Peer Support Program for New Nurses Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Peer Support Program for New Nurses - Essay Example Every day that nurses see a distressed person, an injured person and even deaths occurring almost every day in their presence. Although they are trained to handle this, they nonetheless have to sometimes be overwhelmed by this (Robinson, 2003). These nurses need peer-support in the workplace. Â  Nurses also almost always have to work with precision which means that any small mistakes can lead to serious repercussions for the patients as well as the nurses. Peer support is definitely appreciated to maintain this accuracy in working. New nurses may not be able to have everything in their fingertips and sometimes can have a very difficult time getting their head around the many tasks they carry out every day. In this regard, a peer support program for new nurses would have to include the following; Â  Like any workplace, nurses and especially new ones need social support from their peers. Social and psychological support is important to the nurses because that feeling of belonging is a vital ingredient in increasing the nurse’s efficacy (Hughes, 2012). Â  Building the formal social support systems can be made from the informal to make formal systems. It is good to note that informal social support systems develop naturally everywhere in the workplace. Unfortunately, these informal social support systems are not efficient in their ways and it is necessary to make sure that they are harnessed. To formalize this system is important to make sure that the new nurses can benefit as soon as they join the working force in a care centre or hospital. Â  New nurses can be overwhelmed by their work. Needless to say, overwhelmed nurses can only give healthcare which is of lower quality to the patient. This can also lead to their mental health deteriorating and they therefore need support. This peer support can be accessed through information systems which make real-time consultations with other nurses (Michael, 2014). Â  

Never Let Me Go Plot Essay Example for Free

Never Let Me Go Plot Essay In a small school called Hailsham placed in England in the 1990’s, Kathy, a student from years back is looking in search of Hailsham after a few years of it being shut down. Kathy has reminisce of Tommy; a strong-willed boy who was the best football player at the time, threw tantrums and wore a special polo shirt as good luck. She also had reminisce of her times at Hailsham and the events that had taken place there. When Kathy was a student, everyone who attended was examined weekly in Room 18 by a nurse who everyone nicknamed Crow Face. Kathy and the other students learned about â€Å"exchanges† which took place four times a year; once in the spring, summer, autumn, and winter. How you were regarded at Hailsham was based on how well you were at creating. These creations that students made were part of the exchange and students would buy work done by other students in your own year. When students bought your creations, this would get you tokens and you could buy other creations from class mates. Tommy is a shy child who is not very creative. In Miss Geraldine’s class is where most of the students make their creations. Tommy made a kid-like creation of an elephant painting and Miss Geraldine praised Tommy for his uniqueness. After Tommy stopped throwing his tantrums during school he stopped getting made fun of. The woman, who ran Hailsham, went by the name of Madame. She was a tall, French, narrow, short haired and distant from the children. Miss Emily was one of the students’ favorite teachers. She was older, stood straight, had silvery hair that she wore back; quiet, deliberate voice, and made fair decisions. In Miss Emily’s and Miss Lucy’s class, the students talked about the token controversy over Madame taking work and paying the students with tokens. Eventually the issue got resolved and tokens were given to the students. Polly, a student from the same year as Kathy and Tommy, asked Miss Lucy why Madame took their creations. Miss Lucy replied, â€Å"All I can tell you today is that it’s for a good reason. A very important reason. But if I tried to explain it to you now, I don’t think you’d understand. One day, I hope, it’ll be explained to you† (Ishiguro 40). Once a month there would be â€Å"Sales†. A large van would bring toys and outdated items from the outside of the Hailsham gates and students could use their tokens to buy items of their preference. Every morning there was an assembly before school, except on the days that there were Sales because there would be announcements. Junior year, Kathy became acquainted with Ruth. Kathy and Ruth played in the sandbox together and eventually Ruth began to let Kathy play with her horses. Ruth questioned Kathy about if she liked Miss Geraldine and Kathy said that she did. Ruth then said, â€Å"All right. In that case, I’ll let you be one of her secret guards† (Ishiguro 48). Ruth tells Kathy that there are 6-10 secret guards and they make presents for Miss Geraldine and guard her from being kidnapped. Ruth said Miss Geraldine gave her the pencil case that she has now. Kathy looks back into the files of the sales to see if Ruth is lying. In art class another student had asked about Ruth’s pencil case and Kathy backed her up. In Miss Emily’s classroom she talked about England and a place called Norfolk which was known as a â€Å"lost corner.† Kathy lost her beloved tape of ‘Songs after Dark’ by Judy Bridgewater at which she found at a Sale. The cover of the cassette tape was not appropriate for Hailsham because the guardians were very strict on smoking. On the tape, track number three was Kathy’s favorite song; â€Å"Never Let Me Go.† One day Kathy was listening to her favorite track on the cassette and was dancing around like she was holding a baby, Madame walked by her room and saw the door open and Kathy dancing. Madame began to weep and the tape went missing a few months after this incident. All school attendees cannot have babies. Ruth hunted for the lost tape, but was incapable of finding it and instead bought a tape with ballroom music on it to make Kathy feel better. On a gloomy day, Miss Lucy talked to the students about how they are at Hailsham to eventually donate their vital organs. In school the students are taught to look after other students and not after the guardians. Sex becomes the new â€Å"creativeness† and Tommy and Ruth break up after 6 months. Kathy later finds Miss Lucy a wreck in Room 22. Miss Lucy explains to Tommy that she should have never told him that he didn’t need to be creative because their creations would later be used as evidence. Miss Lucy eventually leaves Hailsham and Ruth and Tommy become and couple again. After the students graduate from Hailsham, they are moved to cottages and are now known as veterans. At the cottages the students are free to do what they want and reading books is the proper thing to do and watching television is frowned upon. Keffer keeps up with the cottages and hates a boy named, Steve, because of his magazines. Kathy looks through Steve’s magazines looking for her â€Å"possible†. A possible is the other person that you were copied from. It is said that if you see your â€Å"possible,† you will see your future life. Chrissie and Rodney, two veterans from the cottage s, say they saw Ruth’s â€Å"possible† in Norfolk. Chrissie, Rodney, Ruth, Tommy, and Kathy head to Norfolk to find Ruth’s â€Å"possible.† One the way to Norfolk, Ruth mainly talked to the veterans about a rumor how if you really loved someone that you may be able to talk the guardians into letting you stay together for a few more years longer. The group goes into a small homey store called Woolworth’s and Chrissie and Ruth talk more about the known rumor. Ruth finally sees her possible â€Å"possible† and follows her into â€Å"The Portway Studios† which is an art gallery. The â€Å"possible† seems less and less like Ruth and when the â€Å"possible† leaves, the group stays and listens to the silver haired woman about all of the art. Ruth complains about how â€Å"possibles† are poor people. Later that day, Chrissie, Rodney, and Ruth go to visit an older veteran by the name of Martain to try and cheer up Ruth. Kathy and Tommy stay behind and do not go with them, but instead go in search of Kathy’s old cassette tape that had disappeared so long ago. Tommy tells Kathy that he draws imaginary animals and that he actually does have creativeness and it just has not came out until now. Once back at the cottages, no one talked about the trip to Norfolk and Ruth finds an old church that is no longer in use and sometimes goes there to read peacefully. The essay to leave the cottages and start training no longer seemed important to anyone. Tommy and Ruth slowly started drifting apart and Ruth politely tells Kathy that Tommy does not like being with woman who have been with this and that person. Not too much later, Kathy decides to tell Keffer’s that she would like to start training. Kathy later starts as a carer. As a carer they learn to live on the go constant and deal with pain and isolation in their own ways. Kathy runs into students and long ago friends once in a great while. Kathy walked home one day behind a clown with a bunch of balloons and a case. She waited for a balloon to fly away but none of them ever did. Kathy then later went to see Ruth at the Recovery Centre in Dover. They talked about a boat that had been found not too far away and about Tommy. Kathy made a plan to go and see this boat and invite Tommy with them. Kathy and Ruth traveled to Kingsfield to pick up Tommy where they had seen old pictures with a family and a big pool and where the pool had been before there was cement. They all went and seen the boat and it reminded Kathy of what Hailsham might look like now that its doors were closed for good. One the way back to Kingsfield to drop off Tommy and say goodbyes for now, they talked about Chrissie passing and the billboards flying by on the side of the road. Ruth randomly decides to give Tommy Madame’s address because Kathy will not take it. Ruth gave Tommy and Kathy Madame’s address in case Kathy and Tommy want to get a deferral. Kathy visits Ruth in the hospital and tells Ruth that she and Tommy are going to go to Madame’s hose to try and get a deferral. Ruth eventually passes. Kathy moved into a suite at Kingsfield with Tommy and became his carer. Tommy is slowly healing from his last donation and he draws animals to fill in his time while Kathy sits on their bed and reads. Kathy and Tommy pick out drawings and go to talk to Madame. Madame was not home but they saw her down the street so Kathy and Tommy started to follow Madame home. Madame pauses but tells Kathy and Tommy to come inside. They talked to Madame about getting a deferral and adding creations to Madame’s gallery. A person in a wheelchair was behind a big curtain and Madame tells whoever to come out. To Kathy and Tommy’s surprise the person in the wheelchair is Miss Emily. Miss Emily explains to the two that there is no such thing as a deferral and the gallery at Hailsham was to prove to outsiders that the children raised at Hailsham had souls. Tommy threw a tantrum on the way home. Tommy’s theory was right; Hailsham was just a place to experiment on people to create perfect people. Later, Tommy believes that it would be best if things ended between him and Kathy so things are not so hard in the end. Tommy describes to Kathy about the imaginary puddle that he would jump in when he scored a touchdown. Tommy dies after he â€Å"completes† and Kathy visits Norfolk for the last time before she â€Å"completes.† A major theme in the novel Never Let Me go is conformity. All of the students at Hailsham are born into this world as perfect people because they are clones and are meant to save others’ lives, not themselves. Most of the students at Hailsham accept the requirements throughout the process of being a clone. Tommy is the only student that throws tantrums and works his way against the system, but eventually forms to the way of life that he was given. All of the students see the future that awaits them but the guardians reassure them that it is okay and everyone forms to society in their own ways. The students do not fight against what they have been given, instead praise the life they have been given; but at the same time have thoughts about why their creations had been taken and why they had to live their lives like this. Many did not ask questions about their lives for the simple reason that they were too scared to find out the answer. A second major theme presented in the novel was obligation to society. The founders of Hailsham prided themselves on producing the most accurate clone in the world. Creating copies of humans in order for them to owe their lives to society, many of these clones were unhappy and fell into depression. The founders believed that many of the Hailsham students should be prepared to take their lives to save others and be happy in the process of achieving it. Madame tries to explain this to Kathy and Tommy when they question her about the deferral. Madame tells them that they should be happy because even though their lives are going to end early and they will spend countless days in pain, they at least had a wonderful life to live unlike many of the clones before them that didn’t get to explore the many wonders of life. The founders of Hailsham raised all of the clones to respect their elders and do as they are told. This is the same way they go through life and by doing so they live a bearable worthwhile life. A literary device that is used in this book a few times is a simile. A simile is a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid. An example in Never Let Me Go is, â€Å"In fact, it took a moment to see they were animals at all. The first impression was like one you’d get if you took the back off a radio set: tiny canals, weaving tendons, miniature screws and wheels were all drawn with obsessive precision, and only when you held the page away you could see it was some kind of armadillo, say, or a bird† (Ishiguro 187). Ishiguro uses this phrase to show how much hard work Tommy put into his drawings. Tommy thinks that if he works hard and really puts himself to work on creating a unique piece maybe he will prove that he deserves to live longer. Tommy wants to prove to the guardians and all of the outside world that he is not just a clone and he actually does have feelings and has a true soul. Another simile found in this novel is â€Å"I thought about Hailsham closing, and how it was like someone coming along with a pair of shears and snipping the balloon strings just where they entwined above the man’s fist† (Ishiguro 213). Kathy thought this because now that Hailsham has closed, her past life has been cut away and taken from her. Even though her memories have not been taken from her, she can no longer return to Hailsham if she wanted to visit. A second literary device used throughout this novel was an anaphora. A couple examples of an anaphora is, â€Å"You’ve been told about it. You’re students. You’re . . . special. So keeping yourselves well, keeping yourselves very healthy inside, that’s much more important for each of you than it is for me† (Ishiguro 68-69). Ishiguro put an emphasis on this quote using the word or structure of â€Å"you† a lot because he wants the reader to clearly see that the students are the ones that need to stay healthy, be looked after, and take pride in them. Another anaphora found in Never Let Me Go is, â€Å"Because however sympathetic they were, I could see that deep down they were relieved. They were relieved things had turned out the way they had; that they were in a position to comfort Ruth, instead of being left behind in the wake of a dizzying boost to her hopes. They were relieved they wouldn’t have to face, more starkly than ever, the notion which fascinated and nagged and scared them: this notion of theirs that there were all kinds of possibilities open to us Hailsham students that weren’t open to them† (Ishiguro 165). This quote really shows the relief that Chrissie and Rodney have in this part of the book. Chrissie and Rodney are so relieved because there has never been a student at Hailsham that has ever met or even seen there â€Å"possible† and if they were to, everyone would have no idea how to react to such a thing. The book Never Let Me Go was very enjoyable although in some parts I would have to say the book was kind of boring. For the most part I liked this book, but I felt like I kept reading and reading and even when I finished the book, I felt like I wasn’t done reading. To this day, I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Either way I enjoyed reading the book, it teaches the reader to appreciate the things that we take for granted every day in our lives and to take time and notice the little things that are around you. Overall, I am glad that I chose this book to read over the summer and hope to share this book with others.

