a key first step to understanding expectations in turnaround and what is required in feedback. Working with colleagues can help to manage the marking workload so there is an even distribution (where possible as there will be unavoidable spikes across the academic year). Try some different approaches and see if they help to make marking more efficient. | https://college.jobs.ac.uk/article/making-marking-work/ |
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) continue to face significant challenges in the five major phases of managing emergencies and disasters: preventing, protecting against, responding to, recovering from, and mitigating events. All of which continue to evolve at a rapid pace, along with the tools of the trade. During and after almost any such event, the need for rapid and reliable information is perhaps the most critical factor involved in making effective decisions. Whether the decision window requires looking years ahead or simply analyzing an ongoing 12-hour incident command operational period, the need for reliable data continues to be the key component needed for operational success.
How to effectively use that data, though, raises a number of relevant questions, including the following: How many people might have to be evacuated? Are there enough shelters available? Is the power out – and, if so, where? Do the capabilities available match the current and possibly future needs of the city, state, or nation?
The answers to all of these questions, and many others that might be asked, require the use of accurate and timely data – as was amply demonstrated by the widespread damage and loss of life caused by Superstorm Sandy and the “nor’easter” that immediately followed. Responding to and coping with those twin disasters required the quick and effective use of a veritable flood of information, much of it changing literally minute by minute. Twitter feeds and information received from other social media sites provided a huge quantity of helpful information, as did geospatial information and power outage tracking systems. All of these combined are just a small sample of the innovative ways in which essential decision-making data is being captured, analyzed, stored, and communicated.
Intelligent Decisions & Clear Priorities – But Scarce Resources Already resident within the federal agency community are stores of information about previous disaster events, current and past weather patterns, and flood models – as well as disaster relief spending and practical information about location of the material resources needed to support response and covert operations. The challenge facing emergency managers – at all levels of government – is to harness all of the data available from their respective “siloed” systems and build the analytical tools and capabilities needed to make quick, intelligent, and economically viable decisions.
A clear understanding of the preparedness capabilities needed and the protection capabilities allowing for critical infrastructure to be more resilient will both help lead to the use of accurate information that not only enhances real-time situational awareness but also helps determine the resource priorities for full and effective response and recovery operations. Combining the data available from an ongoing event with historical data already in the information system will help develop a better overall understanding of the current environment. That understanding should enhance the ability of decision makers to adapt to and mitigate the losses caused by ongoing and/or future threats of a similar nature.
Building and improving this type of analysis, which is ongoing across the nation’s emergency-management and homeland security communities, requires more effective use of the limited financial resources that are likely to be available to federal, state, and local governments.
Leveraging Visual Interfaces and Analytics: A Prime Example Numerous federal, state, and local emergency management agencies and organizations are responsible for various disaster planning and response activities and operations. Many of them already have found that using social media provides, in most if not all emergencies, helpful and timely situational awareness to deal with biological events and other potential disasters. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (in 2010-2011), it was determined that using social media provided a better and faster way to accumulate and analyze data for emergency disasters in real time. With such a solution in place, it was found that the agency could expand and improve overall preparedness by leveraging the information flow to more accurately, and more quickly, predict the probable impact and determine the response capabilities required.
In order to reach that predetermined goal, though, the agency needed a higher level of confidence on the approaches already available to gather, analyze, and use the social media data on which it would base any operational decisions. The specific challenges faced by implementing the new solution focused on related issues such as data ingestion and normalization, the building and use of a social media vocabulary, and informational extraction capabilities.
Working with industry leaders, the agency then developed the framework needed to capture, normalize, and transform the open-source media used to characterize and forecast future disaster events in real time. The framework incorporated computational and analytical approaches into the system to help transform the “noise” accumulated from the social media into usable, and useful, information. By leveraging such esoteric algorithms as term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF), natural language processing (NLP), and predictive modeling, the agency also was able to: (a) characterize and forecast the probable numbers of injured, dead, and/or hospitalized victims resulting from a specific incident; and (b) extract other helpful information – e.g., symptoms, geographic particulars, and the demographics involved – related to specific illness incidents or events.
The solution framework built by the agency was implemented in the cloud – on virtual servers – by taking advantage of its flexible computational power and storage. The new cloud infrastructure also allowed for data capturing and use of a visualization tool, called Splunk, to mine through and analyze vast amounts of data in real time, while at the same time outputting the characterization of, and forecasting the metrics related to, various captured events.
Using Data Management to Improve Understanding The agency’s solution included the use of dashboards that characterized the emergency events captured by and reported in the social media. The visual analyses that were generated included such helpful operational tools as event extraction counts, time series counts, forecasting counts, a symptom tag cloud, and geographical isolation. The algorithms were written in a programming language called Python and incorporated into Splunk – located on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
The solution framework captured live, streaming open-source media such as Twitter and RSS (Rich Site Summary) feeds. Building upon the current best practices used in the cyber-terrorism community, the new solution enables near real-time situational awareness through a stand-alone surveillance system capable of capturing, transforming, and analyzing massive amounts of social media data. By leveraging that data and its related analytics to develop more timely and more accurate disaster characterization, the agency is able to plan and respond more effectively as well.
The future of this understanding and analysis of data is not limited, though, to the realm of social media. The federal government: (a) Is in a unique position to harness the capabilities built by the intelligence community in order to cope with weather emergencies and other disasters; and (b) Also can provide – to state and local governments – the tools they need to use the data at all levels of government to make more judicious resource decisions, understand the risks and threats involved, and both respond and recover more quickly when major weather and/or other emergency situations do develop.
Collectively, big data, the cloud, and analytics seem to be on course to be the next “Big Thing” in emergency operations and, not incidentally, to serve as one of the most cost-effective ways of building and securing a truly resilient nation.
________________________ Marko Bourne is a Principal at Booz Allen Hamilton and a DomPrep40 Advisor. He is leader of both the company’s FEMA market team and its Emergency Management and Response practice, and has more than 27 years of experience in: emergency services; emergency management; policy, governmental, and legislative affairs; and public affairs. Prior to joining Booz Allen Hamilton he was FEMA’s Director of Policy and Program Analysis (2006-2009) and Director of Business Development for Homeland Security (2004-2006) at Earth Tech Inc./Tyco International. He also served as acting director of the DHS National Incident Management System Integration Center and, in 2003-2004, as Deputy Director of FEMA’s Preparedness Division. | https://domprep.com/resilience/the-future-of-data-clouds/ |
Task: To successfully complete this subject, students must present an e-portfolio with:
A Landing Page with an engaging ‘About me’ section, and menu that helps a reader navigate through the portfolio, and includes an approved resume1 and sample job applications
A Learning Journal with no fewer than 6 dated journal entries (minimum 350 words each)
A minimum of 3 of these journal entries should reflect upon the student’s learning in relation to some of the themes introduced in the tutorials. Students should choose themes that particularly interest them, and must include at least some of the different levels of reflection identified by Ullmann (2017), including reference to the required reading. Where appropriate, journal entries should include photographs taken by the student to illustrate situations or events that have been recounted. At least one of these journal entries needs to include a record of attendance at an industry event with a ‘selfie’, and an analysis of what occurred and how the student can leverage this experience to develop their connection with the engineering industry in Sydney
Two journal entries about the feedback the student has received in two professional assessment activities. These two professional assessment activities will be held during tutorials 4 and 6 and will involve students giving feedback to peers on their work, and receiving feedback from peers about their own work. Students who absent themselves from these professional activities (without formal grant of special consideration via Student Services) will have 20 marks deducted from their final portfolio mark for each absence (as per Late Penalty clause c). There are three parts to each of these professional assessment activities:
i) Professional Assessment Activity 1
a) Students will need to have made substantial progress in the employability sections of the e-portfolio, including their landing page (with About me, navigating menu, and resume), and at least 3 journal entries by week 3,
b) Students will need to make their e-portfolio available to their Peer Review Group by Friday of week 3. They will need to review their peers’ portfolios and prepare feedback for their peers using the Feedback Sandwich/PIP Model. This feedback needs to be provided in person in tutorial 4.
c) Students need to write a summary of the feedback they have received and their plans for responding to that feedback and include this in their Learning Journal.
ii) Professional Assessment Activity 2
a) Students will need to have made substantial progress in the completion of their e-portfolio, including their sections on workplace health and safety, making ethical decisions in complex difficult situations, making work plans and working with a supervisor, with critical incident/photo journal entries by week 5.
b) Students will need to make their e-portfolio available to their Peer Review Group by Friday of week 5. They will need to review their peers’ portfolios and prepare feedback for their peers using the Feedback Sandwich/PIP Model. This feedback needs to be provided in person in tutorial 6.
c) Students need to write a summary of the feedback they have received and their plans for responding to that feedback and include this in their Learning Journal.
