Thesis and Content Outline about Art in south Africa Research Paper

Thesis and Content Outline about Art in south Africa - Research Paper Example A debate had been disclosed. In the coming years, there would be an extension amongst anti-apartheid forces, that there existed immense power in educational resistance. Therefore, whites planned an extensive marginalization of black ability, forcing upper echelons of the world art to exist (Peffer 43). 2. The use of sculptures, banners, dramatic sketches, poems, murals and t-shirts to express their vision resistance. Posters were everywhere painted black to mourn the dead, decorated houses to increase their villages, sculptures representing chairs. It was an art rooted in battle for liberation, extraordinarily rich, in opposition. 1. The whites’ schools restricted the black artists from their schools in priority to still life, oil painting, drawing from life and landscape studies. Whites were cautious in their arts, claiming they possess European convention naturalism â€Å"according to Skotnes†. Blacks were not allowed in theatres, cinemas or art museums through a separate part of amenities. 2. The art is set in commercial galleries and call the country. The works have been organized into pictorial formatted magazines, showcased in various museums in the world â€Å"New African Art Magazine for optima† which made it to centers of the art world, Paris (Williamson 14). In conclusion, the art of the world has a substantial contribution, which defines several aspects in distinct cultures. While some people set great reputations, others never get the opportunity because they do not master institutions and defining rules of ‘art’. Influential players within the art world include criticism, art history and art

IT Conversion Strategies Essay Example for Free

IT Conversion Strategies Essay IT conversion takes place when the system has error or to improve functionalities or to expand the capacity of the system considering database, facilities , modules etc. for the conversion of system five components of system should be considered namely, hardware, software, data, procedure and people. While conversion of system any of these components should not be affected or the system conversion is not successful. There are four ways to system conversion, they are: * Direct cutover method: in this method a complete new system is introduced cutting off the old system. Â  This is the riskiest method to follow for system conversion. * Pilot conversion: in this method a part of an organization uses the new system while the rest of it continues to use the old method. In this method interface problem may prevail when the system needs to share data. * Phase conversion: In this method the part of the new system is introduced while the rest of the old one remains in use. In this method as well interface problem may prevail when the system needs to share data. * Parallel conversion: In this method, the whole new system is introduced while the old one is still in use. Both systems process all activity and the results are compared. Once there is confidence that the new one operates properly, the old one is shut down. For the proposed system the Phase conversion method is suggested as the system needs to operate for 24/7 and any kind of delay to run the application is occurred huge loss is to be suffered by the business as the overall business is relied on the web application. As the phase conversion method just add the new module to the system without affecting the old system, so the system can run continuously even when the change is taking place in the system.

Perceptions of Inequality in Arizona Politics :: Essays Papers

Perceptions of Inequality in Arizona Politics On November 1912, women won the right to vote in Arizona. This period of time marked a lot of changes for women and politics in Arizona. Women had to struggle against a male dominated society that influenced their vote despite their new freedom to vote as they saw fit. The right to vote eventually led to a proliferation of women running for local, state, and national offices. Those running for office faced skepticism about their capabilities as a politician, concern over whether they had the drive, intelligence, and strength to face down opponents within the political arena. Despite these obstacles, women have proven to be successful politicians and have infiltrated the ranks of male dominated government systems, both within states and nationwide. Today, women are virtually equal to men as far as their capabilities are concerned, yet are still under-represented in the national political scene. By reviewing a brief history of a few women in politics in Arizona and examining current political themes, a platform is formed that allows an understanding and recognition of the struggles and progression of women in politics today. I. Sharlot Hall: Pioneer in Arizona Politics One of the first and most famous women to emerge into Arizona politics was Sharlot Hall. Hall was the only daughter of a pioneer family that arrived in Arizona in 1882. Extremely bright, Hall read books often and developed a love for writing and free expression, an expression that was mocked by her father. Despite her family’s misgivings she continued to write poems and stories and was first published at the age of twenty-two. From that moment on her literary flare blossomed. Hall became an expert on writing about the beauty and solitude of the southwest and was published regularly in the magazine Land of Sunshine (Weston, 543). However, her writings were not her only contribution to her state. At the time, Arizona was still not a state and President Roosevelt suggested that New Mexico and Arizona be declared one territory. Her indignance ignited, Hall wrote a poem about Roosevelt’s intentions, which was orated on the floor of the U.S. Congress. While her poem likely had little to do with Arizona’s subsequent separate statehood in 1912, this event marked Hall’s entrance into Arizona politics.

A Journey into the Heart of American Adolescence

Teenagers will be teenagers.   Perhaps this is the best way to understand the lives of eight teenagers in Hersch’s (1999) book, A Tribe Apart: A Journey into the Heart of American Adolescence.   Although Hersch only writes about American teenagers, adolescents around the world may be able to relate to the eight kids interviewed by the author.They are naughty, to say the least, and their parents seem to have little or no interest in how they are leading or in fact ruining their lives.   The teenagers use illegal drugs, enjoy premarital sex, steal, get into trouble, and essentially do everything that they are most likely to do in the absence of adults from their lives.Adults have abused them through neglect or other means.   Hence, the young people do not have real models to follow.   Instead, they experiment with life so as to learn their own lessons before adulthood strikes.   Many of the lessons that such teenagers may learn will undoubtedly be painful if not plai n sad.It is clear to the reader of A Tribe Apart that these teenagers could have been saved from the difficulties they may inevitably face by following models of propriety.All the same, it is impossible to find such models when their parents are missing from home and out at work.   Teachers may not be able to fill in the gap seeing as it is the parents’ responsibility to teach morality to their kids for the latter to consider it believable.   After all, children are meant to spend more time with their parents than with their teachers.The teenagers of A Tribe Apart do not belong to poor families.   Researchers have often described adolescents from poor families who are neglected or abused by other means before they turn into drug addicts or thieves.Teenagers belonging to poor families are therefore believed by the masses to be morally degraded.   The unique fact about Hersch’s book is that all of the teenagers she has interviewed for her research belong to the h ealthy middle class.   Perhaps this makes it easier for adolescents around the globe to relate to the eight teenagers in her book.Most if not all teenagers may be considered ‘a tribe apart’ as the reader contemplates the fact that both the haves and the have-nots behave in similar ways through adolescence.   Indeed, teenagers belonging to poor families appear to be destroying their lives just like the adolescents interviewed by Hersch for her study.The good news is, however, that Hersch’s book could serve as a warning signal for parents who have neglected or abused their growing kids in other ways.   If parents do not take heed, their growing kids may very well shape themselves as adults that behave like their own parents.   Wealth does not matter in this case.   Rather, teenagers would remain as stereotypical teenagers – experimenting with adulthood in their youth.   They know no boundaries.They are always crossing their limits.   Most impor tantly, there is nobody to guide them out of their troubled existence.   Drugs and sex become the sole source of joy for them.   Thus, Hersch’s book is a wake up call that all parents must give serious thought to.   The fact that eight teenagers confided in Hersch must also be taken seriously.   It is possible for parents to honestly understand their kids.   Hersch has proved this with her research.

Review of Family Types Essay

Single-Parent Families A single-parent family is a family where the parents are divorced or one of the parents died. Children from single parent families tend to have more problems than children from families with two parents. Research has shown that children from single-parent families get lower grades in school. As a result, fewer children from single parent families go to university. They also get in trouble with the police more. When children from single-parent families grow up, they are more likely to commit a crime or go to jail. However, not all children from single-parent families have problems. Single parents can also be very loving and caring. Nuclear Families Nuclear families are families where just parents and their children live together. Traditionally, most people lived in extended families but increasingly people are choosing to live in nuclear families. Research has shown that urbanization is the main reason why people have changed from living in extended families to living in nuclear families. (Urbanization is when people leave the countryside to live in the city). In Japan, for example, most people lived in extended families before WWII. But now most people live in nuclear families. And before WWII only 38% of people lived in cities, but now 80% of the people live in cities. Extended Families Extended families are families where three or more generations are living in the same house. Usually, that means that the grandparents are living with their children and grandchildren. Research has shown that there are several advantages to living in extended families. Extended families are very important in countries where there is no social security net. Extended families help prevent elderly people from becoming poor. Another advantage is that the grandparents can look after the children. During the day, the grandparents watch the children to make sure that they are ok. And they also talk to the children when the parents are busy. This helps the children learn their language. And since the children are well taken care of, both of the parents are free to work on the farm or earn money in jobs. Bicultural Families Bicultural families are families where the parents come from different nationalities or different religions or different races. One advantage to coming from a bicultural family is that the children have more experiences. And so they tend to be more open-minded. Language is another area where bicultural children have an advantage. Research has shown that children can easily learn two languages when they are young. But it is important for the parents to not mix the languages. The father should only use the father’s language when speaking to the child and the mother should only use the mother’s language. However, one disadvantage of living in a bicultural family is that children have an identity problem. They don’t know who they are. Quiz – Four Families What are single-parent families? Do children from single parents tend to have more or fewer problems? What two problems does the article talk about? (1) (2) Do all children from single-parent families have problems? What is an extended family? Where are extended families very important? How do grandparents help children? What is a nuclear family? What is the main reason why more and more people live in nuclear families? How did Japan change after WWII? What is a bicultural family? How are children from bicultural families different from other children? If bicultural parents want to teach their children how to speak two languages what should they do? What problems do bicultural children have?

