Article Critique Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 6

Critique - Article Example In their article, the authors discussed the four major steps or routes in PSW treatment which are the primary (re-extrusion), secondary (mechanical), tertiary (chemical), and quaternary (energy recovery); each option is discussed in detail. The research problem was to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of each treatment route and assess the viability of each route with regards to the municipal solid waste (MSW) problem. The authors noted how PSW is found in considerable amounts in the final stream of MSW due to a significant number of daily applications such as in coatings, wiring, packaging, films, covers, bags, and containers (Al-Salem, Lettieri, & Baeyens, 2009, p. 2626); the amount of PSW almost doubled from the period between 1990 to 2000, with each individual producing around 250 kgs. of MSW with a 3% annual growth rate. The increasing cost of finding suitable landfills together with increasingly strict regulatory guidelines and higher environmental awareness has compelled many researchers to focus on the issue of recycling as a viable alternative due to increased production, consumption, and waste generation rates of PSW in the last few decades. The researchers gathered data on both PSW and MSW to highlight the problem of these plastic wastes which are not biodegradable and so viable ways must be found to deal with it. The authors used a good number of credible primary and secondary data sources to support their own arguments concerning the routes now available for PSW treatment. In this regard, a continued development in the recycling and recovery technologies is necessary which requires the cooperation of the whole industry, the government, and the consumers because the solution requires investments in infrastructure and the establishment of viable markets for PSW. In this regard, the authors noted how tertiary

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Essay -- Essays Papers

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight In the fourteenth century, there was a contemporary of Chaucer; he was an unknown poet. The story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written by this unknown poet. The story deals with the many complicated issues, one of them, involving a test of character for Gawain. He is King Arthur's most noble knight, and one of the most honest, chivalrous, and gallant knights in Camelot. However, he has to face one of the most difficult challenges of life, which is accepting his flaws. Realization of one's imperfection is one of the hardest challenges of life for anyone. The passage that I am going to analyze describes how the king and his guests gather and blissfully celebrate the arrival of the New Year. The passage from lines 60 to 129 begins with the celebration of the New Year. The author discusses the Christmas tradition of the Arthurian legend, describing how the king celebrates his New Year's day. The guests gather in the court at this celebration and receive their food before the majesty arrives. As soon as the king arrives "all chanting in chapel ended, "(Norton 204), which means that all the guests stop talking and then shout out songs of happiness for the New Year. The guests then gather happily and exchange gifts, talking long and busily about the presents. The ritual involved with the exchange of presents is also kissing. All the women are laughing happily, but ironically, the author makes fun of them when he describes them laughin... Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Essay -- Essays Papers Sir Gawain and the Green Knight In the fourteenth century, there was a contemporary of Chaucer; he was an unknown poet. The story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written by this unknown poet. The story deals with the many complicated issues, one of them, involving a test of character for Gawain. He is King Arthur's most noble knight, and one of the most honest, chivalrous, and gallant knights in Camelot. However, he has to face one of the most difficult challenges of life, which is accepting his flaws. Realization of one's imperfection is one of the hardest challenges of life for anyone. The passage that I am going to analyze describes how the king and his guests gather and blissfully celebrate the arrival of the New Year. The passage from lines 60 to 129 begins with the celebration of the New Year. The author discusses the Christmas tradition of the Arthurian legend, describing how the king celebrates his New Year's day. The guests gather in the court at this celebration and receive their food before the majesty arrives. As soon as the king arrives "all chanting in chapel ended, "(Norton 204), which means that all the guests stop talking and then shout out songs of happiness for the New Year. The guests then gather happily and exchange gifts, talking long and busily about the presents. The ritual involved with the exchange of presents is also kissing. All the women are laughing happily, but ironically, the author makes fun of them when he describes them laughin...

