ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE LAB Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE LAB - Research Paper Example The constituent materials include trees, ink, plastics. The process of making the paper cups uses multiple fuels. 0.11 Kg of CO2 is used when a cup measuring 16 ounce is transported from manufacturing site to the retail outlets. For every cup made and shipped to a coffee outlet 0.09 m2 of natural habitat is lost. However, it costs 0.27 Kg of plant and animal life potential to manufacture and ship the same size of cup to its final destination. Ideally speaking, it would take approximately 1.7 billion cups together with their sleeves to trigger one-potential species extinction (Starbucks web). The cups however, have approximately 10% post-consumer recyclable material. The cups are manufactured using bleached paperboard. This is in accordance to the requirements of FDA regulations. However, the cups are laminated with a polyethene referred to as resin. It is argued that the resin in the paper cups is not environmental friendly. When poorly decomposed, it produces greenhouse gas that is believed to trap more than 20 times the heat trapped by CO2 (Narang web). Coffee is the primary ingredient for coffee drinks. Starbucks consumes approximately 2% of global coffee production. Most of the coffee is sourced through Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) practices. According to the 2010-year report, Starbucks purchased122 million kilograms of coffee out of which 103 million kilograms were purchased through C.A.F.E. guidelines. The coffee is obtained from all parts of the world. However, coffee outlets get their share from the nearest coffee sources. However, transporting coffee from place of production to various stores and disposing various wastes from the outlets produces approximately 81, 000 tons of CO2 (Narang web). Starbucks gets its milk supplies from local dairy firms. For instance, the coffee outlets in China get their milk from milk suppliers from China. There are many milk suppliers and milk companies from which

Cultural Differences Affecting Meaning and Understanding Essay Example for Free

Cultural Differences Affecting Meaning and Understanding Essay How do cultural differences affect meaning and understanding? In today’s business environment, the mechanics of global business seem to be working on a surface level. We can make quick money transactions by phone or by computer. Consumers can purchase products from all different countries in one transaction. Although trade barriers are still a major topic, they are slowly decreasing. As we sick below the surface, we will see that Global business is still in major jeopardy because of a newly emerging challenge: Cultural differences. Culture is the pattern of beliefs or expectations that inevitably shape the behaviours of individuals and teams within organisations. It is concerned with the basic assumptions, values, attitudes, food and feeding habits, dress and appearance, relationships, a sense of self and space and norms shaped by members of an organisation or country. These elements of culture are usually taken for granted and guide others perceptions, thoughts and actions. For example, the Culture at McDonald’s fast food chain emphasises efficiency, speed and consistency. It orients employees to company goals and charters and suggests the necessary behaviours for success. Many educated, business people may say â€Å"But we are getting closer and closer to each other, we don’t have any cultural problems’. Yes, it is possible to transcend cultural differences; however statements like this can be misleading to many people. (Funakawa, p18) Geert Hofstede, a successful cross-cultural management researcher, observes five different dimensions within a culture: Power/Distancing – This refers to the degree of inequality that exists and is accepted among people with and without power. High Power distancing cultures conclude that society accepts an unequal distribution of power and people understand their place in the system. Low Power Distancing means that power is shared and well dispersed. It also means that society members view themselves as equals. Application: According to Hofstedes model, in a high Power distancing country like Malaysia, you would probably send reports only to top management and have closed door meetings where only a select few, powerful leaders were in attendance. Individualism – This refers to the strength of the ties people have to others within the community. A high Individualism society indicates a loose connection with people. In countries with a high Individualism society there is a lack of interpersonal connection and little sharing of responsibility, beyond family and perhaps a few close friends. A society with a low Individualism would have strong group cohesion, and there would be a large amount of loyalty and respect for members of the group. The group itself is also larger and people take more responsibility for each others well being. Masculinity – This refers to how much a society sticks with, and values, traditional male and female roles. High Masculinity societies are found in countries where men are expected to be tough, to be the provider, to be assertive and to be strong. If women work outside the home, they have separate professions from men. Low Masculinity societies do not reverse the gender roles. In a low Masculinity society, the roles are simply blurred. You see women and men working together equally across many professions. Men are allowed to be sensitive and women can work hard for professional success. Uncertainty/Avoidance Index – This relates to the degree of anxiety society members feel when in uncertain or unknown situations. High Uncertainty societies try to avoid ambiguous situations whenever possible. They are governed by rules and order and they seek a collective truth. Low Uncertainty societies indicate the society enjoys novel events and values differences. There are very few rules and people are encouraged to discover their own truth. Geert also observes that when people write about national cultures in modern society becoming more and more similar, the evidence cited is usually taken from the level of practices; people dress the same, use the same fashionable words in context, buy the same products and brands, they participate in global sports etc. These manifestations of culture are sometimes mistaken for all there is: the deeper, underlying values is often overlooked. (Funakawa p33) The value for cross cultural communication cannot be overemphasised. It is what enables any mission statement, vision or strategy, and affects meaning and understanding on every level.