Scenario planning essays

Scenario planning essays Reflective learning on scenario planning practice 21 Summary, recommendations This report demonstrates the practice of scenario planning on the problem situation How might employment/career opportunities in the IS/IT industry develop in the short-term and what is a robust strategy for exploiting this situation? To begin with, the reasons and rationale from completing this report are described in some detail. Then a brief description of the scenario planning process and how it is used in the situation is discussed. The main driving forces behind the scenarios are detailed along with supporting evidence where necessary. Our four scenarios deal with the types of jobs that have been created as a result of the rapid advances in technology. In particular the technological advances in the IS/IT industry. From a number of sources available is it clear that improvements in communications technology have resulted in the increased use of handheld/wireless technologies. Teleworking has been the product of the evolution of the information economy, and in the future it is likely to spur the creation of jobs that offer an alternative to office-based work. Security jobs will always be in demand due to the constant threats posed by organisations on a daily basis. Internal auditing has also change dramatically in recent years with the introduction of new technology. Internal auditing now deals with a range of issues that include examining an organisations information systems and making recommendations on areas where improvements can be made. These trends will be expanded on in the report. A strategic plan to try and meet the demands the jobs require is also planned out. Then a commentary on the use of scenario planning is provided along with any difficulties we encountered along the way. When we face having to make decisions, there are numerous uncertainties that impinge upon the final outcome. Th...

Most Notable Achievements

Most Notable Achievements I'm tempted to take a safe route to answering this question and discuss my academic achievements at Carson High School. Academia has always been easy for me and I've enjoyed success in most of my classes, particularly in math and science. Subjects that are often hard for others come easily for me and I've enjoyed lab work, field work and tutoring. I'm the stereotypical shy, bookwormish type who memorizes logarithmic tables and carries a pocket protector.It's actually been more of an achievement for me to succeed at something outside the classroom, where I am often not as comfortable. I'm most proud of my accomplishments as a volunteer for the Shawnee Mission Summer Camp. I've volunteered there every summer since I was 14 as a counselor and activities coordinator. It was my originally mother's idea for me to become a volunteer. I didn't have any classes that summer and she thought it was a great opportunity for me to get outside and meet people my own age.Physical Therapy (album)She p robably was tired of seeing me spend 12 hours a day in front of my computer when I could have been having some fun at the beach or park. She kept mentioning something about "needing balance" and I knew she really wanted me to do it.I agreed to volunteer, but I was cautious about what I had to offer. The Shawnee Mission program is for disabled and other "special needs" children who need physical activity and recreational services year-round. Most of the participants have Down's Syndrome, although a few have Cerebral Palsy, spina bifida, multiple schlerosis and other degenerative diseases. It's an eclectic group of 30 children from 6 -18 who gather each summer to learn how to swim, camp, ride bicycles, hike and attend social functions.

6 Disappeared LinkedIn® Partner Applications and What to Do About Them †Part IV TripIt and SlideShare

6 Disappeared LinkedIn ® Partner Applications and What to Do About Them – Part IV TripIt and SlideShare The saga of the disappeared LinkedIn Partner Applications continues with this weeks episode TripIt and SlideShare! For more LinkedIn tips please visit How to Write a KILLER LinkedIn Profile e-book! TripIt TripIt was an application that allowed LinkedIn users to report easily on their travel plans. Disclaimer: I questions the wisdom of publicizing ones travel to LinkedIn, since I’ve heard stories of people who post this type of information and whose houses get robbed while they are away. However, if you do feel comfortable letting the world know when you will be traveling, you might wish to follow these steps which were provided directly from TripIt: Dear Traveler, A friendly reminder to link your TripIt and LinkedIn accounts in order to continue accessing and sharing trips with your LinkedIn network. As you may have heard from LinkedIn, they have redesigned the LinkedIn profile page, which will no longer include your TripIt My Travel app. Dont lose your access: Link my accounts. We hope you like the new and improved experience! Learn more about TripIt and how it can help you organize all your travel plans into one master mobile itinerary. By the traveler, for the traveler, The TripIt team The basic idea here is that you can log your travel in TripIt and easily share it to your LinkedIn profile. You can even sign in to TripIt using your LinkedIn username and password! Once logged in, enjoy the magic and convenience of keeping all your travel information in one place (I havent used it fully yet but am intrigued by the possibilities! Theyve got a great video you can watch at https://www.tripit.com/trip/show/id/64396342. Happy travels! SlideShare In May 2012, LinkedIn acquired SlideShare for $118.75 million. Although the SlideShare application no longer exists, you can bet LinkedIn wants you to keep using this resource! You can log in to SlideShare with your LinkedIn username and password and import your LinkedIn profile information to complete your SlideShare profile. With a single click, you can follow all your LinkedIn contacts through SlideShare, thus ensuring that you receive notifications of their updated content and comments. When you add a new presentation, document or video to SlideShare, it will *automatically* post as an Activity Update on your LinkedIn profile! Plus, if your settings allow it, you can automatically post to LinkedIn when you â€Å"favorite† a SlideShare presentation. Heres what your update might look like in LinkedIn Signal: For details on the above tips, see SlideShare Content Sharing with your Professional Network on LinkedIn, posted on the SlideShare blog on January 9, 2012. Finally, you can always post the link to a SlideShare presentation to your Summary or Experience sections by clicking on the box with the blue + sign. Once you click on that box you will be brought to a box where you can paste a link: How do you get the correct link for your presentation? In SlideShare, go to your list of presentations: Click on one of the images and you will be brought to the page with the presentation: Copy the URL from the upper left corner and paste it into the box on LinkedIn. The presentation or video will then be part of your permanent LinkedIn profile until you decide to remove or change it! Next week: How to accommodate for the disappearance of the WordPress application. See you then! Category:Archived ArticlesBy Brenda BernsteinFebruary 18, 2013

Literacy & Education Annotated Bibliography Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Literacy & Education - Annotated Bibliography Example The objective of the No Child Left Behind Act has been received with mixed feeling among the American society. While some support the legislation, others have vehemently opposed it as regards its impacts on schools. According to the author of this book, many people have narrow comprehension of the content and scope of the NCLB. This book lays a platform for better understanding of the contents and operation of the NCLB. No Child Left Behind’s main objective is â€Å"to improve the reading level of American students† (41). In this book, the authors present a research analysis including several countries to demonstrate and justify that higher education levels promotes national income growth. In their bid to ascertain if education quality improves per capita income, they use the data they obtained from each country. According to the authors, high quality education results into low child mortality rate. The authors argue that education quality significantly influences the number of years one stays in school in open economies compared with closed

WHAT ASSUMPTIONS DOES THE CONCEPT OF TRANSFER MAKE ABOUT THE Essay

WHAT ASSUMPTIONS DOES THE CONCEPT OF TRANSFER MAKE ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENT OF AND THE APPLICATION OF KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS IN AND BETWEEN EDUCATION AND WORKPLACE - Essay Example llenge for vocational educational programmes is therefore to provide effective support to students so that they are able to effectively make the transition from school to the workplace. This assignment deals with the concept of transfer of knowledge and skills from school to the workplace and how effectively an understanding of the transfer process helps to evaluate the degree to which this is being achieved. Existing vocational education curricula are unable to effectively bring about the transfer of students from the context of the school to the workplace. What are the reasons for this and what is the role of knowledge and skills acquisition in the transfer process? These are the questions I will attempt to answer in this essay. This first section discusses the concept of knowledge itself, in order to provide a basis for assessing how far the transfer of such knowledge is supported by vocational education. It will examine the different kinds of knowledge as well as skills and the importance of possessing them in the workplace. Knowledge may be tacit, explicit or situated. While situated knowledge is relevant within a particular work context and may be taught through workplace training and the use of handbooks and manuals tacit knowledge is group knowledge that develops within a specific cultural context and may be more difficult to replicate (Guile and Young 2003). Guile ([2002] citing Drucker [1993]) mentions that some authors view knowledge as an embrained phenomenon, for example, it exists either as a product of someone’s mental abilities or as data that may be found on websites, therefore innovation in such an instance will involve transfer of skill and expertise from one section of an organization to another. Other authors such as Noneka and Takeuchi ([1995] as cited by Guile [2002]) have suggested that the development of innovation in business is dependent upon the extent to which the tacit knowledge possessed by the firm is successfully exploited,

Quality & Standards Written Report 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Quality & Standards Written Report 1 - Essay Example This is also supposed to be an appraisal report for the appropriateness of the quality assurance system at Strathclyde and suggest possible amendments for future implementation. Quality assurance is an integral part of all public institutions and organisations for a very long time (Combat, 2006). Quality assurance as an institutional practice entails the act of â€Å"verifying or determining whether products or services meet or exceed customer expectations† (Kietzman, 2011). Within the fire and rescue service, the general framework that regulates the operation of organisations, which is the Fire and Rescue National Framework Document (2010, p. 21) outlines quality assurance as a two-dimension approach, which involves the practice of evaluating an organisation’s efforts and inputs in tackling a particular fire and rescue operation as well as monitoring progress reports for growth of the organisation. At Strathclyde Fire, there is a whole strategic plan in place to ensure that this aims are achieved. Specifically, the organisation has an internal quality assurance team that is a whole department of its own in the organisation. The department is made up of deputy heads of all substantive departments. It is also includes the accounts and procurement executives. After each rescue event, the following take place among the quality assurance department Both the Fire and Rescue National Framework document and the Integrated Risk Management Plan (2007-2010) outline procedure for undertaking rescue operations among fire and rescue organisations in the United Kingdom. The evaluation on validity and benefits of quality assurance strategy as explained above shall therefore be done with these two documents as reference point. The first requirement is the institution of quality assurance system in each organisation (IRMP 2007 to 2010, p.66). As far as this concerned,

