Childbirth and Preterm Infants Essay Example for Free

Childbirth and Preterm Infants Essay Discuss disparities related to ethnic and cultural groups relative to low birth weight infants and preterm births. Describe the impact of extremely low birth weight babies on family and society (short and long term, including economic considerations, ongoing care considerations, and co-morbidities associated with prematurity). Discuss whether you feel that support services and systems in your community for preterm infants and their families adequately address their needs or not. Explain your answer. Respond to other learners posts in a manner that initiates or contributes to discussion. Racial and ethnic disparities in health disproportionately affect minority Americans. One of the greatest challenges facing the US healthcare system is the persistence of disparities in infant and maternal health among the different racial and ethnic groups. This disparity in healthcare outcomes does not appear to be limited to the Black community only, but rather it seems to affect all minority groups. In this context, American Indian/Alaska Native infants have higher death rates than White infants because of higher SIDS rates. The exact cause of these persisting racial disparities remains unexplained. The differences in socioeconomic status, maternal risky behaviors, prenatal care, psychosocial stress, and perinatal infection account for more disparities. Hispanics of Puerto Rican origin have higher IMRs than White infants because of higher LBW rates. One major risk factor for preterm birth is maternal genital infection. Others include extremes of maternal age, maternal cigarette smoking and substance abuse, history of PTD and maternal medical conditions such as hypertension and diabetes. There are support services and CHC’s available in our area for minority group women, preterm infants and their families to address their needs.

Landfill And Material Recycling In Malaysia

Landfill And Material Recycling In Malaysia The generation of solid waste, and particularly Municipal Solid Waste, is a consequence of modem living and an increasingly urbanized society. Solid waste prevention and management is one of the keys to sustainable environment and development. Waste is defined as an object the holder discards, intends to discard or is required to discard [1-2]. Something becomes waste when it loses its primary function for the user. Waste is therefore relative to this primary function. However, and this is the second perspective, what is considered waste with regard to this primary function may be useful for a secondary function. In other words, somebodys waste is often somebody elses (secondary) raw material [1]. Solid waste can be typically classified as: municipal solid waste including plastic waste (MSW), construction and demolition waste (CD), hazardous solid wastes (HW), bio-medical waste (BMW), and electronic waste (e-waste) [3]. Municipal solid waste (MSW) management comprises of practices ra nging from waste collection to final disposal which is connected in numerous ways to many other environmental, economic, and social issues with most of the answers having broader implications. Sustainable waste management is about using resources more efficiently both at the raw and finished state [4-7]. Looking from the perspective of sustainable waste management practices and the environment, the technologies or policies on MSW management should embody a reasonable balance of feasible, cost-effective, environmentally beneficial, and socially sensitive solutions to the problems. It means that a sustainable waste management practice does not only achieve a specific goal in MSW management, it takes into account the demands of the specific situations where the proposed solution is to be implemented [8]. Solid waste management is a major challenge for Malaysia to address in the light of her Vision 2020 which lays out the direction for Malaysia in becoming a fully developed nation. The National Vision Policy (NVP), developed to meet the challenges posed by Vision 2020, incorporates key strategies of the New Economic Policy (NEP) and the National Development Policy (NDP). A key thrust of the NVP is pursuing environmentally sustainable development to reinforce long-term growth, which presents challenges to established policies and practices in the rapidly expanding area of solid waste management [9]. Waste Management Concepts There are a number of concepts about waste management which vary in their usage between countries or regions. The following are some of the most general, widely used concepts: Waste hierarchy: The waste hierarchy is the 3R concept where the R stands for reduce, reuse and recycle, it classify waste management strategies according to their desirability to achieving waste minimization. The waste hierarchy remains the cornerstone of most waste minimization strategies. The aim of the waste hierarchy is to extract as much as possible the maximum practical benefits from products and to generate the minimum amount of waste [10-12]. Polluter Pays Principle: the polluter pays principle is a principle where the polluting party pays for the impact caused to the environment. With respect to waste management, this generally refers to the requirement for a waste generator to pay for appropriate disposal of the unrecoverable material [10-13]. In Malaysia context, the waste hierarchy is the practice adopted for municipal solid waste management [14-19]. It is a major focus of the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Act 2007. OVERVIEW OF MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE GENERATION IN MALAYSIA Municipal solid waste MSW management is a major challenge in urban areas throughout the world with greater effect in the rapidly growing cities and towns of developing countries [20]. Globally, municipal solid waste generation was about 0.49 billion tons in 1997 with an estimated annual growth rate of 3.2-4.5% in developed nations and 2-3% in developing nations [21]. In Asia region, MSW generation has been increasing at a rate of 3 to 7% per year as a result of population growth, changing consumption patterns, and the expansion of trade and industry in urban centres. The generation of municipal solid waste by the public is a function of socio-economic background (buying power), cultural background, locality (urban or rural setting) and the environment awareness. The generation and the composition of solid wastes vary according to size/population and income level [22-24]. Malaysian population has been in the increase at a rate of about 2.4% per annum since 1994 [25] due to industriali zation, urban migration, affluence, population growth, tourism and high influx of foreign workforce/students which has lead to massive developmental projects such as building the latest designs of residential and business buildings, construction of spacious highways, tourist resorts and so on [7, 22, 26-27]. The growing population comes with increased generation of municipal solid waste (MSW), which requires proper management to protect the people and the environment. As the solid waste generation increases in Malaysia, it puts a pressure on and shortens the duration time of, the existing landfill [28]. In Malaysia, waste collection varies from city to city with about 80% generated waste collection in Kuala Lumpur while a general average estimate of about 70% of waste generated in Malaysia is collected and 1-5% of waste is recycled (from the collected waste) while the remaining is taken to the disposal sites [29-30]. The major MSW management practice in Malaysia is waste disposal to landfill with approximately 80-95% of the total collected waste sent