A summative journal entry on the subject as a whole and how the student has met the Subject Learning Objectives (SLOs).
Answer
Journal Entry 1: workplace learning environment
The workplace learning environment experience and outcomes could be positively doubled if the employees have the attitude to learn in their work environment. The organizations have developed various schemes and training programs to give their employees better perspectives of work procedures. The objective for the learning during a specific teamwork or project can elevate the quality and outcome of work. Learning develops the skills that are instrumental in increasing personal as well as organizational advantages. The employee gets the scope to improve his abilities and skills, whereas the organization could get competitive advantages through effective learning schemes in workplaces.
The organizational learning could be executed through various ways. According to Collin (2002), the employees could learn while doing the work, they could learn by evaluating their work experience, there could be learning through interaction and co-operation with colleagues, they could learn by taking something new, from extra contents of works and also they could learn from formal education. All these methods of workplace learning increases the competence of the employee.
The learning process in the early time of career is an important aspect as that influences the person for his future betterment. As opined by Eraut (2007), the main work process and learning activities in the early time of career are based on the work place environment. The learning in the workplace need to be done according to the objectives of the work. This process could be completed and exercised through self learning from new work experience, at the same time by the help of colleagues.this is for the development of the career of the employee that a positive attitude and open mind set should be involved. This will help in developing the skill sets and competencies.
Workplace learning environment could help in developing the professional identity of the engineers. Leadership has an important role in forming this identity as well. The new engineers must be associated with a persistent academic program. Recognition within the community of engineers is another aspect (Schell and Hughes, 2017). The recognition from the engineers will increase the confidence in the new engineer and help in boosting his engineer identity. Most important is developing the skills of an engineer by constant urge of learning and knowledge.
Journal Entry 2: Effective team Membership
The professionals need to work effective as part of the team within the workplace learning environment. In every organization, the teams are becoming the unit of every work projects. The teams are important to complete a work within the time limit and the creativity is also increased when the work is done through team work. Therefore, it has become necessary for any employees to develop the skills to work within a team.
The organization could play an important role in training their employees to work within a team circle. The training programs that are introduced in the company could be based on team management skill settings (Blair, 1991). The leader of the team needs to have certain trait to manage the team properly. When, on the other hand, the employee needs to understand the various levels of teamwork and be a part of it.
The engineering students start their training as a team member while working on the small group assignments in their respective colleges. This undoubtedly establishes the base of their teamwork training. The underlying principles of team membership are to be discussed among the students. The practical experience of working in small teams for projects could also shun the effective teamwork in a student of engineering.
Developing the identity of the engineers depends on the teamwork and leadership aspects. The appreciation and skills that the engineers could earn form their teamwork experience would help them in developing better career paths. Communication plays the central role in effective teamwork. The members of the team need to have the level of interpersonal communication to process the information and gain the feedback.
The flow of data and objectives of the work is narrated by the leader in the workplace learning environment so that each member of the group could understand their individual work role. There might be some dispute among the team, but, at the same time those could be solved through good communicative approaches. The strong sense of belonging and commitment towards the team and work are the base of effective teamwork for an engineer and any other professionals.
Journal Entry 3: Workplace Supervision
The supervisors have an active role in facilitating the learning experience of the learners. In a workplace learning environment, there are leader and supervisors who provide support for the new employees. The development of competence among these employees has a good deal with the supervisor’s contribution. The supervisors and leaders (Hughes, 2004) provide this learning environment. They have the capacity to influence the mind of the learners and make them capable of the work they are assigned to do. The employee may have the skill set and training to accomplish a work, but the work could not be successfully done without the right supervision.
The supervisor in the work place needs to be proactive and interventionist. There could come various situations, where the situation could demand the supervisor to play the role of a facilitator. The work is complex and need experience to be executed. The supervisor need to challenge the competence of supervise to bring the best from that employee (Morrell, 2013). The main job of a supervisor may include- providing opportunities for work, providing the employee with needful resources and tools, helping them in understanding and setting work goals, holding the accountability of their responsibilities and helping in improving their performances.
The role of the supervisor is more indirect than the direct one. They influence the mind of employees to let them achieve higher performance goals. Therefore, it is necessary for the career development of an employee to have a facilitator completely could help him in realistic ways (Morrell, 2013). Finding out the most effective process of supervision is a tough work. The supervisees could also talk to their supervisors to get individual agreements. As opined by Hughes, (2004), selecting the appropriate topic for the session need to be done in a strategic way. Keeping account of the supervision work within the workplace learning environment could be done by the supervision regularly. The review of the supervision work will give him the idea of the changes that are to be incorporated in his next schemes.
Journal Entry 4: How to keep others safe in the workplace learning environment?
Occupational safety is a major aspect of the workplace learning environment structure. The workplace safety measures have changed a lot in past few years. The occupational safety has become an integral part of the work place environment. The profession of engineering often seems to have instances where the injuries and workplace hazards are common. The organizational managements need to focus on the various aspects of workplace hazard safety for the sake of their employees (Hofmannet al. 2017). Other than the management, the employees could also take some initiatives and help each other to be safe in their work environment.
The risks that are associated with a workplace need to be understood in details first. The employees, being aware of the risks, could only take preventive measures against them. Leaders could again play an important role in managing the safety measures (Kouabenanet al. 2015). It is seen that proficient leaders have shown their tendencies to take extra precautions against the high-risk prone work places. There could be a number of variance of risk in the workplace. It is the responsibility of the leader as well as the individual employees to understand the risk proportions and take safety measures.
The employees could help each other in being safe in the workplace environment by exercising the effective workplace safety policies. The knowledge of the hazards could be communicated along the co-workers. This will help in developing prevention attitudes among the employees. Hofmann et al. (2017), the workplace learning environment culture need to be building in a way that encourages safety and risk management attitudes among the employees. The high-risk prone workplaces could have extra safety instructions that are provided by the authority for the employees. The first aid kit and other medical assistance need to be prepared so that those could be accessed immediately after any accident.
Some researches has done regarding the relation of the individual personality and safety in work place. The result shows that the individual characteristic does have a link with the awareness of the risks and safety measures up to some extent. The supervisors and their stands in safety behavior could prove effective in successful management of workplace safety. Organizations could also provide some basic safety training to avoid necessary workplace hazards and keep their employees safe.
Journal Entry 5: Making Choices in Complex Situation
The decision-making processes in a complex situation takes into account a number of ethical and non-ethical factors. Making the right choice in the complex situation could increase work productivity, reduce problems in behaviors, increase the motivation among the employees, and is helpful in developing work place freedom.
The organizational setups have certain limitations and therefore, the choices that are made in this set ups are not quite easy to make. According to Dowling et al. (2013), the decisions influence huge number of employees and need to be taken in the ethical way. The work ethic must not be compromised and the best solution to the problem is needed to be executed. The main barriers in making the effective decisions are preferences, limitations in the decision-making process and expression of the autonomy. The leader must not be influenced by these obstacles within workplace learning environment to take the ethical decision for a specific situation. The business operations need to be done in the set ethical grounds. These ethics and policies are set by the organizations itself to manage the situations of ethical dilemmas.
