Personal Goals Essay Example for Free

Personal Goals Essay The purpose of this publication is to document my personal goals that I want to achieve while attending the University of Phoenix. I have been thinking about going back to school for some time now and I finally made the decision to attend this online institution because of a previous personal goal that I had set. The goal that started this whole thing for me was my goal to get a Bachelor Degree. I had previously attended Northwest Technical College of Wadena, MN. I earned a 2-year diploma in Telecommunications Engineering. This diploma is short of an AAS degree by a few General courses. Having this shortage of credits was a shortcoming that I did not want to accept, so I made an executive decision 2 years ago to complete my degree. Some of the decisions that I had to make to get started at the University of Phoenix were not difficult ones to make but I procrastinated for a long time. I interviewed at a college prior to the University of Phoenix, but the college was out of my budget. After my interview, I received a phone call from an entrance counselor from the University of Phoenix. Their presentations ultimately help me make my decision to attend. The decision to attend the school was made, now the time has come to set my goals and get going on this adventure. The first goal I made was to get all the financial decisions out of the way. They were very easy to figure out. I get eight thousand dollars a year in tuition assistance from my employer. I was set, now I only needed to pick the course that pertained to my original goal of finishing my degree. I chose to take the bachelor of information technology course. When I decided this I knew that I had to set a range of goals and expectations for myself to follow. Short-Term Goals Once started with school I made goals to become a student who I have not been before. I set a goal to study every weekday. I also chose to study for a few hours every weekend. Studying often will help me gain interest in what I am trying to accomplish. Studying often will also help me develop good habits. Another goal I made for myself is to not let my current bad habits get in the way of me completing my assignments. If I can accomplish simple things  like this, I will be able to develop my skill sets. Short-term goals are exactly what they state, short-term. They are subject to review on a daily basis to make sure they are being followed. I also believe they are easy to set and adjust, because they are more visible and the results from following them show up right away. Long-term Goals Long-range goals for me are more difficult for me to set but I do have a few. My most realistic and specific long-term goal that I recently made since I have become an adult student is: To become a lifelong learner. I just realized that this is something that I need to remind myself of often to keep my focus on homework. Another long-term goal that I set for myself is to use my time wisely. When I set this goal for myself I struggled with the notion that I need to dedicate more time to reading. I have never before set goal like this for myself, because it seemed unattainable. But as I stated before, I must do this in order to attain the education that I want. When it comes to changing long-term goals, I use caution, because it can throw me off track if I fail to keep track of previous long-term goals. This can result in going in circles, which I have done before. Conclusion Understanding of short and long-term goals will help me become a better person. I set specific short-term goals that will help me in my areas that need immediate attention. Studying often is the key to success in all aspects of lifelong learning. This is what I have realized since I first started school. Managing my time wisely the hardest goal for me to set will have tremendous impact on how I carry myself in everyday life. My other goal of reading more will also help me develop the patience and skills to retain information that I need to learn in order to move forward in my career and education. The ultimate purpose of setting goals is to follow them. This process makes for the greatest sense of accomplishment and happiness in life.

Water Scarcity in Egypt

Water Scarcity in Egypt Student Name: Gill Abstract The purpose of this research paper is to find the question about fresh water and analyze the fresh water data. In this text, first I will introduce the situation of fresh water in Egypt, and second is to tell you the methodology. The third and forth steps are Findings and Discussion to discuss the water issues in Egypt. Then I will to sum up all above information to write the conclusion. To discuss the problems and solutions of water resources in country Egypt. And analyze the data of the rainfall in every year in Egypt. 1.0 Introduction The purpose of this research is to find out the problem of fresh water scarcity and analyze the information about fresh water scarcity in Egypt. Fresh water is importance for Egypt because this country is located on desertification region and perennial drought. And about 98% of population lives in the most prosperous place, and they need a large number of fresh water to keep their life. China is also a country with severe water. In China, the ranking of freshwater resources is fourth in the world. However China has lots of population, resulting in the per capita water resources is only a quarter of the world average. And I think the water chemistry that may influence water scarcity is the industrial water. Almost all of the aquatic ecosystems in China are good and have fine environment. And now Chinese are improving the aquatic ecosystems be better. In my opinion, the reasons of lack of water in Egypt are the annual rainfall is less and the local population is more. Resulting in the per capita water consumption is less. 2.0 Methodology The plan for achieving research purpose is to evidence my hypothesis of fresh water in Egypt. The data that I got usually researched from Internet and some of them were got from news. The best is some of them have the example charts and detailed explanation that I can reference to my essay. I researched them by the key words fresh water in Egypt. And those articles needed to have writers, and I could do the detailed notes. Usually news articles are truth and valuable and usable, so they are of good quality for use in an academic report, and make my essay with authenticity. 