The Holocaust and the Cambodian Genocide: Similar or different? How ab

Evil doesn’t even begin to cover it. The mass murder of millions of people. The complete obliteration of an entire society. Each and every genocide has the same core principles, but a distinct face. A dictator takes over a weak country with promises of returning it to its former glory, once he has everyone’s support, he implements extremely discriminatory laws and finds reasons to kill anyone who dares oppose him. The Holocaust and the Cambodian genocides are remarkably similar, and yet strikingly different. The Holocaust was an attempt to wipe out all Jews and other minorities such as gypsies and handicapped people. The Cambodian genocide, led by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, was in some ways a mirror image of the Holocaust, but it happened forty-two years later. On the other hand, there are many more that one distinction that sets Cambodia apart from all other genocides. Although the two genocides are quite different at a first glance, they are interestingly similar upon deeper inspection. For starters, the Holocaust is best known for it’s brutal and inhumane treatment of prisoners, such as tattooing a number on their arm against their will and feeding them food that is not even fit for dogs to consume (â€Å"Holocaust†). It may be shocking for some people to hear that in Cambodia, it was just as atrocious, maybe even worse. During the Khmer Rouge takeover in 1975 most Cambodians were forced to leave their homes on such short notice that numerous families were killed on cite for not evacuating quickly enough. Those ‘lucky’ enough to escape immediate death were forced to work, unpaid, in labor camps until the fatigue wore down their immune system and they died of some wretched disease (â€Å"Genocide†). Another intriguing similarity betw... .../www.yale.edu/cgp/chron.html>. "Eight Stages of Genocides." Genocides and Conflicts. William Mitchell College of Law, 2012. Web. 15 Apr. 2014. . "Genocide- Cambodia." Talking About Genocide - Genocides. Peace Pledge Union, n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2014. . â€Å"Holocaust, 1933-1945, The† World Without Genocide. William Mitchell College of Law, 2013. Web. 15 Apr. 2014. . January, Brendan. Genocide: Modern Crimes Against Humanity. Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books, 2007. Print. Walker, Luke. "Cambodian Genocide." World Without Genocide. William Mitchell College of Law, 2012. Web. 15 Apr. 2014. .

To what extent is the American Constitution an elitist document?

To what extent is the American Constitution an elitist document? Why then did the framers provide for public participation in the political process? The best way to approach this assignment is to split it into two and answer first to what extent do I feel the American Constitution an elitist document. When this has been answered then it will be possible to move on to try to understand why the framers of the constitution provided for public participation in the political process. I should begin by saying that I think the Constitution is a very elitist document, but before I elaborate on that opinion I feel that it is necessary to firstly define what an ‘elite' is, and also to provide a bit of background information on the Constitution. An elite is defined by Webster's Dictionary as the best of a class; the socially superior part of society; or a group of persons who by virtue of position or education exercise power or influence. When we talk about elites though we have to bear in mind that they prize order and stability above all else, and if they can preserve the status quo they will, however this is diverting from the main question. It is perhaps the last part of the definition that is most relevant when we come to the American Constitution, and ask ourselves to what extent it is an elitist document. Before I come to that though I feel that it is necessary to explain how the Constitution of the United States of America came into being. Without going too far back into history, the thirteen North American colonies had rebelled against the British government after coming to see King George III and his colonial governors as tyrants, and also there were disputes over taxes that had to paid both to the colonial legislatures and the British government. These tensions reached a climax in 1775 and the American War of Independence broke out. This war lasted until 1783, when the British granted independence to each of the thirteen colonies. Each of the thirteen states were now independent and bound together under a loose agreement called the Articles of Confederation (AOC). The Articles of Confederation provided for a unicameral legislature with each state being allotted representatives based upon their total population, but each state had only 1 vote in the legislature. There were many flaws in this arrangement like the fact that there was no executive body; the fact that nine states had to agree to pass legislation; and crucially the AOC could not legislate in the following areas: The national government could not levy taxes, only request funds from the states. This resulted in the national government going into debt almost immediately. * The national government could not regulate commerce and each state had set up tariffs against the other. The result was a building economic recession. * The national government did not have exclusive control over the money supply. Each state and the national government had its own money supply. In the face of these crises, the elites (for want of a better word), of the thirteen states decided unilaterally to revise the AOC, and so the Constitution of 1787 was born. It is now time to examine to what extent the Constitution is an elitist document. â€Å"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. â€Å"1 Superficially at least the Constitution can be said to be a very elitist document by virtue of the way in which it came into being. It was written by fifty-five men out of a population of approximately four million. If we consider that the framing of the Constitution to be the real beginning of the USA, which was in theory supposed to be a democracy, then we have to see the Constitution to be an elitist document because of the way in which the Founding Fathers (a tiny fraction of the population) decided to scrap the AOC and come up with an alternative behind closed doors, without the majority of the population knowing what was going on. Another superficial argument can be made based upon the fact that the delegates who signed the Constitution were as Thomas Jefferson put it â€Å"†¦ an assembly of demigods†. According to Dye and Zeigler â€Å"the men at the convention belonged to the nation's intellectual and economic elites†2. Therefore the Constitution was always going to be biased towards elites because even though the majority of the population were small freeholding farmers their views were not taken into account at the Convention for the simple reason that none of the delegates really came from that section of the nation. As I have said both these reasons are superficial, but if we get into the detail of the constitution then we can see that it is a very elitist document in several key areas. The first is economic elitism. The Constitution gave Congress â€Å"power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States†3. This is all well and good, but when taken with the fact that according to Article 1 Section 2 â€Å"Representatives [and direct taxes] shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers†4 – taxation and representation based upon population. This meant in essence that a rich man paid exactly the same amount of tax as a poor man regardless of his wealth, and if we consider that the men at the convention were all very we ll-off if not extremely rich, then whatever their intentions were the constitution could only benefit them and those like them. The Constitution also gave Congress the power to regulate commerce between the states. This regulation in concert with the provision that â€Å"No tax or duty shall be paid on articles exported from any state†5 created a huge free trade area were none had existed before, and of course this would be very beneficial to those American merchants – including many of the framers of the Constitution- that traded across the USA. Again we can see just how elitist the Constitution is because it benefits big business even though the majority of the population were small freeholders and small merchants that benefited from a certain degree of protectionism. Economic elitism can also be seen in the parts of the constitution that give Congress powers over the regulation and value of money, bankruptcy laws, weights and measures, and so forth. These powers would enhance financial stability in the nation and this move could only benefit the more economically orientated members of the Constitutional Convention. There is also evidence of military elitism within the Constitution. Section 8 of Article 1 provides for the creation of an army and navy. Naturally a nation needs an army and navy, but this act has to be seen in the context of just what the American elites gained from it. The Constitution concentrated the military might of the USA under the Commander in Chief aka the President. The President also had the power, with the advice of the senate, to make treaties and to send and receive ambassadors. We have seen that the Founding Fathers wished to create a strong centralised government and this concentration of military and diplomatic might gave them the ability to do just that, with the added benefit of giving them the means to put down any revolution that might occur. Therefore in this sense it can be shown that the Constitution is an elitist document since it enshrined the desires of the Founding Fathers for stability and freedom from revolution, and since the President who commanded all this great power would invariably be a member of the elites himself, their position within society could and would be safeguarded. Other instances of elitism within the Constitution are the sections that deal with slavery: â€Å"No person held to service or labour in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labour, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labour may be due†6. As can be seen this section allows the continuation of the slave holding elites within American society, at a time when the idea of all men being equal was being bandied about. From the above we can see that the Constitution of the USA is elitist, then we have to ask the question that why, if the document is elitist, did the framers provide for public participation in the electoral process. Firstly, if we accept that the framers of the Constitution were the nation's elites, then we have to remember that above all else elites desire order and stability. Therefore at a very basic level the answer to the question would be that as elites (by their very definition) make up a tiny percentage of the populaton then it would be in their best interests to provide for public participation in the political process because of the possibility that the masses could rise up against them, as they themselves had rebelled against the British. But if we look at the question in detail we can see that the real reason that the framers provided for public participation in the political process was that the public's participation was extremely limited in scale. Examples of this would be the way in which the framers adopted the concept of the separation of powers and the system of checks and balances whereby legislative powers were vested in a Congress and Senate; executive powers in a President; and judicial powers in a Supreme Court. Each of these institutions were elected by different constituencies (or in the case of the Supreme Court appointed by the President), and each served different lengths of terms. This prevented the complete renewal of government at a stroke and created continuity within the national government, but regardless of any benefits that this system might have, the fact cannot be avoided that if the people wish to have a change of government, or make their feelings known at all, then they must wait years for it, which is hardly a fair system. The system of checks and balances also diminishes the public's participation in the political process, because, for example, the people elect a President who is radical and wishes to change the status quo, then he can issue executive orders, but Congress can override those orders, and if the president wishes to execute laws he has to rely on executive departments created by Congress. The best justification for this system comes from either James Madison or Alexander Hamilton when they wrote: Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions†. 7 Judicial Review is another key aspect of the system of checks and balances. This is basically an idea that arose from the Marbury v. Madison Case of 1803, whereby the Chief Justice argued that the Supreme Court had the power not only to invalidate laws passed by the lower courts, but also to invalidate laws passed by the elected Congress. From this we can see just how limited the public participation in the political process was because the Congress elected by the people was able to be overruled by the appointed Supreme Court. However the greatest example of how limited the public's participation was in the political process, was the way in which the elections were conducted. By this I mean specifically the elitist way in which the smaller states did not have the same degree of representation, and thus power of the larger states, for example Rhode Island had one representative in Congress, while Virginia had ten. And even this pales in comparison with the Electoral College. Essentially when the people vote in a presidential election they vote for delegates to the Electoral College who then choose the president from the candidates. What is wrong with this system is when you take into consideration that each state sends delegates to the Electoral College on a basis of population; and in each state the candidate with the most votes takes all the electoral votes (even if they win by only 1%); then those who did not vote for the candidate are effectively throwing their votes away. This system is further complicated by the fact that in the beginning the Electoral College was envisaged as a way for the elites to ensure that their preferred candidate got the job, and to enable them to ‘correct' any misjudgements the public might have made on polling day. In conclusion therefore it can be seen that the American Constitution is a very elitist document, by virtue of the way in which it was conceived; the men who wrote it; the economic elitism imbedded in the document and of course the military elitism. Secondly the question as to why the framers of the Constitution provided for public participation is an easy one – they provided for public participation because they had diluted it so much, and built in so many checks and balances that they did not have to worry about threats to stability and order, which were after all the greatest concerns of elites.

Data management on wilmington university

Student database management model provides information on student's course schedule and their basic information. Course schedule like their major and minor names, courses Ames, course id, instructor names, day, time, room number, credits per course and student details like student name, addresses, contact number, date of birth, student id. Before this data is stored is books and printed on paper. If there is a change in schedule or exam It would be difficult to reach about this to the students.Now it is easy store and change information by this we can save time and paper. After the registration the course information is directly stored in the database. Now if we want to view course schedule we can simply go to database of the university and check it out and change in schedule can directly reached to mobile by text message. This is very easy model to use and we will get current data and will be secure.Therefore my design mainly focuses on 2 different users: 1) Student 2) administrator Background: Wilmington university is a fast growing private non-profit university in u,s. For the convenience of students they added student schedule and exam details to the blackboard and when there is change in the class room, date and time it will informed through text messaging immediately when uploaded in the student database. The main aim of this is that the make a message regarding he class as possible for student convenience.Background Information: upholding an effective system can be done by using good software and hardware requirements specifications that provide the following: System Needs user – Accessible Sec re Scalability Compatible with other systems Hold large information of student data Database expansion and maintenance. Secure backup and recovery Facilitate resource sharing through the internet all over the university Business Goals: Increase the ability of storing data and make it available to users. Provides data to the user in seconds.It should be help ful to the management to get information to get data of the registered student profiles. Easy to inform the attendance of students and those who are get promoted to next semester. Easy to inform the students about the alerts of the class schedule via text message User Requirements: Data of the student should be made available and be stored within 3 seconds. The system should be accessible for 24 hours. The system should have the capacity to hold 80,000 customer records at any time. The system should have the capacity to add 1 00,000 records a year for 10 years.The system should send Text messages to all students in database. Data Model For this model I am relational database model through which entities, attributes and relations can expressed Data requirements Student Details: Student name, Student ID, USN number, Address, Phone Number, Date of Birth, Sex. Department details: Department Name, Department code, College, office Number Course Details: Course old. Course Name, Course lev el Attendance: Total classes, No. Of classes present, No Of classes absent, Student ID Exam type: Midterm exams, Final exams, Weekly Quiz, Exam IDText message: phone number, reason for delay, time of class, date of class, addresses of the class Schedule: Student ID, Course ID, Course name, class room no, Date, Time Supports Data Management for finding: Student data in each Department Internal Average Marks Scored of a student. Attendance Shortage of pupil. Text message to each student Exam Result of student. Report Requirements: 1. User feedback report. 2. Individual or Group Attendance Report. 3. Student wise Examination Report. 4. Student Detail. 5. Text message sent report 6. Examination time-table for different examinations.