to landfills [31-34]. Current waste disposal method of landfill needs improvements to prolong the landfill life and to minimize the problem of land scarcity [31]. In 2007 about 26 million tonnes of waste were produced in Malaysia of which 30% were municipal solid waste (MSW), 34% from construction, industrial waste 23%, Hazardous waste 9% and 1% waste generation from public places [35]. The average amount of MSW generated ranges between 0.5 and 0.8 kg/cap/day for rural areas and smaller towns [22, 27, 36] while households of major cities and the capital Kuala Lumpur produce about 1.7 kg/cap/day 1.9 kg/cap/day [9, 14, 22, 37]. The daily MSW quantity was 17,000 tonnes per day in 2002 and by year 2020, the quantity of MSW generated is estimated to increase to over 30,000 tonnes per day [14, 23, 26, 32, 36, 38-39]. MSW management operations absorb large portions of municipal operating budgets, of which as much as 6 0% are for collection and transfer of the wastes for disposal [8, 29]. For a better understanding and planning of solid waste management, information on the quantity of solid waste generated in an area is fundamental to almost all aspects of solid waste management [40]. Malaysia Waste Characterization The municipal solid waste (MSW) in Malaysia is made up of waste from households, commercial, institutes, landscape conservation, street cleansing, and industry construction and even tourist activities [14, 30, 32-33, 38]. Characteristics of MSW vary from city to city and season to season [8]. The solid wastes of rural towns in Malaysia are significantly different from those of large cities, having more organics (food wastes) but few plastics. In industrialized cities MSW is quantified and characterized by municipal authorities at regular intervals. Malaysian municipal solid waste (MSW) generated consists of different constituents such as biodegradable materials (food waste, Garden waste, Animal waste and Material contaminated by such waste) which has high moisture content and a bulk density above 200 kg/m3, resistant polymers, paper, Wood, Textiles, Leather, Plastic, Rubber, Paint, oil, grease, chemical, organic sludge, glass, ceramic, mineral soil, concrete, and masonry (constructio n debris) [7, 14]. In the MSW waste analysis by Saeed [22], it shows that about 48% of municipal solid waste generated are from residential, 24% commercial generated waste, 11% from street cleaning, 7% from landscape conservation, 6% from institutional waste and 4% from industry and construction [32]. A waste characterization study for the city of Kuala Lumpur shows that the main components of Malaysian waste were food, paper, and plastic which comprise 80% of overall weight [22, 24, 38] with high moisture content ranging from 52.6% to 66.2% [22-23, 29, 41-43]. High moisture content in waste reduces energy value of waste and creates extra cost in the use of the waste as refuse derived fuel (RDF) or even incineration because the waste might need to be dried before incinerating. Similarly increasing pressure and temperature in the pile of solid waste or landfill favours the growth of leachate from solid waste which if not controlled might enter into the ground and surface water and can be dangerous for human health [22, 24, 44]. From literature, the waste composition seems to be variable. However, the main part of Malaysia MSW is organic waste; according to data from the ninth Malaysia Plan, Malaysia MSW composition is estimated about 45% of food waste, 24% of plastic, 7% paper mate rials, 6% of iron and glass while others made up the remaining percentage [32-33, 45]. Table 1 shows the average composition by weight percentage of components of MSW generated by various sources in Kuala Lumpur [22] while Table 2 depicts the daily generation of Municipal solid waste by states in Malaysia from year 2000 to year 2010 [46]. The current generation indicates 60% increase over the past 10 years. The larger amount of Malaysian MSW is recyclables which include paper, plastic, glass, metal and aluminum [46-47]. Recyclable items represent over 40% of the total waste volume which without retrieval activity, these valuable materials will be disposed off into landfill. The implications of this practice are the lost of these resources and the rapid utilization of the landfill space. Thus, it will reduce the length of the life-span of landfills in the country. The existing waste disposal habit among Malaysians sees a very high potential of diverting waste via recycling. One obstacle in material recovery practice is that Malaysian MSW is highly commingled. As a result, the waste contains high moisture content and reduces the value of the recyclable items. Sorting at waste generation source will help in reducing the difficulty of high moisture content and improve recycling and resource recovery, thus extending and ma intaining low level of pollution from landfill. SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN MALAYSIA Solid waste management in Malaysia is the responsibility of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (MHLG) with a regulatory body known as National Solid Waste Management Department under this ministry (MHLG) which was established in 2007 [36, 45, 48]. Local authorities are responsible for public cleansing and have to dispose all collected waste in a sanitary way[36]. MSW management involves waste collection, transportation, disposal and monitoring of the disposed waste to protect the environment. It was found from literature that waste collection in Malaysia is more effective and efficient in the richer communities than poorer ones [36]. In view of achieving an improved system for all local authorities and realizing that the lack of appropriate policy is a factor that averts sustainable waste management in the country, the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Bill (SWPCM) was approved in 2007 [14-15, 26, 36, 45, 48-49]. Solid waste management is one element of the ninth Malaysia plan. This plan implies the upgrading of existing unsanitary landfills, the construction of new sanitary landfills and the construction of transfer stations with material recovery facilities with aim of strengthening the institutional capacity of respective agencies as well as creating a society that is committed towards waste minimisation and achieving a recycling target of 22% by 2020 [29, 36, 50]. The Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Act 2007 was gazette on 30 August 2007 with the focus to pave away for federal take-over of solid waste management and privatization of solid waste handling. Consequential amendments were also made to three other policies [14]. Challenges in Solid Waste Management Lack of appropriate policy is the main constraint to sustainable waste management in Malaysia [46]. As a result, the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Bill (SWPCM) was approved in 2007 with the aims of providing an act and regulate the management of solid waste and public cleansing in order to maintain proper sanitation in the country [26]. The following are the commonly identified problems which affect the proper handling of solid waste on the side of the management authorities: Inadequate service coverage and operational inefficiencies of services, Limited utilization of recycling activities, Inadequate landfill disposal, and Inadequate management of hazardous and healthcare waste. Waste Management Process and Practices Waste Collection, Transportation and Disposal Service in Malaysia Municipal solid waste collection schemes of cities in the developing world generally serve only a limited part of the urban population [4, 21, 39, 51-57]. The people facing more problem of poor waste-collection services