System to Filter Unwanted Messages from OSN User Walls

System to Filter Unwanted Messages from OSN User Walls M.Renuga Devi, G.Seetha lakshmi, M.Sarmila Abstract—One fundamental issue in today’s Online Social Networks (OSNs) is to give users the ability to control the messages posted on their own private space to avoid that unwanted content is displayed. Up to now, OSNs provide little support to this requirement. To fill the gap, in this paper, we propose a system allowing OSN users to have a direct control on the messages posted on their walls. This is achieved through a flexible rule-based system, that allows users to customize the filtering criteria to be applied to their walls, and a Machine Learning-based soft classifier automatically labeling messages in support of content-based filtering. 1. INTRODUCTION ONLINE Social Networks (OSNs) are today one of the most popular interactive medium to communicate, share, and disseminate a considerable amount of human life information. Daily and continuous communications imply the exchange of several types of content, including free text, image, audio, and video data. According to Facebookstatistics1 average user creates 90 pieces of content each month, whereas more than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news, stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) are shared each month. OSNs there is the possibility of posting or commenting other posts on particular public/private areas, called in general walls. Face book allows users to state who is allowed to insert messages in their walls (i.e., friends, friends of friends, or defined groups of friends). The aim of the present work is therefore to propose and experimentally evaluate an automated system, called Filtered Wall (FW), able to filter unwanted messages from OSN user walls. We exploit Machine Learning (ML) text categorization techniques. The major efforts in building a robust short text classifier (STC) are concentrated in the extraction and selection of a set of characterizing and discriminant features. We base the overall short text classification strategy on Radial Basis Function Networks (RBFN) for their proven capabilities in acting as soft classifiers, in managing noisy data and intrinsically vague classes. We insert the neural model within a hierarchical two level classification strategy. In the first level, the RBFN categorizes short messages as Neutral and Non-neutral; in the second stage, Non-neutral messages are classified producing gradual estimates of appropriateness to each of the considered category. The system provides a powerful rule layer exploiting a flexible language to specify Filtering Rules (FRs). In addition, the system provides the support for user-defined Black Lists (BLs), that is, lists of users that are temporarily prevented to post any kind of messages on a user wall. 2. RELATED WORK The main contribution of this paper is the design of a system providing customizable content-based message filtering for OSNs, based on ML techniques. As we have pointed out in the introduction, to the best of our knowledge, we are the first proposing such kind of application for OSNs. However, our work has relationships both with the state of the art in content-based filtering, as well as with the field of policy-based personalization for OSNs and, more in general, web contents. 2.1 Content-Based Filtering Information filtering systems are designed to classify a stream of dynamically generated information dispatched asynchronously by an information producer and present to the user those information that are likely to satisfy his/her requirements. In content-based filtering, each user is assumed to operate independently. As a result, a content-based filtering system selects information items based on the correlation between the content of the items and the user preferences as opposed to a collaborative filtering system that chooses items based on the correlation between people with similar preferences. Documents processed in content-based filtering are mostly textual in nature and this makes content-based filtering close to text classification. Single label, binary classification, partitioning incoming documents into relevant and non-relevant categories. More complex filtering systems include multi label text categorization automatically labeling messages into partial thematic categories. Content-based filtering is mainly based on the use of the ML paradigm according to which a classifier is automatically induced by learning from a set of pre-classified examples. Several experiments prove that Bag-of-Words (BoW) approaches yield good performance and prevail in general over more sophisticated text representation that may have superior semantics but lower statistical quality. The application of content-based filtering on messages posted on OSN user walls poses additional challenges given the short length of these messages other than the wide range of topics that can be discussed. 3. FILTERED WALL ARCHITECTURE The architecture in support of OSN services is a three-tier structure (Fig. 1). The first layer, called Social Network Manager (SNM), commonly aims to provide the basic OSN functionalities (i.e., profile and relationship management), whereas the second layer provides the support for external Social Network Applications (SNAs).The supported SNAs may in turn require an additional layer for their needed Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs). The core components of the proposed system are the Content-Based Messages Filtering (CBMF) and the Short Text Classifier modules. The latter component aims to classify messages according to a set of categories. In contrast, the first component exploits the message categorization provided by the STC module to enforce the FRs specified by the user. The possible final publication can be summarized as follows: 1. After entering the private wall of one of his/her contacts, the user tries to post a message, which is intercepted by FW. 2. A ML-based text classifier extracts metadata from the content of the message. 3. FW uses metadata provided by the classifier, together with data extracted from the social graph and users’ profiles, to enforce the filtering and BL rules. 