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Monday, November 7, 2011

PhD Dissertation on Outsourcing

PhD Dissertation on Outsourcing

Outsourcing can be defined as use of external resources (where external resources are businesses outside the organizational boundary) to perform activities/tasks traditionally managed by internal staff and resources. The process involves restructuring of the organizational processes, re-defining its boundaries and its outside relationships.
Outsourcing can be grouped into two broad categories; Tactical and Strategic. Tactical outsourcing is carried out to meet short term business requirements, where such requirements are either seasonal or unexpected due to sudden surge/fall in the market demand. It does not usually constitute to the strategic business objectives and is done to provide temporary relief from the bottleneck issues.

Strategic outsourcing on the other hand forms part of the long term strategic business goals, where each activity is thoroughly planned and closely monitored. Such activity involves long term steady relationship(s) with outer businesses, usually with strategic partners where dependencies already exist within the business or where the services cannot be introduced without specific technological facilities.

The reasons organizations outsource vary according to the nature and state of the business and the environment surrounding them. Such decisions are usually aimed at:

1) Cost saving
2) Access to new skill sets / technology
3) Improve quality of service
4) Facilitate speed/service to market and
5) Short term business objectives

IS outsourcing originates from the professional and facility management services of the 1960's and 1970's in the areas of financial and operations support. In the 70's and 80's application packages, contract programming and specific processing services were the main IS outsourcing. In the 90's companies outsource their IS function through enterprise-wide system integration application development and systems operations.

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Sunday, November 6, 2011

PhD Thesis on Taxation

PhD Thesis on Taxation

The main functions of local government in Australia are to provide and maintain roads, street lighting, rubbish collection and disposal, maternal and child health care centers, libraries, and recreational facilities. It may also subsidize certain educational and counseling services, although education is not regarded as primarily a local responsibility. Nor is public security. Some local functions are supported, not through property taxation, but through user charges.

Some Australian municipalities were rating on unimproved land values as early as the 1850s. But as a result of the impact of Henry George's writings, single-tax leagues, as they were often called, began proliferating about 1890. The concept was spread by such able and energetic advocates as Max Hirsch, who abandoned a successful career in commerce in order to do so. George's three-month speaking tour in Australia in 1895 accelerated this trend. Its growth was halted by the outbreak of World War I, and from then on, exacerbated no doubt by the welfare state, a decline in the number and membership of the leagues set in.Almost from the beginning, some land value capture for public benefit in Australia has been obtained through the leasing out of Crown lands.
A graduated federal land tax was introduced in 1910, with the stated intention of breaking up the large estates. The first [pound]5,000 of unimproved value was exempt, and the rates were low except for very large estates, the owners of which frequently escaped the tax by nominally subdividing them among family members.. As mentioned above, it was abolished in 1952.

State land taxes were introduced into the six states in the following order: South Australia, 1884; New South Wales, 1895; Tasmania, 1907; Western Australia, 1907; Victoria, 1910; and Queensland, 1915. They vary considerably, apply only to certain properties, and suffer from serious administrative defects.

By far the most important are the local land taxes or "site value rates." All six states permit their adoption by local option; Tasmania is the only one in which no jurisdiction has availed itself of this choice, although strong efforts have been made there to promote it. Its use began in New South Wales and Queensland in 1890, and is universal in both states; in Western Australia it began in 1902, and is predominant there. In South Australia and Victoria net annual value rating is predominant, but site value rating has existed in the former since 1893 and in the latter since 1919.

New Zealand:
Historically, New Zealand was long known for its advanced social legislation. It pioneered female suffrage, and was among the first countries to adopt social security, old age pensions, and universal health care. A measure of land-value taxation was introduced even before the publication of Henry George's Progress and Poverty in 1879.

New Zealand's export production provides jobs for only about 10 percent of its workforce, yet full employment has long been an overriding political goal. In seeking to achieve this goal, successive governments up until the mid-1980s subsidized inefficient industries, restricted imports, and maintained a vast corps of public servants. They also progressively increased expenditure on welfare. These policies, together with compulsory union membership and mandatory arbitration of labor-management disputes, helped to insulate the economy from market discipline, and kept wages artificially high. All this was accompanied by a degree of state regulation "unparalleled in most other Western economies." (Massey 7) The mix of inefficient subsidized enterprises, non-market-oriented capital investment, union monopoly, cumbersome over-regulation, and a "safety net" so high as to discourage initiative for work and training, helped to produce an ill-prepared, poorly motivated labor force and a low rate of per capita economic output. (Massey 45)

For some three decades after World War II, this program, initiated by Labour but continued and expanded by the National (Conservative) Muldoon government, seemed to work: New Zealand enjoyed one of the highest living standards on earth. As long as tax revenue from exports fueled government spending, the illusion of prosperity could be sustained. But eventually, with the development of synthetic fibers to compete with wool, the rise of West Germany and Japan as economic superpowers, the erection of European Common Market barriers against New Zealand exports followed by Britain's decision to join the Common Market, the oil shocks of 1973 and 1979, etc., the terms of trade turned against New Zealand. For a while, the government was able to stave off the inevitable by overseas borrowing, but only for a while. "From having been one of the three or four richest countries in the world in the early 1950s, New Zealand moved to about 20th in international rankings by the end of the 1970s." (Douglas 23) Moreover, by 1981, inflation had reached 17 percent.
Land-value taxation, in the form of rating at the local government level, counteracted these tendencies to a minor extent, providing a degree of stimulation especially in the building industry. But although successful as far as it went, it did not collect enough of the economic rent or account for a large enough share of the total budget to constitute anything like a decisive factor in the economy. Furthermore, it is doubtful that even full rating of land values, coupled with the complete lifting of rating on improvements, could have in themselves prevailed against such massive forces for stagnation.