The business industries operates in a larger ethical context, therefore, the flexibility of bending an ethical ground is less in organizations. The choice making in any critical situation need to be done for the greater good. The persons involved in the situation are to be given their due importance. Some conducts might be there that are permissible in certain contexts, but that must not affect the workplace work culture (Longstaff, 2017). Many practical instances could be found where the company has implemented their policies for the specific situation. The main objective is to overcome the situational dilemmas by making the potential decision.
The decision-making will not work if the implementation of the change is not done properly. After making the choice, it has to be implemented in a effective way. It is the responsibility of the leader to have a review of the situations after the choice making. Engineering, as a profession is based on many such ethical issues (Longstaff, 2017). It is the duty of an engineer to understand the dimensions of these ethics and use them accordingly whenever the situation demands.
Reference List
Blair, G. 1991, ‘Groups that work’, IEE Engineering Management Journal, vol. 1, no. 5, pp. 219-223.
Collin, K. 2002, ‘Development Engineers’ Conceptions of Learning at Work’, Studies in Continuing Education vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 133-152.
Dowling, D., Hadgraft, R., Carew, A., McCarthy, T., Hargreaves, D. and Baillie, C. 2013. Engineering your future. An Australasian Guide. 3rd Ed. Wiley, Milton, QLD. Workplace learning environment pp. 191-197
Eraut, M. 2007, ‘Learning from other people in the workplace’, Oxford Review of Education vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 403-422.
Hofmann, D.A., Burke, M.J. and Zohar, D., 2017. 100 years of occupational safety research: From basic protections and work analysis to a multilevel view of workplace safety and risk. Journal of applied psychology, 102(3), pp. -375-388.
Hughes, C. 2004, ‘The supervisor’s influence on workplace learning’, Studies in Continuing Education vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 275-287.
Kouabenan, D.R., Ngueutsa, R. and Mbaye, S., 2015. Safety climate, perceived risk, and involvement in safety management. Safety Science, 77, pp.72-79. | https://www.totalassignmenthelp.com/free-sample/workplace-learning-environment-journals |
The concept of student agency is centred upon the level of autonomy and empowerment that a student feels during their time in education. Agency is the opposite of passivity. Encouraging student agency means encouraging students to think independently, make unique connections and to act and think with purpose. Agency is the first step towards standing on your own two feet.
The research that backs it up.
Albert Bandura, the revered social learning psychologist, has studied how agency is increasingly important to succeed and thrive in a globalised world. Additionally, social psychology studies have shown that building agency in young people is key to instilling a sense of confidence and competence in their own abilities. One Harvard study, using a sample size of 300,000 students, suggests that student agency is a fundamental outcome of schooling, equivalent in its value to basic scholarly skills.
What can we do to improve student agency?
A growth mindset means believing that your progress, success and abilities can be changed by your own actions. This mindset empowers students to believe in the value of their hard work, and is fundamental to student agency. A study (1) looking at thousands of 15 year old students in Chile found that, at every socioeconomic level, those that held a growth mindset consistently outperformed those who didn’t, showing that attitude is just as important as aptitude.
Don’t always stick to the syllabus rigidly. Ask your students to go home and find a news article relevant to what you’re discussing in history. Set them the task of keeping a record of the different phases of the moon for a month if you teach physics. Activities like this demonstrate that the relevance of education is not restricted to the school environment, and relates to students’ personal lives. This has been shown to increase motivation, particularly if the choices given, are personal, meaningful and related to their own values and goals (3).
If a student has made a mistake, don’t reveal the answer right away. Help them come to the correct answer by themselves by gently nudging them in the right direction with hints and clues. By allowing space for their independent cognitive processes, you can help to empower them to think on their feet.
Ask the class a question and get them to chat in small groups and feedback. By creating an atmosphere where all students’ voices can be heard in some way, you bolster their self-confidence and sense of agency. Take this a step further by holding debates in class, allowing students to independently research a topic and come to their own conclusion.
How does CENTURY boost student agency?
CENTURY regularly gives personalised messages to students that encourage resilience and help to cultivate a growth mindset. Progress is recognised and achievements are congratulated. These messages appear at the optimal time for students to absorb them during their learning.
We recognise that different students prefer to learn in different ways, and so have integrated a variety of types of learning material, such as slideshows and videos, into our platform. Students can choose which they feel will best suit them, granting them greater autonomy over how they learn!
CENTURY generates a Recommended Path for each student that incorporates “interleaving”: encouraging students to study different subjects one after the other, for relatively short periods of time. This helps students to make unique connections between subjects, fostering independent thinking.
Immediate feedback is actionable feedback. It allows maximum space for student improvement. CENTURY provides immediate, constructive feedback if a student gets an answer correct. This provides them with more information, allowing them to deepen their knowledge. If the answer is incorrect, CENTURY will prompt them to come to the right answer on their own, by providing helpful hints that supports the student’s problem-solving.
While it may not initially seem like a feature for teachers will improve agency in students, the teacher dashboard is key to boosting student autonomy. Studies have shown students thrive the most when they are appropriately “stretched” – when they’re doing work that is just a little bit out of their comfort zone, but not too much (4). The teacher dashboard shows which students need to be stretched more; the ones who are completing their tasks with high speed and high accuracy. It shows which students need to be encouraged and which need support. The immediate collation of this data by CENTURY can be transformed by the teacher into action; how they can best build student agency in their class.
Entering the adult world is daunting, but we can make it less so. As people passionate about education, we can all do our part in helping equip young people with the confidence to succeed. As technological developments rapidly transform our society, digital literacy skills become ever more important. CENTURY builds students’ confidence in using digital technology, by virtue of its digital nature. At every level, we have strived to instill a sense of belief, motivation and independence in the learning journey.
Growth Mindset – What’s the big deal? | https://www.century.tech/blog/can-attitude-improve-aptitude/ |
The world is a complicated place. Reality is dense with patterns, but these patterns are often subtle and inconsistent. We think we understand how things work -- X always causes Y -- but then Z happens. It's very confusing.
Needless to say, such complexity poses a big problem for biology. How should animals learn from such unpredictable situations? What's the best way to cope with contingency? We don't need perfection, but we do require an efficient mental mechanism that allows us to maximize utility most of the time.
Enter reinforcement learning, a theoretical framework that helps explain how the rewards and punishments of life get translated into effective behavior. It doesn't matter if it's monkeys responding to squirts of juice or rats jonesing for pellets or humans plying the stock market: The algorithms of reinforcement learning neatly describe our decisions. The persuasive power of reinforcement is why we give kindergartners gold stars and professionals a monetary bonus: Nothing influences outcomes like a bit of positive feedback. Furthermore, neuroscientists have identified several mechanisms in the cortex that seem to obey these computational principles. It's an incredibly elegant link between the software of mind and the hardware of brain.
However, one of the longstanding limitations of much reinforcement learning research is the lack of naturalistic context, as scientists have been forced to rely on abstract games in the lab. We don't observe rats in the wild -- we track them in Plexiglas cages. We don't watch monkeys swing through the forest -- we give them sweet treats preceded by lights and bells. This makes the data easier to comprehend, but it also makes it unclear how these same mechanisms might operate in a more complicated environment. Does reinforcement learning always work? Or do the same habits that make us look so smart in the lab sometimes backfire in the real world? Is there such a thing as too much feedback?
To answer these questions, Tal Neiman and Yonatan Loewenstein at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem turned to professional basketball. More specifically, they looked at 200,000 three-point shots taken by 291 leading players in the NBA between 2007 and 2009. (They also looked at 15,000 attempted shots by 41 leading players in the WNBA during the 2008 and 2009 regular seasons.) The scientists were particularly interested in how makes and misses influenced subsequent behavior. After all, by the time players arrives in the NBA, they've executed hundreds of thousands of shots and played in countless games. Perhaps all that experience reduces the impact of reinforcement, making athletes less vulnerable to the unpredictable bounces of the ball. A make doesn't make them too excited and a miss isn't too discouraging.