4. Depending on the result of the previous step, the message will be published or filtered by FW. 4. SHORT TEXT CLASSIFIER Established techniques used for text classification work well on data sets with large documents such as newswires corpora but suffer when the documents in the corpus are short. In this context, critical aspects are the definition of a set of characterizing and discriminant features allowing the representation of underlying concepts and the collection of a complete and consistent set of supervised examples. We approach the task by defining a hierarchical two-level strategy assuming that it is better to identify and eliminate â€Å"neutral† sentences, and then classify â€Å"non-neutral† sentences. The first-level task is conceived as a hard classification in which short texts are labeled with crisp Neutral and Non-neutral labels. The second-level soft classifier acts on the crisp set of non-neutral short texts. 4.1 Text Representation The extraction of an appropriate set of features by which representing the text of a given document is a crucial task strongly affecting the performance of the overall classification strategy. We consider three types of features, BoW, Document properties (Dp) and Contextual Features (CF). Text representation using endogenous knowledge has a good general applicability; however, in operational settings, it is legitimate to use also exogenous knowledge, i.e., any source of information outside the message body but directly or indirectly related to the message itself. We introduce CF modeling information that characterizes the environment where the user is posting. These features play a key role in deterministically understanding the semantics of the messages. In the BoW representation, terms are identified with words. Dp features are heuristically assessed; their definition stems from intuitive considerations, domain specific criteria and in some cases required trial-and-error procedures. Bad words: They are computed similarly to the correct words feature, where the set K is a collection of â€Å"dirty words† for the domain language. Correct words: It expresses the amount of terms tk 2 T K, where tk is a term of the considered document dj and K is a set of known words for the domain language. Capital words: It expresses the amount of words mostly written with capital letters, calculated as the percentage of words within the message, having more than half of the characters in capital case. Punctuations characters: It is calculated as the percentage of the punctuation characters over the total number of characters in the message. For example, the value of the feature for the document â€Å"Hello!!! How’re u doing?† is 5/24. Exclamation marks: It is calculated as the percentage of exclamation marks over the total number of punctuation characters in the message. Referring to the aforementioned document, the value is 3/5. Question marks: It is calculated as the percentage of question marks over the total number of punctuations characters in the message. Referring to the aforementioned document, the value is 1/5. 4.2 Machine Learning-Based Classification We address short text categorization as a hierarchical two level classification process. The first-level classifier performs a binary hard categorization that labels messages as Neutral and Non-neutral. The first-level filtering task facilitates the subsequent second-level task in which a finer-grained Classification is performed. The second-level classifier performs a soft-partition of Non-neutral messages assigning a given message a gradual membership to each of the non-neutral classes. Among the variety of multiclass ML models well suited for text classification, we choose the RBFN model for the experimented competitive behavior with respect to other state-of-the-art classifiers. RFBNs have a single hidden layer of processing units with local, restricted activation domain: a Gaussian function is commonly used, but any other locally tunable function can be used. RBFN main advantages are that classification function is nonlinear, the model may produce confidence values and it may be robust to outliers; drawbacks are the potential sensitivity to input parameters, and potential overtraining sensitivity. The first-level classifier is then structured as a regular RBFN. In the second level of the classification stage, we introduce a modification of the standard use of RBFN. The collection of pre-classified messages presents some critical aspects greatly affecting the performance of the overall classification strategy. To work well, a ML-based classifier needs to be trained with a set of sufficiently complete and consistent pre-classified data. The difficulty of satisfying this constraint is essentially related to the subjective character of the interpretation process with which an expert decides whether to classify a document under a given category. A quantitative evaluation of the agreement among experts is then developed to make transparent the level of inconsistency under which the classification process has taken place. 5. FILTERING RULES AND BLACKLIST MANAGEMENT In this section, we introduce the rule layer adopted for filtering unwanted messages. We start by describing FRs, and then we illustrate the use of BLs. In what follows, we model a social network as a directed graph, where each node corresponds to a network user and edges denote relationships between two different users. In particular, each edge is labeled by the type of the established relationship (e.g., friend of, colleague of, parent of) and, possibly, the corresponding trust level, which represents how much a given user considers trustworthy with respect to that specific kind of relationship the user with whom he/ she is establishing the relationship. 