For over 150 years, land values in New Zealand have been collected for public purposes in three main ways: (1) by the sale and lease of Crown land, (2) from a national land tax, and (3) from land-value rates for local government. This record shows that the tax technique, however commendable in many ways, has significant practical limitations as well as being susceptible locally to administrative problems that, if not successfully addressed, are eagerly used against it; and that the principle and technique of institutionalized leases may be extended to include infrastructural monopolies, and thence more widely to land itself.

Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea's adoption of site-value property taxation (or rating as it is called there) had its origin in Australia's pre-independence administration, and the proximity of Australia to PNG. The influence of Australian law and practices was especially pronounced on visiting PNG scholars and researchers.

Property taxation is levied on land owned in freehold title, and is based on the unimproved value of each parcel of taxable land. Values are determined by a government-appointed valuer general. His values can be appealed against.

Ground improvements relate to those improvements made to land for its better use and/or development such as the felling and clearing away of trees or native shrubs; the removal or leveling of stone which exists naturally on land; and the leveling or filling of land. The definition of the Ground Improvement Allowance puts a 15 year time limit within which the allowance can be enjoyed after the works have been completed, or earlier if the land is sold or passes out of the ownership of the owner or owners who originally carried out the improvement works. It can be inferred that this time limit has been applied by the PNG legislators in the belief that this is a sufficiently long period during which those who carried out the works might obtain adequate recompense for their expenditure.

However, the definition further adds that "the sum so to be deducted shall not exceed the estimated increase which the expenditure has made to the value of the land as at the date of valuation." For example, if the expenditure is considered to have been either totally or partially of an unwise or improvident nature and therefore not responsible for a like increase in the value of the land then the allowance is to be adjusted accordingly.

The unimproved value as defined follows closely those applicable in most of the Australian states and in New Zealand. In consequence, there is a considerable volume of Australian and New Zealand case law further refining the definition of unimproved value.

One of the basic aims of the property taxation system as applicable in PNG is to raise revenue as based solely on the value of land, and not intermingled with the value of any improvements on the land. Nevertheless, where many small houses tend to spring up within or adjacent to serviced urban land ("squatter" colonies as they are often called, usually built on customary tribal or government land in respect of which there is little prospect of gaining permanent ownership) then legislation provides that property taxation may be levied on the value of such buildings. However, four conditions restrict this power.

The first of these requires that the building has been registered, and has thus some official standing. The second is that it must be occupied by a person other than of the state, or an authority or instrumentality thereof.

A third, quite important, provision is that the tax as based on the value of the building cannot be more than if based on the unimproved value of the land on which the building stands. A final provision is that the tax can only be applied if the building is within an urban area, and thus has some access to urban-type services such as water and electricity. Hence, this excludes from any application of the tax the thousands of village houses, (many erected at or near mountain tops) all over PNG, because they are not within an urban area.

The revenue derived from property taxation is regarded as an important contribution to local government revenues.

A tax regime similar in concept to that for mining, but using different rates of tax and threshold rates of return, has been developed for petroleum. While the remaining paragraphs describe major features of the regimes for mining and petroleum taxation at the end of 1999, the present author has no reason to believe that they have ceased to be current as of this writing (March, 2000).

For both mining and petroleum, a royalty of 2 percent of the value of net smelter value or well head value applies. Royalties are distributed to provincial governments, local level governments, and project landowners. The apportionment of royalties is determined by a development agreement between these parties, or, in the absence of an agreement, on a basis decided by the national minister for mines or the minister for petroleum.

In addition, the national government provides "special support grants" to provincial governments to assist with provision of infrastructure in areas where major mining projects occur. These grants are based, not on a fixed percentage of mineral revenue, but on annual budget allocations, which are negotiated between the national government and relevant provincial governments. There are no special support grants for petroleum or gas projects. Instead, project developers pay a development levy of 2 percent of the well head value of all petroleum produced from a license area directly to the affected provincial government or governments.

An unusual aspect of PNG's tax system as in comparison with that of Australia and New Zealand is the concept of Prescribed Infrastructure Development. Mining and petroleum companies can devote a portion of the money they would have paid in company tax (currently 2 percent of their assessable income for tax purposes) to infrastructure projects (such as schools, hospitals or roads) designed to benefit residents of the areas in which the companies benefit. (Pollard 81) The selection of infrastructure projects involves representatives from village groups, local level governments, provincial governments, the national government, and the mining or petroleum companies. From the companies' point of view, the advantage of this provision is that it allows local people to derive additional benefits from their operations. From the PNG government's point of view, a significant benefit is that mining or petroleum companies can use the expertise they have available to assist in carrying out the infrastructure projects. This reduces the overall cost of projects to the government, and increases the likelihood that tax revenues devoted to infrastructure provision will be utilized efficiently.