Detention of Immigrants

Detention of Immigrants Introduction This paper aims at analyzing the plight of refugees in various detention camps in the US, and Australia. It is factual that refugees go through difficulties in the camps since immigration officials harass them to accept illegal pacts and raw deals (Bagshaw Paul 2004, p. 41).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Detention of Immigrants specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Immigration officials force refugees to accept their pleas such as extending sexual favors. Some immigrants report that immigration officials are unwelcoming and use unacceptable language when addressing them. This paper aims at uncovering the injustices meted out to refugees in the US and Australia. The main purpose of the paper is to expose the injustices that refugees face in their daily lives. In society, each person has the right to exercise his or her freedom. Detention facilities interfere with the rights of detainees because they force t hem to support illegal deals in the detention facilities. The detention facilities should support refugees emotionally while they solve their problems through legal means. However, the detention facilities go against the acceptable codes of conduct by taking advantage of the plight of refugees. Through this paper, the world will appreciate the fact that refugees have a right, just like other citizens. Background Immigrants face a number of challenges in the United States and Australia. Australia and the US are two countries preferred by refugees who run away from political and economic hardships (Cohen 2004, p. 467). Refugees fleeing to the US and Australia are mostly Africans who believe that economic conditions would favor them there. The two countries face serious challenges in ensuring that their borders are safe. On the other hand, the countries are expected to assist refugees in need of commodities such as food, water, shelter, and security. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees is an agency that was created to help displaced individuals in the third world and other parts of the world. In 1951, there were an approximated 1.5 billion refugees in the world. The figure went up in 2009 to 43.3 billion, including approximated 15.2 billion displaced individuals, 983000 refuge seekers, and 27.1 internally displaced people. People run away from their homes due to natural disasters, political insecurity, and harsh economic conditions. Current studies show that at least five factors encourage people to run away from their home countries to either Australia or the US. In Europe and Africa, individuals migrate to the two countries because of wage differences between the home countries and the two foreign countries.Advertising Looking for essay on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More These factors are commonly referred to as the pull factors because they attract people to migrate to the US or Australia. The US and Australia have experienced retarded growth implying in population to an extent that the two countries do not have sufficient labor. Hiking salaries and wages is one of the strategies employed to attract the global labor force (Evans 2007, p. 73). Another factor that forces people to move to greener pastures is the population growth in the home country. Some countries have witnessed a massive population growth in the recent past, which forces individuals to look for space elsewhere. The US and Australia are preferred because the standards of living are better in the two countries. This factor falls under the push factors because it puts pressure on an individual to move (Cernea 2006, p. 76). In the last twenty to thirty years, some countries have been forced to come up with policies aimed at discouraging population growth due to strained resources. China and India are some of the countries that discourage population growth because the government is unable to provide adequate services to the larger population. In such countries, individuals prefer shifting to foreign countries perceived to be having favorable conditions of living. The US and Australia are the first destinations for individuals. As people shift to Australia and the US, many are encouraged to do so after noticing that their friends and relatives do well in the foreign countries. However, they do not understand that foreigners are exposed to torture and unfair treatment in the detention facilities. Statistics show that about sixty percent of those migrating to the US and Australia are men while only forty percent are female. Seventy percent of immigrants are adults while twenty percent are children. This shows that people migrate to these two countries in search of jobs and business opportunities owing to the population pressure at home countries. In the detention facilities, young men are the majority implying that the types of abuses are mostly related to viola tion of employment acts (Klin 2006, p. 19). Issue Development Local Reaction A report by the American Civil Liberties Union observed that immigrants are subjected to unfair treatment in the detention facilities in Georgia. The organization undertook a study on four main detention facilities in the US. One of the detention facilities was Stewart Detention Center, which is one of the largest detention facilities in the US. The organization claimed that the facility violates immigration policies yet the government is reluctant to act. Immigrants are housed in a prisonlike facility whereby their human and civil rights are not provided.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Detention of Immigrants specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Through the report, the officials of Georgia came up with strict immigration policies that would allow the security forces to conduct frequent assessment of the detention facilities. The security agen cies would question immigrants regarding their living conditions in the detention facilities. The government has so far enacted policies allowing the department of homeland security to deport illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants are victims of unfair treatment in the detention facilities. Private organizations operate substantial detention facilities in the US. The human rights groups have urged the government to deregister the private organizations operating the detention facilities on grounds of abuse. The civil groups argue that most of the detention facilities are in the remote areas and the facilities are of poor quality (Klin 2000, p. 99). The American Civil Liberties Union conducted an extensive research that lasted for three years, managing to interview sixty-eight detainees and a sizeable number of relatives and friends. The study established that detainees face serious problems because their rights are violated. They are subjected to poor sanitation, inadequate medical a ttention, inappropriate mental healthcare, and instances of verbal abuse. It is established that those in authority use their power to exploit detainees in the camp. Some detainees claimed that officials used vulgar language and racial discrimination was rampant in the facilities. Some detainees are even subjected to physical violence, which is a violation of the right to life. At the Stewart detention facility, one detainee reported that a guard assaulted him one evening and injured him seriously. The detainee lost both eyes, but the officials of the detention facility are yet to take action against the guard (Lilly 2007, p. 101). Each person is entitled to free medical care, but detainees at Australian detention facilities are never allowed to undergo regular medical checkups. Detention facilities in the US rarely employ a doctor who would attend to emergencies at night. In government operated detention facilities, a doctor is usually provided, but medical facilities are not enoug h to cater for the medical needs of all detainees. In an interview with one female detainee, the report by the civil liberties groups claimed that the woman was left to suffer for hours before being taken to hospital. Even after identifying that the woman needed urgent medical care, the officials were reluctant to act deviously to prevent unnecessary suffering and pain. In the American detention camps, the mental status of individuals is never taken into consideration because a psychiatrist is never provided to interrogate the detainees.Advertising Looking for essay on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Immigrants are people with various problems since some might have lost their properties before deciding to seek refuge in the foreign countries. It is logical to take such individuals through frequent mental checkups to prevent cases of mental illness and psychological trauma. However, the detention facilities in the US are reluctant to help immigrants in recovering from mental stress (Mooney 2003, p. 6). Just like in the US, detention facilities in Australia force immigrants to sign orders of removal that permit banishment without due process. Officials threaten detainees with severe punishment in case they fail to sign orders of removal. In Australia, detention facilities violate the rights of detainees because they fail to release them even after the orders of removal are ready. Some detainees are segregated for refusing to cooperate with officials at the detention camps. Detainees found leaking information to the media are punished severely. Detainees face a serious challenge re garding communication. The detention facilities do not provide interpreters who would help them in understanding instructions. Human and civil groups have pressurized the government to come up with laws that would guarantee the safety of individuals at the detention camps. The American Civil Liberties Union demands that the government should take over the responsibility of taking care of detainees while their cases are handled by the courts. The union demands that private organizations should not be given the chance of harboring detainees (Mooney Jarrah 2004, p. 18). International Reaction The United Nations High Commission for Refugees has been vocal in protecting the rights of detainees in the US and Australia. The commission argues that states should protect refugees. However, the commission has been keen on ensuring that immigrants are not subjected to unfair treatment. The agency intervenes through application of international laws and standards (Balikci 2004, p. 67). One of t he laws invoked whenever there is a conflict is the 1951 convention, which talks about the status of refugees. The 1951 law states that a refugee is someone with various problems because he or she is outside his or her country. Therefore, the foreign country should always ensure that such an individual is treated in a humane way. In this regard, the detention facilities in Australia and the US are compelled to provide basic needs to detainees. The agency has always urged the detention facilities to ensure that immigrants are given adequate medical attention. The 1967 protocol is another law that relates to the status of refugees. The 1967 law demands that refugees should not be forced to return to their home countries because doing so would be endangering their lives (Sohne 2006, p. 21). The law demands further that the receiving countries must cooperate with the agency in ensuring that refugees enjoy their rights. This shows that refugees have a number of rights contained in the 19 67 law. Stewart detention camp is frequently urged to respect the 1967 law by providing medical care to detainees. In fact, article II of the 1967 law demands that detention facilities must cooperate with the agency in ensuring that refugee laws are followed. In 1984, a principle of non-refoulement was enacted, which reinforced the 1951 law on forceful deportation (Weiss 2003, p. 21). Through the agency, detention facilities have been forced to comply in order to avoid international condemnation. This is the reason why detainees are subjected to pain and suffering whenever they are found discussing their plight with the media. The agency works closely with the hosting countries to ensure that detainees are not subjected to untold suffering (Stavropoulou 1998, p. 34). However, the agency should strengthen its surveillance capacity to ensure that private organizations such as Stewart in the US comply with the law. Conclusion Detainees in the US and Australia go through a number of cha llenges. However, international organizations such as the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and local civil groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union have played a critical role in ensuring that detainees are treated fairly. In the US, civil rights groups have gone a notch higher to interview detainees in order to find a solution to their problem. Australian civil groups are yet to take action. However, the activities of the local and international institutions have not been successful given the fact that the issue of immigration is considered high politics. List of References Bagshaw, S Paul, D 2004, Protect or Neglect Toward a More Effective United Nations Approach to the Protection of Internally Displaced Persons, Brookings-SAIS Project on Internal Displacement, Washington. Balikci, A 2004, IDPs in Baku: A Qualitative Approach,’ Report prepared for World Bank, Canada, University of Montreal. Cernea, M 2006, â€Å"Development-induced and conflict-induced IDPs: bridging the research divide†, Forced Migration Review Special Issue, Vol. 3, no. 3, pp 76-89 Cohen, R 2004, â€Å"The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement: An Innovation in International Standard Setting† Global Governance, Vol. 10, no. 1, pp 466-510 Evans, M 2007, â€Å"The Suffering is Too Great: Urban Internally Displaced Persons in the Casamance Conflict, Senegal†, Journal of Refugee Studies, Vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 60-85. Klin, W 2000 â€Å"Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement: Annotations†, Studies in Transnational Legal Policy, Vol. 1, no. 32, pp. 98-105 Klin, W 2006 â€Å"The future of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement,† Forced Migration Review Special Issue, Vol. 2, no. 3, pp 19-54. Lilly, D 2007, Camp management in IDP Collective Centers: The development of best practice, London, Camp Coordination Camp Management. Mooney, E Jarrah, B 2004, The Voting Rights of Internally Displaced Persons: The OSCE Region, Brookings Institution, Washington. Mooney, E 2003 â€Å"Introduction,† Forced Migration Review, Vol. 17, no. 4, pp 5-6. Sohne, SI 2006, Coping with Displacement: The Case of Internally Displaced Persons in Jinja, Uganda, The Fletcher School, Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy Thesis. Stavropoulou, M 1998, â€Å"Will Peru’s displaced return? The forsaken people: Case studies of the internally displaced, The Brookings Institution, Washington. Weiss, FP 2003, â€Å"Looking beyond emergency response,† Forced Migration Review, Vol. 17, no. 3, pp 19-20.

Munchausen Syndrome Essay Example

Munchausen Syndrome Essay Example Munchausen Syndrome Essay Munchausen Syndrome Essay Munchausen Syndrome 1 Running head: Munchausen Syndrome Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy 5 References Author: Ibrahim Abdulhamid, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Wayne State University; Director of Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine, Clinical Director of Pediatric Sleep Laboratory, Childrens Hospital of Michigan Coauthor(s): Patricia T Siegel, PhD, Assistant Professor, Departments of Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Wayne State University School of Medicine Contributor Information and Disclosures Updated: Mar 26, 2008 Mary E. Muscari, PhD, CPNP, APRN-BC Experts And Viewpoint,  Medscape Nurses,  April  2008 Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy 2 Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy I chose to write my paper on Munchausen Syndrome by proxy because I find it very fascinating and disturbing that people could actually harm their children or themselves for attention. Munchausen syndrome is a condition in which a person intentionally fakes, simulates, worsens, or self-induces an injury or illness for the main purpose of  being treated like a medical patient. The term Munchausen syndrome is often used interchangeably with factitious disorder. Factitious disorder refers to any illness that is intentionally produced for the main purpose of assuming the sick role,  although that purpose is unknown  to the sick person. Munchausen syndrome most appropriately describes persons who have a chronic variant of a factitious disorder with mostly physical signs and symptoms, although there are reports regarding psychological Munchausen syndrome, meaning that the simulated symptoms are psychiatric. Persons with Munchausen syndrome intentionally cause signs and symptoms of an illness or injury by inflicting medical harm to their body, often to the point of having to be hospitalized. They may lie about or fake symptoms. They are sometimes eager to undergo invasive medical interventions. They are also known to move from doctor to doctor, hospital to hospital, or town to town to find a new audience once they have exhausted the workup and treatment options available in a given medical setting. Persons with Munchausen syndrome  may also make false claims about their accomplishments, credentials. A related condition, called Munchausen by proxy syndrome, refers to a caregiver who fakes symptoms by causing injury to someone else, often a child, and then wants to be with that person in a hospital or similar medical setting. Victims are equally divided between male and female, and children most at risk are those aged 15 months to 72 months. Older children subjected to Munchausen syndrome by proxy often collude with their mothers by confirming even the most unlikely stories about their medical histories, sometimes out of fear of contradicting their mothers and other times because of their mothers persuasion over time. Some of these children believe that they are ill with a mysterious disorder that the physicians Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy 3 cannot figure out. In other cases, the child is aware that the mothers explanation is improbable but fails to speak, fearing the mothers revenge or that no one will believe him or her. In mild Munchausen by proxy, affected individuals fabricate medical histories for their children and lie about their children being sick rather than actively causing sickness. Their motivation is the emotional gratification they receive from medical attention. In intense Munchausen syndrome by proxy, the person resorts to measures such as inducing vomiting, poisoning, removing blood from the child, and suffocation. The individual is able to induce severe illness in his or her own child, yet remain cooperative, concerned, and compassionate in the presence of healthcare providers. Perpetrators of MSBP may be help-seekers who search for medical attention for their children to communicate their own exhaustion, anxiety, or depression. Others may be active inducers who create their childs illnesses through dramatic measures. These parents are typically anxious, depressed, or paranoid. Finally, some may be doctor addicts who are obsessed with getting treatment for their childrens nonexistent illnesses. Perpetrators are frequently described as caring, attentive, and devoted individuals. Some can be hostile, emotionally labile, and obviously dishonest. Although they have no obvious psychopathology, perpetrators can be deceiving and manipulative. Their ability to convince others should not be underestimated. Their abuse is premeditated, calculated, and unprovoked and they are often fascinated with the medical field. Signs and symptoms that MSBP could be present includes pattern of illness and recurrent infections without physiologic explanations, bleeding from anticoagulants and poisons: use of the caretaker’s own blood, vomiting precipitated by ipecac administration, giving them laxatives to induce diarrhea or salt administration, applying caustic substances to cause rashes on the their skin, Hematuria or rectal bleeding from trauma, CNS depression caused by drug administration. Their illness is multisystemic, prolonged, unusual, or rare; they are also inappropriate or incongruent, the symptoms seem to disappear when the caretaker is absent, one parent is usually absent during the child’s Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy 4 hospitalization, parent is overly attached to the child, they seem to have medical knowledge/background, the child has a poor tolerance of the treatment, parent encourage doctors to perform numerous test. The causes of Munchausen syndrome are unknown. Some experts suggest that it is a defense mechanism against sexual and aggressive impulses. Others believe it may be a form of self-punishment. Determining an exact cause is difficult because persons with Munchausen syndrome are not open and honest about their condition, making research on them nearly impossible. With MSBP a diagnosis cannot be made quickly, this syndrome is difficult to detect and confirm. In some cases video surveillance in the hospital room has been recommended to capture a parents misbehavior when physical abuse of the child is suspected. In cases where symptoms have been exaggerated, hidden cameras may confirm that these symptoms do not exist. Conversely, video surveillance can also exonerate a suspected caregiver when the disease does, in fact, exist. Cameras may be used in highly suspicious circumstances, but should only be used in conjunction with carefully developed protocols that delineate the roles of child protective agencies, police, and hospital security in coordinating the use of covert surveillance systems As a health care orker I will be more able to identify the signs and symptoms,  determine the necessity and benefits of the medical care. During the assessment I will be able ask if the child’s medical condition is consistent with the mother’s description. Does the objective diagnostic evidence support the child’s reported medical condition? Has anyone witnessed the symptoms? Do the negative findings reassure the mother? Is the treatment being provided to the child primarily becaus e of the mother’s persistent demands? With this knowledge I will hopefully be able to recognize this syndrome and be a better nurse.

