Ethics in Decision Making Essay

Decision making or the process of choosing among alternatives is practiced by almost all individuals (Mingst, 2001). In almost every situation people is faced with the idea of making decisions whether it is as simple as choosing what clothes to buy up to life changing choices like deciding on a particular career path. This kind of act is not always as simple as it looks like especially when decisions are perceived according to particular factors that affect it. The choices that a person made are often influenced by many factors and one of which is the idea of ethics. Ethics is a set of standards that directs an individual on how to act in certain situations. The idea of ethics is often confused with feelings, law, religion, science, and cultural norms. These concepts influenced ethics in one way or another but these are not synonymous with it. Ethical standards are derived from five sources namely: Utilitarian Approach, Rights Approach, Fairness or Justice Approach, Common Good Approach, and Virtue Approach (Santa Clara University, 2007). The Utilitarian Approach emphasizes the idea that ethical action gives greater good and minimal harm. This approach is after the results of particular decisions that it should strived to give more advantageous effects rather than adverse consequences. A good example of this is ethics in corporation that aim to produce more beneficial results for everyone in the company (Santa Clara University, 2007). The Rights Approach is a source of ethical standards that gives high regards in respecting and protecting the moral rights of those people concern. This can be rooted from the idea that the very essence of an individual’s humanity that enables him/her to make decisions for oneself entitled each one of them to a sense of dignity. Based on this dignity, their rights as individuals should be given due importance. These rights also come with its corresponding duties and one of which is to respect the rights of other people as well (Santa Clara University, 2007). The Fairness or Justice Approach is based on the arguments of Aristotle and other Greek philosophers that â€Å"all equals should be treated equally†. Ethical actions should treat individuals equally but if there is inequality then there should be a defensible standard as to such. A corporate environment is a best example of such approach because workers are paid according to their productivity and contribution to the company, which is perceived as fair. However, there is contention when it comes to the CEOs of companies because their salary is many times larger than the others which make such disparity unfair for some (Santa Clara University, 2007). The Common Good Approach gives value in the importance of life. They believe that the very idea of life is good which is why ethical actions should contribute to the well-being of that life. The intermingling of societal relationships as well as the respect and care for others especially the marginalized are emphasized. Furthermore, this approach also highlights the importance of conditions that bring common good (Santa Clara University, 2007). The Virtue Approach is considered as a very ancient way of looking at ethical actions. Certain virtues are to be followed in order to attain the full development of human beings. These virtues are needed in order to reach the full potential of ones character. Questions like â€Å"What kind of person will I become if I do this? † or â€Å"is this action consistent with my acting at my best? † are taken into consideration in this approach (Santa Clara University, 2007). These aforementioned sources of ethics could be applied in the process of decision making especially with the individuals or decision makers that are involved within the process. Decision makers have various motivations and characteristics that affect their choices. There are two types of motivation namely the â€Å"in-order-to motives† and the â€Å"because-of-motives†. The â€Å"in-order-to motives† explains that a decision maker will choose a particular decision in order to accomplish a certain objective (Mingst, 2001). Ethics could highly influence this kind of motivation especially in terms of the Utilitarian, Virtue, and Common Good approaches. The Utilitarian approach is manifested in the â€Å"in-order-to motives† because if an individual will make a decision based on an objective of producing more good rather than harm then it already fulfils an ethical action in the Utilitarian perspective. In terms of the Virtue approach, ethics is seen in the motivation of the decision maker when the choices made are based on an objective that helps the development of an individual towards its full potential. The Common Good approach also asserts ethics because actors are influenced to choose decisions that will bring about the greater good to the most number of people. On the other hand, the â€Å"because-of-motives† arises from the â€Å"unconscious or semiconscious motives or impulses arising out of previous life experience or inner values, interests, or drives of the decision maker† (Mingst, 2001). Ethical action becomes possible in the decisions made by an individual based on the ideas of the Rights Approach and the Fairness or Justice Approach. The Rights Approach exemplified the moral rights of the people that should be respected and protected. These rights motivate the decision maker to make choices that will uphold these values. Similarly, the Fairness or Justice Approach also influences the motive of the decision maker by putting in mind the idea of what is equal from what is not especially if such idea is something that the individual values or has interests on. According to the assumptions of the Decision Making Theory, a rational actor plays a vital role in the decision making wherein that individual is well-aware of the list of available alternatives and capable of calculating each option’s possible results and has the freedom of choice to select the one with the highest preferential value. However, the biographical knowledge of the decision maker has a crucial role in the choices that will be made. Factors such as a person’s educational background, religion, life experiences, mental and physical health as well as other activities could explain the interests and values of the decision maker (Mingst, 2001). An individual decision maker is already influenced by numerous factors that affect its decisions which make decision making for a collective entity of diverse people more complicated. A population would have various and sometimes conflicting interests and basically different decisions. In such case, the important factor for this diverse population to successfully arrive at a most advantageous decision is to acquire consensus. Consensus building is an important factor for the decision making process of a diverse population. Since they have numerous interests and motives they need to be able to arrive at a decision that everybody will benefit from even if it means having to compromise at times. In doing so, they also need an appropriate leader that would collaborate their interests. A democratic form of leadership is a good example of how the process of decision making takes place in a diverse population (Bissessar, 2004). The interests of its citizens are represented through party system as well as by elected political leaders. However, numerous party systems is still not that easy to manage which is why a rational and appropriate leader is still needed that would be able to make sound decisions for its citizens. The decision maker is the most important part of the decision making process. The motives, interests as well as the background of this rational actor are vital in order to understand the choices that are made. Being the case, ethical standards is also one of the factors that influenced these decisions. This also applies in the decision making of diverse population because they need consensus building in order to embody their various and sometimes conflicting interests. In doing so, it also need an appropriate leader that would collaborate their interests and implements the decision.Ethical standards and the other factors that influence the decision maker have a big part in the selection of sound decisions. References Bissessar. A. M. (2004). Globalization and Governance: Essays on the Challenges for Small Countries. North Carolina: McFarland. Santa Clara University. (2007). A Framework for Thinking Ethically. Retrieved 14 May 2008, from http://www. scu. edu/ethics/practicing/decision/framework. html. Mingst, K. (2001). Essentials of International Relations. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.

