The Use of Plastic Waste Products for Building Materials to Reduce the Essay

The Use of Plastic Waste Products for Building Materials to Reduce the Housing Shortage for the People of the Dalit Caste in India - Essay Example The Dalit communities are groups who belong to one of the castes of the untouchables. These groups have suffered under oppression for centuries, the traditions of the social structure keeping them in poverty and despair, struggling for scraps of food and limiting their ability to earn a living to working in the ‘unclean’ professions. One of those professions is in the waste disposal of the cities, meaning that the communities of the Dalits are in direct contact with plastic waste products. Systems of creating plastic waste products into building materials through various means of technological innovations have presented a use for the waste materials that the Dalits have access to in order to solve one of their biggest problems – housing shortages. This thesis intends to explore the nature of the production of building materials through recycling of plastics in order to address the issue of housing shortages, which will also present the communities for opportunitie s of an entrepreneurial nature which can help to curb the poverty in those regions. Through an examination of the nature of plastic from production through its disposal, the environmental impact will be explored so that the benefit of repurposing the product for building materials can be more thoroughly understood. The focus of this research will be on the nature of plastic, with information about the social structure of the Dalit communities explored in order to address the potential for introducing recycling systems for creating building materials.

Handling Data Comparing height and weight for Mayfield High School Essay

Handling Data Comparing height and weight for Mayfield High School - Essay Example But if I can turn this into a picture, I can then compare the boys data with the girls data. Heights of Boys and Girls And to compare boys and girls, I can put them both on the same graph. It looks like more boys are taller than girls, which I think is normal. I can do the same for weight. Weight of Boys and Girls And to compare the weights of boys and girls: From the graph above it seem that boys have a weight that is more spread out. Girls seem to be closer together, and don't seem to weigh more than 74 kg. It looks like the boys also weigh more, which makes sense if their taller. Stem and Leaf Since I already grouped all the data, I can record it in stem and leaf diagrams. That way, I can more easily find the median and the mode. Boys Height Stem Leaf Frequency 1.30 2, 2 2 1.40 5, 8, 8 3 1.50 0, 2, 3, 4, 8 5 1.60 0, 2, 5, 5, 7 5 1.70 0, 2, 2, 4, 5 5 1.80 0, 0, 0, 2, 5, 5, 6 7 1.90 0, 1 2 2.00 0 1 The mean height is easily found by adding up all the heights and dividing by 30. Adding up all the heights comes to 50.13, and dividing by 30 gives 1.67m. I can also find the median, which should be between the 15th and 16th numbers (written in pink), so it's 1.685, which rounds to 1.69. And the mode is the number that occurs most frequently, which is 1.80 (in red). Boys Weight Stem Leaf Frequency 30 8 1 40 0, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 7, 8 8 50 0, 2, 4, 6, 6, 7, 8, 9 8 60 2, 4, 6, 6, 8, 9 6 70 0, 2, 2, 3 4 80 0, 2, 6 3 90 0 I can get the mean, median and mode for boys weights the same way. The mean is the addition of all the weights divided by 30, which means 1763/30 or 58.767, which rounds to 58.8kg. The median is between the 15th and 16th numbers which is 57.5kg. There are 4 modes: 44, 56, 66, and 72. Girls...I can also see that boys tend to be taller than girls. But if I can turn this into a picture, I can then compare the boys data with the girls data. From the graph above it seem that boys have a weight that is more spread out. Girls seem to be closer together, and don't seem to weigh more than 74 kg. It looks like the boys also weigh more, which makes sense if their taller. The mean height is easily found by adding up all the heights and dividing by 30. Adding up all the heights comes to 50.13, and dividing by 30 gives 1.67m. I can also find the median, which should be between the 15th and 16th numbers (written in pink), so it's 1.685, which rounds to 1.69. And the mode is the number that occurs most frequently, which is 1.80 (in red). I can get the mean, median and mode for boys weights the same way. The mean is the addition of all the weights divided by 30, which means 1763/30 or 58.767, which rounds to 58.8kg. The median is between the 15th and 16th numbers which is 57.5kg. There are 4 modes: 44, 56, 66, and 72. The range that holds the mode for boys and girls is the same in both cases. This is probably because boys height is more spread out than girls. It could also be because there is a mistake in the sampling. Since there are more than one mode for boys weight, there's not a lot I can so about it.

