A Look into the Use of Social Media in Healthcare Essay

In the world today, smartphones are becoming the â€Å"norm†, with basic phones becoming nearly obsolete in recent years. Pairing the overwhelming presence of social media with the rise in usage of smartphones brings to light an entirely new set of problems and challenges regarding patient privacy. According to a 2010 study conducted regarding various boards of nursing, 67% of executive officers surveyed reported receiving complaints about nurses misusing social media (Spector & Kappel, 2012). Incidentally, social media use in healthcare has garnered many positive results as well. One study found that 67% of doctors use social media for professional use, and of their followers, 60% of social media users trust posts by their doctors and 55% of users trust posts by hospitals (Skram, n.d.). However, the question remains, with social media does the good outweigh the bad, and how do hospitals foster the good while impeding the bad? HIPAA Regulations Due to the sensitive nature of the information kept by healthcare providers about their patients, principles were put in place to reduce the risk of breeching patient privacy. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) set national standards and regulations regarding the protection of patients’ privacy and personal health information (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS], n.d.). Under The Privacy Rule enacted by HIPAA, protection is governed over all,  Ã¢â‚¬ËœIndividually identifiable health information’ [which] is information, including demographic data, that relates to: the individual’s past, present or future physical or mental health or condition, the provision of health care to the individual, or the past, present, or future payment for the  provision of health care to the individual, and that identifies the individual or for which there is a reasonable basis to believe it can be used to identify the individual. (HHS, n.d., p. 2). There are instances outlined in HIPAA that permit a healthcare provider to disclose a patient’s personal health information which include disclosing information to the individual receiving treatment, information for treatment, payment, or healthcare operations, and information for uses and disclosures with opportunity to agree or object, such as in cases in which a patient is incapacitated in the emergency department (HHS, n.d.). Also, disclosure is permitted for incidental use and disclosure and in a limited data set in which all personal identifiers have been removed (HHS, n.d.). Furthermore, personal health information may be disclosed for public interest and benefit activities such as those required by law, those to ensure safety of victims of abuse, information for decedents, information for tissue donation, information for research studies, if there is a serious threat to health or society, and in cases of workers’ compensation (HHS, n.d.). If health information is released in discordance with the rules and regulations set forth by HIPAA, legal action, both civilly and criminally, can be taken against the individual responsible as well as the healthcare organization with which the individual is involved. Advantages of Smartphones and Social Media in Healthcare Smartphones in the healthcare setting can be very useful both for patients and providers. One advantage of smartphones in the healthcare setting is the overwhelming presence of medical applications that can be accessed and downloaded on smartphones (Wyatt & Krauskopf, 2012). Nurses, physicians, and other medical professionals can quickly access a host of medical reference material straight from their smartphones. Several applications are also available that are useful for patients, giving information about chronic conditions, health and wellness, and fitness (Wyatt & Krauskopf, 2012). Many applications such as MyFitnessPal and iFitnessâ„ ¢ are tailored to help individuals keep track of nutritional intake and exercise habits (Wyatt & Krauskopf, 2012). This can be extremely useful for people wanting to make lifestyle changes regarding nutrition and fitness, especially those aiming to lose weight and become healthier overall. Moreover, social media can be very beneficial to patients suffering from chronic conditions as well as their family and friends (Norton & Strauss, 2013). For rare diseases local community support groups may not be available. Social media steps in to fill this void by offering users a variety of different online support groups, blogs, newsletters, and networks. Individuals can use such resources to reach out to others with similar issues, find much needed support during difficult times, and become aware of treatments and medications that worked for others with their same illness that may prompt them to contact their doctor about other possibilities in treatment options. When used properly, smartphones and social media can be very beneficial to healthcare providers and patients. Disadvantages of Smartphones and Social Media in Healthcare Unfortunately, along with the good must come the bad. For every positive aspect of smartphones and social media in healthcare related settings, there is an equally negative aspect. One pitfall of smartphones in healthcare is directly related to one of the positive aspects of smartphones: the availability of medical applications. While the majority of medical applications are produced by reliable sources with accurate, researched information, there are still medical applications in existence that supply untrustworthy and erroneous information. Gagglioi (2012) observes that, â€Å"[medical] apps have not been subject to rigorous testing† (p. 512) the reason for which being, â€Å"that most of these apps reach consumers/patients directly, without passing through the traditional medical gatekeepers† (p. 512). When patients base future interventions on these erroneous applications, such as seeking treatment or using home remedies, there can result harmful and even fatal cons equences. Another undesirable characteristic of smartphone usage in healthcare settings is the tendency of smartphones to be distracting (Gill, Kamath, & Gill, 2012). Smartphone usage can cause a disruption in workflow which can lead to medical errors and negligence. A study in Australia found that of 439 perfusionists surveyed, 49.2% admitted that they had sent text messages while performing a cardiopulmonary bypass (Gill, Kamath, & Gill, 2012). The interference in diligent attention to patient care caused by smartphones can present contamination, infection, and hygiene risks as well as impeding the ability of the healthcare provider to recognize potential complications or downward trends in their patients (Gill, Kamath, & Gill, 2012). In healthcare, even momentary distraction can lead to fatal consequences. Lastly, a huge problem concerning smartphones in healthcare related settings involves the usage of cameras and social media. As seen in the scenario presented, the nurse on duty abused her smartphone and violated HIPAA by sending pictures of her patient to her friend via text message. Privacy is extremely important in healthcare because patients are less apt to share important information with the provider if they fear that the information could be disclosed or disseminated without permission (Spector & Kappel, 2012). Sharing pictures of a patient or any information regarding a patient without express written permission is a direct violation of HIPAA regulations and is therefore subject to the consequences set forth. Since the nurse on duty knowingly violated HIPAA by sending photos to her friend via text message, she should be investigated and penalized. As mentioned above, in a study conducted of boards of nursing, 67% of executives have encountered complaints about nurses regarding social media (Spector & Kappel, 2012). Of those surveyed, all 67% who had complaints took disciplinary action against the responsible party (Spector & Kappel, 2012). Based on the precedent set in the previous study, the hospital should discipline the nurse in the scenario for her inappropriate behavior. Furthermore, the hospital has a legal obligation set forth by national law demanding that disciplinary action be taken when the administration becomes aware of a staff member violating HIPAA policy. Conclusion and Recommendations Based on the information presented about HIPAA rules and regulations, the fourth conclusion is the only choice able to be deemed as ethically and legally appropriate. The fourth conclusion involves an extensive investigation into the HIPAA violation by the hospital, and the implication of legal action being pursued against the responsible party and the hospital. For her unsuitable behavior, the nurse at the very least should  incur a formal investigation and write-up as well as suspension from her duties. The nurse violated HIPAA by sharing individually identifiable health information (HHS, n.d.). Legally, in the case of a violation in which the perpetrator was unknowing and would not have known even by exercising reasonable diligence, the consequence ranges from a $100 to $50,000 fine for each violation, with a maximum fine of $1.5 million for identical provisions within a calendar year (â€Å"Penalties for violating HIPAA†, 2014). However, in the case of the nurse in the scenario, supposed to have extensively learned the encompassment of HIPAA violations previously, the nurse likely would not be considered to be unknowing which would therefore result in more severe consequences. Furthermore, the nurse violated the Code of Ethics for Nurses by violating her patient’s right to privacy. The nurse violated Provision 1 set forth by the Code stating, â€Å"The nurse, in all professional relationships, practices with compassion and the respect for the inherent dignity, worth, and uniqueness of every individual† (Fowler, 2010). More specifically, she violated Section 1 of Provision 1 regarding respect for human dignity (Fowler, 2010). The nurse also violated Provision 3 of the Code of Ethics which states, â€Å"The nurse promotes, advocates for, and strives to protect the health, safety, and rights of the patient† (Fowler, 2010). Section 1 of Provision 3 regards privacy and Section 2 of Provision 3 regards confidentiality, both of which the nurse dishonored by sending a picture of her patient without his knowledge (Fowler, 2010). The nurse in the scenario not on violated the law regarding HIPAA, she also violated the Code of Ethics for Nurses set forth by the American Nurses Association. In all respects, what the nurse did was ethically, morally, and legally wrong. A lot can be learned from this assignment. It is clear that the use of smartphones and social media needs to be monitored carefully by nurses and other healthcare professionals. Any impropriety in patient privacy with smartphones or social media can become widespread and far-reaching in a matter of minutes. What seems small at the moment can turn into a huge ordeal involving investigations, legal implications, fines, and civil lawsuits. For that reason it is of the utmost importance to be diligent in  considering patient privacy and HIPAA before any post made to social media or any text message sent. References Fowler, M. D. (2010). Guide to the code of ethics for nurses: interpretation and application. Silver Spring, MD: American Nurses Association. Gaggioli, A. (2012). CyberSightings. Cyberpsychology, Behavior & Social Networking, 15(9), 512-513. doi:10.1089/cyber.2012.1555 Gill P.S., Kamath A., & Gill T.S. (2012). Distraction: an assessment of smartphone usage in health care work settings. Risk Manage Healthcare Policy 5(9), 105–114. doi: 10.2147/RMHP.S34813 Norton, A., & Strauss, L. J. (2013). Social media and health care – The pros and the cons. Journal Of Health Care Compliance, 15(1), 49-51. Retrieved from: http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.devry.edu/ehost/detail/detail?sid=b614377483634d2d-b65e946988e5d7ea%40sessionmgr114&vid=36&hid=126&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=heh&AN=85287334 Perkins, N.L., & Theis, A.R. (2011). HIPAA and social networking sites: A legal minefield for employers. Retrieved from: http://www.aao.org/yo/newsletter/201201/article02.cfm Skram, T. (n.d.) 11 health care social media stats to turn heads. Retrieved from: http://whprms.org/11-health-care-social-media-stats-to-turn-heads/ Spector, N., & Kappel D. M. (2012). Guidelines for using electronic and social media: The regulatory perspective. Retrieved from: http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-17-2012/No3-Sept-2012/Guidelines-for-Electronic-and-Social-Media.html U.S Departments of Health and Human Services. (n.d.) Summary of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Retrieved from: http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/summary/index.html What are the penalties for violating HIPAA? (2014). Retrieved from: https://kb.iu.edu/d/ayzf Wyatt, T. & Krauskopf, P. (2012). E-health and nursing: Using smartphones to enhance nursing practice. Online Journal of Nursing Informatics, 16(2), 10-14. Retrieved from: http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.devry.edu/ehost/detail/detail?sid=b6143774-8363-4d2db65e946988e5d7ea%40sessionmgr11 4&vid=23&hid=126&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=rzh&AN=2011651618

Ethical Marketing Essay

Ethical marketing refers to the marketing of products and services that adhere to principles of honesty and social responsibility. Generally the projection of beneficial qualities of products and services are used in marketing to appeal to the needs of and wants of customers. (Pride and Ferrell, 2000) The needs of customers however may represent an adherence to certain ethical or social values that go beyond a mere biological need. While ethical marketing does not loose sight of the core value of appealing to the needs of customers, it projects social goods and values like human rights, animal rights, fair trade for developing countries, child labor and the environment as central to its strategy to win customers. The Body Shop for instance is noted for its insistence on not using animals for testing its cosmetic products. (Dennis, Neck, & Goldsby,1998) Thus though legally the use of animals for cosmetic testing is not prohibited, Body Shop seeks to appeal to the conscience of customers and by so doing achieve a customer loyalty base for its products. Another prominent example of the use of ethical marketing is the fair trade logo used to market products that have been sourced from developing countries. (Tiu, Wright, & Heaton, 2006) The issue of fair trade has become a pertinent ethical issue in international trade, thus marketing products with the fair trade logo serves to show the producer’s conscientiousness about helping poor producers in developing countries. Consumers who are eager to help poor farmers in developing countries are even willing to pay a higher price for a product with the fair trade logo. Issues of protection of the environment also play very important roles in ethical marketing. Companies who contribute to forestation projects in places like the Amazon are eager to mention their contribution to such projects when marketing their products.