Contemporary Issue in Health and Social Care Essay

Introduction Social media has played and has been playing a crucial role in the development of health and social care in United Kingdom (UK). Since the emerge of the health and social care sector, social media has been performing a tremendous role as the health and social care is becoming an industry and without this industry social and economic development of UK would not be possible. This report covers the role of media for the development of health and social care. At the very beginning a snapshot of the role of media on the creation of public concern about health and social care will be discussed with evidence. The ways by which media publishes and considers about the health and social care issues will be discussed. Different perspectives of public issues regarding the health and social care will also be discussed in brief. The likely influence of different perspective on the development of service sector will also be discussed. Information relating to the health and social care that gives rise to issues of concern to the public 1.1 Information relating to health and social care to reach the public domain According to Cleland and Gareis (2006) health and social care sector is not only a sensitive one but also a crucial one for the public health. Normal people are much more concerned about the health and social care issues and almost all the time they had no information about health and social care. Mass media has come forward to solve the problem and they are almost fully successful in solving the problem regarding the information gap of the public. Side by side there are other different ways by which information relating to social and health care is transmitted to the public (Godden, 2014). Mass media like TV, Radio, newspaper, and the internet are to be attributed for the information dissemination. Besides the mass media, social media has also played a crucial role. Facebook, Twitter, and other social medi a have contributed a lot in this respect (Minniti and Moren, 2010). For example: If any new  vaccine related to Cancer is introduced, then mass media along with social media make a joint effort to disseminate the information to the cancer affected people all around UK. That is how information is disseminated about health and social issues. 1.2 Techniques to disseminate information relating to health and social care AJOL (2014) refers that dissemination of information related to health and social care is a sectorial policy taken by the UK government. There are some common methods by which health and social care information can be disseminated to the public and related parties. These most common methods are use of radios, pamphlets, television, and educational campaigns. Use of report cards and accreditation are two mechanisms that are most commonly used for the information dissemination related to the health and social care. UK citizens are very much concerned about their health and social care issues and they listen, understand, and take relative actions to apply this information for the effective and efficient health care sector (The Guardian. 2014). Use of pamphlets is one of the most effective ways to disseminate information. UK government and related ministry has also made it available through radios, televisions, and running campaigns which are educational (Minniti and Moren, 2010). For example Dissemination of information related to health and social cares is important for the education of the patients and citizens about the likely causes of Malaria and thus take strategic actions in this respect. 1.3 Ways in which information can influence the attitudes, thoughts, and behavior of people Information that is being provided are not made for something vain rather this information have a great influence on the attitudes thoughts, and behavior of the people of United Kingdom (UK). The evaluation of the information collected from different sources about health and social care and the influence of the information will be focused here (Ravasi and Schultz, 2006). Mass media has a strong liaison and this strong interpersonal relationship with different sources of information results in an unveiling of health and social care related information to the public. Common people are completely influenced by the information provided by the sources. As the sources of information has been int roduced in the previous section, it is state worthy that social and health care information has  changed the attitudes, thoughts, and behavior of common people. Mass media along with social media make people much more aware about their health and safety issues (Godden, 2014). For example: Before the invention of Facebook, any movement that had to be taken place faced great difficulty. But as Facebook grows and other mass media are getting concerned about the rights of them from the society, any nonviolent movement is taking place without such effort than previously had done (Mcclimens, et al, 2012). People are conscious about various contagious diseases and much more aware about their contribution to the society. They are also focused on their rights from the society. Their contribution to the society and the benefits they are deriving from the society are summed to take them to a balancing position or situation (AJOL, 2014). LO2 Understanding how issues of public concern related to health and social care are presented in the media 2.1 Ways in which media can be used to influence the attitudes and behavior of people in relation to health and social care issues Ravasi and Schultz(2006) Statesas it is mentioned in the previous section, mass media and social media in UK and perhaps all around the world is dedicated to the health and social care of the people. People’s attitude and behavior has changed and has been upgrading with the help of mass media especially in case of health and social care issues. Mass media is one of the main catalysts in the development of the positive attitudes and behaviors of the people. People are now much more aware of the use of social care services. They use child care services; they use more residential nursing care; they use residential care facilities and many more others (The Guardian. 2014). Conferencing is one of the ways by which mass media can be used for influencing people for their attitudes and behavior toward health and social care (The Guardian. 2014). Use of social media for the improvement of the awareness of the health and social care issues can be another way by which media can be used. For example Through different media advertising, many messages can be convened to the  public to change the attitudes about the health and social care. 2.2 Evaluation of the public assessment of the reliability and validity of media information about health and social care According to Hscic (2014) information that are being provided and published in mass media is not trustworthy always, so, the degree or magnitude of dependence on this information varies. Some media reports health and social care issues on behalf of government and they always praise the actions taken by government. Still some other media always make an evaluation of the actions taken by government in relation to health and social care issues and give their insightful recommendation. So, how people accept media information and, if accept, the degree of acceptance is a matter of great concern (Godden, 2014). People are very much concerned about the reliability and validity of the media information relating to the health and social care issues. Their dependence on the information is based on the transparency, honesty, and giving voice to the public. For example People will not be convinced if any mass media declares anything that is supernatural and about the health and social care issues. Different technical and business level factors are considered if any information is unveiled about health and social care (Csikaiand Bass2001). LO3 Being able to carry out research into different perspectives on a specific issue relating to health and social care 3.1 Research into different perspectives on a specific issue relating to health and social care According to BMJ (2014) there are many issues regarding the health and social care in United Kingdom (UK). These issues build up the different perspectives of health and social care issues. Different perspectives of the different issues of health and social sector will be discussed in this section of analysis. The most common and most influential issue of the health and social care is to meet the increased demand for services. Every government in the world has been tightening their budgets and the budget for health and social care has been decreasing at a slow pace (BMJ, 2014). One perspective of that issue of the health and social care is the budget restrictions. So, a little number of health and social care jobs are created. Another perspective is the increased number of private organizations in the social care sector like residential nursing, child day care, non-residential social care etc. (AJOL,  2014). Hardill et al (2005) States still another perspective is the less interesting issues to the students. As government makes less budget people are not so interested in developing their career in this sector. For example: It is difficult to secure a good job in the health and social care immediately after the graduation. So, employment opportunity is not created more than expected. 3.2 Monitoring of the changes of different perspectives regarding health and social care issues These different perspectives derived from the issues of health and social care have been changing with the passage of time. Change is a common phenomenon for every material of the world. So, perspectives regarding the health and social care have also been seeing a constant change as people’s attitudes, thoughts, and behaviors are changing. One issue of the health and social care is increased demand for services and different perspectives of the issue are the budget restrictions, lower employment opportunity, and uninteresting job to the graduates. These different issues have been changing with the passage of time in United Kingdom as well all around the world. One change is the increased demand for the social services. Peo ple are now most focused on the use of child day care and residential care facilities. Still another change is the emergence of the private sector in the health and social care sector (Hscic, 2014) For example People now are getting much busier and this leads to the increased demand for the social care services. Obviously, the standard of living has a positive correlation with the increased demand of the social care services. 3.3 Assessment of the relevance of the findings practically in the local arena UK has a strong health and social care sector and this sector has also been noticing a significant change as time passes. The local change in the perspectives of the issues of health and social care can also be attributed to the global change in the health and social sector (BMJ, 2014). The world’s health and social care has been seeing positive changes in recent years. Even in developed countries like India and Bangladesh, social and health care sector is about to boom. For example: In India, it is mandatory to make the life insurance at the very advent of  the birth of a child as like in the United States of America. UK is also monitoring a positive change in the health and social care sector and issues. In the local environment, people are also becoming much more aware about the services that can be expected from the government. Social care sector is observing a boom in the economy and the government is now transferring its duty to the private sector for the social services. The government is taking the position of monitoring the health and social care service institutions (Cleland and Gareis, 2006). 3.4 Factors that have influenced on the development of different perspectives According to Minniti and Moren (2010) various social and economic factors lead to the changes in the different perspectives of the issues of health and social sector. These social and economic issues affect the behavior of the people toward the development of the attitudes toward the health and social issues. Interpersonal relationship among the people also has an impact(Hscic, 2014). These factors that have a significant impact on the development of the different perspectives of the issues of the health and social sector are following here: There are different factors that lead to the development of different perspectives of the issues of the health and social care. These factors are: Life factors, environmental factors, socioeconomic factors, physical factors, social and political factors, lifestyle factors, emotional factors, etc. are different factors in the development of the different perspectives of health and social care. For example Genetic factors, physical factors, intellectual factors can be considered as factors under the life factors. The way of behaving and the cultural orientation of the society are also influential factors. These factors lead to the development of the issues of the health and social care and thus bringing changes in the community. LO4 Understanding the likely influence of different perspectives on the development of services 4.1 Analysis of the extent to which local attitudes reflect national level Local, local, and many other local attitudes make the national attitudes. So, within a country, like UK, there may have some dissimilarity among the attitudes of the people, as country is divided into many local areas and attitudes. Local attitudes make up the aggregate attitude which is national attitude. Local attitudes toward different issues and perspectives of health and  social care reflect the national level attitude. There is positive correlation between the development of local atti tude and national attitude (Cleland and Gareis, 2006) For example A survey is conducted by the NHS of UK with a question â€Å"Do you think that Britain’s health services are one of the best in the world?† 59% of the respondents replied positively whereas 33% disagree with the opinion and the remaining other said they don’t know (NHS. 2014). This example illustrates the national level attitude about the health and social care and it can be said that people are satisfied with what are being provided and the level of satisfaction is high. Health and social care sector is a sensitive sector as this sector is related to the life of the people. 4.2 Evaluation of the validity of public attitudes and behaviors in relation to a specific issue Public sometimes overact in different issues about health and social care. Their overreaction may lead to suspension of some good bills and at times which is catastrophic for the common people. In case of some specific issues public attitudes and behavior must have to be evaluated and the validity of their action will have to be measured (NHS. 2014). In the previous example it is clear that people are much more convinced about what they are getting from the government and public. Still some others reacted negatively and others made no comments on the issue. It is overreaction about the issue of health and social care. Peoples normally have positive experiences of the services being offered by NHS. NHS also makes direct communication and has strong media coverage. For example Mass media develops the public attitude toward the health and social care issues and an issue can be the â€Å"Satisfaction of the people services being offered by NHS† 26% people say that government has adopted right policies for the NHS whereas 44% says not. 54% people are satisfied with the national level services of NHS whereas 23% are not. 68% people are satisfied with the local NHS services (NHS. 2014). 4.3 Justification of the possible consequences of contemporary thinking for health and social care provision and services Csikai and Bass (2001)refers if people are not sophisticated enough and still remain in the Stone Age about the thinking of the health and social issues, these may lead to severe consequences. Thoughts which are  contemporary being replaced are by modern thoughts. One day, who knows, man would make it possible to invent the vaccines of AIDS. The most contemporary issues in the health and social care are the standards of the services in the hospitals especially for the elderly people or the senior citizens. Mass media can reflect the issues of the health and social care. One of the main consequences of the contemporary thinking about the health and social care is the education about the health and social care will be low. The contemporary attitude toward the health and social care may be catastrophic as people do not change their views about the medic and medicine as well as social services(Hscic, 2014) Conclusion There exists a positive relationship between public opinion of the issue and development of related social policy. Social media has played an important role in this regard as they are making the health and social care for the public a more interesting and concerning one. Social and health care has emerged as a prospective sector within UK and media has played a crucial role in the development of this industry. Mass media make the public aware of the need of the health and social care and health and social care is now an emerging sector in UK. The local health issues and attitudes contribute a lot to the international arena. Education of the people is important in this respect and different publication can be used for health and social care. References Online 1. NHS. (2014). Health Care in UK. Available: http://www.nhs.uk/Pages/HomePage.aspx. Last accessed 2nd March 2014. 2. The Guardian. (2014). the role of technology in integrating health and social care | live discussion. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2014/feb/26/technology-health-social-care-integration. Last accessed 2nd March 2014. 3. Godden, D. et. al. (2014). â€Å"Contemporary issues in rural health care† [online] available at: [accessed on 16th February, 2014] 4. AJOL, (2014). â€Å"The role of media in disseminating information† [online] available at: [accessed on 16th February, 2014] 5. Hscic, (2014). â€Å"Health and social care information center† [online] available at: [accessed on 16th February, 2014] 6. BMJ, (2014). â€Å"Reliability of health information for the public† [online] available at: < http://www.bmj.com/content/> [accessed on 16th February, 2014] Journals 1. Minniti, M. and Moren, L. (2010). â€Å"Entrepreneurial types and economic growth†, Journal of Business Venturing, 25 (3): 305-314. 2. Ravasi, D., Schultz, M. (2006), â€Å"Responding to organizational identity threats: exploring the role of organizational culture†, Academy of Management Journal, Vol.49, No.3, pp. 433–458. 3. Shane, S. and Venkataraman, S. (2000). â€Å"The Promise of Entrepreneurship as A Field of Research†, Academy of Management Review, 25(1), 217-226. Books 1. Cleland, D. I. Gareis, R. (2006). Global Project Management Handbook. â€Å"Chapter 1: â€Å"The evolution of project management†. McGraw-Hill Professional, 2006. ISBN 0-07-146045-4 2. Csikai, E. L. and Bass, K. 2001. Health care social workers’ views of ethical issues, practice, and policy in end-of-life care. Social Work in Health Care, 32 (2), pp. 1–22. 3. Hardill, I., Spradbery, J., Arnold-Boakes, J. and Marrugat, M. L. 2005. Severe health and social care issues among British migrants who retire to Spain. Ageing and Society, 25 (5), pp. 769–784. 4. Mcclimens, A., Bosworth, D., Brewster, J. and Nutting, C. 2012. Contemporary issues in the training of UK health and social care professionals—looking after people with a learning disability. Nurse education today, 32 (7), pp. 817–821.

