A vision on a nursing profession Essay

For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to be a nurse, caring for those in need. This feeling ultimately led me to the career choice of nursing and continues the path of higher education in the profession. . Nursing is more than treating an illness, rather it is focused on delivering quality patient care that is individualized to the needs of each patient. As nurses we protect, promote and encourage others to optimize their health abilities, prevention of illness, alleviate suffering and advocate in caring for the individual, their families and the community. Fruechting (2010) states, every discipline has its philosophical foundations and nursing is no different. The purpose of a philosophy is to answer the questions of what nursing is, why does it exist and what ethics and values underpin these beliefs. Fruechting continues to say that nursing philosophy, like any other disciplines-specific philosophy, is what directs and drives research and knowledge development to advan ce the discipline. My philosophy of nursing incorporates the knowledge of medicine, the importance of prevention and the promotion of wellness, while combining it with relational, compassionate caring that respects the dignity of each patient, their families and community. I believe nursing care should be holistic while honoring patient families and community’s values. A crucial aspect of nursing is interprofessional relationships, collaborative efforts among healthcare professionals promoting quality patient care, and making health care easily accessible. A reflection of my philosophy of nursing and the pursuit of higher education. I look at the theories and have not identified any one at this point to ground me and my philosophy, and what learning strategies appeal to me. I have always reflected on patient –centered care and health promotion model as a great fit in my profession and now the possibility of my philosophy. Nursing theory (2013) states that the Health  Promotion Model was designed by Nola J. Pender to be a â€Å"complementary counterpart to models of health protection.† It defines health as a positive dynamic state rather than simply the absence of disease. Health promotion is directed at increasing a patient’s level of well-being. The health promotion model also describes the multidimensional nature of persons as they interact within their environment to pursue health. Nursing theory (2013) states that Abdellah’s Twenty-One Nursing Problems theory of nursing, â€Å"Nursing is based on an art and science that molds the attitudes, intellectual competencies, and techni cal skills of the individual nurse into the desire and ability to help people, sick or well, cope with their health needs.†. The nursing model is intended to guide care in hospitals, but can be applied to community nursing, as well. The model has interrelated concepts of health and nursing problems, as well as problem-solving, which is an activity inherently logical in nature. Abdellah’s theory identifies ten steps to identify the patient’s problem and 11 nursing skills used to develop a treatment typology. Abdellah describes health as a state mutually exclusive of illness. There is no definition of health given by her theory, but she speaks of total health needs and healthy state of mind and body in the description of nursing as a comprehensive service. I would choose both choose this framework due to the emphasis and importance that it puts on relationships, trust, empathy, warmth and being in the present and in tune with one’s own patient –centered care comfortable and at peace to be able to allow one’s self to reflect on the many feelings and emotions that we experience and that changes from minute to minute, day to day and year to year. Therefore, this is the theory that I base my therapy and supervision upon.

How the health and social care practitioner own values, beliefs and experiences Essay

The health and social care practitioner values, beliefs and experiences can influence their delivery of care by what they believe in and what they see as acceptable. It is important as a health practitioner to treat service users equally and to never allow their personal beliefs to affect their role of work. For example giving someone else a special treatment because you like them better and treating a client differently because they do not have the same religion/belief. Treating a service user badly because of their race or their personality is against the practise. The Human Rights Act 1998, The Equality Act of 2010, The Sex Discrimination Act 1975, Equal Opportunities Act 2004 are all legislations that link with equality and diversity. All these acts should be met every individuals needs and should be followed. This should allow all service users to be treated equally regarding their race, gender, religion, disability, sexual orientation, age and belief. It is a health care practi tioner’s duty to provide everyone a non-bias service to every individual’s beliefs. 3.2 Describe how person-centred practice is used to support individuals. Person centred planning is a way of discovering how a person wants to live like now or in the future and to identify what is required to make that possible. It’s a way of helping everyone to think about what is important to them and what services and support they want. Person centred planning can be helpful in answering people these questions. It’s also useful to people in organising their life in a way that is useful for them. For example David’s story it’s about making sure they meet David’s needs. They use person centred planning for David in order for them to communicate with him and give him the best quality of care. Person centred practice is used to support individuals by doing things that people see when using health and social care services as equal. Person centred skills that are enforced to support individuals are used for several reasons, for example lives of individual’s that are supported are improving and are developing. This means by letting their family at the centre of their decisions and working alongside them to their best interest. Person-centred care is not always about providing information to people. It’s about values, considering peoples desires, and seeing Person-centred care is not just about giving people whatever they want or providing information. It is about considering people’s desires, values, family situations, social circumstances and lifestyles; seeing the person as an individual, and working together to develop appropriate solutions. 3.3 Discuss impacts of person-centred practice on individuals. An impact of person-centred practice on individuals meets people’s needs and expectations Person centred approaches is shared decisions making and self-management support to enable people to be more active and defining the outcome that is important to them. It focuses on individual’s personal needs, wants and what they desire the most. This means putting people’s needs first. Person-centred practice might have an impact on individuals because they have a potential to achieve meeting people’s needs and expectations. It might have an impact on them by deciding the treatment and support that is best for them and also managing their health and care. 3.4 Describe ethical dilemmas that may arise when balancing individual’s rights and duty of care. A possible dilemma would be that an individual wants to do something but you think it might be a risk to their duty of care which means you have to do everything you can to keep them safe but, you have to respect the individual’s rights and choices. And if you try and stop the individual from doing something from something they want or from doing something they want to do then you are taking away their independence. Another dilemma that may arise will be confidentiality. If something confidential is mentioned to a colleague or a member of the team and it involves safeguarding and the client might be at harm then, they have to break that confidentiality and pass on the information.

Contemporary environmentally ethical dilemma in the business world Research Paper

Contemporary environmentally ethical dilemma in the business world - Research Paper Example Velasquez & Rostenkowski (1982) averred that â€Å"an act with ethical or moral consequences is that such an act involves decisions freely taken that will have positive or negative consequences for others†. To determine the morality of a decision or an action, one approach is that of utilitarianism which holds that a moral decision or action is one that results in the greatest good for the greatest number of people (Gilbert 2000). The philosophers most commonly identified with this view are two nineteenth century Englishmen, Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. The assumption of this approach is that pleasure causes happiness and pain takes it away. Since pleasure and the happiness it causes are the ultimate good for humans, the act that causes the greatest pleasure or happiness for the greatest number of people is the morally good act. (Gilbert 2000: 4) Socrates, known to be the father of utilitarianism (Kofman & Porter 1998), shares the same view as examining an action based on its consequence for the good of a greater number of people. In this case, the overdevelopment of Florida’s beaches by private conglomerates only satisfies the purpose for profit of a few individuals. The public, who remains to the greatest recipient of these beaches, in the end, suffer from the wanton destruction of these beaches. Another approach to examine the issue of morality in environmental situations is the concept of rights and duties made famous by Immanuel Kant. According to Gilbert (2000), this approach is better explained, to wit: â€Å"the basic position here is that individuals have rights, either as humans, as citizens of a given country or state, or as occupants of a particular position. These right rights confer duties on others, and the morality of a given decision or act can be determined by an analysis of these rights and duties.† The rights of the concerned citizens of Florida

Data Fusion and Data Mining Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Data Fusion and Data Mining - Research Paper Example Every day millions of data are being transmitted by the use of local area networks and the Internet. Aware of the voluminous demand for data storage, computer manufacturing firms regularly innovate file storage devices. They introduce new and more "intelligent" devices and gadgets to cope with this ever-escalating demand for storing and retrieving data.  Despite their success in solving the data storage problem, companies are still hoping to use technologies that will provide them clear information on what really is going on in their businesses. Storing and retrieving myriad chunks of data are not enough to solve pressing business problems. Businessmen need useful information out of these.  Owning data warehouses have partially solved this problem. A data warehouse is used to consolidate data found in different databases. This makes millions of data easily retrieved, interpreted, sorted and accessible by analysts. Though this device largely helps analysts, sorting and storing dat a are not enough to make most out of these data. They still cannot provide us with a clear picture of what is really going on in the firm and in the market (Alexander, n.d.).  Turning numerous data into significant information is the aim of one of the latest technological breakthroughs in computers known as data fusion and data mining. These technologies enable firms to automatically search millions of data that they receive every day "for patterns using tools such as classification, association rule mining, clustering, etc. (Data Mining, 2007)." Data fusion is the method of integrating "diverse data into a single, coherent representation of the tactical, operational or strategic situation (Cyr, 2006)." We can say that data fusion is the first step in data mining. To find patterns, one should consolidate huge chunks of data to find out their similarities. This is exactly what data fusion is doing. Data mining divulges strategically hidden patterns found in huge amounts of data usi ng high-end data analysis methods. It discovers new knowledge instead of testing assumptions that are suggested by users, which are being used by other business intelligence technologies (Sentient Information Systems, n.d.). It is an automated technology that allows exploration, analysis, and visualization of data of very large databases. Having the power to extract novel, implicit and actionable knowledge from large datasets, data mining is used for the discovery of non-obvious and finding out information and knowledge that can develop business processes. Having powerful capabilities makes data mining a very useful tool in business. It is used in sales/marketing, customer retention, buyer behavior, costing, quality control, inventory, and fraud (Williams, Hegland, and Roberts 1998).

Are traffic cameras an invasion of privacy Assignment

Are traffic cameras an invasion of privacy - Assignment Example Before they can drive they are required to have a driving license and by acquiring this document they are abiding by the traffic rules which state that an individual will not drive past a red light. The US circuit court of appeal ruled in a case in 2009 that ‘no one has a fundamental right to run a red light or avoid being seen by a camera on a public street’ (Parveen Idris v. City of Chicago Illinois, 2009). In the event that a driver does this the camera is part of the traffic surveillance system and thus is programmed to capture the image of the offender. The driver will have broken traffic rules. According to the Insurance Institute for highway safety driving is regulated by law and the cameras only capture the people on the wrong side of the traffic rules. They capture the license plate of the vehicle or in other cases as permitted by the law they may be allowed to capture the image of the driver (IIHS, 2011). The law also states that it will be considered an intrusion of privacy if any individual is captured without them knowing (BBB Inc, 2010). In this instance the drivers are always aware that there are cameras installed on highway intersections and in case they cross under a red light they will be captured by the camera. Because they understand the existence of the camera and why it is placed there this cannot be considered an intrusion of privacy unless the camera has been placed there to monitor their activities in the vehicle which is not the case. In many public places there are cameras placed for security purposes, they record people and activities but this is done when the people are aware they are being recorded. In Canada for example the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents act states that unless in very extreme circumstances such surveillance is considered legal when the people who are being monitored are aware that

Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 10

Marketing - Essay Example It thus makes sense to have a bank with a global reach that makes it easy for the expats to access their money in the right currency and amount whenever need arises. Such banks include Barclays, HSBC, City Bank among others (Czinkota and Ronkainen, 2007, p. 119). One of the main reasons expats would be interested in a global bank is that one can have all the information concerning their accounts at all times. Most global banks offer international accounts accessible from any part of the world. This easiness of information access is one reason expats need to consider global banks. They get to know all the charges incurred in all the transactions they make on their accounts. Another reason a global bank is the right choice for expats is that they have the added advantage of not only accessing their money whenever they need it, they also get it in whatever currency they desire. Due to the bank’s global reach, exchange rates are also deemed to be reasonable as they are normalized all across its branches (Czinkota Ronkainen, 2007, p. 77). It also occurs that due to their large sizes, these banks have the luxury of offering the best exchange rates on the market since they enjoy economies of scale. Thus, they make profits depending on volume in spite of exorbitant rates. The expat also gets to build their banking reputation with the given bank thus improving their credit ratings. This is most important when one requires a loan to finance a given project in the new country but is short of funds. Since they have good credit ratings with their banks, they easily qualify for loans without much of a hassle. It is a great way of getting things done. A great advantage with having a global bank is that most of them offer a safe haven for one’s cash. Due to these banks’ sheer size, they are very reliable in terms of the safety of funds. Most of them have been in operation for more than a century and have this most enviable reputation for dependability. The ir big sizes also offer excellent ways for tax efficiency given that they mostly normalize their operations across all branches the world over. It is thus to the benefit of the expat to have such an institution at their service whenever they travel around the world. Besides offering peace of mind, these banks enable the expats focus on other matters while they take care of the monetary matters (Czinkota and Ronkainen, 2007, p. 103). Financial Services That Might Interest Expats Living in Hong Kong and Singapore C5.2 tabulates countries, according to rank, basing on a few selected factors. Among them is the longevity of residence in a foreign country, earning and saving for the expats, the luxury facilities in these countries available to the expat and the cost of accommodation compared to the expats’ domicile. The financial services that would most interest an expat are the earning and saving capabilities, the availability and affordability of luxurious facilities and the cos t of accommodation. The expats’ ability to earn and save money in the new country is of great importance. This depends greatly on the cost of living. If the cost of living in a country is low compared to the amount of money to be earned as an expat working there then that country is deemed to attract a lot of foreigners working and living there. India, Singapore and Hong Kong have the highest rating in this area owing to the low

Mile Durkheim Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Mile Durkheim - Essay Example His family was a rather prominent one in the Jewish community with his male lineage being rabbis. He deviated from this path and became interested in the social sciences. Durkheim found a majority of the humanities in French academia to be uninteresting; therefore he focused on the areas of psychology, philosophy, ethics, and finally sociology. Durkheim’s biggest goal with sociology was that he wanted it to be a quantitatively and scientifically method heavy field. As a result, he wanted to take the scientific method that was used in the natural sciences and use it on society in an effort to describe and predict collective behavior. He believed that a collective consciousness was the glue, which bound everyone together in society. This consisted of beliefs, values, traditions, etc. which all served an important role in unifying society. With the rise of the industrial era and an increase in the segmentation of jobs, he worried that society was changing as the economy was destr oying the collective unconsciousness. Instead, it was being replaced upon the reliability and interconnectedness of economic principles. Being one of sociology’s principle founders, Durkheim played an important role in establishing sociology as a scientific field, rather than just as an abstract humanitarian course. This was achieved because of the emphasis he placed on taking the scientific method and applying it to society so that the research and discipline in the field would proliferate. He died on November 15, 1917.

Presentation Essentials IP Week 5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Presentation Essentials IP Week 5 - Essay Example The examples listed in the topic discussion give real evidence on some of the successful entrepreneurs that have managed to apply interesting business ideas. For instance, it mentions Magic Johnson who used his savings from the property he got from the repairs he made after buying a house. The intended audiences for the topic discussions include; business personnel and entrepreneurs who are aiming at making huge profits from their savings and money meant for business (Howell-Carey & Carey, 2004). Research sources My research sources on the topic include; ‘Learning About Lakefront Property by United States Environment Protection’ ‘The New Path To Real Estate Wealth by Chantal Howell Carey and Bill Carey’ and ‘Legal Aspects of Owning and Managing Woodlands by Thom Mcevoy’ (United States Environment Protection, 2012). The research resources have been useful in giving noteworthy tips of selling and owing income property through using significant bus iness ideas. For instance ‘learning about lake front property states ways an individual discovers pertinent idea of investing on the properties he/she possess either through buying or selling. Other sources states various ways a person can invest on the properties he/she has to generate maximum profits from them. ... The body section highlights on the importance of dealing with focused renters since they determine whether a business person dealing with the process of buying the property will be successful (United States Environment Protection, 2012). Further, a business entrepreneur ought to focus on incredibly low opportunity when purchasing low cost rental property. The author of the book advises business personnel having 20 to 30 dollars to invest in income property and find a suitable location for the business. On the next part, the section of the discussion states a real life example that states the importance of looking what the future holds; it is important to prepare amicably. The appropriateness and effectiveness of your visual aids The visual aids are important in assisting the audience comprehends the concept of the topic being discussed. Hence, I was forced to use visual aids such as charts; graphs and sign language to express and explain my point out valiantly and easily. For example , the charts had good images that showed the audience the best properties to look for when purchasing them. It is important for them to choose something good that will satisfy them (United States Environment Protection, 2012). The audience were able to see the statistics on the properties discussed easily hence making them aware on the expenditure they apply when purchasing them. The visual aids were attached on a mini billboard that was easy to be shown to the audiences easily. The effectiveness of your presentation The effectiveness of my presentation was that I managed to teach and edify the audience on the topic I was discussing; which was ‘The Positive Points of Owning

Does any IR theory present a convincing framework for understanding Essay

Does any IR theory present a convincing framework for understanding global governance Why or why not Discuss with reference to - Essay Example The first time that the concept of IR theory as an academic discipline can be traced back to the book ‘the Twenty Years Crisis’ which was published in 1939 and was written by E.H. Carr. The publication of this book, the occurrence of the First World War and the consequent complexities on the international sphere prompted the University of Wales, Aberystwyth to set up a department dedicated to this subject (Burchill, et al., 2005). With the passage of time, conceptual models evolved in an attempt to explain the complex nature of post World War II- world and currently, several theories are present that aim to explain international politics. We now come to the second part of the question which is global governance. The concept itself is an old one but it has re-emerged in recent years by the name of globalization. Global governance refers to interaction of political nature between transnational actors aimed at solving common issues and problems in the absence of a power of enforcement. These issues and problems may be solved by arrangements which may be formal in the form of laws, treaties and constitutions involving governments, IGOs, NGOs, MNCs and civil society or it may be informal in the form of guidelines or coalitions. ... Secondly, the benefits of globalization have to reach all levels of population so that global governance is sustainable. Thirdly, the difference between global governance and world government needs to be established. Global governance does not seek a central power for the system to work where as world government does. Global governance aims to take some power away from the state in order for global institutions to be strong, autonomous and effective. Only then can global economy, politics and culture be transparent. Global governance has several underlying themes such as a global economy, environmental concerns, democratic political legitimacy at all levels, conflict resolution, freedom of scientific, academic and communication modes and maintenance of peace and security. Successful examples have shown that this is only possible through effective interaction between state and non-state actors. While it has its own merits and demerits, global governance is a new chapter in world polit ics and it is worthy of being explained by at least one of the established IR theories. Of the several IR theories that are present, three will be discussed in an attempt to explain global governance in this piece of literature. They are realism, constructivism and liberalism. Realism is one of the pioneer theories of the discipline of international relations. It consists of three main components namely statism, survival and self-help. Statism refers to the belief that only state actors play a major role in world politics and all the rest of the functional elements of a political system are merely pawns. Survival refers to the belief that there the international system is based upon anarchy or

Project feasibility study report through Primary Research Assignment

Project feasibility study report through Primary Research - Assignment Example This paper will examine how the differences achieve different outcomes and goals between the various universities. By looking at the different universities, there will be different insight into the effectiveness of specific programs as well as the similarities that may be between different regions because of the expectations in design entrepreneurship for the current work force. Introduction Creating a different understanding of design entrepreneurship leads to specific careers and studies in the field. More important, it establishes distinct differences in how individuals receive training and what the outcome is of the education that is received (Reynolds et al, 2005: p 205). When looking at different concepts that are a part of design entrepreneurship as a part of the educational field, it can be seen that cultural and social influences directly impact those which are involved in this career field. More important, there are distinguished alternatives that are used by the teaching m ethods and expectations which are associated with various universities (Henry, Hill, 2005, p 98). ... ave individuals who have the capability to work as their own business while creating teams and working as leaders is one of the main proponents that is associated with this. From the entrepreneurship trends that are a part of society are also new economic standards and expectations that are leading to new types of training needed for those who are going through educational programs. Building ways to train individuals in legitimate areas then becomes a main proponent for the entrepreneurship. For those interested in design, this is furthered with the expectation that most who graduate with a degree will move into an entrepreneurial position, even while working in a specific career field or with a business. The nature of this work has made it pertinent for universities to establish a different option for individuals to understand how to work as design entrepreneurs (Kuratko, 2005: p. 577). Another concept which is specifically associated with entrepreneurship is based specifically on t he expectations for the changes in culture. The different universities which are now creating curricula for students are building on the global nature of a workforce as well as how this is directly associated with entrepreneurs. There is an understanding of how the universities can move to offer more options for a global corporate structure. At the same time, there is the need to understand how to create a different structure based on setting each university apart. Through current studies (Kothari, Handscombe, 2007, p 43), there is an understanding that universities are trying to educate students for a global work force. However, many are also using cultural differences as a way to create differences between the schools, specifically so there are distinctions for national prosperity as well