3.0 Findings The two key fresh water issues in Egypt are annual precipitation is low and the per capita water resources are less. And every Egyptian cannot excessive use of water. Because these two issues involve the natural weather causes and the population causes. The potential solution of fresh water cannot choose the best one, but I think the solution is local government positive to improve the management of water resource and the family planning program. And Egypt government can try their best to control the number of population. In Egypt, people have different kinds of water for agriculture, such as Nile water, groundwater, precipitation and agricultural wastewater. Nile water is the mail water resources for Egypt country. Egypt government can get about 55.5 billion meters of water, and about 86% of this water be used to agricultural irrigation. On the groundwater, every year the Egypt government extraction of groundwater about 4.6 billion meters of water. On the precipitation, every year t he rainfall is about 1.5 billion water, however people cannot use the freshwater over than 50%. Egyptian recycling the agricultural wastewater and through purification the wastewater try to use the water again. But this way is in the test and small area application stage. Table: 4.0 Discussion In paragraph introduction my hypothesis are annual rainfall is less and the local population is more to make freshwater to be less in Egypt. Based on the findings text, I will discuss the water resources management by Egypt government. On the management way, Egypt government did a good demonstration. They implement the unified management on water resources. On the price of water for residential use, different live place has different price of water. For example the price of water in high-income residential area is higher than the price of water in low-income residential area. To try they best to save the water resources and reduce losses. However the price of water on the agricultural irrigation is free. Almost all of the agricultural wastewater that be recycled is used to the agricultural irrigation, and usually the groundwater is used to the drink and agriculture. Integrated all of the information, my argument is scientifically logical. Because my argument is based on the many arti cles, all of them think the reasons have the relationship with population and environment issues. After all, these reasons are not artificial, so that they are hardly solved. 5.0 Conclusion and Recommendation Those evidences that I researched can demonstrate my hypothesis. For example the news data, the data shows Egypt is belong to which climate, and to example why Egypt shortage of water resources. From above text, I got the main reasons for the freshwater shortage in Egypt is population and natural environment. On the solution for fresh water, Egypt government expects recovery the agricultural wastewater and clean is to try to use it again. And they also have another policy for water management. Researchers will detect the quality of the water resources in the fixed time. Resulting in they make the best plan for rational use of water resources. In addition, those scientists are going to expand study on save agricultural irrigation water technology. Thought check the local ecosystem, those scientists try to find the most suitable crop that can live in this harsh environment. Reference List 2014,Egypt:water resources from Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia [Online] Available from: http://globserver.cn/node/37005 [Accessed 28 December 2016] Amir Dakkak (2016), Egypts Water Crisis Recipe for Disaster [Online] Available from: http://www.ecomena.org/egypt-water/[Accessed 28 December 2016] Water resources management and policies for Egypt [Online] Available from: http://www.bvsde.paho.org/bvsacd/cd29/policies.pdf [Accessed 28 December 2016] Â   Â   Â  

Smoking as a Public Health Issue

Smoking as a Public Health Issue INTRODUCTION Smoking is an extremely crucial public health issue which is considered to be an immediate and serious threat to many developing countries across the globe (WHO 2005). Being one of the most significant determinants of increased rate of mortality and ill-health throughout the world, smoking is still a preventable epidemic (OTC 2005). Active cigarette smoking has long been known to predispose common people to several types of mouth diseases, lung cancer, atherosclerotic vascular diseases, impotence etc. and enhanced exposure to environmental tobacco smoke has deleterious effects to public health (Ong and Glantz 2004). Cigarette is utilised as an apparatus for self-administering nicotine which significantly causes drug dependency. It has been observed that nicotine inhalation via cigarette smoking is far more swift technique of drug intake as compared to heroin injections because nicotine takes not more than 7 seconds to travel from lungs into brain whereas, it takes 14 seconds for the heroin to reach the brain (DiFranza, Savageau and Fletcher et al 2007). Smoking prevalence as a global epidemic necessitates serious attention as about 1.3 billion people across the globe have been reported to smoke cigarettes and thereby experience numerous smoking-related health issues (Webb, Bain and Pirozzo 2005). In accordance with a study it has been estimated that by 2025-2030 approximately 10 million people are anticipated to die because of widespread smoking habitude (Edwards 2004). There are numerous ramifications of smoking in almost every area of knowledge including politics, economics, psychiatry, psychology, sociology, anthropology, pharmacology and pathology. This all-inclusive nature of the subject encompassing the bio-psychosocial segments of life makes it an appealing exploratory premise for the study. 1.1 Overview of the Report The report is designed to highlight the key epidemiological evidences pertaining to cigarette smoking, based on the global mortality rates and several stages of the worldwide tobacco epidemics. Moreover, the epidemiology of smoking habitude amongst general population of UK has been represented on the basis of age, gender and socio-economic factors. The central part of the report discusses a number of smoking related risk factors to public health and also evaluates the responsiveness of public towards the identified risks. Later segment of the report proposes the practical interventions to address the global epidemic of smoking which subsequently leads to conclude the overall study. 1.3 Rationale of the Study The main objective of this report is to accentuate smoking as a major public health issue and highlight the related health risks to general society based on the epidemiological evidences. By expounding on the public behaviour towards smoking and its damaging effects to the general populace, the study attempts to appraise the subject area. The report also aims to evaluate the effectiveness of current public health services pertaining to smoking cessation by probing in the interventions designed to reduce the underlying risks and improve public health. CIGARETTE SMOKING: EPIDEMIOLOGICAL EVIDENCE The epidemiological evidences suggest that the consistently augmenting patterns of smoking lead to enhance worldwide mortality rates and the recent studies suggest that the developing countries have slightly higher smoking induced mortality rate especially in men, as compared to the developed countries (Table: 01). Table: 01 Estimates of Smoking Induced Global Mortality Rates Millions of Death from Smoking (Uncertainty Range) Men Women Developed Countries 2.43 (2.13 2.78) 75% 25% Developing Countries 2.41 (1.80 3.15) 84% 16% Total 4.83 (3.94 5.93) 80% 215 Source: Ezzati and Lopez 2000 In western countries smoking prevalence has been estimated to be 30% which is considerably less as compared to Asian countries where smoking prevalence is evidently incremental as for example 53% in Japan, 63% in China and 73% in Vietnam (European Commission 2007). There has been significant variation in EU pertaining to smoking trends as for instance 18% in Sweden to 42% in Greece however; the average smoking prevalence in EU was about 32% (European Commission 2007).   