are usually the low-income population living in peri-urban areas [58-59]. In Kuala Lumpur, 80-90% of the generated MSW is collected; however over 60% of the rural population in Malaysia does not have any waste collection service and this has lead to many illegal small dumping sites [9]. The most common waste collection process in Malaysia is the door-to-door collection system where trash bins are collected from every household. Inhabitants of high-rise buildings or of informal settlements have to bring the waste to communal waste containers [36]. Waste separation has not been a common practice in Malaysia and this leads to the collection of all types of waste in one bin [36]. The solid management responsibility (collection, transportation and disposal) of 48 Local Aut horities has been privatized since 1st January 1997. Idaman Bersih Sdn Bhd manages the waste for northern region of Peninsular Malaysis, Alam Flora Sdn. Bhd manages the waste generated in the Central and Eastern Region of Peninsular Malaysia while Southern Waste Management Sdn. Bhd manages the waste in the Southern Region of the peninsular [14, 45]. The frequency of household waste collections is normally three times a week whereas waste from shops and commercial premises are collected daily [9]. From [60], about 50% of the overall national waste amount collected is open dumped, 30% is landfilled, 10% is composted, 5% is recycled and 5% percent is incinerated. There are about 7 mini-incinerators with capacity between 5 to 20 tones per day owned by the government (located in Pulau Pangkor, Pulau Langkawi, Pulau Tioman and Cameron Highlands) [61] and a private operated incinerator by Recycle Energy Sdn Bhd at Semenyi with a capacity of 1000 Metrics tones per day [23]. Waste Recycling and Composting Waste minimisation is the bed rock of sustainable and sound waste management with global focus on realising a Material Cycle Society. It is the desire to reduce waste generation at source, minimise the amount of waste disposed at landfills and to maximise the efficiency of resource utilisation. Recycling is a practice that utilises raw and finished products more efficiently and effectively. Recycling of inorganic materials from Malaysia municipal solid waste has been a practice by informal sector although such activities are seldom recognised, supported, or promoted by the municipal authorities [8]. Recycling in Malaysia became a government programs in the early 1990s and the first official recycling campaign was launched in October 1991 in Shah Alam, Selangor by the Minister of Housing and Local Government [5]. Twenty local authorities were identified as the lead agencies to promote recycling. This recycling campaign is to be part of the Clean and Beautiful Program launched by the m inistry earlier. In 1992, the minister announced that all city and municipal councils would be required to launch recycling programs. On December 2000 the government re-launched the national recycling campaign with 29 local authorities participating. The second phase of the new recycling program was launched on 11 November 2002 with 95 local authorities participating. The target was to reduce waste generation to a minimum rate of 22% by the year 2020 [5, 23, 62-63]. The present recycling program also involves waste management companies, waste recycling firms, Non-Governmental Organizations, shopping mall management companies, schools, hospitals, and religious organizations. During 2001-2003, the government spent MYR25 million on awareness campaigns and another MYR11 million purchasing and building an infrastructure to support the program [5]. Recycling campaigns were also carried out by the local authorities such as printing flyers and brochures and holding public briefings. They al so provide recycling bins for paper, glass, and aluminium in strategic places, such as shopping centres, schools, and transport terminals. After more than ten years, the official recycling figure is just 5%, although there are reports of higher than 5% recycling. For example, in 2003 Penang Islands recycling rate was 9.8%, up from 3% in 2000 [5, 9]. Many Malaysians seem to treat recycling bins as an ordinary waste-disposal bin. Indeed, it was so bad that the Penang State government has taken back most of the bins as almost all the recycling bins contain all sorts of waste [5]. Although a large amount of Malaysian wastes could be recycled, less than 5% of the total (almost 10,000 tonnes per day) is actually separated and recycled. There is a good demand for waste plastics, paper and glass, with resale prices of about US$60 per tonne, US$44 per tonne and US$32 per tone, respectively. Recovery of only 5% of the available waste plastics, paper and glass is estimated to yield a total of about US$3.4 million per year. Recommendations to increase recycling are discussed in the paper [64]. More priority is given to recycling in Malaysia than composting. Composting is defined as the biological decomposition of organic matter under controlled aerobic conditions to form a stable, humus-like end product. The process is facilitated by a diverse population of microbes, whose population dynamics vary greatly both temporally and spatially, and generally involves the development of thermophilic temperatures as a result of biologically produced heat [65-66]. Composting is applicable to MSW or separately collected leaves, yard, and food waste in Malaysia. The benefits of recycling and composting are: the processes cut down the need for disposal capacity and lowers emissions from landfills and incinerators as well as reducing litter. Secondly, the use of recycled materials in industry reduces energy use and emission; lessens impact when raw material is extracted or manufactured, and conserves raw materials [67]. Recycling also provides a supplementary income source for the lower income group while compost product are used to improve the soil qu ality [68]. Malaysia Waste Potential for Recycling: Recycling in the context of solid waste may be defined as the reclamation of material and its reuse which could include repair, remanufacture and conversion of materials, parts and products. Reclamation of materials from solid waste is not something new [69]. It is the beneficial-reuse of products that would otherwise be disposed off. It diverts waste from overloaded landfills besides providing raw materials that consume less fuel during the manufacturing process. It is an important aspect of an efficient and effective solid waste management system [61]. To understand the composition of MSW in Malaysia, an assessment of the waste generated and recyclable potential of Malaysia municipal solid waste conducted for Kuala Lumpur city by Saeed et al [32] shows from their prediction from the current trend of waste generation in Kuala Lumpur city that the MSW has a good potential of recyclables. Table 1 shows the recyclable components and their percentage share and recycling rate in tons per year. The results indicate that, food (organic) waste is the major component followed by mix paper and plastics. But unfortunately the attention paid by the authority towards this direction is not sufficient enough to tackle this issue. The Agenda 21 [70], defined environmentally sound technologies as a technology that protect the environment; moreover, recycling most of the wastes and handle residual wastes in more acceptable manner. Since 1993 a major effort of recycling was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government but unfortunately limited recycling activities taken place [67]. Though recycling activity in Malaysia is rising up, the recycling industry still needs to be enhanced. The Malaysians attitude towards recycling is higher, but