Western philosophy Essay Example for Free

Western philosophy Essay Philosophy is the discipline concerned with questions of how one should live (ethics); what sorts of things exist and what are their essential natures (metaphysics); what counts as genuine knowledge (epistemology); and what are the correct principles of reasoning (logic). The word is of Ancient Greek origin (philosophia), meaning love of wisdom. Definition of philosophy: Every definition of philosophy is controversial. The field has historically expanded and changed depending upon what kinds of questions were interesting or relevant in a given era. It is generally agreed that philosophy is a method, rather than a set of claims, propositions, or theories. Its investigations are based upon rational thinking, striving to make no unexamined assumptions and no leaps based on faith or pure analogy. Different philosophers have had varied ideas about the nature of reason. There is also disagreement about the subject matter of philosophy. Some think that philosophy examines the process of inquiry itself. Others, that there are essentially philosophical propositions which it is the task of philosophy to answer. Although the word philosophy originates in Ancient Greece, many figures in the history of other cultures have addressed similar topics in similar ways. The philosophers of East and South Asia are discussed in Eastern philosophy, while the philosophers of North Africa and the Middle East, because of their strong interactions with Europe, are usually considered part of Western philosophy. Branches of philosophy: The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as to seem not worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it. To give an exhaustive list of the main divisions of philosophy is difficult, because various topics have been studied by philosophers at various times. Ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, and logic are usually included. Other topics include politics, aesthetics, and religion. In addition, most academic subjects have a philosophy, for example the philosophy of science, the philosophy of mathematics, and the philosophy of history. Metaphysics was first studied systematically by Aristotle. He did not use that term; the term emerged because in later editions of Aristotles works the book on what is now called metaphysics came after Aristotles study of physics. He calls the subject first philosophy (or sometimes just wisdom), and says it is the subject that deals with first causes and the principles of things. The modern meaning of the term is any inquiry dealing with the ultimate nature of what exists. Epistemology is concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge, and whether knowledge is possible. Ethics, or moral philosophy, is concerned with questions of how agents ought to act. Platos early dialogues constitute a search for definitions of virtue. Metaethics is the study of whether ethical value judgments can be objective at all. Ethics can also be conducted within a religious context. Logic has two broad divisions: mathematical logic (formal symbolic logic) and what is now called philosophical logic, the logic of language. Greek philosophy and Hellenistic philosophy: Ancient Greek philosophy may be divided into the pre-Socratic period, the Socratic period, and the post-Aristotelian period (or Hellenistic period). The pre-Socratic period was characterized by metaphysical speculation, often preserved in the form of grand, sweeping statements, such as All is fire or All changes. Important pre-Socratic philosophers include Pythagoras, Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Democritus, Parmenides, Heraclitus, and Empedocles. The Socratic period is named in honor of Socrates, who, along with his pupil Plato, revolutionized philosophy through the use of the Socratic method, which developed the very general philosophical methods of definition, analysis, and synthesis. While no writings of Socrates survive, his influence as a skeptic is transmitted through Platos works. Platos writings are often considered basic texts in philosophy as they defined the fundamental issues of philosophy for future generations. These issues and others were taken up by Aristotle, who studied at Platos school, the Academy, and who often disagreed with what Plato had written. The subsequent period ushered in such philosophers as Euclid, Epicurus, Chrysippus, Hipparchia the Cynic, Pyrrho, and Sextus Empiricus. Though many of these philosophers may seem irrelevant given current scientific knowledge, their systems of thought continue to influence both philosophy and science today. Medieval philosophy History: Medieval philosophy is the philosophy of Western Europe and the Middle East during what is now known as the medieval era or the Middle Ages, roughly extending from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance period. Medieval philosophy is defined partly by the rediscovery and further development of classical Greek philosophy and Hellenistic philosophy, and partly by the need to address theological problems and to integrate sacred doctrine (in Islam, Judaism and Christianity) and secular learning. Some problems discussed throughout this period are the relation of faith to reason, the existence and unity of God, the object of theology and metaphysics, the problems of knowledge, of universals, and of individuation. Philosophers from the Middle Ages include the Muslim philosophers Alkindus, Alfarabi, Alhacen, Avicenna, Algazel, Avempace, Abubacer and Averroes; the Jewish philosophers Maimonides and Gersonides; and the Christian philosophers Anselm, Peter Abelard, Roger Bacon, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, William of Ockham and Jean Buridan. Early modern philosophy History(c. 1600 c. 1800): Modern philosophy is usually considered to begin with the revival of skepticism and the genesis of modern physical science. Canonical figures include Montaigne, Descartes, Locke, Spinoza, Leibniz, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. Chronologically, this era spans the 17th and 18th centuries, and is generally considered to end with Kants systematic attempt to reconcile Newtonian physics with traditional metaphysical topics. Later modern philosophy History(c. 1800 c. 1960): Later modern philosophy is usually considered to begin after the philosophy of Immanuel Kant at the beginning of the 19th-century. German idealists, Fichte, Hegel, Hoelderlin, Schelling, expanded on the work of Kant by maintaining that the world is rational and it is knowable as rational. Rejecting idealism, other philosophers, many working from outside the university, initiated lines of thought that would occupy academic philosophy in the early and mid-20th century: Contemporary philosophy History(c. 1960 present): In the last hundred years, philosophy has increasingly become an activity practiced within the modern research university, and accordingly it has grown more specialized and more distinct from the natural sciences. Much of philosophy in this period concerns itself with explaining the relation between the theories of the natural sciences and the ideas of the humanities or common sense. It is arguable that later modern philosophy ended with contemporary philosophys shift of focus from 19th century philosophers to 20th century philosophers. Realism and nominalism in Philosophy: Realism sometimes means the position opposed to the 18th-century Idealism, namely that some things have real existence outside the mind. Classically, however, realism is the doctrine that abstract entities corresponding to universal terms like man have a real existence. It is opposed to nominalism, the view that abstract or universal terms are words only, or denote mental states such as ideas, beliefs, or intentions. The latter position, famously held by William of Ockham, is conceptualism. Rationalism and empiricism in Philosophy: Rationalism is any view emphasizing the role or importance of human reason. Extreme rationalism tries to base all knowledge on reason alone. Rationalism typically starts from premises that cannot coherently be denied, then attempts by logical steps to deduce every possible object of knowledge. The first rationalist, in this broad sense, is often held to be Parmenides (fl. 480 BCE), who argued that it is impossible to doubt that thinking actually occurs. But thinking must have an object, therefore something beyond thinking really exists. Parmenides deduced that what really exists must have certain properties for example, that it cannot come into existence or cease to exist, that it is a coherent whole, that it remains the same eternally (in fact, exists altogether outside time). Zeno of Elea (born c. 489 BCE) was a disciple of Parmenides, and argued that motion is impossible, since the assertion that it exists implies a contradiction. Plato (427-347 BCE) was also influenced by Parmenides, but combined rationalism with a form of realism. The philosophers work is to consider being, and the essence of things. But the characteristic of essences is that they are universal. The nature of a man, a triangle, a tree, applies to all men, all triangles, all trees. Plato argued that these essences are mind-independent forms, that humans (but particularly philosophers) can come to know by reason, and by ignoring the distractions of sense-perception. Modern rationalism begins with Descartes. Reflection on the nature of perceptual experience, as well as scientific discoveries in physiology and optics, led Descartes (and also Locke) to the view that we are directly aware of ideas, rather than objects. This view gave rise to three questions: Is an idea a true copy of the real thing that it represents? Sensation is not a direct interaction between bodily objects and our sense, but is a physiological process involving representation (for example, an image on the retina). Locke thought that a secondary quality such as a sensation of green could in no way resemble the arrangement of particles in matter that go to produce this sensation, although he thought that primary qualities such as shape, size, number, were really in objects. How can physical objects such as chairs and tables, or even physiological processes in the brain, give rise to mental items such as ideas? This is part of what became known as the mind-body problem. If all the contents of awareness are ideas, how can we know that anything exists apart from ideas? Descartes tried to address the last problem by reason. He began, echoing Parmenides, with a principle that he thought could not coherently be denied: I think, therefore I am (often given in his original Latin: Cogito ergo sum). From this principle, Descartes went on to construct a complete system of knowledge (which involves proving the existence of God, using, among other means, a version of the ontological argument). His view that reason alone could yield substantial truths about reality strongly influenced those philosophers usually considered modern rationalists (such as Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz, and Christian Wolff), while provoking criticism from other philosophers who have retrospectively come to be grouped together as empiricists. Empiricism, in contrast to rationalism, downplays or dismisses the ability of reason alone to yield knowledge of the world, preferring to base any knowledge we have on our senses. John Locke propounded the classic empiricist view in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding in 1689, developing a form of naturalism and empiricism on roughly scientific (and Newtonian) principles. During this era, religious ideas played a mixed role in the struggles that preoccupied secular philosophy. Bishop Berkeleys famous idealist refutation of key tenets of Isaac Newton is a case of an Enlightenment philosopher who drew substantially from religious ideas. Other influential religious thinkers of the time include Blaise Pascal, Joseph Butler, and Jonathan Edwards. Other major writers, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Edmund Burke, took a rather different path. The restricted interests of many of the philosophers of the time foreshadow the separation and specialization of different areas of philosophy that would occur in the 20th century. Skepticism in Philosophy: Skepticism is a philosophical attitude that questions the possibility of obtaining any sort of knowledge. It was first articulated by Pyrrho, who believed that everything could be doubted except appearances. Sextus Empiricus (2nd century CE) describes skepticism as an ability to place in antithesis, in any manner whatever, appearances and judgments, and thus to come first of all to a suspension of judgment and then to mental tranquility. Skepticism so conceived is not merely the use of doubt, but is the use of doubt for a particular end: a calmness of the soul, or ataraxia. Skepticism poses itself as a challenge to dogmatism, whose adherents think they have found the truth. Sextus noted that the reliability of perception may be questioned, because it is idiosyncratic to the perceiver. The appearance of individual things changes depending on whether they are in a group: for example, the shavings of a goats horn are white when taken alone, yet the intact horn is black. A pencil, when viewed lengthwise, looks like a stick; but when examined at the tip, it looks merely like a circle. Skepticism was revived in the early modern period by Michel de Montaigne and Blaise Pascal. Its most extreme exponent, however, was David Hume. Hume argued that there are only two kinds of reasoning: what he called probable and demonstrative (cf Humes fork). Neither of these two forms of reasoning can lead us to a reasonable belief in the continued existence of an external world. Demonstrative reasoning cannot do this, because demonstration (that is, deductive reasoning from well-founded premises) alone cannot establish the uniformity of nature (as captured by scientific laws and principles, for example). Such reason alone cannot establish that the future will resemble the past. We have certain beliefs about the world (that the sun will rise tomorrow, for example), but these beliefs are the product of habit and custom, and do not depend on any sort of logical inferences from what is already given certain. But probable reasoning (inductive reasoning), which aims to take us from the observed to the unobserved, cannot do this either: it also depends on the uniformity of nature, and this supposed uniformity cannot be proved, without circularity, by any appeal to uniformity. The best that either sort of reasoning can accomplish is conditional truth: if certain assumptions are true, then certain conclusions follow. So nothing about the world can be established with certainty. Hume concludes that there is no solution to the skeptical argument except, in effect, to ignore it. Even if these matters were resolved in every case, we would have in turn to justify our standard of justification, leading to an infinite regress (hence the term regress skepticism). Many philosophers have questioned the value of such skeptical arguments. The question of whether we can achieve knowledge of the external world is based on how high a standard we set for the justification of such knowledge. If our standard is absolute certainty, then we cannot progress beyond the existence of mental sensations. We cannot even deduce the existence of a coherent or continuing I that experiences these sensations, much less the existence of an external world. On the other hand, if our standard is too low, then we admit follies and illusions into our body of knowledge. This argument against absolute skepticism asserts that the practical philosopher must move beyond solipsism, and accept a standard for knowledge that is high but not absolute. Idealism in Philosophy: Idealism is the epistemological doctrine that nothing can be directly known outside of the minds of thinking beings. Or in an alternative stronger form, it is the metaphysical doctrine that nothing exists apart from minds and the contents of minds. In modern Western philosophy, the epistemological doctrine begins as a core tenet of Descartes that what is in the mind is known more reliably than what is known through the senses. The first prominent modern Western idealist