Patient access, data mining and PHI Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

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Article Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Article - Term Paper Example department, mainly lack of awareness of the information security concerns and the swiftly evolving complexity of the systems, the cumulative capacity and the reach information and communication technology and the transnational nature of communication networks. It is evident in the paper what the three authors are arguing about ethics, and security in information technology is the focal topic being argued in the global society (ASSON, 2012). Without ethics in this field with little or no progress will be witnessed; many nations are trying to apply ethics in the field of information technology to ensure they are rapid growth in the sector. I do agree with the authors statements this is because, without ethics there will be an extremely slow development in a nations economy. ICT is a key player in a countrys economy making the country’s economy flourish. Security is another key player proper surveillance should be done to make the participants do what is expected by following the laws governing any organization. ICT can be used as an actual tool which will be used to support democracy and freedom worldwide. ICT is a dual character, and there is an exceptionally high potential of ICT to be an effective and useful resource for autocracy or

Project Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Project - Research Paper Example Boxall and Purcell portend that in addition to industrial relations, human relations includes other human resource aspects such as employee development, employee remuneration and employee safety among others. This makes industrial relations a crucial aspect of management for the current managers. This is because it recognises the importance of human relations in the current business environment. The book asserts that human resource management came into existence due to the impact of the situational variables. These variables led to alteration of the management principles that guided employee behaviour. The universal outlook of dealing with employees had to be abandoned in favour of recognition of the workforce as an asset of any organisation, dynamic in thought and functioning. The changes in the political, socio-economic and technological environment has led to the rise in the management challenges related to globalisation, quality evolution, diversity management, employee ,empowerment and corporate reorganisation. The paper asserts that the impact of the challenges depends on the mode in which the management handles financial resources, machines and workforce. The paper addresses the need for the organisational managers to develop organisational strategies that utilises and develops the human resources in the improvement of the business activities. The proposed strategy guides on the impacts of employee welfare with emphasis on the importance of providing greater opportunities for knowledge sharing and learning as the pillars of motivation. This delineates the traditional aspects of human resource management to the current ones. The findings of Kersley et al survey affirm that human resource management functions deals with the management of people. It includes all the practices that enable proper utilisation of the human personnel in various stages of the employment cycle

Answer question Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 4

Answer question - Essay Example y, orders used to circulate from the customers to the hands of brokers to went to the floor desk to the order desk to the executing broker to the runner and then back again, and therefore errors used to be common(Sykes, 1983). In reality, this errors cannot have an impact on the capital today. The moment an error is discovered, and as well the market is still open, it is just the role of the order desk to get out the error and finally, need to determine the fault. However, determining fault is usually easy. Perhaps, double-checks in the system should be there, primarily composed of the telephone recordings as well as duplicate orders that will tell the story. In addition, it should not have absolutely impact on capital because the moment it was determined that the broker-agent, or customer, or even the floor broker was the one at fault, they could ate the error. Also, incase the error happened at any other place in the process, and then the clearing firm needed to swallow the loss (Jackwerth& Rubinstein, 1996). The function that insurance can perform in reducing the capital impact of operational loss of a firm is highly significant. Transferring a certain risk to an insurance firm can lead to a better performance hence covering diverse losses and prevent critical situation. It has been approved that insurance can be applied as a mechanism to minimize the impact of operational losses for firms like banks, and this means that a specific insurance against risks can result to a low level of minimum capital that is allocated to a given risk category (MacMinn & Richard, 2005). In hard economic moment, organization tend not be affected as such. With the financial crisis, it has been reported on ways firms employ strategies in order to cope up with the difficulties that inevitably follow crisis in economic (Douglas& Browne, 2011 ). Scenario analysis is a strategise tool in making decision. However, it has been applied for most decades in different disciplines, that

Discrete Math Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Discrete Math Project - Essay Example ed on the multiplication of the Leslie Matrix and the Population vector, institutions managing wildlife are able to project the population of a particular species to determine the translocations and reintroductions, for example, the population growth of helmeted honeyeater in Australia. Additionally, the model projects male and female components of the spices population where g age-specific data for female and male species are available (Webpages.uidaho.edu). The Leslie Matrix model is also applied in calculating age-specific survival and fecundity that determine the reproductive value from a specific multi-year census. Consequently, the model is important to the wildlife management’s population viability analysis (PVA), which is used to determine the threats or risks to a specific species in the wildlife. Using the equation, t+1= ÃŽ » t where ÃŽ » is replaced with the age-specific survival and fecundity rates, the institutions managing wildlife are able to determine survival and reproductive value for each species (Webpages.uidaho.edu). The model is further applied in wildlife management in the control of invasive species where the survival and reproductive value is low for a specific

Career Exploration Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Career Exploration - Assignment Example The Keirsey temperament test consists of the personality questionnaire which is designed to help the people to understand their skills and abilities. The Keirsey temperament sorter is the kind of test which allow the people to recognize their abilities, skills and kind of nature they embrace for their career. According to the Keirsey temperament test, there are four types of temperament which the people cleave to as a type of their career; these temperaments include the Artisans, Guardians, Idealists and the Rationales. The Artisans are the type of people who can be stimulating, directive and can have the impact over others and the surroundings, they are manipulating and influential. The category of artisans includes the roles like operators and the promoters. Guardians are the type of people who are the organized and the concrete and are concerned with their duty and responsibility. The greater strength of the Guardians is their ability of logistic findings. These people can be the best administrator. Idealists are the people with the great passion of seeking their own identity and are the empathetic. Their strength is the diplomatic behavior and they focus on the personal growth. The category includes the mentors like teachers and the advocates. Rationals are the people of strategic skills, they are the objective people and mostly they are finding the self control. The category includes the engineers and the coordinators. (Butler, A. C. 1990) The above four temperaments are described by Keirsey who called them as the character types. The four temperaments are further divided into sixteen character types which are assessed through the scale of the skills and nature of the person. According to the question based assessment, my temperament is idealist. The idealists can be enjoying the role of mentors and the advocates. These people are the inspiring and are passionate to develop their own skills and abilities. They seek the

Literature- Discussing Questions 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Literature- Discussing Questions 1 - Essay Example She appears plain and hard-working in this first scene. Henry and Elisa seem to be a â€Å"settled† couple. He cares how she feels and she cares for him also, but there seems to be no passion there. Instead they are good friends, but not intimate in the sharing sense of the word. She does not want him to know about the mums. He seems to value her skills and strength, rather than her femininity, and he says she looks â€Å"nice†, not beautiful. The salesman takes and interest in order to establish rapport, and to get some work from her, plus a flowerpot he can sell. She is taken in, believes his story and thinks he has a genuine interest in her flowers. It is her specialty and she loves feeling like she is sharing it. (Ten inch mums are huge.) The first paragraph describe Elisa’s feeling about her life: closed in, grey and damp, waiting for something to change. She is isolated and her life is quite limited and simple, as opportunities for women of that time were very limited.The valley is ready to sleep through the coming wionter in anticipation of spring, but Elisa has passed her chance at spring and new blooms. She lives that part of her life through her flowers. 5 How might Elisas preparations for going out for dinner be likened to her care for the chrysanthemums? Explain Elisas response after seeing her seedling chrysanthemums have been tossed out onto the road. Elisa’s preparations for going out to dinner are meticulous and thorough. She does not only care for her own body, but for her husband’s clothing too. When she is done bathing she surveys the results and then dresses. She is as careful with her flowers, as we see in the first scene and she tells us with her directions to the salesman for taking care of them. She packed the seedlings with great care for him to take to the fictional client. She realizes that he has manipulated her and just wanted the money and the flower pot, which she notes that he

International Environmental Management and Sustainability Assignment

International Environmental Management and Sustainability - Assignment Example It actually refers to the idea of being aware of one’s responsibilities towards one’s own surrounding environment so that, with the combination of individual efforts, the overall atmosphere of the planet may be improved greatly. There could never be a better platform for the start of such efforts other than a university which holds the interests of the majority of an area’s people. Anglia Ruskin University is one such educational institute that is actively participating and cooperating in the greening of the earth’s atmosphere. ... to be limited to its own energy resources so that to minimize waste and carbon emission for which it will also initiate â€Å"progressive waste management procedures† supported by recycling methods and less-fuel-consumption measures e.g., walk rather than car-driving for short distances (ARU, 2011). 3. For this purpose, awareness is to be raised through campaigns and posters among the staff and students; and such practices are to be monitored regularly through setting of ecological targets and evaluation of reports. The inclusion of such activities in curriculum is highly recommended. 4. One important step to be taken in this regard is to maintain cost-effective methods to ensure wildlife and biodiversity, and to avoid huge expenses in the name of futile luxuries (ARU, 2008). Green Impact Award This award is an initiative of the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges that is abbreviated as ‘eauc’. It invites the zealous individuals from each unive rsity department to participate in a number of practical activities which are recorded in a workbook i.e., â€Å"†¦a workbook with practical, easy to implement and no or low cost actions to complete† (eauc, 2011). Each of the workbooks is specially designed for the particular university that participates. Initially the participants are asked to complete 20 Bronze activities while Silver, Gold and Bonus are optional. Once completing a Bronze, the participating team can move to Silver also. After the completion of these workbooks, volunteers are sent to each department to verify the tasks done, and in the end, a celebration is held to â€Å"†¦promote the achievements of those departments taking part through an awards ceremony† (eauc, 2011). Thus, Green Impact Award is a bottom-up project that aims to support

Weaknesses that Wealth Creates According to the Stories of Ernest Hemingway Essay Example for Free