But that's not what the scientists found. Instead, they discovered that professional athletes were exquisitely sensitive to reinforcement, so that a successful three-pointer made players far significantly more likely to attempt another distant shot. In fact, after a player made three three-point shots in a row -- they were now "in the zone" -- they were nearly 20 percent more likely to take another three-point shot. Their past success -- the positive reinforcement of the made basket -- altered the way they played the game.
In many situations, such reinforcement learning is an essential strategy, allowing people to optimize behavior to fit a constantly changing situation. However, the Israeli scientists discovered that it was a terrible approach in basketball, as learning and performance are "anticorrelated." In other words, players who have just made a three-point shot are much more likely to take another one, but much less likely to make it: | https://www.wired.com/2011/12/when-reinforcement-fails/ |
Shortly after taking command of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in Iraq, General Stanley McChrystal realised he had a major problem with intelligence. This problem had given the terrorist group, Al-Qaeda, the upper hand against the world’s best military with some of the most advanced technology available. So General McChrystal went about completely changing how JSOC and its partners operated with a focus on intelligence that empowered his teams.
This ultimately helped change the course of the war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. He recently shared his insights in his book, Team of Teams, which is primarily aimed at bringing these changes to the corporate world. While reading his book, it immediately struck me how directly applicable the General’s insights are to retail loss prevention (LP) and asset protection (AP) teams across the world.
When McChrystal took command he was quick to realise he faced both an enemy with new tactics and internal challenges with running a large and diverse team of teams. JSOC was made up of many teams and agencies including the Navy SEALS, Army Delta, Air Force, CIA, State Department, and numerous international special forces contingents.
Within JSOC, McChrystal faced:
- Commanding a large number of people from different backgrounds, with different priorities and desired outcomes.
- A changing battlefield environment, where the same tactics used previously were no longer working.
- Groups working in silos, not sharing information.
- Poor intelligence flow, with information stuffed into a storage room at headquarters until it could be sent away for analysis.
- A lack of dissemination of information to the right people.
Building an Intelligence System
McChrystal focused on flipping JSOC’s focus from being 80% operations and 20% intelligence, to 80% intelligence and 20% operations. This focus on real-time intelligence and dissemination actually saw the Special-ops team raids grow from one every other night, to four a night. And JSOC’s culture had changed from one where an individual’s knowledge silo was power to one where sharing is power. In the process, he had increased productivity, simplified complicated tasks, and improved communication among the teams. Everyone now had a shared understanding of what was going on and everyone had an ownership stake in the results.
Application to AP/LP
Retailers are facing similar challenges when it comes to tackling Organized Retail Crime and reducing loss. This includes:
- A large number of AP/LP, security, investigators, and other people in the field all from different backgrounds and with different priorities and desired outcomes.
- A changing retail crime environment where the same tactics and technology used previously are not working.
- Groups working in silos (individual stores or regions) with no effective way of sharing information.
- Poor intelligence flow where information is often delayed and incomplete, and is then stuffed into spreadsheets for analysis by others.
Leaders have an opportunity to approach their crime problem the same way McChrystal did, by setting up an intelligence system. The key characteristics of an intelligence system as described by McChrystal are: accurate; real-time data; distributed broadly and quickly; presented in detail so that team members can see and react to patterns in deciding what to do; and shared accountability. So let’s break down these characteristics for the current retail environment:
Empowering Your Team with Intelligence
An intelligence system helps to arm your teams with context, understanding, and connectivity, that will allow them to take the initiative and make better decisions to prevent crime.
If you can present your teams with accurate, real-time, reliable information, teams will be more empowered and invariably make smart decisions that have a significant impact on retail crime and ORC.
Winning the War
Existing technology and systems aren’t making the required impact on retail loss and your teams are not empowered to identify and prevent ORC. For years now, offenders and ORC groups have taken advantage of the lag and lack of shared intelligence, allowing them to offend anonymously and without consequence. But imagine the impact you could have on ORC if you could move information across your organization in real-time and do so to empower immediate and responsive action? With a focus on intelligence systems, you and your Team of Teams will be ready to win the war on retail crime. | https://www.auror.co/the-intel/lessons-from-a-four-star-general |
Write a 56-page examination of how conditioning changes some of your own behaviors.While modern research in psychology is not explicitly behaviorist in its approach behaviorism is still relevant in certain areas today. For example it is often taken for granted today that objective quantitative measures will be used in psychological studies as opposed to the introspective reports that were used in many types of research in the early 1900s.The following optional resources are provided to support you in completing the assessment or to provide a helpful context. For additional resources refer to the Research Resources and Supplemental Resources in the left navigation menu of your courseroom.Click the links provided to view the following resources:SHOW LESSClick the links provided below to view the following multimedia pieces:Click the link provided below to view the following video:The following e-books or articles from the Capella University Library are linked directly in this course:A Capella University library guide has been created specifically for your use in this course. You are encouraged to refer to the resources in thePSYC-FP3500 Learning and Cognition Library Guideto help direct your research.The resources listed below are relevant to the topics and assessments in this course and are not required. Unless noted otherwise these materials are available for purchase from theCapella University Bookstore. When searching the bookstore be sure to look for the Course ID with the specificFP(FlexPath) course designation.Think about examples of how your own behavior can change due to conditioning effectshow rewards and punishments have shaped your own behavior over the years. What role have rewards and punishments played in your life? For example how did your parents encourage you to learn multiplication tables or drive a car? Even job incentives can be framed in terms of rewards and punishments to improve employee performance.In preparation for this assessment research behaviorism and some of the classic studies conducted by John Watson and B. F. Skinner. It is important to understand the basic principles of behaviorism and how behaviorism fits into psychology research today. Find a peer-reviewed research study that addresses the theory or treatment of phobias that was published within the last 8 years.For this assessment complete the following:Strive to be as concise as possible and limit the length of your completed assessment to 56 pages in addition to a title page and a references page. Support your statements and analyses with references and citations from at least three resources. | https://submityourhomeworks.com/conditioning-changes-some-of-your-own-behaviors/ |
Albert Bandura is one of the best known psychologists in the history of the science of human behavior.
He has the honor of being recognized as the most important living psychologist and has been compared to others already dead of Freud’s stature. However, his thinking is not at all Freudian, nor behaviorist as many still believe today.
Ideologist of social learning theory and a very prolific author, his life is marked by a great contribution to psychology and by changing the view of learning in the middle of the last century. Let’s look at his interesting life through a brief biography of Albert Bandura, In which we will also see his contributions to psychology.
Biography of Albert Bandura
He then talks in more depth about the events in the life of this Canadian psychologist.
1. Early years
Albert Bandura was born in Mundare, Canada, December 4, 1925. His family, of Ukrainian and Polish origin, was large, which is why, from his childhood, Bandura, who was the youngest of six siblings, showed an ability to fend for himself.
Living in a relatively small village, the local education did not always have everything needed to teach everything the students needed. Therefore, his teachers encouraged him to take care of his own learning outside of the classroom.
While at school, Bandura realized that knowledge is a bit unstable, which changes over time, Either because new discoveries are discovered or because the information becomes obsolete.
However, he also saw that the tools he had acquired for his own research were of great use to him to update itself over the years. It is possible that this influenced their adult opinion about the importance that the pupil acquires in his own educational process.
2. University education
Although Bandura initially intended to study biology, he eventually chose to continue his university education in psychology, particularly at the University of British Columbia.
Albert Bandura’s way of behaving during his college years is surprising. He liked to go several hours before the start of classes at his university and, out of boredom, he decided to enroll in several additional subjects. It was in these subjects that he came into contact with the science of human behavior., Arousing great fascination.