Principlies of finance Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Principlies of finance - Assignment Example The paper outlines all the strong sides of such companies as Xtrata plc., Rio Tinto plc., HSBC pl., Tesco plc. and BT plc. HSBC has services from banking to financial products. Personal financial services under the HSBC group offer current account, personal account, loan, cards and payment services. Wealth management services take care of insurance, investment and financial products. It has existence in 87 countries for global banking, capital market and commercial banking facilities; it is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Global financial crisis has affected a lot for global banking companies. This sector is not affected for in the emerging countries but considerably impacted on developed countries. HSBC has major revenue earning from developed countries hence most of the groups underlined have reflected bad performance in 2010. The major sector indicators are in still in bad condition. Rio Tinto plc is highly diversified company with operations in finding, mining and processing mineral resources. Rio Tinto produces aluminum, copper, gold, silver, diamond and other industrial minerals. Rio Tinto is engaged in all the continents; the head quarter is in London, United Kingdom. Rio Tinto’s business includes the mines, mills, refineries, refineries and research facilities. Company has 5 major product groups like aluminum, copper, diamonds, minerals, energy, iron ore, exploration and technology & innovation; and number of subsidiaries for availing facilities of economies of scale and cost structure. But iron ore is the main contributor to its earning with 73% dominance and copper has 18% contribution in the earning. Global financial crisis has affected Rio Tinto and created a challenge; but company is able to stabilize the situations with the proper strategic steps. This year company is able to manage a whopping increase in net earning from $4.9 billion to $14.3 b illion. Basic materials sector is also witnessing demand for above average GDP growth of China, India and other emerging nations. Global economic situation is also helpful for the increasing demand in ores. Investors and fund mangers also investing in diamonds and minerals, which is another positive force for short to medium term to the Rio Tinto’s growth. Through the SWOT analysis of the Rio Tinto, I found that the company has cash risk, market volatility threat and technological challenges in near future but the competitive advantages and growth in medium term is good opportunity for the inventors. Apart from this fundamental analysis, I found that the Rio Tinto’s return is combatively better and impressive than other competitors in the same sector for medium term and at this moment the share value is in uptrend but has major resistance in 4800. Hence selling the stock at this moment before

Terrorism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Terrorism - Essay Example The use of explosive devices is partly explained by ease of achieving the goal and low-cost technical means. It is not surprising that terrorism is often called â€Å"the cheap war†. In addition, gun, knife and poison do not have such a powerful emotional impact on people, as is achieved with the help of explosives. Even in the case when it is possible to prevent the tragedy, the material damage caused to society, whose familiar life is interrupted for some time, is very serious. In addition, we can not forget about the hard psychological impact on innocent people. Conventionally, the terror can be divided into mass and individual, depending to what the action is specifically directed, whether to Implementation of the threat to society as a whole or action against a specific individual. But in both cases the purpose is to conduct a campaign of intimidation to achieve maximum possible effect: to sow fear, cause panic, and they, in turn, will finish the rest. The actions of terr orists are always demonstrative by character. The perpetrator of acts of mass terrorism is often prone to a peculiar diabolical narcissism.

Principlies of finance Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Principlies of finance - Assignment Example The paper outlines all the strong sides of such companies as Xtrata plc., Rio Tinto plc., HSBC pl., Tesco plc. and BT plc. HSBC has services from banking to financial products. Personal financial services under the HSBC group offer current account, personal account, loan, cards and payment services. Wealth management services take care of insurance, investment and financial products. It has existence in 87 countries for global banking, capital market and commercial banking facilities; it is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Global financial crisis has affected a lot for global banking companies. This sector is not affected for in the emerging countries but considerably impacted on developed countries. HSBC has major revenue earning from developed countries hence most of the groups underlined have reflected bad performance in 2010. The major sector indicators are in still in bad condition. Rio Tinto plc is highly diversified company with operations in finding, mining and processing mineral resources. Rio Tinto produces aluminum, copper, gold, silver, diamond and other industrial minerals. Rio Tinto is engaged in all the continents; the head quarter is in London, United Kingdom. Rio Tinto’s business includes the mines, mills, refineries, refineries and research facilities. Company has 5 major product groups like aluminum, copper, diamonds, minerals, energy, iron ore, exploration and technology & innovation; and number of subsidiaries for availing facilities of economies of scale and cost structure. But iron ore is the main contributor to its earning with 73% dominance and copper has 18% contribution in the earning. Global financial crisis has affected Rio Tinto and created a challenge; but company is able to stabilize the situations with the proper strategic steps. This year company is able to manage a whopping increase in net earning from $4.9 billion to $14.3 b illion. Basic materials sector is also witnessing demand for above average GDP growth of China, India and other emerging nations. Global economic situation is also helpful for the increasing demand in ores. Investors and fund mangers also investing in diamonds and minerals, which is another positive force for short to medium term to the Rio Tinto’s growth. Through the SWOT analysis of the Rio Tinto, I found that the company has cash risk, market volatility threat and technological challenges in near future but the competitive advantages and growth in medium term is good opportunity for the inventors. Apart from this fundamental analysis, I found that the Rio Tinto’s return is combatively better and impressive than other competitors in the same sector for medium term and at this moment the share value is in uptrend but has major resistance in 4800. Hence selling the stock at this moment before

Percy bysshe shelley Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Percy bysshe shelley - Research Paper Example The discussion becomes easy if a look at his poetic ideas is done first. Shelley is of the opinion that a poet is a moral teacher. He does not agree that a poet is merely an imitator. At the same time, he asserts that a poet is a creator, who not only creates but also provides ideas to the society, guides the people, and in a way teaches what should be done to improve one’s life. He rejects Thomas Love peacock’s remark that a poet is a â€Å"semi-barbarian†. He not only counters this negative remark about the poet but also declares that â€Å"Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world† (Defense). In his essay defending poetry, he explains the true role of a poet in his society and states that†Poetry turns all things to loveliness; it exalts the beauty of that which is most beautiful, and it adds beauty to that which is most deformed; it marries exultation and horror, grief and pleasure, eternity and change; it subdues to union under its li ght yoke all irreconcilable things† (Defense). Unlike Keats for whom poetry means beauty, Shelley finds poetry as a form of intellectual beauty. He treats politics, love, and nature on equal scale. He looks sometime melancholic, but his melancholy is closely related to his ideas. â€Å"Ode to West Wind† can be taken as an ideal poem to study Shelley as a poet and revolutionary. As a poem, it is very remarkable because in it the poet treats everything in nature as an instrument of melody. The poet becomes totally spellbound by the power of the wind, the cloud, the sun, the ocean, and all these in nature for him become the right subject for poetry. He is so much inspired that he prays, â€Å"Be thou, Spirit fierce, / My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!† (Ode). The poem deals with the regenerative power of nature. It praises how everything that is old and dead in nature is driven out to leave space for the birth of new and beautiful. In other words, it speaks abou t the likely situation in which the world has to exist with everything unwanted and decayed, if regeneration does not take place. The poet feels that this unfortunate situation is avoided in nature because of the support of the sweeping powers of west wind: â€Å"Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead/ Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing† (Ode). It is with similar spirit that the poet wants changes in the political situation in his society. However, he does not possess the sweeping powers seen in the west wind to drive out the old and conventional ideas in his society to pave the way for the new and creative ideas. That is how the poem becomes significant as an example of the poet’s political perspective. As Sydney Waterloo says, â€Å"He was a dreamer, but he never dreamed merely for the sake of dreaming; he always rushed to translate his dreams into acts† (Sydney). â€Å"Ode to the West Wind† shows how Shelley tries to translate his poetical and political dreams into reality. The poem, â€Å"Ode to the West Wind†, is in the form of a prayer. It is addressed to West Wind, and not to any particular God, as Shelley finds in the invisible power in nature what man generally finds in God. The political idea with which he was obsessed is identified with the power of the wind. Though he tried to impress his philosophical ideas upon the people through many pamphlets he found very poor response coming from the people. So he was disappointed.