The segmentation of worldwide tobacco epidemic in four different stages has been exhibited below in Figure: 01, Figure: 01 STAGES OF THE WORLDWIDE TOBACCO EPIDEMIC Source: http://www.info.cancerresearchuk.org/cancerstats/types/lung/smoking/#cancer Smoking trends in Great Britain indicate that the overall gender-specific adult smoking rates have been declined by approximately 0.4% per annum since the year 2000 (Robinson and Bugler 2008) however, the most recent statistics reveal that smoking prevalence during 2007-2008 in UK has remained more or less the same. Gender-specific cigarette smoking trends in UK during 2004-2008 are exhibited below in Table: 02, TABLE: 02 CIGARETTE SMOKING BY SEX (2004-2008), UK PERCENTAGE (%) 2004 2005 2006 2007 2007 Men 26 25 23 22 22 Women 23 23 21 20 21 All 25 24 22 21 22 Source: General Lifestyle Survey 2008 The age-specific smoking prevalence trends observed in UK indicate that the age group of women between 20-24 years i.e. approximately 31% of young women in UK are indulged in smoking behaviour and similarly, men aged between 25-34 i.e. approximately 30% of men are also found to be regular smokers (Friis and Sellers 2009). Age-specific cigarette smoking trends in UK during 1978-2008 are exhibited below in Table: 03, TABLE: 03 CIGARETTE SMOKING BY AGE (1978-2008), UK AGE % 16-19 20-24 25-34 35-49 50-59 60+ 1978 34% 44% 45% 45% 45% 30% 1988 26% 37% 36% 36% 33% 23% 1998 31% 40% 35% 31% 28% 16% 2008 22% 30% 27% 24% 22% 13% Source: General Lifestyle Survey 2008 Representing the link between cigarette smoking and socio-economic sector of the UK society, it has been observed in a survey that smoking is much more prevalent amongst people associated with routine and manual occupations which includes approximately 30% of men and 27% of women whereas, people associated with managerial and professional occupations exhibit a slightly reduced smoking trend which includes 14% of men and 14% of women following smoking behaviour (Robinson and Bugler 2008). Socio-economic classification of cigarette smoking trends in UK during 2008 are exhibited below in Table: 04, TABLE: 04 SMOKING IN UK: SOCIO-ECONOMIC CLASSIFICATION PERSONS AGED 16 AND OVER, GREAT BRITAIN: 2008 (%) Men Women Large employers and higher managerial 14 11 Higher professional 12 12 Lower managerial and professional 16 16 Intermediate 21 22 Small employers / own account 22 21 Lower supervisory and technical 26 24 Semi-routine 31 28 Routine 33 30 Source: General Lifestyle Survey 2008 SMOKING INDUCED RISK FACTORS TO PUBLIC HEALTH Smoking patterns are greatly influenced by the individuals bio-psychosocial status and considerably vary depending upon diverse factors including fiscal condition, population size, age, gender, and the existence of regulatory models. It has been studied that social pressures play an integral role in an individuals conformation towards a specific set of beliefs or behaviour and smoking too, like other forms of substance dependencies is shaped up in accordance with the surrounding environment of a smoker (Killoran et al 2006). Gender-specific smoking induced risk factors considerably fluctuate depending upon the societal, cultural and religious beliefs as for example 40% of young women in Spain have been reported to indulge in active smoking behaviour on the other hand, China remains less affected when it comes to smoking habitude in women which has been reported to be less than 5% only (European Commission 2007). Similar is the case with other Asian countries including India, Pakistan , Bangladesh etc. where smoking induced risks to women are significantly less as compared to men because of conservative culture and traditions in the region. Moreover, the statistics also exhibit that the smoking induced risk factors are less common in older age groups, in both men and women as the lowest ratio of smoking has been observed amongst people aged 60 and over (Merrill 2010) because younger generation is much more enthusiastic to experiment and usually exhibits callous attitude towards health risks. There has been a sustained and analogous pattern of smoking induced risks observed between both the manual and non-manual populace of the socio-economic sector in UK, which signifies the growing awareness of public towards the underlying public health issue. Apart from bio-psychosocial risk factors there are a number of other smoking related risks to public health which are summarised as follows: 3.1 Passive Smoking Second hand smoking, environmental smoking or passive smoking are all detrimental and risk the life of a non-smoker that is consciously or unconsciously exposed to hazardous effects of smoking induced chemical compounds and probable human carcinogens. Passive smoking has been identified as the most critical cause of smoking related ill-health and incremental mortalities in general population, due to lung cancers and coronary heart diseases. 3.2 Tobacco Carcinogenesis Excessive tobacco consumption in the form of cigarette, cigar, pipe smoking enhances the risk to mouth, larynx, and oesophagus cancers and if complimented by heavy alcohol intake, can subsequently trigger the tumours in tobacco carcinogenesis (DoH 2007). 3.3 Occupational Hazards Persistent interaction between smoking and a variety of industrial agents can develop a number of cancers as suggested by numerous experimental and epidemiologic data. It has been studied that the smokers working within the environment containing asbestos or uranium ores significantly provides the means to stimulate tobacco carcinogens and an increased risk of lung cancer (DoH 2007). 