Avenida Ninos Heroes

â€Å"Avenida Ninos Heroes† and â€Å"Halls of Montezuma† both pay tribute to the US – Mexico War. Provide a context for each and what they commemorate. During the battle aimed to capture the fortress in Chapultepec Castle, six brave cadets effused to surrender upon the retreat order of General Bravo against the US Forces. These were Juan de la Barrera (lieutenant), Agustin Melgar, Juan Escutia, Vicente Suarez, Francisco Marquez and Fernando Montes de Oca.After the fall his five comrades, Cadet Juan Ecuita wrapped himself with the Mexican flag and jumped off the castle. The US commander in charge paid an honorable salute to the bravery and patriotism portrayed by the soldier. Now, a mural was decorated on the ceiling of the castle showing the patriotism of the six soldiers particularly Ecuita and the Mexican flag, there is also a monument in Chapultepec Park honoring their valor. These cadets are more popularly known in the Mexican history as the as the Los Ninos Heroes or Heroic Cadets.In September 1847, under the command of Army General Winfield Scott, Army Brig. Gen. John Quitman led a pack of 120 handpicked Marines in a historical battle to subdue the Hill of Chapultepec. The Hill of Chapultepec, more popularly referred to as the Halls of Montezuma stood 200 feet high surrounded by a 12-foot wall. The fortress was defended by a total of 400 men, 300 of which were from the Batallon de San Blas under Lieutenant Colonel Felipe Xicotencatl, and roughly 100 more garrison soldiers and the cadets.It took one hour and a half, to suppress the resistance and the American flag fund it way waving up the hill as a sign of victory. Ninety percent of the Marines died in this conquest. And to pay tribute to this distinct heroism, the opening lyrics of the official US Marine’s Hymn, â€Å"†¦. the Halls of Montezuma† was referred her as the Chapultepec Castle. Moreover, the corps included a blood stripe in their blue dress uniform. 2. What is chattel slavery and how was it institutionalized in the British North American colonies?Chattel slavery is the most common type of slavery in the American history. It is characterized by the master’s provision of property and money towards the slave in exchange for service like all sorts of labor and oftentimes sexual servitude. Basically, this social status is inherited to the next cohort, that is, the later generations are expected to do the same, either sold to another master or to serve under the same owner. The history of slavery in America started in 1619 upon the arrival of the Dutch ship, the White Lion in Virginia.It transported African slaves to several British colonies in America. Aside from that it also brought with it indentured servants. Indentured servitude is a form of debt bondage, in this case, in exchange fro the transport of these people across the Atlantic to America, food, clothing, food and other basic necessities; they are to serve a certain em ployer after a period of time usually after 4 to 7 years. The first law enacted towards slavery and established the legality of English slavery in the Caribbean was the Barbadian Slave Code of 1661.Almost 20 years later, South Carolina instituted that a slave is a property, meaning a slave being owned by an individual or group of individual therefore cannot sold from the estate. In 1696t the Barbadian Code was adapted in South Carolina, hence defining the basic guideline for slavery in North America. During this adaptation, the African became chattel slaves from being indentured slaves, giving the enslaver complete ownership of a person.Moreover, in Virginia, government made its own laws against the growing indentured slaves, since some slaves became wealthy farm owners after they are released from servitude. The Virginian Laws, provided that Africans are to be slaves for life and the same status are to be applied to their future progeny. 3. The embryonic federal republic of North A merica was quickly forced to grapple with issues related to citizenship and immigration. Analyze the 1790 Naturalization Act. Naturalization is the procedure wherein people become a citizen of a country they were not born in.On March 26, 1790, the Naturalization Act took affect and it provided several guiding rules on granting natural citizenship for immigrants. Several important highlight of this act was that, citizenship was not to be granted to people who were indentured slaves and to the Indians, in addition to that Blacks are not supposed to be granted citizenship in America. This translates to the notion that every Black who enters American territory was expected to become slaves. This Naturalization Act offered vague definition and translation of the Law.As stated in this Act, every immigrant is required a certain period of time of residence in America before being called a citizen in order to appreciate and evaluate the concept of American Democracy. But this Act itself, pre vented anyone who they termed â€Å"colored† from becoming a citizen adding up to their concept of racial discrimination. This Act therefore became a living example of the racial difference and the wall Law created between the whites and the blacks of African decent. 4.Describe the impact of the invention of the cotton gin on the expansion of American slavery. The cotton gin was devised by Eli Whitney a graduate from Yale University. In his pursuit to pay his debt, he went to Georgia and acquired a job as a private tutor. There, he realized that the southern farmers and farm owners were frantic to find ways to increase their yield and profit in cotton production. The issue on cotton production involved the difficulty to separate the fluffy cotton balls and the seeds which sticks to it much.Catherine Greene, Whitney’s employer persuaded him to find a solution to this problem. Greene provided all possible support needed especially in the financial aspect. The development of the cotton gin doubled the yield for raw cotton every decade after 1800. It also opened the doors for more machinery demands, such as the machines to weave or to spin the cotton, and also for the invention of the steamboat to transport it at an ease. There was a production bloom and massive exportation of cotton occurred between America to England and to New England.Immense cotton production truly brought solution to farmer’s problems and greatly uplifted American economy though trade at that era. But like any other inventions meant to discover resolutions to problems, this also carried changes that worsen the American society. And the most historic is the propagation of slavery. Although the cotton gin, decrease the time and amount of labor needed to separate the cotton and the seed, it extremely increased the need of manpower in the form of slaves t grow and harvest the cotton, especially with the expansion of the area of farmlands.In 1808, approximately 80,000 Africans were imported as slaves and the slave population in the South reached up to an estimated 1/3 of the populace. The invention of the cotton gin therefore required more slaves to work under a more tireless and strict regimen, wherein abuse and mistreatment were hence more common as compared before the rise of production pressures brought about by the cotton gin.

Internet memes in light of The work of art in the age of Mechanical Essay

Internet memes in light of The work of art in the age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin - Essay Example This research paper is aimed at highlighting the importance of this prominent means of communicating ideas while relating it to the concepts of arts developed by Walter Bejamin in his article "The work of Art in the age of the Mechanical Reproduction". Discussion Immediately following the development of the concept of internet memes, the idea was taken by many in the field and a number of websites appeared which served the purpose of providing newly developed memes with expressions which could be molded according to one's needs. This was not limited to internet sites only; a number of books, e-books and social media sites also serve the purpose. Literature review Although abundant information is available regarding the various aspects of memes, only those resources will be selected which resonate with the ideas brought forward by Walter Benjamin in the selected article. To prevent bias from disrupting the authenticity of the document, equal importance will be given to resources with supporting or confronting views. Dawkin's (1976) work 'The selfish gene' will be used to get an idea about the origin of the concept of memes. The work of Shifman (2009) will be used to get an idea about the current trends about internet memes. Strohecker's (2012) work about authenticity of art works will be referred to for explaining in detail the nature of authenticity of art works. ... Burgress (2007) has described memes to be 'vernacular creativity'; she considers that memes are the result of daily artistic and innovative thoughts of people that take the form of an idea and are produced by simple means. Milner (2012) talks about memes and claims that with the passage of time and with improvement in technology, websites related to the development of memes are getting user friendly. Therefore, the range of topics and ideas covered by developers of memes are according to their age and interests; this implies that the themes of memes fall under literally thousands of categories. It is for this reason that a standard classification of memes according to genres is not feasible as yet. However, a general classification of memes can include categories like Reaction photoshops, Lipsynch, Misheard Lyrics and Recut Trailers etc (Shifman, 2014). It should however be understood that the basis of classification of memes can be different and various systems of classification of memes can be adapted depending upon the type of requirements under a given set of conditions. Aims of the project The aim of this project is to weigh the concept of memes against a standard; an article by a well known literary critic from Germany. Being the developer of the notion 'auratic perception', Walter in his work "The work of Art in the age of the Mechanical Reproduction" has discussed art in the light of the then prevailing circumstances in which the aspect of mechanical reproduction was very prominent. However, with the passage of time and with the development of new concepts and technologies, older methods of reproduction of art works have been replaced by a number of new methods. Although, a digital manifestation of the art works ensures rapid propagation

Research and Writing Handbook Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Research and Writing Handbook - Essay Example However during the course of this discussion we would be analyzing the killing and the subsequent riots that sparked in the aftermath from the perspective of identity negotiations. However it is important that an idea regarding the understanding of identity negotiations is first acquired. Identity negotiations is referred to as a process through the help and application of which people get an understanding and reach upon an agreement regarding the identity of different people living in their society. It is with the help of this understanding that people actually assume their identities and consequent roles that they need to fulfil in the societal setup they are a part of. (Bakir and David. 2007) On psychological grounds the phenomenon of identity negotiation uncovers a different aspect which is based upon the clash that takes place between the expectations of perceivers with self-views that targets hold. It is under such a condition that people and members of a society engage in a â €Å"battle of wills† and it is in the midst of these conditions that a society gets stratified and once again yearns for an identity. (Swann. 1987) The disastrous events that took place in London after the killing of Mark Duggan provided a comprehensible manifestation of a divided community and society members. This can further be verified from the details that have been disclosed by journalists covering these haunting events. At one end there were people who did condemn the killing of Duggan but were not in favor of the chaos that followed in the aftermath. They encouraged peaceful ways through which they could bring the attention of state policy makers towards this crucial issue, hence it is clear that this particular segment of the society refrained from exercising any violent means of protest. Unfortunately, it was this very segment of the society that had to pay maximum price of their non-violent behavior in the form of human as well as material loss. Their businesses we re burned and they themselves gained injuries while trying to protect it. Quoting David Lawrence, the author of the story â€Å"I know people who have lost everything they ever owned because their homes were burned down over the weekend. I know people who have worked hard to create successful businesses and now have nothing to show for it† (Lawrence. 2011) in an overnight turn of events they lost everything that they once rightfully owned. On the other hand there was also a particular segment that took complete advantage of this situation in creating wreck and havoc in different areas. It has primarily been the activities of these members of London society that have unleashed a violent and brutal picture of a society which was at one point of time referred to as the most civilised society in Europe. The plunder and looting that these people convinced onlookers that the elements of radicalism, extremism and rebellion are present in almost all people; however what is shockingly astounding regarding these riots is the very identity that outlaws disguised as when conducting all these activities. They took on a new form of societal role which was appalling, dangerous and disastrous. Once again quoting Lawrence: â€Å"They just saw it as an opportunity to wreak havoc and seek things for personal gain. Stealing trainers from JD Sports? Taking phones from T-Mobile? Removing the hole in the wall, literally leaving a hole in the wall? All in

Pros and Cons of Big Data Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Pros and Cons of Big Data - Assignment Example In this case, what these corporations may do with the data is anyone's guess. Another concern is the fact that big data analytics are never completely accurate. Most corporations, enthusiastic about the possibilities of large data analytics, consider all analysis obtained to be valid, even when this may not always be the case. a) As a consumer, I am inclined to be cautious when I use the internet. I have to examine all corporations that want my data and only give it to those that can be trusted, while denying access to those with past negative public privacy concerns. This may involve limited interaction with social networks, using search engines which value anonymity like DuckDuckGo and opting out of data collection programs when possible and appropriate. b) As a business user, I support the idea that no data should be collected without prior approval of the consumer. In as much as marketing should be tailored to the preferences of each potential buyer, it should not infringe on their privacy. As such, websites which use cookies to tailor adverts should have a limit on what data should be collected for this purpose. 3. Considering the issues with data accuracy, secondary use of the collected data and need to protect the rights of users of web services such as Facebook, email, etc. What changes would you suggest to address the abuse of data on the internet? First, this data collection should only be done with the consent of the user. They should be given an option to opt in or out of the program. The corporations should give a precise indication of the type of data that will be collected, the purpose that it will serve, what anonymity measures will be taken to protect the privacy of the user, how long the data will be stored and finally, a review of the secondary parties that this data will be made available to.