5.1 Filtering Rules In defining the language for FRs specification, we consider three main issues that, in our opinion, should affect a message filtering decision. First of all, in OSNs like in everyday life, the same message may have different meanings and relevance based on who writes it. As a consequence, FRs should allow users to state constraints on message creators. Given the social network Scenario, creators may also be identified by exploiting information on their social graph. Definition 1 (Creator specification): A creator specification creator Spec implicitly denotes a set of OSN users. It can have one of the following forms, possibly combined. Definition2 (Filtering rule): A filtering rule FR is a tuple (author, creator Spec, content Spec, action), where author is the user who specifies the rule; creator Spec is a creator specification, specified according to Definition 1: Content Spec is a Boolean expression defined on content constraints of the form à °C; mlÞ, where C is a class of the first or second level and ml is the minimum membership level threshold required for class C to make the constraint satisfied; action 2fblock; notifying denotes the action to be performed by the system on the messages matching content Spec and created by users identified by creator Spec. In general, more than a filtering rule can apply to the same user. A message is therefore published only if it is not blocked by any of the filtering rules that apply to the message creator. Note moreover, that it may happen that a user profile does not contain a value for the attribute(s) referred by a FR (e.g., the profile does not specify a value for the attribute Hometown whereas the FR blocks all the messages authored by users coming from a specific city). 5.2 Online Setup Assistant for FRs Thresholds As mentioned in the previous section, we address the problem of setting thresholds to filter rules, by conceiving and implementing within FW, an Online Setup Assistant procedure. 5.3 Blacklists A further component of our system is a BL mechanism to avoid messages from undesired creators, independent from their contents. BLs are directly managed by the system, which should be able to determine who are the users to be inserted in the BL and decide when users retention in the BL is finished. To enhance flexibility, such information are given to the system through a set of rules, hereafter called BL rules. Such rules are not defined by the SNMP; therefore, they are not meant as general high-level directives to be applied to the whole community. Similar to FRs, our BL rules make the wall owner able to identify users to be blocked according to their profiles as well as their relationships in the OSN. Therefore, by means of a BL rule, wall owners are, for example, able to ban from their walls users they do not directly know (i.e., with which they have only indirect relationships), or users that are friend of a given person as they may have a bad opinion of this person. 6. EVALUATION In this section, we illustrate the performance evaluation study we have carried out the classification and filtering modules. We start by describing the data set. 6.1 Problem and Data Set Description The analysis of related work has highlighted the lack of an publicly available benchmark for comparing different approaches to content-based classification of OSN short texts. 6.2 Short Text Classifier Evaluation 6.2.1 Evaluation Metrics Two different types of measures will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of first-level and second-level classifications. In the first level, the short text classification procedure is evaluated on the basis of the contingency table approach. In particular, the derived well-known Overall Accuracy (OA) index capturing the simple percent agreement between truth and classification results, is complemented with the Cohen’s KAPPA (K) coefficient thought to be a more robust measure taking into account the agreement occurring by chance . At second level, we adopt measures widely accepted in the Information Retrieval and Document Analysis field, that is, Precision (P), that permits to evaluate the number of false positives, Recall (R), that permits to evaluate the number of false negatives, and the overall metric F-Measure (F_), defined as the harmonic mean between the above two indexes. 6.2.2 Numerical Results By trial and error, we found a quite good parameter configuration for the RBFN learning model. The best value for the M parameter, that determines the number of Basis Function, is heuristically addressed to N=2, where N is the number of input patterns from the data set. 6.2.3 Comparison Analysis The lack of benchmarks for OSN short text classification makes problematic the development of a reliable comparative analysis. However, an indirect comparison of our method can be done with work that show similarities or complementary aspects with our solution. 6.3 Overall Performance and Discussion In order to provide an overall assessment of how effectively the system applies a FR. This table allows us to estimate the Precision and Recall of our FRs, Let us suppose that the system applies a given rule on a certain message. In contrast, Recall has to be interpreted as the probability that, given a rule that must be applied over a certain message, the rule is really enforced. Results achieved by the content-based specification component, on the first-level classification, can be considered good enough and reasonably aligned with those obtained by well-known information filtering techniques. 7. DICOMFw DicomFW is a prototype Face book application8 that emulates a personal wall where the user can apply a simple combination of the proposed FR’s. Throughout the development of the prototype, we have focused our attention only on the FRs, leaving BL implementation as a future improvement. However, the implemented functionality is critical, since it permits the STC and CBMF components to interact. To summarize, our application permits to 1. View the list of users’ FWs; 2. View messages and post a new one on a FW; 3. Define FRs using the OSA tool. When a user tries to post a message on a wall, he/ she receive an alerting message if it is blocked by FW. 8 CONCLUSIONS In this paper, we have presented a system to filter undesired messages from OSN walls. The system exploits a ML soft classifier to enforce customizable content-dependent FR’s. Fig. 3. DicomFW: A message filtered by the wall’s owner FRs We plan to study strategies and techniques limiting the inferences that a user can do on the enforced filtering rules with the aim of bypassing the filtering system, such as for instance randomly notifying a message that should instead be blocked, or detecting modifications to profile attributes that have been made for the only purpose of defeating the filtering system. REFERENCES [1] A. Adomavicius and G. Tuzhilin, â€Å"Toward the Next Generation of Recommender Systems: A Survey of the State-of-the-Art and Possible Extensions,† IEEE Trans. Knowledge and Data Eng., vol. 17, no. 6, pp. 734-749, June 2005. [2] M. Chua and H. Chen, â€Å"A Machine Learning Approach to Web Page Filtering Using Content and Structure Analysis,† Decision Support Systems, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 482-494, 2008.