Weaknesses that Wealth Creates According to the Stories of Ernest Hemingway Essay Financial abundance is perhaps the most sought-after purpose of modern men. We spend a significant part of our lifetime doing jobs and chasing profits even if it is against our own will. In the context of the money driven world, we even have a notion that money would endow us a certain sense of strength—a resounding name in literature contests that notion. Ernest Hemingway, a household name for those who appreciate literature, had written several stories that depict material wealth as a source of weakness for humanity. Moreover, in Hemingway’s multiple depictions of wealth, multiple types of weaknesses had also surfaced. To be more specific, the stories that would be used to support this argument will be coming from the collection of short stories titled â€Å"Snows of Kilimanjaro. † The three stories would be â€Å"The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber†, â€Å"Fifty Grand†, and a story of the same title as the collection, â€Å"Snows of Kilimanjaro. † The short story â€Å"The Short Life of Francis Macomber† is basically centrifugal to the relationship of Francis Macomber and his wife Margaret, who is also referred to as Margot. Francis Macomber was a wealthy man who is able to take his wife to a big-game hunt. Hemmingway had satisfyingly described the marriage of the characters â€Å"Margot was too beautiful for Macomber to divorce and Macomber had too much money for Margot. † From the previous sentence alone, the type of weakness that wealth had generated is already surfaced. Hemmingway is seemingly suggesting that wealth could leave materially rich people poor—poor in terms of love. The situation of the main characters shows us that money could even corrupt a supposedly sacred concept such as marriage. In addition to that, this kind of wealth-inflicted weakness is inline with the popular notion that money can never buy love. In â€Å"Fifty Grand,† the title immediately talks about money giving the readers a hint as to what the story will be about money. The plot was revolved around the life of an aging boxer who is preparing for his last fight. The aging boxer is aware that there is no chance for him to win against his opponent who is seemingly on his prime. He had acknowledged his own weakness and attempted to turn the tables around. Interestingly, he had placed a bet for his own opponent. He was almost sure that through losing he would end up winning â€Å"I’m through after this fight†¦I got to take a beating why shouldn’t I make money on it? † Hemmingway complicates the plot by placing two shrewd gamblers as antagonists. The antagonists had come up with a brilliant plan of making the opponent of the protagonist to hit him below the belt, making him lose his fifty grand. In this particular story, the type of weakness that wealth could give an individual is a welcomed weakness. All the characters were willing to give up their pride, conscience, and even self-worth just to gain material wealth. In some respect, wealth could strip us the things we could never buy. The characters in â€Å"Fifty Grand† were all seemingly devoid of any self-worth, especially the protagonist. In addition to that, the protagonist sees doubling his life-savings as the only way he could live a happy pot-boxing life. In one of Hemingway’s best works, â€Å"Snows of Kilimanjaro†, he had written about how wealth could ruin a writer. Through this theme, readers would easily jump to the assumption that this particular story is quasi-autobiographical. The plot talks about a writer browsing through his memories while on a safari in Africa. He was infected through a wound that he got from a thorn. The protagonist collects his memories as he was awaiting a slow and seemingly inevitable death. He had realized that his life was full of wonderful memories. However, the tragedy was he was unable to write about those wonderful memories. Instead, he had focused much on the misery that his wealthy wife had inflicted to him. The weakness that â€Å"Snows of Kilimanjaro† had talked about is that wealth could kill an individual’s passion. The protagonist’s passion for writing was gradually killed by his adaptation to the lifestyle of his wealthy wife. The protagonist had become dependent to the wealth of his wife. He refers to his wife’s wealth as â€Å"†¦your damned money is my armour. † Unfortunately, his passion for writing was sacrificed—he had failed to write about the important things, instead he had spent most of time mingling with wealthy yet uninteresting people. All in all, these three stories reveal to us Hemingway’s distaste for material wealth. It is common in the three stories that things of priceless value like self-worth and passion are being neglected when pursuing wealth. Perhaps what Hemmingway may have wanted for us to realize is that material wealth should not be pursued at all. Instead, we should give more value to the things that could never be bought. And he is seemingly suggesting that being materially wealthy just means that we had lived our lives poorly.