Philosophy Paper Essay Example for Free

Philosophy Paper Essay One of the most heated debates that troubled the church in the Middle Ages was the question of universals. This question goes back as far as Plato’s Forms. It has to do with the relationship between the abstract and general concepts that we have in our minds (what is the relationship between Chair with a capitol â€Å"C† and chair with a small â€Å"c†? ). And from this, two radical viewpoints emerged, realists and the nominalists. The realists followed Plato in insisting that each universal is an entity in its own right, and exists independently of the individual things that happen to participate in it. An extreme form of realism flourished in the church from the ninth to the twelfth centuries. Among its advocates were John Scotus, Erigena, Anselm and William of Champeaux. On the opposite side were the nominalists and they held that universals were just names, and therefore, have no objective status apart from that which is fabricated in the mind. Nominalists, such as Gabriel Biel and William of Occam (see O section), said that the individual is the only existing substance. Unfortunately, their treatment of nominalism removed religion almost entirely from the area of reason and made it a matter of faith beyond the comprehension of reason. 1 And here lies the significance of the French theologian Peter Abelard (1079-1142). Between the two extremes, Peter Abelard proposed a more moderate form of nominalism. Though critical of the idea of the separate existence of universals, he nevertheless believed that resemblances among particular things justified the use of universals for establishing knowledge. More specifically, Abelard proposed that we ground the similarities among individual things without reifying their universal features, by predicating general terms in conformity with concepts abstracted from experience. This resolution (which would later come to be known as conceptualism) of the traditional problem of universals gained wide acceptance for several centuries, until doubts about the objectivity and reality of such mental entities as concepts came under serious question. Thomas Aquinas favored a moderate realism which rejected the view that universals exist apart from individual entities in favor of the view that they do indeed exist, but only in actual entities. 2 Anaximander (Milesian School): Anaximander (610-547/6 B. C. ) was one of the three key figures that comprised the Milesian School (the three prominent figures associated with the Milesian School is Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes). Together, they worked on problems concerning the nature of matter and the nature of change, and they each proposed a different material as the primary principal. 3 Anaximander seemed to be quite modern in his view of reality. He believed that the world was cylindrical like a drum, and that the earth rested on nothing. He also invented an undefined non-substance, called the apeiron, a neutral, indeterminate stuff that was infinite in amount. Anaximenes (Milesian School): Anaximenes (546 B. C. ), the other member of the Milesian School, returned back to the idea that everything derives from a single substance, but suggested that substance was air. Though it is likely his choice was motivated by wanting to maintain a balance between the two views of his predecessors, Anaximenes did provide solid grounds for his choosing; first, air, has the advantage of not being restricted to a specific and defined nature as water, and therefore more capable of transforming itself into the great variety of objects around us. Second, air is a more likely source of this variety than Anaximander’s apeiron which seems too empty and vacuous a stuff to be capable of giving rise to such a variety and profusion. 4 Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury: In (452 A. D. ), twenty-two years after Augustine’s death, Rome fell, bringing on a period of conquest and chaos, and degree of order was ultimately realized through the emergence of feudalism. The church, which had managed to survive the social and political upheaval, gradually assumed responsibilities that previously had been relegated to the civil government. This involvement in government led in turn to the secularization of the church. Bishops became ministers of the state, and church dignitaries became warriors. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, many within the church were so involved with the secular world that a movement led to the emergence of the monastic life as a force within the church. Those who wanted to escape the temptations of the secular world and pursue holiness were naturally drawn to the monasteries and among those who followed was Anselm (1033-1109), the archbishop of Canterbury. The greatest Christian thinker between Augustine and Thomas Aquinas was Anselm (1033-1109). He was born to a wealthy family in northern Italy, whom, to their disappointment, left home in (1056) to fully dedicate his life to God. Following a period of travel, he arrived at the Norman Abbey at Bec, where he took his monastic vows in (1060). Within a few years, he became prior of the abbey, abbot in (1078), and then archbishop in (1093), which he held until his death. His writings range from treatises on logic to an explanation of the divine inner logic of the atonement in Cur deus homo. Anselm stood in the tradition of Augustine and Platonic realism. 5 Following the tradition of Augustine, he held that faith precedes and leads to understanding, and, like many other medieval thinkers he drew no sharp distinction between philosophy and theology. In his famous ontological argument for the existence of God, Anselm presents a defense based on the fact that it is self-contradictory to deny that there exists a greatest possible being. 6 He claims that the more universality, the more reality. And from here it follows that if God is the most universal being, he is also the most real; if He is the absolutely universal being, he is also the absolutely real being, ens realissimum. He has, therefore, according to the conception of Him, not only the comparatively greatest reality, but also the absolute reality. A reality in which no greater can be thought. 7 Aquinas, Thomas: By common consent the greatest philosophical theologian of the Middle Ages was Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). Everything about him was big. In his later years his voluminous writings, massive in scope, won him the title of the Angelic Doctor. His life was dedicated to the intellectual defense and propagation of the faith, as he understood it. It was during his teaching career (1252) in Paris that Aquinas, being drawn into the critical debates of his day, started battling the objections posed against Aristotelianism and its place in the university. By this time, Plato was known only through the imperfect translations of the Timaeus, the Phaedo, and the Meno. Islamic Jewish thinkers were much better acquainted with Aristotle, and for nearly two centuries they had been wrestling with questions posed by Aristotelianism to religious faith. For Aquinas and his Christian contemporaries the issue was doubly acute. On the one hand, there were questions posed by Aristotle’s way of thinking. On the other hand, there were the answers already given by Islamic and Jewish scholars which were hardly acceptable to a Christian thinker. Aquinas decided to face the problem head on. He made his own study of Aristotle, on whom he wrote extensively. He also made his own study of non-Christian thinkers. He subjected all ideas to rigorous scrutiny, giving due recognition to the truth of ideas, wherever they came from, but giving his own evaluation of every issue, point by point. In all, Aquinas produced about a hundred different writings. His work ranged from philosophical commentaries to hymns. 8 Aquinas’ main works are two massive Summae or compends of theology and philosophy. The Summa contra Gentiles was designed as a textbook for missionaries, and the Summa Theologiae has been described as the highest achievement of medieval theological systematization and is still the accepted basis of modern Reformed theology. In Aquinas’ proofs (what later came to be known as the Cosmological and Teleological arguments), certain facts about nature are compelling evidences of God’s existence. He argues, accordingly, that nothing can adequately account for the fact of motion or change. Rejecting the idea that change or motion is simply an ultimate, mysterious fact of nature neither requiring nor permitting any explanation except God, its Unmoved Prime Mover. Furthermore, in his five arguments, Aquinas suggests that the Christian belief in God is completely consistent with the world as we know it. Aquinas’ arguments, known also as the Five Ways are sometimes referred to as the proofs of the existence of God. But this is not necessarily correct because Aquinas did not try to prove the existence of God by rational argument, but to provide a rational defense for an already existing faith in God. His primary reason for believing in the existence in God is God’s revelation of Himself. Aquinas expects his readers to share the same faith. He does not expect that he will have to prove anything to them first. This point is important because many critics accuse believers of grounding their faith in outdated arguments, such as Thomas Aquinas. It is proper, therefore, to respond to such criticisms by pointing out that they are based on a superficial reading and on a serious misunderstanding of how individuals come to faith. 9 The basic principal guiding Aquinas throughout the Five Proofs is the principal of analogy, which holds the world as we know it mirrors God, its creator. The structure of each of Aquinas’ proofs is quite similar. Each depends on tracing a casual sequence back to its ultimate origin and identifying this ultimate origin with God. The first begins with the observation that things in the world are in motion or change. Second is the concept of causation. The third concerns the existence of contingent beings. The fourth deals with human values, and lastly, is the teleological argument, in which Aquinas explains how the world shows clear traces of intelligent design. Natural processes and objects seem to be adapted with certain definite objectives in mind. They seem to have purpose. They seem to have been designed. Arguing from this observation, Aquinas concludes that it is rational to believe in God. 10 Aristotle: Aristotle’s thought, like his mentor Plato, embodied the concept of arete, which taught that human excellence in all things was an important goal that should direct human purposes. For Aristotle, that excellence ideally exemplified the defining quality of human nature, the pursuit of reason. Attracted by science and believing that the universe could be explained, Aristotle greatly valued the work of Thales of Miletus, and accepted his concept that the physical universe operated rationally and in a way that was knowable to human beings. From Anaximander, Aristotle took the view that a balance of force existed in nature that made things what they were. Aristotle was also knowledgeable about the atomic theory of Parmenides and was intrigued by the question of what was stable and what was changing. Indeed, these Greek scientists had a significant influence on Aristotle’s intellectual search to examine and explain reality. 