Marine Biology :: essays research papers

MARINE BIOLOGY CASE STUDY LAB - PART 2 Analysis 1. By running the programming with a fish.dat file containing the information for a 2 x 2 tank size, and changing the starting positions for fish A, B, and C, according to the problem, I was able to evaluate the random sequence of steps taken by each fish. The fish move in sequence of A, B, and then C. Then they move according to open slots. If a fish is covered on both sides by another fish, it is unable to move and, therefore, stays in that exact position. Analysis 2. The following is a diagram of what we predicted for the outcome of the default configuration: A C E _ B H D F G And this is a diagram of where the fish actually moved to when running the program with the current configuration: A C E D B H F G _ My prediction was inaccurate because I did not move the fish in their correct order. Instead, I proceeded to move the fish in the order of whichever came closer to an open space. Analysis 3. The 1000 x 1000 matrix was unable to display any data visible to the user on the console. It exceeds the screens limit of display. I discovered that the largest matrix possible for the console would be a matrix with the size of 23 x 79. Every time that I ran the program with these specifications, I found that the fish always traveled the first step down (a total of 10 tries). Analysis 4. When that data file contains two fish located within the same spot, the executable displays at the top of the console error, attempt to create fish at non-empty: (4,4), and then goes on to only display the first fish, A. Analysis 5. The sequence of fish positions does matter when you want certain fish names at certain locations within the

Cooking Green Beans with Salt Essay

Introduction An experiment was conducted where two sets of green beans where cooked. One set had salt and the other one didn’t. One person who did not know which set of green beans had salt and which one didn’t got to taste and judge both of the sets on taste, texture and color. Chef Heston Blumenthal once asked ‘Why do cooks add salt (sodium chloride) when cooking vegetables, for example green beans? ’ Other chefs answered with these possible answers: * | * It keeps the beans green| * | * It raises the boiling point of water so the beans cook faster| * | * It prevents the beans going soggy|. * | * It improves the flavor. However, a scientist also replied saying these statements were untrue because: * | * Only the acidity and calcium content of the water affect the color of the beans| * | * Adding salt increases the boiling point of water but by such a small amount that it will make no difference to cooking times| * | * Vegetables will go soggy if cooked for too long whether salt is added or not| * | * Little salt is actually absorbed onto the surface of a bean during cooking – typically 1/10 000 g of salt per bean which is too little to be tasted by most people. The aim to this experiment was to prove or disprove these points. Materials:Listed below are the materials used for this experiment: * One bag of green beans containing about 250g * Two pans * Two bowls * One stopwatch * One strainer * A cutting board * A knife * A thermometer * SaltProcedure:First, the bag of green beans were washed and cut up. Then, they were evenly divided into two bowls; bowl A and bowl B. Bowl A had no salt in it and was then put into a pan and observed. The time it took to reach its boiling point and the temperature at boiling point were then noted. After that, the beans were places into a strainer and dried. This was also done with bowl B, except salt was added. DataAfter conducting the experiment, this is the data that was obtained:| | | | | With salt| Without salt| Taste| Tasteful| Dull, boring| Texture| Soft| Crunchy| Flavor| -| -|. As you can see, the only thing that didn’t change about the beans with salt was the flavor, which stayed the same for both experiments. Conclusion: Clearly, after this experiment, we proved the chefs right. Both the texture and taste where better with the salty beans. Some of the limitations where that we only tried this experiment once, therefore it is not 100% correct. We could have also had more people testing it, instead of just one person because there are some factors that could influence the opinion.

The New Nation essays

The New Nation essays Although political divisions first emerged over domestic issues, they deepened during a series of crises over foreign policy that reopened the nagging issue of Americas relationship with Great Britain. Domestic and foreign policy were, however, never entirely separate, since decisions in one area frequently carried implications for the other. Foreign and domestic policy (1789-1803) spans from the foreign affairs of Washington, to Jeffersons Louisiana Purchase. Between these times is the Election of 1796, Adamss administration, concerning various perspectives of historical figures on financial policies and foreign countries, the XYZ Affair, and the Alien and Sedition Acts, all in relation to the restrictions and powers of the United States Constitution. Under the term of Washington, there were many affairs to deal with, mainly foreign. Hamilton saw much to admire in Britain. He modeled his financial policies in part on those of William Pitt the younger, a great British minister who took office in 1783, when Britain was so burdened with debt that it seemed on the verge of bankruptcy, and whose reforms restored his countrys financial health. The success of Hamiltons financial program, moreover, depended on smooth relations with Britain: duties on imports provided a major source of federal revenue, and most American imports came from Britain. Hamilton did not advocate returning the Americans to British rule; he had, after all, fought for independence as an officer of the Continental army. Nor did he seek to establish a monarchy in the United States. But he thought an amicable relationship with the onetime mother country would best serve American interests. In contrast, Jefferson remained deeply hostile to Britain, and his Anglophobia played a central role in his growing opposition to Hamilton. The treasury secretarys method of finance, with a bank and large funded debt, seemed-as in part it was-base...

