Don't Ask, Don't Tell Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Don't Ask, Don't Tell - Essay Example It is important to note that at the time of implementation, this was only a policy, and not a law! According to it, neither was anybody allowed to investigate the sexual orientation of the members in service in US military, nor the members would discuss it with anybody. Thus, if gays and lesbians were to serve in the US military, they would have to keep their sexual concerns unrevealed. Contrary to this policy, the law did not prevent the US military soldiers from being interrogated about their sexual orientation (Burrelli). This has conventionally remained a very controversial subject on political grounds. For a long time, the number of US military soldiers who would be discharged for the charge of homosexuality was readily dropping until 1993. From 1993 onwards, US military soldiers have increasingly been discharged for being homosexual till 2001. In order to put forward a sufficiently comprehensive account of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, it is imperative that th e reaction of American nation towards the policy is studied. According to (Mccabe), the opinion of public regarding the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy can be classified into three types. ... The three types of opinions can be referred to in one word as â€Å"permissive†, â€Å"restrictive† and â€Å"prohibitive† respectively (Mccabe). Two main questions have conventionally been put in front of public to offer their opinion upon in the public polls. One of them inquires if the gays and lesbians should be allowed to openly serve the US military. This question essentially asks the public to convey their opinion with the condition that the servitude is â€Å"open†. Thus, if someone answers in negative, it is not clear if he/she would have maintained the same response for those gays and lesbians who would keep their sexual orientation unrevealed while serving in the US military. In this way, the wording used in aforementioned question distinguishes the permissible opinion from the restrictive and prohibitive opinions. The second question asks the public if gays and lesbians should or should not be allowed to serve the US military without any indica tion of open or restricted expression of sexuality. In this case, when someone says that they should be allowed to serve, it is not clear if he/she would maintain the same response if the question mentioned that the gays and lesbians would openly express their sexual orientation. In this way, this statement distinguishes the prohibitive opinion from the permissive and restrictive opinions. Since the time of implementation of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, a number of Washington Post polls and ABC News polls have been conducted in which the American public was asked to respond to the two aforementioned questions simultaneously. Comparison of the findings of these surveys makes it possible for one to simultaneously analyze

Research Methods Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Research Methods - Coursework Example County hospital records detailing the age, ethnicity, level of education, gender, etc. of each individual treated for drug overdose during the period in which the spike is usually recorded, from the time when it became prevalent; The list is by no means exhaustive. However, in analyzing these records, frequency distribution will most likely isolate a major group or two, which will facilitate success in further investigation. In dealing with a subject of such nature, this research method is arguably more effective than a survey, which, according to Wikipedia, depends on â€Å"subjects’ motivation, honesty, memory, and ability to respond.† Drug users may not be willing respondents in a survey. Observer participation is another method that is very useful not only when â€Å"the phenomenon is sufficiently limited in size and location to be studied as a case† but also when â€Å"the phenomenon is hidden from public view (crime and deviance, secretive groups and organizations, such as drug users & dealers†¦)† (Jorgensen, 1989; 13). The data obtained from the statistical analysis of official records is the blueprint upon which this research method will be employed. That is, the group(s) that most frequently occur(s) in his analysis will be the focus. In a manner of investigation, the researcher can ease himself into the social environment of the group(s) in question, within and (if his study demands) outside the period in which drug overdose is common. Here, â€Å"the research problem can be addressed by qualitative data gathered by direct observation and other means pertinent to the field setting† (Jorgensen, 1989; 13), thereby helping the researcher gain firsthand information on the attitudes, behavior, practices and habits of (each of) the group(s) in question. This ‘investigation’ will most likely see them open up about drug

Biodiversity Of Punjab Shiwaliks Environmental Sciences Essay

Biodiversity Of Punjab Shiwaliks Environmental Sciences Essay There is an increasing awareness that biodiversity is not only intimately interconnected with long term health and vigor of the biosphere as an indicator of global environment but also as a regulator of ecosystem functioning. Tropical communities are often worse susceptible to loss of biological diversity than temperate communities because tropical species are occur in lower densities and are less widely distributed and often have weaker dispersal capabilities. Increasing human intervention and excessive exploitation of resources have resulted in great changes and provide alarming signals of accelerated biodiversity loss. The conventional species level approach for biodiversity management has major limitations. A major change in the understanding the priorities of biodiversity conservation and management has resulted in a policy shift from conservation of single species to their habitats through interactive network of species at landscape level is considered important (Orians, 1993; Edward et al., 1994). Biodiversity can be represented at various levels of organization, like alleles or genotypes within a population, species or ecosystem across a landscape or even a planet. There is a growing need for better understanding of the biodiversity distribution pattern vis-à  -vis human interventions. India have very varied environmental conditions and are among the countries with high biodiversity. The flowering plants, which provide maximum direct benefit to mankind, comprise about 19395 taxa, which is about 7% of the described species in the world (Karthikeyan, 2000). The vast stretches of coastal belt in south and high mountains