Medical Law and Ethics and How We Use it in our Day to Day Tasks at Essay

Medical Law and Ethics and How We Use it in our Day to Day Tasks at Hospitals and or Radiology Sites - Essay Example Thus the Laws of Medical care ought to be use there. The uses of these Laws straighten relationships between doctors and patients, especially in the Radiology department where human being diseases is diagnosed. However, this development has in no small measure has caused d policy makers, doctors, and lawyers at national and international level a tremendous challenge of teaching medical students on legal and non-legal health care process with ethical background. In a Hospital and Medical health care centers, being a Radiology site or any department, doctors and other health workers are bound to these Medical Laws, while they are expected to treat patients according to these ethics. First, they should stick to the confidentiality; in no circumstances they must not reveal the health condition of patients. They most adapt to the Law that the health condition is only the patients own personal problem. "We are also required by Law to protect the privacy of your protected health information and to provide you with notice of these legal duties. This notice explains how, when and why we typically use and disclose health information and your privacy rights regarding your health information". (HIPAA Notice for the Medical Center). Additionally Law has made it incumbent upon health care pr... The forefront duties of doctors and other health care personnel's should adapt to the uses of Medical (Health) Laws. First, they should stick to the confidentiality; in no circumstances they must not reveal the health condition of patients. They most adapt to the Law that the health condition is only the patients own personal problem. Doctors and other health worker always should ensure the protection of patient's disease record, by only informing the victim about the right to enquire about his condition. "We are also required by Law to protect the privacy of your protected health information and to provide you with notice of these legal duties. This notice explains how, when and why we typically use and disclose health information and your privacy rights regarding your health information". (HIPAA Notice for the Medical Center). Additionally Law has made it incumbent upon health care provider to keep record of health status of patients. The essence of this is for the provision of quality care now and in the near future, or for as long as possible. However, there are certain circumstances which Medical Law has given mandate for doctors to disclose the state of health information especially in the Radiology site of Hospital, which include treatment. They can give the state of health condition of a patient to specialist, and other necessary agents. This is to ensure the speedy recovery of a patient. In Radiology site, Law has allowed them to disclose the state of health of patient directly to him in request for payment of bills, including insurance and other companies that the patients receives treatments. Medical Law also allows the Radiology

The Message of Art Matters Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Message of Art Matters - Essay Example The beauty of art is found everywhere. It is up to an individual how he perceives and appreciates it. While it is true that aesthetic beauty lies in the eyes of a beholder, visual representation brings the collaboration of art formed in many approaches: music,painting, stories, imagination and even science. The subject of an artwork is primarily and obviously taken notice. The artist has the liberty to choose the subject matter for his artwork. However, it is the content that will always reflect the artist (Nielsen). There are thousands of artists that paint the same subject. It is the artist’s own style that makes their works diverse and non-ephemeral. Every man is an artist. Every individual has a way to voice out what is going on inside of him and loose it out in ways that would make an impact to whoever perceives. Art as an expression reflects what is happening in a certain society and culture. If art is a work output, then it must come from inside of the artist. The freedom of every individual lets him explore the vastness of his creativity exploding into varied concepts of supreme work of art and achievements.

Eco Fashion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Eco Fashion - Essay Example The focus of the paper "Eco Fashion" is on chemical use and pesticides use in the processing of raw materials for garments. Vogue notes that the earliest references in the past three decades with regard to sustainable fashion and ecofashion were made as early as 1990. Then, the New York Times headlined a story with regard to an emergent green movement in the world of fashion, as well as a new environmental push in fashion observed in Vogue not long after that. It was also in 1990 that a pioneer of the ecofashion movement, Katharine Hamnett, spoke before the United Nations with regard to the anomalies in the way garments were produced. The talk was specifically about the negative ecological impacts of those production and marketing processes for fashion and garments. Terms such as acid rain and children of the earth, as they pertain to fashion, also came into vogue. These point to the deep historical roots of ecofashion in the fashion literature. Fast forward to the present, and there are whole movements in countries in support of ecofashion, and awareness of the large negative impacts of mainstream fashion processes, including the production processes for garments, has reached an all-time high. For instance, in Sweden, government assets that promote ecofashion cite statistics with regard to the massive negative environmental toll of producing mainstream fabrics. The chemical trails from the dyes, bleaches and prints that are used to produce garments are said to be on par with the production. of wastes in petrochemical plants. Meanwhile tons of these garments end up becoming part of landfills and cause long-term havoc to the environment because of the chemicals that they contain. They also take a long time to totally decompose. This awareness in turn has been used to provide a boost for the creation of new ecofashion companies all over the world. In Sweden for instance, the first ecogarment firms were founded in 2004 (Quinn 2007). Among organic sources, the lite rature mentions hemp, cotton and bamboo as prime examples of organic materials that have become representative sources of fabrics in ecofashion (Rauf and Vescia 2009, p. 27). Recycling materials and the use of so-called â€Å"low-impact dyes†, or dyes that have a minimal environmental footprint, are also among the key concepts, materials and technologies that are associated with ecofashion (Lee 2009; Styles 2012). On the other hand, new ecofashion trends emphasize how current ecofashion has veered away from the symbolisms and the values associated with past eco-fashion waves. These include those that were produced by the counter-culture hippie movement of the 60's and 70's. Emerging ecofashion trends include that ecofashion has come to be embraced by the biggest mainstream fashion designers and brands, from Armani to Oscar de la Renta. Moreover, the focus of the new wave is on the aesthetics of the person wearing the apparel (Winge 2008, pp. 511-524). Elsewhere in the literat ure, sustainability and ecofashion have also come to be associated with fair trade too. Are the cotton farmers paid well and fairly? Are the supply chain processes optimized to