only few practice it [71]. Attitude to the Environmental and Level of Waste Management Awareness in Malaysia Environmental problems are caused directly or indirectly by the patterns of production by industries, patterns of consumption and behaviour of the consumers [72]. Attitude is a mental and neural state of readiness, which exerts a directing, influence upon the individuals response to all objects and situations with which it is related [73]. Attitudes to the environment are rooted in a persons concept of self and the degree to which an individual perceives himself or herself to be an integral part of the natural environment [74]. The shaping of attitude and values, commitment and skills needed to preserve and protect the environment begins at an early age of which educators play an influential role in developing new patterns of behaviours for individuals [72]. In Malaysia, recycling program has been widely initiated since 1993. However, to date the recycling rate in Malaysia is only five percent [75]. A survey by Said et al. [72] using drop and collect method was conducted for 285 scho ol teachers who were randomly selected from ten regular government schools in the state of Selangor, Malaysia to determine the level of knowledge, environmental concern and ecologically conscious consumer behavior and identify the extent of involvement in nature-related activities of school teachers. The result if the survey illustrated the presence of high level of environmental concern among the teachers, fair environmental knowledge but generally poor in understanding of the underlying causes of environmental problems. The practices of environmentally responsible behavior were not in concert with the level of concern and knowledge and the respondents were not actively involved in nature-related activities [72]. Another assessment of the level of environmental knowledge among households in Selangor, Malaysia was conducted by Haron et al [76]. The study examine the sources of their environmental knowledge, determine factors that lead to different levels of knowledge and analyse the relationship between knowledge and environmental attitude, behaviour and participation. The results of the study indicate that, in general, respondents basic or general environmental knowledge was high. However, when questioned on various scientific environmental terms, the majority of the respondents were not familiar with most of them. Respondents indicated that their main sources of environmental knowledge and information were newspapers, television and radio. Lower levels of education were reflected in the level of environmental knowledge. Participation in environmental activities had a positive influence on knowledge. The study also found that knowledge correlated positively with environmental attitudes, behaviours and participation [76]. An investigation/comparison of gender with attitudes towards the environment and green products was conducted by Chen and Chai [77] and the result of their investigation shows that there were no significant differences between gender in their environmental attitudes and attitudes on green products. The second part of the study investigated the relationship between attitude towards the environment and green products. Result revealed that consumer attitudes on the governments role and their personal norm towards the environment contributed significantly to their attitude on green product. Further investigation revealed that personal norm was the most important contributor to the attitude towards green product. However, environmental protection did not contribute significantly to consumers attitudes on green product [77]. The media in Malaysia has played a major role in communicating ideas and information on environmental issues but quite unfortunate, at the national level, people are still reluctant to adopt certain measures to reduce their waste disposal impact on the environment [78]. Studying the effectiveness of media messages towards pro-environmental behavior of Malaysians, Besar and Hassan [78] explain the relation ship between message response and peoples recycling knowledge, attitudes and recycling practice in the workplace context. The analysis inferred that both external motivational (exposure and attention) and internal motivational (involvement and interest) factors are the message response determinant variables that influence message effectiveness. They identified that one area which requires immediate public voluntary participation is in waste management, especially the 3Rs practices. The work suggests that there is poor public participation in environmentally friendly behaviors, namely recycling, as people do not response accordingly to the intended message. They noted that communication and proper enforcement of the law will help boost the recycling rates among the public. An investigation was conducted on the antecedents of recycling intention behaviour among secondary school students using Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) by Mahmud [75]. The sample consists of 400 randomly selecte d Form Four students. Three factors that influenced the intention behaviour as hypothesised by the author include specific attitude, subjective norms and perceived behaviour control. The result shows that perceived behaviour control was the strongest predictor of intention behaviour. Subjective norms are the second strongest predictor of intention to recycle. Specific attitudes were indirect predictor of intention behaviour, via the mediation of subjective norms and perceived behaviour control. The researcher suggested that environmental education in Malaysia school system should focus on elements that can effectively inculcate a pro-environmental behaviour among students [75]. A model to determine and analyze the factors that could affect knowledge, attitude and behavior of the urban poor concerning solid waste management was developed by Murad et aj [79]. They collected primary data residents of low-cost flats of Kuala Lumpur city, Malaysia. The empirical results of the study prov ide evidence to the effect that knowledge, attitude and behavior of the urban poor communities concerning solid waste management are adequate and satisfactory and the low socio-economic profile of the urban poor has not been proven as causal to environmental degradation [79]. In a review on the image and environmental disclosure, challenges in environmental information management and some of the strategic implications of environmental reporting as an important tool for improved environmental management with a short case study was presented by Sumiani et al [80]. In the case study of 50 companies in Malaysia, 36 reported some kind of environmental information in their corporate annual reports where most of the companies that gave environment report where ISO certified companies. The study concluded that ISO certification has some level of influence towards voluntary environmental reporting behaviour amongst the sampled Malaysian companies, specifically on pollution abatement and on o ther environmentally related information categories of environmental information. Making reference to Saeed et al [32], It is obvious that the Malaysia cities are still lacking in terms of efficient waste treatment technology, sufficient fund, public awareness, maintaining the established norms of industrial waste treatment, etc. Recycling is a relatively new exercise in Malaysia. Even though recycling has been introduced years back, lack of public awareness caused a slowdown in the progress of the recycling exercise. Lack of sufficient recycling facilities or the inappropriateness of the facilities location contributed further to the slowdown. Over 