Letter of motivation to a Prospective Employer Essay

Letter of motivation to a Prospective Employer - Essay Example I did the following courses during my studies for the Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Criminal Justice and Administration: Contemporary issues in Criminal Justice, Criminology, Policing Theory and Practice, Criminal Law, Interpersonal Communication, Institutional and Communication, Institutional and Community Corrections, Criminal Procedure, Criminal Court Systems, Criminal Organizations, Juvenile Justice Systems and Process, Ethics in Criminal Justice, Cultural Diversity in Criminal Justice, Research Methods in Criminal Justice, Organizational Behaviour and Management, Criminal Justice Administration, Foundations of Criminal Justice, Criminal Justice Policy Analysis, Managing Criminal Justice Personnel, Futures of Criminal Justice, and Interdisciplinary Capstone Course. All these courses are specially designed to equip the student with the knowledge and skills required in dealing with managerial as well as leadership aspects that are related to the operations of the criminal justice agencies. The courses offer a strong foundation of theoretical knowledge that can be transformed into real life practice in the profession of criminal justice. It is my strong conviction that the knowledge I have gained in the field of Criminal justice have greatly enhanced my managerial and administrative skills that are closely related to law enforcement, the criminal courts and corrections. My degree program is designed to offer the students with a strong background in criminal justice principles, theories as well as concepts that are related to justice administration. All the courses I have taken are designed to fulfil the core aspects of criminal justice as portrayed in the domains of courts, police services as well as corrections. The programme offers a global perspective to the realm of criminal justice and it fulfils various management functions that can improve the operations of various managerial departments in related agencies that deal with criminal justice. The courses I took will greatly help me in my profession since I am better positioned to approach any situation with self determination as a result of the valuable theoretical knowledge I gained in each course and I can transform it into real practice. Basically, the BSCJA programme is designed to fulfil various goals and these were fulfilled both in theory and in practice through practical lessons by my tutors who are serving members of the justice system. My professors teach from a practical stand point and this curriculum is designed to equip the student with the much needed practical experience in this particular field where he is given the opportunity to transform the theoretical knowledge gained into real practice. As such, I believe I have the following competencies that can positively contribute to the overall performance of the organization as a whole. I have good communication skills and can communicate both verbally and written at all levels. The valuable knowledge I have gai ned in this particular discipline have developed my style of systematic, creative and logical thinking. I can diligently approach any given scenario and I can find solutions to

The Politics and Sociology of Media and Culture Essay

The Politics and Sociology of Media and Culture - Essay Example However, a particularly vulnerable sector or demographic are adolescents, not only because of the access they have to virtually all forms of media – such as the internet, television, radio, newspapers and magazines – but also because they are at an age where they are particularly vulnerable. They have yet to develop sufficient maturity and discernment necessary to filter out potentially destructive messages and unhealthy ideas streaming in from various media sources. One such threat to adolescents in particular and to the general viewing public in general are reality TV shows. There have been a slew of reality TV shows out in the market over the past few years. Some of them test one’s physical mettle like Amazing Race, others have to do with the search for love like The Bachelor or The Bachelorette, others test one’s aptitude in various fields of endeavor like The Apprentice, and yet others talk about undergoing physical transformations like The Swan, a reality TV series in the United States produced by Fox TV. The show â€Å"The Swan† is rife with political and sociological meaning. While it is indeed very entertaining and riveting, it is loaded with so many negative messages that present trouble for the impressionable adolescent girl-child. First of all, it breeds stereotypes. It has long been established that factual and fictional media portrayals have a propensity to activate culturally shared racial and gender stereotypes and affect judgment involving those who belong to stereotyped groups

Overview of Sarcopenia