species of Himalayas in the north provide a complex environmental set up or niches for plant and animals. It has resulted in the formation micro-endemic centres of plants in the country. The great heights and complex terrain of the Himalayan region, which change frequently, provide endless microclimatic conditions suitable to the species to grow and evolve. The Himalayas have more than 5 micro-endemic centres. Shiwalik ranges are one such mirco-endemic centre. About 125 wild relatives of crop plants have been reported in the western Himalayas and Shiwaliks ranges are part of these. These ranges are among the youngest hills in the world and are active as well as fragile. Shiwalik hills of Punjab state have rich biological diversity and act as major natural green belt of the state. The state is well known for agricultural produce and industries. But the degradational activity coupled with the destruction of forests in the name of developmental activities has altered the natural landscape of the region to a great extent. It is facing threat for its very existence again from mankind in the name development. Because of these increased anthropogenic activities, as a result of population explosion and change in land use practices, the natural landscape has been modified which has resulted in fragmentation of forests with poor species composition. Hence the resulting landscape mosaic is a mixture of natural and human managed patches that vary in size, shape and arrangement. Now it is realized that we must move from the conservation of single species to scales beyond individual sites and levels of organization. Understanding landscape spatial pattern is important since it contains all levels of the biological hierarchy, from ecosystems to species and genes, which are targeted for biodiversity conservation. Remote sensing technology is being widely used world over for the quick assessment of the Earth resources. Because it being a cost effective and repetitive in nature with synoptic coverages technology, has endless application potentials. The technology assumes significance in terms of conservation of natural resources as it provides birds eye view of the ecosystems or landscapes or regions and their status, because conservation is now not limited to a plant or species but much beyond that. Vegetation is composed of several communities and these communities may occur in patches of small to large size and in various shapes. Vegetation composition of these patches is governed by several environmental factors, and there exists a relationship of the biological richness with area of the forest and the influence of biotic factors. Ecologists have established the relationship among these environmental and biotic factors with the biodiversity. Patches can be characterized based on their size, shape, location, area etc. in through geospatial modeling in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Thus various factors can be simultaneously considered and processed in GIS. In this report, vegetation type map derived from satellite data was considered as prime input for landscape ecological analysis of forest ecosystem. Geographic Information System (GIS) is used to derive landscape indices such as fragmentation, porosity, patchiness, patch density, interspersion and juxtaposition, which depict landscape characteristics. These indices were integrated with biotic pressure zones to depict disturbance gradient in the study area. Phytosociological data collected from field sampling was analyzed to derive species richness, biodiversity value and ecosystem uniqueness of various forest types. Ancillary databases such as proximity from the roads/villages, terrain complexity etc. were derived in GIS domain. All above inputs were integrated in systematic manner by assigning relevant weightages to derive maps showing disturbance gradient and biological richness. The resultant maps highlight areas that are biologically rich. 2. Study Area 2.1 Physical Climatic Status The study was carried out in the Shiwalik hills of Punjab state having geographical area of 9448.97 km2 and situated in north western part of the state. It lies between latitude 30o 34 10.82 and 32o 33 02.96 N and longitude 74o 50 30.30 and 76o 52 51.26 E. It is broadly divided into sub-mountainous Himalayas and the eastern and western alluvial plains. The important rivers draining the region are the Sutlej and the Beas. The average annual rainfall varies between 400 to 600 mm and the mean annual temperature ranges from 22.500 C to 25.00 C. 2.2 Geology The composition of the Shiwalik deposits shows they are nothing else than the alluvial detritus derived from the sub aerial waste of mountains, swept down by their numerous rivers and streams and deposited at their foot. This process was very much like what the existing river systems of the Himalayas are doing at present day on their emerging to the plains of Punjab. An important difference is that the former alluvial deposits now making up the Shiwalik systems have been involved in the latest Himalayan systems of upheavals, by which they have been folded and elevated into their outermost foot-hills, although the oldest alluvium of many parts of northern India serves to bridge the gap between the newest Shiwaliks and the present alluvium. 2.3 Lithology The Shiwalik system is a great thickness of detrital rocks, such as coarsely bedded sandstones, sand-rock, clay and conglomerates, measuring between 4,500 and 5,200 m in thickness. The bulk of formation is very closely similar to the materials constituting the modern alluvia of rivers. The lithology of the Shiwliks suggests their origin; they are chiefly the water-worn debris of the granitic core of the central Himalaya, deposited in the long and broad valley of the Shiwaliks. The upper coarse conglomerates are the alluvial fans or talus-cones at the emergence of the mountain streams; the great thickness of the clay and sand represents the silts and finer sediments of the river laid down in the lower plain. The weathering of the Shiwalik rocks has been proceeding at an extraordinally rapid rate since their deposition, and strictly abrupt forms of topography have been evolved in this comparatively brief period. Gigantic escarpments and dip-slopes separated by broad longitudinal strike valleys and intersected by deep meandering ravines of the transverse streams-surface features, which are the most common elements of Shiwalik topography. The strike is remarkably constant in a Northwest-Southeast direction, with only brief local swerves, while it is almost always in strict elevations. 