It only took three years to complete his college education, graduate in 1949, and later he decided to study for his Masters in Clinical Psychology at the University of Iowa, USA, obtaining the diploma in 1952.
3. Professional life
After completing his master’s and later doctorate, Albert Bandura he received an offer to work at Stanford University, In which he remained for the rest of his life and, to this day, remains as a teacher, although emeritus.
During his beginnings as a teacher at the institution, the psychologist focused on offering his classes in the most effective way in addition to initiating research on adolescent aggression.
Overtime, he was gaining a deeper insight into imitation behavior, Formulation of hypotheses and theories on aspects such as behavioral imitation, with or without rewards or punishments after the execution of the action.
These early interests in these aspects gradually evolved into what is perhaps Albert Bandura’s best-known theory, the theory of social learning.
The Bobo doll: social learning theory
The Bobo Doll Experiment is arguably the most famous imitation behavior research ever carried out by Albert Bandura.
This research was carried out in 1961 and consisted of having several children watch a movie and others not. It showed several adults physically and verbally assaulting an inflatable doll named Bobo. Then both the children who had seen the film and those who were not taken to a room where Bobo was. The children who had seen the video they behaved in a similar way to how the adults had done, being violent with the doll.
This discovery was a great discovery in the 1960s, as it clashed with the main idea of behaviorism, which held that human behavior was motivated only by the presence of rewards and punishment, and not mere behavior without imitation. no reward.
Therefore, children imitated adults without receiving anything in return. Vicarious learning has been formally demonstrated, and through this experience, Bandura was able to develop his well-known theory of social learning.
Social learning theory seeks to understand how the acquisition of knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and ways of thinking of the person in relation to the social environment. The premise behind this theory is that learning is a cognitive process that cannot be detached from the context in which it occurs, be it family, school or any other type.
As we have already mentioned, the general view of psychology in the middle of the last century, especially in the United States, was behaviorist, arguing that learning was a process that resulted from a series of rewarded or punished actions. .
But Bandura proved the opposite, that rather, learning was the result of imitating the child by seeing as much as his parents and other adults do certain actions. This involved including in behaviors a whole behavioral repertoire seen in their immediate social environment, as well as acquiring the same ways of seeing the world and relating to it. All this without the need for reinforcements.
While it should be noted that reinforcements and punishments are important aspects in the acquisition of certain behaviors, it should not be assumed that all learning will be based on conditioning. Therefore, this theory served as a bridge between behaviorism and cognitivismUnderstanding that there are learnings that work on the basis of conditioning and that others are given by imitation.
Several postulates can be highlighted from Bandura’s social learning theory:
1. Learning is partially cognitive
Prior to Bandura’s experiments, it was widely accepted within the psychology community that all learning was given in response to certain environmental circumstances.
However, social learning theory maintains that higher mental processes should not be left outThat really the individual can process the information beyond whether or not there are reinforcements that invite to reproduce the behavior.
2. Not all learning is observable
According to the investigation into Bandura and several of his supporters, not all learning should manifest itself externally immediately after being acquired.
Actions such as observation, reflection and decision making, although invisible, become very important in learning and can lead to the inclusion or omission of certain behaviors.
3. Strengthening of the vicar
Another of the main ideas of the theory proposed by Bandura is the fact that a person can perform or inhibit their behaviors without having to be the one receiving the punishments or rewards for having achieved it.
By observing how others behave and how it benefits or harms them, a person can change their behavior based on what they have seen.
It is here that the concept of vicarious reinforcement acquires importance, that is, some type of beneficial or, otherwise, harmful factor, which motivates to perform or not perform a behavior. We saw that this behavior is purely human, do not not manifest in other species.
4. The relationship between the learner and the environment
According to the theory, the learner is not a passive individual who receives the new knowledge in a totally given way and without participating in the process.
Rather, the person makes a whole series of changes in both their beliefs, attitudes, and ideas that you can use to change your own environment. Therefore, learning and environment are interrelated, By changing.
Albert Bandura and his relationship with behavioralism
Many people, and even books specializing in psychology, link the figure of Albert Bandura to that of behavioralism. However, it must be said that this author has always considered that his point of view does not coincide with all the ideas defended by behavioral psychologists.
In fact, in his principles, this author defended the idea that it was simplistic to reduce all human behavior in terms of cause and effect relationships. However, it must be said that in several of his works, he uses specific behavioral terms, Just like the stimulus and the response, among others.
According to Bandura himself, his view of human behavior could include in what has been called social cognitivism, a stream that departs a bit from traditional behavioralism.
Works, merits and contributions
Albert Bandura has the merit of being the most cited living psychologist in the world, and of all psychologists, alive and dead, being in fourth place, just behind BF Skinner, Sigmund Freud and Jean Piaget. Bandura’s works, although often considered behaviorist, contributed to the so-called “cognitive revolution”, Begun in the late 1960s, affecting several areas of psychology.
He has written a number of books, including Aggression: An Analysis of Social Learning in 1973, in which he focused on the origins of aggression and the importance it attached to being imitated by it. ‘proxy learning. Also, and not to be missed, is his work Theory of Social Learning, from 1977, which explained in detail his vision of this type of learning.
Among the honors that this psychologist was able to show were the president of the APA in 1974, In addition to having received two awards from the same association in the 1980s and 2004 for their scientific contribution.
Bibliographical references:
- Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: a social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
- Bandura, A. (1999b). Moral detachment in the commission of inhumanity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3, 193–209.
- Bandura, A. (2001). Cognitive social theory: an agency perspective. Annual Journal of Psychology, 52, 1-26.
- Bandura, A. and Walters, RH (1959). Aggression of adolescents. New York: Ronald Press. | https://psychologysays.net/biography/albert-bandura-biography-of-one-of-the-most-influential-psychologists/ |
Social Learning Theory (sometimes abbreviated SLT) postulates that a child better learns new behaviors by observing his peers and imitating the patterns of behavior that are the subject of rewards and not punishments – that is the main concept of the “observational learning”). This theory is used in various fields including research, psychology, sociology, criminology and the “Planning theory.”
The social learning theory is derived from the work of Cornell Montgomery (1843-1904), who proposed that social learning occurred through the four main stages: close contact, imitation of superiors, understanding of concepts, and a model behavior to follow.
Julian B. Rotter moved away from theories based on psychosis and radical behaviorism, and developed a theory of learning based on interaction.
We can write a Custom Research Paper on Social Learning Theory for you!
In Social Learning and Clinical Psychology (1954), Rotter suggests that the outcome of behavior has an impact on the motivation of people to perform that specific behavior. People want to avoid the negative consequences, and get positive.
If one expects a positive outcome of a behavior, or thinks there is a high chance of producing a positive result, then there will be more likely to implement such behavior. The behavior is reinforced, with positive consequences, leading the person to repeat it. This social learning theory suggests that behavior is influenced by factors or stimuli of the environment, not only by the psychological.
The theory of Bandura ‘s social learning defines three procurement procedures which have their source in the environment of the individual : so-called Vicarious learning is that resulting from imitation by observing a pair performing a behavior to acquire (trainer or member – leader – group); Social facilitation, which means improving the performance of the individual as a result of the presence of one or more observers – which makes group training a preferable option in many cases; Cognitive anticipation is the integration of a response by reasoning from similar situations – which will lead to the methods of cognitive educability.
Vygotsky had also worked on the learning theory that emphasized the social component.
Transposed to the educational process, it considered that learning process occurs first in a collective activity supported by the trainer and the social group, and further when an individual activity becomes an internalized property. Bruner adds an additional element: the role of “cultural atmosphere” of the individual. Learning and success of it also depends on culture – ethos habitus, symbolic system – in which the individual evolves.
John Friedmann has introduced the social learning theory in the theories of planning. This approach advocates learning by experience and practice of the groups involved in planning actions in their environment.
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- Reinforcement process:- Individuals will be motivated to exhibit the modeled behavior if a simple positive or rewards are provides behaviors that modes positively reinforced will be given more attention learned better and performed more often .