Research on Tourism: A Review Essay

The following is a review of three (3) completed research articles on the tourism industry, all taken from Higher Academy Network for Hospitality, Leisure, Sports & Tourism Network and administered by the Higher Education Academy. All the above pedagogic researches pertain to processes and ideas in the teaching of tourism-related courses, which include, aside from Tourism, Sports Education, Leisure and Hospitality. Each one is aimed at contributing to the sustainability of education in these areas and in supporting students in their academic and project work. Two of the research articles use materials based on sources from the internet. Here the students are provided with assistance on how online reference materials can be useful in both their academic and extra-curricular studies. These researches form part of the Network’s intention to spread its work and coverage to the wider academic community through the Pedagogic Research Project Fund used in undertaking the research projects. The Hospitality, Leisure, Sports and Tourism Network  covers a wide range of subject areas including Recreation, Events Management and Sports Science, as well as Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism. The aim is to create a network within the subject grouping and this is being achieved through a structure where the Liaison Officers link with the different industry associations, Institutional Partners (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) contribute both an institutional and a geographical context, and Departmental Contacts who are located in the majority of institutions offer the subjects. The over-all objective of the Network is to share practices and ideas to make the processes of learning and teaching within the different subject areas simpler and more effective. The Higher Education Academy is the lead agency in the network, working with the UK higher education sector for knowledge, practice and policy related to the student experience in higher education. In the next section a review of each of the three research articles will be made, specifically covering the methods of research used, their effectiveness and appropriateness. There are several methods used in collecting data to be used in undertaking research. There is substantial online material which provide information on these. Among the general methods used are the following: questionnaires, surveys, checklists, interviews, documentation review, observation, focus groups, and case studies.[3]   The Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction identifies five (5) research methods used in the social and natural sciences and these are: experiment, correlation, naturalistic observation, survey and case study.[4]   With knowledge of these methods, a review will be made of the three research articles. Agenda 21 & Higher Education: Sustainable Development Education in Leisure and Tourism Degree Courses (by Tony Curson, University of North London) [5] Based on the project brief about the research, this project was undertaken from April 2001 to March 2003 by Tony Curson from the University of North London. This was in partnership with the Tourism Concern & University of North London Business School and funded by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN). The project aimed to ensure the inclusion of Sustainable Development Education (SDE) within the leisure and tourism Higher Education sector, using Agenda 21[6] as a focus. The project aims to identify the most relevant subject areas and arrive at the most appropriate means for introducing sustainable development education in the leisure and tourism undergraduate curriculum. The practical recommendations were changes in the appropriate areas of the leisure and tourism curriculum and their value and effectiveness  monitored. A pilot program of student support was initiated for sustainability issues outside  the formal curriculum and a guidance paper was produced. The research methods used were the following: consulting with staff at all levels, mapping existing sustainability content, identifying opportunities for sustainability, identifying obstacles to sustainability, recommending integration measures, and disseminating the outcomes to others. The recommendation was a proposal to integrate the  following subjects in the curriculum: First year: â€Å"Business in Society†, Second year: â€Å"Tourism Business in Society† and Third year: â€Å"Sustainability tools and solutions for tourism†. Specific guidelines were made to include the teaching methodologies, desired learning outcomes, duration of courses, course content, among others. The outcome of the project is contained in the Guidelines for Integrating Sustainability into the Undergraduate Curriculum: Leisure and Tourism.[7] The Guidelines indicate that this is a well-organized research paper that observed the entire process of completing the work from the collection of data to its evaluation. Consultation was effectively used from start to finish and even after the completion of the research, a workshop was organized to obtain feedback. Even the methods used in organizing the workshop were well-processed. In getting feedback from the practitioners, the Guidelines were sent prior to the workshop, giving the participants time to properly evaluate them. The workshop articipants were properly selected as they were mostly those with the knowledge and experience about sustainability issues. Over-all, the methods used were effective in achieving the objectives of the research project.  Research Gateway for Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism: A Project to Dev elop and Evaluate Online Materials to Support Student Project Work (by Dr. Tess Kay and Dr. Leigh Robinson, Loughborough University)[8] As outlined in the project’s Final Report, the aim is to develop, pilot and assess  materials to support student research project work in hospitality, leisure, sports and tourism. Part of the objectives too was to produce generic web-based materials that could be used as models by institutions involved in student work of this type, and to evaluate the  effectiveness of these online resources in supporting student research project work in  the specified subject areas. The method used was not identified in terms of concrete steps but from the summary report the following method was determined: A search of online materials was made following the formulation of a research structure in consultation with the persons in charge of supervising student projects. Then the students were asked to use the online materials identified. An evaluation of the students’ research projects was made at various points over their completion. The findings showed that the information gathered for the research gateway was very useful because it was organized around the objective of helping them come up with good research papers. However, some were confused or overwhelmed with the amount of information available that they need not access all the sites. While the method used was the conventional way of evaluating available reference material (by surfing the net), the way it was evaluated as to its usefulness and effectiveness was not completely organized. Some students were only encouraged to use the Gateway materials, some were not even told to use them at all. If an evaluation is to be made, there must be consistency in the methods used. A sample group must be made to uniformly undertake a particular action. This is the reason why the research project failed to evaluate the impact of the Gateway work. The student projects could not be evaluated as to the quality of their work since not all of them used the reference materials prescribed. This means that the impact of the gateway research could not also be determined. Virtual Learning Environments in Hospitality, Leisure, Tourism and Sports – A Review (by David Botterill, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff) [9] This project’s objective is to scope the existing and potential exploitation of Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) in the subjects Hospitality, Leisure, Tourism and Sports. The means of doing was through a survey of founding partner institutions in the subject areas and a benchmark exercise matching the findings of the survey against best practices in selected subject areas. Recommendations were made for the future of VLE in the different subjects. Among the outcomes were: a review of the current status of VLE application in founding partner institutions of the Leisure, Tourism and Sports Network, examples of best practices from the subject areas adopted as benchmark indicators, a scoping statement on potential developments in VLE for the identified subject areas, and a written report of the project. The method used was a two-fold qualitative research approach focused on seeking data at both the subject-specific and the institutional level, using survey research questions. This was participated in by the network’s Institutional Partners (10 universities).   Subject level and institutional individuals were identified and asked to participate in either an email or telephone survey. Further, a snowballing technique was used to identify individuals with examples of current practice in using VLEs. This research project is largely based on the use of the research questionnaire method. The outcome of the research indicates that the method was effective in attaining its objectives. The key to the success of the research is the questionnaire because this serves as the basis of the evaluation. All conclusions and recommendations are based on the information contained in the questionnaires.   From the survey, the research even contributed  to increasing the levels of understanding among individuals and institutions regarding the learning environments used. The only limitation perhaps is that it failed to make specific recommendations on improving the application or delivery of virtual learning environments. The three research projects made use of similar methods like the questionnaires, surveys, interviews, documentation review, among others but each method was used in a way that will make the research attain its individual objectives in a more complete way.   