3. Land Use Pattern The recorded forest area (including dry deciduous scrub) of Shiwalik hills of Punjab state is 1599.42 km2, which constitutes 16.93% total geographic area. The major forest types are dry deciduous, moist deciduous, dry deciduous scrub and coniferous forest. The non-forest area such as agriculture, grassland, water body, canals, settlements, riverbed and barren land contributes 7849.55 km2 which constitutes 83.07% of the total geographical area. 3.1 Vegetation type (a) Northern dry mixed deciduous forest (5B/C2) In most localities the tree canopy has been seriously broken by human activities, results in scattered tree and small shrubs. This forest is dominated by Acacia catechu, Anogeissus latifolia with the association of Lannea coromandalica, Aegle marmelos, Ehretia laevis, Mallotus philippensis, Nyctanthus arbor-tritis, Dendrocalamus strictus etc. (b) Dry bamboo brakes (5E9) Only one species Dendrocalamus strictus occurs and forms relatively low brakes with a sprinkling of the tree and shrubs of dry deciduous forest such as Anogeissus latifolia, Lannea coromandelica etc. (c) Dry deciduous scrub (DS1) A low broken soil cover of shrubby growth 3 to 6 m high including some tree species reduced to similar conditions, usually many stemmed from the base. The community is dominated by Woodfordia fruiticosa, Carrissa opaca, and Nyctanthus arbor-tristis with the some association Dodonaea viscosa, Aegle mormelos, Cassia fistula, and Acacia catechu. (d) Khair-Sissu forests (5/1S2) Dalbergia sissoo predominates in this association. The canopy is open associated with Acacia catechu. The older woods have more or less definite under storey, which is mainly composed of young species and few species of Tamarix dioca, Acacia fernesiana, Cannabis sativa and grasses like Saccharum spontaneum, Erianthus munja etc. (e) Shiwalik chirpine forest (9/C1) The pine stands singly or in groups with a scattered with lower deciduous tree story on the ridge and side slopes. There is usually a fairly continuous growth of xerophytic shrubs occurs as under-storey vegetation. Pinus roxburghii is associated with Mallotus philippensis, Pyrus pashia, Syzygium cuminii, Albizzia chinensis, Acacia catechu, and Terminalia chebula. (f) Subtropical Euphorbia scrub (9/C1/DS2) Euphorbia royleana forms consociations sometimes of considerable extent. Their distribution is related to edaphic factors, notably dry rocky ridges, where biotic pressure has been high. 4. Approach Biodiversity characterization satellite remotely sensed data is being used for deriving vegetation cover type map. The vegetation type thus derived represents the habitats and their surroundings. These patches of the different forest types occur randomly as per the existing environmental conditions. Using landscape ecological principals these can be analyzed and quantified. Some of these parameters are fragmentation, porosity, juxtapositions, interspersion etc. and indices are derived to show their characteristics. Proximity of forests to road and villages and their impact is established. All these layers are overlaid to obtain disturbance index. Disturbance index image is the important for characterizing and identifying least or no disturbed areas (Fig. 1). Ground observations are taken through stratified random sampling in all the forest types. Their economic uses have been found from literature. Total Importance Value (TIV) of each plant is established for its value for food, fuel wood, charcoal, timber, medicine etc. Ecosystem uniqueness is established from the list of the species found during survey based on its representativeness, species Fig 1: Approach for Biodiversity Characterization at Landscape Level Using Remote Sensing and GIS (after Roy et al., 1998) endemism etc. Biological richness is obtained after integrating species richness, biological value, disturbance index, ecosystem uniqueness, terrain complexity. 5. Materials and Methodology 5.1 Materials Following satellite remote sensing data have been used for land cover and land use classification of the area (Table 1). Table 1: Details of satellite data used Satellite ID Path Row Date IRS-1D LISS III 93 48 12 Oct. 2000 IRS-1D LISS III 94 48 03 Nov. 2000 IRS-1D LISS III 94 49 03 Nov. 2000 IRS-1D LISS III 95 49 31 Oct. 2000 IRS-1D LISS III 95 50 31 Oct. 2000 5.2 Ancillary data Survey of India topo sheets on 1:50,000 have been used. Relevant literature on flora has been consulted. 5.2 Vegetation Cover type mapping 5.3.1 Preprocessing of satellite data IRS-1D LISS-III data (Oct, 2000 and March, 2001) were used to prepare vegetation cover type map. A total five scenes were loaded and each scene was rectified with respect to 1:50,000 scale SOI toposheet (Total 32 toposheets were used, geometrically corrected and mosaicked to a single image). A second order transformation was followed. Average root mean square error within one pixel was maintained while preparing transformation model. Lambert Conformal Conic projection (LCC) was used during rectification of image (Fig. 2). Each rectified Fig. 2 FCC scene was subjected to radiometric correction before mosaicing it to a single mosaic image. After extraction of required area from this single mosaic image, it was subjected to Supervised Maximum likelihood classification using the ground truth information collected during the fieldwork. 5.3.2 Ground truthing Reconnaissance survey was carried out in the area to acquire the knowledge of the vegetation and other broad land uses. During reconnaissance information on the correlation of image elements with that of ground features was also obtained. Interpretation key was formulated and classification was performed. 5.3.3 Vegetation Classification Based on the a priori knowledge supervised classification method was followed. Training sites were selected and processed and the features with high classification accuracy were extracted. Using binary image the remaining area was extracted and unsupervised classification method was performed. The classified output was finally subjected hybrid classification approach to prepare vegetation type map of the study area showing various vegetation types. The accuracy of the image was evaluated using field knowledge and the ground truth information. Along with the different types of forest, other general lands use / land cover classes were also classified so as to understand the landscape of the region. Following forest classes have been delineated and a comparison with Champion and Seths (1968) classifications scheme is given below (Table 2). List of the land cover and land use classes identified on the satellite data. Moist deciduous forest Dry deciduous forest Dry deciduous scrub (Lantana) Coniferous forest Grass land Plantation/Avenue trees Agriculture Water body Settlement Riverbed/Barren land Table 2:Vegetation classes compared With Champion Seths Classification: Satellite