Developing Good Work Ethics Essays

Developing Good Work Ethics Essays Developing Good Work Ethics Paper Developing Good Work Ethics Paper As a social actively Its purpose Is the preservation of society. Work therefore has moral and legal implications. Work is a legitimate use of our mental and bodily powers for economic gain or profit 1 . Work is the use or application of our physical powers to accomplish certain tasks. It is the use because nobody can own another mans body, nor can anyone sell his body or any part of it, for purposes of material advantage or gain. . Work is the repose of obtaining economic gain for the power. It belongs to the essence of work that it can be compensated. The Meaning of Work in the Holy Bible From the biblical point of view, God is seen as the author of work and he also blessed and sanctioned work. Old Testament God did not Just create man, He was also the author of work. In Genesis chapter 1, He creates pattern for us to follow He created the world for SIX days and rested on the seventh day. The reason for this respite Is for man to appreciate the value and meaning of work. New Testament The meaning of work could be understood from the mystery of Gods reincarnation. When Christ became man, humanity was blessed and sanctified, including human work. Seen from this perspective, work therefore is not a drudgery, not even a curse, but an activity that has been sanctified, then it must also sanctify the worker. The Theological Meaning of Work According to SST. Thomas Aquinas SST. Thomas Aquinas enumerates four purposes of work In his treatise entitled Summary Theological 1 . It provides for ones day livelihood. 2. It prevents Idleness which Is the source of many evils. . It curbs the rebellious flesh. 4. It enables man to give alms from his material surplus. The Human Perspective of Work . Practice the Golden Rule. 2. Guard your mouth. 3. Stop the green Jokes. 4. Practice ethical behavior. 5. Learn to forgive. 6. Be generous. 7. Respect superiors and co-workers. 8. Be considerate. 9. Perform your work and fulfill your duties to the best of your ability. 10. B ea grateful person. 11. Do not bring the problems at your home to your workplace. (vice versa) 12. Be an inspiration to others. 13. Read the bible every day. 14. Develop a personal relationship with God. 5. Smile and enjoy work. (remember: work has been sanctified, it must also sanctify you) Basic Duties of Employers 1 . Respect the dignity of the worker 2. Appreciate their work. 3. Never treat them as a slave for making money. 4. Never assign them beyond their strength, do not employ them in work not suited to their age or gender. 5. Give them commensurate or fare wages. 6. Provide for their health and social recreation. 7. Provide them time for the practice of their religion. 8. Instruct them how to use their money wisely. 9. Instruct them to love their family. 10. Provide them opportunities for promotion. Basic Duties of Worker 1 . Work honestly and comply with all agreements. 2. Never injure capital, nor steal from the employer. . Never outrage the person of the employer. 4. Never employ deceit nor violence in presenting a cause. 5. Never consult with agitators or men with evil principle. CHAPTER 15 Equal Employment Opportunities and Affirmation Action EQUAL JOB OPPORTUNITY- Is a labor policy that prohibits business from discriminating against otherwise-qualified people with disabilities. JOB on the basis of personal merit but on the basis of partiality or bias. AFFIRMATIVE ACTION Involves policies to increase opportunities for ethnic minorities by favoring them in hiring and promotion, college admissions, and the awarding of government entrants. What is employment discrimination? Employment discrimination is a form of discrimination based on race, sex, religion, national origin, physical disability, and age by employers. Earnings differentials or occupational differentiation is not in and of itself evidence of employment discrimination. Discrimination can be intended and involve disparate treatment of a group or be unintended, yet create disparate impact for a group. 179. What are the factors to consider? Soon and Palm-Angles (1997) think that it really depends on several factors, such as the following: Who his competitors are What abilities his competitors have How interviewers see him How he performed during the exams and interviews 180. Is it easy to detect discrimination in the workplace? The truth is that it is not easy to detect whether or not there is discrimination in the workplace. Spotting employment discrimination is a big headache because it is generally hard to know whether specific individuals were actually discriminated against. 181 . What are the elements of Job discrimination? It may be of help if we are to identify some elements or factors that somehow constitute Job discrimination (Velazquez, 1998), and I enumerate here as follows: 1) When a Judgment, decision, or treatment (not based on personal merit such as seniority, performance rating, or other qualifications) is intended against anyone of the workers and his/ her particular group (2) When a Judgment, decision, or treatment springs from prejudice or bias, from false stereotypes, or from other ways of unfair attitude aimed at a particular group to which the worker belongs (3) When a Judgment, decision, or treatment is disadvantageous, pejorative or simply harmful to the worker, perhaps costing his/ her Job, promotion, or pay raise 182. How do you know whether those elements apply to our earlier example? Most likely, racial discrimination was a shadow behind the promotion or a better pay if the following three elements are present: (1) Was the discussion of management to bypass the Filipino assistant manager in favor of the French assistant manager based on personal merits such as seniority, performance rating or other qualifications? Or the criterion to promote the French assistant manager has nothing to do with merits, qualifications, and credentials? (2) Did the decision spring from false stereotypes such as the French are more competent, aggressive, or trustworthy Han Filipinos, Asians in general, and other ethnic groups? The presence of this element may be hard to prove. (3) Was the decision disadvantageous to the Filipino assistant manager in terms of a promotion or a better pay? 183. Is there discrimination against women in the workplace? In the Philippine setting, it looks like there is still some kind of Job discrimination The major challenge women have to confront relates to the fact they are the ones who biologically bear children and carry most of the burden of rearing and caring for them. Employers are equally afraid they must provide childcare support by setting up a Hillsdale facility at or near the workplace and other unending benefits for women. Almost always, HER managers are inclined to distinguish between a career woman and a mother, with the latter usually discriminated against in favor of the former. 