Overview of Sarcopenia Background Sarcopenia is age related disease with symptoms of loss of muscle mass, strength and function. Elderly over the age of 65 years are vulnerable to sarcopenia [6]. It is estimated that approximated 5-13% of older people aged 60–70 years are suffered from sarcopenia [8]. The proportion is about twice higher among elderly at the age of 80 or above [8]. Studies also found that sarcopenia is more likely seen in older men than older women [16,26]. Sarcopenia gains intensive attention from public and increasing researches indicated that it is a major clinical problem for older people. Risk factors of sarcopenia Current research found that lifestyle factors, including physical inactivity, smoking and alcohol consuming [3]; and biological factors, including older age, gender, decreased hormone level, motor unit remodeling and reduced protein synthesis [3,25], contribute to development of sarcopenia. Motor unit remodeling comes up of age and leads to replacement of fast twitch motor neuron[22,25] which results in less precise control of movements, less force production and slowing of muscle mechanics[22,23,25] as remodeled motor unit are smaller in size and slower to contract. Therefore, loss of fast twitch fibers increases risk of having sarcopenia. In addition, protein synthesis, growth hormone (GH), testosterone (T) and insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) are considered to be associated with sarcopenia as well [25]. It is well known that protein is important in muscle repairmen. And GH, T and IGF-1 are involved in protein metabolism and maintenance [23]. Different studies agreed that protein synthesis rate decreases throughout the natural aging process [24] and leads to loss of muscle mass. Thus, low protein synthesis rate, along with decrease in these hormones level provide possible occurrence of sarcopenia [25]. Consequences of sarcopenia Sarcopenia causes serious consequences not only at individual level but also at societal level. On the one hand, loss of muscle mass, strength and function lead to adverse health outcome in terms of frailty, disability, morbidity and mortality [8]. Essentially, sarcopenia is about twice as common as frailty [9]. Also, sarcopenia occurs with other morbidity in some times. Some of the co-morbidity are obesity [4,13], hypertension, osteoporosis [12] and type II diabetes [5,14,15]. Moreover, research suggests that loss of skeletal muscle strength may predict future mortality in middle-aged and elderly [2]. On the other hand, sarcopenia is linked with increased healthcare expenditure. In United States, the estimated direct healthcare attributable to sarcopenia represented about 1.5% of total healthcare expenditure in 2000 [21]. Diagnosis of sarcopenia according to different consensus panels Although research working in the area of sarcopenia is expanding exponentially, a universal definition is still under development. On average, current definitions are including muscle mass, muscle strength or even physical function. In 2010, the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP) published guidelines to help identify sarcopenia [1,9]. According to the EWGSOP, a person will be classified as having sarcopenia when two of three follow criteria were statisfied: (A) low muscle mass and (B) low muscle strength and/or (C) low physical performance [1]. Low muscle mass is defined as muscle mass ≠¥2 standard deviations below the mean of reference population [8], calculating by equipment such as DEXA-scanners. Low physical performance is defined as gait speed ≠¤ 0.8 m/s in the 4 meters walk test for both males and females [8]. International Working Group on Sarcopenia (IWGS) suggested diagnosing sarcopenia when the following criteria are fulfilled: (a) gait speed was < 1 m/s and (b) low muscle mass (cutoff value is similar to EWGSOP) [8]. The European Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition Special Interest Groups carried out that the cut off values for low muscle mass is defined as percentage of muscle mass > 2 SDs below the mean of reference individuals; for walking speed is < 0.8 m/s in the 4 meters walk test [1]. Measurement of muscle mass and muscle strength Muscle strength is mainly assessed by handgrip. While physical performance can be measured using simple tests such as the short physical performance battery test, usual gait speed or the timed get-up-and-go test; it is difficult to assess muscle mass in practice. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) is recently proposed as the gold standard for muscle mass measurement. Other methods include bioelectrical impedance, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, urinary excretion of creatinine, anthropometric assessments, and neutron activation assessments can be used for measurement of muscle mass as well [8]. The process is complicated and need participation of professionals. Prevalence of sarcopenia varies as use of cut-off points relies on different instruments used for assessing muscle mass and strength and function. SARC-F, a newly developed simple questionnaire, has been regarded as rapid diagnosis test for sarcopenia. It contains five components: strength, assistance in walking, rise from a chair, climb stairs and falls. A question will be