Sugar And Slaves By Richard Dunn - 1514 Words

Lydia Phillips Dr. Hill HIST 300SS 9/15/15 Sugar Societies in the West Indies During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the sugar islands played a very important role for the British government. They saw these colonies as an extremely beneficial mercantile society that could gross them a great deal of wealth. However, for the colonists living on these islands it was an intense struggle between enormous fortune and a premature death. Richard Dunn, author of Sugar and Slaves: The Rise of the Planter Class in the English West Indies, 1624-1713, decided to shed light on these seldom mentioned groups of settlers, who chose the Caribbean islands over mainland America. The first settlers of the islands being buccaneers, along with their short lifespan, coupled with the monoculture of the islands and a severe disparity between the rich and poor, created a distinct culture, in what Dunn describes as a â€Å"classically proportioned sugar society† (Dunn 165). Dunn begins his book in 1624, with the English gaining a foothold on the tiny island of St. Christopher in the Caribbean. From that solitary outpost emerged a cohesive and potent master class of tobacco and sugar planters that spread throughout the Caribbean (46), especially in Barbados and Jamaica. Dunn refers to this society as a â€Å"classically proportioned sugar society† (165). What this means is that there were few very wealthy sugar planters who owned and managed large masses of slaves. Big planters, at their height, wereShow MoreRelatedThe Relationship between Sugar and Slavery in the Early Modern Period3546 Words   |  15 PagesDiscuss the Relationship between sugar and slavery in the Early Modern Period. No commodity on the face of the Earth has been wrested from the soil or the seas, from the skies or the bowels of the earth with such misery and human blood as sugar ...(Anon) Sugar in its many forms is as old as the Earth itself. It is a sweet tasting thing for which humans have a natural desire. However there is more to sugar than its sweet taste, rather cane sugar has been shown historically to have generatedRead MoreDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 PagesCreativity at Apple 212 SKILL PRACTICE 214 Exercises for Applying Conceptual Blockbusting 214 Individual Assignment—Analytical Problem Solving (10 minutes) 214 Team Assignment—Creative Problem Solving (20 minutes) 215 Moving Up in the Rankings 216 Keith Dunn and McGuffey’s Restaurant 217 Creative Problem-Solving Practice 220 SKILL APPLICATION 222 Activities for Solving Problems Creatively 222 Suggested Assignments 222 Application Plan and Evaluation 222 viii CONTENTS SCORING KEYS AND COMPARISON DATA