Pride and Prejudice Essay Example for Free

Pride and Prejudice Essay Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice (1813) is believed to originate from the manuscript called First Impressions that have been written between 1796 and 1797. The initial title indicates that characters’ behavior and evaluations are influenced by their first impressions. The second title stresses the importance of such psychological traits and mechanisms as pride and prejudice. In a course of the novel personages change a lot so far as they understand that perfunctory attitudes and assessments are false when being devoid of knowledge of the context and understanding of an individual’s character. The present paper tackles upon analysis of Austen’s book as being researched through a lens of psychology. Contemporary science introduced the â€Å"social stereotypes† concept which significantly influences people’s interaction within a given social group. Among many other important contributions, the novel of interest teaches us to approach carefully decisions as related to our interpersonal acting and judgment of group members according to first impressions. The effects, dangers and consequences of premature evaluations as based on social stereotypes will be analysed with specific examples from the book. The novel under review is believed to be an example of psychological writing or novel of human relationships. As Sherry has acknowledged, the writer is always aware of â€Å"the presence of other individuals with whom it is either a duty or a pleasure to mix† (611). The very title of the book consists of two psychological concepts. The one of â€Å"pride† denotes a trait of character associated with high self-esteem. Another one of â€Å"prejudice† refers to a situation when a person makes decisions regardless of the context and relevant features of a case or individual. In regard to the issue of Austen’s psychologism, critic Bloom has cited Ian Watt, an important theorist of literature from Stanford University. The latter has claimed Austen to be the commenting narrator† in the sense that her â€Å"analyses of †¦ characters and their states of mind, and her ironical juxtaposition of motive and situation †¦ do not seem to come from an intrusive author but rather from some august and impersonal spirit of social and psychological understanding† (39). In his turn, another literary critic, Ryan, has defined Austen’s psychologism as an â€Å"experiment in schematic psychology† (33). The latter definition with its emphasis on the writer’s schematism in delineating people’s behavioral patterns and analyzing their internal and external drives seems to be really accurate, given the recent developments in psychological science. Just think of the plain statistics: in Austen’s text, there are 48 references to the phenomenon of â€Å"pride,† which is accessible through direct observation, but there are only 8 cases of mentioning the phenomenon of â€Å"prejudice,† which requires a deeper understanding of psychological mechanisms and social contexts. It seems that the writer lacks instruments and concepts to analyze human behavior at a deeper level but this is not Austen’s fault. Being unaware of any of the recent theories of social sciences, she nevertheless hits the very essence of the process that would later be called â€Å"social stereotyping. † Let us prove this hypothesis on the example of the â€Å"pride† concept. First time it is explained in Chapter 5 by Mary Bennet, the most earnest of the Bennets, who is interested in social theory. Upon the ball at which the local society has got acquainted with Fitzwilliam Darcy, the rich and handsome gentleman from London, women start discussing the newcomer and label him as being â€Å"eat up with pride† (Austen 25). On occasion, Mary has demonstrated her education, saying: Pride is a very common failing†¦ human nature is particularly prone to it, and †¦ there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or other, real or imaginary. Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us. (ibid. ) The validity of Mary’s (i. e. , Austen’s) remark has been acknowledged many decades afterwards by contemporary psychologists including Hunyady and Ryan. Whereas Mary Bennet operates the phrase â€Å"opinion of ourselves,† when referring to characteristics ascribed to the self by an individual, Ryan uses the term â€Å"self-ratings† (191), and Hunyady employs the term â€Å"self-image† (189). Both Mary (i. e. Austen) and modern scientists are aware of the complexity of perceptions as featured by the subject and members of the group. To proceed with comparison, whereas in the novel there is made a distinction between â€Å"pride† as a self-rating and â€Å"vanity† as the rating imposed by the community, Ryan speaks about the concept of â€Å"social stereotype. † The psychologist has ac knowledged that it consists of the two basic elements: â€Å"the perceived stereotypicality of a group (i. e. , the perceived extremity of the central tendency) and the perceived dispersion, or diversity, of group members† (191). This point is not Ryan’s unique invention. On the same issue, another social scientist, Hunyady, has stressed the duality of social processes as occurring both within the specific group and outside it. Observing the complexity of relationships in dynamic social contexts, Hunyady has emphasized the following: †¦ [T]he categories of persons and the related stereotypes do not stand on their own but rather are components of some kind of a system. †¦ [S]tereotypes are the mosaic pieces of a picture formed of the whole society. One not only gets to know his individual companions or groups of his companions but also tries to get a comprehensive view of the entire human world and of society, in which he and his fellows have a place and a more or less stable environment. (189) In other words, psychologists argue that in a process of exhibiting the new object to the social group, the behavior of group members in regard to this object is predicted by realistic group conflict theory and social cognition theories of social categorization. Every subject unit of the group obeys to a certain set of normative regulations. An individual does not function on his/her own but clearly fits into this or that community. Subsequently and inevitably, a person evaluates oneself according to the degree of membership, or the extent to which his/her ratings of the self, the group and social processes conform to the summated ratings of other people belonging to that group. As Ryan has indicated, there is a â€Å"central tendency,† or the core perception of the phenomenon that is agreed upon by all group members as being guided by a set of shared norms, and there are also deviations from the mainstream. The latter are allowed by those group subjects who are less inclined to stereotype the phenomena of life due to their intellect and character. Taking this conceptual framework into consideration, we should admit that the stages of the social stereotyping process are brilliantly revealed by Austen in Pride and Prejudice, albeit the narrator employs a simple, non-scientific language. There is a specific group in the countryside 19th century England whose members share the common regulations concerning people and events. The highest value is attributed to the upper class membership, wealth, and appearance. There is â€Å"the aura of a small, enclosed community of talking, visiting, and company† (Sherry 611) that confines every person to the specific role and place. In this social atmosphere, first impressions, which are based on the abovementioned features of appearance and sweet manners (i. e. , those which do not deviate from the central tendency), become the long-lasting tags for an individual. It is extremely difficult to overcome the sustainability of these immediately formed stereotypes. Since the very moment of his entry to the ball room, Fitzwilliam Darcy drew the group’s attention. He is a new person to the community, and at first sight he seems to be in accord with the shared set of norms so far as the man is high, good-looking and enjoys a substantial income of ten thousand a year. However, conforming to the stereotype of a â€Å"good man† in the sense of outlook and social position, Darcy becomes a breacher of discipline in terms of his relationships with other group members. Darcy is claimed â€Å"to be proud; to be above his company, and above being pleased; and not all his large estate in Derbyshire could then save him from having a most forbidding, disagreeable countenance† (Austen 14). The reason for such a shift in attitudes is the man’s denial of the spirit of companionship that is somewhat more important to the community than the characteristics of its individual subjects, however handsome and wealthy they are. The clue to understanding the first impression of Darcy is provided in the scene where young women are discussing him after the ball. Charlotte Lucas, the best friend of the second Bennets daughters Elizabeth, who is the main female personage of the story, justifies Darcy by the fact that his high self-rating is understandable so far as he possesses every feature admired within the group: His pride does not offend me so much as pride often does, because there is an excuse for it. One cannot wonder that so very fine a young man, with family, fortune, everything in his favour, should think highly of himself. If I may so express it, he has a right to be proud. (Austen 25) In other words, this is not the man’s high self-esteem that hurts the senses of the locals. His drawback tackles upon not the pardonable attitude of pride but the regrettable vanity, or the overt negligence of the shared persuasion that the given social group is the best environment for any dignified individual. Regarding the eagerness to enter the local community and borrow its toolkit of stereotypes, Darcy represents a sharp contrast to an amiable young officer, Mr. Wickham. The latter is as handsome as the former but is more eagerly accepted by the group so far as he gladly steps into social intercourses with every member of the circle. As the personage himself has confessed, â€Å"I have been a disappointed man, and my spirits will not bear solitude. I must have employment and society† (Austen 98). This weakness and lack of the so to say inner rod is initially perceived as a virtue by group members. Austen’s mastery is made evident in the scenes documenting the usual intercourse between group members so that the reader can get impression of the relationships permeating the group atmosphere and learn the principles which back up the social stereotypes of that time. To make a clue to her heroes’ characters, the writer provides short explanations of the people’s psychological background. People and events are evaluated by many people who exchange remarks on the issue of interest, although Austen takes a particular interest in the phenomena as perceived through the eyes of Elizabeth Bennet. This is a beautiful and intelligent young lady of 20 years old who displays â€Å"a lively, playful disposition, which delighted in anything ridiculous† (Austen 16). She deserves the reader’s appreciation, demonstrating â€Å"more quickness of observation and less pliancy of temper than her sister, and †¦ a judgement too unassailed by any attention to herself† (Austen 20). Due to her intellect and sociable yet a bit absent-minded character, Elizabeth exhibits the perfect ability to deviate from the central tendency in her assessments and evaluations of life matters. The second of Bennet’s daughters is obviously the only group member who could have appreciated Darcy’s ability to let the world slide, if not for the case of personal injustice. She cannot forget the pain that has been caused to her own self-esteem. The thing is that Elizabeth has heard the handsome newcomer admitting that she is not enough beautiful to dance with. The remark is enough for the young lady to start detesting the offender to her pride. As Elizabeth herself has stated, â€Å"I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine† (Austen 25). The first impression of Darcy’s rudeness at the ball is driven by the clash of self-esteems, and negative perceptions color the young lady’s further conceptualization of the hero up to the very moment when he reveals his love toward her in Chapter 34. The futility of first impressions is demonstrated through the description of Elizabeth’s relationships with Darcy and Wickham as well as her understanding of Bingley’s character. As it has been stated earlier, all three men fit the shared group’s concept of â€Å"an appropriate gentleman† in terms of their looks and wealth, albeit Wickham is not as rich as the other two men and pretends to be a man who is unjustly insulted. He pretends to be modest and good-hearted when he says, â€Å"I have no right to give my opinion† or â€Å"I am not qualified to form one† (Austen 96) in regard to Darcy’s background, and immediately afterwards he does his best to ruin Fitzwilliam’s reputation. All Wickham’s envy of Darcy is demonstrated in the following characterization: â€Å"The world is blinded by his fortune and consequence, or frightened by his high and imposing manners, and sees him only as he chooses to be seen† (Austen 97). The remark provides the reader with a hint concerning Darcy’s manner of functioning within the upper class social circle. Among this threesome with Bingley being superficial and Wickham being villainous, Darcy is the only person to be criticized for the lack of that â€Å"agreeable manner† that Wickham demonstrates speaking even about insignificant matters. The intelligent and kind-hearted Lizzy cannot but â€Å"feel that the commonest, dullest, most threadbare topic might be rendered interesting by the skill of the speaker† (Austen 94) when she socialized with Wickham, whereas Darcy’s brisk and unwilling manner of speaking makes the young lady feel uncomfortable. This is true that being compared to his friend Bingley or his rivalry Wickham, Darcy is not the object to readily fall in love and admiration with. He dances only with the two selected ladies and neglects the rest. This manner is regarded an offense to the aura of amiability, and he abstains from the social chit-chat. Besides this gentleman directly expresses his opinions of other people instead of camouflaging them under the veil of behind-the-back gossip. This personage makes it too clear that the local society is â€Å"a collection of people in whom there was little beauty and no fashion, for none of whom he had felt the smallest interest, and from none received either attention or pleasure† (Austen 22). He reveals indignation, boredom, or sarcasm in the situations when other men pretend to be pleased and amused. Judging from first impressions, Charles Bingley is more favored by the locals since he treats them as the nicest people he has ever met. In his turn, Wickham’s reputation is based on the assumption that Darcy has devoid him of wealth, which puts the two men in the positions of a victim and an offender. This is only throughout a course of the plot development that the narrator makes clear that Bingley’s sociality is explained by superficiality, and Wickham is a cheater who has attempted to seduce Darcy’s younger sister. Utilizing the theories of social categorization, one may say that Wickham has been admitted to the local group more easily than Darcy because the former has readily belittled his self-rating in public conversations and demonstrated the greater extent of willingness to share the pre-established social regulations of the given group. Being compared to the sweet Mr. Bingley’s behavior, Darcy’s behavioral pattern is rooted in the wider cognitive scope and finer spiritual development. The latter is strong enough to disregard the central tendency as it exists in the given group. Being cleverer than his friend Mr. Bingley, who has managed to become the crowd puller, Darcy falls into the sin that is not pride per se but rather vanity. The local society would gladly accept him as the most important person if he had been willing to put himself on one leg so to say with other group members. It is only in Chapter 10 when the narrator lets readers learn more about Darcy’s understanding of pride and related concepts. In public opinion, his high self-esteem is a manifestation of haughtiness, whereas Wickham’s seemingly low self-rating is a sign of appropriateness as shown through humility. In his turn, Darcy detests â€Å"the appearance of humility† that is genuinely the â€Å"carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast† (Austen 60). Contemporary psychologists would call Darcy’s conceptualizations of â€Å"pride,† â€Å"humility,† and â€Å"boast† as being driven by functional utility of human behavior. According to this hero, this is inappropriate to put down one’s self-esteem just for the sake of being praised by other group members. Throughout the novel this personage remains the vivid example of a person who shares certain believes common to the central tendency of stereotypicality but reveals energy to display also diversity in his ratings of the self and other people. The complexity and dynamism of social stereotypes is shown through Darcy’s and Elizabeth’s attitudes to each other. Whereas Lizzy’s stereotypes in regard to the man remain sort of frozen for a while under the man’s â€Å"satirical eye† (Austen 30), Darcy is being engaged into the fast proceeding process, in a course of which he changes the initial perception of the young lady. The narrator specifies Darcy’s turn toward re-evaluating Lizzy Bennet as follows: But no sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she hardly had a good feature in her face, than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes. To this discovery succeeded some others equally mortifying. Though he had detected with a critical eye more than one failure of perfect symmetry in her form, he was forced to acknowledge her figure to be light and pleasing; and in spite of his asserting that her manners were not those of the fashionable world, he was caught by their easy playfulness. Austen 29) In other words, Darcy’s first rejection of the second daughter of Bennets has been caused by the incongruity between Elizabeth’s outlook and his own classical perception of beauty as a reckless symmetry of forms and elements. It is clear that the gentleman has initially been blinded by both his personal and group set of stereotypes that required women to conform to certain standards. Elizabeth does not seem to be classically beautiful, and her gaiety during the first meeting has poked the man away as a manifestation of social inappropriateness.