asked to assess each component variable. Scores range from 0-10, with 0-2 for each component [7]. Details of SARC-F are shown in table 1. Cut-off score A research conducted in Hong Kong tests the validation of SARC-F as a screening tool for sarcopenia in community. It found that SARC-F is able to predict future adverse outcomes with comparable power to other criteria. It also found that SARC-F has excellent specificity (94.4%) and negative predictive value but poor sensitivity. With high specificity, SARC-F is useful for screening out older adults with sarcopenia. Poor sensitivity may due to the number of participants classified as having sarcopenia represent only a small proportion of the total population studied [10]. Another research applied SARC-F in mainland China to screen sarcopenia and physical disability. It published that poor physical performance and grip strength were associated with SARC-F defined sarcopenia. But there was a very weak correlation to muscle mass in physically active outpatients. It pointed out potential explanation that the weak correlation may partly due to only small sample measured by DXA or BIA [11]. Relevance to Public Health Sarcopenia is coming of age. Elderly population is expected to remain on a rising trend in most of developed countries. In Hong Kong the proportion of the population aged 65 and over is projected to rise markedly from 13% in 2012 to 30% in 2041 []. It means that increasing population will suffer from sarcopenia. It is not surprise that sarcopenia increase the risk of physical disability. The risk of disability is 1.5 to 4.6 times higher in older persons with sarcopenia than in older persons with normal muscle. Men are at greater risk of sarcopenia related disability than women [16]. Recent estimates indicate that approximately 45% of the older U.S. population is sarcopenic and that approximately 20% of the older U.S. population is functionally disabled [21]. It is important to note that physical disability is associated with an increased risk of nursing home placement, home healthcare and hospital use [21]. And these healthcare services need extra healthcare expenditure to support. To sum up with information above, sarcopenia is becoming big challenge in public along with the rise of older population. It is cause serious health consequences in persons and make economic burden in countries.

Jesus the Warrior in The Dream of the Rood Essay -- Poetry Analysis

The image of Jesus nailed to a wooden cross by the palms of his hands and with a crown of thorns wrapped around his head is one that has transcended all time barriers. It has inclusive been replicated into figure form that is utilized in various ways but whose primary function is to serve as a constant reminder of the physical suffering endured by Jesus. In The Dream of the Rood however, the perception of Jesus Christ as not only the son of God and savior of mankind but also as a human with the capacity to feel pain, is subverted when through the perspective of a personified cross he is conveyed as a warrior in the midst of combat. The portrayal of Jesus in this way immediately evokes the image of an ideal stereotypical hero who is strong, courageous, and unrelenting in appearance. Nevertheless, it can be said that this type of hero is more inclined towards fantasy than it is based on reality because these idealized heroic figures have only ever truly existed in a fictional universe. The depiction of Jesus as a warrior thus, undermines forms of heroism that stem from explicit suffering that is not concealed but rather expressed by the individual. In the text, Jesus is made out to be a warrior in a literal manner in order to accentuate his act of heroism. Although it can be argued that Jesus was in fact a warrior, this argument is only valid if speaking in figurative terms since being a warrior and fighting in battles was not his profession. Jesus is first identified as a warrior during a particular moment when the cross observes as, â€Å"[†¦] the young Hero stripped himself—[†¦]God Almighty—strong and stouthearted. He climbed on the high gallows bold in the sight of many when he would free mankind† (28). By referring to Jesus as a â€Å"h... ...eying these emotions. It is the expression these emotions that is mistaken for weakness. However, while it is true that warriors for the most part are viewed as heroic figures, it is not the armor or the seemingly courageous appearance that they put up in front of a crowd that defines them as heroes. The way that Jesus is presented in the bible does not make him any less of a hero when compared to the way he is portrayed in the poem. It is the action and motive behind the action that ultimately determines who is heroic. Works Cited †¢ Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. "The Dream of The Rood." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 8th ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. 27-29. Print. †¢ Mark. The Holy Bible. The New King James Version ed. Thomas Nelson, 1985. Print. †¢ Mathew. The Holy Bible. The New King James Version ed. Thomas Nelson, 1985. Print.