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PhD Dissertation on Obesity

PhD Dissertation on Obesity

It seems like people are always looking for a quick and easy way to lose weight. This is because so many people are becoming obese. The definition of obesity is excess fat stored in the body. Being obese is different from being overweight. Being obese means a persons weight is twenty percent or more over the maximum desirable for their height, and being overweight means that a person might be a few pounds over their weight limit. Obesity has increased by about 10-50% in the majority of European countries in the last 10 years. That is a large rise. Two to eight percent of the total sick care costs in the Western countries are attributable to obesity. Obesity is rising to epidemic proportions around the world at an alarming rate. Twenty-five percent of the United States population is overweight!
Obesity is a chronic disease in the sense that it rarely, if ever, truly goes away. Often, medicines used to treat obesity usually do not work. Unfortunately, the difference between the person's current weight and their "ideal body weight" is continuing to increase. A diet that is limited in calories and increased physical activity are the most important ingredients. A diet that is crucial to weight maintenance is important once the weight has been lost. This requires a commitment to a life style that includes physical activity and healthy eating habits. The first step in the treatment of obesity is estimating the patient's body fat and his/her potential health risk related to obesity.

This chronic illness does a lot of wear and tear to the human body. It can put strain on the heart, muscles and joints. Obesity is connected with many health complications. Some of these complications are coronary heart diseases, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, gallbladder, breast, prostate, and colon cancers, as well as stroke. Other obesity associated diseases and conditions include sleep apnea or pulmonary dysfunction, liver diseases, musculoskeletal disease, and reproductive function. Obesity also can lead to osteoarthritis, and there are numerous additional health conditions including carpal tunnel syndrome, deep vein thrombosis, and poor wound healing.

There are many current treatments available for the illness obesity. Surgery is one treatment, but it is very expensive to be done. Only in very extreme cases should surgery such as liposuction or a tummy tuck be considered, because of the fact that these surgeries are very dangerous. For example a high percentage of people who have surgery to lose weight eventually regain the weight that they have lost. Even though surgery can be performed, diet and exercise are still the keys to weight loss.

When assessing treatment skins fold measurements maybe taken to assess body composition. Doctors may also want to perform blood studies to test endocrine function. For most cases when there is a serious condition, like pancreatic cancer, linking to the obesity, a doctor may recommend walking or hiking about 2 hours a week. This can considerably reduce the risk of this usually fatal disease. Overweight and obese people who exercise moderately were much less likely to develop pancreatic cancer than those who do not.

To help prevent an increase in weight, people should avoid: drugs that claim to aid in weight loss, excess alcohol, and frustration. Also depression, stress, boredom, and poor eating habits should be avoided as well. Overall anyone can avoid obesity by eating a healthy diet and exercising as often as possible.

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Friday, November 4, 2011

PhD Dissertation on Disaster Management

PhD Dissertation on Disaster Management

Exploring the dispositional factors (internal locus of control, self-efficacy, independent and interdependent self-construals) and the demographic factors (age and gender) and their predicted effect on social decision and independent decision making in emergency situations in response to fire cues. Also investigating the gender and age differences on dispositional factors and the individual and social decision making models.

The aims of the current study is to investigate decision-making in building fires and look at the effects (if any) of the presence of others upon response (social decision making). Furthermore, the study investigated significant predictors of decision making in dispositional factors (such as internal locus of control, self-efficacy and independent and interdependent self-construals), along with demographic factors (such as age and gender). The data was used to develop a decision making model in social decisions in emergency situations and show effective disaster management.
The 290 participants (142 males, 148 females) were recruited by means of a convenience sample and asked to fill out a questionnaire related to decision making in fires (currently being development and tested), general self-efficacy, internal locus of control and interdependent and independent self-construals. From the questionnaire the data obtained was analyzed using independent t.tests and enter multiple regression and became the basis of this report in assisting the design of decision-making models.

The decision-making models concerned with this study were AINNDM (independent decisions in an area alone in response to an audio cue), ASOCDM (social decision in an area alone in response to a audio cue), CINNDM (individual decision making in an area alone in response to a visible cue) and CSOCDM (social decision making in response to a visible cue). It was hypothesized that there would be differences in age and gender on the dispositional factors of internal locus of control, self-efficacy and independent and interdependent self-construals. It is further hypothesized that there will be age differences in independent decision-making (INDDM) and social decision making (SOCDM) models.

It was found that there was differences in the dispositional factor of chance in both age and gender, whereby females and the younger participants attributed their live experiences more to chance. The only other dispositional factor that was significantly different was self-efficacy and age, it was found that older participants had higher scores on the self-efficacy scale, indicating that they had a higher belief about their personal abilities to achieve or perform a task successfully. No other t.test variables were found to be significant on dispositional factors.

There was a significant difference found between age and the independent decision-making sub-scale of CINNDM. The difference in the means indicated that older people were more likely to make independent decision making in an area alone in response to seeing smoke. Regression was used to investigate predictors of both independent and social decision-making. It was hypothesized that dispositional and demographic factors would be predictors of social decisions (decisions that involve others) and independent decisions (decisions that don't involve others) when taking actions alone in an area in response to an audio cue (hearing an alarm) or a visual cue (seeing smoke flames).

The results indicated that internality was a predictor of social decision-making in response to seeing smoke or hearing an alarm, with no other dispositional factors being significant predictors of decision making. Age was a predictor of both independent and social decision making in an area alone in response to a visible cue (seeing smoke). Older people were more likely to engage in independent decisions, and younger people likely to engage in social decisions.

Gender was also found to be a predictor where more females would be more inclined to make a individual decision (such as leave the building) in an area alone in response to a visible cue (seeing smoke).