3.4 Coronary Heart Diseases Several studies suggest that cigarette smoking significantly contributes in premature sudden death from coronary diseases especially in populations where arteriosclerosis is prevalent thus, exerting a pronounced secondary effect to hyperlipidemia and hypercholesteremia subsequently increasing the risk of hypertension and heart attack (Ong and Glantz 2004). Air Pollution Studies suggest that excessive air pollution complimented by cigarette smoking, leads to death from acute pulmonary disease and lung cancer. The carcinogens contained in pollutant air is inhaled in relatively small doses and on the other hand, cigarette smoke is highly concentrated and inhaled directly into the lungs therefore, the damaged caused to the respiratory tract by the air pollution alone, is comparatively less than the damage caused by the intense tobacco smoke. However, for non-smokers the passive smoking in combination with the pollutant air can be a serious risk to health as heavily polluted air contains approximately 100,000 particles per cubic centimetre whereas inhaled cigarette smoke contains more than 5 billion particles per cubic centimetre (Webb, Bain and Pirozzo 2005). ANALYSING PUBLIC RESPONSIVENESS TO THE IDENTIFIED RISKS Despite of consistent efforts by the local governments and numerous international health organisations, it has been observed that the public awareness programs regarding smoking cessation are considered to be effective to varying degrees; as it is extremely difficult to determine the consumers perception towards the smoking related health consequences and addictive nature (Bauld et al 2003). The consumer base in the developing countries remain exceedingly unacquainted with the country-specific smoking related information and health policies as the preventive interventions like awareness campaigns, registration system to assess disease patterns and the identification of smoking related trends are not vigilantly established. Moreover, the consumer base in the developing countries expect low-cost and reliable preventive measures however, the fiscal limitations makes it difficult for the local governments to entrench inexpensive and equally effective smoking awareness schemes and interve ntions; as a result of which the public responsiveness towards addressing the smoking epidemic is significantly pitiful especially where it looms largest. In addition to this, smoking cessation becomes a complex issue due to its addictive attribute and several studies have rated it as amongst the most evil drug dependency as compared to heroin and cocaine (Donaldson and Donaldson 2003). The addictive trait of cigarette smoking is characterised by a cluster of behavioural, cognitive and physiological phenomena which consequently develops due to enhanced substance use resulting in increased desire for smoking which becomes a persistent exercise and as the time passes, the chances of withdrawal becomes unattainable. It has also been studied that the superfluous social acceptance of smoking has significantly contributed to its sweeping popularity and prevalence amongst the general population (Marmott and Wilkinson 2006) and this ignorant public attitude combined with lack of awareness; results in natural inclination of the masses to consider it a harmless and a nontoxic habitude (Stevens, Raftery, Mant and Simpson 2004). From the economic perspective, the tobacco industry generates humungous revenues by influencing the developing countries as a profitable target for market expansion, which is mutually advantageous to the developing countries leading them to compromise on their public health issues against enhanced fiscal benefits. Tobacco industry considerably influences the political set-up of several countries to advertise and promote cigarette smoking and their intriguing commercial campaigning significantly draw the attention of younger generation that are already less-informed and easily fall prey to such marketing tactics. Pre-targeted and smartly designed commercials significantly mislead the naive public and successfully manoeuvre them by relentless denial of tobaccos unfavourable health impacts. PRACTICAL INTERVENTIONS FOR SMOKING EPIDEMIC The smoking related health outcomes can be substantially controlled by integrating effective tobacco control policies and interventions that are capable to cease or significantly reduce its prevalence and consumption amongst the general population. It has been studied that tobacco smoking does not limit the effects of its pervasiveness to smoker itself rather the people present in the surrounding environment (Farmer and Lawrenson 2004) as for example, non-smoking adults including cohabiting partners and children of the smoker are also adversely affected. Hence, it becomes essential to edify the smokers to acknowledge their social responsibility towards the general public and strongly discourage them to exhibit their smoking habitude in public (Douglas et al 2007). The success rate of the practical interventions adopted in the developed countries has found to be much practicable as compared to the developing countries because the regulatory frameworks are stringent and the law enforce ment agencies are also equally efficient. In order to enable the general population to effectively combat with smoking-related public health issues, it is imperative to establish prudently designed and effectually devised practical interventions; for discouraging cigarette smokers and providing maximum protection to children, pregnant women, elders and other non-smoking adults by entrenching a number of the below mentioned tobacco controlling key initiatives: 5.1 Establish a Highly Informative Setting A highly informative environment can be established by effectively conveying the most updated and evidence-based tobacco related public health information to the general population and specifically highlighting all the associated risk factors. The local governments must exhibit maximum commitment towards smoking cessation campaigns by formulating effective regulatory framework and providing suitable means to the healthcare professionals to implement it (Scott and Mazhindu 2005). Highly developed countries and the international health organisations must also facilitate the poor countries by financing the research projects to evaluate causes, consequences and costs of tobacco use in the respective regions and thereby, devise a preventive strategy accordingly. 5.2 Media Campaigning Media is the most constructive tool to speedily communicate with the masses therefore, it is imperative to utilise both print and electronic media for positive campaigning and specifically rope-in the e-media to target todays internet savvy, younger generation. In the wide-ranging interest of public health, it is the social responsibility of media world to completely prohibit the enticing cigarette advertisements and instead make noble use of the media by broadcasting regular public service messages to discourage the prevailing smoking behaviours. 5.3 Stringent Policies to Reduce Tobacco Consumption Substantial increase in tobacco prices can significantly reduce its consumption especially amongst younger generation or those that are unable to afford. Governments must also concentrate on formulating such policies that can completely forbid the promotional campaigns and considerably restrict the sales through vending machines (DoH 2007). Since smoking is one of the most prevailing global epidemics therefore; strict rules and regulations shall be imposed to discourage smoking in public places as for example bus stops, restaurants, educational institutions, offices, hospitals and cinemas etc. This would not only limit its consumption but will also signify the governments seriousness towards addressing the underlying public health issues. Moreover, the tobacco industry shall be consistently introduced to consistent and rigorous tax networks so that the target of promoting controlled use of cigarette smoking can be achieved (DoH 2007). On the other hand, governments can attain dual be nefits by expanding the tax network for the tobacco industry thus reducing its consumption amongst general populace and can generate more taxed revenue. 