Evolution of Mobile Phone Technology

A mobile phone (also known as a cellular phone, cell phone and a hand phone) is a device that can make and receive telephone calls while moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile phone operator, allowing access to the public telephone network. By contrast, a cordless telephone is used only within the short range of a single, private base station. In addition to telephony, modern mobile phones also support a wide variety of other services such as text messaging, MMS, email, Internet access, short-range wireless communications (infrared, Bluetooth), business applications, gaming and photography. Mobile phones that offer these and more general computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones. The first hand-held mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell and Dr Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing around 2. 2 pounds (1 kg). From 1990 to 2011, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions grew from 12. million to over 6 billion, penetrating about 87% of the global population and reaching the bottom of the economic pyramid. In 2012, for the first time since 2009 mobile phone sales to end users is declining by 1. 7 percent to 1. 75 billion units which is dominated by Samsung for 385 million units (53. 5 percent is smartphones) and Apple for 130 million units of all smartphones. History The first mobile tel ephone calls were made from cars in 1946. Bell System's Mobile Telephone Service was made on 17 June in St. Louis, Missouri, followed by Illinois Bell Telephone Company's car radiotelephone service in Chicago on 2 October. The MTA phones were composed of vacuum tubes and relays, and weighed over 80 pounds (36 kg).. John F. Mitchell, Motorola's chief of portable communication products in 1973, played a key role in advancing the development of handheld mobile telephone equipment. Mitchell successfully pushed Motorola to develop wireless communication products that would be small enough to use anywhere and participated in the design of the cellular phone. Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive, was the key researcher on Mitchell's team that developed the first hand-held mobile telephone for use on a cellular network. Using a somewhat heavy portable handset, Cooper made the first call on a handheld mobile phone on 3 April 1973 to his rival, Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs. As I walked down the street while talking on the phone, sophisticated New Yorkers gaped at the sight of someone actually moving around while making a phone call. Remember that in 1973, there weren't cordless telephones or cellular phones. I made numerous calls, including one where I crossed the street while talking to a New York radio reporter – probably one of the more dangerous things I have ever done in my life. Martin Cooper The new invention sold for $3,995 and weighed two pounds, leading to a nickname â€Å"the brick†. The world's first commercial automated cellular network was launched in Japan by NTT in 1979, initially in the metropolitan area of Tokyo. In 1981, this was followed by the simultaneous launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Several countries t hen followed in the early-to-mid 1980s including the UK, Mexico and Canada. On 6 March 1983, the DynaTAc mobile phone launched on the first US 1G network by Ameritech. It cost $100m to develop, and took over a decade to hit the market. The phone had a talk time of just half an hour and took ten hours to charge. Consumer demand was strong despite the battery life, weight, and low talk time, and waiting lists were in the thousands. In 1991, the second generation (2G) cellular technology was launched in Finland by Radiolinja on the GSM standard, which sparked competition in the sector as the new operators challenged the incumbent 1G network operators. Ten years later, in 2001, the third generation (3G) was launched in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on the WCDMA standard. By 2009, it had become clear that, at some point, 3G networks would be overwhelmed by the growth of bandwidth-intensive applications like streaming media. Consequently, the industry began looking to data-optimized 4th-generation technologies, with the promise of speed improvements up to 10-fold over existing 3G technologies. The first two commercially available technologies billed as 4G were the WiMAX standard (offered in the U. S. by Sprint) and the LTE standard, first offered in Scandinavia by TeliaSonera. Handheld mobile phone Prior to 1973, mobile telephony was limited to phones installed in cars and other vehicles. [13] Motorola and Bell Labs raced to be the first to produce a handheld mobile phone. That race ended on 3 April 1973 when Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive, made the first mobile telephone call from handheld subscriber equipment, placing a call to Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs. The prototype handheld phone used by Dr. Cooper weighed 2. 