This study aims to look at decision making in fires, and to investigate the effects (if any) on the presence of others in making a social decision in event of an emergency. The importance of this study pertains to safety issues and the relevance of emergency planning in a work environment. It is also attributed to the number of fatalities that could be possibly avoided had planning occurred (Brennan, 1999).

Brennan (1999) notes that of the 109 fatal residential fire incidents in the state of Victoria there were 150 fatalities. Furthermore, in relation to building fires (which this study is concentrating on) one cannot forget the massive amounts of lives lost this year on September 11. This is an issue that affects all of us and the importance of fire safety both in awareness, prevention and preparedness is necessary to address. This study had 290 participants, who were all part of the workforce who could in their working life be subjected to such risks. We asked these participants to answer a questionnaire to help develop a model of decision making in emergency situations.

The questionnaire is in the process of construction and it is worthy to note that reliability and items within the sub-scales are not within the range of .65 of cronbach's alpha, it would be worthwhile to refine these sub-scales. Furthermore, the participants of the study were recruited by means of convenience sampling, hence most had not been exposed to disasters or hazards before. Of the 290 participants 42 reported that they had experienced a fire before.

DeMan and Simpson-Housley (1987) put forth an interesting view, that people lacking experience with hazards would have no sense of personal relatedness and would feel less threatened and therefore would anticipate disasters less.This report looked at the various predictors of social and independent decision making in response to an emergency and investigated gender and age differences on dispositional factors and the individual and social decision making models. Emergencies can be ambiguous by nature. Hence, decision making in emergency situations can be wrought with uncertainty. The alert to an emergency is the first barrier to human response.

Fisher, Stine, Stoker, Trowbridge, Drain (1995) noted that the initial response to a disaster warning is disbelief and if the warning appears to the listener as vague the tendency to disbelieve it is increased. Once the alert to an emergency has been accepted, the individual then has a decision to act, whether it is an individual or social activity. Decision making in emergencies is affected by the presence of others, internal dispositional factors, and demographic factors such as gender and age. Perceived control plays a major role in determining one's own course in disasters.

Norris, Smith and Kanistay (1999) recognised control as a belief that an individual can control his or her own specific changes of experience of being harmed by disaster events. It was found that individuals who have a belief that they have a sense of control over their environment are more likely to engage in behaviours that make sense for them. Furthermore it was found that personal experiences were often not sufficient enough to inspire either cognitive or behavioural change. People also needed evidence that the threat was legitimate and controllable.

Benight, Swift,Sanger,Smith and Zeppelin (1999) assessed the response of disaster in light of coping self-efficacy, loss of resources, social support and optimism. They found that lack of coping self-efficacy was the strongest predictor of general stress, which is similar to Norris et al (1999) studies on perceived control, but also found loss of resources and genders as a predictor of general stress, Kelley, Condry, Dablke and Hill (1965) have noted that perceived danger and mutual influences (social contagion) as key factors in development and spread of in coordinated and non-adaptive "panic" behavior.

The experiments of Kelley et.al (1965) were designed to purse the factors and processes underlying in coordination in the interdependent escape situation. The experiments were based on studies of behavior under threat. Kelley et.al (1965) noted that distribution of attitudes was necessary. If attitudes were concentrated at the high urgency end of the scale then in coordination of escape was more common. Kelley et.al (1965) also investigated variables such as ambiguity in time and found that the more ambiguous the time constraints in an emergency the more incoordinated the escape attempts.

This brings to light important issues with groups and their decision-making processes and co-ordination of possible evacuation procedures. Interest in time use by occupants during fires in buildings is considered important. This is because time lost prior to taking effective avoidance action is crucial to safety. Delays in cue response, time delays in evacuation and not evacuating can be due to many variables ( Brennan,1997). In Brennan's (1997) study it was found that in an office building fire that the most predominant cue was the visible cue of smoke. It was noted that response to this cue was an evacuation within a couple of minutes. Occupants gathered in office groups and left together.

In the comparative review of a residential fire it took considerably longer time to prepare to evacuate. Age was a factor here as most of the residents were over 65. Most residents waited for further indications of the existence of an emergency and left as a result of instructions from the fire brigade personnel. There was confusion and ambiguity over the alarms, however the additional cue of smoke was for many the factor that precipitated the decision to evacuate.

The time from first alert to the start of evacuation varied from one to about six minutes in the office building incident and from one minute to over twenty minutes in the case of the residential apartment building. Evacuation is commonly used to mitigate the ill effects of a variety of disaster agents. It is important to understand the circumstances under which citizens will evacuate (Fisher et.al 1995). Fisher et.al (1995) found that households were far more likely to evacuate if told by emergency personnel, as opposed to a household member or a friend. The clarity of the warning message, the frequency of the warnings, accuracy of past warnings and the presence of dependent children have been found to impact on evacuation behavior.

Decisions to evacuate and the decision of how to evacuate can also be a function of group process and dynamics. Members of a group want to evacuate together, and will be slowed by that desire (Brennan, 1997). Thus, timing of evacuation is affected by group size as well as by preexisting social relationships (Fernberg and Johnson, 2001). This group phenomenon was found evident in the Beverly Hills supper club fire (1977). Although the groups mainly comprised of family units it displayed the connectedness and dependence of group decision making.

From that prospective family members tried to adopt an optimal strategy for groups rather than individual survival, thus the group tended to move at the speed of the slowest group member. Unfortunately, this was to the detriment of family groups as most did not survive this fire as a consequence of this group behavior.