5.4 Discouraging Nicotine Dependency Regular smokers become heavily reliant upon nicotine intake and therefore, seek for certain other alternatives as a substitute to cigarettes including chewable tobacco, tablets, patches and inhalers, if their accessibility to cigarette smoking has been disrupted. The governments while designing smoking related preventive strategies must acknowledge that nicotine is highly addictive and therefore, it is wise to introduce less-harmful and inexpensive alternatives to regular cigarettes and subsequently educate them to overcome their nicotine dependency by adopting practical interventions through professional medical assistance (Prabhat, Chaloupka, Corrao and Binu 2006). Moreover, the developed countries and international health organisations can also donates such inexpensive nicotine alternatives to poor and deprived countries in order to promote smoking cessation and healthy living across the globe. 5.5 Support Groups Nicotine dependency significantly damages the internal health of people which restricts them to participate in healthy sports activities. Governments can help the local bodies to establish tobacco control support groups in their respective neighbourhoods and to organise healthy activities and events to promote constructive attitude amongst general population. A strategically designed tobacco control program also facilitates in mobilising the civil society to effectively contribute both their money and time to engage nicotine dependent people in healthy activities (Prabhat, Chaloupka, Corrao and Binu 2006) and thereby, motivating them to overcome their cigarette smoking habitude. Formation of such support groups provide easy and consistent access of tobacco-specific valuable information to the smokers and also enhance their awareness to the associated risk factors. CONCLUSION Smoking has been established as a consistently prevailing global epidemic and that is so, because the related effects of smoking are not restricted to the smoker himself, but also extend to others through a range of risk factors including passive smoking and air pollution etc. which makes it a substantial risk to public health. Provided the fact, it is not only essential to discourage smoking behaviour in smokers but also educate the non-smokers to protect themselves from the associated health risks. Apart from individual preventive measures, there is a growing need for integrating practical interventions to ensure reduced exposure to tobacco smoke especially in public places by providing separate smoking and non-smoking areas or installing ventilation or completely banning smoking through industry led voluntary agreements or by introducing stringent statutory requirements. To conclude, cigarette smoking is radically injurious to public health and honest efforts are required at both individual and communal level to enhance public awareness towards the associated risks and particularly support the smokers to quit their smoking habit. Smoking as a Public Health Issue Smoking as a Public Health Issue It is now a matter of common public acceptance that smoking causes ill health. This statement can be backed up by huge amounts of authoritative literature (Dobson et al 1999) (Smoking Kills 1998) (Choosing Health 2001) The subject of this essay however, is whether or not it is a Public Health issue. We will argue strongly that it is and produce evidence to support this stance. The Wanless Report (2002 ) defines Public Health as â€Å"The science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through organised efforts and informed choices of society, organisations – public and private, communities and individuals† On that basis we would suggest that the argument is already made since there is little doubt that smoking – both active and passive – will shorten life and cause disease. The evidence to support this statement comes from papers such as that by Prescott ( et al. 1998) who carried out a huge study looking into the effects of primary smoking and the risk of myocardial ischaemia in the general population. The results of the study were absolutely unequivocal with a finding of an increased risk of myocardial infarction in women of 2.24 and in men of 1.43. the reasons for the sex difference are several including genetic factors (Bennett 2004) and hormonal factors (Chapman 1999) To take a step further back, we have to define Health An authoritative definition of Health comes from the WHO who currently tell us that health is â€Å"a state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. ( WHO 1992). A difficulty with this definition is that today many people confuse the attainment of happiness with the attainment of health (Kemm 2001). Ironically, in the context of this essay, Freud also offered us an observation on the definition of Health when he observed that most people equated well-being with happiness rather than health (Freud 1975) and he amplified this by observing that he had been advised by his doctors to give up cigars in order to improve his health. He commented that he was far more healthy but much less happy (Saracci 1997). Although Freud’s comment was clearly flippant, it does exemplify a deeper truth, that part of the problem with smoking is the pleasure that some people derive from it. One can always advance the argument that in a free society one should always have freedom of choice to damage yourself if you wish. (Hegel 1971) That is clearly the case, but in adopting that view you must also accept two further consequences of that position. One is that society is expected to pick up the bill when you are ill (via the NHS) and that by smoking, you may not only damage yourself but you may well damage others through the medium of passive smoking. (Kuhse Singer 2001) It is these latter points which actually make the issue one of Public Health. The Public (in general terms) are expected to fund the necessary treatment when you become ill. This is not an isolated incident as over 200,000 patients are diagnosed annually with some form of smoking related malignancy and over 120,000 will die from the disease. This is quite independent of those that develop other complications of smoke-related illness. (NHS Cancer Plan 2000). If you add to this number, the carers and the other economic costs to the community, the argument that it is not a Public Health issue clearly fails. We have raised the issue of passive smoking as one of the criteria for suggesting that smoking is an issue of public health. The evidence for this is rapidly accumulating. We can point to the cleverly designed study by He (et al.2004) which  was able to point to the statistical differences in illness rates between those industrial workers who had a constantly smoky atmosphere to breathe and those who were able to avoid it. There is little doubt that choosing to smoke