11 For Aristotle, the world in which we live is the world that we experience through our senses. Unlike those who followed Plato, Aristotle believed that we live in an objective order of reality, a world of objects that exist external to us and our knowing of them. Through our senses and our reason, human beings can come to know these objects and develop generalizations about their structure and function. Truth is a correspondence between the person’s mind and external reality. Theoretical knowledge based on human observation is the best guide to human behavior. And, while human beings have various careers, they all share the most important factor, the exercise of rationality. Reason gives human beings the potentiality of leading lives that are self-determined. Congruent with his metaphysical and epistemological perspective, Aristotle’s ethical theory portrays the good life as that of happiness (eudaimonia). He believed that the ultimate good for the human being was happiness, activity in accordance to virtue. The virtuous life is one in which actions are part of a consciously formulated plan that takes a mean, a middle ground course, avoiding extremes. 12 For example, true courage would be the choice that avoids the extremes of cowardice and rashness. And what decides the right course to take is the virtue of prudence (phronesis). Good is the aim of every action but, given the fact that goods can be ordered in relation to one another, there must be a highest good to which practical wisdom directs us. And if the possession of any good is what makes us happy to some extent, the possession of the highest good is the highest happiness, the ultimate goal of all our actions. 13 At this point, it is difficult to resist the thought that Aristotle’s notion of the intellectual life being the gateway to happiness and virtue is not an shallow one. But, though there are some elements in his presentation that are unclear, this much is clear; that this happiness, which is the possession of the good, is ultimately an act of contemplation, or of  beholding, the good. But to contemplate the good is to enter into union with it. Therefore, if contemplating on god means entering into union with the life of the gods, this is the highest activity of man and his ultimate happiness. The conclusion of the Ethics is one with the Metaphysics, in which the â€Å"divine element† in a man coincides with the â€Å"possession† of god by an act of thought, called contemplation, which is the â€Å"most pleasant and best† we can perform. In Eudemian Ethics, Aristotle says, What choice, then, or possession of the natural goods – whether bodily goods, wealth, friends, or other things – will most produce the contemplation of God, that choice or possession is best; this is the noblest standard, but any that through deficiency or excess hinders one from the contemplation and service of God is bad; this man possess in his soul, and this is the best standard for the soul. 14 With statements like this one can’t help but wonder what Aristotle’s response would have been if he would have had the opportunity to serve the one true God, who is worthy of such adoration and praise. What’s more, Aristotle categorized virtues as either moral or intellectual. Moral virtue, though not easy to define, is a habit by which the individual exercises a prudent choice, one that a rational person would make. Moral virtues tend to moderation, falling between excess and inhibition. They focus on the concrete actions a person performs and the measured sense he has regarding them: â€Å"to feel them at the right times, with reference to the right objects, towards the right people, with the right motive, and in the right way. † A good action thus exhibits due proportion, neither excessive nor defective, but midway between them. This is Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean. Peculiarly, a virtuous action is one that lies between too much and too little. To give another example, in regard to the feeling of shame, modesty is the mean between bashfulness and shamelessness. Not every virtue, however, is a mean, and so not every action is to be measured in this way. Nonetheless, every action should and can at least be measured in its rightness by the virtue of prudence or, in a larger sense, by â€Å"practical wisdom. †15. Furthermore, one of Aristotle’s most significant contributions to the Western world is his Poetics. His earlier works, Physics and Metaphysics contain important statements about art and nature, and Rhetoric, written after Poetics, distinguishes rhetoric as a practical art and has had a strong influence on literary criticism. His Poetics, nonetheless, is particularly important because Aristotle is addressing Plato’s doctrines on ideas and forms he came to disagree with. In Poetics, it was Aristotle’s intention to classify and categorize systematically the kinds of literary art, beginning with epic and tragic drama. Unfortunately, not all of the poetics survived, and it breaks off before the discussion of comedy. Nonetheless, our sense of Aristotle’s method is established. He is the first critic to attempt a systematic discourse of literary genres. 16 Augustine (Saint), of Hippo: One of the greatest thinkers of not only the early church, but of all time is Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A. D. ). His writings laid the foundation not only for Western theology but for later philosophy as well. His three books On Free Will (388-395), set out a doctrine of creation, evil and the human will which was a superior alternative to the type of thinking that had attracted so many to Gnosticism and Manichaean dualism. His response to the Donatist schism in the church set the pattern for the Western doctrine of the church. His writings on the subject of Pelagianism clarified, as no one before him and few after him, the crucial issues in the question of grace and free will. His major theological writings include On the Trinity (399-419), which presented better models for thinking about the Trinity than those of the Greek fathers. Augustine’s book On the City of God (413-416) was a reply to those who blame the church for the fall of Rome, in which it gave both a panoramic view of history and a theology of history in terms of the basic conflict between the divine society and the earthly society. 17 Interestingly, Augustine put forth a theory of time that Bertrand Russell would later pronounce superior to earlier views and much better than the subjective theory of Kant. Augustine’s account of how we can learn language provided Wittgenstein’s starting point for his Philosophical Investigations. In answering skepticism Augustine put forth an argument which anticipated Descartes’ cognito ergo sum without falling into the pitfalls commonly associated with the argument. Furthermore, Augustine believed that philosophical reflection may correct mistaken notions, lead to a grasp of truth, and serve to clarify belief. But rational reflection is not a substitute for the beatific vision of God. For it is the apprehension of God alone which transforms human life and alone satisfies our deepest needs. Though Augustine was deeply influenced by Platonism and Neoplatonism, he never was simply a Platonist. His view of the soul stands in the Platonic tradition, but he repudiated the doctrines of pre-existence and transmigration. Augustine’s view of the transcendent spiritual reality might also be said to have affinities with Plato, but Augustines approach was not an attempt to erect an edifice of Christian theology on either Platonic or Neoplatonic foundations. Rather, it was to state the Christian worldview in a theological and philosophical system that cohered as a unified whole. 18 (B) (back to top) Bentham, Jeremy: In nineteenth century Victorian England two contrasting systems were developed by Jeremy Bentham and Herbert Spencer. Utilitarians Bentham and John Stuart Mill applied naturalistic presuppositions in their worldview. Herbert Spencer applied the concept of evolution. And Ernest Mach prepared the way for logical positivism in his strongly anti-metaphysical scientific approach. The antithesis of the Kantian ideal is utilitarianism, an ethical theory founded by Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). Bentham was a hedonist. Taking the good to be pleasure, Bentham proposed a new model for morality in his principal of utility, which holds that â€Å"Actions are right in proportion to the amount of happiness it brings; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. 19 Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism. The ends justify the means since actions are judged on the results they bring, not on the person’s intentions or motives. For Kant, the end result was not important in determining the rightness of an action, rather, it was motive. 20 In its simplest form utilitarianism teaches that the right action is the one that promotes the greatest happiness. Modern utilitarianism dates from Thomas Hobbes in the seventeenth century, but its antecedents date as far back as (341-270 B. C. ) to the philosophy of Epicurus of Samos. The theory of utilitarianism actually held little influence until John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) who popularized the term and produced the classical Victorian exposition of the doctrine. Mill used the principal of utility to critique all social, political, and religious institutions. Anything that did not promote the greatest happiness of the greatest number was to be challenged and reformed. For this reason social and religious institutions that curtail individual liberty should be reformed. This is necessary, argued Mill, in order for freedom of belief, association and expression to be safeguarded. 21. Different conceptions of happiness separated Mill’s version â€Å"Better a Socrates dissatisfied than a pig satisfied,† which recognized qualitative differences between different kinds of pleasure, from Bentham’s forthright attempt to reduce all questions of happiness to the mere presence of pleasure or pain. Bentham’s version aims to render the basic concepts of ethics susceptible of comparison and measurement, but this was not the goal in Mill’s presentation of the system. 