Impact Of Deforestation On The Amazon Rainforest Of...

Evaluation Research Summary The question researched was â€Å"How does deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil, South America, impact the environment?† The topic of deforestation in the Amazon was chosen as there is much concern about the problem and for the future of the Earth. There were different research processes used to discover new information about the problems in the Amazon rainforest such as, an interview with a person who currently lives in Brazil, annotating books, journals, internet research and surveys. These helped me find reliable, credible information and helped me decide when information found was not true. The research was presented as a scientific report. This allowed the findings to be presented. The outcome helped†¦show more content†¦After spending a few hours reading webpages and finding numerous sources, reliable information about deforestation in the Amazon was found. The World Wildlife Fund had very reliable information as there were sources and statistics whi ch could support their statements (World Wildlife fund, 2015). The organisation is very credible as they always publish true information with supporting sources. At times it was difficult to find exact information so narrowing the search made it easier to find information which I was looking for. Webpages are not the best for research but there were a few webpages which were useful when they had sources to support the statements. The next research process chosen was a skype interview with a man who currently lives in Pina, Brazil (Phillips, M, August 2015). This was an extremely useful source as it was firsthand accounts of what is currently happening in the Amazon rainforest. The man told me new information such as laws and politics in which I had currently not learnt about and after the interview I discovered sources which supported what he was telling me. Doing a skype conference was hard because he lived in a different time zone but it was one of the best research processes used. Even though he is not an expert, what he told me during the interview was accurate and reliable because it was supported by

Article Analysis Savage Inequalities Written By Jonathan...

It’s been 60 years since the Supreme Court struck down the concept of â€Å"separate but equal† schools in Brown v. Board of Education, but today, most black students attend schools that are majority non-white. The percentages of black students attending a majority-non-white school today is 74.1 percent, it is little changed from figures in the 1960s. Nearly 40 percent of black children attend schools that are almost entirely (more than 90 percent) non-white. â€Å"Americans simultaneously believe that schools are places where social inequalities should be equalized, where the advantages or disadvantages that children experience in their homes and families should not determine what happens to them in school-in essence, that school is a place where children should have equal chances to make the most of their potential.† (Inequality) The 1991 article Savage Inequalities written by Jonathan Kozal highlights the fact that every person is entitled to the right to rece ive quality care and education. Kozal, revealed there can be overwhelming social factors that prevent students in a small Illinois town from getting an equal education. The author shrewdly described the morbid living conditions experienced by the residence of East St. Louis, Illinois. A predominately black community near the banks of the Mississippi River. However, despite the conditions that the city s kids must endure, these students refuse to wallow in misery. The didn’t believe the hype. Even though, these students have