The Partnership of Venturi Scott Brown

The Partnership of Venturi Scott Brown Denise Scott Brown (born October 3, 1931 in Africa) and Robert Venturi (born June 25, 1925 in Philadelphia, PA) are known for smart urban designs and architecture steeped in popular symbolism. Kitsch becomes art in designs which exaggerate or stylize cultural icons. When they met and married, Denise Scott Brown had already made important contributions to the field of urban design. Through her work as an urban planner and her collaboration with Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates Inc. (VSB), she has brought the artifacts of popular culture into the realm of architecture and has shaped our understanding of the relationship between design and society. Robert Venturi is known for turning architecture on its head by exaggerating historical styles and incorporating cultural icons into the building design. For example, the Childrens Museum of Houston is built with the basic Classical characteristics- columns and pediment- but they are playfully exaggerated to appear cartoonish. Likewise, the Bank Building in Celebration, Florida has the stately form of the J.P. Morgan Co. Building, the iconic fortress on Wall Street in New York City. Yet, as designed by Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, theres a playful retro look that more resembles a 1950s-era gas station or hamburger restaurant. Venturi was one of the first modern architects who embraced this playful (some say sarcastic) architecture that became known as postmodernism. VSB, based in Philadelphia, PA, has long been recognized for much more than Postmodernist designs. The firm completed more than 400 projects, each uniquely suited to the special needs of the clients. The couple is highly educated individually. Scott Brown was born to Jewish parents in Nkana, Zambia and raised in a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. She attended the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (1948-1952), the Architectural Association in London, England (1955), and then went on to the University of Pennsylvania to earn a Master of City Planning (1960) and a Master of Architecture (1965). Venturi started out closer to his Philadelphia roots, graduating summa cum laude from Princeton University (1947 A.B. and 1950 MFA) in nearby New Jersey. He then ventured to Rome, Italy to study as a Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy (1954-1956). Early in his architectural career, Venturi worked for Eero Saarinen, and then in the Philadelphia offices of Louis I. Kahn and Oscar Stonorov. He partnered with John Rauch from 1964 until 1989. Since 1960 Venturi and Scott Brown collaborated as  founding partners of Venturi, Scott Brown Associates. For decades Brown has directed the firms urban planning, urban design, and campus planning work. Both are licensed architects, planners, authors, and educators, yet it was Venturi alone who was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1991, a contentious honor that many have decried as sexist and unjust. In 2016 the pair together was awarded the highest honor bestowed by the  American Institute of Architects- the AIA Gold Medal. Since retiring, Venturi and Brown are archiving their work at venturiscottbrown.org. Selected Projects: 1964: The Vanna Venturi House, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania- designed in 1962; named one of the Ten Buildings That Changed America in 2013.1968: Fire Station No. 4, Columbus, IN1970s: Preservation planning for historic districts in Galveston, Texas and Miami Beach, Florida1971: Trubek-Wislocki Houses, Nantucket Island, Massachusetts1972: Brant House, Greenwich, Connecticut1975: Tucker House, Katonah, New York1976: Allen Art Museum Addition, Oberlin, Ohio1976: House in Tuckers Town, Bermuda1980s: City plan for downtown Memphis, Tennessee1983: Gordon Wu Hall, Princeton, New Jersey1990s: Master plan and schematic design for the Denver Civic Center Cultural Complex,  Denver, Colorado1990s: Campus plans for Dartmouth College and the University of Pennsylvania1991: Sainsbury Wing, National Gallery, London, UK1991: Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington1996: Sun Trust Bank, Celebration, Florida1997: Mielparque Nikko Kirifuri (resort hotel), Nikko, Japan2008: Chapel, Episcopa l Academy, Newtown Square, PA Learn More: Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture by Robert VenturiIn this groundbreaking book, published in 1966, Robert Venturi challenged modernism and celebrated the mix of historic styles in great cities like Rome.Learning from Las Vegas by Robert Venturi, Steven Izenour, and Denise Scott Brown, 1972Subtitled The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form this postmodernist classic called the vulgar billboards of the Vegas Strip emblems for a new architecture. The controversial book presented the idea that architects could learn important lessons in design from commercial art and casino ads.Architecture as Signs and Systems for a Mannerist Time by Venturi Scott Brown, Harvard University Press, 2004AA Words 4: Having Words by Denise Scott Brown, Architectural Association, 2009A Difficult Whole: A Reference Book on the Work of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown by Architecture Without Content, 2016 Famous Robert Venturi Quote: Less is a bore.- Rejecting the simplicity of modernism and responding to the Mies van der Rohe dictum, Less is more

Information Systems Security Survey Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Information Systems Security Survey - Essay Example The program ensures that all the managers that work in the different centers follow the compulsory security requirements that have been put in place and make their decisions with an aim of reducing the risks. The managers should also be made aware of the risks they face when using these automated systems and electronic information. The top priority here is to protect the company’s information. According to previous reports of IRS the recurring cases of information security weakness puts it at a risk of fraud, disruption or inappropriate disclosure of sensitive information. As a result, the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) states that every agency should form, record and implement a security program for the whole information system that seeks to promote the organizational assets with minimum risks (Grance, 2003). IRS has delegated the responsibility of the development and maintenance of an information security system to Cybersecurity. The main responsibility of Cybersecurity is to identify and monitor any Cybersecurity threats and putting up strategies to combat any breach of security affecting IRS. Cybersecurity’s main duty is to prevent any incidents of insecurity with IRS’s information security system. However, it does not formulate the information security policies on behalf of IRS. In this survey, it is recognized that over time the consumer prefer internet-based services. The applicants can download forms online, check their refund status and get updates. This shows technological advancement in making the whole system online and also gives a platform for the IRS to provide new services for some of the customer needs that emerge. The customers main need in using online services is that their needs be met wherever they may be located (United States, 2003). With mobile application by IRS, it has been

Book response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Book response - Essay Example The poems are easy and full of affective yearning, with which any reader can identify. Further, Dickman’s theme oriented composition makes it interesting for readers to discern crucial life lessons and get inspired to make amends where necessary. One predominant theme in All American Poem is â€Å"scraping for joy†, which this essay seeks to explore in greater detail. The first poem in Dickman’s collection, which explicitly addresses the theme of scraping for joy, is Slow Dance. The basic meaning of this phrase is that, people must strive to derive joy from every action they take or every experience they go through. Just like the poem title suggests, life should be a slow dance, where one soaks in every moment of happiness and avoids taking for granted the joyous aspects of life, however meager. Dickman’s poem is infused with a sense of pleasure and expectation, as one skims through the verse line by line. There is a promise of hope even in the most unexciting or demoralizing everyday activities. The poem is also emphatic on the need to eagerly grasp the relatively few moments of slow dancing with exquisite unfamiliar persons. Such acts in essence, constitute cheating life or coping with aspects of life that might seem too difficult or painful to handle. Dickman’s detailed description of ritual of slow dancing gives one, as a reader, insight into the need to live life easy and take in all the little joys. By drawing a reader’s attention to the purported mundane moments of life, and comparing these with the happy times people would enjoy if only they took the time, the poet is successfully convincing on the issue of scraping for joy. For instance, he points out mowing the lawn, making another person suffer, suffering from insomnia and even dying, as some of the negativities of life. The poet establishes juxtaposition of these negative aspects of life, with positive ones like the hope of an almond grove in pitch darkness,

Risk Report Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Risk Report - Assignment Example In assessing a risk, probability and impact are used. Probability is the possibility of that risk occurring, and if it is below 1, then it means that it cannot happen. However, if the probability is 1, then it becomes a concern that has to be addressed. Impact analyzes the possible result that the risk might have in case it happens. These elements of risk management therefore define it as the process of identifying, assessing, prioritizing, and controlling risks to monitor the impacts or probabilities of risks, thus realize achievement of a project’s goals. This essay will create a risk management process within a large-scale information technology project. The E-Commerce project is creating an online shopping site for an existing enterprise, which will demonstrate the application of risk management. A large-scale project is one that is complex in execution, thus requires a vast range of experts to oversee key areas. Within a project, three main areas portray risks; project environment, organization’s arrangement, and the external environment (Baydoun, 2011). The categories employed in evaluating the risk management process adhere to the Project Management Institute’s subdivision of the process that consists of risk management planning, risk identification, qualitative risk management, quan titative risk management, risk response development, and risk monitoring and control. It is obvious that any project will have risks, and the best way to deal with them is not to avoid but understand and control them. The goals of this E-commerce project is to reach out to the fast-growing online market owing to the viral use of the internet today, which is estimated to have at least two-hundred million users. This is a rather potential trade opportunity, thus the need to develop an online (web) shopping site. The project, once completed, is bound

Morality Shapes our Political Discussions and how Politicians Essay

Morality Shapes our Political Discussions and how Politicians Deliberately Use Frames which Lakoff Discusses - Essay Example This paper aims to discuss the various patterns in which politician’s charting of political intercourse are undertaken. Framing is the basis of analysis in this paper which has been done with the aid of advertisements and other media sources to analyze the moral influence on politician’s conduct. This paper shall also evaluate how a common man is likely to get affected by the framing. The area which has been chosen to analyze the political discourse is immigration. Also, solutions to the issues which are acting greatly as an obstacle towards development will be given in the paper. As evident from the study of George Lakoff regarding different framing patterns have been used by politicians, is it progressive or conservative etc (Lakoff 148). Taking into account, the current scenario of the US political schema, it has been noted that Mitt Romney and Barak Obama has been actually involved in framing their agenda and outlook towards immigration and terrorism in their respec tive manner. By noting down the media clip namely Romney: WeShouldn’t Negotiate with Taliban, We Should Kill Taliban, it becomes quiet easier to ensure that the Mitt Romney has been a conservative in terms of framing his opinions against Taliban. It can be said that Mitt Romney acts like a person who is a naturalist father who does not understand the feelings of other members of the family. A democratic state is more likel to come up with better decisions if consensus is undertaken. The aggression quiet evident from his words when he speaks â€Å"People of America has been targeted by Taliban and for which they deserve to be killed and not negotiated with†, completely states that he is against the foreign policy of United States and he wishes to bring more changes in the policy (BreitbartNews). For most of the people who would actually come to watch the video will claim that Romney has a strict outlook towards terrorism but countries like United States cannot show aggr ession with an open call for war. It is for this reason that the framing as done by Mitt Romney regarding his interests towards terrorism is regarded as weak yet conservative. The impact of such a frame will not have a positive and productive effect of the viewers from all around the world. It should be noted that Mitt Romney must understand the group he is actually referring to before framing. The effect of such a frame is more likely to affect the people who needs assistance and can be able to serve Afghanistan for settling their social status-quo (Karoli 121) On the other hand, another attempt has been noted by the exemption speech of Barack Obama who claimed that United States can actually talk to the Taliban for peace. It has been noted by watching the video namely Obama On "Direct Discussions" With Taliban: "They Can Be A Part Of This Future" that the president has settled an onset and proved that United States is ready to come across with Taliban in the same way as earlier (w ith the aid of videotapes) (Realclearpolitics). On his own part, Barak Obama has tried to prove to the world that United States does not aim to call for a war but his framing seems to affect Romney’s outlook. The view and the position of Barack Obama with the aid of framing is more of a way to loosen down the aggression of the people who think that war is the only solution to the issues of terrorism. Barack Obama is seemingly

Mark Mazower's After the War was Over Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Mark Mazower's After the War was Over - Essay Example rience of its brief life as a nation-state’{p.21}) to restore justice and prosecute collaborators were undone by the resurrection of the anticommunist right wing faction. Eleni Haidia’s essay â€Å"The Punishment of Collaborators in Northern Greece, 1945-1946† (Chapter 2 of the book) is a composition of studies of trials of collaborators in Thessaloniki. It explores how at first there was widespread determination to mete out strong punishment, a determination that eventually broke down and vanished after encountering malignancies such as improper administration practices, corruption, lack of funding and the new, sudden and unforeseen political crisis that resulted after the civil war. Procopis Papastratis’ essay â€Å"Purging the University after Liberation† (Chapter 3 of the volume) explores the efforts carried out with the aim of cleansing Athens University of those persons who had collaborated with the Germans and the pre-war Metaxas regime. The University used academic and political tactics to successfully repulse the threat of purging it; in the process, ironically, the University also succeeded in expelling several of its professors who supported the EAM (National Liberation Front). Susanne-Sophia Spiliotis’ essay â€Å"An Affair of Politics, Not Justice: The Merten Trial (1957-1959) and Greek-German Relations† (Chapter 14 of the book) reveals how Max Merten, a Nazi official mainly responsible for the deportation of Thessaloniki’s Jews, escaped justice. She highlights this trial to show that not only collaborators, but even German war criminals escaped Greek justice, an evasion made possible by the late 1950s â€Å"mutual interest† move by the Greek and West German governments to turn a blind eye to past wartime events, and look ahead with a view to boost mutual political and economic relations. Polymeris Voglis’ essay â€Å"Between Negation and Self-Negation: Political Prisoners in Greece, 1945-1950† (Chapter 4 of the volume) is a valuable study

Morality Shapes our Political Discussions and how Politicians Essay

Morality Shapes our Political Discussions and how Politicians Deliberately Use Frames which Lakoff Discusses - Essay Example This paper aims to discuss the various patterns in which politician’s charting of political intercourse are undertaken. Framing is the basis of analysis in this paper which has been done with the aid of advertisements and other media sources to analyze the moral influence on politician’s conduct. This paper shall also evaluate how a common man is likely to get affected by the framing. The area which has been chosen to analyze the political discourse is immigration. Also, solutions to the issues which are acting greatly as an obstacle towards development will be given in the paper. As evident from the study of George Lakoff regarding different framing patterns have been used by politicians, is it progressive or conservative etc (Lakoff 148). Taking into account, the current scenario of the US political schema, it has been noted that Mitt Romney and Barak Obama has been actually involved in framing their agenda and outlook towards immigration and terrorism in their respec tive manner. By noting down the media clip namely Romney: WeShouldn’t Negotiate with Taliban, We Should Kill Taliban, it becomes quiet easier to ensure that the Mitt Romney has been a conservative in terms of framing his opinions against Taliban. It can be said that Mitt Romney acts like a person who is a naturalist father who does not understand the feelings of other members of the family. A democratic state is more likel to come up with better decisions if consensus is undertaken. The aggression quiet evident from his words when he speaks â€Å"People of America has been targeted by Taliban and for which they deserve to be killed and not negotiated with†, completely states that he is against the foreign policy of United States and he wishes to bring more changes in the policy (BreitbartNews). For most of the people who would actually come to watch the video will claim that Romney has a strict outlook towards terrorism but countries like United States cannot show aggr ession with an open call for war. It is for this reason that the framing as done by Mitt Romney regarding his interests towards terrorism is regarded as weak yet conservative. The impact of such a frame will not have a positive and productive effect of the viewers from all around the world. It should be noted that Mitt Romney must understand the group he is actually referring to before framing. The effect of such a frame is more likely to affect the people who needs assistance and can be able to serve Afghanistan for settling their social status-quo (Karoli 121) On the other hand, another attempt has been noted by the exemption speech of Barack Obama who claimed that United States can actually talk to the Taliban for peace. It has been noted by watching the video namely Obama On "Direct Discussions" With Taliban: "They Can Be A Part Of This Future" that the president has settled an onset and proved that United States is ready to come across with Taliban in the same way as earlier (w ith the aid of videotapes) (Realclearpolitics). On his own part, Barak Obama has tried to prove to the world that United States does not aim to call for a war but his framing seems to affect Romney’s outlook. The view and the position of Barack Obama with the aid of framing is more of a way to loosen down the aggression of the people who think that war is the only solution to the issues of terrorism. Barack Obama is seemingly