22 A hedonistic utilitarian like Bentham would say that the sole consideration is the quantity of pleasure that an action produces. A problem with this approach, however, (as if it wasn’t obvious) is that it draws no distinction in principal between an evening spent at the bars or one spent having quality time with your spouse. It all depends upon the tastes of the person. Berkley, George: George Berkeley (Irish, 1685-1753) was one of the three greatest British empiricists of the eighteenth century (Locke and Hume being the other two). Though his father was an Englishman, Berkley always considered himself Irish. He was an early subjectivist idealist philosopher, who argued that all qualities of objects exist only in the mind of the perceiver. His famous theory is often summarized, esse est percipi, â€Å"to be is to be perceived,† and is still important to modern apologetics (due to the method he used in demonstrating the necessity of an eternal Perceiver). Berkley’s argument was that the phenomena of visual sensation can all be explained without presupposing the reality of the external material substances. Interestingly, Berkley was also a bishop of an Anglican church, and was the only important philosopher to visit America before 1900. He came hoping to start a missionary training college for evangelizing to the Indian tribes of New England. 23 Berkley disagreed with Locke in that there is a material substance lying behind and supporting perceptions. He also disagreed with his treatment of the representative theory of perception, that material objects are perceived mediately by means of ideas, and the mind does not perceive the material object directly, but only through the medium of the ideas formed by the senses and reflection on them. â€Å"If we know only our ideas,† reasoned Berkeley â€Å"then we can never be sure whether any of them are really like the material qualities of objects, since we can never compare the ideas with them. † For that reason, he denied the ultimate existence of material substance believing that the Spirit is the only metaphysical reality. 24 (D) (back to top) Derrida, Jacques: Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) was a French literary critic and founder of the school called deconstructionism. His (1966) lecture Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences delivered at Johns Hopkins University, played a significant role in ushering American critics into the era of poststructuralism. Particular influences on his thought include Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Freud. He wrote prolifically, and had a great influence on not only literary criticism but in sociology, linguistics, and psychology as well. Derrida regarded philosophical and literary texts as already containing the seeds of their own deconstruction. This means that in any work the author unwittingly includes contradictions, blind spots, and unjustified assumptions. The main purpose and task of the deconstructionist, according to Derrida, is to simply bring these contradictions to the surface. 25 Beginning in the Victorian Age, a paradigm shift slowly spread throughout Europe that set the groundwork for modern theory. Unlike the revolutionary movements of the Renaissance and Romanticism, which were in part reactionary, this paradigm shift that marked a radical break from the past had little precedent. Nonetheless, it marked a rejection of long-held metaphysical and aesthetic beliefs that most theorists from Plato to Coleridge took for granted. Until the modern period, most of the great Western philosophers have been logocentric in their thinking, and Derrida is one of the ones responsible for this definite break from the past, bringing forth the notion that meaning is never fixed. Dr. Louis Markos, a Christian Professor at Houston Baptist University, made some interesting comments on Derrida in one of his lectures on deconstructionism. He said that Derrida reads the history of Western metaphysics as a continual search for a logos or original presence. This logos is sought because it promises to give meaning and purpose to all things, to act as a universal center. Behind this search is a desire for a higher reality (or full presence). Western philosophy since Plato has simply renamed this presence and shifted this center without breaking from its centering impulse. Even Saussure’s structuralism sought a center, and though he broke from the old metaphysic, he still used its terminology and binaries. Furthermore, Derrida deconstructs all attempts to posit a center or to establish a system of binaries. Instead, he puts in their place a â€Å"full free play of meaning. †26 Democritus (see Leucippus): Descartes, Rene: The first great continental rationalist27 was Rene’ Descartes (Frenchman, 1596-1650). For it was he who defined the terms and laid down the agenda for the continental rationalist school of thought. But in a sense, the world that Descartes produced, by the exercise of pure reason, was a fairly straight forward affair – Descartes does preserve â€Å"the self† in a recognizable form, as well as both â€Å"God† (even though it is not a terribly human sort of God) and the material world in a broadly speaking recognizable form (even though it might be a material world deprived of some of its more vivid and colorful attributes). Nevertheless, the worlds created by the application of the procedure of rationalism start from some self-evident propositions (like Euclid’s geometry) and then carry out processes of absolute, straight forward deduction from these self-evident propositions and what that led to in the case of Spinoza and Leibniz is something very far removed in both of them from the ordinary understanding of the world. To some extant, Descartes, by comparison with them, is in the business of saving the appearances. Whereas both Spinoza and Leibniz say that what the world is really like is very different from what it appears to the ordinary person to be. Nonetheless, there is still in both cases (Descartes and Spinoza and Leibniz) an underlying reality that philosophy can tell us something about reality even if common observation cannot. 28 His two chief philosophical works were Discourse on Method (1637) and his Meditations (1641). His ideal and method were modeled on mathematics. He is sometimes portrayed as the first modern philosopher due to his break with the traditional Scholastic-Aristotelian philosophy and for introducing a new mechanistic science. 29 In refurbishing the medieval proofs for the existence of God he was drawing upon the legacy of the Middle Ages. Like the Medieval philosophers, he was interested in metaphysics, and to the end of his life, Descartes remained a nominal Catholic. But there is a sense in which Descartes represents a new departure. Descartes (so it seems) was interested in God not for his own sake, but the world’s. God is invoked as a kind of dues ex machine to guarantee the validity of our thoughts about the world. 30 Nonetheless, Descartes takes his place as a Christian thinker by resting cognitive truth on the personal truth of God, and laying the blame for error not on God but on the exercise of the human will. Descartes successors eventually lost their reliance for truth. George Berkeley retains it by tracing directly to God all the ideas we receive from outside the mind and Leibniz by making each mind mirror eternal truths in the mind of God. But many Enlightenment thinkers, and many empiricists today who share some of Descartes’ rational ideals or the correspondence theory of truth, talk to truth independently of God as if it were a self-sustaining ideal and as if human reason were a purely objective and impersonal activity. Descartes’ failure was not in the relation he saw of truth to God, but in the lack of relation he saw between man’s rational capacity for knowing truth and his personality as a whole. 31 (F) (back to top) Fibonacci: His real name was Leonardo Pisano (Italian, 1170-1250) but he is better known by his nickname â€Å"Fibonacci† (filius Bonacci), which means â€Å"son of Bonacci. † A striking example of Fibonaccis genius is his observation that the classification of irrationals given by Euclid in Book X of the Elements did not include all irrationals. Fibonacci is probably best known for his â€Å"rabbit problem. † Leonardo Fibonacci began the study of this sequence by posing the following problem in his book, Liber Abaci, â€Å"How many pairs of rabbits will be produced in a year, beginning with a single pair? †32 The analogy that starts with one pair of rabbits who give birth to a new pair from the first month on, and every succeeding pair gives birth to a new pair in the second month after their birth. Fibonacci shows that this leads to the sequences 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, and so on. As one can see, each term is the sum of the two previous terms. For example, 2 + 3 = 5 and 3 + 5 = 8, and the farther and farther you go to the right of this sequence, the ratio of a term to the one before it will get closer and closer to the Golden Ratio. Additionally, this same principal also applies to that of the Golden rectangle. The connection between the Golden Ratio and the Fibonacci series is fascinating, and is very simple to understand. If you take a Golden Rectangle, and cut off a square with side lengths equal to the length shorter to the rectangle side, then what remains is another Golden Rectangle. This could go on forever. You can just keep cutting off these big squares and getting smaller and smaller Golden Rectangles. Consequently, the idea with the Fibonacci series is to do the same thing in reverse. You start with a square (1 by 1), find the longer side, and then add a square of that size to the whole thing to form a new rectangle. Therefore, when we start with a (1 by 1) square the longest side is one, so we add another square to it. As a result, we have accumulated a (2 by 1) rectangle. Then the longest side is 2, so we connect a (2 by 2) square to our (2 by 1) rectangle to get a (3 by 2) rectangle. As this continues, the sides of the rectangle will always be a successive Fibonacci number, and eventually the rectangle will be very close to a Golden Rectangle. To translate in more illustrative terms, the ratio of two successive numbers in the Fibonacci series, as aforementioned, if divided by each number before it, will result in the following series of numbers; 1/1 = 1, 2/1 = 2, 3/2 = 1. 5, 5/3 = 1. 666, 8/5 = 1. 6, 13/8 = 1. 625, 21/13 = 1. 61538. The ratio that is settling down to a particular value is the golden ratio or the golden number, which has a value of approximately 1. 618034. 33 Fichte, Johann Gottlieb: Johann Gottlieb Fichte (German, 1762-1814) was one of the major figures in German philosophy in between Kant and Hegel. He was regarded as one of Kant’s most talented philosophers, but later developed a system of his own transcendental philosophy called the Wissenschaftslehre. Fichte had immense influence on his contemporaries, especially during his professorship at the University of Jenna, a position he held for five years (1794-1799) before taking up a profes.