in the metaphysical sense was George Berkeley. Berkeley argued that there is no deep distinction between mental states, such as feeling pain, and the ideas about so-called external things, that appear to us through the senses. There is no real distinction, in this view, between certain sensations of heat and light that we experience, which lead us to believe in the external existence of a fire, and the fire itself. Those sensations are all there is to fire. Berkeley expressed this with the Latin formula esse est percipi: to be is to be perceived. In this view the opinion, strangely prevailing upon men, that houses, mountains, and rivers have an existence independent of their perception by a thinking being is false. Forms of idealism were prevalent in philosophy from the 18th century to the early 20th century. Transcendental idealism, advocated by Immanuel Kant, is the view that there are limits on what can be understood, since there is much that cannot be brought under the conditions of objective judgment. Kant wrote his Critique of Pure Reason (1781-1787) in an attempt to reconcile the conflicting approaches of rationalism and empiricism, and to establish a new groundwork for studying metaphysics. Kants intention with this work was to look at what we know and then consider what must be true about it, as a logical consequence of, the way we know it. One major theme was that there are fundamental features of reality that escape our direct knowledge because of the natural limits of the human faculties. Although Kant held that objective knowledge of the world required the mind to impose a conceptual or categorical framework on the stream of pure sensory data a framework including space and time themselves he maintained that things-in-themselves existed independently of  our perceptions and judgments; he was therefore not an idealist in any simple sense. Indeed, Kants account of things-in-themselves is both controversial and highly complex. Continuing his work, Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Friedrich Schelling dispensed with belief in the independent existence of the world, and created a thoroughgoing idealist philosophy. The most notable work of this German idealism was G. W. F. Hegels Phenomenology of Spirit, of 1807. Hegel admitted his ideas werent new, but that all the previous philosophies had been incomplete. His goal was to correctly finish their job. Hegel asserts that the twin aims of philosophy are to account for the contradictions apparent in human experience (which arise, for instance, out of the supposed contradictions between being and not being ), and also simultaneously to resolve and preserve these contradictions by showing their compatibility at a higher level of examination (being and not being are resolved with becoming) . This program of acceptance and reconciliation of contradictions is known as the Hegelian dialectic. Philosophers in the Hegelian tradition include Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach, who coined the term projection as pertaining to our inability to recognize anything in the external world without projecting qualities of ourselves upon those things, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and the British idealists, notably T. H. Green, J. M. E. McTaggart, and F. H. Bradley. Few 20th century philosophers have embraced idealism. However, quite a few have embraced Hegelian dialectic. Immanuel Kants Copernican Turn also remains an important philosophical concept today. Pragmatism in Philosophy: Pragmatism was founded in the spirit of finding a scientific concept of truth, which is not dependent on either personal insight (or revelation) or reference to some metaphysical realm. The truth of a statement should be judged by the effect it has on our actions and truth should be seen as that which the whole of scientific enquiry will ultimately agree on. This should probably be seen as a guiding principle more than a definition of what it means for something to be true, though the details of how this principle should be interpreted have been subject to discussion since Peirce first conceived it. Like Rorty many seem convinced that Pragmatism holds that the truth of beliefs does not consist in their correspondence with reality, but in their usefulness and efficacy. The late 19th-century American philosophers Charles Peirce and William James were its co-founders, and it was later developed by John Dewey as instrumentalism. Since the usefulness of any belief at any time might be contingent on circumstance, Peirce and James conceptualised final truth as that which would be established only by the future, final settlement of all opinion. Critics have accused pragmatism of falling victim to a simple fallacy: because something that is true proves useful, that usefulness is the basis for its truth. Thinkers in the pragmatist tradition have included John Dewey, George Santayana,W. V. O. Quine and C. I. Lewis. Phenomenology in Philosophy: Edmund Husserls phenomenology was an ambitious attempt to lay the foundations for an account of the structure of conscious experience in general. An important part of Husserls phenomenological project was to show that all conscious acts are directed at or about objective content, a feature that Husserl called intentionality. In the first part of his two-volume work, the Logical Investigations (1901), he launched an extended attack on psychologism. In the second part, he began to develop the technique of descriptive phenomenology, with the aim of showing how objective judgments are indeed grounded in conscious experience not, however, in the first-person experience of particular individuals, but in the properties essential to any experiences of the kind in question. He also attempted to identify the essential properties of any act of meaning. He developed the method further in Ideas (1913) as transcendental phenomenology, proposing to ground actual experience, and thus all fields of human knowledge, in the structure of consciousness of an ideal, or transcendental, ego. Later, he attempted to reconcile his transcendental standpoint with an acknowledgement of the intersubjective life-world in which real individual subjects interact. Husserl published only a few works in his lifetime, which treat phenomenology mainly in abstract methodological terms; but he left an enormous quantity of unpublished concrete analyses. Husserls work was immediately influential in Germany, with the foundation of phenomenological schools in Munich and Gottingen. Phenomenology later achieved international fame through the work of such philosophers as Martin Heidegger (formerly Husserls research assistant), Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Indeed, through the work of Heidegger and Sartre, Husserls focus on subjective experience influenced aspects of existentialism. Existentialism in Philosophy: Although they didnt use the term, the nineteenth century philosophers Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche are widely regarded as the fathers of existentialism. Their influence, however, has extended beyond existentialist thought. The main target of Kierkegaards writings was the idealist philosophical system of Hegel which, he thought, ignored or excluded the inner subjective life of living human beings. Kierkegaard, conversely, held that truth is subjectivity, arguing that what is most important to an actual human being are questions dealing with an individuals inner relationship to existence. In particular, Kierkegaard, a Christian, believed that the truth of religious faith was a subjective question, and one to be wrestled with passionately. Although Kierkegaard and Nietzsche were among his influences, the extent to which the German philosopher Martin Heidegger should be considered an existentialist is debatable. In Being and Time he presented a method of rooting philosophical explanations in human existence (Dasein) to be analysed in terms of existential categories (existentiale); and this has led many commentators to treat him as an important figure in the existentialist movement. However, in The Letter on Humanism, Heidegger explicitly rejected the existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre. Sartre became the best-known proponent of existentialism, exploring it not only in theoretical works such as Being and Nothingness , but also in plays and novels. Sartre, along with Albert Camus and Simone de Beauvoir, all represented an avowedly atheistic branch of existentialism, which is now more closely associated with their ideas of nausea, contingency, bad faith, and the absurd than with Kierkegaards spiritual angst. Nevertheless, the focus on the individual human being, responsible before the universe for the authenticity of his or her existence, is common to all these thinkers. Structuralism and post-structuralism in Philosophy: Inaugurated by the linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, structuralism sought to ferret out the underlying systems through analysing the discourses they both limit and make possible. Saussure conceived of the sign as being delimited by all the other signs in the system, and ideas as being incapable of existence prior to linguistic structure, which articulates thought. This led continental thought away from humanism, and toward what was termed the decentering of man: language is no longer spoken by man to express a true inner self, but language speaks man. Structuralism sought the province of a hard science, but its positivism soon came under fire by poststructuralism, a wide field of thinkers, some of whom were once themselves structuralists, but later came to criticize it. Structuralists believed they could analyse systems from an external, objective standing, for example, but the poststructuralists argued that this is incorrect, that one cannot transcend structures and thus analysis is itself determined by what it examines, that systems are ultimately self-referential. Furthermore, while the distinction between the signifier and signified was treated as crystalline by structuralists, poststructuralists asserted that every attempt to grasp the signified would simply result in the proliferation of more signifiers, so meaning is always in a state of being deferred, making an ultimate interpretation impossible. Structuralism came to dominate continental philosophy from the 1960s onward, encompassing thinkers as diverse as Michel Foucault and Jacques Lacan. The analytic tradition in Philosophy: The term analytic philosophy roughly designates a group of philosophical methods that stress clarity of meaning above all other criteria. The philosophy developed as a critique of Hegel and his followers in particular, and of speculative philosophy in general. Some schools in the group include 20th-century realism, logical atomism, logical positivism, and ordinary language. The motivation is to have philosophical studies go beyond personal opinion and begin to have the cogency of mathematical proofs. In 1921, Ludwig Wittgenstein published his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, which gave a rigidly logical account of linguistic and philosophical issues. At the time, he understood most of the problems of philosophy as mere puzzles of language, which could be solved by clear thought. Years later he would reverse a number of the positions he had set out in the Tractatus, in for example his second major work, Philosophical Investigations (1953). Investigations encouraged the development of ordinary language philosophy, which was promoted by Gilbert Ryle, J.L. Austin, and a few others. The ordinary language philosophy thinkers shared a common outlook with many older philosophers (Jeremy Bentham, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and John Stuart Mill), and it was this style of philosophical inquiry that characterized English-language philosophy for the second half of the 20th century. Ethics and political in Philosophy: From ancient times, and well beyond them, the roots of justification for political authority were inescapably tied to outlooks on human nature. In The Republic, Plato declared that the ideal society would be run by a council of philosopher-kings, since those best at philosophy are best able to realize the good. Even Plato, however, required philosophers to make their way in the world for many years before beginning their rule at the age of fifty. For Aristotle, humans are political animals (i. e. social animals), and governments are set up in order to pursue good for the community. Aristotle reasoned that, since the state (polis) was the highest form of community, it has the purpose of pursuing the highest good. Aristotle viewed political power as the result of natural inequalities in skill and virtue. Because of these differences, he favored an aristocracy of the able and virtuous. For Aristotle, the person cannot be complete unless he or she lives in a community. His The Nicomachean Ethics and The Politics are meant to be read in that order. The first book addresses virtues (or excellences) in the person as a citizen; the second addresses the proper form of government to ensure that citizens will be virtuous, and therefore complete. Both books deal with the essential role of justice in civic life. Nicolas of Cusa rekindled Platonic thought in the early 15th century. He promoted democracy in Medieval Europe, both in his writings and in his organization of the Council of Florence. Unlike Aristotle and the Hobbesian tradition to follow, Cusa saw human beings as equal and divine (that is, made in Gods image), so democracy would be the only just form of government. Cusas views are credited by some as sparking the Italian Renaissance, which gave rise to the notion of Nation-States. Later, Niccolo Machiavelli rejected the views of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas as unrealistic. The ideal sovereign is not the embodiment of the moral virtues; rather the sovereign does whatever is successful and necessary, rather than what is morally praiseworthy. Thomas Hobbes also contested many elements of Aristotles views. For Hobbes, human nature is essentially anti-social: people are essentially egoistic, and this egoism makes life difficult in the natural state of things. Moreover, Hobbes argued, though people may have natural inequalities, these are trivial, since no particular talents or virtues that people may have will make them safe from harm inflicted by others. For these reasons, Hobbes concluded that the state arises from a common agreement to raise the community out of the state of nature. This can only be done by the establishment of a sovereign, in which (or whom) is vested complete control over the community, and which is able to inspire awe and terror in its subjects. Many in the Enlightenment were unsatisfied with existing doctrines in political philosophy, which seemed to marginalize or neglect the possibility of a democratic state. David Hume was among the first philosophers to question the existence of God, circa 1700. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was among those who attempted to overturn these doctrines: he responded to Hobbes by claiming that a human is by nature a kind of noble savage, and that society and social contracts corrupt this nature. Another critic was John Locke. In Second Treatise on Government he agreed with Hobbes that the nation-state was an efficient tool for raising humanity out of a deplorable state, but he argued that the sovereign might become an abominable institution compared to the relatively benign unmodulated state of nature. Following the doctrine of the fact-value distinction, due in part to the influence of David Hume and his student Adam Smith, appeals to human nature for political justification were weakened. Nevertheless, many political philosophers, especially moral realists, still make use of some essential human nature as a basis for their arguments. Consequentialism, Deontological ethics, and Virtue ethics in Philosophy: One debate that has commanded the attention of ethicists in the modern era has been between consequentialism (actions are to be morally evaluated solely by their consequences) and deontology (actions are to be morally evaluated solely by consideration of agents duties, the rights of those whom the action concerns, or both).