How does the academic study of problem solving and thinking relate to Essay

How does the academic study of problem solving and thinking relate to everyday life - Essay Example Along with maturation, people obtain substantial competence that enables them to solve common problems encountered daily. (Holyoak 1995, p. 267) However, Anderson (1993, p. 39) explains, not everything requiring solution, like routine activities, is indeed problems. For example, summing-up a three-month electric bill, though requires solution is not a problem because one simply has to compute it either manually or electronically, but how to pay the bill with practically nothing left in one’s pocket is surely a problem. The difference here lies on the immediate availability of achieving the task. Computing the bill could be easily achieved with the simple knowledge of addition or much easier the use of calculator, but where to find the money to pay the bill not to be cut off power presents a problem, as there is no immediate solution to it. Hence a problem is determined by the gap between the present state and the target goal wherein the means to solve the gap is not immediatel y evident (Schwarz & Skurnik 2003, p. 267). Problem solving begins with problem identification (Rudd 2005, p. 11). Generally defined as the activity by which the goal of eliminating the gap is undertaken without certainty of success (Tallman, Leik, Gray, & Stafford, 1993, cited in Nelson, Brice & Gunby 2010, p.74), problem solving which could be correct or erroneous differs for every individual, because individual experiences and task demands, which problem solving entails, vary (Martinez 1998, p. 605). Similarly, the difficulty of solving problems differs in degree depending on the nature of the problem. Some could be easy; others could be truly hard or could never be solved at all. (Joswiak 2004, p. 19) ‘The relative ease of solving a problem will depend on how successful the solver has been in representing crucial elements of the task environment in his problem space’ (Simon, 1978, p. 276). The more exposed a person to varied task of compelling nature, the greater is the chance of that person to handle problems of similar/related nature. For example, an ex-marine has the greater chance of surviving a physical assault than a language teacher who has yet to experience physical violence. Moreover, problem solving has two aspects: The answer that which solve the problem, and the solution procedure by which way the answer is known (Robertson 2001, p. 6). With a variety of problems that people come across everyday solutions also vary by which Robertson (2001, pp. 6-11) says problems can also be categorised. One, what knowledge does the problem require – would it be â€Å"knowledge-lean† or â€Å"knowledge-rich† problems (p. 7)? For example, household maintenance though complex requires simple management, whereas ensuring national security is far more complicated that it requires expertise. Steif, Lobue, Kara, & Fay (2010, p. 135) suggest that the ability to determine fitted conceptual knowledge in order to solve a problem is cons idered a metacognitive skill. This according to Greeno (1978, p. 62) is learnable. Although, Gagne (1979) clarifies that what can be learned in problem solving are its specific aspects, cited as: "rules of syntax and mathematics," "knowledge about particular objects and events," "specific cognitive strategies" (cited in Mayer 1987, p. 111). Two, what is the nature of the goal? Is it technical, routine, domestic, political,

Blue Brain Essay Example for Free

Blue Brain Essay Today scientists are in research to create an arti? cial brain that can think,respond, take decision, and keep anything in memory. The main aim is to uploadhuman brain into machine. So that man can think, take decision without any effort. After the death of the body, the virtual brain will act as the man. So, even after thedeath of a person we will not loose the knowledge, intelligence, personalities, feelingsand memories of that man, that can be used for the development of the human society. Technology is growing faster than every thing. IBM is now in research to create avirtual brain, called â€Å"Blue brain†. If possible, this would be the ? rst virtual brainof the world. IBM, in partnership with scientists at Switzerland’s Ecole Polytech-nique Federale de Lausanne’s (EPFL) Brain and Mind Institute will begin simulatingthe brain’s biological systems and output the data as a working 3-dimensional modelthat will recreate the high-speed electro-chemical interactions that take place withinthe brain’s interior. These include cognitive functions such as language, learning,perception and memory in addition to brain malfunction such as psychiatric disorderslike depression and autism. From there, the modeling will expand to other regions of the brain and, if successful, shed light on the relationships between genetic, molecularand cognitive functions of the brain. The human brain has 100 billion neurons, nerve cells that enable us to adapt quickly to an immense array of stimuli. We use them to understand and respond to bright sunlight, a honking horn, the smell of chicken frying and anything else our sensors detect. To better understand some of those responses, researchers in Lausanne, Switzerland, recently launched an ambitious project called Blue Brain, which uses IBMs eServer Blue Gene, a supercomputer capable of processing 22. 8 trillion floating point operations per second (TFLOPS). Blue Brain is modeling the behavior of 10,000 highly complex neurons in rats neocortical columns (NCC), which are very similar to the NCCs in a human brain. The NCCs run throughout the brains gray matter and perform advanced computing. They are 0. 5mm in diameter and 2mm to 5mm in height and are arranged like the cells of a honeycomb. The first objective of Blue Brain is to build an accurate software replica, or template, of an NCC within two to three years, says Henry Markram, the principal researcher on Blue Brain and a professor at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL). That first template will be modified for NCCs found in different brain regions and species, and then all the NCCs will be replicated to build a model of the neocortices of different species, he says. Such models will shed light on how memories are stored and retrieved, Markram says. This could reveal many exciting aspects of the [brain] circuits, such as the form of memories, memory capacity and how memories are lost. The modeling can help find vulnerabilities in the neocortex, which is useful because thats where brain disorders often originate. We may also be able to work out the best way to compensate and repair circuit errors, Markram says. The model could be used to develop and test treatment strategies for neurological and psychiatric diseases, such as autism, schizophrenia and depression, he adds. Having an accurate computer-based model of the brain would mean that some major brain experiments could be done in silicon rather than in a wet lab. A simulation that might take seconds on the supercomputer could replace a full days worth of lab research, Markram estimates. Ultimately, simulated results of brain activity could be matched with recorded brain activity in a person with a disease in order to reverse-engineer the circuit changes in diseases, he says. The real value of a simulation is that researchers can have access to data for every single neuron, adds IBMs Charles Peck, head of the Blue Brain project for IBM Research.