where others will inhale the smoke is a demonstrably anti social behaviour. As if to underline our view, we can point to the fact that the Government takes a similar view as it has produced a series of Government White Papers (Choosing Health 2004) (Building on the Best 2003) and regulations (Saving lives 1999) which are all aimed at improving the health of the nation by reducing its collective exposure to cigarette smoke References Bennett Gottleib 2004 Passive smoking more risky for women with a missing gene. BMJ: 2004 Vol 26 320-322 Building on the best 2003 Department of Health: HMSO. 09/12/2003 Chapman S 1999 Smoking and Women: beauty before age? BMJ, Mar 1999; 318: 818. Choosing Health 2004 Government White Paper consultation on improving people’s health 28.6.04 BMJ, Dec 2004; 319: 1522. Dobson et al, 1999; National Centre for Social Research, RCP, 1999; Freud S. 1975 Letter to Lou Andreas-Salome, 1930 May 8. Cited in: Sigmund Freud house catalogue. Vienna: Là ¶cker and Wà ¶genstein, 1975: 49. He, T H Lam, L S Li, L S Li, R Y Du, G L Jia, J Y Huang, and J S Zheng2004 Passive smoking at work as a risk factor for coronary heart disease in Chinese women who have never smoked BMJ, Feb 2004; 308: 380 384. Hegel GW. 1971 Philosophy of Mind: Being Part Three of the Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences (1830). Wallace W, trans. Oxford: Clarendon Press; 1971. Kemm 2001 The pursuit of happiness Cancer Nurs. 2000;23(1):20–31 Kuhse Singer 2001 A companion to bioethics ISBN: 063123019X Pub Date 05 July 2001 NHS Cancer plan 2000 A plan for investment, a plan for reform Department of Health. HMSO. 27/09/2000 Prescott, Merit Hippie, Peter Schooner, Hans Ole Hein, and Jà ¸rgen Vestbo 1998 Smoking and risk of myocardial infarction in women and men: longitudinal population study BMJ, Apr 1998; 316: 1043 – 1047 Saracci R 1997 The world health organisation needs to reconsider its definition of health BMJ, May 1997; 314: 1409. Smoking Kills1998 A White Paper HMSO: December 1998 Wanless report: HMSO 2002 World Health Organisation. 1996 Ethics and health, and quality in health care–report by the director general. Geneva: WHO, 1996. (Document No. EB 97/16.) PDG 20.8.05 Word count 1,192

Fast Cars and a Clean Environment Essay -- Environmental Ethics Ethica

Fast Cars and a Clean Environment Many people would love the idea of having the fastest car ever or just having a speedy and sleek sports car to drive around for that matter. The idea of being able to â€Å"flex† the power of your car every time the light turns green make people long for a high-speed car. Many automakers are making faster and faster or cars with more horsepower for this demand. For instance, BMW’s E36 (1996- 1999) M3 models peaked at an amazing 234 horsepower and 226 pounds per feet of torque, but this wasn’t enough for many BMW enthusiasts. So in 2001 BMW came out with its E46 M3 model that housed an astonishing 333 horsepower and 270 pounds per feet of torque engine, which is an increase of almost 100 horsepower from the previous E36 M3 models. This dealt with the demands for faster cars (1). There is a great price for living out this dream. The earth’s already depleting supply of fossil fuel and damage to the environment, such as the ozone layer, is being further injure d from the combustion engines of cars. With the combination of more and more people learning about the environmental problems caused by combustion engines and the raised prices for gas caused by the huge demand for oil, automakers are now working on environmentally safe cars that consume less gas. Then why isn’t everyone driving an environmentally safe car right now if they know that they are killing the environment as they drive? One of the main reasons that many people have no intentions of ever purchasing these cars is simply because of the fact that these cars are known to have almost twice as less horsepower as an average car and therefore accelerate almost twice as slow. Many car enthusiasts, who love to drive fast cars, will have no reason... ...s_47915.asp 4.Karim Nice, How Fuel Cells Work, howstuffworks.com, 10 Nov. 2003, http://science.howstuffworks.com/fuel-cell.htm 5. Karim Nice, How Rotary Engines Work, howstuffworks.com, 10 Nov, 2003, http://auto.howstuffworks.com/rotary-engine1.htm 6. Roger Schreffler, Japan Carmakers Show Fuel Cell, H2 I.C. Concepts, Prototypes at Tokyo Motor Show, 2003, The Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Letter, !7 Nov. 2003, http://www.hfcletter.com/letter/November03/ 7. California Clean Air Act Streamlining AB 3048 (Olberg), 2003,California Environmental Protection Agency, 17 Nov 2003, http://www.calepa.ca.gov/Legislation/1996/ab3048.htm 8. Clean Air--California's Successes and Future Challenges,2003,California Environmental Protection Agency, 17 Nov 2003, http://www.arb.ca.gov/ba/omb/50thfinal/tsld009.htm 9 . Dinan BMW, 10 Nov. 2003, http://dinancars.com/default.htm

Goals of a Future Teacher :: Teaching Education

Goals of a Future Teacher In today's constantly changing world, our children and youth need to learn inquiry-based, problem solving skills to that they may become successful members of society and live productive lives. I think all students yearn to learn. We as future teachers need to motivate students with learning, exploring, investigating, discovering and inquiring. Together you will be learning and teaching. As teachers, you need to be very organized and creative. Time is very valuable. When students are able to use creativity it enhances them and helps them in their learning process. Our children are natural and curious explorers. Students need to be inspired to think critically. By this they comprehend what has been learned and be able to use it. I hope my students will be able to achieve their greatest potential that they can accomplish anything they set their minds to. We can give our children these building blocks thru education to use in decision making situations, moral value of their thoughts and actions. This will guide them to realize how their actions and decisions will affect themselves and others. Discipline plays a key part in education. Respect from your students will make the classroom a better atmosphere. Rules should be established on the first day. Rules should be a thoughtful process so they can be carried out to be affective, but logical consequences. We do not want the students self esteem to be damaged. I would like to teach K-3. I believe that these years of education is very crucial for learning and developing their skills. Inquiry-based learning will only enhance these curious students to explore, share ideas and ask questions. Our role as a teacher will help identify needed resources and monitor, guide the students inquiry. Children learn by doing. We need to continuously assess and evaluate our students so we can set appropriate goals for each student and individual instructions. Each child learns different, so as a teacher we need to have different styles of teaching for positive reinforcement. I want to be a role model for my students.