Kelley,et.al (1965) found this type of group behavior of connectedness to be detrimental in group decision making process. Kelley,et.al (1965) study found that an unsure person would use social reality as a basis for their evaluation of the danger in the situation and would look to see how other's assess the situation to determine how he/she should react. The individual's susceptibility to social influence is also important; whether he/she takes his cues from other people and thus influence by them, or whether the individual is independent and makes up his/her own mind about the situation. In Kelley et al (1965) study, it was noted that if the group was weighted towards high concern and the individual bases his or her cues on others, then it would be likely that they would move the attitude of the group to high concern.

He also found that individual who are independent of social influence would generally maintain their original heterogeneity of the situation. In the presence of confident and calm people, anti-panic leadership may emerge. If there are those people present in the group, along with others who appeared less worried or uncertain, then a counter-balance may be struck moving the less worried or uncertain people away from the direction of high concern. This may arise in a more clear and rational approach to decision making in emergency.

Futhermore, Kelley's et.al (1965) study highlighted that when there is higher self-ratings of uneasiness, escape is least successful (which could equate with levels of self-efficacy). Kelley et al (1965) recommendations were that if people can be trained to have high confidence in their joint ability to escape, it is also best to teach them to be highly responsive to each other's actions. Gender can have an impact on decision making in fires. Female behavior has been known to differ from male's in response to emergencies, furthermore female dispositional factors can differ from males. Females are thought to be more interdependent (connected) to others.

Female judge both natural and man-made disasters to be more threatening and riskier than males. Females were more likely to investigate, alert and evacuate than males in response to cues (such as computer breakdown, building alarm and smoke and flames). It is suggested that there may be a link between the fact that females were more likely to judge a situation more threatening and riskier and are therefore more likely to respond to cues (Sanders,2001, Fothergill, 1996 and Major,1999). Furthermore, females may be more motivated and towards preparedness and mitigation because of their higher perception of threat.

Past research indicates that preparedness is significantly correlated with fear, damage expectations and damage mitigation (Norris,Smith & Kaniasty,1999 and Rustemli & Karanci, 1999). Results of Kelley et.al (1965) study indicated that females were more affected by the increase in threatened penalty and they showed higher concern. It is hypothesized that there will be differences in gender and age differences on the dispositional factors of internal locus of control, self-efficacy, independent and interdependent self construals.

It is further hypothesized that there will be differences in age and gender on the independent decision making model (INDDM) and the social decision making model (SOCDM). Dispositional factors (Internal locus of control, self-efficacy) and demographic factors (age, gender and experience of fire) are thought to be statistically significant predictors of decision making in emergencies. These dispositional and demographic factors are thought to be predictors of social decision (decisions that involve others) and individual decision (decisions that don't involve others) when taking actions alone in an area in response to an audio cue (hearing an alarm) or a visual cue (seeing smoke flames).

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PhD Dissertation on Civil Engineering

PhD Dissertation on Civil Engineering

Engineers are behind the building blocks of America. Engineering has many different fields. One of those fields is civil engineering. Civil engineering is a job involving the construction of buildings, roads, and bridges. In order for someone to become an engineer they have many obstacles to overcome. "Civil engineers conceive, plan, construct, and operate facilities that meet basic human needs and reach out toward the realization of society's most noble goals." Civil engineers solve world problems by using math and science, and find many complex solutions to problems. People who want to be civil engineers should enjoy planning, designing, and constructing different things and must have the ability and desire to improve it. (Author Unknown 1) Civil engineers also must have a very good education in mainly math and sciences. "The first four semesters require basics such as Calculus 1-4, Statistics, English, History, Literature, Speech, Chemistry, and Physics.
In later semesters you will be required to take classes that go deeper into civil engineering, such as hydraulics, static's, and water treatment." It also a good idea for students to get work experience at the same time they are studying by getting an internship. (Author Unknown 1) Civil engineers also have many different work duties. A structural engineer, who works with the amount of weight a structure can hold, must calculate the maximum weight and must anticipate any possible problems with the wind. Most companies don't give many responsibilities to young engineers. When an engineer gains experience they will also gain more responsibilities. Civil engineering are paid the lowest salary of all engineering fields.

"The average annual salary is about $30,000." Many people who become civil engineers don't do it for the money, they do it because of the good done by helping the social and economic needs of people and aiding people's most common needs. Civil engineers have many problems to solve, one of those problems is trying to find a more efficient and safer way to produce and transport water to people. This is very complicated and hard work for engineers. Another task of civil engineers is getting enough clean and healthy water to a very big population.

Solving these problems will take people who know about science and system analysis. (Author Unknown 2) Civil engineers won't have an employment problem either. "More engineers will be needed than colleges can supply. Enrollment in schools of engineering across the country have dropped," but as jobs and salaries increase, so will students enrolling with hopes to make better lives for themselves. There are also many chances for civil engineers to advance depending on his or her ability. If a young engineer develops his or her skills and the employer gains confidence in there ability, an engineer is certain of getting promoted.

As long as an engineer is ambitious, young, and qualified they will succeed. (Anonymous 1) Civil engineers work on many interesting projects around the city. They design septic tanks and sewer systems. Some people think that its very boring and its not interesting, but its very complex and most people wouldn't imagine how much work an engineer has to do to design a sewer system. It involves many hours of hard work and dedication, just one mistake could ruin the whole thing.

