Platos Socrates Essay Example for Free

Platos Socrates Essay In order for the concept of wisdom to carry any viable weight in the affairs of the world, it is necessary for said concept to acknowledge the link between wisdom as an abstract idea and wisdom as a guiding principle for pragmatic action. Although other thinkers within the list of writers and philosophers we have studies do promote the idea of wisdom as a pragmatically applied force; Henry David Thoreaus interpretation of wisdom and its applications in human life and in human society seems to me the most reasonable interpretation among those we have studied so far. Thoreaus basic idea of wisdom is relative easy to understand adn emerges, not from abstract philosophical discourse, but from the vantage point of everday life: Does Wisdom work in a tread-mill? or does she teach how to succeed by her example? Is there any such thing as wisdom not applied to life? (Thoreau 118) By asking these questions in connection to the idea of wisdom, Thoreau makes it obvious that he regards wisdom as a method of defining nd helping to instruct human behavior and not merely human thought. Interestingly enough, while Thoreaus definition of wisdom is steeped in the practical and the pragmatic, he admonishes his readers and listeners not to confuse materialism and wisdom, that is, not to mistake the pragmatic of earning a living with the pragmatics of wisdom: It is pertinent to ask if Plato got his living in a better way or more successfully than his contemporaries,or did he[ ] find it easier to live, because his aunt remembered him in her will? The ways in which most men get their living, that is, live, are mere makeshifts, and a shirking of the real business of life,chiefly because they do not know, but partly because they do not mean, any better, (Thoreau 118). The application of Thoreaus pragmatic vision of wisdom may elude some observers; however, Thoreau, himself, illustrates the application of his idea of wisdom by turning his sights to the gold rush fever which enveloped his contemporaries: Did God direct us so to get our living, digging where we never planted,and He would, perchance, reward us with lumps of gold? (Thoreau 119) where, obviously, Thoreaus hang up with gold-rushers is not their pursuit of earning a living, per se, but with the folly of their believing that gold can, in and of itself, replace the need for wisdom: I did not know that mankind was suffering for want of gold. I have seen a little of it. I know that it is very malleable, but not so malleable as wit. A grain of gold will gild a great surface, but not so much as a grain of wisdom,; where Thoreuas ironic contrast of gold and wisdom leaves little doubt, in the end, as to which he views as more crucial to humanity. (Thoreau 119) 2. Whose view of wisdom (Socrates, Thoreau, Huxley, Pieper, or Frankl) seems to be the least reasonable? Why? Although Platos Socratic writings on the nature and meaning of justice achieve and inner-harmony and function in logical consistency with the rest of his ideas regarding ethics, aesthetics, and civics, Socrates view of wisdom, as defined by Plato, strikes me as the least rational of the theories and ideas we have studied. Far be it for me or anyone else to accuse Plato of leaving holes in his theory of wisdom; that is not the issue so much as the circclar nature of Platos reasoning which leads me to feel that the concepts of wisdom which are described by Socrates offer very little in the way of practical application in life and seem more like abstract ideas meant to stimulate those who enjoy pondering theory, rather than to assist those who are truly seeking applicable means for wisdom in daily life. Primarily, it is Socrates insistence that wisdom exists beyond the human appreciation of it, which seems to cripple the overall argument on the nature of what comprises wisdom: Socrates considers there to be two general sorts of knowledge, one which makes its possessor wise and one which does not. Socrates, and others too, can confidently and quite correctly claim to have a number of instances of the latter sort; but no human being can rightly claim to have the former sort, since no human being has ever attained the wisdom Socrates himself disclaims having when he professes ignorance, (Brickhouse, and Smith 31). true enough, Socrates humility in professing himself to be without wisdom has puzzled observers adn scholars for quite some time; however, the admission that wisdom exists, apart from human understanding, nd must be pursued even to the point of admitting that it cannot be attained, leaves the entire issue of wisdom up in the air form a pragmatic point of view. Socrates may believe that human wisdom is of little or no value (23a6-7). What would be of great value, if only he had itnamely, real wisdomSocrates and all others lack. The greatest wisdom for human beings, as we have just seen, is the recognition that we are in truth worth nothing in respect to wisdom (Brickhouse, and Smith 33) and this type of vision is, of course, another variation on a religious or metaphysical concept: that of Divine Wisdom. For Socrates, wisdom is an abstract power deemed tor reside within the Divine consciousness but only sparingly in human consciousness. I would say that nay definition of wisdom which fails to forward a concrete, pragmatic application as pertains to human society and individual behavior is worthwhile only from a purely intellectual point of view. Works Cited Brickhouse, Thomas C. , and Nicholas D. Smith. Platos Socrates. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Harding, Walter, ed. Thoreau: A Century of Criticism. Dallas, TX: Southern Methodist University Press, 1954. Thoreau, Henry David. The Major Essays of Henry David Thoreau. Ed. Richard Dillman. Albany, NY: Whitston Publishing, 2001.

Carboxymethyl Cellulose On Blends Of Polyvinyl Alcohol Environmental Sciences Essay

Carboxymethyl Cellulose On Blends Of Polyvinyl Alcohol Environmental Sciences Essay ABSTRACT Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) blends were prepared and found that Poly(vinyl alcohol) Poly(ethylene oxide) are inherently immiscible and therefore incompatible. So, a compatibilizer Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) is added to PVA and PEO and the influence of CMC is studied on the compatibility of blends of PVA and PEO. It is found that on adding CMC, PVA and PEO become partially miscible. Here, we describe the preparation of PVA/PEO/CMC blends having weight percentage of CMC 5, 10, 20 wt% and the influence of concentration of CMC on the blends of PVA and PEO is studied and the miscibility of the blends was characterized by using wide-angle X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier Transform Infra-red (ATR-FTIR) techniques. Also, swelling ratio of the different blends is studied. Keywords: Hydrogels; Polyvinyl alcohol; Polyethylene oxide; Carboxymethyl cellulose; Miscibility, Immiscible. *Correspondence to: Prof. Bhuvanesh Gupta, Department of Textile Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, Hauz Khas, New Delhi-110016, India. E-mail: [emailprotected] INTRODUCTION Designing new materials with improved properties is one of the main goals of the chemists. Two common ways are chemical synthesis and blending which mainly used to get a material with improved or new properties. Chemical synthesis is an unlimited method to get new substances with well-defined properties but it is often time consuming and not seldom costly. On the other side, blending is a well-known and simple method to combine the advantages of different materials [23,65], efficient way to prepare new materials with improved properties. [8] The blending of hydrophilic/hydrophobic polymers produce phase-separated composite hydrogels. Polymer blends exhibit superior and rare properties, unexpected from homopolymers. The physical, chemical and radiant methods can be applied to prepare polymer blends. [6] Polymer blends are physical mixtures of structurally different polymers or co-polymers, which interact through secondary forces such as hydrogen bonding, dipole-dipole forces and charg e transfer complexes for homopolymer mixtures with no covalent bonding [34,36-38] that are miscible at molecular level. Polymer blend hydrogels are composed of water-soluble or swellable polymers, such as poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) [25,26] poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) [24] and, other synthetic water-soluble polymers and degradable or nondegradable water-insoluble or swellable polymers, such as poly(lactic acid) (PLA) [25], poly(lactic acid-co-glycolic acid) (PGLA). [24] The most common method used to blend polymers is through solvent-casting techniques. In this process, two or more polymers are dissolved in a mutual solvent and the blends are obtained by evaporating the solvent. The resulting materials have a microphase separated structure [25,26] and often improved miscibility via hydrogen bonding among polymers [24], resulting in transparent materials. Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) is a water-soluble polyhydroxy polymer, used in practical applications because of its easy preparation, excellent chemical resistance and physical properties, appropriate mechanical properties [68,71], and it is completely biodegradable and cheap and the -OH groups can be a source of hydrogen bonding (H-bonding) and hence of assistance in the formation of polymer blends. Polyvinyl alcohol has excellent film forming, emulsifying, and adhesive properties. It is also resistant to oil, grease and solvent. It is odorless, nontoxic and has high tensile strength, flexibility, as well as high oxygen and aroma barrier. The chemical structure of PVA favors the formation of intramolecular [1] hydrogen bonding because of favorable disposition of relatively small -OH groups attached to alternate carbon atoms of PVA [20], thus it is used in the preparation of various membranes and hydrogels. Hydrogels are hydrophilic polymers having three-dimensional networks [27], and ar e most often defined as two-component systems where one of the components is a hydrophilic polymer and the second one is water. These have the ability to swell in the presence of water without dissolution because of a three-dimensional network joining as chains. The interactions responsible for water absorption by hydrogels include the processes of hydration, which is connected to the presence of such chemical groups as -OH, -COOH, -CONH2, -CONH-, and -SO3H, and the existence of capillary areas and differences in osmotic pressure. [67] PVA blends can be cast as films and applied as functional materials including biomedical materials such as dialysis membranes, wound dressing, artificial skin, cardiovascular devices and as vehicles to release active substances in a controlled manner. [69-71] PVA hydrogels have been studied extensively but their properties need to be improved further for special applications. [2,6,7] In order to improve or modify the properties of PVA hydrogels, PEO is used to blend with PVA to form hydrogels which is hydrophilic semicrystalline polyether with a glass transition temperature below room temperature, biocompatible, non toxic, non polar, non antigenic and non immunogenic [45] and is highly desirable in most biomedical applications requiring contact with physiological fluids. For these reasons, PEO hydrogels are applied as wound coverings, drug delivery systems, hemodialysis membrane [1], as a component of a tissue sealant [15,16] and as a coating for medical devices [17], both poly(ethyl ene oxide) (PEO) and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) are industrially important polymers [75] and their blends can be of significant practical utility, but it is found that PVA and PEO are immiscible and incompatible blends [1, 75] which do not possess a tendency for extensive mutual solubility. [1] Also it is found that hydroxyl-containing polymers are self-associated and hence the competition between self association and interpolymer interaction plays an important role in determining the miscibility behavior of their blends. For example, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) is miscible with three tertiary amide polymers poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) (PVP) [54-58], poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide) [59] and poly(2-methyl-2-oxazoline) [60], but is immiscible with another tertiary amide polymer poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) (PEOx). [61] PEO is etheric in nature. However formation of weak H-bonds between PEO and PVA cannot be ruled out. The C-O-C bond angle in PEO is normally 108Â ° and when a -OH group from a neighbouring PVA chain approaches the etheric oxygen atom in order to form a H-bond, the C-O-C bond angle deviates from 108Â ° so that the lone pair of the etheric oxygen is positioned nearer to the approaching OH from PVA. It would therefore be interesting to investigate the structure and thermal properties of the composites formed in the PEO-PVA system with different proportions of the components. We have found that mutual miscibility of PEO and PVA is likely to exist over only a small range of compositions. The mixtures otherwise seem to form only microscopically immiscible blends which do not possess a tendency for extensive mutual solubility. They are referred to as incompatible polymer blends or simply blends. [77] To make them compatible, a compatibilizer i.e. Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) is added. Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) obtained from natural cellulose by chemical modification is a water soluble cellulose ether derivate [3] and is formed by its reaction with sodium hydroxide and chloroacetic acid. It has a number of sodium carboxymethyl groups (CH2COONa), introduced into the cellulose molecule, which promote water solubility. The various properties of CMC depend upon three factors: molecular weight of the polymer, average number of carboxyl content per anhydroglucose unit, and the distribution of carboxyl substituents along the polymer chains. The most important properties of CMC are viscosity building and flocculation. Among all the polysaccharides, CMC is easily available and it is also very cheap. It has high shear stability. The structure of CMC is shown in Figure 1. [78] Figure 1 Structure of (a) Poly(vinyl alcohol), (b) Poly(ethylene oxide) and (c) Carboxymethyl cellulose CMC has good water solubility, broadly used due to its low cost, biodegradability, biocompatibility [51] and lack of toxicity. [8,29-33] CMC is an ionic polyelectrolyte [30] that contains carboxyl groups and exhibits pH sensitivity as it has lot of carboxylic groups. [48-50] It has been used in several medical applications [10] and more recently as a component of an antiadhesion gel. [11,12] CMC and PVA in different ratios can be mixed homogeneously in an aqueous solution without evident phase separation, and this can be attributed to the interaction between the components. [49] The hydrogen bonds that form between the carboxylic groups of CMC and hydroxyl groups of PVA, and form semi-interpenetrating polymer networks [49] while with PEO, CMC undergoes micro phase separation to form a two-phase system. [9] Berg et. al. [9] found that the turbidity results of CMC/PEO gels are demonstrated by transparency data. It is found that gels prepared either from CMC alone or from PEO alone were transparent. However, for CMC/PEO composite gels, the transparency of gels changed as the ratio of the two components changed. The gel composed of equal amounts of CMC and PEO had the highest turbidity while the gel having 20% CMC has more than 90% transparency so 20% CMC concentration is taken as the optimized concentration for further studies. The polymer-polymer interaction for the miscibility is thought to be due mainly to hydrogen bonding between three hydroxyl groups in the anhydroglucose unit of CMC and the functional groups of the synthetic polymers PVA and PEO. However, since each of the three hydroxyl groups in the repeating unit of the cellulose is quite different in terms of regiochemistry and polarity, the hydrogen bond formation is not easily clarified. Kondo et.al. [47] proposed the mechanism for the development of interaction in the cellulose/PEO blend and showed that the hydrogen bonding between the C6 position hydroxyls and skeletal oxygen of PEO is more favourable, at first the two polymers are trapped to form a large adduct, which is a complex between cellulose and PEO, by the hydrogen bond, and the mobility of the molecules is restricted. Then another PEO molecule interacts with the adduct either by hydrogen bonding between the remaining free hydroxyls in cellulose and oxygen in PEO, or by Vander Waals b onding between PEO molecules. [79] The purpose of the present paper is to investigate the influence of concentration of CMC on the blends of PVA and PEO. In this article, we report the characterization of PVA/PEO/CMC blends by various techniques such as X-Ray diffraction (XRD), infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, Differential scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Thermal gravimetric Analysis (TGA). EXPERIMENTAL Materials Poly(vinylalcohol) (PVA) of Loba Chemie Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, India having degree of polymerization 1700-1800 and molecular weight 1,15,000, Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) of Sigma Aldrich of molecular weight 3,00,000 were used. Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) sodium salt of high viscosity was received from Loba Chemie Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, India. Distilled water was used for all experiments. Preparation of Blends of PVA and PEO Preparation of the pure film of PVA and blends of PVA and PEO were carried out in the following manner. PVA was dissolved in distilled water under constant mechanical stirring at temperature 60 -70 Â °C to get 5% PVA solution and then about 15 g. of PVA solution is poured to form layers 2 mm thick in a petridish at room temperature. The solution was first dried in air for 2 days and then in a vacuum oven at 100Â °C to remove solvent from it. Then, the blends of PVA/PEO/CMC were prepared by dissolving different concentrations of each polymer in distilled water, the total polymer concentration in the solvent remains 5% by weight. Water constitutes a suitable reaction medium, because PVA, PEO and CMC are soluble in water. Each polymer having concentration as shown in Table 1 were added in distilled water one by one and then dissolved under constant mechanical stirring at temperature 60 -70Â °C. As shown in Figure 2, it was found that blend solutions formed with CMC shows compatibility as compared to the solution having no CMC i.e. solution (a). It is clear from the Figure 2 that compatibility in the blend increases as the CMC concentration increases from 5% to 20%. These blend solutions were then poured in petridishes at room temperature. The solutions were first dried in air for 2 days and then in a vacuum oven at 100Â °C to remove solvent from it. The films so obtained are then characterized by XRD, TGA, DSC and ATR-FTIR techniques to determine miscibility. Table 1 Samples taken for characterization Figure 2 Solutions prepared from the polymer sample to test compatibility Swelling Ratio (%) All the samples (a), (b), (c) and (d) in film form were accurately weighed and placed in a beaker having fixed volume i.e. 50 ml PBS (pH 7.4) and then kept in a water bath undisturbed for a fixed interval i.e. 24 h. The samples were removed after 24 h., and the excess surface water is removed by pressing gently between filter paper and weighed. The Swelling ratio(%) i.e. SR (%), was calculated as indicated in Equation given below. SR (%) = (Ws Wd) / Wd x 100 where Wd is the weight of dry film, and Ws is the weight of swollen film. Density of blended films Density measurements of the samples (a), (b), (c) and (d) were carried out by taking into account the thickness of membranes of specific size by measuring thickness of the film by thickness tester and by measuring the weight of the sample. Weight in gram per cubic centimeter was represented as the density of the membranes. Wide angle X-Ray diffraction (XRD) X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the samples are recorded in the 2ÃŽ ¸ range of 5-40Â ° on a Phillips X-ray diffractometer equipped with a scintillation counter. CuKÃŽ ± radiation (wavelength, 1.54 ÇÂ º; filament current, 30 mA; voltage, 40 kV) is used for the generation of X-rays. A polymer can be considered partly crystalline and partly amorphous. The crystallinity parts give sharp narrow diffraction peaks and the amorphous component gives a very broad peak. The ratio between these intensities can be used to calculate the amount of crystallinity in the material. Crystallinity (%) = (AC/AT ) X 100 Where AC is the area of crystalline part of the samples and AT is the total area of crystalline and amorphous part of prepared samples. Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) The thermal stability of the prepared samples is evaluated by Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) performed on a Perkin- Elmer TGA, using a nitrogen stream as purge gas, at a heating rate of 10Â °C/min within the range of 50- 600Â °C. For this, the prepared samples are firstly vaccum dried at 100Â ° C and then loaded in the crucible and the thermograms are run under nitrogen atmosphere from 50- 600Â °C. Attenuated Total Reflectance- Fourier Transform Infra Red Spectroscopy (ATR- FTIR) Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier-transform infra-red (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy is one of the most powerful techniques to investigate multicomponent systems because it provides information on the blend composition as well as on the polymer-polymer interaction. Infrared spectra of both the blends and the pure components were obtained using the films on an ATR-FTIR spectrometer. It is used to characterize the presence of specific chemical groups in the materials. IR spectroscopy of the thin films of samples are recorded on a Perkin-Elmer spectrophotometer in the wave number range of 650-4000 cm−1 using transmittance mode. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is done to study thermal properties such as melting temperature, glass transition temperature and melting enthalpies of dry samples. The DSC studies on the samples are carried out with a Perkin-Elmer DSC-7 system, in aluminium pans under nitrogen atmosphere. For this vacuum-dried samples were loaded, and the thermograms were run in the following temperature range under nitrogen atmosphere at a heating rate of 10Â °C/min. The weight of sample used in DSC was in the range of 5-10 mg. The melting temperature was obtained as the peak of the thermogram. The heat of fusion (ΔHf) is obtained from the area under melting thermograms. The heat of crystallization (ΔHf(crys)) of 100% crystalline pure PVA is obtained from the literature. The crystallinity of samples is obtained by the following expression: Crystallinity (%) =ΔHf/ΔHf(crys) X 100 where ΔHf is the heat of fusion of the sample obtained from the melting thermogram and ΔHf(crys) is the heat of fusion of 100% crystalline PVA and is taken as 150 J/g.[64] in high temperature DSC, all samples as shown in table 1 were heated from 50 to 150Â °C at a heating rate of 10Â °C/min, kept 5 min at 150Â °C, cooled to 50Â °C at the same rate, and kept 5 min at 50Â °C. Then, the samples were heated from 50 to 350Â °C at the same rate to record DSC curves. The thermal properties of the polymer blends were determined using two scans. The first heating scan, which was conducted to eliminate the residual water and solvent. The results reported in this work correspond to the second heating scan. In low temperature DSC, all samples as shown in table 1 were heated from 30 to 120Â °C at a heating rate of 10Â °C/min, kept 5 min at 150Â °C, cooled to -50Â °C at the same rate, and kept 5 min at -50Â °C. Then, the samples were heated from -50 to 230Â °C at the same rate to record DSC curves. The thermal properties of the polymer blends were determined using two scans. The first heating scan, which was conducted to eliminate the residual water and solvent. The results reported in this work correspond to the second heating scan. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Swelling Ratio (%) Figure 3 Effect of concentration of CMC on the Swelling Ratio (%) of the blends in PBS (pH 7.4) in 24 h. Figure 3 clearly shows that as the concentration of CMC increases from 0 to 20% in the blends of PVA/PEO/CMC, the Swelling Ratio of blends (%) increases. It is because as the concentration of CMC increases in the blends number of hydroxyl group increases thus increasing the interaction. Density Measurements Table 2 Comparison of influence of concentration of CMC on the density of air dried films Figure 4 Comparison of influence of concentration of CMC on the density of air dried films As shown in Table 2 and Figure 4, it can be clearly concluded that there is not appreciable difference in the density of air dried films with the increase of the concentration of CMC from 0 to 20%. But as the concentration of CMC increases in the blends the density of air dried films slightly increases as the hydrogen bonding between three hydroxyl groups in the anhydroglucose unit of CMC and the functional groups of the synthetic polymers PVA and PEO increases, thus making the blend more dense. Also it can be seen that the density of pure CMC is more as compared to pure PVA and PEO. X-ray diffraction Figure 5 X-Ray diffraction patterns of pure PVA, pure PEO and sample (a) Figure 6 X-Ray diffraction patterns of pure CMC, samples (b), (c) and (d) X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the blends and the pure components are shown in Figure 5 and 6. It may be seen that pure PVA exhibits only a broad and shallow diffraction feature around the 2ÃŽ ¸ value of 16.9Â °, indicating the presence of low-degree crystalline ordering. PEO has two well-defined reflections at 2ÃŽ ¸ values 18.9Â ° and 23.2Â °. These reflections are consistent with literature reports on crystalline PEO. The blend (a) having PVA/PEO 90/10 shows only one reflection at 2ÃŽ ¸ values 19.8Â °. XRD analysis showed that CMC exhibits a very small crystallinity which can be seen in the Table 3 given below. Table 3 Percentage crystallinity calculated by XRD of samples In samples (a), (b), (c) and (d) as the concentration of CMC increases, the % crystallinity shows not much difference as shown in Figure 7 given below. But as shown in Figure 6 the merging of all the peaks of pure PVA, PEO and CMC shows that on adding CMC to the blend of PVA and PEO, the compatibility increases. Figure 7 Graph of percentage crystallinity vs concentration of CMC by XRD Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) Figure 8 TGA of thin films of samples for studying the effect of concentration of CMC on the thermal stability of the samples The thermal stability of the dry superabsorbent hydrogels was determined from 50Â °C to 600Â °C. Figure 8 shows the thermograms for different hydrogel compositions at various temperatures. Generally, in the initial stage of the thermograms from 50Â °C to 200 Â ° C, the weight loss was due to the dehydration process of the water contained in the hydrophilic hydrogels. From the figure 8, three degradation steps can be observed in PVA sample. The first weight loss process, is associated with the loss of absorbed moisture and/or with the evaporation of trapped solvent, the second weight loss process correspond to the degradation of PVA by a dehydration reaction on the polymer chain and the third weight loss process is due to the degradation of the polyene residues to yield carbon and hydrocarbons while PEO undergoes one step degradation. In samples a, b, c, d two step degradation process takes place. The hydrogels having concentrations equal to 100% CMC showed a single-step thermogram, whereas the major weight loss of ~ 50% occurred from 250 to 350Â °C. This weight loss was attributed mainly to the thermal degradation of the two component polymers of the hydrogel, whereas the weight loss up to 600Â °C was ~ 70%. This means that hydrogels having 100% CMC showed high thermal stability. On the other hand, the thermogram of blends is two-step thermogram. The first step was from 200 to 300Â °C, which was also attributed to thermal degradation of the side chains. The second step took place from 350 to 450 Â ° C with a major weight loss equal to 80%. This weight loss was attributed to some thermal degradation of the main chain C-C- bond of the hydrogel components. TGA of CMC showed two distinct zones where the weight is being lost. The initial weight loss is due to the presence of small amount of moisture in the sample. The second loss is due to the loss of CO2 from the polysaccharide. As there are COO- groups in the case of CMC, it is decarboxylated. Attenuated Total Reflectance- Fourier Transform Infra Red Spectroscopy (ATR- FTIR) Figure 9 ATR-FTIR of thin films of samples pure PVA and PEO Figure 10 FTIR of pure CMC powder Figure 11 Comparison of ATR-FTIR of blend (d) with pure samples From Figures 9, 10 and 11, in the IR spectra of the CMC, we can notice the characteristic bands of COO- at 1610, 1419 cm-1, COOH groups at 1055.9 cm-1, -OH at 1419, 1319.54 cm-1 and the ether groups at 1055.9 cm-1. It is worth to remark that in the CMC a part of the carboxylic groups are in acid form and a part in ionic form. The spectrum of CMC shows the stretching vibrations of at -CH-O-CH2 1055.9 cm-1. The band at 1610 cm-1 and 2878.37 cm-1 are assigned to the stretching vibration of the carboxyl group (COO-) and the stretching vibration of methine (C-H), respectively. Pure CMC displays two characteristic absorption bands at 1610 cm-1 and 1419 cm-1, which represents symmetry stretching and asymmetry stretching of COO− group, respectively. It shows a broad band at 3433.59 cm-1, due to the stretching frequency of the -OH group. The band at 2878.37 cm-1 is due to C-H stretching vibration. The presence of a strong absorption band at 1610 cm-1 confirms the presence of COO- group. The bands around 1419 and 1319.54 cm-1 are assigned to -CH2 scissoring and -OH bending vibration, respectively. The FTIR spectrum of pure PVA reference sample is shown in figure 9 and 11. It clearly reveals the major peaks associated with poly(vinyl alcohol). For instance, it can be observed C-H broad alkyl stretching band 2933.33 cm-1 and typical strong hydroxyl bands for intermolecular and intramolecular hydrogen bonded band at 3286.66 cm-1. This vibrational band at 1140 cm-1 is mostly attributed to the crystallinity of the PVA, related to carboxyl stretching band (C-O). The band at 1140 cm-1 has been used as an assessment tool of poly(vinyl alcohol) structure because it is a semicrystalline synthetic polymer able to form some domains depending on several process parameters. The band at 1420 cm-1 is due to -CH2 group and at 1087.11 cm-1 is due to C-O-C group. The IR peak of interest in the C-O-C asymmetric stretch is at 1095.88 cm-1. This peak in the spectrum of blends has been shown to shift due to hydrogen bonding to PVA and CMC. The spectra obtained for blends are shown in Figure 12. Figure 12 ATR-FTIR of thin films of samples (a), (b), (c) and (d) From Figure 12 it can be concluded that all the blends show characteristic peaks of all the polymers present. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) The melting temperatures were determined from maximum in the melting endotherm, the glass transition temperatures were taken as the mid point of the heat capacity change. One of the most commonly used methods to estimate polymer-polymer miscibility is the determination of the Tm of the blend compared with the Tms of the two components separately. In the case where one component is crystalline, observation of a melting point depression of this polymer may also be used as evidence to support the miscibility of the polymer pair. Figure 13 DSC curves showing the melting peaks of PVA, PEO and CMC Thermal properties and crystallinity of the prepared samples are examined by DSC method (Figure 13 and Table 4). PVA exhibited a relatively large and sharp endothermic peak at 222.2Â °C, PEO at 70.2Â °C and CMC at 265.9Â °C. It is observed from Figure 14 that the melting point and melting enthalpies of the samples a, b, c, d are somewhat decreased from the pure PVA sample. This decrease in melting temperature might be related to a decrease in the crystallinity of the sample and proper alignment of the chains due to the interference of other polymers present in the blend. Figure 15 shows the glass transition temperature i.e. Tg of the pure PVA sample. The melting points of the blends show that the interaction between CMC and PVA weakens the interaction between PVA chains and hinders the crystallization of PVA. Figure 14 DSC curves showing the melting peaks of PVA, samples (a), (b), (c) and (d) Figure 15 DSC curves showing the glass transition peak of PVA Figure 16 DSC curves showing the melting temperature peaks of PEO and samples (a), (b), (c) and (d) PEO exhibited a relatively large and sharp endothermic peak at 65.5Â °C. It is observed from Figure 16 that the melting point and melting enthalpies of the samples a, b, c, d are somewhat decreased from the pure PEO sample and the melting peaks are widened. This decrease in melting temperature is also related to a decrease in the crystallinity of the sample and proper alignment of the chains due to the interference of other polymers present in the blend as shown in Table 4. It was found that the melting temperature of PEO shifts towards a lower temperature when the PVA is added to the PEO, the change in Tm shows the change from semi crystalline to amorphous phase. Table 4 Percentage crystallinity calculated by DSC of samples Figure 17 Graph of Percentage Crystallinity vs Concentration of CMC In Figure 17, the percentage crystallinity data obtained by DSC for different polymer compositions (a), (b), (c) and (d) are plotted against compatibilizer CMC concentration, to clarify the effect of the CMC content on the crystallinity of the present system. This is also clear from the Table 4 given above that as the concentration of CMC increases in the blend the crystallinity % decreases this is due to the decrease in the proper alignment of the chains due to the interference of other polymers present in the blend. Figure 18 Graph of Melting Temperature (Tm) vs Concentration of CMC In Figure 18 and table 4, the Tm data obtained by DSC for different polymer compositions (a), (b), (c) and (d) are plotted against compatibilizer CMC concentration, to clarify the effect of the CMC content on the thermal property of the present system. It is clear from the figure that as the concentration of CMC increases in the blend the melting temperature firstly increases then decreases. CONCLUSIONS We have effectively produced PVA/PEO/CMC hydrogels via aqueous route. These hydrogel blends were properly characterized by using XRD, FTIR spectroscopy, TGA and DSC techniques. FIGURES CAPTIONS Figure 1 Structure of (a) Poly(vinyl alcohol), (b) Poly(ethylene oxide) and (c) Carboxymethyl cellulose Figure 2 Solutions prepared from the polymer sample to test compatibility Figure 3 Effect of concentration of CMC on the Swelling Ratio (%) of the blends in PBS (pH 7.4) in 24 h. Figure 4 Comparison of influence of concentration of CMC on the density of air dried films Figure 5 X-Ray diffraction patterns of pure PVA, pure PEO and sample (a) Figure 6 X-Ray diffraction patterns of pure CMC, samples (b), (c) and (d) Figure 7 Graph of percentage crystallinity vs concentration of CMC by XRD Figure 8 TGA of thin films of samples for studying the effect of concentration of CMC on the thermal stability of the samples Figure 9 ATR-FTIR of thin films of samples pure PVA, PEO and CMC Figure 10 FTIR of pure CMC powder Figure 11 Comparison of ATR-FTIR of blend (d) with pure samples Figure 12 ATR-FTIR of thin films of samples (a), (b), (c) and (d) Figure 13 DSC curves showing the melting peaks of PVA, PEO and CMC Figure 14 DSC curves showing the melting peaks of PVA, samples (a), (b), (c) and (d) Figure 15 DSC curves showing the glass transition peak of PVA Figure 16 DSC curves showing the melting temperature peaks of PEO and samples (a), (b), (c) and (d) Figure 17 Graph of Percentage Crystallinity vs Concentration of CMC Figure 18 Graph of Melting Temperature (Tm) vs Concentration of CMC TABLES CAPTIONS Table 1 Samples taken for characterization Table 2 Comparison of influence of concentration of CMC on the density of air dried films Table 3 Percentage crystallinity calculated by XRD of samples Table 4 Percentage crystallinity calculated by DSC of samples

The Indian real estate sector

The Indian real estate sector The Indian real estate sector plays a significant role in the countrys economy. The real estate sector is second only to agriculture in terms of employment generation and contributes heavily towards the gross domestic product (GDP). Almost 5 per cent of the countrys GDP is contributed to by the housing sector. In the next five years, this contribution to the GDP is expected to rise to 6 per cent. According to Jones Lang LaSalle, faster economic growth in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) could result in the property markets of those nations recovering at a faster rate than the UK and US real estate markets. It has also been suggested that Indias property sector could begin to improve from late 2009 and may attract up to US$ 12.11 billion in real estate investment over a five-year period. Almost 80 per cent of real estate developed in India is residential space. According to the Tenth Five Year Plan, there is a shortage of 22.4 million dwelling units. Thus, over the next 10 to 15 years, 80 to 90 million housing dwelling units will have to be constructed with a majority of them catering to middle- and lower-income groups. It is for this reason that residential properties in India, particularly in Mumbai and Delhi, are viewed as very good investments as per a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Urban Land Institute, a global non-profit education and research institute. In the 2009-10 budget, developers of affordable housing projects (units of 1,000-1,500 sq ft) have been granted a tax holiday on profits from projects initiated in the financial year 2007-08. Such projects would have to be completed before March 1, 2012. At the same time, the finance minister allocated US$ 207 million to grant a 1 per cent interest subsidy on home loans up to US$ 20,691, provided the cost of the home is not more than US$ 41,382. This subsidy is expected to give a further boost to the housing sector. An apartment is a self-contained residential unit or section that occupies a part of a building. It can be either owned or rented. Some apartment-dwellers own their apartments as cooperatives, in which the dwellers or residents own shares of a corporation that owns the building or development. In condominiums, residents own their apartments and share ownership of the public spaces. Living in apartments is gaining popularity in India. The Sahara Group has already decided to build 217 townships across India. Their allure lies in the convenience that they offer in terms of safety and security and maintenance of utilities like electricity and water. A central maintenance system obviates the need for hiring outside help for minor problems like leaking taps or electric short circuits. Stand-alone homes also require incurring additional costs like buying/leasing land, licensing, duties, etc. Apartments enable maximization of space utilization and reduce demand on public resources. People are also able to avail of additional amenities like gymnasiums, swimming pools, etc. at affordable prices. There is a gap in the literature, however, with regard to the value drivers that dictate purchase decisions of residential property in the country. Similar studies exist for other countries but were found wanting in the Indian context, especially when it comes to apartments. Through this paper, we aim to do the very same, i.e. establish which factors dictate purchase decision and to what extent. We will also correlate these preferences with the demographic profiles and characteristics of our respondents and hence arrive at a greater and much deeper understanding of these issues. We see immense utility for our paper, especially for builders and property dealers who can use our findings in structuring their own business activities. RESEARCH BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS: Even though consumer behaviour is generally assumed to be an important part of real estate valuation, buyer preferences are generally not considered during the valuation process. It is basically reduced to the confirmation of a bid price which may or may not be met by the buyer. Efforts are being made to address this fault and many papers have been written on the analysis of motivations of residential property purchasers, attempting to explain them using models such as bounded rationality and hedonic pricing. Hedonic Pricing, or Hedonic Demand Theory as it is also known, decomposes the item of interest into constituents and evaluates the importance of each of them and their contribution to the overall valuation. These factors can be both internal characteristics of the good or service and external factors. In the case of real estate valuation, internal characteristics include layout, structure, etc of the property while status of neighbourhood, proximity to