20,000 tonnes of solid waste is being discarded daily. The Ministry of Housing and Local Government sets a recycling goal to be 22% by 2020. A study on the success of recycling exercise in Subang Jaya, Malaysia was conducted by Chenaya et al [81]. The collection rate of recyclables in Subang Jaya is estimated to be 0.43% in 2004 which shows poor recycling activities and was traced to poor awareness of the residents of the area. The study formulates and analyzes various strategies to increase the awareness among the residents and to increase the existing facilities. They employ the outranking analysis and use a new exploitation procedure based on eigenvector using the weighted in- and out- preference flows of each alternative from outranking relation in a PROMETHEE context [81]. It was found that environmental education should be made a part of the education and civil system. Waste-Energy Recovery and Incineration Municipal solid waste resource recovery is a practice where waste with good heating values are derived from the waste by mechanical or manual process and used as fuel (RDF Refuse Derived Fuel). Solid waste resource recovery is not a common practice in Malaysia. Malaysia waste if properly sorted will create a good opportunity for resource recovery considering the percentage of paper, plastic, wood and textile materials. Promoting waste sorting from source and composting of organic waste will reduce the moisture content of Malaysia solid waste and enhancing the opportunity of resource recovery. RDF can be used as fuel to plants for electricity generation in the country, thus decreasing the greenhouse gas emission from energy utilization by changing from fossil fuels to a partly renewable fuel or incinerated to generate heat for industrial purpose. Incineration is a controlled burning of wastes at a high temperature, sterilizes, stabilizes and reduces waste volume which may be used as disposal option, when the waste composition is highly combustible. It is one of the most effective means of dealing with many wastes, to reduce their harmful potential and often to convert them to an energy form. It reduces volume up to ten-fold and thus is becoming particularly attractive in metropolitan areas. Some of the municipal managers are looking to the development of municipal incinerators around the periphery of their cities as a first solution in many countries [82]. Incineration requires appropriate technology, infrastructure, and skilled workforce to operate and maintain the plant [83]. Waste incineration is thermal treatment of waste mainly employed for hazardous waste treatment as a standard. MSW incineration in Malaysia is until now only realized as small-scale incinerators on islands, namely Langkawi, Pankor, Tioman and Labuan. The installed seven mini-incineration plants have a capacity of 5-20 tons per day and are operated only once per week due to high operation costs. For Kuala Lumpur one waste gasification plant with a capacity of 1,500 tones per day was planed but never realized because of social protests [14, 36]. The energy potentials of municipal solid waste in Malaysia was assessed by Kathirvale et al. [22] and found that The calorific value of the Malaysian MSW ranged between 1500 and 2600 kcal/kg. From their evaluation of the amount of energy t

Seeking Economic Growth with Long Run Interest

Seeking Economic Growth with Long Run Interest Pursuit of economic growth For any country, in order to develop it is essential that it has to produce many goods and services. Economic growth is the main target that every country is aiming for. However, the road for the growth of economics for any country has its gains and problems. This essay will examine the advantages and the disadvantages of pursuing the economic growth in the long run interest. In order to examine to topic, it is important to how to measure economic growth and why economic growth of a country happens. Economic growth is measured by the annual percentage rate of a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is determined by the market value of goods and services which are manufactured by the economy during a certain period of time. It is considered to be â€Å"the most fundamental indicator of an economy’s health† (The guardian, 2006)(1). For example, United Kingdom, which is a developed country, has a GDP level of 2.472 trillion dollar by 2012 (Worldbank)(2). The main reason of economic growth is the consistent growth of demand. This can be caused by an massive growth of money expenditure. This is because if the government lowered interest rates to try and make people buy more and spend less. People will go out and borrow money to buy houses and cars, which they would normally not be able to afford because their income cannot help the m to pay with normal interest. This results in economic growth. However, this only can help countries to pursuit economic growth in the short run. In order to pursuit in the long run, there are number of requirement that needs to be met. Firstly, natural resources are important, especially land. If a country has many natural resources, this will give it a strong boost in the pursuit. Secondly, in a world nothing is free; it is required capital to pursuit the growth. Thirdly, the greater the level of growth, the more demand from the labour. Government need to spend more government expenditure (taxes) on education in order to help people to have more business skills, which is essential in the long run. Every issue always has two-side. Economic growth also has benefits and drawbacks. On the one hand, there are a number of advantages for pursuit economic growth. First, economic growth helps the people to increase their income. The more economic growth gets, the higher demand for labour require producing more goods and services, which means more job opportunities. Economic growth will make people want to consume more. If the rate of population growth is smaller than economic growth outstrips population growth, real income per head will be increased. This may result to a higher level of consumption of goods and services which is required to satisfy because people now have more money to spend. Consequently, higher expectations will begin to appear. Organisations will need more investment in order to improve their productivity. Investment is required to make improvements and make the obsolete disappear. The more economy grows the more investment it will attract because country with high GDP rate brings more confidence to investors. Because of the rise in demand, the level of output will be increased. In order to meet the targets, firms will need more labour workforce. Therefore, more people will be employed so people .Consequently, people are able to afford higher quality goods and service to satisfy their needs. Furthermore, the level of unemployment will be reducing due to the higher outcome manufacturer require more labour forces. Secondly, economic growth also improves better standards of living. With the increase of consumption of goods and services, society gets more money to improve standards of living. Economic growth helps government to differentiate income from the rich to the poor without losing. The money gained from taxes can be used to fight against poverty and improve services. Government can spend more money on public services such as National Health Care (NHS), education and the environment†¦ With more money which is spent on health care servi ce, this improves quality of life through treating diseases and life expectancy. With the increase quality of health care, people can live longer. Therefore, it is possible to produce more goods and services. Education is the most crucial determinant element of welfare. The more money is spent on education, the higher goods and services organisations can manufacture due to higher degree of workforce. Furthermore, education makes people understand the importance of preserving the environment. When people became richer, people are able to afford to take care of the environment. People are more concerned about the environment where they are living. Therefore, new regulations have been introduced by the government to ensure that people have a clean environment (for example, the Clean Air Act to prevent the Great Smog in 1952 from happening again). With the increase of real GDP, people can use more resource to limit the use of natural resources and promote renewable resources. The govern ment can promote recycling through education. However, economy growth still has downside despite its advantages. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that there are a number of disadvantages because of economic growth. Firstly, the risk of high inflation always comes with economic growth. If demand is more than supply, this will make the price set to increase. This happens to most developing countries with high population level. India is a good example to examine. India is one of countries which has high population level and has a booming economy. However, with the high demand which is more than supply the price has been risen. Therefore, manufactures with higher cost have to raise the price of their goods and services too. It is said that â€Å"India has been struggling to control what is Asias highest inflation level, which was running at about 10% last year† (bbc, 2014)(3). This make rupee which is currency of India loses its value by 14%. Two-third of the population of India only has two dollars to spend a day. Due to the lack of income, people in India have to consume less goods a nd services, which may lead the close down of factories. This make the unemployment level go up significantly. This may leads to an increase in crime However, if the factories are not closed, people will have work more hours to produce more goods to reach the point that supply is equal to demand. Consequently, this will make employees upset. In order to deal with the rise of inflation, the Indian government has to increase the interest rate (ft, 2014).(4) Therefore, the inflation will fall. This will helps the Indian government in order to lower the demand, which will make price go down. Secondly, economic growth might cause unemployment. In order to produce more goods and services, people are always looking for new ways to increase productivity. This makes the economy become more industrial. Therefore, no matter how talent employees are or have many years of experiment, they will always become obsolete. Also, with development of technology machines now can manufacture more than hum an, which is reduced cost in the long run. Therefore, old obsolete job will be replaced by new job. This may result in high unemployment rate. Thirdly, economic growth may make the gap between the rich and the poor become wider. People who have high level of skills will look for job which pay them most in order to be satisfied. Therefore, people always tend to go to developed country so they have can have the job they want. For example, people who have high level of experiment will not stay at Greece which is in crisis and look for job opportunities. They will go to other developed countries such as United Kingdom, Germany, or Spain in order to get the job which they want. Consequently, developed countries always have more and better staff than developing countries. So, developed countries will always produce more goods and services. This makes the gap between them become wider. Finally, economic growth always results in pollution. With the demand to produce more natural resources w ill be forced to be run out. The resource of the world is limited. For example, trees will be cut down more in order to build more factories to manufacture, which leads to deforestation. Therefore, the level of CO2 which is released into the atmosphere will increase significantly. It cannot be denied the global warming has become one of the most serious environmental issues that we have to deal with. Because of the rise of temperature, the Arctic ice has melted. Consequently, this threats not only to coral reefs worldwide but also to land resources, which means we will have less land to use. In order to pursuit economic growth, both developed and developing have already damaged the environment. Most of the developing countries used to have problems with air pollution. For example, in 1952, England had suffered air pollution. The smog had killed many people. To prevent this disaster from happening again in the future, the Clean Air Acts of 1956 and 1968. It is said that â€Å"these acts banned emissions of black smoke and decreed residents of urban areas and operators of factories must convert to smokeless fuels† (metoffice).(5)For developing countries, water pollution is the main problem. Many factories decided to reduce their cost by pouring industrial waste into the river. For example, in 2008, the authority had discovered that Vedan Vietnam which is a company produce monosodium glutamate (MSG) had been illegally released wastewater in Thi Vai River for 14 years, which killed the river’s system. This results not only in the death of thousands shrimps and fish of farmers but it also ruined farmland along side of the river. Furthermore, it affected the health the farmers who live near river.(abc,2010).(6) In conclusion, after examine the benefits and drawbacks of pursuit economic growth, continuing growth in the economy would let the countries to gain many potential benefits such as raising the living standards, reducing the level of unemployment and attract more investment into the country. Nether less, it cannot be denied it has many drawbacks. However in saying this, different circumstances and scenarios require different approaches. Every country must pursuit economic growth with the right pace. If the growth goes too rapid, the risk of high inflation rate will become higher. Therefore, the governments play an important role in the pursuit in the long run. They needs to spend more money on public sector such transport, communication and health care. They also need to control the interest rate to prevent the inflation rate from going up too high. And finally, strict regulations need to be introduced in order to preserve the environment and it is crucial to invest more money into re search alternative in order that alternative energy will replace natural energy. Reference Sally Bolton and Stefanie Khaw. (2006).economic growth.Available: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2006/jul/10/ukeconomy.globalrecession. Last accessed 16th feb 2014. Available at http://data.worldbank.org/country/united-kingdom. Last accessed 16th feb 2014. India raises interest rates rise to stem inflation.Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25923743. Last accessed 16th feb 2014. Amy Kazmin. (2014).India raises interest rates to combat inflation.Available: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/18dc0d04-87e7-11e3-a926-00144feab7de.html#axzz2tcm66adN. Last accessed 16th feb 2014. The Great Smog of 1952.Available: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/education/teens/case-studies/great-smog. .Last accessed 16th feb 2014 bo hill. (2010).Firm pays up after pollution destroyed river.Available: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-08-12/firm-pays-up-after-pollution-destroyed-river/942224. Last accessed 16th feb 2014 lipsey chrystal (2011).economics. 12th ed. oxford: oxford university press. 601-624.