Engineers hold the safety of all the people in the world if they make one mistake on a bridge or in constructing a building hundreds of people could die. "They also have many laws and guidelines they have to follow. If they break one of those laws they could lose there job or even go to jail." The government has done this to ensure that engineers are very careful and don't make any mistakes because they hold many people's lives in there buildings and bridges. To be an engineer you have to have a lot of concentration and be very dedicated to your work because one mistake could cause a disaster. (Anonymous 1) Engineering can however, be very rewarding.

If you happen to be lucky enough, you could be one of the engineers who discovers a revolutionary way to transport water quickly and more efficiently. Engineers who discover or design things like this, make a lot of money for doing it, but not only do they become wealthy but they also have the reward of helping millions of people around the world and making there lives easier. Engineers make every part of peoples lives easier. Everything to do or use was somehow helped by engineers, they make every aspect of our life easier.

Because of engineers you can drink clean water, study in a safe building, and have a computer that does almost anything you want. Engineers have to ensure that everything they design has good performance, stability, and reliability. In order to do this, they run many different tests by many different people to ensure maximum performance. Except for a good education all you need to be an engineer is to be hard working, have confidence in yourself, and most of all just wanting to do it. Engineers have to keep up with the everyday world because its changing quickly and they have to keep working to keep the world moving at a fast and efficient pace.

If someone has an open mind they can enjoy engineering they just have to try it before they say its to boring or not interesting at all. Everyday computers are doing more and more things, and they're taking over some jobs that engineers use to do like measurements or calculating numbers, but they still have not created a computer that will design sewer systems, buildings, or bridges. Computers can help the engineers with the numbers and they can make perfect lines, but they can not think and that is one of the most important things an engineer has to do, think. Computers do a lot of the work now, but engineers are still very important.

Computers just help with minor things, but the engineers do the real work. The future for engineers is not looking very good though. If things keep going in the direction there going pretty soon computers will be doing everything, and you won't need people to do those jobs, you will need those people to press buttons on the computer so it does there job for them. It does not matter what people say, the bottom line is that if it was not for engineers people's lives would be horrible. There would not even be a world, it would be total chaos.

Most people do not appreciate what engineers do, but they have one of the most important jobs in the world. One small mistake could effect millions. Most people do not think of this, but engineers also have a lot of stress, they know that one error could be fatal for many people. That is why they are so careful and run so many tests to make sure everything they design and make is perfect. That is why the government makes such strict laws about these things and engineers could lose there jobs over just one mistake because they know what is at stake every time a building goes up or a bridge is built.

Millions of people could get hurt, and know one wants that. There are not many people who are going into engineering in today's world. Most students do not find that a very interesting field. Most students are going into fields that involve computers. In the next ten to twenty years there will be no more jobs available in the computer field and engineering jobs will have many vacancies. This will also increase the pay for engineers, which is another bonus. In the next decade there will huge openings in the engineering field and not enough people to fill all the jobs.

If people are smart they will get into engineering now and they'll almost certainly have a job waiting for them when they get out of college. The only way this will not happen is if new computers are designed to start doing all the jobs that engineers do and even though this is a possibility, it is very doubtful that this will happen in the next twenty years. Engineering is a very important field in today's world and it will never completely disappear because computers can not do everything humans can, or at least not yet. Engineering is an interesting and a very rewarding field if people give it a chance.

Without engineers the world would be nowhere. Engineers are what made the United States what it is today and without them the United States would not even be close to the top of the world like it is. Engineers have molded and build the United States into what it is today and even though they do not get recognition for it, they were the leaders of the United States through all these years and know one should take that credit away from them. They laid down the building blocks of the United States‚ - foundation from Washington's time to today's world, and hopefully, they will be doing it for decades to come.

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This is a small excerpt from PhD dissertation on Civil Engineering topic. As free PhD dissertation samples and PhD dissertation proposal examples are plagiarized we recommend you not to use it in your own PhD dissertation or thesis paper. Why not to get online PhD dissertation writing help on Civil Engineering from professional dissertation writing company? Top-rated PhD academic writers will write a custom PhD dissertation on any topic and discipline from scratch!

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Thursday, November 3, 2011

PhD Dissertation on Afghanistan

PhD Dissertation on Afghanistan

The Taliban were an Islamic fundamentalist group that ruled most of Afghanistan from late 1996 until the end of 2001 . They managed to take control of 90% of the country's territories. Because the Taliban took over, the Afghan people were forced to follow their extremely harsh rules. The Taliban took over Afghanistan fairly quickly because of the powerful and commanding leaders that were involved in it. The Taliban started in late 1996 and had almost complete control of Afghanistan in order to re-unite it and bring Islamic Law, or Sharia, into the country. The Taliban emerged in October 1994 when they initiated action between Kandahar and the city of Quetta in Pakistan to "rescue" a trade convoy bound from Pakistan to Central Asia . They portrayed themselves as an army of religious students who were fed up with the post communist struggle for Kabul and the lawlessness in the country. The Taliban got its name from the word "Talib" which means "student".
They came to power during Afghanistan's long civil war. Only three countries out of the whole world, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the UAR (United Arab Republic), recognized the Taliban as Afghanistan's legitimate government. Their plan was to create order, but what they actually did was generate further problems. Taliban received encouragement from Pakistan and from Afghanistan because they believed it was the only way to return to peace and stability after two decades of war.