Export Finance in India Essay Example for Free

Export Finance in India Essay Credit and finance is the life and blood of any business whether domestic or international. It is more important in the case of export transactions due to the prevalence of novel non-price competitive techniques encountered by exporters in various nations to enlarge their share of world markets. The selling techniques are no longer confined to mere quality; price or delivery schedules of the products but are extended to payment terms offered by exporters. Liberal payment terms usually score over the competitors not only of capital equipment but also of consumer goods. The payment terms however depend upon the availability of finance to exporters in relation to its quantum, cost and the period at pre-shipment and post-shipment stage. Production and manufacturing for substantial supplies for exports take time, in case finance is not available to exporter for production. They will not be in a position to book large export order if they don’t have sufficient financial funds. Even merchandise exporters require finance for obtaining products from their suppliers. This term paper is an attempt to throw light on the various sources of export finance available to exporters, the schemes implemented by ECGC and EXIM for export promotion and the recent developments in this field. Concept of Export Finance: The exporter may require short term, medium term or long term finance depending upon the types of goods to be exported and the terms of statement offered to overseas buyer. The short-term finance is required to meet â€Å"working capital† needs. The working capital is used to meet regular and recurring needs of a business firm like purchase of raw material, payment of wages and salaries, expenses like payment of rent, advertising etc. The exporter may also require â€Å"term finance† for medium and long term financial needs such as purchase of fixed assets and long term working capital. Export finance is short-term working capital finance allowed to an exporter. Finance and credit are available not only to help export production but also to sell to overseas customers on credit. Objectives of Export Finance: †¢ To cover commercial Non-commercial or political risks attendant on granting credit to a foreign buyer. †¢ To cover natural risks like an earthquake, floods etc. An exporter may avail financial assistance from any bank, which considers the ensuing factors: a) Availability of the funds at the required time to the exporter. b) Affordability of the cost of funds. Appraisal: Appraisal means an approval of an export credit proposal of an exporter. While appraising an export credit proposal as a commercial banker, obligation to the following institutions or regulations needs to be adhered to. Obligations to the RBI under the Exchange Control Regulations are: †¢ Appraise to be the bank’s customer. †¢ Appraise should have the Exim code number allotted by the Director General of Foreign Trade. †¢ Party’s name should not appear under the caution list of the RBI. Obligations to the Trade Control Authority under the EXIM policy are: †¢ Appraise should have IEC number allotted by the DGFT. †¢ Goods must be freely exportable i.e. not falling under the negative list. If it falls under the negative list, then a valid license should be there which allows the goods to be exported. †¢ Country with whom the Appraise wants to trade should not be under trade barrier. Obligations to ECGC are: †¢ Verification that Appraise is not under the Specific Approval list (SAL). †¢ Sanction of Packing Credit Advances. Guidelines for banks dealing in Export Finance: When a commercial bank deals in export finance it is bound by the ensuing guidelines: a) Exchange control regulations. b) Trade control regulations. c) Reserve Bank’s directives issued through IECD. d) Export Credit Guarantee Corporation guidelines. e) Guidelines of Foreign Exchange Dealers Association of India. Export-import bank of India (EXIM Bank) The Export-import bank of India (EXIM Bank) was set up in January 1982 as a statutory corporation wholly owned by central government. It is managed by the Board of Directors with repatriation from Government, financial institutions, banks and business community. The main objective of Export-Import Bank (EXIM Bank) is to provide financial assistance to promote the export production in India. The financial assistance provided by the EXIM Bank widely includes the following: †¢ Direct financial assistance †¢ Foreign investment finance †¢ Term loaning options for export production and export development †¢ Pre-shipping credit †¢ Buyer’s credit †¢ Lines of credit †¢ Re-loaning facility †¢ Export bills rediscounting †¢ Refinance to commercial banks The Export-Import Bank also provides non-funded facility in the form of guarantees to the Indian exporters. †¢ Development of export makers †¢ Expansion of export production capacity †¢ Production for exports †¢ Financing post-shipment activities †¢ Export of manufactured goods †¢ Export of projects †¢ Export of technology and software’s Export financing programmes provided by EXIM Bank India EXIM INDIA offers a range of financing programs that match the menu of Exim Banks of the industrialized countries. The Bank provides competitive finance at various stages of the export cycle covering. EXIM INDIA operates a wide range of financing and promotional programs. The Bank finances exports of Indian machinery, manufactured goods, and consultancy and technology services on deferred payment terms. EXIM INDIA also seeks to co-finance projects with global and regional development agencies to assist Indian exporters in their efforts to participate in such overseas projects. The Bank is involved in promotion of two-way technology transfer through the outward flow of investment in Indian joint ventures overseas and foreign direct investment flow into India. EXIM INDIA is also a Partner Institution with European Union and operates European Community Investment Partners’ Program (ECIP) for facilitating promotion of joint ventures in India through technical and financial collaboration with medium sized firms of the European Union. The Export- Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) provides financial assistance to promote Indian exports through direct financial assistance, overseas investment finance, term finance for export production and export development, pre-shipping credit, buyer’s credit, lines of credit, relending facility, export bills rediscounting, refinance to commercial banks. Loans to Indian Entities: †¢ Deferred payment exports: Term finance is provided to Indian exporters of eligible goods and services, which enables them to offer deferred credit to overseas buyers. Deferred credit can also cover Indian consultancy, technology and other services. Commercial banks participate in this program directly or under risk syndication arrangements. †¢ Pre-shipment credit: finance is available from Exim Bank for companies executing export contracts involving cycle time exceeding six months. The facility also enables provision of rupee mobilization expenses for construction/turnkey project exporters. †¢ Term loans for export production: Exim Bank provides term loans/deferred payment guarantees to 100% export-oriented units, units in free trade zones and computer software exporters. In collaboration with International Finance Corporation. Washington, Exim Bank provides loans to enable small and medium enterprises to upgrade their export production capability. †¢ Overseas Investment finance: Indian companies establishing joint ventures overseas are provided finance towards their equity contribution in the joint venture. †¢ Finance for export marketing: This program, which is a component of a World Bank loan, helps exporters implement their export market development plans. Loans to Commercial Banks in India: †¢ Export Bills Rediscounting: Commercial Banks in India who are authorized to deal in foreign exchange can rediscount their short term export bills with Exim Banks, for an unexpired usage period of not more than 90 days. †¢ Refinance of Export Credit: Authorized dealers in foreign exchange can obtain from Exim Bank 100% refinance of deferred payment loans extended for export of eligible Indian goods. †¢ Guaranteeing of Obligations: Exim Bank participates with commercial banks in India in the issue of guarantees required by Indian companies for the export contracts and for execution of overseas construction and turnkey projects. Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI) Government of India came forward to set up the Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI) in July 1948 under a Special Act. The Industrial Development Bank of India, scheduled banks, insurance companies, investment trusts and co-operative banks are the shareholders of IFCI. The Government of India has guaranteed the repayment of capital and the payment of a minimum annual dividend. Since July I, 1993, the corporation has been converted into a company and it has been given the status of a Ltd. Company with the name Industrial Finance Corporations of India Ltd. IFCI has got itself registered with Companies Act, 1956. Before July I, 1993, general public was not permitted to hold shares of IFCI, only Government of India, RBI, Scheduled Banks, Insurance Companies and Co-operative Societies were holding the shares of IFCI. Management of IFCI: The corporation has 13 members Board of Directors, including Chairman. The Chairman is appointed by Government of India after consulting Industrial Development Bank of India. He works on a whole time basis and has tenure of 3 years. Out of the 12 directors, four are nominated by the IDBI, two by scheduled banks, two by co-operative banks and two by other financial institutions like insurance companies, investment trusts, etc. IDBI normally nominates three outside persons as directors who are experts in the fields of industry, labour and economics, the fourth nominee is the Central Manager of IDBI. The Board meets once in a month. It frames policies by keeping in view the interests of industry, commerce and general public. The Board acts as per the instructions received from the government and IDBI. The Central Government reserves the power up to the Board and appoints a new one in its place. IFCI also has Standing Advisory Committees one each for textile, sugar, jute, hotels, engineering and chemical processes and allied industries. The experts in different fields appointed on Advisory Committees. The chairman is the ex-officio member of all Advisory Committees. All applications for assistance are first discussed by Advisory Committees before they go to Central Committees. Financial Resources of IFCI: The financial resources of the corporation consist of share capital bonds and debentures and borrowings. a) Share Capital: The IFCI was set up with an authorized capital of Rs. 10crores consisting of 20,000 shares of Rs. 5,000 each. This capital was later on increased at different times and by March, 2003 it was Rs. 1068 crores. b) Bonds and Debentures: The Corporation is authorized to issue bonds and debentures to supplement its resources but these should not exceed ten times of paid-up capital and reserve fund. The bonds and debentures stood at a figure of Rs.15366.5 crores as on 31st March 2003. c) Borrowings: The Corporation is authorized to borrow from government IDBI and financial institutions. Its borrowings from IDBI and Govt. of India were Rs. 975.6 crore on March 31, 2003. Total assets of IFCI as on March 31, 2003 aggregated Rs. 22866 crore. Functions of IFCI: o Granting loans or advances to or subscribing to debentures of industrial concerns repayable within 25 years. Also it can convert part of such loans or debentures into equity share capital at its option. o Underwriting the issue of industrial securities i.e. shares, stock, bonds, or debentures to be disposed off within 7 years. o Subscribing directly to the shares and debentures of public limited companies. o Guaranteeing of deferred payments for the purchase of capital goods from abroad or within India. o Guaranteeing of loans raised by industrial concerns from scheduled balls or state co-operative banks. †¢ Acting as an agent of the Central Government or the World Bank in respect of loans sanctioned to the industrial concerns. IFCI provides financial assistance to eligible industrial concerns regardless of their size. However, now-a-days, it entertains applications from those industrial concerns whose project cost is about Rs. 2 crores because up to project cost of Rs. 2 crores various state level institutions (such as Financial Corporations, SIDCs and banks) are expected to meet the financial requirements of viable concerns. While approving a loan application, IFCI gives due consideration to the feasibility of the project, its importance to the nation, development of the backward areas, social and economic viability, etc. The most of the assistance sanctioned by IFCI has gone to industries of national priority such as fertilizers, cement, power generation, paper, industrial machinery etc. It has sanctioned nearly 49 per cent of its assistance for projects in backward districts. IFCI introduced a scheme for sick units also. The scheme was for the revival of sick units in the tiny and small scale sectors. Another scheme was framed for the self-employment of unemployed young persons. The corporation has diversified not only merchant banking but also financing of leasing and hire purchase companies, hospitals, equipment leasing etc. were the other new activities of the corporation in the last few years. Promotional Activities: The promotional role of IFCI has been to fill the gaps, either in the institutional infrastructure for the promotion and growth of industries, or in the provision of the much needed guidance in project intensification, formulation, implementation and operation, etc. to the new tiny, small-scale or medium scale entrepreneurs or in the efforts at improving the productivity of human and material resources. (a) Development of Backward Areas: –IFCI introduce a scheme of confessional finance for projects set up in backward areas. The backward-districts were divided into three categories depending upon the state of development there. All these categories were eligible for concessional finance. Nearly 50 per cent of total lending of IFCI has been to develop backward areas. (b) Promotional Schemes:- IFCI has been operating six promotional schemes with the object of helping entrepreneurs to set up new units, broadening the entrepreneurial base, encouraging the adoption of new technology, tackling ‘the problem of sickness and promoting opportunities for self development and Self employment of unemployed persons etc. These schemes are as such: 1. Subsidy for Adopting Indigenous Technology 2. Meeting Cost of Market Studies 3. Meeting Cost of Feasibility Studies 4. Promoting Small Scale and Ancillary Industries 5. Revival of Sick Units 6. Self-development and Self employment Scheme Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India (ECGC) In order to provide export credit and insurance support to Indian exporters, the GOI set up the Export Risks Insurance Corporation (ERIC) in July, 1957. It was transformed into export credit guarantee corporation limited (ECGC) in 1964. Since 1983, it is now know as ECGC of India Ltd. ECGC is a company wholly owned by the Government of India. It functions under the administrative control of the Ministry of Commerce and is managed by a Board of Directors representing government, Banking, Insurance, Trade and Industry. The ECGC with its headquarters in Bombay and several regional offices is the only institution providing insurance cover to Indian exporters against the risk of non-realization of export payments due to occurrence of the commercial and political risks involved in exports on credit terms and by offering guarantees to commercial banks against losses that the bank may suffer in granting advances to exports, in connection wi th their export transactions. Objectives of ECGC: †¢ To protect the exporters against credit risks, i.e. non-repayment by buyers †¢ To protect the banks against losses due to non-repayment of loans by exporters Covers issued by ECGC: The covers issued by ECGC can be divided broadly into four groups: âž ¢ STANDARD POLICIES: issued to exporters to protect them against payment risks involved in exports on short-term credit. âž ¢ SPECIFIC POLICIES: Designed to protect Indian firms against payment risk involved in (i) exports on deferred terms of payment (ii) service rendered to foreign parties, and (iii) construction works and turnkey projects undertaken abroad. âž ¢ FINANCIAL GUARANTEES: Issued to banks in India to protect them from risk of loss involved in their extending financial support to exporters at pre-shipment and post-shipment stages. âž ¢ SPECIAL SCHEMES: such as Transfer Guarantee meant to protect banks which add confirmation to letters of credit opened by foreign banks, Insurance cover for Buyer’s credit, etc. STANDARD POLICIES ECGC has designed 4 types of standard policies to provide cover for shipments made on short term credit: †¢ Shipments (comprehensive risks) Policy: to cover both political and commercial risks from the date of shipment. †¢ Shipments (political risks) Policy:- to cover only political risks from the date of shipment †¢ Contracts (comprehensive risks) Policy:- to cover both commercial and political risk from the date of contract †¢ Contracts (Political risks) Policy :- to cover only political risks from the date of contract RISKS COVERED UNDER THE STANDARD POLICIES: 1. Commercial Risks a) Insolvency of the buyer b) Buyer’s protracted default to pay for goods accepted by him c) Buyer’s failure to accept goods subject to certain conditions 2. Political risks a) Imposition of restrictions on remittances by the government in the buyer’s country or any government action which may block or delay payment to exporter. b) War, revolution or civil disturbances in the buyer’s country. Cancellation of a valid import license or new import licensing restrictions in the buyer’s country after the date of shipment or contract, as applicable. c) Cancellation of export license or imposition of new export licensing restrictions in India after the date of contract (under contract policy). d) Payment of additional handling, transport or insurance charges occasioned by interruption or diversion of voyage that cannot be recovered from the buyer. e) Any other cause of loss occurring outside India, not normally insured by commercial insurers and beyond the control of the exporter and / or buyer. RISKS NOT COVERED UNDER STANDARD POLICIES: a) Commercial disputes including quality disputes raised by the buyer, unless the exporter obtains a decree from a competent court of law in the buyer’s country in his favour, unless the exporter obtains a decree from a competent court of law in the buyers’ country in his favour b) Causes inherent in the nature of the goods. c) Buyer’s failure to obtain import or exchange authorization from authorities in his county d) Insolvency or default of any agent of the exporter or of the collecting bank. e) loss or damage to goods which can be covered by commerci8al insurers f) Exchange fluctuation g) Discrepancy in documents. SPECIFIC POLICIES The standard policy is a whole turnover policy designed to provide a continuing insurance for the regular flow of exporter’s shipment of raw materials, consumable durable for which credit period does not normally exceed 180 days. Specific policies are issued in respect of Supply Contracts (on deferred payment terms), Services Abroad and Construction Work Abroad. 1) Specific policy for Supply Contracts: Specific policy for Supply contracts is issued in case of export of Capital goods sold on deferred credit. It can be of any of the four forms: a) Specific Shipments (Comprehensive Risks) Policy to cover both commercial and political risks at the Post-shipment stage b) Specific Shipments (Political Risks) Policy to cover only political risks after shipment stage. c) Specific Contracts (Comprehensive Risks) Policy to cover political and commercial risks after contract date. d) Specific Contracts (Political Risks) Policy to cover only political risks after contract date. 2) Service policy: Indian firms provide a wide range of services like technical or professional services, hiring or leasing to foreign parties (private or government). Where Indian firms render such services they would be exposed to payment risks similar to those involved in export of goods. Such risks are covered by ECGC under this policy. The policy covers 90%of the loss suffered. 3) Construction Works Policy: It covers civil construction jobs as well as turnkey projects involving supplies and services of both with private and foreign government. This policy covers 85% of loss suffered on account of contracts with government agencies and 75% of loss suffered on account of construction contracts with private parties. FINANCIAL GUARANTEES Exporters require adequate financial support from banks to carry out their export contracts. ECGC backs the lending programmes of banks by issuing financial guarantees. The guarantees protect the banks from losses on account of their lending to exporters. Six guarantees have been evolved for this purpose:- (i). Packing Credit Guarantee (ii). Export Production Finance Guarantee (iii). Export Finance Guarantee (iv). Post Shipment Export Credit Guarantee (v). Export Performance Guarantee (vi). Export Finance (Overseas Lending) Guarantee. These guarantees give protection to banks against losses due to non-payment by exporters on account of their insolvency or default. The ECGC charges a premium for its services that may vary from 5 paise to 7.5 paise per month for Rs. 100/-. The premium charged depends upon the type of guarantee and it is subject to change, if ECGC so desires.