schools, etc are the exter nal factors. Factor Analysis enables us to do just that. It is a statistical method that reduces the number of variables by grouping two or more of them into unknown or hidden variables known as factors. Further analysis is then conducted by looking at the variation among these factors and evaluating their relative performance. These factors are taken to be linear combinations of the original variables plus error terms (Richard L. Gorsuch, 1983). Factor analysis seeks to do precisely what humans have been engaged in doing throughout history that is to make order of the apparent chaos of the environment (Child, 1990). It has great use in evaluating consumer behaviour. Charles Spearman is credited with its invention. He used it in the formulation of the g Theory as part of his research on human intelligence (Williams, Zimmerman, Zumbo Ross, 2003). Over the years it has found uses in fields as diverse as psychometrics, marketing, physical sciences and economics. It can be used to segment consumers on the basis of what benefits they want from the product/service (Minhas Jacobs, 1996). It has evolved as a technique over the years, with many researchers working on fine-tuning and improving the analytical process. Bai Ng (2002) developed an econometric theory for factor models of large dimensions. It focused on the determination of the number of factors that should be included in the model. The basic premise of the authors was t hat a large number of variables can be modeled by a small number of reference variables. Marketing strategies based on customer preferences and behaviour often make use of this technique during the market research phase (Ali, Kapoor Moorthy, 2010)[14] and while devising and changing the marketing mix (Ivy, 2008). Factor Analysis has also been used in ground water management to relate the spatial distribution of different chemical parameters to various sources (Love, Hallbauer, Amos Hranova, 2004). The facility of segmentation that factor analysis offers has been extended to the real estate sector and all studies thereof. Regression analyses are subject to aggregation biases and segmented market models yield better results. This segmentation is done using factor analysis Watkins, 1999). Property researchers have also dedicated a lot of attention to researching the preferences of property buyers and identifying the drivers of property value. A study in Melbourne, Australia (Reid Mills, 2004) analyzed the purchase decisions of first time buyers and tried to determine the most influential attributes that affect the purchase decision using factor analysis. The research findings of the paper indicated that financial issues accounted for approximately 30 percent of the variance in the decision of first time owners to buy housing. This related to timing, the choice of housing, and the decision to buy new housing. Apart from that the choice of housing is dependant on Site Specific fac tors (Location) and the decision to buy new housing is dependent on Lifecycle factors, such as family formation, marital status or the size of the existing house. Another study determined that brand, beauty and utility play a defining role in property value (Roulac, 2007). The findings of the paper explain why certain properties command premium prices, relative to other properties. It came to the conclusion that for value determination of high priced properties the overall perception of the brand is the most important factor followed by utility and beauty. Brand names are also very important especially in metropolitan markets as they add to the appeal, distinctiveness of the property. Another way to attract buyers attention is through the mix of neighborhood amenities offered (Benefield, 2009). Neighborhood amenities like tennis courts, clubhouses, golf courses, swimming pool, play park and boating facilities significantly impact property values. Hedonic pricing models in which buye rs are assumed to evaluate property specifics and location attributes separately when they purchase a home have also been used to study housing markets like that of Shenzhen, China (Xu, 2008). The findings suggest that the marginal prices of key housing attributes are not constant. Instead, they vary with the household profile and location. Cluster analysis involves the grouping of similar objects into distinct, mutually exclusive subsets known as clusters. The objective is to group either the data units or the variables into clusters such that the elements within a cluster have a high degree of natural association among themselves while the clusters remain relatively distinct from one another. Mulvey and Crowder (1979)[22] presented and tested an effective optimization algorithm for clustering homogenous data. Punj and Stewart (1983)[23] reviewed the applications of cluster analysis to marketing problems. They presented alternative methods of cluster analysis to evaluate their performance characteristics. They also discussed the issues and problems related to use and validation of cluster analysis methods. The application of cluster analysis in strategic management research was studied by Ketchen and Shook (1996). Their paper chronicles the application of cluster analysis in strategic management research. They analyzed 45 published strategy studies and offered suggestions for improving the application of cluster analysis in future inquiries. They believed that cluster analysis is a useful tool but the technique must be applied prudently in order to ensure the validity of the insights it provides. Since Marketing researchers were introduced to discriminant analysis half a century ago, it has become a widely used analytical tool since they are frequently concerned with the nature and strength of the relationship between group memberships. It is especially useful in profiling characteristics of groups that are the most dominant in terms of discrimination. Morrison (1969) explained how discriminant analysis should be conducted using canned applications and how the effect of independent variables should be determined. However, care must be taken when applying discriminant analysis. The potential for bias in discriminant analysis has long been realized in marketing literature. Frank, Massy and Morrison (1965) showed that sample estimates of predictive power in n-way discriminant analysis are likely to be subject to an upward bias. This bias happens because the discriminant analysis technique tends to fit the sample data in ways that are systematically better than would be expected by chance. Crask and Perreault (1977) looked at the validation problems in small-sample discriminant analysis. http://www.ibef.org/artdispview.aspx?in=60art_id=25260cat_id=381page=1. http://planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/welcome.html. http://www.pwc.com/en_US/us/asset-management/real-estate/assets/emergingtrend s2009.pdf. http://indiabudget.nic.in/ub2009-10(I)/ubmain.htm. http://www.sahara.in/press03.html. Australia Richard Reed and Anthony Mills, Identifying the drivers behind housing preferences of first-time owners, February 2004, Journal of Property Management, Vol 25 Issue 3 , Published by Emerald Group Publishing Limited. China Ting Xu, Heterogeneity in housing attribute prices: A study of the interaction behaviour between property specifics, location coordinates and buyers characteristics, International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, 2008, Vol 1, Issue 2, Published by Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Consumer behaviour in the valuation of residential property: A comparative study in the UK, Ireland and Australia, Jacqui Daly, Stuart Gronow, Dave Jenkins and Frances Plimmer, Journal of Property Management, 2003, Volume 21 Issue 5, Page 295 314. A Bounded Rationality framework for property investment behaviour, Anne de Bruin and Susan Flint-Hartle, Massey University, New Zealand. An application of the hedonic price model with uncertain attribute The case of the Peoples Republic of China, Zan Yang, Journal of Property Management, 2001, Volume 19 Issue 1, Page 50 63. Factor Analysis, Richard L. Gorsuch, 1983, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Charles Spearman: British Behavioral Scientist, Williams, R. H., Zimmerman, D. W., Zumbo, B. D. Ross, D. (2003), Human Nature Review. 3: 114-118. Benefit segmentation by factor analysis: an improved method of targeting customers for financial services, Raj Singh Minhas and Everett M. Jacobs, International Journal of Bank Marketing, 1996, Volume 14 Issue 3, Pages 3-13. Buying behaviour of consumers for food products in an emerging economy, Jabir Ali, Sanjeev Kapoor and Janakiraman Moorthy, British Food Journal, 2010, Volume 112 Issue 2, Page 109 124. A new higher education marketing mix: the 7Ps for MBA marketing, Jonathan Ivy, International Journal of Educational Management, 2008, Volume 22Issue 4, Pages 288 299. Love, D., Hallbauer, D.K., Amos, A. and Hranova, R.K. 2004. Factor analysis as a tool in groundwater quality management: two southern African case studies. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 29, 1135-1143. Property valuation and the structure of urban housing markets, Craig Watkins, Journal of Property Investment Finance, 1999, Volume 17 Issue 2, Page 157 175. Identifying the drivers behind housing preferences of first-time owners, Richard Reed and Anthony Mills, February 2004, Journal of Property Management, Vol 25 Issue 3. Brand+Beauty+Utility=Property Value, Stephen E. Roulac, Journal of Property Management, Vol 5 Issue 5, Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Justin D. Benefield, Neighborhood amenity packages, property price, and marketing time, 2009, Journal of Property Management, Vol 27, Issue 5, Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Ting Xu, Heterogeneity in housing attribute prices: A study of the interaction behaviour between property specifics, location coordinates and buyers characteristics, International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, 2008, Vol 1, Issue 2, Emerald Group Publishing Limited. John M. Mulvey and Harlan P. Crowder, Cluster Analysis: An Application of Lagrangian Relaxation, 1979, Management Science, Vol. 25, No. 4, INFORMS. GirishPunj and David W. Stewart, Cluster Analysis in Marketing Research: Review and Suggestions for Application, 1983, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 20, No. 2, American Marketing Association.