The Importance Of Wastewater Treatment Environmental Sciences Essay

The Importance Of Wastewater Treatment Environmental Sciences Essay Water scarcity is the major problem that is faced all across the world. Although 2/3rd of the earths crust is made up of water but all this water is not available for drinking and for other human activities as either it is locked in the form of ice or present in the form of vast saline oceans and seas. It has been found out that 97% of the total water is salty that is of no use to human and animals (except marine animal) and the remaining three percent is available as freshwater. More than half of this three percent is locked in glacier and less than 0.01% is available as fresh water. So water resources are less as compare to human demand for water. Above this, the major part of water that can be consumed is getting polluted because of human activities. This polluted and untreated water is causing abundant water borne diseases. Then the world is facing a huge climatic change which is further aggravating the water problem. Some of the regions are getting more rain water than earlier and some are getting almost negligible. Experts even believe that the next World War would not be for oil or land but it will be for water. Also because of improper use of water and lack of water treatment, the problem of water crisis will further increase where 884 million people are already not getting easy access to safe drinking water. And a further 2.5 billion people are getting difficult access to water for disposable and sanitation. Agriculture is also overusing and polluting the ground water thus depleting the natural source of water. So here water treatment plants will play important role. Water crisis at present is the biggest problem according to the United Nations. Almost 25 countries of Africa, parts of China, Peru and Brazil in Latin America, some parts of Middle East like Iran, Chile, Mexico, and Paraguay are some of the countries that are facing the water crisis. Even other parts of the world are facing the varied levels of the water crisis. Because of acute shortage of water, the food problems are getting aggravated. About 40 million people in Africa are facing the problem of food shortage. It is expected that if the similar conditions will persist then there will be 500 million till 2025 who will suffer from these problems. Nature has its role but the major water problem is arising because of its increasing consumption and faulty usage. Major chunk of the problem can be solved if the wastewater treatment is taken very seriously and precautions at every step are taken to improve the water quality. The supply and demand The demand for fresh clean water delivered to our homes is ever increasing as more and more residential homes are being established. Although 70% of the world is covered with water, only 1% is fresh water and thus raises a need to recycle waste water to satisfy our needs. Efforts to continuously recycle waste water are always stressed upon as a shortage would mean a disaster in heavily populated areas. Governments have committed billions towards research and development to such projects. Fresh water is also needed in agriculture. The demand for water in this sector is very high as farmer need fresh water for crops and cattle. Therefore, stresses the demand for sewage water treatment plants to be built. Water from rivers and lake are inadequate to provide water for farm and residences alike. The supply of sewage water treatment facilities are slowly dwindling. A crisis may arise from a lack of sewage water treatment plants as this would greatly reduce the supply of fresh water. Governments are desperately trying to keep up with the pace of development of the population but are slowly lagging behind. The supply of fresh water will be adequate for the next few years but if the development of sewage water treatment plant continues at its current pace it without a doubt a shortage would take place. Furthermore, the agriculture industry will be greatly impacted and the supply of food will go down as well leading to famine due to a shortage of water. The prospects of this industry The wastewater treatment industry most probably will be successful in future due to presence of new wastewater treatment technologies. Advanced Immobilized Cell Reactor technology is one of the new technologies which immobilize the organisms such as bacteria in the pores of the carbon matrix. This process can avoid the immobilized organisms from shock load application as the diffusion of the pollutants from bulk fluid phase to organisms follows Ficks law. Through conventional biological wastewater treatment, infinite electrical energy and vast land area are being consumed. Besides that, a huge investment in electromechanical equipment is involved which will bring about a huge total cost of operation. Generally, the total cost of operation for new technology is lowered compared to the convention technology. By using the new technology, the total cost of operation can be cut down to approximately 50 percent of the total cost of conventional treatment. Furthermore, the biological oxygen demand and chemical oxygen demand are reduced by 94 percent and 90 percent respectively. Oxygen consumption in the new technology is lower than in conventional technology. The oxygen gas is supplied in the form if compressed air from the bottom of the reactor. Both liquid and gas streams are in counter-current direction which facilitates the oxidation of dissolved organics and desorbs the converted products. This is to make sure the activated carbon keep up its activity throughout the process. Moreover, with all those new wastewater technologies such as Advanced Oxidation Process, NERV (Natural Endogenous Respiration Vessel), Wet oxidation and many others processes, wastewater treatment can be done efficiently. For instant, through the new technologies less land is required to use to build plant; the power consumption is lowered. Besides that, the requirement for electrical and mechanical equipment is lower compared to conventional technology. In a conclusion, wastewater treatment industries have a good prospect in the future with the help of new technologies. By using all those new technologies, waste water treatment can be done efficiently with lower overall lifecycle costs, lesser energy and equipment needed. We are sure that there is more new technologies will be invented in order to improve the wastewater treatment. The impact on the environment When the waste water is mixed with the waste materials such like garbage, household waste, toilets liquid and disposable things, the resulting product called sewage or waste water. This sewage water is normally will undergo a few process before it is release to the environment but there are still some impact on the environment. One of the impacts on the environment is agricultural impacts. The sewage water contains salts which is soluble that may accumulate in the root zone with possible harmful effect on soil health and crop yield. The physical and mechanical properties of the soil, such as dispersion of particle, stability of aggregates, soil structure and permeability are very sensitive to the types of exchangeable ions present in irrigation water. Thus, when effluent use is being planned, several factors related to the soil properties must be taken into consideration. On the other hand the effect of dissolved solids in the irrigation water on the growth of plants is also another aspect of agriculture which we have to concern. Dissolved salts increase the osmotic potential of soil water and increase the osmotic pressure of the soil solution which increases the growth and the yield of most plants decline progressively as osmotic pressure increases. In addition the one of the environment impact is ecological impact where the drainage water from waste water irrigation schemes drains particularly into small confined lakes and water bodies and surface water, and if phosphatesin the ortho phosphate form are present, the remains of nutrients may cause eutrophication. Here the overloading organic materials resulting in decrease in dissolved oxygen may lead to changes in the composition of a aquatic life such as fish deaths and reduced fishery. The eutrophication potential of waste water irrigation can be assessed using biological indices, which in turn can be qualified in monitory units using economic valuation techniques. The hidden impact on the environment is the increase on the production of green house emissions. The large agriculture reuse project might cause to the environmental externalities associated with pumping water uphill which emits greenhouse gas. Another impact is on the health. The sewage water contains pathogenic microorganisms like bacteria, viruses, protozoans and parasitic worms, the diseases and signs related with such infection are also diverse including typhoid,dysentry and cholera, diarrhea and vomiting. the concentration of he pathogens in waste water is dependent on the source population and the susceptibility to infection varies from one population to another. So basically he waste water is actually harm for the nature even though its treated and release to the environment so as a human being we should not dispose the waste into the water thus our water will be clean and the cost of the treatment can be reduced. The Processes involved in this industry Pre-Treatment(prepared by Brian Lee CL, 0902669) Pre-treatment consists of three sub-stages which are Screening, Grit Removal and Fat and Grease Removal. Pre-treatment is done to remove materials which are easily collected such as debris, leaves and trash which would damage or clog up pumps and skimmers of the primary treatment. Screening is used to remove large objects such as leaves, twigs and cans in the sewage stream. This is normally done with a giant mechanical rake bar which is automated. The rake bar revolves around a central axis at a rate varying on the accumulation and flow rate of the sewage stream. The screens vary in sizes to optimize solid removal. Objects accumulated are collected and disposed in landfills. Grit is minute granules such as sand or stone. The wastewater is channeled to a chamber where to velocity of the water is adjusted so that the grit would settle at the bottom of the chamber. Grit may cause damage to the pumps or other equipment. Grit removal may not necessary in smaller plant. Fat and grease are groups of compounds which are generally insoluble in water. The fat and grease are normally found floating on the surface of the water. In some plants, the fat and grease are removed by using skimmers to collect the fat and grease on the surface of the water in a small tank. However this can also be done in the Primary treatment stage in the same manner. 2) Primary treatment (prepared by Tan HY, 0903497) Primary wastewater treatment is the second step in the wastewater treatment process ahead of the preliminary treatment of a headworks, involves the physical separation of suspended solids from the wastewater flow using primary clarifiers. The objective of primary treatment is the removal of settle able organic and inorganic solids by sedimentation, and the removal of materials that will float (scum) by skimming. Approximately 25 to 50% of the incoming biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), 50 to 70% of the total suspended solids (SS), and 65% of the oil and grease are removed during primary treatment. Some organic nitrogen, organic phosphorus, and heavy metals associated with solids are also removed during primary sedimentation but colloidal and dissolved constituents are not affected. The effluent from primary sedimentation units is referred to as primary effluent. On the other hand, primary treatment is the minimum level of reapplication treatment required for wastewater irrigation. It may be considered sufficient treatment if the wastewater is used to irrigate crops that are not consumed by humans or to irrigate orchards, vineyards, and some processed food crops. However, to prevent potential nuisance conditions in storage or flow-equalizing reservoirs, some form of secondary treatment is normally required  in  these countries, even in the case of non-food crop irrigation. It may be possible to use at least a portion of primary effluent for irrigation if off-line storage is provided. Primary sedimentation tanks or clarifiers may be round or rectangular basins, typically 3 to 5 m deep, with hydraulic retention time between 2 and 3 hours. Settled solids (primary sludge) are normally removed from the bottom of tanks by sludge rakes that scrape the sludge to a central well from which it is pumped to sludge processing units. Scum is swept across the tank surface by water jets or mechanical means from which it is also pumped to sludge processing units. 2) Secondly treatment (prepared by Harintharan S, 1101379) The secondary treatment in this sewage treatment is one of the most important part in this process. This process is basically designed to remove the waste product from the sewage. This system is also classified as fixed-film  or suspended-growth  systems. The secondary treatment contain a few processes, the 1st process is activated sludge. This activated sludge is majority from the plants which encompass the variety of mechanisms and processes that use dissolve oxygen  to promote the growth of biological flock that substantially removes organic material. This process basically change the ammonia  to  nitrite  and  nitrate  and ultimately to  nitrogen  gas. The 2nd process is this treatment is the Surface-aerated basins also known as Lagoons. This process basically removes the BOD from the sewage water. In an aerated basin system, the aerators provide two functions: they transfer air into the basins required by the biological oxidation reactions, and they provide t he mixing required for dispersing the air and for contacting the reactants (that is, oxygen, wastewater and microbes).However, they do not provide as good mixing as is normally achieved in activated sludge systems and therefore aerated basins do not achieve the same performance level as activated sludge units. The biological oxidation in the Surface-aerated basins is sensitive to the temperature and the rate of reaction increase with the temperature. The suitable temperature for this process is in between  0  °C and 40  °C. Besides that the constructed wetland is one of the process also. This process is a process which cleans the drainage of animals and used to recycle the waste water. The constructed wetland are known to be highly productive systems as they copy natural wetlands, called the Kidneys of the earth for their fundamental recycling capacity of the hydrological cycle in the biosphere and they provide a high degree of biological improvement but depending on design. T he next process is the filter beds which is knows as oxidizing beds are used where the settled sewage liquor is spread onto the surface of a bed made up of  coke, then liquor is typically distributed through perforated spray arms, then distributed liquor trickles through the bed and is collected in drains at the base, and the  biological films of bacteria, protozoa and fungi to reduce the organic content. The next process is the Biological aerated filters are a combine filtration with biological carbon reduction,  nitrification  or denitrification. Its a dual processer in purpose of to support highly active biomass that is attached to it and to filter suspended solids. Carbon reduction and ammonia conversion occurs in aerobic mode and sometime achieved in a single reactor while nitrate conversion occurs in  anoxic  mode. This process is operated either in up flow or down flow configuration depending on design specified by manufacturer. In addition the Rotating biological contactors are the next process in this secondary treatment. This is actually a secondary mechanical treatment system which is capable  of withstanding surges in organic load. The rotating disks support the growth of bacteria and micro-organisms present in the sewage, which break down and stabilise organic pollutants. Oxygen is obtained from the atmosphere as the disks rotate. As the micro-organisms grow, they build up on the media until they are sloughed off due to shear forces provided by the rotating discs in the sewage.   