based classification of vegetation types Champion and Seth Classification (1968) Moist deciduous forest Dry bamboo brakes Khair-sissu forest Dry deciduous forest Northern dry mixed deciduous forest Dry deciduous forest Dry deciduous scrub Subtropical Euphorbiascrub Dry deciduous scrub Pine Shiwalik chirpine forest 5.3 Field data One of the most important components of biodiversity characterization is the information on plants or species richness. Information on plant species is further processed for evaluating other parameters like Total Importance Value, Ecosystem Uniqueness, Biodiversity value etc. There it is important that well distributed enough sample are taken for information on species occurrence. Classified vegetation cover type has been used for finding the sample size. Sampling intensity of 0.021 % has been done. Higher sample intensity is adopted (than recommended) in view of variability in the area. 5.4.1 Sampling design Stratified Random sampling approach was followed and numbers of sample points were distributed to its probability proportional to its size. Field data was collected from 74 sample points of 2020 m size during October 2000 (Table 3). The sample plots of 20x20m were used for tree species and nested approach and nested approach has been followed for laying sample plots of 10x10m for shrubs and 1x1m plot (five plots) for herbaceous layer. The data was collected on following parameters in each of the sample plot. Description of ecosystem and forest type including phenology Species name and number of individuals for every species Girth at breast height in centimeters Economic importance such as grazing, medicinal, human food, fuel, timber, charcoal and other uses such as industrial use, rope making, tanning leather etc. This importance value was collected by interviewing local people interviewing wherever possible and from literature. The data was analyzed for deriving various indices indicating biodiversity value, species richness and ecosystem uniqueness for different forest types. Table 3: The distribution of sample points in each of the forest types found in all the Shiwalik Hills of Punjab state Forest Type No. of sample plots Moist deciduous 32 Dry deciduous 31 Deciduous scrub 7 Pine forest 4 Total 74 Database of all the species collected was created in MS Excel for further processing, details have been provided in the section on phytosociological analysis. 6. Database Creation in GIS In geo-spatial analysis integration of spatial and non-spatial data or vector data is important. As discussed earlier the biotic disturbance had played a very significant role in existing biodiversity of toady. Database in GIS domain provides opportunity to analyze their impact zones. Therefore, the following maps were digitized from ancillary sources for their integration: Village locations point and polygon features) Road and railway networks Contour lines with 20m intervals The road and settlement maps were used as input in further analysis for deriving disturbance gradient. Contour map was used to prepare digital terrain model using ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4 software. 7. Landscape Analysis The approaches for biodiversity characterization discussed in the literature contains several broad categories such as genetically based approach, species based approach, ecosystem based approach, and integrative approach. The approach adopted in present study is integrative method that includes significance of ecological, social, and cultural factors to the biodiversity in addition to biological factors. The approach used for the study focuses on following aspects: Rapid assessment for monitoring of biodiversity loss and/or gain Mapping of biological richness to understand its spatial nature, that helps in planning and execution The customized package Bio_CAP is developed at Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun to carry out multi-criteria spatial analysis. The satellite data provide key input i.e. vegetation type, which is used for deriving several landscape indices (fragmentation, porosity, patchiness, interspersion, and juxtaposition) depicting status of forest ecosystem. Ancillary database on roads and settlements has been used to prepare proximity buffer map and contour map is used to prepare terrain complexity map. All these parameters were integrated together with the field data on species richness, ecosystem uniqueness and biodiversity value. The ultimate result is the map that depicts areas categorized as per disturbance index. 7.1 Landscape analysis using Bio_CAP The field data, vegetation type map and ancillary GIS data (roads, village locations, and contour) were analyzed using Bio_CAP (Biodiversity Characterization Programme) a customized package to prepare various indices depicting landscape characteristics. Fragmentation has been the major cause of biodiversity loss and has been measured as a number of forest and non-forest patches in per unit area. Patchiness is a measure of the density of patches of all forest types or number of clusters in a given mask or area. Porosity is a measure of number of patches or density of patches within a particular type vegetation, normally primary vegetation type(s), regardless of patch size. Interspersion is a count of dissimilar neighbor pixels (feature) with respect to central pixel (feature) of a particular grid or measurement of the spatial intermixing of the vegetation types. Juxtaposition is a measure of proximity and adjacency of two or more vegetation types. Higher weightage is given to the classes who share or are likely to share more boundary. Human influence zone is dependent on socio-economic set-up of the area/region and proximity the forest resources and can vary from 0.5 km to 5 km or even more. Proximity buffer or zone of influence from the roads and human settlements has been prepared. 7.2 Disturbance Index: Disturbance has direct impact on the occurrence of plants and animals or biodiversity. Disturbance regimes provide an insight into the impacted area and its degree of impact under various vegetation or other natural resources. Disturbance Index has been considered here as a function of fragmentation, porosity, patchiness, interspersion, juxtaposition and influence zones or distance for the source. The analysis has been performed in the customized GIS package called Bio-CAP for this purpose. 7.3 Biological Richness Biological forms of any area reflect the environmental conditions supporting the growth and evolution. Recently emphasis has been to look at the ecosystems (micro-climatic variations) or landscape diversity and its utility for conservation rather than one species. Therefore, the biological richness here has been considered as a function of ecosystem uniqueness, biodiversity value, species richness, Terrain complexity (computed through DTM by determining variance in DTM values) and most importantly disturbance index. The details of these parameters have been discussed elsewhere (Roy et al., 1999). 