Modified Huffman Coding Schemes Information Technology Essay

Modified Huffman Coding Schemes Information Technology Essay CHAPTER 2 Document compression is a digital process. Therefor, before compressing the data , information about the document should be known. The CCITT algorithms deals with a page of size 8.5 x 11 inch. The page is divided into horizontal and vertical lines. These horizontal lines are known as scan lines . Dots per inch and pixels per inch are two standards for image resolution. A 8.5 x 11 inch page is 1728 x 2200 pixels . One scan line is 1728 pixel long .the normal resolution is 200 x 100 dpi and a fine resolution is 200 x 200 dpi. Figure 2.1 Each pixel is represented by 1 bit , the number of pixel that will form the above page is 3,801,600. Although sending this data through an ISDN line it will take approximately 7 min. If the resolution of the page is increased , the time taken by the transmission will increase. Thus it is not important to transfer every exact bit of the binary page information. The most commonly encoding used for CCITT compression is Modified Huffman which is supported by all the fax compression techniques. Other options used are Modified Read and Modified Modified Read. The following table gives an overview of these encoding/decoding techniques. Characteristics MH MR MMH Compression efficiency Good Better Best Standard T.4 T.4 T.6 Dimension 1-D 2-D 2-D(extended) Algorithm Huffman and RLE Similarities between two successive lines More efficient MR Table 2.1 : Comparisons of MH, MR and MMR 2.1.1 Modified Huffman The fax pages are contains many runs of white and black pixels which makes RLE efficient for minimizing these run lengths. The efficiently compressed run lengths are then combined with Huffman coding . Thus an efficient and simple algorithm is achieved by combining RLE with Huffman coding and this is known as Modified Huffman. RLE consists of terminating and makeup codes. MH coding uses specified tables for terminating and makeup codes. Terminating codes represent shorter runs while the makeup codes represents the longer runs. The white and black pixel runs from 0 to 63 are represented by terminating codes while greater than 63 are represented with makeup codes which mean than greater than 63 bit runs are defined in multiples of 64 bits which are formed by the terminating codes. These tables are given in chapter 4. a scan line represented with long runs gives a make code which is less than or equal to the pixel run and then the difference is given by the terminating code. The following example will help in understanding how it works. . There are three different types of bit pattern in MH coding Pixel information (data ) Fill EOL The term Fill refers to the extra 0 bits that are added to a small data line which fills the left space in the data. The Fill patterns brings highly compressed scan line to a preferred minimum scan line time ( MSLT) , which makes it complete and transmittable. Consider a transmission rate of 4800 bps with an MSLT 10ms so the minimum bit per scan line is 48 bits.1728 pixels scan line is compressed to 43 bit . 31 data bit + 12 EOL bits which in total is 43 bits. The left space is filled by 5 Fill bits given as follow Scan line 1728 pixels EOL RLE code 4B 3W 2B 1719W 12 bits 43 bits Bit pattern 00110101 011 1000 11 01100001011000 00000 0000000000001 31 data bits fill patren EOL 48 bits - Figure 2.2 Modified Huffman structure In addition to this another special bit pattern used in the MH coding is EOL . EOL are special bit patterns which have several different identification function i.e. EOL at the start of the scan line indicate the start of the scan of line EOL at the end of the scan line consist of 11 0s followed by a 1. It helps in stopping the error from one scan line penetrating into other scan lines and each line is independently coded. At the end of each page an RTC signal is given which holds six EOL patterns which identifies the end of page . MODIFIED READ MR is also known as Modified Relative Element address designated (READ). MR exploits the correlation between successive lines . It is known that two consecutive lines have a very high percentage of single pixel transition due to a very high resolution of the images. Using this phenomena, instead of scanning each scan line as done in MH, MR takes in account a reference line and then encodes each scan line that follows. In fact it is more appropriate to say that MR is more complex MH algorithm. MR encoding encounters both MH and MR coding technique. The reference line is encoded using MH and the subsequent line is encoded using MR encoding until the next reference line appears. The decision on how to encounter the next reference line is taken by a parameter K. The vale of K defines the resolution of the compression. MR is a 2-Dimensional algorithm. The value of K defines the number of lines that uses 2-Dimensional phenomena, which K-1 lines. However the reference line using the MH algorithm is using 1-dimension. For a normal resolution of an image the value of K is set to 2 the refrence line is encoded every second scan line. Where as the value of K set to 4 will give a higher resolution because the reference line is MH encoded every 4 line , making it more complex and compressed. The following figure shows scan lines for both resolution of K set to 2 and 4. MH MR MH MR -2 scan lines- For normal resolution k = 2 , 1 MH line, 1 MR line MH MR MR MR MH MR MR MR 4 scan lines For higher resolution k = 4, 1 MH line , 3 MR lines figure 2.3 modified read structure The advantage of having low resolution over high resolution is that the error prorogation into the subsequent line is reduced with lower number of dependent scan lines. However in MR encoding the value of K can be set as high as 24. The change between two subsequent line i.e. the refrence line and the next scan line given by MR can be given as follow reference line b1 b2 Scan line a0 a1 a2 figure 2.4 MR 2-D coding. The nodes that are given in the figure above are described as follow a0 is start of changing element in the coding line which is also the reference for the next changing elements a1 first transition on the coding line a2 second transition on the coding line b1 first transition on the reference line on the right of the a0 , first opposite color transition b2 first transition on the reference line. In the above figure the reference line is coded with the MH coding while the next scan line is coded with MR. Hence it can be seen that there are very minor changer between both the scan line. MR takes advantage of the minor changes and encodes only the changing elements a0 , a1 and a2 instead of the complete scan line. There are three functional encoding modes of MR , which decide on how to code these changing elments of the scan line with respect to the reference line. These modes are Pass mode Vertical mode Horizontal mode As it is due to these different modes of MR which makes it more complex algorithm. These MR functional modes are discussed in detail in chapter 3. And then one can reffer back to this part to completely understand it. The structure of MR is given as follow EOL +1 Data 1-D fill EOL +0 Data 1-D EOL+1 Data 1-D fill EOL +0 Data 1-D EOL +1 EOL +1 EOL +1 EOL +1 EOL +1 EOL +1 K = 2 EOL+1 MH coding of next line EOL+0 MR coding of next line FILL Extra 0 bits RTC End of page with 6 EOLs Figure 2.5 Structure of MR data in a page Modified Modified Read ITU-T Recommendation T.6 gives the Modified Modified Read or MMR encoding algorithm. MMR is an upgraded version of the MR. They are both 2-Dimensional algorithms but MMR is an Extended version of the 2-Dimension. The fundamentals of MMR are same as MR except a few minor changes to the algorithm however the modes of MR i.e. pass mode , vertical mode and horizontal mode are same for MMR encoding. The major change in the MMR with respect to MR is the K parameter . The MMR algorithm dose not use the K parameter and recurring reference line. Instead of these the MMR algorithm uses an imaginary scan line which consist of all white pixels which is the first line at the start of each page and a 2-Dimension line follows till the end of the page. This introduced scan line of all whites is the reference line alike the MR. The error propagation in MMR has a very high predictability because of the connected coding method of all the scan lines. Thus ECM is required for MMR to be enabled. ECM guaranties error free MMR algorithm. Thus MMR dose not require any EOL however a EOFB (end of facsimile block) is required at the end of page which is the same as RTC in MH. The organization of data in MMR and the EOFB block bit sequence is given as follow. Data 2-D Data 2-D Data 2-D Data 2-D Data 2-D Data 2-D Data 2-D Data 2-D Data 2-D Data 2-D Data 2-D Data 2-D Data 2-D EOFB scan lines of page EOFB bit sequence 0000000000001 0000000000001 Figure 2.6 Scan lines in MMR page Tagged Image File Format Tagged Image File Format(TIFF) is purely a graphical format i.e. pix elated, bitmap or rasterized. TIFF is a common file format that is found in most imaging programs. This discussion here cover majorly the TIFF standard of ITU-T.6 which is the latest. T.6 includes all the specification of the earlier versions with little addition. TIFF is flexible and has good power rating but at the same time it is more complex. Extensibility of TIFF makes it more difficult to design and understand. TIFF is as known by its name a tagged file that holds the information about the image. TIFF structure is organized into three parts Image file header (IFH) Bit map data (black and white pixels) Image File Directory(IFD) IFH Bitmap data IFD EOB Figure 2.7 File organization of TIFF Consider an example of three TIFF images file structures. These three structures hold the same data in possible three different formats. The IFH or the header of TIFF is the first in all the three arrangements. However in the first arrangement IFDs are been written first and then followed by the image data which is efficient if IFD data is needed to be read quickly. In the second structure the IFD is followed by its particular image which is the most common internal structure of the TIFF. In the last example the image data followed by its IFDs. This structure is applicable if the image data is available before the IFDs. Header IFD0 IFD1 IFD n Image 0 Image 1 Image n Header IFD 0 Image 0 IFD 1 Image 1 IFD n Image n Header Image 0 Image 1 Image 3 IFD 0 IFD 1 IFD n Figure 2.8 Different TIFF structures Image File Header A TIFF file header is an 8-byte which is the start of a TIFF file. The bytes are organized in the following order The first two bytes defines the byte order which is either little endian (II)or big endian (MM). The little endian byte order is that it starts from least significant bit and ends on the most significant and big endian is vice verse. II = 4949H MM = 4D4DH The third and fourth bytes hold the value 42H which is the definition for the TIFF file The next fourth bytes holds the offset value for the IFD. The IFD may be at any location after the header but must begin after a word boundary. Byte order 42 Byte offset for IFD Figure 2.9 IFH structure Image File Directory Image file directory (IFD) is a 12 byte file that holds information about the image including the color , type of compression, length, width, physical dimension, location of the data and other such information of the image. Before the IFD there is a 2 byte tag counter. This tag counter holds the number of IFD used. Which is followed by a 12 byte IFD and a four 0 bytes at the end of the last byte. Each IFD entry has the following format The first two bytes of the IFD hold the identification field. This filed gives information what characteristic of the image it is pointing to. This is also know as the tag. The next two bytes gives the type of of the IFD i.e. short, long etc The next four bytes hold the count for the defined tag type The last two bytes hold the offset value for the next IFD which is always an even number. However the next IFD starts by a word difference. This vale offset can point anywhere in the Image even after the image data. The IFD are sorted in ascending order according to the Tag number. Thus a TIFF field is a logical entity which consist of a tag number and its vallue Tag entry count 2-bytes Tag 0 12 bytes Tag 1 12 bytes Tag n 12 bytes Next IFD offset or null bytes 4 bytes Figure 2.10 IFD structure The IFD is the basic tag file that hold information about the image data in a complete TIFF file. The data is either found in the IFD or retrieved from an offset location pointed in the IFD. Due to offset value to other location instead of having a fixed value makes TIFF more complex. The offset values in TIFF are in three places last four bytes of the header which indicates the position of the first IFD Last four bytes of the IFD entry which offsets the next IFD. The last four bytes in the tag may contain an offset value to the data it represents or possibly the data its self figuer 2.11 CCITT Encoding This type of compression is used for facsimile and document imaging files. It is a losses type of image compression. The CCITT ( International telegraph and telephone consultative committee) is an organization which provides standards for communication protocol for black and white images or telephone or other low data rate data lines. The standards given by ITU are T.4 and T.6. These standards are the CCITT group 3 and group 4 compression methods respectively. CCITT group compression algorithms are designed specifically for encoding 1 bit image. CCITT is a non adaptive compression algorithm. There are fixed tables that are used by CCITT algorithms. The coded values in these tables were taken from a reference of set of documents containing both text and graphics. The compression ratio obtained with CCITT algorithms is much more higher than quarter size of the original image. The compression ratio for a 200 x 200 dpi image achieved with group 3 is 5:1 to 8:1 which is much increased with group 4 that is up to 15:1 with the same image resolution. However the complexity of the algorithms increases with the ratio of its comparisons. Thus group 4 is much more complex than group 3. The CCITT algorithms are specifically designed for typed or handwritten scanned images, other images with composition different than that of target for CCITT will have different runs of black and white pixels. Thus such bi-level images compressed will not give the required results. The compression will be either to a minimum or even the compressed image will be greater in size than the original image. Such images at maximum can achieve a ratio of 3:1 which is very low if the time taken by the comparisons algorithms is very high. The CCITT has three algorithms for compressing bi level images, Group 3 one dimensional Group 3 two dimensional Group 4 two dimensional Earlier when group 3 one dimensional was designed it was targeted for bi level , black and white data that was processed by the fax machines. Group 3 encoding and decoding has the tendency of being fast and has a reputation of having a very high compression ratio. The error correction inside a group 3 algorithm is done with the algorithm itself and no extra hardware is required. This is done with special data inside the group3 decoder. Group 3 makes muse off MH algorithm to encode. The MMR encoding has the tendency to be much more efficent. Hence group 4 has a very high percentage of compression as compared to group 3 , which is almost half the size of group 3 data but it is much more time consumed algorithm. The complexity of such an algorithm is much more higher than that of group 3 but they do not have any error detection which propagates the error how ever special hardware configuration will be required for this purpose. Thus it makes it a poor choice for image transfer protocols. Document imaging system that stores these images have adopted CCITT compression algorithms to save disk spaces. However in age of good processing speeds and handful of memory CCITT encoded algorithms are still needed printing and viewing o data as done with adobe files. However the transmission of data through modems with lower data rates still require these algorithms. Group 3 One Dimensional (G31D) The main features of G31D are given as follow G31D is a variation of the Huffman type encoding known as Modified Huffman encoding. The G31D encodes a bi-level image of black and white pixels with black pixels given by 1 and white with 0s in the bitmap. The G31D encodes the length of a same pixel run in a scan line with variable length binary codes. The variable length binary codes are take from pre defined tables separate for black and white pixels. The variable code tables are defined in T.4 and t.6 specification foe ITU-T. These tables are determined by taking a number of typed and handwritten documents. Which were statistically analyzed to the show the average frequency of these bi level pixels. It was decided that run length occurring more frequently were assigned small code will other were given bigger codes. As G31D is a MH coding scheme which is explained earlier in the chapter so we will give some example of the coding is carried out for longer run of same pixels. The coded tables have continuous value from 0 to 63 which are single terminating codes while the greater are coded with addition of make up codes for the same pixels, only for the values that are not in the tables for a particular pixel. The code from 64 to 2623 will have one makeup code and one terminating code while greater than 2623 will have multiple makeup codes. Hence we have two types of tables one is from 0 to 63 and other from 64 till 2560. The later table is selected by statistical analysis as explained above. Consider a pixel run for 20 black . Hence it is less than the 63 coded mark in the table . We will look for the value of 20 in the black pixel table which is 00001101000. hence this will be the terminating code for the 20 black pixel run which is have the size of the original. Thus a ratio 2:1 is achieved. Let us take the value 120 which is greater than 63 and is not present in the statistically selected pixel run. Here we will need a make up code and a terminating code. The pixel run can be broken into 64 which is the highest in the tables for this pixel run and 57 which will give 120 pixel run 120 = 64 + 57 64 coded value is 11011 57 coded value is 01011010 hence 120 is 11011 the make up code and 01011010 terminating code as given in the figure 2.11a. Now consider a bigger run of black pixel which is 8800. This can be given a sum of 4 make up and one terminating code 8800 = 2560 + 2560 + 2560 + 1088 + 32 which is 000000011111, 00000001111, 000000011111, 0000001110101 and 0000001101010 so it can be given as shown in figure 2.11b 11011 1011010 Makeup code terminating code 2.11a makeup and terminating codes for 120 OOOOOOO11111 OOOOOOO11111 OOOOOOO11111 OOOOO111O1O1 1101010 makeup makeup makeup makeup terminating figure 2.11b makeup and terminating codes for 8800 Group 3 Two Dimensional (G32D) Group 4 Two Dimensional (G42D)