Personality Disorders Essay examples -- Papers

Personality Disorders Personality disorders indicate the presence of chronic rigid and maladjusted personality traits, through which the person's interpersonal or professional functioning is negatively affected, or which lead to personal unhappiness and problems (Louw, 1990). Discuss this statement from a biopsychosocial frame of reference and refer to one personality disorder in any cluster to illustrate your answer. The Biopsychosocial model: ========================== The biopsychosocial model (Engel, 1980, cited in Paris, 1993) suggests an integrated approach that understands psychopathology in terms of multiple causes, none of which is sufficient on its own for the development of the disorder. These factors could include biological vulnerability, the psychological impacts of life experiences and the influence of the social environment all of which may factor as risk variables or protective variables. The biopsychosocial model differs from more linear cause and effect approaches such as heredity in that it is only the cumulative interactive effects of the multiple variables can produce the overt disorder. Personality disorders ===================== Personality disorders are characterised by inflexible and longstanding maladaptive personality traits that cause significant impairment and subjective distress for the individual. The signs of a personality disorder display in adolescence or early adulthood. Individuals differ to the extent that they possess Personality traits and it may be difficult to decide whether the trait exists to an extent that can be considered pathol... ...tice, 10, (2), 161-165. Hayes, S. J. (2002, Mar) Acceptance, mindfulness and science. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 9, (1), 101-106. Klein, M.H. (1993, Spring). Issues in the assesment of personality disorders. Journal of Personality Disorders. Supplement 1, 18-33. Morey, L.C. (1993, Spring). Psychological correlates of personality disorder. Journal of Personality Disorders, Supplement 1, 149-166. Paris, J. (1993). Personality disorders: A biopsychosocial model. Journal of Personality Disorders, 7(3), 255-264. Sue, D., Sue, D, W. & Sue, S. (2000). Understanding abnormal behaviour. (6th ed). USA: Houghton Mifflin Vincent, K.R. (1990). The relationship between personality disorders, normality and healthy personality: Personality on a continuum. Social Behavior and Personality, 18(2), 245-250.

Americas Violence Fixation Essay examples -- Media Violent Crime Essa

America's Violence Fixation One of America's biggest problems today is violence. It is happening everywhere, in the households, out on the streets, even in our schools. When we watch the news and see these acts of violence, we hear the blame be put to one thing: entertainment. Movies and video games are supposedly causing young people to behave aggressively in society, and maybe even compelling them to kill. Some even believe that video rental stores should have policies, such as always requiring an ID, and that some TV programs, movies, and games glorify guns and violence, as well as the guns themselves (center4policy.org). True, some films do portray murder and violence as justifiable; films such as Blade, in which the title character killed vampires in an effort to protect the human race, or The Matrix, where the main characters used violence to free humanity from an artificial intelligence. Video games also have a considerable amount of violence in them as well. The main idea of Grand Theft Auto, one of the more popular video games, is to overtake a city, even if it means using violence. Players are allowed a various array of weapons from baseball bats to machine guns to assist them in missions. Ratings are placed on games, this particular one is rated "M" for "Mature". Retail stores are to check ID of customers in order for them to purchase such games. However, that does not stop children from borrowing the games from others, or even having unsuspecting parents buying them. The question, however, is: "Is entertainment really the cause of violence?" I have been affected personally by the media's claim that entertainment causes violence. One morning on the news program Good Morning... ...at some people disagree with some forms and aspects of entertainment is perfectly fine; not everyone will agree with some of it. Trying to overthrow what the masses enjoy is a completely different matter. As a race, we forget freedom of speech; one voice always has to be louder than the other. Personally, in terms of "Grand Theft Auto", "Pokemon", and " Harry Potter", people purchase these because they enjoy them, they are entertained by them, why not just let them do their thing? I suppose those who point the finger at these live such clean, wholesome lives. The bottom line is: there are things that are popular, people will buy them, be entertained, have, fun, and it will pass. Let them enjoy it. Sources http://www.pegmusic.com/violence-in-amer.html http://www.center4policy.org/violencec.html http://www.davekopel.com/Media/Irmassag.htm

Ethical Principals for Protecting Research Participants Essay

Participating in a research study is an opportunity for people to contribute to the advancement of healthcare practice or other measures. Researchers typically collect data from a population of people that share common characteristics that make them appropriate subjects for the area being studied. In order to assure that participants are adequately protected, a set of ethical principles should be adhered to by all research facilitators. â€Å"The Belmont Report articulates three primary ethical principles on which standards of ethical conduct in research are based: beneficence, respect for human dignity, and justice† (Beck & Polit, 2006). The principle of beneficence serves to minimize harm to participants, maximize the benefits of the study, and protect the participant from any form of exploitation. â€Å"In research with humans, harm and discomfort can take many forms: they can be physical, emotional, social, or financial† (Beck & Polit, 2006). Facilitators of any research study must be conscious of this and use strategies to alleviate potential of such harm. Ethical researchers must be prepared to terminate their study if any evidence of distress on the participants is discovered. Another duty that researchers face is to protect participants from exploitation. â€Å"Involvement in a study should not place participants at a disadvantage or expose them to situations that they have not been prepared† (Beck & Polit, 2006). In summary, participants must feel secure that the information they provide will not be used against them in any fashion. The second ethical principle addressed by The Belmont Report is the respect for human dignity. Study participants have the right to self-determination, or the capability to control their own activities. This right encompasses the ability to ask questions, refuse to provide