184. What are the stereotypes against women? Job recruitment and interviews are discriminatory if the recruiter or interviewer routinely disqualifies women by relying on sexual stereotypes. These stereotypes may include some presumptions: There are fields of occupation, which are traditionally suitable for women because of their sensitive, vulnerable, and fragile nature. There are types of work, which may not be fitting to women due to their biological condition like monthly period. The inability of women to cope up with certain Job requirements since their common gender personality and aptitude traits make them unsuitable for those Jobs. Such generalizations about women are not only biased or prejudicial but also UNTRUE. 185. What is the lesson learned from the 1997 film 6. 1. Jane? The movie 6. 1. Jane, starring Deem Moore, demonstrates the active presence of a determined woman in the toughest military facilities of the US Navy Seals. Veritably, mimes have changed. In the real world-not by pure chance, luck, or accident-women have become heads of state in Israel, Pakistan, India, Nicaragua, Ireland, Finland, Great Britain, New Zealand and other nations. 186. How is discrimination related to right to life ? It is unethical and socially irresponsible for any employer to dismiss or discharge an employee merely on account of his/her marital status. Hiring, firing, promotion, or demotion must be subject to an objective, unbiased and fair criteria. Workers ought to be treated equally on the basis of individual merit and not on the ground of sexual orientation or marital status. 187. What are ethical principles involved in Job discrimination? Discrimination in the workplace is wrong and socially irresponsible because of the following reasons: 1) Discrimination in hiring is a disservice in the long run. To hire the best and the smartest it is wiser to select somebody whose talents and personality traits quality him/her as the most competent for the Job. If you so hire and appoint someone on the basis of other criteria unrelated to competency, then subsequent Job performance necessarily declines and productivity goes down. Thats one pragmatic argument against employment Discrimination. 2) It is actually double Jeopardy. Both the object and the subject of discrimination turn out to be the loser. The company could have possibly hired the worker discriminated against, the one who might turn out to be the best and most suited for the Job. But because it was biased, the company did not pick up the best possible applicant, suffered a disadvantage and got no blessing. Ethics. To discriminate is not the right thing to do. Each person has a fundamental right to be treated as a free and thinking individual and all other individual including employers) have a correlative moral duty to treat him/her as such. 4)when business discriminates, it consciously or unconsciously affirms that one group is inferior or subordinate to another group, that people from the province are less qualified than city residents, or UP and La Sale graduates are better than CRU or PUP graduates, that women are less capable than men, that French employees are better that Filipinos. Such regarding stereotypes undermine the self-esteem of those groups against whom the stereotypes are directed and thereby violate their fundamental right to be treated as equals. Discriminatory practices are not consistent with ethical management which upholds that all are equal in essence and dignity and that all men and women have the same basic rights and duties. Everyone is created equal in essence and dignity, in spite of the race or color, religion, sex, party affiliation, or business connections (Velasquez, 1998). 188. What is the best practice of shell in terms of diversity standard? Creating an inclusive environment that elicits the very best from its employees is fundamental to shells success. Therefore, the oil company is committed to manage diversity as a radical business activity. It values the broad range of cultural and personal differences that exists in the company. The company is benchmarking CARS on diversity and inclusiveness. Shell dedicated to respect each employees need to balance work and personal demands, and provide equal opportunity for everyone to compete through well-understood and consistently applied employment and performance standards. Thus, the company provides means for employees to share, networking, learning, self-development and communication. Royal Dutch/shell group(2002) reports that shell companies across the globe promotes a culture in which all shell employees, contractors, and Joint ventures share his commitment for diversity. In order to underpin this commitment, every shell company must assure that it: Has a systemic approach to diversity management addressing each of the elements of the group Diversity Framework; Actively supports attraction, development, retention, and promotion of diverse talents; Promotes a workplace free from harassment and discrimination; Establish annual diversity plans, goals and targets for improvement; measures, appraises and reports business performance; Includes diversity performance in the appraisal and development plans of leaders ND employees; Provides safe and effective ways for employees to report observed behavioral inconsistencies with this standard. Chapter 16: Against Conceptualization Is Conceptualization Socially Responsible? What is labor conceptualization? Is the replacing of regular workers with temporary workers who receive lower wages with no or less benefits. These temporary workers are also known as sometimes called contractual, trainees, apprentices, helpers, casuals, piece raters, agency-hired, and project employees, among others. They do the work of regular workers for a specified and limited period of time, usually less than six months. The work they do is desirable and necessary for the companys survival, but they never become regular employees even if they get rehired repeatedly under new contracts. The general public is sounding the alarm on the steady growth of both unemployment and underemployment. The concrete situation of millions of sales ladies in our department stores and giant malls, some factory workers, house helpers, carpenters, gasoline boys, workers in the barber shops and parlors, whose jobs are permanently temporary, simply because they are contractual. They have no stable Jobs, no ASS, no medical insurance, no security of tenure?not to mention the 6 million Overseas Filipino Workers who are employed on a contract-to- contract basis, more than 70 percent of whom are domestic helpers and entertainers stationed in four corners of the globe. The new millennium, tagged by management guru Peter F. Trucker as