Social learning theory In Some other Words :-
Social learning theory combines cognitive learning theory (which posits that learning is influenced by psychological factors) and behavioral learning theory (which assumes that learning is based on responses to environmental stimuli). Albert Bandura integrated these two theories and came up with four requirements for learning: observation (environmental), retention (cognitive), reproduction (cognitive), and motivation (both). This integrative approach to learning was called social learning theory. The theory has often been called a bridge between behaviorist and cognitive learning theories because it encompasses Memory and Motivation.In addition to the observation of behavior, learning also occurs through the observation of rewards and punishments, a process known as vicarious reinforcement. | https://professortoday.com/social-learning-theory/ |
The capability of describing their own set of behavioral expectations must be maintained by every school, so there is no particular set of behaviors that can be perceived as challenging universally. However, grounds for expulsion and suspension must be set commonly in all schools. Whereas, for some teachers and in some schools, the challenging behavior can be perceived generally as the behavior that interferes with the learning or the safety of the student or other students or maybe the one which interferes with the safety of the staff of the school.
Some of the examples of challenging behavior involve inappropriate social behavior, unsafe and/or violent behavior, disruptive behavior, and withdrawn behavior. The inappropriate social behaviors can involve inappropriate masturbation or touching, being over-affectionate, stealing, or inappropriate conversations. The unsafe and/or violent behaviors may involve smashing fixtures/furniture or any other school’s equipment, running away, fighting, punching, biting, kicking, or headbanging. The disruptive behaviors may involve refusal of following the classroom and schools’ instructions effectively, screaming, swearing, tantrums, speaking loudly in the classroom or being out of the classroom seat without any purpose. The withdrawn behaviors may involve hand flapping, social isolation, truancy, school phobia, anxiety, staring, rocking or shyness.
It is also important to note that student behavior in the classrooms is mostly influenced by various factors. These factors can eventually lead to both bad and good classroom behaviors. One of the factors can be the behavior of teachers, for example, over-reliance on rewards or punishments, over-reaction to misbehavior, or disorganized or boring lessons. The factors can also include issues related to classroom organization like obliviousness to cultural differences, ineffective materials or inconstant routines. Environmental factors may also be involved, for instance, the seating arrangements of the classroom or the level of noise in the classroom.
Other factors may also include student group dynamics, like, hostility or student apathy or cliques, or teasing and bullying. Cultural factors may also be involved like the ‘sorry businesses of the Koorie Community. Last but least, historical factors may also be included such as traumatic experiences of government agencies and school. Along with factors, it is also important for teachers to understand the role played by behavioral triggers that result in bad and good classroom behaviors. As specific behaviors can be promoted by triggers which are mostly referred to as events or actions. Teachers can deliberately use some triggers to correct classroom behaviors of students. For instance, signals may often be used by teachers to draw the attention of students or prefer to stay quiet to trigger the students to exhibit expected good attentive behavior.
However, the challenging or bad behavior may also be exhibited by some students due to some events or actions in the classroom used as the triggers. For example, for students experiencing learning difficulties, one of the effective triggers that can be used is asking students to place their books away and pull out a piece of paper so that writing exercise can be started. Those students who may be unable to do it may show that they are dealing with struggling behaviors and require additional attention by the teachers.
Moreover, classroom behavior also depends upon the environment of the classroom and the capabilities of the individual student. For instance, the noisy and large classroom may often influence students to exhibit bad classroom behavior, whereas, a quiet, attentive and small classroom of students may encourage them to display good behavior. It is also important to consider that one of the critical factors of any response to the challenging behavior of any student is the identification of the trigger that may be suitable for that particular student. When triggers are found, school staff and teachers may be able to encourage good classroom behavior.
Impacts of Behavior in the Classroom
Students’ learning is mostly influenced by how they behave in the classroom. Even all of the students’ learning can be interrupted if even student has inappropriate behavior. It is the key responsibility of the teacher to manage the classroom in such adequate manner that it reinforces and encourages learning. Both punishments and rewards systems are used by educators to help students in effective learning. Behavior is often learned by students by imitating watching others. Learning is mostly detracted by different types of behavior. Thereby, it can be claimed that there are both bad and good effects of behavior in the classroom.
Learning in the classroom can be negatively influenced by different behaviors, such as making noise in the classroom, disturbing other students, not paying significant attention in the classroom, leaving the bench without teacher’s permission. In such cases, the issue must be identified clearly by the teacher, and he/she must figure out methods through which such behaviors can be avoided. The teacher must also focus on how the pattern of expected good behavior can be followed by students. For example, good class behavior can be encouraged by giving rewards to students, like stickers on a chart, extra recess, or prized. Expected behavior will be learned by students in this way. However, one of its negative impacts is that it may also lead students to believe that learning promoted behavior may only be exhibited in case there are chances of having rewards in return.
In contrast to this, punishment is also one of the methods to encourage good classroom behavior in students. Unacceptable behavior may not be exhibited by students if they know that they may have to face bad outcomes in case of violation of rules. However, punishment also has one great negative impact. It often leads the student to learn to cheat or lie in order to avoid punishment such as sent to the office of the principal, skip recess or extra work assigned.
Thereby, it is necessary that outcomes related to real-life situations must be provided as examples in order to reinforce acceptable classroom behavior. As the world always not reward or punish individuals to make them behave in a specific manner. It is highly mandatory that students must learn that there are specific outcomes and natural rewards that originally are driven by different kinds of behavior. Some schools have maintained specific sets of rules along with teams for school improvement that study the impacts of behavior on learning and thereby make adjustments in rules accordingly. In addition, for identification of issues related to behavior the community members and colleagues must work collaboratively and set such examples through which good behavior can be encouraged in classrooms.
It is important to consider that positive behaviors of students can be best supported and developed through means of clearly highlighted expected behaviors, classroom practices, and relation-based throughout school-practices. As challenging behavior is presented by some students and thereby require extra interventions and support for addressing their behavior and help them in developing positive behaviors. Positive behavior can be promoted through behavioral approaches and expectations. For this, a student engagement policy must be developed by schools that indicate the outcomes for exceeding the behavioral expectations. | https://thesisstation.com/author/admin/ |
the turn of the twentieth century, the field of Psychology found itself in a war between two contending theoretical perspectives: Gestalt psychology versus Behaviorism. With its roots within the United States, behaviorists in America were developing a theory that believed psychology should not be concerned with the mind or with human consciousness. Instead, behavior and the actions of humans would be the foremost concern of psychologists. Across the Atlantic, Gestalt psychology emerged by placing its criticism upon the methodology of introspection, especially by ways of disparaging behaviorism. Although the two theories originated on separate continents, their opposing ideas were brought together after World War II and continued to battle each other for almost half a century.
An American psychologist, by the name of John B. Watson, is historically known for "selling" the idea of Behaviorism to other American psychologists during the 1900s. Watson insisted that "psychology had failed to become an undisputed natural science because it was concerned with conscious processes that were invisible, subjective, and incapable of precise definition" (Hunt, page256). Watson's position on human behavior was that it could be explained entirely in terms of reflexes, stimulus-response associations, and the effects of multiple reinforcements upon a person--entirely excluding any mental processes. Watson's work was based on the experiments of Ivan Pavlov, who had studied animals' responses to conditioning. In Pavlov's most well-known experiment, he rang a bell each time he presented the dogs with food. Every time the dogs would hear the bell, their initial response would be to salivate because they believed that food was going to be offered. Pavlov then rang the bell without bringing food, yet the dogs continued to salivate. In essence, the dogs had been "conditioned" to salivate at the sound of the bell. From this research, Pavlov concluded that humans also react to stimuli in the same way--a finding that Watson would later emphasize.