information, or even withdraw from a study without consequences. The entitlement of self-determination also includes the freedom from being coerced into participating in a study, such as an economically disadvantaged person being offered a large stipend to participate. This may be seen as placing this individual under undue pressure to participate in the study. The principle of the respect for human dignity also includes the right to full disclosure. This allows a person to make informed, voluntary decisions regarding the study they are participating in. â€Å"Full disclosure means that the researcher has fully described the nature of the study, the person’s right to refuse participation, the researcher’s responsibilities, and the likely risks and benefits that would be incurred† (Beck & Polit, 2006). The last ethical principle delivered in The Belmont Report pertains to justice. This principle ensures participants’ rights to fair treatment and the right to privacy. Justice promotes duties to neither neglect nor discriminate against individuals. â€Å"The principle of justice imposes particular obligations toward individuals who are unable to protect their own interests to ensure they are not exploited for the advancement of knowledge† (Beck & Polit, 2006). Researchers must also acknowledge the participants’ right to privacy. They must ensure that their research is minimally intrusive and the participants’ privacy is respected throughout the study. People that partake in a study should expect that any information they provide will be kept in strict confidence. There are designated procedures in place to ensure participants’ satisfaction of a study upon completion. One such task is the risk/benefit assessment. â€Å"Such an assessment is designed to determine whether the benefits of participating in a study are in line with the costs, be they financial, physical, emotional, or social† (Beck & Polit, 2006). Researchers can also offer a debriefing session after data collection is complete. This allows participants to ask questions or air complaints pertaining to the study. Researchers can demonstrate their interest in study participants by offering to share findings with them once the data has been analyzed. Lastly, facilitators should refer participants to appropriate health or psychological services as deemed necessary. Bibliography Beck, C. and Polit, D. (2006.) Essentials of Nursing Research: Methods, Appraisal, and Utilization. (6th ed.) Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams, and Wilkins.

Basic assumptions of Economics Essay

Economists have generally looked for some’ fundamental assumption† about human behavior from which most of the principles of economics can be ultimately deduced. Every decision-maker in an economic system-whether he is a consumer or producer, whether it is a house hold or a firm- is assumed to have in a rational manner and go in for maximum gain. Economic rationality presupposes that every person knows his interest and selects that course of action, which promises him the greatest amount of satisfaction. The economists have, generally assumed that human beings are rational and that they are influenced by the ‘maximization principle’. For example, every consumer is said to maximize his satisfaction with a given amount of expenditure, every producer maximizes his output and minimizes his cost; every seller minimizes his profit, as so on. But rationality and maximization principles are based on the further assumption of perfect knowledge. Every rational consumer, for example, knows the different possible alternatives open to him and will choose that alternative that promises maximum satisfaction. However, rationality is conditioned and influenced by habits and social customs. Habits acquired over a number of years influence the consumers in the choice of goods. Likewise, social customs influence guide and modify economic behavior of individuals. The assumption of economic rationality does not carry any moral or ethical implication. Rationality implies that in a period of acute shortage, producers and distributors would raise the price and secure higher profit margins. Such a behavior may be condemned from the social point of view, but economically it is justified. At the same time, it is necessary to distinguish between individual rationality and social rationality. An individual entrepreneur may like to set up his workshop in or around Bombay as he can get his inputs easily and dispose of his output profitably; rational behavior indicates that he set up his factory in Bombay. But from the social point of view, this may not be rational and proper. For, Bombay is already overcrowded with a high density of population. Besides, there areso many backward areas, which need industrialization. From the social point of view it would have been better that the new factory is set up away from Bombay. There is thus a possibility of clash between individual rationality and social rationality. Rationality and Concept of Equilibrium From economic rationality, the economist passes on to the concept of â€Å"Equilibrium† which stands for a position of rest, a position of rest, a position of no change or a position of maximum gain. A rational consumer is said to be in equilibrium when he spends his limited income on different items in such a way that he secures maximum satisfaction. A producer is said to reach equilibrium position when he with given technology and resources, produces maximum output at minimum cost. Likewise, a firm selling a product is said to be in equilibrium when it gets maximum profit. The economists assume that the economy has a natural tendency to reach equilibrium. Capitalist Economy Economic analysis, especially microeconomics, dealing with price theory has been developed in the context of a developed capitalist economy. Such an economy assumes the existence of private property, freedom of enterprise, profit motive, private initiative, perfect competition and absence of government interference. The existence of free market conditions with free demand and supply is a necessary feature of a capitalist system. These conditions may not be present in any other economic systems, particularly in back ward and developing economies. Hence the conclusion and policy formulations applicable in the context of developed capitalist economies cannot be applied to developing and under developed economies, or they will have to be suitably modified. Static Economy Economics studies, the problem of allocation of limited resources as between different goods and services on the assumption that the technology and resources are given in an economy. The economy is producing maximum amount  of national income with the given technology and resources. In other words, economics study a static economy with a given system of want, resources and technology. Naturally, the conditions and policy formulations derived from static economy will have to be changed for a dynamic economy.