Sewage Systems, Oil Spills, and Oil Fires in Iraq Essay -- Iraq Baghda

Baghdad, Iraq is located on the continent of Asia at a latitude of thirty-three degrees north and longitude of forty-four degrees east near the doldrums. The air in Iraq is typically warm and dry because it is located where air diverges between the Hadley and Ferrel cells. The climate in Iraq consists of hot and long summers that last from May to October. During the summer, temperatures regularly exceed one hundred and twenty degrees Fahrenheit. There is no rainfall and the humidity is low. The temperature begins to cool down in October. December, January, and February are the coldest months. There are occasional frosts during these months. There is also rainfall. Winters in Iraq are customarily cool and moist in comparison to the warm, dry summers.1 The rain that occurs in the winter is unpredictable and cannot be depended upon to irrigate crops. The main natural disaster in the area is flooding. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers flood unpredictably at harvest time, or ri ght before the harvest time.2 This flooding ensures a continually unstable environment with fertile areas near the rivers and sub-desert areas away from the rivers. The flooding and receding rivers have changed the position of the gulf shoreline along with the fluctuation in sea level. 4 The Tigris and Euphrates rivers have a lot to do with the well being of the region in which Iraq is located. Today the Tigris River is severely polluted. Raw sewage runs throughout this river. The fertile marshlands that once existed have either been destroyed or have dried up due to human interaction. The air in Iraq is polluted due to oil fires resulting from broken oil wells. Iraq, which was famous for its state of the art medical care is now in disarray. The po... ...ulf War. London, U.K.: Greenpeace, 1991. Committee of Officials. Kingdom of Iraq: An Introduction to the Past and Present. Baltimore, MD, USA: The Lord Baltimore Press, 1964. Green, Matthew. â€Å"Languid Tigris Waters Mask Iraq ’s Pollution Menace.† Planet Ark. 13 July 2004. 10 November 2004. http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/25984/story.htm. Helms, Christine Moss. Iraq: Eastern Flank of the Arab World. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institute, 1984. Pollack, Susan. Ancient Mesopotamia: The Eden That Never Was. New York: The Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, 1999. Recknagel, Charles. â€Å" Iraq Wetlands Disappearing.† Green Nature. 15 June 2001. 10 November 2004. http://www.greennature.com/article498.html. The Iraq Water Project. The Iraq Water Project. 1999. 10 November 2004. http://www.iraqwaterproject.com/intro.htm.

Essay on the Dark Side of the Mind Exposed in Cask of Amontillado

The Dark Side of the Mind Exposed in Cask of Amontillado "A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong." With that statement, Montresor begins his tale of revenge deciding that the act must be slow and sweet and that in order to fully enjoy it, his adversary must be aware of his intentions. Hidden within those same few lines, lies not only this horrid plan, but also the true interest of its' true author. In his Cask of Amontillado, Edgar Allen Poe reveals his supreme interest in the dark side of the human mind and heart. Much of what a story means, much of its effect on the reader depends on the eyes through which it is seen and on the voice that tells it to us. In Cask of Amontillado, those eyes and voice belong to Montresor. The story is written in second-person perspective. In relaying the events of the day, Montresor refers to the reader as 'you' several times. This does not only act to pull the reader into the story, but it also provides a valuable insight into the mind of the author. By referring to the reader as 'you' a connection is established between Montresor and the reader. This connection suggests that the reader can sympathize with the actions of Montresor by relating them to some event in the readers' past or imagination. Poe suggests that we, as a body of readers, all want to commit acts such as that committed by Montresor and therefore can understand him and his dark actions. To fully understand the dark side of the human mind and heart, the mind of Montresor has to be examined. The question as to what fiendishly evil act Fortunato committed that was so seve... ...each step, Montresor pulls Fortunato in a little further by provoking him with threats of getting his archenemy Luchresi to test the wine. Without breaking from his calm shell, Montresor is able to lead Fortunato to his doom never once faltering or stumbling. In his Cask of Amontillado, Poe dives into a study of the darkness of the human mind and heart. He looks at the worst crime possibly committed by one human to another and ponders over the mind of the criminal. Montresor, calm, cool, and collected, is able to fulfill a plan that he had made long before. Fifty years later, he conveys the story to the world so that the dark side of all people may be matched against that of him. A man that truly lives by the motto of his family, "nemo me impune lacessit" [no one provokes me with impunity], Montresor becomes a study for Poe and a mirror to all mankind.

Ernest Hemingway: Allegorical Figures In The Sun Also Rises Essay

Ernest Hemingway: Allegorical Figures in The Sun Also Rises Thesis: Hemingway deliberately shaped the protagonists in The Sun Also Rises as allegorical figures. OUTLINE I. The Sun Also Rises A. Hemingway's novel. B. Hemingway's protagonists are deliberately shaped as allegorical figures. C. Novel symbolizing the impotence after W.W.I. II. Jake Barnes. A. Wound. 1. Damaged genitalia. 2. Can't make love. 3. Feels desire. B. Wound is symbol of life in years after W.W.I. C. Wound from accident. 1. Accidents always happen. 2. Can't prevent accidents. 3. â€Å"It was like certain dinners that I remember from the war. There was much wine and ignored tension, and a feeling of things coming that you could not prevent.† D. Condition represents a peculiar form of impotence. E. Restrained romantic. F. Private grief with Cohn's public suffering. G. Strongly attracted to Pedro Romero. H. Later, when Barnes says that he hates â€Å"homos† and wants to hit them. III. Lady Brett Ashley. A. First appears with a group of homosexuals. B. Wears man's hat on short hair. C. Refers to men as fellow â€Å"chaps†. D. All complete distortion of sexual roles. E. The war has turned Brett into the equality of a man. F. This is like Jakes demasculation. G. All releases her from her womanly nature. H. â€Å"Steps off of the romantic pedestal to stand beside her equals. IV. Robert Cohn. A. Women dominate him. B. Old fashioned romantic. C. Lives by what he reads. D. To feel like a man. 1. Boxes. a. Helps him to compensate for bad treatment from classmates. b. Turns him into an armed romantic. 2. Likes authority of editing and honor of writing, but is a bad editor and a poor novelist. E. Looks for internal strength in outward signs and sources. F. Willing to suffer publicly and to absorb insults for sake of true love. G. He is ready to fight for his lady and knocks down his opponent like a knight. 1. When he goes against Pedro for Brett. a. Brett tells him off. b. Pedro won't fall. c. Brett stays with Pedro. d. Cohn is left alone. 2. Romantic hero met his match. 3. Shows difference between physical and moral victory. a. Pedro fights for dignity and his spirit is untouched by Cohn. b. Cohn's spirit is crushed. H. Cohn based his manhood on skill at boxing or on a woman's love, not on internal strength. V. Pedro Romero. A. Manhood stands without women. B. Reason Barnes is attracted to him. C. â€Å"Cohn and Pedro are... ...eration are weighed. From this point, Pedro can   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  be seen as the real hero, man whose code gives meaning to a   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  world where love and religion are defuncts, where the proofs   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  of manhood are difficult and scarce, and where every man   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  must learn to define his own moral condition and then live   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  up to them (Bloom, 1985, p. 118).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hemingway purposely shaped the main characters in The Sun Also Rises as allegorical figures. Jake Barnes and Brett Ashley were two lovers desexed by the war. Robert Cohn was the false knight who challenged their despair. Pedro Romero personified the good life which will survive their failure. References Baron's Educational Series, Inc. (1984). The Sun Also Rises- The   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Story. [WWW]. URL http://www.kidzone.com:/ecc/sunalso3.htm Bloom, H. (ED.). (1985). Modern Critical Views: Ernest   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hemingway. New York: Chelsea House Publishers Hemingway, E. (1926). The Sun Also Rises. New York: Charles   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Scribners' Sons