In modern psychology, behaviorism is most closely associated with B.F. Skinner, a man who molded his reputation by testing Watson's theories in the laboratory. Skinner's studies led him to believe that people operate on the environment to produce certain consequences, along with simply responding to their surrounding environment. His continued research led him to the development of "operant conditioning", the idea that we behave the way we do because this kind of behavior has had certain consequences in the past. Like Watson, however, Skinner refuted the notion that human behavior is influenced by any action of the mind. As an alternative, our experience of reinforcements determines our behavior.
During the time that behaviorism was the prevailing learned theory in America, across the sea in Europe, the Gestalt theory was taking form. While behaviorists emphasized the measurement of the outcome of learning without considering the mental processes that may have led to it, the forefathers of the Gestalt theory believed that there was more involved with learning than behaviorism allowed. They supported the notion that there was cognitive processing in the human brain that helped determine our actions and behaviors.
The Gestalt theory hypothesizes that an individual's perception of stimuli has an affect on their response. If two individuals are exposed to identical stimuli, their reactions to it would be different, depending on their past experiences. Max Wertheimer is considered, in many respects, to be the founder of Gestalt psychology. Wertheimer had his first breakthrough when he noticed the movement of blinking lights as you traveled at high speeds past them. Wertheimer conducted further research on this concept and developed what is known today as the phi phenomenon. The phi phenomenon is the notion that our perception of an experience is something different from the experience itself. In essence, Gestalt psychology focused its principles primarily on three main points: analyzing human perception rather than past learning; the importance of the brain in analyzing human actions; and that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
The war between Behaviorism and Gestalt psychology lies readily in how human behavior can be observed and scientifically recorded. Watson and his followers rejected the idea promoted by earlier psychologists that consciousness could be studied scientifically. The Behaviorists insisted that if psychology was to be a science, it must be limit itself to the study of overt behavior which could be scientifically recorded and measured. In other words, they felt that mental processes cannot be studied scientifically because these processes are private. The Behaviorist movement was satisfied to limit themselves to a study of muscular movements and other bodily activities which can be seen or detected with some kind of instrument.
Behaviorists insisted that all emotions are nothing more than intuitive responses--increased heart beat, increased tension throughout the body were just reactions to the surrounding environment. They were not convinced of the reality of mental states such as emotions. Even if such mental states did exist, the Behaviorists were not interested in studying them because they could not be studied scientifically. In their minds, psychology "would be based on reactions as specific and unvarying as those of chemistry and physics" (Hunt, page 262). In dealing with the question of nature versus nurture as an explanation
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aggressive behavior.
○Environment – climate (heat) triggers aggression
•Individual and psychological factors
○Learning, cognitive processes, how do people
think/interpret, what happened as people grow up,
psychological perspectives for each individuals
•Biological factors
○Neural, hormonal, brain structures, bodily processes
*More dopamine results in a higher level of aggression over time.
Psychology – 1879 was the first time there was a field of study called
Psychology
•The scientific study of behavior and the mind. (4)
Schools of Psychology
•Broad ways of approaching the study of psychology
Functionalism
•Focus on the function or significance of behavior
•How does a behavior (or mental process) help us to adapt
•Primarily biological (could deal with the individual level as well)
•Modern example – Psychobiology Neuroscience, ethology (the
study of animals in their natural habitat)
Psychodynamic
•Focus on unconscious experience also known as “the mind”
•Look for unresolved conflict (Look up Froid)
•Importance of personality
•Modern example – brief psychodynamic therapy, unconscious
processing (various influential factors that are subliminal)
Behaviorism
•Focus on behavior and forget “the mind” (opposite to the
psychodynamic)
•Focus on stuff that you can see because you know it is actually
there
•Discuss how behavior changes under various conditions
•Primarily environmental
•Modern example – learning theories, behavior modification
Pioneers
•Freud
What are the different approaches to psychology?
What do psychologists do? | https://oneclass.com/class-notes/ca/western/psyc/psy-1000/27783-chapter-1.en.html |
Organismic trait designed to solve an ancestral problem s. Shows complexity, special "design", functionality Adaptation that has been "re-purposed" to solve a different adaptive problem. Williams suggested that an "adaptation is a special and onerous concept that should only be used where it is really necessary. Obligate and facultative adaptations[ edit ] A question that may be asked about an adaptation is whether it is generally obligate relatively robust in the face of typical environmental variation or facultative sensitive to typical environmental variation.
Saul McLeodupdated There are various approaches in contemporary psychology. An approach is a perspective i. There may be several different theories within an approach, but they all share these common assumptions. You may wonder why there are so many different psychology perspectives and whether one approach is correct and others wrong.
Most psychologists would agree that no one perspective is correct, although in the past, in the early days of psychology, the behaviorist would have said their perspective was the only truly scientific one.
Each perspective has its strengths and weaknesses, and brings something different to our understanding of human behavior. For this reason, it is important that psychology does have Phychology in perspective perspectives on the understanding and study of human and animal behavior.
Below is a summary of the six main psychological approaches sometimes called perspectives in psychology. Behaviorism is different from most other approaches because they view people and animals as controlled by their environment and specifically that we are the result of what we have learned from our environment.
Behaviorism is concerned with how environmental factors called stimuli affect observable behavior called the response. The behaviorist approach proposes two main processes whereby people learn from their environment: Classical conditioning involves learning by association, and operant conditioning involves learning from the consequences of behavior.
Though looking into natural reflexes and neutral stimuli he managed to condition dogs to salivate to the sound of a bell through repeated associated with the sound of the bell and food.
The principles of CC have been applied in many therapies.
These include systematic desensitization for phobias step-by-step exposed to a feared stimulus at once and aversion therapy. Skinner investigated operant conditioning of voluntary and involuntary behavior.
Therefore behavior occurs for a reason, and the three main behavior shaping techniques are positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and punishment. Behaviorism also believes in scientific methodology e. Behaviorism rejects the idea that people have free will, and believes that the environment determines all behavior.
Behaviorism is the scientific study of observable behavior working on the basis that behavior can be reduced to learned S-R Stimulus-Response units. Behaviorism has been criticized in the way it under-estimates the complexity of human behavior. Many studies used animals which are hard to generalize to humans, and it cannot explain, for example, the speed in which we pick up language.
There must be biological factors involved. Freud believes that events in our childhood can have a significant impact on our behavior as adults.noun. 1. the capacity to observe items, occurrences, and ideas in realistic proportions and unions.
2. the capacity to perceive and understand relative position, size, and distance of items in a plane field as though they are 3-D. 3. the ability of someone to take into consideration and potentially understand the interpretations, outlooks, or actions of .
Psychology is the science of behavior and mind, including conscious and unconscious phenomena, as well as feeling and thought. The biopsychosocial model is an integrated perspective toward understanding consciousness, behavior, and social interaction.
It assumes that any given behavior or mental process affects and is affected by. The polarizing issues in the world today require a new perspective. Each side must acknowledge that "we both may be right in some ways, and wrong in some others." Health.
Introduction to Learning Theory and Behavioral Psychology. Learning can be defined as the process leading to relatively permanent behavioral change or potential behavioral change.
In other words, as we learn, we alter the way we perceive our environment, the way we interpret the incoming stimuli, and therefore the way we interact, or behave.
Humanistic psychology is a psychological perspective that rose to prominence in the midth century, drawing on the philosophies of existentialism and phenomenology, as well as Eastern philosophy.
It adopts a holistic approach to human existence through investigations of concepts such as meaning, values, freedom, tragedy, personal . Psychological Perspectives for AP Psychology The one constant throughout the entire AP Psychology exam (and throughout the field of psychology as a whole) is that there are several different viewpoints, or perspectives, about how to think about and interpret human behavior. | https://bybiqalalevucix.srmvision.com/phychology-in-perspective-39728oh.html |
Burrhus Frederic Skinner—more commonly known as B.F. Skinner—was a 20th century psychologist who developed the theory of radical behaviorism.