John Miltons Paradise Lost Essay -- essays papers

John Miltons Paradise Lost John Milton’s Paradise Lost is a religious work, and is in many ways an autobiography of Milton’s own life. John Milton was raised catholic and converted to Protestantism. Later in life he became a Calvinist. His strong Calvinists beliefs can be seen throughout Paradise Lost. It was Milton’s desire to be a great poet, but he did not believe that was his purpose in life. He believed that he had been put here to serve God, and that any thing that he wrote should be in one way or another related to that purpose. In this way Milton felt that in writing Paradise Lost not only was he writing the epic poem he had always wanted to, but also fulfilling his godly purpose here on earth. At the time that Milton was writing Paradise Lost he was a prisoner in his home and to his blindness. He had been involved in the rebellion with Cromwell when the King had been executed and the monarchy had been run out of England. When Cromwell died and the King returned to power he was forced to go into hiding and no longer had any rights of an English man. If he had come out of hiding he most likely would have been executed for treason. He had also lost his sight completely and was being taken care of by his daughters. The subject of Paradise Lost is man’s disobedience and how disobedience leads to the loss of happiness. He is dealing not only with the disobedience of Adam, Eve, and Satin, but also with his own disobedience. Different autobiographical issues are dealt with through Adam and Satin. Adam seems to represent his sins against God, which led to his blindness, and Satin could represent his disobedience to the King. The first book deals with the war in heaven and the devils being sent out into ... ...ventually die for their sins. Being kicked out of the garden also has some autobiographical significance in the life of Milton. He loved gardens and both of his punishments, blindness and being imprisoned in his home made it impossible for him to enjoy them. In the last book Michael shows Adam what is to come for the human race. This gave Adam some hope for the future and makes it easier for him to carry on after falling from God. Adam sees that much good will come from his sin in the end. Bibliography: Works Cited Masson, David. Afterword â€Å"A Brief Life of Milton† Paradise Lost. By John Milton. Ed. Scott Elledge. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1993. Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Ed. Scott Elledge. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1993. Wagenknecht, Edward. The Personality of Milton. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970. John Miltons Paradise Lost Essay -- essays papers John Miltons Paradise Lost John Milton’s Paradise Lost is a religious work, and is in many ways an autobiography of Milton’s own life. John Milton was raised catholic and converted to Protestantism. Later in life he became a Calvinist. His strong Calvinists beliefs can be seen throughout Paradise Lost. It was Milton’s desire to be a great poet, but he did not believe that was his purpose in life. He believed that he had been put here to serve God, and that any thing that he wrote should be in one way or another related to that purpose. In this way Milton felt that in writing Paradise Lost not only was he writing the epic poem he had always wanted to, but also fulfilling his godly purpose here on earth. At the time that Milton was writing Paradise Lost he was a prisoner in his home and to his blindness. He had been involved in the rebellion with Cromwell when the King had been executed and the monarchy had been run out of England. When Cromwell died and the King returned to power he was forced to go into hiding and no longer had any rights of an English man. If he had come out of hiding he most likely would have been executed for treason. He had also lost his sight completely and was being taken care of by his daughters. The subject of Paradise Lost is man’s disobedience and how disobedience leads to the loss of happiness. He is dealing not only with the disobedience of Adam, Eve, and Satin, but also with his own disobedience. Different autobiographical issues are dealt with through Adam and Satin. Adam seems to represent his sins against God, which led to his blindness, and Satin could represent his disobedience to the King. The first book deals with the war in heaven and the devils being sent out into ... ...ventually die for their sins. Being kicked out of the garden also has some autobiographical significance in the life of Milton. He loved gardens and both of his punishments, blindness and being imprisoned in his home made it impossible for him to enjoy them. In the last book Michael shows Adam what is to come for the human race. This gave Adam some hope for the future and makes it easier for him to carry on after falling from God. Adam sees that much good will come from his sin in the end. Bibliography: Works Cited Masson, David. Afterword â€Å"A Brief Life of Milton† Paradise Lost. By John Milton. Ed. Scott Elledge. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1993. Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Ed. Scott Elledge. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1993. Wagenknecht, Edward. The Personality of Milton. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970.

Arche and Apeiron in Early Presocratic Philosophy :: Philosophy Philosophical Papers

Arche and Apeiron in Early Presocratic Philosophy Metaphysical speculation began, long before it was so named, among the presocratic Greeks as an enquiry into cosmology and first principles from two utterly disparate perspectives. The first of these, propounded by Herakleitos, noted the incessant flux (panta rhei) which characterises phenomena; the second, advanced by his contemporary Parmenides, taught the doctrine of a single immutable substance. These rivalling perspectives endure to this day: they announce one of the basic themes on which metaphysics since then has strung up an immense set of variations. Behind both stands the concept of arche, a term introduced into philosophical discourse by Anaximandros, rendered into English via Latin as ‘principle’ and bearing the meaning of the ‘first-begotten or underlying substance’ of all things. Historically this might be called the first brick to leave the kiln in which the metaphysical fire was burning. Moreover, where Thales’ teachings were apparently still subject to aural dispersion, Anaximandros, not content with the word of mouth, becomes the first philosopher among the still relatively small band of logographoi to publish his theories in a formal text. His book at once set out to encompass what was known and to be known and thereby furnished a role model (presumably peri physeos) for a dozen generations to come, carrying echoes down as far as the Romans (De rerum natura). It gave a comprehensive depiction of cosmogony and cosmology, astronomy and geography, meteorology and biology and down to a phylo geny of the human species. For Anaximandros, Barnes writes [19], â€Å"Nature embraces every object of experience and every subject of rational enquiry except the productions of human contrivance.† Meaning of ‘Apeiron’ His own contribution to the more stringently philosophical debate on archaeai was the startling concept of the apeiron, which leaps out of the pages of Greek philosophy like a spiky porcupine, never formally groomed as a legitimate occupant of place in a philosophical agenda dominated from the beginning by principles of rationality and intelligibility. We may supposed it to have emerged from debate on candidates for the ‘Urstoff’ or primeval substance; and it is perhaps permissible to suppose lively exchanges on the virtues and demerits of sundry elements, culminating in a shock of recognition by Anaximandros that none of these substances, being determinate, qualified and hence failed to satisfy empirical as well as theoretical criteria. The apeiron, initially perhaps merely a device to evade commitment to untenable propositions, proved itself in the long run a truly metaphysical conception with ramifications that have resisted erosion by time.