Impact of HIH Collapse

Impact of HIH Collapse The March 2001 collapse of HIH Insurance sent shockwaves through the Australian business community. The country’s second-largest employer, HIH was at the tail-end of a major acquisition spree that had seen the company purchase major insurance operations in New Zealand, Argentina, Switzerland and the US since 1997. Most significantly, in 1999 HIH had purchased one of its main competitors, FAI Insurance, taking on that company’s chief executive Rodney Adler as one of its corporate directors. With an estimated $8.1bn asset base at the end of 2000, HIH was widely perceived as an extremely robust and reliable company; however, private internal reports had begun to demonstrate that the company’s debt leverage and insurance liabilities were so high that there was a real risk of insolvency. Ultimately, in early 2001 the company’s precarious financial situation became untenable and HIH endured the largest corporate collapse in Australian history, going down with lo sses of more than $5bn. With the company continuing to function purely so as to service old claims, with no new business being taken onboard, Australia’s financial regulators set out to determine the precise chain of events that had led to the HIH collapse. (M. Westfield. 2003) A Royal commission, examined the chain of events that led to the collapse of HIH. Reporting in April 2003, the commission found that there wasnt just a single cause of the company’s collapse. But that there was systematic failure in almost every area of its operation (hihroyalcom.gov.au 2003), and the extent of this failure was so great that criminal charges were brought against key members of the company’s board such as William Howard, Ray Williams, Geoffrey Cohen and Rodney Adler. (ASIC 2005) In particular, Rodney Adler was convicted on four separate charges: one count of obtaining money by deception; one count of dishonesty in the discharge of his duties; and two counts of intentionally disseminating false information. In particular, Adler was found to have falsely claimed, in a number of interviews, that he had personally purchased HIH shares in mid-2000. (D. Elias .2005)ÂÂ   By making such claims, and specifically by claiming that HIH is undervalued in terms o f its share price, Adler was guilty of willfully disseminating financial information that they knew, or had good reason to know, was false. However, there were separate calls for an inquiry into how HIH’s corporate governance systems had failed to prevent Adler abusing his position in such a manner. In a separate claim, Adler was accused of persuading HIH to invest a $2m loan in Business Thinking Systems (BTS), a company in which Adler had an interest.(Karen Percy 2005) The other major failing identified in the downfall of HIH was a failure to provide properly for future claims, and all other problems essentially stemmed from this issue. Covering future claims is one of the most fundamental aspects of any insurance company’s business, yet by the end of its existence HIH was in a position where a negative shift of as little as 1.7% would be enough to bring the company to the point of insolvency(M Westfield,2003) . The primary reason for this failure was reported to be a mismanagement of changing market conditions, which increased HIH’s liabilities massively and were not covered by strategic planning initiatives that might have been expected to absorb such changes. Changing market conditions can cause serious destabilization for any insurance company, but the risks are well-known and most companies take extra care in order to minimize their exposure to such changes. The fact that HIH dramatically over-exposed itself was for the most part due to the company’s extremely rapid expansion (Brendan Bailey 2003).As noted earlier, HIH acquired a number of companies during its final years and was making a major push for international expansion. Such expansion, while often a strong business move, often brings greater liabilities than would otherwise be the case, and HIH appears to have acted based on the belief that the liabilities would merely be proportional to its expansion. The company appears to have fundamentally misunderstood the degree to which extra provisions need to be made for changes in its market environment. This is a major mistake that could in my opinion, if addressed at the time, have been resolved. The fact that the board of HIH apparently went unchallenged when pursuing this strategy shows that there was a failure of governance at HIH, with no real oversight being applied to check whether the company’s strategy was correct or financial sustainable. In the aftermath of the HIH collapse, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) made a number of changes to ensure that the same problem could not be repeated. In particular, ASIC inaugurated a strict new set of corporate governance rules designed to ensure that companies stay closer to the regulations in this area. ASIC acted on the belief that the core governance procedures and rules were fundamentally sound during HIH’s final months, but that ultimately the company’s board was able to find ways to achieve technical compliance while still engaging in the kind of activity that the regulations were designed to prevent.