5 pounds and measured 9 inches long, 5 inches deep and 1. 75 inches wide. The prototype offered a talk time of just 30 minutes and took 10 hours to re-charge. John F. Mitchell, Motorola's chief of portable communication products and Cooper's boss in 1973, played a key role in advancing the development of handheld mobile telephone equipment. Mitchell successfully pushed Motorola to develop wireless communication products that would be small enough to use anywhere and participated in the design of the cellular phone. Analog cellular networks – 1G The first analog cellular system widely deployed in North America was the Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS). It was commercially introduced in the Americas in 1978, Israel in 1986, and Australia in 1987. AMPS was a pioneering technology that helped drive mass market usage of cellular technology, but it had several serious issues by modern standards. It was unencrypted and easily vulnerable to eavesdropping via a scanner; it was susceptible to cell phone â€Å"cloning;† Many of the iconic early commercial cell phones such as the Motorola DynaTAC Analog AMPS were eventually superseded by Digital AMPS (D-AMPS) in 1990, and AMPS service was shut down by most North American carriers by 2008. Digital cellular networks – 2G In the 1990s, the ‘second generation' mobile phone systems emerged. Two systems competed for supremacy in the global market: the European developed GSM standard and the U. S. developed CDMA standard. These differed from the previous generation by using digital instead of analog transmission, and also fast out-of-band phone-to-network signaling. The rise in mobile phone usage as a result of 2G was explosive and this era also saw the advent of prepaid mobile phones. In 1991 the first GSM network (Radiolinja) launched in Finland. In general the frequencies used by 2G systems in Europe were higher than those in America, though with some overlap. For example, the 00 MHz frequency range was used for both 1G and 2G systems in Europe, so the 1G systems were rapidly closed down to make space for the 2G systems. In America the IS-54 standard was deployed in the same band as AMPS and displaced some of the existing analog channels. In 1993, IBM Simon was introduced. This was possibly the world's first smartphone. It was a mobile phone, pager, fax machine, and PD A all rolled into one. It included a calendar, address book, clock, calculator, notepad, email, and a touchscreen with a QWERTY keyboard. The IBM Simon had a stylus you used to tap the touch screen with. It featured predictive typing that would guess the next characters as you tapped. It had apps, or at least a way to deliver more features by plugging a PCMCIA 1. 8 MB memory card into the phone. Coinciding with the introduction of 2G systems was a trend away from the larger â€Å"brick† phones toward tiny 100–200g hand-held devices. This change was possible not only through technological improvements such as more advanced batteries and more energy-efficient electronics, but also because of the higher density of cell sites to accommodate increasing usage. The latter meant that the average distance transmission from phone to the base station shortened, leading to increased battery life whilst on the move. The second generation introduced a new variant of communication called SMS or text messaging. It was initially available only on GSM networks but spread eventually on all digital networks. The first machine-generated SMS message was sent in the UK on 3 December 1992 followed in 1993 by the first person-to-person SMS sent in Finland. The advent of prepaid services in the late 1990s soon made SMS the communication method of choice amongst the young, a trend which spread across all ages. G also introduced the ability to access media content on mobile phones. In 1998 the first downloadable content sold to mobile phones was the ring tone, launched by Finland's Radiolinja (now Elisa). Advertising on the mobile phone first appeared in Finland when a free daily SMS news headline service was launched in 2000, sponsored by advertising. Mobile p ayments were trialed in 1998 in Finland and Sweden where a mobile phone was used to pay for a Coca Cola vending machine and car parking. Commercial