8. Observation Highlights 8.1 Vegetation Classification Hybrid approach has been followed to do the digital classification of the data set (Fig. 3). Table 4 summarizes the results of classification in the region. Forest types viz., moist deciduous, dry deciduous, pine and dry deciduous scrub together constitute about 1404.06 Km ², which is about 14.65 per cent of the total geographical area of the region. Non-forest classes such as agriculture, plantation, riverbed, barren land, settlement, grassland and water body makes up about 85.35 per cent of the geographical area. Amongst the forests, dry deciduous forest has Fig.3 classified map wide distribution in the region from Chandigarh to Pathankot and covers an area of 775.85 Km ². Dry deciduous scrub is the next dominant forest type of the region which is mainly constituted with Lantana scrub distributed throughout the region and then followed by moist deciduous forest found in Dhar, Pathankot, Dholba, Talwara, Nangal, Noorpur in a fragmented patches. And coniferous forest covers an area of 6.51 Km ² and is localized on the higher ridges or side slopes in the northern part of the Pathankot district. Table 4:Area under different Land cover / land use classes in the region Land use / cover class Area in km2 Moist deciduous forest 276.46 Dry deciduous forest 775.85 Dry deciduous scrub (Lantana) 345.24 Coniferous forest 6.51 Grass land 38.24 Plantation/Avenue trees 211.04 Agriculture 7443.22 Water body 78.94 Settlement 178.46 Riverbed/Barren land 238.19 Total 9592.15 9. Phyto-sociological analysis Phytosociological analysis was carried out to understand the floristic and vegetation pattern in the region. For the phytosociological analysis the vegetation types were grouped into five major types. Based on the species area curves developed initially an optimized field plots size of 2020 m was adopted uniformly for all the types. In each plot all the species names; height, girth, herbs and shrubs were recorded. The phytosociological database was created and computed the basic structural parameters viz. frequency, basal area and density. Utilizing these parameters the importance value index (IVI) was calculated for all the types (Annexure-II). Fig.4: Graphical presentation of Land use/land cover types and their Distribution. 9.1 Species richness (Shannon-Weaver Index) Species richness can be described as the number of the species in a sample or habitat per unit area. Higher the value greater the species richness. Species richness (Shannon Weaver Index) was measured using importance value index (Table 5, 6). Dry deciduous forest shows highest diversity (3.5361) with total number of 363 species followed by moist deciduous (3.0959) with moist deciduous forests then dry deciduous scrub (2.2666) having 77 species and coniferous forest shows least diversity (1.6207) with 58 species (Fig. 5). Table 5: Biodiversity status in the Shiwalik hills of Punjab state Forest Type No. of Families No. of Species Total no. of Species Total Importance Value Trees Shrubs Herbs Moist deciduous 36 42 24 95 161 10.46 Dry deciduous 31 141 75 147 363 10.53 Deciduous scrub 25 7 12 58 77 9.75 Pine 11 7 15 36 58 8.01 Table 6: Forest type wise Shannon Weaver Index in the Shiwalik hills of Punjab state Forest Type Average Basal Area (m2) Shannon Weaver Index SWI (H) Moist deciduous 38.412 3.0959 Dry deciduous 22.948 3.5361 Deciduous scrub 8.133 2.2666 Pine 6.53 1.6207 9.2 Economically Important Species Economically Important plants are the species, which have social and economic value. In the Shiwalik hills of Punjab state 240 economically important plants were recorded. The total importance value (TIV) for each species was calculated considering 10 important uses. The parameters considered are (1). Food (2). Fuel (3). Fodder (4). Fiber (5). Timber (6). Medicinal (7). Oil (8). Gums/Resins (9). Tannin and (10). Others. These 10 parameters have been weighted for a scale of 1 to 10 wherein maximum value represents highest economic value. Maximum total importance value was observed in dry deciduous type (TIV of 10.53) and coniferous type has the least value (TIV of 8.01) (Table 7). Some of the economically important species are Acacia catechu, Achyranthes aspera, Adhatoda zeylanica, Ageratum conyzoides, Azadiracta indica, Cannabis sativa, Moringa oleifera, etc. List of 232 economically important species and their uses were given in the Annexure II. Fig 5: Species distribution in each habit type Table 7: Total Importance Value of different vegetation types Forest Type TIV % Moist deciduous 10.46 Dry deciduous 10.53 Deciduous scrub 9.75 Pine 8.01 9.3 Medicinal Plants About 132 medicinally important species have been recorded during the sampling. Medicinal usage of these plants occurring in Shiwalik hills of Punjab have been compiled from available literature sources. Some of the important medicinaly important plants are Adhatoda zeylanica, Aegle marmelos, Azadirachta indica, Bacopa monnieri, Cordia dichotoma, Terminlaia chebula, Terminalia bellirica etc. and the list has bee furnished (Annexure.IV). Table 8 provide overview of the per cent utilizable species. Table 8: Percent utilizable species for Total Importance value (TIV) Forest type USES Food Fuel Fodder Fiber Timber Medicinal Oil Gums/ Resin Tannin Others DD 11.15 0.79 9.09 9.8 10.2 31.66 5.02 3.5 5.18 9.83 MD 12.7 2.36 6.94 7.91 2.6 32.1 0.65 0.86 1.3 8.45 DS 10.05 2.21 9.06 9.31 9.55 31.61 6.37 3.18 6.61 8.09 PN 0 0 8.52 0 0 20.78 0 0 0 2.35 Total 33.9 5.36 33.61 27.02 22.35 116.15 12.04 7.54 13.09 28.72 9.4 Ecological importance: The species recorded during the field data collection were screened for their uniqueness with help of RED DATA BOOK (Anonymous, 1987, 1988, 1990) and many other references. All the species recorded were abundant in nature. However, two species were found to be rare, viz., Delphinium danudatum Wall. ex HK.f.Th and Peristylus constrictus (Lindl.) Lindl. 10. Results of Landscape analysis 10.1 Fragmentation Increasing anthropogenic activities created discontinuity in the natural vegetation cover gets fragmented and the class becomes porous. Thus, fragmentation analysis of a land use class is an important landscape characteristic, which defines the status of that class in the present day context. Among all the characteristics of the landscape, fragmentation is more significant. Hence, the results of fragmentation are being discussed. For analysis of fragmentation in the forest, the vegetation map was reclassified as forest and non-forest classes, which resulted in a new spatial layer. A grid cel