Alternative Methods of Lactic Acid Production

Alternative Methods of Lactic Acid Production Lactic acid is a hydroxycarboxylic acid, which is widely used in food, pharmaceutical, leather, cosmetic and textile industries. It can be polymerized to biodegradable and biocompatible plastic, i.e. polylactic acid, which has environment-friendly and great potential for replacing petrochemical plastic. Industrially, it can be produced by either chemical synthesis or microbial fermentation. Presently, approximately 90% of lactic acid was produced by lactic acid bacteria fermentation. Fermentative production has the advantage that by choosing a strain of LA bacteria producing only one of the isomer and optically pure product. The widely used substrates for lactic acid production are pure sugar, which are expensive. It is also possible to use lignocellulosic biomass, especially by product or waste materials from agriculture and industrial waste as substrates for fermentation. Therefore, the use of alternative substrates, low-cost and raw materials become thus of special interest for la ctic acid production. The present study the utilization of industrial wastes and lignocellulosic as an alternative substrate for lactic acid production. Lactic acid Lactic acid (2-hydroxy propionic acid) is a chemical compound that a role in several biochemical processes. It is a carboxylic acid with a chemical formula of C3H6O3. Lactic acid is chiral and has two optical isomers as shown in figure 1. Lactic acid is organic solvent that can dissolve in water but insoluble in other organic solvents. Other properties of lactic acid are presented in Table 1. Table 1. Physical properties of lactic acid. Parameter Chemical formula C3H6O3 Molecular weight 90.08 Acidity (pKa) 3.85 Melting point L : 53  °C D : 53  °C D/L : 16.8  °C Boiling point 82  °C at 0.5 mm Hg 122  °C at 14 mm Hg Dissociation constant, Ka at 25  ° C 1.37 x 10-4 Heat of combustion, Hc 1361 KJ/mole Specific Heat, Cp at 20  ° C 190 J/mole/  °C Source: Vickroy (1985) Lactic acid can be produced by chemical synthesis or microbial fermentation. The chemical synthesis produced a racemic mixture of D, L lactic acid. Presently, about 90% of lactic acid made by LAB fermentation and the remainder is produced synthetically by the hydrolysis of lactonitrile. The advantage of fermentation technologies is possible to use renewable resources as substrates, such as starch and cellulose in fermentative production. In figure 2 described the diagram of commercial uses and applications of lactic acid. Food applications reported for approximately 85% of the total lactic acid, while the nonfood industrial applications reported for only 15% of the demand. Alternative substrate for lactic acid production In fermentation process, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) need carbon source, essentially simple sugars and nitrogen source, as vital nutrients for their growths. The widely used substrates for lactic acid production are refined sugar, which are expensive. Therefore, attention has turned towards lignocellulosic biomass and industrial wastes to provide a source of carbohydrate for lactic acid production. Lignocellulosic Lignocellulosic resources are generally considered to represent an interesting and inexpensive raw material for microbial fermentation of lactic acid production, as they are renewable and cheap. A schematic diagram of the procedures for the preparation of lignocellulosic hydrolyzates is provided in figure 3. Wee and Ryu (2009) reported the production of lactic acid from lignocellulosic, glucose and lignocellulosic hydrolyzates were used as the carbon source. The concentration of lactic acid decreases with increases in the dilution rate. Generally, the cell concentration obtained from lignocellulosic hydrolyzates media was approximately 10-15% lower than observed with glucose media. The lactic acid yields were provided at more than 0.90 gg-1 the result are shown in table 2. The lignocellulosic hydrolyzates have to be detoxified in order to reduce these inhibitory effects prior to fermentation, as some of the by-products released during the pretreatment (Mussatto and Roberto, 2004). Ruengruglikit and Hang (2003), reported the lactic acid production from lignocellulosic materials by R. oryzae. After an enzymatic hydrolysis and 48-h fermentation, lactic acid yields of 0.3 gg-1. Food wastes Food wastes, which are supplied at lower costs, high in moisture and rich in carbohydrates. They could be suitable alternative substrate for lactic acid production. The food wastes contain polysaccharides as well as various oligosaccharides. Ohkouchi and Inoue (2005) reported the production of lactic acid from food wastes. The composition of food wastes is shown in Table 3. The optimum pH for L (+)-lactic acid production by L. manihotivorans LMG 18011 was 5.0 and under these condition the L (+)-lactic acid was 19.5 g produced from 200 g food wastes Kim et al. (2003) determined lactic acid production from food wastes by simultaneous saccharification fermentation technical. The effect of food wastes concentration on lactic acid production as shown in figure 4. In figure 4, the highest yield was obtained from 65 g/L of food waste with a final lactic acid concentration of 44.3 g/L, while the highest lactic acid concentration of 79.7 g/L was obtained from 145 g/L of food waste. Pineapple waste Most of the work using starch, beet molasses and sugar cane as the fermentation media for lactic acid production. Recently, Uno (2003) used grape invertase to attractive the production of lactic acid utilizing pineapple syrup as substrate. The efficiency of lactic acid production has been an affect from various aspect and ability to use fruit waste. Idris and Suzana (2005) reported the liquid pineapple waste, it is feasible to use produce lactic acid by immobilized L. delbrueckii. The maximum lactic acid can be obtained when parameters initial pH of 6.5, temperature of 37  ° C and sodium alginate concentration at 2% with a bead diameter of 1 mm in diameter. The highest values of kinetic parameters are obtained at 37  ° C and initial pH 6.5 (Table 4 and Table 5). Recycled paper sludge Recycled paper sludge is an industrial waste has high polysaccharides (mainly cellulose) content. The conversion of polysaccharides on sludge to be broken down into the monomers and released sugars to be fermented to lactic acid. The methods for conversion of a polysaccharide into the monomer consist of enzymatic and acid hydrolysis. Marques et al. (2008) studied the utilization of recycled paper sludge as an alternative substrate for lactic acid product. The maximum production of lactic acid was produced 73 g/L of lactic acid, maximum productivity of 2.9 g/L/h, with 0.97 g LA per g of carbohydrates on initial substrate. The fermentative parameters concerned the lactic acid production of all the cultivations in this work are presented in table 6. Conclusions The widely used substrates for lactic acid production are refined sugar, which are expensive. It is also possible to use lignocellulosic biomass, especially by product or waste materials from agriculture and industrial waste as substrates for fermentation. Therefore, the use of alternative, low-cost and raw materials become thus of special interest for lactic acid production. The ability to utilize this industrial wastes and lignocellulosic as alternative carbon sources for lactic acid production will help reduce of environmental pollution problem and also reduce production costs. LITERATURE CITED Idris, A. and W. Suzana. 2006. Effect of sodium alginate concentration, bead diameter, initial pH and temperature on lactic acid production from pineapple waste using immobilized Lactobacillus delbrueckii. Process Biochem. 41: 1117-1123. Kim, K.I. , W.K. Kim, D.K. Seo, I.S. Yoo, E.K. Kim and H.H. Yoon. Production of lactic acid from food wastes Appl. Biochem. Biothnol. 101-108: 637-647. Marques, S. , J.A.L. Santos, F.M. Gà rio and J.C. Roseiro. 2008. Lactic acid production from recycled paper sludge by simultaneous saccharification and fermentation. Biochem. Eng. 41: 210-216. Mussatto, S.I. and I.C. Roberto. 2004. Alternatives for detoxification of diluted-acid lignocellulosic hydrolyzates for use in fermentative processes. Bioresour. Technol. 1-10. Nexant. 2008. Biotech Route to Lactic Acid/ Polylactic Acid. Available Source:  http://nexant.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0255-130_ITM Ohkouchi, Y. and Y. Inoue. 2006. Direct production of L(+)-lactic acid from starch and food wastes using Lactobacillus manihotivorans LMG18011. Bioresour. Technol. 97: 1554-1562. Ruengruglikit, C. and Y.D. Hang. 2003. L(+) lactic acid production from corncobs by Rhizopus oryzae NRRL-395. Lebensm. Wiss. Technol. 36: 573-575. Uno, T., Y. Ozawa, M. Ishikawa, K. Nakanishi and T. Kimura. 2003. Lactic acid production using two food processing wastes, canned pineapple syrup and grape invertase as substrate and enzyme. Biotechnol. Lett. 25: 573-577. VickRoy, T.B. 1985. Lactic acid, pp. 761-776. In: Blanch, H.W., S. Drew and D.I.C. Wang eds. Comprehensive Biotechnol. Vol. 3. Pergamon Press, Oxford. Wee, Y.J., J.N. Kim and H.W. Ryu. 2006. Biotechnological production of lactic acid  and its recent applications. Food Technol. Biotechnol. 44(2): 163-172. Wee, Y.J. and H.W. Ryu. 2009. Lactic acid production by Lactobacillus sp. RKY2 in a cell-recycle continuous fermentation using lignocellulosic hydrolyzates as inexpensive raw materials. Bioresource Technol. 100: 4262-4270.