Environmental Revolution

The Next Step Broad Social Change Through Personal Commitment Introduction In the last thirty years, America has witnessed an environmental revolution. New laws like the 1963 Clean Air Act and the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act forged new ground in political environmentalism. Social phenomena like Earth Day, organized by Dennis Hayes in 1970, and the beginning of large-scale recycling, marked by Oregon's 1972 Bottle Bill, have help change the way Americans think about the environment. As we approach the third millennium, however, we must reconsider our place on the planet and reflect on our efforts and progress towards a sustainable society. As global warming becomes a scientific reality, natural disasters make monthly appearances in the headlines, and communities continue to find their ground-water contaminated by industrial and nuclear waste, we must ask ourselves: are we doing enough? The environmental movement in the past has largely been a social and political phenomenon. While many of us recycle (yet still only 35 percent of us) and take dead batteries to our town's Hazardous Waste Day, most Americans have not made the environment a personal issue. Very few of us have taken the kind of personal life-changing steps that are necessary to create an environmentally sustainable society. It is simply naive to believe that America's present rates of consumption, waste production, and environmental contamination are sustainable. The kind of social change required can only happen when we as individuals embrace the effort in our everyday lives. Only then will corporate America and the government realize that they too must change to maintain their customer base and public support. This kind of personal commitment to change would also create a new social ethic based on the environment under which people and companies who do not care for the earth would be held socially and financially responsible. In six parts, this article will re-examine our place in the environmental movement and investigate exactly what changes we can make in our personal lives to bring about positive change. These areas are transportation, energy, recycling and waste management, toxins and pollution, food, and water. Some of the changes discussed will require sacrifice. But, more important, these changes will often simplify our lives, bring our families and communities closer together, and help us to better understand, revere, and coexist with the world upon which each of us is directly dependent. Transportation The invention of the automobile is one of history's greatest environmental disasters. The automobile decentralized our society. People with cars moved out of the city and drove to work from their suburban homes. Before the automobile, agriculture was local. Food was grown by farmers living in what was soon to be the suburbs, and delivered fresh to markets in the cities. Because of the short distance food had to travel, farmers didn't need to add preservatives or other additives to maintain freshness. Clearly, the automobile, like other harmful inventions, makes our lives easier in many ways, but how often do we consider the environment when weighing these benefits? Fossil fuels account for the automobile's most significant effect on the environment. Not only are the emissions from cars and trucks toxic to every air-breathing organism, but every step of the fossil fuel process, from extraction to disposal, is bad for the environment. According to the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), millions of gallons of untreated water contaminated by the drilling processes are dumped into waterways and oceans annually. Once extracted, fossil fuels are frequently refined on site, burying 179 million tons of toxic waste annually. During transport, an average of 1 million gallons of oil is spilled into the ocean each month. Upon arrival, fossil fuels are usually burned in automobiles or power plants. The average coal-burning power plant burns about 10,000 tons of coal in a single day. With even a low estimate of five per cent waste, that leaves 500 tons of toxic waste produced each day by a single power plant. If used in cars, oil must be refined further, wasting more energy and creating more toxic waste before drivers purchase it. The combustion engines used in cars and trucks emit toxic gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect and acid rain, deplete the ozone layer, and create more than 50% of the smog producing toxins that city-dwellers breathe every day. Even if we disregard the environmental damage caused by fossil fuels, we should recognize that, as a non-renewable energy source, the earth's reserves will eventually run out. Hundreds of millions of years of organic decomposition will be wiped out in a single century. Conservative estimates say we have 30 to 50 years left of oil use. With more and more developing nations rapidly increasing their use of fossil fuels, and the continuing growth rate of fossil fuel use at four times the population growth, our time with fossil fuels could be significantly less. Just imagine the economic and political upheaval a major oil shortage would cause. Simply put, the country that depends on fossil fuels the least will be the most likely to survive the economic strife and wars resulting from global depletion. Fossil fuel consumption is deeply entrenched in the American mode of life. We rely on automobiles for almost all of our transportation needs, enjoy motor boats and jet skis on our vacations, and use gas-burning engines in most of the tools we use in the yard. (Although electricity is another major consumer source of fossil fuel consumption, that will be discussed in the Energy section. Yet we can make numerous changes in our lifestyle that will significantly decrease our personal consumption of fossil fuels. Let's return to America's biggest weakness: the automobile. Simply not driving is the best and most obvious solution to the problem of automobiles. Americans have gotten used to their cars and seldom walk or bicycle even short distances. Gym class became a federal requirement in the 1930s because students were being driven or riding busses to school instead of walking. Americans have also become significantly more overweight since we started driving. Consider your Saturday errands around town. Most errands we make are to destinations less than a few miles away and frequently involve dropping off or picking up something small. These kinds of errands can just as easily be accomplished by walking or bicycling. Your body will thank you, and so will the environment. Public transport, if available, is also a great way to stay out of the car. Consider an area's public transportation system in choosing a place to live, as some cities have significantly better systems than others. When your destination is too far to walk or bicycle, there are still numerous ways to minimize the use of automobiles. If you drive to work, find other people at your company or other companies near you that live in your town and start a carpool. Even carpooling once in a while makes a difference, so don't get discouraged by occasional scheduling conflicts or other obstacles. When running errands, plan ahead to consolidate them into one trip and consider the most efficient route. If possible, park in a central location and walk to multiple destinations. Ask a neighbor or friend if they need to go out (everybody has to go to the grocery store, for example), and share a ride. For every ride you share, the fuel consumption and emissions for that trip are cut in half. There are also many ways that your driving habits effect the fuel efficiency of your car. Try to avoid fast accelerations, for instance. They use significantly more fuel than gradual accelerations. Likewise, avoid driving at excessive speeds. Every car engine has an RPM (revolutions per minute) at which optimal fuel economy is achieved; you'll find it in your car's manual. Check your tachometer and try to maintain that RPM while driving. Minimizing the work-load on your car is another way to increase fuel economy. Remove any unnecessary heavy objects from the car, and avoid using the air conditioner when possible. Finally, turn off your engine if you expect to be idle for even a short while. Starting a modern fuel-injected car uses less gas than idling for 30 seconds. Did you know that warming up your car by letting it idle in the driveway in cold weather actually causes engine damage? This is also when your car's emissions are at their worst. The best and fastest way to heat up a car is by driving it. When it's time to buy a new car, there are many ecological alternatives to the gas guzzling beasts typically driven by Americans. Many compact cars on the market today achieve stunning fuel economy. The four-wheel-drive trucks so popular in today's market get comparatively bad gas mileage and usually carry one person over a paved road. Buy the smallest car you can, and don't buy a larger car for infrequent needs-consider buying a used trailer for infrequent cargo hauls. If you've been putting off the purchase of a motorcycle as whimsical, think again. Many motorcycles (and scooters in particular) achieve significantly better fuel economy compared to even the most fuel-efficient cars, resulting in less over-all consumption and emissions. Maintenance is the final step in minimizing the environmental impact of automobiles. Modern cars have very sophisticated emissions systems and engines that must be finely tuned to achieve maximum efficiency. Regular check-ups for your car will protect your investment and ensure the car is in its best possible working order. The longer you keep your car, the more value from it you receive and the less waste is created and energy spent in the production of a new car. If you have to commute to work every day, consider an electric car. Electric cars have come a long way in price, distance and efficiency, and will soon be available from large manufacturers like Ford and Toyota. Several small companies around the country convert small gas powered cars and trucks to electric, zero-emissions vehicles and sell them for slightly more than a gas-powered car. As electric cars become more common and are manufactured on a large scale, their prices will drop significantly. Many hobbyists, with no prior automotive or electrical expertise, have created their own electric cars from their used gas-powered vehicles. Check your local library for one of the many conversion guides available. Today's electric cars take about four hours to charge, plugged into a standard outlet, and can go anywhere from 50 to 200 miles on a single charge. While you wouldn't want to take an electric car across the country (though this has been done), their distance per charge is plenty for a typical commuter to get to work and back. Most electric car owners keep a gas-powered car around for longer trips. Owners of electric cars generally find the increase in their electric bill minimal compared to the amount they save in gasoline. While electric cars create no emissions themselves, and create almost no waste (even the batteries are recyclable), the electric company is still burning fossil fuels to create the electricity needed to charge the car. Nevertheless, electric companies are capable of converting fossil fuels to energy much more efficiently and with fewer emissions than a gas-powered car. Electric cars also leave room for improvement in any method of large-scale energy production, such as biomass, hydro, and solar (see the Energy section). This section has focused primarily on cars, but Americans also use many other gas-powered engines. The small engines in motor boats and lawn equipment do not have to meet the emissions standards of cars, and thus, emit far more toxins into the air. Consider using a quiet, powerless mulching mower on your lawn if you have one, and an electric weed whacker rather than one that is gas powered. If you enjoy the water, consider learning to sail rather than motoring. Motorized water vehicles not only emit air pollution, they also pollute the water, contribute to sound pollution, and injure fish and other animals in the water. Energy in the Home Automobiles are not the only consumers of fossil fuels or sources of air pollution stemming from our personal lives. According to the EPA, furnaces, hot water heaters, and other fossil fuel burning appliances in American homes produce 20% of all U. S. carbon dioxide, 26% of sulfur dioxide, and 15% of nitrogen oxide emissions, the leading causes of acid rain and global warming. Note that these figures do not take into consideration the power our homes draw from fossil fuel-burning power plants. By making our homes as energy-efficient as possible and minimizing our personal use of electricity, we can significantly reduce our personal impact on the environment. The main sources of power consumption in our homes are the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Maintaining, repairing, or upgrading these systems will not only save us money, but also reduce the amount of energy needed to run our homes on a day-to-day basis. The EPA's Energy Star Homes program brings environmentally aware developers and manufacturers together to build homes that are better insulated and utilize 90% efficiency or better HVAC systems. If you are looking to build a new home, call their toll-free hotline, (888) STAR-YES, for literature, or save paper and visit their Internet site at www. epa. gov for more information. Unfortunately, building new homes is not an environmentally sound thing to do. New homes require previously undeveloped land or disposal of the property's old construction. Further, new wood and materials must be used unless costly measures are taken to restore materials from an old construction. Beyond environmentally unsound, new construction is many times more expensive and time-consuming than renovation and repair of most existing houses. Even if your house is too costly to upgrade, consider buying an already renovated house or one easily renovated before building new construction. A furnace using heating oil, natural gas, or electricity heats most American homes. Still others use a wood or pellet stove. Of these, electricity is by far the least efficient. One truth of energy conservation is that electricity should not be used to produce heat, whether in a stove, water heater, or central heating. The exception to this is the microwave, which is the most efficient way to heat small amounts of food. Edward Harland's book, ECO~RENOVATION: the ecological home improvement guide, an excellent resource for anyone interested in environmental renovations, provides this revealing chart: Fuel Kg of CO2 Emitted per Useful Kilowatt Delivered (approx. ) Gas 0. 7 Oil 0. 5 Coal 0. 40 Electricity 0. 