Television Violence and Children free essay sample

Television Violence and Children Gregory Coryell General Psychology Dr. Warren Washington February 14, 2006 Television Violence and Children Does television promote violence and crime among children? Although most people look at television as an entertaining and educational way to spend time, some people think there is too much violence in television and it is influencing our youth into becoming aggressive in nature and to tolerate violence. Now scientists have discovered that all the violence in television can in fact mold a young innocent person into becoming a monster right under our eyes, just by watching television. It might sound absurd, but think about it. It is 5:00 pm and you feel in the mood to relax and watch a talk show after a stressful day at work, only to find out the topic is, â€Å"He killed my sister and I want REVENGE! † It sounds odd but most people like the thrill of violence. Why do you think â€Å"Nightmare on Elm Street† and â€Å"Friday the 13th† were so popular? What do you think goes through a young person’s mind when the bad guy is shot dead by the good guy and everyone applauds? The child learns that it is fine to hurt someone as long as they are bad, so if cousin Sam takes my toy, it is ok to hit him because he was bad. This type of behavior can promote a false idea in a child’s mind of how the real world deals with criminals. All major television networks contribute to this problem. If you think about it, it is not uncommon to turn on the news or open a newspaper and find out someone was murdered because of the color of their skin or their face was slashed up because they were pretty and someone was jealous. Many of these senseless violent acts have been committed all over the country. Acts of violence are committed everyday by high school and even elementary school children. Psychologists and scientists have been trying to figure out what is causing these violent acts among our youth and how to stop it. Unfortunately, it is not that easy. They have been researching television violence and how it affects our children’s behavior for many years and know that the more violence a child watches, the more violent that child reacts. The recent increase of crimes committed by younger children has put a lot of pressure on researchers to find answers for our nation’s future. It has also put pressure on the government to pass new laws to protect our children from the violence. Many of the studies conducted point to television violence as the primary influence in our children’s aggressive behavior. Even though results from many of the studies point to the violence content which is present in today’s television programming, television networks have denounced any allegations against them (Abelard, 1999). We still have to consider that other factors such as the child’s environment contribute to their behavior; we must not ignore the researchers’ findings. They must be carefully studied and examined for validity. In this paper I am going to review some of the studies conducted, research their findings, and explain how the results on television violence relate to our children’s violent behavior. Society is in an uproar due to the increase in violent acts by young people and the part television may play in these events. Among these, the killing of a New York principal while looking for a missing student. The New York Times states, â€Å"The killing happened around 9:40 am when Mr. Patrick Daly, Principal of Public School 51 was making his way through cold and rain to am apartment building complex in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn. † This is one of the most notorious crime-ridden neighborhoods of New York City. Mr. Daly was simply looking for one of his students who earlier that morning had left the school upset because of a fight with a classmate (Fried, 1993). â€Å"Mr. Daly was walking on a rain-slickened sidewalk of barren concrete, when the gunfire crackled shortly before noon, the authorities said. He fell to the pavement, shot once in the chest by a 9-millimeter slug. Thus ended the life of one of the city’s most dedicated principals whose 26-year struggle on behalf of his pupils had been featured in news articles and on national television,† the New York Times went on to state. On July 6, 1993, two of the three youths, both 18, involved in the death were sentenced to 25 years to life based on their convictions of second-degree murder. A third youth, age 19, was sentenced to 20 years to life because he had no previous criminal record (Fried, 1993). This was a sad but not too uncommon event nd that is why today scientists are trying to answer society’s questions about children’s aggressive behavior. What makes them different and how are their lives related to other non-aggressive children are two areas of interest. They may never find all of the answers, but scientists are trying to explain how television violence promotes children’s temperamental nature, that continues into adulthood. According to the Institute fo r Social Research, an aggressive behavior is a learned behavior which is being taught to our children by the media violence they are exposed to each day (Mortimer, 1994). Everyday we see crimes being committed through the cameras of our local news stations. Children in the United States watch television and average of 7 ? hours per day, 5,000 hours by the first grade and 19,000 hours by the end of high school (Mortimer, 1994). These figures are alarming considering that is more hours than our children spend in school, and that the United States has the most violent television programming among industrialized nations. These facts affect the younger children more, since their perception of what is real and unreal is not as acute as an older adult. Meaning that aggressive adults learned their behavior as children and the more violence children watch the better, the chances are for them to be violent as adults (Mortimer, 1994). Scientists have been looking at the programs our children watch and have come up with some shocking results. Studies conducted by researchers have found that the behavior of hostile children in school was influenced by the shows they watched, especially if the youngsters were heavy watchers of violent programming. They also found that the most destructive youngsters strongly identified with warlike characters in the television, had combative fantasies, and expressed the attitudes violent programs portrayed (Hepburn, 1995). Consequently, programs like â€Å"Power Rangers† and â€Å"Yu-Gi-Oh† are teaching our children to fight and be aggressive, because in the case of the â€Å"Power Rangers,† the only option is to fight the enemies. Several decades ago, a few psychologists hypothesized that viewing violence in the unreal television world would have a purgative effect and therefore reduce the changes of violent behavior in the