Relationship Between Money and Happiness

Preface First, people could not be without money. That is, if people out of money, people have no happiness lives with. Money is the foundation of live, for if there is no money, people cannot survive. If people cannot survive, how can there be happiness at all. Second, money is not everything. Most of the happiness could not be brought by money. For example, Bill Gates cannot enjoy the happiness of escape from a disaster, cannot enjoy the happiness of be a world champion, cannot enjoy the happiness of win the gold medal, cannot enjoy the happiness of families reunion, cannot enjoy the happiness of be a president. Money only slightly associated with happiness In fact, when people have enough of money, the happiness people gain become less and less. It is majority people unexpected, but this is the fact that Western countries live for decades. Experts in the West confirmed a fact: â€Å"If you made a graph of American life since the end of World War II, every line concerning money and the things that money can buy would soar upward, a statistical monument to materialism. Inflation-adjusted income per American has almost tripled, such as per capita income, real income, lifetime, housing area, the per capita car number, the number of telephone calls each year, the number of trips per year, the highest degree IQ scores. No matter how you chart the trends in earning and spending, everything is up, up, up. But if you made a chart of American happiness since the end of World War II, the lines would be as flat as a marble tabletop. Almost everything is getting better, but people did not feel happier. Yale University political science professor Robert †¢ Portland found that if you charted the incidence of depression since 1950, the lines suggest a growing epidemic. Money jangles in our wallets and purses as never before, but we are basically no happier for it, and for many, more money leads to depression. Correlation between money and happiness- 0. 25 Many scholars have been extensive, large-scale sample survey concluded. Concluded that: money and happiness is not the way people think proportional, neither the happier the more wealthy people, the more money the less happy people. The relationship between them is minimal, with scholars jargon, the relationship between them is only â€Å"slightly positive. † The psychology of money, this book made a quantifiable figure on the relationship between money and happiness – † there have been a number of studies of this relationship, and they all come up with a correlation of about 0. 25 † This book use x-axis and y-axis, the mathematics way, visually describe the relationship between money and happiness: assuming that use y-axis draw the satisfaction of happiness, and use x-axis describe the amount of money. The intersection of two axes is the starting point of zero. And then make a mark on y-axis at 0. 25, which is limit value of the correlation between money and happiness. When people's incomes are low, the satisfaction of happiness is very low indeed. When people are without money, the satisfaction of happiness is almost close to zero. Once people just out of the poverty line, the curve which describe the relationship between money and happiness will rush up almost touch the 0. 25 line. And then quickly become a horizontal line at 0. 5 irrelevant with the x-axis. Even if the amount of money on the x-axis increasing in thousands, millions, or billions rate doubled, the relationship between money and happiness curve ignore it. The line will never exceed 0. 25. And the curve maybe fall to 0. 2, 0. 1 or lower level. In mathematics, this phenomenon is called â€Å"diminishing marginal effect. † Reasons for money and happiness curve diminished Through observation and study of happine ss, we can find that any happiness in the world has a premise which is desire. If people have no desire, people would not have happiness. So eager is only source of happiness. Desire is something people look forward, but do not get yet. So happiness is the pleasure when people are satisfied or say gets the thing which they look forwards. Furthermore, we can draw a conclusion, happiness (that is the source) is unrenewable. After we got a happiness, we can repeat to enjoy it, the desire will diminished, until disappear. This means people only have N times to enjoy the same type of happiness. For example, when people have learned how to ride bicycle, he will use it as much as possible, the happiness he get will increase. But when the time he ride bicycle reach to N, the happiness he get before will fall to zero. Because of happiness is non-renewable resources, so in the world of money and material, everyone has the limited resources of desire, and everyone has limited happiness to enjoy. For example, after we learned how to ride bicycle, and enjoy the happiness of ride bicycle, we will never enjoy it again. Along with our possession increase, our happiness will increase too. But the resources of happiness will diminish. It means the happiness we can enjoy will decrease. That is reasons for money and happiness curve diminished Conclusion They say money can't buy happiness, but it can facilitate it. —Malcolm Forbes Happiness is the desire for repetition. –Milan Kundera At the lower end of the income scale the better-off are happier; there is no effect from the middle of the scale onwards. And there has been no historical effect of increased national prosperity on happiness. There is evidence that people are happier of they think they are doing better than other people, or than they did themselves previously. Other sources of happiness are much more important, such as leisure, job satisfaction, social relations and personality. Money has very little effect on these, money people want to be rich or richer, and many take part in lotteries, no doubt in the belief that winning will make them happier. References

Celebrities: Perfection and Individuals

ENC 1101 March 24, 2013 Celebrities’ dysfunctions and transgressions In this age of the scandalisation of public life the media suffers from an overload of films stars, sport personalities, that is, celebrities, caught in socially unacceptable situations. Celebrity and scandal are closely linked, where scandal often enhances the celebrity quotient of the star (Nayard 2009: 112).In other words, even negatives disclosure and representation of their marriages (practically most film stars), their pedophilia (Roman Polanski), breaking the law (Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton, Charlie Sheen), are all important part of the celebrity culture that fans and spectator so love to hear about. The privilege of fame may act as a license to transgress meaning the can get away with a lot, resulting in greater tolerance for celebrity wrongdoing.However, paradoxically, it is also clear that, as an in? uential elite, celebrities are expected to conduct themselves with propriety, meaning that their be havior is closely scrutinized (Gieles). Most individuals love a scandal, barring the people caught in one, of course. The rest of society most often absolutely cannot get enough. Fans are mostly interested in the good and the bad actions of a celebrity. In