the century of knowledge society, is witnessing the sudden increase of part-time Jobs even among our professionals. This is happening in spite of the fact that the Filipino labor force in general is globally recognized as technically proficient, highly educated, almost always over skilled, let alone our competitive advantage in the English language. Filipino workers are prioritize among Asians by many international companies. Is contractual labor part and parcel of the big economic landscape? Contractual labor is and has been there as part and parcel of the big economic picture?in agribusiness, sweatshops, construction, and retail business. Nevertheless, the fact that it has been with us for a long time does not make it correct. At any fast food chain you and your kids happen to drop by and eat, it is very probable that only a few of the uniformed crew (18-24 years old) who are on duty will become casual, probe, or regular employees. One thing is sure for those crew embers, the rest of them are out of work before the sixth-month deadline imposed by Labor Code. Even oversupplied nurses are now contractual laborers. From there, some have to renew their contracts while others have to look for another job, usually in another fasted or gasoline station or hospital, and the vicious cycle of conceptualization continues without ceasing. The conceptualization of labor is a business strategy or practice, validated to be cost effective. What could be the raisin d ©tree why Article 23 was included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that says, Everyone has the right to work, to free choice f employment, to Just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment? The basic foundation for full employment is the 1987 Philippine Constitution protecting the right to full employment in the following provision: Article 13, Section 3, The State shall afford full protection to labor, local and overseas, organized and unrealized, and promote full employment and equality of employment opportunities for all. From here, we can safely assume that both able and disabled bodies have the natural right to earn a living by a meaningful occupation, a Job worthy of the free and hinging person. This basic human right to work and earn a legitimate means of livelihood entails a solemn duty on the part of private business sector and the government to provide ample opportunities for adequate work and full employment. Jobs are not enough. It should be adequate and full?regardless of how beautifully some pundits explain various theories of underemployment. Why is it a choice between underemployment and unemployment? Underemployment refers to an employment situation that is insufficient in some important way for the worker, relative to a standard. Examples include holding a part-time Job despite desiring full-time work, and over qualification, where the employee has education, experience, or skills beyond the requirements of the Job. Unemployment (or Joblessness) occurs when people are without work and actively seeking work In the technical sense, conceptualization is a form of underemployment. The right to adequate work and full employment is essential to all men and women of legal age, as swimming is essential to a fish and flying to a bird (well, most birds). This basic right springs from our intrinsic nature to self-preservation and our innate obligation o support our family, both of which are in accordance with the divine plan. Although underemployment (conceptualization and part-time Jobs) continues to exist in many various ways, there are no reasons adequate enough to Justify it. The key principle is that full employment is a fundamental right of every citizen, which means the right to be protected from unemployment and underemployment is basic. The harsh reality, however, appears to contradict this idealism embodied in our In most cases, on the part of the Jobsharers, who are almost always breadwinners, it is a choice between Joblessness and underemployment, a quick option between anger and at-least-theres-hope-for-survival. Is conceptualization a scheme for profit minimization? Ever since the Philippines Jumped into the GATE-WTFO bandwagon, times have been especially difficult for labor. The name of the game is cheap labor. In order to attract foreign investors?aspiring to be competitive as they say with our Asian neighbors? we have to provide the cheapest labor possible. And this cheap labor comes through conceptualization of Jobs and services. It appears that conceptualization is a scheme that allows capitalists to replace their workforce with ease according to market demands. This translates to minimization of profits for the company, but for the laborers, this system denies them the security and benefits of a regular Job while being paid very low wages. Conceptualization has become the main form of labor in many Philippine businesses, a good reason why there are hardly any labor unions in the country or why most workers are not organized in the new millennium. Contractual workers cannot afford to Join unions because they are at the mercy of their employers. Many laws protecting workers protect only regular employment. Ethics and Professional Codes of Conduct The era of globalization has created a need for a specialized skills and knowledge. 1 . Skills is the ability to do something well. 2. Knowledge skill that acquire during your education and experience. The reason for the globalization is known as full automation. This situation bring the word profession, professional and professionalism exist in the corporate world. 1 . Profession a type of Job that requires a special education, training or skill. 2. Professional -relating to a Job that requires special education, training, or skill done or given by a person who works in a particular profession paid to participate in a port or activity 3. Professionalism the competence or skill expected of a professional. Members of profession are required by their association to follow their particular rules or guidelines known to be Professional codes of conduct. These guidelines prescribe responsibilities that members must adhere to and situations in which they must not involved. In some cases, members must be sanctioned for violation of the code. These sanction may include the following : Payment of a fine Payment of a cost of any investigation Reprimand Imposition of condition on membership Suspension from membership Sometimes ,the law silent or absent in some areas of our human conduct. The law does not say anything about this human conduct and its regulation. In the absence of law, some people tend to make their own professional codes of conduct. However, professional codes of conduct are limited only to some specific professions and cannot be entirely regulated and imposed to all while Ethics is universal and applicable to all.