The Taliban quickly found support in southwestern Afghanistan when they started to run schools, mosques, shrines, and various religious and social services, and serving as mujahideen when necessary . The Taliban swiftly made inroads into central and eastern Afghanistan, disrupting the deadlock that had existed since 1992. The Taliban recruited thousands of young men in the Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan to take control of Afghanistan. The Taliban asked or paid drug kings, warlords, and militia, commanders to surrender or leave, and many did because they were unwilling to fight against religious students. By using these methods, the Taliban fought some successful battles throughout 1995.

They took Spin Muldak in October 1994, Kandahar in November 1994, and Lashkargah in January 1995 . They then drove toward Kabul and Herat. In March 1995 when the Taliban advanced to the capital of Kabul. Massoud's government, who was in control of Afghanistan before the Taliban took over, soldiers drove the Taliban back from the capital, and for the first time since early 1992 Kabul was no longer a city under blockade. By March 1995 the Taliban controlled about one-third of Afghanistan and were on the outskirts of Kabul, the biggest accomplishment of capturing the capital was soon to come.

In April, the Taliban advanced toward Herat but was stopped when they clashed with Iranian troops in Nimruz. They carried on toward Herat again in September 1995 and they forced Ismail Khan to flee Iran . The Taliban controlled one half of Afghanistan after the great accomplishment of taking over the city of Herat. By November 1995 they had cut off the city of Kabul but yet again Massoud had driven them back from the city once more. In September 1996 the Taliban went after the capital, Kabul, again and not only took control of Kabul but of the whole east side of Afghanistan as well.

In order to take control of Kabul, the Taliban first struck to the east of the city, taking Jalalabad and then Sarobi, a small town east of Kabul. They captured these without doing much fighting. Hesitant of Massoud's support, him and other followers, Rabbani and Hekmatyar, deserted Kabul and escaped to the north. After capturing the city of Kabul, the Taliban declared them the legitimate government. Government troops and officials fled to the northern part of the country as the Taliban took over more and more cities.

After the capital fell to the Taliban, the country's last president, Mohammad Najibullah, and his brother, Shahpur Anmadzai were both publicly hanged . In May 1997, the Taliban troops pushed forces through the Salang Tunnel that they had taken over and opened up. After only four days of having the Salang Tunnel open, there was an uprising that led to more than four thousand Taliban troops being killed. This was the most the Taliban had suffered in the war after briefly holding more than 90 percent of Afghanistan and being on the edge for a final victory .

By the end of 1997 the Taliban controlled more territory than they had at the beginning but after their losses of the summer and fall, their future appeared gloomy.In the year 1998 the Taliban turned around and won many great victories that left them in control of 90 percent of the country. By the autumn of 1998 Massoud was their only major rival still able to field a major military force. The Afghan War was finally coming to a close when some of the Taliban's greatest victories marked the end of the stage of the war .The Taliban, under the direction of Mullah Muhammad Omar, brought dreadfully strict rules to Afghanistan. They brought about this order by a strict interpretation of Sharia, the Islamic law.

Not many dared to violate these rules because of fears of the Taliban severely beating or even massacring them. Although they had many terrible rules men had to follow because of the Taliban, the cruelest rules were aimed towards the women living in Afghanistan. The Taliban did not allow women to work outside their homes, only few were permitted to work as doctors or nurses in some hospitals in Kabul . They would not even let women leave the house without a male relative with them.

The Taliban did not permit them to wear any kind of makeup nor fingernail polish, if they caught women wearing fingernail polish, their fingertips would get chopped off. These strict rules would allow neither older women nor younger girls to go to school, universities, or any other educational institution. After outlawing education to women, the Taliban converted girls' schools into religious seminaries, not just for women . It was mandatory for all women to wear a Burqa, a long veil that covers them from head to toe. The Taliban would not even allow men and women on the same bus as each other. The men did not have to follow as many rules as women did, but they still had a dress code like the women.

Men had to wear Islamic clothes, which usually consisted of somewhat of a robe and also a cap. They all had to have long beards and the Taliban forbid men to shave or trim them. The rules of the Taliban also said that young boys would not be allowed to school without a turban on . In order to get rid of "non-Islamic" influence, the Taliban banned listening to music, watching television, and the use of the Internet . In contrast with their strict beliefs, the Taliban's main source of income had come from smuggling opium cultivation.

In July 2000 they cut back on the cultivation of the hazardous drug by almost two-thirds. But because it was many Afghans only supply of profits, thousands of Afghans were left without any alternative since the Taliban didn't offer them anything when they decreased the selling of the drug. Although the people of Afghanistan did not believe in most of the rules in which came from the Sharia, not many ever tried to rise up and overthrow the Taliban. This is because Afghani people were starved, exhausted, hurt, incapacitated, and suffering. During the time the Taliban was in rule access to clean water, food, and employment all declined.

Not too long ago the United Nations estimated that there is 500,000 disabled orphans in Afghanistan because of the small amount of food supply there and lack of a good economy. In conclusion, even though the Taliban re-united most of Afghanistan, they were not capable of putting an end to the civil war. The Taliban took control of 90 percent of Afghanistan in total, only a few battles were disastrous for them. For the government that the Taliban took over, on the other hand, lost just about everything they had in the battles won by the Taliban. Access to clean water, food, and employment all declined during this time

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This is a small excerpt from PhD dissertation on Afghanistan topic. As free PhD dissertation samples and PhD dissertation proposal examples are plagiarized we recommend you not to use it in your own PhD dissertation or thesis paper. Why not to get online PhD dissertation writing help on Afghanistan from professional dissertation writing company? Top-rated PhD academic writers will write a custom PhD dissertation on any topic and discipline from scratch!