Soil Analysis of the Himalayan Mountain System

Soil Analysis of the Himalayan Mountain System Chapter- 4 ABIOTIC ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES OF MORAINIC AND ALPINE ECOSYSTEMS Global warming/ enhanced greenhouse effect and the loss of biodiversity are the major environmental issues around the world. The greatest part of the worlds population lives in the tropical regions. Mountainous regions in many cases provide favourable conditions for water supply due to orographically enhanced convective precipitation. Earth scientists are examining ancient periods of extreme warmth, such as the Miocene climatic optimum of about 14.5-17 million years ago. Fossil floral and faunal evidences indicate that this was the warmest time of the past 35 million years; a mid-latitude temperature was as much as 60C higher than the present one. Many workers believe that high carbon dioxide levels, in combination with oceanographic changes, caused Miocene global warming by the green house effect. Pagani et al. (1999) present evidence for surprisingly low carbon dioxide levels of about 180-290ppm by volume throughout the early to late Miocene (9-25 million years). They concluded tha t green house warming by carbon dioxide couldnt explain Miocene warmth and other mechanism must have had a greater influence. Carbon dioxide is a trace gas in the Earths atmosphere, which exchanges between carbon reservoirs in particularly the oceans and the biosphere. Consequently atmospheric concentration shows temporal, local and regional fluctuations. Since the beginning of industrialization, its atmospheric concentration has increased. The 1974 mean concentration of atmospheric CO2 was about 330 ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 (Baes et. al., 1976), which is equivalent to 2574 x 1015 g CO2 702.4 x 1015 C assuming 5.14 x 1021 g as the mass of the atmosphere. This value is significantly higher than the amount of atmospheric CO2 in 1860 that was about 290 ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 (617.2 x 1015 g). Precise measurements of the atmospheric CO2 concentration started in 1957 at the South Pole, Antarctica (Brown and Keeling, 1965) and in 1958 at Mauna Loa, Hawaii (Pales and Keeling, 1965). Records from Mauna Loa show that the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has risen since 1958, from 315 mmol mol-1 to approximately 360 315 mmol mol-1 in 1963 (Boden et al., 1994). From these records and other measurements that began more recently, it is clear that the present rate of CO2 increase ranges between 1.5 and 2.5 mmol mol-1 per annum. In the context of the Indian Himalayan region, the effect of warming is apparent on the recession of glaciers (Valdiya, 1988), which is one of the climatic sensitive environmental indicators, and serves as a measure of the natural variability of climate of mountains over long time scales (Beniston et al., 1997). However no comprehensive long-term data on CO2 levels are available. The consumption of CO2 by photosynthesis on land is about 120 x 1015 g dry organic matter/year, which is equivalent to about 54 x 1015gC/yr (Leith and Whittaker, 1975). Variations in the atmospheric CO2 content on land are mainly due to the exchange of CO2 between vegetation and the atmosphere (Leith, 1963; Baumgartner, 1969). The process in this exchange is photosynthesis and respiration. The consumption of CO2 by the living plant material is balanced by a corresponding production of CO2 during respiration of the plants themselves and from decay of organic material, which occurs mainly in the soil through the activity of bacteria (soil respiration). The release of CO2 from the soil depends on the type, structure, moisture and temperature of the soil. The CO2 concentration in soil can be 1000 times higher than in air (Enoch and Dasberg, 1971). Due to these processes, diurnal variations in the atmospheric CO2 contents on ground level are resulted. High mountain ecosystems are considered vulnerable to climate change (Beniston, 1994; Grabherr et al., 1995; Theurillat and Guisan, 2001). The European Alps experienced a 20 C increase in annual minimum temperatures during the twentieth century, with a marked rise since the early 1980s (Beniston et al., 1997). Upward moving of alpine plants has been noticed (Grabherr et al., 1994; Pauli et al., 2001), community composition has changed at high alpine sites (Keller et al., 2000), and treeline species have responded to climate warming by invasion of the alpine zone or increased growth rates during the last decades (Paulsen et al., 2000). Vegetation at glaciers fronts is commonly affected by glacial fluctuations (Coe, 1967; Spence, 1989; Mizumo, 1998). Coe (1967) described vegetation zonation, plant colonization and the distribution of individual plant species on the slopes below the Tyndall and Lewis glaciers. Spence (1989) analyzed the advance of plant communities in response to the re treat of the Tyndall and Lewis glaciers for the period 1958- 1984. Mizumo (1998) addressed plant communities in response to more recent glacial retreat by conducting field research in 1992, 1994, 1996 and 1997. The studies illustrated the link between ice retreat and colonization near the Tyndall and Lewis glaciers. The concern about the future global climate warming and its geoecological consequences strongly urges development and analysis of climate sensitive biomonitoring systems. The natural elevational tree limit is often assumed to represent an ideal early warming line predicted to respond positionally, structurally and compositionally even to quite modest climate fluctuations. Several field studies in different parts of the world present that climate warming earlier in the 20th century (up to the 1950s 1960s) has caused tree limit advances (Kullman, 1998). Purohit (1991) also reported upward shifting of species in Garhwal Himalaya. The Himalayan mountain system is a conspicuous landmass characterised by its unique crescent shape, high orography, varied lithology and complex structure. The mountain system is rather of young geological age through the rock material it contains has a long history of sedimentation, metamorphism and magmatism from Proterozoic to Quaternary in age. Geologically, it occupies a vast terrain covering the northern boundary of India, entire Nepal, Bhutan and parts of China and Pakistan stretching from almost 720 E to 960 E meridians for about 2500 km in length. In terms of orography, the geographers have conceived four zones in the Himalaya across its long axis. From south to north, these are (i) the sub-Himalaya, comprising low hill ranges of Siwalik, not rising above 1,000 m in altitude; (ii) the Lesser Himalaya, comprising a series of mountain ranges not rising above 4000 m in altitude; (iii) the Great Himalaya, comprising very high mountain ranges with glaciers, rising above 6,000 m i n altitude and (iv) the Trans-Himalaya, Comprising very high mountain ranges with glaciers. The four orographic zones of the Himalaya are not strictly broad morpho-tectonic units though tectonism must have played a key role in varied orographic attainments of different zones. Their conceived boundaries do not also coincide with those of litho-stratigraphic or tectono-stratigraphic units. Because of the involvement of a large number of parameters of variable nature, the geomorphic units are expected to be diverse but cause specific, having close links with mechanism and crustal movements (Ghosh, et al., 1989). Soil is essential for the continued existence of life on the planet. Soil takes thousands of years to form and only few years to destroy their productivity as a result of erosion and other types of improper management. It is a three dimensional body consisting of solid, liquid and gaseous phase. It includes any part of earths crust, which through the process of weathering and incorporation of organic matter has become capable in securing and supporting plants. Living organisms and the transformation they perform have a profound effect on the ability of soils to provide food and fiber for expanding world population. Soils are used to produce crops, range and timber. Soil is basic to our survival and it is natures waste disposal medium and it serves as habitats for varied kinds of plants, birds, animals, and microorganisms. As a source of stores and transformers of plant nutrients, soil has a major influence on terrestrial ecosystems. Soil continuously recycles plant and animal remains , and they are major support systems for human life, determining the agricultural production capacity of the land (Anthwal, 2004). Soil is a natural product of the environment. Native soil forms from the parent material by action of climate (temperature, wind, and water), native vegetation and microbes. The shape of the land surface affects soil formation. It is also affected by the time it took for climate, vegetation, and microbes to create the soil. Soil varies greatly in time and space. Over time-scales relevant to geo-indicators, they have both stable characteristics (e.g. mineralogical composition and relative proportions of sand, silt and clay) and those that respond rapidly to changing environmental conditions (e.g. ground freezing). The latter characteristics include soil moisture and soil microbiota (e.g. nematodes, microbes), which are essential to fluxes of plant nutrients and greenhouse gases (Peirce, and Larson, 1996.). Most soils resist short-term climate change, but some may undergo irreversible change such as lateritic hardening and densification, podsolization, or large-scale erosion. Chemical degradation takes place because of depletion of soluble elements through rainwater leaching, over cropping and over grazing, or because of the accumulation of salts precipitated from rising ground water or irrigation schemes. It may also be caused by sewage containing toxic metals, precipitation of acidic and other airborne contaminants, as well as by persistent use of fertilizers and pesticides (Page et al., 1986). Physical degradation results from land clearing, erosion and compaction by machinery (Klute, 1986). The key soil indicators are texture (especially clay content), bulk density, aggregate stability and size distribution, and water-holding capacity (Anthwal, 2004). Soil consists of 45% mineral, 25% water, 25% air and 5% organic matter (both living and dead organisms). There are thousands of different soils throughout the world. Soil are classified on the basis of their parent material, texture, structure, and profile There are five key factors in soil formation: i) type of parent material; ii) climate; iii) overlying vegetation; iv) topography or slope; and v) time. Climate controls the distribution of vegetation or soil organisms. Together climate and vegetation/soil organisms often are called the active factors of soil formation (genesis). This is because, on gently undulating topography within a certain climatic and vegetative zone a characteristic or typical soil will develop unless parent material differences are very great (Anthwal, 2004). Thus, the tall and mid-grass prairie soils have developed across a variety of parent materials. Soil structure comprises the physical constitution of soil material as expressed by size, shape, and arrangement of solid particles and voids (Jongmans et al., 2001). Soil structure is an important soil property in many clayey, agricultural soils. Physical and chemical properties and also the nutrient status of the soil vary spatially due to the changing nature of the climate, parent material, physiographic position and vegetation (Behari et al., 2004). Soil brings together many ecosystem processes, integrating mineral and organic processes; and biological, physical and chemical processes (Arnold et al., 1990, Yaalon 1990). Soil may respond slowly to environmental changes than other elements of the ecosystem such as, the plants and animal do. Changes in soil organic matter can also indicate vegetation change, which can occur quickly because of climatic change (Almendinger, 1990). In high altitudes, soils are formed by the process of solifluction. Soils on the slopes above 300 are generally shallow due to erosion and mass wasting processes and usually have very thin surface horizons. Such skeletal soils have median to coarse texture depending on the type of material from which they have been derived. Glacial plants require water, mineral resources and support from substrate, which differ from alpine and lower altitude in many aspects. The plant life gets support by deeply weathered profile in moraine soils, which develops thin and mosaic type of vegetation. Most of the parent material is derived by mechanical weathering and the soils are rather coarse textured and stony. Permafrost occurs in many of the high mountains and the soils are typically cold and wet. The soils of the moraine region remain moist during the summer because drainage is impeded by permafrost (Gaur, 2002). In general, the north facing slopes support deep, moist and fertile soils. The south facing slopes, on the other hand, are precipitous and well exposed to denudation. These soils are shallow, dry and poor and are often devoid of any kind of regolith (Pandey, 1997). Based on various samples, Nand et al., (1989) finds negative correlation between soil pH and altitude and argues that decrease in pH with the increase in elevation is possibly accounted by high rainfall which facilitated leaching out of Calcium and Magnesium from surface soils. The soils are invariably rich in Potash, medium in Phosphorus and poor in Nitrogen contents. However, information on geo-morphological aspects, soil composition and mineral contents of alpine and moraine in Garhwal Himalaya are still lacking. Present investigation was aimed to carry out detail observations on soil composition of the alpine and moraine region of Garhwal Himalaya. 4.1. OBSERVATIONS As far as the recordings of abiotic environmental variables of morainic and alpine ecosystems of Dokriani Bamak are concerned, the atmospheric carbon dioxide and the physical and chemical characteristics of the soil were recorded under the present study. As these are important for the present study. 4.1.1. Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Diurnal variations in the atmospheric CO2 were recorded at Dokriani Bamak from May 2005- October 2005. Generally the concentration of CO2 was higher during night and early morning hours (0600-0800) and lower during daytime. However, there were fluctuations in the patterns of diurnal changes in CO2 concentration on daily basis. In the month of May 2005, carbon dioxide concentration ranged from a minimum of 375Â µmol mol-1 to a maximum of 395Â µmol mol-1. When the values were averaged for the measurement days the maximum and minimum values ranged from 378Â µmol mol-1 to 388Â µmol mol-1. A difference of 20Â µmol mol-1 was found between the maximum and minimum values recorded for the measurement days. When the values were averaged, a difference of 10Â µmol mol-1 was observed between maximum and minimum values. During the measurement period, CO2 concentrations varied from a minimum of 377ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 at 12 noon to a maximum of 400ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 at 0800 hrs in the month of June, 2005. When the CO2 values were averaged for 6 days, the difference between the minimum and maximum values was about 23ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1. In the month of July, levels of carbon dioxide concentrations ranged from a minimum of 369ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 to a maximum of 390ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1. When the values of the carbon dioxide concentrations for the measuring period were averaged, the difference between the minimum and maximum values was about 21ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1. Carbon dioxide concentration ranged from a minimum of 367ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 to a maximum of 409ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 during the month of August. When the values of carbon dioxide were averaged for the measurement days, the difference in the minimum and maximum values was about 42ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1. During the measurement period (September), CO2 concentrations varied from a minimum of 371ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 at 12 noon to a maximum of 389ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 at 0600 hrs indicating a difference of 18ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 between the maximum and minimum values. When the values of the measurement days were averaged the minimum and maximum values ranged from 375ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 to 387ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 and a difference of 12ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 was recorded. During the month of October, carbon dioxide levels ranged from a minimum of 372ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 at 1400 hrs to a maximum of 403ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 at 2000 hrs indicating a difference of 31ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1. When the values were averaged, the carbon dioxide levels ranged from a minimum of 376ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 to a maximum of 415ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1.A difference in the minimum and maximum values was found to be 39Â µmol mol-1 when the values were averaged for the measurements days. In the growing season (May-October) overall carbon dioxide concentration was recorded to be highest in the month of June and seasonally it was recorded highest during the month of October 4.1.2. A. Soil Physical Characteristics of Soil Soil Colour and Texture Soils of the study area tend to have distinct variations in colour both horizontally and vertically (Table 4.1). The colour of the soil varied with soil depth. It was dark yellowish brown at the depth of 10-20cm, 30-40cm of AS1 and AS2, brown at the depth of 0-10cm of AS1 and AS2 and yellowish brown at the depths of 20-30cm, 40-50cm, 50-60cm of AS1 and AS2). Whereas the soil colour was grayish brown at the depths of 0-10cm, 30-40cm, 50-60cm of MS1 and MS2, dark grayish brown at the depths of 10-20cm, 20-30cm of MS1 and MS2 and brown at the depth of 40-50cm of both the moraine sites (MS1 and MS2). Soil texture is the relative volume of sand, silt and clay particles in a soil. Soils of the study area had high proportion of silt followed by sand and clay (Table 4.2). Soil of the alpine sites was identified as silty loam category, whereas, the soil of the moraine was of silty clayey loam category. Soil Temperature The soil temperature depends on the amount of heat reaching the soil surface and dissipation of heat in soil. Figure 4.2 depicts soil temperature at all the sites in the active growth period. A maximum (13.440C) soil temperature was recorded during the month of July and minimum (4.770C) during the month of October at AS1. The soil temperature varied between 5.10C being the lowest during the month of October to 12.710C as maximum during the month of August at AS2. Soil temperature ranged from 3.240C (October) to 11.210C (July) at MS1. However, the soil temperature ranged from 3.40C (October) to 12.330C (July) at MS2. Soil Moisture (%) Moisture has a big influence on soils ability to compact. Some soils wont compact well until moisture is 7-8%. Â  Likewise, wet soil also doesnt compact well. The mean soil water percentage (Fig. 4.3) in study area fluctuated between a maximum of 83% (AS1) to a minimum of 15% (AS2). The values of soil water percentage ranged from a minimum of 8% (MS2) to a maximum of 80% (MS1). Soil water percentage was higher in the month of July at AS1 and during August at MS1 (. During the month of June, soil water percentage was recorded minimum in the lower depth (50-60cm) at both the sites. Water Holding Capacity (WHC) The mean water holding capacity of the soil varied from alpine sites to moraine sites (Table 4.4). It ranged from a maximum of 89.66% (August) to a minimum of 79.15% (May) at AS1. The minimum and maximum values at AS2 were 78.88% (May) to 89.66% (August), respectively. The maximum WHC was recorded to be 84.61 % during the month of September on upper layer (0-10 cm) at MS1 and minimum 60.36% during the month of May in the lower layer (50-60cm) at MS1. At MS2, WHC ranged from 60.66% (May) to 84.61% (September). However, maximum WHC was recorded in upper layers at both the sites of alpine and moraine. Soil pH The soil pH varied from site to site during the course of the present study (Table 4.5). Mean pH values of all the sites are presented in Figure 4.4 The soil of the study area was acidic. Soil of the moraine sites was more acidic than that of the alpine sites. Soil pH ranged from 4.4 to 5.3 (AS1), 4.5 to 5.2 (AS2), 4.9 to 6.1 (MS1) and 4.8 to 5.7 (MS2). 