Internet Addicts in Danger Essay -- Technology Computers Communication

Internet Addicts in Danger Internet chat rooms have become a devastating disadvantage to the social interaction and growth of people in the world. More and more of the world’s youth are becoming addicted to Internet chat rooms. Not only are Internet chat room relationships leading to impersonal contact of people hiding flaws behind anonymity, they are leading to the abduction of many underage individuals. In an article published in The Age, a magazine in Melbourne, Australia, Doctor Mubarak Rahamathulla has researched teenagers that have become "pathologically addicted" to Internet chat rooms. Rahamathulla argues that this addiction could damage their social skills as well as their ability to form intimate relationships. Rahamathulla says that "The young people who are introverts who are having difficulties establishing a rapport with others are going to go deeper into these kinds of forums to interact with others, that will further shrink their social network." In Rahamathulla’s research he found that while Internet chat rooms are not the ideal form of communication for most of these "addicted" teens, it is better than no interaction at all. The research revealed that these teens are lonely, usually unpopular and that chat rooms contribute to some teenagers fearing one on one situations. Internet chat rooms do not seem like they are targeting this specific demographic, when it is considered that there are chat rooms for basically every interest any human in the world could think of. So, if Internet chat rooms are not targeting lonely, unpopular teenagers, but those are for the most part the people becoming "addicted" to these chat rooms, are these chat rooms making the people who are interested in them addicted and lonely ... ...there is no immediate solution for the problem that is at hand. But it is a problem that needs to be addressed. Internet chat rooms are making the worlds youth into anti-social, lonely people. Internet chat rooms are enticing children to go out and meet much older people that they should not be associating with and no one is stopping them. Parents and Internet companies both need to make drastic changes for the benefit of the world’s youth. Works Cited Barr, Elizabeth "Face the Music". 17 January. 2003 BCT Reporter "Should there be tighter laws governing the Internet?". UK Newsweek Regional Press. 25 July. 2003 Bruce, Iain "Fishnet Stalking; from the erotic to the pornographic, sex on the Internet is booming". The Sunday Herald. 8 December. 2002 Nader, Carol "Introvert Internet Addicts and ‘Social Risk’". The Age. 2 October. 2003 Statistics

Kindertransport †Identity Essay

Do you ever think about what you represent in this world? Do you ever think about how people, as a whole, perceive your personality, your background, your style, your language, and your opinion? I’ve been thinking a lot about how my individuality is recognized by others and how I can change it within one moment’s decision. The definition of identity is truly vague to my knowledge but I think it has to do with everything in your existence that relates to your physical, psychological, and cultural persona. The people that surround my life label me as they see me yet I label myself through experience. My brain cannot obtain a sample of your history and digest through to create a perfect overlook yet it can take in the information that I witness and an idea of who you truly are can start to grow. When I think of Michael Marcel, the words, â€Å"funny†, â€Å"strong-minded†, and â€Å"caring† illuminate. When your father thinks about Michael Marcel, variation among traits will occur. When you think about your way of living, how do you relate yourself to the rest of the world? Usually, the nationality of a person is a red flag for certain stereotypes and pre-judgmental observations. To one’s own self, this might represent a certain uniqueness and pride yet it can, also, provoke a sense of shame and anger. I know that you, as a Dominican/Italian, take great pleasure in voicing your quirked cultural way of living. Kobenhavn and Roskilde will forever morph my character. These two cities within the tiny country of Denmark are home to my relatives, my genetics, and the roots of my place in society. I can remember many instances of being reminded about the pleasant haven. The death of my Mormor (Grandma) sucked all of the energy from my limbs and left me for dead. I realized that her passing shouldn’t be brought downward with sorrow but rather glazed over with past feelings of happiness. She went through hours of pain to produce Diana Rasmussen and in turn, Diana gave her a little baby girl named, â€Å"Freja†. A wave of change rose over my body and I understood that I would always be Diana’s daughter. I am confident within my fair, Danish skin. I can remember how effected I was throughout my time in America concerning my cultural background and my cultural interests. People would widen their eyes as I spoke about my past in Denmark; to them, I was like an alien from a strange planet. In the now, I am criticized for my newly found triple life. I say triple because one part of me is Danish and I have an entire past within my motherland, one part of me is Italian but I don’t have a big affiliation with the country, and one part of me is very tied into the Hispanic lifestyle. I am ridiculed on a daily basis for the last part and I am identified differently because of it. By the Caucasian community, I am insulted on (almost) a daily basis. By the Hispanic community in our school, I am subjected to the label of â€Å"Latina Wannabe†. By the Hispanic community outside of school, I am seen as a very good person and willing to accept and try anything new within their country’s ways. By my parents, I am given odd looks as I sing along to â€Å"Mariposa Tracionera† and they wonder why their little girl suddenly turned Hispanic. Recently, I have been subjected to an act of immaturity and ignorance. There is a guy in my grade that hates my lifestyle more than his own selfish loneliness; when I chat with the so-called â€Å"skin head†, I can hear him saying that my hands are grimy from touching the hands of Mexicans. It hurts my entire body to hear something so harsh come out of a human being’s mouth; he takes the media’s image of crossing the border, the drug cartel wars, and the unpaid taxes, and spits them back into my face. The other night, I was talking with David and he posted on my wall, â€Å"stop being so sad†. That was an inside joke between him and I; it had no concern with â€Å"skin-head†. The ignorant â€Å"skin-head† commented on the post and said, â€Å"Go back to Mexico†. I called you, crying a river upon the keypad, and complained about the words that had left a mark in my mind. Lack of knowledge can drive the process of identity onto a cruel p ath. Every single piece of matter that inhabits the personal world around you has an effect on your identity. The tiny room in which your soul takes life form has an effect. The soil that sticks to the bottom of your feet as you take your first steps has an effect. The way you represent yourself is a lifelong process; you begin to mold your life as soon as your lungs fill with newly found oxygen. The cries that are let out during your first hours on the outside of the womb might travel through time and find themselves spewing out of your mouth thirteen years later because of ridicule over your skin color, musical taste, family situation, etc. Identity is everything and everything is identity. Is it really that simple? Yes, I think so.