launches followed in 1999 in Norway. The first commercial payment system to mimic banks and credit cards was launched in the Philippines in 1999 simultaneously by mobile operators Globe and Smart. The first full internet service on mobile phones was introduced by NTT DoCoMo in Japan in 1999. Mobile broadband data – 3G As the use of 2G phones became more widespread and people began to utilize mobile phones in their daily lives, it became clear that demand for data services (such as access to the internet) was growing. Furthermore, experience from fixed broadband services showed there would also be an ever increasing demand for greater data speeds. The 2G technology was nowhere near up to the job, so the industry began to work on the next generation of technology known as 3G. The main technological difference that distinguishes 3G technology from 2G technology is the use of packet switching rather than circuit switching for data transmission. In addition, the standardization process focused on requirements more than technology (2 Mbit/s maximum data rate indoors, 384 kbit/s outdoors, for example). Inevitably this led to many competing standards with different contenders pushing their own technologies, and the vision of a single unified worldwide standard looked far from reality. The standard 2G CDMA networks became 3G compliant with the adoption of Revision A to EV-DO, which made several additions to the protocol whilst retaining backwards compatibility: * the introduction of several new forward link data rates that increase the maximum burst rate from 2. 45 Mbit/s to 3. 1 Mbit/s. * protocols that would decrease connection establishment time. the ability for more than one mobile to share the same time slot. * the introduction of QoS flags. All these were put in place to allow for low latency, low bit rate communications such as VoIP. The first pre-commercial trial network with 3G was launched by NTT DoCoMo in Japan in the Tokyo region in May 2001. NTT DoCoMo launched the first commercial 3G network on 1 October 2001, using the WCDMA technology. In 2002 the first 3G networks on the rival CDMA2000 1xEV-DO technology were launched by SK Telecom and KTF in South Korea, and Monet in the USA. Monet has since gone bankrupt. By the end of 2002, the second WCDMA network was launched in Japan by Vodafone KK (now Softbank). European launches of 3G were in Italy and the UK by the Three/Hutchison group, on WCDMA. 2003 saw a further 8 commercial launches of 3G, six more on WCDMA and two more on the EV-DO standard. In the mid 2000s (decade), an evolution of 3G technology begun to be implemented, namely High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA). It is an enhanced 3G (third generation) mobile telephony communications protocol in the High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) family, also coined 3. G, 3G+ or turbo 3G, which allows networks based on Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) to have higher data transfer speeds and capacity. Current HSDPA deployments support down-link speeds of 1. 8, 3. 6, 7. 2 and 14. 0 Mbit/s. Further speed increases are available with HSPA+, which provides speeds of up to 42 Mbit/s downlink and 84 Mbit/s with Release 9 of the 3GPP standards. By the end of 2007, there were 295 million subscribers on 3G networks worldwide, which reflected 9% of the total worldwide subscriber base. About two thirds of these were on the WCDMA standard and one third on the EV-DO standard. The 3G telecoms services generated over 120 Billion dollars of revenues during 2007 and at many markets the majority of new phones activated were 3G phones. In Japan and South Korea the market no longer supplies phones of the second generation. Although mobile phones had long had the ability to access data networks such as the Internet, it was not until the widespread availability of good quality 3G coverage in the mid-2000s (decade) that specialized devices appeared to access the mobile internet. The first such devices, known as â€Å"dongles†, plugged directly into a computer through the USB port. Another new class of device appeared subsequently, the so-called â€Å"compact wireless router† such as the Novatel MiFi, which makes 3G internet connectivity available to multiple computers simultaneously over Wi-Fi, rather than just to a single computer via a USB plug-in. Such devices became especially popular for use with laptop computers due to the added portability they bestow. Consequently, some computer manufacturers started to embed the mobile data function directly into the laptop so a dongle or MiFi wasn't needed. Instead, the SIM card could be