(ASIC 2003) In my opinion this can be seen as a failure of the regulations as much as a failure of the company, although clearly it was the decision of individuals such as Adler to deliberately move against these regulations that led to the company’s downfall because there was no proper oversight on the actions of the board. Howeve r Adler and other members of the HIH board were in no way induced or encouraged to act in the way that they did. Rather, they chose to go against the spirit of the rules and act in a manner that was clearly against the best interests of the company. Ultimately, it’s clear that HIH should have been much more cautious when pursuing its expansion, and should have taken greater steps to ensure that its liabilities were covered. By expanding so rapidly, the company was entering markets in which it had little or no experience, yet no provision appears to have been made for the need to leave extra margins while entering these new markets. This is clearly a case of major mismanagement and of over-confidence during a period of major expansion. These problems were increased, by the company’s reaction to its bad financial position, and particularly by Rodney Adler’s decision to attempt to secure investment based on false statements. Even when the company’s enhanced liability was made apparent, in my opinion there still could have been a chance for HIH to recover by introducing a major cost-cutting program and ensuring that future operations would eventually make up for the losses. Adler chose to try to cover up the financial problems in the short-term and hope that his misstatements might ultimately bring the company back onto a strong financial footing that would allow it to cover over his mismanagement so that it would never become public. This approach by Adler was designed to fix the initial over-expansion error, but actually compounded that problem and represented a second serious mistake. The fact that the regulatory authorities were unaware of what was happening in my opinion does not indicate major problems with those authorities, since any company that engages in the level of deception orchestrated at HIH will always have a chance of getting past the rules. Although lessons can be learnt, particularly in terms of the apparently concentration of power in Adler’s hands, there’s clearly a limit to the ability of regulatory groups to cover companies where the directors set out on a determined path to commit fraud and to mislead observers. Although this does not mean that the authorities should not be vigilant, it’s clear that in the case of HIH, ensuring full and proper punishment for Adler and other executives in the aftermath of the collapse, as a warning to others, was in my opinion one of the best options. Bibliography Amerta Mardjono (2005). A tale of corporate governance: lessons why firms fail. Managerial Auditing Journal, vol. 20, no. 3 p. 272-283 ASIC (2003). Current corporate governance issues an ASIC perspective. Retrieved from http://www.asic.gov.au/asic/pdflib.nsf/LookupByFileName/nt_busprof_women_corp_gov190903.pdf/$file/nt_busprof_women_corp_gov190903.pdf on the 06.04.2010 Brendan Bailey (2003). Report of the Royal Commission into HIH Insurance. Retrieved from http://www.aph.gov.au/library/Pubs/RN/2002-03/03rn32.htm on the 07.04.2010 David Elias (2005). Adler guilty on 4 charges. Retrieved from http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Adler-guilty-on-4-charges /2005/ 02/16/ 1108500154731.html on the 03.04.2010 on the 04.04.2010 David Kehl (2001). HIH Insurance Group Collapse. Retrieved from http://www.aph.gov.au/library/INTGUIDE/econ/hih_insurance.htm on the 30.03.2010 hihroyalcom.gov.au (2003). The failure of HIH insurance. Retrieved from http://www.hihroyalcom.gov.au/finalreport/Front%20Matter,%20critical%20assessment%20and%20summary.HTML#_Toc37086537 on the 05.04.2010 Karen Percy (2005). Rodney Adler receives prison sentence. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2005/s1345296.htm on the 07.04.2010 M .Westfield , (2003) HIH: The Inside Story of Australia’s Biggest Corporate Collapse. Sydney: John Wiley Sons Australia, Philomena Leung Barry.J. Cooper (2005). The Mad Hatter’s corporate tea party. Managing Auditing Journal, vol. 18, no. 6/7 p. 505-516