MEMS: Comparison With Micro Electronics

MEMS: Comparison With Micro Electronics Micro Electro Mechanical Systems or MEMS is a term coined around 1989 by Prof. R. Howe and others to describe an emerging research, where mechanical elements, like cantilevers or membranes, had been manufactured at a scale more akin to microelectronics circuit than to lathe machining. But MEMS is not the only term used to describe this and from its multicultural origin it is also known as Micromachines, a term often used in Japan, or more broadly as Microsystem Technology (MST), in Europe. However, if the etymology of the word is more or less well known, the dictionaries are still mum about an exact definition. Actually, what could link an inkjet printer head, a video projector DLP system, a disposable bio-analysis chip and an airbag crash sensor yes, they are all MEMS, but what is MEMS? It appears that these devices share the presence of features below 100 micro metre that are not machined using standard machining but using other techniques globally called micro-fabrication technology. Of course, this simple definition would also include microelectronics, but there is a characteristic that electronic circuits do not share with MEMS. While electronic circuits are inherently solid and compact structures, MEMS have holes, cavity, channels, cantilevers, membranes, etc, and, in some way, imitate `mechanical parts. This has a direct impact on their manufacturing process. Actually, even when MEMS are based on silicon, microelectronics process needs to be adapted to cater for thicker layer deposition, deeper etching and to introduce special steps to free the mechanical structures. Then, many more MEMS are not based on silicon and can be manufactured in polymer, in glass, in quartz or even in metals [5, 6]. Thus, if similarities between MEMS and microelectronics exist, they now clearly are two distinct. Actually, MEMS needs a completely different set of mind, where next to electronics, mechanical and material knowledge plays a fundamental role. 1.2 MEMS technology The development of a MEMS component has a cost that should not be misevaluated but the technology has the possibility to bring unique benefits. The reasons that prompt the use of MEMS technology can be classified broadly in three classes: a) Miniaturization of existing devices, like for example the production of silicon based gyroscope which reduced existing devices weighting several kg and with a volume of 1000 cm3 to a chip of a few grams contained in a 0.5 cm3 package. b) Development of new devices based on principles that do not work at larger scale. A typical example is given by the biochips where electrical are use to pump the reactant around the chip. This so called electro-osmotic effect based on the existence of a drag force in the fluid works only in channels with dimension of a fraction of one mm, that is, at micro-scale. c) Development of new tools to interact with the micro-world. In 1986 H. Rohrer and G. Binnig at IBM were awarded the Nobel price in physics for their work on scanning tunneling microscope. This work heralded the development of a new class of microscopes (atomic force microscope, scanning near optical microscope) that shares the presence of micro machined sharp micro-tips with radius below 50 nm. This micro-tool was used to position atoms in complex arrangement, writing Chinese character or helping verify some prediction of quantum mechanics. Another example of this class of MEMS devices at a slightly larger scale would be the development of micro-grippers to handle cells for analysis. 2.Micromirrors 2.1 History of Micromirror : In recent years, deformable mirror devices (DMDs) have emerged as a new micro-electromechanical (MEM) technology with tremendous potential for future applications. As shown in Fig. 1-1, the concept of deformable mirrors was developed and utilized as early as 211 BC by Greek soldiers to destroy enemy ships [1]. 1 However, it was not until 1973 that serious development of micromirror devices began to emerge. Currently, several designs of deformable mirrors have been fabricated, some before a practical use had been identified. It is these devices that are now receiving serious attention as optical communication and related fields are expanding. 2.2 BACKGROUND Mirror devices are a specific type of spatial light modulator (SLM).Spatial light modulators are devices that can alter the phase, amplitude, and/or the direction of propagation of an incident beam of light. Deformable mirror devices do this by moving a reflective surface to achieve the desired effect. Currently, two distinct types of micro-mirrors are used [1]. Continuous surface devices use one large reflective membrane that is locally controlled by individual actuators to form a continuous reflective surface. Circus fun house mirrors are an example of such a device. Segmented devices, on the other hand, use a mirror surface that is divided into numerous individually controllable smaller mirrors. Greek soldiers used segmented mirrors to form a parabolic reflective surface which was used to focus sunlight onto enemy ships. 2 Segmented devices are used today in the formation of large parabolic mirrors. As shown in Figure 1-2, the primary mirror of many modern optical telescope systems is comprised of segmented deformable mirrors. In the past, the size-limiting factor in such systems has been the size of the primary mirror which had to be mechanically stable yet light enough to move to various positions throughout a full field of view. Larger mirrors were frequently damaged or caused damage to other components of the telescope when movement was attempted. With the application of segmented deformable mirror technology, the practical limit in telescopic primary mirror size can be extended since much lighter and smaller mirrors can be individually anchored, controlled, and placed adjacent to each other to form the necessary parabolic mirror. The segmented mirrors are not only placed at a slight angle to each other, but are shaped by the segmented actuators and are free to bend to form smaller parabolically curved surfaces. The segmented actuators are manipulated by the control electronics which receive information from the laser figure sensor and the edge computer which is then translated into a necessary change in the position or shape of the mirrors. These monitoring devices continually check the status of the segmented mirrors to maintain the parabolic form of the entire device and to ensure that no gaps or severe discontinuities are present in the surface of the primary mirror which would result in a distorted image or a loss in image resolution. The basic principles of this macroscopic technology can also be used in microscopic applications which involve fabricating deformable mirrors on integrated circuits. Several forms of micromirrors have emerged that combine on-chip addressing electronics with the micro-mechanical mirrors [1]. The geometric and material variations of these devices demonstrate that deformable mirrors can be designed and implemented for a variety of specific uses. The micromirror devices currently used are segmented surface devices in which the actuation of a small reflective mirror is controlled by a single address electrode. The metallized mirror and the address electrode of the device form a parallel plate capacitor. The voltage between the mirror and the electrode creates an electrostatic force acting on the mirror in the downward direction. The flexures holding the mirror are designed to deform, allowing the mirror to move vertically with applied voltage. The resulting spring force of the flexures ac ts on the mirror in the upward direction, countering the electrostatic force of the capacitor. 3.MICROMIRROR ACTUATION METHODS FOR SENSING 3.1 Electromagnetic Actuation: A micromirror can be deflected in two ways by electromagnetic actuation. First, by using Lorentz force to move a patterned coil by exerting external magnetic field. Second, by repulsive/attractive forces to repel/attract the magnetic material attached to the mirror from/to the actuator. Advances in material fabrication to provide thick film deposition of magnetic material on the surface of micro actuators should reduce voltage and current requirements. Magnetic MEMS can offer non- contact operation, and can induce mechanical resonance by magnetic element excitation. However, thermal budget imposed by the current CMOS technology limits the fabrication of the magnetic film on the substrate from reaching the desired characteristics [3]. 3.2 Piezoelectric Actuation: The piezoelectric actuation takes advantage of the corresponding physical deformation to applied electrical voltage property . It has relatively lower operation voltage (3-20 Volt DC) with low power consumption, better linearity, and fast switching time 0.1 to 1.0 milliseconds [3]. 3.3 Thermal Actuation: The main advantage of thermal actuation is the simplicity of the fabrication method. However, in general, thermal actuation tends to have higher power consumption and slow response time. The out-of-plane thermal micro actuator uses thermal expansion due to ohmic heating. A thin arm and wide arm configuration with one end fixed to the substrate has nonlinear property due to temperature dependency . 3.4 Electrostatic Actuation: Despite suffering from the pull-in effect, nonlinear behavior, and higher operating voltage, the electrostatic actuations fast response time (less than 0.1 ms), low power consumption, and the easiness of integration and testing with electrical control system make the electrostatic actuation one of the preferred choices for micromirror actuation . The operation voltage of the micromirror can be lowered while achieving more angular deflection if the stiffness of torsion bar is reduced. However, when the stiffness is lowered, the natural frequency of the micromirror also decreases, thereby reducing operational bandwidth. Say w, v, d scales as L1. Maximum Electrostatic Potential Energy Stored is given by: 3 Permitivity of vacuum and relative permitivity remains unchanged with scaling. Assume Vb scales linearly with d (Out of Paschen effect range), then 4 Electrostatic Forces Found to Scale as Square of L. Since mass and hence inertial forces scale as cube of L, Electrostatic Actuators are advantageous in Scaled Down Sizes [3]. Paschen Effect: Breakdown of continuum theory Figure 3 -Vb v/s P,d Paschen Effect: Breakdown of continuum theory: a) Vb scales non linearly in Paschen effect range. b) Vb increases in Paschen effect range. c) Higher Vb implies higher storage of energy and so larger force. 4.Summary of Advantages and Disadvantages of Each Actuation Mechanism Actuation Advantages Disadvantages Magnetic Low actuation voltage Relatively large angular deflection with lower driving power Difficult to assemble permanent magnets and coils with current CMOS technology Challenge in minimizing the size of device Piezoelectric Higher switching speed Low power consumption Short actuation range Thermal Ease of fabrication (require only one composite beam) for bulk production -High power consumption Slow response time Fatigue due to thermal cycle Electrostatic Low power consumption Fast switching Ease of integration and testing with electrical control circuitry Nonlinear characteristics Limited by the pull-in effect High actuation voltage Fabrication complexity 5.Proposed Designs 5.1 ANALYTICAL MODEL OF THE STACKED MICROMIRRORS In this section, micromirrors of different configurations are presented and compared in terms of their deflection angle and actuation voltage. The conceptual schematics of the three configurations analyzed are shown below. Figure 1(a) shows a conventional micromirror configuration. Figure 1(b) shows a unique configuration of the stacked micromirror also denoted as the first stacked mirror configuration, and Figure 1(c) shows a novel configuration of the stacked micromirror with an offset, which is also known as the second stacked micromirror configuration [8]. Figure 1. Schematics of Three Different Micromirror Configurations. The moving electrode (middle plate) in the stacked configurations is designed to be identical to the micromirror in size and material. Solutions for the following analytical model are independent of the shape and size of the plate (micromirror) as long as the dimensions of each layer are identical. First, an analytical model of the micromirror is derived to better understand the relationship between each parameter of the micromirror. The torque created by the electrostatic force between the micromirror and its electrodes, as denoted by M for each configuration, is derived from the following dynamic Equation (1): I (d2O/dt2) + C (dO/dt) + kO = M -(1) where, I is the moment of the inertia. C is the damping coefficient representing the squeeze-film. k is the torsional stiffness of the rotated serpentine spring. M is the torque created by the electrostatic force between the micromirror and its electrodes. The