the others, there are spectators that are only interested in the scandals about the celebrities.Whether one admit it or not, few things make a person feel better about them quite as intensely as seeing the people that society places on the highest of pedestals get knocked off of them in spectacular fashion. Celebrities’ dysfunctions and transgressions attract high audience interest not only from the celebrity fans , but other spectators. Celebrities scandals appeals to individuals. As a result, they show that celebrities’ larger-then-life figures are idolized by fans and envied by others, enhances that celebrities are ordinary individuals, and sparks curiosity and interest.First, audiences are highly interested in sc andal. The fans are very interested in the stars career and personal life either good or bad. Individuals, whom are not fans of a specific celebrity, are more likely to pay attention to this celebrity when they are spotted on the headline of the tabloids for doing something wrong. Both fans and other individuals pay close attention to those scandals which give these scandals a larger audience. Individuals obtain a certain amount of pleasure from hearing scandals about celebrities.Elizabeth Bird suggests that a scandal story evokes a pleasure derived from both fascination and revulsion for the social mess that scandals symptomatize (Bird 2003:45). Sensational headline build on ones fears, anxieties and desires. Indeed scandals appeal because they deal with the moral values, fears of the people as a whole (Bird 2003:32). Social values and norms are violated by scandals, and thus is what interests fans, that individuals are able to break social norms. Fans anxieties about broken marria ges or families of being failures’, even their own desire for wealth or fame, fuel their reading of scandals.In the case of scandals, it’s not simply media production. It is the sustained interest of the fans that generates. To continue, while some fans idealized a celebrity there are others who envy them. Joseph Burgo, a psychologist and author of â€Å"Why I Do That† argues that idealization and envy; are two powerful psychological forces that always go together. Fans often want to believe that some privileged people have perfect lives, full of satisfactions, without the everyday pain and frustration that they face in their own lives. In a way, fans take displaced pleasure in a celebrity glamorous existence.On the other hand, there are individuals that secretly hope that if those people manage to have a perfect life; it is always possible that they could eventually have one, too. However, fans and other spectators often grow increasingly envious of that perfec t life they do not have. Envy is a very negative force and one feel envious at one point or another. Because certain fans often envy celebrities with perfect lives, they take pleasure in reading and gossiping about their downfall. Individuals who are not fans of the celebrity often take the most pleasure on watching their downfall.When an individual want something that they cannot have, they often times tend to devalue it, make it undesirable so it is no longer envy. In addition, although mass media often represents a celebrity as perfect individuals, their transgression and dysfunction shows fans that they are ordinary individuals (Lieves). They are fantasy objects, perfection that ordinary individual can not hope to attained, and ‘hold out the lure of fully –achieved selfhood to those who yearn for such an impossible fullness and perfection (Gilbert 2004:91).This argument helps one better understanding the interest in celebrity dysfunctions or transgressions. Celebrit ies’ scandals, misbehaviors or faults show that they are not all perfect individuals. Messy marriages, financial bungling, substance abuse and mistakes humanize celebrities, bring them down to earth. Those transgressions help one identify with the celebrity. Individuals often identified with imperfect individuals. Their misbehaviors helps fans sees that they are ordinary individuals with everyday life problems just like them.Although, it is easy to see a celebrity culture as actively encouraging, constructing the cult of perfection and success by producing beautiful models, successful film stars, singers and sportsmen. Scandals about celebrities are highlighted, reported as a means of debunking the myth of human perfection. Furthermore, audiences always look for stories that spark their curiosity and interest. According to Tyler Cowen, all forms of sorts of behaviors both good and bad are used to attract fans.Right or wrong are blurred and subsumed into the general category o f a publicity folder (Cowen 2000: 17). Society often tends to want to hear about someone getting a divorce, getting arrested instead of stories about someone donating money to a charity or saving someone life; stories like that do not make the front page of the tabloids at the grocery stores. Fans might pay attention to the stories about a celebrity donating or saving someone life, but might not spark the interest of individuals whom are not fans of the particular celebrity.Seeing a tabloids headlining â€Å"Chris Brown abusing Rihanna and Rihanna getting back together with Chris brown† can definitely spark curiosity and interest. Hence, this headline can attract attention from a variety of different audiences whom shares different views and belief on the subject. These headlines fans of Chris Brown, fans of Rihanna and also the interest of those who are not fans of neither celebrities. Of course, these headlines will have hundred bloggers writing tortured messages about how concerned they are for Rihanna and the message she is sending to her leagues of fans.Stories about celebrities’ life and mistakes are all very entertaining. For example Lindsay Lohan’s drug addictions, Kim Kardashian’s reason for being famous, and Charlie Sheen crazy personality. Stories about these celebrities’ scandalous lives are engaging, stimulating and attract countless numbers of audiences. In conclusion, scandals about celebrities attract high audience interest because fans of the celebrity are not the only paying close attention to these scandals. People pay more attention to celebrities when they do something bad without even ealizing that they are doing so. While people are trying to raise a major point about how a celebrity action is immoral, incorrect, offensive, or corrupting, the rest of society are just giving it attention, increasing how well-known it is, and arousing people's natural curiosity as to why it is so offensive. Certain fans i dealize a celebrity, but there are those individuals whom take pleasure in judging them by especially harsh and oversimplified standard (Cowen 2000, 70).Citation Page Pramod, Nayard. Seeing Stars: Spectacle, Society and celebrity culture: SAGE, 2009. Print Bird, Elizabeth. The audience in Everyday Life: Living in a media World. Routledge, 2003. Print Cowen, Tyler. What Price Fame? Harvard 1999. Print Gilbert J. Small Faces: The Tyranny of Celebrity in Post-Oedipal Culture. Mediactive 2004. Print Gies, Lieve. â€Å"Stars Behaving Badly. † Feminist Media Studies 11. 3 (2011): 347-361. Communication ; Mass Media Complete. Web. 24 Mar. 2013.