4.1.2 B. Chemical Characteristics of Soil Organic Carbon (%): Soil organic carbon (SOC) varied with depths and months at both the alpine and moraine sites (Table 4.6). High percentage of organic carbon was observed in the upper layer of all sites during the entire period of study. Soil organic C decreased with depth and it was lowest in lower layers at all the sites. Soil organic carbon was maximum (5.1%) during July at AS1 because of high decomposition of litter, while it was minimum (4.2%) during October due to high uptake by plants in the uppermost layer (0-10 cm). A maximum (5.0%) SOC was found during the month of July and minimum (4.1%) during October at AS2. At the moraine sites, maximum (3.58%, 3.73%) SOC was found during June and minimum (1.5% and 1.9%) during August at MS1 and MS2 respectively. Phosphorus (%): A low amount of phosphorus was observed from May to August which increased during September and October. The mean phosphorus percentage ranged from 0.02 Â ± 0.01 to 0.07 Â ± 0.03 at AS1 and AS2. It was 0.03Â ±0.01 to 0.03Â ±0.02 at MS1 and MS2. Maximum percentage of phosphorus was estimated to be 0.09 in the uppermost layer (0-10 cm) during October at AS1. The lower layer (40-50 cm) of soil horizon contained a minimum of 0.01% phosphorus during September at AS1 and AS2. In the moraine sites (MS1 and MS2), maximum phosphorus percentage of 0.03 Â ±0.01 was estimated in the upper layers (0-10, 10-20, 20-30 cm) while it was found to be minimum (0.02Â ±0.01) in the lower layers (30-40 cm). Overall, a decreasing trend in amount of phosphorus was found with depth in alpine as well as moraine sites Potassium (%): A decline in potassium contents was also observed with declining depth during the active growing season. Maximum value of potassium was found in the uppermost layer (0-10 cm) at all the sites. The mean values ranged from 0.71Â ±0.02 to 46Â ±0.06 at AS1 while it was 0.71Â ±0.02 to 0.47Â ±0.05 at AS2. In the moraine sites the values ranged from a minimum of 0.33 Â ±0.06 to a maximum of 0.59Â ±0.05 in the MS1 and from 0.59Â ±0.05 to 0.32Â ±0.06 at MS2. In the upper layer of soil horizon (0-10 cm), maximum value of 0.74 %, 0.75% of potassium was observed during the month of July at AS1 and AS2. While the values were maximum in the month of October at moraine sites MS1 and MS2 having 0.66% and 0.65% respectively Nitrogen (%): Highest percentage of nitrogen was found in the upper layers at all the sites. Maximum percentage of nitrogen were found during the month of July-August (0.25%, 0.25 and 0.26%, 0.25%) at AS1 and AS2, respectively. Maximum values of 0.18% and 0.15% respectively were found during the month of June at the moraine sites MS1 and MS2. The nitrogen percentage ranged from 0.23Â ±0.02 to 0.04Â ±0.01% at AS1. However, it ranged from a minimum of 0.05Â ±0.01 to 0.24Â ±0.02% at AS2. The nitrogen percentage ranged from a minimum of 0.03Â ±0.01, 0.02Â ±0.04% to a maximum of 12Â ±0.03, 13Â ±0.01%, respectively at MS1 and MS2 Overall, a decreasing trend was noticed in the nitrogen percentage with depth at both the alpine and moraine sites. 4.2. DISCUSSION Soil has a close relationship with geomorphology and vegetation type of the area (Gaur, 2002). Any change in the geomorphological process and vegetational pattern influences the pedogenic processes. However, variability in soil is a characteristic even within same geomorphic position (Gaur, 2002). Jenney (1941) in his discussion on organisms as a soil forming factors treated vegetation both as an independent and as dependent variable. In order to examine the role of vegetation as an independent variable, it would be possible to study the properties of soil as influenced by vegetation while all other soil forming factors such as climate, parent material, topography and time are maintaining at a particular constellation. Many soil properties may be related to a climatic situation revealing thousand years ago (e.g. humid period during late glacial or the Holocene in the Alps and Andes (Korner, 1999). The soil forming processes are reflected in the colour of the surface soil (Pandey, 1997). The combination of iron oxides and organic content gives many soil types a brown colour (Anthwal, 2004). Many darker soils are not warmer than adjacent lighter coloured soils because of the temperature modifying effect of the moisture, in fact they may be cooler (Pandey, 1997). The alpine sites of the resent study has soil colour varying from dark yellowish brown/yellowish brown to brown at different depths. Likewise, at the moraine sites, the soil colour was dark grayish brown/grayish brown to brown. The dark coloured soils of the moraine and alpine sites having high humus contents absorb more heat than light coloured soils. Therefore, the dark soils hold more water. Water requires relatively large amount of heat than the soil minerals to raise its temperature and it also absorbs considerable heat for evaporation. At all sites, dark colour of soil was found due to high organic contents by the addition of litter. Soil texture is an important modifying factor in relation to the proportion of precipitation that enters the soil and is available to plants (Pandey, 1997). Texture refers to the proportion of sand, silt, and clay in the soil. Sandy soil is light or coarse-textured, whereas, the clay soils are heavy or fine-textured. Sand holds less moisture per unit volume, but permits more rapid percolation of precipitated water than silt and clay. Clay tends to increase the water-holding capacity of the soil. Loamy soils have a balanced sand, silt, and clay composition and are thus superior for plant growth (Pidwirny, 2004). Soil of the alpine zone of Dokriani Bamak was silty predominated by clay and loam, whereas the soil of moraine zone was silty predominated by sand and clay. There is a close relationship between atmospheric temperature and soil temperature. The high organic matter (humus) help in retaining more soil water. During summers, high radiations with greater insulation period enhance the atmospheric temperature resulted in the greater evaporation of soil water. In the monsoon months (July-August) the high rainfall increased soil moisture under relative atmospheric and soil temperature due to cloud-filter radiations (Pandey, 1997). Owing to September rainfall, atmospheric and soil temperatures decreased. The soil moisture is controlled by atmospheric temperature coupled with absorption of water by plants. During October, occasional rainfall and strong cold winds lower down the atmospheric temperature further. The soil temperature remains more or less intact from the outer influence due to a slight frost layer as well as vegetation cover. Soil temperature was recorded low at the moraine sites than the alpine sites. During May, insulation period in creases with increase in the atmospheric and soil temperature and it decreases during rainfall. The increasing temperature influences soil moisture adversely and an equilibrium is attained only after the first monsoon showers in the month of June which continued till August. Donahue et al. (1987) stated that no levelled land with a slope at right angle to the Sun would receive more heat per soil area and will warm faster than the flat surface. The soil layer impermeable to moisture have been cited as the reason for treelessness in part of the tropics, wherein its absence savanna develops (Beard, 1953). The resulting water logging of soil during the rainy season creates conditions not suitable for the growth of trees capable of surviving the dry season. The water holding capacity of the soil is determined by several factors. Most important among these are soil texture or size of particles, porosity and the amount of expansible organic matter and colloidal clay (Pandey, 1997). Water is held as thin film upon the surface of the particles and runs together forming drops in saturated soils, the amount necessarily increases with an increase in the water holding surface. Organic matter affects water contents directly by retaining water in large amount on the extensive surfaces of its colloidal constituents and also by holding it like a sponge in its less decayed portion. It also had an indirect effect through soil structure. Sand particles loosely cemented together by it, hence, percolation is decreased and water-holding capacity increased. Although fine textured soil can hold more water and thus more total water holding capacity but maximum available water is held in moderate textured soil. Porosity in soil consists of that portion of the soil volume not occupied by solids, either mineral or organic material. Under natural conditions, the pore spaces are occupied at all times by air and water. Pore spaces are irregular in shape in sand than the clay. The most rapid water and air movement is observed in sands than strongly aggregated soils. The pH of alpine sites ranged from 4.4 to 5.3 and it ranged from 4.8 to 6.1 in moraine sites of Dokriani Bamak. It indicated the acidic nature of the soil. The moraine sites were more acidic than the alpine sites. Acidity of soil is exhibited due to the presence of different acids. The organic matter and nitrogen contents inhibit the acidity of soil. The present observations pertaining to the soil pH (4.4 to 5.3 and 4.8 to 6.1) were more or less in the same range as reported for other meadows and moraine zones. Ram (1988) reported pH from 4.0-6.0 in Rudranath and Gaur (2002) on Chorabari. These pH ranges are lower than the oak and pine forests of lower altitudes of Himalayan region as observed by Singh and Singh, 1987 (pH:6.0-6.3). Furthermore, pH increased with depth. Bliss (1963) analyzed that in all types of soil, pH was low in upper layers (4.0-4.30) and it increased (4.6-4.9) in lower layer at New Hampshire due to reduction in organic matter. Das et al. (1988) reported the simil ar results in the sub alpine areas of Eastern Himalayas. All these reports support the present findings on Dokriani Bamak strongly. A potent acidic soil is intensively eroded and it has lower exchangeable cation, and possesses least microbial activity (Donahue et al., 1987). Misra et al., 1970 also observed higher acidity in the soil in the region where high precipitation results leaching. Koslowska (1934) demonstrated that when plants were grown under conditions of known pH, they make the culture medium either more acidic or alkaline and that this property differed according to the species. Soil properties may ch Soil Analysis of the Himalayan Mountain System Soil Analysis of the Himalayan Mountain System Chapter- 4 ABIOTIC ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES OF MORAINIC AND ALPINE ECOSYSTEMS Global warming/ enhanced greenhouse effect and the loss of biodiversity are the major environmental issues around the world. The greatest part of the worlds population lives in the tropical regions. Mountainous regions in many cases provide favourable conditions for water supply due to orographically enhanced convective precipitation. Earth scientists are examining ancient periods of extreme warmth, such as the Miocene climatic optimum of about 14.5-17 million years ago. Fossil floral and faunal evidences indicate that this was the warmest time of the past 35 million years; a mid-latitude temperature was as much as 60C higher than the present one. Many workers believe that high carbon dioxide levels, in combination with oceanographic changes, caused Miocene global warming by the green house effect. Pagani et al. (1999) present evidence for surprisingly low carbon dioxide levels of about 180-290ppm by volume throughout the early to late Miocene (9-25 million years). They concluded tha t green house warming by carbon dioxide couldnt explain Miocene warmth and other mechanism must have had a greater influence. Carbon dioxide is a trace gas in the Earths atmosphere, which exchanges between carbon reservoirs in particularly the oceans and the biosphere. Consequently atmospheric concentration shows temporal, local and regional fluctuations. Since the beginning of industrialization, its atmospheric concentration has increased. The 1974 mean concentration of atmospheric CO2 was about 330 ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 (Baes et. al., 1976), which is equivalent to 2574 x 1015 g CO2 702.4 x 1015 C assuming 5.14 x 1021 g as the mass of the atmosphere. This value is significantly higher than the amount of atmospheric CO2 in 1860 that was about 290 ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 (617.2 x 1015 g). Precise measurements of the atmospheric CO2 concentration started in 1957 at the South Pole, Antarctica (Brown and Keeling, 1965) and in 1958 at Mauna Loa, Hawaii (Pales and Keeling, 1965). Records from Mauna Loa show that the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has risen since 1958, from 315 mmol mol-1 to approximately 360 315 mmol mol-1 in 1963 (Boden et al., 1994). From these records and other measurements that began more recently, it is clear that the present rate of CO2 increase ranges between 1.5 and 2.5 mmol mol-1 per annum. In the context of the Indian Himalayan region, the effect of warming is apparent on the recession of glaciers (Valdiya, 1988), which is one of the climatic sensitive environmental indicators, and serves as a measure of the natural variability of climate of mountains over long time scales (Beniston et al., 1997). However no comprehensive long-term data on CO2 levels are available. The consumption of CO2 by photosynthesis on land is about 120 x 1015 g dry organic matter/year, which is equivalent to about 54 x 1015gC/yr (Leith and Whittaker, 1975). Variations in the atmospheric CO2 content on land are mainly due to the exchange of CO2 between vegetation and the atmosphere (Leith, 1963; Baumgartner, 1969). The process in this exchange is photosynthesis and respiration. The consumption of CO2 by the living plant material is balanced by a corresponding production of CO2 during respiration of the plants themselves and from decay of organic material, which occurs mainly in the soil through the activity of bacteria (soil respiration). The release of CO2 from the soil depends on the type, structure, moisture and temperature of the soil. The CO2 concentration in soil can be 1000 times higher than in air (Enoch and Dasberg, 1971). Due to these processes, diurnal variations in the atmospheric CO2 contents on ground level are resulted. High mountain ecosystems are considered vulnerable to climate change (Beniston, 1994; Grabherr et al., 1995; Theurillat and Guisan, 2001). The European Alps experienced a 20 C increase in annual minimum temperatures during the twentieth century, with a marked rise since the early 1980s (Beniston et al., 1997). Upward moving of alpine plants has been noticed (Grabherr et al., 1994; Pauli et al., 2001), community composition has changed at high alpine sites (Keller et al., 2000), and treeline species have responded to climate warming by invasion of the alpine zone or increased growth rates during the last decades (Paulsen et al., 2000). Vegetation at glaciers fronts is commonly affected by glacial fluctuations (Coe, 1967; Spence, 1989; Mizumo, 1998). Coe (1967) described vegetation zonation, plant colonization and the distribution of individual plant species on the slopes below the Tyndall and Lewis glaciers. Spence (1989) analyzed the advance of plant communities in response to the re treat of the Tyndall and Lewis glaciers for the period 1958- 1984. Mizumo (1998) addressed plant communities in response to more recent glacial retreat by conducting field research in 1992, 1994, 1996 and 1997. The studies illustrated the link between ice retreat and colonization near the Tyndall and Lewis glaciers. The concern about the future global climate warming and its geoecological consequences strongly urges development and analysis of climate sensitive biomonitoring systems. The natural elevational tree limit is often assumed to represent an ideal early warming line predicted to respond positionally, structurally and compositionally even to quite modest climate fluctuations. Several field studies in different parts of the world present that climate warming earlier in the 20th century (up to the 1950s 1960s) has caused tree limit advances (Kullman, 1998). Purohit (1991) also reported upward shifting of species in Garhwal Himalaya. The Himalayan mountain system is a conspicuous landmass characterised by its unique crescent shape, high orography, varied lithology and complex structure. The mountain system is rather of young geological age through the rock material it contains has a long history of sedimentation, metamorphism and magmatism from Proterozoic to Quaternary in age. Geologically, it occupies a vast terrain covering the northern boundary of India, entire Nepal, Bhutan and parts of China and Pakistan stretching from almost 720 E to 960 E meridians for about 2500 km in length. In terms of orography, the geographers have conceived four zones in the Himalaya across its long axis. From south to north, these are (i) the sub-Himalaya, comprising low hill ranges of Siwalik, not rising above 1,000 m in altitude; (ii) the Lesser Himalaya, comprising a series of mountain ranges not rising above 4000 m in altitude; (iii) the Great Himalaya, comprising very high mountain ranges with glaciers, rising above 6,000 m i n altitude and (iv) the Trans-Himalaya, Comprising very high mountain ranges with glaciers. The four orographic zones of the Himalaya are not strictly broad morpho-tectonic units though tectonism must have played a key role in varied orographic attainments of different zones. Their conceived boundaries do not also coincide with those of litho-stratigraphic or tectono-stratigraphic units. Because of the involvement of a large number of parameters of variable nature, the geomorphic units are expected to be diverse but cause specific, having close links with mechanism and crustal movements (Ghosh, et al., 1989). Soil is essential for the continued existence of life on the planet. Soil takes thousands of years to form and only few years to destroy their productivity as a result of erosion and other types of improper management. It is a three dimensional body consisting of solid, liquid and gaseous phase. It includes any part of earths crust, which through the process of weathering and incorporation of organic matter has become capable in securing and supporting plants. Living organisms and the transformation they perform have a profound effect on the ability of soils to provide food and fiber for expanding world population. Soils are used to produce crops, range and timber. Soil is basic to our survival and it is natures waste disposal medium and it serves as habitats for varied kinds of plants, birds, animals, and microorganisms. As a source of stores and transformers of plant nutrients, soil has a major influence on terrestrial ecosystems. Soil continuously recycles plant and animal remains , and they are major support systems for human life, determining the agricultural production capacity of the land (Anthwal, 2004). Soil is a natural product of the environment. Native soil forms from the parent material by action of climate (temperature, wind, and water), native vegetation and microbes. The shape of the land surface affects soil formation. It is also affected by the time it took for climate, vegetation, and microbes to create the soil. Soil varies greatly in time and space. Over time-scales relevant to geo-indicators, they have both stable characteristics (e.g. mineralogical composition and relative proportions of sand, silt and clay) and those that respond rapidly to changing environmental conditions (e.g. ground freezing). The latter characteristics include soil moisture and soil microbiota (e.g. nematodes, microbes), which are essential to fluxes of plant nutrients and greenhouse gases (Peirce, and Larson, 1996.). Most soils resist short-term climate change, but some may undergo irreversible change such as lateritic hardening and densification, podsolization, or large-scale erosion. Chemical degradation takes place because of depletion of soluble elements through rainwater leaching, over cropping and over grazing, or because of the accumulation of salts precipitated from rising ground water or irrigation schemes. It may also be caused by sewage containing toxic metals, precipitation of acidic and other airborne contaminants, as well as by persistent use of fertilizers and pesticides (Page et al., 1986). Physical degradation results from land clearing, erosion and compaction by machinery (Klute, 1986). The key soil indicators are texture (especially clay content), bulk density, aggregate stability and size distribution, and water-holding capacity (Anthwal, 2004). Soil consists of 45% mineral, 25% water, 25% air and 5% organic matter (both living and dead organisms). There are thousands of different soils throughout the world. Soil are classified on the