Macbeth essay :: essays research papers

A Character in Her Own Right   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Behind all the great men of Shakespeare, there is a women close behind, who is often over looked. These women are just as crucial of a character as the men they follow. In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth is a mere tool, there to carry out orders for his wife, both of whom desire nothing more than to rule. Together they will do anything, including murder, achieve their goal. Lady Macbeth proves to be a tragic figure and possess every capability that a man is able to. Although female, Lady Macbeth has proven herself as a central influence to the plot of the story, her strong, individualistic ways and ruthless plans prove to be the rise and downfall of her husbands reign as king and death, as well as her own.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When the reader is first introduced to Lady Macbeth in acts one and two, they receive some insight into who she is and what she stands for. Lady Macbeth is reading a letter from her husband and learns of his desire to be king and to what lengths he claims he will go to achieve it. In her response, the presence of a realistic mind set is obvious. She frankly tells her husband that he can not be a good man while taking what is not his. She gets straight to the point and uses other tactics of persuasion to make sure her point is clear. â€Å"Hie thee hither. / That I may pour my spirits in thine ear/ And chastise with the valor of my tongue/ All that impedes thee from the golden round† (I.iiiii.24-27). Here she is using her sexual hold over Macbeth to further her power over him and get her own way. Lady Macbeth also proves to be truly ruthless as she wishes herself a man filled with cruelty and thick blood so she will not feel any remorse. She also speaks of bashing babies against the wall and wishing for night so that her knife can not see what is does and heaven can not tell her to stop. Lady Macbeth will not let her husband back out of the plot and clearly has thought of everything so the murder goes just the way she wants. She does everything except the actual deed. Lady Macbeth states to her husband, â€Å"My hands are of your color, but I shame/ To wear a heart so white† (II.

International Adoption

Tammy Joiner CFS 157, 6:00 PM 2 May 2012 International Adoption Offers Advantages and Disadvantages In April of 2010, an American single mother, Torry Hansen, put her foreign-adopted seven-year-old son on a plane back to Moscow—alone. She cited psychological and behavior issues as the reason for such a drastic measure, â€Å"After giving my best to this child, I am sorry to say that for the safety of my family, friends, and myself, I no longer wish to parent this child,† read the note accompanying the frightened Artyem Saviliev to the Russian Education of Ministries (Magee and Netter 2).Intercountry or international adoption is the process of establishing a permanent parent-child relationship with a child from another country through proper and legal channels (Intercountry Adoption). More Americans are opting for this means of adoption, some due to infertility but largely due to the media and celebrities bringing awareness to the mistreatment of children in foreign land s (Knox and Schacht 326-327). Although adopting abroad can be very rewarding for prospective parents, it can often result in startling challenges. Fulfilling AdvantagesThere are several benefits to international adoption. Around the world there are numerous orphaned children available to hopeful mothers and fathers. The U. S Department of State, Offices of Children’s Issues—Intercountry Adoption reports in 2011 there were over 9,300 foreign adoptions in the United States most of which were from China, Ethiopia, Russia, South Korea, and the Ukraine, respectively. With this type of adoption, parents have the option of selecting their preferences when it comes to the age (especially infants), gender, and nationality of the child.Transcontinental adoptions are usually handled by an adoption agency, the country’s adoption committee, or thorough an in-country visit (â€Å"Pros & Cons of†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). Another advantage and possibly the most important is the opportun ity to give a disadvantaged child a happy home. Unfortunately, young children often undergo global changes including poverty and war which may make it difficult for them to remain in their home country. For example, China’s one-child policy leaves infant girls open to abandonment.In that nation, parents would suffer harsh penalties for having an additional child; therefore they are inclined to desert any other children born into the household (â€Å"International Adoption†). Intercontinental adoption provides another way for children to receive the care, stability, and love that they need to succeed in the form of a permanent family. Indeed, this method of adoption offers an alternative for many potential parents desiring to build their families with children that are in need (Intercountry Adoption). Challenging DisadvantagesIn many cases of foreign adoption unexpected and surprising setbacks have occurred. Some of which are expensive fees, exploitation of children, an d behavior problems. Adoptive parents spend from $30,000 to $40,000 to bring their children home (Hannigan). It has been reported that due to the amount of money involved in these types of adoptions, children have been adopted fraudulently. These children are often stolen at gunpoint or the birthmother has been paid to place her child with an agency. Several adoptive parents have been awarded children that were not orphaned further complicating the process.Recently, due to like violations, the United States have suspended adoptions in Guatemala (Hannigan). These and other violations are under review from the Hague Adoption Convention—â€Å"an international agreement established to protect intercountry adoptions, preventing the abduction, sale, or trafficking of children† (â€Å"International Adoption†). Additionally, intercountry adoptive families may face unforeseen and major challenges dealing with behavior, health, and mental issues. Frequently, adoptive pare nts receive incomplete, or false information regarding the medical and background history of their children.This often leaves them unprepared to handle difficulties when they surface. In addition, there are virtually no post-adoptive services available, adding to the issue. Therefore, the adoptive parents contemplate returning the children as dependents of the State (Ruggiero). Conclusion Undisputedly, international adoption is one of the most admirable, life-changing, and rewarding experiences one can take on. I applaud those who are motivated by love to open their hearts and homes to children from any land, domestic or foreign.My grandmother was such a person; she adopted my mother when she was ten months old, after her biological mother abandoned her. Nonetheless, it is also one of the most difficult and weighty decisions one could ever make, as the outcome could have lasting and damaging effects for all involved. I fully support this form of adoption, hopefully, with global enfo rcement of regulations and policies intercountry adoption can continue; and succeed in protecting the adoptive parents, the birthparents, and most of all the children—like Artyem Saviliev. Works Cited Hannigan, Elizabeth. International Adoption Disadvantages. † Ehow Dot Com. N. p. www. ehow. com. Web. 24 Apr. 2012 â€Å"International Adoption. † Current Issues: Macmillian Social Science Library. Detroit: Gale. 2010. N. p. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 13 Apr. 2012 Knox, David. , and Caroline Schacht. â€Å"Choices In Relationships: An Introduction To Marriage and the Family, Tenth Edition. † Belmont: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. 2010. Print Magee, Zoe and Sarah Netter. â€Å"Tennessee Mother Ships Adopted Son Back to Moscow Alone†. ABCNews Dot Com. 9 Apr. 2010. Pag. 1-3 www. abcnews. go. com. Web. 22 Apr. 012 â€Å"Pros & Cons of International Adoption. † Adoption Media LLC. 2012. N. p. www. international. adoption. com. Web. 13 A pr. 2012 Ruggiero, Josephine A. â€Å"Sometimes Adopted Children Must Be Returned to the State’sCare. † Child Custody. Detroit: Greenhaven Press. 2011. N. p. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. From â€Å"When Adoption Isn’t Easy. † Newsweek. 15 Apr. 2010. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 13 Apr. 2012. United States, Bureau of Consular Affairs, Dept of State, Office of Children’s Issues. Intercountry Adoption. Oct 2011. N. p. State Adoption Agency. www. adoption. state. gov. Web. 20 Apr. 2012.