Computer Systems Essay

Explain the function of the system unit components and how they communicate Central processing unit – The Central Processing Unit (CPU) carries out the actual processing of data. The data it processes is gathered via the system bus, from the main memory. The CPU then sends back the results to main memory via the system bus. The CPU also controls and times the operations of the other key components. CPU’s use in their operation: Fetch, decode, execute, and writeback. BIOS – The BIOS is a built-in software that decides what a computer can do without having access to a hard drive or CD/DVD. On PCs, the BIOS contains all the code required to control the keyboard, display screen, disk drives, serial communications, and a number of other miscellaneous functions. Motherboard – The motherboard is a printed circuit board (PCB) that houses and controls the components that are in charge of processing data. A motherboard provides the electrical circuit connections, these circuits are used by other components of the system to communicate. The central processing unit and other subsystems such as real time clock, and various peripheral interfaces are also located on the motherboard. This is motherboard doesn’t use active heat sinks on its bridges instead it uses a complex passive heat sink. Power Supply – A power supply unit (PSU) is the component that supplies power to a computer. In a PC the power supply is the metal box usually found in a corner of the case. The power supply has many various power leads all for different things such as: * 20+4pin power connector o Powers the motherboard, depending on what motherboard you have it will either require a 20pin or a 24pin connector. * 4+4pin ATX 12V Connector o Powers the CPU, depending on what motherboard you have it will either require a 4pin or a 8pin connector * 6pin PCI-E VGA card Connectors o Power modern graphics cards, depending on the graphics card it will either require 1 or 2 6pin connectors. * SATA Connectors o Used for most internal components such as SATA hard drives and SATA optical drives. * 4pin peripheral Molex Connectors o Molex connectors are used for fans, lights and various other internal components. * Floppy connectors o Used to connect floppy disk drives. Heat Sink & Fan – A heat sink is specifically designed to reduce the temperature of an electronic device by releasing the heat into the surrounding air (case fans would then push out this hot air while pulling in cool air). All modern CPUs need a heat sink and most heat sinks require a fan. A heat sink without a fan is called a passive heat sink; a heat sink with a fan is called an active heat sink. Heat sinks are generally made of an aluminium alloy. This picture shows various heat sinks used for devices like the CPU, graphics card, bridges on a motherboard and much more. Depending on how hot a device gets an extra fan may be required, the CPU, graphics card and motherboard all tend to use active heat sinks. Hard Disk Drive – The hard disk drive is non volatile memory storage that uses a mechanism to read and write data on a hard disk. Every modern computer contains one or more hard disks. The purpose of the hard disk drives is that they give computers the ability to remember things when the power goes out. A typical modern desktop machine will have a hard disk with a capacity of between 250GB and 1TB. Data is stored onto the disk in the form of files. The master (typically C:) is the primary drive, which the computer uses to boot up, the slave (D:) is usually used for extra storage and buck ups. Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) – Floppy drive, hard drive and the CD-ROM drive are all connect to the computer through an Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) interface. An IDE interface is a standard way for a storage device to connect to a computer. Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) – Is a computer bus interface for connecting host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives and optical drives. SATA speeds are far greater than IDE and the size difference means they are easier to manage and don’t restrict air flow, so most modern computers tend to use SATA over IDE. The size difference between IDE (left) and SATA (right). Describe the purpose, features and functions of two different operating systems. Windows 7 Features Feature Description Useful? #1 Snap Snap lets you drag one window to the left and one to the right, allowing you to see two windows side by side. Very much, I think this feature alone makes Windows 7 stand above the rest. #2 Taskbar A remake of the old taskbar that introduced some new features such as pinning, this allows you to pin a application to the taskbar (similar to Mac dock) Again this is a very useful feature, you can pin as many applications to the taskbar as you wish. #3 Thumbnail Previews Exactly what it sounds like, thumbnail previews allow you to preview a window that is minimised or behind another window, it is also the new way to group similar windows. This feature is helpful if you have multiple similar windows open however if you just have one or two windows open its not so great #4 Jump List Jump list lets you access your recently used files, depending on the application you can see your most played music (media player) or recently opened documents. Handy for some applications although not a key feature in my opinion. #5 Aero peek This feature allows you to make all open windows transparent this lets you view your desktop without minimising all your windows. This is another feature I love, I tend to save quite a lot of downloads to my desktop and being able to flick back and forth without minimising is great. #1 Snap #2 Taskbar #3 Thumbnail Previews #4 Jump List #5 Aero Peek