moment of the inertia of the micromirror along the y-axis is equal to (1/12)*ml2. Second, the value for damping coefficient, c, representing the squeeze-film damping of the micromirror is derived from the linearized Reynolds equation [13] and presented in Equation (2). C= -(48w3)/(à Ã¢â€š ¬6(b2+4)D3) (2) where, ÃŽÂ ¼ is the dynamic viscosity of the air. l is equal to the half length of the micromirror, . w is the width of the micromirror. b is the ratio of the width to the length of the micromirror. D is the initial air gap between the micromirror and its electrodes. Third, the torsional stiffness, k, of the rotated serpentine spring K= (G Jp)/(2NLp+3Lp) (3) where, G is the shear modulus of the material used in the rotated serpentine spring. Jp is the torsion factor of a beam with rectangular cross-section [14] and can be derived from the Equation (4) below. N is the number of the loops or turns in the rotated serpentine spring. Lp is the length of the rotated serpentine spring segment that is parallel to the rotation axis. Jp= (tw3/3)*(1-(192w/3t)*à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬Ëœt=1,2,3.1/t3* tanh(tà Ã¢â€š ¬t/2w)) (4) Fourth, for the sake of simplicity, the micromirror is considered to be a rigid body and the deflection of the rotated serpentine spring in the Z axis is assumed to be negligible. In order to find the torque created by the electrostatic force between the micromirror and its electrodes, the parallel plate capacitor theory is used to derive the differential force that acts on a small segment of the micromirror and its electrodes: dF = 1à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ®V2 (wdx)/(D-x2 -(5) where, à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ® denotes the permittivity of air and V represents the potential difference. The torque, M, for each configuration is simplified with the normalized angle as represented by the following Equation (6), (7) and (8): MO = 0.5 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ®wV2 (L2/D2 o2)*(o/1-o + ln(1-o)) (6) M1 = 0.5 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ®wV2 (L2/D2 4o2)*(2o/1-2o + ln(1-2o)) (7) M2 = 0.5 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ®wV2 (L2/D2 2)*(1/(1-2o+o2)) (8) where, M0 represents the torque created in the single mirror configuration. M1 and M2 denote the torque generated in the first and second stacked mirror configurations, respectively. To simplify the analysis, the fixed bottom electrodes are not used to actuate the micromirrors in both stacked configurations [8]. Figure-2. Torque versus Angle Comparison Plot for Three Micromirror Configurations. To visualize the magnitude of torques against the normalized angles, the normalized torques of M0, M1, and M2 are plotted in the Figure 2. The red line shows an exponential increase in the normalized torque as the normalized angle grows. The black line (conventional single mirror configuration) shows relatively gradual increase. As expected, while the deflection angle is small there are negligible differences between the three configurations in terms of the torque created by the same actuation voltage. However, as the deflection angle increases, the torque acting on the first stacked mirror grows exponentially. On the other hand, the second stacked mirror configuration shows a 50% increase in torque when compared to the single mirror configuration. 5.2 GEOMETRY The size and geometry of the micromirror are determined by the diameter of the optical beam as well as its application. For example, a micromirror used in an endoscope would require a smaller form factor. The micromirror discussed here is designed to be 1 mm in length, 1 mm in width and 10 ÃŽÂ ¼m in thickness. Also, it is assumed to be made of polysilicon that has a Youngs modulus of 160 GPa, Poissons ratio of 0.22 and density of 2330 kg/m3. Normally, the micromirror is designed to be suspended over a cavity by two torsion bars. Even though a straight torsion bar is simple to design and fabricate, it suffers from residual stress, which alters the stiffness of a torsion bar and the micromirrors frequency response. Furthermore, modification of the physical or geometric properties of the straight torsion bar is not straightforward since the geometry of the torsion bar such as the width and thickness are limited by the fabrication process. Hence, two rotated serpentine springs are chosen to hold the micromirror in place while the micromirror rotates. The serpentine springs stiffness can be easily customized regardless of the fabrication process. Thus, a rotated serpentine spring is employed in this analysis. The rotated serpentine spring used in this analysis is 4 ÃŽÂ ¼m wide, 10 ÃŽÂ ¼m thick, and 100 ÃŽÂ ¼m in length from one end to another end. The gap between each turn is 4 ÃŽÂ ¼m. Figure.3 (a) shows the expanded view of the rotated serpentine spring, and Figure.3 (b) shows the relative size and location of the spring on the micromirror. Figure 3. (a) Rotated Serpentine Spring Torsion Bar and (b) the Micromirror. Two different configurations of the micromirror are presented in Figure 4. To simplify modeling and analysis, the geometry and material of the plates (micromirrors) are kept identical except the stacking configuration. As shown in Figure 4(a), a micromirror is placed 250 ÃŽÂ ¼m directly above another square plate along the z-axis. In Figure 4(b), a micromirror is placed above another mirror with a 250 ÃŽÂ ¼m gap in the z axis and a 500 ÃŽÂ ¼m offset along the x- axis. The top plate is the micromirror, and the bottom plate is used as moving electrodes [8]. The micromirror and its moving counterpart have two electrodes located on their bottom. The electrodes are assumed to be made of 1 ÃŽÂ ¼m aluminium thin film. The rotated serpentine springs provide electrical connection between the electrodes and control circuitry. Figure-4. Stacked Micromirror Configurations. 5.3 Flexure Beam Micro-Mirror C:UsersAjiteshDesktopUntitled1.jpg C:UsersAjiteshDesktopUntitled.jpg Figure-5: Flexure Beam Micromirror APPROACH In order to develop the characteristic model of the Flexure-Beam micromirror device, it must first be characterized by equating the electrostatic actuation force of the parallel plate capacitor with the mechanical restoring force of the spring. Figure-6 shows a Flexure-Beam device in the resting ( V = 0 ) and active ( V > 0 ) modes where Zm represents the vertical height of the mirror above the address electrode. It is initially assumed that when no electrode potential is applied, the mirror rests firmly in the resting position, Z0, where the deflection distance, d, at all points on the mirror is zero [1]. Figure-6: Forces acting in flexure Beam Micromirror The Flexure-Beam device is a phase-only device since the direction of motion of the mirror is orthogonal to the reflective surface. Therefore, the optical path length can be altered while the direction of propagation remains unchanged. This makes the piston device very appealing for phase modulated filters or for adaptive phase correcting optics. Figure-7: Cloverleaf Micromirror One design improvement is another cantilever device known as the Cloverleaf. As shown in Figure, the flexures holding the reflective surfaces are placed in the center of the geometry. This takes the basic design of the Inverted Cloverleaf and reduces some of the negative effects observed. Also, the electrodes are located directly beneath each mirror which allows the cantilever surfaces to be individually addressable. Moving the support for the mirrors to the center of the pixel cell allows for better use of overall space. Now, the pixels can be placed so that adjacent cells nearly touch each other with only a small gap required between the mirrors of one cell and the mirrors of another. Most of the total surface area of the device is reserved for the active elements with the exception of the posts which hold the mirrors in place. This increases the active area of the device to as much as 86% which is similar to the remaining devices described in this chapter. This device, however, maintains the side effect of redirecting an incident beam of light in four distinct directions. C:UsersAjiteshDesktopUntitled3.png Figure-8 The Quad-Cantilever deformable micromirror device The significant advantage over the Cloverleaf devices is that the mirrors are aligned so that the redirection of the incident beam of light is in a common direction. This allows the device to be capable of switching or redirecting the incident light with little loss in amplitude. One characteristic similar to the Inverted Cloverleaf and Cloverleaf devices is the slanted behavior of the deflected mirror. This behavior is typical with cantilever devices and creates a non-uniform phase response across the surface of each mirror [1]. ELECTROSTATIC FORCE In order to compute the electrostatic force on the mirror, it must first be determined by which means this force will be calculated. More specifically, it must be decided whether the charge distribution, which is not uniform over the mirror surface, will be considered. The charge distribution will change with the position of the mirror surface and will also be altered by any mirror surface deformations or discontinuities such as etch holes. This leads to a complicated solution when integrating across the mirror. As an alternative, since both the charge distribution of the mirror and the applied electrode voltage are related to the electric field within the device, it is possible to express the potential energy, of the electric charge distribution solely in terms of this field: C:UsersAjiteshDesktopUntitled4.jpg Where, a is the surface charge distribution on the mirror, V is the actuation voltage between the mirror and address electrode, A is the area of the mirror, e0 is the free space dielectric constant and E is the electric field intensity at any point in the volume v within the device . By assigning an electric energy density of V-2coloumbs to each point in space within the device, the physical effect of the charge distribution on the mirror surface is preserved. From this approach it is easy to see that the non-uniform charge distribution on the mirror surface and the fringing effects of electric fields around the edges of the mirror are complementary descriptions of the same electrical phenomenon. 5.4 Dual Axis Micro-Mirror Figure-9: Dual-Axis micromirror Micromirror working principle The micromirror is made up by a circular polysilicon micromirror plate that is connected to a gimbal frame by a pair of polysilicon torsion springs (Fig. 9). The gimbal frame is supported by a pairs of polysilicon springs too. The structure is a dual axis micromirror: the slow axis works at the resonance frequency of 300 Hz while the fast axis works at the resonance frequency of 30 kHz. The fast axis allows the micromirror to be tilted around y direction while the slow axis allows the micromirror to be tilted around x direction. Both the two axis are actuated by electrostatic vertical comb drives. Vertical comb drives provide a motion in and out of the plane and present several advantages if compared to lateral comb drives. First of all, they generate a vertical force larger than lateral comb drives ,then they achieve larger scan angle at high resonance frequencies and finally they directly apply the torque to the micromirror without needing any hinges to couple their linear motion i nto torsional micromirror motion [4]. Each vertical comb drive consists of a set of moving mechanical polysilicon electrodes and a set of rigid electrodes suspended over an etched pit. The rigid electrodes are bound to the substrate, while the movable electrodes are linked to the axis. When a voltage is applied between the fixed fingers and the movable fingers, an electrostatic Torque arises between the two electrodes [4]. Consequently the movable fingers rotate around the torsional axis until the Electrostatic Torque (Te) and the Mechanical restoring Torque (Tm) of the springs are equal. These two torques can be expressed by (1) and (2). C:UsersAjiteshDesktopUntitled5.jpg C:UsersAjiteshDesktopUntitled 6.jpg Figure-10: Forces acting in a Dual-Axis Micromirror 5.5 Micromirror with Hidden Vertical Comb Drives The actuators and the torsion springs are hidden underneath the mirror to achieve high-fill factor in micromirror arrays. In this case, the fringing capacitance is significant and cannot be ignored [2]. The total capacitance as a function of angle can be calculated by integrating over the finger length. Fig. 11 shows the 3-D design of this: C:UsersAjiteshDesktopUntitled7.png Figure-11: Hidden Vertical-Comb Drive Micromirror 6.CONCLUSION: In this report, the first three phase of the project have been completed. The different actuation principles , their advantages and disadvantages have been discussed. Also four designs have been proposed and analytical study of them has been done. We can now move on to the next phase which comprises of modeling as well as analysis of the designs chosen.