How Reliable Are Ofsted Reports as a Measure of School Effectiveness? Essay

This assignment examines the reliability of Ofsted judgements that were made on School X in 2009 and 2012. It will discuss how the two inspections were carried out-were they carried out in the same way? Were they felt to be fair? School X is a large 3-11 mixed school with 35.1 % of pupils who are eligible for free school meals FSM. The pupils are mainly Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi. The proportion of special educational needs and disabled pupils is similar to other national schools. The attainment and progress in both English and mathematics meet the current government standards. (Ofsted report 2012). How Ofsted reach an overall judgment about school effectiveness? The inspectors reach the overall judgments by considering the four key areas: achievement of pupils, the quality of teaching, behavior and safety, leadership and management. Inspectors also consider the quality of the curriculum and how the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils at the school. They will also look if the school is meeting the individual needs in particular the needs of special educational needs and disabled pupils. The judgment they make is based on the overall evidence they gather from their observation, parents, pupils, interviews and the raise online, which is â€Å" a secure web-based system that provides schools, local authorities and inspectors with a range of analyses including: Achievement at the end of Key Stages 1 and 2; Progress from Key Stage 1 to 2; Absence and exclusions; and The characteristics (often referred to as ‘context’) of pupils. (Dave Thomson, RM Education, 2011). In addition, their judgments on the quality of teaching are based not only on classroom observations â€Å"snapshots†, but they are also checking pupils’ books, sequences of work, pupils’ academic progress and parents’ perspectives on their children’s progress. Ofsted: A summary of Evidence. Ofsted judgements on teaching through classroom observations face several challenges. First, there is the Hawthorne effect, whereby the pupils or the teacher might change their behaviour because an inspector in the room is a novel experience (Cohen and Manion 1994, Robson 2011). Additionally, Grubb (1999) stated that teachers complain that it is hard for inspectors to evaluate a full lesson from a â€Å"snapshot† as the unobserved part of the lesson may be crucial to interpreting what is happening in the observed part of the lesson. However, the above-mentioned methods that inspectors used to make a judgment on the quality of teaching mush be considered. According to Mr Jonathan Harris, as cited in the report from the Education sub-committee (1999), he was critical of possible changeability of judgements between inspections team where he argued that different inspection teams could make different judgments about the same school in the inspection reports which he stated â€Å"unacceptable†. Thus, there is no evidence which guarantee that Ofsted judgments are reliable. It is not just a matter of reliability as far as the validity of data concerned too. As Gorard (2009) points out, â€Å"if the initial relative error in either the actual or the predicted score is greater than 10%, as it almost certainly would be in reality, the error in the CVA result would be even greater than this, 40 times more than the size of the result itself.†, which makes serious doubts about the validity of the data. On the other hand, Ofsted keep raising expectations and the criteria used by Ofsted which are shown in appendices 1-3 could be one of the causes that the school has a satisfactory in 2009.Figure 1 It is also necessary to consider the fact that Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector raises expectations to ensure a good education for all focusing on the quality of teaching â€Å"the heart of good education†. Thus, a proposal was conducted to improve the education system. (A Good Education for All .2012). Thus, in the new framework it was stated that, â€Å"Schools will be judged on a smaller number of core aspects than before, but we will be examining them in greater depth. The changes will result in more streamlined inspections, with fewer judgments and grades, leading to sharper reports on the quality of education provided by schools and the most important aspects of their performance.† (Ofsted new framework 2012). Ofsted judgments on the school Ofsted judgements on School X’ Figure 1 Figure 1 shows the Ofsted grades for School X in 2006, 2009 and 2012. In each report, the first three judgments of â€Å"overall effectiveness†, â€Å"achievement of pupils† and â€Å"quality of teaching† were given the same grade.The common issue that was raised in all of the reports was about the quality of teaching. For instance, in 2006 they asked the school to ensure the good quality of teaching across the school. In 2009, they said; raise the proportion of good and outstanding teaching. In 2012, they said raise the quality of teaching through appropriate questions that cover different needs of different pupils. First of all, it was the same comment written differently each time and the last one they pointed how. Discussion and description (School’s perspective). Having considered the above-mentioned arguments about Ofsted judgments, it is also important to discuss the validity and reliability of the above-mentioned judgments. An interview was constructed to find the school views towards these judgments. The Deputy Head of School X points out that, children vary in their abilities each year and believed that Ofsted do not take this into account. She argued that when the school went down from outstanding down to satisfactory to good, it was because they had a lot of special needs children ,consequently, they were not able to get up to the standard of the government at that time. Although, the students made progress in Key stage 2 but they did not meet the government standards. (School Data included Appendix 4 & 5). Before considering how the two inspections were carried out, it is important to note that the inspectors in general are subjective people not objective. The deputy head mentioned this particular Ofsted inspector who came in 2009, he walked through the door on the first day and said: â€Å"I am Mr, so and so, if I had come to your school six months ago, I would have given you an unsatisfactory school and put you in special measures†. That clears straightaway that he is not on their side as he had this thought in mind. She also felt that they were making negative judgments not positive judgments about what they are seeing in the school. Indeed, the Deputy Head gave an example of that when the inspector went around the school then said to the Head teacher, â€Å"Where is the White English Board showing the Culture of the White English indigent’s people in Britain?† The Head teacher and the Deputy Head felt that the way the inspection went wasn’t fair. First, they received a call from the department of education the next morning as the notes went to a moderator who looked at the evidence then changed the curriculum from unsatisfactory to satisfactory. Second, within the next two days they received another call from the inspector himself saying that he has changed Leadership and management from satisfactory to good. As (Gibbon and Forster, 1999) point out, Ofsted revealed that there is no issue on who inspect the school and when, but, if two inspectors inspect the same school, the lesson, or the department, and they there was a variation in their judgments. Which inspector do we believe? Then, the Head teacher and the Deputy Head found out in the internet that fifteen schools with the same lead inspector that had the same exact comments in their reports as if they cut and paste the same comment in other reports. â€Å"The National Association of Head Teachers general secretary Russell Hobby said he had heard anecdotal reports of â€Å"cut and paste† reports, adding such a practice was â€Å"not acceptable given that the fate of the school rests on what is written.†BBC News. In contrast, the Deputy Head mentioned that the 2012 inspector was fabulous, open-minded looking for good things, the inspector said, â€Å"This is a good school, you are improving school, I can see your results are going up, they are not quite national, yet, as soon I walked through this door I can feel this is a good school and I want to know what you are doing good? How can you prove this? Where is the information for that? † In this respect, the Deputy Head argued that it depends on the inspector who comes around. However, these remain opinions of people as we cannot treat them as objective fact. Also, we cannot assume that all inspectors are subjective people because people look at things from different angles. For instance, if two inspectors attend the same lesson together and each one has his own believes about teaching, one of them might grade a teacher centered lesson as satisfactory and the other one sees it from a totally different angle. Conclusion. The leaders of this school believe they were judged unfairly and that general evidence on Ofsted points to the risks of unreliable judgements. As Ofsted keep raising the expectation it would be hard for a school to be outstanding as it would be rarely possible to find a school with a big proportion of an outstanding quality teaching. Thus, schools should be flexible and understand that the aim of Ofsted is to improve education for children which is what school is all about. Teaching is the core of school improvement and schools should raise the proportion of good and outstanding teaching. References â€Å"Cut and Paste’ Ofsted Report Claims.† BBC News. BBC, 06 Aug. 2012. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-18353533 Cohen, L. & Manion, L. (1994).Research Methods in Education. London: Routledge. Gibbon, C, T & Forster, N, J, S. (1999). Is Ofsted Helpful? In C. Cullingford (Ed.), An inspector calls (pp. 97-118) Harlow: Longman. Gorard, S. (2010).Serious Doubts about school effectiveness British Educational Research Journal, 36:5,745-766. Grubb, N. (1999). Improvement or control?. In C. Cullingford (Ed.), An inspector calls (pp. 70-96). Harlow: Longman. Ofsted 2006 inspection Report for School X Ofsted 2009 inspection Report for School X Ofsted 2012 inspection Report for School X Ofsted. A Good Education for ALL. Feb. 2012. Retrieved from http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/good-education-for-all Robson, C. (2011). Real World Research. United Kingdom: Wiley THE EDUCATION SUB-COMMITTEE. THE WORK OF OFSTED. Rep. no. 4. UK: Parliamentary, 1999. Retrieved from: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199899/cmselect/cmeduemp/62/6212.htm The Framework for School Inspection from September 2012.† Ofsted. 05 Sept. 2012. Retrieved from http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/framework-for-school-inspection-september-2012-UK Thomson, Dave. RAISE online for Governors of. Rep. UK: National Governor’s