inserted directly into the device itself to access the mobile data services. Such 3G-capable laptops became commonly known as â€Å"netbooks†. Other types of data-aware devices followed in the netbook's footsteps. By the beginning of 2010, E-readers, such as the Amazon Kindle and the Nook from Barnes & Noble, had already become available with embedded wireless internet, and Apple Computer had announced plans for embedded wireless internet on its iPad tablet devices beginning that Fall. Native IP networks – 4G By 2009, it had become clear that, at some point, 3G networks would be overwhelmed by the growth of bandwidth-intensive applications like streaming media. Consequently, the industry began looking to data-optimized 4th-generation technologies, with the promise of speed improvements up to 10-fold over existing 3G technologies. The first two commercially available technologies billed as 4G were the WiMAX standard (offered in the U. S. by Sprint) and the LTE standard, first offered in Scandinavia by TeliaSonera. One of the main ways in which 4G differed technologically from 3G was in its elimination of circuit switching, instead employing an all-IP network. Thus, 4G ushered in a treatment of voice calls just like any other type of streaming audio media, utilizing packet switching over internet, LAN or WAN networks via VoIP. Evolution 2G networks were built mainly for voice services and slow data transmission (defined in IMT-2000 specification documents), but are considered by the general public to be 2. 5G or 2. 75G services because they are several times slower than present-day 3G service. . 5G (GPRS) 2. 5G (â€Å"second and a half generation†) is used to describe 2G-systems that have implemented a packet-switched domain in addition to the circuit-switched domain. It does not necessarily provide faster services because bundling of timeslots is used for circuit-switched data services (HSCSD) as well. The first major step in the evolution of GSM networks to 3G occurred with the introdu ction of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). CDMA2000 networks similarly evolved through the introduction of 1xRTT. The combination of these capabilities came to be known as 2. 5G. GPRS could provide data rates from 56 kbit/s up to 115 kbit/s. It can be used for services such as Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) access, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), and for Internet communication services such as email and World Wide Web access. GPRS data transfer is typically charged per megabyte of traffic transferred, while data communication via traditional circuit switching is billed per minute of connection time, independent of whether the user actually is utilizing the capacity or is in an idle state. 1xRTT supports bi-directional (up and downlink) peak data rates up to 153. kbit/s, delivering an average user data throughput of 80-100 kbit/s in commercial networks. It can also be used for WAP, SMS & MMS services, as well as Internet access. 2. 75G (EDGE) GPRS1 networks evolved to EDGE networks with the introduction of 8PSK encoding. Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), Enhanced GPRS (EGPRS), or IMT Single Carrier (IMT-SC) is a backward-compatible digital mobile phone technology that allows improved data transmission rates, as an extension on top of standard GSM. EDGE was deployed on GSM networks beginning in 2003—initially by Cingular (now AT&T) in the United States. EDGE is standardized by 3GPP as part of the GSM family and it is an upgrade that provides a potential three-fold increase in capacity of GSM/GPRS networks. Duplex A duplex communication system is a point-to-point system composed of two connected parties or devices that can communicate with one another in both directions. An example of a duplex device is a telephone. The people at both ends of a telephone call can speak at the same time, the earphone can reproduce the speech of the other person as the microphone transmits the speech of the local person, because there is a two-way communication channel between them. Duplex systems are employed in many communications networks, either to allow for a communication â€Å"two-way street† between two connected parties or to provide a â€Å"reverse path† for the monitoring and remote adjustment of equipment in the field. Systems that do not need the duplex capability use instead simplex communication in which one device transmits and the others just â€Å"listen. † Examples are broadcast radio and television, garage door openers, baby monitors, wireless microphones, radio controlled models, surveillance cameras, and missile telemetry.