real world. However, other psychologists began to doubt this notion when their research with children revealed that most action on the television screen is perceived as real to children (Vodus, 1996). L. Rowell Huesmann and Leonard Eron, who studied the effects of media violence on 875 youngsters in grades first to third, found that children’s behavior was influenced by television, especially if the children were heavy viewers of violent programming. Television violence, according to the researchers, provided a script for the children to act out aggressive behavior in relationships with others. These children were also likely to perform poorly in school and be unpopular with their peers (Vodus, 1996). Even though aggression was found in children who watch television, realistically it is not the only factor related to children’s violent behavior, however, the studies have found that it is a major factor because it affects us so young. Huesmann and Eron stated that television is not the only variable involved, however, their many years of research has left them with no doubt that heavy exposure to media violence is a highly influential factor in children and later in their adult lives. In 1971, they found about 500 of the original 875 surveyed children. They were now 19 years old and the results were just as powerful. The relationship of violence viewing at age 8 and how aggressive the individual was at 19 was higher than the relationship between watching violence at age 8 and behaving destructively. Huesmann tested the children again in 1981 when they were 30 years old. Many of these subjects had children of their own and still exhibited an aggressive nature. The research also showed that the 30 year olds who were more violent at age 8 had more arrests for drunk driving, committed more violent crimes, and were more abusive to their spouses. In addition, the 8 year olds who watched more violent television had been arrested more often than the others and they self-confessed that they had more fights when consuming alcohol. The most frightening results found were that their children also showed the same if not more signs of aggression as their parents (Vodus, 1996). After these findings, some of the television networks must have started feeling the pressure and conducted studies of their own. The television networks found more evidence that television violence does affect our children. In a study commissioned by the ABC network, a team at Temple University surveyed young males who had been imprisoned for violent crimes. Results of these studies showed that 22 to 34 percent of the young males, especially those who were the most violent, said that they had ultimately imitated crime techniques learned from television programs. It concluded that these males watched an average of six hours of television per day, about twice as much as children in the general population at that time. A study by CBS was conducted in London at the same time. In the study, 1,565 teenage boys were studied for behavioral effects of viewing violent television programs, many of which were imported from the United States. The study revealed that those who watched above average hours of television violence before adolescence committed a 49 percent higher rate of serious acts of violence than did boys who had viewed below average quantities of violence. The final report was â€Å"very strongly supportive of the hypothesis that high exposure to television violence increases the degree to which boys engage in serious violence† (Zuckerman, 1993). Five types of television programming were most powerful in triggering violent behavior in the boys in the London study: 1) TV plays or films in which violence is demonstrated in close personal relationships. 2) Programs where violence was not necessary to the plot but just added for extra effect. 3) Fictional violence of a very realistic kind. 4) Violent â€Å"westerns. † 5) Programs that present violence as being for a good cause (Zuckerman, 1993). Some researchers are turning heads with some shocking new results stating that television networks are showing positive signs of reducing violence in their own prime time series and in made for television movies. However, serious problems persist in the theatrical movies they broadcast in some children’s shows and in promotional spots. Most of the violence that was shown on television in the past year was from films that were previously viewed in theaters. Finding that about 42 percent of them had explicit bloody killings and shootings from the â€Å"heroes† raised a great deal of concern. The networks are able to take out the worst parts, however most action movies would then have nothing left. Problems were also raised about the increasing use in children’s programming of what it calls â€Å"combat violence† which has characters fighting at the slightest provocation (Mifflin, 1995). Violent television creates violent children and later in life, they become violent adults, but the media and other people are still not convinced that there is too much violence on television and why should they? How can we compare data with other non-violent children? Can parents in today’s two-income, in some cases single parent society prevent children from watching violence all the time? Moreover, how can we prevent children from watching television at all? Some of the changes the government is implementing to stop television violence include the V-Chip, which allows parents to block unwanted shows from their television. In addition, there is the television show rating system now in effect that alerts parents to the content at the beginning of each show. However, these attempts have been criticized by the television media and Hollywood, calling them unconstitutional. Since the invention of the television, families have gathered around the television set to watch their favorite shows for decades. What might have been great movies and shows have now become the cause for controversy. I grew up watching many of the great westerns where the good guy always gets the bad guy. Like many boys, I always wanted to be a cowboy and get the bad guys. I do not know the affect these movies had on me or on the general population, however the studies have proven that television violence is affecting the way our children grow up and behave. The acts of violence and the number of violent youngsters have risen not only in the big cities, but also in the suburbs. This leads me to believe that even though the child’s surroundings are usually the most influential part of a child’s development, television violence has created another problem for today’s youth. In conclusion, studies have been made, the results are calculated, and many new studies complement the findings of the old studies. There should be no doubt in anybody’s mind that television violence changes children’s behavior and causes other long lasting effects as adults.