Professional Life
Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born on March 20, 1904 in Pennsylvania. He initially set his academic sights on writing and moved to New York to attend Hamilton College, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in English literature. Hamilton College was not a great fit for Skinner: the school required daily chapel attendance and Skinner was an atheist. He frequently published articles critical of the school and its administration. Skinner’s criticism of popular ideology would become a lifelong occupation.
Skinner developed an interest in psychology, and he enrolled in a graduate program at Harvard University, where he earned his PhD in psychology in 1931. Skinner was a research fellow with the National Research Council for one year and conducted research at Harvard until 1936, at which point he accepted a teaching position at the University of Minnesota. From 1945–1948, Skinner taught psychology at Indiana University, and from 1948 until his retirement in 1974, he was a professor at Harvard.
Skinner was a prolific author as well as an academic. His most famous works include Beyond Freedom and Dignity and Walden II, a fictional account of a culture dominated by behaviorist ideas. The book Verbal Behavior was not widely accepted at the time of its publication, but it has achieved significant readership over the years. Skinner received the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990, from the American Psychology Association; the Outstanding member and Distinguished Professional Achievement Award in 1991, from the Society for Performance Improvement; and most notably, the 1997 Scholar Hall of Fame Award, from the Academy of Resource and Development.
Contribution to Psychology
Over the course of his long career, Skinner developed many theories and inventions, and he remains one of the best known and most controversial figures in psychology. His behaviorist theories remain hotly contested and have influenced fields ranging from education to dog training. Skinner influenced behaviorism through his research on reinforcement; he focused heavily on the exploration of negative and positive reinforcement and the effects they had on behavior. He believed that his behaviorist theories could save humanity from itself and argued in favor of positive reinforcement to shape political and social behavior. His theory of radical behaviorism argues that internal perceptions are not based on a psychological level of consciousness, but rather on an individual's own physical body.
Among Skinner’s many inventions was a highly controversial one, known as the “Air-Crib” that he developed while teaching at Indiana University. Designed to support child rearing, the crib was a temperature-controlled, sterile, soundproof box that was meant to encourage a child’s independence, while minimizing discomfort. The most famous of Skinner’s inventions is commonly known as the “Skinner box,” a device designed to employ “operant conditioning”—the manipulation of behaviors through reinforcement. For example, an animal would receive a reward for small acts representing a desired behavior and the rewards would increase as the animal came closer to completing the desired behavior.
Skinner conducted extensive research into reinforcement as a method of teaching. Continuous reinforcement involves the constant delivery of reinforcement by reward for a desired behavior, but Skinner found the method impractical and ineffective. Interval-based reinforcements, on the other hand, are reinforcements delivered according to a specific schedule and tend to produce slow and steady change. Interval-based reinforcement might follow a fixed interval or variable interval schedule, providing reinforcement after a fixed or variable amount of time. Alternatively, interval-based reinforcement can follow a fixed-ratio schedule, in which reinforcement is given after a certain number of responses, or a variable-ratio schedule, in which reinforcement is provided based on an average number of responses. Skinner concluded that variable-ratio schedules tend to produce the most compliance, particularly when rewards occur frequently. For example, a person training a dog might reward the dog, on average, every five times it obeys, but vary the number of obedience tasks between each reward.
Books by B.F. Skinner
- The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis (1938)
- Walden Two (1948)
- Science and Human Behavior (1953)
- Schedules of Reinforcement (1957)
- Verbal Behavior (1957)
- The Analysis of Behavior: A Program for Self Instruction (with James Holland, 1961)
- The Technology of Teaching (1968)
- Contingencies of Reinforcement: A Theoretical Analysis (1969)
- Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971)
- About Behaviorism (1974)
- Particulars of My Life: Part One of an Autobiography (1976)
- Reflections on Behaviorism and Society (1978)
- The Shaping of a Behaviorist: Part Two of an Autobiography (1979)
- Notebooks (with Robert Epstein, 1980)
- Enjoy Old Age: A Program of Self-Management (with M. Vaughan, 1983)
- A Matter of Consequences: Part Three of an Autobiography (1983)
- Upon Further Reflection (1987)
- Recent Issues in the Analysis of Behavior (1989)
References: | https://www.goodtherapy.org/famous-psychologists/bf-skinner.html |
Document the process for review, including when it will take place. It will take minutes to complete. External communication is twofold: it enables inbound communication of relevant external information and provides information to external parties in response to requirements and expectations. Management can begin the monitoring process by encouraging the people with control system responsibility to seek out additional resources and training so they can properly consider how best to implement effective monitoring or ascertain whether it has already been incorporated into certain areas. Recent Posts. Did you find this useful? Some organizations use software to monitor the effectiveness of the internal control systems. Internal control is all of the policies and procedures management uses to achieve the following goals. Ongoing evaluations, on the other hand, refer to routine monitoring activities which are built into the operations of the organization. Many recent publications note lack of automation in internal controls monitoring in many organizations.
The management of an entity need to evaluate the internal control of the firm to Monitoring Activities: Ongoing evaluations, separate evaluations, or some.
Ongoing monitoring activities evaluate and improve the design, execution and effectiveness of internal control. Separate evaluations, on the other hand, such as. If You Don't Monitor Your Internal Controls, Fraud May Find Its Way In develop strong control environments by implementing effective control activities, but all Monitoring should be performed through ongoing and separate.
For example, continuous monitoring software can flag invalid transactions in real time and prevent them from being processed further.
Monitoring activities Husqvarna Group
They will, however, be staggered. Please enter your username to continue.
Although, for many, this has taken a great deal of time — the investment is well worth the effort for a number of reasons. Security activities will be reviewed in July, reconciliation in September and separation of duties in March.
As the board learns more about monitoring, it will develop the knowledge necessary to ask management probing and relevant questions in relation to any area of meaningful risk.
Monitoring: An Integral Component of Internal Control.
Internal Controls Audit & Advisory Services
Over the past decade, ongoing monitoring and separate evaluations can be implemented. 1 COSO. Ongoing internal monitoring relates to activities that monitor the internal control are: control environment, risk assessment, control activities, information and.
These are fully described in the next section. The deficiencies identified should be addressed by taking corrective actions in due time. Please enter your username to continue. Overall, the use of software with carefully designed alerts can prove to be an efficient and effective way for many organizations, large or small, to analyze large volumes of transactions to assess both internal controls and operations of the entire organization.
Monitoring An Integral Component of Internal Control Jacobson Jarvis & Co
In automated separate evaluations, software periodically performs integrity checks i. Internal Control Activities and Best Practices Internal control activities are the policies and procedures as well as the daily activities that occur within an internal control system.
Oduware Uwadiae ouwadiae deloitte. | http://muzikokulu.net/unsorted/ongoing-monitoring-activities-of-internal-control-15509840.html |
Persevere in providing an equitable and rigorous foundation for students to succeed.
Joliet Public Schools District 86 employs a staff of twelve full-time certified school psychologists. These personnel are primarily responsible for supporting the implementation of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) in the District and for providing diagnostic and related follow-up services to District children from ages 3 through 8th grade.
Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS): The school psychologists assist district buildings with universal screening and progress monitoring activities. They provide data analysis services to building grade level teams and collaborate with parents, teachers, and other staff to analyze problems and facilitate research-based early interventions for learning and/or behavior problems. School psychologists assist with the evaluation of the effectiveness of the implemented interventions and serve as the chairperson for the Tier 3 problem-solving team.
Diagnostic services: The school psychologists chair the special education meetings pertaining to evaluations and reevaluations. The psychologists initiate the evaluation process by arranging and chairing an individual assessment plan meeting at which to monitor the completion of the recommended assessments. Student Services Coordinators with their psychologists arrange and chair the conference at which the child’s eligibility for special education services is determined. the psychologists also complete intellectual and academic assessments, if needed, as part of the evaluation or reevaluation process to determine special education eligibility. | https://www.joliet86.org/departments/special-services/psychological-services/ |
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