basis of their parent material, texture, structure, and profile There are five key factors in soil formation: i) type of parent material; ii) climate; iii) overlying vegetation; iv) topography or slope; and v) time. Climate controls the distribution of vegetation or soil organisms. Together climate and vegetation/soil organisms often are called the active factors of soil formation (genesis). This is because, on gently undulating topography within a certain climatic and vegetative zone a characteristic or typical soil will develop unless parent material differences are very great (Anthwal, 2004). Thus, the tall and mid-grass prairie soils have developed across a variety of parent materials. Soil structure comprises the physical constitution of soil material as expressed by size, shape, and arrangement of solid particles and voids (Jongmans et al., 2001). Soil structure is an important soil property in many clayey, agricultural soils. Physical and chemical properties and also the nutrient status of the soil vary spatially due to the changing nature of the climate, parent material, physiographic position and vegetation (Behari et al., 2004). Soil brings together many ecosystem processes, integrating mineral and organic processes; and biological, physical and chemical processes (Arnold et al., 1990, Yaalon 1990). Soil may respond slowly to environmental changes than other elements of the ecosystem such as, the plants and animal do. Changes in soil organic matter can also indicate vegetation change, which can occur quickly because of climatic change (Almendinger, 1990). In high altitudes, soils are formed by the process of solifluction. Soils on the slopes above 300 are generally shallow due to erosion and mass wasting processes and usually have very thin surface horizons. Such skeletal soils have median to coarse texture depending on the type of material from which they have been derived. Glacial plants require water, mineral resources and support from substrate, which differ from alpine and lower altitude in many aspects. The plant life gets support by deeply weathered profile in moraine soils, which develops thin and mosaic type of vegetation. Most of the parent material is derived by mechanical weathering and the soils are rather coarse textured and stony. Permafrost occurs in many of the high mountains and the soils are typically cold and wet. The soils of the moraine region remain moist during the summer because drainage is impeded by permafrost (Gaur, 2002). In general, the north facing slopes support deep, moist and fertile soils. The south facing slopes, on the other hand, are precipitous and well exposed to denudation. These soils are shallow, dry and poor and are often devoid of any kind of regolith (Pandey, 1997). Based on various samples, Nand et al., (1989) finds negative correlation between soil pH and altitude and argues that decrease in pH with the increase in elevation is possibly accounted by high rainfall which facilitated leaching out of Calcium and Magnesium from surface soils. The soils are invariably rich in Potash, medium in Phosphorus and poor in Nitrogen contents. However, information on geo-morphological aspects, soil composition and mineral contents of alpine and moraine in Garhwal Himalaya are still lacking. Present investigation was aimed to carry out detail observations on soil composition of the alpine and moraine region of Garhwal Himalaya. 4.1. OBSERVATIONS As far as the recordings of abiotic environmental variables of morainic and alpine ecosystems of Dokriani Bamak are concerned, the atmospheric carbon dioxide and the physical and chemical characteristics of the soil were recorded under the present study. As these are important for the present study. 4.1.1. Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Diurnal variations in the atmospheric CO2 were recorded at Dokriani Bamak from May 2005- October 2005. Generally the concentration of CO2 was higher during night and early morning hours (0600-0800) and lower during daytime. However, there were fluctuations in the patterns of diurnal changes in CO2 concentration on daily basis. In the month of May 2005, carbon dioxide concentration ranged from a minimum of 375Â µmol mol-1 to a maximum of 395Â µmol mol-1. When the values were averaged for the measurement days the maximum and minimum values ranged from 378Â µmol mol-1 to 388Â µmol mol-1. A difference of 20Â µmol mol-1 was found between the maximum and minimum values recorded for the measurement days. When the values were averaged, a difference of 10Â µmol mol-1 was observed between maximum and minimum values. During the measurement period, CO2 concentrations varied from a minimum of 377ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 at 12 noon to a maximum of 400ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 at 0800 hrs in the month of June, 2005. When the CO2 values were averaged for 6 days, the difference between the minimum and maximum values was about 23ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1. In the month of July, levels of carbon dioxide concentrations ranged from a minimum of 369ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 to a maximum of 390ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1. When the values of the carbon dioxide concentrations for the measuring period were averaged, the difference between the minimum and maximum values was about 21ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1. Carbon dioxide concentration ranged from a minimum of 367ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 to a maximum of 409ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 during the month of August. When the values of carbon dioxide were averaged for the measurement days, the difference in the minimum and maximum values was about 42ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1. During the measurement period (September), CO2 concentrations varied from a minimum of 371ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 at 12 noon to a maximum of 389ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 at 0600 hrs indicating a difference of 18ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 between the maximum and minimum values. When the values of the measurement days were averaged the minimum and maximum values ranged from 375ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 to 387ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 and a difference of 12ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 was recorded. During the month of October, carbon dioxide levels ranged from a minimum of 372ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 at 1400 hrs to a maximum of 403ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 at 2000 hrs indicating a difference of 31ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1. When the values were averaged, the carbon dioxide levels ranged from a minimum of 376ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1 to a maximum of 415ÃŽ ¼mol mol-1.A difference in the minimum and maximum values was found to be 39Â µmol mol-1 when the values were averaged for the measurements days. In the growing season (May-October) overall carbon dioxide concentration was recorded to be highest in the month of June and seasonally it was recorded highest during the month of October 4.1.2. A. Soil Physical Characteristics of Soil Soil Colour and Texture Soils of the study area tend to have distinct variations in colour both horizontally and vertically (Table 4.1). The colour of the soil varied with soil depth. It was dark yellowish brown at the depth of 10-20cm, 30-40cm of AS1 and AS2, brown at the depth of 0-10cm of AS1 and AS2 and yellowish brown at the depths of 20-30cm, 40-50cm, 50-60cm of AS1 and AS2). Whereas the soil colour was grayish brown at the depths of 0-10cm, 30-40cm, 50-60cm of MS1 and MS2, dark grayish brown at the depths of 10-20cm, 20-30cm of MS1 and MS2 and brown at the depth of 40-50cm of both the moraine sites (MS1 and MS2). Soil texture is the relative volume of sand, silt and clay particles in a soil. Soils of the study area had high proportion of silt followed by sand and clay (Table 4.2). Soil of the alpine sites was identified as silty loam category, whereas, the soil of the moraine was of silty clayey loam category. Soil Temperature The soil temperature depends on the amount of heat reaching the soil surface and dissipation of heat in soil. Figure 4.2 depicts soil temperature at all the sites in the active growth period. A maximum (13.440C) soil temperature was recorded during the month of July and minimum (4.770C) during the month of October at AS1. The soil temperature varied between 5.10C being the lowest during the month of October to 12.710C as maximum during the month of August at AS2. Soil temperature ranged from 3.240C (October) to 11.210C (July) at MS1. However, the soil temperature ranged from 3.40C (October) to 12.330C (July) at MS2. Soil Moisture (%) Moisture has a big influence on soils ability to compact. Some soils wont compact well until moisture is 7-8%. Â  Likewise, wet soil also doesnt compact well. The mean soil water percentage (Fig. 4.3) in study area fluctuated between a maximum of 83% (AS1) to a minimum of 15% (AS2). The values of soil water percentage ranged from a minimum of 8% (MS2) to a maximum of 80% (MS1). Soil water percentage was higher in the month of July at AS1 and during August at MS1 (. During the month of June, soil water percentage was recorded minimum in the lower depth (50-60cm) at both the sites. Water Holding Capacity (WHC) The mean water holding capacity of the soil varied from alpine sites to moraine sites (Table 4.4). It ranged from a maximum of 89.66% (August) to a minimum of 79.15% (May) at AS1. The minimum and maximum values at AS2 were 78.88% (May) to 89.66% (August), respectively. The maximum WHC was recorded to be 84.61 % during the month of September on upper layer (0-10 cm) at MS1 and minimum 60.36% during the month of May in the lower layer (50-60cm) at MS1. At MS2, WHC ranged from 60.66% (May) to 84.61% (September). However, maximum WHC was recorded in upper layers at both the sites of alpine and moraine. Soil pH The soil pH varied from site to site during the course of the present study (Table 4.5). Mean pH values of all the sites are presented in Figure 4.4 The soil of the study area was acidic. Soil of the moraine sites was more acidic than that of the alpine sites. Soil pH ranged from 4.4 to 5.3 (AS1), 4.5 to 5.2 (AS2), 4.9 to 6.1 (MS1) and 4.8 to 5.7 (MS2). 4.1.2 B. Chemical Characteristics of Soil Organic Carbon (%): Soil organic carbon (SOC) varied with depths and months at both the alpine and moraine sites (Table 4.6). High percentage of organic carbon was observed in the upper layer of all sites during the entire period of study. Soil organic C decreased with depth and it was lowest in lower layers at all the sites. Soil organic carbon was maximum (5.1%) during July at AS1 because of high decomposition of litter, while it was minimum (4.2%) during October due to high uptake by plants in the uppermost layer (0-10 cm). A maximum (5.0%) SOC was found during the month of July and minimum (4.1%) during October at AS2. At the moraine sites, maximum (3.58%, 3.73%) SOC was found during June and minimum (1.5% and 1.9%) during August at MS1 and MS2 respectively. Phosphorus (%): A low amount of phosphorus was observed from May to August which increased during September and October. The mean phosphorus percentage ranged from 0.02 Â ± 0.01 to 0.07 Â ± 0.03 at AS1 and AS2. It was 0.03Â ±0.01 to 0.03Â ±0.02 at MS1 and MS2. Maximum percentage of phosphorus was estimated to be 0.09 in the uppermost layer (0-10 cm) during October at AS1. The lower layer (40-50 cm) of soil horizon contained a minimum of 0.01% phosphorus during September at AS1 and AS2. In the moraine sites (MS1 and MS2), maximum phosphorus percentage of 0.03 Â ±0.01 was estimated in the upper layers (0-10, 10-20, 20-30 cm) while it was found to be minimum (0.02Â ±0.01) in the lower layers (30-40 cm). Overall, a decreasing trend in amount of phosphorus was found with depth in alpine as well as moraine sites Potassium (%): A decline in potassium contents was also observed with declining depth during the active growing season. Maximum value of potassium was found in the uppermost layer (0-10 cm) at all the sites. The mean values ranged from 0.71Â ±0.02 to 46Â ±0.06 at AS1 while it was 0.71Â ±0.02 to 0.47Â ±0.05 at AS2. In the moraine sites the values ranged from a minimum of 0.33 Â ±0.06 to a maximum of 0.59Â ±0.05 in the MS1 and from 0.59Â ±0.05 to 0.32Â ±0.06 at MS2. In the upper layer of soil horizon (0-10 cm), maximum value of 0.74 %, 0.75% of potassium was observed during the month of July at AS1 and AS2. While the values were maximum in the month of October at moraine sites MS1 and MS2 having 0.66% and 0.65% respectively Nitrogen (%): Highest percentage of nitrogen was found in the upper layers at all the sites. Maximum percentage of nitrogen were found during the month of July-August (0.25%, 0.25 and 0.26%, 0.25%) at AS1 and AS2, respectively. Maximum values of 0.18% and 0.15% respectively were found during the month of June at the moraine sites MS1 and MS2. The nitrogen percentage ranged from 0.23Â ±0.02 to 0.04Â ±0.01% at AS1. However, it ranged from a minimum of 0.05Â ±0.01 to 0.24Â ±0.02% at AS2. The nitrogen percentage ranged from a minimum of 0.03Â ±0.01, 0.02Â ±0.04% to a maximum of 12Â ±0.03, 13Â ±0.01%, respectively at MS1 and MS2 Overall, a decreasing trend was noticed in the nitrogen percentage with depth at both the alpine and moraine sites. 4.2. DISCUSSION Soil has a close relationship with geomorphology and vegetation type of the area (Gaur, 2002). Any change in the geomorphological process and vegetational pattern influences the pedogenic processes. However, variability in soil is a characteristic even within same geomorphic position (Gaur, 2002). Jenney (1941) in his discussion on organisms as a soil forming factors treated vegetation both as an independent and as dependent variable. In order to examine the role of vegetation as an independent variable, it would be possible to study the properties of soil as influenced by vegetation while all other soil forming factors such as climate, parent material, topography and time are maintaining at a particular constellation. Many soil properties may be related to a climatic situation revealing thousand years ago (e.g. humid period during late glacial or the Holocene in the Alps and Andes (Korner, 1999). The soil forming processes are reflected in the colour of the surface soil (Pandey, 1997). The combination of iron oxides and organic content gives many soil types a brown colour (Anthwal, 2004). Many darker soils are not warmer than adjacent lighter coloured soils because of the temperature modifying effect of the moisture, in fact they may be cooler (Pandey, 1997). The alpine sites of the resent study has soil colour varying from dark yellowish brown/yellowish brown to brown at different depths. Likewise, at the moraine sites, the soil colour was dark grayish brown/grayish brown to brown. The dark coloured soils of the moraine and alpine sites having high humus contents absorb more heat than light coloured soils. Therefore, the dark soils hold more water. Water requires relatively large amount of heat than the soil minerals to raise its temperature and it also absorbs considerable heat for evaporation. At all sites, dark colour of soil was found due to high organic contents by the addition of litter. Soil texture is an important modifying factor in relation to the proportion of precipitation that enters the soil and is available to plants (Pandey, 1997). Texture refers to the proportion of sand, silt, and clay in the soil. Sandy soil is light or coarse-textured, whereas, the clay soils are heavy or fine-textured. Sand holds less moisture per unit volume, but permits more rapid percolation of precipitated water than silt and clay. Clay tends to increase the water-holding capacity of the soil. Loamy soils have a balanced sand, silt, and clay composition and are thus superior for plant growth (Pidwirny, 2004). Soil of the alpine zone of Dokriani Bamak was silty predominated by clay and loam, whereas the soil of moraine zone was silty predominated by sand and clay. There is a close relationship between atmospheric temperature and soil temperature. The high organic matter (humus) help in retaining more soil water. During summers, high radiations with greater insulation period enhance the atmospheric temperature resulted in the greater evaporation of soil water. In the monsoon months (July-August) the high rainfall increased soil moisture under relative atmospheric and soil temperature due to cloud-filter radiations (Pandey, 1997). Owing to September rainfall, atmospheric and soil temperatures decreased. The soil moisture is controlled by atmospheric temperature coupled with absorption of water by plants. During October, occasional rainfall and strong cold winds lower down the atmospheric temperature further. The soil temperature remains more or less intact from the outer influence due to a slight frost layer as well as vegetation cover. Soil temperature was recorded low at the moraine sites than the alpine sites. During May, insulation period in creases with increase in the atmospheric and soil temperature and it decreases during rainfall. The increasing temperature influences soil moisture adversely and an equilibrium is attained only after the first monsoon showers in the month of June which continued till August. Donahue et al. (1987) stated that no levelled land with a slope at right angle to the Sun would receive more heat per soil area and will warm faster than the flat surface. The soil layer impermeable to moisture have been cited as the reason for treelessness in part of the tropics, wherein its absence savanna develops (Beard, 1953). The resulting water logging of soil during the rainy season creates conditions not suitable for the growth of trees capable of surviving the dry season. The water holding capacity of the soil is determined by several factors. Most important among these are soil texture or size of particles, porosity and the amount of expansible organic matter and colloidal clay (Pandey, 1997). Water is held as thin film upon the surface of the particles and runs together forming drops in saturated soils, the amount necessarily increases with an increase in the water holding surface. Organic matter affects water contents directly by retaining water in large amount on the extensive surfaces of its colloidal constituents and also by holding it like a sponge in its less decayed portion. It also had an indirect effect through soil structure. Sand particles loosely cemented together by it, hence, percolation is decreased and water-holding capacity increased. Although fine textured soil can hold more water and thus more total water holding capacity but maximum available water is held in moderate textured soil. Porosity in soil consists of that portion of the soil volume not occupied by solids, either mineral or organic material. Under natural conditions, the pore spaces are occupied at all times by air and water. Pore spaces are irregular in shape in sand than the clay. The most rapid water and air movement is observed in sands than strongly aggregated soils. The pH of alpine sites ranged from 4.4 to 5.3 and it ranged from 4.8 to 6.1 in moraine sites of Dokriani Bamak. It indicated the acidic nature of the soil. The moraine sites were more acidic than the alpine sites. Acidity of soil is exhibited due to the presence of different acids. The organic matter and nitrogen contents inhibit the acidity of soil. The present observations pertaining to the soil pH (4.4 to 5.3 and 4.8 to 6.1) were more or less in the same range as reported for other meadows and moraine zones. Ram (1988) reported pH from 4.0-6.0 in Rudranath and Gaur (2002) on Chorabari. These pH ranges are lower than the oak and pine forests of lower altitudes of Himalayan region as observed by Singh and Singh, 1987 (pH:6.0-6.3). Furthermore, pH increased with depth. Bliss (1963) analyzed that in all types of soil, pH was low in upper layers (4.0-4.30) and it increased (4.6-4.9) in lower layer at New Hampshire due to reduction in organic matter. Das et al. (1988) reported the simil ar results in the sub alpine areas of Eastern Himalayas. All these reports support the present findings on Dokriani Bamak strongly. A potent acidic soil is intensively eroded and it has lower exchangeable cation, and possesses least microbial activity (Donahue et al., 1987). Misra et al., 1970 also observed higher acidity in the soil in the region where high precipitation results leaching. Koslowska (1934) demonstrated that when plants were grown under conditions of known pH, they make the culture medium either more acidic or alkaline and that this property differed according to the species. Soil properties may ch