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PhD Dissertation on ADHD

PhD Dissertation on ADHD

Maladaptive behavior such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is common among children. The diagnosis of ADHD in adults can be more difficult than in children. There are many controversial issues surrounding adult/child (ADHD) which include history, symptoms, treatment, and causes. Historically speaking, ADHD is generally thought to be a childhood disorder. However, data suggest that many adults, both male and female are affected. Most patients diagnosed during childhood carry the disorder into adulthood. Studies show that out of the number of adult cases, over 50 percent were ADHD as children. Nevertheless, women tend not to be diagnosed as children because they never made trouble.
Instead, they are often called daydreamers or disorganized. However, the cognitive problems such as being attentive exist. In addition, of the children diagnosed with the disorder, over 80 percent were boys.(Searight 1) This disorder presents different symptoms in adults than in children. Adults are first evaluated according to their personal account of symptoms. Some of these symptoms may include problems with organizational skills, being easily frustrated, unable to prioritize, quick tempered, impulsive, trouble coping with stress, finding it hard to finish tasks, trouble keeping a job, and defiance of authority figures.

The individual may also forget important engagements or speak out of turn, giving no thought to what he or she says. Personality traits of the individual may range from being creative, intelligent, and driven to pessimistic, worrisome, underachiever, or destructive. Persons having ADHD throughout childhood seem to undergo changes as an adult. In the place of hyperactivity, adults tend to have feelings of being completely out of control. Although some adults may be able to exercise self-control while sitting through a lecture, they probably will not comprehend anything that was said.

They may also experience problems with short-term memory and math skills. Studies conducted by Doctor Julie Scweitzer on adult males with and without ADHD reveal a difference in the brain. The men without ADHD had no problem with adding given strings of numbers. However, the men with ADHD had trouble recalling stored information, while processing current information. Symptoms in children may include rage, aggressive behavior, hurting other children and learning disabilities. (Searight 2,4) ( Fine3,4,5) There are various treatments for (ADHD) patients. One treatment, currently under fire, is the drug Ritalin.

Many lawsuits have been filed against the maker of the drug. Side affects related to Ritalin include loss of appetite, insomnia, and mood swings. Another drug used is Adderall, primarily for women. Aside from drugs, there is a natural approach to treatment.

According to an article published in Infants and Young Children, "Treatments include herbs, homeopathy, nutrition and dietary supplements, acupuncture, therapeutic touch and massage "Herbal treatments include caffeine and other herbal stimulants; herbal sedatives such as valerian, lemon balm, and kava kava; and other herbs and supplements such as gingko biloba, fish oil, pycnogenol, evening primrose oil (EPO), and blue-green algae" However, these treatments are not free from side effects. (Nickel 2,4) (McCarthy 1) A great debate exists among parents, doctors, educators, and scientists about the causes of ADHD. Some physicians think that poor nutrition is a cause for ADHD. The remedy they say, is cut out the sweets, no Kool-Aid, gum, chocolate, candy, ice cream, cookies, or birthday cake. Others view the disorder as just plain ridiculous.

They believe that if parents take control of their ill-mannered children, there would be no need for drugs. Although, on the other side of the coin, there are people who think that this is nothing short of frustrated parents pushing their children to be adults. Furthermore, they believe that ADHD is not an actual disorder at all, but rather a normal childhood response to their environment. One article in USA Today states, Childhood itself has come to be viewed as a suspect phase. Children of all ages and means are being squelched on the playground and in class, not because they are unmanageable or unruly, but simply because they are behaving as youngsters should.

Diagnosed with problems that used to be recognized as normal childhood traits-impulsiveness and exuberance, spontaneity and daring -thousands of kid's are being diagnosed as hyperactive and drugged into submission. (Arnold 2) However, there are others who view ADHD as having nothing at all to do with parental control, but consider the brain to be the cause. Currently companies are testing equipment in combination with drugs that would allow for biological answers. This method must be studied further to gain conclusive evidence. Hence, it must go through a rigorous process to be FDA approved.

Another probable cause to consider is genetics. Many physicians think that genetics and heredity cause ADHD. In an article wrote by David Dremer, he states "Most practitioners in the field now agree that the characteristic problems of people with ADHD stem from a genetically-based neurobiological malfunctioning.

The prevailing finding is that the activity of groups of inhibitory neurons located in the frontal cortex of the brain are depressed and are unable to inhibit or control information from lower brain structures, most notably the limbic structures that mediate emotion and the reticular activating system that controls arousal."(Arnold 1,2) (Bowman, 1) ( Drehmer, 3 ) Currently, the debate about ADHD is ongoing and remains unresolved. In any case, children and adults are suffering from something very real. Whether it is caused by their environment or a biological malfunction, it will continue to be hotly debated until scientific facts can be proven. Further studies need to be conducted to come up with the answers for the millions of people suffering from ADHD. For now, the controversial issues concerning the history, treatment, and causes of ADHD, continue to remain an unsolved mystery.

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This is a small excerpt from PhD dissertation on ADHD topic. As free PhD dissertation samples and PhD dissertation proposal examples are plagiarized we recommend you not to use it in your own PhD dissertation or thesis paper. Why not to get online PhD dissertation writing help on ADHD from professional dissertation writing company? Top-rated PhD academic writers will write a custom PhD dissertation on any topic and discipline from scratch!

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