Bureaucracy and American Character, the Spirit of Public Service And the Vision of the Common Good

Bureaucracy is a set of laid-out laws and principles that have been set to govern a group of people, usually members of public, public servants and all involved in any activities of impact to the general public. The healthcare sector is perceived as a very important part of the society as all its functionalities are aimed at the betterment and welfare of the whole society. Many rules and regulations have hence been laid down to govern its operations, as well as ensure quality services are offered to the public at the highest level of professionalism and observance of morality and dignity.Therefore, there are limiting factors that do not allow those in healthcare professionalism to operate in just any way they wish. Instead, they have to follow bureaucracy and ensure the offer only the best services and offer an equal chance of being served to all who need the services as dictated by the government and healthcare departments as well as the international authorities. There are differen t aspects of characters and behaviors that collectively form what is referred to as the American character.Everyone is supposed to possess some basic principles and character in all they do. They are supposed to portray humanity, respect to life, respect other people’s rights and act in a manner that encourages and boosts unity, peace, good living conditions and all the values of the government. Every American citizen in the medical field is more strictly expected to portray this American character in their operations at all times. A lot of emphasis is hence put on such practitioners and it’s a common expectation for them to possess the character.They are hence expected to deal with everyone in need of their services leniently and be non-partisan by avoiding favoritism, nepotism and avoid traditions that undermine a given section of the public. They are expected to offer their services to everyone at equal chances except in special conditions like emergencies portray a lot of professionalism and follow the set out rules for their profession irrespective of the pressure from other parties, especially from clients.Every person in the medical field is expected to demonstrate the spirit of public service irrespective of their level of practice or their immediate employer, whether a government public servant or a private practitioner in the medical field. Unlike in many other fields, in this field a person deals directly with human beings and factors that eradicate human suffering as well as preserving life.Any activity carried out in this field determine in a great deal how much suffering is reduced from a client and in very many cases, whether a client’s life is extended or lost. There is therefore a need for everyone in this field to ensure they practice with a broader objective of service to the public, and avoid a focus profit-making and any other returns as a basis for their practice. Anyone with the spirit of public service will be willi ng to help irrespective of the availability of finances or rewards, but as per the need at hand.One realizes that there is a greater reward in terms of satisfaction as well as more benefits when the focus is on public service instead of self-gain. The vision of common good is another important aspect expected of anyone in any profession in the country, especially in the medical field. In a nutshell, the medical field seeks to ensure good health, reduce pain and suffering and generally ensure the well being of its clients, who are the general public. Therefore, there is a need to reach out to the general public and ensure its overall welfare.There is hence a need for everyone in the medical practice, at whichever level, to have a vision of the common good in which one will ensure that they do not target individuals but the whole society in ensuring better healthcare and equitable access to healthcare facilities. In this way, there are more benefits for both the practitioners and the society, and healthcare improves and develops rapidly in the country. The Dilemma There was a dilemma that was noted in one of my placements with one of the private hospitals for my profession practice.I was working under the senior doctor in the hospital as one of his assisting nurses. After a few weeks of working with him, he grew very fond of me and shared with me most of the challenges he faced as a private medical practitioner. Most people with questionable needs seeking medical attention and avoiding the attention of the government and anyone required to know the needs usually turned to the private hospitals and offered better payments for their services.Since most of the private hospitals were set up with an aim of making profits, most fell to the trap of allowing activities that were considered wrong and even against the law, provided they ensured secrecy of the practices and got better financial gains from such activities. On one of the days in my placement in the private h ospital, the senior doctor summoned me to his office where I found a young lady seated there. The lady has come to seek the services of the doctor but the doctor thought the situation of her problem too sensitive and requested for my advice.The lady was from a well-known influential family and had been involved in a secret affair with one of the public figures in the state. After a long time of the affair, the wife of the man started suspecting what was going on and tried following on the lady as well as threatening the man with suing for a divorce if she ever got any substantial information. Unfortunately, one day the lady realized she had gotten pregnant and was carrying the man’s child. They hadn’t planned for anything more that just an affair.Once she broke the news to the man, he got so scared and thought this would blow everything up and expose him to his wife, giving her a reason for a divorce suit that would make him lose a lot of his wealth. Hence, the man req uested the lady to seek for a way to carry out an abortion and do away with the pregnancy and avoid any complications that the pregnancy would lead to. He offered to spend any amount of money for the activity. On the other hand, the lady was scared that the pregnancy would make her lose her profession as she was a well-known singer and was also in the modeling industry.Her clients would lose respect for her if they realized she got pregnant, especially out of wedlock and with a married man. She hence had welcomed the idea of an abortion and hence the reason she was in the hospital. The doctor had explained to me that he had carried out a few abortions, but a allowed by the law. The law gave a provision for abortions to be carried out by a professional medical doctor if the mother’s life was in danger. However, any other form of abortion was regarded as illegal.Therefore, the reasons the lady presented for the abortion were not genuine and would only lead to an illegal activit y. Though the doctor would receive a high pay for the activity, it was surely against the law, against humanity and also against the Christian faith, which we both professed. On the other side, we realized that just rejecting the offer wouldn’t solve the problem as the client would just seek for the services elsewhere and still carry on with the abortion. Application of the Expected Reaction I had to have a talk with the doctor, as we sought a way forward for over coming the dilemma.Though the client knew very well what she was doing was wrong, she insisted on carrying on with an abortion just to avoid any negative consequences she would face. She offered good terms of payments and this would have tempted the doctor into the activity. However, there were some values that barred the doctor from accepting the offer. According to bureaucracy, there was a need to follow the laws set out for the conduct of medical practitioners. A doctor or nurse was not allowed to succumb to pres sure from a client and act against the laws and expectations of his profession.The law also forbids doctors from accepting the offer from the client as committing an abortion in the given situations wasn’t legal. There was hence a need to reject the offer by the client and avoid carrying out an illegal activity. Although most Americans like referring to abortion as legal, one of the major American statutes is respect and protection of life. Since scientists and medical researchers have proven with no doubt that life starts at conception, there is a need to avoid carrying out abortion unless it is confirmed that the mother’s life is at risk.Therefore, there was a need to portray the American character of humanity, respect to life and be reasonable in dealing with the dilemma. The refore, there was no other option apart from rejecting the client’s offer. In the spirit of public service, the doctor realized he had previously rejected a few other offers for carrying out abortions with no good reasons. He hence realized he couldn’t treat this case as a special one just because those involved were wealthy and influential. He opted to treat all equally and hence rejected the offer.With a vision of common good, the doctor realized that he had a social responsibility of preserving life instead of terminating it. He hence had to take the option that would have more benefits not just to the client and the man in question, but to the society as a whole. Preservation of life was hence a better option in this aspect and hence the doctor could not accept the offer. Resolution of the Problem We had to seek for a better way of addressing the dilemma and resolving it. It was clear the doctor wasn’t supposed to accept the offer.On the other hand, just rejecting the offer would resolve the dilemma since the client would seek the services of another doctor. There was hence a need to talk to the client and let her have our perspective in looking a t the situation. After talking to the clients on the implication of an abortion in terms of her own health, humanity and ethics as well as moral values, she was willing to stop an abortion, but on condition that we offered a way out of the problems she was afraid of. We therefore looked at all the available options and finally landed on one of allowing the client to give birth and then give the child up for adoption.We were able to contact an organization from another state that would give the chance to keep her pregnancy secret as she required it to be and then take the child for adoption. The client hence consulted the man and got enough funds from him and then moved to the other state where she stayed till she got the baby and after recovering, she came back and continued with her profession. The client was later very grateful as she realized she had done a noble thing rather than committing an abortion and terminating life. We were also happy to realized we had followed the valu es of our profession in resolving the dilemma.