Killing and Letting Die Essay

Foot’s calculated article entitled, ‘Killing and Letting Die’ is one which provides arguments through hypothetical situation’s, discrediting opinions and beliefs of other modern philosophers. Its main cause is to locate moral differentiation between the active taking of life versus allowing death to occur by means of not producing assistance. Afterwards Foot applies these beliefs onto the sub-topic of abortion, highlighting flawed examples of pro-abortion arguments she then counters these with her own strong outlooks. In this critical report I intend to analyse the relevance and application of Foot’s arguments highlighting both strengths and weaknesses in Foot’s judgements. Foot opens by expressing that in specific circumstances, for instance our negligence to end third world starvation as opposed to the giving of poisoned food to these starving individuals, our moral agency has a role. This is a sound argument, we have sufficient resources to end starvation with little if any detriment to ourselves yet we fail to provide. This failure is just as morally wrong as providing poisoned food. This is not to say Foot believes killing and allowing to die are the same. It is merely her belief in this particular circumstance that they are not morally dissimilar. Proceeding this is a hypothetical proposal of two circumstances: One, in which 6 individuals are reliant on the intake of a certain rare drug. One individual requires the full quota of this specific medification in order to live, thus the other five would not receive the drug and would consequentially die. It is therefore clear to Foot that the five should receive the drug and regrettably allow this individual to die. The other, where five persons require organs and to save their life one patient is killed to obtain these for the five in need. The clear moral distinction between these two is the role played by moral agency. We play our part as an ‘agent’ in the death of a person whereas in the other we cannot be held responsible for the eventual outcome- being his death. It is our active involvement in the case of ‘the killing for spare parts’ which is denounced as morally wrong by Foot, whereas in the case of providing the medicine at a lower quantity to the five patients rather than all the medicine to the one patient; we are not an agent in the death as the resources were insufficient to keep the individual alive. Thus Foot concludes a morally justified stance is adopted. This point is further continued in Foot’s ‘Rescue I’ and ‘Rescue II’ cases she offers. Rescue I involves a rescue team hurrying to save five persons from drowning before the receive news of one person threatened by some other happening, they choose to continue to save the five and regretfully allow him to die. This is then contrasted with the hypothetical situation of Rescue 2. Rescue 2, the rescue team are on their way to save the five from drowning when blocking their road is an individual trapped on their route. To continue and save the five the team would have to drive over the individual resulting in certain death. Foot progresses this point by stating, â€Å"We cannot originate a fatal sequence, although we can allow one to run its course. † It is therefore apparent Foot is establishing her stance as against the idea killing and allowing to die are morally divergent. This stance though can be countered with an example proposed by James Rachels which is recognised by Foot. In the first case, a child is intentionally held underwater in the bath until they drown. And in the second an individual see’s the child slip and fall underwater, whilst the child drowns they do nothing. Foot accepts that both are morally wrong however she provides weak and incoherent reasoning for her contradiction. Resorting to an argument involving ‘levels of badness’, as if an untoward deed can be rated on a scale. It is ludicrous to suggest any act of malicious or evil intent can be inferior to another simply because of the outcome. Also Foot suggests that because the two cases differ in their acts, the result cannot be known to be the same. Foot’s established beliefs are then applied to the sub-topic of abortion, and if there are any situations it is morally justifiable to abort a foetus. Foot introduces an argument voiced by Thomson in favour of abortion. Thomson’s belief is that abortion is always morally justifiable as no human being has the right to use of another’s body, therefore the foetus’ rights are waived and the mother’s rights to remove the foetus as a hindrance take precedence. Foot recites Thomson’s flawed example of an dangerously ill individual being hooked to the body of another person without consent in order to survive being similar to that of a pregnant woman. She continues to say if the unconsenting person detaches himself he is not a murderer as the ill person is proving an inconvenience to them. Foot breaks down this argument by showing there is an intrinsic difference between instigating a fatality and not providing the means to continue life. Foot finds that the language used to describe failing to provide the means to survive does not serve purposes of this argument. Foot indicates the word ‘kill’ is unimportant and it is infact the outcome of death is not instigated by an agent it is otherwise allowed to take place. This is relative to the act of abortion as Foot suggests the foetus is dependant on its mother in the same way children depend on their parent’s for food and shelter. Thus Foot hints that the previous suggestions by Thomson are horrendously faulty, by denouncing her comment that a mother’s rights override a foetus’ rights as it hinders her life. Surely this is saying that if an alive child is proving a encumbrance to it’s parents lives it is morally justifiable that they terminate its life. Foot correctly highlights that the arguments hinges upon the audiences perception of a foetus’ moral status. Be it as a human being or otherwise. Foot proclaims that if the foetus should be considered a human being then Thomson’s argument is as similar to ‘the killing of the man for spare parts’. Concluding that the foetus’ status remains at the core of justifying the opposition or support of abortion as an act.