Undertake routine maintenance tasks in relation to a PC. I will show you how to carry out several forms of maintenance, software, hardware and file management. Software maintenance To demonstrate software maintenance I’m going to update my antivirus. To start the process you first need to load up your antivirus (I’m using NOD32). Once the main antivirus window is open I need to navigate to the update option. Fortunately my antivirus does not need updating as my current virus signature database is up to date . This is what happens when it’s not up to date, after a speedy download it will take me to the previous page and let me know if it’s up to date. Hardware maintenance. To demonstrate hardware maintenance I’m going to find and use a printer that is connected to a separate computer on my network. How I installed the printer on the other machine. Installation was simple and fast, all I needed to do was connect the printer to the computer via USB and plug in the power lead. After turning on the printer I turned on the computer, then I installed the drivers and relevant software from the CD. After a quick reboot I printed a test page and it worked fine. Finding the network printer. To start the process I went to Start > Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Devices and Printers > Add a printer. Decide what type of printer you are trying to find, because the printer i intend to use runs through another computer i need to select Add a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer. Hit Next and allow it to search, once the results are displayed select the printer you wish to use. You should get a quick window showing you its being connected. You should get a window telling you everything was successful. Followed by the option to print a test page. File management. To demonstrate file management I’m going to show a simple way to manage your files. Sometimes folders and files get in the wrong place and things start to get lost and missing files get accidently deleted. Make sure you delete useless and old files to free up hard disk space, do this by selecting the document and hitting delete or right clicking the file and selecting delete. After creating relevant folders and deleting unnecessary files the folder looks much more organised and manageable. Disk Cleanup Disk Cleanup is a maintenance utility bundled in with Microsoft Windows, its purpose is to free up disk space on the computer’s hard drive. Disk Cleanup first searches your hard drives for files that are no longer being used it then deletes these unnecessary files. As well as cleaning unused files Disk cleanup can also compress files that haven’t been used for a long period of time, this helps make space but if you wish to access files that have been compressed at a later data the loading times can be Disk Cleanup looks in various categories to target these files. * Downloaded Program files * Compression of old files * Temporary Internet files * Recycle Bin * Offline files * Removal of unused applications or optional Windows components * Setup Log files * Temporary Windows file These aren’t the only locations Disk Cleanup looks for files, some options only appear with certain computer configurations. There are also options to remove unused windows components to help free disk space. Quick example of how it works To start Disk Cleanup go to Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools When the program launches it will begin analyzing how much space it will be able to free. The next step is selecting what you wish to clean, be careful you don’t delete things you need, saved passwords for internet website ect. The View Files button allows you to see the files that will be cleaned. After selecting what to clean you then run the programs, the progress bar shows you how long till its done. Antivirus Every computer that connects to the internet needs an antivirus program, an antivirus program is used to detect, prevent and remove computer viruses, Trojans horses, worms and in some cases spyware, adware and other malicious software. There are various strategies for detecting threats the most common is signature-based detection, this involves using a library of already known threats and searching for these patterns in executable code. Unfortunately some threats are too new to be in this library; in cases like this the antivirus attempts to compare code in its library with new threats. Quick example of how it works This depends on where you install your antivirus but they can be launched by going to Start > Programs > [Antivirus manufactures name] > [Antivirus program]. For this example ill be using my colleges antivirus, Sophos. When you launch the antivirus it will have several options, the first thing you need to do is to update the program, and it’s no good searching for viruses if you’re using and out of date database. After updating you need to scan for potential threats. The scan progress window will give you a rough idea of when it will finish as well as what’s being scanned and what infections have been found. After the scan is completed you should get some form of summary, this will tell you the amount of items scanned, infected items and items that have been place in quarantine. By quarantining threats it ensures your computer stays completely safe, some items are misread and are actually not harmful so quarantining these allows the user to tell the antivirus that they are safe before they get deleted. Available utility software Utility software allows a user to analyze, configure, optimize and maintain their computer and should ned be confused with application software, this type of software allows us to create text documents, listen to music, browse the internet and much more. Utility Description Disk Defragmenters Locates files that are broken over different locations then moves the fragments to the same location to increase efficiency. Disk Cleaners This disk utility is designed to free up disk space and a computer’s hard drive. It does this by searching and analysing the hard drive for files that are no longer of any use, it then removes the unnecessary files. Backup This involves making copies of important data so that these additional copies can be used to restore the original if it were lost or damaged. CLI and GUI CLI allows you to interact with a computer by typing commands in the text only interface. GUI is another way you can interact with a computer, instead of using a text interface it has a graphical interface that consists of icons. Registry Cleaners This utility was designed to remove registry entries that are no longer in use and are unwanted. Antivirus That is used to prevent and remove malware, including Worms, Trojan horses and computer viruses.