Effluent from the system is then passed through final clarifiers where the micro-organisms in suspension settle as sludge. The sludge is withdrawn from the clarifier for further treatment. After that the membrane bioreactor combine activated sludge treatment with a membrane liquid-solid separation process. The component on this system uses low pressure for microfiltration or ultra-filtration membranes and eliminates the need for clarification and tertiary filtration.   The elevated biomass concentration in the system process allows for very effective removal of both soluble and particulate biodegradable materials at higher loading rates. The final process in this secondary treatment is the secondary sedimentation where the process is to settle out the biological flock or filter material through a secondary clarifier and to produce sewage water containing low levels of organic material and suspended matter. 4) Tertiary treatment (prepared by Raiminder S, 0904743) The main purpose of the tertiary treatment is to ensure that the treated water which is to be released on to the environment is biologically accepted by all other fresh water organisms such as weeds and algae. This part of the treatment includes processes like physical water treatment, lagooning, and excessive nutrient removal processes.to ensure that the discharged water is raised in effluent quality before proceeding to the final stages. In physical water treatment, much of the residual suspended matters are removed using only physical processes such as sedimentation  method and the infamous filtration method. In the sedimentation  method, the water is place in a certain tank to allow all the remaining heaver objects to sink down to the bottom of the container. After few hours went most of the dense object are separated from the water, the cleared effluent or waste stream is removed. Sedimentation is one of the most common methods, quite often used at the beginning and the end of many water treating processes. Another physical method that is commonly used in the sewage water treatment system is the filtration method. In filtration, the water is allowed to pass through filters to separate the contaminating solids from the water. Sand filter is a common filter used in this process. In a number of wastewater treatment methods, semi-solid contaminants like grease and oil are allowed to float on the surface of the wat er, and then they are physically removed. Besides the in lagooning where lagoon is a stationary system having a continuous flow: several ponds working in parallel in which the inlet flow and the outlet flow are equals form lagoon plants. The lagooning technique is a natural and very efficient technique that consists in the accumulation of wastewater in ponds or basins, known as biological or stabilization ponds, where a series of biological, biochemical and physical processes take place. In these ponds or lagoons, certain types of the microorganism are actually supported as these biological agents help in treating the water further by removing the fine particulates. These types of biological ponds are usually classified as anaerobic ponds or oxidation ponds depending on the shape, depth, organic rate, level of treatment of that particular lagoon itself. The excessive nutrient removal is the most viral step in the last stages of the water treatment before the water is released to the environment. When the previously treated water comes to this area of the system, the nutrients level mainly nitrogen and phosphorus in the water is checked. Where when found in excess, the excessive nutrient removal step is carried out. This is because if the unchecked water supply is to be released into the natural water system (river, pond, etc.) it will cause a sudden increase in the native microorganism population of that certain water system. Some of the native microorganisms which are commonly found in ponds today are usually weeds, algae, and cyanobacteria. Therefore, after the sudden rapid grown in the population of these microorganisms, the number of algae for example, becomes unsustainable which causes most of them to die and eventually decay. The following decay process would substantially increase the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) in that p articular pond, which would cause the other fresh water living organism such as fishes to die as well. Firstly, the nitrogen removal process is carried out. There are various methods of removing nitrogen, each with advantages and disadvantages. However, the biological treatment method is used most commonly. With this method, organic nitrogen and ammonia nitrogen is converted into nitrous and nitrate nitrogen in an aerobic environment, and is dispersed into the atmosphere as anaerobic nitrogen gas. Therefore the gas is removed from the water and released to the atmosphere. And as there is no secondary pollution, this can be called an effective method. In the removal of phosphorus is usually carried out using a method called enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR). The first process in EBPR is the mainstream biological treatment process. Where the utilizing of aerobic and solids separation zones and the provision of return activated sludge are carried out. The next is a first side stream process for anoxic/anaerobic selection of desirable BPR organisms such as the polyphosphate accumulating organisms (PAOs). Finally, a second side stream process serves to ferment organic material in some of the return activated sludge to produce food utilized in the first side stream selection process. The system permits the three processes to be separated from each other by creating two side streams, allowing all three processes to be controlled separately and optimized in satisfying their own specific goals. Besides this biological method, the removal of phosphorus can also be done via chemical precipitation, usually with salts of iron, alu minum, or lime. Chemical precipitation is usually more reliable, easier to operate, and requires smaller equipment footprint than biological removal. But the main back draws of this chemical method is that it may form excessive sludge production as hydroxides precipitates and the chemical used in this method might be considered expensive. 5) Disinfection (prepared by Lim CS, 1001012) The main purpose of disinfection in the wastewater treatment is to provide a degree of protection from contact with infectants and pathogen organisms which will cause waterborne diseases such as cholera, dysentery and hepatitis. Disinfection is also used to reduce the load of microorganisms in the wastewater to be discharged to the environment. Primary, secondary and even tertiary treatments do not fully remove the incoming waste load and microorganisms in the water stream and as a result, many microorganisms still remain in the wastewater. Therefore, various methods of disinfection are introduced such as chemical methods, physical methods and biological methods. The effectiveness of disinfection depends on different factors including the quality of wastewater being treated, disinfectant dosage, type of disinfection being used and others. For instant, cloudy wastewater will not be treated efficiently due to less contact time between ultraviolet light and microorganisms. These microorganisms are shielding by those solid matters in wastewater stream and it reduces the contact time. Generally, long contact times, high concentration of disinfectant and optimum temperature and pH value will increase the effectiveness of disinfection. Chlorination is one of the chemical methods which is commonly used for disinfection in the wastewater treatment. It is widely used through the world due to its low cost and long-term history of effectiveness. Chlorine can be applied in two general ways, liquid and gas. Chlorine in gaseous form is generally added to the wastewater stream rather than liquid form which is also known as hypochlorite because the former costs lesser than the latter. When chlorine dissolves in pure water, hypochlorous acid is formed followed by hypochlorites which are known as free residual chlorines Chlorine is an extremely active oxidizing agent which will react with many other substances in the water stream. For instant, it reacts rapidly with such compounds as hydrogen sulfide, ferrous iron and manganese which found in industrial wastewater. However, if all of the chlorine is consumed in these reactions, no disinfection will result. Hence, to accomplish disinfection, sufficient chlorine is added into wastewater stream to satisfy the chlorine demand and produce residual chlorine which will destroy bacteria. There are few factors which will affect the effectiveness of chlorination. Among the factors are pH, temperature, turbidity, control system and many others. However, chlorination brings some disadvantage to environment. Chlorination of residual organic material can generate chlorinated-organic compound which may be harmful to the environment. Those residual chlorines are toxic to aquatic species; therefore, dechlorination is needed, adding to complexity and cost of treatment. However, chlorination becomes less favoured as disinfectant due to rising cost and it had found to be toxic to aquatic species. As a result, ozone and ultraviolet begin to be used as disinfectant. Ultraviolet (UV) light is more environmental friendly to be used as no chemicals are used and leave no toxic residual. Ultraviolet radiation and damages the genetic material of microorganisms, destroying their ability to reproduce. Before pass through the UV disinfection unit, the wastewater must pass through an advanced pretreatment component. Wastewater flows in the stream parallel to the UV light in a thin film in order to increase the contact time. To increase the effectiveness of the UV light, the UV radiation must come in direct with pathogen organisms and other microbial in the wastewater stream. The effectiveness of a UV disinfection system is affected by few factors including characteristics of the wastewater, the contact time, intensity of UV radiation and many others. Turbidity, flow rate of water stream and suspended solids are also play an important roles in UV disinfection. These factors must be kept at low levels to ensure proper treatment. Disinfection of wastewater, primarily by chlorination, has played an important role in the reduction of waterborne disease. However, there are more new disinfection processes are being developed in order to maximize the effectiveness of disinfection. Role of engineer in this industry The Chemical Engineering is the profession that combines chemistry and engineering concepts that help to solve problems related to world hunger, pollution of our environment, creating new materials, or meeting demands for energy. Chemical engineers develop low cost processes for useful chemical products, which make it possible for both poor nations and the United States to manufacture important fertilizers. The roles of a chemical engineer in waste water treatment have to minimize the waste across the plant or reduction of waste loading to the treatment plant. Other than that, chemical engineer need to state whether its systems for the treatment and reuse of wastewater, process water treatment for industry, high-purity water for sensitive medical or scientific applications, or systems to supply clean drinking water to people and their families. Besides that, as a chemical engineer also responsible for providing expertise in their respective discipline as it applies to the hazard analysis of the process being studied. Therefore, we also in charge for attending the initial hazard analysis kick-off meeting. On the other hand, we are also required to be available to the team as required with the understanding that the team leader will give adequate advance notice when their expertise is required. Lastly we are necessary to provide documents of any existing safeguards and procedures. Skills/ knowledge required Many types of skills and knowledge are required for chemical engineer in waste water treatment. They required intensive knowledge in wastewater treatment technologies, so that they will more easy to solve the problems when they face the difficulty. On the other hand, they also need expertise in equipment design, influent water treatment, effluent monitoring, and wastewater recycling. In addition, proficiency in computer, programming, modeling and data analysis, for example AutoCAD, Microsoft Office, FOTRAN, Origin, Maple, Polymath, and other software are also the knowledge needed for chemical engineer. Moreover, strong technical writing, presentation, and project management skills are also useful skill for chemical engineer in order to present the researches after they have completed. Besides the skills at above the hazard and operability study (HAZOP) technique also needed for a chemical engineer working in industry. The HAZOP technique is most popular in most industry because that is technique which is structured and systematic examination of a planned or existing process or operation in order to identify and evaluate problems that may represent risks to personnel or equipment, or prevent efficient operation. Otherwise, HAZOP as well a qualitative technique based on guide-words and is carried out by a multi-disciplinary team (HAZOP team) during a set of meetings.