Loan Request Evaluation Essays - Loans, Credit Scoring,

Loan Request Evaluation This report introduces a procedure that can be used to analyze the quantifiable aspects of commercial credit requests. The procedure incorporates a systematic interpretation of basic financial data and focuses on issues that typically arise when determining creditworthiness. Cash flow information is equally important when evaluating a firm's prospects. Reported earnings and EPS can be manipulated by management debts, are repaid out of cash flow not earnings. The basic objective of credit analysis is to assess the risk involved in credit extension to bank's customers. Risk refers to the volatility in earnings. Lenders are concerned with net income or the cash flow that hinders a borrower ability to service a loan. Credit analysis assigns some probability to default. Some risks can be measured with historical and projected financial data. The key issues include the following: 1. For what are the loan proceeds going to be used? 2. How much does the customer need to borrow? 3. What is the primary source of repayment, and when will the loan be repaid? 4. What collateral is available? Fundamental credit issues: Virtually every business has a credit relationship with a financial institution. But regardless of the type of loan, all credit request mandate a systematic analysis of the borrower's ability to repay. When evaluating a loan a bank can make two types of errors: 1. Extending credit to a consumer who ultimately would repay the debt. 2. Denying a loan request to a customer who ultimately would repay the debt. In both cases the bank loses a customer and its profit decreases. For this reason, the purpose of credit analysis is to identify the meaningful and probable circumstances under which the bank might lose. So a credit analyst should analyze the following items: *Character: The foremost issue in assessing credit risk is determining a borrower's commitment and ability to repay debts in accordance with the terms of a loan agreement. An individual's honesty, integrity, and work ethic typically evidence commitment. Whenever there is deception or a lack of credibility, a bank should not do business with the borrower. It is often difficult to identify dishonest borrowers. The best indicators are the borrower's financial history and personal references. When a borrower has missed past debt service payments or has been involved in default or bankruptcy a lender should carefully document why to see if the causes were reasonable. Similarly, borrower's with good credit history will have established personal and banking relationship that indicate whether they fully disclose meaningful information and deal with subordinates and suppliers honestly. Lenders look at negative signals of a borrower condition beyond balance sheet and income statement. For example: A borrower's name consistently appears on the list of bank customers who have overdrawn their account. A borrower makes a significant change in the structure of business. A borrower appears to be consistently short of cash. A borrower's personal habits have changed for the worse. A firm's goals are incompatible with those of stockholders, employees, and customers. *Use of loan proceeds: The range of business loan needs is unlimited. The first issue facing the credit analyst is what the loan proceeds are going to be used for. Loan proceeds should be used for legitimate business operations purposes, including seasonal and permanent working capital needs, the purchase of depreciable asset, physical plant expansion, acquisition of other firms. Speculative asset purchases and debt substitutions should be avoided. The true need and use determines the loan maturity, the anticipated source and timing of repayment and the appropriate collateral. A careful review of a firm financial data typically reveals why a company deeds financing. *Loan amount: Borrowers request a loan before they clearly understand how much external financing is actually needed and how much is available internally. The amount of credit required depends on the use of proceeds and the availability of internal sources of funds. The lender job is to determine the correct amount such that a borrower has enough cash to operate effectively but not too much to spend wastefully. Once a loan is approved the amount of credit actually extended depends on the borrower future performance. If the borrower cash flow is insufficient to meet operating expenses and the debt service on the loan it will be called upon to lend more and possibly to lengthen the loan maturity. If cash flows are substantial, the initial loan outstanding might decline rapidly and even be repaid early. The required loan amount is thus a function of the initial cash deficiency and the pattern of future cash flows. *The primary source