83 As you can see, electricity is more than twice as polluting as a coal burning furnace. Electricity is even worse if you take into consideration the amount of energy created by nuclear power, which creates nuclear waste instead of carbon dioxide (CO2). There is also a significant amount of energy wasted in cooling power plants and lost in the power grid, which further degrades electricity's viability as an environmentally sound energy source. As the chart shows, natural gas, or methane, is the cleanest burning fuel. While most of the natural gas used in America is drawn from non-renewable reserves, it can be produced renewably through biomass production, a method currently used by China. Methane is produced in massive quantities by decaying waste and agricultural operations, so much that methane is one of the most serious greenhouse gasses. If methane could be captured from these sources, we would be slowing the greenhouse effect and using clean-burning renewable fuel at the same time. For these reasons, if you have an aging or inefficient oil burning furnace, consider converting to an efficient natural gas furnace. Wood or pellet stoves still fuel many homes in America. Wood, if used wisely, is a renewable and relatively clean-burning fuel. While burning wood does produce CO and CO2, new technology allows wood stoves to reuse unspent output by re-burning it before emission. Pellet stoves, quickly replacing log-burning stoves, use pressed recycled paper and wood pulp that look like rabbit pellets. Pellets, while more expensive, are more efficient to burn and take up less space during storage. Before investing in a wood stove, however, be sure to investigate which brands are most efficient and emit the least gases and particulate. Also, wood stoves must be used carefully and maintained properly to avoid inefficient operation, excessive emissions, and leakage of carbon monoxide into the home. The best way to minimize the amount of fuel-produced heat your home requires is to insulate it properly. Insulation is the most important factor in the amount of energy required to heat your home. Consider a hypothetical home with 100% perfect insulation. This home would need to be heated only once, and never again. This puts into perspective the idea that we only need to heat our homes as much as heat escapes to the outside. Most houses in America are poorly insulated at best; only one in four houses have insulated walls. Consider the fuel savings if you increased your home's insulation quality by even 20%, which in many cases is a realistic goal. Initially, insulation costs time and money, but it pays for itself quickly in reduced fuel costs and a warmer, more comfortable home. Unfortunately, the finer points of insulating a home are beyond the scope of this article. An excellent resource on maximizing your home's insulation is Home Insulation by Harry Yost. Your local library should have, if not this book, several books on insulation that will at least get you started. Beyond updating your furnace and insulating your home, consider your personal use of heat in the home. The average American household's temperature during the winter is slowly rising because of increasingly sedentary lifestyles and lighter dress. The healthier we eat and the more exercise we get, the more internal heat our bodies will produce. The more above the outside temperature a home is heated, the less efficient its heating system becomes. If we simply wear more clothes, we will need substantially less heat. Wearing sweaters and slippers, eating nutritious food, and getting plenty of exercise are simple but frequently overlooked ways we can reduce our heating energy needs. Next to furnaces and stoves, the air conditioner is the second most energy-hungry appliance in American homes. Unfortunately, air conditioners rely on lots of electricity, the most polluting form of energy available. The use of air conditioners should be avoided at all costs. If you live in a climate with extreme heat, consider your air conditioner and its placement carefully. The EPA has outlined efficiency standards for most household appliances, air conditioners included. Make sure, if you buy an air conditioner, that it has the EPA's Energy Star mark of approval. This does not mean that the air conditioner is good for the environment, but that it uses its electricity efficiently instead of wasting it as many older models do. If you must have an air conditioner, purchase a small, efficient model and place it in a small, closed-off room where you spend most of your time. Make sure this room does not contain any heat-producing appliances like a washing machine or clothes dryer, and that sunlight does not enter through windows. Under these conditions, air conditioning can be relatively efficient and economical. Central air conditioning, on the other hand, is extremely inefficient and usually goes largely unused. Outside of heating and air conditioning, almost all of the energy used in our homes is electricity. Many Americans take electricity for granted, leaving unused lights and appliances on without thinking. A simple awareness in turning things off can greatly reduce our electric bills. Further, choices can be made in the kinds of lights and appliances we use, and whether they need to be used at all. As for lights, there are several high-efficiency bulbs on the market that, for slightly more money than a typical light bulb, can get by on a fraction of the electricity. Fluorescent lights, for instance, are five times more efficient than incandescent (typical) lights. Standard incandescent light bulbs use electricity to heat a filament that glows to create light, whereas fluorescent lights send very rapid and brief charges of electricity through a filament. The days of flickering long tube fluorescent lights are over. According to Edward Harland, new Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs) flicker at more than 20,000 cycles per second (compared to 60 in tube lights), are 30% more energy efficient than tube lights, and come on almost instantly. These lights, while more expensive, will significantly reduce your electricity bill and last five to ten times longer than standard light bulbs. Before even turning on the lights, make the best possible use of natural light in your home. Place your reading chair by a sunny window instead of in a corner facing out a window. Consider adding skylights to your home. These can create a surprising amount of natural light during the day, and contribute to your house's heat during the winter. Mirrors strategically placed on walls can also make better use of light and heat from the sun coming in through the windows. Use only what electric lighting is necessary: low-wattage task lights for individual applications instead of high power lights to illuminate a large area. If you must use outdoor lights, consider purchasing a motion detector that will turn the light on and off only when it senses movement. When purchasing appliances, check to see that they are EPA Energy Star approved. These appliances use energy more efficiently than others. Most refrigerators, for instance, have compressors at their base which produce significant heat and cause the refrigerator to work against itself. During fair weather, consider drying clothes on a line outside instead of using a dryer, which inefficiently uses electricity to heat cold wet clothes. Your clothes will last longer, and you'll see the difference in your electric bill. When undressing at night, ask yourself whether your pants can be worn again before washing. Americans, in particular, tend to balk at this sort of a suggestion. Allowing ourselves to think logically beyond social qualms and customs will allow each of our personal environmental movements to transcend many of our unsustainable habits. If you work in an office or at home, chances are your clothes aren't that dirty at the end of the day. You'll be surprised at the decrease in your weekly laundry load. The last big source of energy consumption in our homes is our favorite appliance of all. The average American household television is on 7 hours and 20 minutes per day, and 98% of all households have at least one television. At 170 watts per hour, that comes to 452,965 watt hours (or 453 kilowatt hours) of television use per year in an average household using one 25†³ television. Look at the breakdown of your electricity bill to put this number into perspective. You'll see that America could save a lot of electricity and money by simply turning off the television. Instead, we can read a book, go for a walk or hike, work in a garden, or talk or play a game with our families. Quite simply, the less television we watch, the richer our lives will be, the less we will spend on electricity, and the more we will be doing for the environment. All of the information in this section has focussed on minimizing the use of energy in the home. Imagine if you could use electricity in your home without burning any fossil fuels and without any monthly electric bills. This is not only possible, but a reality for thousands of Americans. With one initial investment in a photovoltaic system (silicon cells that convert the sun's light into electricity), you can end your dependence on polluting power companies and begin a new life of clean energy self-sufficiency. You can get started with a simple photovoltaic setup for a single zone of your home for less than one thousand dollars, or go all out with a top-of-the-line fully self-sufficient photovoltaic power center for about $13,000. If these prices sound high, consider the savings. If your monthly electric bill is $100, a top-of-the-line system that requires only a moderate degree of energy efficiency would be paid for in less than eleven years. And there is a whole spectrum of cheaper systems that can easily power a typical home. For less than four thousand dollars (paying for itself in about 3 years) the Real Goods Trading Corporation sells a system â€Å"designed to handle all the lighting, entertainment, and small kitchen appliances for a modest, energy-conserving household of one to four people in a full-time home. † This description is taken from the Real Goods Solar Living Source Book, 9th Edition. This seven hundred page tome covers everything from taking care of the land to water conservation and every alternative form of energy from solar to hydro to wind. It is a must-have for anyone who wants to live lightly on the earth, and is available at most major book stores and libraries. Recycling and Waste Management There is no environmentally sound method of dealing with the 200 million tons of municipal solid waste produced in America each year. There are many things we can do, however, to minimize, if not eliminate, our personal 4 1/2lb-a-day contribution to that figure. The now ubiquitous threesome, Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, still defines what we all must do to bring our personal trash production down to a sustainable level. With the media and certain high-positioned nay-sayers claiming that recycling is worse for the environment than it is good for it, and laws making recycling just another stupid rule rather than a social imperative, perhaps a redux of America's trash situation is called for. Households and other residences produce 100 of the 200 million tons of annually produced garbage in the United States. Most of that goes to land-fills, where it is covered up (if not purposefully sealed to prevent leakage) and starved of the oxygen needed for biodegradation. Here is just a taste of some garbage statistics from Geoffrey C. Saign's well-researched book, Green Essentials: More than 1/2 of U. S. landfills have closed in the past 10 years, and nearly 1/2 of the remaining 5,800 landfills do not meet federal or state standards for human health and environmental protection. More landfills are being closed as they fail to meet 1993 and 1994 guidelines and as communities resist allowing new landfills in their area; 22 states will run out of landfill capacity within 10 years or less. The nation's 10 largest cities use a land area for their garbage that is larger than the state of Indiana. And this is just landfills. Incineration is quickly becoming the chosen method of dealing with garbage. Incineration actually concentrates the toxicity of garbage by mixing volatile chemicals at high temperatures and reducing its harmless biomass content. Approximately 1/4 of the ashes produced in a typical incinerator escape into the atmosphere, where they combine with the toxic gases emitted to cause acid rain, smog, and global warming. The remaining ashes are highly toxic and dumped in landfills or stored in toxic waste facilities. A few states mix this ash with pavement, where it will slowly decompose and leach into the ground. The simple fact is that most of this waste could be recycled or composted instead of burned or buried. Green Essentials offers this breakdown of garbage ingredients by weight: Ingredient % by weight Alternative disposal methods available Paper and paperboard 34% Recyclable Yard trimmings 20% Compostable Plastic 9% Recyclable Food waste 9% Compostable Metals 8% Recyclable Glass 7% Recyclable Wood 4% Compostable, can be used as fuel Rubber and leather 3% Recyclable (tires) Textiles 2% Donate Other 4% As this chart displays, 58% (not counting the 3% for rubber and leather) of our garbage is recyclable; 33% of the remainder could be composted. That means that 91% of all the garbage produced in this country (that's about 182 million tons annually) could be kept out of incinerators and landfills. Even a fraction of this ideal estimate would have a profound impact on the environment. Despite the amazing potential for waste reduction that recycling makes possible, The New York Times joined the media's misinformed recycling myth extravaganza in their June 30th, 1996 article, â€Å"Recycling is Garbage. From the beginning, pessimists and special-interest industries have spread incorrect â€Å"myths† about recycling. These claims frequently charge (among other things) that landfill space is abundant and cheap; there is no market for recycled goods; and recycling doesn't pay for itself. Consider the facts on these three points: Landfill space has become a precious commodity in the U. S. , with many states paying to export trash to other states or countries. Recall Geoffrey Saign's statement that â€Å"22 states will run out of landfill capacity within 10 years or less. The market for recycled goods, while fluctuating like any burgeoning market, has increased with the amount of recycled goods available to create a powerful new industry. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, â€Å"U. S. pulp paper manufacturers have voluntarily built or expanded more than 45 recycled paper mills in the 1990's, and are projected to spend more than $10 billion on such facilities by the end of the decade. † To argue that recycling doesn't pay for itself is like arguing that landfills and incinerators don't pay for themselves-of course they don't. Recycling plants, even in the industry's infancy, cost about as much to operate as conventional disposal methods, but are considerably more environmentally sound (costing less when environmental damage and cleanup costs are considered) and reduce pollution from manufacturing and mining for new production. Recycling is an easy thing to do, and good habit to get into as many towns and cities are requiring their citizens to recycle by law or charging by the pound for non-recycled garbage. First, find out what your town recycles by calling your local waste management facility. If your town or city doesn't recycle or recycles only a few materials, consider getting a â€Å"recycling-only† dump permit for a near-by pro-recycling town or city. Next, reorganize your home's main trash area to include receptacles for all the different materials you will recycle. Food containers like tin cans and bottles should be rinsed to keep your recycling receptacles from smelling. You'll be amazed at the decrease in waste the next time you take out the trash. If we make a commitment to recycle our garbage, we must support the effort on the other end by buying recycled goods. Many products' packaging claims â€Å"100% recyclable. † This is good, but keep in mind that it doesn't mean the material is recycled. Look for the percentage of â€Å"post-consumer waste† to tell you if it is and how much of is recycled. Recycled products like paper and cardboard have come a long way in quality and price. Seventh Generation, a producer of a full line of 100% recycled and earth-friendly household products, posts a convincing advertisement on the side of their bathroom tissue packages: If every household in the U. S. eplaced just one 4-pack of 430 sheet virgin fiber bathroom tissues with 100% recycled ones, we could save 1 million trees, 4. 1 million cubic feet of landfill space (equal to 4,618 full garbage trucks), and 427 million gallons of water (a years supply for 12,300 families of four). About 33% of the garbage we produce, like food scraps and yard trimmings, can be composted. Composting is nature's answer to garbage control, converting organic waste back into the soil it came from. While many people compost to create nutrient-rich soil for their garden, you don't have to be a gardener to compost your organic waste. You should cover your compost pile, but not suffocate it. The organic waste needs plenty of oxygen to feed the microbes that decompose the matter. You can build a box for your compost, or buy one pre-made at your local garden shop. Look for an organic gardening book at your library for instructions on building a