Popular Music in Film | Research

Popular Music in Film | Research Introduction This study aims to look into pre-existing popular music in film, its use and place within modern film making, with express interest in determining whether or not it can fairly be compared and judged along side more traditional original scoring techniques as an artistically viable means by which to add depth and further weight to the image, or if it is simply a cheap and easy means by which to score a film. In Ronald Rodmans essay The use of popular music as leitmotif in 1990s film, he states that â€Å"within the hands of a skilled director and music editor, the use of pre-existing popular music can be used to convey narrative events and characters in a way similar to classical Hollywood scoring. However, the two exist at opposite ends of a modernist/post modernist continuum. With the Hollywood score being valued for its original and film specific uniqueness and the found score being valued for its ability to redefine and recycle its self when used well, it offers a â€Å"live again† feeling, that allows the music to transcend its original form, and find new merit within the context of the imageâ€Å". (Rodman, from the compiled essay collection Changing Tunes: The Use of Pre-existing Music in Film (2005: 135) This study does not refer to a specific question requiring a final answer, instead aims to explore whether or not the idea of recycled music truly can transcend its self in skilled hands, and if the use of popular music in film has become used more widely and in a more sophisticated fashion following its emergence in many films of the 1990s. I also intend on looking into the work produced when artists more established within the realms of popular music, try their hand writing original music for film, and if this combination of film specific, more traditional scored music and the different approaches that popular music and those more schooled in its construction can bring to the table with regards to an original score, is truly the definitive way to create an interesting, exciting and truly brilliant piece of work that does what all good scores should achieve, too not only enhance the image, but to stand strong on its own as piece of work in its own right. By exploring the research of others with original research and thoughts of my own, I intend to come to a personal conclusion regarding the matter. This investigation is going to be based around the initial idea that popular music has a valuable and useful place within modern film making, however, due to it often being used in a lazy and not fully thought through manner, it has become some what looked down upon with in the medium, being seen simply as a means for cheap laughs, a pleasant way to pad out the background music of a scene and as a way to add more marketability to a film . In light of this generally accepted opinion of popular musics place in film, and its viewing in such a negative light, I wish to look into how and why this view exists, despite countless examples of it being used to great effect within a film and how in recent years, the trend for recruiting the skills of popular musicians to construct original material specifically for film is not only the next step in popular musics place in cinema, but its creative apex. This investigation, through the course of its three main chapters, intends to look closely at popular musics place within modern cinema, how it has arrived there, where it can go from here, and if it can be seen as important and useful as classical means of film scoring. I intend on looking into the following points through out the course of this investigation: Chapter 1 Popular music and Modern Cinema How the genesis of both popular music and cinema are inherently linked to one another and a cross-pollination between the mediums has always been inevitable How popular music as score differs from traditional scores in what it does within a film. The potential (both positive and negative) that pre-existing material brings to a film, from its ability to comment add extra levels to a film through its lyrical content and its already established place in the public subconscious through to the historical and social abilities it has in helping define eras and public attitudes when necessary. I shall look at the use of The Doors song ‘The End in Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1984) in order to explore this The powerful imprinting effect that the correct piece of popular music and the correct visuals can have on one another, combining in such a way that they elevate both song and scene to a completely new level of meaning, operating on many more levels than they would have done separately. I Shall look at Roy Orbisons ‘In Dreams within the movies Blue Velvet (David Lynch 1982) Chapter 2 Popular music as Leitmotif Look into how popular music has adopted the traditional film scoring technique, leitmotif. Explore the manner in which popular musics use denotatively and connotatively through leitmotif differs from the classic score, how it is not relied upon the actual repetition of specific themes that connect characters and narrative, but rather the repetition of styles of music or their social context. Investigate two films that use popular music as leitmotif, Shaun of The Dead (Edgar Wright,2004) and Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1992) and how their employment of the technique differs to one another. Chapter 3 The Popular Musician as Composer Investigate, through existing examples within movies, of popular musicians being either being used to write film specific music for cinema or actually constructing an original score tailor made for a film, and if these approaches herald different results and opportunities to scores constructed by more traditional composition methods. Conclusion Discuss an over view of my investigation, come to a personal evaluation of whether popular musics place within cinemas audio landscape is viable as artistically expressive and appropriate as a method of scoring. Chapter 1 Popular Music and Modern Cinema Popular music, since the late 1970s has come to hold a particularly interesting and powerful position amongst the many visual media forms that exist, and though a large majority of these forms that have mutated and cross pollinated as a result of the rise of various technologies and the prominence of popular music as a form of cultural expression, are mainly used as tools of marketing (music videos, television spots and advertisements), it possess a unique functioning purpose within the medium of film, â€Å"only in dramatic film and television are popular songs used in order to help tell a sustained narrative story a role that has traditionally been played by commissioned musical score† (Wright, Popular music and Film, 2003:8) Its hardly surprising that popular music has come to be used as such within film, though at their most fundamental levels they operate as two quit different forms of expression, the trajectories both have moved along through the early twentieth century show striking similarities to one another, to quote Ian Inglis in his introduction to Popular Film and Music (2003) â€Å"The genesis of both came about as a direct result of late nineteenth century technological developments, both predominantly rely on a new type of mass audience sharing a common interest, both started with humble beginnings as novelties to expand and become some of the largest industries in the world with colossal annual turnovers, both have been approached and consumed from perspectives that have allowed them to evolve from simple tools of popular and mass culture into examples of more high and elite cultureâ€Å". (Inglis, 2003:1) It is no longer required in modern film making to contain a score written specifically with the images and narrative in mind, a movies musical landscape is now just as likely to be entirely filled with pre-existing songs (be they popular or more esoteric) as it is to feature a more traditional score, often a combination of the two will be employed by a director. In order to greater appreciate the role that using pre-existing popular music in a film can have on, not only the narrative implications, but the way an audience will respond to the movie going experience, one must lay out the inherent differences and opportunities that popular music can bring when compared to a traditional classical score. Music written and scored with a film in mind is specifically catered to the needs of the images on screen, often a film will be scored late in a films production schedule, there for it is necessary to bend and fit to the constraints of the image, the composer is almost a slave to the film at hand, taking full responsibility for fleshing out every nuance and emotion that a scene requires. They must adapt and fit around what is (normally by the time a composer is brought on board) a fairly concrete structure of how the narrative events take place. On the other hand, when a director chooses to use pre-existing material in a film, the scenes have usually been designed in such a way as to bend around the song. Pre-existing material can not be manipulated in the same manner of a piece tailored to fit a narrative, however, through the use of shooting and editing a sequence with music in mind, it allows a certain unity and rhythm to emerge from the combination of the two. Looking at whether or not one of these approaches to film scoring is more artistically viable is a more complex question that at first it would appear. â€Å"The most fundamental observation that can be made about music in any audio? Visual medium is that it enjoys a rather direct route to our subconscious. Humans are by nature more visually orientated, we digest visual information more consciously and more critically than we do aural information† (Wright 2003:10) Since its musics uncanny ability to override the logical front of our brains and plug directly into our emotional back allies, it tends to offer the driving force in telling us how to feel about events within a film. It can be used with great effect to inform us how we should feel about characters or places, it can instantly set time periods or moods, â€Å"precisely because in most cases it is completely removed from the specific logic of a films story line† (Wright 2003:10). However, it is this powerful, yet extremely subtle ability to steer an audiences emotions within a film that makes the score so depended on a plethora of various factors, be they cultural, historical or otherwise. What a person is going to feel when exposed to different sounds is extremely subjective, how one person responds may not correlate with how another would when exposed to the same thing. â€Å"All popular music contains visual elements; all film relies, in varying degrees, on musical elements† (Inglies 2003:3) A director can take great advantage of that fact that pre-existing popular music will often have already existed within the consciousness of the public for long enough that a response will have been built up in their mind, especially with regards to songs containing specific, concrete lyrics. An example of the successful combination of a songs lyrics and a sequence edited perfectly to its rhythm would be the opening montage of the Zack Snyder directed Watchmen (2009), the sequence, which shows the unfolding of an alternate historical timeline of the 1960s, moves along at a constant, smooth and meditative crawl, all the while Bob Dylans â€Å"The times they are a-changing† echoes out, the lyrics seeming to directly reference the events taking place and the mid tempo, simple yet mournful and effective guitar/harmonica parts perfectly compliment the mood and set the tone; there is a heavy sense of sadness, a great part of the story centres around the fact that a new generation of costumed heroes are now faced with a society that no longer has time for them, that fears them even and in this sequence we look back into the halcyon golden days of the older generation of costumed heroes, when it was more innocent, but we view the often depressing events that lead to the current state of affairs within the narrative. In other instances, the right song placed with the right images can elevate both beyond their limits as separate mediums, fleshing out one another in new and exciting directions. For example in David Lynchs masterpiece Blue Velvet(1986), a few keys scenes, use pre-existing material to truly haunting and terrifying effect. Most famously perhaps is the scene where Jeffery Beaumont (Kyle Maclachlan) is serenaded by the suave, menacing, porcelain white, rake thin figure of Ben (Dean Stockwell). Ben lip-synchs along to Roy Orbisons classic â€Å"In Dreams†. The song, a ballad that tells a story of lost love, had already become a well known hit by the time Lynch made Blue Velvet. Recorded in 1963 (twenty three years prior to Blue Velvets release) it peaked at number seven on the billboard charts. Within the dark, unsettling noir universe that Lynch had created for the film, the song took on something of a far more disturbing meaning. The ironic juxtaposition of Orbisons ethereal voice, haunting melody and the dream like music accompanying it, along side the creeping dread and ominous shadow of impending violence smothering the sequence help elevate the mood and capture it brilliantly. Blue Velvet itself felt a lot like a dream, or a nightmare, and the songs lyrics resonated with a compelling and strange clarity within the films mood. The whole film was about looking below the surface of something seemingly perfect and finding that it was rotten to the core, here, in this context, a remarkable beautiful piece of music is suddenly something more, theres something darker at its heart. A truly inspiring choice of popular music for a scene, and a prime example of the amplification of a scenes mood the correct piece of pre-existing music can have. The innocent, whimsical connotations and feelings evoked by â€Å"In Dreams† sits in a perfect, jarringly uncomfortable unity along side the hellish, violent world at â€Å"Blue Velvets† heart. The impact of the sequence is unmistakable, one can not imagine the scene playing out with any other song and similarly after viewing the sequence, one can not hear the song without imaging Ben swaying and singing or Frank Booth (Dennis Hooper) becoming lost in sadness, then insane with rage upon hearing the song hes obsessed with. From a commercial aspect the song was incredibly useful in revitalising Roy Orbisons then lagging career, though he was at first shocked upon viewing the way his music had been used, the song and film bolstered interest back into the singers work. Although, on the other side of the coin, â€Å"it is precisely because the message in music is so implicit, because it influences us somewhat subliminally, that we find its failings so noteworthy[†¦] The stakes are high: when it works, it moves us, but when it fails, we cringe at the attempt† (Wright 2003:12). Because popular music tends to exist within the moment, it changes and mutates at the same rate as fashion or hairstyles, the risk of using a popular song from a certain time can immediately give a film a shelf life. Obviously, over time, all films begin to look dated compared to their modern equivalents, however, popular music evolves at such a lightning pace that the wrong piece (or some times, the right piece for that moment in time) can often make a film seem laughable or extremely out dated within a short space of time (See many, many, many films from the 80s) It therefore, appears that producers and directors run significant risk when making a conscious decision to use popular music as score. Which does seem to beg the question, that if music written for the film can be tailored to fit a films needs precisely and pre-existing material tends to loose its relevance within years, why do people still use popular music? From a cynical point of view it