Effect of Occupational Noise Pollution on Workers

Effect of Occupational Noise Pollution on Workers Noise pollution CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Background Noise means unpleasant sound that gives a disturbing and annoying effect to the listener. Noise pollution is any unwanted, disturbing, or harmful sound that impairs or interferes with hearing, causes stress, hampers concentration and work efficiency, or causes accident. Noise can block, distort, change or interfere with the meaning of a message in both human and electronic communication (Wikipedia, 2009). Agricultures workers are one of the highest contributors in the rate of noise pollution among all occupation. Any person who is exposed to an excessive noise pollution in long period may suffer hearing loss. The amount of damaged caused by noise depends on the total amount received over time. The degree of risk is affected by the intensity (loudness) and the frequency (pitch) of the noise, as well as the duration and pattern of exposure and the individual susceptibility to hearing impairment (CCOH, 2009). The increased spread of hearing loss from high frequencies through low frequencies with age and noise exposure is common for this population. Hearing loss of farmers is very characteristic of a sensor neural, bilateral sloping configuration resulting from both noise and aging. When age group data were compared to the hearing sensitivity values of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), all farmer populations, age 20-60, showed more dramatically hearing loss than the comparison group. This also was true when the data were compared to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 1990 data. Physical ear discomfort to noise exposure starts from sound pressure level of 80-100 decibels (dB). A continuous noise level of 85 dB can result in hearing damage as well as create other various negative effects on health (League for the Hard of hearing, 2002). Noise induced hearing loss occurs gradually and without pain. Noise is often recorded as decibels dB (A) t o approximate how the human ears respond to noise. In Malaysia, noise exposure in work place is legislated under the Factories and Machinery Act (Noise Exposure) Regulation 1989, and Occupational and Safety Health Act (OSHA) 1994. This regulation makes it mandatory for noise level and workers exposure to noise is measured, assessed, and controlled. Malaysian permissible exposure level (PEL) refers to the limit of exposure that must not be exceeded by any employee over a specified time limit. These limits denote concentration levels above which exposure to chemicals hazardous to health must be controlled. To protect against chronic health effects of chemicals, the limits set are eight hours time-weighted average values. Excursions above the eight-hour time weighted average limit is allowed as long as it does not exceed three times this set limit. The farm tractor has a central role in field operations and often in stockyards and buildings too. It pulls lifts, powers and supports; it provides personal transport and shelter from the weather. It is often the main status symbol of the agricultural enterprise; this is why tractors are styled (like cars), why they are loved by enthusiasts (like steam railway engines), and why individual farmers often praise and are faithful to one particular make. Two aspects of tractor noise cause concern: the environmental noise heard by bystanders, either fellow road users or local residents, and the potentially harmful noise to which the operator is subjected. Environmental noise was the subject of a formal OECD test. In the 1960s the Institute harmonized details of the test procedure by comparing measurements in all European test stations. Noise screens for engines were successfully developed, but the dominant environmental noise arises from exhausts, where a balance must be found between silencer effectiveness and power loss. A separate study of the annoyance caused by farm noise of all kinds rated the tractor as much less annoying than axed plant such as grain driers. Objectives The study is focused on highlight that prolong to high level of occupational noise which can affect the hearing ability to agricultures worker who are using tractors and machines. To characterize noise exposure profile among agricultures workers at Seksyen Kejuruteraan Ladang, Taman Pertanian Universiti,Universiti Putra Malaysia. To evaluate safety practices among workers. Significant of study The purpose of this study is to determine and observe if the noise from heavy machine, agriculture machine, industry machine and agricultures tools that are related to noise can contribute to the incidence of hearing loss. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Noise Noise is a word often used to mean unpleasant sound that the listener does not want to hear, although there are no physical characteristics distinguishing noise from wanted sound (Plog et. al., 2002). Noise means unpleasant sound that give a disturbing and an annoying effect to the listener. Noise pollution is any unwanted, disturbing, or harmful sound that impairs or interferes with hearing, causes stress, hampers concentration and work efficiency, or causes accident). Noise can block, distort, change or interfere with the meaning of a message in both human and electronic communication (Wikipedia, 2009). Noise environments of the type and severity associated with combustion engines and other noises arising from mechanisms or animals may have the following principle effects on the person exposed. The noise may be annoying to varying degrees, from being just objectionable to being unbearable. The performance may be affected due to a lowering of concentration, fatigue caused by longer exposed, rhythm disturbance, interference with sound cues associated with the work or interference with worker-to-worker communication in a team. Damage to hearing noise may be caused by noise; the character and to a lesser extent, the mechanism of this damage is now being understood. Both temporary and permanent components of hearing threshold shift are possible (Matthews, 1968). Noise is unwanted electrical or electromagnetic energy that degrades the quality of signals and data. Noise occurs in digital and analog systems, and can affect files and communications of all types, including text, programs, images, audio, and telemetry. In a hard-wired circuit such as a telephone-line-based Internet hookup, external noise is picked up from appliances in the vicinity, from electrical transformers, from the atmosphere, and even from outer space. Normally this noise is of little or no consequence. However, during severe thunderstorms, or in locations were many electrical appliances are in use, external noise can affect communications. In an Internet hookup it slows down the data transfer rate, because the system must adjust its speed to match conditions on the line. In a voice telephone conversation, noise rarely sounds like anything other than a faint hissing or rushing. Noise is a more significant problem in wireless systems than in hard-wired systems. In general, noise originating from outside the system is inversely proportional to the frequency, and directly proportional to the wavelength. At a low frequency such as 300 kHz, atmospheric and electrical noise are much more severe than at a high frequency like 300 megahertz. Noise generated inside wireless receivers, known as internal noise, is less dependent on frequency. Engineers are more concerned about internal noise at high frequencies than at low frequencies, because the less external noise there is, the more significant the internal noise becomes. Communications engineers are constantly striving to develop better ways to deal with noise. The traditional method has been to minimize the signal bandwidth to the greatest possible extent. The less spectrum space a signal occupies, the less noise is passed through the receiving circuitry. However, reducing the bandwidth limits the maximum speed of the data that can be delivered. Another, more recently developed scheme for minimizing the effects of noise is called digital signal processing (digital signal processing). Using fiber optics, a technology far less susceptible to noise, is another approach (Techtarget, 2010). Noise Pollution generally refers to unwanted sound produced by human activities unwanted in that it interferes with communication, work, rest, recreation, or sleep. Unlike other forms of pollution, such as air, water, and hazardous materials, noise does not remain long in the environment. However, while its effects are immediate in terms of annoyance, they are cumulative in terms of temporary or permanent hearing loss. Society has attempted to regulate noise since the early days of the Romans, who by decree prohibited the movement of chariots in the streets at night. In the United States, communities since colonial days have enacted ordinances against excessive noise, primarily in response to complaints from residents. It was not until the late 1960s, however, that the federal government officially recognized noise as a pollutant and began to support noise research and regulation. Federal laws against noise pollution included the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, especially sections concerning environmental impact statements; the Noise Pollution and Abatement Act of 1970; and the Noise Control Act of 1972, which appointed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to coordinate federal research and activities in noise control. Charged with developing federal noise-emission standards, identifying major sources of noise, and determining appropriate noise levels that would not infringe on public health and welfare, the EPA produced its so-called Levels Document, now the standard reference in the field of environmental noise assessment. In the document, the EPA established an equivalent sound level (Leq) and a day–night equivalent level (Ldn) as measures and descriptors for noise exposure. Soon thereafter, most federal agencies adopted either the Leq, Ldn, or both, including levels compatible with different land uses. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) uses Ldn as the noise descriptor in assessing land-use compatibility with various levels of aircraft noise. In 1978 the research findings of Theodore J. Schultz provided support for Ldn as the descriptor for environmental noise. Analyzing social surveys, Schultz found a correlation between Ldn and people who were highly annoyed by noise in their ne ighborhoods. The Schultz curve, expressing this correlation, became a basis for noise standards. As part of its effort to identify major noise sources in the United States, the EPA set about determining the degree to which noise standards could contribute to noise reduction. During the 1970s, EPA-sponsored research on major noise sources led to regulation of the products that most affected the public, including medium and heavy trucks, portable air compressors, garbage trucks, buses, and motorcycles. Missing from the list was aircraft, which was considered the responsibility of the FAA. During the administration of President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, the power of the EPA and its Office of Noise Abatement and Control was curtailed and most of its noise regulations rescinded. Even so, efforts continued to curb noise pollution. The Department of Transportation maintains standards for highways, mass transit, and railroads, as well as aircraft. The environmental review process, mandated by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, remains the single most effective deterrent to noise pollution (Answer, 2010). Noise exposure Noise is one of the most important environment factors, which affects the workers health and efficiency. Noise can increase the overall workload of operators during a specific task and can affect the performance. As the result, noise affects workers health directly and indirectly (Parsons, 2000). Exposure to intense noise has been shown to damage the human hearing process and noise has been labeled as the most pervasive hazardous agent in the workplace (Milz et al., 2008). Among these effects are weariness, backhoe, nervousness, nausea, careless, etc (TÃ ¶r, 1989; Anonymous, 2002; Ekerbicer and Saltik, 2008). According to McBride et. al (2003), it is known that people working in agricultural facilities are exposed to some noise sources, but the risk appeared in the people who have been exposed to noise for many years have not been fully characterized yet. The reduction in the hearing loss does not decrease below 1000Hz (Akyildiz, 2000). It was showed that noise induced hearing loss increase up to 7dB in the first 10 years at 1000 Hz and 100 dB (A), and then gradually increases to 12 dB losses for exposure time of 40 years. The hearing loss is about 30 dB for first ten years exposure at 4000 Hz and 100 dB (A). It is clear that at 100 dB (A), the ear is much more sensitive to 4000 Hz compared to 1000 Hz. Maximum sound pressure level for 8 h/day exposure is accepted to be 85 dB at frequencies higher than 1000 Hz. At levels lower than this value, the risk of noise becomes the least (Grandjean, 1988). Lonsbury and Martin (2004) states that the beginning region of impairment involves the sensitive mid-frequency range, primarily of impairment involves the sensitive mid-frequency range, primarily between 3 and 6 kHz, and the corresponding impairment is classically described as the 4-kHZ notch. This particular pattern of appears regardless of the noise exposure environment. Sumer et al. (2006) explains that, there is a tendency of reducing daily noise exposure to below 90 dBA for an 8-h shift, and hence exposure level of 85 dBA is informally acknowledged to be the informal threshold sound pressure level. Therefore it is crucial to keep sound pressure levels within safety limits to avoid health related disturbances and work related inefficiencies. Sanders and McCormick (1992) explained that the ear is more sensitive to noise at frequencies over 2000 Hz and the sensitivity increase with age. Miyakita and Ueda (1997) wanted to determine the number of persons exposed to loss of hearing at levels above 40 dB at a frequency of 4 Hz; and as a result, estimated that 360,000 people working in agricultural facilities in Japan impaired their hearing abilities. This feature makes the agriculture their second biggest sector after the construction sector, which causes the loss of hearing abilities. Hearing loss from noise exposure Exposure to occupational noise has been linked to variety of physical effects such as work absenteeism and stress. The most profound effect of prolonged exposure to noise is the noise induced hearing loss (NIHL). NIHL is an irreversible sensory-neural hearing impairment caused by prolonged exposure to noise. NIHL causes communication interference that can substantially affect social integration and the quality of life. The development of NIHL depends on exposure time, intensity, frequency, type of noise, and the use of personal protective equipment (Ismail et al, unpublished). Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is a well and long recognized occupational hazard but methods of influencing attitudes towards noise hazard and prevention of hearing loss as a result a poor (World Health Organization, 1997). Although the effects of noise on hearing are not precisely defined and uncertainties remain, there is sufficient information to permit development of predictive indices of the hazardous effects of noise on human hearing sensitivity. The effects of noise on hearing may be divided into three categories which are acoustic trauma, noise-induced temporary threshold shift (NITTS) and noise-induced permanent threshold shift (NIPTS). Acoustic Trauma (immediate organic damage to the ear from excessive sound energy) is restricted to the effects of a single exposure or relatively few exposures at high sound levels. Extremely intense sound reaching the structures in the inner ear may exceed the physiologic limits of those structures producing a complete breakdown and disruption of the organ of Corti. Some degree of permanent hearing loss usually results from acoustic trauma. The precipitating episode is frequently dramatic so the person involved has no difficulty in specifying the onset of the resulting hearing problem. Noise-Induced Temporary Threshold Shift (NITTS) results in an elevation of hearing levels such as loss of hearing sensitivity, following shift the hearing loss is reversible. In Noise-induced Permanent Threshold Shift (NIPTS) the hearing loss is nonreversible; it remains throughout the lifetime of the affected person. There is no possibility of further recovery. Permanent threshold shift may result from acoustic trauma or may be produced by the cumulative effect of repeated noise exposure over periods of many years. The majority of those persons experiencing permanent hearing losses from noise sustain such losses from long periods of repeated noise exposure. Hearing ability decreases as age progresses. Age has been identified as one of the individual risk factors for sensory neural hearing loss (SNHL) among forest workers who handled chainsaws. Hearing loss induced among elderly miners in Romania was more pronounced compared to younger miners. The mean hearing threshold level (HTL) for the 40- 46 age group workers produced a decrease in HTL at frequencies 4, 6 and 8 kHz. Age is positively associated to hearing loss among metal processing factory workers in Brazil, with prevalence ratio of 4.02 for workers older than 40 years old (Ismail et. al, unpublished). Animals studies have shown that these chemicals interact synergistically with noise or potentiate its effect on auditory system. Workers exposed to chemicals have significantly poorer pure-tone thresholds compare to those not expose (Morata et al., 2003). Lonsbury and Martin (2004) gave audiogram results that show audiometric patterns of hearing levels from patients in beginning stages of noise induced hearing loss and examples were given for males and females exposed to noise in different environments including industrial noise. Hearing loss was not observed at frequencies below 1000 Hz and was sharpest above 2000 Hz for a male industrial worker. Patients working in different sectors showed that the hearing loss might not be observed below 2000 Hz in different work environments while others might experience hearing loss at about 1000 Hz. The sensitivity is also affected by gender and the number of years worked in a particular environment. Occupational health hazard of noise In Malaysia, noise exposure in the workplace is legislated under the Factories and Machinery Act (Noise Exposure) Regulation 1989, and the Occupational and Safety and Health Act 1994. These regulations make mandatory for noise levels and workers exposure to noise to be measured, assessed and controlled (Leong, 2005). International Labor Organization (ILO) accepts 85 dBA as warning limit and 90 dBA as danger limit for continuous work for 8 h. A-weighted equivalent sound pressure level of 85 dBA results in temporary hearing losses and 90 dBA increases the blood pressure, accelerates the pulse and breathing, decreases brain liquid pressure, causes tension in muscles, and withdrawal of blood in the skin (Sabanci and Uz, 1984). Lonsbury and Martin (2004) gave audiogram results that show audiometric patterns of hearing levels from patients in beginning stages of noise induced hearing loss and examples were given for males and females exposed to noise in different environment including industrial noise. Hearing loss was not observed at frequencies below 1000 Hz and was the sharpest above 2000 Hz for male industrial worker. Patients working in different sectors showed that the hearing loss might not be observed below 2000 Hz in different work environments while others might experience hearing loss at about 1000 Hz. The sensitivity is also affected by gender and the number of years worked in a particular environment. According to Dewangan et al. (2005), the exposure to noise may have both immediate and long-term effects on hearing of the tractor drivers and other farm workers. High noise levels can cause headaches; dizziness; nervousness and stress; sleeping problems; and loss of concentration. Noise can also increase human error, contributing to accidents by masking audible alarms, verbal messages, etc.; harder to process complex information for difficult task; and harder to monitor and interpret unusual events, by narrowing the span of attention. Although this kind of the damage is quite difficult to measure, it is always present and can manifest: in the gastro enteric tract with an increase in acid secretion; in the nervous system with states of fatigue and depressions; in the psyche, with insomnia and headaches (Febo et al., 1983). Jansen (2003) observed that sounds in the range or 70-90 dB cause tiny blood vessels in the toes, fingers, skin and abdominal organs to contract. This narrowing of small blood vessels can reduce blood flow to affected body parts by as much as one-half. Studies have indicated that workers exposed to high levels of industrial noise for 5-30 years have increased blood pressure and statistically significant increases in risk for hypertension, compared to workers in control areas (Passchier and Vermeer, 1993). Sensor neural hearing loss has been common complaint among farmers seen by rural otolaryngologist (Gregg, 1972). Farmers to be among the most hearing impaired workers and most expect to experience significant hearing loss by age 50 (Mahon, 1988). Occupational noise limit In the light of scientific data which shows the negative effects of noise on human health, new legal regulations were made in order to eliminate these effects. One of these regulations is Noise Control Regulation. In this regulation, it is stated that beside the intensity of the noise, the exposure duration in noisy medium can be effective on human health. Therefore it is emphasized that working hours should be determined according to sound pressure level (Aybek et al., 2007). Duration of exposure is also a consideration as well as the frequency content and A-weighting curve is used in practical applications denoted by dB(A) and 85-90 dB(A) have been proposed to be limiting values for 8 hours exposures (Parson, 2000). The effect is more profound to certain frequencies of noise (Parson, 2000). The farmers worked on average 14 hours a day and their exposure was 86 decibels on A-weighted scale (dB (A)) as an 8-hour time-weighted average (8HR TWA). Except for breakfast and lunch breaks, the farmers had nearly continuous noise exposure that exceeded the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) action level of 85 dB (A) (Milz et al., 2008). Legislation, effective since June, 1976, limits the maximum noise level at the driver to 90 dB (A) for all tractors sold in UK (Talamo, 1979). In Malaysia, to protect the workers from excessive exposure to noise, the hearing conservation program was introduced under the Factories and Machinery (Noise Exposure) Regulation 1989. Under this regulations, workers are protected from excessive noise exposure and reducing the risk of NIHL. According to the Factories and Machinery (Noise Exposure) Regulation 1989, for the permissible exposure limit, the employee shall not be exposed to noise level exceeding equivalent continuous A-weighted sound pressure level of 90 dB(A) or exceeding the limits specified in the First Schedule or exceeding daily dose of unity. No employee shall be exposed to noise level exceeding 115 dB (A) at anytime. The 85 dB (A) is adopted as a criterion for action (action level). When the action level is reached or exceeded, it necessitates (NIOSH, 2006). According to the U.S. National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, the recommended exposure limit (REL) for occupational noise exposure is 85 dB (A) time weighted average (TWA). Exposures at or above this level are considered as hazardous. They differed from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) which uses 90 dB (A) TWA. The rationale is to offer greater protection to noise-exposed workers, citing research that indicates an 8% excess risk of hearing loss at the 85 dB (A) TWA limit as opposed to 25% at 90 dB(A). The TWA is the averaging of different exposure levels during an exposure period. The REL for an 8-hr work shift is a TWA of 85 dB (A) using a 3-decibel (dB) exchange rate. The Malaysian Noise Exposure Regulation 1989 adopted a 5 dB exchange rate (OSHA, 2006). In the last 10 years, a considerable number of laws and rules regarding the control of noise in the working environment, also involving the agricultural sector, have come into force. The main purpose of the individual laws and rules were different, but all emphasized the hazard of noise for workers, and consequently the need to control and, if necessary, to reduce the relevant levels. In the European Union, and specifically in Italy, some of them held an important role. For agricultural machinery, the EN 1553 represents a particular reference, while specially for tractors, the EC 74/150 (environmental noise) and EC 77/311 (drivers ear noise) Directives were issued in the 1970s (Domenico and Matteo, 2000). Tractors and machines Agricultural and forestry tractors operate both as vehicles and as engines which provide power on the farm and in the forest. With respect to the noise which they emit, it is generally accepted that use as vehicles has the greater impact on the population at large. Hence the type of the test used to asses noise emission is equivalent to that used for other road vehicles, in which sound pressure level at a bystander position is measured under specified drive-past conditions, as opposed to the measurement of sound power, which is used for lawn-mowers and various items in construction equipment (Stayner, 1988). Parallel to the development in technology, the use of machines in mechanization processes of agricultural production has brought about the factors such as noise, vibration, gas , etc. which affect the working environment of users and inspectors of those machines (Aybek et al., 2007). In order to increase the work success of the machines and to provide the users with safety and comfort these machines must be designed with respect to the human characteristics (Lijedahl et al., 1996). The machines used in agricultural operations such as tractors, combines, shellers, elevators, driers, etc. exposed noise of high level. More hearing loss is encountered among people who work in agricultural facilities than other jobs (Baker, 2002). The mechanization of agriculture; including the use of the internal combustion engine, greatly increased the noise exposure of the US farm population (Matthew, 1968). Equipment manufactured prior to the institution of noise reduction features is often still in use on US farms, as demonstrates by the New York Farm Family Health and hazard Surveillance Program (Beckett et al., 2000). The majority of noise exposure seemed to come from mechanical equipment (Dennis et al., 1995). The mechanization of agriculture, and in particular the large-scale employment of the internal combustion engine, has led to a serious increase during the last few decades of farm workers to noise. For the most damaging environment, noise measurements were made on tractors (Matthews, 1968). Noise isolating enclosure for tractor drivers have the same conflicting performance requirements as hearing defenders in that they are required to exclude harmful noise and yet allow the passage of important information. The tractors drivers and his counterpart in industry may depend on acoustical signals for warnings of danger and for maneuvering instructions when he is working to close limits or when hitching implements to the three point linkage. Other external sounds may be important for example, the tone generated by a component such as a fan may be the most important source of feedback to the driver of machine performance. A change in noise produced also vital where it is associated with the operation of a safety device such as an overload clutch or with the failure of the component. Many tractors in use on farms, however, have a much higher noise level and since tractors have a long life it will be many years before they are phased out (Talamo, 1979). The management of very old tractors is uneconomical. They may be dangerous on the roads, unsafe for the driver and for other vehicles, mainly due to deterioration in performance. Very often the operators are exposed to unfavorable climatic and working conditions (noise, vibrations, etc.), and they are therefore subject to a higher level of stress and to a higher risk of accident or occupational disease. Despite the limit of technical obsolescence of agricultural tractors being commonly fixed at 10 yr (corresponding to an optimum of 1000 working hours per year) a large number of older machines are still in use in Italy. Repair and maintenance operations are frequently neglected on these vehicles, because the farmer does not consider the relevant cost appropriate (Domenico and Matteo, 2000). Hearing protectors In many noise environments it is not practical, economical, or feasible to reduce noise levels at the ear of a listener to within acceptable limits using engineering controls. In these situations, an acceptable noise level may be achieved with the use of personal either single or in combination. The widespread attention given to noise as a pollutant has stimulated the use of hearing protectors in industry as well as around the home and in recreational and in sports activities. This chapter describes the types of ear protectors, characteristics of ear protectors which influence their effectiveness and acceptance, other practical considerations for users of ear protectors, and estimations of the hearing protection which provide. Various types of ear protectors likes earplugs, earmuffs, ear cups on hardhat, ear cups on welding mask, communication headsets and helmets. Although an ear protector can reduce effectively the ambient sound at the ear of the wearer, factors other than hearing protection may actually determine its suitability and acceptability (Nixon, 1979). According to Domenico and Matteo (2000), the function of a hearing protection device (HPD) is to cover or to fill the ears so that the noise reaching the ear drum is attenuated. It is important to emphasize that the HPDs should not be the sole or primary means by which the worker noise exposures are reduced. HPDs should be used only when engineering controls and work practices are not feasible for reducing noise exposures. This seems to be the typical situation for very old and worn tractors. Nevertheless, the degree of attenuation that a HPD provides is dependent on the technical characteristics of the HPD and generally on a range of other factors, such as the wearing time, the motivation and training of the worker. The use of HPDs has been practiced since the 1950s; the first standards to measure their attenuation were issued about 40 years ago. All of them are finalized to obtain an index, in order to define the attenuation of the HPD: noise reduction rating (NRR) and single numbe r rating (SNR) are those more frequently considered. Wearing time is also an important parameter since it can decrease the effective protection provided by a HPD. For example, if a HPD with an NRR of 20 dB is not worn for as little as 30 min in an 8 h work shift, its effective NRR is reduced by 5 dB (Berger, 1980). It is in fact taken into account that wearers may be prone to remove and replace some HPDs more than others, depending on various factors such as comfort, ease of donning and removal, and the interference of the protector with the auditory communications. Many types of H