Economic Growth in Nigeria Essay

The agriculture sector was the focus of intense development interest during the 1990s, with food self-sufficiency the goal. In 1990, agriculture was the subject of a separate three-year development plan involving public and private spending targets concentrating on the family farmer. The program  included price stabilization plans and schemes to revitalize the palm oil, cocoa, and rubber subsectors. The Agricultural Development Projects continued through the decade, but implementation of goals was difficult. The country still imports most of its wheat from the United States. An integrated petrochemical industry was also a priority. Using the output of the nation’s refineries, Nigeria produced benzene, carbon black, and polypropylene. The development of liquid natural gas facilities was expected to lead to the production of methanol, fertilizer, and domestic gas. Nigeria’s refineries operated at less than optimal rates throughout the 1990s. In the manufacturing sector, the government was backing a policy of local sourcing whereby locally produced raw materials were converted into finished products. By 1999, manufacturing accounted for less than 1% of gross domestic product (GDP). By the beginning of the 2000s, the government was more concerned about halting corruption and reigning in the state budget than economic development. Nevertheless, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) was created to coordinate economic and social development in the oil-producing region. Nigeria’s foreign debt stood at around $28.5 billion in 2001, a large portion of which was interest and payment arrears. The Obasanjo administration in the early 2000s was supporting private-sector-led, market-oriented economic growth, and had begun economic reform programs. Privatization of state-owned enterprises continued. A Stand-By Arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), approved in 2000, lapsed in 2001 as the government’s economic reform program went off track. There were indications a new IMF program for the country would be negotiated in 2003–04. Read more: http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Africa/Nigeria-ECONOMIC-DEVELOPMENT.html#ixzz2HUrqN4ZB