could be suggested that its more often than not with financial reasons in mind, its common knowledge that only one in ten productions will return a substantial profit, however its the huge profit of that one that makes up for all the others, so the added bonus of having an easily marketable sound track is always going to be a draw in terms of money. However, pre-existing music has its own artistic merits within film as a choice of soundtrack. Since most popular songs chosen for film (such as â€Å"In Dreams† mentioned earlier) have already existed within the public consciousness for considerable time enough for people to build and attach their own set of feelings and emotions to a song, the use of popular music brings with it a ready prepared set of emotional triggers that a film or scene can build on top of, this always for a scene to carry more emotional clout than if an unheard and unknown score made for the film was used in its place. â€Å"The right song in the right place can be an extremely powerful device† (Wright 2003:13) Though it is indeed true that the use of popular music can run the risk of making a film seem out dated fairly quickly, the act that pre-existing popular music does capture and retain the mood of the time period it was created in can be an extremely useful tool when the subject matter of a film is specific to a certain era, it can instantly and effortlessly conjure up the mood of a certain point in history in a way that a composed score would struggle to achieve. Familiar examples of music from the desired era summon up not only the musical memory of the time, but come complete with the attitudes and ideas that were linked to that period (Wright 2003:13). For example, the 1960s for many cultural and historical reasons stills resonates powerfully within the public consciousness. Francis Ford Coppolas Apocalypse Now (1979) partly achieved a faithfully accurate depiction of the ear through the careful use of songs strongly linked to that decade, but more than that, the songs chosen often reflect the bizarre situations Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) finds himself in and the deepening sense of dread that consumes him as he heads further down the river and into the stories nightmarish underbelly. This effect is starkly illustrated in the films famous beginnings, as Willard stares blankly at a ceiling fan in his room, the Doors song ‘The End plays non-diegetically along with the sound of helicopter blades. Not only does the song help to evoke feeling and images of the 60s, but it also comments upon an uncomfortable and unsettling notion that haunts the film, as Matthew Caley describes it in his essay Heavy Rotation â€Å"The opening sequence invokes the notion of a terrible re-occurrence the end becoming the beginning, signifying the heaviest of burdens† (Pop Fiction, Caley 2005:38) Some events, in this case the Vietnam war, can never be overcome on a personal level. Another important difference between the use of popular music as score and traditionally composed pieces is that, for the most part, traditional scores are used non-diegetically, as seemingly separate entitles, floating above the action, where as very often, popular music is used diegetically within the frame. This could be in part that we are almost conditioned to think of songs as more than simply visual accompaniment, we hear a song and nine times out of ten well imagine a performance going along with it, we see the band, the singer and the stage, lyrics also cry out for attention and want to be hear and analysed. Simply underscoring a scene with a popular song, can in some cases distract the audience from the main narrative drive, and as soon as an audience is lost from the film, it becomes increasingly difficult to get them back involved. So, to counter this, more often than not the source of a piece of popular music will normally be within the frame, be it a car radio or a CD p layer or (as was the case in Blue Velvet) some one singing. In this way, we no longer find the presence of a separate medium looking for attention problematic, the characters can hear what we are hearing, a logical justification for the songs presence has been given. This can also happen on a wider scale through out a film, when the set up provides a musical or semi-musical means by which to accept the constant presence of diegetic music, for example in High Fidelity (Stephen Frears, 2000), the narrative revolves around Rob Gordon (John Cussack) who runs a small, alternative-music store, and his employees. The overt musical setting always for many chances for popular songs to appear diegetically within the movie, however, once the action is removed from the apparent source of these songs, they act as score instead, but because the viewer has been given enough logical justification for their presence, their use in these situations does not direct attention from the action, or seem co ntrived and indulgent in their use. With out the earlier conditioning provided by the films location allows use, this may not be the case. â€Å"Given all these difficulties, music, with its ‘back door access to our consciousness, is a powerful tool [†¦] it stealthily pilot The audiences mood ad emotional response to a films content† (Wright 2003: 20) What it is that succeeds when popular music is used as accompaniment in film is subject to many different factors, most extremely subtle. Precisely how it effects a person is of course on an individual level and cant realistically be hammered down to a science in any way, but the successful use of music often engages in a way that is simultaneously original, but resonate with a timeless quality. Popular music is an ever changing form of expression in and of itself, and as too, the landscape and language of cinema grows and changes over time it is fair to say that what in principle can be regard as the rules to determine what does and does not work as musical accompaniment to film, will remain the same. An interesting angle that has also been undertaken by many modern film makers (perhaps not consciously) is the mimicking of techniques used in more traditional film scores when using pre-existing material, the most prevalent of these could possibly be the use of popular song as Leitmotif, which I will now explore in chapter two. Chapter 2 Popular Music as Leitmotif Firstly, the term leitmotif is, according to Groves Dictionary of Music defined as such: â€Å"A theme, or other coherent idea, clearly defined so as to retain its identity if modified on subsequent appearances, and whose purpose is to represent or symbolise a person, object, place, idea, state of mind, supernatural force or any other ingredient in a dramatic work, usually operatic but also vocal, choral or instrumental† A term used original to denote a process occurring in the operas of Richard Wagner, it has been adopted by film scholars as a means by which to describe a similar role in the classical film score, â€Å"a way of producing subtle sensations and associations in the listener (or viewer)† (Costantini: http://filmsound.org/gustavo/leitmotif-revisted.htm). In essence, the leitmotif is any melody, progression or harmony that occurs more than once during the film, and is normally attached to characters or actions as a means to evoke a memory in the viewer via a subconscious attachment of the repeating music to the images on screen. Leitmotifs also have the power to be both denotative and connotative in they way they present emotions and link to the image. The music denotes characters or/and situations through a link with music, then a repetition of the music, it can also create more subtle connotations when â€Å"foreshadowing or contradicting the images on screen† (Rodman, changing tunes 2006:124) For example, many of the scores composed by Ennio Morricone for director Sergio Leones spaghetti westerns, prominently feature the use of leitmotif to establish characters. In The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966), the use of a recurring two note melody is a frequent motif, played on three separate instruments to represent the three main characters of the film: flute for Blondie, ocarina for Angel eyes and human voices for Tuco. Through the denotative use of the notes A and its fourth interval upwards D, a Spanish flavour is achieved within the music, along side the three separate instruments help create a potent connection with the characters and ambience of the images on screen. The link between this leitmotif and the images it scores are so prevalent, that it is practically impossible to separate the two from one another, they are forever inescapably tethered together through this denotation, however, as leitmotif works connotatively as well, the describing traits that the music presents can exist outside the images context. Though we will always link that two note motif visually with the characters of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, we too will always link the emotions, mood and feeling of the film (A romanticised, stylised version the west, heroism, treachery, adventure) with the music , and these connotations can carry on beyond the context of the films images, having been emotional hardwired in to our minds via the ‘back door access connotations within music can supply. It is interesting to note that upon its release as a soundtrack album, Morricones score performed very well, reaching number four on the billboard charts and becoming frequently sampled , re used and referenced by many popular musicians since (including, Gorrilaz, R.E.M and The Pogues) and thus, could be argued that it has moved from its initial use as a film score, more into the public consensus as popular music, possibly even a cultural touchstone, even if its original interests where not defined that way. As popular music has evolved beyond a simple form of entertainment and entered into the musical landscape of cinema as a method of scoring, its denotative/connotative properties have made it possible to assume the role of leitmotif when used correctly in films, it is this utilising of an established method of scoring†¦and utilising correctly, that gives yet more weight to popular music as artistically viable. When used as leitmotif, popular music tends to be given more denotative power than a traditional score, though also still able to connotate subtle meanings. The difference being that the denotation is more subtle, nuanced and relies more heavily on the viewers familiarity and competence with the music prior to experiencing it in the film. To explore this, I shall examine two popular modern films that heavily rely on popular music as score, both using it as leitmotif, in different ways however. Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright, 2004) and Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994). Shaun of the Dead is presented as being a romantic comedy†¦with zombies, the film garnered hugely favourable reviews upon its release for its blend of witty Douglas Adams-esque British humour and the classic elements of the zombie genre found in the work of George A Romero. Like director and writer (along with Simon Pegg) Edgar Wrights earlier work on the television series Spaced, Shaun of the Dead uses a compilation score (along with a few tracks written specifically for the film) consisting of popular tunes. The same song does not reappear frequently through the film to reinforce character or situation as leitmotif may be used in a traditional score, instead the films leitmotif is to be drawn from a perceived prior knowledge that the viewer must have with the songs, which allows an emphatic, direct meaning (via lyrics, song titles and often a reference to horror genre) to achieve denotative references, often used to comic effect to act as leitmotif through the film. The stipulations of leitmotif are also achieved via the songs connotative effect on the viewer via their subtle (sometimes not so subtle) descriptions of a scenes mood, or a character trait or often the films overall theme. For example, the film opens with an excerpt from ‘Ghost Town by the Specials over a black screen, before cutting to a medium close up of Shaun (Simon Pegg) sat, mouth agape, a brain dead expression stapled to his face, in a pub (we there for automatically make the assumption that the music is being heard diegetically by the characters as well, emanating from a jukebox or something similar). The song immediately makes clear the mood of the film, the very title of the track is ‘Ghost Town, straight away subtly suggesting the coming events of the films narrative, The lyrics (though originally written about the large scale unemployment feared to be brought by the policies of Margret Thatcher) twist and lend perfectly with one of the films core themes, the idea that modern British society is dulling down, decaying, zombifing itself and wasting away in to nothing more than the aforementioned ‘Ghost Town of the songs title. The style of music itself also captures the spirit of the film, connotating on an almost subconscious level to the viewer what to expect in terms of the films mood, the up beat Ska style is certainly light hearted almost comical in its bouncy rhythms, but a sinister vein runs through the song, similarly, the film, though a comedy at heart, has moments of real horror as the zombie crisis escalates towards the end of the film. It is also extremely British in sound, as the film is too, extremely British in its writing and acting. Other examples of songs being used for their inherent referencing/or placement within the horror genre are ‘Zombie Nation by Kernkraft 4000 and ‘The Blue Wrath by I Monster. Both these songs differ wildly in their stylistic traits, but by their nature of both taking reference points from supernatural angles (zombies, monsters) they are linked to the leitmotif structure the film uses. ‘Zombie Nation in particular, though used for only a very short space of time, prescribes to a similar denotative/connotative use as Ghost Town does. Denotatively in its title it directly name checks not only the main antagonistic force of the movie but also the movies entire scene set up and connotativley it also refers to the perceived notion of a zombifed Britain, using the title in a less literal sense, the style of music (a repetitive dance song) also, through heavy irony, helps subtly convey the idea of a brain dead society, (though, thats not to suggest that dance music is inhere ntly brain dead, more that, the repetitive nature of its genre along with the social image of hordes of silent, blank eyed individuals, twitching along in unison trapped in some nightclub runs a neat parallel with the zombie hordes occupying the move) A sequence which has since gained a great deal of attention and become something of a ‘classic comedy moment, takes place towards the end of the film, trapped by the marauding, relentless zombie hordes into the Winchester pub, Shaun and his friends are forced to deal with the now un dead pub landlord, during the course of the melee the jukebox starts to play the Queen hit ‘Dont Stop me Now. The juxtaposition of the songs upbeat, positive, energetic refrain against not only harrowing and almost certainly doomed situation the characters find themselves in, but also the beaten down, bloody, bruised and emotionally frayed survivors creates a sublime moment as song and image seamlessly combine, creating comedy from unexpected irony. The songs place here however, does not conform to the regular leitmotif that has been used through the film (song as denotative via lyrics or song title), and initially the lyrics seem ironic in their positive mantra, however, the song can also be seen as a comment on Shauns now fully developed character traits. Up until now hes been something of a loser, unable to pull his life together and it takes the apocalypse to rally his leadership qualities, from this angle, the songs positive message seems more sincere in its use, we